One of many Stories I've started..(part 2, Chapt.2 and on..)

[Elrick]

Well, once the old posts are accessable, you can read the first part of this story....

But for now, here's the second Chapter....


Chapter 2



“I really don’t get this.”

Terry looked over from where he was reading the newspaper and regarded Karen. She was holding paperwork up that seemed to be twenty sheets glued together in a blue folder. Moving over, he reached across the counter and tapped her on the shoulder.

“What do you have there?”

“Some paperwork from my parent’s lawyer,” She turned and held it out. “There’s some stuff in there that I don’t quite get at all. I took some classes on legal stuff, but this I don’t get.”

Terry began to read the paper and skimmed a few paragraphs before getting to where Karen was having the problem. He snorted after a moment and handed the sheets back to her. “It’s just the lawyer saying that he gets a fifteen percent amount of the insurance money from your parent’s death. If you really have doubts about it, I can have the boss’ lawyer take a look at that and tell you if it’s a fair deal or not.”

“Do you think it is?” she asked, closing the papers in the folder.

“A little steep, but as much money as you and your sister are getting from the insurance company, I don’t think you’ll miss it much.”

She nodded. “Okay. Thank you, Terry.”

“But of course.”

She smiled and headed back to the changing room as Jen came in the door on Stephanie’s heels and he lost his smile at the look on the latter woman’s face as her cousin pushed her up to the bar.

“What did you do?”

“It’s not what I did, it’s what my lieutenant did,” She hissed. “He decided to try and cover his a$$ after that little discussion a month ago. He says he can’t find anything on you at all.”

“Oh?”

“I told her that you’ve been working here since before I even started to think about being a waitress,” Jen stated. “But her lieutenant wouldn’t believe her word at all. Because he can’t find out anything on you, he thinks you’re an illegal immigrant or some criminal.”

Terry inhaled a deep breath and looked to the door. “Which van is he in?”

“You’re going to try and talk to him?” Stephanie put up her hands. “Fine, you try and talk to him. He’s being a f%*#ing a$$hole as far as I’m concerned.”

Terry tilted his head and she gestured with a thumb. “It’s the only black one that’s out there.”

He nodded and moved out from around the bar to head out the front door. He didn’t have to go far before the lieutenant was out of the van and heading towards him. Terry smiled only once before grabbing the man by his throat and lifting him off the ground as he headed back over to the van to put him against it. Once he met the man’s eyes and saw the fear it them he smiled a cold smile.

“You want to try to look under partial owner instead of manager or employee?” Terry asked. “Maybe then you’ll see my name and the five other names that are there. Perhaps you’d like to keep your job and career while you’re at it. I’m sure the commissioner would be real happy to hear from the other owners. Even love to keep his job.”

He let the man go and held him against the van with one hand while he tried to catch his breath. Once he did, Terry let go of his chest and held up a finger. “Better yet, why don’t you pull your stupid operation out of here because my partners are rather irate for what you’ve been doing here. They’re tired of hearing about how anal you’ve been and how drastic a loss in business they’ve had here.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.” He said.

Terry looked at him directly. “Try me.”

The man swallowed and Terry smiled once he headed back into the bar because of the wetness that had begun to stain the man’s trousers. Once he was inside the door he smiled at the shocked look of the cousins and gestured.

“You sure you still want to be a cop, Steph?”

“I really don’t know.”

Terry nodded before heading to the rear hallway to pick up the phone receiver there and depress the button. After a few words he hung up and went back to the bar to finish reading his paper.

It wasn’t long until a few customers came into the place and began to hand out money to the strippers. Few people were ordering drinks and every once in a while Terry could hear a word or two from the cousins where they were talking at one of the tables. At the ring of the phone, Terry looked over to it and raised an eyebrow before lifting the receiver and putting it to his ear.

“There is a bomb in there. Enjoy yourself.”

At the dead tone, Terry set the phone down on the base and inhaled briefly for a moment before moving around the bar to head towards the bathrooms. Moving inside the men’s bathroom, he ignored the sound of a man vomiting in one of the stalls before getting up onto the counter and pulling aside one of the ceiling panels. Pulling out a package of C-4 explosives and the timer connected to it, he got back down onto the floor and removed the wires that the bomb would need to explode with.

He went still at the click of a gun’s hammer and looked up to see that the man who had been vomiting had a gun pointed at him.

“Shouldn’t have messed with the boss, mate.” The man said in a North Wales accent. Terry smiled and set the bomb down on the counter.

“A long way from the Islands, don’t you think?” He remarked.

“Does it matter? You’re just some stupid Yank that’s going to get a bullet for mouthing off.”

“The bomb was for what?”

“You don’t piss a man like Dyson MacGregor off.”

“You don’t piss a man like me off.” Terry said in his own language. The man blinked once in confusion before trying to scream at the sudden broken and shattered wrist. He widened his eyes as Terry put his fingers and thumb into his throat to squeeze it into a bloody mess. Sniffing at the dead man that was hanging from his hand, he reached over to a tile on the wall behind the man. The floor disappeared and the man, his gun, and his bomb fell into the sewer system below. As the panel slid back into place, he made sure there wasn’t any blood on the floor before washing his hands in the sink. Making sure the ceiling panel was back in place, he headed back to the bar and to the story he had been reading.

It was nearly midnight when the phone rang again and Terry stopped in making a molotov cocktail to answer it and drew his eyebrows together at the voice.

“That was uncalled for.”

“You will be reported and found out.” He said and hung up. He smiled again at the warlock that was waiting before finishing the drink. Seeing that Stephanie had the bar handled, he went over to the payphone and didn’t even have a chance to press the button before it was ringing.

“This is Terry.” He said as he picked up the phone.

“Is it really? How about Treterious?”

“Dyson, you do realize that I know where you’re at and don’t have to respect you or your House to kill you?” Terry stated. “Imagine seeing your heart ripped out.”

He depressed the receiver before touching the button under the phone. A ring later and there was silence.

“Dyson MacGregor. I don’t think it’s his real name, but he’s causing trouble at the bar.”

“How so?”

“A bomb and assassin to start off. Just because he was trying to seduce Karen and I stopped him.”

“My favorite.” There was a sigh. “I will investigate.”

“And I apologize for the interruption.”

“No, strip poker does need interruptions at times.”

Terry smiled and hung up the phone because he knew what that meant for the man. Turning he went back to the bar and continued with his work.

By three in the morning, people were starting to head out of the place and Terry looked up as a young woman stopped in front of him. He blinked a moment before smiling at her.

“You find the book helpful?”

“Yeah, but we want to know how you know so much?”

“That’s my secret.” He said, putting another glass in the dishwasher he was filling.

“Come on, you can tell me. I can promise not to tell anyone at all.”

Terry raised an eyebrow as he looked at her and the way she was standing alert and waiting. He put his right arm on the counter and revealed his tattoo. “Do you know what that glyph means?”

She looked at the rune to draw her eyebrows together in thought. After a moment she shook her head and looked up at him. “No, I don’t.”

“Then when you have read your book enough and find that sign, that’s when I might tell you a little more.”

“That sign is in the book?”

“Somewhere,” He smiled.

“Thank you.” She said and turned to head back over to her group of friends that were waiting at the door. Terry looked around and noticed that Stephanie was staring at him strangely from her end of the bar and he smiled before he looked back to the slowly departing people.

“You used to be into that stuff, didn’t you?” Stephanie said as she came close to him.

“A little bit.” He said, looking at her.

“A little bit my a$$,” She crossed her arms. “Is that why you’re so secretive?”

“There are many reasons I keep to myself, Stephanie. Your guess is far from it, but related.”

“Okay, how about you telling me at some point and time. You know that I don’t bend easily to peer pressure.”

“I might, but not any time soon.” He smiled. “Go ahead and head home. If you do come back here, I hope it’s because you’ve decided to quit your actual job and work here.”

“Does Jen know what your secret is?”

“No, but I wouldn’t be surprised that she has guessed it,” He smiled. “And if she’s guessed it, then she’s telepathic.”

She snorted and punched his shoulder before collecting her things and began counting her tips on the way out the door. It didn’t take long for him to clean up the rest of the place once the dancers and bouncers were gone. He was shutting off the lights and looked over to the front door as it was opened to draw his eyebrows together. There was no indication that anyone had opened it, but Terry waited and then turned the lights back on.

Five men walked into the place with Dyson MacGregor and Terry smiled just a little bit as he walked to the other end of the bar, picking up the metal bat once he got out into the open. Some of the men began to laugh at this as they pulled out guns or some sort of weapon. Terry snorted at the fact that one of the men held a fairly good replica of a gladius. The short sword of the Roman army wouldn’t have had so much metal on the handle or a modern grip. It would have been wood or copper with a simple leather strap to hold it onto the metal sword.

“You were told you would not be welcome here, Dyson.” Terry said.

“I am a vampire, I am welcome anywhere that is not a household.” He said. “ I seriously doubt you can do anything against these men. They are vampires as well.”

Terry sniffed and smiled. “ Ah, new blood. Must have turned them all within the last five years, eh? Not a single one of them with true skills.”

“What do you mean skills?” The man with the gladius stated. “We know how to fight.”

“You know how to use very little.” Terry said. “Dyson should have told you that guns would be useless against me.”

“A slightly older Kinslayer if bullets are useless.” Dyson remarked and some of the men with guns put them away after a look to the European. A few pulled out some long daggers with silver in the edges, while another man pulled out a Japanese short sword. Terry grunted and put the end of the bat down to lean on it like a cane.

“I’m still not impressed.”

One of the men charged him and Terry swung the bat from its position and stepped away as the body started to burn up even as the head stopped bouncing. He looked over to the next man and smirked as he waited.

“Oh, come on. You don’t think you can beat me individually, do you?” He stopped pointing with the bloody bat as the man with the Japanese sword came at him and Terry flipped him into the man with the gladius to sweep the third man onto the floor with his bat. He let go of the bat to put the dagger the fourth man held into his heart with a snap of the man’s wrist and very little body movement. He looked to the three men on the floor and crosses his arms to look at Dyson as his second assistant burnt into dust.

“I can go all night,” He said.

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.” Terry said and spun to release the hidden blade in his left arm and remove the head of the Guardian that had been trying to sneak up on him. The Hybrid’s head landed somewhere on the other side of the bar and Terry spun to put the same blade into the man holding the gladius. His body wasn’t even burning as Terry used both the gladius and the blade in his arm to kill the last two vampires before standing in front of Dyson.

“I think you really should leave, Dyson,” Terry said as he held up his left hand and the blade sticking out of it. “This city isn’t for you.”

“Exactly which House did you remove?”

Terry smiled. “You could not see the rune correctly the last time?” He turned his hand and the vampire’s face paled even more than it was.

“You removed the House of Dragon.”

“Yes.” Terry grinned. “A very long time ago. Perhaps you would like to join that caste.”

“I seriously doubt it.” Dyson hissed. He spun as the front door was opened again and five people in black robes came into the bar staring at the vampire. Terry wiped off the blade before letting it slip back into his arm. He stuck the gladius into the bloody head of the nearest killed vampire and crossed his arms to wait.

“You have been warned, Red Dragon,” The woman in front of the group said as she pulled the cowl off of her head to glare at the European. “By the one man who deserves more honor than your House ever did.”

“His House is the same as mine. There is peace to be made here.” Dyson hissed.

“You my have been cousin to Vicars, but you are not related.” Terry said.

Dyson hissed at him before looking back at the woman. “I am a vampire, the same as you. I have every right to do what I am doing here.”

“No, you do not,” She replied. “You also do not have permission to do what you have been planning. Your attempts to revive two banished Houses has been denied.”

“I doubt that.”

“We have seen to it. We are members of the Council.”

“Your Council has no authority.” Dyson growled. “And you should know the reason for that.”

“We have every authority. We do not approve of making vampires strong enough to cause genocide.”

“Amelia?” Terry said and the woman looked to him. “May I remove this problem?”

“No, it will be removed.”

Dyson cursed them and began to fade away. The woman yelled and water was flung from some source towards the man. He yelled and glared at her as he became visible again.

“How dare you?”

“No, how dare you!” She accused. “You will not revive the House of Eagles or the House of Serpents. We will not allow it.”

“I already have three Houses agreeing.”

“Not any more.” She stated.

The man hissed again before drawing a triple-edged sword out of his cane and holding it up.

“Bitterness is thine own enemy,” Terry remarked and the man looked to him.

