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RP:

Atlas watched as Valentin spoke sincerely to Jimmy, who was listening fully, taking in every single word, but not necessarily liking it.
He was still confused as to why this Vampire had shown himself to them. Valentin had said nothing to him, but he knew it was serious, the expression on his face showed it. Most of the time he had an attitude full of dark humour, but now he seemed as if all of his sins had caught up with him. Jimmy must be an important Vampire, and he must have an important connection to Valentin.

Atlas got bored of trying to eavesdrop, and moved away to where Bella was tending to Steves wounds. He had been badly wounded in the fight, and for a while they had thought he wasn’t going to make it. But he had pulled through, and Atlas was thankful for it. A miserable, pitiful slug he may be, but he was useful, and he cooperated with them, so far that Atlas was thankful.

“So he will live?” he asked Bella, who jumped slightly, making Steve moan in pain at her distraction.

“God, don’t creep up on me like that,” she scowled. “But yes, he will live, but will still be in quite bad pain for a while now. A week I am guessing. But he will be able to help, and although I would go against it, he can fight.”

“Good, if we go up into another fight, I want us all to be battle ready,” Atlas said, walking away before Bella could reply.

He needed to talk to Valentin, and then Dez to tell him that they were having to get out of England, to where Natasha is.

They were heading to California.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************

“Now, I am going to ask you some very precise questions. And I want a precise answer in return,” Valentin stated slowly. “Do not try me, or I will not hesitate to dispose of you.”

Jimmy smiled.

“Go ahead, ask your questions, but then I will need to ask mine.”

Valentin let loose a grin from his previously stern expression.

“That is fair enough. Now, tell me, what is the exact reason for you searching me out?”

“I’m sure you know the answer, look inside and there you will find the answer,” Jimmy said in a poetic way. “Sorry, I’ve been reading Shakespeare as of late, and its kinda got stuck in my head.”

“Let me guess,” Valentin began, returning to his serious tone. “You wish too actually talk to the Ancient that turned you, so you can try and understand why it ever happened? But of course, you know yourself that you were special.”

“Yeah, I know that I’m special, that is why I am here. Now tell me,” Jimmy said, becoming slightly aggravated. “Why? Why have I got my curse?!”

“That is a fair question, and so I will give you a fair answer, my child” Valentin said, taking a deep breath.

“I do not know.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yeah, so that’s what we came up with, not that long, but at least its moving them along…

RP:

Atlas drove his car back to his flat, Ella and Steve inside with him. Valentin had said that he would lead Jimmy back by himself, and when Atlas had offered a ride in the car, he was replied with a blunt “no”.
Steve had fallen asleep just before they had left, Ella blaming it on all of his pain. Atlas was just worried what Steve would try to do to Jimmy when he awoke, he didn’t want another pointless fight on his hands.

He already had a plan forming in his head. First, he had to retrieve all of his research on Natasha, her past, and everything surrounding her onto a USB stick, where he could upload it onto a computer when they arrived in California. He had some important stuff on there, stuff that would come in handy.
Of course, he always had Ella, the sister of Natasha’s past lover, and they could maybe use that against her. But, it could all completely backfire, and make her even more determined to kill them. They would just have to kill her first.

He thought about what Valentin had said before, about Natasha not being the target for him. He shook his head slightly. She must be the target, mustn’t she? Was there anybody or anything else that he wanted to get at or to?
He froze in the spot, before quickly remembering to turn off the roundabout.

A few seconds later, it all became clear to him. Now, he understood what he wanted, in fact, needed, to do.

****************************************************************************************************

When he got back to the house, he got out of the car, waking Steve up and asking Bella to help him get inside, and put the keys in the lock, turned, and pushed the door open to get in. He took off his long black coat, and slung it onto the sofa, turning around to help Bella bring the drowsy Steve inside.

The house had actually been a Necromancer safe house, before Dez has asked politely for them to secure Atlas a place nearby London. It was actually quite a nice place, with cream wallpaper, two bedrooms, and a stunning kitchen, bathroom, and living room. There was a smooth plasma screen HD TV in the living room, but Atlas had already found that he didn’t really need to use it. He spent most of his time on the computer, checking both the Brotherhoods and the Necromancers archives, trying to find any interesting piece of information on Natasha and her loyalists as he could.

Ella led Steve straight to bed in one of the two bedrooms, before going to bed herself. They both needed the sleep. He himself logged onto the computer and began reading through all of his notes on Natasha, praying that they would come in handy when they found her.

He jumped, when he heard somebody knock on the door, at first he was worried, as nobody ever knocked on his door, especially not this late at night. Then he remembered that Valentin and Jimmy had to come back, and that was obviously them.
When he unbolted the door, the two Vampires stormed in, and headed straight upstairs without a word being said.

“Great talk I presume,” he mumbled quietly, before returning to his notes, falling asleep at his desk about two hours later.

***************************************************************************************************

Steve quickly pulled up his phone, and fiddled with it under the bed covers, praying that nobody would notice him like this.

He texted Natasha, telling her all about the newest addition to their group, and all about what he thinks his connection between him and Valentin might be.

When he heard somebody coming up the stairs, he quickly switched it off, and pretended to sleep, all the while hoping that Natasha would hurry up and send her goons to help him out.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Once again not that good quality, but I'm just moving it on...

IC: Jimmy trudged along with Valentin at his side, trying to ignore the super-ancients stare piercing him. He had been left dumbstruck by his father’s lack of knowledge of his curse and now it seemed like nothing and no-one would be able to answer his question. He kicked an empty can of London Pride and continued to move down the street not speaking. Eventually Valentin broke the silence,

“I’m sorry Jimmy, that’s the name you’re going by now right?”

“Yeah,” Jimmy replied emotionlessly, as if the effort of speaking was too much to handle. His adrenaline had receded and now he felt the pain of the various wounds he’d sustained.

“Well anyway, I’m sorry but this is the first I’ve heard of this kind of curse before. In all my years of travelling and “talking” with various necromancers and witches I’ve never heard of a curse that is this long-term. I mean sure you have basic low level hexes that witches are capable of but nothing like this. Its as much a mystery to you as it is me.”

“WELL SOMEONES HAD IT FOR ME THEN!” Jimmy snapped, his sea of emotions bursting their shores,

“I WAS BORN ON FRIDAY 13TH, YOU TURNED ME ON FRIDAY 13TH, EVERY IMPORTANT PERSON CLOSE TO ME HAS DIED, FRIDAY THE F*CKING 13TH! THIS IS NO F*CKING COINCIDENCE AND I WANT F*CKING ANSWERS!” Jimmy fell to the floor and wept there and then. 4000 years of pain flowing through him as he relived his traumatised life,

“I just want to know what I did in a past life to deserve such a b*tching by Fate,” Valentin knelt down and held his son and said in a softish voice,

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you. I can convince Atlas to help you and I’ll go with you too. After what’s happened to you it’s the least that I can do.” Jimmy shrugged Valentin off him and stood up, head to the sky,

“Don’t bother. Everyone I meet will just die anyway, its how my life works; I meet someone, we become friends, we share some great adventures, they die horribly and painfully, its how the system works. I mean, two years ago I fell in love with the best person that ever tried to help me. I was so deeply in love I forgot completely about my curse, and then what happened? Dead. I’m fed up with everything dying around me.”

"That may be the case but I want to help anyway, your my son goddammit! If what I did has cursed you so badly then I regret ever doing it to hurt you so badly. And thats why I'm offering to help, as payback. Whaddya say?" Valentin lent his arm on Jimmys shoulder and looked him square in the eyes. Jimmy knew he was being sincere,

"Okay fine, but on your head be it," he shrugged off Valentin and carried on walking down the road. The song, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," popped into Jimmys head for a moment, long enough to raise his spirits slightly. A few minutes later Valentin stopped him and pointed to a house in front of them,

"Thats it," he said simply. They walked to the door and entered the house, Jimmy dreading the pain that he was sure to cause. Valentin sighed and scratched his head, this was going to be a long night…
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Bit wishy-washing I know but its sentimental bullcr@p like this thats essential to fantasy plotline...

Joker looked upon the line of kids that had formed up in front of him and he inspected each of them. One little boy was dressed as a ghost, a little girl was dressed as a fairy and covered in glitter. One little boy was dressed in what seemed to be a green blob. "And what are you?" Joker asked inquisitively at the boy.

"I'm a germ mister Joker sir." The boy stated awkwardly shifting in place. Joker had been dressed as Joker from the Dark Knight and had clown makeup on his face.

"Er..." Joker hesitated for a moment studying the boy, "Anyway this is Joker's Halloween safety video to teach all the young kids the dangers out at night. Let's begin kids with our night of safe fun. Joker made all the kids look both ways before crossing the street and moving on. They approached a large farm and went up to one of the houses.

"Trick or treat!" All the kids cheered in chorus. Andy answered the door and looked at joker questioningly.

"What is this?" Andy asked surprised at the group of hungry little monsters at the door requiring candy of him. In truth he wasn't all that surprised since he joined the Network things like this had been happening frequently.

"It's a Halloween safety video." Joker replied.

"But it's not Halloween," Andy began, " There is snow on the ground..."

"The point is to have it in before Halloween so kids know how to be safe." Joker answered with malice in his voice, "Now trick or treat you worm." Andy hesitated for a moment before going back into his house and returning with some bars of chocolate.

"Wendy is going to hate me for giving away her chocolate," He said with the voice of a man who feared the wrath of his wife, "I don't know how I'm going to make it through that time of the month." he said. All the children bubbled excitedly at the candy they had received and Andy crept back into his house and locked the door. They were all opening their candy and were about to eat it before Joker chimed in

"Wait!" He yelled abruptly and all the kids looked at him. "You must always have an adult inspect your candy before you consume it." Joker looked it all over thoroughly until he stopped when he found rat poisoning in one of the little boys snickers who was dressed like a vampire. Joker glanced over at Andy's home and thought of their experience with Pontius once again. "See kids better safe then choking and dying of toxic material!" He said cheerfully then moved on.

"Now you must always be careful because sometimes monsters hide in the bushes at night." Joker said as he pulled out a magnum. Spades heard his cue and jumped out dressed as Dracula.

"Bleh." He yelled menacingly at them before a bullet from Joker's magnum tore through his mask and blew his brains all over the pavement next to them. The children watched horrified at Joker pulled out a sword and continued to hack at the fallen vampire. spraying them with gore.

"Remember kids, be safe or you're probably going to die." Joker said with a his face covered in blood and giving a thumbs up to the terrified children.

The thirty-first of October always managed to drive Pontius to the very precipice of a rage-induced frenzy. Hundreds of Humanii larvae would come swarming up his front porch and demanding sweet-meats in their eerie, prepubescent voices. They always managed to be somewhat sticky, as if the ones that spawned them deliberately rubbed grease on their nasty little fat fingers. Yet, when in Suburbia, do as the Suburbanites do. This saw the Roman sitting outside his porch every Halloween with a bucketful of candy and a rictus like false smile, just hoping the little flesh-bags would scurry off with their loot and be content to serve him forever when they were older. Sitting on an old wooden rocking chair, Pontius glared fiercely at the little boy of around four who's face was caked in white makeup, a hastily formed widows peak sloping down his head and the streaks of red paint on his lips made it clear how truly effective the Masquerade was. As he giddily thrust his plastic neon-orange pumpkin before the vampire, the wretch squealed; "Treat-or-treat!"

Pontius' lip curled in contempt as he asked, "What are you supposed to be?"

The little boy happily bared his cheap plastic fangs at the Ancient and exclaimed "I'm a vampire! Raaah!"

Pontius sneered and shook his head, perplexed at how foolish the Cattle really were. None of the Kindred actually looked like Dracula from the movies, that would be silly. Although, that damnable Nosferatu film had been a close-call, requiring the Kindred to quickly order all copies of the film destroyed, yet some had survived to plague the Damned to this day. Pontius leaned in so that he was eye-level with the boy, muttering "No, you're damn well not," as he dropped a king-sized Snickers bar into his leering gourd. Nearby, the mammoth, skeletal form of Tommy Rawhead could be seen behind the bushes, his all-too human eyes leering through the vegetation at the line of plump children running back and forth from the Roman's house, hoping to snatch one when the parents weren't looking. Pontius was sorely tempted to turn Tommy loose on the line of sticky Plebeian-Spawn, but restrained himself.

