Chapter 1721 It's A Dead Man's World:>35
- Veronica sat on a ledge on the mountain that she and Eliza often climbed together, but at the moment she was alone. Things had gotten scary for her . . . scarier than they had ever been. And she had been in some bad situations, the most recent of which was being captured and tortured to within an inch of her life, only to be saved at the last moment by her half-dead lover and a Living Jewel. Kelik had used The Alchemist's Dream to mystically combine the two women, allowing them to share each other's strengths and minimizing their weaknesses until both women "evolved" into new life-forms entirely. They called themselves Hybrids, and they were faster, stronger and more efficient than either humans or vampires. Veronica had been human once. Eliza had been a vampire. Now, both women had only one other person like them in the world, and that had been enough.
- But while her body had changed, she found that her loyalties had remained stubbornly consistent. A month earlier, they had recovered The Dragon's Breath, a Living Gem that was supposed to allow them to open a dimensional bridge back to Terra and reunite the two worlds that had been separated by the radical pro-human group known as the Purity. But the Purity had launched a fevered and almost desperate attack on the U. S. military base known as Fort Crass to steal some of the Living Gems, particularly The Dead Man's World, which was supposed to be able to be used in the casting of doomsday magic. And in the process, they had killed the venerated and respected Ambassador Kelik. The same vampire who had saved the lives of Veronica and Eliza . . . Veronica's friend and Eliza's mentor. Eliza and her normal nemesis Valar had sent out messages to all the Terrans remaining on Earth, letting them know what happened and calling them to arms.
- Eliza was bound and determined to declare a Radotanida, or a Blood War, on the Purity. It was a feud that required the total annihilation of your enemies . . . until every last drop of blood they had was spilled on the ground. Veronica knew her lover had almost completely snapped. She had been attacked, her lover tortured with Eliza sharing the pain, her friend and comrade Wyrm had been disfigured and was missing an arm, and one of her truest friends had been killed by the Purity just because he was Terran. Her heart was coated in hatred, and Veronica could feel the vileness beating within the chest of the woman she loved.