The mortals make structures that dwarf Khufu's most magnificent accomplishment, and they erect them in under a year.

I used to sit at the top and look out over the people, marveling at how much smaller they appeared from that great height. 'It took thousands of men and dozens of vampires to construct it. 'Do you remember when the tallest building was Khufu's pyramid?' Radje said, not turning around. From this height, wind snatched at his clothes and hair as Mencheres spotted his old enemy standing on a beam forty feet above him, his back to Mencheres, looking out over the city spread below him. Lights from the buildings below him paled against the dramatic golden glow that infused this metal cobweb of space. He flew the other few hundred feet and landed on the exterior of the spire, sliding between the girders into its domed interior. Their enmity had started on the sands of the Giza Plateau but it would end here, inside the gleaming pyramid built not by ancient Pharaohs, but human industry.

Mencheres stood on the roof of the nearby Symphony Tower, staring up at the thousand-foot skyscraper. Lights reflected off the gold-plated steel girders that crisscrossed in an open lattice design to form, of all things, a gleaming pyramid at the top. The Bank of America building towered imperially over the rest of the skyscrapers in the Atlanta cityscape.

Eternal kiss of darkness