NationStates Jolt Archive

ooc: This 'ooc' part is strictly for clarity for those who do not chat to me on a regular basis. This is the 3rd part of the TSE series and is set 17 years after the first one. My most recent story 'Wolf Moon' made mention of events that did no occur in TSE or its sequel TSE:Innocent Blood; that is because Wolf Moon takes place during and after this one.

Thank you and enjoy.

ic:

Becoming a Marine had been Jonathan Donniger’s lifelong dream. His father had served in the Golden Simatar Marine Corps for almost twenty years and his son wanted to follow in his footsteps. What William had not counted on was being stuck guarding his nation’s embassy in Turath, Tarlachia. The 6’1, twenty three year old, brown haired and grey eyed Marine just waited inside the small guard house sitting just inside the gate until he was relieved. Day in, day out, little deviation from routine.

Jonathan looked at his watch, 6:45pm; he knew that the ambassador was attending a play, formal dinner, or something like that later on. He reached over the desk, picked up a mug of hot black coffee and took several deep gulps. The young man had been out since nine that morning, he would usually be relieved at two but his buddy had gotten sick and nearly every other Marine was out exploring Turath.

“Hey Johnny!”

Jonathan looked out the small door and smiled as he saw another marine walk down the street. “Don’t call me Johnny Peter. Come on; get out of your civis and into fatigues. I was planning on seeing a flick tonight.”

“Yeah okay hold your horses. Most everybody will be coming back within the hour so I think it will be okay.”

Twenty minutes later, Jonathan was out on the street in a pair of jeans, a green t-shirt and a grey polar tech jacket. It was moderately cold, he knew back home the last leaves had fallen and in the next few weeks snow would come. It was a quick fifteen minute walk to the movie theater, Jonathan walked up and studied the times. It was only a few seconds before he was cursing in his mind. Last God damn fucking time I use the fucking net to find movie times.

He stood there for a few minutes, wondering what to do. There was a Borders Books, Music, and Movies a block away, might as well pick up a movie or something to make the trip worthwhile. Jonathan was glad to get out of the cold and after a brief look around the store, he headed to the second floor where the movies and music were.

The Marine whistled softly to himself as he looked through the crime and drama DVDs. He picked up two and walked over to the music racks. Jonathan’s attention was caught by a woman standing nearby looking at a CD. He gulped, he knew the face and knew that they had to be on the look out for her. Proof that is what he needed. Pulling out his cell phone he flipped it open and it would appear to a bystander that he was searching for a number. Instead, he was readying the camera and at the right moment, tilted it up slightly and pressed the button. A single frame showed most of her face and with that Jonathan put it back in his pocket, picked up his movies and a CD and headed to the register.

Several minutes later, the woman emerged from the Borders and headed down the street. Jonathan followed her at a distance, she apparently had not noticed him. It was another twenty-five minutes before he saw her enter an apartment complex. Taking note of the address, Jonathan headed back to the embassy.


It was near eleven at night when the ambassador returned with his wife. Alexander Murdoch was nearly sixty, his hair was white and thinning, but his beard was still had some depth to it. As he stepped inside the door and removed his coat, he was approached by Jonathan.

“Mr. Ambassador. Private First Class Jonathan Donniger requesting permission to speak with you in private.”

Murdoch blinked, not expecting someone to come to him so quickly. He had planned to have a glass of brandy, look over a few things before going to bed. He saw the urgency in the Marine’s eyes and he nodded. Bidding his wife good night, he ushered Jonathan to the third floor where his office was. He poured himself a glass of brandy.

“Care for some Private?”

“No thank you sir.”

Murdoch nodded and took a seat behind the large oak desk. He looked at the young man. “Okay, what is so important?”

“Sir, when I first arrived here I was given a photograph of a woman and if I see her report directly to you.”

“Oh yes.” Murdoch knew of the pictures. He did not know what importance it was to the President, but he had circulated the picture to many embassies with the simple order of keeping it to the ambassador and the Marine guard. “What about the photo?”

Jonathan pulled out his cell phone and finding the picture, he placed his phone the table and turned to the old man. Murdoch leaned forward in his chair and studied the fuzzy picture. Reaching into a drawer, he pulled out a manila envelope and removed an 8x10 from it. Studying the woman on the phone and the woman on the 8x10, it was obvious she was the one.

“Anything else Private?”

“I know where she lives, at least the apartment complex. I followed her; I do not think I was spotted.” Jonathan told Murdoch the address and the old man nodded. Jonathan stood ramrod straight and delivered a crisp salute before turning and heading out. Murdoch stared at the image on the cell phone before uploading it onto a USB stick. Taking it to the radio room, he had the image sent scrambled via satellite direct to the White House in Clarence.


The woman Jonathan had been tracking had almost white skin, stood 5’11 with light brown hair and light green eyes. She slept peacefully, only moving to readjust herself. An alarm rang and it turned off after a few seconds. She stirred as she became aware of a presence of another. She opened her eyes and stared across the dark room to a man in the doorway. She smiled, a set of fangs were visible on her upper row of teeth as she stared at the older vampire. The young vampire studied the man as he walked into the room.

He stood at 6’1 wit short brown hair and bright cobalt blue eyes. Wearing all black, he blended perfectly with the night, spare for his pale face. He sat down on the bed and kissed her neck. The woman moaned softly and tilted her head back on to the pillow. She felt his fangs brush against her skin and she closed her eyes as he continued to slide them across her skin. She opened them when she felt his mouth leave her neck.

“Nicole.”

Nicole Patterson looked up at her sire, the Golden Simatar’s first vampire, Stephen Malone. Seventeen years ago she had studied him and had fallen in love. And in their first night in Tarlachia after fleeing their homeland, he had brought her into the darkness. She could see a slight nervousness in his eyes. “What is it Stephen?”

Stephen looked at his fledgling. “These past seventeen years have been the best in my life. I…well…”

Nicole watched curiously as her lover slid off the bed and onto the floor. She sat up in the bed, covering her breasts with the sheets. Stephen looked up at her and kneeled. He was very nervous, even practicing at least a hundred times did not take away any edginess he had. He took a deep breath before popping the question. “Nicole, will you marry me?”

Nicole gasped as she saw Stephen’s hand open to reveal a gold ring. Three small diamonds sat on either side of a large sapphire sitting above its diamond brackets. She looked at the ring and then at Stephen. She smiled and held out her hand. “Of course I will Stephen.”

Stephen slipped the ring around her finger. Nicole looked at it and hugged Stephen; she had never thought of marriage before in her life, she had always imagined herself to be single. Now, she had found love with this man and marriage sounded perfect to her. She knew her lover, now fiancé, had been married once, but that had ended in a very messy divorce for him when he was a human centuries ago.

“So, when are we going to say our vows?”

Stephen slid back up onto the bed, still in her arms. “Well…”

At that moment, someone knocked at the door. Both vampires preformed a quick mental scan on the visitor; Stephen was the first of the pair to react. A large Desert Eagle flew from the closet and into his hand. Nicole got out of bed and began to get dressed.

“Wait here and stay quiet okay? If anything happens, run for Sigrun and don’t look back.”

Nicole looked at Stephen; she was unwilling to abandon him if something happened, but she understood his actions. She simply nodded as he left the room and headed to the door. Releasing the large pistol, Stephen mentally took it over and kept it hovering above the door, out of sight of the person on the other side. He opened the door to find a human in his early thirties, short brown hair, brown eyes, and a blue windbreaker covering his upper body.

“Can I help you?” Stephen asked, putting a puzzled look on his face as to appear the man’s presence was a mystery.

The man pulled an ID card out of his pocket. “Nathan Lowe of the Secret Service of President Arthur Stahler…of the Golden Simatar…you are Stephen Malone.”

“Yes…what can I do for you?”

“I am ordered to tell you that the President would like to speak to you and Ms. Patterson.”

“Correct me if I am wrong…but you are operating a bit outside of your jurisdiction. This is Tarlachia…not the Golden Simatar.”

“Yes…but that doesn’t stop me from delivering a message. If I was to arrest you I would have to go through the mountains of paper and red tape.”

“Correct …now kid, what does he want to talk about?”

Lowe blustered as Stephen called him ‘kid’, but the vampire probably had good reason since he was a kid compared to him. “Haven’t the foggiest idea…I was just told to tell you he wanted to meet with you and there is a car outside. Where is Ms. Patterson?”

During the whole exchange Stephen had been probing the human’s mind, pulling information about him and his family, the man was filled with fear despite putting on a show of nothing, and he was also oblivious to why the man in front of him would be wanted. Stephen’s image, life story, and the fact he was the first Simatarian vampire had been released by the previous administration but his location had always been up in the air. Stephen could credit that help to tightly sealed lips of his friend and the king of Tarlachia Sigrun Greenwood. Now, his mind was swirling with possibilities.

Lowe stiffened as he saw the massive .50 barrel lower from above and the gun come to rest in Stephen’s hand. His voice bit harder than the wind from outside. “I warn you Mr. Lowe I am not the man to fuck. You try to screw me over or hurt Nicole in any way shape or form I will kill you slowly and painfully…after I kill your ailing mother in front of you.”

Lowe stiffened even more at the mention of his mother and nodded. He turned down the hallway and after a few paces broke into a brisk walk away from the vampire. Stephen closed the door and headed back into the apartment, he placed the pistol on the kitchen bar and thought for a few minutes. Though he was more human than probably any vampire of his species and cared about life, he would do what he threatened Lowe with if Nicole even got a scratch from a Simatarian agent.

Stephen reappeared in the bedroom, rooted through the closet and retrieved a pair of armpit holsters that held his Para P-14 automatics. As he was putting the holsters on, Nicole moved forward. “You’re going with him?”

Stephen looked at her and nodded. “Yes, don’t worry I’ll be fine. If I run into trouble I know some places I can hide out. You can send Cassandra to get me when night falls.”

“If she is in the mood.” Nicole commented. Stephen’s dragon for the last few months had been having a strange case of mood swings. From being cooperative to being reluctant to do anything. Stephen had not thought it serious and believed it was simply she was going through some period or change. Nicole wrapped her arms around Stephen as he put on his black, leather trenchcoat. “Be safe okay? Remember people back there know your face so be very careful if things go awry.”

Stephen smiled. “I’m always careful. I’ll be back soon.”

They embraced for a while before parting with a kiss. Stephen headed out of the apartment, down the elevator and outside into the cool night. Lowe was standing next to a silver BMW 3 Series 330xi idling in the apartment block’s parking lot. The vampire slid quietly into the backseat and Lowe got into the passenger seat up front and the car headed off.

Stephen stared out the window and wondered how the Simatarian government had found his location. The previous administration had made threats stating that if a country was knowingly harboring him, economic sanctions and other extreme measures would be taken unless he was handed over promptly. He knew the friends he had made over the centuries in Tarlachia would not sell him out, Stephen began to think the unthinkable as they headed towards the airport and he saw the distant lights of the Greenwood Castle.

Stephen wondered if there had been backdoor politics and if Sigrun had been pressured into ratting him out. No, Sigrun wouldn’t do that. Unless it was for the future of his nation he wouldn’t consider. Stephen thought of Sigrun’s cousin Arleni, he still knew very little about the elf though he had known her for nearly three hundred years.No, she wouldn’t tell…too loyal to Sigrun. Then how did they find where we were?

These questions swirled around his head as they reached the airport and took a private Gulfstream to the capital of the Golden Simatar.

Stephen ( http://groups.msn.com/WeatheredImagination/nationstates.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=250) stared out the window at the city of Clarence. It had been nearly two decades since he had set foot in his homeland and it felt good to be home, even though his purpose was obscure to him. The vampire relaxed in the car and looked out the windshield at the gate leading to the White House.

Though dubbed ‘the White House’, it was not white at all. It was instead an old Victorian mansion with a very slight Gothic influence on the architecture. He was quiet as Lowe flashed his badge and talked to the gate’s guard, a few seconds later the car gently rolled up the paved driveway and gently came to a halt. Stephen climbed out and stretched, at this time Lowe approached him.

“Your weapons.” The human said firmly.

Stephen looked at him and when he spoke he made sure he gave a snarl and his fangs were visible. “You want to try to take them?”

The human paused and decided it was best not to try. “Follow me.”

Stephen followed Lowe into the mansion, the corridors were dimly lit but the vampire could see perfectly fine though the human had to squint slightly. Stephen bared his fangs quietly at a large tabby cat that hissed at him, that cat quickly took in this creature was more dangerous and didn’t try to hiss again. Lowe took Stephen to a large oak door and opened it. The vampire entered a massive library; a large fire was burning brightly on the other side of the room, giving the room its only source of illumination. The door shut behind him and Stephen quickly smelled the scent of blood.

A man standing 5’11 with brown hair and a tired looked in his brown eyes stood up from one of two large leather chairs near the fireplace. He wore a navy blue suit and walked across the room and offered his hand to Stephen. The vampire knew who this man was, Arthur Stahler the new president of the country. Stephen had never really trusted any politicians outside of Sigrun or former President Becky Kimble, but he decided to give this one a chance.

Stephen shook his hand. “Nice to meet you Mr. President.”

Stahler gave a slight grin. “Pleasure to meet you at last Mr. Malone, come take a seat.”

Stephen slid into one of the chairs, his skin gave a slight tingle from being close to the fire, but it wasn’t enough to make him feel uncomfortable. “What is it that you want to talk about?”

Arthur Stahler reclined in one of the chairs. He knew that talking to the vampire would be rather interesting considering that the previous government had been fire and brimstone on the ‘Malone’ question. Stahler had begun his campaign for the Presidency to replace Becky Kimble when her term was slowly fading. Though the ambitious Congressman had her blessing, face time and name recognition, and mixed party support he lost to Yoni Ruiz by a few million votes. Ruiz had run on a simple platform to destroy any vampiric threat and little more. Paranoia after the attack on Auburn had secured his victory. After a few economic troubles and scandals, it was easy for Stahler to slid in and crush Ruiz’s attempt at reelection.

Stahler in private life meanwhile was a widower, his wife dying nearly thirty years before of a sudden heart attack; they had no children. When he was not at work he could easily be found on the golf course, hiking, kayaking, or yachting, though he had little time for relaxation as he worked frantically to keep Stephen’s presence in the country secret.

Stahler adjusted himself and stared at Stephen. “I’m sure that you know that your being here is known only to a few people.”

“Of course, last thing you want is every moron running here with their pitchforks screaming for my blood.” Stephen said coolly.

“Well…what I want to ask if you wish to take up permanent residence here again.”

Stephen adjusted himself and arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Stahler reached behind his chair and removed a folder and handed it to the vampire. Stephen looked at the red letters printed on the front, Millennium. He looked at Stahler before opening it and removing a stack of papers. He scanned through them quickly, they detailed a possible way for him and Nicole to return and live in the Golden Simatar, in obvious secrecy known only to the President and a few select others. Stephen looked up when the cat came into the room and walked around the chairs.

The vampire’s eyes flickered and the cat became airborne, hovering only inches from Stephen’s face. The feline hissed at the vampire and tried to claw at him, but mental ropes prevented it much movement. “Don’t act like I am dumb Roman…please go back to human form or I will toss you into the fire.”

There seemed to be a human intelligence in the small creature as it gave a nod. Stephen mentally flung the cat in the air away from the flames and in mid-air it transformed into a human shape. The figure that emerged was that of a man in his late twenties, standing 5’11 with jet black hair, very light bronze skin, and dark emerald green eyes that stood out as they had cat-like pupils.

Roman Cyrus Celadrin, like Stephen, was an immortal and could change into any animal form he desired. It had always been a mystery to the Simatarian of how he got his power and immortality, all he knew was when he was a child and waiting to go to the zoo; he transformed into a tiger in his room and changed back, but his eyes had remained the same. Because of this, he was part of the Celadrin Clan led by a seraphim named Liam Celadrin. Roman and Stephen had a rocky history; Roman had attempted to kill the vampire on several occasions and was the cause of the Golden Simatar’s knowledge of vampires. Dressed in a navy blue shirt and matching jeans, Roman turned around to find Stephen holding a pistol at him and the President, the vampire was obviously not in the best of moods.

“Explain why I should not kill you both right now, and then go after everyone else in this building.” Stephen snarled, his fangs glimmering in the firelight. He was not about to be cornered like an animal and killed, Nicole's ( http://jamesbond.ugo.com/girls/rp/pike.jpg) telepathic link with him was still open, so she was alright. Roman being here did nothing but drop any notion the President meant good will towards him.

“Easy there Stephen, I mean you no harm.” Roman said. “I will admit our relationship is not the very best in the world but I do wish to start fresh. Over the years, after research and other things…you were right…”

The vampire arched his eyebrow, surprised what the shape shifter was talking about. “And…”

“I was wrong. You’re not the killer I thought you were, you could have killed me in that park after Zero had cut down the trees…but you didn’t.”

“Took you this long to figure it out?”

“Well…let’s say I am a bit thickheaded.” Roman stuck out his hand. “Bury the hatchet?”

There were several long and uncomfortable minutes after that. Stephen still kept his pistol leveled with the other immortal before it slowly reentered the holster. The vampire put the other pistol away and walked up to Roman and shook his hand.

“Buried.”

The President breathed a sigh of relief, crisis had been adverted. Stephen took his seat once again while Roman pulled up another chair. “How did you know it was me?”

Stephen smiled. “Your eyes will always give you away Roman, besides the real cat I scared off. It learned people with fangs are more dangerous than they are. I also hate cats…I had a very bad experience with one in Tarlachia just before I was bitten.”

Roman chuckled; the vampire did have a point. No matter what shape he took his eyes always remained the same, a hindrance for him on a few occasions. The President adjusted himself. “So, do we have a deal?”

Stephen looked back at him. “Let me get this straight. Nicole and I can live here, under intense secrecy known only to you, Roman, the head of the IBI and VIB, Joint Chiefs, and the two agents guarding us in the day? All we must do is if something that might be…supernatural pops up investigate and see if it is the work of non-humans or not. And, help train VIB agents?”

Roman nodded and spoke first. “I’ll be your contact Stephen…you can telepathically tell me what you found and I’ll tell the President.”

“Okay, but how am I suppose to train agents?”

It was the President’s turn. “We have been toying with magnetic devices that fit into a man’s palm and can be put anywhere on a human’s body. Allowing them to move up walls…sadly tests are not going to well. But, people know we are doing them. In our training center you can play vampire whilst the VIB agents-in-training ‘hunt’ you down with paintball guns. You of course act like you would act and hopefully it will improve tests. It is more effective than having a Black-Ops soldier doing it.”

Stephen thought and nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

“Question.” Roman said. “How is Nicole?”

Stephen looked at him and smiled broadly. “We are currently engaged.”

Roman blinked. Last he had heard the pair was in love and living in secret somewhere, now they were set to be married. His attempts to block Nicole from seeing Stephen after he was captured obviously failed, now he could only wish the vampire good will. “Well, congrats Stephen.”

“Congratulations.” The President commented. “I hope this works out for you.”

Stephen smiled. “Thank you. We were planning the wedding just before your man showed up Mr. President. Speaking of which…it is best to contact Sigrun Greenwood and inform him of where I am and of this.”

“The King of Tarlachia?” The President said. He had only met the elf once during an embassy party when he was in Turath a few months ago. “Why should we tell him?”

Stephen knew it was time to let the cat out of the bag. He knew Sigrun well enough that if it became known to him that Simatarian agents visited Stephen and Nicole’s apartment and a day later the pair was gone, the elf would at least ask a question or two. How far he would go was anyone’s guess, even after nearly thirteen hundred years of friendship, the elf was still unpredictable.

“Well, Sigrun Greenwood has been my friend since I was first bitten by a vampire.”

There was a slight pause from Roman and Stahler. Before the pair could speak, Stephen answered their question like he had answered Sigrun’s question to the scars on his body. Roman took the memory play rather well as he knew of these things, the President meanwhile was a few beats away from suffering a major heart attack.

It was over quickly, but long enough for the room around them to disappear and change into a different one. There was Stephen talking with Sigrun, there were several other people in the room, but they were nothing more than blurs. It ended shortly after that.

The President was breathing hard when his office came back into view, it was his first time experiencing such things and he began to slow his breath down. “Wow.”

“Yeah, isn’t it cool? Sigrun promised me and Nicole shelter but he is the unpredictable sort. So if he finds Simatarian agents came to our apartment and the next day we are both gone…even after knowing the guy for so long I don’t know what he would do.” Stephen said with a grin. His face turned serious. “So, let me get the facts down. Nicole and I will be allowed to live here in secret, known only to you two, the Joint Chiefs, and the heads of VIB and IBI? Also, we would have to help train agents and soldiers and investigate any possible sign of vampire or other such immortal activity that appears to be going against the well being of the populace?”

The President nodded. “Correct. So…”

“I think I should bring this out Nicole and I do like to go hunting every once in a while for a meal. Though we mostly drink packaged blood…fresh is good. As I have told Roman here at least…a hundred times I don’t kill my food.”

The President thought for a few minutes before looking at Roman, he had more knowledge in these affairs. Roman sat quietly, he had already offered his hand in friendship to Stephen and not letting he or Nicole hunt would be a slap in the face. He knew that there had been no vampire related deaths in the Golden Simatar till Auburn, so he nodded. “I don’t see any problem with it. Just be sure to do what voodoo you do to prevent the humans from reporting you.”

The President turned back to Stephen. “So, do you accept?”

It had been three weeks since Stephen and Nicole had moved back to the Golden Simatar. The residence where they had been placed was not an apartment in downtown, it was also not a mansion, it instead was a dilapidated barn; three to be exact. One was the vampire’s main residence, the second a gym and firearms range, and the last Stephen had decided to let Cassandra do what she wanted to it.

The barns were not alone, another half dozen outlying stables and storehouses were also on the massive property along with a small single story house. The cover was simple, a horse farm a half-hour outside of Clarence that was fully functional with a trio of barns that were supposedly used to house junk or the ‘owners’ were just unable to pay to have them repaired.

All of the barns were interconnected with underground tunnels and in these tunnels there were some small rooms that would allow the vampires to live if their home burnt down. The small house was home to a pair of VIB agents whose job it was to protect and keep up the cover on the farm. They were the lowest ranking humans to know of the vampire’s existence.

It was winter and snow was on the ground from a snowfall earlier in the day. Nicole walked outside into the night and took a deep breath of air; it was good to be home. Stephen was in Clarence secretly helping to train VIB agents and others, from what he had told her of earlier sessions; all but a few had failed. She looked over at Cassandra’s barn, the door was slightly ajar and she started to walk over to close it.

As the vampire neared the door, she heard a squeak from inside. It didn’t sound like Cassandra and Nicole walked in, shutting the door. The dragon had turned the inside into an ice palace for herself. There was nothing that was not drenched in snow or ice the dragon had spit out and near the center there was her nest that rose a few meters off the ground.

“Cassandra.” Nicole called out. There was a few seconds pause before a head appeared. Long, elegant spike jutted from the white scaled skull as the dragon looked at her. Cassandra was nearly as old as Stephen for his vampire years. Purchased by a human in Tarlachia and brought back to the Golden Simatar, she had remained a secret from nearly everyone. The human had been a friend of Stephen and the human’s decedents kept the animal most of the time till after Auburn when the family ordered the dragon off because they feared people storming their home and vineyard. Now, she belonged to Stephen and Nicole. “Here girl.”

Cassandra was not the dragon of legend and fantasy tales. She was small, only slightly bigger than a full mature horse. Her white scales glistened in the moonlight that leaked through the windows as she trotted up to Nicole and gave her a lick. She was far more dog than she was dragon, yet her intelligence was never disputed. Nicole petted the animal and the dragon gave some clicks and other noises in pleasure. At that, Nicole heard a noise come from the nest. She looked over to see a head duck back down.

Nicole moved towards the next and Cassandra leapt in her way. “Move girl.”

The dragon looked at her and responded in her own tongue. “My dinner is not yet dead.”

Nicole shook her head and returned in the same language. “Cassandra, I am no moron. Let me take a look. You have no need to worry, Stephen and I still love you.”

The dragon shifted weight on her four feet before moving for Nicole to pass. The vampire jumped up on the edge of the nest. “Oh my…”


Stephen came through the barn door a half hour later after receiving Nicole’s message. They had been planning to go out tonight and enjoy a few humans. Her message had overridden that and had him rushing home. He jumped on the edge of the nest; Cassandra was nearby, looking in. Stephen gasped and slipped on the ice, tumbling into the nest.

He felt something picking at his hair and he sat up. In front of him was an ice blue colored dragon about the size of a full grown Labrador. Stephen blinked and looked at the animal, a quick scan he was able to determine it was a girl. He heard more squeaks and barks and looked around him. A total of five dragons, all about the same size as the female in front of him and colored from Cassandra’s white to a dark ice blue moved around him.

“Cute aren’t they Stephen?” Nicole’s voice brought his eyes to her sitting in the middle of the nest, apparently holding something.

“Cute…uhhhh…yeah, but. How did she…?” Stephen was more bewildered than he was amazed at the dragon pups around him.

“Well, she told me she found a strong male in Tarlachia and the pair hit it off. She had the pups about two months ago and with his help moved them here after we moved in. Course during daylight hours so you and I won’t find them. Explains her moods.”

“It sure does…but…dragon puppies? I told Stahler only one dragon…now six and possibly…”

“Eight.” Nicole said. Stephen moved over to her as she motioned for him. He got to see what she had. A tiny, miniature pincher sized, ice blue colored dragon was in her arms sleeping. “Cassandra kept the runt, I guess hoping he would do better. I talked to her and Tolkien and come live with us.”

Stephen looked at the tiny thing in Nicole’s arms and chuckled. “It is no Smog, but he is adorable. Now the question begs of these other pups. When they get bigger, they will have to leave. Ohhh God there is gonna be enough red tape to cover the universe.”

Nicole rested her head on his shoulder. “Stephen, this is more important. Did word ever get to Sigrun we are living here and not imprisoned here?”

Stephen’s eyes shot open. He had forgotten to contact his friend to make sure. With the moving, joy of being in his homeland, and figuring out Nicole and his wedding, he had forgotten to contact Sigrun. “Good question, I have no idea.”

“Well, I have one.”

“What is it?”

“Well, maybe invite Sigrun and your friends over. A house party you might say, relax, enjoy company and let them know our house is always open.”

Stephen smiled. “Good idea…but there is a catch. Skadi. She nearly killed me when I sired the first time, so we have to be careful about you and I around her. Don’t’ let her catch on you are my fledgling, at least not right off. I have no idea if her temper has changed any. You’ve never met her, so should be easy.”

The vampires stood, Nicole carrying the tiny dragon pup Tolkien out of the nest. Stephen gave Cassandra a pet and congratulations on her litter. They headed back to their house and as Nicole continued to cuddle their new pet, Stephen got out a pen and some paper. He addressed the letters. One to Sigrun and Skadi in Tarlachia, one to Hondur in Assington, one to his Viannor in Starblaydia, and one to Lujza in Callisdrun.

Dear Friends,

Even if we have not been in contact with one another for a while I do wish to state that Nicole and I are in good health and living in the Golden Simatar. You are all invited to come to our house for a little reception you might say and relaxation. If you get this, outside of Clarence there is a horse farm called Golden Stables, this is the place. I will stress come via the main road as the woods are guarded by machine guns that home in on whatever body heat vampires put off. I hope to see you soon.

Sincerely,

Stephen and Nicole

On Hondur’s he added a note.

I’m sorry, but Cassandra will be unable to bring you here. She had a litter of pups and is tending to them.

With the letters written, Stephen knew the one to Sigrun was the easiest to get to. Lujza probably the same, Viannor and Hondur were the question. It was then he recalled years ago when he needed to contact Sigrun before the Star Trials of using a falcon. Long shots are the best.

Nearly three house, an attempted eye removal, thirteen scratches, and a few mind hits later, the letters were tied to separate birds and with the direction he implanted in them, they would be heading off to their destinations. As long as a hunter didn’t shoot them down they would be fine.

Hondur sat upon one of the many jumbo jets docked within Emerald City airport, gazing upon the night sky outside. The moon was full and Hondur had no doubt there would be a few individuals reacting adversely to its presence. There weren't any native lychans within Assington but the condition had certainly spread to the nation and so it wasn't completely unheard of to come across one now and then. There were too few to actually bother hunting and so Hondur's coven never bothered unless one came across them.

And besides the occassional lychan everything was relatively peaceful once again. The VP had certainly recieved more funding and were harsher in their activities these days but that was expected and Hondur made sure they rarely ever encountered a vampire from his coven. For now, everything was fine.

Seventeen years wasn't a long time to a vampire yet Hondur figured Stephen may view things differently and would certainly oblige the younger vampire in a visit. It was a little worrying to learn that Stephen had sired again but the Simitarian vampire and assured Hondur that it was for the right reasons as he wished to spend his existence with this newborn vampire. Hopefully Skadi would see it that way.

Finally the plane began to navigate it's way around the airport, reaching the end of the runway and preparing for launch. These days it only took about two and half hours to reach The Golden Simitar by plane, much faster than Hondur could fly himself. Comfortable within his seat, Hondur dozed off quickly as the aircraft departed Assington.

Hondur's eyes opened as the plane touched down in within Stephen's nation. Within minutes the plane was docked with the airport and the ancient vampire found himself walking down several long hallways, amongst many other humans oblivious to his true nature. Whilst the Golden Simitar was quite vampire concious these days, Hondur was able to employ a few mind tricks just to assure those that were looking for ones like him did not notice as he walked by. It would not do to be captured by the Simitarian government again.

Safely beyond the eyes of wary guards, Hondur made his way into the shadowy carpark, no luggage with him. The vampire had nothing here save for the clothes on his back. Sure that no one was watching, Hondur ascended into the night sky, cloud covering the moon as snow began to fall.

Now to find Stephen...

Stephen's invitation had reached the Batory clan's residence, a castle in Istengrad that they had occupied for more than a thousand years, late in the day after he sent it. However, Lujza was not there. After the feud that the vampiress had been exiled for not participating in, though the banishment had been lifted, the woman had never quite felt the same at her childhood home. She still visited every now and then, but it was not her permenant residence.

After a bit of discussion over what to do with the invitation, the matter was decided. A few of Lujza's family members thought that it was none of their business and that they should just throw it away. These were those still bitter about her both refusing to fight in the feud and not moving back in once the banishment no longer applied. However, two influential family members, Dr. Ilona Batory and Priestess Eszti Batory weighed swayed the rest by expressing how utterly appalled they were that someone would suggest they do anything other than what was polite, that being, to forward the invitation.

Several days later, Lujza recieved the invitation, and read it in her room. She was now living on semi-permenant basis at Hondur's coven, having decided that it now felt more like home. Sounds like fun she thought, idly, looking out the window at the nightsky.

The next evening, she was on a "redeye" flight to The Golden Simatar, though a different one than Hondur was on. Lujza had made sure that it was one that left after dusk and arrived before the destination country's dawn. For now, she was truly a creature of the night. Living amongst immortals, she had grown envious, and eventually had gotten herself turned. Though she was now in her 40's, she looked frozen at no older than 32. She did pay a price, however. She could no longer go about her business during the day. Though she could still take a bit of sunlight, before long, she would burn as surely as any of the other vampires in the coven.

Unfortunately, the plane was somewhat delayed, and by the time Lujza had claimed her baggage, it was close to dawn. Wishing she could fly, she hailed a taxi cab. She had given some thought to the fact that someone might take notice of her fangs, which were still long and unable to be retracted. In fact, when she had turned, the barb that most Batorys had on the back of their fangs had manifested itself on her previously straight daggers. They were a very conspicuous set of teeth. Lujza's solution was to attempt to make everyone think she was just an over the top "goth." So far, the disguise had worked well. "Step on it, I want to go to the Golden Stables. Drop me off a little ways outside." The cab driver gave her an odd look. "What? I like horses," she said in response.

The cab driver did as he was told, and dropped her off about a quarter mile away. Lujza paid him generously for his trouble, and set off walking towards her destination. The only sound was the crunch of her boots on the dirt. She walked very quickly, as the eastern horizon was already turning red, pink and yellow with the coming sunrise. However, she did not run, for if she tripped and hurt herself, she might be stuck outside long after the sun was up. She started singing a little tune to herself as she walked. Within a couple minutes, the farm came in sight, and Lujza smiled. Almost there.

As Hondur landed in a snow covered field, he looked around to find three ramshackle barns that appeared they would collapse at any second in front of him and as he turned he saw a small single story house where laughter could be heard from. Snow began to fall again, at the airport the weather had announced a high chance of a blizzard coming in. There was a sound that resembled a strong gust of wind and the ancient ducked seconds before Cassandra torpedoed him. The dragon arched back up into the air and came around for another pass, this time she landed in the snow, but her momentum kept her moving and knocking Hondur to the ground.

The dragon was on top of him in a second and began to drench the ancient in furious attacks of licks, her tail swinging quickly behind her as she greeted Hondur. The dragon remembered the smell of the vampire and remembered him to be a friend of the family, a vampire who had helped destroy the vampires who had hurt her. She kept moving and continued to lick as Hondur tried to stand.

“Common you silly dragon, let him up.” The familiar voice belonged to Nicole as she moved forward, white snow flakes began to seat themselves in her hair and on her black clothes. Cassandra allowed Hondur to stand and gave him a few more licks before taking off into the sky again. Nicole was trying and failing not to laugh. “Oh she does like you Hondur. I’m sorry about that; she was going out to fetch dinner for her pups when she saw you. Come inside, it is nicer.”

She continued to chuckle as she led Hondur to one of the dilapidated barns. Nicole opened the door and he ducked as a much smaller dragon soared out of the house. The tiny animal came back around and perched itself awkwardly on Nicole’s shoulder. “This is Tolkien, runt of Cassandra’s litter.”

She led the ancient through the foyer into the house. The floors were a polished hardwood; the walls were also mostly a clean wood paneling with multiple pictures and paintings hanging, a large stone fireplace sat in the back of the room where several couches and chairs were seated on Oriental style rugs. On the other side of the house was a kitchen with a bar that had a white marble counter top. Before Nicole could say a word, a bell began to ring.


As Lujza walked up the gravel driveway, she was being watched the whole way by hidden security cameras with thermal lenses. Her lowered body heat had been picked up and the warning alerted the two VIB agents in the house. Though the man and the woman both wore civilian clothes and could pass off as regular farmers any day, this was lost as they moved into a small room that was more a closet and fished out a pair of Heckler and Koch UMP machine pistols.

Stephen was there looking through lists of strange cases in the northern part of the country that could be the work of vampires. He had been too distracted to notice the arrival of Hondur. Once the alarm rang, Stephen hit a few keys that flipped the screen to that of one of the security cameras. He zoomed in as the man came behind him.

“Know her?”

“Yes I do Mr. Hancock…you can put your guns away. I forgot to mention I invited a few friends over…all but one is vampire.” Stephen said to the young man. The two humans looked at each other and instead of fully putting away the UMPs, simply lay them on the kitchen table. Stephen walked outside into the snow fall and smiled as the vampire approached.

“Lujza! Good to see you again. You must be freezing, come on into my humble home and we’ll get you warmed up.” Stephen had not noticed Lujza’s change closer to a vampire yet. He took her into his barn house and then sensed Hondur and smelled a bit of Cassandra on him. He smiled and greeted his friend as the pair entered the family room. “Hondur, great to see you mate. It seems like you bumped into my dragon before leaving.”

Nicole looked at Lujza curiously before smiling. “I’m Nicole, you must be Lujza.”

Stephen then noticed Lujza’s change. “Lujza, seem different. You must tell later on what it is. In the meantime, would anyone care for anything to drink? I do have some dragon, courtesy of Cassandra as a birthday present. It is very good.”

Viannor took a strange satisfaction from the fact that she didn’t look like a stereotypical vampire, despite the glimpse of fangs and passion for dressing in black. Even lying naked, stretched out and totally relaxed, her year-round tan would have dispelled any thoughts of a pale-skinned night stalker. Ultra Violet light itself wasn’t harmful to vampires, after all, as she had discovered first-hand when some fool had turned one of those lights on in her presence. Better than a spray-on one, after all, and she wasn’t going to catch skin cancer, her flesh was already past dead.

A lot of that dead, perfect flesh was on display tonight as she lay on her bed, surrounded by others nestled around and against her – the centre of attention, as always. Now that her beauty was indefinite, she had begun to surround herself with young, beautiful things. Soon those things would grow old and be replaced, but living for the day was Viannor’s new maxim. Perhaps living for the night would have been more appropriate. She reached out a hand behind her and found a muscular thigh. ’Is that a fitness model, or a rugby player?’ she thought, not that it mattered to her for the moment. There was a knock at the large doors at the far end of her room.

Viannor raised her head. All she could see was flesh and cushions. The room was covered in soft sheets, duvets, cushions and pillows – she was sharp enough all on her own.

“Come.” She stated.

A member of her castle staff popped his head around the door, quickly averting his eyes to the nearest wall.

“An… um, “ the man struggled for the right words, “a birdhas come for you, my Lady.”

“A bird?”

“A falcon, in fact, with a message attached.”

“Oh how wonderfully medieval,” she mocked, “let me have the message.”

With short, hurried steps, the man came over to the bed, almost blindly handed the piece of paper to Viannor and retreated to a safe distance. She sat up and read it, re-adjusting her hair with one hand. Halfway through the note she waved the messenger away.

“Wonderful,” she said out loud with glee, to no-one in particular, “I get to see my sister.”

“I thought you were an only child,” said the voice of the muscular leg.

“No,” Viannor said, “this is a special kind of sister.”

“Hot lesbo action?” the voice asked, with a little hope present in it.

“Don’t be absurd,” Viannor frowned and dug her nails into the man’s flesh, “you certainly weren’t at the front of the queue when they handed out brains. But that’s not what any of you are here for, is it? Now, where were my clothes last seen in this damn castle?”

The flowerpot cracked and fell apart as the plant arose and grew much larger than it naturally would. Seconds later a vines erupted from the enlarged plant and wove slightly in free space around its vincinity. Arleni smiled as she spoke in her native language and watched as the plant retreated back to normal size, minus the pot.

"My lady." a voice called out behind her. She turned and beheld one of the scouts standing there. His arm was raised, a sharp-eyed falcon perched calmly. "A letter has arrived for Sigrun."

She nodded and held her hand out, "I'll take it." It was handed to her. She gave the servant a dismissive wave, and turned to open the letter. It was slightly weathered from the flight, but it was still legible. The handwriting was masculine, and written in the common language.

"Excuse me, my lady." the servant called out. She faced him. "Shall I remain near with the bird?"

"No. Release him." she ordered, before turning around again.

"My lady?" he called to her again, waiting for her to turn to him again, "If I may be so bold...where is Master Sigrun?"

Arleni glowered at the servant, "You ask beyond your duties. Return to your post. Now." She remained where she was and watched as the man retreated quickly. Finally, she opened the letter and read it. Once completed, she closed her eyes and sighed.

Sigrun...your wild exploits to random corners of the world is getting rather tiresome...

She allowed her memories to drift over the thousands of years she had known Sigrun. He had come far, and had gone through so much more than he probably should have.

She would have to go and tell Sigrun of the letter. Leaving the herbology room, she headed to the private bedroom belonging to him. She knocked, then let herself in. Sigrun and Skadi were resting upon the bed, although both were awake. She heard Skadi speaking softly to him, "We should leave soon." She then noticed Arleni entering, and ceased the conversation. Sigrun looked up at Arleni whom handed him the letter. He read it quickly, then handed it to Skadi.

"Give us a few minutes." he asked Arleni, who nodded and departed the room. "Meet us in the LDT room."

The L.D.T. room had been recently developed, its acronym standing for Long-Distance Travel. It was a new technology, vastly tested and retested, combining state of the art technology with elements of arcane nature.

Moving into the center of the elaborately designed platform, Sigrun and Skadi took their positions. Arleni, having stood off to the side, spoke to the technician, "The Tarlachian Embassy in the Golden Simatar." She gave the two of them a wave goodbye. "Namarie, once again..."

Sigrun chuckled, and waved back.

A series of clicks locked the doors and arcane energy spiraled about the perimeter of the platform with raised beams, before flashing twice. Instantly afterwards, the lights faded from view, the platform empty.

The cab driver gnawed at the piece of venison jerky in his mouth as he drove the woman to her destination. He never got why people liked horses, why people paid a few million bucks for a few hundred pounds of meat and hair. He adjusted himself as he made the turnoff and the car bounced as it hit the gravel driveway. The snow was beginning to come down harder and he just wanted to get back to the city and back to his station where it was warm and there was coffee. He had only accepted taking her because she was the stuff dreams were made off.

He parked the cab in front of the house and once the woman was out he checked the tab. “Fifty-seven eighty ma’am. Charging ya extra cause of this shitty weather.”

“Here is eighty and keep the change.” Another voice said. The cab driver looked at a man with brown hair wearing all black holding a few twenties towards him. The driver took the money and grumbled something before rolling up his window and heading back down the drive.

Stephen watched the cab go and focused on Viannor. He remembered when he had held her in the Emerald City alleyway where he had saved her life by siring her. His morals nearly got him killed at the hands of Skadi, but he was happy he did as she proved very useful. The vampire pale complex was not there; instead it was replaced with a tan. The older vampire clued in as he wrapped an arm around her and walked her to his house.

“It is wonderful to see you again Viannor. A tanning bed…you cheat. Though I must give you credit for creativity. I…” Stephen paused as he opened the door and the pair walked into the house. He turned around as he heard another engine stop and sensed the presence of Skadi and he saw heard the cries of animals in the forest. “Oh shit. Go inside now Viannor. Lujza and Hondur are already here but it is safe for you there.”


The cab driver counted out the money the elf had given him and gave a smile. He was in better spirits than his co-worker who they had passed a few minutes before. He liked the snow and loved driving in it. He looked up and watched nearly thirty different animals from rabbits to elk dash across the front of the cab. “Never seen that before. Well, good luck on your purchase.”

The cab reversed and headed back down the drive, leaving Skadi and Sigrun out in the snow. Before they could take a single step, the cries of an animal caught their attention as a full grown male elk made a bold dash from the woods. What happened next was unexpected.

A large animal swooped in from above and its jaws wrapped around the animal’s neck. It was an ice dragon, now fighting with its meal. The elk continued to call out for aid while the dragon got on its hind legs, the jaws never leaving its prey’s throat and dug its claws into the animal’s side. The dragon gave a twist and broke the elk’s neck. The elk spasmed, blood squirted out into the white snow as the animal went through a last death throw before going limp.

The dragon dropped its meal and it was then it noticed the pair in front of it. The eyes first fell on Sigrun. The tail began to wag; Cassandra’s mind told her he was a friend and she began to chirp in happiness, this all faded when she saw Skadi. Vampire, evil, it would try to hurt her family and her pups, even though the vampire was with Sigrun, it was still an enemy.

Cassandra reared up on her hind legs and her wings shot out as she roared angrily at Skadi, jaws filled with blood coated teeth snapped at her as Cassandra dropped back down to her four legs and began to advance. The dragon watched as the vampire began to reach behind her; the dragon saw the hilt of the sword and readied a spike of ice to impale her to a tree before eating her.

“NO! Cassandra! Down girl!” Stephen jumped in front of the dragon and quickly wrapped his hands around her jaws. “NO! Easy…she is a friend.”

Cassandra continued to quiver in anger and rage as she looked at Skadi, but she was calming down. Stephen heard the rattling of Skadi’s katana behind him and he spun around as the silver blade came out. Stephen shook his head rapidly, a look of panic on his face.

“Skadi no! It is okay! She won’t hurt you. Put the sword away and it will be okay. Cassandra here is my pet. She was attacked by a gang of vampires a few years ago and is very aggressive around new vampires. She also has pups…so that adds to it. You pulling that katana out doesn’t help. Put it away. She won’t hurt you.”

Upon her arrival:

"It's good to see you again, too, Stephen," Lujza said with a big grin. "Let me get inside so I can change out of these clothes." She had a duffel bag with her, and it was obvious that she didn't think the ubergoth clothes needed to stay on for longer than necessary. She saw Hondur and raised her hand in a half wave of greeting to him.

"Yes, I am Lujza," she said to Nicole, smiling and shaking the woman's hand. "Pleased to meet you." Lujza's English had improved, and her accent, though still apparent, was noticiably diminished. Despite her change, the weird hissing sound moroii voices made when speaking remained for her.

A more serious expression came to her face as she responded to Stephen. "I am different, Stephen. And yes, I suppose we shall discuss it later." A warm smile then returned to her face. "And I think I'll take you up on your offer of something to drink, since you say it's very good."

Later:

Sitting in the family room, relaxing, Lujza had by now changed out of her elegant goth disguise and into the beat up, utilitarian casual blacks she usually wore. She looked just as raggedy as ever, but in a clean and beautiful way, as odd as that seemed. She actually still had visible scars from those two battles VP so many years ago, as they had occurred before her change.

She was not quite sure what effect blood from non-humans would have on her system. Moroii needed both normal food and specifically human blood to survive. However, Lujza knew that she was no longer really a moroii, and couldn't eat normal food anymore. It was one of the things she missed most. However, she had never attempted to see whether she could drink non-human blood. Sighing, she diverted her thoughts elsewhere. Stephen has a nice little place here.