Then the unthinkable happened. This child had been here before, the vampire was certain of it, he could smell the same stale sweat and the distinct raisin oder he couldn't fail to identify. The deceitful whoreson thought he could fool the Roman by switching his mask with one belonging to one of his snot-nosed compatriots? How dare he! As the child reached into the bucket once more with his greasy fingers, Pontius' hand flashed like lightning, grabbing his wrist and bringing his face close to his. "I can see through your petty web of lies, for I have woven deceits far more complex and encompassing! What are you? Nothing but a petty criminal! A thief and a cheat! I will use your thin blood to gargle after I brush! Get off my porch, thieving swine!"

The child backed away, the stench of terror wafting off him like a bonfire as he cried and ran off into the night. As Pontius surveyed the rest of the filthy brats, he resigned himself to yet another night spent serving inferiors.

I said I probably wasn't going to, but if I fail my German test tomorrow its your fault...


Andy walked about glumly as he pushed the twin stroller with Vegas and Sven strapped inside and dressed in all green, green sheets stretched over the side made the two resemble two peas in a pod while Andy wore a bright orange disc resembling a sliced carrot. It had been Wendy's idea to go as a family dressed up as vegetables, Michael had been a tomato but after a heated argument over whether or not a tomato was a vegetable his costume was quickly changed to a radish and Wendy stayed home to hand out candy. Never the less they walked down the streets dressed like vegetables and it was infuriating Andy who had hoped to hand out candy so he could eat what he wanted while handing one a piece out to the visiting children.

The houses so far had blessed Michael with small candies and his bag was filling up quickly with all manner of goodies. Andy smiled each time he saw a piece of candy drop into the bag, he didn't go out and buy much of anything anymore and his sweet tooth had been aching for something sweet. They passed by other families who giggled at their costumes and caused his anger to rise even more. But the candy would make the night well worth it. He faked a grin as they approached a well lit house in one of the upper class areas of the neighborhood. The idea of giant sized chocolate bars swam in Andy's head as he watched his radish of a son approach the door. An older man opened the door and smiled as he looked down at the veggie. "Twick o tweat" Michael said as he held out his bag in order to receive his treats. "Ah a radish, great choice little guy." the man said as he picked out an apple and put it into the bag. Andy saw the transgression and quickly walked up to the door with the twins.

"Wait a second, this is Halloween, where's the candy?" Andy asked.

"Well I never thought a carrot slice would be asking me that question, but this is better for the little ones." the man said.

"I don't care if its good for the kids, that stuff is for me." Andy said, "You've got to have something in there."

"No sir, and I'm rather appalled at your actions so far, get off my property or I'll call the cops." the man said as he tried to close the door.

Andy's eyes grew darker as he bashed his head through the door, "Here's Vegas!" Andy shouted as he pulled his head out and smashed the door aside. He rushed in, the carrot costume preventing him from fitting through the door way. He lashed out in frustration before finally tearing the sides of the costume off before charging in after the man and ripping his arms off. Blood sprayed all over the hallway and Andy as he bit into one of the arms and ripped off his bicep.

Andy quickly began searching the house for candy, the man had been a dentist and there was no candy in his house. Andy was upset, but managed to replace his urge for candy with jewelry belonging to the man's wife who was out of town on a gambling trip in Las Vegas. Soon he found himself walking down the street while the other families gasped in fear as they passed by, the now bloody carrot slice costume was no longer funny but frightening and the burlap sack that he hung over his shoulder seemed to be leaking some sort of dark fluid as they walked by.

Wendy was watching a horror movie special on TV when she heard the door open and the patter of happy feet running towards her, as the killer sent his knife through the horny teenager's neck Wendy quickly killed the power to the TV and happily turned to greet her first child. "Hi sweety how was it?" she asked as she looked into the goody bag and pulled out a bag of M&Ms for her own enjoyment. "You got a lot of candy huh, did you have fun?" she asked and Michael nodded his head as well as he could with the costume on, "Where's your dad?" she asked as she looked up to see Andy bloody and carrying a bag along with the twins. "What the fu...dge, fudge happened?" Wendy asked.

"Some donkey-cave tried to give Michael and apple and I made him think otherwise." Andy replied as he handed the twins to Wendy.

"Watch the language." Wendy said.

"What, they're not my kids, they're Andy's kids." Andy replied as he pulled an arm out of the bag and began to eat it in front of them, "You want some?" Andy asked as he offered the arm to Wendy.

"Vegas again?" Wendy asked as she noticed the darker eye color and several earrings placed in Andy's ear.

"Yeah, you got a problem?" Andy asked as he placed his free hand on his hip.

"No, no problem at all." Wendy said as she hoisted the twins to their room and returned with a bat. Andy was turned around and with a quick whack Wendy knocked out Andy, sending him crashing to the floor. Moments later he woke back up with a headache and looked up to see Wendy sitting with one of her legs crossed over the other, eating a large Hershey's bar. "Good morning dear." Wendy said as Andy rubbed the back of his head and sat on his knees.

"What the hell happened?" Andy asked.

"Vegas happened." Wendy replied and Andy looked at the blood surrounding him.

"I didn't... you know did I?" Andy asked as tears welled into his eyes.

"No, little Vegas is fine and asleep." Wendy said as she rubbed her ears and Andy picked up on the sign and checked his own ears. He felt the sharp ends of the earrings in his ears, "God dammit." he said loudly as he got up and began to take them out.

"No, leave them in." Wendy said, "I figured we could do something different tonight."

"I don't think I want to do what you want to do tonight." Andy said as he began to pray.

"I know about what Jesus did to my boobs and the regenerating bar of chocolate." Wendy said and as she approached Andy the door bell rang. Andy quickly ran to the door and opened to reveal a small bearded man standing there, "Oh thank god its you Jesus. We have to get out of here, Wendy wants to do something to me and you know how she is."

"Umm... I'm supposed to be ZZ Top." the kid said as he began to walk away from the door, after a few steps backwards he turned and ran. Andy turned to see Wendy standing directly in front of him.

"You know I always thought Vegas was kind of cute, why don't we see what happens if she comes back." Wendy said as she walked her fingers up Andy's arm.

"Uhm... this is Vegas and I don't like you that way." Andy said.

"Nice try Andy, but your eyes change colors when you become her." Wendy said as she began to drag Andy unwillingly towards their room.

In the skies above Jesus sat with a bowl of popcorn in front of a TV depicting the scene. "Hey dad, you have got to check this out." Jesus shouted and soon thundering booms announced the footsteps of his father.

"What is it this time Jesus?"

"Its Andy and Wendy." Jesus said.

"What's going on now?" god asked.

"Andy became Vegas for a few minutes and she liked it." Jesus said.

"Good me she's crazy." god said.

"I know right?" Jesus replied, "Oh man is that a...? gak she's screwed up."

"Ooh, this is going to be a good one." god said as he sat down next to Jesus to watch.

A young boy skipped along in a red power rancher costume as he held onto his Aunt Sophie’s hand, who was wearing a black dress with cat whiskers painted onto her face. Sophie was usually responsible for her nephew Gabriel on Halloween while his parents were out getting drunk but Sophie didn’t mind because this was one of few chances she had to see her family.

Soon Gabriel stopped in his tacks and shouted out “I want to go to that house!” As he pointed his finger to a normal looking home but what was off, was a giant ritual circle that has purple flames glowing on each of the points in the driveway with a bowl of candy in the middle, with a sign saying “please take one.”

Sophie let out a long sigh; she had a good guess whose house this was. Gabriel was about to take a piece from the mystic bowl was Sophie pulled him away. She came up to the door and knocked “Bjorn, Illuminatus! What the hell are you guys doing?”

Bjorn opened the down a popped his head out. He had a short blond hair wig on, wearing a trench coat and a pidgin on his shoulder “Oh, hi Sophie! What brings you here?”

“I’m here wondering why you have a runes in your driveway and what the hell are you dressed up as?”

“That’s just a curse we set up in case anyone takes more than one candy and I’m Roy Batty…you know from Blade Runner!”

“I’m sorry, never seen it.”

Bjorn just lowered his head “oh…I thought Illuminatus would at least recognize me…but anyway why weren’t you at the mage Halloween party?”

“I needed to look after my nephew and I really don’t want to be getting drunk with the biggest weirdos on earth.”

Sven then showed himself. He was wearing Jedi robes and had a blue aura over his body

“Oh, Hi Sven, wait aren’t you dead?”

“Yes, this isn’t even a costume; I am always wearing these when I project my spirit.”

“He looks cool!” Gabriel shouted

Then Illuminatus jumped into the picture wearing a Hogwarts robe with a “Z” shaped scar on his forehead and a pair of glasses. “I’m a wizard!”

Bjorn looked over to him “It wasn’t funny the first time, now shut up!”

“I thought it was neat.” replied Sven “wait, where are you going, Sophie?”

Sophie started to pull Gabriel away “I’m not going to let you guys screw up my nephew!”

RP:

Atlas dreamt.

He walked through a dark deserted forest. The skeletal trees looming over him, intimidating him, but he kept on walking.
He noticed something in the distance, and saw a small cave, barely visible to the naked eye, and he changed direction to lead straight there. The bitter cold clawed at him as he walked towards it. He didn’t know exactly why he wanted to go there so badly, but he felt as if he was being pulled there. Something very important was happening.

Then he saw something else. Figures were running towards the cave. Vampires, and there were lots of them. He felt sweat drip down his face. This was very bad.
He ran now, willing his legs to take him to the cave as fast as possible. He got there, surprisingly getting in unnoticed by the many Vampires around him. He crawled through the cave, until he came into a large chamber.
Everywhere, he saw death. It was his kin. Other wolves like him, fighting, and dying. There were not many of them, it must have been a very small pack, but they still fought with courage, strength, and fierceness. But it wasn’t enough.

They seemed not to notice him, so he knew that it was a dream, but he heard one of the larger male wolves shout, who was protecting another female wolf, who was holding a small pup in her arms.

“Save the pureblood Prince! All to me!” he roared, and every other warrior’s fire flared up fiercely, and they roared back tremendously, before falling back to surround the large wolf, all fighting with almost infinite strength and brutality.

Amidst the chaos of the battle, Atlas noticed the female sneaking away, out of the cave, and running.
As he turned to follow her, he caught a glimpse of the larger wolf, finally being overwhelmed by the Vampires, who we’re baring their fangs, and he saw them make the last devastating blow on the brave King.

He ran back outside, the cold gripping him, and he tried to spot the female wolf, who must have been the Queen, and so he did. He saw her, tearing through the forest, going at such a speed it was hard to keep your eyes on her. He looked a little bit behind her, and noticed a few Vampires making haste to catch up with her, already reciting dark chants of magic.

He ran as fast as he could to follow. He couldn’t keep up, so he turned to his wolf side, and he accelerated rapidly to catch up. He watched as he sprinted, and saw the woman put her child down, and turn to face her followers. She roared almost as impressively as the King had, and leaped up, to land a few seconds after and tear into the Vampires. He watched as she took down the Vampires gracefully, but watched in horror as one who was supposedly dead, crawled inches towards her feet, and caught the attention of the Queen, with one coming up behind her.

“NO!” he shouted, but knew it was hopeless as she could not hear him. This was just a dream of past events, he couldn’t change this, he wasn’t technically even there.

The Vampire behind her pulled out a blade, and plunged it into the back of the Queen, who bellowed in ain, and turned, ripping off the Vampire’s head with her razor sharp teeth.
She turned back towards the pup, and made a weak smile before suddenly feeling a sharp burst of pain stab through her gut, and fell to her knees whimpering in pain. She whispered words into his ear, words which Atlas was unsure of, before she brought his face to her own, closed her eyes, and slumped to the ground.

The pup cried and moaned quietly, and sniffed the air at the scent of oncoming Vampires, to turn and run away into the night.
Atlas tried to follow him, but suddenly he heard a voice call to him, like an echo. Just as he was trying to decipher who it was-

“Wake up!”

Atlas opened his eyes drearily. He shook himself asleep and looked around. Bella has her hand on his shoulder and was looking rather annoyed. By the indication of the light shining through the windows, and because of the blue in the sky, he knew it was late in the morning, probably getting close to 12.
He shook Bella off, and ran his hand through his hair before standing up.

“Have I been asleep long?” he asked the obvious question.

“Yes you have,” she replied with the obvious answer. “And Valentin has been wanting to speak with you.”