“You know nothing of this, human. Stay out of it.”

“I was changed in the fourth century, Dyson. I became human again in the eighth. I am still a part of it because I haven’t aged more than a few years.” He held up his hands and both blades appeared before he tightened his hands into fists around them. “I’m well aware of the need to kill and enjoy it all. I miss the blood, the rush and the heat of it all, but I wouldn’t change what has happened.”

“It doesn’t matter, I will see those Houses started again.” He looked back to the group.

“Oh, it does matter,” He jerked his head back to Terry. “We adapt and change with the civilizations that we exist in. You should know this; you were changed around the first century.

“Of course you could be impoverished and can’t stand it.” Terry smiled.

He began to growl and Terry held up his weapons. The vampire blinked, as he smelled what the right one was made of, especially what they were both made of and widened his eyes.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“You thought I was just threatening earlier? I would gladly end a defunct and outcast House,” He tilted his head. “It would end the guilt that may be place on the Council.”

“Treterious, you do not want to do this.” One of the women said as she looked at him.

“Olivia, you don’t trust me?” Terry smiled. “It’s been five hundred years since we last met, but your memory should be better than mine. I will help if I am needed.”

“I will have those Houses.” Dyson said as he moved towards the door with the sword up.

“You can try,” Amelia said as Olivia turned away from Terry in a confused manner before looking to the man. “But you are condemned for eternity.”

“So be it.” The man said before departing. Terry slowly relaxed as he let the blades slip back into his arms and he looked to the five vampires. The air was still charged and most of them were as psyched up as he was and ready for a fight.

“We have always wondered how you killed Vicars.” Amelia said. “Would you care to explain?”

“I took a chance on information I gained from meeting an old werewolf,” Terry said. “But the side effects seemed to be different than other Kinslayers that I’ve met.” He shrugged. “But then again, that seems to be the same with any Kinslayer.”

“How were you able to put them in? We are killed by silver.”

“I was a Druid before I was a vampire.” Terry said and Amelia raised an eyebrow in surprise before Olivia suddenly straightened and put her hands together to slightly bow.

“Master Rio,” She grinned. “You’re always making names out of your own.”

“Yes, I am.” Terry smiled and returned the bow. “How does Leonard fair?”

“He’s still teaching at Oxford.”

Terry grinned. “He would.”

“You are a strange immortal, Terry.” Amelia said.

“I always will be.” He smiled at her before all but Olivia put up their hoods and left. She came over to hug him and kiss his cheek.

“You contact me telepathically if you see Dyson again, okay?”

“I will.” He raised her chin and kissed her lips. “And don’t be so modest.”

“Oh, I have to be.” She said before turning and hurrying after the others. Terry shook his head in amusement before looking around the bar.

“Ah, sh^%.”

* * *

He was studying the lack of scars on the palm of his hands as the elevator lifted him up to his apartment. As usual there was no sign that there ever had been blades extending out of his hands. It had been centuries since he had actually used them to fight with and the mistake of letting Council members know that he had them might be a problem. As the elevator stopped, he bent to pull up on the wooden door and then start to unlock the metal door on the other side. He drew his eyebrows together when he saw that the lock had been picked and the door was ajar.

Opening the door fully, he walked into his apartment and then stopped at the sight of a tall black-haired woman cutting oranges at his kitchen counter. She was wearing a long black dress that revealed quite a large portion of her back and as she turned to look at him on three-inch heels, he could see that her front was rather visible too.

“Hello, Sophia,” He said as he relaxed and looked around the living room. “Any reason why you’re here without calling me?”

“Because I found a waif in need of blood,” She said as she smiled with her bright blue eyes. “Someone attacked a little girl and left her to die. Not a very nice mess at all.”

“And you brought her here,” He said as he stepped up onto the wood paneled floor to lean on the center counter. “Hoping I could do something.”

“Why not? You’re a Provider,” She put a hand on her hip and shifted her weight slightly. “And I knew you wouldn’t mind.”

“What else are you here for?” He asked.

“Nothing,” She purred, leaning over to kiss his lips. “I’ve already had anything else I might need tonight.”

“You do know that you’ll have to stay here? The sun’s already up.”

“I know,” She smiled, setting the knife in her hand back down. “You mind if I crash in your bed?”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t mind.”

“Then why do you look angry?”

“I had a little bit of a fight at the bar tonight.” He muttered. “Not a pleasant one, I might add.”

“Oh.” She slid her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “Then I can give you a massage before we go to sleep?”

He shrugged. “Sure.”

She kissed the side of his lips before moving around him seductively and heading to the back rooms. Sighing, he walked over to the cut oranges and began to drain them of their juices. He wasn’t really irate at Sophia, but sometimes she would show up at the worst times, hoping for a chance to use him or just escape from the life she portrays. There were times where she hated to act like she was a sex fiend and would revert into a reserved and private person when she was here. It was the only place where she could completely let her guard down.

Dumping the rinds into the garbage, Terry made his way back to the rooms on the warehouse floor and opened one of the doors slowly to look inside. He tightened his jaw at the sight of a girl no older than fifteen or sixteen curled into a ball on the only bed in the room. Her body was shaking in shock and pain and there was a small amount of blood that had already stained her blonde hair and was collecting on the sheets.

Moving over to her, he sat on the edge of the bed and waited for her to turn and look at him. It wasn’t long and she gave him a strange look even as he slipped a hand under her bruised neck and lifted her up. It was the barest scratch on his left wrist that had her sucking from it, trying to drink more than she could have right now. He stopped her, despite her complaints and waved a hand in front of her eyes. A word and she was out cold. He undressed her to get a good look at the ruined neck and chest before grabbing a long shirt from under the bed. Slipping it onto her body, he left her to sleep and exited the room.

Putting her clothes in the washer and tossing in a few others that he hadn’t gotten to, he left the machine running and headed to his room. Sophia had undressed and hung her evening gown on a hanger from the closet. She was wearing an unbuttoned long sleeve shirt and gestured to the bed with a slight smile. He returned it as he finished undressing and settled onto his stomach.

“Oh, you needed this.” She purred as she began to massage his back muscles and sat on his naked body. He just smiled and let her work.




“Well, this is a nunnery if I’ve ever seen one.”

“And a whole lot of dead virgins.”

“Not before they died.” Treterious remarked as he covered the bloody legs of a teenage girl back up. “And not before they were drained.”

“Some vampire loves to hate nuns.” Mary remarked. “Too bad we didn’t get to met him.”

“Or them.” Marcus said. “But at least they gave us a good place to sleep.”

“True.” Treterious smiled behind his mask before walking over to another nun. He paused as he saw that her chest was still moving beneath the blood and ruined clothes. Her neck was slowly healing and he grunted at the sight.

“What is it?”

“We’ve got a live one, boys and girls.” Treterious said, kneeling to pick the young woman up. “And she’s been changed.”

“Can I see?” Mary came bouncing over, grinning with excitement.

“Okay, but no touching.” Treterious said. “She’s my toy to play with.”





“How long have you been doing flashbacks?”

He looked over to Sophia where she was cuddled against his side. Her cold skin was comfortable against his side and he knew that his warm body was heaven for her. He smiled and kissed her forehead.

“About every ten years around my changing date I’ll start thinking about the past,” He smiled. “It humbles me to think about where I’ve been and what I’ve done.”

“You dwell too much on the past, Treterious.” She whispered.

“It helps to get through the years, my dear.”

“How about forgetting everything for a while?” She asked, sliding her naked body over and on top of him. “Just for fun?”

“Oh, I can do that,” He said, sliding his hands up to hold her hips as he sat up and kissed her lips. “You know I can always do that.”

She laughed and kissed him back. He smiled even as he became more erect and aroused. He watched her painful and pleasured expressions as she moved above him and under him. After centuries of knowing each other he knew how to please her and bring her to orgasm again and again. New positions that she wanted to try, he did them without hesitation or doubt.

Once they were too sore to do much more, he carried her into his bathroom and the shower that was there to start washing her body free of sperm, sweat and her own juices. She giggled and watched with a smile on her face as he did so and even returned the favor, making him hurt a little more.

An hour later, Sophia was sleeping in new sheets on the bed and he was dressed in normal clothes. Moving to the room where the girl was, he smiled a little at the body curled up under the bed and reached in to touch her head. He winced a little as he entered her mind and found the panic and confusion that was still there. A few suggestions later he was leaving her there and heading out of the apartment.

A short taxi ride later and he was walking into an expensive hotel and studying the few patrons inside at this time of the day. Not many were talking or paying any attention to others in the room. Walking over to the counter he smiled at the man that was there and gestured a certain way.

“Can I help you?” He asked, seeing the gesture and recognizing it.

“I need to see Kevin.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

Terry gave him a direct stare and the concierge looked away quickly. A button was pressed and Terry walked through the door next to the counter and then through the wall behind the door that had been unlocked with the press of the button. Shutting the hidden door behind him, he moved quickly down the stairs that were there and to a cool room below. Even as he came into the room, Kevin was waiting there with a bottle in his hand.

“Ah, I was thinking there was a late arrival,” He said.

“Good evening, Kevin,” Terry smiled, patting the vampire’s shoulder. The hotel owner nodded and turned to put the bottle back in the fridge next to the doorway. “I have news of a vampire that doesn’t take care of his victims very well.”

“One of my guests?”

“Possibly.”

Kevin gestured and Terry followed him down a short hallway to where several dozen morgue cells lined all three walls of the room there. Terry inhaled deeply at the energy and sense of presence in the room and smiled at Kevin’s snort of amusement.

“If only you were a vampire again, eh?” The seven hundred year-old creature remarked.

“Ah, but that would be the debate the Council would be discussing for centuries,” Terry tapped his temple. “Want to know who ravaged a child?”

“A child?”

“A fifteen year-old girl with her throat nearly ripped out and her chest scarred for the next seventy years or so.”

Kevin raised a hand and Terry winced slightly as he entered his mind telepathically. Kevin stopped once he saw the girl in his mind and went over to one of the doors. A tiny lever was slid over to the left and almost immediately there was a thump and a muted scream. Several vampires were suddenly standing outside their sleeping abodes as Kevin held the handle to the alcove and waited. When Terry could barely hear a whimpering from inside the place, Kevin jerked the door off its hinges and the vampire inside was thrown to the opposite side of the room.

Skin and body still burning from the carbon and silver that had been dropped onto its body, the vampire tried to stand up. Instead he was grabbed by several vampires and held up against the wall as nearly the entire guest list came awake from their rest.

“You have been warned, Samuel,” Kevin said, walking over to him. “Do not make a mess of someone that can be a good member of the House and Family. This is the third girl we’ve found ravaged and ruined.”

“How?” The vampire whimpered through his choked throat.

“Does it really matter?”

“How long has he been a member?” A woman’s voice asked from besides Terry. He looked over to her and she glanced to him. He knew that short glance was enough for her to know all she needed to know about him. She was a few years or decades older than Kevin was and Terry put his hands behind his back to clasp his wrist in one hand.

“Only thirty years,” Kevin remarked. “Long enough to know what is allowed and what isn’t.”

“Then he hasn’t learned enough,” The female vampire remarked as she came over to the younger man to pet his face. He barely had a chance to register the stroke before she removed his face. The vampire tried to scream, only to find his whole body was being ripped apart by the vampires holding him. The woman was grinning as she licked at the few drops of blood that were on her fingers and nails. She stopped in front of Terry and her eyes became interested again.

“You have no fear of me.”

“Only deep respect, Madame,” Terry said.

“Interesting,” She murmured and Kevin was suddenly besides them.

“A rather old Kinslayer and Provider, Helen,” Kevin said. “May I introduce Treterious Maximus?”

“The first Kinslayer?” She purred. “Then I have made a good choice in coming to this part of the world this year.”

“I do hope you enjoy what you find,” Terry bowed slightly.

“I intend to,” She held out a hand. “May I?”

Terry nodded and brought both hands around. She slid her cool fingers up each arm to regard the glyphs that were there and then turned and raised his left hand up. A slight nick of a canine and she sipped at his blood, only to waver for a moment.

“Oh, the strength you have!” She purred and stepped closer to him, their chests almost touching. “Almost as strong as Kevin here.”

“An exaggeration,” He smiled. “But, thank you.”

“May I talk you into a bottle of your plasma at some point and time?” She asked.

Kevin raised his eyebrow at this, but Terry smiled and nodded. “Some point and time, my lady. Kevin will receive it when I have made one.”