Hondur had only been on the ground for seconds when something brushed straight passed him, his vampiric reactions the only thing getting him out of the way in time to avoid being bowled over. Looking up into the sky Hondur spotted what had almost taken him off his feet. A scaled creature the size of a horse, winged and possessing a multitude of sharp teeth. A dragon. Cassandra to be more precise.

Waiting patiently, Hondur watched as Cassandra landed with a thud and continued to slide forwards, knocking him to the ground and assaulting him with her tongue. He could feel her icy breath surrounded him as the excited creature continue to greet him in the most affectionate way she knew.

At that point a female voice filled the air, commanding Cassandra to heal and allow Hondur to stand. Getting to his feet the ancient vampire gazed upon the quite young vampire known as Nicole, Stephen's second fledgling.

"Thanks Nicole, for a moment I thought I'd be frozen to death by dragon saliva."

Content with her greeting, Cassandra launched herself back into the air and Hondur followed Nicole inside.
_______________

Skadi hadn't been expecting the elk to meet a swift death at the hands of winged beast. She knew Stephen had a pet dragon but didn't think it would simply be able to roam about in broad daylight. Keeping a careful eye upon the dragon, she moved up a pathway towards one of the barns with Sigrun beside her.

Whilst Skadi had no particular affection for Stephen, he had aided in several situations back in Assington, despite his other foolish actions he was a valuable aquaintance and had earned a certain degree of respect from Skadi for his competence as a soldier. And so she had decided to join Sigrun on a journey to The Golden Simitar in order to visit Stephen and this Nicole woman.

At that point Skadi noted the dragon had landed before them and was eyeing Skadi with malice. Her assumption was soon confirmed by a fierce roar and the beast advancing towards her. Grabbing the hilt of her blade, Skadi began to draw the weapon as she also called upon her vast psychic strength. Scales would be hard to penetrate with steel but the mind couldn't be shielded by physical materials.

Thankfully Stephen intervened before anything drastic had to be done, restraining his bet just as Skadi's blade rang through the air, sitting at the ready in case the beast made a move for her. Stephen promptly turned to explain yet Skadi was not impressed.

"Stephen, I suggest you keep your pet under control. I will defend myself if attacked..."

Replacing her blade, Skadi's cool gaze matched Cassandra's, the vampire obviously not intimidated.

Stephen relaxed as Skadi placed her sword back in the sheath. A crisis had been adverted by only a few seconds. There was a loud bang as a door shut and the vampire turned to see the two VIB agents standing outside. Stephen simply shook his head, false alarm. The humans shrugged and headed back inside where it was warm.

Cassandra kept firm eye contact with the vampire called Skadi. She was the beta female of the house and this new female would have to learn is place. The dragon turned its head and fired the spike she had prepared for Skadi. The ice spike shot in the air and went straight through a thick tree. Cassandra stood up on her hind legs again with her wings outstretched, making a show of intimidation before going back down on all fours and tucking her wings back in. She bowed her head at Sigrun before collecting the elk and dragging it back to her barn for her young.

Stephen watched her go and sighed. He turned back to his friends and shook Sigrun’s hand and gave a bow to Skadi. “Good of you to come, lets go inside. It is cold out here and the blizzard is suppose to begin to lift. Sunlight shortly.”

Nicole poured Lujza a glass of dragon blood and handed it to her. “No worries, nothing wrong with this stuff. Probably the best kind of animal blood out there…much stronger than human.”

She looked at he door opened and another woman entered. Her gut told her she was Viannor, Stephen’s first fledgling and her vampiric sister. She arched an eyebrow at the tan and wondered if she had done the spray-on lotion. Nicole smiled at her as the little dragon Tolkien rushed between the pair, its sensitive nose could pick up the pair were alike in a minuet way but its brain could not figure it out.

Nicole walked over and shook her hand. “Good to finally meet you Viannor. I have heard a bit about you from Stephen.”

At that point the door opened and shut and Tolkien fluttered out of the family room and into the foyer where Stephen, Skadi, and Sigrun were. Its little wings beat fiercely as it hovered in front of Sigrun and began to sniff him and giving him a lick before going to Skadi. The dragon sniffed Skadi and drew its head back. Now the thing was very confused, her smell reminded him of another biped creature in the room. Giving Stephen a slight lick, the dragon flew off to investigate Hondur. Stephen glanced at Sigrun and Skadi.

“That is Tolkien. Don’t worry much about him. He is just excited to have so many people. He is also the runt of Cassandra’s group. I should warn you, he is like a little dog and if given the chance will hump anything he can wrap his paws around.”

When Stephen led Sigrun and Skadi into the family room, he was glad to see his fledglings were apparently getting along and there had been no catfights. Nicole smiled at Stephen and Sigrun, but Skadi was going to be the question. After a brief conversation with Viannor, she walked up to Skadi and smiled.

“I’m Nicole. You must be Skadi. Great to finally meet you, I have heard a lot about you.”

Stephen moved around to Viannor, but kept an eye on his intended and Skadi in case things got out of hand. He eyed Tolkien sitting next to Lujza, whimpering for some affection from this new person. “So Viannor, what do you think of your younger sister?”

Skadi's eyes didn't shift from her gaze upon Cassandra despite the two armed humans erupting from a seperate building. She could take care of them if necessary but it appeared they were merely friends of Stephen, probably government agents.

The ice spike collided into a tree with a resounding thud, splitting wood as it passed through. The dragon was attempting to scare her. Skadi could have laughed. Yes she was dealing with a creature much larger and stronger than her but Skadi had more than her physical strength to employ against such a foe.

Never moving her eyes off the dragon, Skadi was not impressed and it showed upon her face as she watched the dragon disappear with it's meal. Stephen cetainly kept strange pets. With the dragon gone, Skadi shifted her attention just in time to reply to Stephen's greeting with a bow of her head before being led inside, away from the sun and away from the angry beast known as Cassandra.

Within seconds of being inside Skadi found herself face to face with another dragon, this one much smaller and of a more friendly nature as it fluttered before Sigrun and Skadi. Gazing upon it cooly, Skadi imagined this was a pup of Cassandra. She'd keep that in mind.

In the next room Hondur also found himself being bombared with sniffs from the little dragon as he sensed Skadi heading towards his current postion. It seemed everyone was here. As his sire entered the room, Hondur flashed her a brief smile and nod. It had been some time since they'd last met.

Before Skadi could say anything to her sire, a young vampire moved into her sight, standing before her as she introduced herself. About to reply, Skadi stopped before opening her mouth and looked at the young vampire for a moment, examining her closely. Finally she spoke after an almost awkward silence.

"You're Stephen's..."

Noticing the tiny dragon sitting next to her, Lujza smiled and reached around to pet Tolkien, at the same time as sipping the glass of dragon blood Nicole had given her. It tastes excellent, she thought. I hope it doesn't make me sick. "Thank you," she said simply to Stephen's fledgling/fiance.

She gave a respectful nod and half smile as Skadi entered the room. Lujza, of course, was not close to the much older vampire, but then, the number of those that were seemed incredibly small. However, the woman had lent her clothing so many years ago, during the battle in which they both, along with many others, had fought. It didn't seem like as many years ago as it was, but then, memories were odd things.

Nicole studied the ancient in front of her. So this was the woman that Stephen had made reference to on so many occasions and had cursed more than once. Nicole was not surprised by seeing the handle of the katana just visible behind the older vampire, from what she had heard Skadi never went to the bathroom without it or some form of weapon. She had been very nervous about meeting her, but hoped that the ancient could keep her temper.

Nicole’s attention was briefly held by a near silent mechanical whirl as metal shields gently slid into place over all the windows in the house as clouds broke slightly, allowing the sun to splash across the land. The shudders were set to close a half hour before dawn and open a half hour after sundown, but Nicole had added a bit more time before the close as the sun had not yet penetrated the thick cloud cover. Now the slides moved into place, preventing the rays from reaching the sunlight challenged in the room. Artificial lights and the fireplace kept the house comfortably lit when needed during the day or night.

Her attention was brought back to the ancient when the words slowly exited Skadi’s mouth. Nicole finished what Skadi was going to say. “His second fledgling. Please sit, let me explain and can I get you or Sigrun anything?”

Nicole let Sigrun and Skadi take a seat on a couch and she smiled at Lujza. “No problem, just ask if you want any more. I think you might be also interested in this Lujza. As I was saying Skadi, Stephen and I met seventeen years ago when he was captured by our government. I was an assistant at the research station he was locked up. Course, after a few near heart attacks, many laughs, debates, and plenty of coffee the team arrived at the conclusion Stephen was in fact a vampire. I was selected to interview him and find out what I could about his personality and such. Everyone else was to busy with the biological side of a vampire. Well…let’s say we found an attraction that blossomed into romance. After a terrorist attack on the facility, Stephen had to leave the country for his own safety and I went with him. We have been living in Tarlachia since than, only returning once to help get rid of some troublesome vampires with the help of Hondur. A few weeks ago, Stephen was invited to talk to the President and we were offered to come live back here, under cover of course if we help train VIB agents. That too is also supposed to be secret. Is there anything else you would like to know?”


Tolkien ducked his head down as Lujza’s hand came in to pet him. The tiny dragon sniffed the hand and let Lujza stroke his scales. The tail flickered a bit; it was obviously pleased it was finally receiving attention from someone. The dragon moved closer to Lujza and curled up next to her, resting his head on her leg and looking at the other people in the room as Lujza continued to pet.

Nicole looked over and chuckled. “It looks like you have a new friend Lujza. Do you have any dragons in Callisdrun?”

"No, there are not," Lujza said, still petting Tolkien. He is rather cute she thought. "We have very large wolves that seem to be a bit higher than typical wolves, though. And a few very large bears, but nothing like dragons." No, certainly not. "Not unless things are much different from when I left."

Of course, she wasn't too surprised at the existance of dragons, for, after all, she had believed werewolves, or lycans as they were often called, were only tales before going to Assington, and many people did not even believe that vampires existed. Seems the Simatarians didn't want to accept it until they had to, and most of them still don't know. Despite giving the tiny dragon some attention, she had been listening intently on what Nicole said.

Sitting next to Sigrun, Skadi listened intently as Nicole explained her vampiric birth and the events leading up to it. She wasn't exactly surprised that Stephen had sired once again, he seemed to be pretty much giving immortality out to any pretty face he came across.

Evidently Stephen had warned his latest vampiric child about Skadi as she was attempting to be as polite as possible around Skadi, althoug it appeared the young vampire was attempting to appeal to Skadi's emotional side with this sappy story of how they fell in love. Skadi almost laughed.

Whilst initially irritated that Stephen didn't seem capable of interpetting his las severe beating at her hands, Skadi understood their situation to an extent. She'd chosen Maximus all those years ago for the very same reason and couldn't really get angry at Stephen for doing the same thing. Of course, that didn't mean she had to like this Nicole woman, she didn't even really like Stephen.

Another strange silence passed as Skadi continued to examine Nicole. She appeared to be much like Stephen in nature and thus would probably be an irritation.

"Right. I can't say I have any real interest in you or your story. If you manage to avoid committing stupid actions like your sire then I'd assume we can get along just fine. Otherwise, perhaps you should ask Stephen what happened to him the last time he did something stupid around me."

Skadi's tone wasn't really menacing, more bland as if she were merely stating some boring fact. Either way it probably wasn't the response Nicole was expecting, nor been hoping for.

Nicole understood Lujza’s comment about the wolves in her homeland; Simatarian wolves were also slightly larger than most average size wolves. She turned back to Skadi as the ancient began to speak. Behind Nicole, Stephen stiffened slightly; this was the part he was nervous about. He knew Skadi acted on whim and knew things could become very messy very fast. Not only with the VIB agents possibly storming in, but also Cassandra, hearing the ruckus, could easily smash through the house walls. He tuned in, wondering what Nicole would say.

Nicole stared flatly at Skadi. She was slightly taken aback that Skadi had responded in such a way, but she figured it was in her nature. From what she had heard from Stephen, Sigrun, and Hondur Skadi was not the emotional type and spare for Sigrun and Hondur did not care for anyone else. She looked back at her and shrugged.

“I do know of what you have done to Stephen on account of his behavior.” Nicole then switched to a mental message. “I have also heard that he has done more intelligent and useful things in your presence. Not a nice way to treat…”

The message was cut off as Stephen’s mental powers went into action and stopped Nicole’s message from completely going through. Stephen obviously had a great fear of Skadi, fear of what she would do to him, but more importantly what she would do to Nicole. Acting fast, Stephen made the announcement he had wanted to say since his friends got here.

“I am so glad to have you all here. For once no conflicts or such are upon us. I want to say that our house is open if you ever need a place to stay or need some relaxation from the world. I also like to mention something else. Nicole and I are going to be married and you are all invited.”


The sun awakened the people of the city of Clarence and the surrounding area, people moved out of their houses for morning jogs before commuting into the city to begin another long work day. Yellow school buses moved to their stops and picked up bleary eyed children and teenagers, reluctant to go back to their day long prison known as school. The night clubs shut down and the partiers dispersed. As the minds of the humans’ jumpstarted with multiple cups of coffee and other such drinks, another mind had been at work all night.

Deep in the dark bowels of a long abandoned freighter in the harbor, a man sat on a chair, talking into a cell phone.

“We can’t hit them till tonight. Even if another snow storm blocks out the sun…not until tonight. Everything is in position though am I correct?”

“Yes, but I don’t understand why we have to use this way of talking nor why we must wait. Why…”

“I don’t want them to find us and I don’t want to lose the element of surprise. Keep your profile low.”

The man hung up the phone and ran his fingers through his brown hair. Years of planning, waiting, arming, and training had led to this. He wasn’t going to let some over anxious fledgling destroy this chance of him. His eyes turned to a young woman in her early twenties, shivering on a mattress in the otherwise naked room. He smiled; the girl was just able to make out two fangs from the glow of the cell phone’s keypad.

The vampire walked over and knelt next to the young human, she was cuffed to a rusty support beam via her ankle. She had been easy enough to seduce, promise of a good time and drinking was enough to sway this college aged girl into coming with him. A quick hit in the head and a few minutes later, the girl woke up a prisoner. The vampire grabbed her and held her by her arms, the girl whimpered and begged for her life. The man didn’t listen as he sunk his fangs into her throat, drinking slowly, letting the girl feel each drop of blood exit her body and flow into his.

He slowly brought the girl closer to the point of no return and stopped just before reaching it. He let the girl collapse on the mattress; she was dizzy and fading in and out of consciousness. He wouldn’t kill her; he would keep her around if blood could not be attained when night fell.

Watching his pet finally drifted off into a troubled sleep, the vampire stood and left the room, there was still some planning to be done.

She was a little shocked evidently but that was expected. This young woman had never met Skadi before and didn't really know what to expect. Skadi took note of the others in the room, Hondur and Sigrun sat calmly but kept their eyes between herself and Nicole whilst Stephen seemed very tense, afraid Nicole would do something stupid to provoke Skadi.

Overcoming her surprise, Nicole began to speak once again and Skadi listened patiently. These next few words would show whether Nicole had the sense to maintain some tactfulness in her speech or whether she was a headstrong bimbo with a desire to die.

For some reason Nicole thought it best convey her words mentally yet she didn't get much out before her sire intervened. Skadi smiled slightly. Of course it wasn't a warm smile but merely one of amusement with a slight menace behind those white fangs. It seemed Nicole was the bimbo afterall.

Fortunately for her, Stephen had prevented the younger vampire from particularly irritating Skadi and so she chose to do nothing, allowing Stephen to quickly change the subject to his marriage with Nicole.

At that point everyone forgot about the words between the two female vampires as Hondur and Sigrun rose to congratulate Stephen and Nicole, even Skadi spoke a few words of encouragement, although she didn't see the practicality of being married. She'd been with Sigrun for over a thousand years and marriage had never once crossed her mind.

Shaking Stephen's hand, Hondur briefly grinned as he spoke with Stephen.

"Do you think you'll find a priest that wouly marry you two?"

Evidently the question was in jest as Hondur knew very well not a single priest would consider the notion of marryin vampires.

Sigrun noted Skadi's very subtle tension of her muscles as something was said silently between the two vampires, only for Stephen to step in and literally save Nicole's hide. He himself moved a hand to Skadi's knee, silently telling her to let it go with a few tap of his fingers.

A few moments later, Sigrun felt the nuzzle of Tolkien lightly touching his shin and so he bent over and smiled at the dragon pup. With an open palm toward the little one, he spoke in draconian, "Drakal tarenash ki chang watzchi, Tolkein. Dargo call rachin craeshe Tarlachis" <<"Runt you may be, but you are still Tarlachian at heart. Strength lies in you, Tolkien. It is the quality of all Tarlachians.">>

He pet the young creature upon its head and listened to it jabber in its natural tongue words of gibberish. It had yet to master spoken language, yet he knew it understood his little speech clearly. Finishing the gentle pat, he faced Stephen, "When is the wedding?"

Like Skadi, he didn't see much use in a wedding when they were both vampires. They would live indefinitely, unless fate threw them a good hand of death. Sometimes, that was how fate played. It was a way of life for all immortals.

Lujza respected Skadi, but frowned noticiably at the ancient's words, as her rudeness was simply appalling. Luckily, before things could get really ugly, as they had with years ago with Nicole's sire, Stephen intervened and announced the upcoming marriage.

Like Sigrun, Hondur and even Skadi, Lujza stood up and offered the couple her congratulations, and thanks for being invited. She also made a suggestive comment about hoping they would have a happy honeymoon. The thought did not occur to her that it might sound odd or inappropriate to them, as it was a very traditional thing to say to an engaged couple in Callisdrun.

She was confused at Hondur's comment, though. "Why wouldn't a priest marry them?" she asked, somewhat confused. She was aware of anti-vampire sentiment, having lived in Assington for all these years. Despite this, she didn't realize that some religions might be explicitly anti-vampire, as she had not exposed herself to the religious scene in her new home, instead building a small shrine in her room to follow the religion she held fast to. There was also another thing she didn't quite get, but she thought it rather than spoke. Why would they want a priest to marry them anyway? Marriages are done by priestesses.... She then realized then realized that the comment was probably about a completely different religion, and so then Lujza felt stupid.

Stephen and Nicole smiled and shook the hands of their friends. Stephen looked at Hondur as he made his comment. The ancient had valid point. Though no one had made a move to ban vampires from marrying in the Golden Simatar, no human in their right mind would dare get close to one. Stephen grinned at Hondur and chuckled.

“Oh ye of little faith, haven’t I pulled off a few things in my past? The VIB agent Hancock has a friend who is a Methodist Minister who is going on missionary work at the end of the week. He has agreed to perform the day after the day after tomorrow. Your point about vampire is good, but a few mind tricks have him thinking we are two normal humans.”

Stephen looked at Lujza, his face turning serious. He sighed and leaned back against the wall.

“You must understand Lujza this country has known about our kind for less than two decades. Let me fill you in. There has been a training program going on where Tarlachians and Assingtonians help train Simatarian police, military, and such. Practice goes only so far, combat is where everything is tested. Many people became scared of vampires after my existence came to be known…this fear was heightened by an attack on a small town in the north called Auburn. The VIB team sent in to destroy the vampires was massacred in less than five minutes, one survivor. I read later he committed suicide cause he couldn’t get the screams outta his head. An infantry company sent in to finish the business…suffered nearly fifty percent casualties, most of them dead. Appalling numbers and the confidence of the Simatarian people in the anti-vampire abilities plummeted.

“It has nothing to do with the church; it has to do with the government and people. Fear more than hate is the feeling in this country towards vampires. So much so that if more vampires come in hostile, what the VIB brought in during the fourth war would be laughable. President wouldn’t hesitate to bring in full divisions, tanks, APCs, soldiers, not counting a lot of heavily armed attack helicopters. I wouldn’t be surprised if they park a destroyer or a cruiser out in the harbor to give gun support. The goal would be to intimidate the vampiric community and make them think twice about coming in. Course, that wouldn’t make anything better, only worse. The whole Utopia stuff is pure bullshit.”

Stephen paused and rubbed his eyes. “I had hoped this country would turn out better than Assington. Vampires and humans living a bit more relaxed near each other. Well, as things look now, that will never happen. Humans find it hard if not impossible to put away the image of the blood crazed vamp so…” Stephen’s voice trailed off as he looked at Skadi. He hated to admit defeat in something he had debated with Skadi several times throughout his vampiric existence. From his first few days as a vampire he had questioned her and it had been another sore spot with the pair. “You were right, vampires and humans can’t live together peacefully.”

Tolkien continued to chirp at Sigrun, his words only his mother would understand. He was pleased that this person was giving him praise and his tail was going a mile a second as Sigrun spoke to him. Tolkien’s mind told him this was another friend, someone who knew his native tongue, though the dragon could only muster what amounted to dragon baby talk. He fluttered up next to Sigrun and nuzzled him. So far the only person who had not yet given him affection was the woman in black sitting next to his buddy. Tolkien fluttered over to the armrest and stared at Skadi, his tail slowly moving behind him, waiting for some attention.

Nicole looked at Tolkien then looked over at Skadi. She the pair had probably hit it off wrong, so she thought she might try to get some conversation. “Is this your first time in the Golden Simatar?”

The map of Clarence was spread across a moldy wooden table. The head vampire stared coldly at the map; different colored pins marked all of the police stations, National Guard bases, hospitals, and firearms stores. Everything had to work perfectly or they will all be slaughtered before the damage he had envisioned could be done. He sighed and studied several photographs and drawings of the so called ‘trouble makers’.

“You need sleep Joseph.” Joseph Wuerker looked up at his second in command, a younger vampire named Simon. Joseph scoffed. He was nearly eight hundred years old and in command of over four hundred vampires. He had once been a SWAT officer before being turned and in the years had survived several encounters with the VP. He had been living in Topaz City when he had heard from Simon that one of the ancients had returned, this one calling all vampires to his side. Joseph remembered seeing Svartel, the ancient was insane, but he had not expressed it and had fought for him.

“I don’t need sleep Simon. There are still many unknowns. I want this done right. This freak of a vampire Stephen Malone shall pay.” Joseph growled as he stared at an old photograph of Stephen when he had been in the military as a human.

“Why him? I mean, Skadi, her elf, and Hondur are the most worrisome.”

Joseph put down the picture and held a pair of accurate drawings of Skadi and her elf lover. He knew all were dangerous, the elf was probably the most as he had powers the vampires did not have. Joseph also knew that even all of his forces could not face Skadi without losing nearly all and Hondur could crush him with only a third of his coven. He put them down.

“I don’t want them. Though they did damage Skadi and the elf went after Svartel. That crazy bastard.”

“You call Svartel insane yet we fought for him. Why Joseph? I haven’t figured that out.”

“Because at least he at least would have destroyed the VP and we would be able to live without fear. Indeed he was insane, but…it doesn’t matter. He is dead.” Joseph had not liked Svartel, but he had respected him as an ancient and willing to attack the VP. Joseph pushed the dead ancient from his mind and picked up two photographs of different women. “Have we figured out who these women are?”

“Yes, both are Malone’s fledglings. The one here with the black hair he sired in Assington…the other probably some girl he found at a Tarlachian shop, had sex and turned her. The first one, she is a puzzle. Nothing on her, we hacked in as far as we could hack into Emerald VP files and nothing turns up. She was probably a rookie straight from the academy or just transferred that night. The other…clean slate…not anything.”

“Okay, what about the one called ‘Lujza’?” Joseph said picking up a drawing.

Simon grimaced. He had been part of the force attacking Stephen’s tiny company in the warehouse district. He had nearly been killed Lujza’s AK and had barely escaped with his life. “She…she isn’t Assingtonian. From the Simatarian ladies I have seen…not Simatarian, not Tarlachian. Nothing.”

“What vampire species?”

“Not ours. She is something totally different. I saw and heard her name too briefly to get anything. But, whatever the case she is not of the Assington breed. There are hundreds of other vampire species or people who have our attributes…combed through only a third and turned up nothing.”

“I want her dead too.” Though it was odd, Joseph was nervous about her. He knew the strengths of the other vampires as they were Assington breed, or descended from it. This Lujza, she was the wild card and Joseph wouldn’t take any chances. Stephen and his fledglings were also a curiosity to him; Stephen had gained a slight name for himself in the Emerald vampire community as the one created not in the conventional way. He was descended from Assington vampires and his strength was reportedly more than any his age, this made Joseph edgier. “Stephen Malone I want dead, along with the second fledgling. I want his fledgling gone first though. Skadi, the elf, and Hondur are not to be touched.”

Simon looked up in shock. They had been trailing Malone since his discovery, but he certainly wasn’t close to the danger posed by the two ancients and the elf. “I ask again why?”

“It is no secret that Skadi doesn’t care about anyone outside of herself, this elf character and her fledgling. The elf and Hondur are Stephen’s friends it seems and that is the only reason I can see why she came here. Now, when we attack at night, more than likely, Skadi will want to leave…not wishing to get into a battle that isn’t hers and she only cares for the elf and Hondur. Stephen…probably only an ally who she keeps when needed. The elf probably will agree and leave with her…not wishing to spoil his relationship. Hondur might stay; pay back his debt to Stephen.

“The others, hard to say. With his second fledgling dead…this one he appears to be in serious love with he will not be in the mental condition to fight. Now, if we kill Skadi…we have that elf and Hondur against us…kill Hondur, the elf and Skadi. Kill the elf, both ancients and God knows how many of this elf’s relatives too. I…”

Joseph was interrupted as the door to the room was opened, a fledgling holding some paper stood in front of them wide eyed. “That elf…finally got an ID on him. King Sigrun Greenwood of Tarlachia.”

Joseph moved over and grabbed the paper and shoved the younger vampire out of the room. He cursed angrily and pounded several dents into the wall. “Now another reason not to kill the elf. Right…the state of the Simatarians.”

Simon was frozen, shocked that there was royalty now involved. He leafed through some sheets, not wanting an angry Joseph to decide to make him a snack. “Well, police regularly armed. They do have tanks…Challenger 2s. We checked on that…some cops are trained on them, but they are crewed mostly by National Guard and Reserves. Apparently the Simatarian military thinks it is cute to keep tanks in their military when they attempt to downsize by ‘giving’ them to the police…everyone knows the ploy but no one makes a fuss.”

“Okay, kill the crews before they can get them. The military?”

“That will be problematic. If we do destroy most of the police and hopefully get a lot of blood from the hospitals to sustain us…the military will come in. We can deal with cops and maybe one or two National Guard vehicles…but not military gear that they will be bringing in. Our RPGs won’t dent the Challengers, let alone the army’s Leopards.”

“Still, we must try. These people have been trading with the humans who try to eradicate us; even while they were oblivious they shipped over helicopters and some weapons thinking it was for the army or regular police. Now, they have shipped several hundred motion tracker guns that are designed to specifically hit our body heat. They will learn fear Simon, their years of oblivious and knowing contribution to the Assington government will come back to haunt them tonight. No prisoners Simon…none.”

Simon nodded, he felt the rage still coming off his friend. The younger vampire could only nod. “I will be sure to tell everyone. Go get some rest Joseph.”

Joseph nodded and walked through the rusted remains of the ship, the anger slowly leaving his body, but the tension remained. When he reached his cabin, the human girl had just shakily opened her eyes and was regaining consciousness. It was speeded along by his appearance. He smiled and moved slowly towards her and removed his pants.

Her screams were ignored as Joseph raped her, losing the built up tension. Afterward, he drank more of her blood till she was deep asleep. Getting off of her, he moved over to his own mattress, satisfied everything would work out.

Luzja's question had resulted in the topic of vampiric acceptance being discussed, one that was quite the heated debate between some of the vampires as they all had differing opinions regarding what would happen and what should happen. It seemed very likely that The Golden Simatar would follow in the footsteps of Assington, although they didn't even attempt to accept vampiric kind here, merely skip straight to fearing it.

Skadi listened quietly as Stephen explained the situation and the unfortunate reactions some governments had to vampires such as Stephen and herself. Stephen's last words actually caused Skadi some surprise, he admitted being wrong. A slight smile came across her pale face momentarily and she gave the younger vampire a small nod. She knew she was right and had been for all these years yet she never thought Stephen would admit it, he was almost as stubborn as her at times.

"It's something you had to learn for yourself to really understand Stephen. Now that you do, make the best of it."

With that matter at reast Skadi was content to see Stephen at least coming to understand things she'd learned through many difficult lessons as a young vampire attempting to struggle through life during the early years of Assington. Disrupted from her thoughts, Skadi looked to Nicole once again.

She'd made her point quite clear and she imagined Nicole had seen it pretty clear, there was no need to be otherwise hostile now unless the younger vampire did something to deserve it. Shaking her head, she answered the question.

"No, I came here once, before Stephen was born. Back then they labelled me a witch instead of a vampire. Doesn't really make much difference I guess."

It probably makes a big difference that vampires are a relatively recent thing in some places, Lujza thought. She didn't bother to veil her thoughts, as despite the fact that she now had the mental abilities of any Strigoi her age, she could still be lazy, and only bothered hiding her thoughts when they were of a sensitive nature. She did not consider this such, and so anyone could "hear" her thoughts at the moment if they "listened." After all, vampires have been in Callisdrun longer than recorded history, so that's probably why we're accepted, because we're considered a normal aspect of life. Quite a pity the direction Stephen's country appears headed.

She smiled, seeing that some of the tension in the room had been alleviated. Skadi had even smiled for a moment. Lujza slouched where she sat, her typical pose, even more so now that any damage to her spine would be quickly repaired, listening to the conversation.

"Several hundred years ago, people from my country were often called witches and heretics in foreign lands," she said, commenting on the ancient's statement. "They are words used by some people, especially those in power, for anyone who disagrees with them."

Roman Celadrin’s cat eyes stared at the computer screen. Reviewing the previous night’s thermal security tapes at high speed, Roman could easily pick out amongst the sea of red and orange of human heat the blue of vampire. Years of study had produced nothing, vampires apparently got the message that the Simatarians, though inexperienced were willing to resort to the most extreme measures to rid themselves of the threat.

Thinking on that, he thought of Stephen and his bride-to-be. Roman had been proven wrong. He had been exposed to vampires before any of his countrymen outside of Stephen and with his bad encounters spare for with fellow Celadrin the Noble vampire Zero, all were like those in the movies. Blood thirsty and didn’t care about human life.

Roman sipped a cup of coffee and stared at the rapidly moving blobs on the screen in front of him. He froze; his mind reached out and paused the video. The shapeshifter leaned closer and stared at a partial blue form amidst the orange and red. He began to type on the keyboard and within seconds brought up the regular image. He zoomed in as far as he could go; the image was blurry with some woman in it. Most of her face was obscured by the man in front of her.

Roman began to scan through the rest of the thermal imagery and tracked her outside and into a cab, there he lost her. Roman knew he could not find her without some help. Well Stephen, time to earn your keep.

Roman left his small apartment and headed outside into the cold air. He put on his sunglasses and stared across the snow covered city. Most of the schools had noted their mistake of making the kids come to school, though they were intent on still bringing them in. It took a skidding bus and an army of angry parents to make them close almost immediately. There was supposedly another storm cast for late afternoon, early evening.

Roman walked into an alley. Jesus I hate the snow. His body began to morph as he took the shape of an eagle and he took off in the direction of Stephen’s residence, wanting to get there quickly and thaw.

He landed on the white blanket covering the ground a while later and promptly put on his sunglasses. Roman lifted his foot from the deep snow and began to trek towards the barn house before sensing movement from the rear. He had only brought his Walther, leaving his katana at home. He wasn’t ready for what hit him from the rear.

Tackled by one of Cassandra’s pups, Roman was buried in the snow and as he fought to get out, heard the animal flying around him. The man jumped to his feet, his sunglasses flew off and with the brief harsh sunlight on the snow he was blinded. A few seconds of adjustment, he came face to face with his attacker, standing in the snow.

“I thought you were bigger.” He said, the dragon in front of him had the same color as Cassandra. Roman remembered the dragon well, he had nearly been eaten by her once. He didn’t know draconic and didn’t know how to talk to the scaly thing in front of him. As he opened his mouth, a loud bellow echoed from one of the other barns. Cassandra emerged and stormed over to her pup, scolding her in its native tongue for venturing away from the nest. The dragon stopped next to her pup and stared at Roman and barked.

“Uhhhh…Stephen. Ssssssttttttteeeppppphhheeennnn.” Roman said slowly, drawing it out.

Cassandra snorted, she understood the man and was furious that he would act like she was a common dog. She twisted her head to the other barn. With another snort, she picked up her pup behind her neck with little effort and carried it back into her barn. Roman watched her go, at that time the cold set in and he hastily made his way to the door.

“Roman…what a surprise. What can I do you for?” Stephen’s voice entered his head.

“We need to talk, it is urgent.” Roman answered. There was a long pause before Stephen gave an okay. Roman waited another minute before the door opened into black. He stepped inside and shut the door. The parlor had been designed for this, a hidden door would come in and seal the main building off from the front door, preventing sunlight from entering.

Once the door was shut, the other door slid effortlessly into the wall and Roman moved forward, the cold had numbed his mind and he had not sensed the other presences in the room. He walked into the family room and smiled and bowed to Nicole. He remembered her to be fairly thick when she was human, hopefully now she was more intelligent. As he turned to face Stephen, his eyes fell on Hondur, he had yet to notice Skadi or Sigrun.

The pair stared at each other, both had wide eyes and there was a long silence. Roman easily remembered the ancient, remembered trying to have him killed and being forced at sword point to release him. Everything was forgotten as he locked eyes with the ancient. Roman moved his mouth, but no words came out. He tried again after a few seconds. His voice was more of surprise than anything else.

“You…”

Hondur recognised the man immediately as he entered the building, his every detail imprinted into the ancient vampire's vast memory. Whilst this man appeared to be a normal human he was really much more, he possessed the ability to change into any animal he wished. Hondur remembered this fact especially since the first time they met, Roman had been in the form of a panther and torn apart a younger vampire directly in front of Hondur.

Whilst Hondur didn't really know the guy very well, from what Stephen had spoke of him he figured this man to be one not worthy of trust and generally one to act before really thinking things through. There had been a time when Hondur was like that, fortunately the years had blessed him with wisdom.

Skadi noted the tension between the two and could only assume this was the one she'd heard about that led to Hondur's capture by the Simitarian government. Stephen certainly did keep odd company.

Keeping a straight face, Hondur stepped forward purposefully until he was inches away from Roman, the vampires sheer presence eradiated strength. Whilst the vampire possessed no special powers besides that which came natural to him, he was an especially talented psychic due to already possessing the talent as a human.

"Hello Roman. I hope you're not going to electrocute me again because I'd rather not endure that again. And I can promise you, neither would you."

There was a slight menace in the vampire's tone yet he appeared to keep it vocal, at least for the moment.

Roman stared back at Hondur, just as surprised to see him as the vampire was to see him. After Hondur has spoke, Roman stayed silent and the pair continued to study each other. Roman hit upon the subtle menace; it was understandable since the last time they met Roman probably put enough electricity into the vampire to bring down a full sized grizzly bear. Finally Roman spoke.

“I did not come here with the intention of turning you into a light bulb.”

“What then?” Hondur asked the menace still there.

“I should have elaborated a bit about how Nicole and I get to live here. Roman here is my ‘controller’, he tells me if there is a possible vampire threat somewhere and helps me and helps keep the VIB off my back while I investigate.” Stephen said.

Roman continued to stare at Hondur; the ancient’s eyes had barely fluttered. “He is correct. Stephen, I reviewed the security tapes from last night…a female vampire got through our guards.”

Nicole stood and smiled. “Well, I think it is time to make introductions.”

Roman at last broke contact with Hondur’s eyes and noticed several other people in the room. He noted three female vampires and an elf. His throat went dry when he saw him, Sigrun Greenwood, King of Tarlachia. He gave a brief bow to the elf. Stephen smiled.

“I am sure you two know of each other already. Everyone, Roman Cyrus Celadrin of the Celadrin Clan and also a Special Agent for the VIB. Now, the lady sitting next to Sigrun is the last living original vampire of my species.” It was all Stephen had to say, though he didn’t mention Skadi’s name it wouldn’t matter much. Roman stared at the vampire; he knew she was one not to be messed with. If he could barely hold his own against Stephen, he wouldn’t stand a nano-second against her. Stephen spoke again. “This person next to me is Lady Viannor, my first fledgling if you are wondering Roman.”

Roman gave a slight grin to Viannor. All of the vampires emitted the same kind of ‘feel’, spare for one. He turned as Stephen introduced him to her. “Roman, this is the only non-Assington vampire here, Lujza Batory.”

Roman smiled, out of all the vampires she seemed to be more human. Though, there was something off about her. She was obviously a vampire yet she indeed seemed human. Though contrary to what Stephen said, she did seem to be a bit Assington.

“If you pardon my asking, but what species of vampire are you?”

Smiling as she was introduced, Lujza crossed her legs and looked up at the newcomer, who apparently was named Roman.

"Callisdrunian," she said to him. "I used to be moroii, that is, alive just as humans are, but after living with Assingtonians, I grew to envy their immortality and... well, I got one to help me give in to that temptation. Some other changes I hadn't thought about before happened too, such as no longer being able to enjoy my favorite foods." However, her voice had not changed, still possessing the strange backround hissing sound that all moroii had. Lujza had frowned a little at her last sentence, she really had enjoyed venison, and chocolate of course. Her expression returned to being a friendly smile in a second though.

Roman's eyes met Sigrun's own, yet Sigrun maintained a civil look. He watched the man as he focused his attention on Luzja. I don't like him. He's a shady character. Sigrun stated silently to Skadi. He's done more than enough damage to the reputation of Stephen, and I think even you can agree that it is unwarranted, undeserved.

He waited until Luzja was finished speaking, then cleared his throat momentarily, enough to get Roman's attention. He rose and approached the man. His tone was cold, flat, and full of dangerous promise, "I could ask you a similar question, Roman Cyrus Celadrin, how good is your quality?"

Moroii? Never heard of that before. Roman thought to himself. He was intrigued, Lujza was almost human spare for the longer lifespan and blood. Mixing of the blood, which was something that caught Roman off guard. He had never heard of a hybrid species before and he had considered the notion ridiculous, but living proof was in front of him. Though, thinking about it Stephen was himself a fluke of nature so he guessed it was within the realm of possibility that a vampire hybrid could occur.

“Very interesting. I must say it wasn’t the answer I was expecting.” He stared at her for a few moments, her facial structure going into his head and searching out a match. He sighed. “One thing you seemed to get from mixed blood was a bit of a lower body temperature. We have thermal scans in our airports to look out for vampires. You match the figure in the image I saw and that is why I came.”

Roman was going to leave, his business done and the matter settled. But he turned to Sigrun as the elf approached him and spoke. He knew he had to tread softly, he did not know fully what the elf was capable of in terms of magic and such and he was not going to take a chance. Also being a very close friend of Stephen weighed in Roman’s decision to go easy with the elf and try to make sure he was not trapped in any position. From the question, it was obvious Sigrun didn’t trust him.

“My quality? I try to stay right, true and try to look for what is best for this nation and its people. I have been working for the past several centuries in looking after this land and its people along with others. In that sense I do believe my quality is good.

“Though, I do admit my quality can be questioned by some. Some of my actions in retrospect may not have been the wisest moves I could have made. I cannot hide behind the oblivious cloak as many of my countrymen since I have known of things they only dreamed of till a few years ago. Though my experiences have shown me only one side to a subject and I fully admit I am not perfect and I am sometimes susceptible to stereotype and pre-judgment.” Roman’s statement made an obvious reference to Stephen and Hondur, their capture and subsequent imprisonment. “Though I still stand by what I try to do is in the best interest of this nation, I fully admit I do have my faults and I hope to correct them in some way. In this regard my quality can be questioned by some yet it can be praised by others. Does that satisfy you your Majesty?”

Stephen listened in on what Roman was saying; indeed the shape shifter did have faults. Yet his choice in getting him imprisoned turned out for the better not only for his country, but also for himself in finding one he would spend eternity with. He was glad there was no sarcasm in Roman’s last sentence, from Sigrun's tone, things would get interesting if Roman had laced his last phrase with sarcasm.

As he listened in, he also looked at Lujza. The blood mixing fascinated him as it had Roman. Stephen remembered clearly having to carry Lujza across Emerald City during the war.

“Lujza, what have you inherited from the mix? You lost your ability to eat human food, can you still move in the sunlight?”

As Roman stared at her, obviously thinking over something, Lujza's black eyes stared right back. She didn't make hostile expression, though, choosing instead to continue smiling calmly. She didn't generally like to be overtly threatening in her body language, it wasn't polite. She simply looked unconcerned, apparently unafraid and seeing nothing to get worked up over. When Roman mentioned that she'd matched a thermal scan at the airport, she simply nodded. Unsurprising, given their paranoia about vampires she thought. How tragic that societies react this way when we're introduced. It seemed that her native land was one of few where the existance of vampires and their presence in society were accepted as much as the fact that when it was cold enough it would snow. Could be worse. At least they're not like our neighbors she thought, her mind then drifting back to the changes she had hardly thought of for a decade. Her previous body temperature had been very low compared to a human's, but now it was so low it could hardly be called a body temperature.

She remained silent as Roman answered a pointed question from Sigrun. It seemed best not to say anything, as the atmosphere between the two was tense. Luckily, Stephen spoke to her, so the awkwardness was alleviated somewhat.

"That's something I didn't think I would miss, but do," Lujza said with a sigh. "I can comfortably go outside the second the sun disappears over the horizon, and stay out until the minute it comes up. However, I can no longer withstand it when it's actually up for more than a few minutes."

After Roman finished answering the loaded question, he could be seen with slight fear in his eyes, yet he was smart to keep it under control. Sigrun continued the glaring look as he studied the man's emotions.

"I suppose."

Sigrun turned to return to his seat, and Roman started to turn away. However, before he realized it, Sigrun's blade was at Roman's throat, pressing heavily, yet not enough to draw blood.

"Cross anyone's path in this room, and you'll be castrated, tortured and buried six feet under before you know what's hit you." Sigrun drew near until his face was close to Roman's ear, "Remember, death is at my beckoning."

ooc: gonna end this day soon so we can get to night and fun

ic:

Roman’s ears picked up some kind of movement from the disturbance of the air in the room but Sigrun moved faster than his mind could register. He felt the cold metal pressing into his skin and his cat eyes traveled down the blade to meet Sigrun. He stared calmly back at the elf, not doubting his threat. Roman gave a simple nod and watched as Nicole came next to Sigrun.

“Sigrun, this is really unnecessary. Though you are a king Roman is a government agent and without putting everyone here at risk…murder would not be the best idea.”

Nicole watched, not knowing if her words had any effect as the men continued to stare. When Sigrun finally lowered his blade, Roman flashed a smile at Nicole and as he departed, gave a quick bow before leaving. Once outside, he took a deep breath of cold air and felt his neck, no blood, the elf had a lot of control. Roman slid into the form of a raven and took off towards the city.


“That is a bummer Lujza. I do not think you ever told me why you have been living with Hondur’s coven.” Stephen stopped turned watched the confrontation between Sigrun and Roman as soon as his ears picked up the threat. Nicole got to the pair first and he waited until Sigrun allowed Roman to go. He sighed, at least there had been no storming of the house or fight between the pair. Stephen looked at Hondur; he spoke with a small grin.

“Skadi and Sigrun smuggle in their swords. Did you bring your Freddy Kruger claws?"

Hondur had said all he wished and decided not to continue anything further with Roman and so sat down once again, not too concerned. Whilst he didn't trust the man, if he were working with Stephen there was a reasonable chance he wasn't plotting to kill them all. Hopefully.

From what Skadi has seen of the relatively young immortal, he wasn't the kind of character she would associate with, although that was quite a large list anyway yet she simply left it at that, watching quietly as Sigrun had a few words with the man before finally slipping into a fluid motion, flowing faster than Roman could react. This resulted in Sigrun holding a knife to his neck.

Skadi wasn't quite sure why Sigrun felt it necessary to hold the man at knife point yet she didn't really care, the elven king could make his own decisions and he usually had good reasons for acting upon them. At this point Nicole decided it necessary to step in and make an attempt to diffuse the situation. It appeared she was one of those passive people that couldn't accept violence was at many times a necessary part of life.

Broken away from the events between Sigrun and Roman by Stephen's question, Hondur turned to face the younger vampire as he flashed a little grin, flexing his wrists at the same time. Immediately a soft click could be heard as the mechanisms within Hondur's 'toys' activated and extended three silver/steel alloy claws above each hand.

"I'd think of them more as Wolverine claws, and as you can see, I did bring them along for the ride."

Nicole jumped slightly as Hondur’s claws jumped from his sleeves; she hadn’t been expecting them to pop out like that. She looked at Skadi and Sigrun, both had their swords, Hondur had claws, Lujza and Viannor probably also some kind of a weapon. She didn’t know why they would bring a weapon, but then again centuries of constantly looking over your shoulder to make sure no silver round is chasing you would bring about some degree of paranoia and mistrust.

Small talk continued until mid-morning when jet lag and the need of sleep finally caught on. Stephen and Nicole showed everyone to the spare bed rooms and once everyone was settled in the pair went to their own room. They undressed and climbed into bed, they didn’t know everything was going to go straight to hell when the sun fell.