As if in response to the statement, a pale figure wearing a black coat and a Russian officer’s cap walked up to him, and for a moment he was ready to attack, thinking it was one of the Vampire’s from his dream. No. His memory.

“Atlas,” he began, his face expressionless. “It is good you have awoken, Dez has been trying to reach you all night. He says it’s urgent. You have spoken to him before I came haven’t you?”

“Um,” Atlas replied blankly. “No, no I haven’t. I do not need his approval for everything.”

“I highly advise you call him,” Valentin stated, picking up Atlas’ mobile and holding it out to him. “We don’t want Dez to get angry now, do we?”

Atlas snatched his mobile from Valentin’s cold fingers harshly, hearing a slight “humph” come from him before turning away to leave. He checked his missed calls list, and immediately closed it.

“Oh gak…”

He dialled Dez’s number, and waited a few seconds before somebody picked up, and he heard some loud rambling which he vaguely recognised as coming from Dez.

“Holy gak! Where the feth have you been?!” he heard him scream. “I’ve been trying to reach you for ages you idiot! Can’t you pick up just one of my calls for feth sake?!

“Calm down. I’ve had some trouble,” Atlas replied, he hated talking to Dez, even though he had some respect for the guy, he has been through some tough times. “We’ve even had a Vampire attack. Some guy called Jimmy. It’s been sorted now.”

“A Vampire attack? Dear God why haven’t you told me sooner, you’ve had weeks to talk to me and you haven’t!” Dez shouted back.

“I’ll fill you in entirely another time, but for now I need you to sort out another place for me. In California. We’ve found Natasha.”

“You’ve found her?” Dez asked in astonishment. “Wow, that’s great Atlas. Listen, I’m sorry for shouting, I’ve just been under some stress with the Brotherhood. I’ll get you a flight. Does 3 at Heathrow airport on Wednesday sound good to you? I’ll tell you the details of your place when you get there.”

“Yeah that sounds good. Thanks Dez. I’ll talk to you then.”

“No problem. I gotta go now. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” Atlas finished the call.

He let out a sigh.

Suddenly he heard a shout coming from upstairs, and for a moment he was worried something had happened, when he recognised whose voice it was.

“Hey?!” Jimmy called. “Got any black pudding?!”

His head was still throbbing with pain when he woke up but it was much better than before. His back sore from the couch instead of from what Claudia had done to him he began to stretch his now healed legs. The day had apparently blown by him as the VCR said the time was well after noon and the sun was glowing in through the window. He wondered about work and rubbed his head while sitting on the couch.

"Bout time you woke up." Wendy said as she brought him a pack of ice.

"Did they say anything about work today?" Andy asked.

"Yeah, they had someone else cover your shift." Wendy said, "They called early this morning to tell me that so I didn't bother waking you."

"Well that was a good sleep I guess." Andy got up and walked into the kitchen to get himself something to eat, the various bottles of condiments clattered as the fridge opened. He settled on some leftover food from earlier that week, he remembered going to the restaurant with the kids and remembered how difficult it was to actually enjoy a meal out in public. But they didn't trust anyone with the kids, at least not anyone in the compound with them so they decided to take them along. It ended with Sven burping up on Wendy after she had fed them, the smell had been enough to make the rest of the meal unappetizing but at least they got it to go. He plopped the burger onto a plate and tossed it into the microwave before setting the timer and cooking it. Sven and Vegas babbled to each other as they played with some stuffed animals. Michael was busy playing with his truck and looked like he decided to play vehicular manslaughter with a teddy bear. The day was almost over, but Andy felt sure that it couldn't get any worse.

... The sun had begun to set over the distant mountains as two sleek black SUV pulled slowly to the roadside near a large farmhouse...In the passenger seat of the lead vehicle Aron Kruab sat smiling.
" This is close enough " Kraub said as he removed a Luger from his shoulder holster and checked the loads, silver nitrate...wolf killers, his smile widened as he screwed a long black silencer onto the weapon..
" I want everyone to move with absolute stealth...we strike silently." Kraub said " Terminate any Guards or ghoulish filth that may interfer...but remember ...our targets are Bruss and his whore.."
" We shall move quietly Lord" The Brothers in the vehicle responded..." We shall purify "

Moving quickly a dozen members of the Six fingered Hand exited their vehicles and crept slowly towards the distant farmhouse...weaving in and out of the tree line and baled hay for cover..
As they neared the rear walls of the compound, Kraub raised his hand and motioned for the others to take cover....not wanting to alert any guards that may be patrolling.
" The wall is far to thick to quietly breach my Lord" Brother Karas said in a whisper " I suggest we go over...quickly"
Kraub nodded and gestured to his men, who in rapid succesion began to scale the high wall...dropping silently to the other side.
As Kraub and Brother Karas joined them the Chief Administrator spoke quickly in low tones..." We break into two groups now...Brother Thadius..you will take your group and cover our movents."
Kraub turned to Brother Karas..." You and your men...follow me"
With that they began to slowly creep towards the large manor house.

.. Player Event...Introduction...

.... As Kraub and his men moved slowly forward, the Chief Administrator began to feel uneasy...as though he could feel vile eyes upon him...watching his movements...
He motioned for his men to halt and duck behind a small shed.
Turning to Brother Karas he spoke " We are being watched Brother...I sense it...some abomination has seen us"
Brother Karas flipped the safety off his rifle and peered about..." I see nothing my Lord...are you certain that..."
Before Brother Karas could finish ...a hunched figure in ragged clothing was darting across the farmyard...shambling as rapidly as it could towards the manor house...
" There !!" Kraub hissed..." That..thing has seen us...it goes to inform it's unholy masters of our presence here..."
" Not if I can help it my Lord" Brother Karas said lowly as he raised his weapon and sighted through it's powerful scope...his finger tightening on the trigger...
With a barely audible crack, the suppresed weapon kicked in Brother Karas hands and a fraction of a second later the scrambling ghoul was pitched forward into the dooryard, it's brains dribbling from it's shattered skull..
" Well done Brother Karas" Kraub nodded " Come, let us move quickly before any more of those filthy creatures spot us.."
Moving rapidly the small group slipped from behind the shed and began to once again move towards the farmhouse...closing the distance quickly..
" Breach the door and move swiftly" Kraub ordered..." Remember it's Bruss and his woman we want.."
Before the group of Brothers could reply the roar of an SMG cut through the air and Brother Charles stumbled backwards, a dozen bullet wounds in his upper body...he gasp once..pointing..before he crumpled to the earth grasping at his gushing chest.
" They've seen us...they know we're here" Brother Karas shouted lifting his weapon and taking aim on a ghoul who was partialy hidden behind a car, an UZI grasped in it's twisted hands...
" Yes...I suppose they do." Kraub said...his maniac grin spreading as he reached into his long coat.

Musater awoke. The faint ambient light coming through the windows hit his now fluttering eyes, the red glow emanating from the bloody sky above. There was a scent of death around, so aromatic that, even with his extreme senses, he couldn’t tell which way the smell was coming from. A slight hint of burning came with the scent. The smell of smoke was prevalent, but the smell of logs, the crackling that usually comes with the faint scent of a smoldering pile of ashes, was missing. Gone. His eyes opened slowly, the red light acting almost as a filter. It took him a while to get re-orientated as he did self-checks. Clicking of the tongue, to test it was still there. Movement of the extremities and phalanges, to be assured that they were not removed. The repeated tongue twisters, to test his mental sharpness, and to test for slurred speech from a possible drugging. After doing all this, he tested his eyes. He opened them, and smiled.

“Good day, Musater.” The man was sitting in a leather chair behind a slabstone desk. It looked like a smaller piece of Stonehenge, and must have weighed a ton. On it, were 12 trinkets. Small bobbles, gold in appearance, each different from the others. The large window behind the man revealed a desolate cityscape, giant towers puncturing the crimson sky and the noir clouds. The magma rivers flowed like the canals of Venice, and the monolithic places of worship rang their bells to call their flock to prayer. What, or who, they were preying to varied, from the larger Satanic Church to the island monastery of Cthulu.

“Mephistopheles. How nice of you to drag me down here.” Musater scratched his back, the tattoo that normally remains dormant was squirming, trying to return itself to its rightful owner. Which is why Musater had it sown into his back.

“Well, you see. You’re almost dead. I can’t let an opportunity like this pass me by, can I?” The man in the suit smiled. He was tall, maybe 6 feet, still outmatched by Musater in the category of height. His teeth, stained a black color, were sharpened points, and the serrated edges still carried remnants of his last meal. His horns, small and curled, like a ram’s, were gilded and carved, with small gold caps. His suit was white as snow, and the tie on it was also a pure white, but carried on it faint red splotches, like someone had tried to bleach them out. They were impossible to see with human eyes, but then again, Musater hasn’t been human for 600 years. He stood up from the desk, and walked towards the small laptop on the coffee table next to Musater. With each step, his bare feet would leave small scorch marks in the floor, and a small imp would come out with floor polish and a rag and clean it.

“Come now, Meph. There are more opportune moments. You could have come at a funeral.” Musater taunted the creature. It shot him an evil glare, and then smiled, his shark like teeth glinting in the break of the jet-black clouds.

“You always brighten my day, my mortal enemy. Now then, let’s make a deal.” He sat down next to Musater and opened the laptop. A small graph appeared, showing a gradual incline, then massively steep, and leveling our.

“Do you know what this shows?” Mephistopheles asked, the gak-eating grin still firmly attached to his face.

“Yes. It’s a graph.” Musater snapped at him. “I’m not a peasant anymore.”

“Oh, young Musater. It’s much more than just a graph. This is the net worth of a soul. Specifically, yours.” He pointed to the small incline. “This is you before you became a silly little puppy.” Musater growled at Mephistopheles, but it kept its smile. “This is you, after meeting Longar.” He showed the massive incline. “Your occupation during this time made your net worth skyrocket. And soon,” He pointed to a giant gain, and then a red word, [FIN], “Is when I will collect it. And mine. This is where you will die, Musater. And I will have what is mine.”

Musater looked at the graph, and laughed. “If you think I will die that easily, you are sadly mistaken.” He snatched the laptop from the demon, and it snapped. The small imp stopped and looked at Musater. He gave off a hiss, and attacked. Musater simply swatted away the toddler-sized cretin, it slamming into the wall and passing out.

“gak. You reaction time has gotten better since we last met.” His smile went away. “Well, this is only a projection. I can make it so you get a bit of an extension on your… Contract, however.” He walked to the desk, and grabbed a figurine. “These are souls. Each one is from a very distinct person, and represents two primary aspects of their meager existence. On the bottom is their market worth, measured in the average Humanii soul being one.” He tossed Musater a small trinket, a quarterstaff and a Maxim Machine gunthat is being used as the bow. He looked at the bottom, and saw a small display. There was a number, about 2000, give or take about 10. It was constantly fluxuating, the number shifting and twisting itself.

“That is the soul of one Mr. J. R. R. Tolkien. One of the most influential writers of the Humanii realm. Of course, you knew that.” A snicker was released from the mouth of the Deamon. Musater merely sat there, examining the small object. He tried to crush it, but it wouldn’t budge. He threw it into a wall, but the object punched right through it.

“Erm… I should go get that, then.” Musater opened the door out of Mephistopheles’ office, only to walk into a office complex. Cubicles were littered everywhere, and a shuffle of employees walked up and down them, carrying stacks of paperwork. One tripped, and his papers went flying. Musater walked over to the man.

“Here, let me help you with that.” He looked at the deamon, the eyes of a kind man looking into the eyes of the damned. The sound of a large pop cut the eye contact.

“Insolent curr!” The small imp that Musater had backhanded into the wall earlier was shoving the man along, whipping him with a small bullwhip. He collected his papers, and ran. Musater, annoyed with this thing, snatched it from the ground. It struggled to get out of Musater’s grip, but found that resistance was futile.

“You’re going down to find the soul I lost, understand?” Musater brought the tiny creature up to eye level by his throat. It nodded, red skin turning blue. Musater nodded as well, and hurled it across the sprawling forest of walls and monitors.
He walked back into the office, where a waiting Mephistopheles had been drafting up a document.

“Well, now that you had your fun in the call center, let’s get down to business.” He slid the contract to Musater across the desk. It was a few hundred pages long, but then again, it’s wasn’t as simple as the agreement with Fenrir.