She nodded and looked to Terry before moving almost too fast for Terry to see into her sleeping chamber. Kevin looked at him carefully before leading the way out of the bloody room. Once they were at the stairs, Kevin touched Terry’s shoulder.

“You do realize that Helen will not wait?”

“I know,” Terry smiled. “But I do have a couple of bottles at home. I’ll send one over shortly.”

“She will be soused with it.”

“Is that a bad thing, Kevin?”

“No, but she will act differently,” He said. “More than usual.”

Terry nodded before remembering something. “Dyson MacGregor, have you heard of him?”

“We’re aware of him. He’s been still working on his revivals.”

Terry shook his head. “The fool will never learn.”

“This is true.”

With that said, Terry made his way up the stairs, only to wait to release the hidden catch as he sensed three people on the other side of the hidden door. He drew his eyebrows together as he heard Stephanie’s voice and her angry voice.

“I want to know what’s going on here,” She said.

“I really don’t understand what you’re talking about, ma’am.” The concierge said.

“You understand that I’m a cop?”

“I fully understand that, ma’am, but you seem to be mistaken about this man you followed here,” Another man said. “Because there’s no other way into this room here.”

Terry turned and touched a section of the wall to his left and it opened up into a hall. He moved through it quickly and around to another entrance for the lobby to head over to the main counter. He tapped Stephanie on the shoulder just as she was starting to threaten them with a warrant to search the premises. Both employees saw him and the concierge barely removed his shocked look as Stephanie glanced back at him.

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

“I need to talk to you,” She said. “And it’s not something that I can really discuss here.”

“I meant, why did you follow me here?” He pulled her away from the door and the two men so they could relax even more.

“I got to your place just as you left in that taxi,” She said. “And I had to follow you.”

“How did you know where I lived?”

“I’m a cop, Terry. I know how to tail someone.” She crossed her arms. He noticed the clothes she was wearing and could smell the hints of something dead from her long coat and trousers. “What are you doing here?”

“One of the bar owners owns the hotel,” He said. “And that’s all I’m going to tell you. What do you need me for?”

She inhaled a moment to try and relax as she glanced over to the two hotel employees and then looked back at him. “You know how you won’t tell me about your past?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I may need your help in solving a couple of murders,” She said. “And since you’re at the one place that might have an answer to some of the questions, I was told to get you.”

“You were stuck volunteering me for information.”

“Yes.”

“And I won’t be charged with anything because you’re my alibi?”

“Exactly.” She blinked a moment before opening and then closing her mouth. “Oh.”

“Then let’s go,” He said.

She was driving a fairly new unmarked police sedan and as Terry got into the passenger side, he could smell a little bit more of the dead thing she had seen earlier. He knew the smell of a freshly killed human and was even more curious about what had done it. She got into the car, giving him a strange look before starting the engine and moving away from the hotel.

“Make me a promise, Stephanie,” He said.

“Never tell anyone about the hotel.”

“Exactly.”

“Why?” She asked after a few minutes.

“You know how hard it was for your lieutenant to get the information on the bar?”

“Yes.”

“There is a reason for it. The owners are all a paranoid, secretive group of people. They don’t trust people easily and very rarely do,” He said. “I’m just lucky that I can be trusted with the bar.”

“Extremely rich tycoons are always the same,” She grumbled and just drove. He made no reaction to her nearly accurate assumption. It wouldn’t do to let her think there was more going on.

It was nearly a half an hour before they got to where they were going and Terry stepped out of the car to look at the three coroner’s vans and forensic teams that were collecting their things. Looking up at the apartment they were at, he crossed his arms and grunted.

“How many bodies were there?” He asked as Stephanie came around the front of the car.

“Seventeen,” She said. “Why?”

“Look up at the windows,” He muttered and headed towards the front of the building. Stephanie was suddenly besides him and even as he moved under the yellow tape, he saw Detective Monroe talking with some rather ill squad car officers. It took only a few words from Stephanie before he was with her on the way up to the seventh floor.

He could smell the blood even before he stepped out onto the seventh floor. There wasn’t any drying or congealed blood on the hallway floor, but some had started to seep out from under the door of the victim’s apartment. He flexed his fingers in the gloves that Stephanie had handed him on the way up, while he exited the elevator. Some men and women holding cameras were near the door and one of the women was holding her hand over her mouth, gagging.

“Hey O’Neal, give him your camera,” Stephanie said, moving past him. “He’s probably able to take the pictures that you need.”

“Why’s that?” One of the guys asked, as Terry opened up the door and looked in on the blood covering everything. Body parts were hanging from the ceiling with wires and bent coat hangers while runes of all styles were on the walls.

“He used to investigate cult things,” Stephanie lied. “And he’s seen dead bodies before.”

Terry looked at her with a slightly strange look as the forensic man handed over his camera. He nodded at him and then glanced at Stephanie as she dropped a small digital recorder into his shirt pocket. He grunted before looking back at the floor and how blood had been dragged across it.

“The pattern on the floor is very much like that of a cult trying to raise a demon,” He began, moving onto the few places that were untouched by blood. “Most likely they used some child or teenager for the blood on the floor to call the demon. The child may have been a virgin to make the calling stronger. By the size of the body parts hanging from the ceiling, each of the victims may have been just that.”

He was taking pictures as he spoke and could almost hear the echo of his voice on the recorder. He smiled a bit once he was facing away from the five out in the hall because of the lie Stephanie may have to deal with if she got caught. But he had already thought of how to explain his ‘background’ if he was questioned. He paused only once to contact Olivia by telepathy while he was studying a collection of words on the wall.

“The writings in blood on the wall are typical of a cultist trying to raise a demon with his victims. They are words found easily in texts on the satanic cult, but they’ve been adapted and mixed up. Whatever this cultist was trying to do, he was only collecting victims for nothing more than brutal murders.” He took a couple pictures of the writings before pausing at a rune on the wall. He tightened his jaw a moment before taking a picture of it as well.

“The rune is a calling card of the murderer. It translates loosely to the word ‘Cannibal’ or ‘Eater of the Dead’.” He stood up and looked to the ceiling to take one picture before the camera’s motor was winding up the film. He walked back over to the door, making sure that the blood was undisturbed and found that the forensic teams had regained their composure and was lying plastic down over the blood so they could move into the room. He was handed another camera and he turned to look at the ceiling again to finish taking pictures of the diagram that was there.

“The cultist knew what he was doing as far as making a diagram for the floor and ceiling. He made sure there was no furniture in his way and might have used a stool or even some kind of platform to reach the ceiling. By all accounts, there may have been as many as seven people committing these murders, especially since the blood from the latest victim is still congealing. Certain groups work that way in order to commit these murders quickly and without letting people know of them.”

“Why?” O’Neal called from behind him and Terry turned his head to look at him.

“They would have wanted to kill and use the blood from all the victims all at once. You would need quite a few people to do this. Certain people to hold the struggling girl or boy and to keep them quiet while they cut their bodies apart. Drugs wouldn’t be used because they wouldn’t want it to affect the fear and pain the cultists would want to use for the rites. They think that it would help create a faster and stronger contact with what they hope is a demon.”

“Who the hell is in there?”

Terry smiled a bit as a tall, elderly man appeared at the door and looked in. He saw Terry for only a moment before looking around at the blood and gore. He suddenly gagged and spun away to let everyone hear his vomiting. Terry shook his head before moving to the kitchen door and looking in. He blinked a moment at the pile of heads and torsos left in the kitchen before starting to take pictures. He went back over to the door and collected a roll of plastic so he could move into the kitchen and finish taking pictures.

“Typical of some cults, the main torso and heads are untouched except to use the blood from their necks, hearts and livers.” He lifted the eyelid of one of the girls and took a picture of the empty socket. “If the cultists are also cannibals like the rune indicates, then they removed the eyes and used them in the diagram as well as eating them.” He moved over to the alcove and saw the lines, strings and wires that had been used to hold the children prisoner. He took time taking the pictures and then counted the lines.

“By the restraints used, there were twenty children of indeterminate age being held prisoner here. Seventeen children have been used and three are still missing.” He moved back out into the main room and looked at the walls and floor. He took a few pictures of a scuffmark. “Those children must have been taken from here when they were discovered.”

“What are you saying?” Stephanie called from the door.

“There’s three children missing,” He said. “Seventeen victims and twenty sets of restraints.”

“There’s more kidnapping?”

He nodded.

“Great.”

Terry moved around the blood to the bedroom and opened the door slowly to arch an eyebrow at the total lack of blood inside. He took a few pictures of this difference and how the blood wouldn’t even be anywhere past the doorjamb. Stepping into the room, he went still and looked around at the sensation he was getting. Kneeling where he was, he drew a circle in the air in front of his eyes and spoke a word, only to go still and stand back up.

“Well that’s odd,” He said, just for the digital recorder.

“What’s odd?” Stephanie called from behind him. “Oh, hey. The room’s spotless.”

“Must have used it for changing into clothes or sleeping where there wasn’t blood,” A forensic team member said from where she was standing on plastic to collect one of the hanging limbs in a bag.

“Probably,” Terry said. “Do I need to stay here any longer?”

“No, I think we can use what you said for a background to work from,” O’Neal said as he took the camera and digital recorder from him. “You also gave some of us a little confidence in even trying to go in there.”

Terry nodded after a momentary glance towards the bedroom and then began to head down the hall, pocketing the gloves. Stephanie caught up with him on the stairs and grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Okay, I just lied out my a$$ about you. What just happened there?”

“I have studied the occult for a few years, Stephanie.” He muttered, “But what happened up there shouldn’t have been allowed.”

“You said they were calling on a demon. Is that true?” She tried to move down in front of him and he just started walking again.

“No, what they were calling on was a Hound. A creature that hunts and destroys anything it’s sent after. Something that hasn’t been done for centuries,” He looked at her. “When I ask you to make sure that everyone leaves that bedroom door closed while they’re in there, would you make sure it stays closed?”

“Is this Hound in there?”

He smiled. “No, something worse is in there.”

She blinked. “I don’t want to know.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Will you explain it to me someday?”

“If you’ve got the time and you can keep a secret for the rest of your natural life, then maybe.”

She nodded and he turned to head down the stairs, already making mental contact with Olivia. Even as he reached the street, he could see that there were several men and women standing around the building and others at different places in the nearby structures. Knowing that the creature that had been in the apartment was taken care of, he headed off.




“What did you make?”

“You wanted something that would kill a vampire easily. You got one.”

Treterious raised his head from where it was hanging and ignored the strips of skin hanging down from his ruined face. Across the room a creature full of legs, poison and teeth tried to stand up from where it had appeared. He could smell the blood that had been used to call it and still hear echoes of the words of Power. He looked to the man who had killed the necessary victims and tightened his jaw, feeling it heal as he breathed. Closing his eyes to try and remember the books that he had read and the knowledge in his mind he began to chant a few words, hoping that it would work and hoping that he would be able to say them all before the monster smelled his blood.

If it worked, these Rogue Romans would be dead before morning and he could get back to the revenge he had been working on for decades.




“Okay, I want to know where you learned about the cults.”

“Oxford,” He said, making another drink for a customer. Stephanie had shown up at the bar ten minutes ago, dressed to kill and paying no attention to the men trying to get her attention with money and offers. “Maybe even Princeton.”

“Very funny.”

“Worried about my past now?”

“You had no problem seeing that blood, or all those bodies. I want to know why.” She hissed.

He smiled. “This isn’t the time or the place.”

“Stop talking and make the drinks, you two,” Jen said from the counter.

Stephanie gave him an odd look before moving away and making orders. Terry just shook his head and continued to work. There would be a time and a place, but he would choose that time and place, not her.

It wasn’t more than an hour after midnight that he caught the first hint of their smell. It wasn’t something that you could forget easily or even try to ignore. Especially since he was so familiar with it. It was the animal smell of what you would associate with a furry dog, but thicker. There was an odd musk, a scent that gave the creature away. But there was more than one of them. A whole lot more. He turned his head to the door and saw Jack scrambling inside, shutting and locking the door. Terry didn’t have to smell the fear, Jack literally oozed it. Few things scared any one of the brothers, but Jack was scared and that wasn’t good.

It meant that there was a lot more than just a few werewolves outside on the street. There was at least a pack, maybe two. Terry was already at the stereo control, turning off the sound and then standing on the bar counter.