Tolkien stirred and looked around, his surrounding was cold and black, but the tiny dragon could see a square of light coming from the outside. Standing in its frozen environment, the dragon poked its head out through a small door and looked around the kitchen. Though the dragon enjoyed curling up in a blanket every so often, it still preferred to sleep in the cold so Stephen obtained and modified a fairly small refrigerator that would serve as the dragon’s bed room. It had iced down the interior itself.

It looked up and saw Nicole in the kitchen, a pale blue bathrobe on. The dragon squeaked and the vampire looked down at him. The vampire spoke softly to him and Tolkien moved out of his refrigerator and stretched his small body. Rolling over on his back, he enjoyed a several minute stomach rub before the vampire stood and went to the regular refrigerator next to Tolkien’s. The dragon fluttered up onto the counter and his tail began to fly as Nicole removed a venison steak from the rack. Tolkien began to whimper and lick his lips, waiting impatiently, the second the plate touched the floor, the dragon swooped down and dove into its meal.

Nicole smiled at the tiny animal and left it to its breakfast. Stephen was still asleep and to her knowledge everyone else was too. Nicole peered out one of the kitchen windows, looking out into the black forest, she could not see a thing, yet someone could see her.


Position in the woods a Truvelo .50 rifle positioned on a log a fledgling vampire was prone. He shifted his weight and stared down the sight at the barn. Far enough away he should not be sensed or dismissed as a figment of imagination, he zoomed in. He clearly saw a woman in a bathrobe through a window, she was the target. But, the urge to kill one of the ancients, the ones responsible for the deaths of many of his friends overrode his orders.

The vampire would wait.

The sun had only just set and yet Hondur found himself fully awake and unable to return to slumber. He'd always been an early riser for some reason, not out of his choice but merely something inside him. Clothing himself once again, Hondur looked down at his wrist-claw contraptions and decided not to bother strapping them on. They were out in the middle of the country in a foreign nation, there would be no enemies here.

Moving out of his room and into the kitchen, Hondur noticed the presence of another vampire and quickly identified her as being Nicole. He'd only met the young woman once before, the last time he'd come to the Golden Simatar and ended up in a similar situation to Stephen. Although he didn't leave with a potential wife.

"Good day..."

Hondur halted next to the kitchen bench and decided to sit upon one of the many stools. This was his chance to get to know Nicole a little better. It appeared all the others were asleep so they wouldn't be distracted for at least a few minutes.

"Good to be living back home?"

Nicole smiled at Hondur as the ancient came into the room. She liked the ancient, he was friendly and she could confide in him if needed. She leaned back against the counter and nodded.

“It is so good to be home. Tarlachia is nice don’t get me wrong and I probably feel safer there in terms of walking through the streets, but there is no place like home. Then again it is very strange, I know one or two of my old school friends are still around…but I can’t go visit them as a vampire. Then again, I wouldn’t be able to visit them even if I wasn’t a vampire due to I am in love with one.”

After Tolkien was finished with his venison, the tiny dragon lifted into the air and plopped himself down next to Hondur, eager for some attention. Nicole shifted and bent down to pick up the plate, when she stood, her shoulder got in the way of Hondur.


The vampire outside stared at Hondur through the sights. He grinned. Got you ya bastard. He tightened his finger around the trigger, knowing after the gunshot the attack on the police would begin. The woman got in his way and he waited, she was young and stupid so he could easily drop her. When she bent down Hondur’s head appeared. The vampire began to adjust his sights and in a few second’s the ancient’s head would explode like a ripe tomato.

He pulled the trigger just as Nicole’s shoulder came into view.


Nicole heard the boom, but since Stephen had only shown her pistols, machine-pistols, and assault rifles she did not know the crash was that of a large caliber rifle. Hondur’s once cheerful face turned to shock as he opened his mouth to warn Nicole, it came too late. Nicole’s right shoulder erupted like a volcano of crimson and cloth. The silver slug continued forward and missed Hondur by millimeters.

Nicole’s eyes bulged as she felt the slam of the bullet, her whole world spun as she was tossed by the momentum and she fell to the ground, blood gushing from the wound. It was then she started to scream. Upstairs, Stephen awoke with a jolt and was moving towards the kitchen throwing on his clothes as he went.


The vampire cursed and with only Hondur’s chest in his sights, fired a second shot.

Sprawled on the (very comfortable) bed, Lujza was drifting in and out of sleep when she heard the unmistakable sound of a high powered rifle going off. It was a very familiar sound to her, from her army days so long ago. And then there was screaming. By now, of course, she was fully awake, and rushed to the kitchen, where the screaming was emanating from, pausing only to grab her axe (she had been able to smuggle it onto the plane without too much difficulty, in hindsight) and throw a sheet over her body. That last, she wouldn't have normally done, but she had learned that foreigners often had strange views about nudity. It wouldn't normally be a problem, as she thought of all those who had been at the battle in Assington years ago as old comrades, but she still didn't know Stephen's wife that well.

In fact, she saw Stephen running the same way, getting dressed as he ran. "What's going on?" Lujza yelled after him as he ran past her. She didn't think the man could have looked more alarmed, reaching the kitchen shortly before she did.

Upon hearing the distinct bang of a gunshot, Hondur's eye's widened as he began to shout in warning. There was only one place the gunshot could come from and that was through the window, sitting outside somewhere. Unfortunately he wasn't quick enough in warning Nicole as the slug burst through her shoulder, the bullet barely missing Hondur as it continued yet plastering him in Nicole's blood in the process.

Naturally Nicole felt quite uncomfortable and didn't hesitate in letting everyone else know with her screams of pain. The wound wasn't fatal of course but being shot through the shoulder was certainly unpleasant and judging by the stench of singed flesh, Hondur figured the bullet had been silver. Cursing loudly the vampire moved forward to help Nicole when he heard yet another shot.

Knowing what direction the bullet came from helped Hondur dive into appropriate cover, the bullet whizzing over his head. Evidently Nicole would be alright, the immediate problem was this guy with a gun. Looking across the kitchen Hondur noted a rather large kitchen knife and willed the weapon into his hand, it would have to do for the moment.

Knife in hand, Hondur ascended to his full height once again before leaping through the window, his body spinning rapidly as he shot forward. It only took a few seconds for him to spot the vampire, his barrel slightly poking out of the bushes as he took another shot at the ancient vampire, this one striking him through the left hand.

Landing with a thud, Hondur took a second to examine his bloodied hand before turning back to the vampire. Whilst he could take his opponent he felt it best to inform his host.

"Stephen, outside. We've got a sniper."

With that said, Hondur arched his arm back and launched the knife with astounding precision, firmly lodging the blade into the barrel with enough force to break metal. As the sniper put down his gun to investigate he realised his mistake. Looking up once again he found Hondur standing before him.
_______________

Skadi erupted out of bed as a single gunshot reached her ears. She knew nothing of its nature as of yet but it was doubtful to be good and so she promptly covered herself in her usual long coat whilst also grabbing her blade. Sigrun was likewise dressing and arming himself.

Within seconds the pair found themselves downstairs in the kitchen, noting the shattered window and the injured Nicole. Stephen had been down here before them yet was moving through the window where the shooter was assumed to be. He could handle that.

"Sigrun, I'm sure you can help her out."

Stephen looked at Lujza, she could see terror within his eyes. He felt the pain of Nicole crashing into his mind. The vampire moved quickly down the staircase and head Hondur’s message. Anger began to rise in Stephen, when he reached the family room he moved across it in a single leap and landed in the slick pool of Nicole’s blood.

Tears welled up in Stephen’s eyes as he knelt by his love. Stephen held her and with his mind the refrigerator behind him opened and the bottle holding Cassandra’s blood came out and into his hands. In Assington Stephen knew the call would be for human ‘donors’ but here it was bagged blood. The dragon blood was more powerful and would heal her faster.

“Nicole, drink. Drink all you can.”

Nicole whimpered as she felt the sting in her shoulder, she felt Stephen gather her up and the cool tip of the bottle at her lips. The smell of blood took over Stephen’s urgings as she began to drink. Stephen stared at the mass of torn and broken flesh and bone, Cassandra’s blood would be a start, but it would take a while to heal from the massive silver shell. Stephen wrapped a towel around Nicole’s shattered shoulder and kissed her firmly before speaking in a hard tone. “I’ll be back.”

Stephen took off through the window and began to make his way across the snow towards the struggling shapes of Hondur and the sniper. Hondur wouldn’t kill the vampire, the intruder’s origins had to be known. Stephen sensed Sigrun and Skadi in the kitchen, Sigrun could help the healing if needed. Lujza was somewhere behind him, Stephen’s sense of others was dying as everything was set upon the intruder.


The vampire felt the gun ram into his shoulder, yet he had not fired a third shot. Looking over the barrel he saw the knife. Oh fuck. He looked up to see Hondur in the snow. He stared at the ancient, one eye revolving he saw the two humans rushing from their house armed with assault rifles.

He snarled and drew a silver dagger from behind him and lunged at Hondur.

Gasping at what had happened to Nicole, but not wasting more than a split second with it, Lujza quickly followed Stephen through the window when she saw that Nicole had blood to feed on. She would have opened a vein if necessary, but it appeared that neutralizing the attacker was the most important issue right now.

She raced up behind Stephen, though quite a bit on one side of him, right through the snow. Always easily able to cope with cold temperatures, she was now as close to immune to them as possible, and abandoned the sheet to increase mobility. The sniper at the moment had Hondur to contend with, but soon the would-be assassin would be surrounded. Unconsciously, Lujza had bared her fangs in a cruel grimace, and raised her axe, ready to strike, she looked like some image of primal savagery. Her body had changed quite a bit, but her mind was still, like moroii, very in touch with animalistic instincts. Luckily, she did retain conscious thought, though.

Within moments of arriving, and watching the others disappear through the shattered window, glass crunching noisily underneath their feet, Sigrun focused on the one lying on the ground, quickly draining a plasma pack. In fluid movements, he swept to Nicole's side and took the remnants of the bag and tossed it aside.

"Stay still." he commanded as he brushed her bloodied hair away from her shoulder. He inspected the wound, watching as the draconian blood began its work. "The blood will sustain your life, but it won't do any repairs right away." he stated, "I'll fix that problem though." He pulled aside the cloth shreds, "This might hurt a little..."

Without waiting for a reply, his other hand moved and probed deep into her flesh wound, causing her to cry out in pain. "Sorry. It's necessary to check to make sure foreign objects are cleared." he explained as his fingers sought for just that. After clearing anything foreign out, he withdrew his fingers and held his palm hardly a few inches above her shoulder. Strange incantations came from his lips as he worked arcane tendrils through her flesh, pulling, piecing, and repairing everything that was required. Within a few minutes, he was finished, and all that remained was clear skin, and the remnants of blood outside the now-gone-wound.

He smiled at her, "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Nicole glowered at him, "That hurt more than you warned!"

"Don't believe everything that is said when it comes to bodily repairs. Especially from human doctors. Elves however, are usually more reliable. Had there been less urgency with your injury, I would have initiated a numb-spell. However...that was not so."

He helped her to her feet and set her into a chair, out of view of the open window. He himself moved to the window and watched as the others dealt with the sniper. Bring him here. he sent out to Stephen telepathically, We'll get him to talk here.

Skadi kept an eye upon Sigrun as he tended to Nicole whilst also assuring herself there were no other foes lurking about nearby, merely waiting for the prime oppurtunity to pounce and unleash havoc upon the remaining vampires. Sigrun went through the necessary healing as if he were a professional doctor, checking the wound and examining everything necessary before speeding up the healing process. Whilst he was viewed by most as a warrior, Skadi always liked to think of him as a healer.

With Nicole now compeletely out of any real danger Skadi figured she'd merely observe the events outside the window. There was no need for her presence there as the sniper already had to deal with Hondur, Luzja, two armed humans and undoubtedly a very pissed off Stephen.

"It never seems to end does it? Even in a remote part of a nation I'm not even known to visit we get dumb bastards attacking us. I somehow doubt Nicole was the intended target..."
____________

Standing there patiently, Hondur waited for the younger vampire to act. He'd always been more of a defensive fighter and preferred to let his opponent make the first move and simply counter it however he could. This match wouldn't be long though, already he could notice the age difference between them was significant enough to be no contest.

Finally it came, he was bold enough to attempt stabbing the ancient vampire with a silver blade. Promptly stepping to the side, Hondur allowed the younger vampire to overbalance before delivering a single blow to his kidney. Whilst the organ itself may be dead, the nerves still functioned the pain was just real for someone alive, minus the kidney damage. A heavy grunt spewed forth from the vampire as Hondur wasted no time in taking hold of the vampire's arm and forcfully removing the knife from his hand, breaking a few fingers in the process.

Another scream later and the knife was firmly lodged within a wall of Stephen's house and the assassin found himself being lifted off the ground only to be slammed into the hard earth not long afterwards, expelling the air from his lungs. By this time Stephen and Luzja had arrived, gazing down upon Nicole's attacker.

"It appears you have another guest Stephen..."

Nicole spasmed slightly as she felt Sigrun’s probing fingers inside of her. She cried out but clenched her teeth as she felt Sigrun remove the bit of the bullet that had broken off after impact. She looked over at the elf as he probed for several minutes before removing his bloodied fingers. Nicole watched as his hand hovered above the mass of flesh, a puzzled look on her face. Sigrun’s words made no sense to her, but what did make sense was the pain as the flesh began to rejoin and the bones snap into place.

She was happy that the ordeal was over, but the pain was more than she expected. It had drained a lot from the young vampire and she was glad to be placed in a chair; Tolkien sat on her lap, acting guard to anyone who came close to his owner. Nicole smiled at Sigrun. “Thank you, I am in your debt.”

She closed her eyes and fell asleep to ease the pain.


Stephen stared down at the sniper in the snow, he reached down and grasped the young one by the throat and brought him up to his feet. The Simatarian stared coldly at the vampire thrashing in his grasp. He heard Sigrun’s statement and slammed his fist into the vampire’s face, turning the nose into a mushy pulp and leaving a few teeth in the snow.

“Well, let’s see where our friend comes from. Shouldn’t be that…” Hondur stopped mid sentence as he stared into Stephen’s eyes. The warmth and care that had always been present in Stephen’s cobalt blues was gone, there was a hard coldness, a hatred and malice instead. The human spirit in them was gone; the power emitted from Stephen’s eyes was like nothing he had ever seen before; as though this event had awakened a primeval creature inside of his friend.

Stephen turned, dragging the vampire by the throat, moved towards a shed near his home. The silver dagger removed itself from Stephen’s house and followed him in. Jonathan Hancock and Mary Cruise, the two VIB agents stationed there came pounding up through the snow toting HK G36k assault rifles. Hancock looked at Hondur as the ancient stared blankly after Stephen.

“Yo mate…mate…anyone home?”

As Hondur turned to the human, everyone shuddered as an ear shattering scream punched through the night. Both humans swung their guns towards the shed, flinching as the screaming continued unabated and seemed to climb in pitch. Only the vampires and elf could hear the dragon pups barking in the barn over and Cassandra trying to quiet her brood.

For nearly ten minutes the screaming continued before stopping.


The inside of the shed was spotted red and yellow. Blood splattered against the naked light bulb hanging overhead. The vampire looked at the shape above him. He saw something sharp in Stephen’s hand; he opened his mouth to scream.


The screaming started again and intensified for nearly another fifteen minutes before stopping. Hancock and Cruise were frozen in the snow as they stared ahead; both looked at each other before moving slowly forward. It wasn’t till they were closer did they smell cooked meat, and it wasn’t beef. Hancock moved forward and put his hand on the door handle. “Mr. Malone…oh Jesus fucking Christ!”

He bolted backwards as the door opened to reveal something that seemed to be a person trying to claw its way out. The human gagged as the stench and sight hit him. He stared at the thing before him. The vampire no longer resembled a man, all of his skin was missing, his muscles were burnt, and mostly missing, large chunks of meat had been savagely ripped out. Bone was visible everywhere, the white and red skull, devoid of any features spare for a shattered upper jaw, the lower jaw hung by two tendons of flesh, twisted painfully upwards, a single eye hanging free of its socket swung freely as the other eye, a nail rammed into it turned to the man.

The left arm, reached out, it was the only thing on the vampire that seemed to be intact, spare for his fingers which were burned and torn down to a few thing wire of muscle and bloody bone. Hancock continued to stare, he could see the rips had been broken inwards, the lungs were removed, but the heart remained in its place untouched. The rest of the internal organs were in place by some chicken wire.

Hancock finally vomited and pulled out his Para P14 and level it at the thing in front of him. A shadow passed over the form and the human’s quivering eyes turned upwards. His clothes clung so tightly to his body that the scars on his torso were visible, his hair slicked back and black with blood, his body drenched in crimson and bits of flesh between his teeth; the Stephen Malone before Hancock was a new creature. The human didn’t dare look behind the vampire, afraid of the holocaust in the shed.

Stephen moved slowly forward, a sense of calm seemed to be over him. It was then his foot planted itself firmly on the vampire’s skull and drove it slowly into the snow and it greeted the hard ground below. There was muffled moans as Stephen continued to push, crackling and squishing intermingled as blood and a yellow-grey cheesy substance stained the snow.

Stephen looked at Hancock; the human was frozen, unable to move as he stared at the monster in front of him. Stephen snarled and moved past the human, ignoring everyone else and he went to the kitchen window. Stephen climbed in and stared at Skadi, his voice carried a harshness and malice she never knew Stephen had or ever could have. It was obvious Skadi better give the right answer.

“Is Nicole alright?"

Having arrived shortly after Stephen, Lujza said nothing as they looked down at the sniper, apparently a young vampire. She kept her axe raised, but it appeared that everything was under control and the would-be assassin was basically captured. Presumably, soon his interrogation would begin.

She was not at all surprised when Stephen made a mess out of the vampire's nose. He's got a good reason to be mad she thought. However, the events following did shock her a bit.

Standing outside with the rest who had followed Stephen to the barn, Lujza said nothing, looking over as Hondur talked to one of the humans. As the screaming continued, Lujza went over to them, but still remained silent. The screams coming from the barn were surprising, but they did not disturb her. Though, she did wrinkle her nose as the scent of burnt human flesh drifted towards them.

When the doors opened, she could see what had been done. "Oh Stephen," she said, sending the same words as a mental message to him at the same time. The bastard probably deserved it, but by the gods, was that really necessary? Before he talked that is?. She couldn't say she felt particularly sorry for the vampire. After all, despite being a strigoi now, she was still a Batory. If someone harmed your loved ones, all was fair.

Looking to Nicole, Sigrun thought for a moment as he mulled over Skadi's commentary. He agreed with her. It seemed that no matter where they went, trouble followed closely. He glanced to the shoulder wound, then to the spot where Nicole had been lying right after being shot.

The angle in which the bullet struck her spun her about... Snipers usually are very good at hitting torso shots, he glanced out the window to where the sniper had been confronted, especially from that distance.

He turned to Nicole and spoke, "Was there anyone else in here with you?" The vampiress nodded, "Hondur. We were talking."

Sigrun nodded as he began to understand. He turned to Skadi, "Nicole was not the target, otherwise, she'd be dead. Snipers are too good to make mistakes as blatant as this one was. Rather, it was a turn of ill events that put Nicole into position when Hondur himself was the target. Essentially speaking...Nicole just saved Hondur's life unwittingly."

Just then, Stephen appeared, and the look in his eyes told Sigrun that he had snapped beyond his norm. In fact, Sigrun could swear that Stephen had finally turned completely to the dark nature of many vampires. Stephen had a look in his eye that warned of imminent danger to come should more trouble arrive. Raising a hand to Stephen's shoulder, he answered the question posed to Skadi.

"Nicole is fine. She was not the target. Hondur was."

He glanced at the blood and gore that covered Stephen's body. It was clear what had happened, and Sigrun noted it aloud, "You probably should have kept him alive long enough to find out who sent him." A thought crossed Sigrun's mind, and his own eyes darkened. A scowl crossed his features, "If it was Roman, he and I are going to have a long talk-a very long talk."

10 Minutes Earlier

Roman sat within the pounding walls of one of Clarence’s multiple night clubs, he lacked his glasses as it wouldn’t be all that surprising for someone to have effects contacts in. He had sensed something odd when night had fallen and decided to hit several clubs and homeless shelters for anything off. Nothing out of the ordinary had popped up, but Roman persisted. He relaxed against the bar and looked across the dance floor and at the numerous tables scattered throughout. The man found what he had feared.

A young vampiress was talking sweetly to an obvious college student, by the look on the man’s face she was obviously getting a lot out of him. Roman looked under his trenchcoat and smiled to see the butt of his Walther P99 barely visible, a silencer in its own pouch next to it. He stood and walked over. The vampiress looked at him, she sensed the man was no human immediately yet she didn’t show it.

“I hope I am not interrupting.” He pulled out an IBI ID. He held the official rank of Special Agent in the VIB while only a Detective in the IBI. “Detective Roman Celadrin, IBI. Ma’am you have to come with me.”

The student looked at Roman, then at the beauty in front of him. He drained the rest of his beer with two gulps and slid out of the seat and disappeared. Roman smiled and to his surprise the vampire moved ahead of him. This obviously wasn’t a good sign. Roman moved her towards the back doors and after a brief walk in a hallway, out into the cold night.

She spun immediately, her fingernails sliced through the air, ready to rip the man’s face off. She did a complete 360 degree spin, her nails did not find flesh. She looked back and snarled at Roman, half of his face should be missing, yet he stood there and whistled, yet there was more whistling was coming from another direction. She turned and saw another two Romans.

“Not a smart one are you? There is more to this world than you can imagine.” The real Roman said, his duplicates mimicking his words. As a gift when he joined the Celadrin Clan, Roman was given a medallion that allowed him to multiply himself as many times as he pleased for as long as he wanted; he had found it an extremely useful thing. “Now vampire, tell me why you are here.”

“Go to hell freak!” She snarled and lunged at him, unfortunately, she attacked a duplicate and went straight through. Her feet hit the ground as she tried to stop herself, she heard a click, then a muffled gunshot and searing pain throughout her body. The vampire collapsed and Roman was quick to jam the silencer of his pistol in her mouth.

He had learned some time ago that talking to a vampire for information probably wouldn’t work so while the vampire was distracted by the pain, he could through her mind. Roman’s throat went dry as he saw the plans. With that information, he pulled the silencer out of her mouth. Roman carried silver Glasser bullets and the fragments continued to burn the insides of the vampire. He placed the gun to her head and fired.

Vampire dead, Roman pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number of the head of the VIB Edgar Gordon. “Gordon? It’s me Roman. Look, there is little time to explain so listen. Vampires from Assington are going to attack all police, VIB, IBI, and National Guard stations throughout Clarence tonight and a few hospitals for blood.”

Edgar Gordon was a short, plump man in his early sixties and a man with a dislike of any calls that came when he was about to go home. He didn’t like Roman very much because this was the time of day he called and once had called about a possible vampire attack a year earlier. It was a false alarm and he never forgot it. “Yeah okay, I’ll tell the President. Now, piss off.”

Roman heard the other line click and he cursed angrily, the President was at a heavily guarded negotiation with some delegates. Even with his powers, Roman knew he couldn’t get in. The least he could do was warn Stephen. He tried to connect himself mentally, but found Stephen blocking all incoming information. He cursed again.

A falcon rose from the alley, racing to Stephen’s home less than a minute after Nicole had been shot.


Stephen’s eyes turned to Sigrun, even with the knowledge that his love was still alive, hate and anger was still very visible. The Stephen in front of the elf was not the vampire he knew, Stephen had truly gone over the edge of his humanity and for the moment it seemed he might just kill again to relieve some stress. Lujza’s words rang in his head and he quickly shot back an angered response.

“It was entirely necessary Lujza. I could have done far worse to him, I wish I could turn back time to do just that.”

Stephen turned back to Skadi and Sigrun. He scoffed at Sigrun, his anger had yet to subside. “Of course I asked him, after I started removing his face. Assington, where the fuck else? For him, he shot the wrong vampire.”

Stephen pulled a bit of meat from his teeth and tossed it in the air, Tolkien rocketed off Nicole and snatched it up before settling back down on her, continuing his guard. Stephen moved out of the kitchen towards the stairs. He talked in a voice laced with malice. “I need a shower, if any more vampires show up…they will get quite a welcoming.”

“Uhhhh, pardon me Your Highness.” Sigrun turned to see the female agent Cruise climbing through the window. “I was about to send a message off to HQ about this. A man popped up outside my house, a VIB agent named Roman Celadrin. He wants to speak to Mr. Malone, but since it seems he is not here I figured you were the next best thing. Do you want to come to the farm house or shall I bring him here?”

Lujza sighed as she started back towards the house. "Men," she said under her breath. I hope that you managed to get some information out of him before he... lost his ability to speak. Despite now being quite proficient in speaking through thoughts, Lujza still found it easier to express emotions by communicating the feelings themselves rather than by using mental descriptions. Perhaps it was just laziness. In any event, Stephen would now know that while she was surprised and slightly worried by his explosion, Lujza was much more concerned about Stephen's wife-to-be, and felt genuine sympathy.

Walking slowly, tiredly, she arrived at the house a while later, passing both Hancock and Cruise (though she did not know these were their names) on the way. In the kitchen, Lujza noticed Nicole resting in a chair. "How are you, Nicole?" she asked softly.

Nicole had sensed the presence of Stephen a few minutes before and had tried to get up and talk, but felt too tired to speak. The heavy aroma of blood hit her nostrils seconds after Stephen had entered, obviously he had done something, but she drifted off again as Sigrun spoke. She heard Lujza’s voice and opened her eyes. Nicole could see the other vampire a few feet away.

“I have had better days.” She said. “What has happened?”

With the younger vampire fully under his control, Hondur turned over the captive to Stephen. Looking up into his friend's eyes the ancient stopped momentarily. There was something very different about Stephen, that soft nature always evident within his eyes was gone and replaced with a bloodlust. It appeared that just seeing Nicole injured like that and the thought of losing her was a little too much for Stephen to handle. He'd snapped and the sniper would forever curse his mistake.

Hondur said nothing as he watced Stephen drag the unfortunate vampire into a nearby shed. There was a sombre mood about the air as everyone outside merely watched. Finally Hondur came back to the world around him and noted the human VIB agent speaking to him. Unfortunately he didn't get a chance to answer as the still night was disrupted by screams of pure agony. There was no question who was making all that noise. It wasn't a scream of pure pain but that of fear too. The young sniper was enduring an agony most never experienced and yet he couldn't help but feel afraid as to what would come next.

The group slowly moved forward in silence, the screams continuing on and off as Stephen exacted his own personal vengence for harming Nicole. Hondur wasn't quite sure that he had the resolve to do such a thing, it didn't seem to be in the man's nature. Whilst Hondur stood on opposite ends of moral grounds to Stephen, he didn't see himself as a particularly violent person and couldn't helpt but wonder himself if he was capable of such a thing. He assumed people would expect it from him before Stephen.

Finally silence reigned once again and the male VIB agent stepped forward to open the door. Obviously he was quite unnerved by what had just happened but he still had to do his job. What came before everyone next even shocked Hondur, the ancient vampire cringing as his eyes were cast across the deformed figure of what used to be a vampire. Hondur didn't say anything as Stephen finally put the creature out of his misery. Evidently his friend was in an unstable state of mind and it would not be wise to upset him. Instead the ancient vampire merely followed Stephen towards the main house.

Skadi gave Stephen a prolonged look, examining every aspect of his bloodied form, none of which was due to his injury. It was surprising to see the aftermarth of Stephen dealing with one that injured his loved one. Skadi didn't think he had the resolve to torture another living being like that, it appeared she was wrong.

Sigrun answered the question directed at her as he was in a better postion to really judge her condition, being the one that healed her in the first place.

"Perhaps we should make sure there are no others hiding out there..."

Nicole had sensed the presence of Stephen a few minutes before and had tried to get up and talk, but felt too tired to speak. The heavy aroma of blood hit her nostrils seconds after Stephen had entered, obviously he had done something, but she drifted off again as Sigrun spoke. She heard Lujza’s voice and opened her eyes. Nicole could see the other vampire a few feet away.

“I have had better days.” She said. “What has happened?”

"We have all had better days," Lujza sighed. "You look to be recovering well, though," she added more cheerfully, patting Nicole on the shoulder (not the shoulder that had been injured of course, Nicole's other shoulder).

She paused a moment before answering the question. "We, well, mostly Hondur, caught the sniper." For a second, she looked as if she didn't know whether to be shocked or amused. "As you can imagine, the word 'furious' couldn't even begin to describe Stephen. He was very angry." She looked out the window and then back to Nicole. "Very angry, indeed. Of course, he had a good reason."

"Well, I'll let you rest," Lujza said with a small smile. "I should probably get dressed, shouldn't I? Hopefully the rest of this night will be a bit nicer."

Nicole listened to Lujza; she could only imagine Stephen had done something completely against his morals and his humanity. She simply nodded, she wouldn't comment on Stephen's actions. “Well, getting dressed might be a good idea…it is cold out. I also think Hancock is eyeing you.”


“Agreed.” Cruise said in agreement with Skadi about finding other intruders. She turned to Hancock, who was up against the wall, apparently checking his rifle, but he was in fact looking at the nude Lujza a few feet away. “Jonathan?”

“Yeah Mary?” He asked, his eyes moving to his partner. He didn’t like the look in her eye.

“Go and rummage around the shed and see if you can find how he got through our sensors.”

“Oh go fuck yourself Mary, Jesus H. Christ that place is a fucking mess! Probably skin and organs all over the place.”

“So what da fuck? Do are you are told or you will not assigned to janitorial duties back in VIB HQ.” She said with a grin. Hancock grumbled and climbed back out the broken window. Cruise turned back to Skadi. “We women have to keep the men in control. And to answer your question.”

Cruise produced what seemed to be an enlarged PDA and she placed it on the kitchen table. With a few button presses, sections of the farm began to pop up, in thermal form. “This is linked to all of our cameras and they show no one else moving around the area, spare for Jonathan and Cassandra’s puppies and that Roman fella.”

“Mary…oh Mary?” Hancock’s voice came from behind them, he climbed through the window, his face whiter than that of the vampires in the room, and he also stank of blood. “Mary, I am going to fucking kill you in about thirty seconds.”

“Alright then…what did you find?”

Hancock mumbled and placed a ball of bloodied rags. “That was a heating suit. They sell them in any sporting goods store. You wear them like a wet suit or long johns…you have a dial that controls heat flow through wires or something like that which keeps you warm during those cold days hunting. That is how he got passed our sensors. They are only programmed to make an alarm is a vampire is shown, but this gave off the impression he was much warmer, not really human but warm enough to prevent an alarm.”

“Change it then.” Roman’s voice said. He climbed into the house from the window. The stench of blood made him decide not to wait and check on what happened. He looked over and saw the semi-conscious Nicole and her blood on the wall. “Jesus, what happened?”

Nicole listened to Lujza; she could only imagine Stephen had done something completely against his morals and his humanity. She simply nodded, she wouldn't comment on Stephen's actions. “Well, getting dressed might be a good idea…it is cold out. I also think Hancock is eyeing you.”




Lujza couldn't help but chuckle, and she swept her black eyes towards the man in question for a moment. She gave him a razor-blade grin, which could mean almost anything, and then turned her attention back to Nicole, still looking amused. "Aren't men funny?" she said cheerfully, barely loud enough that Hancock would be able to hear. I wonder if he's simply looking at me because I'm not dressed or if he has a thing for me? No, that must be it, he's only looking cause I'm naked. she communicated silently. "Well, I'll see you in a little while," she said with a smile to Nicole before walking back to her room.

Joseph looked at his watch as he stood atop a business building in Clarence, having a commanding view of the city. He should have had confirmation of Nicole’s death a half hour ago. He licked the blood off of his fangs were he had fed from a pair of lovers necking out on the roof. He was growing impatient, he had to attack now or risk being discovered during the day. Joseph opened a link with his company and platoon commanders.

“Start the attack, no mercy…no prisoners.”


Officer Jack Henson stared at the copy of The Frolicking Nudist with obvious interest. He was young, barely twenty-four with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes, he had just come in from the academy. He had only been three weeks on the Clarence police and much to his disappointment he had yet to take part in a bank shootout, car chase, or any form of excitment; he had only handed out some tickets and pulled over some drunken teenagers.

He turned the page and smiled at the centerfold “Oh…man…”

“Like something you see?”

Henson jolted up from his chair and dropped the magazine as he stood to face his captain. Henson adjusted his blue uniform. “Evening ma’am.”

Captain Carol Kramer smiled and knelt down and picked up the magazine. The fifty-two year old stared at it and looked at the young policeman. “Why is this here?”

“I was uhhhh…reading the articles ma’am.”

“I see, ‘Naked Volleyball’ and ‘Boobs Galore’ I take it have some political or social significance. I personally do not approve of these nudie magazines.” She said. Henson opened his mouth but she beat him first. “I don’t want to hear it. Now in my precinct everything goes smoothly, you do as I say you will find me the nicest person you will ever work for and you will kill to stay under my charge. Don’t do as a say, you will find yourself cleaning toilets with your tongue. We also must set an example for the rest of the populace, having officers looking at pornography while on duty does not do that. Next time I catch you reading this trash I’ll suspend you and do everything I can to get you kicked out. Am I clear?”

Henson simply nodded and watched as his captain turned and left, throwing the magazine into the trash as she disappeared behind the corner. He sighed and sat back at the front information desk. Henson blinked as he saw a red dot moving up his chest towards his head. Before he could shout, his brains covered the wall behind him.


Back at the Malone residence, the immortals tilted their heads as far off they could hear dull, rapid thumps of gunfire. The two humans were oblivious before a radio on Hancock buzzed into life. “There are…fuckers! Vampires all around…get….tanks…”

Hancock grabbed his radio and tried to raise someone, all he got in return was static. He looked up at Skadi and Hondur. “Now, if these assholes are here for you…”

“They’re not here for them.” Stephen’s voice echoed through the house and everyone went silent as the vampire appeared, showered and dressed in all black, inserting his Para P14 automatics into his armpit holsters. There was still an air of danger about him, but some of the human softness had returned to his eyes. Nicole rose, her shoulder still aching and hugged him. She looked at him. “I’m coming with you; I have to defend my home too. Don’t say a word, let me get dressed.”

Stephen didn’t bother arguing with her, he had trained her well and he knew she could handle herself fairly well. Stephen stared back at everyone; he could sense a slight edginess in the humans after his little ‘explosion’ earlier. He smiled slightly at Roman.

“Skadi, Hondur, and Sigrun…they weren’t here for you. Nicole…Nicole was the target. The attack we are hearing right now is for revenge…in part for my part in the fourth war as it was deemed to hazardous to go after any of you three, I was probably the easiest. All served under Svartel, simply because he was the best chance at getting vampire rule over Assington. Though, they are here mostly because my government throughout the years has sold weapons and equipment to Assington, some ended up in the hands of the police and military…others the VP. During the ‘Oblivious Age’, we didn’t know about it…now we have knowingly given the VP new toys…such as the thermal Vulcan’s and machineguns. They are not here to start a coven, not here to sire…just here to kill as many as they can.”

Stephen put on a pair of black leather gloves and walked to a picture of his great uncle Kurt Malone, the Golden Simatar’s best known mercenary and unknown to him had met Hondur and had fought vampires before him. Stephen moved the picture to reveal a hole in the wall and he removed Kurt’s Wolf Knife and Stephen strapped it on his right leg near his boot.

He looked at his friends. “I am not asking you to come. You owe me nothing. I suggest you stay here till tomorrow night and get to one of the small airports and from there head north to a larger city for a flight home. All the airports in Clarence spare for the military’s are closed. I’ll see you all when the night is over. Make yourselves at home. Sorry it had to come out this way…but hopefully this last bit will be wiped out and peace will come.”

Sighing as she sat back down on her bed, Lujza wondered what could possibly be going on as she got out some clothes to put on. Nicole seems like a nice woman, not someone who makes very many enemies she thought. When she'd first come upon the scene in the kitchen after the young vampiress had been shot, Lujza's first thought was that some anti-vampire lunatic (she still thought of anyone who hated vampires simply for being such as a lunatic) had found out who really lived on the horse farm. However, the sniper had been a vampire, not a human, so that blew that hypothesis out of the water.

She just could not fathom what possible reason someone would have to kill Nicole. Lujza dismissed the thought from her mind as she threw on some clothes, which, normally looked black, but in a certain light looked somewhat bluish. As she pulled on her boots, her thoughts turned to wondering if she could find an AK somewhere. Lujza then headed back down to the kitchen.

Skadi was mildly surprised at the whole predicament. It was incredibly bold and uncommon for vampires from Assington to leave the nation and launch a coordinated attack upon another nation like this, it just really wasn't heard of outside of Assington. Her home had been under threat so many times that it was almost normal when buildings were destroyed and citizens slaughtered by gangs of rampaging vampires. Unfortunately The Golden Simatar was not so ready for such an attack, even if the dedicated anti-vampire organisations liked to think they were.

Whilst it was irritating knowing that she could never escape the constant fighting of vampires from her nation, they weren't actually here for her and so there was some comfort. Either way she felt bound to aid Stephen in this time of chaos. More than once he'd offered his military experience in assisting Skadi and the coven through many battles against various foes from lycans to a fellow ancient such as Svartel. She owed him help.

Checking to make sure her blade was still in place across her back, Skadi spoke briefly.

"You have my sword in this fight Stephen. These bastards have no right to bring the chaos of my homeland into yours."

Hondur nodded in agreement.

"It won't be allowed. We'll make sure they pay for their mistakes."

With that said the ancient vampire made his way upstairs and retrieved his 'claws', promptly fastening the weapons around his wrists and hiding them under his sleaves. He disliked the idea of Assingtonian vampires outright attacking the Golden Simatar even more than Skadi considering they had more reason to stay in Assington and merely continue their futile struggle against the VP and his coven.

Returning downstairs quickly, Hondur looked around the crowd of gathered vampires. Obviously everyone was willing to help rid Stephen's nation of these rogue vampires and return the city into what would be an uneasy peace. Of course the damage had already been done with the attack beginning in the first place, but they could at least prevent any further destruction.

"Are we good to go?"

When Lujza reentered the kitchen, the others were just starting to voice their agreement in that they would help get rid of these... problems. Lujza leaned against the wall, her hand on the handle of her axe, which was on her belt. Wherever there are vampires, there seems to be violence she thought. In Callisdrun, it was traditionally vampire vs. vampire, not vampire vs. human.

"Naturally," she said, as if the next part of her sentence was a foregone conclusion, "I will stay and fight by your side as well." Lujza then appeared to think of something suddenly. "As you can see, I brought my axe, but neglected to bring my gun. Can I get one here?"

Stephen looked at Skadi, it was obvious the young vampire was shocked she was offering her aid. The pair had their obvious differences and even agruments that changed into Skadi beating Stephen within an inch of his life or throwing him across Emerald City. With Hondur and everyone else, he was not suprised.

Stephen smiled. "Thank you my friends. Skadi, Hondur, Lujza...I don't think I need to say that the police and soldiers will shoot at you if they see you. Whatever you do...only use lethal force as a last resort. Or else...hell to pay when morning comes."

Stephen turned as Nicole appeared, geared up in black checking her two CZ-G2000 automatic pistols. She smiled at Stephen and turned to Lujza as she mentioned her lack of a firearm. Nicole walked to kitchen table, her hand moved under it and pressed a hidden button. Part of the wall slid off to one side in several locations to reveal a small assortment of assault rifles, machine-pistols, pistols, and ammunition. Stephen looked at everyone.

"There is plenty more in the other barn, but this should do. Take what you want and I'll meet you outside. Cruise, Hancock, look after the place and Cassandra's pups."

Stephen walked to Cassandra's barn, it took some urging to get the mother away from her babies. Mounting the creature, he directed her to the main barn. Stephen talked to her softly, assuring her none of the forgien vampires would hurt her or her pups. Nicole jumped on the back of the beast. Stephen looked at Lujza, whom Cassandra was sniffing throughly, and Sigrun.

"Hop on board. Don't be fooled by her size, she can carry the weight."

Chuckling, Sigrun shook his head as he fished out an unidentified object from his pocket. He held it up to the light, "That won't be necessary. The latest in elven technology. Arcane tracking device, which serves as a remote homing beacon for incoming portals. Excellent for surprise entries, or urgent departures. Because of the conjunction with human technology, these things can work all over the world. All that's needed is a satellite overhead to pass on the beacon signal. Of course, we elves have our own recievers as well."

A thumb flipped aside a leaf lid and compressed a button. Instantly, a green light began to blink, indicating proper activation. It was chucked up to Stephen whom caught it and nodded.

"Go. The less weight on Cassandra, the faster she'll travel." He spoke to Cassandra in her native language, "Don't worry about the pups. I'll set a guard spell over them for you."

Stepping back to join Hondur and Skadi, he continued speaking to Stephen, "We'll be right behind you."

Stephen looked at the leaf device Sigrun had tossed to him and chuckled. “And I thought elves didn’t go for modern or future technology. Then again, I am no expert on elves.”

Stephen grasped Lujza and brought her up on Cassandra just as Sigrun spoke to her. The dragon bowed and if Stephen was not skilled on her, he would have fallen off. The dragon spoke back to Sigrun in draconic. “Thank you your Highness.”

She opened her wings and with several hard flaps, became airborne and headed off to Clarence. Roman stared after them and with a quick nod to Sigrun and the two ancients, transformed into a hawk and moved after Cassandra.


On the rooftop of Channel Nine News, three vampires fired down with grenades, bullets and rockets at the Simatarians below. The attack was going just as planned; the police and National Guard had been routed and were now fighting a desperate battle for their lives. A company of Marines stationed at the harbor had moved into the city but had quickly been pinned down. The trio had an easy time, the targets were plentiful and they were safe up top, the police helicopters were busy in other places to come and get them.

They didn’t pay attention to a strange shadow appear over them for a few seconds. One spun around as he heard a thump behind him, from behind one of the several satellite dishes he saw a female vampire emerge, dressed in all black, her trenchcoat keeping her frame hidden, but he could see she was something special. The vampiress walked towards him and he grinned. “Where did you come from?”

His friend turned. “Who the fuck are you talking Brian…” He knew enough that the vampiress was not part of their group and he had seen the pictures of the Simatarian vampires. “It’s that Malone bitch!”

Nicole lashed out, grabbed the barrel of Brian’s AK-47, ripping the weapon out of his hand, she jumped out of the way as the vampire’s friend sprayed the area, accidentally riddling his friend in the process. Nicole ducked behind the rooftop entrance, ignoring the screams of the first vampire and when the gunfire had stopped, she leaned around the corner, butt stock firmly in her shoulder and fired a short burst.

Stephen’s training had paid off as the heavy slugs slammed into the vampire, knocking him backwards; her next burst caught him in the chest and neck. Nicole didn’t have time to celebrate as she heard the cocking of a weapon behind her. She turned to see the final vampire leveling his rifle at her, coldness in his eyes. Nicole’s eyes moved behind him and she smiled.

The vampire arched an eyebrow as he heard several thumps behind him and very heavy breathing. A shadow passed over him, he turned slowly. His first sight was of Stephen and the mystery female vampire, standing on the rooftop but his eyes drifted to the thing standing a few feet behind him. His eyes moved up the scaly white body, he saw the hind legs, then the fore legs and then the jaws opening.

Before the vampire could react, Cassandra’s jaws were wrapped firmly around his head and held on at his shoulders. The dragon shook the vampire as he screamed, thrashing for escape. Cassandra unleashed all the anger she had against vampires on the man, she smashed his body again and again into the roof until the screaming had stopped and the body was motionless. She dropped the corpse and started on her dinner.

Stephen smiled at Nicole. He had been hesitant to let her drop onto the rooftop alone, but she had proved herself competent in combat. Stephen pulled out the device Sigrun had given him. If this thing was some kind of transporter that needed satellites, the news building would be the best place. Stephen placed it on the ground and stepped back.

“Okay, lets see what Sigrun’s toy does.”


The wounded vampire, his flesh burning from the silver pried his pistol from his holster. He would not go down this way, if he was to die, he would take one of those assholes with him. Taking somewhat poor aim at Lujza, he fired.

The ride to the scene of battle was swift. The dragon had seemed tentative of Lujza at first, but eventually had decided that she was decent. Lujza had been a little surprised at the assortment of firearms available at the Malone residence, but then, considering their circumstances, it was only natural.

Lujza hopped down with Stephen after watching Nicole surprise their enemies. She felt somewhere between bored and useless as Cassandra finished off the last one. Or what she thought had been the last one. As Lujza glanced at the dragon's consumption of the corpse, a bullet grazed her midsection. Uttering a flurry of obscenities, she looked around and saw where the bullet had come from. Quickly, she levelled the AK variant she was borrowing from Stephen and Nicole at the offending vampire and blew off his hand.

In a display of what was probably unnecessary savagery, she then swiftly walked up and with her now barbed fangs tore out the still living vampire's throat, treating herself to a snack in the process. "Animalistic" was a word that was a favorite word of anthropologists and such people when describing some of the habits of moroii, despite them being on average more intelligent and literate than humans. During her transformation, only Lujza's body had changed, her mind, and hence her behavior and instincts, had not.

"Well, where to now?" she asked, completely casual, upon returning to the others.

Nicole turned her nose up to Lujza suddenly digging into the vampire, she had seen Stephen do such things in combat before, but not with the brutality Lujza exhibited. She turned back to Stephen as Lujza finished her meal and asked her question. Stephen was about to open his mouth when the rooftop door opened, a SWAT officer appeared and froze as he saw the three vampires and some very large white animal eating a body.