“Ok. What is this for?” Musater flipped the contract pages, picking out key words, such as “Return”, “Soul”, “Extension”, and one he thought was interesting.

“Why is my wife’s name in this contract?” He pointed to the word “Esmerella”, and Mephistopheles smiled.

“Just a bit to sweeten the deal.” He dipped the quill into the ink, which was most likely blood, and handed it to Musater. “Sign when ready.”

“I don’t think so. If I sign, you get your soul back, and you also get mine.” He pointed to page 345, article 1954. “Also, if I sign this, you make my life half a second longer. No more, no less.” Mephistopheles lost his smile again.

“You clever gak.” He frowned, his ski losing a bit of it’s reddish color, almost like he was blushing. “Well, I… Uh…. Er….”

Musater smiled as he felt a tug on his body. “You have maybe 10 seconds left, Mephy boy.”

“I will get my soul back, even if I have to come to your plane and rip it from your back myself!” He was snarling, the gold on his horns melting from his massive temperature spike. He burned through his leather chair, and set fire to his pristine white suit.

“Mark my words Musater, Prince of the Night, Commander of the Reaper, Slayer of the Traitor, and Bringer of the End, I will find you. And I will have what’s mine.” The fire alarm went off, dousing the flaming Deamon with a shower of water, which immediately turned to steam when coming within 6 inches of the red man.

Musater smiled as he faded out of the realm of the Deamon. His mortal body was waking, and he needed to return to it. He had a feeling something big was coming, and he wanted to be there when it happened.








“Master, I have something for-“ The imp looked at his master. The Deamon snapped, and the small creature disappeared in a puff of fire and smoke. Mephistopheles would have his soul. Whether Musater would willing give it to him didn’t matter.

Night of the full moon – eight months ago

With one last look at Pike’s bloated body, still laying in the centre of the floor, covered still in the reminents of the ritual, Erzuli flung the bag of candles she had collected through the open door of the bunker, emmiting a scream of frustration as she did so. She should have gone to the usual celebration of the moon; there she would at least have sated the other desires that ran through her, instead of wasting time clearing up a ritual and a corpse in the urge to sate a singular desire for power.

“It should have worked! Everything was done perfectly!” She screamed. “How… why? What was wrong… what did you do wrong!?!” The Pure Blood glared at the ghost across the room.

“Oh don’t blame me, dear one.” Purred Erzsébet, looking over the tome they had used to formulate the ritual. “It isn’t exactly a loss to us… we learned after all. Obviously that mixture, the one you formulated, was too old… fresher blood is needed.”

“Fresher? And just how much fresher? What do you expect me to do… bringing that stuff here is risky enough?”

“Well…” The Countess ran a ghostly digit over a line in the book. “This is the line we based the assumption it was needed from… ‘black vitae from the unliving’ …we took the colour to literally maybe?”

“It wasn’t that old… barely browning.” Muttered Erzuli, shifting to her wolf form to drag the dog’s corpse out of the room. She frowned at the crusty texture that had covered the animals’s body in the past few days while he festered, some sort of smokey, partially opaque covering that crushed under her paws rather unpleasantly. Erzsébet followed, not wanting to loose track of the conversation.

“Not that then and stop being so tense.”

“Full moon?”

“Hmmm… that leaves the sulk over you not being with your darling Commander then?” Erzsébet caught sight of Erzuli’s grimace and chuckled to herself. “I’m sure we are both missing out on that if it makes you feel any better. I did get thrown out of you and rebonding seems… difficult since.”

Yanking open the front door of the house, Erzuli dragged the dog out into the night, barely containing the urge to tear into her companion.

“I had noticed you trying…Betti.” Throwing the body into the undergrowth, Erzuli turned and strode back past the clearly irritated ghost.

“Betti?” Taking a moment to clear her thoughts of anger before heading after the wolf, Erzsébet wondered for a moment just why she was still helping Erzuli at all. The flash of memory echoed across her and the torn scars across her chest flickered into being… revenge. Pulling her own hair at the recall of the only sensation she had left, the agony of her last living moments, she could not move for a long while and just let out a long howling scream of pain before her mind returned and she sped back into the house. “We have to try again!”

“Try what?” Erzuli was already back in the bunker, starting to pick up the rest of her belongings.

“The ritual of course!” Erzsébet’s voice was filled with desperation. “Maybe pure, fresh blood would work?”

“The only fresh blood I have the intention of aquiring tonight, is what awaits me back with my Commander.” The wolf could almost taste the feast she knew was back at the Den and was regretting sneaking out more each moment. “Assuming there is any left…”

“All it would require is going into that pit of a city…”

“I am not going to hunt those leeches and draw attention to our position here. The ritaul failed Erzsébet. Deal with it! We have to search elsewhere for our answer.”

“What of the cubs?”

“Oh please, like you have that much compassion for the little rats… I’ll give them to my sister anyhow. She might like some more brats to entertain her little prince.”

“But we have discovered so much…”

“While the anatomy lessons were quite useful. I think going back to aquiring artifacts may be a better way. It can all wait until another night anyway. I need to get back ‘home’ before I go insane with hunger.”



It had taken far to long to get to the stage where she was happy to simply let Anya clean up tommorrow, thought Erzuli, looking at the clock on the wall; noting too many hours had passed, she picked up her bag with a sigh and headed for the door. Erzsébet's sulking form floated just behind her as she walked. All was silent as they got out of the house, allowing the she-wolf a contented growl as she turned off the last light and slammed the door to the house behind her, causing the sound to echo down the hillside. She paused and frowned suddenly… no bird movement with the noise, in fact no noise at all aside from the door. Feeling the ghost attempt to grasp at her shoulder, she glanced round cautiously; before heading towards the Jeep she had taken earlier. Reaching for the door handle, Erzuli was startled by the ghostly screech into her ear.

“Wait!”

Stumbling backwards, the Pure Blood glared at her companion for a moment before noticing the ghost’s worried features. Erzsébet had shifted to her ragged visage and was backing away, towards the house.

Player Event Combat Resolution...Part I...


.... Again the SMG roared, this time joined by the crack of pistol fire as two more ghouls rushed into view, firing wildly towards the human intruders.
" My Lord" brother Karas bellowed towards Kraub as he ducked into cover " What shall we do...they've surely been alerted to our presence.."
Kraub stood , unmoving as a round cut the air a mere inch from his head, his maniac grin never wavering...his eyes fell on Brother Karas.." Do?...why Brother Karas...we do the work of the Lord" the Chief Administrator hissed, from under his coat Kraub produced a cylindrical object and swiftly yanked a metal pin from the device, heaving it towards the cluster of ghouls as they continued to pour fire into the crouching Purifiers...eliciting a scream of pain as Brother Ivan took a bullet through the face.
With an ear shattering explosion, the grenade detonated as it landed amongst the ghouls, sending blood soaked limbs spiraling into the air, as the smoke cleared Kraub saw that a single ghoul still lived, though his body was torn and shredded from the blast...
Kraub boldly strolled towards the wounded creature, even as several more appeared with weapons in hand...his eyes filled with murderous rage , he raised his pistol and bellowed ...his voice cracking with hate.
" Prepare to enter hell thou foul abomination!!" The Chief Administrator roared, glaring into the upturned face of the bleeding ghoul " For today the judgement of the Lord is upon you!!"
The pistol bucked once in Kraubs gloved hand and the creatures brains splashed in a crimson tangle into the manor house door yard.
Turning to his minions, Kraub waved them forward as the newly arrived group of ghouls opened fire.

Inside their home, Andy rushed rapidly towards the door, his revolver and the Wrath of Ra gripped tightly as he yelled to Wendy over his shoulder...
" Get the kids together!!...and for feths sake stay low!!" Bruss said as he reached the front door
" Andy!!" Wendy screamed as she bundled the twins into their carrier " What's happening?...who the hell's out there?!"
Andy spared a quick glance towards his wife and children " I have no idea" he said " But it sounds like all hell's broke loose out there...now damn it Wendy...get Micheal and stay down, I'll be back."
Before Wendy Bruss could protest...her husband had bounded out of the front door...
For an instant Wendy considered praying for him...but realized she had no idea who might listen to those prayers...instead she quickly rushed to gather her oldest son.

Dark laughter echoed through Claudius chambers, causing the Vampire to spin in it's direction..." You" he whispered...his voice cracking with barely contained fear..
His Daughter, Claudia stood quickly, her eyes falling to a dim figure standing across the chambers, leaning casualy against the far wall
The evil chuckle grew louder as Tobermory stepped from the shadows cast by the setting sun " Ah..Claudius" the other vampire sighed " So very good to see you once again.."
" Why have you come here ...?" Claudia said as she slipped behind her Father and eyed Tobermory with a mixture of contempt and hesitation.." State your business.." ...
" My..Business? " The Vampire laughed, a group of capering ghouls appearing behind him as if drawn from the very air " Why my business is a simple matter of collecting .." A sinister smile split the Vampires face.
" Collecting?" Claudia said, her voice rising.." Explain.."
" Oh my dear...I intend to do much more than merely explain." Tobermory chuckled..." Much more"
Claudius stepped forward, shoving his daughter from the reach of the grinning Vampire " We have nothing to collect slayer...nor do I have the time to.."
With a quick thrust, Tobermory plunged his sword through Claudius body, cleaving the Vampires heart in two ...
" How correct you are Claudius...you certainly don't have any more time...at all" the vampire laughed as he twisted the blade cruelly and tore it from Claudius body in a gory spray.
" Father!!" Claudia screamed, rushing towards the bleeding Vampire
" Ah Ah AH my dear" Tobermory tutted, backhanding the woman across the face and sending her crashing into the far wall...
Twisting his hand into Claudius hair, the Vampire raised his blade..." And as for you..old friend...rest well"
With a hiss the sword cut through the air and Claudius headless body toppled onto the floor, blood flowing from the stump of his neck and spreading across the deep persian carpets.
" NO!!! NO!!" Claudia shrieked, her eyes wide and shocked...her lips trembling as she tore at her hair. her head shaking madly in denial of what she'd just witnessed...
" Gather her" Tobermory commanded the assembled ghouls " Take her outside...we depart momentarily...I shall join you shortly...after I've attended to one more small bit of business.."
Obidiently the Ghouls quickly bound the trembling Vampire, her vacant eyes staring at the ceiling as the spirited her from the room, stepping over the mutilated bodies of the two guards Tobermory had dispatched earlier...each ones crisp white suits now splattered in drying blood.

Wendy had had a devil of a time finding Michael , the small boy, frightened by the sounds of gun fire outside , had hidden in a hall closet...but after a brief but frantic search, the woman had located her son and quickly bundled him into his coat.
" We go Bye Bye?" The boy asked as his mother scooped him into her arms and rushed back towards the rear of the house where she'd set the twins.
" Yes baby...we go bye bye" Wendy soothed as she stroked Michaels hair and entered the room...her eyes widening and her heart leaping into her throat as she saw what awaited her...
Standing above the twins carrier, a cruel looking blade held in his hands, Tobermory smiled...liking blood from the sword..
" Ah..Mrs. Bruss...how charming to see you" the Vampire laughed..." How very charming indeed."
In the dimly lit room, Wendy Bruss threw her head back and screamed.

Body Count so far...

Brother Ivan-dead
3 ghouls -dead
Claudius - Dead
Both of Claudius guards-dead

(continued from last RP)

“Ooounnteszzz”

The deep, mumbled growl from the tree line caused Erzuli to spin quickly and shift instinctively to her wolf form. The scents hit her moments later, dirty, rotted flesh and fresh blood. With the light of the moon and her enhanced sight kicking in, she saw a huge, deformed shape moving, almost pacing, under the trees. It stopped, sniffed the air and looked right at the wolf. Two huge green eyes, roughly four feet off the ground, opened wider and the shape began to turn, appearing to approach the wolf. Erzsébet's sudden screech of horror seemed to set something off in the thing. Twitching and shuddering for a moment the creature let out a guttural growl and charged. Caught for a moment in the wonder that the eyes, the whole thing in fact seemed larger for its shaking; Erzuli was caught off-guard and the thing barreled straight through her before she had even realised it was moving. Claws raked down her belly and over her shoulder, causing her to howl out in pain. Managing to turn, she watched the creature head straight for Erzsébet, bellowing a roar of anger. She shook her head for a moment as the shallow tears in her flesh caused a dizziness she was not expecting. Looking down she could see a green glow round the wounds. Anger welled up inside her and she got up to face the beast, who was leaping into the air, clawing and biting at the ghost, who was wailing 20ft above them both. The Pure Blood charged for the thing’s back, hitting it with as much force as she could muster. Both wolf and beast slammed into the ground: Erzuli bit the thing’s neck and clawed down its back. Blood rushed into her mouth and the haze of frenzy began to overtake her: she would kill, would feed!

