Why am I letting him do this? Lorelei bit her lip. Her fingers were tingling, dancing flame intermittently flashed between her fingertips. Sweat ran down her face, and her tail was always pointed to jab whatever she was looking at. 

Everything was shaking; the walls, the ground beneath them, even the ceiling seemed to vibrate as an intense rumbling began to cascade through the halls. It started slow, almost unnoticeable at first, then slowly began to increase until it was impossible to ignore. By the time the group had reached the fork in the hall, the constant vibrations were starting to terrify them. 

“What is going on?” Theo asked.

Lorelei stiffened, the tip of her tail following her eyes from the walls to the floor. Even Squishy seemed alarmed, burring itself into her abundant cleavage. The lights were fizzling in and out of focus, the bending of metal was starting to create a sheering noise that would soon hurt everyone’s ears. 

“I don’t know, but I think we should seek shelter!” Lorelei had never once heard such disfunction before. The tunnels should’ve been completely secure from the outside world, but perhaps after years of abandonment, the wards were finally coming undone. 

If Marci were here perhaps they would’ve known for sure. 

Lorelei cursed to herself, why had I let her go with the others?

Things only grew more tense as they ventured further, following the flares left behind by Konrad and his group. 

“Wait!” Lorelei cautioned as she realized the general direction everyone was going. 

“What is it now!” Cassie had to keep a hand on the wall to maintain balance.

Lorelei could hear the very infrastructure of the underground network beginning to bend, it was as if the entire superstructure were being pulled out of the earth. 

“We can’t go that way!” Lorelei had to speak up to be heard above the noise.

Cassie and Theo both looked at her in confusion. 

“What?” They both asked, nearly at the same time.

“I said we can’t go that way!” Her words were met by deaf ears, as the ceiling was suddenly bent upward, exposing a harsh red light, and a carpet of dirt caved in through the cracks.

Everyone looked up in horror as the open skies were suddenly visible amidst a new harsh reality. The very bones of the underground network seemed to crack as a giant vortex had begun destroying the section of tunnel before them. With the outside world bleeding through the once darkened trenches, a sharp ping nearly burst everyone’s eardrums. 

Lorelei grabbed Theo by the shoulder and pushed him into the nearest room. She then reached out to grab Cassie by the tail, and yank her inside as well. Together the three of them held onto each other, as the giant tornado smothered the landscape above them, churning the earth, and seemingly devouring the world. 

“The wards are failing!” Marci screamed, rushing as quickly as she could to the nearest stairwell.

“How the hell is this happening!” Monica was right behind her, her clothing stretched to their limits, and already coming undone, as the wind began undoing the knots. The loin cloth that was her underwear was sucked up into the skies, followed swiftly by the top fabric of her bra. Her entire body tingled from the humid wind thrashing against her exposed skin.

Konrad was nearly sucked into the air itself, the ceiling caving in like a pitched tent, and the atmosphere around him suddenly became thick with magical energies. 

Monica barely reached out in time to grab him by the wrist, and drag him down. 

“Get down the stairs, hurry!” Konrad could barely breath, the air was being sucked out of his lungs. 

Together, both Monica and Marci managed to get their leader back to the floor, and then proceeded down the stairwell. The walls behind them seemed to explode from an endless tide of shrapnel carried by the winds.

“What is that?” Lucy halted in mid step. 

The vampire was behind her, her feet seeming to barely touch the ground. The sounds of a thousand bolts and bulk heads being strained echoed through the entire underground network. 

Standing before her, Mike stood hunched over, his eyes out of focus, and his stance was sluggish.

“It’s coming from above,” Laura brushed her hair back. Bewitching the human had taxed her a great deal, and she was starting to worry it wouldn’t last for much longer. Vampiric domination was a rare and subtle art, even the most talented amongst her kind were hesitant to use it, and after controlling the man for the past hour her concentration was starting to wane.

Lucy swore, her hands held the guardrail overlooking a vast chasm below. It was shaking. 

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” The vampire asked her, noticing the woman’s hesitancy to respond. 

Lucy stiffened, clenching the rail a bit tighter. “I thought you trusted me, don’t you?”

“Of course!” Laura was taken aback. 

“Then let’s bring our manly pawn to the central data center like we planned. I promise, the riches in store for us will set us up for life.” That wasn’t even including the added job she needed to perform before returning home. Lucy started to wonder if maybe she should’ve gone on expeditions much sooner.

“But why do we need him?” Laura further enquired. 

Lucy smirked, taking extra care to look away from her vampire lover. “He’s are insurance.”

“Insurance?”

A light vibration could be seen along the walls, but Lucy wasn’t worried about the bases infrastructure. Her fears were centered on what fate had in store for her, should she end up captured like Monica was. “We’re not going to end up like that stiff mercenary, conquered and bred to bear Redever babies.”

“Oh come on, I won’t let anything—”

“You and I are both in danger!” Lucy sneered. “If the networks security AI has another machine like the thing that was Victor…it’ll capture us, and force us into submission.”

“And what does that have to do with Mike?” Laura pointed to the drooling man.

“The AI won’t target us as breeding stock if we’re already pregnant…”

“Oh…oh!” Lucy gasped in shock.

“Relax,” Lucy waved her hand in the air. “It’s just insurance in case of the worst case scenario. Hopefully, we won’t need him.”

Laura wasn’t sold. “Marci won’t like this, and I’m not comfortable with this anymore.”

“I’d rather deal with a pissed off lamia, than that succubus girl.” Lucy sighed. “If I absolutely had to fuck someone, Theo would’ve been my first choice, but I’d rather not have my skin charred off.”

“Yeah, Lorelei can be a bit scary sometimes.” The vampire was starting to sweat. “But I’m still not comfortable with this plan!”

“Anyway, we should move,” Lucy ignored her. “Were almost there.”

“And what do we do if we find more machines?” The vampire narrowed her eyes. “You want us to just jump on this guys crotch before anything happens?”

“We’ll scout ahead, and if we find resistance, then we’ll consider our options.”