“Ladies and gentlemen, there is a problem at the front door. I would like all of you to start exiting out the rear calmly.” He gestured to the door that was already being opened by some vampire that was alert as he was to what was outside.

“Why?” A man near the stage asked. His answer was a loud boom coming from the metal door that Jack was watching. There was a dent in the door and it was shaped like a large, broad fist. There were suddenly a whole lot of dents appearing in the door and it was enough to even move the drunken man.

Terry moved back down to the serving floor and found that Stephanie was holding a gun in her hand. There were few places where she could have hidden it, but of those, Terry was smiling at where. She glanced at him, but jumped at another loud boom from the door.

“Are they all in there?” Terry asked.

“Yes, what about the girls and them?”

He looked to the vampire and then the two brothers. They were near him and weren’t sure about staying and fighting or not. Jen looked ready for anything, but Terry knew that she wouldn’t survive a second with a whole pack of werewolves.

“Everyone.” Terry said and moved to remove the gun from Stephanie’s hand. She stared at him in shock because of how fast he had moved. “Jack, Jared, take her to the back.”

She tried to struggle, but Terry was too fast and strong for her to avoid him or move out of the arms of the brothers once she was in them. Jen took the gun and went into the door as well.

“You might die,” The vampire said. Terry smiled at him.

“You’ve never met a Kinslayer before, have you?”

“Not really.”

“If you’re ever able to get down here again, you might be surprised.”

“I might.” He smiled, then shut the door.

Terry reached under the bar counter and flipped a switch. An alarm went off somewhere in the city and silver metal panels four inches thick slid down into grooves inside the back wall. Seeing glowing eyes and teeth on the other side of the front door where it was bent back, Terry pulled out a Japanese katana and the bamboo sheath that it was in. Smiling at the dust that was on the sheath, he pulled the perfect blade out and regarded the mixture of silver, steel, and pure carbon. The handle had no specific designs or colorful cloth holding the wood together. Just two silver bands to make sure that the wood wouldn’t slip on the metal handle end.

He stepped back up onto the counter and reached up to touch the wood ceiling. As if he had been doing a handstand, his booted feet didn’t take long to touch the ceiling and he was walking out into the middle of the ceiling and waited with the sword pointed up.

He didn’t jump or flinch when the door suddenly flew ten feet and stuck in the brick wall for a few seconds. He watched as nearly two dozen werewolves with all shades of fur moved into the bar and began filling it up, expecting to find the people that had been inside. He smirked at little more as another fifteen or more Guardians strode in, sniffing the air.

“The ceiling!” One of them called out and Terry smiled at their mistake of being tall enough in this form for him to reach their necks with the sword. It took a desperate Guardian leaping from the stage to pull him down to the main floor and into the blood of those he had killed. The creature didn’t last long after they landed and Terry just moved quickly among the lycanthropes, removing heads, arms or legs depending on who he came across. With the material that was in the sword, some of the werewolves lay howling on the floor with cauterized limbs, unable to heal what was lost for the next twenty years. If they lived that long.

Terry suddenly stopped and ducked at the sensation of power building up to a climax and felt the power roll over him and then past him. He stood up inside a circle of unscorched wood paneling and regarded the woman that was holding hands out towards him in an odd fashion. He snorted and said three words in his native tongue. The woman barely had a chance to register the phonetics in them before she burst into a pillar of flame that left nothing but a pile of ash in two seconds.

And then a furry hand was on his neck and he was fighting again.

* * *

“I want his heart!”

“You can’t have it, Stephen.”

“He killed almost all of my pack, Dyson.”

Dyson MacGregor sighed and there was the sound of something being struck. In the chamber it echoed rather loudly. “Aren’t you just a little pleased that you have become the leader of what was once five different packs? You are the only alpha male in three states and you’re in charge of it all?”

“I don’t care about that right now. I want his heart for what he has done,” Stephen said. “I want it now.”

“Do you really think you and all the others would have done a better job against a Kinslayer?”

“You weren’t so pleased yourself there, Dyson,” Stephen shot back.

Terry ignored the dried blood still coating one side of his face and most of his torso. He ignored the remains of his clothes and how blood had darkened all of it to make it look black. He paid no attention to the three Guardians that were standing besides and behind him. The cold cement floor pressed into his once bruised knees and ankles, but he was beyond paying attention to it.

His muscles still strained against the three hundred pounds of titanium chain that was keeping his hands and arms behind his back and his legs folded so he was sitting on his heels. The leather gag in his mouth he was still biting down on, trying to break the material. He could smell the fear and the nervousness in all three of the monsters guarding him just because he was growling. What was bothering them the most was the growling hadn’t stopped ever since he had been bound; not even while he was breathing. There had been no pause, delay or stop to the noise and Terry knew that it was bothering more than the guards.

Three female vampires were in the large round chamber as well, but they were keeping their distance from Terry, Dyson and themselves just so there wouldn’t be any hint of which side they were on. Another two male vampires stood near Dyson as well, not interfering with the argument going on between the large lycanthrope standing almost nose to nose with the older vampire. The werewolf was taking a chance being so close to a vampire as old as Dyson, but Terry ignored that thought as he kept bending the rings on the chains ever so slowly.

“If he survives what I have planned for tonight, then he is yours Stephen,” Dyson said.

“Fine.” The man growled and looked to Terry and the rage in his eyes to snap his fingers. Terry turned his eyes to the only entrance to the room and watched as a procession came slowly into the chamber. He regarded six werewolves wearing nothing but chain mail gloves on their large hands move into the room. They were holding up a silver coffin that was making some of the werewolves’ hands smoke, despite the protection.

They set the coffin down on the concrete floor to Terry’s right and then moved quickly out of the room, pulling off the gloves as they went. Terry looked back to Dyson and could see the pleasure in his eyes.

“I hope you enjoy my show, Treterious,” Dyson said. “Because it may be your last.”

Terry spat out the leather that had been between his teeth and spoke. “You think you can raise the House of Eagles tonight?”

“Yes, it was rather difficult retrieving that coffin before it was placed inside another hidden silver mine. You have anything to do with that plan?”

“Difficult getting things done in the Middle East?” Terry calmly asked, “Or did it take all of your money to even get to the coffin?”

As he spoke the Guardians had moved slowly away from him and the coffin and towards the entrance. One of them even scrambled away, claws scratching on the concrete as one of the chain rings broke and a part of the restraints fell off his shoulders. Terry immediately relaxed and stood up in a smooth motion to let the rest slide off him.

“You cannot escape.” Dyson smiled and Terry looked up to the ceiling to watch a circle of metal cages being lowered. He hadn’t been able to look up because of the chains restraining him. Now he could and found he was tightening his jaw. In each of the twenty-one pie-shaped cages was a human being, full of fear and watching him. He found he was looking at Karen, Sarah, Jen, and Stephanie’s backup of police officers. The Monroes’ were in the same small cage together, holding on and trying to look at nothing. Terry slowly turned and found Stephanie was the only one holding onto the inner bars of her cage. The look on her face was some sort of expectancy.

“Do you really think you can trust any one of these people to keep your dirty little secret if you try to save them?” Dyson asked, “I wonder if you can leave them alive since they know that you’re not human.”

“Neither are you Dyson.”

“No, I am not, but if you do not save them, they will die. They will be used to raise the House of Eagles,” Dyson put his cane under his arm. “By dusk tonight, they will be the blood sacrifice for the imprisoned vampire.”

“You really are insane,” Terry said.

“Me? You’re the one in the prison of conscience,” Dyson smiled and walked out of the room, the others following behind.

Terry took in a deep breath, thinking of several thousand curses he could launch at their backs, but let his breath out slowly. He stared at the coffin and pursed his lips almost in a smile until Stephanie asked a question.

“What’s in the coffin?”

He looked over to her and found that the group of witches that he had given the books to was also imprisoned, but they looked like they had been here for more than a few hours like the others. He sighed again and looked back at the coffin.

“A very old vampire,” He whispered.

“Vampires don’t exist!”

He looked at Stephanie’s lieutenant and smiled. The man hadn’t sounded too confident in his accusation and now he was looking away, trying to still look strong and brave.

“You’ve just been listening to a conversation between myself and a vampire that’s been around since before Christ was born. You want to repeat what you just said?”

“Kinslayer.”

Terry turned his head slowly away from the man and found that one of the witches was standing like Stephanie was, her hands gripping the bars tighter to try and move out of the cage.

“That’s what your glyph means. You destroyed your House, your Branch of the larger Vampire family.” She smiled, “I found that out the other day.”

“I figured that you would,” He smiled back.

“What is she talking about?” Jen asked.

“Imagine that the vampires are like members of a large family. Think of a tree with many branches and three trunks,” Terry began. “Each of those main branches represent a House or a Family. There might be dozens, even thousands of smaller limbs connected to those branches, but they’re all a part of that main family. Every vampire that is brought over from humanity owes their soul, their life, and their body to the Head of the House. The vampire changed by the original three.”

“Original three?”

He smiled. “I can not tell you their names because I don’t even know what they are.”

“We’re still following you here,” Stephanie said.

“If the Head of the House is killed by one of his underlings every single member, every vampire that exists because of him dies. They burn away into ash and then nothing. Rarely is there anything left of the Head of the House either,” Terry stopped to see that most of them were watching him and they couldn’t do anything but listen anyway. “That underling becomes a Kinslayer. They no longer need to have blood to survive, but they don’t die. Not easily and not by any normal means. They age slowly.”

“How long have you been a Kinslayer?”

He turned with some surprise to look at Karen. A corner of his mouth came up.

“I was the first Kinslayer to walk on the Earth in over five thousand years. The first and previous Kinslayer had been killed by one of the original three because he killed for jealousy of power. I killed to avenge my family, my home, and my village. I have been walking on the Earth for a little over twelve hundred years.”

[Elrick]

And here's more...




Chapter 3

Terry was sitting on the concrete with a length of the stretched chain hanging from his hand. The tip was almost brushing the hard floor, but it wasn’t. His left leg was folded and lay flat on the ground so he could hook his right heel over his left ankle. His left hand lay flat on the ground while his right held the moving chain. He hadn’t heard anyone speak above a whisper for nearly twenty minutes. He didn’t blame their doubt either. In today’s world, none of what he told them, none of what they had seen was supposed to exist.

He could hear everyone’s heartbeat, smell everyone’s fear, taste the metal that caged them all, feel the hard floor that might be a lot more comfortable than the metal floors they were on. And all he did was watch the chain move.

It was the tingling on his skin, the sense of something powerful and ancient that had him looking up and around the room. There was a mugginess to the air and as he studied the room, tasting the thickness of the atmosphere he drew in a deep breath at what he was beginning to sense. A few sighs from the cages and he found that he was the only one that was still awake. Slipping around on the floor until he was sitting on his heels, he waited for the vampire to appear.

It was the only thing that would be able to move around at this time of the day and not be hurt by the sun. It was one of the few vampires that could walk in full sunlight and not even get warm.

When he appeared in the circle made by the cages, Terry froze and found that he couldn’t breathe.

“Relax, Treterious. I have not come for your heart.”

Terry found that he could breathe again and bowed his head slightly. “Thank you, my Lord.”

“You give me humility, interesting,” The vampire said. “Perhaps I will discover more about you that I will like.”

Terry blinked, then slowly stood up on his feet.

“A curious thing my nephew does, no?”

“Rather improper,” Terry whispered.

“Something this Council would not approve of?”

“They do not, my Lord.”

The vampire moved slowly around the room and then stopped at the coffin and knelt down to place his hand on top of the metal. “How long has she been in here?”

“A little over five hundred years,” Terry replied. “I would have revived her centuries ago, but I was not allowed to. There was too much fear of what she would do.”

“With what Lars was doing, I am neither surprised nor irate,” He stood back up and crossed his arms to look at Terry. “Would you release and revive her?”

“On your request, immediately,” Terry said.

“I do not request it, but I am curious.”

Terry blinked once before nodding, “I would revive her, but I have concerns about what the Council will say.”

“This thing my sister created?”

“That is the rumor, my Lord.”

“Would they believe you if you told them I wanted the House of the Eagles revived?”

“Eventually,” Terry smiled, ever so slightly. “But respect is hard to come by with them.”

“I think you underestimate the amount of respect that this council has in you,” The vampire said. “I also think you underestimate yourself.”

“Sir?”