Erzsébet gazed down at the fight, watching with a morbid fascination as her ‘friend’ lost control. It occurred to her that she could just leave, after watching the outcome of course but the nagging suspicion of familiarity kept her from that immediate choice of self preservation. She sensed the beast could harm her, the green glow from its maw, claws and chest were certainly enough for her to make the assumption. Studying the thing as it tried to pull Erzuli off its back, the ghost cautiously crept closer. It was huge, certainly larger than the Pure Blood, perhaps on par with Jarin’s wolf form and at a glance looked basically the same. A thick, dark slime covered the beast, making it hard for the werewolf to hold on for long, indeed as Erzsébet watched, Erzuli slipped off and rolled backwards, before again charging the creature. Curiosity rapidly replacing terror and deciding she couldn’t simply let her ally die, the ghost decided to try and distract the thing. She floated down and whooshed right past the thing’s nose, causing it to turn towards her. Erzuli crashed into its side and as it fell onto the ground, exposing its belly, she began to bite down again on the beast’s neck. Erzsébet’s eyes widened… the glowing area on the thing’s chest was a spiral!

“Oh… just perfect!” Erzsébet cursed the luck of her discovery, this whole situation had just become more difficult.

Getting closer than she was comfortable with, the ghost tried to reach out to Erzuli but to no avail. Cursing repeatedly in Hungarian and with a yell of frustration she glanced round, feeling helpless. A glint of silvery metal on the ground caught her attention… Erzuli’s bell. Clenching her teeth and wishing she could just rush to get it, she felt a sudden tug on her being. Looking down, she could see the wounds caused on the she-wolf by the creature were leeching energy, a mix of green and blue pulled at her. Erzsébet grinned and took a chance: rushing into a gash on Erzuli’s shoulder.


Waking was painful, each wound ached deeply and she could feel bruises forming. Dirt and slime covered her as she sat up. Erzsébet put a paw up to her furred head and groaned; she’d been flung against the car and the headache was complicating matters. Shaking her head she suddenly realised her hunch had worked, she was in Erzuli again. The roar of the wolf’s consciousness in the back of her mind forced her to focus for a moment. The urge for blood and anger were strong but Erzsébet knew she had to hold it back for now. Forcing herself up she looked around for the bell; the tiny object proved elusive for a few long moments before she spotted it again and dived to grab it. As her paw grasped the metal she let out a cry of triumph, only to be interrupted by a roar of anger from near the house. The beast, who had been similarly thrown back by the release of energy, was also returning to consciousness. It rose and charged straight for her. Erzsébet could not help but feel she could see recognition in the beast’s eyes as they bore into hers. Holding the small artifact up before her, she prayed her second idea would be as successful as her first… she closed her eyes and rang the bell.


The breath on her face was sickening with its warmth and smell and the constant ooze of drool dripping onto her arm was worse. Erzsébet, still fighting to contain the wolf’s mind in the back of her head, finally opened her eyes and looked up at the huge head before her. The beast held its maw just above her arm and despite the angry look in its blazing green eyes, it held still. The ghost moved her arm slowly and backed away, the beast did not move. The drool coming out of its mouth was constant though and she was thankful Erzuli hadn't eaten recently as it made her stomach twist. Cautiously raising an arm she pointed towards the bunker, she uttered a short phrase, her voice shaking.

“Go… inside…”

The beast snorted and shook, covering the ghost/wolf in slime and drool before turning and padding quietly into the house. Somewhat impressed by the power of the bell in her hand, Erzsébet raised it to her lips and kissed it, so relieved she was to have the beast away from her. Realising there was something more yet to do she ran after the creature, catching up just as the thing sat in the bunker. Not wanting to take any more chances she slammed the door shut behind it and locked it securely, pushing as much furniture as she could up to it as well. ‘Better to be safe’ she thought to herself. Then the roar of angry hunger ripped through her mind as Erzuli howled to be released. The need for blood flew through her but the Countess just grinned. Tonight perhaps, would be a good night to… take advantage of their current situation.


(The next morning)

Jarin rubbed the back of his neck as he looked in wonder at the Jeep half wrapped around the tree in front of the Den. Erzuli had never been the best driver but this was bordering on the ridiculous. Not only had she slipped out last night, which annoyed him, mainly as he’d failed to notice, but upon her return she’d left the car like this just outside the perimeter fence of the compound. There was broken glass, twisted metal and oil everywhere, not to mention the skid marks and torn path of destruction through the trees.

“Clean it up!” he sighed to the guards, before heading back towards the Den. All the while, rubbing his neck and wondering if he had any marks still left from where she had bitten him last night too.



“Well you were certainly… enthusiastic, last night sister.”

Erzuli sat up like a shot at the sound of Natasha’s voice and feeling silken sheets between her fingers only made the panic worse. She looked round franticly, desperately hoping she wasn’t where she thought she was. In the corner of the room she could hear Erzsébet’s voice humming some sort of happy tune. Before she could get her bearings Natasha sat on the bed beside her. Erzuli had to stop herself flinching from the Queen’s touch on her arm. She realised with horror… she was in Natasha’s room.

“I almost thought I had you there for a moment…” Natasha grinned as she swung her naked legs up onto the bed and stroking Erzuli’s leg. “…but my twins and I had to retire elsewhere. We’re going to have to get you a few things if that’s how your research effects your… appetite.”

Erzuli looked at her sister, unable to hide the worried look. As she glanced round she could see the room was a mess, with blood and varying… toys scattered about. Natasha just laughed.

“I see you remember as much as I thought you would. Just try to leave yourself one bodyguard capable of doing some guarding next moon. Even your consort looked tired this morning. We really need to have a chat about that research of yours too Zuli. I want to know if this was anything to do with it.”

Erzuli just nodded and tried not to show any reaction to Erzsébet’s chuckling. Natasha smirked, leaping off the bed. She walked over to the door, picking up an object along the way, before pausing and throwing it back to Erzuli.

“And try to wreck your own room next time.” The Queen laughed and walked off down the hall.

Picking up the object on her lap, Erzuli held it up and sank back into the covers with a groan. It was a dog’s choke chain entangled with a red thong that wasn’t hers.

It had been several hours later until Harlow came out of the doze he let himself fall into. It was a rather long trip from California to England and Harlow and the rest used it to catch up on their sleep, they'd need to be wide awake once they arrived in London for then there would be work to be done. The cabin of the plane was quiet as he gently poked the brim of his hat up so he could look around, a few of the team were following his example and gently snoozing in their places and others were either meditating on the task at hand or thinking of something else to calm themselves, everyone had their own way of dealing with the wait before the storm.

The thought about rest made Harlow wonder about their pilot, even the body of a wolf would be fatigued after being awake for so long. He stretched his legs as he pushed himself out of his seat and made his way into plane's cockpit quietly. There he saw the control panels of the plane displayed in front of two seats, the left holding the reclined form of Katherine who had her hands on her lap and her eyes closed. Harlow wasn't more alarmed by this than confused. As he walked in and closed the door behind him, Katherine opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Aren't you supposed to be watching the sky while you fly this thing?" Harlow asked fully knowing the situation was under control with a pilot like Katherine behind the yoke.

"Its a new invention called and autopilot sweetie, ever heard of it?" She asked, stretching her own arms as he examined the instruments with the trained eye of a veteran pilot. Harlow took the seat next to her which was usually reserved for the copilot.

"Whats our ETA?" He asked, now focused on their assignment. Katherine checked their position on her GPS and nodded slightly.

"Right on schedule, we should be landing in the next six hours." She said, they had stopped briefly at the airport in New York to refuel and then it was off over the Atlantic. Harlow nodded, still thinking about the errand they had been sent on. It was only after a few moments when he realized Katherine's tone had implied she wanted to say something else.

"Something the matter?" He asked with his arms crossed.

"I've been thinking, these Lunar Brotherhood guys sound like bad news. You sure you don't need another set of hands for this fight?" She asked suggestively. Harlow sighed, he'd thought that this was going to come up but knew what his answer would be, he shook his head.

"No, I don't want you in the crossfire--" He began before Katherine cut him off crossly.

"I can handle myself, I'm not some damned prissy housewife you know." She spat as she flew the plane.

"That's not what I said--" Harlow said again before he was again cut off.

"So what is it then? You know I can fight, what are you worried about?" She asked harshly. Harlow turned to look at her and it was only then that she saw a change in his expression, it was something she was not accustomed to seeing in his face; sadness.

"I already lost you once." He said, his voice wavering slightly. "I wont risk it again by putting you in harms way...at least not this time." It was then that Katherine's face softened and she considered the feelings in Harlow. She nodded and looked back to her instruments.

"I know how you feel, how do you think I felt whenever you went on all the other missions you've been on? Every time I was stuck wondering if I'd see you again." She admitted. "This time is no different."

There was a silence between them for a few moments until Harlow spoke again, this time in the same tone of determination he usually had. "Listen, every number on this team has a certain role. You, nobody can drive or fly like you can. If you get hit in the fight, who's going to get us out of their if we have to leave a hot zone?"

Katherine thought about this but said nothing. Harlow continued.

"There will be other battles, bigger ones, nastier ones, this is just the beginning of a war that has been brewing for many years now and is starting to come to a boil. You'll have your chance to prove yourself soon enough, I promise you that." He said reassuringly. Katherine nodded a bit sadly. She shook her head.

"I try not to get too angry but sometimes it just seems like I'm a glorified chauffeur." She said rather indignantly. Harlow looked out the cockpit's windshield and into the water below.

"Better enjoy that while you can. " He said ominously. "That's not going to be the case for much longer..."

Back in the cabin, Alex sat and thought about what lay ahead. A great storm like no other he had seen, that's what Harlow said was coming. Alex was not a stranger to war, his father had been taken in it, he'd been shoved into it, it was something he'd known for most of his life just like a lot of the wolves here. He'd read the dossiers on the representatives of the blunted Fang and one in particular had sparked his interest.

Alex took a glance at the wolf named Derrick Moss who dozed lazily in his seat. Alex didn't know much about him other than the fact that they shared one life changing experience...Both had been cursed, or blessed depending on who you asked, in their time of war...

The memories filtered into Alex's mind...the sights, the smells, the sound and the fury...the blood...

It was something one did not forget...

---------------------------------------------------------------

November 19, 1967...

Hill 875

The white of his eyes contrasted the layers of dirt caked on his face that was only stopped by the green covered steel helmet on his head. Out beyond was a wall of brush, lush and green, beautiful and deadly. It hid a relentless enemy, one that had come at him and the others with him for three days without stopping, without ceasing. Its intrusion had scarred each an every man on the line. He looked around to see the scared and witless faces around him, boys pretending to be men clutched rifles and whimpered for their mothers. Older men, much fewer in number kept their eyes glued on their surroundings, waiting icily for the slightest twitch of a bush frond or the smallest snap of a twig to signal the beginning of another hellstorm...

A trooper jumped into his foxhole next to him on the line, he was just as dirty and just as scared looking but he brought out a satchel and begin to fish through it.

"You good on ammo Sarge?" He said in no more than a soft whisper as if afraid that if he raised his voice it would alert hte sleeping beast in the jungle beyond to their presence. The man didn't look away from the line and nodded, his aching arms glued to the matt black rifle in front of him.

"Try Phillips, heard he needed another belt for his piece." The man with sergeant's stripes said as he watched the brush intently. The trooper nodded.

"Got any water sir?" The trooper asked again, the sergeant unclasped the canteen from his belt and handed it to the trooper while keeping his rifle pointed at the brush. He couldn't remember the last hour he had gotten for sleep or even the last time he had blinked.

"Where's yours?" The sergeant whispered as the trooper drank heartily from the tin as if it was the last time he would see water.

"Dropped it when I bolted for cover from the last mortar strike, looked for it everywhere and never did find it." He said and handed the canteen back to the sergeant. "Thank you sir." He said and jumped back above ground, jogging to the next hole with his satchel full of ammo.