Stephen moved like lighting, grabbing the man’s machine-pistol, ripping it from his hands and smashing the butt against the human’s helmet, knocking him unconscious. The vampire grabbed the man’s headset and listened for several seconds before tossing it to Lujza.

“Here, keep it with you. Answer your question we’re heading to the Warren Memorial Hospital. It is the cities largest hospital and though there is fighting all across the city…apparently that area is where most of the battle has been concentrated. Gotta be careful and stick to the roofs, a few National Guard tanks and APCs have managed to break out. My guess is the vampires are going after the blood stored in the coolers and up till now the police and National Guard have held them off thinking they will kill the patients. Which I have no doubt will happen if they break through. Let’s see if we can shake them up.”

Stephen concentrated and sent a message to the ancients and Sigrun. “We are heading to the Warren Memorial Hospital, most of the action is taking place in that vicinity. Tanks are also in that vicinity and probably the helicopters, so watch yourselves.”

Stephen turned to Cassandra, the dragon was holding the vampire's liver and stomach in its mouth as it looked up as she heard her named called. Stephen pointed to the unconscious SWAT officer. “Watch him, make sure no harm comes to him, if you need to knock him out do so. And keep out of sight. If Sigrun and the others show up here, offer help.”

Cassandra nodded and returned to finishing up the vampire. Stephen led the two female vampires to the edge of the building. He flashed a grin to Lujza. “So have you mastered the art of roof hopping or do I have to carry you like I did back in Emerald?”

Not quite sure why Nicole looked so disgusted, Lujza turned to her and said "What?"

Turning back to Stephen, she nodded in response to his summary of their intended destination. Naturally, though killing the patients wasn't their objective, the enemy vampires would do that anyway when they got in the hospital. When Stephen commented on how he'd had to carry her so many years ago, she couldn't help but smile.

"Well..." she said, putting her hand on her chin. "Well, since I'm really lazy, it would be nice of you to carry me, but I can roof hop now, so it might not be appropriate." Lujza started laughing.

Nicole looked at Lujza on her question of her snack. “Not so much that I disagree with what you did, just I don’t see it too often in these parts.”

The vampiress checked the magazine on her rifle, empty. Nicole tossed it away and walked to the edge of the roof and stared across the city towards the battle. She turned as her love asked Lujza if he should carry her.

Stephen laughed at Lujza and shook his head. “If you can hop, you can hop. It was getting tiresome hauling your butt across Emerald. Laziness is no excuse.”

“What about me?” Nicole asked with a raised eyebrow.

Stephen kissed her. “You’re the exception.”

Cutting the romances short, Stephen led the two vampiress across the city rooftops, passing bullet marked buildings on both sides and streets of fire below. It took the vampires several minutes to make the journey unnoticed by Simatarian helicopters that began to fly in for strafing runs. Stephen motioned the women to stay low as they moved up to the edge of a building.

Down below on the one acre front lawn of the hospital, National Guard Challenger 2 tanks and Stormer 30s fought in trying to keep a perimeter of explosions between the hospital and the vampires. The RPGs bounced harmlessly off the chobam armor of the Challengers, but once more and more hit the Stormers, the vehicles began to catch fire and the crews were chopped to bits before they could evacuate their posts. A constant circle of OH-58D Kiowa helicopters were the only things keeping the vampires from advancing across the destroyed park and taking the hospital.

Stephen could only watch as heavy gunfire knocked one of the helicopters out of whack and as the pilot attempted to regain control, a RPG shell slammed into the cockpit. The ball of flame plummeted to the ground where the heat from the explosion was felt by the three vampires on the roof.

Stephen looked at Lujza and Nicole. “Vampires on the left, humans on the right. Won’t be long now till the vamps break through. Come on, we need to try and get them confused.”

Stephen turned and led Nicole and Lujza towards the vampire lines and pulled out his pistols, ready to slaughter all vampires in his path.

Nodding to Skadi and Hondur who were seated in the kitchen, and by now quite bored of surveying the damage from the assassination attempt; Sigrun leveled a hand in front of himself palm forward. A portal opened in the doorway and adhered to the door frames. He spoke, "It's stable. Time to go. We're going in hot, as the message I just recieved from Stephen implies.

With a grin, he unsheathed his sword and stepped backward through the portal but not before calling out to them, "Just like old times eh?"

______________________

At the place where the homing device had been dropped, a portal swirled in place, the device fastened securely to the rooftop with small anchors. Sigrun appeared in a flash, and instantly got his bearings. Even in the night, his elven sight allowed him to easily distinguish the movements of the other vampires. Hearing a grunting noise followed by a heavy thwap, Sigrun turned, only to see Cassandra keeping her prisoner in place. He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Turning again toward the direction of the fighting, he took off running, using a spell to create a temporary solid yet invisible walkway across the alleys until at last he was near Stephen. Already, they had begun firing down at the vampires below, yet few had begun to realize where the new threat was coming from. He looked down, mentally assessed the situation, and nodded. "Typical standoff."

He looked over to Stephen, then nodded to him, "Stay here if you want, but sooner or later, one of those choppers are going to see you. You're a vampire Stephen. There's more to vampirism than simply feeding on blood. The shadows are your field of combat, stealth is your mode, and swift is your attack. It's time you embrace this, for you cannot fight like this," he waved his arm out to the humans and armored craft, "not anymore. It will soon be the time when humans will be able to outperform vampires in the open, but in the shadows and the corners of the world, they shall never dominate for that is the lair of all vampires and night-stalkers."

With that, Sigrun stepped backward until he slid into the shadows of the building. His eyes were the last to be seen before he disappeared. Seconds later, he sent a message to Stephen, Search the field below. Watch the shadows, watch the fringes of the combatants.

As Stephen did this, he watched as Sigrun emerged rapidly time and time again from different angles. Each time, he drew a struggling vampire into the shadows and blood could be seen oozing slowly out of the shadows. Strangely, none had noticed yet, for the battle in front of them demanded their attention more. It wouldn't be long before they noticed though. By that time, it would be too late.

"Damn," Lujza said jokingly before they embarked on their journey. She was not especially good at hopping from roof to roof, but decent enough so that the trip wasn't difficult.

She grimaced slightly as the helicopter went down. It was clear that the humans would not fare well if things kept going the way they were.

She trailed behind a little as Stephen and Nicole went at the hostile vampires, and eventually went off to the side a bit. Lujza then climbed through the broken window of a building, and went upstairs. The windows on this level were broken and the lights out as well. Perfect she thought. Edging up to the broken window, she could survey the rear of the enemy's lines. Smiling a little, she began shooting. While the stock AK she was using was not as accurate as her now-modified AK-103 that she had left in Assington, with her aim, it was more than deadly enough. She took out as many of the RPG wielding vampires as possible to start with.

Skadi and Hondur both watched as Sigrun opened a portal within the confines of a doorframe and stepped through, ready to combat the Assingtonian vampires upon the other side. Whilst both vampires chose bladed weapons primarily, they hadn't ignored Stephen's offer for a gun and both had a conceal pistol and clips on their persons. Stealth was all well and good but sometimes a little firepower was necessary.

Both ancient vampires appeared upon the rooftop of a major news broadcaster within an isntant of stepping into the portal. It took a few moments for the pair to regain their orientation as neither had adapted a particular fondness of portal travel and the side affects.

"I'll never get used to that..."

Hondur nodded at Skadi's comment, he travelled via portal even less than Skadi and could never see himself unphased by the process. Briefly noting Cassandra and an unconscious human, Hondur continued with a single leap which landed him not far behind Stephen, Skadi only seconds behind him.

There was no need to really formulate a plan, the group of vampires would merely do what they could from within the shadows, gradually turning the tide against the attacking vampires. Skadi watched as Hondur dropped down into an alley behind the hospital before levitating herself off the building and into one of the few windows that wasn't illuminated by fire or light. She'd see what could be done about those going directly for the blood contained within the hospital.

As Hondur landed his presence immediately grabbed the attention of a lone vampire playing around with something in a suitcase. Instantly he recognised Hondur as nother vampire but it took him a moment to realise he wasn't one of his group from Assington. Hondur took advantage of this moment to rush foward and grab the younger vampire, launching him into the hospital wall with a bone crushing impact. Gasping in pain and surprise, he managed to squeeze out a few words.

"Wh... Who are you?"

Hondur merely gazed upon the younger vampire for a moment.

"You know... I'm really quite sick of having to play vampire watchdog at home, let alone here."

That was enough information for the injured one to change is attitude from one of shock to anger.

"This is none of your business bastard..."

The only answer he recieved was the ring of Hondur's claws as they extended and promptly removed the vampire's head. With no other immediate threat in the area, Hondur decided to investigate the suitcase.

"Stephen, we may have a problem. I've found a suitcase full of enough explosives to level the hospital... these guys aren't messing around."

Hondur could only hope this was the only vampire armed with a suitcase bomb.

Stephen listened to Sigrun’s lecture, it wasn’t the elves first to him about being a vampire and the Simatarian doubted it would be the last. He preferred to work like he once had as a soldier but Sigrun quickly proved his point that the shadows is where vampires and other creatures reigned supreme. Stephen disappeared into the shadows, Nicole following him and moved towards the Assington vampires.

The first to fall was a fledgling who noticed Stephen too late and swung the RPG he had at him. Stephen ripped the weapon of the vampire’s grasp and promptly grabbed his throat and smashed his fist into the fledgling’s face, reducing it to a mush of shattered bone and gore. Stephen pulled out both of his pistols and began firing, killing, wounding and chasing some vampires from their positions. Nicole followed suit, but only fired one pistol at a time, she had yet to master using two at a time.

Stephen cursed as he received Hondur’s message. “I’ll be back Nicole, you are doing fine. Give me cover”

The vampiress kissed Stephen and provided covering fire for him while he ran to investigate what Hondur had found. As she ducked back around the corner to reload her guns, an elder shot around the edge of the building, grabbed her and threw her against the ground before she could react. The elder’s eyes burned into her eyes, hatred for humans and for Nicole was bright in the elder’s eyes as she tightened her grip on Nicole’s neck with one hand and pressing her nails into Nicole’s flesh, quickly drawing blood as she moved for the heart.

“Time to die bitch.” The elder snarled.

Nicole struggled and her mind flashed back to Auburn, being held hostage by an elder but at that time she had been rescued by Cassandra, but now the dragon was in hiding. No blades were on the elder in front of her and Nicole could not move her head enough to get her fangs into the vampire’s hand. She could feel the nails digging in and if she didn’t act soon, the elder would smash into her rib cage and rip her wide open. Nicole concentrated on one of her pistols on the ground. The automatic flew into her hand and she fired into the elder’s gut.

The elder gasped and in the few seconds of shock, Nicole was able to break free and instantly sunk her fangs into the elder’s throat; making the other vampire her first medical fix up. Nicole didn’t drain the vampire dry; instead she took enough for the other to fall unconscious. “Gonna die when morning comes if you don’t get killed sooner…bitch.”

Nicole picked up her weapons and went back to battle.


Simon noticed very soon that his RPG operators were beginning to drop. Joseph’s orders had been specific in having them as the backbone of the assault and the vampire knew it wasn’t the humans doing it. He spun and scanned the dark and the shapes of piles of bricks and dumpsters. He saw her, the mystery vampire named Lujza. Raising his Mac-10, he opened fire at Lujza, forcing the vampire to take temporary refuge.

When Lujza poked her head back up, Simon was in front of her. A bullet from Lujza’s AK grazed his side before he could knock it a few feet away. The vampire pulled a sword from behind him, a cruel grin on his face.

“I am going to enjoy this you slut. Killed many of my friends back in Emerald.”


Hondur brought up his claws as a vampire dropped into the alley, but it was only Stephen. The Simatarian looked at the briefcase and cursed again. “TNT, dynamite…and C fucking four. You’re right, they aren’t playing Hondur. Assholes.”

Stephen knelt down next to the device; he was no explosive expert but understood and remembered enough to know what to do. He smiled and pulled a small clock on the explosives off, slashed the wires with his Wolf Knife and cast the clock aside. “Time bombs. Better hid this puppy for a…”

Stephen was stopped short when a dozen vampires dropped into the alley, all elders and armed with short swords. Stephen held his Wolf Knife at the ready. “Ready to tango Hondur?”


As Skadi observed the battlefield below, there was noise and commotion behind her. The door to the room opened to reveal two fairly young police officers carrying a large metal case between them.

“These heat guns suppose to find vamps?” one said, not seeing the vampire at first.

“Yeah, got two in here, great place to set up. Cover the lawn and grease those…oh fuck…” the other said as he saw Skadi, knowing that no human was suppose to be here.

The humans looked at her, dropped the case and pulled out their Smith and Wesson revolvers, training overcoming common sense.

“Drop your weapons and put your hands on your head!”

Simon noticed very soon that his RPG operators were beginning to drop. Joseph’s orders had been specific in having them as the backbone of the assault and the vampire knew it wasn’t the humans doing it. He spun and scanned the dark and the shapes of piles of bricks and dumpsters. He saw her, the mystery vampire named Lujza. Raising his Mac-10, he opened fire at Lujza, forcing the vampire to take temporary refuge.

When Lujza poked her head back up, Simon was in front of her. A bullet from Lujza’s AK grazed his side before he could knock it a few feet away. The vampire pulled a sword from behind him, a cruel grin on his face.

“I am going to enjoy this you slut. Killed many of my friends back in Emerald.”



Falling backward as her gun was knocked out of her hands, Lujza sneered at the other vampire. "Yeah, I'm sure you will, asshole," she said sarcastically, spreading her legs in mockery of the other vampire's insult. "They died easy."

Since she was close enough to kick his shins, she did so, as hard as she could, slamming her booted foot into the middle of his lower leg as hard as she could, which, of course, was a lot harder now than back during the battle the other vampire had alluded to. Immediately after doing so, Lujza asked the vampire "So, what's your name, asshole? Or did you forget it while you were giving Svartel a rim job?"

Simon cried out in pain as his feet were knocked from under him, he smacked the ground hard, his sword sliding from his grasp. The pain in his legs was more than he expected, back in Emerald he remembered Luzja as not that strong, but had abilites at swinging an axe. Grunting, he pushed himself up and was on his feet in seconds.

His sword flew back into his hand as he swung at Lujza, testing her speed as she jumped back, his blade passing milli-meters from her chest. He snarled, she was indeed a mystery, up close she seemed Assingtonian, at least part Assingtonian.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt Lujza...you and your friends will be dead by morning. I'm Simon, now be a good girl and die."

Simon gathered up all his speed and strength and speared his blade straight for Lujza's stomach.

Hondur merely nodded in response to Stephen as he focused upon the enemy before him. A quick judgement placed these vampires somewhere within the elder age limit, making them a problem in these numbers. Hondur wouldn't really have any trouble taking care of one or two but twelve of them were certainly a cause for concern.

Each vampire held a blade within their hand yet Hondur noted the minute details of how they stood with the weapon, how they gripped it and moved with it. By appearances it seemed many of them used a sword for show, or they felt compelled to for some other reason, they weren't actually practiced in using them effectively. Keeping his claws hidden, Hondur waited for the attack to come. The alley was narrow and so he couldn't end up facing more than two or three at a time, hopefully.

A heavily exhaled breath to Hondur's left grabbed his attention just in time to avoid a lunging blade, followed by its owner in an attempt to cleave Hondur in half. And so the attack commenced. As the attacking vampire attempted to correct his balance Hondur pivotted upon his left heal whilst slammed his right foot into the small of his attacker's back, sending him sprawling towards the hard brick wall of the hospital.

Of course there wasn't enough time to follow through with another attack as the graze of a blade slicing across Hondur's chest quickly signalled a new opponent and a new way to die. Angered at her first failed attempt at killing the ancient, the younger vampire arced her arm back and unleashed with a swing driven by all her strength. Hondur merely ducked and plunged his fist into her gut, unleashing his claws into her intestines. She groaned in agony as the silver burned away at her flesh, causing the blade in her hand to clang loosely upon the ground.

Not interested in making others suffer, Hondur promptly removed his claws and plunged them through her face, the silver reaching her brain and immediately killing her. Hondur didn't even watch her fall to the ground as he had more important things to do, such as surviving.

One down, eleven to go.
_____________

Skadi had been watching certain vampires outside when the officers had entered the room, turning the light on and disturbing her from the task at hand. She remained silent at first and merely watched the two men as they heaved a large metallic case into the room and switched on the lights. Skadi was mildly curious as to what they had and was promptly informed just before being spotted.

With both men now aiming their guns at her, Skadi decided to place her blade into the floor and place her hands firmly upon her head. The officers were obviously surprised that she would comply, yet there was something even stranger about this woman before them. Her eyes weren't that of submission or fear, she seemd quite calm as she gazed back at both men. A long silence passed before one of them continued to follow the book.

"Alright... down on the ground. Keep your hands in view and don't try anything."

Skadi merely glared back, not budging.

"That won't be happening."

Both men didn't know what to say.

"You should consider yourselves fortunate that your lives are not a card in my hand to dispose of tonight. I find these chances are rare in life, you should appreciate it."

With that said she began to walk forward, lowering her hands. The officers began to squeeze their triggers and the lights shattered as Skadi forcefully willed the bulbs apart. Bullets departed their guns and smashed through walls, never finding their mark of Skadi's flesh.

Pinned up against the ceiling, Skadi slowly floated forward as she positioned herself above the officers. They couldn't see in the dark like she could and so this would be easy.

They wouldn't know what hit them.

Stephen dodged another vampire’s lunge seconds after Hondur had disposed of his target. He grasped the vampire’s arm and tried to slice with his knife, but the vampire grabbed his arm too. Both combatants moved around, trying to force the other to break and go in for the kill. If Stephen had not received the great amount of power from his thousand years as more or less a half vampire, he would have been already on the ground with a blade through his brain, but thankfully that had not been the case and he was evenly matched.

He sensed an attack from behind and kicked behind him, knocking a young vampiress back into the brick wall. The male he was grappling with took the brief moment of vulnerability and bit into Stephen’s hand. Knowing the old trick of bite and drain, Stephen quickly let go of his knife and jumped back just before the vampire’s sword would have decapitated him.

Stephen jumped back and as the elder moved forward, Stephen jumped and grabbed both of the vampire’s arms, preventing any real movement. Both vampires tried and failed to bite the other’s throat and Stephen felt one his pistols begin to exit the holster. The elder smiled and Stephen’s brain reacted quickly, a bigger grin on his face. The elder gagged and spasmed, he looked down as blood began to flow from his mouth, his eyes grew wider as he saw Stephen’s knife work its way though his chest before exploding outwards, his heart on the blade.

The elder looked up at Stephen, his face filled with shock, his grip began to loosen as blood flowed like a river and Stephen kicked him in the groin, sending the male to the ground. From there, he removed the heart from the steal and sliced open the vampire’s throat.

With two of their friends down, the other ten simply lunged at the two vampires.


Jason Powell and Dennis Sheridan were stunned by the vampiress complying with their demands. They had heard from the VP advisors that they had a better chance at becoming friends with a vampire than one surrendering peacefully during combat. Though, being on the force for only a few years, her eyes gave the men the heebie-jeebies. As she began to advance, warnings were forgotten and both men fired their revolvers as the lights exploded.

Both men began to grope their belts for their speed loaders in the darkness. Jason spoke in an excited voice. “I think we got her…I think we got her man. Shit such a waste.”

Dennis looked over where Jason’s voice came from, but he couldn’t see his friend. “Da fuck you mean a waste? She gives me the willies.”

“Na man…that sword of hers, that katana. Love to see its blade and know who made it…seemed nice. Great to add to my collection. Loaded, be right back.”

Dennis heard Jason move off, probably to pick up the trophy and he moved into the blackness after him, but accidentally went another way. Sweat came off his face as he still groped for some bullets. He found the speed loader, but it broke apart in his shaking hands, the bullets scattering. Cursing, he got on his hands and feet and began to crawl. He could take some time; they put enough silver into the vampire to kill her several times over.

Neither human noticed Skadi watching their every move.

Simon gathered up all his speed and strength and speared his blade straight for Lujza's stomach.

Her black eyes smoldered as Lujza grinned, her now barbed fangs (she was still not quite sure why they had changed, it was an unexpected side effect, that of the dominant Batory traits resurfacing) gleaming in the faint light. She had feigned slightly, though it had been very risky, in letting Simon's blade come so close. She was weaker than him, she knew it, but not as weak as he probably now thought she was.

Waiting until the last instant, Lujza grunted as she swung her axe, aiming for a precise spot not on Simon, but on his sword. In the next instant, he learned why the axe had always been so highly favored as a weapon in Callisdrun, as his sword shattered and Lujza's weapon bit into his arm. The vampiress knew how to break a sword, how to judge where on the blade the highest chance would be of destroying the weapon. She had also had the blade of her axe plated with very thick, but very sharp silver.

Simon howled as the axe bit into his arm and he quickly pulled back to prevent the blade from going any deeper and shattering the bone. The silver had burnt the wound and the time to heal would be much greater. Barely taking a second to check himself over, he jumped away as Lujza made another attack on him. His sword was gone and now he had a vampire swinging a battle axe around.

Simon turned back to Lujza and smiled. He was older than she was and decided to use his other advantages. He pulled out a dagger and once Lujza charged, Simon waited until the axe was heading for his body before he fired a mind blast at her blade, knocking it off balance and allowing him to spin out of the way. As he spun to he sliced Lujza along her left side.

Jumping back, he licked the blood on the blade. “Hmmm…taste like Assington, yet different. Tastes pretty damn good. Maybe I won’t kill you; you might be an interesting pet to have around.”


Meanwhile, standing on top of a nearby rooftop Joseph surveyed the battle. The Simatarians were putting up their heat guns and several more vans showed up loaded with cops. He sighed. He would have rather taken the hospital easily, but now with so many police, extreme measures would have to be taken to get the blood down in the refrigerators. He had lost contact with one of the bomb placers, but no matter, he had a few more and in a few minutes several massive holes would be in the hospital.

Though here the humans were putting up a good fight, across the rest of the city the humans were falling back in disarray and were being slaughtered as they were cornered and attempted to surrender. He grinned as he kept receiving ever higher human deaths; he gave an okay to capture a few humans in order to make an example of them for the city.

Joseph had sensed the presence of the ancients and the elf. His sniper had failed and now they had big trouble on their hands, where they were Malone wasn’t far away. Joseph pulled out a broadsword and smiled. He was a better swordsman than most of his men; no doubt the elf would be wielding some sort of blade so it would be an interesting contest.

Joseph dropped from the rooftop and down in the shadows, if he couldn’t find the elf, he could always find Nicole.

Thirty-two bodies lay dead by the time ten minutes had passed. Covered in the blood of his victims, and his blade gleaming red in the lights reflecting from the battle, Sigrun wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand as he surveyed the remaining fighters. A distant thud of feet hitting a puddle on the ground alerted him to the presence of another on the hunt. He did not turn as he stood there, knowing that the other one was looking for him. They always did, once he had lain enough bodies down in his wake.

Sigrun smiled darkly. He knew this game all too well.

Coming up behind him, the vampire raised his broadsword and prepared to strike the seemingly unwary elf, whose head was slowly scanning the battle out in the streets.

Sigrun's thoughts slowly counted down the numbers. Three.

A hand that was positioned in front of his torso when the vampire had arrived, drew an elven dagger and held it firmly. He could hear the soft breathing of the vampire, the slow, nearly silent footsteps.

Two...

The slight huff in one's breathing, of a weapon being raised.

One...

With surprising speed, Sigrun spun and directed the dagger to strike for the vampire's foot. Without breaking momentum, the elven blade rose up to deflect the incoming broadsword with its own nasty bite. The same hand that had thrown the dagger now moved forth in a fist to uppercut the vampire's jaw.

Skadi continued to watch silently as the two officers split up, one going after her blade whilst the other closest to her fumbled with his weapon. He would go first. Whilst it seemed strange to not be killing these men in Skadi's opinion, she would respect Stephen's wishes as it was his nation afterall.

As the obviously shaken officer dropped to the floor in order to retrieve his bullets, Skadi slowly descended towards him, keeping herself in place just above the officer yet not close enough for him to suspect something was inches behind him. Finally he loaded the six shooter and stood once again, now perfectly position to feel a cool breath across the back of his neck.

A brief moment passed in which the officer realised what was behind him and yet couldn't help but speculate whether it was something less threatening. Of course he didn't get long to ponder the thought as Skadi used a fist to club the young man over the back of the head, making sure not to use too much strength in order to keep the man alive... hopefully.

One down, one to go. Skadi set herself upright yet didn't touch down on the ground, not wanting to make any noise as she approached the last officer. She found the man standing before her blade, admiring it as it gleamed somewhat from the feint glow of flames outside. Hovering almost right next to him, Skadi spoke softly.

"You'll never its creator. He died over two thousand years ago."

Startled out of his wits, the officer began pulling the trigger before he even aimed at Skadi, which obviously suited her as she knocked the gun clean from his hands with a single strike, also breaking some fingers in the process. Stunned and in pain, the young man didn't notice Skadi's blade float through the air until it sat directly before his eyes. Starring between the blade and Skadi with a look of desperation upon his face, the officer finally screamed as the blade came rushing toward him, flipping over in midair so the hilt slammed into his face, knocking him unconscious.

With both men out of the equation, Skadi sheated her blade and left the room. She had real problems to take care of.
___________________

Hondur had to unleash a wave of mental force in order to prevent himself from being skewered by multiple blades. The blast was enough to knock the attacking vampires back momentarily, allowing Hondur to launch himself forward and pound one of them into the wall, his hand gripped tightly around a pale throat with lethal force.

With the corner of a brick now wedged within the back of that vampire's skull, Hondur dropped the corpse and turned his attention to a seemingly older vampire, holding his blade in an attack stance. Not really wanting to deal with an opponent that had a good chance at stabbing him through the face, Hondur merely gathered his mental will and unleashed a barrage of power upon the inhuman creature, smashing him into walls repeatedly, using him to knock others over and finally ripping his head off.

As a consequence, Hondur dropped to a knee as his strength was somewhat depleted and thus had a lapse in his defences. This lapse was all one of the attackers needed, promptly wedging his blade through Hondur's lower abdomen. There was little Hondur could do but scream in agony as he fell against a large dumpster, the pain of a silver blade ravaging his body.

Simon howled as the axe bit into his arm and he quickly pulled back to prevent the blade from going any deeper and shattering the bone. The silver had burnt the wound and the time to heal would be much greater. Barely taking a second to check himself over, he jumped away as Lujza made another attack on him. His sword was gone and now he had a vampire swinging a battle axe around.

Simon turned back to Lujza and smiled. He was older than she was and decided to use his other advantages. He pulled out a dagger and once Lujza charged, Simon waited until the axe was heading for his body before he fired a mind blast at her blade, knocking it off balance and allowing him to spin out of the way. As he spun to he sliced Lujza along her left side.

Jumping back, he licked the blood on the blade. “Hmmm…taste like Assington, yet different. Tastes pretty damn good. Maybe I won’t kill you; you might be an interesting pet to have around.”




Screaming in pain as she felt the sting of Simon's blade just below her ribcage, Lujza stepped back to collect her thoughts. The wound was not serious, it was in fact already healing, even if the blade was silver it wouldn't matter, that was one Assingtonian trait she had not acquired, but she could not continue the fight expecting to simply defeat the vampire by brute force.

Biding her time, she taunted him again. "Pet? Batorys cannot be tamed, you ignorant fool," she said, trying to be defiant. It was clear that she knew he was stronger, though. "And yeah, I bet I do taste pretty good. Better than what you taste in your brown-nosing escapades, anyway." She knew then what she would do. Before charging again at Simon, Lujza made an obscene gesture towards her pelvis and said "Eat me."

She then ran towards him, not quite as fast as she could. Simon had to be confident. As she neared him, she swung upwards with her axe. Hopefully he would deflect it upwards with his mind, but it would be all right if he did not, as it would still wound him seriously.

Joseph saw the carnage, saw the mangled bodies of his fellow vampires. Casings of bullets, fingers, bits of cloth and blade were mixed in the sea of blood. The vampire moved slowly forward, his sword at the ready. He turned the corner and saw the elf, covered in blood. Joseph moved silently, a human and some vampires would be oblivious to his approach, but it had not been stealthy enough to evade Sigrun. He raised his sword and swung down, the angle perfect to break Sigrun’s head like a melon.

What happened next was a blur for him. He saw the flash of elf steel and moved his foot, but in the course, the blade cut along his calf, sending the elder down on one leg, his sword blow would have already been crippled but Sigrun’s sword knocked his away and Joseph’s chin went into the elf’s fist. He was tossed back a few meters, staggering from the strength of the blow and by the wound on his leg.

Joseph brought up his sword and shook the cobwebs from his head and stared coldly back at Sigrun. Because of feeding on some humans just before the battle, his leg was healing quickly.

“Your Highness…and I use that term loosely right now. I don’t think I need to waste our time with me trying to get you to leave. You seem committed to helping your friend and this murderous nation. But…do enlighten me on what happened to the man I sent to kill Stephen’s whore?”

Nicole smiled as she shot two other vampires dead. She looked at her left arm, noticing it was smoking. She cried out as she frantically dug with a small dagger for the silver slug inside her flesh. The bullet dropped to the ground and Nicole gritted her teeth, suddenly feeling the need to get fresh blood in her system. She eyed the corpses, wounds straight through their foreheads.

The SWAT officer rounded the corner, his M4 at the ready and he was shocked to find a vampire bent over a body, drinking the blood. The vampiress stood and smiled at him, blood coating her teeth and lips. He pulled the trigger, emptying half the magazine into air as Nicole dodged the barrel; she smashed the butt of one of her pistols to his helmet, knocking him unconscious. Nicole smiled, but quickly sensed another vampire approaching. She turned to find Skadi appearing from around a corner.

“Skadi…I hope everything is going well for you.”


Stephen slashed and dodged several attackers. He had dealt with at a max two or three vampires at a time, now there were quite a few more. His knife was a toothpick compared to the swords carried by the other vampires and he attempted to compensate by putting up mental barriers every so often, just to give some added deflection. But, the constant attacks were wearing on his mind like Hondur’s and he saw the ancient fall.

Stephen managed to pull out a pistol and shoot a fledgling ready to finish off Hondur in the gut before being knocked to the ground by an elder. Stephen looked up as the vampire raised a sword above his head before disappearing in a cloud of red and black. The sound of gunfire tore down the alleyway as a National Guard Bradley opened fire with the 25mm Bushmaster. The shells exploded in the alleyway, a chunk of shrapnel tearing into Stephen’s gut.

On his back, one hand covering his bleeding gut Stephen dragged himself over to Hondur. The ancient was in worse shape than he and Stephen pulled out the silver blade. The gunfire stopped as the attackers were killed or chased off. Stephen lay still and waited for the Bradley to move on before ripping out the shrapnel, crying out in pain as a geyser of blood erupted from him. Clutching his gut, he rummaged through his trenchcoat and pulled out his bloodstone.

“Here.” He offered it to Hondur. “Silver is much worse than regular metal.”


Simon growled at Lujza, he would make her submit. She was a mere child to him, a naughty child who should be disciplined. He chuckled as she made her gesture. “Don’t mind if I do.”

He watched as she rushed him, his sword at the ready and his mind prepped. He stood there like a rock, ready for any attack that she might throw. He was ready for a flat axe swing and was taken aback by her upward movement. He tried to think of a way to best suit the new action and only thought of an upward hit. His mind struck Lujza’s axe and moved it higher and Simon quickly realized his mistake as he began to pull his body back.

Simon prayed that he would be able to avoid the blade.

Simon growled at Lujza, he would make her submit. She was a mere child to him, a naughty child who should be disciplined. He chuckled as she made her gesture. “Don’t mind if I do.”

He watched as she rushed him, his sword at the ready and his mind prepped. He stood there like a rock, ready for any attack that she might throw. He was ready for a flat axe swing and was taken aback by her upward movement. He tried to think of a way to best suit the new action and only thought of an upward hit. His mind struck Lujza’s axe and moved it higher and Simon quickly realized his mistake as he began to pull his body back.

Simon prayed that he would be able to avoid the blade.

The older vampire had grown too cocky for his own good. Suddenly moving at her full speed, quite a bit faster than she had been running towards Simon, Lujza brought the silver plated weapon down with the help of gravity, making a final surge forward to compensate for Simon's backward motion, since, though too late, he appeared to have realized his mistake.

Lujza knew there was a high chance she would get wounded by Simon's blade as her axe came crashing down directly onto his left collarbone, but such risks were necessary if she was going to defeat the vampire, who had already demonstrated himself to be a real bastard. Her black eyes widened with bloodlust, meeting Simon's, as time seemed to slow down and she heard the sickening crack of the vampire's collar and shoulder bones. Though it was all happening in a second, it seemed hours before Lujza's lips curled back in a sadistic, razor-blade grin, revealing her long, now barbed, but still unretractable fangs. Her axe continued downward at a slight angle towards Simons spine, and she hissed with some emotional combination of anger, hatred, and glee.

Simon screamed in pain as he felt the axe chop into his flesh, his sword dropping from his hand. Blood gushed to the surface and the vampire crumpled, saving his spine. Crying out, he used his right hand to begin dragging himself from the insane woman before him. He knew he was down for the count, his eyes were wild in terror as Lujza towered above him, her axe bloody as the vampire followed the streak of crimson to him.

In an act of desperation, he stopped dragging himself and with his right hand managed to pry a compact .357 revolver from behind him. At the range they were at, he should have a good chance of hitting her. He hurt far too much on the left side to try and use that arm.

Pointing the revolver at Lujza's gut, he fired.

Lujza shrieked with rage as the impact of the bullet tore into her, forcing her to stumble back a few steps. The round had missed her gut, but hit her in her side, just above her hip, where ironically named "love handles" would be.

In her already bloodthirsty (in the figurative and literal sense), anger compelled her more than pain or fear. She screamed Callisdrunian curse words at Simon as she stumbled forward, towards him again. Then she started feeling the pain more, and dropped her axe, clutching the wound in her side. She was bleeding badly. Lujza dove at the downed, but apparently still dangerous vampire, the scent of his blood tantalizing her. She came down right on top of him and ripped into his throat.

Skidding around a corner, Skadi noted another figure before her and was about to slam it into a nearby wall when her brain recognised the young Simatarian vampire before her. Nicole. Slowing to a halt, Skadi nodded as she continued to look about, waiting for something to leap out at her.

Skadi's supernatural senses told her the hospital was crawling with hostile vampires and yet she'd only encountered a few, none of which had posed a serious threat to her and soon found themselves lacking certain functions to live, even as a vampire.

"So far so good, although...."

Skadi fell silent as she spun around and plunged her fist through a thin plaster wall, taking hold of cool flesh and yanking back towards her. Plaster and wood erupted into the air as a very young vampire was pulled through the wall, his throat within Skadi's grasp.

"These little bastards are crawling around everywhere."

The startled vampire held a Browning pistol within one hand and a bag of blood within the other. Skadi didn't particularly care about the blood but she hadn't ruled out the possibility this one was attempting to attack her. Gazing into his fearful eyes, Skadi merely continued to squeeze, gurgling leaking through his lips as his windpipe was crushed.

Now spasming upon the ground, the young vampire could do nothing as Skadi plunged the tip of her blade through his eye, plunging his frantic mind into eternal darkness.

"I see you've managed to keep yourself alive..."
______________

As Hondur lay against the dumpster he couldn't help but feel seriously concerned for his well being. Whilst the sword had now been removed from his abdoment, the wound was bleeding quite a bit and weakness was quickly overcoming Hondur. Stephen was doing what he could to help but there was no chance he could feat them all.

When he thought it to be almost over, the rapid humming of large machine guns filled the air as vampires were cut down by human defenders of the city. With the enemy now either dead or gone, Hondur could rest slightly easier, that is until the pain wracked his mind and brought him back to the current situation.

Clutching his gut in agony, Hondur glanced down at the bloodstone. He'd only ever seen three in existence, this one being the third. Unforunately he never owned one as they were quite rare and he didn't ahve the time nor the patience to devote so much searching effort.

Accepting the stone thankfully, Hondur grasped a bloodied hand around the stone and plunged his fangs into it, drinking upon the rich blood within. Immediately he could feel the substance flowing through his body, working on repairing damaged cells. It would take a bit of time for the silver bladed wound to heal, but at least he wasn't at any risk of bleeding to death now.

"Thanks, I really should get myself one of those..."

Simon smiled as the vampiress caught the powerful slug and he sent another her way. This time sadly the bullet thundered past Lujza, but it didn’t matter, she dropped her axe and appeared to be seriously injured. A twisted grin grew upon his face as he brought her head into the sights and pulled the hammer back.

If Lujza had delayed her dive by a mere half-second, she would have had a silver .357 bursting through her left eyeball. Simon suddenly realized what the blood crazed vampire was going to do and attempted to push himself back with his feet and before he could pull the trigger, Lujza was almost on top of him, his aim spoiled he tried to aim downward at her back. The gun discharged and the bullet missed, striking the ground near him.

Simon dropped the gun and screamed as he felt Lujza’s fangs dig into him. With his right hand he grasped her hair and instead of an easy slide out, the barbed fangs caused him more pain and opened the wounds more as he pulled her off of him. He had some feeling and movement in his left arm but the pain was too much to bring it to bear.

The energy slowly sapped from him as the blood flowed from his neck. She would kill him, no chance for escape or capture and hope of life. Barely holding Lujza’s mouth back with his right arm as she clawed at him, he gathered up his mental powers for probably his last assault.

Concentrating hard, he sent a powerful mental punch straight into Lujza’s face.


Nicole smiled at Skadi. “Yes…I have had excellent training from Stephen. We…”

Nicole cut herself off and spun around as a door behind her opened. The figure in front of her moved quickly and dodged the bullet that Nicole fired and she felt a powerful hand against her wrist. She looked over and instead of another vampire, it was Roman. “Roman…”

The shape shifter grunted. There was a thin red line where Nicole’s bullet had grazed him, but it wasn’t much. In his hand his katana was stained red with vampire blood. He looked at the two women. “If you wish to kill more of your kind…your chance will come soon. Vampires have broken through part of the defense ring and are now inside. Police and soldiers have been given orders to engage as little as possible. I don’t know what the fuck high command is thinking outside of that the Assingtonians will be so concentrated on the blood freezers on the floors they will ignore the patients...and less gunfire would mean less collateral damage.”

Roman looked at Skadi. “In your professional opinion do you think your kind will just go after the blood or kill the patients as they move through?”


Stephen took the bloodstone from Hondur and began to feed. His wounds were less serious than Hondur and were beginning to heal before he started to drink, but it never hurt to speed up the process with fresh blood and since he did not want to be a bit off because of blood loss. So far the only thing that had yet to get any real bloodstains on it was his Wolf Knife which he had resting on the ground near him; the silver bands on the grip prevented any of the vampire blood from sticking to it.

Stephen finished and slid the stone back into his trenchcoat. “Hondur, it is situations like these I am happy I bought this bloody thing…no pun intended. Picked it up in Tarlachia quite a while ago. Cost me a few hundred dollars but it is worth every penny. Next time you see one….buy it…its pays for itself very quickly. Or have Sigrun send you one for free.”

They helped each other up and Stephen moaned from the aching pain in his gut. “Come on Hondur…I have a bad feeling about those bombs. They’ll open the hospital but also kill dozens of innocents. Depending on how desperate they are….they could blow up within minutes.”

"Fuck!" Lujza screamed as what felt like a brick hit her cheek, sending her flying back to land with a thud. Having been happy when her fangs sank into Simon's neck, she was now pissed. The older vampire had a lot more fight left in him than she'd expected. Especially with the gaping chasm that now went from his left shoulder down almost to his spine.

She got up, picking up her axe along the way. Her eyes smoldered with rage as they fixed themselves upon Simon's face, glancing at his exposed internal organs, and still beating heart along the way. Such a pity to waste so much blood she thought.

Surprisingly, given how mad she was, she did not immediately kill him. Instead, Lujza opted to chop off the man's arm. She then knelt down beside him, and wrapped her fingers around his package. Now, she said towards him mentally, If you tell me what the Hel you and your... companions... are doing here, I can kill you quickly. If not, I can make your death a bit slower and more painful. You get to choose.

Simon screamed and his whole body shuddered as Lujza cut off his one good arm. His pale face was growing paler, he had already lost a considerable amount of blood to the point where the new wound was barely healing. He was bleeding to death, his eyes turned up to Lujza, her form going in and out of focus. His mind ached too much to create a link to her.

His voice was a hoarse whisper.

"Go...ga..." His weary mind put together if she did rip away his man hood, the shock should be enough to kill him, so little pain should ensue. It would also prevent him from betraying his friend Joseph.

Simon focused on her and spat a wad of blood in her face.

"Fine, have it your way," Lujza both said and thought to Simon. She then closed her grip on his package, and then both squeezed and yanked one bit, so hard it came off. She then poked the end of her axe into the bloody stump of what was left of Simon's right arm.

Unless he began talking, or thinking, giving information to her, Simon would die in total agony.

Simon whimpered more than screamed as Lujza ripped his man hood away. He spasmed uncontrolably as Lujza pressed the silver axe blade to his arm. Though it did have the effect of cartirizing the wound, the pain was more than the vampire could bear. He continued to whimper and began to cry out in pain.

"Please...p..p.p.p...please for the love of God stop..." He whimpered. "I'll..I'll talk."

Joseph saw the carnage, saw the mangled bodies of his fellow vampires. Casings of bullets, fingers, bits of cloth and blade were mixed in the sea of blood. The vampire moved slowly forward, his sword at the ready. He turned the corner and saw the elf, covered in blood. Joseph moved silently, a human and some vampires would be oblivious to his approach, but it had not been stealthy enough to evade Sigrun. He raised his sword and swung down, the angle perfect to break Sigrun’s head like a melon.

What happened next was a blur for him. He saw the flash of elf steel and moved his foot, but in the course, the blade cut along his calf, sending the elder down on one leg, his sword blow would have already been crippled but Sigrun’s sword knocked his away and Joseph’s chin went into the elf’s fist. He was tossed back a few meters, staggering from the strength of the blow and by the wound on his leg.

Joseph brought up his sword and shook the cobwebs from his head and stared coldly back at Sigrun. Because of feeding on some humans just before the battle, his leg was healing quickly.

“Your Highness…and I use that term loosely right now. I don’t think I need to waste our time with me trying to get you to leave. You seem committed to helping your friend and this murderous nation. But…do enlighten me on what happened to the man I sent to kill Stephen’s whore?”

"Murderous nation?" Sigrun replied with a raised eyebrow, "Kinda speaking like a hypocrite aren't you?"

The sword swooped through the air as Sigrun moved into a mysterious position. He glanced down at the vampire's leg, noting the speed of the healing. He's lost a lot of blood already. Won't heal as quickly next time. His eyes returned to Joseph's, then down to the broadsword. They narrowed slightly as he muttered under his breath. Hardly a second later, Sigrun returned his gaze to Joseph, locking eyes firmly. "The one that you sent to shit his pants in fear?" Sigrun asked, chuckling to himself, "Well...let's just say he met his end in a rather peculiar way."

The elven blade sliced outward, seeking the nearest leg, then pulled back out of range as the broadsword was swung to deflect it, clearly missing the blade. Growling, Joseph went on the offensive, continuing on the momentum.

Predictable. Sigrun thought as he tightened his grip on his sword and drove it hard toward the broadsword. He watched as the broadsword cracked, and shattered into several pieces. Joseph held up the hilt with the remaining blade in surprise. The tone in his voice was priceless. "Ice?"

Sigrun nodded, "Aye, makes your weapon brittle. Ice can tell you how well one's weapon is forged by the brittle-ice factor." He didn't waste any more time as he buried the sword into Joseph's torso, taking care to not pierce the heart. His hand reached out and clenched Joseph's throat as the vampire fell down. He glared down at the vampire, "I'd like you to meet a good friend of mine..."

He turned and dragged the vampire along by the throat, the weapon still held in place with his other hand, twisting it to and fro occassionally, merely to hear the vampire's screams of agony and pleadings. They made their way down the street, through the bodies and bullets that littered the war zone. Before long, Sigrun found Hondur and Stephen resting momentarily, as they regained their strength with the help of a bloodstone. They arrived in time to hear Stephen's last few comments. He called out, answering the silent question.

"Those bloodstones are notoriously difficult to procure, even for me. I'll see what I can do though." He thrust the suffering vampire into their midst. "Stephen, I'd like you to meet someone. Name's Joseph. Don't know if you know him, but he sure knows you well. After all, he's the one that commanded your lady's demise."

The vampire tried to crawl away slowly, but Sigrun's blade suddenly buried itself through the torso and into the ground. The vampire moaned and cried in pain as he looked in fear toward Stephen.

Simon whimpered more than screamed as Lujza ripped his man hood away. He spasmed uncontrolably as Lujza pressed the silver axe blade to his arm. Though it did have the effect of cartirizing the wound, the pain was more than the vampire could bear. He continued to whimper and began to cry out in pain.

"Please...p..p.p.p...please for the love of God stop..." He whimpered. "I'll..I'll talk."

