Episode 49: Enemy of My Enemy

Sometimes survival demands strange alliances. Especially in the dark, partnerships are never born from trust. They’re carved only from desperation...from the thin line between vengeance and survival. You don’t have to like the hand you shake. You only have to believe it won’t slash your throat before the job is done. As it takes someone who hates what you hate to do what’s necessary. The saying goes, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”...but it’s a misnomer. Two hunters can share a hunt, if only long enough to bring down the greater beast. The question isn’t whether they unite. It’s what happens when the blood dries, who gets the kill? As somewhere in the silence before the first shot happens, two predators make a choice, not to trust, but to use one another...until one no longer needs the other.

Royce arrives in America - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

In 1820, Royce stepped onto American soil for the first time. Charleston, South Carolina, Victor Monfret’s city. He had rebuilt his Brood to satisfying numbers, his Underlings and Minions patrolling the shadowed streets, ever watchful for Elizabeth...as he knew she wanted him to answer for killing Rah.

Royce arrived at the plantation with a mix of surprise and admiration. The new country was far more civilized than the British had implied. They’d described America as a wasteland of wilderness and savages...bitterness dressed up as truth.

Cicadas sang their endless dirge in the trees as Royce climbed from the carriage at the end of the long gravel drive. Lanterns lined the veranda like patient sentries, their glow catching the polish of his boots as he approached. 

Victor, weary of his guest - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

Inside, the great house hummed faintly, not with life, but with containment. Victor waited in the parlor, framed by a restless fire. His coat was immaculate, his expression not. There was a certain stillness in him. The two, strong-headed vampires, circling each other with wariness and curiosity, united by only one fact: they shared an enemy in Elizabeth. 

VICTOR: She is the one who made you?

ROYCE: Maker, but not mother. She cast me aside long ago. 

VICTOR: Does it still sting?

ROYCE: I’m self-made. I need nothing from her. 

VICTOR: And you are telling me you have no loyalty to her?

ROYCE: None. What is it you know of her?

VICTOR: She is ancient. Powerful.

ROYCE: And you...hate her? 

VICTOR: Hate is too small a word. She hunts me.

ROYCE: Because you killed her compatriot...your betrayal of him echoes loudly. What is the punishment for killing a god of our kind?

VICTOR: Old gods are meant to die. The night is in need of a new ruler.

ROYCE: You mean you.

VICTOR: I suppose you think you would be a better fit?

ROYCE: She is one of the original three. Who’s to say two cannot take her place?

VICTOR: A peace then, between monsters. And her fate has been decided. 

ROYCE: She’s outlived her purpose. 

VICTOR: On that, we agree. 

Outside, thunder would roll across the Low Country, a sound like something vast turning in its sleep.

Royce and Victor form an unlikely alliance - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

Together, they began forging a plan. Elizabeth was gaining support for her idea of a vampire republic. Her influence was growing, her Brood expanding. Whatever they were going to do needed to be perfect...as she was becoming a political force no other could contend with...something their kind had never seen. 

Victor suggested the simplest solution, kill her. Royce wasn’t opposed, but while violent acts of domination between vampires was accepted, what they ultimately sought was two-fold...replace the power she was building and establish a supremacy to rule over the rest of their kind.

As they sifted through possibilities, one single truth crystallized. What would be required to triumph over mind and spirit, would be an all out war. But Elizabeth had loyal Underlings and Minions, so they couldn’t just declare combat with her...the strife would have to be warranted and victory earned. Only then would the winner be accepted.

Vampires were multiplying. Elizabeth knew it, that was why she sought unity. There was no law among them, no hierarchy, no order. So Victor and Royce aimed to weaponize that building chaos. They instructed their Broods to all create Underlings, many of them. Seeding covert vampire communities across America and Europe. These cells would infiltrate feral groups, draw them in, and whisper of a rising society. A new structure. A new order.

Vampire infiltrator - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

Then would come the second phase...introduce a name, Elizabeth Jovan. Circulated quietly. Repeated often. Planted among a growing population hungry for leadership. A grassroots deception, so effective, so widespread, that her ascension seemed natural, obvious. She would become the clear choice when the question emerged: Who should lead us?

And that was when Victor and Royce would strike, a public display to challenge her, humiliate her, devastate her. Get her to impulsively act against them. She wouldn’t be prepared for war, but they would. She’d find her popularity was built on a false foundation. Her side would be quickly overwhelmed.   

Elizabeth would be exposed as all talk and too weak to lead. Royce, as the next oldest after her, planned to swoop in and claim a different kind of sovereignty. One of strength, cunning, and action. 

If that failed, their armies would settle it in blood. They would wait it out. An attack on two front, proving their might over her...Their numbers would have to support the plan. And so an arms race to create a large enough army would begin.

But for all of their planning, it ultimately seemed advantageous to Royce. What about Victor? Royce would claim he cared more for Elizabeth’s ruin and death than any throne. He agreed once their plan succeeded, to return to Europe for whatever kingdom existed there. And Victor would rule the Americas. A perfect split...Or so it seemed.

Victor with revenge in his eyes - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

Their initiative would take decades to come to fruition. Victor remained in Charleston, growing his army and tightening his grip. Royce sent word to his Underlings across Europe, to begin spreading Elizabeth’s name, her legend, she was the ancient one. Prepare the world for her “rise”...

He himself established roots in Chicago, building a massive force, waiting for the day that their trap would be ready to spring on the unsuspecting Elizabeth...Revenge for her rejection of him, all those many centuries before, would finally belong to Royce. 

TO BE CONTINUED…