Another agonizingly silent minute later in the twilight of the Asian jungle, another set of grimy boots landed in the hole next to him, this time the Sergeant did look, if only for a split second and recognized the silver bars on the other soldier's uniform immediately.

"Lieutenant." He said nodding, not daring to salute the man in the current situation. The man took a spot next to the sergeant and also aimed his rifle out at the brush, though he nodded at the man next to him.

"Sergeant Whitlow." He said in a slight greeting. "See anything out there?"

Whitlow shook his head slightly, his white eyes wide open and unblinking. "No sir, been real quiet for the past two hours." He said, his jaw working shakily. "I can't stand this."

The waiting was getting to all of them, they had fought their hearts out for days now for this piece of high ground and their superiors had promised them relief soon...Soon, soon, soon, that's all they ever said, it drove Whitlow up the wall. Might as well tell them all the reinforcements would get there when they would get there.

"I know, but this is all we can do, we have too many wounded to go out there and find them so all we can do is wait." The lieutenant said

"Not making me like it any better, sir." Whitlow said, at this point he was past showing his cordial side. The lieutenant opened his mouth to say something...

The jungle exploded...

All around them...the flashes of gunfire...the screams of men in battle...the thunderous shock waves of explosives going off, it all echoed and melted to their ears from beyond the line...but they were not the targets, no, instead they were the audience to a symphony of conflict going on just meters away. Men along the line were alarmed, all of them glued their eyes to the jungle around them but after a few moments of tumultuous noise, it became obvious that they were not the targets of this attack...

And that just begged the question...who was?

"What the..." Whitlow asked, looking on in horrid fascination as the jungle seethed and exploded around their line. "Do we have any units out there?" He asked, suddenly turning to the lieutenant.

"I-I don't know." He suddenly jumped out of the foxhole. "Stay here and hold the line, I'm going to find Dugal and get the Colonel on the line."

Minutes passed, no fire or attack ever came at the American soldiers stationed at the top of the hill but for minutes on end something was attacking the enemy beyond them. Radio calls confirmed that the commotion was confined to Whitlow's platoon sector, a nearby battle raged and kept each man on their toes knowing that any minute khaki or black uniformed soldiers wielding AKs would come screaming out of the bush towards them threatening to overwhelm the few uninjured Americans on the hill. Just as the sun sank behind the horizon and darkness ruled the jungle, the sounds of battle began to whither and just as mysteriously as it flared up, the battle fizzled away in a tide of gunfire and screaming.

"Somebody's doin our job for us." The man crouched next to Whitlow said.

"We don't know that." Whitlow managed, too scared of what was going on to say much else.

"They're all gone, whoever's out there finished em off, its too quiet for there to be any left." The man persisted, speaking in an eerily calm voice.

"We don't know that, we won't until morning so until then shut the--" Whitlow began but closed his working mouth as something charged through the brush at their line. It stumbled, it flailed, panting, torn, bloody, dirty, it fell onto its face halfway between the brush line and the American line.

"Its them!" The man next to Whitlow shouted and aimed his weapon to fire. Whitlow swatted the rifle away and watched the figure fall on its face.

"He's not armed, take Jennings and check him out, the platoon will cover you." Whitlow said, the man looked at him, hesitating for a moment. "That's an order!" Whitlow added harshly, finally convincing the man to get moving along with his comrade, the two approached the prostrate figure carefully. Soon, the two were crouched over the wounded figure, one of the dirty soldiers turned back towards Whitlow who was waiting patiently for them to report.

"He's alive." The soldier said. "I don't know if--"

He was cut off as his foot was seemingly jerked into the ground and he gave a shriek of surprise as something dragged him below the dirt he stood on. He cursed loudly and scrambled to try and right himself but some force kept him lodged in the earth. With slow and horrifying realization, it dawned on the soldier he hadn't only been dragged into the ground but he was going further. The soldier with him tried to grab on to the man's arm and haul him back up as he yelled, waist deep in the dirt below him.

"Shoot it! Shoot it God dammit!" The trapped soldier yelled. While trying to drag him out with one hand, the soldier's comrade fired into the hole under the stuck man while he yelled piteously. There was a loud hissing, an inhuman screech and with a final tug, the screaming soldier was pulled completely under the ground where dirt caved in to cover him and silence his yells.

"Jennings!" The other soldier yelled and began scrambling to scoop the dirt away from the hole with his frantic hands.

"Private! Get back here!" Whitlow yelled at him, unnerved by what he had seen.

"I can't leave him, he has to be--" He was cut off by his own gasping as a figure bounded with inhuman speed out of the brush and grabbed the soldier, the two of them struggled for a moment and then there was a gurgling as the man's head went limp. Whitlow stared, frozen by fear and paralyzed by confusion.

"Open fire!" He yelled, scarcely had he opened his mouth to make the order than the first shots echoed across the opening. The line was a series of white yellow dots of gun flashes from the muzzles of automatic rifles and machine guns. Bullets bounced off the dirt around the figure holding the limp soldier and several slammed into it causing it to stumble backwards. With another hiss it dropped the limp soldier and retreated back into the bush. Many moments passed until Whitlow finally called a cease fire and silence again reigned in the jungle night.

"W-What was that Sarge?" On of the boys asked shakily as they all kept their eyes on the line. A grim clam had settled on Whitlow as he kept his eyes peeled.

"Whatever got the VC." He answered.

Another loud hiss, this time to the right, followed by a blood curdling scream of fear and spurts of gunfire. Before Whitlow could pin it down the same sounds came from the left and then in front of him, scrambling, lithe and dark figures bounded at them out of the brush.

"They're all around us!" One man screamed as the dark figures ran straight through their gunfire and ripped into the men hiding in their holes. Pale hands burst from the earth and drug running soldiers to the ground, allowing the beasts to leap upon them and rip them open. Within moments the line was broken and the enemy was in amongst them all, slaying gibbering soldiers left and right, spilling blood by the gallon onto the dark earth of the jungle. Whitlow held small group of soldiers who frantically fired into the night at anything that moved, at this point not caring whether it hit their friends or not. They were all scared beyond fear, beset by an enemy that would not die.

"Where's the lieutenant?!" One asked. Whitlow had seen the man dragged to the ground, a pistol still in his hand, but those...creatures.

"Gone." He said and turned to the radioman who was yelling into his mouthpiece. "Where's our support?!" He yelled over the tumult.

"I-In the air s-sir. T-Two Marine fast movers are a minute out." The man stuttered as he worked the radio on his back. Whitlow grabbed a cylinder from his webbing and ignited its tip, the flare sparked to life and showed brightly.

"Pop flares!" Whitlow shouted to his men who followed his example and tossed flares in a circle around them. Whitlow looked at the radioman. "Tell em to hit the lights." The radio man swallowed and nodded, knowing the situation, this move was one of desperation, the platoon was overrun and the only way to stop this foe was to take it with them all. With a shaky voice he gave the jets overhead the coordinates, the gunfire and screaming continued even as the jets screamed overhead and dropped their payload onto the specks of light below...

All he could hear was the thunder, all he could feel was the fire and the dirt hitting him from all directions, thunder and fire and dirt and...darkness. He came to buried alive in three inches of dirt and struggled to rise and breath, rolling part of a body off of him in te process. His hands shook as he spat dirt from his mouth and brushed it from his dry eyes. His helmet was gone, thrown from his spinning head by the forces rent upon him. For some reason fate had allowed him to live while his entire platoon had been wiped out, for some reason he still breathed while others had long since stopped...

He was not alone in his life though, all around him the figures closed in, hunched, threatening, pale, they circled him unsure just as he examined each of them. All of them wore the same black pajamas as the enemy but they were undeniably inhuman. None of them had weapons but each sported claws from long fingers. Some of them hissed the shadow of a moonless night covering their faces. A light from the sky sparked suddenly and caused the creatures to retreat slightly. Whitlow looked up to see a floating flare in the sky and his mind grabbed onto the sudden reaction of the creatures around him, he knew he had to act fast. He grabbed his last flare and ignited it, holding it in front of him, eliciting hisses from the figures around him. Some advanced until he threatened them with the flare and they jumped back. Slowly he backed away, warding the creatures in front of him back with his flare until they were all in front of him and the jungle behind. As his back found the vegetation, one of the figures emerged from the group and came very close to him, the flare didn't scare it no matter how Whitlow held it, his eyes grew wide with realization, he dropped the flare and turned to run blindly into the night...

A strong hand grabbed him, hauled him backwards and shoved him against a tree trunk. He struggled to break free but the monster was inhumanly strong and kept him in place. It laughed in his face and Whitlow finally saw its pale skin and dark eyes paired with its gleaming fangs. Its thin red tongue licked its lips as the other creatures gathered around.

"This one is a lucky bastard isn't he?" One of them said with a chuckle.

"Luckier than his friends." Another chimed.

"What did you do to them?" Whitlow asked breathlessly.

"We hunted and we fed, that is what we do." One said.

"Its fun, oh how fun it is to prey on your pathetic humanii warriors." Another said.

"There are more coming, drain this worm so we can go." Another hissed to the one holding Whitlow.

"Oh, you can't rush pleasure." The creature laughed as it brought out a gleaming knife and shoved its blade into Whitlow's guts with a swift push. Harlow gasped, not able to draw air into his lungs, pain spread through his body and he felt his warm blood pour over his legs and waist. He stared into the creature's eyes with a vacant glare of pain trying to curse it but unable to say anything. The creature chuckled.

"You make this much too easy, human, enjoy your final moments." It hissed. Whitlow wasn't listening, he had since tuned the world out and now his life flashed in images before his eyes, both good and bad, both joyful and sad. With those came the realization that the darkness was encroaching and with that came a smouldering anger...

It spread through his bones and into his muscles, slowly, the anger swallowed his pain and replaced it with rage. He expected the darkness to come but instead it was replaced with red as deep and as burning as fire. All he heard was blood pounding in his ears. He knew this was wrong, this was not how death felt...this was something else...this was not death, it was life...

The creature continued to chuckle as it leaned over and opened its maw wide to rip out his bare throat. Its mouth closed to mere inches from his straining neck whose muscles bunched and spasmed as his breathing became faster. It was then that the creature stopped, it took a sniff of the man's scent. Very quickly it backed its head away and looked confusedly at the man in front of him.

"What is your problem? Hurry it up, we have no time!" Another hissed.

"He smells...smells of...lycan." The creature said.

"Impossible, we would have smelled him before if he was a lycan!" Another growled...Whitlow heard none of this, an anger the intensity of which he had never felt was boiling, throbbing, coursing through his body. His blood blazed, his jaw clenched, his teeth gnashed he yearned for...death...for the death of his attackers...

Before the creatures could react, Whitlow grabbed the wrist of the creature holding him against the tree and with his other hand ripped the knife from his stomach with a wet squelch and without so much as flinching. With another fluid movement he plunged it into the creature in front of him, he repeated the movement another dozen times within the span of a few seconds and made its chest a gaping hole. His arms muscles clenched as he tossed the limp and surprised body away, the other creatures backed away slowly as Whitlow stumbled forwards, making inhuman noises, literally snarling with anger and deadly intent.

"What in the name of Caine?" One of them asked, scarcely able to believe his eyes...

Whitlow felt his uniform rip and tear as his body spasmed, long since had his sanity and reason been swallowed by animal rage and now he was devoured, consumed by a single thought and purpose: Kill...

Claws rent undead flesh and speared beating hearts, they cleaved heads from bodies and limbs from torsos. The beast was a blur of twitching tail and raging muscle, its wiry limbs struck at speeds hard even for the quick eyes of a vampire to follow. A dam had burst forth in his soul that unleashed a torrent of primal ferocity. The night was filled with the howls of unbridled joy from a beast that had once been a human being. The vampires had unwittingly released a beast they feared through their hubris and few of them escaped into the brush, chased by a savage, bounding wolf that sought nothing more than to feel their last breathes pass over its snout...

With dawn came awakening, this time to smouldering vegetation and nothing but human cadavers. Flashes of the night before pierced his mind and he struggled to come to terms with them. In the end, he found a badly burned body wearing the remains of an American uniform and swapped his dog tags with it...He had no idea what was going on but it was certain that he didn't want anyone he knew who might be left to know about it...He had to disappear , he needed to be forgotten, some things and some people were better left forgotten.