"Oh, changed your mind?" Lujza said with mock innocence in her voice, not bothering to wipe the blood and spit off her face. "Well, I'd be inclined to stop since you asked so nicely... but you did spit on me," she made a move as if to injure Simon further and grinned as he practically squeeled.

However, she let up with her axe and stopped squeezing him down there so much. A man's equipment has three externally mounted parts. You could think of them as a gun and two magazines. I have taken one of the magazines. Lujza lifted up her bloody hand, letting Simon catch a glimpse of what was in it, and then put it back down where it was. "If you want to be a male when you die, I suggest you tell me who you are, who you work for, and why you're here, and fast" Lest I take the other magazine and the gun from you as well. Her black eyes, fixed on Simon's pain-stricken eyes, widened to emphasize that last point.

Joseph stared at his broken sword. He had had it since his first year, it had saved his life in more than one occasion and had withstood decades of abuse. Now it had broken and he picked up a piece, it was very cold. His voice squeaked like a little girl, nothing like this had happened before. “Ice?”

He looked up at the elf and dropping his sword, he was in the midst of removing a Desert Eagle from a holster behind him when the elf steel was buried in him. Joseph screamed and dropped the hand cannon, the pain was worse than anything in his life. He had been shot, sprayed, stabbed, and everything in between with silver, but all of that seemed like a pleasant experience compared to this.

The vampire looked up at Sigrun as the elf grasped his throat and began to drag him to Stephen. Joseph gasped in pain and tried to escape as Sigrun tossed him before the Simatarian.

Stephen’s eyes iced over and he grinned as Sigrun impaled Joseph right to the ground. The vampire slowly walked over to Joseph and began to slam images of the destroyed sniper into the elder’s mind. Joseph had severely underestimated the danger of Stephen and he could only watch as the Simatarian took hold of Sigrun’s sword and wiggled it back and forth, the elfin steel caused the Assingtonian the scream louder.

“Feels good doesn’t it? I think I will enjoy this. So…explain who you are.”

Joseph gasped and gagged. He began to receive messages from his commanders, the elder simply grinned as he sent out a final message before Stephen cut off his communication. “I heard your girl met a big fat bullet. Sadly she…AHHH!”

Stephen pulled Sigrun’s sword out the concrete, but kept it in Joseph’s flesh and twisted the blade around a bit. His voice bit as hard as Sigrun’s sword. “Be thankful Sigrun here saved her life…be very thankful.”

Stephen ripped the sword the rest of the way out and tossed it back to the elf. Stephen bent down and picked Joseph up by the collar and slammed him repeatedly into the wall of the hospital. “You made a grave mistake of coming here for revenge. You made a worse mistake going after Nicole. Now…it has been a while since I had vampire for dinner.”

“My death…” Joseph coughed. “Will make no difference. My men will be finished here soon. So…we should be parting ways soon.”

He smiled and coughed up some blood. “You might want to find your girl soon Stephen…and you elf. Things…things will be interesting soon.”


Simon relaxes slightly as Lujza removed her axe from the stump that was his arm. Sadly for him, it hadn’t been for the silver cartelizing the wound; he would have bleed to death by now. The gash in his back had slowed in bleeding, yet he was paralyzed on his left arm and leg and there was still a vast canyon on his back. Now the blood flowed from a hole between his legs.

“Assington…” He wheezed. “Get back at these bastards…no mercy…tonight to get blood…tomorrow…cut into the population…slaughter them all…” Simon shuddered and hacked up blood onto his face. “All…gone …done…nothing left….”

Quickly, Lujza established a mental link with Stephen, after searching for him with her mind amid the clamor of battle. What she heard, he would hear, likewise with sight and any mental messages she recieved.

"Who's in charge? What bastards? Us? You don't have to use your voice if giving me the information through thought is easier, but I really think you should make yourself a bit more clear" she said, giving him a squeeze only hard enough to bring slight pain.

Simon gasped as he felt Lujza squeeze, when would it end? The bitch seemed to make it her business to keep him alive and suffering until dawn cracked the horizon. His mind was spent with the pain that racked his body from the wounds she inflicted upon him. Death sounded like something pleasant compared to this, he just wanted to get it over with.

His eyes were bleary; Lujza was an unrecognizable blur before him. Simon didn’t attempt a mental link; his mind was in too much pain. His throat burned as he gasped.

“You know the ba…bas…bastards…human...Malone....”

Sighing, Lujza sat back. She'd sent everything the asshole had said via mental words to Stephen. Hopefully he could make more sense of it than she could.

"All right," she said, turning Simon's wreck of a body over so he faced the ground. "That wasn't much, but I suppose you've held up your end of the agreement. I will finally kill you now." Lujza stood up, took aim, and brought her axe down so that it quickly severed Simon's head from his body. The heavy, sharp blade sliced cleanly, even through bone. There was as squirt of blood from the decapitated corpse as the head rolled away. Lujza bent down and fed on what little blood was left.

After finishing, she wearily stood up and looked back over the city. It was a war scene. Lujza then unexpectedly burped, and then realized that she usually did not feed so much, since she had drained all of one vampire's blood and about half of another's. It appeared the battle was going a bit better, and she made her way across the city, sniping and quickly changing her location.

Skadi almost burst into laughter at Roman's question, finding it quite ridiculous that he would even ask considering his preconceptions of vampires. Allowing a mild grin that hinted at more than mere amusement, Skadi trained her dark eyes upon Roman.

"Let me straighten things out for you. On the whole, becoming a vampire does not change one's mentality in the slightest. If you're a complete bastard during your mortal life you're likely to be a complete bastard in your immortal life. Most of these guys appear to be the remnants of a rather ill organised coven that followed an old enemy of mine. They're scum basically and would most likely kill the patients for no particular reason, not even feeding on them."

Idly holding her blade, Skadi continued to keep part of her mind focused upon the presence of other immortal beings running around the hospital. There was no lack of them, although all were substantially younger than her. Of course that was to be expected, she was the sole remaining original Assingtonian vampire.

"Come on, we better do something about this lot before they slaughter all the patients."
____________

Slowly getting to his feet, Hondur continued to learn against the hospital wall as the blood flowed through his body, healing his many injuries. Yet the wound within his abdomen still remained untouched for the moment, although the bleeding had stopped.

Sighing to himself, Hondur promptly ripped off his left sleeve and began wrapping it around himself, cringing as he tightened the material over his wound.

"Hmm, this guy seems to have planned things out pretty well. I'd definitely have more than one demo guy."

At that point Sigrun turned up dragging a bloodied vampire behind him. Evidently he was of some significance if Sigrun decided to keep him alive as oppose to a brutal but swift death.

After Stephen exchanged a few words with the injured vampire it became evident this was the man behind the events surrounding them. Hondur merely watched quietly as Stephen spoke with him, unfortunately not getting much out of the battered undead.

"I'd say he's not going to tell us too much. Yet we could force our way into his head, if you really want to find out everything..."

Sigrun shook his head at the vampire lying on the ground, "You, nor your minions stand a chance against my people. That much I can promise you."

The vampire began to laugh, resulting in Sigrun's boot to his face.

Joseph snorted as he got the elf’s boot in his face. He spat out some blood on the ground and gave a smile to the men. Joseph’s demeanor was not that of a condemned man, he seemed to be in somewhat of an upbeat mood as his wound healed. He shrugged as Hondur spoke.

“Well…you know…can’t I say one thing before you go mining for possible gold?” He asked in a slightly off beat voice. “I mean…just one word that is it. We are all immortal here, what is but one word in lifetime where you hear millions? Especially with you Hondur and with you elf…you have executed many a man…I know you will kill me so I am not entitled to a last word before you dig in and kill me?”

Stephen laughed and placed his knife against Joseph’s throat, amused by the elder’s little rant and apparent attempt to talk him out of the situation. “Alright shit head…have you any famous last words?”

Joseph’s expression turned to that of darkness and death. “Boom.”

“Boom? Is that famous?” Stephen said with a snort. “Okay Hondur begin your…”

The next thing Stephen registered was several sounds of massive explosions and being hurled by a nearby explosion backwards and as he was flung back, he saw a series of fireballs rocketing above the hospital as the vampires detonated a series suitcases filled to the brim with various high explosives. Half of the west wing was obliterated while the other half and part of the rear was in danger of collapsing.

Joseph was knocked to the ground, still in pain he started to his feet and move out of the alley. Sensing danger behind him, he grabbed a sword from the ground and spun, the blade blocked Sigrun’s sword as the elf attempted to skewer him again. The vampire gave the elf a hard right hook and using his available strength, jumped to the top of a neighboring building. His gut instantly told him it was a bad move and stung him as he landed, Joseph clenched his teeth and moved off, heading towards where most of his men were.

Stephen stood and shook his head. He looked at Sigrun. “Leave him be Sigrun. We’ll get him later. Come on, Nicole and Skadi are inside.”

Stephen sent a message to Lujza as he jumped through a window and into the hospital. “Could you get inside the hospital? We are going to need your help. Police and soldiers will be storming in to get patients out and we are gonna need all the help we can get.”


“Lets.” Nicole said to Skadi's comment about the patients. Before they could take three steps, both vampiress and Roman were knocked off their feet by the explosions. Nicole laid on the ground for a few seconds before dragging herself up and shook the dust out of her face. Sparks few from lights that had broken free, screams from patients filled her ears, the fire sprinkler system started, but through the clouds of dust, she couldn’t see Skadi.

“Skadi! Skadi are you alright!?” She called out.

Springing from rooftop to rooftop, Lujza had almost reached the hospital when the explosions occurred, the force of which caused her to slip and fall to the ground. Luckily, it had been from a relatively short building.

Swearing as she got up, she continued. Just before arriving at the hospital, Lujza encountered two enemy vampires, who seemed surprised when she quickly dispatched them.

Finally, she arrived, just as Nicole was getting up. "Hello. Nothing broken?"

"Boom"

Hondur knew exactly what Joseph was hinting at, a sense of 'Oh Shit' dawning upon him as he looked around the alleyway. Evidently there were other bombs around the hospital and Hondur didn't like the idea of an entire building falling upon him.

"Stephen... we need to get...."

Hondur's words were drowned out by the thundering roar of multiple explosions within and around the hospital, shaking the very earth beneath their feat as fire and sound dominated the area around the hospital. Hondur's ears were attacked by explosions loud enough to send him deaf whilst the very force of the shockwave was enough to send him rocketing into the brick wall upon the opposite side of the building, the blow knocking him unconscious momentarily.

Waking up slowly, Hondur found himself face down upon the ground. At first he didn't recall what was happening, then remembered Joseph and the explosions, the stench of burned flesh and other materials jump starting his memory. Getting to his feet, Hondur merely followed Sigrun and Stephen as they made their way inside the hospital.

"Where did Joseph get to?"
______________

As the bombs detonated Skadi happened to be standing upon the exact portion of the floor that was weakened the most due to explosions destroying the necessary supports. As physics would dictate, the ancient vampire's weight happened to be substantial enough to cause the floor to cave in, resulting in Skadi falling through and landing hard upon the wreckage of the lower level.

The wind knocked out of her and an assortment of new bruises, Skadi slowly raised her head and looked around. Fortunately she hadn't landed in a small fire as that would have been the end of her and by all appearances she wasn't injured too badly. Upon attempting to stand she discovered her legs to be unresponsive, leading her to believe she'd hurt her back.

Sighing to herself, Skadi noted Nicole's call and replied silently.

"I've fallen through the floor. I'll be up soon..."

Joseph sank to the ground, his chest burning with pain. He blinked and looking around felt someone moving to him, he smiled as he saw it was one of his vampires carrying an unconscious police officer. Joseph quickly drained all the blood from the human and with the help of the vampire, was able to stand as the blood started to heal his wound.

“Where is Simon?” He grunted.

“Dead sir…his head cut off. Probably by that mystery vampire as Skadi was in the hospital at the time. But, he was also tortured, had a massive canyon on his back which probably left him half paralyzed.” The vampire said as he helped his commander away from the battle.

Joseph felt a twang of pain and loss as he heard about the death of his friend. Then the pain was replaced by anger. “Lujza will not be killed tomorrow night. I want her captured, her legs cut off and we shall have our fun…let her know what Simon went through.”

Joseph fell quiet as he moved away from the battle for a bit of rest.

Stephen looked back at Hondur as he, the ancient, and Sigrun made their way through the broken hallways. “We’ll find him later. Right now I want to get Nicole and everyone else and bug out before the whole damn police force comes here. It would be very bad for you Sigrun…a national leader being involved in a vampire fight. Hard to explain that one away.”

Chaos began to set in the hospital as patients began to struggle out of their rooms and look around in a daze. Stephen simply shouted for them to make for the front door and hoped that a few would know what he was saying and led the others out. Under normal circumstances, he would have stopped but finding Nicole overrode his other duties. Stephen sensed other vampires in the building that weren’t friendly, but they were probably down below stealing all the blood they could before the building collapsed.


Nicole jumped as she heard Lujza’s voice from behind her, lucky for Lujza Nicole didn’t have a pistol in her hand. The vampiress nodded. “Yes, I am fine, a few cuts and bruises…but as for Skadi…”

Nicole turned back to the hole in the floor and knelt, peering down. She could see Skadi lying on her back down in the darkness. She received a mental message from the ancient telling her she would be coming up, but Nicole was slightly unsure. She called down. “Are you sure you are alright?”

"Right."

Hondur was still piecing things together as he rushed after Sigrun and Stephen, following them into the now severely damaged hospital in search of the others. Hondur knew there had been an explosion and amongst the chaos Joesph had escaped, yet that didn't seem to be a particular concern at the moment, Stephen was obviously worried about Nicole's well being.

As Hondur pondered the current situation it dawned upon him that being within the general area of this hospital would not be a good idea, considering that explosion would likely attract what was left of the remaining local authorities. There was also the chance the government would decide to simply bring in the military and shoot up anything that moves, it did happen in Assington afterall.

Keeping this in mind, Hondur merely remained silent and followed the others as they weaved through the damaged corridors of the hospital, keeping an eye out for Skadi, Nicole and Luzja.
________________

Taking a quick gasp as she attempted to move, Skadi realised she wouldn't be walking out of here for the moment. Spinal injuries took time to heal, even for an ancient such as herself.

Nicole's outline was briefly visible on the above level, looking down at Skadi's fallen form.

"I'll live"

Whilst this was obviously bothersome for Skadi she had no intention of simply laying around until things healed up. Ignoring the slightl pain and numbness within her back and legs, she concentrated and begin to float upwards, now assuming an upright position.

Slowly moving upwards, Skadi returned to the previous level to find Nicole and Luzja gazing at her, both of them covered in dust and the sort after the recent explosion.

"I won't be walking for a bit. Now let's get out of this place before it collapses upon us."

Nicole watched as Skadi raised herself up to the main floor. The young Simatarian hoped that Skadi had only a minor injury and wasn’t paralyzed. “Okay, let’s get moving. Roman…where is he?”

Nicole made a few panicked turns, looking for the man before she saw a form half under a gurney on its side. The vampiress knew instantly it was him, but before she could move to aid him, the cries of humans rang down the hall and she could see through the dust the green uniforms of soldiers moving through; looking for survivors. As the three vampires moved away, Nicole turned back to see one of the men bend over Roman and she smiled as she heard him order a litter to get him out.

Nicole kept an eye on Skadi and was ready to carry her if her mind got tired. The vampiress readied her pistol as she heard pounding feet from around the corner, but lowered it as she sensed the presence of her lover. Once Stephen had rounded the corner, Sigrun and Hondur hot on his heels, Nicole leapt into his arms and gave him a kiss on the lips.

Stephen felt a rush of relief and joy they found the women alright, spare for Skadi who seemed to be having problems with her legs. He put Nicole down on the floor. “Come on.”

Stephen grabbed a chunk of tile of broken floor and threw it at a window, smashing it wide open. There was no need to encourage the group out and within a few minutes they were safely atop a roof several buildings away. Stephen looked at the group; all were dirty with dirt and blood. They could rest here for a minute or two to get their bearings and get a breath.

Stephen pulled out his bloodstone and tossed it to Nicole and after she fed, she handed it to Lujza. Stephen stared at the burning hospital as firetrucks roared onto the scene and he sensed the Assington Vampires falling back as more police sierns grew closer. He looked at Skadi; there was genuine concern in his voice. “Can you fly back to the rooftop where Sigrun’s portal is or do you need to be carried?”

It wasn't a particularly arduous journey out of the ruined hospital and over to relative tranquility on a roof. Upon glancing around at her comrades, it appeared as though everyone else as worn and raggidy as she did. The tide of the battle appeared to have turned.

When Nicole passed her the bloodstone, she simply passed it on. I'm quite full, thank you she said mentally to the other vampiress. After all, she had drained all of one vampire's blood and half of Simon's this night. As she looked around, her eyes passed over Skadi, who still was not using her legs. "How long do you think it will be before you're able to walk again?" she asked quietly.

Sigrun watched as Skadi kept herself aloft by mindpower, and spoke to her, "I can advance the healing if you need. Enough to allow you to walk again."

She nodded to him, and turned her back to him. He lifted her shirt and placed his palm upon her backside where she indicated was the source of her pain. Within moments, his healing had completed and she was given a pat on the back as an indication of his work being complete. Of course, she knew it was so simply because the pain had decreased considerably.

He looked around at the others, "Anyone else need a bit of help from the healer?" He gave a slight chuckle, then resumed his serious look.

Stephen was in silent communication with Cassandra as Sigrun healed Skadi. Shortly after the ancient received the use of her legs, Cassandra appeared and landed on the rooftop. The dragon approached Sigrun and dropping from her mouth she handed him his portal key which she had kept safe. She gave a bow of respect to the elf before turning back to Stephen and Nicole, after making sure her family was mounted, she allowed Lujza to board.

“We’ll see you back home soon.” Nicole said to the ancients and elf as Cassandra took off, moving low over the city to avoid radar detection and the eyes of the helicopters. The flight home gave Nicole a chance to think over what had happened. It was the first time she had ever really been in combat and she found it exhilarating. Though she knew it should not be taken like that and the next night it would be worse, far worse.

When Cassandra had landed back home, she was eager to get the vampires off her back and the second they slid off, she pounded through the snow back to her barn to check on her pups. Stephen, Nicole, and Lujza went inside the warmth of the barn to rest. Tolkien barked and fluttered over, he didn’t lick any of them, and he was sniffing with curiosity at their strange smell from the blood.

They made their way back into the living room; Nicole got a better look at Lujza, and noticed her legs were wet with blood.

“Lujza, did you step in a pool of blood or something else happen?”

The very idea of being carried by the others was as appealing as taking her blade and cutting out her own eyes. She may be injured but not helpless and wouldn't be carried unless she ended up in a position where movement was impossible, mentally or physically. Her opinion upon being carried was soon evident as she spoke.

"That won't be necessary."

Lowering herself slightly, Skadi tested a little weight upon both legs and grunted as searing pain rolled through her nerves. At least she had feeling in her legs again, just not enough strength and control to walk as of yet.

"I should be fine by tomorrow."

At that point Sigrun stepped forward and offered his assistance. Skadi nodded and smiled briefly to her elven companion. She'd lost count how many times he'd employed elven magics to heal her from a range of injuries that would be lethal or crippling for ordinary mortals.

Skadi remained silent as she allowd Sigrun's arcane hands to do their business, the hairs upon her neck standing upright as she felt the use of magic nearby. Several minutes later and Skadi now stood firmly upon the rooftop. Her legs were still sore and a little stiff but at least she could walk now.

With the others now gone and the city still in an uproar, Skadi, Hondur and Sigrun stood silently, pondering recent events. It seemed the trio could never escape outright war wherever they went. Not wishing to wait around, Skadi placed a hand upon Sigrun's shoulder and he nodded, activating the portal once again.

Still somewhat uncomfortable with the arcane device, Skadi shook it off as she stepped through behind Sigrun, Hondur trailing her.

Too tired to even think of having nervousness over riding a dragon, Lujza had climbed aboard and held on. It was an incredible feeling watching the rooftops of the city rush by. There were still sights of battle as they flew by, but the enemies appeared to have been defeated for this night. Some would likely not make it back to wherever they were taking shelter before the sun rose and so would burn in the light. Shit, I should have asked that bastard Simon where they were based Lujza thought.

As she entered the barn behind the others, she smiled at the small dragon, Tolkien. He was very cute, and seemed to find the scent of blood on their clothes unfamiliar. Suddenly, Nicole's voice brought her attention back up. She looked down at her legs. The bottoms of her pant legs were soaked through with blood, and even higher up they were soggy enough to stick to her thighs, and her boots were practically dyed deep red.

"Oh gods, I'm terribly sorry, I didn't mean to track it into your home," she said apologetically. "And in a manner of speaking, I did step in a pool of it. I met a particularly nasty vampire named Simon." Lujza said no more, but looked Nicole in the eyes and sent via thought her recollection (fresh enough to be quite accurate) of what had transpired between her and the now dead vampire.

“Oh dear…”

Nicole said after receiving Lujza’s images. They were quite shocking to the young vampire; she didn’t know anyone was capable of such cruelty. At least Stephen wouldn’t do anything like that. She thought, not knowing of what he had done to the sniper earlier in the evening. “Don’t worry about the blood, we are all going to be tracking a bit in. We’ll clean it later.”

Shortly afterwards the portal opening the living room, causing Tolkien to dash for his refrigerator and hid out for a few minutes till he poked his head out and found Skadi, Hondur, and Sigrun standing in his home. He came out and flew over to greet them. Stephen was not shocked by the portal, he had gone through one once and that was enough for him.

Stephen flicked on the radio for only a minute, scanning all channels; all were covering the attack on Clarence with varying degrees of causalities. But, no matter what they said the list was at least a hundred to two hundred human police and National Guard deaths. He turned it off and stared through tired eyes as his friends relaxed on the couches and chairs.

“I don’t know how to thank you all for what you did tonight. Tomorrow night is going to be far worse. Our friends aren’t here to create a coven of any sort, but to kill any human they can get their hands on.”

Stephen sent Sigrun and the ancients everything Lujza had sent him. “A great thanks to Lujza for getting some first rate intelligence. It appears to be less after all of you and more of against me as this is my country and I am the one with the fewest relations. If you want to leave tomorrow night you may, I will not hold it against you. Tonight was tame; tomorrow will be no holds barn.”


Joseph groaned as he laid himself on his cot in the depths of the ship wreckage. To his knowledge, less than a hundred of his vampires were killed and most of them were due to Stephen and his friends. He would find the Simatarian bastard and rip his heart out before tomorrow night was over.

Nicole seemed visibly perturbed by the images Lujza sent to her. With an expression and tone of what could almost be called regret, the Callisdrunian said "I know it was cruel, Nicole. But it was necessary. He was dying anyway, and I felt it was important to get any information I could from him. For what he said to me earlier, he deserved what he got." Nicole still looked unconvinced. "If it makes you feel any better, after getting all the information I could from him, I upheld my end of the bargain and stopped his agony by quickly ending his life." It was obvious from both her tone and the look in her eyes that to a Callisdrunian, this would be a very honorable thing to do. Of course, Lujza didn't know if Nicole would see things the same way.

As grim as the radio reports were, they would have been much worse, or not even existed, if the small group of vampires hadn't joined the fray. Lujza simply smiled and gave a little nod as Stephen thanked them.

President Stahler sat quietly next to the fire of his office. The gunfire had faded and his body was still lead. They had been caught off guard and God knows how many people had lost their lives in the vampire attack. They had left the White House and Congressional buildings and instead had hit nearly every police and National Guard station in the city. Fire trucks were attempting to keep the fire down at the Warren Hospital and emergency personal were trying to clear out as much rubble to get to the people trapped below.

Already the other two hospitals in the city were almost filled with wounded now the wounded were being moved to any kind of doctor’s office in the city from dentist to pediatricians. There was a knock at the door and a woman dressed in an army dress uniform with five stars on her shoulders walked in. “Arthur?”

Stahler looked up at the general and smiled as she sat. “Hey Pat. What is the butcher’s bill?”

Patricia Statham was in her late fifties with snow white hair that was a light orange in the firelight. She was a former paratrooper with the 17th Airborne division and had commanded it for much of her latter career before being chosen for the Army position on the Joint Chief’s of Staff. “No official tally yet Arthur, but there are a lot. I ordered three M*A*S*H units into the area shortly after the attack began and they should be here by mid-morning. I contacted Brendan and he said that he has the 2nd Fleet consisting of an aircraft carrier, two destroyers, and a cruiser moving this way. They are moving at flank speed and should get here by early afternoon if all goes well. The rest of the Joint Chiefs will be here in an hour or two. What are we to do? VIB and the National Guard can’t hold off the vampires alone.”

Arthur stared at her. “What do you have that is close?”

“Well, the 132nd ‘Tigers’ Armored Division, you shouldn’t use them…”

“Bring them in.”

“Arthur…” Statham started. Five years before most of the 132nd had been on a peacekeeping mission and had cornered a large group of insurgents in an apartment complex. The insurgents let the women and children go before opening fire on the Simatarians and the 132nd’s Leopards made quick work of the structure. It wasn’t till after did they find more women and children chained up in the rooms where the insurgents fired from. Ever since then, the unit had been under intense political pressure to be disbanded and its commander’s court martial. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am Pat. Bring them in full strength and any other unit you can grab. We need everything and I do mean everything. We’ll discuss this when the rest of the Chiefs are here.”

Statham nodded and left the room while Stahler continued to think. He would make a statement in the morning. He got up and poured himself a shot of brandy. He sipped it and closed his eyes.

“God help us.”

Whilst Stephen was correct when he said this was his nation and his problem really, knowing that these were Assingtonian vampires she couldn't help feel partly responsible. It seemed at least one group or another wanted her dead for a number of reasons.

Despite the motivations of these rogue attackers, Skadi wouldn't be going anywhere until she was satisfied. Which meant they were either dead or.... dead. There was no doubt Stephen would have Skadi's support, yet she felt compelled to voice that assumption once again as she knew he could be a little thick at times.

"You know I'm not going anywhere Stephen, there is still plenty more blood to spill."

Hondur nodded, indicating his similar opinion. Things would be a lot easier for Stephen with the support of two ancients, not to mention the others.

"We'll see them all dead before I go anywhere."

"I'll not be deserting on the eve of battle either," said Lujza confidently. She had not lost the tendency to speak with dramatic phrases at times. "That would be greatly dishonorable. Friends help each other."

She then laughed. "Besides, you wouldn't want my life to get boring, now would you?"

Stephen smiled at Skadi, there had been some lingering doubt in his mind if she would stay or not. The ancient had always seemed to him ready to switch her mind on some issues without any warning but others she kept her mind focused and never moved from. Sadly, Skadi was right that there was much more blood to spill and for the humans, plenty of black body bags to fill. The insurgent vampires had proven they were willing to do anything to get what they wanted and Stephen knew after what happened tonight, tomorrow would have the Simatarians shooting tank shells at anyone who seemed the least bit pale.

Stephen couldn't help but chuckle at Lujza's comment. "Well, tomorrow night I can garrentee will be interesting. Helicopters, planes, tanks, and everything in between will be brought to bear...so just dodging all the fire will be exciting enough."

Nicole gently craddled Tolkein in her arms and scratched the animal behind his ears. She looked at Skadi. "Skadi, I heard mention of some other ancient in Assington who led another group of vampires against Hondur in the last war. Who was he?"

"Svartel." Sigrun said quietly in response to Nicole's question. "Nasty fellow. Cold. Ruthless. Handed out daisies for tombstones as a gift. If you fell into his path, you died."

He raised his eyes to meet hers, "Unless you were strong enough to overpower him, or capable to outsmart him. Skadi and I...we barely escaped with our lives alone. And she was one of the Original, like him. I'm not quite so sure how I managed to survive myself."

He chuckled as he turned and gazed at a reproduction painting upon the wall, studying its brush strokes and the theme presented. He noted the farmer urging the cow to continue plowing. He traveled his eyes up to study the clouds departing on the horizon, the sun shining in the background. "June Morning. Thomas Hart Benton. A painting done long ago by an American of Earth One. He did this one at the end of World War Two, a terrible war for many. The clouds here represent the end of that war, and the hope that still remained is here," his finger hovered over the farmer plowing.

Turning to them he smiled, "The arts have always fascinated me. Culture is something that should never be forgotten, for it leads to identity. Svartel sought to destroy all that, and more. He hated all of it. He hated all this. The unity we share." He waved his arm around the room at the different persons present.

"Svartel failed because people like us dared to stand against him in force and rob him of his ravenous desires. We need only to stomp out the remaining embers of that hateful fire, before it becomes another uncontrollable forest fire."

Nicole listened to Sigrun in a quiet fascination about Svartel. A man wanting to destroy anything and everything that made life beautiful and wonderful. The vampiress turned and looked at Skadi as the elf continued, she found cold confirmation in the ancient’s dark eyes. Nicole was brought back to the elf as he talked about a painting on the wall. She blinked as Sigrun went into great detail about the painting.

“You know a lot Sigrun.” She commented. “All of the symbolisms and all that. All I saw was a nice painting.”

Stephen also listened to Sigrun. The elf always had a way of wrapping even the most slimy and grotesque persons in a more digestible package. “Thankfully he is gone. I didn’t have to go up against him but everyone who followed him were equally insane and fanatical about killing anyone who didn’t conform. Lujza can also attest to that.”

Nicole nodded; she was still young and had much to learn about what has happened in the past of her lover and friends. “No chance of getting them to leave then?”

“Only in body bags.” Stephen said grimly. He was quiet for a bit before speaking again. “Considering what might happen tomorrow night, I suggest we all turn in. If you wake up in the day, feel free to use the gym and such in the next barn, tunnel entrance is the door next to the grandfather clock. I can’t say how much I am glad that you have helped. Is there anything else anyone would like?”


Stahler felt his chest; the great stress suddenly thrust upon him defiantly wasn’t something his doctor would recommend. He ignored the pain as he walked into a large room with a long oak table in the middle with several people talking over a map of Clarence on the wall. General Statham, VIB head Edgar Gordon, IBI head Maggie Rutherford, Admiral Ellen Murphy, and General of the Air Force George Carson. The group fell silent and said their greetings to Stahler. The President took his place at the head of the table and the rest took their places.

“Where do we stand?” He asked.

“In a big fucking swamp.” Gordon said. “We were caught with our pants down and got our ass handed to us on a platter.”

“It is obvious your security devices at the borders and airports didn’t work Edgar.” Murphy said.

“They do work you blonde bimbo, what would you know about this stuff getting a tan on the deck of a carrier five months out of the year?”

Murphy flustered and stared angrily at Gordon. Her hair was no longer a bright blonde color, but she had known Gordon for a long time. “If you were a man I would…”

“Quiet!” Stahler yelled, shutting the pair up. “You are acting like two kids arguing who goes first on the slide on the playground. Now…where do we stand?”

There was a several minute awkward silence before Rutherford spoke. “In trouble I am afraid. We have troops moving in apparently but we are flooded with casualties. Pat, how long before you M*A*S*H units come in?”

“In a few hours. But, many of the wounded will die before then. The vampires used firearms but they also had a heavy use of swords. Some men were impaled, sliced wide open…” Statham paused and turned over a sheet of paper. “At least two hundred people dead…police, National Guard, civilians…wounded still unknown. I have called the 132nd Armored in…”

“You what?” Was the answer from everyone at the table besides Stahler. Carson turned to the President. “Sir, are you crazy? Congress has been screaming for that unit to be destroyed.”

“It is the closest armored division in the area. We will need them. What are you brining in?”

“Well sir…I am putting in the calls. Transport aircraft will be roaring into the city in a few hours to evac the civilians and wounded. Heilcopter gunships and C-130 Specters are also coming in. A-10s would be too hazardous to be used.”

“I’ll have four divisions in the city by tonight.” Statham said.

“I’ll have my ships outside the harbor.” Murphy stated. “I can have two regiments of Marines flown in also to help protect the hospitals and the civilians who cannot be brought out of the city. Might I suggest you leave the city too? The submarine Smyrna is in dock.”

Stahler took it all in. It may seem like overkill to some, but the Simatarians were not taking any chances with these vampires. This would also be used as an example for any other immortal creatures who thought of attack the country. The President shook his head. “I am not leaving the city. That is final. Gordon…what about the condition of Roman Cyrus?”

Gordon looked up and shrugged. “He is going to have one hell of a hangover and is going to be loved by the Tylenol Company. You going to contact the Tarlachians or Assingtonians for aid?”

“No, we will fight this battle ourselves. We will have victory and show we are not a nation of cattle to be herded for slaughter.” Stahler said firmly.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, get cracking. The sun is coming up and we have to get this city ready for the biggest battle in its history.”

Lujza listened quietly as Sigrun described the now vanquished ancient Svartel. She had not personally encountered him, just his grunts, who had been unpleasant thugs for the most part.

She nodded when her name was mentioned. Lujza assumed that Simon was one of the remnants of Svartel's horde, like the rest of these troublesome vampires.

"Yes, sleep would definitely be good," she yawned. "Because Stephen's right, they won't leave here except in body bags... or in our bellies" she added, patting her own tummy, which she had filled with enemy blood during the battle. The last bit was said as a bit of a joke, though for her it was perfectly normal to feed while in battle. The thought that the juxtaposition between her brutal behavior during the battle and her current jovial demeanor might seem strange to some, Nicole especially, didn't seem to cross her mind. "You wouldn't happen to have hot chocolate, would you?"

"Hot chocolate?" Nicole asked perplexed. It took her a few seconds to remember that Lujza was a different speices of vampire than every other vampire in the room. "Yeah we do have a bit."

Smiling a little, Nicole bent down and whispered something into Tolkien's ear. Instantly, the dragon's head shot up and his eyes focused on Lujza angerily and he snapped in a vain attempt of intimidation as he scurried out of Nicole's arms and awkwardly put himself on her right shoulder. Nicole smiled as she met Lujza's slightly confused eyes.

"I told him you wanted me to stop scratching him so I could get something for you." The vampiress said as she began to boil some water. "He gets a bit...edgy when we stop scratching him."

Nicole reached up and tried to lift Tolkien from her shoulder, only to find the dragon had put his claws firmly into her clothes. Not wanting to have a tug-of-war match, she left the little beast there. When the water came to a boil, she mixed it with the chocolate powder and handed the hot cup to Lujza.

"Here you go. If you want, with a kind word to him the little shit on my shoulder can cool it a bit for you with a simple breath."

"Thank you," Lujza said accepting the cup. "Alas, I can no longer swallow it since becoming an immortal. Occasionally, I indulge myself in chocolate and fine wines by swilling them around in my mouth and then spitting them out." She went over to the sink.

"I hope you don't mind? I've had a craving for chocolate for quite a while now," she said, her mood light. From her cheerful tone, it was hard to imagine that that less than an hour earlier they had been engaged in mortal battle. Though, it was known that Callisdrunians were generally a very chocolate loving people.

Skadi thought it strange that a pair of vampires would keep chocolate in their home, let alone any food. She could understand why Luzja desired such as she was only recently turned to what one would term a 'fully dead' vampire. Food was still something relatively familiar to her and it was a hard habit to break.

Even Skadi had experienced a fair amount of difficulty adapting to not eating food as a new vampire. Despite the physical manifestation of hunger disappearing, there was a psychological factor involved that didn't want to change.

Not bothering to dwell upon such things, Skadi rose and began to move towards her bedroom.

"Until tomorrow night."

Hondur nodded as he stood as well.

"Indeed, I've got some healing to do."

With that said, both ancients disappeared into their respected rooms, obviously tired from the recent battles and in need of some rest and recovery. The next night would promise to be more taxing yet hopefully more successful.

It was rather odd to have regular food inside a vampire household, but since the last time Lujza and Stephen met she had only been a half-vampire and since Sigrun didn’t drink blood to live he had thought it best to get some normal food for them. The only other thing in the refrigerator besides blood bags and bottles were steaks for Tolkien.

Stephen and Nicole bid the ancients good night as they retired to their rooms. Nicole was able to pry the small dragon from her shoulder and put him in front of his small refrigerator. With a bit of reluctance, he went to bed. Stephen yawned as he wrapped his arm around Nicole’s waist.

The vampires bid good night to Lujza and Sigrun and headed upstairs to their own bedroom. Nicole felt sore and took a hot shower to soften her muscles. She came back into the bedroom to find Stephen fast asleep on the bed; there were still spots of dried blood caked on his face and in his hair. She slid in next to him and thought to herself. Never before in her life had she seen such death and destruction. She had killed once or twice in the past and that was only for self-defense, here she had actually hunted for her prey and even attacked several police officers. That thought made her pause and think of her dead brother who had been a police officer and killed while trying to stop a gang of bank robbers.

Pushing the thought of her dead brother from her mind, she curled up to Stephen and fell asleep, feeling anxious about what the next night would bring.

After draining the cup (indirectly into the sink), slowly, Lujza drank a little more blood so as not to confuse her body as to why it had tasted something but felt no more full than before.

It appeared she was the last to bed. She gave Tolkien a pat on the head on the way to her room and half-heartedly pushed the door closed behind her. As a result, it did not close fully, leaving a several inch gap. Lujza, though, was too tired to care, and so took off her clothes and collapsed into bed.

As the sun broke over the horizon, the full extent of the slaughter was known to the people. The pearl white snow was now stained a dark crimson from the blood of human and vampire alike. Cars, crashed helicopters, trucks, and numerous other vehicles were imbedded in the snow banks burning hot. As the sun found them, the vampire corpses ignited and burned much to the delight of the human survivors. But the slight moment of joy was taken away by the slaughter.

As the fire departments fought the fires, the task of collecting the bodies began. Sadness at the lost of loved ones and friends turned to rage when the discovery of nearly twenty police officers and National Guardsmen skinned and impaled on street lights. The discovery of dead children inside the burning hospital added more fuel to the fire.

The media were vultures and hyenas, circling above in their helicopters or skirting on the edge of the barriers, zooming in with their cameras to capture as much destruction and gore as possible; the 35mm lenses separated the cameramen from the extent of the carnage. For them it was one of the best things to happen next to the discovery of vampires and the military taking on the PRTGS. To the men and women who had survived they were dirty and angry at the cameras. Though there wasn’t much they could do about them as they tried to tend to the wounded and prevent any more chaos from panic.

At ten o’clock M*A*SH 567th and 411th rolled into the city, M*A*S*H 312th had mechanical problems and would not reach the city till almost nightfall. Both medical units quickly took over an elementary school and the gymnasium was turned into an operating room and once they had set up, waves of wounded began to arrive. Even with this, more wounded had died before the medics had arrived.

Already, people were crowding train depots, the docks, and air ports as the order to evacuate the city was given. The first to go were people in the hospitals who could be moved, followed by orphanages and retirement homes, then homeless shelters and people who were unable to get out by road. Airliners, trains, and ships of all types were going to be used. Owners and CEOs of the companies at little choice in the matter as if they did not accept compensation, a gun was rammed into their face. Citizen safety was marked over profit.

At ten forty-five cheers erupted from across the city as a flight of C-130 transports roared over the city. More cheers erupted as a squadron of sleek RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopters buzzed the city. At the train stations, army trains arrived bearing Leopard 2A6 tanks, Bradley M2A3 Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Stryker armored cars, Humvees, and numerous other armored vehicles began to arrive. Cheers came from the people trying to leave the city as they watched columns of trucks and armored vehicles begin to enter the city. By mid-afternoon, the Nimitz class aircraft carrier Neptune and its battle group of one Ticonderoga class missile cruiser, two Arleigh Burke class destroyers parked themselves outside of the harbor as ships carrying citizens of Clarence began to depart for a safer area.

The Marine battalions quickly set up fortifications around the elementary school were the M*A*S*H units had set up. Meanwhile, infantry companies began to build their own firebases around other community centers, parks, and schools. It was a known fact that it would be impossible to evacuate everyone from Clarence, but the Simatarians would try and those who were not able to flee the city would be moved to more secure locations if they desired. Soldiers began to pile up sandbags in the snow, sight their mortars, sentry guns and machine guns; creating their killing fields were they hoped to slaughter the vampires. Tanks and armored vehicles rumbled through the city, patrolling for roving bands of citizens who wanted a piece of the action and moved to high ground to provide direct fire for the infantry.

Even as the sun began to set, the soldiers worked tirelessly to create a defense like nothing the Assington vampires had seen before. The show of force was being constantly televised by the 35mm cameras over the city, sending a message to all who were watching the Simatarians meant business and were going to get their city back. The cameras watched as the vampire thermal sentry guns were set up in blind spots, down alleys, on top of roofs and on the fringes of the zones of fire. The cameras zoomed in on the hard faces of the men and women who toiled over the defenses as they readied to break the invader’s back and spirit, along with any vampire or immortal who thought of disturbing the peace of the nation.

A light snow began to fall, covering the blood from the previous night, but the clean white blanket would only be soiled that night. The soldiers ignored the snow and as the sun continued to set, a line was drawn and citizens who were behind that line were put into the safety of the military’s fortifications or they returned to their homes and locked themselves in their basements.

As sunset approached, the men and women worked more frantically for only a while longer before stopping to admire their work. They wished they could see the vampire’s faces as they gazed upon the interlocking fire of the bases before they blew their heads off. Belts of ammunition for the MG-3 and M2 machine guns, magazines for Heckler and Koch G36 assault rifles, magazines for H&K UMP machine pistols, AT4 rocket launchers, .40mm grenades for launchers and hand grenades were pulled from their crates and handed out like Halloween candy.

The snow increased as the black Comanche helicopters lifted into the darkening sky to take watch over their Earth-bound brethren. The more snow came yet visibility was thankfully good for the men on the ground.

Hands reached for charger handles and pulled back as the sun sank. A silence came over the city as the last rays of light disappeared. Then, as if in unison the soldiers released the charger handles on their weapons and the city rumbled as rounds were seated into their chambers.

The Simatarians were ready.

“Joseph…Joseph…Joseph wake up.” A soft voiced nudged the vampire awake. He opened his eyes to reveal a red haired vampiress staring at him through spooked hazel eyes. “Joseph we have a problem.”

“What is it Emily?” He groaned as pain shot through his back as he tried to get up. The damn elf had caused him a lot of pain and a great loss of blood. He had woken up once during the day and had drained his human captive dry, though the blood had healed the wounds the pain was still there. Since Simon’s death, he had appointed the vampiress to be his second in command as she had been with him the longest out of any he had.

“You have to see this for yourself.”

Joseph grunted and with some help from Emily moved through the rusted ship hulk and to the deck. Blasted by cold and snow, he was blinded for a second before staring out across the harbor. My God… He was able to hold in the shock as he stared through the snow towards the Simatarian warships anchored outside of the harbor. Their guns swung towards the city and were set to give supporting fire. The vampire turned his head up and quickly picked out the sleek, black helicopters and several recently arrived lumbering C-130 Spectre Gunships.

“What is the word from the city?” He asked calmly.

“Soldiers, tanks, artillery, machine guns, fire bases…like nothing I have ever seen before. The VP can pull of some good stuff that is for sure, but this...the humans are defiantly pulling out all the stops to get us good. We have nothing to take out their tanks and the aircraft are manned by the Air Force not police. Should we wait a few days and hope they dissipate?”

“No, if we do that they will likely discover our locations tomorrow before sundown and destroy us when we don’t have a chance. Remember the night is our playground, they might have the technology but we have the experience.”

“Right…what about Malone and his friends?”

Joseph turned, his eyes burning hot. “Kill them all…but leave Malone to me. Beware of the elf, he killed thirty of our friends last night by himself. As for Lujza…make her understand what Simon went through and then some. I will be visiting the President tonight first thing. Send the orders and have everyone armed to the teeth. Same orders as last night, no prisoners.”

Emily nodded and head back down into the ship. Joseph turned and stared back at the small Simatarian fleet outside of the harbor. There was nothing he could do the warships and he doubted there was anything they could do to him. They were merely there for intimidation purposes and moral.

Joseph finally felt the cold and went back down to prepare for battle.


Nicole came downstairs dressed in her black clothes but this time she also had a black Kevlar vest under her trenchcoat. She found Stephen cleaning his pistols and Wolf Knife. He turned and smiled at her. “Sleep well Stephen?”

The vampire nodded. “I did. You?”

“A bit troubled, I woke up fully shortly after you got up for your shower and have been laying in bed till a few minutes ago.” Nicole said as she walked into the small kitchen, pulling out a blood bag from the refrigerator, she heated it and filled up a glass with the warm blood. She stared down at the crimson liquid for a few seconds before drinking it. Before nights end she would be seeing more blood then she could ever imagine.

She looked up at the top of the refrigerator to find Tolkien curled up in a ball, enjoying some cool air coming through a small vent on the wall. The vampiress left the dragon alone, poured Stephen a glass of blood and walked over to him. Stephen took the glass with a smile and a kiss before taking a sip and continuing cleaning and checking his weapons.

Nicole pulled out her pistols and disassembled them for a quick clean before battle.

Though she vaguely comprehended the noises of someone going downstairs, Lujza continued to sleep, rolling over on her bed. She would probably not wake until someone actually came to rouse her, as she tended to sleep like a log on the rare occasion that she gorged herself.

Tolkien uncurled himself and stared from the top of the refridgerator down at Stephen and Nicole in the living room. Moving slowly from the cool air, he glided down and landed on the couch next to Stephen. He chirped and the vampire smiled down at him and scratched him behind the ears. The dragon's lips curled back in a smile as he moved onto Stephen's lap, only to be picked up and put on the floor with a comment of 'not right now boy'.