The vampire came over to stroke Terry’s jaw. “I have let you live past a point that even your predecessor gained. I have done it out of curiosity because of the honor and purity that you have exhibited towards all vampires and those associated with them.”

Terry blinked because where the vampire had stroked his jaw, blood was coming to the surface as if he had been cut. He ignored the sensation and watched the man lick the small amount of blood off his fingers and stepped away. Terry winced a little as his jaw healed, but made no noise of pain.

“When you revive the Eagles, Treterious, destroy Dyson. He is almost as large a hassle as Vicars became before you killed him.”

“I was doing you a favor when I did that, wasn’t I?”

“A small one, but a favor nonetheless.” The vampire smiled. “Thank you for the snack.”

Terry bowed his head ever so slightly and then raised his eyes to find the eldest Brother gone. He heard the others gasp as if they had been hypnotized and he sat on the floor in some amazement.

“What’s wrong, Terry?”

He blinked a few times, trying to understand what had happened and turned his head to find that Karen was looking at him through the bars. No fear or doubt in her eyes. Just something like understanding. He smiled a bit at her before he got to his feet and regarded the coffin.

“We had a visitor,” He said.

“Who?”

“No one you need to know about,” He murmured. “But I have to ask all of you if you’re willing to take a chance with me.”

“What kind of chance? Trust you after we’ve seen what we’ve seen tonight?” The lieutenant snapped. “Never.”

“We’re willing.”

Terry looked over at the coven and found that there was an eagerness there that was too hard to put in words. Stephanie shrugged and held up her hand. As he looked around at the other prisoners, some of them just regulars from the bar, almost all had their hand held up.

“I’m going to revive the vampire in here,” He said. “Not because Dyson wants it done, but because she’s been imprisoned for over five hundred years. It’s time to let her out.”

“What will that mean?” One of the police officers from the surveillance crew asked.

“Giving blood?”

“A little,” Terry said as blood formed on the tips of his fingers and he began to write runes onto certain flat areas of the silver coffin.

“Oh, Christ!” Some woman said. “That’s impossible.”

“Not really,” Terry whispered and stepped back a bit from the coffin. There was an audible click and from the other side of the coffin a silver blade fell out and bounced a few times before coming to a stop.

“What was that?”

“One of three hundred booby traps on this prison,” Terry said. He went to the head of the coffin and pulled on a tiny lever at the bottom. With hardly a pause, he lifted the lid and sides up to leave it standing on end. Lying on the bottom of a coffin was a body wrapped in black silk and not moving.

“How do you know about that thing?”

Terry smiled and looked at the lieutenant. “I built it.”

“Okay, now I know he’s d*^n strong.”

Terry found Jack and Jared looking at him from two cages and realized that he hadn’t registered their presence at all. “Sorry, guys.”

“About what?”

“I promised your brothers.”

“Ah, but they don’t search too good,” Jack held up a cell phone. “We must not be buried too deep.”

“No, its amplified because of the iron ore that’s less than ten feet under the concrete,” Terry smiled.

“That works too.”

“Nate said he called Kevin.”

“Good.”

“Kevin said that he couldn’t do anything.”

Terry nodded, “I thought as much.”

“What do you mean that he can’t do anything?”

“We’re in something like a turf war, McKenzie,” Stephanie said. “But much worse.”

“You’re about as close as you can get it,” Terry began to remove a few items still wrapped in black velvet from the top of the raised coffin.

“Hey, Terry? Before you start raising the dead, you want to take a look at Jared?” Jack asked from behind him. He moved over to the brothers and saw that Jared was shaking and had his eyes glazed over.

“A werewolf bit him, didn’t it?”

“Bit both of us,” Jack held up his left forearm and the rips in cloth was enough for Terry. “Is there a cure for it?”

“Not really,” He sighed. “Not unless you two can identify by sight the one that bit you. If it’s dead by anyone’s hand other than yours, then never.”

“How bad is it?”

“You’ll definitely turn into one at every full moon. When that happens you have to feed on human flesh. You’re lucky if you can control it for just a cow,” Terry muttered, looking at the wounds. “The scent of blood, graphic sex, lust, you name it.”

“What are the benefits?”

“You know that fire truck around the corner from the bar?”

“Yeah?”

“You and Jared could lift that and throw it thirty feet. In human form.”

Jack blinked and Jared just nodded, accepting the possibility. Terry regarded them for a moment before gesturing.

“Reach your hands out here.”

“Which ones?”

“The bloody ones.”

“Why?” Jack asked.

“I’m going to use your blood to make a Calling.”

“What is that?” Jared whispered.

“You’re going to call your creators.”

“There was just the one,” Jack said.

“Then it will be that much stronger.” Terry grabbed their wrists and watched their blood form two small pools of blood. Dipping their fingers in the blood he wrote identical diagrams with them and then let the wrists go.

“What is that going to do?”

Terry smiled at the witch that was next to Jared and pointed to the hall. “It’s going to be like a meteorite that has to hit the ground. There’s going to be no stopping the creature from reaching the marks.”

Everyone could hear the scrape of something coming and Terry looked at the brothers and saw the determination in their faces.

“You’ll have to eat its heart.”

“You have something to cut it out with?”

Terry handed them both a dagger. They took them and didn’t ask where they came from.

The werewolf didn’t move into the middle of the cage as Terry expected it to, but in the end he held the creature against the bars of the cages while the brothers moved as if they were one and shared the heart. Terry ignored the retching of those that witnessed the murder and went back over to the form lying on the ground.

It didn’t take long for the blood that he dropped on the satin to soak through and into the body. He ignored the blood that was on the neck of the body because it was left there for a reason.

“I would cover your ears,” He called out. He had seen the slight rise of her chest and knew there would be some sound.

Even he winced at the scream that echoed forever in the room and down the hall. When the female vampire lay sleeping, but breathing, he knelt and pulled the satin back from her face.

“How old was she when she died?”

“Fifteen,” Terry looked at the witch who had identified him. “And she was brought over twenty years before I was.”

“When was that?”

He just smiled and looked down at the face that seemed to be moving.

“Welcome back, Lady Alexandria,” He whispered.

“Was that Latin?” Stephanie asked.

“Not any form that I know.” The witch said.

Alexandria opened her eyes slowly and met his. He smiled at her even as he knew that she was reading his mind. Her face crumpled when she found out who had ordered her imprisonment. It became still when she realized who had given her the position in her House less than an hour ago.

“One of the Brothers?”

“The oldest.”

“And the guilt you’ve been living with,” She whispered.

“It comes and goes with time.”

“You’re much older.”

Terry smiled, “You’re still older.”

“I don’t feel it,” She said as he helped her sit up. She looked at the coffin and shuddered a moment before looking around. “I’m so weak.”

“Drink.” He ordered and she nodded once before she began to suck on the blood pooling in his hand.

“How does he do that?”

He looked over at Karen, but didn’t let her know about the blades in his arms. He just smiled at her and looked back to Alexandria.

“Oh, and your blood is so thick,” She said, pulling back. “It’s almost too thick.”

“Would you like something a little more pleasing?”

She nodded and Terry helped her onto her feet and then had to hold her and the satin on her body so it wouldn’t fall. One of the police officers was standing at the inner side of the cage with his long sleeve shirt in his hand. He had a gray tee shirt on still and the look in his face was that of contemplation.

“How will this affect me?”

“If she drinks just a little you’ll be a little stronger and faster. You won’t have the vampire desires and abilities, but you will be at her beck and call.”

“Sounds similar to what I go through every year,” He said.

“You promise…”

“I don’t remember what happened to me tonight.”

Terry nodded just as Alexandria took the first bite into the man’s wrist. He took the shirt as the officer tilted his head at the pain and draped it over Alexandria’s shoulders. She stopped drinking and licked the man’s wrist.

“Like a mosquito bite,” He said, looking at the already healing wound.

“With better benefits than an itch.”

Alexandria slid her hands through the sleeves and ignored the comment as she looked at the officer. “You’ve been working for the Council since you were a child. Why?”

“It’s been a family thing,” The cop said. “There’s always someone that works for them in the cities.”

Alexandria turned to look at Terry and he smiled.

“How the world has changed.”

“Too true.”

“What happened to Alexis?”

“His head is a part of my trophy collection,” Terry smiled. “I do add Dyson’s to it tonight.”

She pursed her lips, “May I…”

“When you have a chance to see my apartment, yes.”

She nodded and looked around the caged room. “You haven’t removed the metal yet?”

“It is for the benefit of some here,” He whispered.

Her eyes must have met McKenzie’s because he was trying not to shake with fear where he was backed up in his cage and had his arms crossed. Jen whispered something towards him and still waited with her arm out.

Alexandria walked over and stroked the waitress’s jaw before looking at the way she was always dressed. “Oh, I do like how the world has changed even more now.”

“You’ve been trapped how long?” Jen asked even as Alexandria’s nail bit into her inner elbow and the vampire bent to start sucking. Alexandria paused only once when Jen began to pant in pleasure.

“Oh…”

Alexandria let go after a moment and found Terry holding Jen up by the straps on the front of her leather corset. She smiled and kissed the healing wound to hold the waitress’ jaw again. Jen and Alexandria’s eyes met and Jen’s eyes widened.

“Oh, I would love to.”

“Later,” Alexandria purred. Terry bowed his head a moment and tried not to smile too widely. He stepped over and put Karen’s hand down even as Sarah put her hand out.

“She is promised?”

“Protected,” Terry replied. “You remember Kevin?”

Alexandria’s eyes opened up. “The young protégé of Helen’s?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” She looked at Karen and saw the confusion. “You only have to ask Terry and he will contact the one vampire that I would beg to be a human servant for. If I were still human.”

“Kevin the owner?” Karen asked.

Terry nodded.

“He’s a vampire?”

He nodded again.

“Wow.”

Sarah looked at her sister, then Alexandria. “Would there be a problem if I decline and join my sister?”

“No.” Alexandria smiled and leaned in to kiss Sarah before the cop could react. “But you would be a wonderful bridge for the two Houses if Kevin is unattached.”

The older vampire said nothing else and moved on.

“Wait and I will explain later,” Terry whispered. Sarah just nodded and hugged her sister as the dancer began to whisper into her ear. The young man that Jen had devirginized was waiting with his arm out of the cage and showed some fear, but not too much.

“Oh, a young pup.” Alexandria said and Terry arched an eyebrow as the bars were bent enough for her to slip into the cage and slide her hands around the teenager’s back. There was a hesitant smile on his face even as she bit into his neck. Terry glanced over at Jen and saw the grin and no hint of jealousy.

“I almost feel envious,” Jen grinned evilly. “But not really.”

“Alexandria?” Terry asked. The vampire pulled back and began to lick the boy’s neck.

“He has much better potential,” She said, looking back at him, blood on her lips.

“Ask him first. It’s a polite thing today.”

“It was one when I was changed, cousin.” She said and looked at the boy as she drew back a bit.

“How much will it hurt?”

“Extremely for the first few days,” Alexandria said. She snorted and looked at Terry, “Extremely, I like that word. It rolls off the tongue easily.”

Terry smirked.

“Do it, Kelly.”

One of the witches was waiting with both her arms hanging out of her cage. She smiled at Terry, then past him. “You can finally escape from your father.”

Kelly’s expression was unreadable for a moment as he back straightened and then he knelt in front of Alexandria and turned his head to the side. There was a soft gasp of surprise from Alexandria before she half crouched, half sat on Kelly’s raised thigh and slid her arms around him again and began to drink again. Kelly’s spread hands slowly came around to hold the small vampire’s body against his and then suddenly his grip tightened. Terry could smell the climax coming in their heat and Kelly’s change and turned away to see Stephanie holding the bars of her cage and staring at him.

“How old were you when you were changed?”

“Fourteen and it was 322 AD.”

She nodded.

Terry moved over to take the daggers that the brothers were holding out and saw the determination in their eyes to make sure they didn’t throw up.

“It’s a bitter taste,” Jack whispered.

“Very bitter,” Jared added.

“Too bad there’s no chaser.”

“Here, try this.”

All three of them looked at one of the witches and Jared smiled.

“It’s silver,” He said, taking the flask. He let go after a moment and turned his head to the side. “Oh, JB is so welcome.”

Jack took a swing and Terry handed the flask back.

“Forgot I had it still,” The girl said. “What does becoming a vampire do for diseases?”

“What do you have?” He asked.

“I’m HIV positive.”