He rose to his feet and walked off into the green oblivion, finding a stream, he followed it aimlessly until he found the river it was attached to, unsure of what the future held for him and with nothing but his own to hands to claim as his own...

-----------------------------------------------

Harlow had gone into the cabin a few hours ago, Alex faintly wondered what for but it was undoubtedly to talk to Katherine. Still though, Alex figured he would be back out by now he was just about to get up to go check on him when the door to the cockpit opened. All heads came around at the sound of its opening and closing. There stood Harlow, at the head of the plane, clenching and unclenching his fists. He looked at them all and nodded slightly, wearing and expression of calm determination.

"We land within the hour, gents." He said with a dead level tone. "Get ready, we wont be wasting any time when we get there."

... Player Event Combat Resolutions...Part II.

... Andy Bruss stepped quickly onto the front porch, his eyes scanning rapidly ...searching for targets as the roar of weapons fire echoed over the door yard..
Wood splintered by his head as a round fired by an unseen assailent exploded just inches away, splinters biting into the side of Andy's face as he quickly ducked behind the low brick wall surrounding the porch..
Again the echo of gunfire filled the air and Andy could just make out a group of Claudius ghouls pumping rounds at several shadowy forms...each of which rapidly returned fire with silenced weapons...their muzzle flashes strobing in the gloom.
In the distance, Andy could see a the shadows of a second group ...rushing forward in crouched runs, they too opened fire on the band of ghouls ...dripping two as they advanced.
" Who the feth are they?" Andy muttered to himself as he moved swiftly to a better vantage point and tried to aquire a target in the chaos..his eyes narrowed, his wolf senses taking over...his vision piercing the dim light...he froze for just an instant as he recognized who the attackers were.
" Purifiers" Andy snarled under his breath, feeling a fresh wave of rage wash over him " Here for me finally..or for Claudius...or both?" Andy thought as he raised his revolver and squeezed the trigger...a well aimed round smashing into one of the advancing zealots and sending him sprawling onto the ground, his head a pulped ruin from the passage of the bullet.
More ghouls had appeared and were doing their best to hold The Hand at bay, but several more grenades lobbed by the fanatics dispatched the rag tag defenders in a crimson spray of flying bone and blood..
" Ghouls can't hold these maniacs back..." Andy thought " No way their a match for a trained army..."
Shouts and gunfire drew Andy's attention to the right of the Manor house, in the distance he saw Mikhail and his family along with three other humans rushing in his direction, each man firing various weapons as they ran..
Andy yelled for them to hurry as he stood and unleashed a volley of covering fire towards the attackers.." C'mon! Let's go!!" Bruss bellowed as he saw one of the men with Mikhail pitch backwards, his stomach a ruined and dripping cavity from where he'd been struck by a barrage of automatic weapons fire.
Bounding onto the porch and into cover with Andy, Mikhail grunted " Many of the guards are dead...others have simply fled...and Claudius has not yet appeared...perhaps he too has chosen to flee."
Andy shook his head " I don't know...but I do know we need to get the hell out of here fast.."..another burst of fire tore the wall over their heads apart in a hail of flying wood.
" Who are these men?" Mikhail asked as he shoved rounds into his own pistol, an ancient Colt revolver..." Are they part of the Network?"
Andy nodded quickly " You could say that...their fanatics...crazies...and probably here because of me."
" You?" Mikhaol said startled " But.."
" We'll discuss it later" Andy said, another round wizzing overhead " For now get inside...you and your family...stay with Wendy..." Bruss turned to the two younger men, farmhands he recognized " You two will help me hold these bastards up for a while...then we all make a run for it."
Mikhail began to protest...wanting to stay with Bruss and help fight...but Andy quickly insisted he get his family into the safety of the house...and the man begrudgingly obeyed.
" Ok.." Andy said turning back to the two farmhands " pour it on them...keep them down!"
The three peered from cover and opened fire...Andy feeling a twinge of satisfation as another of the Hand fell to the ground screaming...but his minor elation faded quickly as one of the farmhands jittered backwards...cut down by a hail of machine gun fire ...his insides splattering onto the manorhouse wall behind him.
Andy faulterd...there were still over a half dozen of the Hand advancing ...firing rapidly...and there was no way he and this scared boy standing next to him were going to be able to stop them from reaching the house...
...Bruss snarled, the beast inside fighting to be released..." No..No " Andy thought franticly " Have to stay in control...can't afford to loose my wits"...he roared at the approaching figures.." C'mon then you bastards!!..come get me!!"

Kraub smiled, he could see the hated abomination standing before the house, cursing and firing at the Brothers..." Tonight Bruss.." The Chief Administrator thought cheerfully " You shall know agony ...you shall pay for your sins"
Brother Karas fired his rifle and a young man who stood near Bruss on the porch toppled over...his face destroyed by the high powered round.
" This is your day of judgement foul beast!!" Kraub roared, raising his own weapon and sighting on Andy..." The Hand of the Lord is open you.."
...As his finger tightened on the trigger, Kraub was startled by a scream from behind him and the report of several weapons...
Brother Kent stumbled forward, his hands clasp to his chest as blood poured between his fingers.." Behind us My Lord...they.." The Brother fell lifelessly at Kraubs feet...
Turning quickly, the Chief Administrator's eyes narrowed in hate as he saw four figures moving quickly towards him and his men...the strobe of weapons fire revealing the grim face of a tall man bedecked in a ridiculous Hawiian print shirt.
" Payback's a mother fether you crazy sons of bitches!!" The tall man yelled as he fired and dropped another of Kraubs men " This is for Murry you fanatical bastards!!!"
Quickly, Flamingo Jim and his buddies leapt into cover and begin to pour fire into the rapidly diminishing ranks of the Hand.

Within the confines of the manor house, Tobermory roared laughter, his blood soaked sword slashing downwards...a splash of crimson painting the far wall of the room...
Wendy Bruss felt her sanity unhinge at what she witnessed...a scream of pure anguish erupted from her as she charged the smiling Vampire...fangs and claws sprouting as she leaped into the air..
The Vampire laughed , his tone one of great mirth " Ah yes ...Come Wendy....come to me"...he struck swiftly, the flat of his blade smashing into the side of Wendy's head splitting her scalp open and sending her crashing to the floor..
Looming over her, Tobermory cackled raising his sword " The Roman sends his reguards.." with a light chuckle the Vampire thrust his blade deep into the bleeding woman's mid section, lifting her high into the air to stare into her shocked and begging eyes.
" Have no fear Wendy....the peace you've craved will soon be yours" Tobermory smiled as he twisted the blade inside the woman's guts, feeling the warm gush of blood rushing over his hands..." Shh close your eyes...rest"
as the Vampire ripped the blade free and prepared to deliver the killing blow..he was stunned by a sudden flair of agony in his throat...stumbling he reached up and felt the handle of a dagger pertruding from his neck...his own blood mixing with Wendy's on his hands...he spun wildly...his eyes falling upon a trembling man...trembling not with fear...but with a fury...a second dagger grasp tightly in his grip...
" Blessed they are Blood drinker!!" The man roared..." Daggers that belong to this woman you've savaged...blessed to slay your kind!!!"
Tobermory hissed in fury...yanking the blade from his throat even as he felt the blades power coursing through him...posioning his body...
With a roar of hatered, the scourge of the Crimson Court flung the cursed dagger at the man, who barely dodged it..but advanced brandishing the second blade..." Another taste awaits you Vampire!!" Mikhail roared slicing into Tobermory's outstreached palm...
The Vampire bared his fangs...feeling his head spin ..his power fading..." I shall enjoy visiting you again soon" Tobermory hissed..turning a diving through the huge rear window...
Mikhail dropped to his knees at Wendy's side...grabbing a towel and trying desperatly to sten the flow of blood from her stomach...
Behind him his wife shrieked...Mikhail wirled believing the vampire had returned....instead he saw Vasha standing above the infant carrier...a look of horror on her face.

" We must flee my Lord" Brothe Karas shouted " our numbers have fallen...we must fall back and reorganize our attack!!"
" NO!!..NO!!" Kraub roared.." I'll not let these vile abominations escape me...I'll.."
Kraub froze...in his head he heard the voice of the Lord commanding him ...telling him there would be another day...he must spare himself...and prepare...
" Very well Brother Karas...move swiftly" Kraub shouted...turning and firing towards the newcomers as he ran...
Flamingo Jim and Trish stared at each other stunned..." Their leaving?" Trish yelled..." Giving up?"
" No...leaving maybe" Jim said firing at the fleeing Hand..." But they don't give up...They'll be back...and soon...let's move...get to Bruss."
On the porch Andy too stood amazed ...as quickly as they'd appeared the remainder of the Hands forces were rushing away...disappearing over the rear gates.
" What the hell.." Andy said shaking his head...stepping from the porch out into the dooryard...raising a hand of greeting to Jim as he and the others approached...
" Not to sound ungrateful" Andy said walking towards Jim..." But...what are you doing here?..."
" Your welcome Bruss" Jim said a small smile on his face " Look...it's a long story...and I'll fill you in on all I know...but first I suggest we get the feth out of here.."
Andy began to nod in agreement when a unearthly noise caused him and the others to spin towards the open fields...
There...in the distance...materializing in a hurricane of sound and srobing lightning...the Crooked House appeared...
Andy gaped...he'd not seen the unholy dwelling in over a year...since he'd dispatched Pontious within it's walls...since...since he'd seen Wendy die..
" Holy gak" Jim muttered..." Is that?.."
" Yes...yes it is" Andy said vacantly...he had begun to tremble...when he noticed a dark figure moving through the field towards the house...A group of Vampire Juli rushing to meet the shape.
As the crooked house shimmered...filling Andy with a sense of dread...the figure turned and called to him..
" I've left you a gift inside Mr Bruss...a present from a dear friend of yours...I do hope you enjoy it" The figure called " I certainly did...you may feel the need to search for me Mr. Bruss...I do hope so...seek me beyond the veil Andy...seel me beyond the veil"...with those parting words...the figure turned and strode into the crooked house even as it trembled and vanished from sight...
" A...A present?" Andy muttered...his eyes opening wide in fear..." Oh my god...Wendy...the kids!!!"
Turning rapidly Andy bound up the stairs and into the manor house...Jim and the others following closely behind.

Body Count...

The Hand.

Brother Kent-Dead
Brother Perry-Dead
Brother Derek-dead
Brother Maxwell-Dead
Brother James- Dead

Over a dozen ghouls -dead

Wendy- 2 wounds
The twins- Vegas and Sven- Dead.

... Kraub paused for a brief moment, staring over his shoulder as the features of the crooked house came into view in the distance...
" Blasphamous...an incaranation of evil in the eyes of the Lord" The Chief Administrator whispered...his thin lip quivering...he turned and took a step towards the distant monilith.
" No my Lord" Brother Karas shouted , gripping Kraub by the shoulder " We must regroup...we must."
Kraub slung his underlings hand from his shoulder and whirled to face him...his face twisted in fury " Unspeakable evil decends on our world Karas...it is an abomination...an offence in the very face of GOD!!"
" I understand my Lord" Brother Karas said bowing his head ...continuing to speak cautiously " But surely it is more sensible to gather more Purifiers...to regroup and plan our attack my Lord.."
Kraub frowned...deep lines furrowing his face...his body trembling with rage...he said nothing...pushing Karas aside and storming towards the vehicles parked in the distance.

Brother Karas turned to the remaining Purifiers " Brother Thorn..Brother Thadius..take the second vehicle and follow...Brother Milo and Myself shall accompany our Lord...we regroup with our Order"
The gathered Brother nodded grimly and struck out for the SUV's...soon the engines roared as the two vehicles sped off into the night..
Inside the lead vehicle Kraub sat rigidly, his eyes blazing as he stared out of the window...finally speaking..
" Perhaps your correct Brother Karas...perhaps it was best to depart...perhaps it is best if we now strike at the very heart of those who would invite the devil into our world" Kraub said nodding
" Perhaps it is time for the wicked amongst us to be purged" The chief Administrator grinned.

RP:

Atlas opened his eyes. He was lying down on his own bed, the duvet covering his entire body , keeping him warm. He turned his head to the right, and noticed a familiar figure sleeping peacefully next to him. Slowly, the memories from the previous night flooded back into him. Had he? Bella?

“Wow,” he whispered, and Bella wriggled uncomfortably beside him.