Feeling rejected, Tolkien walked over to the stairs and flew up the spiral staircase with ease. Landing on the second floor, he stared down the dark hallway and began to sniff each door. His little mind remembered the names or at least the faces of the smell. He nosed each door, trying to gain entrance, remembering the praise showered upon him the night before. The dragon found no luck with Hondur's, or Skadi and Sigrun's room, yet when he reached another door, he managed to push it open enough for him to squeeze through.

Tolkien sniffed the air, the woman called Lujza was here. Wagging his tail he spread his wings and took off for the bed and hovered nearby. He whimpered slightly, and only got a groan from the woman and her body shifting. The dragon didn't bother with licking her face and waking her up slowly, he wanted attention that second.

Flying up to the ceiling, Tolkien positioned himself above Lujza and tucked in his wings.

All of Tolkiens thirteen pounds landed right on Lujza's stomach.

The whole house probably could have heard the yelp Lujza made as she felt a sudden blow to her belly. As she reflexively sat up and brought her knees in, her eyes flicked open and her lips instinctively parted to bare her fangs to defend from whatever attacker there might be. At the same time, her hand went to the handle of her axe, which was lying on the small table next to the bed. However, before she could pick it up, her eyes, naturally suited to low light levels, took in a most unexpected sight. There was no attacker, just a little dragon pup sitting on the ghostly skin of her bare belly, looking at her.

Upon the realization that it was only Tolkien, not some sneaky assailent, she couldn't breath, as the adrenaline that had made her miss the fact that the wind had been knocked out of her was gone, and it took a moment before she could breath normally again, let alone speak. Lujza didn't like being awoken prematurely from her sleep, and never had, but then, it was hard to be mad with the cute little creature. When she had caught her breath, she smiled at Tolkien, who was still sitting on her pale tummy. "Up to no good I see," she said, patting the dragon and scratching him lightly behind the ears.

Skadi awoke to the sound of Luzja's yelp. The nature of it didn't cause Skadi to bother grabbing her blade, it was merely an expression of surprise rather than danger or pain. Sitting up slowly, Skadi arched her back and stretched stiff limbs. She'd healed up from the previous night's activities yet was still a little stiff.

Clothing herself once again, Skadi took holf of her ever present trench coat and draped it over her shoulder whilst grabbing her blade in the other hand. The jacket seemed to be common attire for many young vampires and gothic humans for reasons Skadi could only speculate on, she simply wore it because it could conceal weapons easily and didn't stick out in the shadows.

Sigrun was also getting up as Skadi moved through the door. He'd be downstairs soon enough. Making her way downstairs, Skadi noted the presence of Hondur a few paces before her.

"You never could get up after me, could you?"

Hondur merely smiled to himself as he made a path towards the kitchen.

"Never. I'm not two thousand year plus ancient vampire, so this will have to do."

"When you put it like that, I suppose you can have it..."

Both vampires ceased their mental communication as they came across Stephen and Nicole.

Tolkien squealed with pleasure as Lujza awoke and scratched him. He rolled over and snuggled up to her. She was nice to him and the dragon liked her. He had no idea what she had said to him, but it was said in a voice that got him excited. The dragon suddenly sat up on his back and barked at something in the hallway.

The desire to protect his home entered the slightly thick headed dragon's head and he jumped off the bed and flew into the hallway and watched as two figures descended the stairs. He barked and chased after them.


Stephen finished putting his pistols back together when he heard Tolkien barking and the ancients appearing. He had heard Lujza's yelp and decided not to go up chasing Tolkien. The little dragon had a slightly short attention span and since he had free reign of the house probably was wondering why the doors were shut. He smiled as the little animal fluttered around Hondur and Skadi, sniffing them before remembering, giving them each a lick before flying over and sitting on the couch.

Nicole had gotten up and got the ancients a glass of blood and handed it to them as they sat down before going back to doing a last minute check on her own firearms.

"Its snowing outside so that will give us cover to get into the city. Military moved several divisions during the day." Nicole said. "If you need some weapons I can take you to the armory. Pistols, rifles...but no swords."

Skadi and Hondur both looked at eachother. None of them had any guns with them. Hondur had managed to slip through security with his claws somehow, yet he didn't want to risk guns as they could readily draw more attention.

Skadi had been in Tarlachia with Sigrun, amongst the elves. One was highly unlikely to see a gun amongst those people. Whilst both were quite competent with their bladed weapons, the chaos that was fighting these vampires in the streets of Clarence sometimes required the range of a weapon. Simultaneously, Skadi and Hondur spoke.

"Pistols."

Nicole rose. "Follow me."

She led the two ancients to a hidden doorway and opened it revealing a set of stairs heading down into a dark concrete hallway. She didn't bother turning on the lights as their natural night vision guided them past several thick metal doors before taking another turned down a hallway and up a flight of stairs. Nicole opened the door and turned on the lights.

They were standing in a small pool area, a medium size pool took up the middle part of the room, to their right was a wall and a glass door that showed into a workout room with several machines visible and to their left was the outdoor entrance and a tight spiral staircase leading up to the second floor. Nicole took them upstairs where the light were already on.

The walls to the left and right were lined with rack upon rack of every kind of modern small arm from Aramlites to Walthers. A line of tables took up the middle of the room where gear could be gathered, on the far wall were boxs of ammuntion and a box with M-72 stamped in yellow on it.

Nicole swept her hand across the room. "Take your pick. It is catergorized by type then by company. Automatic, revolver, Desret Eagle, assault pistol...take your choice."

Nicole walked down to the ammuntion crates and brought several up. Remembering Skadi liked Berettas, Nicole pulled out a few Beretta magizines and handed them the the ancient. The bullets appeared to be made from glass and were filled with a clear liquid.

"Silver nitrate. Might come in handy. We have it in nine millimeter, forty-five and the bigger stuff for the rifles. Word of caution if you face a human...nitrate is fairly common now and most soldiers will probably have at least one magizine and the VIB agents will probably have at least half thier ammuntion being this stuff."

Sigrun eyed Nicole and gave a light laugh. "No swords? My my...you're just making this all the more fun for me. Very well, I'll aquisice to your request, but I'll be damned if I'll not use my other assets at my disposal."

He noticed the slight wonder in her eyes, "Magic, Nicole. I'll be using magic." A frown crossed her face. He continued speaking, "However, just in case, I think I'll take a pistol or two."

Soon enough, she had led them down to their armory, which was stocked with enough weapons to wage a small war on the side if they so wished. Sigrun gave a raised eyebrow. "Interesting how conflicts these days are seen as resulting in blood alone, instead of more peaceful avenues..."

He took a survey of the weapons and finally decided to settle on a Desert Eagle. He figured that if he had to resort to his pistol, it would be when his foe was within reach of him. He wanted to make sure he had something with considerable stopping power in as little time as possible.

Raising the weapon vertically and holding it upward as he shoved in a live clip and looked over at Hondur. Hondur sensed Sigrun's eyes on him and looked up at his friend with a slight grin as he saw the weapon in Sigrun's hand. He had been around long enough to remember when Sigrun was once Maximus, the night-stalking vampire who once wielded a matching pair of DEs.

Sigrun's voice spoke to him, "Some things never change, eh?" He chuckled again.

Skadi and Hondur remained silent as Nicole led them towards the armoury. A brief grin had flashed across Skadi's face as Sigrun mentioned magic, to Nicole's surprise. Skadi still wasn't too accustomed to it yet she'd seen enough to realise Sigrun knew what he was doing and that was all she needed to know.

After several minutes the group came to a stop, somewhere underground. Stepping into the armoury, both vampires peered around the room, Hondur releasing a sharp whistle. Despite the large armoury he stocked at his mansion, there appeared to be a ridiculous amount of weapons here for a total of two vampires and two humans. Hondur had to wonder if Stephen was an arms dealer of sorts on the side.

"Wow."

Skadi merely nodded as she moved further into the room and began looking around for something that would suit her. Before she'd found what she was looking for, Nicole handed Skadi several Beretta clips, pointing out the silver nitrate bullets. Skadi nodded in thanks as she finally spotted twin Berettas over Nicole's shoulder and moved towards them.

Within seconds of entering the room Hondur had noticed what he was after. Twin machine pistols, similar to a pair he would normally sport at home. Leavint the guns for a moment, Hondur moved over to the ammunition crates and grabbed several extended clips before returning to the guns.

Strapping twin holsters under his robes, Hondur sheathed the guns and stored the clips on his person. As he shoved the last clip into his pocket, he noted a pair of eyes on his back and spun around to find Sigrun holding a Desert Eagle. Hondur couldn't help but grin in mock worry.

"I trust you're not going to shoot me?

Sigrun cocked his head and returned the grin, "Only thing I'm gonna shoot you with is bullshit. And you my friend, are absolutely horrible at aiming at your targets. Admit it, it's why you've got those guns, isn't it?"

His free hand pointed to the weapons in Hondur's hands. The other hand lowered the gun until it was at waist level, but aimed toward the vampire's chest. He smiled again. "What do you say we have a little...contest? Body count? I trust you'll be truthful about that, yes?"

Hondur effortlessly twirled the pistols around his fingers as he watched his elven friend. Despite the ending of their violent fued, the pair were still competitive on some things and it appeared Sigrun wasn't about to forget it.

"Why not, I could use the practice. But your body count doesn't include anything involving magic..."

Holstering the weapons once again, Hondur flashed his fangs towards the elf.

"In the name of fairness of course. Last time I recall, I'm not able to throw waves of energy around or command the earth to open up and swallow a few hundred enemies..."

The dragon's feet felt strange on her bare tummy, but sometimes cuteness was irresistable. Lujza petted Tolkien and scratched him behind the ears some more before watching him dart down the hallway. Though she normally would have headed straight down to breakfast, tonight she put her clothes on first, a black tank top and black pants. Before heading downstairs, she strapped on her belt and put her axe on it.

A minute later, she arrived in the kitchen, her socks and boots in one hand, her pale feet making very little sound on the floor as she walked in to find it deserted. She set her footwear on a chair and went to the refrigerator to get some blood, though she was puzzled as to where everyone was.

“They are in the armory, I was waiting for you.” Stephen said as Lujza appeared. “Sorry about Tolkien, he isn’t used to having guests and loves meeting new people. Come on, time to suit up.”

Leaving Tolkien in the family room, Stephen led Lujza down after Nicole and the others.


Nicole looked at Sigrun, then back at Hondur. Stephen had told her all the history of their species and his friends that he knew, but he had neglected to tell her about the rivalry between Maximus and Hondur as it was a minor detail and was over with by the time of the Third Assington Vampire War. She stared at the two men before shaking her head. “You two are weird.”

“Just like old times eh Sigrun?” Stephen said as he reached the top of the stairs, Lujza behind him as he spotted the massive pistol in the elf’s hands. “Can’t remember the last time you used a firearm…God, must have been…centuries.”

Stephen took off his trenchcoat and put it on one of the tables and walked back to the boxes of ammunition to a locker and upon opening it, revealed nearly a dozen Kevlar vests. He tossed enough for his friends onto the tables in case they wanted it. Stephen put one on for himself and smiled as he saw the armor plate in the front of the vest was firmly in place.

As he turned around and made his way back down the room, scanning over various small arms, he smiled as he got a message from Nicole about Hondur’s reaction to his little collection. “I must admit all this firepower is a wee bit excessive, all I did was ask for an ample amount of firepower to protect ourselves and for missions…government did the rest... a little more than what I need, but whatever. Though, the addition of M-72 rocket launchers…that we might not need.”

He paused and selected a Heckler and Koch UMP machine-pistol from the wall and mentally pulled over a box of magazines and pouches. He also grabbed a magazine of silver nitrate for his pistols; Stephen would save it all for Joseph. After donning the pouches, Kevlar vest, a tactical vest, machine pistol, and pistols, Stephen looked like a soldier for war.

He put on a pair of black leather gloves and removed his Wolf Knife from his trenchcoat on the table. On the black handle were two crisscrossing bands of silver and a small silver wolf’s head on the end. He strapped the knife to his right leg at the ankle, he hoped in his mind that it would be the last time it drew blood, yet in his heat he knew it wouldn’t be the case.

“After everyone gets set we’ll head out. Because of the aircraft patrolling it will be too dangerous to use Cassandra to get in. Sigrun, we’ll have to use one of your portals to get into the city. I left that little marker of yours at the top of the station from last night, so we can still get in from there.”

Lujza quickly laced up her boots and followed Stephen downstairs. "It's okay about Tolkien, I know he was just trying to wake me up," she said.

In the basement, she didn't even look twice at the large collection of firearms, but immediately went for several 7.62 AK magazines. She wanted to stick with what she knew.

She went back to the others, looking hesitantly at the kevlar vests on table, picking one up briefly before putting it down again. It was heavier than she'd like. Lujza still fought much the same way she had been trained to in the Callisdrunian army. Though the military was completely gender integrated, emphasis for the combat training of the two sexes differed, with females being trained to take maximum advantage of their greater agility. Due to such, it made the Batory vampiress uneasy about donning anything that might limit her mobility.

Noting the kevlar vests, Hondur decided he would wear one for the first time in many years. If the enemy were likely to be using silver nitrate rounds then he couldn't really risk being hit much without finding himself completely dead.

Skadi merely looked down at the vests with a blank expression. She'd never once worn any form of body armour and whilst she'd felt the consequences of such before, she was of a similar mind to Luzja. Natural agility and vampiric ability influenced Skadi's combat methods drastically, she didn't intent to be still long enough for anyone to take aim and shoot her.

With her weapons tucked safely away within her coat and pockets full of ammunition, Skadi approached Sigrun and lazily draped an arm over his shoulder.

"You play nice, I don't want to be pulling you two apart in the middle of all this."

Both ancient vampires appeared ready and were merely awaiting the others and Stephen's word. Tonight promised to be even bloodier than the last.

Sigrun gave a lopsided grin to Skadi, "Naturally." He let loose a slight chuckle as he focused his attention on Hondur. Their eyes shared a similar message, Bring your best.

Sigrun thought about the portal marker and wondered if anyone unknown had come across it. It was likely the military had set up various key points on rooftops around the city, as well as inside buildings and on the streets. What if they portaled right into a sealed room filled with guards? He did not know.

"Stephen...the portal will be a good idea except for one thing. I cannot guarantee it's been left untouched on the rooftop. Chances are, your military's swept the entire city by now in search of abnormal things like that."

Sigrun’s device had been found late in the afternoon by a pair of soldiers. They both had to admit the queer object did have an interesting design but when one popped it open to see a green blinking light, it was dropped in the snow and both went barreling down the long flights of stairs. Under the impression it was some sort of detonation device or it was a beacon for the vampires to adjust range on small mortars if they had any, the bomb squad was called in.

Unsure of it was made from; a pound of C4 was placed onto a small robot that was placed on the roof and crawled towards the object while the humans waited below. The device was picked up in the robot’s claws and brought close to it.

Then, it and the robot were blown to kingdom come.


“Yeah you are probably right Sigrun.” Stephen commented. He would have liked to use the device to infiltrate quietly. He knew Skadi and Hondur could fly in, but Cassandra would have to fly himself, Nicole, Sigrun, and Lujza in, that is unless Skadi carried her elf lover. The heavy amount of helicopters would mean she would have to deposit them on the far edge of the city so they could slip in. He toyed with the idea of getting the VIB agents to drive them in, but knew it would be far too hazardous for everyone involved.

Nicole slipped a Kevlar vest on and found it a bit uncomfortable. Even after removing the metal plate, she still found it a bit uncomfortable. Still, she would wear it in case of silver nitrate rounds. She had elected to carry a Steyr TMP machine pistol with her for some added firepower. Ready, the vampiress departed to get Cassandra and inform her of what they were doing. The mother was once again uneasy to leave her pups, but she was assured by Nicole that the two humans would protect them. Getting Cassandra out was easy, getting the two VIB agents in the barn to soothe Cassandra’s mind with the pups proved a bit difficult as they had not fully interacted with the baby dragons.

Nicole had finally finished convincing and getting the humans to wait in the barn for Cassandra to return when Stephen and everyone else appeared ready for war. Nicole mounted the dragon and helped Stephen and then Lujza on.

Stephen turned to the ancients and elf. “I guess we will meet you there. Sigrun, shall you be carried by Skadi or go by dragon airlines?”

Sigrun looked toward Skadi and raised an eyebrow at her. "Up to you. Either way, I can get in just fine past the military boys. They won't ever see me until its too late."

He glanced to Cassandra whom gave a snort as she prepared herself for the trip.

"If you carry me, we'll get there faster, though we might sacrifice some stealth in the process. Personally, I'd think it would be wiser to take our path slower to avoid detection. After all, we're going to need every advantage we can get."

"You're coming with me, elf boy."

Skadi's face remained blank as usual yet her tone gave away her jesting nature, despite the upcoming battle she was in relatively good spirits, something not so common for the troubled ancient.

Sigrun nodded and and wrapped an arm around Skadi's waist as she took hold of her elven companion. It was a larger strain upon her to carry Sigrun as well, yet the task was not impossible and the added stealth of their approach would be worth it.

Hondur checked his gear one last time before levitating himself into the air, waiting of the others to get airborne themselves.

"Well, let's go. We don't exactly have a lot of time to get this over with."

Skadi nodded as she rose into the air, Sigrun clinging to her side.

"So where exactly are we going, Stephen?"

Stephen smiled as Skadi lifted Sigrun into the air. Nicole gave Cassandra a slight kick with her heels and the dragon lifted off after the two ancients. She beat her wings and hovered a few feet from Skadi as Stephen called to her.

“Just follow me. I am playing this by ear…the military is out in full force tonight so I do not know what they have. We will probably land on the outskirts and slip into the city through there.”

Cassandra stared at Skadi, it was obvious the dragon didn’t like the vampire and wanted to show off, but she remembered her family was on her back and acrobatics would have to wait. She took off towards the city at a slower pace than she was capable of so that the two vampires could keep even with her as the falling snow might be a problem for them.

Stephen kept his eyes squinted as he stared through the snow towards the city. They passed over suburbia, the industrial district and were just about to enter the main city when Stephen suddenly ordered Cassandra down and beckoned Skadi and Hondur to follow. Once they were on the ground, there was a pause before they heard a low grumbling from the sky. Looking up, they saw a massive airplane roaring across the sky.

“C-130 Spectre Gunship…one of those things can take out a whole battalion. From here, we move on foot. Cassandra, stay hidden girl, bury yourself in snow.”

Cassandra nodded, she didn’t mind the snow like the vampires might and found a pile of snow that she rolled into and shot some ice around it to give added cover. Once the dragon was hidden, Stephen took the lead as they moved across the rooftops, Sigrun still being carried by Skadi to aid in the ceiling hopping. They traveled for several blocks before Stephen motioned them to the ground. He crawled up the edge and motioned for everyone to join him.


Joseph was sitting upon the rooftop of the Golden Simatar National Bank. He stared in shock at the situation. Tanks, Army soldiers, APCs, military aircraft, mortars, claymores, thermal tracking machine guns, fire bases, navy ships in the harbor; he had seen the VP pull stuff off, but this…this was something none of his men expected. He received message after message asking what they should do. They had not come prepared to tackle with chobam plated Leopard tanks or Comanche stealth helicopters.

Joseph stared at a human firebase. It was placed near an intersection, sandbags built up to waist height, several thermal guns posted in the snowy blind spots, land mines before them, and mortars inside the base along with radio equipment. Two Bradley APCs and a Leopard sat nearby, their engines warm and their gunners itching for battle. Joseph finally ordered an attack, waiting to see what would happen.

Stephen stared at the firebase; the humans were not playing games. Then out of the shadows nearly fifty vampires rushed it. The mini-Vulcan thermal guns locked on and opened fire; the soldiers blazed away with their rifles, several landmines went off, the Leopard and Bradley’s joined the fray with their weapons and mortars from other bases gave support. The snow exploded all around and the ground shook from the concussions. The gunfire lasted for only ten seconds, and then it stopped. The snow and the dust settled. Body parts were strewed across the intersection, blood was hanging in a crimson vapor over the field. Stephen could see that many of the vampires had fled the instant the heavy stuff came in.

He watched as a lone vampire stood from the carnage, one leg shattered and one arm missing. She stood, and tried to run away, but instantly the soldiers opened fire, most were firing lead rounds and they only caused her more pain but no death. As she screamed and struggled, one of the Simatarians removed a phosphorus grenade from his pouch and threw it at the vampiress. Once it went off, the vampiress caught fire and began to burn.

The humans cheered in triumph but this was short lived as across the city gunfire and explosions erupted as the vampires quickly heard of the mistake of their brethren and opened up first with RPGs before storming the breech. Hand to hand combat would begin in minutes.


Joseph took off into the air and headed towards the White House, it was time to meet the President.


Stephen sensed Joseph, his eyes grew cold. “I’m going after Joseph. Watch yourselves everyone, the thermal guns are everywhere and you will be shot at like the other vampires. Fun has just begun.”

Stephen turned to Nicole and gave her a kiss before jumping to another rooftop and headed after Joseph.

Lujza was quiet on the ride over, and then through the trudge into the city on foot.

She observed silently as the first wave of enemy vampires was utterly repulsed. It made her a bit uncomfortable to see humans cheering the fact that vampire corpses were burning brightly, because of her native culture, but she had to admit, that if she had been in their position, she would have done the same. The humans were not so lucky when the second wave came, and Lujza grimaced as RPG's and other heavy weapons impacted the human positions.

Figuring she'd get the honor of firing the first shots of their little group, Lujza crept to a good position, one with cover readily accessible, took aim, and began blazing away at the backs and flanks of the enemy vampires with accurate bursts.

Stephen ducked behind an AC unit on top of a McDonalds as 20mm slugs from a pursing RAH-66 helicopter slammed into the rooftop of the restaurant. The vampire made himself as small as he could as the helicopter roared over his head and began to climb, either to find more vampire targets or come back to him. Much to the annoyance of the vampire, the helicopter swung back around to face him. The cannon opened fire and Stephen’s speed carried him away as the shells ripped the AC unit straight off the roof.

He jumped down into an alleyway where he would be safer from it. Everything had been going well, that was until he happened to stumble upon the helicopter rising into the air after strafing a group of vampires. The slugs had nearly torn him to pieces on two occasions and he had to make constant twist and turns to avoid the humans and when he hit the ground for the first time, he was nearly run over by a Leopard. Personally, he would rather be fighting the Forth Assington Vampire War over again than this; at least the Assingtonians didn’t have tanks.

The helicopter zipped over the alleyway but it didn’t stick around as it went to aid in the defense of the M*A*S*H units which were now under heavy assault. Stephen felt the ground shudder and there was thundering overhead like a train as the five inch cannons from the warships in the harbor thundered into the city. One shell landed a few hundred meters from him and the aftershock knocked him off his feet and into the snow.

His ears picked up sound of running feet, the angry curses under the breath, and the sound of a weapon being cocked. Stephen’s movements were lightening as in one fluid movement he rolled over got up to a squatting position, withdrawing and aiming the UMP like a pistol and firing a burst. The vampire felt an instant bolt of pain through his system, not from a round, but from sudden shock and remorse.

Oh Christ. His movements and instincts didn’t allow him to look at who he was shooting at. Expecting to find a vampire spasaming from silver in their system, he found instead a fresh faced youngster in a soldier’s uniform, blood running from several holes on his chest before he crumpled into the snow, shock was painted on the boy’s face. Stephen’s mind went numb as he ran over and rolled the boy over, he was young, nor more than nineteen and probably straight from boot. The boy was dead, a slug had gone into his heart, giving him a quick death over a slow and painful one.

Stephen stood slowly, his throat was dry yet his eyes were not. He had never killed a single Simatarian since becoming a vampire, yet now that clean record was no more. What made it worse for him was the fact the boy was so young, fresh from boot camp and sent straight into a battle.

Stephen composed himself and jumped onto a rooftop as he began to move in the direction of the White House.


Nicole felt it, her connection to her sire and lover was strong and she felt the sudden pain that shot through him. It was not like that of a wound inflicted by a weapon, but of something else. The vampiress didn’t have time to dwell on it as she dropped off the roof top, gun in hand. The human stronghold at the intersection was lost, only a few humans remained as vampires swarmed them, it would be futile to try and go in there. Instead, she moved in the direction of the strongest smell of blood, the hospitals.

She moved only a block before a Humvee gunner opened up on her with his M2 .50 caliber machine gun. Nicole ducked back behind the building as the slugs smashed away at the brick. She felt something wet splash her cheek and she screamed as she buried her head in the snow. The gunner had in the mix of the standard ball, armor piercing, and tracer, and phosphorus rounds, silver nitrate. Luckily for Nicole, she didn’t catch the full splash.

Pulling her face out, she didn’t need a mirror to now the right side of her face was burned and distorted. It would heal in time though. She removed her TMP from behind her but before she could give herself cover fire, an explosion behind her followed be screaming made her look around. The Humvee was in flames, the gunner was scrambling out of the vehicle, his body covered in fire. The others in the vehicle were trapped inside and were roasting. The gunner only got a few paces before a vampire appeared and thrust a sword into his gut.

Nicole brought up the machine-pistol and fired, the bullets clipping the other vampire. It was then six more appeared with rifles and opened fire. Nicole ducked back behind the building, her only way of escape was to blast through them, something she was more than happy to do.

Skadi had always wondered if her presence gave off a particular scent or some other form of signal that alerted her presence to other vampires. Sure a vampire could sense the presence of another if they were looking for them, or keeping their 'eyes' open, yet they did not do this all the time, it would be mentally taxing. And yet everywhere she went, without fail, vampires would attack her out of the blue.

Currently standing within a circle of six vampires, Skadi's cool gaze met each pair of eyes as she slowly spun around. Some of them obviously knew who she was and yet they weren't running, Skadi was mildly surprised.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

A rather skinny looking vampire nodded, displaying his yellow fangs in the process.

"It's about time this task was done..."

The small vampire's sentence was promptly cut off as his mouth met the unrelenting presence of a brick wall. Fangs and teeth shattered as the younger vampire screamed, dropping to the ground as Skadi's mental grip upon him released.

Another behind Skadi thought it wise to attempt an attack whilst everyone was distracted by the mangled, writhing vampire before them. Skadi merely stepped to the side, allowing the vampire to move past her before wrapping both hands around his neck and twisting so violently that his head rotated completely before falling off, all muscles and bones severed.

The four remaining vampires remained dead silent as they looked between their downed companions and the ancient vampire before them. Within a blink they were all dead, Skadi's blade having promptly departed it's sheath and passed through all their necks.

Kneeling to wipe the blood off her blade, Skadi heard the distinct cocking of a firearm, directly behind her. Sighing to herself, Skadi dropped the blade and launched herself into the air, disappearing into the night. The soldier cursed yet refused to fully enter the alley, evidently he was wary of moving into such a confined space.

Sitting upon the top of the building to the soldier's left, Skadi watched for a moment. The soldier withdrew a flashlight and peered into the alley, looking for any sign of the vampire. Growing bored, Skadi took hold of the soldier's body and rammed his head into the wall, being careful not to kill him.

With no new foes presenting themselves, Skadi called her blade and moved on towards the sounds of intense battle.
_________________

Hondur stood within one of the many barricaded buildings of Clarence, four soldiers aiming their machine guns at his head. Hondur had to give them credit, they were terribly vigilant men.

"Who are you and how did you get in here?"

Keeping his hands upon his head, Hondur answered rather calmly.

"My name is Hondur. I simply came in through a window, after making a few adjustments."

"What window? They're all barricaded."

"I know."

It took a few moments for the soldier to work it out, yet finally he posed the question that wasn't really necessary and would have been more appropriately replaced with gunfire.

"Are you a vampire?"

"Yes."

Several of the men raised eyebrows, looked to their commanding officer and returned their gazes to a blank wall.

"Fuck! I just blinked, where the fuck did he go?"

"Hondur appeared behind the men, having slipped through the doorway above their heads.

The last thing each man remembered was a sharp pain at the base of their skulls before passing out.

"Bravo!"

Hondur spun, machine pistol in hand as a voice emerged from behind him. Before him stood a vampire, a very entertained look plastered across his face.

"I hope you enjoyed the show."

The grin never left the vampire's face as a single silver slug passed through the top of his head, killing him instantly.

Joseph was crouched on the rooftop of one of the Congressional office buildings as he stared down at the White House. There were about twenty soldiers and VIB agents supported by a pair of Humvees and a Challenger. He smiled, this would be easy. Concentrating on the tank, he sensed the crew inside and began to apply pressure mentally. Inside, the tank crewmen were spasaming as they felt something like large hands come around their head and just before being smashed into the tank. Joseph pulled out a new broadsword and looked at his reflection in the blade then back down at the humans.

18 year old Pfc. Stan Sosabowski kept a tight grip on his G36; off in the city he could hear the gunfire and the explosions. The night sky light up as the warships fired another salvo into the city; the shockwaves were slight tremors where he was. The young soldier took some heart that they had a tank and some of the thermals guns to protect them and the President. He didn’t know he had less than three minutes to live.

A scream to his left caught his attention. He jumped out of his boots when he saw one of the VIB agents sliced in half by a vampire, the man was still alive as he watched his upper body detach from his legs, his guts splattering on the ground. Sosabowski brought his rifle up and fired a burst and to his shock the vampire grabbed on his mates and put him in front of the rounds. The vampire began to work his way up to the Private, slicing and dicing, blood erupting from the wounds and splattering the vampire and the ground.

Sosabowski frantically reloaded his rifle; he recharged it, and fired blindly. He heard a grunt and looked up with a smile, which faded away. The vampire stood a few feet from him, his left arm smoking from a single wound. The pair’s eyes met and the private turned back to the arm as the bullet gently exited as Joseph worked his mental magic. “That was a mistake boy.”

Before the young man could react, Joseph had grabbed hold of him, sinking his fangs into his neck and quickly drained him dry. Dropping the corpse, Joseph whistled calmly as he walked into the White House. He walked down the dark corridors and into the Presidential Office, where he found the President staring at the fire with a glass of cognac in his hand. The President looked at him. “Oh hello, care for a drink?”

Joseph arched his eyebrow. “What? No begs for mercy? No cries of help?”

The President sipped a little cognac and got up, walking around to his desk in complete calm. Stahler turned back to the vampire. “Way I figure…won’t do any good so why bother?”

Joseph grinned and brought up his sword. “That is right.”

The vampire charged across the room, but at the last minute, to his shock, Stahler slid easily out of the way and grabbed a katana from behind the desk. Joseph turned to face him, but even more shocking was he was not facing the President, but a man with jet black hair and the man blinked, removing two contacts to reveal cat like emerald green eyes. “Name is Roman Cyrus Celadrin. Last night I got a rather nasty knock…still hurts a bit.”

Roman slashed with his katana at the vampire, who was still in a state of shock and parried too late to prevent a deep gash in his right side. Joseph lurched back and cried out in pain but was able to come about and parry Roman’s next attack. “What the hell are you?”

“Me? Just a normal immortal like yourself.” Roman said with a grin as he cut again, was parried and parried a counter attack himself. “With a few tricks up my sleeve.”

Joseph blinked, only now to be faced by four Romans. The elder growled, this man was getting on his nerves and it was obvious he knew some form of magic. Maybe he was half elf. But, for the first time, the ruse didn’t work for Roman as Joseph spotted the real him and charged with all his speed.

Roman just got out of the way, his clothes were torn and he got a full view of the vampire’s back, his katana sliced down Joseph’s back, leaving a long gash. Roman knew his first confrontation with Stephen had ended badly, but this vampire was more tired than Stephen had been from two rough nights of battle.

Joseph spun and locked his sword with Roman’s as the shape shifter tried to thrust. His hate burned hot in his eyes as his own strength began to show on the man. Brute strength Roman could not equal Joseph and the vampire knew it. He pressed the man back to the desk, pushing the blades down to his face. “Time to die.”

Putting mental pressure on Roman’s blade, gathering up all his strength and speed, Joseph lurched back from the man who could not slice as his blade was bound to him. Joseph gave a crooked grin and brought the sword up and slammed it into Roman’s stomach.

Roman cried out in pain and his hand released the sword, the vampire took control of it with his mind and brought it up before him, and put it into Roman along with his own sword. Roman’s eyes turned up to Joseph, his stomach burning from the pain, warm blood oozing through the wound, and rising up in his throat. Joseph looked at him. “Where is the President?”

Roman coughed; blood came up in a glob and splattered against his chest. His lungs were failing him, breathing was becoming a chore. He felt the vampire’s mental fingers in his brain, searching out the location of Stahler, only to find the President had been finally convinced and evacuated to the aircraft carrier earlier in the day. Joseph grunted, to the aircraft carrier then. He pulled out his sword slowly, twisting it along the way, enjoying Roman’s cries of pain. Joseph turned and began to walk out of the office, licking the blade and whistling.

Roman slid down to the floor, his vision was blurry and his heart nearly gone. He rested his chin against his chest as his world turned to black.

If one was paying very close attention, one would see that Lujza's movements through the city could be traced by the trail of dead vampires with accurate gunshot wounds in the head, large gashes and broken bones left by an axe or simply throats torn out.

She had by now acquired a very large caliber sniper rifle from a dead human. A vampire stepped into an intersection that she was paying attention to. His head practically exploded soon after her sights were trained on him. He was the fifth to die from Lujza's gunfire in this location. Another seemed to have noticed that gunfire was coming from her direction and was coming up an alley to investigate. Lujza quickly dropped him with another shot, however, she hadn't gotten his head, and had only pulverized his hip.

The Batory vampiress jumped down from her perch, having first strapped the rifle on next to her AK on her back, to finish the vampire. He was still dangerous, and began shooting with a pistol at her, but was soon unable to do so, as he found that he was now dispossessed of a hand. Lujza had not yet fed during this battle, and she propped the hapless vampre up against a car as she ripped into his throat. Like all Callisdrunian vampires, she still could not drain someone's blood quickly. Feeding was accomplished by making a hole and then lapping up the the blood as it flowed outward. This was one thing about her that had not changed. Normally if one did not want to kill the source (as most vampires in Callisdrun didn't, feeding mostly from donors), one made the holes on the shoulder. Instead, Lujza had made them in the unfortunate vampire's jugular vein, and had ripped with her fangs to make them quite wide.

Several minutes later, Lujza looked up and sighed with satisfaction before letting the wreckage of the vampire's flesh fall to the ground. She did not know his name or if he was important or one of many underlings, but he had not been cautious enough.

Quickly, she moved on, from shadow to shadow, killing as she went, like the highly evolved predatory animal that she was, in essence. She avoided humans wherever possible, and when unavoidable, waited until they had passed before coming out of hiding. A couple times, she was forced to incapacitate a couple. "In time you'll come to be thankful for this," she said to one before tossing him into a shop window, obscuring him from outside view. The man would probably still not be quite sure what had happened several years in the future. Eventually, Lujza began looking for the others, a little worried though she knew that all could take care of themselves.

Stephen had had a bad feeling since seeing the guards killed out in front of the White House. When he entered the President’s office, he was in for a shock as he saw Roman’s body against the desk. The vampire ran forward and knelt by the body, there was nothing he could do for him now. You did your best Roman. Stephen removed Roman’s Celadrin medallion, he would send it to Liam Celadrin after the battle was over. He slowly slid the katana from Roman’s stomach and as he laid the blade on the floor, he heard a sharp cackle from behind. “He wasn’t that hard to fight. Rather easy to bring down…might have had magic but he lacked strength to battle a vampire.”

Stephen took hold of the UMP’s grip and spun on Joseph and once the elder was in his sights Stephen unleashed a hail of silver rounds. Joseph spun out of the way, ducking out the door and against the wall as the bullets smashed away at the wood and drywall. Once the magazine was dry, he burst back into the room as Stephen was trying to reload, his fist slammed into the vampire’s stomach, sending Stephen hurtling back into the drink cabinet, covering him with hundreds of dollars worth of expensive liquors. Stephen spat, making sure none of it got into his mouth, as he looked up, Joseph was breaking his machine-pistol.

“Come now Stephen, you are a vampire. We move too fast for these things. Come now and fight proper so I can at least tell Nicole when I see her in bed later you died a slightly honorable death.”

At the mention of his wife-to-be Stephen mentally pulled over Roman’s bloody katana and slowly stood, holding the blade in his hands. Joseph grinned, it was obvious whatever sword training Sigrun and Skadi have given him Stephen had obviously forgotten everything. This should be easy.


As Lujza made her way to locate the others, she stumbled upon a parking lot where four police cruisers, a SWAT van, and a military Humvee were parked. Seventeen men and women were covering the vehicles and the lot, blood was splattered against the automobiles and the white snow. A sharp ringing caught her ears as a vampiress appeared from behind the SWAT van, a short sword in one hand and a long dagger in the other. Her clothes were stained with blood and she casually licked the crimson from her dagger. She looked at Lujza and grinned.

“Lujza ain’t it? Good to see you…was hoping you would show up. What you did to Simon wasn’t very nice. Don’t worry; I’ll be sure to be worse to you. Pull out yer axe and lets see what ya got bitch.”


Nicole was shocked at what she saw in the center of the city. Once where there was a peaceful park where there were weekly shows by local high school and college bands, numerous stores and theaters surrounding it, here was the center of life for some who lived in Clarence. Now, the snow itself was melting from the heat of the weapons.

The human fort in the center of the massive intersection and into the park had been breached by RPGs and vampires had stormed it. Hand to hand fighting was going on as humans and vampires alike used everything from bayonets to their nails and teeth. A Bradley rolled up and its troops rushed out of it and at the vampires in buildings nearby, making the first bayonet charge by the Simatarian military in centuries. Out in the street, tanks and APCs went toe-to-toe with vampires inside of buildings firing rockets down into the humans. Several Fuchs and Bradley’s were burning and a Challenger lay disabled. The Specters and the Comanche’s were helpless as they tried firing their mini-guns into the fray, hoping to God that their rounds struck immortal flesh.

An explosion caught the vampire’s attention as an outdated National Guard BMP3 rolled into the center of town, firing all of its guns against the humans. She didn’t have to guess that it was vampires who had commandeered the vehicles. Almost immediately, a Leopard swung its cannon at the BMP, the APC fired first, the round harmlessly bouncing off the chobam armor, but the 120mm cannon of the tank turned the BMP into a burning wreck.

As Nicole skirted around the battlefield, she heard a moan, turning she found a wounded SWAT officer, a bullet in his right leg. As she neared him, a Fuchs armored car rolled up, two humans jumped out, and pointing guns at her. Bother had the white arm band with the Red Cross in the middle. One blinked, the darkness didn’t let him see much of her features. “Oh God dammit, you fucking VIB.”

As one medic was loading the SWAT officer onto the Fuchs, the other turned to Nicole, ready to offer her a ride when a brilliant flash behind her light up her pale face. The man jumped back in surprised and opened up with his Beretta. The vampiress screamed and leapt back as the 9mm rounds tore into her and Nicole slipped, falling back onto the ground. Not wishing to stick around, the medic jumped aboard the Fuchs and sped off.

Nicole moaned and felt her stomach and chest, the Kevlar vest she had been wearing was destroyed but she was alive and her stomach hurt like hell. Stumbling to her feet, Nicole blinked and headed back to the fray.


Seconds after the vampire was dead, there was an ear shattering scream nearby. In front of Hondur, the hallway lit up and around the corner, a burning vampiress was running before a human came around the corner and fired several shotgun rounds into her. His partner appeared next to him; in hands was at first glance a strange looking assault rifle with a tank underneath instead of a magazine. What gave the flamethrower away was the small blue flame at the end of the weapon.

The humans saw Hondur and unlike their comrades they weren’t going to ask if he was a vampire or not. He wasn’t wearing a police or military uniform, thus he must be a vampire. The one with the flamethrower grinned and fired of jet of flame at the ancient.

Time seemed to slow down as the two officers gazed upon Hondur and he looked back at them in return. Hondur noted the flamethrower and cursed silently, one of the few human weapons that was an immediate threat to his life without necessarily making a head shot.

With the flaming vampire out of the picture it was just the two Simitarian men and Hondur, a momentary stand off. Time returned to normal and Hondur's right hand raced towards his gun whilst the left was outstretched, as if to block any incoming attacks.

Alas the man bearing the flamethrower merely had to pull the trigger and with that an engulfing wave of firery doom roared towards Hondur, burning everything in it's path. And yet when it appeared as though the flames would destroy Hondur, they collided against some sort of invisible wall, roaring up the sides towards the wall and ceiling, yet not touching Hondur.

The repelled flames provided the distraction Hondur needed to withdraw his machine pistol and unleash several round into the arm and shoulder of the flame thrower bearer, careful not to hit the weapon and risk an explosion.

With the weapon now on the ground and the flames gone, Hondur dropped the mental shield and grabbed his other gun, discharging several unaimed rounds towards the Simitarians before breaking into a run around the corner. He figured it would be easier to simply escape from the humans than attempt an encounter involving a flamethrower.

As Lujza made her way to locate the others, she stumbled upon a parking lot where four police cruisers, a SWAT van, and a military Humvee were parked. Seventeen men and women were covering the vehicles and the lot, blood was splattered against the automobiles and the white snow. A sharp ringing caught her ears as a vampiress appeared from behind the SWAT van, a short sword in one hand and a long dagger in the other. Her clothes were stained with blood and she casually licked the crimson from her dagger. She looked at Lujza and grinned.

“Lujza ain’t it? Good to see you…was hoping you would show up. What you did to Simon wasn’t very nice. Don’t worry; I’ll be sure to be worse to you. Pull out yer axe and lets see what ya got bitch.”


"I disagree," Lujza said. She still did not understand what the word "ain't" meant, so she merely ignored that. "I could have gone against my end of the bargain. In return for giving me information, I quickly ended his life rather than continue to torture him. He probably deserved the latter, and I'm sure he would have prolonged the agony deliberately if our situation had been reversed." There was no moral question in Lujza's mind, she was sure she was right. After all, after Simon had given her some information, she had killed him, quickly ending the pain he was in.

"He was a bastard who viewed me as less than him because I have a different set of goodies between my legs." To Lujza, this was utterly backwards. She wiped the blood from her mouth (she was still rather messy in her feeding) and then wrapped her pale fingers around the handle of her axe. She was perfectly willing to let this banter continue for however long it could as she studied the other woman's weapons and body, looking for weaknesses.

Sigrun watched momentarily as Skadi moved into the shadows and slipped away with experienced ease. She could take care of herself, and he, himself. It was a mutually understood point. Once she was gone, he turned his attention back to the streets surrounding him. Just down the road and around the corner, he could hear the guns blazing, the cries of pain renting the air.

He brought a hand up and rested it momentarily upon his forehead, before sliding it down his face. As he did so, a metallic green shade flowed downward around his body, huggging his physical shape and sealing completely around him. Satisifed with this, he began walking down the side of the street toward the conflict brewing nearby. As he came into view, several thermal guns shifted his way, but never fired. He was simply too warm.

However, there were still soldiers with their guns in his direction. The sound of each of them reloading worried Sigrun a little, but that was natural. They paused, unsure of what to make of him as friend or foe.

Sigrun ceased walking toward them and remained there, watching, waiting.

It remained this way for several moments until one of the commanders raised a hand and called out, "Identify yourself stranger and your purpose here!"

"You need not know who I am, but my purpose is to end this war."

The man narrowed his eyes at the elf. "So you're on our side."

Sigrun shook his head negatively. "Nor theirs. Some call me a shadow, for I move like them, yet are not one of them."

"Fire the damn guns already you dolts!" murmured the man as he nodded his understanding to Sigrun. Before he knew it, hundreds of bullets hurtled toward Sigrun. Giving them another glare of disapproval, Sigrun simply let the bullets come. By the dozens, they slammed against his body, each impact causing his bodyshield spell to illuminate briefly and disintegrate the bullets.

The gunfire ceased again as they awaited the smoke to clear away.

A massive blast shook the entire force, causing everyone subject to his power, to cease firing.

Twenty four year old Pfc. Paul Volkner stared through the flames as he rammed more shotgun shells into the Remington 870. The vampire should be a crispy critter by now, yet the flames had seemed to stop mid-way down the hall. The heat was growing intense and he was about to cry to his partner to shut the thing off when his friend was hit by several rounds. Volkner gasped and jumped back, fearing the shooter would hit the tank. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Several more rounds flying his direction caught his attention and he fired twice at the fleeing vampire.

“Medic!” He cried out as he knelt by his friend, unwilling to go chasing the vampire without making sure his friend was taken away. A medic arrived several minutes later and Volkner grabbed the M240 incinerator and without thinking ran after the vampire. After ten minutes of running, he knew it was useless. The vampire was long gone and as he looked around, he found himself in an alleyway several blocks from the main battle.

He heard a noise behind him and brought up the shotgun. In the dim light from streetlights and gunfire, he saw the dead body of a vampire and a woman in all black holding a katana standing over him. When she looked at him he felt his blood run cold and fear crept into his body.

Still, Volkner fired a blast of silver buckshot at Skadi.


The vampiress laughed at Lujza. “Oh yes Simon was an interesting character. He was also…an interesting bed partner. Well now Lujza…oh wait…where are my manners.”

The vampiress made and exaggerated bow. “The name is Danielle little lady…a master of swords and sharp pointy things. As you can see.”

Danielle made a sweep of the bodies around them; a wide almost stupid grin was on her face. “All my work.”