“This is what for a vampire?” Alexandria asked, moving over the dead werewolf and Terry glanced at the now human form and smirked at the sight of the now dead pack leader. He sighed and looked at the female vampire.

“It’s a chancy situation. If the virus is still early she’ll change over easily. If it’s been over three years since it happened, then she’ll end up a zombie.”

“A zombie, really?” Alexandria looked at the young woman, “That’s a rarity.”

“I was diagnosed earlier this year, but I don’t know how long I’ve had it.”

Terry held out a hand and the girl put her left hand out. She jumped at the nick of the dagger on her palm, but watched with amazement as Terry’s words had a diagram show up in her blood.

“Did you ever go back for a second opinion?”

“It was my uncle who did it.”

“He was wrong,” Terry let go of her hand. “You’ve got hepatitis.”

“Really?”

“Yes!” Alexandria bit into the girl’s wrist.

“No, the neck! Please?”

Terry looked over to where Jen was laughing and tried not to join her as he heard the bars being bent out of shape and a sigh of pleasure. He saw McKenzie trying to pull the bars apart in his cage and cursing him under his breath. Shaking his head, Terry looked over at the brothers and saw their eyes lit up with amazement.

“You game, brother?”

“Let’s check with Nathan and Paul first.”

A survey of the remaining intended victims left him with the rest of the coven of witches, a cop, some man and three bar regulars. Mike was shaking his head and sitting on the floor of the cage and Shawn had the look of a concerned, but doubting man. The third regular was Mary and Terry stepped over to study her.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t think I’d like to be a zombie.”

“You have HIV?”

“Worse, I’ve got AIDS,” She smiled and exposed a bit of her collarbone where the grip of one of the werewolves was already a dark purple. “It’s why I’ve been killing myself at the bar.”

Alexandria was suddenly in the cage and had stepped over to smell the woman, pulling the shirt open even more to regard the bruising. Her nose wrinkled a bit, and Terry saw that she had one of his daggers in her hands. He had forgotten one of her skills and smiled ever so slightly. The older vampire smelled the cut she made and then cut her hand to let a drop of the viscous liquid fall into the wound.

“You can’t turn into a vampire, but maybe lycanthrope can help.”

“You mean the…” She shook her head. “None of them wanted to even bite me when they caught me on the street.”

“Perhaps they had been ordered to subdue by then,” Jack said. “Jared and I fought so that’s why we were bitten.”

“And I am not sure about it myself,” Alexandria said. “I’ve read your mind and the mind of others so I understand the disease better, but if the virus of a werewolf may help, then I suggest you try it.”

“If it doesn’t?”

“Ask Terry for a release.”

The older vampire left the cage and began moving among the others. Stephanie willingly became a human servant while the rest of the coven became vampires. Shawn asked about a future change if being a human servant wasn’t enough and got an affirmation. Mike denied it, and so did the other cop.

At the look Alexandria gave him, Terry went to the satin near the coffin and revealed several swords and sharp weapons. He distributed the weapons among the brothers and the human servants before going back to the coffin and pulling out another sword. He removed it from the decaying leather sheath and regarded the smooth metal.

“I’ve been protected by your sword.”

He looked at Alexandria and smiled. “Always.”

“I have been honored in more than one way,” She smiled and he caught sight of the tear rolling down her face. He inhaled deeply once before he was striding towards the cage that Jen was in. She grinned once before she was ducking into a corner. The bars of the cage parted like they were made of grass and Terry moved around the circle of steel, just holding the sword at shoulder level and cutting the bars. When he made a full circuit he saw McKenzie running for the end of the tunnel and shook his head.

“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Sarah asked.

A scream of pure terror echoed back to them and Sarah shook her head.

“How many?”

Terry glanced to the brothers and shrugged. “A dozen or so.”

“Werewolves or those other things?”

“Maybe both.”

“Which one for Mary?”

“A basic werewolf.”

“Sounds like our job,” Jared murmured holding up his sword and the brothers moved out in front of him. Terry followed after them and it wasn’t long until nearly twenty lycanthropes appeared ahead of them. Again, Terry was almost amazed by the brothers’ martial skills as they moved into the creatures as if they were human and weak. He ended up killing quite a few of them before the brothers were dragging one of the werewolves back past him. The animal was missing its arms and bleeding from its stomach. Terry snorted and just finished killing the rest before heading on up the tunnel.

He passed the ruined body of McKenzie and continued onwards. Human servants and weaker vampires he dispatched without much hesitation or pause. Before long he came to the chamber where he had sensed Dyson and stepped inside, smiling at what he was seeing.

Two of the female vampires from earlier were standing over the headless body of the third woman while Dyson and the two men were trying to calm them down. They were distracted enough that Terry had the male vampires dead before he was moving towards Dyson.

The older vampire barely had his odd sword out before he lost his hand and head. Terry stepped away from him holding the vampire’s heart on the silver blade sticking out of his hand. The two suddenly burning vampires were killed as well and he waited for the heart to stop burning on the blade and turn to ash. Sighing at the lack of triumph he felt, he looked around the room and shook his head.

He went still at the sudden pressure in the room and spun to look at Dyson’s body. Cursing, Terry began to cut up the body trying to heal the wound in its chest. Words came out of his mouth as he worked and it was a while until the whole body was ash and the room full of burning material.

Grumbling at the extra work, Terry walked naked out into the hall and found the group of prisoners watching from the entrance.

“Now that is destruction at its’ finest.” Alexandria remarked.

“Anyone want to give him some clothes?” Jack asked.

“Nope.” Jen said.



* * *


“You revived her and you don’t know where she is?”

Terry smiled because Kevin couldn’t see his face, but kept working at the heated mechanism of the safe lock. The whole bar had been burnt because of some kind of chemical mix of all the creatures that he had killed. Or perhaps Kevin had burnt the place to cover up the bodies.

“I do know that she’s still got a crush on you.”

At the silence, Terry knew that he had shocked the vampire and turned to look at him. Kevin was concerned at this. The vampire came over and leaned on the wall.

“She’s still got a crush?”

“Maybe,” He shrugged, “She wanted to know if you were unattached. Mentioned something about a bridge between you two by using Sarah and Karen Monroe.”

“A bridge? A real attachment?” Kevin raised both eyebrows at Terry’s nod. “Whoa, there hasn’t been a vampire marriage in three hundred years.”

“You can ask her when she calls on you.”

“Where will that be?”

“She knows where the hotel is.”

Terry looked to his friend and found that he was alone again. He smirked and looked back at the safe to make an outline of the safe door with his finger. A word and the door fell off. He began to stuff the books into the satchel he had brought with him, sighing at the mess he was leaving. Kevin had already talked with the other owners and decided to take the insurance from the fire and distribute it amongst them. The dancers had already been paid a large sum for the end of their jobs here.

He had already heard about another bar being opened up ten blocks away, but there wasn’t a need for dancers there. He wasn’t too worried about a job either, just because of the innumerable times he’d been penniless and without food. Terry turned and looked around the room to start collecting the hidden weapons that he knew of and the katana lost during the fight. The handle was gone and the silver melted away, but the blade was still intact.

It wasn’t long until he was walking up the street, rubbing his fingers and thumb together to feel the ash and soot on them. His thoughts were still on what had happened to the bar when he got home and began to cook a dinner for himself. Even as he ate, he regarded his small collection of antiques and paused at the sight of a box on the only couch in the room. Still chewing on the sandwich, he went over to open the loose lid flaps on the box and saw a scorched skull inside. Smiling, he walked into his trophy room and put Dyson’s skull where Alexis’ once sat.

His surprise was finding Olivia and four other members of the council in his living room with their cloaks draped over their arms or shoulders. Olivia had hers just opened at the front and she was wearing a nice Armani or Gucci black dress. He wasn’t concerned with the designer, just saw that she looked good.

“We asked you not to interfere with Dyson.”

“One of the Founders told me to destroy him,” Terry said, going back over to the sandwich and picking it up. “He felt the House of Eagles had been punished enough.”

“The Founders?” Olivia asked.

“I don’t believe you!” A council member hissed.

“How can we trust him or his word?”

“The oldest brother, would you like to touch my jaw and feel the bone still knitting? He stroked it like I was a boy,” Terry regarded the speaker. “And you should have a little more thought into trust, Morgan.”

The vampire glared at Terry, but he just coldly grinned back.

Olivia smiled. “You’re still a boy, Terry.”

“Ain’t I?” He took a bite of his dinner.

“Does he tell the truth?”

“Yes, he does,” Olivia turned to them. “Or can you not taste the truth in the air?”

One of the vampires stepped forward and held his hand out. Terry leaned on the counter so he could touch his jaw. The older vampire shook his head before he touched Terry’s skin. “It is a strange decade we live in.”

“Come, we have a meeting to attend,” Olivia said and all five were gone. Terry continued chewing and began to think about everything and nothing at all.




“I said I didn’t want to have you and I mean it.”

“But you said you wanted me.”

Treterious cracked his eyelids and inhaled slowly at the voices disturbing his nap. He rolled his head along the trunk of the tree and looked down from the branches where he was seated. His sword was lying across his lap and his hands hung from the side of the sheath. He knew it was late afternoon and almost smiled at the reminder that it was adultery time.

“I wanted you to follow me so I could show you something,” The young woman in fine silks said, letting go of her skirt to look back over her shoulder. “Where you got the wanting you for anything else, I do not know.”

The young man in his own finery had his mouth open in shock. “Do you not know who I am?”

“I do, but I do not care.”

The young man did not see her coy smile before he grabbed her around the throat and began to choke her. The girl tried to scream as she was pushed to the ground, but the young man was already holding her throat tight with one hand and ripping her clothes.

“My Lord, no!” A middle-aged man came running up and tried to pull his charge off the young woman. By the time he did, it was too late and the young man was left unfulfilled, but a murderer.

“No, no, no!” The young lord grabbed at the girl and tried to shake her, but the older man pulled him off.

“You can’t do anything, Victor.”

“Can you do anything for her, Morgan?”

“No, I can’t.” The man said. “Flee, my Lord, lest you be found here.”

“I can trust you to take care of her?”

“That you can, my Lord.”

Victor regarded his vassal for a few seconds before he turned and ran off towards the palace in the distance. Morgan turned and regarded the young woman and began to undo his breeches. Treterious curled his lip just a bit at the foul deed, then raised both eyebrows as the young woman woke up during the act. Her scream was cut off as Morgan kept moving while he cut her neck and body up with a dagger.

When the man was finished he got to his feet and fixed his clothes and cleaned off his dagger. He knelt and picked up the mutilated body in his arms and waited with an odd look on his face. Treterious grunted quietly as tears began to fall down the man’s cheeks. Morgan turned and began calling for help as he headed towards the palace.

Already aware of what would happen if he were to be discovered on the grounds, Treterious moved away from his resting-place and began to study the palace grounds a little more. He listened to the distant shouts of horror and anguish before he found what he was looking for. Sitting down to wait, he looked over to the palace and raised an eyebrow at the body hanging from a rope at the Western corner tower.

The moon was nearly up when Treterious dragged the struggling man back out towards the tiny graveyard. Morgan’s legs and arms were broken as well as his jaw, so his ability to squirm out of Treterious’ grip was impossible. When they reached the small crypt waiting with its door open, Morgan tried to scream even more and move away. The man froze when a woman appeared at the door and glided down the steps towards them.

“Ah, thank you very much, Treterious,” The female vampire whispered as she took a hold of Morgan’s shirt. “I was wondering what my great-granddaughter’s killer looked like.”

“His actions weren’t something I felt should be left unpunished,” Treterious said.

The vampire’s eyes were nothing but her black pupils as she stared at the whimpering man. “Ah, and if you were I; what would you do in my place?”

Treterious smiled and said, “I think that there should be a better understanding of trust, my Lady. A far better understanding of trust than Morgan here has understood.”

“Perfect.” She purred and walked back towards her crypt with the whimpering man. Treterious watched the wide eyes until they were out of sight and smiled.



“You’re packing.”

“No, I’m already packed and moved.”

“Then what is this?”

“Donations for the Salvation Army,” Terry replied, putting another set of books into the box in front of him. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see if you wanted to be the resident expert on occult murders.”

Sarah smiled at him as he stopped studying the books. She came around the piles of boxes and gestured as she held out her hands for the books. “Besides, you should sell these on Ebay, there’s better potential for them there.”

“I don’t need more money.”

“So what,” She said, glancing at the books as she put them on the shelves. “I have a job for you.”

“I said I don’t need any more money.”