Though she appeared to be slightly off her rocker, in her eyes displayed intelligence and age. And the heart of a cold blooded murderer. The vampiress sighed and stared at Lujza for a second before she rocketed over to her in a flash. At the last minute, Danielle avoided the axe swing and slid under the SWAT van and appeared on the other side. She slowly walked around, in battle stance.

“That was a test of what ya got pretty.” She motioned with her blades and bared her fangs. “Let’s see what you have.”


Nicole lowered the young policeman to the ground. She licked the blood from her teeth and lips. Feeling refreshed, she began to move to the right flank of the Simatarian infantry where the battle had calmed slightly. A whirling caught her attention and she dove behind a snow bank as the thermal guns picked her up and did their job. She rolled around the bank and saw Sigrun standing before the human fortifications. She opened her mouth to cry out before the guns picked her up again and opened fire again. Nicole ducked behind the snow, which not much to the imagination didn’t provide much cover against hundreds of bullets.

She rolled behind a car and shook as she heard the distinctive roar of a platoons worth of G36 assault rifles and MG3 machine guns for several seconds before stopping. Even with all his powers, there was no way he could have survived that. “Oh God…Sigrun.”

She gently lowered herself to the ground and peered past the tire and the edge of the snow bank to see the results of the gunfire on the elf.

"Hmmf." Lujza took the sniper rifle she had acquired from her back, unloaded it and put it down. No sense in having extra weight in this fight. She didn't do the same with her AK though, it was lighter, and she hoped to shoot the woman if the opportunity presented itself.

"No thank you, Danielle," Lujza said calmly, holding her axe lightly and appearing relaxed. "I really don't care to show you freely. You'll just have to come and see for yourself." She smiled, which of course revealed her barbed fangs. Though they had somehow gotten the Batory shape (barbed) that before she had lacked, they were still not retractable.

Instead of attacking, Lujza merely stood there, looking casual, dusting some grime from her pale shoulder. She was quite ready for Danielle's attack, though she did not look it.

At first, the guns' smoke was too heavy to discern anything in its midst. Then, a shadowed figure stepped forward, advancing upon the soldiers whom lay upon the earth dead. He reflected back on the absorbed kinetic energy from the bullets and transferred to reciprocal arcane power. Never before had he taken so much energy, and yet the spell had worked exactly as he had wished.

He knelt down and flipped the switch that controlled the thermal-guns. A winding noise indicated they were going offline. He turned and glanced toward the snowbank. "I know you're there, Nicole."

He turned back to the soldiers and shook his head. "What a waste." He did not give Nicole a chance to catch up to him, and instead continued advancing inward into the city...

As the trigger was pulled Skadi made her move, slipping to the side before leaping towards the wall, a single foot being planted upon it. Unforunately for Skadi the blast radius of the shotgun was wide enough to encompass her other leg, causing a flesh wound exagerated by the pain of silver contact.

Landing upon the ground behind the soldier, Skadi grunted in pain as her injured leg collapsed under her and she fell to a knee. Putting the pain aside for a moment, Skadi looked up to the man before her as he attempt to bring his gun around and finish the job. Grabbing the barrel, Skadi yanked the weapon from his hands and promptly smashed it against the brick wall.

Keeping her eyes upon him the whole time, Skadi slowly got to her feet, using her ability of flight to take the weight off her right leg. It was obvious the lone soldier was rather intimidated, yet Skadi had no intention of playing mind games and got right to the point, delivering a hard right hook into the man's jaw, knocking him out cold. Stephen had asked her not to kill any Simitarians and she prided herself on control.

With that done, Skadi levitated herself onto the roof and began to move towards the city centre.

Joseph let out a laugh as Stephen went tumbling into a marble pillar with a bust of some former President on it. The bust fell down and smashed into the ground near Stephen. The Assingtonian was having the time of his life; thus far he had pushed Stephen through the building, his superior sword skills landing him constant slices and a near decapitation on the younger vampire, who had tried to remove one of his pistols, only to have it knocked from his hand.

“Oh Stephen, you should have paid attention in Sword Play One-Oh-One. What have you got on me? Yes what was it? Now I recall…a nick on the arm.”

Stephen stood and shook his head. His bloody clothes were evidence to Joseph’s steel as his wounds were healed. He had defiantly forgotten everything taught to him by Skadi and Sigrun. He relied heavily on firearms like he did when he was human, but he wasn’t a human any longer. Guns were too slow for vampires sometimes; blades were the way to go.

Stephen made another lunge at Joseph, who took a step back, eager to begin the pitiful battle again.


Danielle looked at Lujza and smiled. She had heard of Lujza, heard she was some form of a hybrid between her species and some strange vampire breed. She would enjoy having Lujza for a snack, she would also like those barbed fangs as trophies. Danielle’s smile faded as she stared coldly at Lujza. “What will you do to save a child?”

Before Lujza could respond, Danielle’s right arm flashed, sending her dagger in a beeline for Lujza’s stomach and right behind it Danielle rushed, her sword making an arch upward.


Nicole smelled the human blood and curled back behind the car and wept. They didn’t have to die. They didn’t have to die… She had seen death, she had killed people, but those were vampires and in small engagements. When she was first born a vampire, she begged Stephen to tell her of his military service when he began to train her. He did, he told her of his battles, told her of once taking part in wiping out a whole guerilla platoon by stringing claymores in the trees. She could never imagine what it was like to see many dead men and women, most in their early mid-twenties, till now.

Nicole silently cursed Sigrun, she would have to confront the elf later when they were alone. Stephen had asked him up front not to kill anyone and instead the elf just killed…no murdered…almost forty men and women. She liked Sigrun, he was a great friend but with that one act she saw a side she had never seen and one that Stephen had commented on one or twice before.

Composing herself, she got up and jumped onto a rooftop as a column of tanks and APCs rumbled down the street to investigate the sudden lapse of fire. Nicole ran off, skimming the edge of the massive battle in the center of the city. Her keen eyesight spotted a familiar figure on a building a quarter block away. “Skadi!”

Nicole announced herself as she neared the ancient, not wanting her to suddenly take off her head when she came onto the roof. The young vampiress looked at Skadi’s right leg.

“Jesus, hold still. I got a knife let me dig out the shot."

"Fuck," Lujza mouthed as Danielle released the dagger. If she blocked the dagger or jumped out of the way, the other vampiress was likely to get her with the sword. It was a difficult situation. Very difficult. In tiny fractions of a second, thoughts and ideas raced through the Batory's mind, coming to the fore and being dismissed, until one stood out.

The world seemed to be going in slow motion. The action she had decided on was a very risky one, but quite possibly the only way to win. In battle, risks often had to be taken, sacrifices had to be made, if one was to achieve victory. So Lujza braced herself for the pain that would inevitably come, at least if the laws of physics remained in effect. When it did, Lujza grunted at the force of the impact, staggering back a few steps. She managed to shove the intense pain to the back of her mind as she felt blood trickle down from her midsection, concentrating on Danielle's advance. Everything was happening so fast, but it seemed like hours were going by at the same time as she, with her free hand she brought her AK down. With only hand on it, the rifle's accuracy would be quite diminished, but by this point, Danielle was so close that it wouldn't matter, and the enemy vampiress' momentum and inertia were such that dodging bullets this far into an attack would be next to impossible.

With a grimace, Lujza squeezed the trigger, the automatic rifle belching a stream of silver bullets at Danielle, whose sword would be buried in Lujza had she waited a second longer to fire, as the range was point blank.

Skadi shook her head as she gazed between Nicole and her wounded leg. Whilst injured, it was only minor and the shot had passed through, merely living the bitter sting of silver within her flesh. It would heal eventually, but for now there was nothing to be done about it.

"No need, the shot passed through... it will heal soon enough."

Noting the heavy vehicles heading down the straight, Skadi lifted herself into the air again to take the weight off her leg.

"Perhaps we should go investigate?"

So far the vampire had been rather reserved in her combat, easily dispatching of the few opponents she had encountered and robbing several humans of their consciousness as they crossed her. It appeared she had a little more control than Sigrun.
_____________________

Bursting into one of the many abandoned buildings, Hondur quickly spun around to make sure the humans hadn't noticed him. By the looks of things the soldiers were too busy checking out the rooftops to notice a lone vampire quickly slip through a door within the shadows.

Turning around to investigate his surroundings, Hondur was met by a thundering fist that forced him back into the door. Shaking the initial shock off, Hondur managed to get an arm up just in time to deflect a second punch, the force still knocking him back a little.

Not about to put up with such an attack, Hondur surged forward under a third punch and slammed both palms into the abdomen of his opponent, sending him flying into a nearby wall and straight through the plaster. Satisfied with his effort, Hondur composed himself and walked into the next room to lay his eyes upon a slender vampire of near equal height to himself. Short black hair lay upon his pale skull as hardened brown eyes gazed upon Hondur.

"It's nice to see you again... Hondur."

Danielle screamed and lurched backward as the silver slugs slammed home into her body. The first few went straight through her body but a few were lodged inside her organs. Screaming in pain, the vampiress lurched back behind one of the Humvees, one hand grasping the wound and the other ripping an H&K MP7 from a dead soldier and firing blindly at Lujza, enough to get the other vampire into cover.

“You fucking bitch!” Danielle screamed as she moved her free hand to another dagger strapped to her leg. She screamed as she began to dig the blade into the holes, looking for the rounds. She sent another spray of bullets from the machine-pistol. “You fucking bitch! I’m going to rip your God-damn heart out and eat it!”

Her mind was in a swirl, anger at Lujza, pain at the silver, the pain at her knife working in her body, trying to pry out the deadly rounds. The vampiress’ brain located the bullets and helped in the extraction. Yet, to her horror and to more anger rising in her, one of the bullets had broken upon impact, spraying her insides with silver bits that she could not get out. She would have to wait for the battle to be over to go under surgery, with of course silver holding the wounds open in order to get the fragments out. “You bitch!”

Seething in rage, she got up and picked up a G36 to join the MP7. Emptying both weapons at Lujza’s place, she rushed the other vampiress as soon as the weapons ran dry and she had released them. Anger drove Danielle as she jumped upon the hood of the cruiser and kicked the AK from the other vampire’s grasp. A mental blast knocked the axe from Lujza’s grip.

Danielle tackled Lujza, her nails digging into her as she clawed and punched Lujza in a no-holds barn brawl.


Nicole nodded to Skadi as the ancient explained that the shot had passed through her flesh. Both women followed the armored column of tanks and APCs as they emptied into the Central Park and battleground. Both vampires had humans had erected crude fortifications as the original forts crumbled. It reminded Nicole of scratchy movies she had seen of the First World War of trench warfare as the humans and vampires fought each other. Barrel tip to barrel tip was only a few meters in some spots. Grenades were being thrown like confetti, snow, asphalt, and blood hung in the air in a cloud as the explosions continued to toss more up. A pair of C-130 gunships fired their Vulcan guns, bright green tracers bounced off the ground when no targets were hit and showered back down in an unearthly rain.

Nicole looked at the devastation. “Best not to be flying around too much…”

The vampiress turned as a vampire tried to hack her with a sword. Nicole dodged the first blow and scooped up sword from the ground and began the dance of death.

As Nicole was distracted by the duel with the vampire, another vampire appeared in front of Skadi, in his eyes was far more experience and knowledge of the sword than those she had faced before. Within a span of three seconds, the vampire had sent a mental blast at the ancient, preformed a quick left feint before coming in hard with a right slash for her midsection.

The plan had worked well, though Danielle certainly was not done for. One of the reasons that Lujza liked the AK was because its big 7.62 rounds did quite a lot of damage, tearing muscles and breaking ribs, just from the kinetic energy of impact. She didn't have time to gloat though, as Danielle's quick but inaccurate firing made it advantageous to get beind one of the now driverless vehicles. The Batory hybrid sprayed fire back at Danielle in return as she snickered at the sounds of Danielle trying to dig out all the bullets with a knife. Some of them would hopefully be lodged in organs inside the rib cage and such.

A sudden barrage of automatic fire cut short her smiles, though. Danielle was back to attacking, making an assault on her position. Fortunately, the vehicle protected Lujza from the vast majority of the rounds, but several wound up hitting her. She screamed curse words of her native language.

She only got off a short, inaccurate burst before her AK-47 was kicked from her hands. Suddenly, she found herself bereft of her axe as well, and Danielle on top of her, beating her senseless. Bleeding from her gut, where the dagger was still lodged, and smarting from several bullet wounds (though she had luckily not inherited the silver allergy that Assingtonians had), she didn't know if she could stay alive much longer.

Tunnel vision, a prelude to the loss of consciousness, had already taken hold. No, being captured will be worse than death she thought. The pain in her gut was intense beyond belief. Wait a minute... she thought, suddenly hitting upon an idea. In an act of desperation, she pulled the dagger from her midsection and drove it into Danielle's back, bringing the other vampiress closer to her so that it looked as if they were in some sort of homicidal embrace, and then stabbing over and over again, sometimes hitting the spine. At the same time, she closed her eyes and bit upwards, each time ripping as much flesh as possible, sometimes ingesting it. She tore off Danielle's nipple and the surrounding tissue, part of the woman's shoulder and finally bit out her throat, the barbed fangs doing damage on the way in as well as the way out. Why do I always end up with them on top of me? her mind asked randomly.

Skadi grunted slightly as she was forced backwards a few steps due to the mental blast. Not strong enough to do any real damage yet it did distract her for a moment, allowing her opponent to go for a slash at her midsection.

Not about to be upstaged by some vampiric punk, Skadi easily stepped to the side out of the blade range and moved back in as the vampire continued with his arc, exposing his side to the ancient vampire. With her blade sheathed, Skadi opted for the hands on approach as she surged forward and drove her knee into the man's ribs.

A satisfying crack was heard by all as the breath was promptly knocked out of the vampire, stunning him long enough for Skadi to deliver a sharp blow to his chest, knocking him to the ground with ease.

Evidently the younger vampire had taken on a challenge he was not up to, despite what he thought he could or couldn't do with a blade, Skadi was just that much stronger and faster.

Placing a boot upon the injured vampire's chest, Skadi gazed down at him for a moment before speaking.

"Give me a good reason why I shouldn't kill you..."
____________

"Damien... I would have expected you'd be smarter than this..."

Hondur hadn't seen the other vampire since before the mess involving Svartel. The reasonably old vampire had been a rogue, not claiming membership to any coven or gang. Hondur had attempted to persuade him to join his coven yet that had failed.

Whilst the two vampires had had their differences before, it had never come to violence. The fact that Damien was here with these other low lifes was strange in Hondur's opinion.

"Why are you here? With them?"

"Heh, I'm hardly with these thugs. I just figured it would be nice to get out of Assington and taste the what the world has to offer."

"Not exactly the best nation to visit at the moment..."

"I can see that, but then I heard you and Skadi were here... you two seem to always pop up wherever there is trouble."

Hondur chuckled.

"It's usually following us..."

"Of course."

"Anyway, now that we've caught up, feel like taking care of some street trash?"

Damien shrugged.

"I must admit these guys weren't really much fun. Lead the way..."

His sensitive hearing alerted him to the rumblings in the earth that was low compared to the all-out fighting that was occurring all over the city. Turning, Sigrun remained still as he peered through the hazy smoke. His eyes narrowed as he felt an unease creep up his spine.

Through the slow-shifting smoke, a tank's barrel pierced and suddenly became visible. Sigrun immediately began moving, not bothering to attempt any spell defenses at the moment. He simply knew when he was about to be overpowered. Bullets he could handle, but tank rounds were something else. He knew his limitations well, and he always kept them in mind.

As he darted down a side alley, a tremendous blast shook both buildings on either side of him, sending great plumes of smoke and bricks after him. He cursed as a hostile vampire leapt up near him and began running in the same direction as he was. The vampire realized who was with him and turned to attack, only to feel Sigrun's fingers latching around the fangs in the widened mouth and yanking forward, snapping them. The vampire howled in agony as he halted and clutched his face.

Sigrun disappeared out the other end of the alleyway, his eyesight struggling to discern shapes in the smoke filled air.

Back in the alley, the vampire suddenly turned and watched as a number of military soldiers came running in, guns raised at him. He hissed a bloody warning at them, and momentarily recieved a considerable number of bullets from a little over a half dozen rifles.

Danielle screamed as Lujza worked her with her fangs and the blade. The vampiress’ mouth filled with blood that slopped down onto Lujza’s face. With her last reserve of mental energy, she pushed the blade from Lujza’s grasp and in an act of desperation, drove her fangs into Lujza’s right arm, drinking as fast as she could, though she knew she was done for.

Still drinking the blood, still being bitten, still slowly dying, Danielle mentally shot to Lujza. “I will still be in you when I die.”

Pulling up her right arm, in a burst of strength, drove her right hand fingers into Lujza’s stomach. Her fingers thrashed around Lujza’s insides, her nails cutting away at her organs as Danielle tried to push her hand deeper into the other woman, the nails clawing for the heart.

She felt the pain as Lujza’s barbed fangs bit into her neck again, holding fast. Closing her eyes, Danielle pulled from Lujza’s arm, her own blood and Lujza’s fell from her open mouth onto the snow and with a last bit of strength, she curled her fingers inside of Lujza, feeling her nails cut away at Lujza’s organs.

With a sigh and glob of blood falling from her mouth, Danielle fell dead on top of Lujza.


The vampire grunted as Skadi pinned him to the rooftop. He grunted and tried to break free, yet his actions only produced him moving a few centimeters in any direction before Skadi applied more pressure, cracking several ribs. He groaned and tried to reach for his sword or any weapon, but the only part of him that could ever touch them were the very tips of his fingers. He found his mind abilities blocked, which was little surprise to him as the ancient probably knew all the tricks in the book.

He looked up at her, surprised he had lasted this long. “To tell the truth Lady Skadi I am surprised I have lived this long against you. I have seen you drain vampires you pin down or flat out kill them. Heh, don’t think I don’t know whatever I say to you will probably fall on deaf ears yet I will give it a whirl. You have probably heard the whole ‘this isn’t your fight’ before so I think I will skip that.”

The vampire grunted and shifted again. “The only thing I can say is this…well…nothing I guess. Anything I can say will be cliché or you have already heard it from hundreds if not thousands of others. The only reason I can give for you not killing me is that you, Hondur and Sigrun were never the targets. Everyone figured that you all would have left as soon as the fight started. But…I must ask…before you lob off my head or put a slug through it…why did to you take Stephen Malone on as a student? From your apparent attitude…seems a little out of place.”


Private Stacy Webster couldn’t find her squad in the cloud of snow and dust. She gripped her G36 tightly as she heard the cries of the wounded. So far she had stumbled upon a burning Marauder and some dead vampires and soldiers, yet no sign of her squad. Her headset was so filled with shouts and cries she could not hear who was from her own Ivan Company and who was part of the tank companies. As she ran around, she saw a shape suddenly appear before her. Preparing the bayonet or shoot the person, she was stunned to find a man dressed in an almost fanciful outfit. She blinked, not sure who this character was, maybe he escaped from the looney bin during the commotion.

As the man turned to her, it hit the twenty-five year old, she knew the face. “Oh fuck…King…”

She didn’t say the rest of Sigrun’s name as she stared numbly at the elf, the battle swirling in the cloud around them temporarily forgotten. As she stared at him, she became a little defensive, the image of a King suddenly in the middle of a battle made her mind twitch. “Jesus fucking Christ…what the fuck are you doing here?”


Nicole kicked the other vampire in the groin when she had blocked his next swipe. He cried out and she drove her blade into his shoulder. The vampire cried out and fired a massive mental shock to her body, throwing her off the rooftop and down into the alleyway. Nicole opened her eyes as the vampire dove down at her, she rolled out of the way a mere second before his blade would have removed her heart. The vampiress hissed and bared her fangs as she pounced on the vampire before he was fully ready to fight.

Holding firmly onto him, Nicole drank, feeling the extra power the blood gave her before she pulled back. She jumped off of him and Nicole stiffened when she heard gunfire deep in the alleyways. Grabbing her woozy victim, she threw him down the alley way and took off into the main street just as the vampire was riddled with bullets before being blown apart by a grenade.

Sigrun turned to the surprised exclamation and narrowed his eyes as he was momentarily recognized. He listened to her question and simply shook his head at her, "I'm here on a personal visit with a friend of mine...seems that we're caught up in your troubles here."

As they continued to stare at one another, Sigrun positioned defensively and ready to cast a spell if necessary, and the woman opposite him also defensive and ready to pull the trigger if necessary.

Sigrun's eyes studied her outward emotions, then suddenly shifted to the side. He snarled slightly and with lightning speed, cast a spell past the woman. A second after hitting his intended target, a body collapsed behind the woman, an arm slapping with a dead weight against her leg. Sigrun spoke loud enough for her to hear, "Vampire." He strode closer and pushed the end of her weapon away from him casually as he used his foot to turn the head around and expose the fangs.

"I'd suggest you find someplace to hole up, ride this storm out. You're in way over your head with these vampires."

Stacy jumped as she felt the arm against her leg, she turned her head and blinked as Sigrun walked past her and exposed the vampire's fangs. Okay, so he had saved her life. Her ass had been pulled out of the fire by people before tonight, this was no different, spare he had somehow killed it without a sword or a gun.

His words were still buzzing in her head, vistiting a friend. What kind of a friend suddenly gets a King of all people involved in a war. Unless it was the President, whom she highly doubted as the newspapers would have had reports about Sigrun visiting days before.

"You may not know this but I have seen battle before. Now we need to get you out of here." She tried her radio, but her requests were washed away and forgotten in a sea of panicked voices. Stacy turend to Sigurn, eyeing him even more carefully, ready to defend herself, considering the way he killed the vamipre. "Who is this friend of yours?"

Sigrun looked down at the woman, smirking slightly at her questions. "Whether or not you've got battle experience, I somewhat doubt your expertise in dealing with all the tricks of vampires and other supernatural creatures."

He thought about her last question and juggled in his mind the pros and cons of revealing such information. After several moments, he decided to not tell her. It wouldn't do to have this woman return to her superiors and report on whom was in the battle. He was sure that Stephen would want to remain anonymous while fighting, at least for now.

"You do not need to know whom I am with." he replied at last to her.

Danielle screamed as Lujza worked her with her fangs and the blade. The vampiress’ mouth filled with blood that slopped down onto Lujza’s face. With her last reserve of mental energy, she pushed the blade from Lujza’s grasp and in an act of desperation, drove her fangs into Lujza’s right arm, drinking as fast as she could, though she knew she was done for.

Still drinking the blood, still being bitten, still slowly dying, Danielle mentally shot to Lujza. “I will still be in you when I die.”

Pulling up her right arm, in a burst of strength, drove her right hand fingers into Lujza’s stomach. Her fingers thrashed around Lujza’s insides, her nails cutting away at her organs as Danielle tried to push her hand deeper into the other woman, the nails clawing for the heart.

She felt the pain as Lujza’s barbed fangs bit into her neck again, holding fast. Closing her eyes, Danielle pulled from Lujza’s arm, her own blood and Lujza’s fell from her open mouth onto the snow and with a last bit of strength, she curled her fingers inside of Lujza, feeling her nails cut away at Lujza’s organs.

With a sigh and glob of blood falling from her mouth, Danielle fell dead on top of Lujza.



The screams Danielle made was Lujza tore into her were quite satisfying, but they would definitely draw humans into the area, which in the Batory's state, would not be good. Suddenly, she found that the dagger was no longer in her left hand, and the other vampiress was biting her arm. Lujza determined to simply drink faster when her eyes flared open in agony.

Realizing what was happening, what that searing, but strangely unfamiliar, pain was, Lujza dug her fangs into the ruins of Danielle's throat, severing both the jugular vein and the artery delivering fresh blood to the vampiress' brain. She then latched on, gripping the ends of both blood vessels in her mouth, and for the first time in her life actually sucked blood, draining the infernal woman as fast as she could.

With her free hand, she tried desperately to restrain the arm of Danielle and pull it out, but to no avail, it was slippery with their blood. Lujza could not let the other vampiress damage her heart, and her mind raced trying to find a solution. After fumbling around for the dagger, she found it again and drove it into Danielle's elbow, right at the "funny bone." She doubted that the woman could still comprehend where pain was coming from, but the stab hindered the performance of the limb, and ended up just barely saving Lujza, as when Danielle made her dying grasp inside Lujza's torso, her fingernails scraped a lung, not the heart.

Danielle was heavier than she looked, or at least it felt like it to Lujza now, barely conscious, moaning in her pain. She dragged herself into a spot under an extended doorway of a nearby building, which would be in the shade if the sun rose before she was strong enough to leave, consequently pulling Danielle's corpse along too. Once there, she drank all that there was in the fresh cadaver. Needing every drop of blood she could get, Lujza did the unspeakable, eating some of the dead vampiress' flesh, from areas with many capillaries. Her body would not be able to process the actual tissue, a fact that made it irrelevant that Danielle had ruined her intestines, but the meat contained blood that she sorely needed. It wasn't the first time that a Batory had engaged in cannibalism.

Stacy spotted something in the smoke trying to sneak up on them. Bringing up her rifle, her challenge was never spoke before a vampiress pulled out a dagger and made a dash. The soldier instinctively pulled the trigger, a hard three round burst struck the other woman, but on first impressions there was no effect of the lead Stacy had put into her gun. First impressions were wrong here, as each bullet left the barrel, there was a small green bolt before hitting the vampire flesh.

The phosphorus tracer rounds burned inside the vampire and went at the blood like a match to gasoline. The vampire scream as she went up like kerosene soaked kindling. The vampiress was engulfed in fire within seconds and tried to make another move to the human, another short burst kicked the burning thing back and the vampire disappeared back into the swirling cloud.

She turned to Sigrun. “I know how to fight sir.”

“Come on, I need to get you out of here.” She said as she grabbed his arm. “General Hakha will want to talk to you once this shit is settled.”


Nicole ran down the street towards the heavy smell of vampire blood, human blood, and female screaming. The battle was now sea-sawing, the vampires continued to attack with no fresh orders from Joseph. The vampiress found a group of police and military vehicles covered in blood, brass, and bodies. Sneaking behind a cruiser, Nicole pulled out both of her automatic pistols and rounded the front, both weapons ready.

Nothing, only Lujza’s axe and plenty of blood. Nicole’s eyes followed a snow/blood streak up to the doorway of a shop, there, to her horror, was Lujza eating the body of another vampire. Nicole bent over and vomited for a while before holstering her guns and grabbing Lujza’s axe.

“Lujza.” Nicole announced herself. She walked up to Lujza, trying to avoid the sight of strips of meat hanging in her teeth. “Oh Jesus Christ.”

She saw the vampiress attached to Lujza, the dead hand firmly in Lujza’s stomach. Kneeling next to Lujza, she put her hand on Lujza’s chest and grasped the dead arm. With a pull, wiggle, and another pull on the blood slick arm, it exited Lujza’s body. “There we go…and here you go.”

Nicole reached into a pocket and thrust into Lujza’s hands the bloodstone. “Drink up.”


Stephen grunted as his sword went flying from his grasp. Joseph’s mental blast came seconds after Stephen had done the same to Joseph. The Simatarian leapt at Joseph, ramming his shoulder into the other vampire’s stomach, the pair fell backwards, the second his ass hit the floor, Joseph hurled Stephen over his head and off his body and through a door.

Joseph got up and as he moved to the door, Stephen lurched out and stabbed him in the stomach with a large wooden splinter. The unnatural elder power Stephen possessed carried him and Joseph against the wall. Joseph looked down at the wood, then at Stephen. “For fucks sake we both know Stoker made that part up.”

Pulling back a fist, he gave Stephen a hard right hook, launching him off of him and tumbling down the hallway. Joseph removed the splinter and threw it to the ground. With a loud cry, he charged down the hallway towards the rising Stephen. The Simatarian braced himself and when Joseph reached him, grabbed the older vampire by the shirt, spun and hurled him through the wall.

“Going to do to you what Skadi did to me the last war.” Stephen muttered.

Standing, the vampire marched into the gaping hole and into a bathroom, water was spurting out of the broken pipes and the water felt good on his body. The brief relaxation was over when Joseph appeared from the broken door where he had exited after passing through the bathroom and hurled Stephen into the marble Jacuzzi.

Stephen grunted and moaned, cracked marble and dust came down on him as he removed himself from the dent he made. When he stood, Joseph was back on him and the battle continued.

Skadi growled mildly as the vampire beneath her boot attempted to stall his death with words. Evidently the younger creature didn't stand a chance against Skadi's strength or sheer will. He wasn't moving anywhere, mentally or physically and would be dead soon enough.

Evidently the vampire knew his death was imminent yet Skadi couldn't see the purpose of stalling it any longer. He words were meaningless and mostly babble, and yet she allowed him to speak.

"There is nothing you can say that's going to change the outcome of this encounter..."

Finally he finished speaking and Skadi sighed, it hadn't been worth the wait in the slightest. For a moment she thought there could be some actual intelligence within that immortal mind, apparently not.

"I don't have to explain my actions to anyone, especially you. Stephen is no longer a concern of yours. Yet before you do die, you should contemplate loyalty. One does not abandon one's friends in their time of need."

With that said, Skadi removed a pistol from her coat and promptly placed a slug through the vampire's head, killing him instantly. Skadi closed her eyes and opened her mind, looking for a familiar presence within the area. Within seconds she'd found one, a very familiar presence.

"Don't be surprised if I drop in."

Reholstering her weapon, Skadi launched herself into the air and soared over the street to land upon the other side of the building, straight into the thick battle and directly behind Sigrun.
______________________

Now upon the streets once again, Hondur and Damien appeared to be strolling rather casually, occassionally discharging a few rounds in order to dispose of the odd vampire.

"What brings you here anyway, Hondur?"

"I'm helping out a friend, did you ever meet Stephen Malone?"

"I don't believe so..."

"Ah, well this is his home nation. As you can imagine, he doesn't take too kindly to a bunch of thugs attacking it, and so we're helping him take out the trash."

"I take it vampires aren't too popular around here?"

"Indeed, there are only two native to this land and the nation as a whole has only learned of them several years ago."

"STOP!"

Both vampires halted in their tracks and spun around to face ten soldiers, eight armed with automatic rifles of some description whilst two on the end possessed flamethrowers.

"Damien... let me handle this..."

Hondur's words fell upon deaf ears as Damien was already concentrating upon the soldiers at each end of the row, those armed with the most potent vampire weapons.

Both men grunted as the weapon was yanked from their hands and directed towards their comrades, unleashing massive waves of firery doom upon the other soldiers. There was no time for them to react as the flames engulfed them, leaving two very stunned soldiers standing.

Hondur cursed as he moved forward, forcing his palm into the face of a soldier, knocking him out cold. Screams filled the air as the strench of burning flesh became prominent. Turning back to Damien, Hondur watched as he drained the last soldier.

"You know... I did tell my friend that the Simitarians would not die at my hand."

Damien smiled as he dropped the soldier.

"And it appears none have."

Stacy continued to squint in the cloud; her visibility was only a few meters as she tried to lead Sigrun out of the cloud caused by constant explosions. She turned around to see Sigrun stopped a meter behind her, looking back. “Sir?”

She approached him and was about to speak when she saw another woman, this one dressed in all black from her boots to a rather nice trenchcoat. No VIB, IBI, and certainly not any army soldier wore that get up. And the sword, they were only used in ceremony. Stacy’s eyes widened as she realized what the woman was. Training kicked in as she pushed Sigrun down to the ground and brought up her G36. Remembering what happened to the last vampire with the tracer rounds, she had no doubt the same would happen.

If the weapon ran dry, she still had her bayonet on the end of the gun and her combat knife. The second the woman entered her sights, Stacy fired.


The screams of the men were clearly audible for the fourteen man and woman crew of Bug Zapper, one of several C-130H Spectre Gunships circling the city. They were moving less than a block away when the screams came through. Lieutenant Kim Zane looked out the window of the cockpit to see two jets of flame hit people down there. “Johnny take a look.”

The infrared operator looked into his screen. He could see the heat signature put off by the fire, then…the utter coldness of two others standing next to it. “Fucking vampires LT!”

Zane titled the aircraft, bringing the full force of the aircraft’s weapons to bear. “Call in a Comanche…don’t them run. FIRE!”

The loud rumbling reached Hondur’s and Damien’s ears. As the vampires looked up, the black leviathan aircraft light up like a Christmas tree. Before they could move far the round from the C-130’s M102 105mm howitzer slammed into the ground near them, throwing both vampires off their feet and slamming into a parked car. The heavy pounding of the L60 Bofors rapid fire 40mm cannon and both M61 20mm Vulcan machine guns chimed in, the green tracers headed down, tearing up large pieces of asphalt.

Then, the 105 roared again, the shell smashing into the building near the two vampires, it began to collapse.

Zane looked on with satisfaction as the guns did their job, a bigger grin came as a RAH-66 Comanche flew towards them, its tri barreled 20mm gun was already warmed, the missile racks loaded with Stinger and Hellfire missiles and Hydra-70 rockets emerged from the sides of the sleek aircraft as it readied to deal out death if the vampires tried to make it to the rooftops.

Zane looked back down at the street as she circled, allowing her guns to pummel away.

Before Skadi could get a word to her companion, Sigrun was pushed to the ground a a Simitarian woman bearing a G36 unleashed her clip towards Skadi. Not about to take crap from some soldier, Skadi promptly moved out of the way faster than the young woman could comprehend, arcing around Sigrun and halting right behind the soldier.

With the clip dry, Stacy found that not a single bullet had hit the woman as she was no longer there. Skadi merely stood in silence for a moment, until the soldier turned around to see Sigrun, yet came across her instead.

A single sweep of her leg dropped Stacy to her back as Skadi withdrew her pistol once again.

"I suggest you find someone else to bother..."
______________

Both Hondur and Damien cursed loudly as they noted the gunship before them. A few soldiers was no challenge at all but this could certainly present a problem, or at least somewhat of a challenge.

Picking themselves off the ground, neither vampire had time to stand around as the area around them exploded in machine gun fire, the road being torn up around them and the building just to the side beginning to collapse.

"This is what happens when you do stupid shit like that..."

"Heh, perhaps so. We'll be right though.""

Ducking into an alley, both vampires took a moment to survey the situation. The brief silence was enough for them to notice the Commanche fly overhead, fully decked out with weapons.

"Shit..."

Damien merely smiled.

"Feel like some fireworks?"

Nicole ran down the street towards the heavy smell of vampire blood, human blood, and female screaming. The battle was now sea-sawing, the vampires continued to attack with no fresh orders from Joseph. The vampiress found a group of police and military vehicles covered in blood, brass, and bodies. Sneaking behind a cruiser, Nicole pulled out both of her automatic pistols and rounded the front, both weapons ready.

Nothing, only Lujza’s axe and plenty of blood. Nicole’s eyes followed a snow/blood streak up to the doorway of a shop, there, to her horror, was Lujza eating the body of another vampire. Nicole bent over and vomited for a while before holstering her guns and grabbing Lujza’s axe.

“Lujza.” Nicole announced herself. She walked up to Lujza, trying to avoid the sight of strips of meat hanging in her teeth. “Oh Jesus Christ.”

She saw the vampiress attached to Lujza, the dead hand firmly in Lujza’s stomach. Kneeling next to Lujza, she put her hand on Lujza’s chest and grasped the dead arm. With a pull, wiggle, and another pull on the blood slick arm, it exited Lujza’s body. “There we go…and here you go.”

Nicole reached into a pocket and thrust into Lujza’s hands the bloodstone. “Drink up.”


The world seemed unreal in a way to Lujza. Her pain was so intense that her mind had been forced to compartmentalize, so while she knew she was in at least as much pain as she ever had been, at the same time, it was like it was off in some other room. She took an occasional bite from Danielle's corpse, chewing mechanically.

She noticed a blur in her field of vision before hearing someone say her name. In her state, her hearing was functioning better than her vision, and within a second or so Lujza recognized that the voice belonged to Nicole. "Oh hello, Nicole," she said delireously, turning toward the blurry shape of a woman. The fact that her mind wasn't really working much besides being focused on survival lessened the control she normally had over her speech, making her accent thick and slurred. "Who's Jesus Christ?" she asked in response to Nicole's exclamation. Normally she would know, but higher thinking was beyond her right now.

Feeling the odd sensation of someone touching her chest, Lujza fumbled with her hands trying to make sense of what was going on, but was stopped by the excruciating pain that suddenly shot up through her midsection. Arching her back against the agony, the vampiress made a relatively quiet, yet haunting shriek as Danielle's arm was pulled out of her body. Noticing the sudden bleeding out of the hole it had left, Lujza took another bite out of the dead woman's shoulder, chewed it and swallowed it, licking the drop of blood that had oozed out through her mouth.

"I don't want to bite a rock," she mumbled, exhausted, before Nicole's hand gently coaxed her head forward, fangs onto the bloodstone. Amazingly, the "rock" had blood, and so Lujza drank as much as she could as fast as possible. Her body needed to replace a massive amount of blood that had been lost.

Within a few minutes, she had consumed enough so that the blood supply to her brain could be replenishe, allowing most of her higher thought processes to begin anew, and enabling her to have a greater understanding of what had been going on. Black eyes that blazed intelligence and thought darted to Nicole's face, and then to the carcass beside them. They then slowly swiveled back to Nicole. Lujza clearly now was able to think again, and this fact would be even more clear to Nicole, as the Batory did not have the strength left to shield her thoughts, which were therefore practically being broadcast. Even if Nicole wasn't paying attention to Lujza's thoughts, the Callisdrunian vampire's face made obvious the incredible amount of shame she felt at being found doing what while necessary, could only be called horrible. Tears began to form as Lujza's memory of the struggle with Danielle all the way up to the present replayed itself in her mind, and was therefore practically audible to Nicole. Releasing the bloodstone, she began to sob. "Oh Nicole, I am so sorry that you had to see this," she whimpered. Lujza wrapped her bloody arms around the other vampiress and hugged her close, resting her head on Nicole's bosom as she cried. "So very sorry," she murmered.

Stacy shook her head as the helmet came bouncing off with the kick that knocked her down. Blinking, she stared up at the barrel of a Beretta automatic. A God damn nine? I’m going to be done in by a sissy nine millimeter? The soldier stared up at the vampiress, knowing the other woman could see her Kevlar vest and probably the ballistic plate that protected her against heavier rounds. The bullet would come in the head.

Her hands up near her head, Stacy knew there was a Smith and Wesson 386PD .357 Magnum in a holster on her chest. The dash would be one sided, the vampire would win unless the gun was empty or there was a dud in the breech. Stacy heard her name repeated over and over on her headset nearby, she had to try something to delay the vampire even by the most fraction of a second to prevent her from killing or kidnapping King Greenwood.

Stacy’s arm dashed for the revolver but as she pulled, instead of a clean withdrawal, her heart stopped cold when she felt it stop. The hammer was stuck on the strap of her combat vest.

“Oh shit…”


Zane grinned at the destruction. Her joy was short lived when she got word that the vampires were still alive, but in an alleyway. She pulled the aircraft away from the area before spinning it around and flying it back to the alley. Tilting it as far over as it would go, the 105, 40 and 20mm guns tore the seven story buildings away level by level. After another pass, she pulled the aircraft up to two hundred feet to survey the damage, a small fire was starting and the Comanche roared in and fired off a salvo of Hydra rockets into the area before arching up into the sky and making sweeps, watching for movement.

“No way anyone could have survived that.” She muttered.


Nicole cradled the healed Lujza in her arms. She rocked her gently back and forth like a mother to her child. She had not expected such a reaction at all from her and was taken aback by her embrace for a few seconds before coming to her senses and holding her. “Its okay Lujza…its okay…I understand.”

She understood the reason behind the act of cannibalism like she understood the magic Sigrun employed. Nicole watched the fight between the two women before her eyes; Lujza had come close to being killed, a few more inches and Danielle’s nails would have torn Lujza’s heart right out. Nicole shut her eyes, oblivious of the battle going on around them as she tried to soothe Lujza.

Skadi's face turned from a blank expression to that of irritaiton. She'd spared the woman thus far and yet she attempted to kill Skadi. Of course, this would not be tolerated.

"Wrong choice..."

Two shots were fired before Stacy could even move, one passing through each shoulder, destroying muscle and nerves, yet doing minimal damage to bone, fortunately for Stacy.

The young woman screamed out in pain as Skadi stood over her, the gun still smoking. The vest had obviously slowed the bullets somewhat, but the shoulder area was never completely covered and point blank range tended to change how well these things worked anyway.

Turning around, she noted Sigrun getting up.

"Shall we continue?"
_______________

Bricks filled the air on all sides as the two buildings creating the alley were torn to threads by the constant machine gun fire unleashed by the gunship and commanche.

Both vampires employed their supernatural abilities to avoid being hit, yet their cover was quickly becoming unstable as the gunfire continued. Eventually it stopped, giving the vampires a single moment to gaze around themselves before hearing the distinct sound of rockets being fired towards their location.

Both vampires ran towards the end of the ally, erecting mental shields encompassing the entire entrance to the alley. Damien maintained the defense whilst Hondur focused upon altering the trajectories. Within seconds most of the missiles had changed course, spiralling off towards buildings, a few even heading back to the gunship whilst two remaining managed to strike Damien's shield, causing him to grunt in exertion.

Grinning to himself, Hondur looked down to his companion.

"We need to take them down..."

Rising to his feet with a slight scowl on his face, Sigrun nodded to Skadi, "Yes." Then, he shifted his gaze to the woman on the ground, "Actually, give me a moment."

Walking over to her, Sigrun knelt down and within a few seconds, both slugs fell to the ground. Sigrun looked down at the woman and kept a hard gaze on her, a gaze that transmitted years of knowledge, years of experience, and years of battle hours logged. He rose to his feet, his eyes still on her.

"Few things are as clear as white and black, Private Stacy Webster. Never forget that."

With that said, he nodded to her and turned to Skadi, "Now I'm ready. Time to return to the playground."

Stacy cried out in pain as her shoulders were torn by the bullets the vampiress had fired. She had tried and failed to protect Sigrun, at least she had bought a few precious seconds and hopefully another human had heard the shots in the maelstrom and was coming. The soldier’s heart stopped when the vampiress didn’t attack Sigrun nor the elf attack her, instead the pair engaged in a conversation. Oh my God...he is with a vampire….

She stared up at Sigrun and was going to spit in his face, it wasn’t for the vampiress and her pistol. Stacy’s body shuddered under the indigestible stuff Sigrun flashed by her, it was confusing to the human who didn’t understand at least ninety eight percent of what Sigrun had in his mind. She stared blankly back at Sigrun before closing her eyes.

Stacy was picked up by a VIB team only a few minutes after Skadi and Sigrun had left her. She was taken to an M*A*S*H for some quick surgery on her shoulders before being taken to one of the city’s remaining hospitals when the battle had finished. When she gave her report of seeing the Tarlachian King with a vampiress in the middle of the battle, it made a column on the front page and was denied by the Simatarian and Tarlachian government stating that Private Webster had served as a guard at the Simatarian embassy in Turath for a few months, seen the King once when she drove a car to a formal dinner and had suffered a concussion following a grenade blast during the battle, sending her thoughts swirling and mixing. Stacy accepted the doctor’s and government’s explanation and went back into the infantry, but with always the incident in the snow/dust maelstrom playing over and over again in her head till the day she died.


“Oh fuck! Incoming!” Zane screamed as she saw a trio of Hydra rockets swing from the alley towards her. The countermeasures on the gunship were useless against the unguided rockets. “Hang on!”

Both hands on the yolk, she pulled the leviathan to the right, the AAR-47 missile warning system blaring loudly. The crew gripped their guns and whatever they could as the C-130 tired to avoid the rockets. Palms sweating, she listened as it was reported two passed beneath them and her throat tightened as the last rocket moved less than few meters from the nose.

Zane brought the aircraft back around, gasping and trying to maintain a grip on her bird. “This is Whiskey Charlie Oh-Four-Four…I need infantry and armor support on the ground on Atlee Street. Got two vampires…they just knocked some Hydras at me. Also request two A-10s for support.”

“Roger that Whiskey Charlie Oh-Four-Four.” A static voice said. “A platoon is heading to you with Marauders in support and two A-10s are on their way. ETA on the infantry…five minutes…ETA on the A-10s about fifteen…they are just receiving a fresh load of fiery eggs.”

“Roger that.” Zane said with a cruel grin. She then spoke to her crew. “Blow up those blood sucking fuckers!”

The guns roared again as Zane banked the craft. The green tracers smashed into the ground, followed by heart warming explosions, those vampires would die down there, if it was the last thing she would do. She had friends and family down there and she would make sure she did her part. She spotted the platoon of infantry moving up the street with three Marauder armored fighting vehicles in support. The 105mm stopped firing and shortly afterward the 40mm and just as the first soldier entered the rubble, the two 20mms.


The soldier’s spirits were high, they had already ambushed and dispersed two vampire groups, with great thanks to three Assington VP advisors with them. The platoon moved in squads with precise movement, nothing over rushed, they had done this and had ambushed and killed nearly a dozen vampires so far. A young private was first around a corner, his G36 was up and through the rubble he saw the back of Damien.

A four round burst of 5.56mm silver slugs smashed into Damien’s shoulder and back. A second after that before Hondur and Damien, the Marauders appeared climbing over the rubble, their rapid fire 20mm cannons opened fire.

Whilst the pair had survived for a moment longer, the next step could very well be their last when bullets rained down towards them, tearing everything apart in a vicious rampage of destruction. Fortunately the shield maintained enough cover for the vampires to avoid being torn to pieces, unlike the two buildings beside them.

Unfortunately this safety didn't last long as Hondur turned just in time to see gunfire erupt behind them, several silver slugs slamming into Damien's back. The younger vampire screamed in agony as the bullets burned away at his flesh, causing him to drop to the ground in agony.

Cursing under his breath, Hondur spun around and unleashed a mental shove strong enough to send the soldiers rocketing through the air, colliding into buildings across the street with an impact hard enough to break bones.

"This is why we should do things my way, Damien. Now I have to drag your injured carcass out of here."

Managing to squeeze out a smile, Damien rolled over onto his back and withdrew his pistols.

"I'll watch your back if you can find a way to get us the hell out of here."

"Right."

Ignoring the gunfire and chaos around him, Hondur cleared his mind as he searched his surroundings, looking for a way out of this current predicament. The gunship passed by once again, levelling what was left of the building to Hondur's left whilst the Commanche was attempted to get a better angle upon the vampires.

After a few moments, Hondur finally spotted it, the very thing that would save his life. Standing up straight, Hondur allowed Damien to pick off anything that approached from behind whilst he levitated several bricks around him, one in each hand to complement.

Leaping onto the top of a mostly intact building, Hondur began launching bricks at the commanche at speeds the pilot would not be able to react to. Bang! One brick hit the wind shield, bang! bang!, two more bricks.

Soon enough the chopper pilot found his vehicle being bombarded with bricks, flying at incredible speeds and threatening to smash through the material protecting him from the outside. Another hit the rotor, exploding upon impact yet not halt the spin... yet.

With the bricks distracting the chopper, Hondur promptly landed next to Damien once again and used his mental will to remove the lid from a manhole leading into the sewer system.

"Damien, keep yourself damn straight."

With a brief nod, the younger vampire found himself launched into the air, going up for several seconds before completing the arc anc plummeting towards the hard road, only to miss the impact and find himself soaked in the waste of Clarence.

Spinning around, Hondur fired off a few more shots towards the soldiers before leaping into the air once again, firing his own shots back at the commanche before he too plunged into the sewers. Landing beside Damien, Hondur looked over his back.

"How many?"

"At least three, one of them passed through but the others are still there."

"Right, well we don't really have time to worry about that. Let's go..."

"Great."

Hoisting his vampiric comrade onto his feet, Hondur began his trek through the sewers of Clarence, moving at vampiric speeds away from the overwhelming Simitarian forces.

Zane listened to the report of the soldiers; the vampires had slipped down into the sewers. They began to move off and she concentrated on the Comanche. Though built tough and carrying top of the line radar, weapons, and counter measures…the works, getting attacked by apparently bricks was a shocker. The Comanche pilot tucked the missile racks back into the aircraft and began to turn to move to the airport for a quick checkup.

He never made it. Hondur’s ancient strength hurtling bricks with several hitting the rotor and the base of the rotor itself caused the aircraft to violently convulse as the pilot attempted a brief acceleration. The bent metal swung harder and faster and finally snapped. A hundred feet above, Zane watched in horror as the propeller disconnected from the Comanche and the helicopter when nose first down into the city. Right down on the White House.


Nicole sensed Hondur coming though towards her, but below her. Oh God Hondur of all the places… Nicole left Lujza and marched over to the nearest manhole cover. Preparing herself, she ripped it off and promptly gagged at the stench that smashed into her. She turned around, taking in some fresh night air before turning around and promptly dropping into the sewers, the stench causing her eyes to water. She landed on one of the metal walkways, thankfully as she noticed something unpleasant floating past her feet.

She heard the rapid footsteps behind her as she turned around to see Hondur rounding a corner in the black. Nicole smiled as best she could. “Hondur…not the best place to be coming…”

The vampiress noticed another vampire with Hondur, no one that she knew. One of her CZ-G2000 automatics quickly found its way into her hand as she aimed at the new vampire. “Before I plug you with silver nitrate who are you?”


Stephen picked up Joseph and hurled him upwards and into a two million dollar diamond and gold chandelier in the foyer. The elder was cut across the face and body by the diamonds and found himself stuck up there. Stephen jumped up, grabbed the edge and yanked down, ripping it from its moorings in the ceiling and hurtling down to the ground. As it plummeted, he pushed himself away and onto the wall. Stephen turned and instead found Joseph hovering in the air, mentally pulling diamonds from his face.

Stephen leapt off of the wall and smashed into him, both vampires smashed into the wall before falling down to the ground, punching and cursing at each other. Joseph wiggled one of his legs inside and kicked Stephen off him and sent the younger vampire hurtling through another wall. Joseph stood and ran to the hole. He grinned as he found Stephen trying to get up. The old vampire marched up and picked him up by the throat.

“You never stood a chance Stephen my boy. Even with your abnormal strength you are still have yet to figure out how to be a vampire. Still wearing your body armor and carrying your assault weapons…your life as a human is over. You will never amount to anything in the vampire community…just to be known as the man who took a thousand years to turn into a vampire. Poor Nicole…such a waste of potential. She could turn out to be an excellent vampire…a perfect hunter and killer. She could be useful to me…people change…vampires are no different. Now all this talking and fighting is getting me hungry…then I must be off to kill the President and a few hundred sailors.”

Joseph bared his fangs and before he could deliver the bite to Stephen, the elder stopped as he heard the whine of a helicopter then just the engine. Stephen heard it too, then the whole building shudder as the Comanche crashed onto the roof.

Both vampires were thrown violently from one another as the ordinance on the helicopter exploded.

Hondur stopped suddenly as he noticed the figure standing before him as he rounded a corner. Ready to unleash his machine pistol towards the figure if necessary, the ancient vampire hesitated a moment to allow whoever it was a chance to identify themselves.

The female voice automatically identified the person before him to the Nicole and Hondur confirmed such with a quick mental probe. Smiling in relief, the ancient vampire moved his hands away from his weapons and began to move forward.

Before he had a chance to speak, Nicole pulled a weapon and immediately trained it upon Damien, obviously suspicious of the unfamiliar vampire. Hondur thought it odd considering Damien was in his company. Moving in front of Nicole, he motioned for her to drop the weapon.

"It's alright, he's with me. Anyway, Damien's hurt.... got a few slugs in his back."

Damien nodded as he leaned against a sewer wall to support himself.

"Do you think we could do something about this?"

Nicole holstered the weapon and gave a nod to Hondur. She was on the edge and was suspicious of any vampire spare for Hondur, Skadi, Lujza, or Stephen. “Lets get you up top…I can’t stand the stench.”

Nicole climbed up the ladder to the street and when Hondur lifted Damien up, she pulled him up and onto the snow. She laid him on his back and once Hondur was up, she had the ancient pin Damien to the ground. Nicole pulled a knife from behind her. “Hondur is only pinning you for your own good…and mine. Now, try to be a good boy.”

Nicole moved Damien’s shirt up to reveal the three smoking holes. Wiping the blood away from one of them, she pushed the blade into the vampire, she felt him spasm from the new penetration, but with Hondur holding him, there was no possibility of Damien breaking free. She found the bullet, burning its way through the man’s body, slowly sinking towards the heart. Nicole’s mind wrapped around it and pulled it up gently towards the knife blade. Once it was there, she gently wiggled it out and let it drop into the snow where it continued to burn the vampire blood off of it.

“Be glad you were not hit with silver nitrate…otherwise you would be dead right now. Okay, one down two to go.”

Nicole turned to the other two and preformed the same operation. When it was done, she wiped the blade on a small rag she had and slid it back into its scabbard. The vampiress bit her wrist and dripped some blood onto the wounds. She licked the blood from her wrist and removed the bloodstone from her pocket and offered it to him.

“Bite this. It’s a bloodstone; your fangs go straight in like they were like a human’s neck. They are very rare and if you get a chance to buy one...do so, its a wise investment.”

Crying was therapeudic. Lujza had soaked Nicole's front in her tears and blood (as she was still bleeding from the gaping wound in her abdomen), but her sobs were coming much more slowly now. She wondered randomly if Nicole and Stephen intended to have children, and then if it was possible for strigoi to have children.

Suddenly though, Nicole was getting up, and before Lujza realized what was happening, had left. "No, please don't leave me," she cried as she saw the other vampiress go down a manhole cover. And then she was alone again, with the corpse of Danielle (one interesting thing to note was that she had not eaten any of Danielle's face, so deeply ingrained was the cultural dishonor of defacing a fallen enemy). Still too weak to move around much, Lujza's tears began flowing more freely again. While a savage fighter, in some ways she was a very fragile and needy person, especially for a vampiress. Perhaps the others would think she was weak, but that thought didn't trouble her mind much. If the sun came up before she was able to move enough to get back to the Malone residence, she'd have to stay huddled in this doorway all day.

Damien grunted in pain as the knife was plunged into his back, digging around as it searched for the searing silver bullets in order to remove them. Of course the pain wasn't as bad as the bullets themselves, yet one could never call a knife in the back a pleasant experience.

Eventually Nicole managed to dig out the last bullet and Damien sighed in relief, the pain in his back finally subsiding. Of course it would take a while for him to heal, yet at least he wasn't in constant pain anymore. Rolling onto his back as Hondur stood once again, Damien flashed them both a relieved smile.

"Thanks."

Damien seemed quite puzzled as he gazed upon the bloodstone in Nicole's hands. He'd never seen or even heard of one before and the idea was quite shocking... a stone full of blood. Turning to Hondur, the puzzled look upon Damien's face obviously expected an explanation.

Hondur merely chuckled.

"There are many things beyond Assington that you're not familiar with Damien, bloodstones are only scratching the surface. Go ahead, it will help you heal faster."

Taking Hondur's word for it, Damien plunged his fangs into the stone surprisingly easily and began drawing upon warm blood. Several minutes passed as the younger vampire took his fill before finally finishing, nodding in thanks to Nicole.

Nicole smiled at Damien and chuckled as Hondur informed him there were more things in life outside of Assington. It sounded so much like what Stephen and Sigrun had both told her that vampires were only scratching the surface of what lay outside of her homeland. When the vampire had drunk his fill, Nicole pocketed it. She reminded herself next time she and Stephen were in Tarlachia to pick up another one, they apparently lasted for several centuries before drying up, but it never hurt to have a backup.

She then remembered Lujza. The vampiress looked at the two men. “Hondur listen to me. Lujza was in a battle with another vampire before I found her. Before she died the vampiress was able to get her hand into Lujza and carve her up good inside before dying. Lujza…she…she….uhhh…apparently needed more blood….” Nicole gagged as she thought about what she saw. “Lujza had begun to eat…the body. I dunno why...she still can have regular food so….well….just so you know not to ask questions. She is very broken right now. I think I’ll take her to Cassandra and have the dragon take her home if she can’t fight. You guys can go check on Skadi and Sigrun.”

Nicole got up and weaved back through the destroyed vehicles to Lujza in the doorway. She put on her best smile for her as she knelt down and collected her in her arms. “Lujza…if you can’t fight any longer, there is no reason to be ashamed. I’ll take you back to Cassandra and have her fly you back to my home. You want that or can you fight?”

Hondur cringed slightly at the mention of Luzja eating her foe. It wasn't exactly something one heard of everyday and whilst he was a blood drinker, the idea of actually eating another person or vampire was somewhat unnerving to him.

"Right..."

Evidently Nicole was disgusted as well, yet she seemed to be having more trouble dealing with it than Hondur or Damien. Both vampires stood and began to follow Nicole as she ascended the ladder, back to the streets of Clarence.

Fortunately this particular area was relatively quiet and so the three vampires had no trouble getting to Luzja. Hondur remained silent as Nicole tended to the vampiress whilst Damien raised an eyebrow as he looked around at the carnage before them.

"Looks like you put up quite the fight..."

Hondur nodded, taking a look for himself.

"She's not one you'd want to get into a tussle with..."
______________

Skadi and Sigrun had been fending off a number of attacking vampires when the wrenching crash of the commanche into the White House caught their attention.

"Stephen is in there... perhaps we should check that out?"

Her elven companion nodded in between slaughtering his opponents with precisely placed blade strikes.

Stephen opened his eyes. He looked up into the night sky through the gaping, jagged hole of what used to be the White House. He felt his blood bubble at little and he turned his head, seeing a few fires slowly growing in the ruins. What caused it? He remembered hearing the engine of an aircraft, a helicopter. Unless it dumped all of its weapons into the building, this damage would not be possible. It must have gone down, an RPG round must have gotten lucky and nailed a hit, the pilot tried to make for the airport but lost control.

Stephen reached up for a metal pipe sticking out of the rubble and began to drag himself up. He cried out in pain and let himself drop as he felt a lighting bolt of pain shoot up his spine. The impact against the walls and the plumbing was not a painless experience. Still holding onto the pipe, he gritted his teeth as he dragged himself up, knowing that if he didn’t escape, soldiers would come and finding a live vampire, they would either kill him or take him prisoner. And there would go his immortal life with Nicole.

Stephen stood but when he let his left leg down, he felt the obvious discomfort of a broken leg. He would have to get to some blood and have his leg set while he drank in order to heal the wound faster. The pipe he had been holding broke and sprayed the vampire with water, giving him a slight bit of refreshment.

The Simatarian began to hobble through the ruins, looking for a way out not blocked by stone or fire. His ears caught a moan and his cobalt blue eyes turned and found Joseph, his legs pinned under what was part of the second story floor, blood pooling around him. The other vampire was coming to and didn’t take notice of Stephen as he tried to push the material off of himself.

Stephen stared coldly at Joseph, he wanted to feed but he wouldn’t have that murder’s blood in his body. He felt himself, trying to find a weapon, any weapon. He felt his tattered clothing and was met by a sold object. Stephen removed a magazine for his P14 automatic with fourteen silver nitrate rounds. Not very useful without the pistol…unless….

Stephen grinned as he ejected two rounds and dropped the magazine to the ground, using his strength delicately, he removed the liquid filled rounds and dropped the casings to the ground. He began to hobble over to Joseph, both bullets in one hand. The Assingtonian felt him and turned. “Well…it has survived.”

“Yeah…but you won’t.” Stephen’s free arm grabbed Joseph’s head and pulled it back, the Assingtonian brought his hands over to Stephen, the Simatarian kept his face and his neck out of reach but Joseph tried to move his arm, but the lose of blood had lowered his potential. Joseph grunted as Stephen moved his hand down to his mouth and began to pull his jaw open. His eyes grew wide as he saw the two liquid filled bullets in Stephen’s other hand moving to his mouth. Joseph began to thrash, scream and attempted to close his mouth. “See you in hell Joseph.”

Stephen placed the rounds on Joseph’s teeth, removed his fingers and the millisecond they left the jaws, his other fist slammed the mouth shut, breaking the bullets and letting the silver nitrate fall down onto the top of Joseph’s mouth. The man began to scream as the silver burned through his flesh, burrowing down, deeper, and cutting away at his flesh. Stephen ignored Joseph’s hands trying for his throat as he kept the other vampire’s head back, letting the silver continue its rampage.

Joseph’s head and mouth burned. One of Joseph’s eyes rolled out of the head as the silver tore multiple paths, cutting out the roots of the eyeball. The pain was unbearable and his lungs were near bursting with his constant one note wail. He felt it near his brain, his scream jumped in pitch as it burned through his skull and finally reached his brain. He gave one last scream as it burned towards the center, blood oozed from the eye socket and other opens cut by the nitrate, his body began to shut down, his arms fell to the ground, his body went limp…and Joseph’s world turned to almost merciful darkness.

Stephen stared at Joseph and spat on the corpse. “Fucker.”

The Simatarian shivered as he felt something touch his cheek. He looked up as clean white snow began to gently drift to the ground.

Gritting his teeth, Stephen slowly stood and began to make his way out of the building and hopefully away from incoming soldiers.

Glad that the other woman was back, Lujza snuggled up to Nicole as best she could. "I want to fight," she said quietly, but obviously completely meaning it, "but I do not think I can right now." It was true, she had never before been injured quite as badly as this. Danielle had done a lot of damage inside her.

"I hope you have good plumbing," she said with as much of a smile as she could manage. She was still in quite a bit of pain, as a wound as bad as hers didn't heal instantly, even for a vampire. "My body can process the blood in the meat, but not the meat itself," Lujza added very quietly to make herself clear. Evidently, she still felt very ashamed for having to do what went somewhat against her sense of honor, and not only that, but being caught at it.

Both the vampiress and the elf made their way toward the White House, careful to remain out of sight of the soldiers that were also heading in the same direction. Skadi enabled her natural skill of speed to zip the two of them past the humans faster than they realized. Once inside, they moved quickly on their own merits, side by side as they sought for Stephen. Looking to Skadi, he asked her quietly, "Can you sense him nearby? Too much noise here for me to listen for his breathing."

Before she could answer though, they passed through a shattered doorway and saw a figure standing some distance away. Sigrun recognized him immediately, "Stephen. Good to see you're still alive."

He smelled burning flesh and glanced to Stephen's feet. There, the remains of Joseph could be seen, and despite the damage, Sigrun recognized him. "I see you've dispatched the bastard." He gave Stephen an appreciative nod on the mode of death.

Nicole smiled at Lujza as she was ready for more battle. As the two women met back up with Hondur and his friend Damien; Nicole’s eyes were drawn to an odd glow off in the distance…in the direction of the White House. Terror entered her body as she suddenly took off from the group heading to the White House.


Over the smell of burning timber, drywall, and of Joseph’s brain matter slowly leaking through his skull…Stephen picked up the slight odor of another vampire. He turned and saw with great relief Skadi and Sigrun; he wasn’t in the mood for another battle. “Good to see you two are alright also. It’s a shit storm out there. But, once Joseph’s platoon leaders figure out he is dead…”

He never got to finish as Nicole came racing through a hole in the wall. She stopped and looked at her battered sire for a few seconds, confirming he was alive. Nicole covered the few meters between them in only a second as she wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight. Her leg shifted, causing Stephen to yelp in pain from his own injured leg it hit.

“Oh Christ Stephen…hold still.” Before Stephen could protest, Nicole shoved the bloodstone in his mouth and took his leg and set it straight. Biting into the stone at that second to prevent himself from crying out in pain, Stephen began to drink, beginning the process of healing bone and giving him added strength.

Nicole looked at Skadi and Sigrun. “We can’t stay here for long. I think Hondur is coming up with Lujza and some friend of his. Another vampire who ended up here somehow…maybe was with the group or not. At any rate, a nice hot bath and the comfort of a soft bed will feel so good after this.”

Lujza groaned as Nicole suddenly darted off randomly towards something in the distance. She hobbled after the other vampiress, attempting to call out to ask where the hel she was going, but her lungs had suffered damage and she ended up painfully coughing up blood. Fucking Danielle she thought angrily as she stumbled along, left hand over the wound in her abdomen, sticky with congealing blood as it was still only partially healed.

Along her way following Nicole, she picked up the weapons that had been discarded and knocked astray. It took quite a while for her to catch up to the woman, who had gone through a hole in the wall of a governmental looking building.

Stepping inside as quickly as she could, Lujza looked around for enemies, and saw that there were none. Instead, it appeared that Stephen was there, feeding on presumably the same bloodstone that Lujza taken a drink from. Nicole seemed most distressed, and for good reason. "You look like someone who got on Fenris' worse side, Stephen, you come here often?" she said jokingly. As she gazed around the room, she added "What happened?" much more seriously.

Skadi allowed Sigrun to speak with Stephen whilst she moved around the building, being especially wary for any soldiers or enemy vampires that may be lurking about. Fire was beginning to spread amongst the rooms, consuming almost everything in it's path. No doubt the building wouldn't last through the day unless a considerable effort was put into keeping it somewhat intact.

Moving into another room, the ancient vampiress leaped to the side as a soldier jumped out at her, bearing a silver edged combat knife. For a moment Skadi just stood there with a look of amusement upon her face, as if to ask if the soldier was actually serious.

Now even bothering to retrieve a weapon, Skadi caught the soldier's wrist as he lunged towards her and promptly squeezed until he dropped the knife. Moving her face right up to his as she pushed him into a wall, Skadi spoke softly.

"You're fortunate tonight. You don't die..."

With that said, Skadi drove a knee into the man's gut so hard he plunged into shock from the sheer pain and within seconds was unconscious, lying upon the ground. Shaking her head, Skadi departed the room and moved back towards the others, just as Hondur, Luzja and another vampire arrived.
_________________

Hondur and Damien watched as Nicole raced towards the White House, Stephen's health obviously her motivation. Evidently soldiers would be heading there as well due to the large amount of smoke pouring from the building. Looking between Damien and Luzja, Hondur indicated they should follow.

It took a little longer for the trio to arrive as the two relatively uninjured vampires slowed their pace to match Luzja's, yet eventually they arrived in the decimated White House, noting Stephen's condition at the destruction of the building before them. Hondur almost couldn't contain his amusement. Turning to Damien, he spoke quietly.

"That chopper look familiar to you?"

Nicole didn't get Lujza's joke about someone named 'Fenris' so she ignored it. She threw her hands up. "Something blew this place sky high."

Nicole cocked her head as Hondur mentioned a helicopter. She looked at the pair, studying each of them. She liked Hondur, yet this Damien fello seemed a bit hazy to her. She knew they still had a few minutes before the first soldier arrived and she took a few steps towards Damien. Though he might be with Hondur, she didn't trust him one bit and the fact they had discussed a helicopter that nearly killed Stephen made her dislike him more.

"Tell me Damien how did you end up here in my country?"

Damien didn't like the manner in which Nicole approached him, it was obvious she was rather untrusting of him, yet he supposed that was to be expected from one that was in the middle of this mess.

Despite this, Damien decided to be civil to the younger vampire as she spoke to him. He had no need to make yet another enemy.

"I heard about a migration of some to another nation, a place where vampires were almost unheard of. It caught my interest and so I decided to follow. Although the whole vendetta against the people here wasn't really my thing."

Evidently Damien wasn't taking the situation as seriously as Nicole, although that was somewhat understandable considering this was her home.

Nicole nodded and clicked her tongue. She walked in a slow, small circle, thinking. Stephen watched her as he stopped sucking on the bloodstone, feeling his leg slowly begin to snap back into shape.

"What are you up to Nicole?"

"Just a bit of questioning Stephen."

Nicole turned back to Damien. "So, you came with this bunch then?"

Damien was beginning to grow tired of this already. It didn't take quantum physicist to realise he'd come with the other vampires, especially considering that's what he'd just said.

"That's what I said."

Hondur remained silent but he kept an eye on her, something was going on and the last thing he wanted was conflict between the pair, Damien tended to be a little impulsive at times.

Nicole nodded, so he had been with the other vampires. He had been with them the night before, on the attack on the hospital. The son of a bitch had killed God knows how many people and now expected to be accepted with open arms as a friend? Bull fucking shit...

She spun, her arm already moving up for a punch, it was obvious to everyone and Damien concentrated on either dodging or blocking the blow. A blur came in on his right, moving slightly faster than it took his brain to register. Stephen's fist smashed into the side of Damien's head, all of his six hundred plus year old strength was behind the blow. It sent the other vampire smashing into the wall.

Nicole paused, now noticing Stephen was standing up, though at a bit of an angle due to his leg. Stephen reached down to his leg and removed his Wolf Knife from its sheath. He twirled the blade in his hands as he moved towards Damien.

"Give me one good fucking reason why I shouldn't gut you and leave you here to be burned by flamethrowers?"

Unfortunately for Stephen and Nicole, that had not taken into account Hondur's reaction as the pair attacked his friend. To say the least, the ancient vampire was not happy in the slightest.

Damien had easily forced Nicole away from himself yet wasn't expecting an attack from the other vampire and did nothing to meet the attack. One moment Damien had been standing there, the next he was on the ground against a wall, his head swimming.

As Nicole moved towards Damien again, Hondur stepped forward and pushed her with enough force to send her sprawling across the room, yet maintaining her footing. As for Stephen, Hondur's actions were much swifter and less kind.

Almost immediately after Stephen's words exited his mouth, he found himself being hauled across the room and slammed into a wall, Hondur giving little regard to Stephen's injuries. Being quite a bit older than Stephen and Nicole, Hondur was able to keep both in reign with relative ease, his strength and speed easily outmatching them.

"I would suggest you put that away Stephen and think before you act..."

Nicole cried out in suprise as she was sent stumbling across the room. She turned back on Hondur, almost as if she was about to attack an enemy. She paused as Hondur took hold of Stephen, ready to leap at Hondur if he tried to do anything.

Stephen grunted as Hondur grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the wall. He gagged and resited the natural urge to plunge his blade into his foe. But, his mind kept the blade in check, reminding him Hondur was a close friend. Stephen looked at Hondur and then at Damien.

"When he starts explaining in full of how he first learned of this bunch coming over here...how he linked up with them and what the fuck he was doing last night and tonight."

After listening to Stephen's words, Hondur nodded and released his friend, allowing him to lean against the wall as he imagined the younger vampire's leg was still quite sore.

Getting to his feet, Damien's gaze first fell upon Nicole before he looked over to Stephen and Hondur, the ancient vampire's voice in his head, telling him to calm down and not do anything rash or he would regret it.

"I know Damien was not part of Svartel's lot, he's never been part of any vampiric coven or gang within Assington."

Damien nodded, taking up where Hondur left off.

"I heard a bunch of vampires were heading out to the Golden Simatar, a place relatively oblivious to vampires. Considering the way things were going in Assington, I decided to tag along."

Taking a moment to clear his head, Damien continued.

"That Joseph fellow seemed pretty spiteful over this and that, although I wasn't really concerned. I just wanted to explore this new country. Unfortunately my sight seeing was cut short as these attacks started. The last two nights I've been roaming around, looking for anything of interest whilst attempting not to get shot. Then I cam across Hondur..."

Sigrun watched as the confrontation escalated, only to be stalled as Hondur regained order by force. He didn't feel the need to do anything, but he did note that they were spending too much time here. Outside forces were on their way in, it was inevitable.

"We're running out of time here." Sigrun offered to anyone who listened, "Gonna get real ugly in here sooner or later."

Looking toward Stephen, he moved closer to place a hand on Hondur's shoulder indicating that he should lower him. "Stephen. You should know how vampires learn of events going on. The information is out there, uninhibited for the most part. You simply have to tune in. Damien, or anyone could have found out about the incoming Assingtonians vampires."

He glanced down at the knife in Stephen's hand, "Put it away. You wouldn't want to make a good friend of yours and mine feel murderous to you. You'll lose all the way around." He looked at Hondur, "These days, true friends are hard to come by."

Having sat down and curled up just after coming, doubled over trying to find a comfortable position, Lujza simply watched in horror as the group of friends seemed to tear itself apart, Stephen and Nicole both attacking the new vampire and Hondur counterattacking them.

"Friends," she said, somewhat hoarsely. "Our enemies would probably love to see us all kill each other. It won't get anything accomplished, just shed more blood and tears."

She nodded at Sigrun. "You're right, we should leave."

Stephen listened to Damien, even after his story he was still unsure of the other vampire, but it was really just down to his word. He was grateful when Sigrun had Hondur lower him back to the ground. He slid his knife back into the sheath and gave a nod to the elf. They could hear the distinct rumbling of Leopard tanks rolling in their direction over the intense gunfire. No doubt the battle would take a great curve in favor of the Simatarians as news of Joseph’s death swept through their ranks from his fledglings.

“Nicole, I’ll meet you back at Cassandra.”

Before anyone could stop him, Stephen disappeared back into the White House. Nicole had no choice but to lead the group of the White House and through the alleyways of the city. Only five minutes after they left, a squad of soldiers stormed the building and vehicles quickly surrounded it.

Nicole led them back to where they had left Cassandra. The massive pile of snow was still there; this area of the city had not seen fighting. As though on cue, the snow shuddered and dragon’s head emerged from the pile. Her eyes fell upon a quiet stunned Damien and her lips curled back with an angry hiss. Nicole walked forward and put her hand on the animal’s muzzle. “No girl…he isn’t food. You missed out on vampire tonight.”

The dragon grunted and shook herself free. Snow clung to her pearl white scales and she did a dog shake, spraying everyone with another helping of snow. She stretched her wings out, ready to take off at a moments notice. It was then she noticed Stephen was there. Cassandra looked at Nicole. “Where is he?”

Nicole turned to her, trying to hide her tears from the group. “I don’t know.”

Several minutes passed before Stephen’s presence was felt again. The Simatarian appeared from the street, moving a little better though with still limp. As he approached, they could see Stephen was carrying a katana in his hand. It was an odd sight for a man who believed the use of swords completely ridiculous. Before anyone could ask, he answered for them.

“Roman is dead. He took on Joseph to buy some time for the President but was killed.” Stephen removed Roman’s Celadrin medallion from his pocket and wrapped it around the sword and sheath. “I’ll send these to Liam Celadrin with a letter about what had happened.”

Stephen looked at Damien, though he still felt a bit uneasy about him, Hondur was there and Hondur was his friend. So Damien had to have some moral ground. “The city is going to be dangerous come morning. Every alley and cellar will be filled with grenades and torched with flamethrowers. We have a spare room at our place, if you want to come along.”

With Stephen gone off to do whatever it was he felt was so important, the others began navigating their way out of the city. Within minutes of their departure from the White House, soldiers surrounded the building and poured inside, searching the place for any sign of vampiric life.

With Nicole and Luzja at the head of the pack, Damien and Hondur fell back to join Skadi and Sigrun. It was obvious Damien was still a littler bitter about the unprovoked attack. Fortunately Hondur was keeping him away from Nicole and reminding him to stay calm.

It wasn't long before the group of vampires made it to a rather deserted part of the city, the others waiting around as if expecting something whilst Damien just seemed confused.

At this point a large pile of snow erupted into the air as a dragon emerged, shiny white scales coating it's body. If it weren't for being dead, Damien would have soiled himself on the spot, leaping backwards in order to get away from Cassandra as she hissed at him.

Hondur couldn't help but laugh.

"Don't worry about her, she just doesn't like strange vampires."

Not long afterwards Stephen appeared, bearing a weapon that looked quite out of place in his hands. Soon enough he explained the situation and the unfortunate demise of Roman.

Damien nodded at Stephen's offer, happy to be away from the city.

"Thanks."

The group fell silent as an explosion filled the air, evidently some of Joseph's vampires were still putting up a fight. Levitating into the air, Skadi called down to the others.

"Perhaps we should be leaving?"

Stephen looked at Skadi and simply nodded to the ancient. It was time to go. He, Nicole and Lujza mounted Cassandra while Skadi took hold of Sigrun and Hondur grabbed Damien. Cassandra gave a roar and took off into the air, taking the lead of the group. Nicole looked back over her shoulder, the battle was still raging yet daylight was only a couple hours away, the vampires would be forced to break off the engagement before then.

When they landed back at the farm, they were greeted by Hancock, who was obviously frazzled about something. But, first he asked the obvious. “Did we win?”

“I dunno, probably did but the cost is high. Fighting is still going on but it is getting too confined for us to stay any longer. Should end before daylight. What is troubling you?” Nicole asked as she got down.

The human looked at her; ignore Skadi and the others as they landed. “You said one dragon…okay…one small dragon. Okay, I like Cassandra. Then you said she had puppies, okay again, they are small and cute as the dickens. But you never…never told us of another adult.”

Stephen blinked. “What other adult? How big?”

Hancock blinked and spread his arms out as wide as they could. “Big…really, really big. Bigger than her. When it showed up we kinda high tailed it, it’s a monster…”

Before anyone could speak, there was a low series of bellows and from the open door of Cassandra’s barn a Greyhound bus sized; ice blue colored male dragon emerged. Cassandra sent out a response and marched over to him, both dragons licking and nuzzling one another. Stephen chuckled as the pair disappeared back into the barn. “Well I’ll be damned, don’t worry Jonathan. You’ll see a lot more of Cassandra’s mate as time goes on I think. Come on…lets get inside before our asses freeze off.”

Stephen gave the human a pat on the shoulder before he and the group went back into his house. Tolkien’s barking gave Stephen and instant headache as the little dragon flew into view. The little beast sneezed at the barrage of new smells on his family and friends. Still, he stopped barking much to Stephen’s head’s delight. They meandered back into the family room where mostly everyone fell into the chairs and couches for rest, only to have Tolkien hopping from person to person happy to have people home again.

Stephen placed Roman’s sword and medallion in the corner; he was too tired to do any more about that tonight. He looked at his friends.

“I don’t know how to thank you all for all of your help tonight. Our house is always open if you are ever in the country, feel free to come by and stay. I dunno how to thank you all for your help…”

Taking hold of Sigrun, Skadi began the flight back home whilst Damien and Hondur followed not far behind. The vampires made a point of keeping away from Cassandra, not wanting to be near the large creature as she soared through the skys.

Eventually the sounds of battle faded into the background as the group neared Stephen's home, the sun not far from breaching the horizon and incinerating any vampire unfortunate enough to still be out in the open.

Finally they made it back to Stephen's property, met by an evidently trouble human. Soon enough they discovered the trouble, another dragon had appeared, one even bigger than Cassandra.

Skadi evidently didn't like the idea of yet another dragon roaming around, especially considering Cassandra's attitude towards her. Despite this, Stephen didn't seem to bothered and so they continued inside, away from the impending sun and the cold.

Hondur and Skadi immediately collapsed into large chairs, both of them obviously sore. Damien chose to remain standing as he took in the sights around him, noting the smaller dragon with some surprise.

Hondur sighed, stretching his neck.

"Don't worry about it Stephen. You've done the same for us."

Stephen collapsed into a chair and slumped down to were his back was half on the seat and half on the backrest. He looked at Hondur. “I thought going up against Alexander and the lycans was hard…but this…Jesus H. Christ. Tanks and attack helicopters? It will defiantly make a mark with anyone thinking of hitting this country.”

Nicole looked up as Tolkien fluttered towards Damien and hovered in front of the other vampire. The tiny dragon stared into Damien’s eyes like an infant at a new object. The dragon blinked and sent out a string of garbled and incomprehensible words in Draconic. She laughed, only for a second as it hurt her sore body.

“He likes you. Lord knows what the hell is he saying, more or less dragon baby talk.” Nicole looked over at Stephen and the Simatarians gave a brief nod to one another. The pair stood and approached Damien. Nicole took Tolkien as the dragon zipped around her heard and held him under her left arm like a football.

“Damien, Stephen and I acted a bit…rashly earlier this evening. Needless to say it’s been a very long night and we have been a bit on the edge. So…we’re sorry for attacking you earlier.”

The immortals were up for only a little while longer before everyone stumbled back to bed, leaving the couches and chairs in need of cleaning to get the blood and soot off the leather. Stephen and Nicole only got their shirts off before falling into bed next to each other and promptly falling asleep in each other's arms.


The fighting ended shortly before dawn as the vampire forces became scattered. Joseph’s fledglings/lieutenants had been unsure of what to do after they felt their tie to him burn away in a flow of silver nitrate. Fresh military units had rolled in, fresh men and tanks. They had exhausted all of their RPGs, though they had destroyed many lightly armored vehicles, the Leopards and the Challengers continued to rumble forth against them. Their campaign of fear would have to continue, but not here. They learned the hard way that the Golden Simatar would not bow to them and they learned that the government was more than willing to bring in military divisions to put them down.

The vampires scattered into the wind, most fled north, trying in mad dash to get to a more vampire friendly nation. It took just over six years, but the remaining vampires were cornered in the Glothlin Mountains and burned in the caves they held with flamethrowers and napalm dropped down the openings from A-10 attack planes.


Smoke rose into the cold, grey sky from the burning Rooikat 76 on the corner of Cedar Run and Millwood. The armored vehicle was at an angle; its front right tires were on a raised garden in front of a REI. The hatch was open, smoke billowed from the fire inside, and the smell of burning flesh had slowly faded. The barrel pointed down Millwood, aiming at a long gone enemy.

Twenty-six year old Corporal Giovanni Lenzi sat on a near intact bench, a half smoked Marlboro hanging in his mouth, his MG-3 machine gun leaning against him, his helmet had several bullet marks on it and his hands were covered in blood from hand to hand fighting and hauling the bodies of dead comrades and foes. His blue eyes stared at the Rooikat; he had been looking at it for the better part of twenty minutes.

“I didn’t know you smoked Lenzi.”

Lenzi looked up to see his platoon commander, Lieutenant Zachary Turner. “I don’t.”

Turner nodded and sat down next to Lenzi, removing his G36 from his shoulder and placing it on his lap. He gratefully accepted the cigarette from Lenzi and drew heavily. On their right sleeve was a black shield with a red tiger for the 132nd Armored Division. They sat quietly, both in their own thoughts as the Marlboro was passed back and forth. Turner looked at Lenzi. “What are you thinking Corp?”

Lenzi shook his head. “I don’t know sir. Jesus, I don’t know how the fuck…”

“How what?”

Lenzi waved his hand at the destructions. The fire departments were working as fast as they could to contain the flames, snow soaked in blood slowly began to melt into a hideous mush, and long rows of black body bags were slowly being counted. “This. Fuck it sir I don’t’ know how someone could do something like this. It was a God damn massacre on our side and theirs. And, those cops the Guard found this morning, impaled and all. I don’t get how someone could do something like that.”

Turner shrugged. “They aren’t like us. They’re not human, a whole other creature.”

“Still, they got a brain, they were human…they gotta have emotion.” Lenzi said as he finished the Marlboro and fished out the last one. He lit it and the attention of both men was caught by a whoosh down the street. They saw a woman armed with an incinerator torching a heap of plastic wrapped vampire bodies. The pile went up like dry wood soaked in gasoline. “And why did they have us drag those vampire bodies inside only to torch ‘em later?”

“Something about our VP advisors. IDing fellas on their wanted lists and looking for our vampire Stephen Malone. Bah, too many vampire dead. Most have probably gone up by now before we can even find them.” Turner accepted the cigarette and drew heavily on it. He looked at the corporal. “Find anyone else of our platoon?”

“I saw Todd, he was in hysterics.” Lenzi dipped his head, his helmet tumbling off his skull and into the snow. “Some vampire bit him during the night…I tried to calm him…tell him he will be cool…he wouldn’t listen…he jammed…he jammed his gun in his mouth and blew his head off. There is no one else Lt.”

Turner nodded. He passed the Marlboro back to Lenzi and watched as the man drew heavily. A rumbling caught their attention and a Humvee pulled up in front of them. A young orderly stepped out and looked at them. “I’m looking for second platoon.”

Turner looked at him, then at Lenzi and back at the orderly. “You found second platoon.”

The young boy nearly fell backwards as he heard the report. He stared at the two, dirty men before finding his voice. “The Colonel wants to see you.”

Turner nodded and patted Lenzi on the back. “Get your kit…we’re going for a ride.”

The soldiers collected their weapons and gear and climbed into the back of the Humvee as it maneuvered through the destruction.

It was midday and Stahler stood out on the flight deck of the Neptune, a heavy coat around him as he stared across the harbor as the tall columns of smoke in Clarence. He faintly heard sirens as the fire trucks continued to rush to scenes of fire. His breath came out in long white clouds and he moved his legs a bit on the flight deck. He had been advised to stay on the aircraft carrier for the rest of the day and the next night in order to make sure the city was secure. He had agreed, there wasn’t much point of going to stay in the city, the White House was leveled due to a Comanche crashing right on top of it.

He turned around as one of his aides walked forward with a sheet. Stahler gave a forced grin. “What is it Burke?”

“Butcher’s Bill sir.” Burke said. He looked at the President as the man turned around and faced the city. Stahler gave a nod. Burke licked his lips. “What we can count, around eight hundred dead, police and military. At least forty vehicles destroyed and twice as much were damaged in various degrees.”

“Burke, give me the numbers when everything is final.” Stahler said. His aide said yes and departed. Stahler stared at the city and a single tear rolled down his cheek.


The next night, nothing happened. The weary soldiers, reinforced by Paratroopers and Marines stayed on station throughout the evening, waiting for the first shot to be fired. Nothing. Meanwhile back at the Malone residence, Jonathan Hancock’s Minister friend, a fellow by the name of Jack Leigh married Stephen and Nicole in the farm house. Stephen used a few mental plays on him to make it look to the human he was marrying two other humans and not vampires. Tolkien was rather distressed he couldn’t come to watch why everyone went to the farm house, yet he forgot about it and had fun annoying his larger siblings and his father, who Stephen learned was named Darius.

After the brief ceremony, the immortals returned to the barn for a little relaxation and celebration for the end of the battle, Stephen and Nicole’s marriage, and with hopes it would the last great battle they ever had to fight. For the Simatarians, it was a best day in their lives and the happiest for the last few days.


Thirteen days after the Battle of Clarence, the final total was in. The total number of dead from various police departments, VIB, IBI, and several military units was compiled. Over the course of the two night battle, two thousand one hundred and sixty six were killed, this is including those wounded who died before they could be treated. More than twice that number were wounded in varying degrees. An approximate three hundred civilians were killed during the two nights at the Warren Hospital, dockyards, police stations, and some at apartment complexes hit by the vampires for a ‘refresher’.

All soldiers and law enforcement officers involved received a silver medal in the shape of a set of vampire fangs with the words The First Battle of Clarence written on it. In a break from the rules, military citations and medals were also handed to law enforcement officers. Countless Purple Hearts, seventy-five Bronze Stars, Fifty-Nine Silver Stars, Seventeen Order of the King’s Own, and five Medals of Honor were awarded for the two night engagement. The 132nd Armored Division had regained its honor, it had suffered more than half of the military loses, which accounted for just over two thirds of the dead, and a third of the medals went to its members, including two Medals of Honor. In the eyes of the people, they were now national heroes. Though one man was still considered the worst man the country had ever spawned.

Stephen Malone was marked as the leader of the group and demands for his head on a silver platter rang out as soon as the battle was over. People began to gather money and offer rewards for him, dead or alive. Even with this hatred in the populace and by many in the military, there were a few in the Ranger Regiment and the Special Forces who believed Stephen didn’t do this as he was one a Ranger who had served and suffered for his country. Stephen listened to this on the television and radio, when he was alone, a single tear rolled down his cheek. He had hoped that the mistakes of Assington would not be repeated here, that the Golden Simatar could become a more open minded nation and the battles that had plagued Assington would not come here. He was dead wrong and knew that he and Nicole would forever have to live in the shadows in their own country.

It was just a month after the battle, his friends had slowly drifted back to their homes over the weeks. Nicole found him in the barn, dressed in his black attire and talking to Cassandra. Darius was sitting at the edge of the nest, his head dipped down as he tended to the pups enjoying a dead bear. “What is up Stephen?”

He turned around and smiled as he took his wife into his arms. “Nothing much. VIB reports some strange occurrences in Karnotz, a large wolf like animal possibly. I’ll be checking it out. I’ll see ya in a few days.”

Nicole smiled. She kissed him. “Alright, hopefully it is a false alarm.”

“I hope so too.” Stephen kissed her and walked over to Cassandra and mounted the beast. The dragon moved from the barn and took off into the night sky.

Nicole watched them disappear, not knowing when Stephen returned the next night he would bring something she never could have expected. The vampiress shut the door and walked over to the nest where Tolkien was zipping around, occasionally resting on his father’s large head before going back down to pester his larger brothers and sisters.

Nicole smiled, immortality was going to be good.

Damien matched the tiny dragon's gaze as it fluttered before him, obviously as curious about him as he was about it. Until earlier tonight, Damien had never seen a dragon before and now he was gazing upon his third one tonight. Taking a moment to examine the tiny creature, the vampire almost jumped when it began chirping at him.

Looking to Nicole, all Damien received was a laugh and shrug from Nicole. At least the little creature wasn't hostile, if myth was true and these things could breath fire then Damien didn't want to be on the wrong end of one, no matter how small it was.

Soon enough Damien was distracted as Nicole and Stephen both rose, moving towards him. At first he thought they were coming back for more, but a quick glance towards Hondur told him all was well. Taken a little off guard, Damien took a little while to respond.

"Ah... alright. It's in the past then, no hard feelings."

Whilst Damien was still a little edgy about the two Simitarians, eventually he'd get over such.

But with that all said and done, everyone felt the need to retire and within minutes were all asleep.
__________________

Skadi, Hondur and Sigrun had decided to remain for the wedding ceremony, as that was the reason for the initial invitation in the first place. Damien also remained, not feeling it was safe to be anywhere in the Golden Simatar besides Stephen's property.

The very notion of marriage seemed pointless in Skadi's eyes. She had been with Sigrun for the majority of her existence and never felt compelled to have anyone recognise their relationship, especially a church or the Assingtonian government. They didn't need anything else but eachother. Of course Skadi wasn't going to intervene and give Stephen a piece of her mind, at least not during the middle of the ceremony.

Once things had died down and the nation wasn't lurking with soldiers on every corner, Skadi and Sigrun had made a quick escape for the nearby nation of Tarlachia, returning to Sigrun's home in the palace.

Hondur and Damien waited a few days longer but eventually they too made their getaway, migrating through many nations until finally returning to Assington.

Hopefully the Golden Simatar could return to some sort of peace, the vampires of Assington knew all too well what it was like to live in a near constant warzone.

OOC: Will make a finishing up post for Lujza between 4:00 and 6:00 PM tomorrow.