“That’s not a problem, you won’t get paid much anyway.”

Terry paused to look at the woman’s back before joining her on the elevator. He found that her car was parked and waiting at the bottom. The fact that the engine was running and the doors weren’t locked meant that she put a lot of trust in those that would usually steal the car or what might be in it. Terry settled into the passenger seat, moving books onto the floorboard so he could sit comfortably. Once Sarah was in he asked.

“What made you call on me? Was it because of what happened when Stephanie brought me in?”

“Officer Corbel? Yes, in part.”

He glanced at her. She shook her head.

“No, you won’t get all the answers from me.”

He sighed and settled back in the seat and closed his eyes, waiting for her to get to their destination. He smelled the remains of the food that she might have eaten within the last twenty-four hours in the car, as well as her perfume, sweat, and hygienic product. He could taste the residue that Alexandria had left on her neck from when she had made her a human slave. He could feel the energy that her body now held and wondered if she knew how strong she could be. The passing of traffic told him nothing other than that they were moving for nearly forty minutes. It was long enough for him to understand that they were well out of the city and into the rural areas.

Opening his eyes, Terry looked out into a neighborhood with matching houses and a small grocery store every few miles. Leaning forward a bit, he saw that there were several emergency vehicles waiting at a house.

“Another large group of murders?”

“We don’t know what it is,” Sarah answered. “I just know that the county police were called to the house and couldn’t enter.”

“Couldn’t enter?”

“All I know is that eventually the call came to our district and because I knew that your knowledge of the occult was reliable…” She sighed. “The captain ran your information by the special crimes unit with the FBI and not even their best man came close to describing what you did with that writing on the wall.”

“He had to verify that I was talking the truth.”

“Yes,” She smirked. “He was pissed when he got the paperwork on you from Oxford.”

Terry smiled, “Of course.”

“You never attended Oxford, did you?”

“I helped build it, if that helps.”

“No, it doesn’t.” She laughed and got out of the car as soon as it stopped.

Terry followed her over to where a group of men were waiting for them. One was Sarah’s captain and he just glared at Terry while the others nodded at his name and one shook his hand.

“Glad to have you here, Mr. Rio.”

“I can only assume the same,” Terry said. “Is there something that you think I can do?”

“There might be.” The man gestured to a uniformed police officer and a young woman came over. She was holding a cup of coffee in her hand, but it was shaking at a level close to panic. She studied Terry for a full minute before turning to her captain.

“I’m not going back over there.”

“Tell Mr. Rio here about the door.”

“It bleeds.”

Terry drew his eyebrows together for a second. “What do you mean it bleeds?”

“I mean when you touch it, the door bleeds. When you look away, then back again, it’s fine.”

“I assume its some sort of illusion,” The captain said. “But if that’s illusion, then we’re in the movies right now. Nothing I’ve ever seen has come close.”

Terry grunted and looked over at the door to start to walk over to it. It was a simple door with a deadbolt and handle in it. But as he neared the door, there was a shine to the whole door and he tilted his head as he saw the magic being used. He pursed his lips and knelt in front of the door to put his fingers on the wood. He snorted as the illusion did what it was supposed to do. Make the spot where anything touching the door appear to bleed.

“What is it?”

“I don’t suppose you believe in magic?”

“Magic?” Sarah’s captain asked from behind her. “A rabbit out of the hat, magic?”

“Witches are real, Captain Thornton,” Terry said, standing up. “It just depends on how much they know and how strong they really are.”

“A witch did this, my a$$.”

“Then touch the door,” He smiled and stepped to the side. “Prove me wrong.”

The man snorted and put his hand on the door to go pale as his hand was covered in blood and the red liquid began to ooze out of cracks in the wood. He nearly jumped back, brushing at his hand to freeze when nothing came off. The blood was gone.

“What the hell was that?”

“An illusion, like Captain Jones said it was,” Terry replied. “Now is there a warrant for this place?”

“Yes,” Sarah held up the paper. “There is.”

“Then if anyone can stand it, they only have to open the door and the illusion should be gone.”

Both Sarah and Terry’s eyes met at the sound of a shotgun having a round chambered and moved away from the door as a hole appeared in it. Thornton went down screaming about his leg and Terry crouched with his hands over his head as several officers fired past him and into the door. Parts of it fell next to him as a large man came out wearing some sort of vest and aiming his shotgun at anything at all.

“Where the hell did he come from?” Jones shouted as he tried to fire on the helmeted head.

“Waiting!” Sarah called as she shot the man’s knee out. The giant of a man bellowed in pain, but tried to turn towards her. Terry ripped the shotgun from the man’s hands and stepped back as the others circled him. Emptying the magazine, he moved into the house after Sarah and let her rush back out at the amount of blood and bodies inside. He looked at the seven naked bodies in black robes hanging from the ceiling and then the other body parts doing the same.

Sarah came back in, smelling of vomit as she coughed into her hand. “It’s the same as the apartment.”

“Exactly, but they got to finish what they were doing.” He looked at her. “You talked to Stephanie.”

She nodded then gestured back to the dead. “How do you get that they finished?”

“They’re smiling.” He gestured, “They didn’t struggle or else the wires would have ripped their necks a bit more. They accomplished what they couldn’t do the last time.”

“And that is doing what?”

“Become one single creature.” He stepped back and pointed at the giant being handcuffed. “Thornton and the others will see him as a lackey, but he is actually what they were trying to do.”

“What about that demon thing you were talking about the last time?”

“They were going to call a demon with the sacrifices in order to have his skills put them all into one single body. They didn’t finish the job the last time, but they did it this time.”

“And the demon?”

“It’s either gone back to its dimension or its still here on Earth somewhere.”

“Can you make sure?”

“I’m doing that right now.” He whispered as Jones came in with his gun drawn.

“Don’t ever enter a house like that, Rio.”

“I assumed there might still be a blood sacrifice going on.”

The man turned and looked at the living room, then exited quickly. Terry smirked before turning and heading into the rest of the house. Sarah waited while he looked around. When he came back, he shook his head.

“There’s twenty or more dead bodies back there.”

“Where the hell do they come up with all of them?”

“Runaways, kids that might not be seen as missing,” He sighed. “And then sometimes they trick them with magic and those teenagers will be just recently taken today.”

“Great,” She put her gun away. “And the demon?”

“Back in its dimension.”

“And we’re left with that thing out there.”

He nodded and walked out to where they were strapping the seven-foot giant into an ambulance stretcher. His pants were ripped open and a medic was bandaging his knee.

“He’s going to get the death penalty for all of that.”

Terry just nodded and regarded the man’s eyes as he glared back up at him. He smiled and turned his head around to look at the crowd. Sarah did the same and moved over to his side.

“He is a lackey?”

“And the woman at the corner is our finished product.”

She walked away from him and Terry watched as two uniformed officers moved from the crowd towards the woman. She saw them coming and tried to move away, but a gust of wind happened to reveal her nudity under the long coat and she was grabbed before she got too far. She tried to fight but by the time she was handcuffed, Terry was over besides her as well as the others.

“Another one of them?” Jones asked.

“Who else would be standing out here in nothing but a trench coat?”

“Good point.”

“You’ll suffer for this, human!” The woman hissed. Terry regarded the finely sculpted body and shook his head. He put his lips next to hers and whispered a few words into her ear. She jerked her head back and tried to speak, only to widen her eyes in shock.

“Have a good prison life, it should fit you perfectly.”



* * *



“Don’t ever move without telling me again.”

Terry regarded Sophia from where he was putting another book away and stepped down off the step stool and walked over to her.

“Get a little surprise when you went to the apartment?”

“I got a little dinner, but that’s besides the point.”

“It wasn’t a convenient place anymore.”

“So you open up an occult book shop on the other side of town,” She crossed her arms so she could frame her breasts. “Why?”

“I felt like it.” He held out his hand. “Coffee or blood?”

“Coffee is fine.” She grumbled and followed him over to the expensive coffee machines to take the drink he handed her. “This doesn’t fit you.”

“Ah, but I still do the same thing I did at the bar. I serve drinks, have a place for vampires to sleep during the day, and play host to witches and warlocks.”

She sipped the drink and smiled just a bit. “And all these books?”

“Copies of books that I have already.”

“How many copies?”

“Close to twenty copies of every book I have,” He smiled. “Plus those of hard to get ones that aren’t exactly related to the occult, but are well liked by those who practice.”

“How many customers do you have?”

“About twenty a night,” He leaned on the counter where the machines were. “Why do you ask?”

“Need an employee?”

He studied her for a moment and then slowly smiled. “You’re worried that Alexandria will take me for herself.”

She went still. “How can you tell?”

“I know jealousy when I see it.” He stepped over to her and raised her chin. “Don’t worry, she isn’t the type to try and control me.”

“But why do I feel her through you?”

“Because I had to revive her. It is very much like distant members of a House.”

She leaned against him as he kissed her lips.

“Besides, I know you love me,” He smiled. “Not many things would let me forget that.”

She relaxed and he brushed her lips with a thumb.

“We’re open until three for humans. Vampires that know how to get in are to go to the second floor. My room is at the top.”

“Can I move in?”

“As much as you need to, yes.”

She smiled and sipped at her coffee.

“And you don’t need to be in such formal clothes, either,” He said, going back over to the shelf.

“Oh, but I like to.”

He just smiled and kept putting new issues of books on the shelves. It was nearly an hour until Sophia said anything and it was when she called his name. He put the book on the shelf at an angle so the others wouldn’t fall over and headed to the front. He slowed when he saw Jen standing at the front door with her arms crossed as she glared at Sophia.

“Who the hell is she?”

Sophia raised an eyebrow and regarded Terry. “My, is that jealousy?”

“I think so,” Terry walked over to Jen and held up a hand in front of her chest. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing now,” She hissed and tried to turn, only to find Terry’s hands on her shoulders.

“Jen…”

Her face began to relax, but she turned her head away to take a deep breath before looking back at him with tears in her eyes. “My brother is dead.”

“How?”

“His attempt to pay me back failed,” She whispered.

He sighed and pulled her to his chest. He could feel her sobbing by the time Sophia appeared at his side with a cup of coffee. Both of them settled her onto the couch in the front room and listened to her talk about how her brother had put up a bet on a horse and ended up getting thrown into a tree grinder. She had been forced to watch and told to pay the bookie the money that was lost. Even as she talked, Terry could smell the faint residue of vomit and blood from her clothes and body.

“Tell me where the bookie lives.”

“You mean where he works?”

“The same.”

“You can’t, Terry. Now that I’m Alexandria’s servant, I can tell who’s a vampire and who isn’t. He’s got a three hundred year old vampire for a bodyguard.”

He regarded her for a moment. “You can tell how old a vampire is?”

“I’ve been working on it since that night,” She said.

He put his hand on her head and closed his eyes a moment. “Huh, no wonder.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your father was a necromancer. You’ve inherited some of his latent skills.”

“So that means what?”

He cupped her hands and knelt in front of her to spread her hands open. “Concentrate on your hands and imagine them being very warm.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” She said.

“Don’t worry, you’ll see.” Sophia said. Jen looked at her for a moment before nodding. She looked at Terry, then began to focus on her hands.

“Now say Fir.” He whispered.

“Fir.” She mangled the accent, but jumped as a tiny ball of energy appeared above her hands.

“You need training, but you’ll do good eventually,” Terry said as the ball disappeared and Jen was staring at her hands. “Alexandria will be very pleased that she’s got a necromancer as a human servant.”

“How pleased?”

“If you ask, you could become a little more linked with her,” Terry said, “But that will have to wait. Where is the bookie at?”

Jen rattled off the address and Sophia smiled at him before he went and retrieved a book. He handed it to Jen and she regarded the design on the front before opening the book to start reading it.

“I’ll be back in a few,” He said, collecting a jacket.

“We’ll be waiting,” Sophia smiled back at him.

When he did return, Terry found Jen passed out on the couch with the book that he had given her across her stomach. Sophia was discussing things with some young men by the coffee counter and a few others were wandering through the store. He put the box in his hands under the front counter and turned in order to join Sophia. What he saw next wasn’t possible to believe, but Sophia suddenly curled over the hand slipping a dagger into her chest.

Terry froze in shock at the action and watched as one of the young men stepped back, staring at Sophia, startled about something. Maybe it was the act itself that was too shocking for the young attacker, but Terry was too focused on Sophia as he had his hands around her sides, lowering her to the floor.

“Why doesn’t it hurt?” She whispered the question even as Terry pulled the silver dagger out of her chest. She was slowly melting and putting out heat, but she wasn’t on fire like a vampire should be when it is stabbed with silver. Even one as old as she was.

“Why isn’t she dust yet?”

Terry jerked his head up and glared at the young men that had been next to Sophia and found that the person that had stabbed her wasn’t a man, but a young woman. Her eyes were wide with shock while the young man had his hands clenched in fists and teeth bared. He turned his head and looked into the main room and spoke again.

“Why isn’t she dust yet, Nathaniel?”

“She is a vampire, they all turn to dust.” Some male said and Terry was aware of movement in his shop, but looked back down at Sophia as the burning line of her body began to reach her neck.

“I think I always loved you.” She said before her eyes closed and her body suddenly did burst into flame and then ash in less than a second. Terry whispered a word under his breath and ignored the feeling of the floor as he turned his head slowly to look into the room.


Six people were in the room, staring at him, some had daggers in their hands, others held crosses, but the man that had to be Nathaniel was smiling. His hands were folded over each other in front of his belt and he regarded Terry with some interest.

“Our God has sent another spawn of evil into Limbo.”

“She didn’t burst into flames like the others.” The young woman who had stabbed Sophia whispered. “Why didn’t she die like the others?”

“It doesn’t matter, Melanie. We are here to rid the world of vampires,” Nathaniel said. “Jacob, I do believe you have a job to do.”

Jacob must have been the young man next to Terry because he tried to move and paled at the fact that he couldn’t move anything at all but his arms and neck. Terry turned and picked up the dagger that had been in Sophia’s chest to flip it so the point was between his fingers. A movement and the dagger was sticking out of Nathaniel’s left thigh. His scream of pain startled Jen awake and she got to her feet to look around in surprise.

“What’s going on here?” She asked.

“Get this out of me!” Nathaniel shouted when he realized that he couldn’t move anything at all.

“We can’t move!”

“Terry?” Jen’s confusion stopped when she looked at him. “Where’s Sophia?”

“They killed her,” He whispered.

“I killed her.” The murderess whispered, a tear falling down her face. “I killed someone.”

“You killed a vampire!” Jacob shouted. “And as soon as I can move, I will kill one too!”

“The only vampire that was here, you people killed,” Terry said. The tone of his voice had Nathaniel gasping in fear and turning his head to look at one of the young men with him.

“Why aren’t your telepathic abilities working?”

“He’s not controlling us with his mind!” The young man said, with his voice full of fear. “It’s magic! It has to be!”

“It is.” Jen whispered.

Terry looked to the young woman staring at him with fear. “You want to know why she didn’t die like any other vampire?”

It took a moment, but Melanie nodded. Terry smiled sadly and pulled a long chain with a silver cross out of the pile of ash and let the light of the store reflect off the rubies and one emerald in the middle of it.

“Sophia was a nun in Northern Italy who was raped and turned into a vampire without a choice or decision of her fate.” Terry let the cross settle into his left hand with the chain to coil down on top of it. “She died as a human praying to her God for forgiveness for not being strong enough to escape the vampire that ravished her. Her belief in her religion allowed her to be immune to the touch of the cross or holy water. She was, after all, born in a nunnery and died there.”

“Sacrilege.” Nathaniel hissed.

“What Sophia did as a vampire was be as devout a believer as she could, despite the desires of blood and flesh.” Terry began to trace a rune in the ash on the floor.

“She still had a soul.”

He looked at Jen and smiled. “Exactly.”

“Impossible!” Nathaniel screamed. He began to curse some divination at Terry, only to try and suck breath back into his lungs as all pieces of ash began to slide together towards the rune that had been made. Terry got to his feet once the ash was floating in a sphere two inches off the ground and walked over to the shelves by the side door. He walked back over with a gold urn and knelt to catch the sphere inside and close the lid. He chanted something and the line where the lid and cup met glowed for a few seconds before words began to etch themselves onto the side.

“Hold this, Melanie.” Terry said to the sobbing young woman and she stared at him for a moment before taking the urn and reading the Latin that was still creating itself on the side. She widened her eyes and stared back at him before watching the rest of the work.

Terry blinked and turned to Jacob where he was letting go of the silver dagger that he had plunged into his upper chest. Terry snorted and lifted up his left hand to let the dagger there appear. The silver gleamed in the light as he removed the dagger from his chest.

“I did mention there was no other vampire here,” Terry said, “Why didn’t you believe me?”

“Then you must be a servant.”

“No, you f%*#ing idiot,” Jen said, stepping up to Nathaniel. “He is something else entirely.”

“He’s still a monster,” Nathaniel said as Terry moved away from Jacob. The young man had confusion on his face about it all and watched him as Terry approached the leader of the group.

“How many vampires have you killed?”

“I don’t have to answer that.”

“You really think I’m a vampire?” Terry asked.

“Yes!”

“I’m worse.” Nathaniel jumped and tried to scream because the words hadn’t come from Terry’s mouth, but from everyone else’s. The telepath’s jaw was hanging open and Terry knew that he knew what the truth was. Two of the others were holding their hands over their mouths, while the last young man was praying with his hands over his mouth. Jen smiled at Terry before she jerked the dagger out of Nathaniel’s thigh and held it up.

“So is this what they call a religious zealot?”

“Yes,” Terry muttered and Nathaniel stared in absolute fear of them.

“What are you?” The man suddenly screamed.

“I am a Druid.”

“My God…” Melanie whispered.

Terry smiled at Nathaniel and took the dagger from Jen’s hand. “I was born when magic was real and you could form creatures from absolute nothingness.” He started to make the first cut into Nathaniel’s forehead, making a perfect line of it. “I grew up whispering words of power that no longer exist except in my mind. I saw the last dragon in England killed by Romans who feared the purity of the creature. I held Cedric’s head on my lap and the dragon told me secrets that even I have forgotten.”

Terry stepped back from the shaking man. “You have been marked, Nathaniel Hewitt. You have been marked with Truth. This is not the truth that people live with every day and call it as such. This is the Truth of Nature, the Truth of the Soul, the Truth of Elements. When your mouth opens the only thing that you will ever say to anyone is the facts. You cannot stop yourself from telling the truth, and only your death will end the curse I have placed upon your soul and body.”

“You are a…” Nathaniel tried to continue to talk, but coughed and grabbed his mouth. He stepped away from Terry, trying to wipe at the wound in his forehead, but it was already cauterized by what Terry had done. The man turned to one of the people that had come with him and tried to speak.

“I want you to kill that man. Not because I tell you to, but because I cannot do anything by myself. I am a coward and I have been using you to do all my work so I will be blameless.”

Nathaniel clapped both his hands over his mouth and widened his eyes. Almost all the young men were moving away from him except Melanie. She had sunk to the floor, crying over the urn that held Sophia’s ashes, sobbing.

“Melanie!” Nathaniel shouted. The young woman looked up and widened her eyes in surprise at the mark on his forehead. “I have wanted to f%*# you like I have never f%*#ed a woman before! You are the perfect virgin, the innocent that should be only mine. I have wanted you ever since I seduced you away from your parents in Missouri.”

Nathaniel spun to stare at Terry in absolute fear and shock and Terry smirked as he crossed his arms and watched the man.

“The whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Terry whispered. “So help you never.”

“Stop this!”

Terry looked over at Jacob where he was holding a gun pointed at Jen. The young man was shaking, but his hands were trying to be steady where they held the gun out towards her.

“Jacob, put the gun down,” Nathaniel said, some kind of shock on his face at the clarity of his words before it became strained. “I want you to come and suck on my *$#(s like you did when you were a little boy, do you hear me?”

Jacob suddenly paled and looked over his shoulder at Nathaniel. “Excuse me?”

Nathaniel had his hands over his mouth again and shaking his head before he suddenly turned and ran out of the store. Terry even winced when the man was blindsided by a garbage truck barreling down the street.

“Oh, even that was too cruel to watch,” Jen said. Jacob suddenly tried to point the gun at her again, but Terry was in front of the barrel, holding up the cylinder for the bullets. The young man lowered the ruined revolver and hung his head.

“This whole time, Nathaniel was the guy who sexually molested you.” One of the others said, coming over to Jacob. He spun away and moved out of the store. Terry regarded the others as they filed out after him, avoiding the red stain on the road with their eyes. Jen was kneeling by Melanie where she was still curled around Sophia’s urn and Terry sighed as he came over.



“That was my first victim, Treterious.”

He nodded and watched as the men pulled the coffin out on the far side of the graveyard. He was holding his sword behind his back so the metal wouldn’t reflect any of the torchlight the murderers were carrying.

“I was hoping to build something with him.”

“He made the mistake of attacking a mayor’s wife, Sophia. You warned him about how small mistakes can lead to the end of your lives.”

She put her hand on his right shoulder and squeezed it lightly. “What about you? Do you intend on staying by my side now that we’ve run into each other again?”

“I intend on nothing and plan on nothing except what I can and when I choose to.”

“Ah, yes. The immortal wanderer. Damned to hunger for blood that you’ve thrived on for centuries and stuck with eating diseased food.”

He smiled and looked back into the shadows. “Raw meat is not diseased.”

“Well, at least you’re eating something bloody.” Her smile was almost visible. “Come, Kinslayer, would you share your warmth with me tonight?”

He arched an eyebrow and looked back over towards the distant mob. “In a moment.”



“What did you do with the girl?”

Terry regarded Stephanie before returning his gaze to Sophia’s urn. “I did nothing. I let Jen handle her.”

“Terry, there’s been two murders here.” Stephanie whispered. She was the only one close to him right now while a few police officers were down the street taking care of the bloody mess that had been Nathaniel and four others taking pictures of the store lobby. “What do you think I should do? One of those murders was a vampire and you and I both know that to the public, she never existed. There has to be an explanation for the one outside.”

“That I can’t give to you,” He said. “Not without taking a chance on you using it with the police.”

Stephanie sighed before nodding and putting her small notebook away. She put her hands in her pockets and regarded him.

“Fine, will you at least tell me that he left the place willingly?”

“Very willingly. He wasn’t tossed, thrown, or pushed out of here.”

“And the mark on his forehead?”

Terry shrugged.

“Fine, that’s good enough for the police,” She rubbed at her forehead. “But you owe me an explanation when I come back here off duty.”

“I will try.”

She nodded and left him alone.

Eventually everyone was gone from the shop and Terry was leaning against the counter staring at the words on Sophia’s urn. He had an arm across his waist and was holding a cup of coffee that had grown cold long ago in the other hand.

“I could revive her you know.”

“For a bit of my soul that was never returned?” Terry snorted and set his cup down besides him as a thin and attractive woman with long red hair came around the counter. “I think not.”

The woman fingered her black tailored suit and loosed her coat to reveal more skin. “Why not, you’ve seen me do far less for even a lick of someone’s soul.”

“I have.”

“What would you give to let her become human again, to be what she was before she was raped and ravaged?” The woman smiled, showing perfect white teeth.

“It’s not my choice to make,” Terry stepped forward and put a finger under the woman’s chin. “She lived her life as she saw fit.”

“You could have a sexual slave again.”

“I have my own imagination.” He kissed the woman’s cold lips and smiled. “And my own memories. Good bye.”

“Fine.” The woman turned and left his line of sight.

After a moment, Terry turned to make sure that there was no one there and then made himself another cup of coffee. He barely began to sip at it when the door to the shop was opened and the chime there rang. He looked over to see Alexandria leading in Sarah, Jen and Melanie. He could sense others of the House of Eagles nearby, but couldn’t see them.

“I have just heard about Sophia.”

He nodded at the words and then continued with the sip of coffee.

“I would like to know what punishment you wish upon her killer,” Alexandria said.

“None.”

“Why not? She has killed a former lover.”

“It was under misguided principles,” Terry set the coffee cup down. “And her own guilt is her punishment.”

“I’m aware of her guilt,” Alexandria whispered. “And I have brought her over to see if you wish Sophia’s death upon her.”

He shook his head. “No, let her be free of punishment.”

The older vampire opened her mouth to speak, then shook her head and sighed. She gestured to him and he bowed a little with his head before the four left the store. Jen and Melanie both giving him strange looks and conflicting emotions in their faces and body language. Terry sighed a moment before he closed his eyes to think. Snorting at the obvious, he went to the door and closed it to begin moving through the store collecting a few things.