He got out of bed carefully, trying hard not to wake Bella up, and began to dress himself, pulling on some jeans, a black T-shirt, and some black and white striped socks.
He walked out of the room, and headed downstairs, before walking into the kitchen, noticing Valentin slumped on the table. He walked around him, and set to work to get himself some breakfast. He got himself some cereal and milk. It would be enough. He wasn’t even that hungry.
He remembered the events of the previous day as he ate, also noticing the cans of beer all around Valentin. He remembered the dream, and what it was all about. Atlas pondered on this for a while, thinking about what it cold mean. Was that Prince who was a pup in the dream him? Was he a Pureblood? All of these thoughts were shifted aside by the awakening of Valentin.

“Ooooh,” he groaned slowly, his head rising, his features slightly messed up. “Atlas. Did I? Did I…? Wait, Jimmy? Jimmy?!”

“Calm down Valentin,” Atlas stated seriously. “I just think you got drunk. That’s all.”

“Drunk? Jimmy? Damn him, he fething got me drunk,” Valentin moaned, starting to regain his composure.

“It’ll pass, especially seeing as how you’re a Vampire. Jimmy obviously had a party with you or something. Nothing much.”

“Nothing much?” Valentin growled. “I need to stay in the right state of mind, not getting drunk like this!”

“Just calm down Valentin. As I said, it’ll pass.”

“Sure,” Valentin huffed.

There was awkward silence for a while, before Atlas finnallly remembered something else. What had been troubling him. It was extremely important, and he needed to talk to Valentin about it. He was the only one that could help him in this situation.

“Valentin, I’ve just remembered something,” Atlas said, now deadly serious, even more so than before. “We need to talk.”

*****************************************************************************************

“So, why aren’t your Vampire friends coming along?” Steve asked, sitting in the backseat of the car, leaning forward slightly to talk to Atlas.

“I thought it would be better if he and Jimmy went on a different plane. We’ll most probably meet them in San Francisco, don’t you worry,” Atlas replied, smiling slightly, as if he knew something very important that everybody else didn’t.

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Steve said indignantly, falling back into the seat, arms crossed.

Bella was absolutely silent. When Atlas had asked her about last night, her cheeks had gone bright red, and she had refused to say anything. Well, her exacts words were “Um, do we have to talk about this now?”, and Atlas had just dropped it. She’d been quiet ever since.

Atlas kept driving towards the airport, with all of their bags with possessions inside together in the boot of the car. Everything was going to plan. For once, he felt properly happy.

**************************************************************************************************

Once they arrived at the airport, Atlas had told both Bella and Steve to sit down while he sorted everything out. He had spoken to a rather cheesy middle-aged woman behind the counter, and he had their flight recorded, and had generally got everything sorted for them.

They had then waited for their plane to arrive, and when it did it was announced on a big projector high up on the ceiling. They had got up with grace, and picked up their bags to walk to the designated area to get to the plane, when suddenly Atlas felt the presence of something… else. Yet so familiar, like his own kind. He sniffed the air to try and make out whether it was wolves or not. It was, and he noticed that they weren’t friendly.

His mind raced. This couldn’t be happening. He had everything planned, and now this had to come along.
He stopped walking at once, and Bella and Steve kept going on before they noticed that Atlas wasn’t with them, they turned back in unison. Steve opened his mouth to speak, confused.

“What’s going on?”

Atlas replied simply.

“Something very bad.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sorry for the quality, I was pretty disappointed in it.

I have never flown out of England, so I don't really know what its like at an airport...

... but, this is me set up for the event.

Andy ran into the house, the door slammed open and the hinges cracked with the force he had put into throwing it open. The smell of freshly spilled blood filled the air around him and hung thickly as the familiar sounds of Mikhail's and Vasha's echoed through the now empty house. Andy ran, leaving the others behind as he desperately moved to find out how badly the bastard had hurt his family. The sight of Wendy sitting against the wall with Mikhail holding a towel against her stomach was the first thing he saw, Mikhail turned to look at him. Andy stopped suddenly and began to slowly walk into the room, Mikhail's eyes betrayed horrible news while tears streamed from Wendy's face. Foot steps made Andy turn to look at Vasha holding a small bundle of bloody cloth, her face matching the grimness of her husband's.

"What is that?" Andy asked as his heart began to sink, "That's not, no its not." he said in disbelief as he walked over to Vasha. He gently took the bundle of cloth from her and the weight felt sickingly familiar, tears began to form in his eyes as he slowly lifted up the cloth closer to the top of the bundle. Slowly the face of his daughter appeared clearly in front of him, her face stained with her own blood. Andy felt as if his heart had been punched out of his body as he collapsed against a wall with his child in his arm. He sat there with his knees close to his chest as he continued to cradle the bundle, his metallic right hand hid his face from the world as hot, salty tears made trails on their way down his face. Vasha walked over to him and knelt besides him, she could hear quiet sobbing as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"We're sorry Andy, when we got here..." she began before Andy looked up to her with reddened eyes and asked, "What about Sven and Michael? Where are they?" he said as he stared her in the eyes, hoping for good news.

"The other twin is also dead, I haven't wrapped him yet." Vasha said as Andy's eyes continued to leak, "But Michael is okay, he was hiding in the closet when we found him."

"Where is he now?" Andy asked, partially relieved that he had not lost all of his children.

"In the other room, I didn't want him to see this." Vasha said, indicating Vegas and Wendy, "I know this is hard for you, but I am going to wrap them for burial."

Andy just nodded as Vasha slowly took away the body. His body was now completely numb as he looked over to Wendy who was now holding the towel on her own. "I'm sorry Andy." she said, "I couldn't save them, I'm sorry.".

"Not your fault Wendy, not your fault." Andy said, too distressed to even stand.

"Holy gak." Jim said as he entered the room along with Trish, "What happened here?"

"A vampire, not one I have seen here before." Mikhail said, standing up, "He came in here and did his... damage."

"I'm surprised she isn't dead." Jim said, "Is she?"

"She is one of the werewolves." Mikhail said, "Her physical damage will heal quickly," he said as he stepped towards them and began to whisper, "but the cursed bloodsucker killed their youngest children, those wounds won't heal anywhere as fast."

"Wait, I thought they only had one kid, Micah, Miguel... something like that." Trish said.

"Michael, yes they had him before they were both werewolves, but while Wendy was still human they had twins. Sven and Vegas, not even a year old." Mikhail said as he shook his head, "At least Michael is still okay, had we not gotten here as soon as we did she would be dead and maybe Michael as well."

"So who exactly are you then, some sort of bodyguard?" Jim asked.

"No, I am Mikhail. Also one of the late-Claudius's slaves. Michael and my eldest daughter were arranged to marry, but our families got along well." he said, "We need to leave."

"I am with you on that." Jim said as he watched Trish walk towards the bloody room. Her hand covered her mouth as she caught a glimpse of Vasha covering up Little Sven. She felt bad for them, she felt bad for a pair of werewolves for the first time in her life. From behind her Andy had managed to get up and walk towards the room, his hand braced against the doorway.

"Vasha, we'll take them with us, bury them properly somewhere nice." he said, his voice shaking with sorrow.

He had startled Trish before walking out of the room. Andy wiped his eyes and tried to look as presentable as possible. A shattered mirror revealed his face, red and irritated by being constantly wet and wiped with his shirt. He walked over to Wendy and helped her up, pulling her into an embrace as he cradled her head on his shoulder and whispered into her ear. She simply nodded and Andy placed a kiss on her forehead before he walked into another room. Michael's head popped from behind the bed as he peeked over the top, seeing that it was his dad he trotted over to him. Andy quickly picked him up and squeezed him tight, as if he was trying to prevent Michael from ever leaving him.

"Daddy okay?" he asked.

"Yes, daddy's alright." Andy replied, wiping away a brand new wave of tears before they could cascade down his face. "We're going away now, we're going to a new home."

Michael looked around the room and saw that his younger siblings weren't there. "Vegas, Sven?" he asked.

"They're going away, they're going to another home." Andy said as he carried his son out of the room. "Mikhail, we're ready when you are." he said as stoutly as he could.

"Alright Andy, we will grab our kids and Wendy has the other two." Mikhail said. Wendy was wearing a back pack and carrying both bundles.

"You okay?" Andy mouthed to her, her nods were exaggerated as she tried to hold back her emotions. "We'll take one of the trucks Claudius had, if we leave now we should be able to avoid too much trouble. The house was supposed to evacuate during the attack." Andy said, guiding the group towards the manor's main garage. Several trucks and luxury vehicle were left behind by the house inhabitants.

"You follow us I guess?" Jim asked.

"You know where we're going." Andy said as he helped Wendy into the truck with Michael and the bodies of the twins.

"Alright, drive safe and we'll get to the hideout and go from there." Jim said as he clapped Andy on the back, "Talk about getting those bastards back for what they've done.".

"Alright." Andy said as he climbed into the passenger seat. Mikhail was at the wheel with Wendy sitting in the back Michael, Vasha sat in the middle with Natalie and Stepan. The whole truck loaded with what little they wanted to bring with them. The diesel engine roared to life as the truck began to rumble forwards. Michael was gripped tightly by Wendy as the infant carrier next to them held Vegas and Sven.

"Sleeping?" Michael asked.

"Yes dear, sleeping." Wendy said as she put a shaky finger against her mouth, "Shh... don't wake them." she managed to say before she pressed Michael's head against her chest.

Andy was right, there was very little issue with them leaving. Most of the ghouls were gone, having left through the escape tunnels with the rest of the vampires when the alarm first sounded. The red tail lights of Jim and Trish's vehicle leading the way out of the compound and towards whatever awaited them.

The plane had landed just minutes before and now Harlow stood next to its whitewashed form, leaning against it with a lit cigarette in his mouth as the team assembled their gear from the cargo hold of the plane. their were ten fighters in all for this mission and an unknown number of enemies that were somewhere on this island. Harlow had a sinking feeling that this would be the last time he saw some of the faces in front of him...

He'd received new intel on the mission as they landed, according to the mole, the brotherhood had split up to board two different private craft in two different hangars in this airport. That made things a little more complicated because it meant Harlow had to split up his group, it was no matter however, the job would be done even if they had to hijack the planes in question which they were prepared to do...

Harlow looked up as Katherine made her way down the steps towards the ground and stretched the stiffens from her limbs.

"Alright, where's the van?" She asked shortly in a tone that made Harlow smirk a bit.

"No van, stay on the plane." Harlow said simply, puffing on his cigarette. Katherine looked at him perplexed.

"I thought I was driving you guys to this...place." She said, unsure if the long flight had numbed her mind as well as her body.

"Turns out the targets have decided to come here, don't ask me why." Harlow said aloud for all to hear him.

"They know we're coming?" Alex asked becoming alert.

"No, it seems they are attempting to leave the country, its now just become a simple matter of heading them off." Harlow said as he took a few steps forward from his leaning position and stood upright. "The problem is, they've split up to board two planes, both in separate hangars. We have to split up too, therefore Alex, Cooper, Lukas, and Hector will be with me, The rest of you go find the other group on the other side of the airfield, don't let them know you are coming."

The Blunted Fang members and Taylor nodded at Harlow, collected their things and made to leave. Harlow had a small word with Derrick about exactly which hangar would hold the plane and what the team should expect, he sent them off after another minute. After they had left, Alex approached Harlow...

"Why do I have the feeling you are sending them to their graves?" He asked crossing his arms.

"They got the easy job." Harlow said, watching them go. "Their targets are not to be taken alive."

"The kindred?" Alex asked with a raised eyebrow. Harlow nodded. "What about us?" Alex continued.

"Straightforward, find em, corner em, kill the ones that wont give up and take the rest home." Harlow said with a lack of any gung ho nature he was known for.

"You make it sound simple." Alex tutted in response. Harlow gave him a knowing smile.

"It usually is until the bullets start flying, that's when mistress Morphy's law comes into play." Alex chuckled and nodded.

"Ain't that the truth." Harlow became dead serious again and turned to his remaining team and told them the plan. As they were preparing to leave, Katherine spoke, still standing in the doorway of the plane.

"And while you boys are having all the fun, what do I do?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, Harlow half turned to look at her.

"You're our reserve Kitty, we know who to call when things go south." All the others got a slight chuckle out of that, except Katherine who seemed displeased. "We might need to make a hot exit, keep her running, this wont take long."

As Katherine entered the plane again Harlow heard her mention something faintly about where exactly he could shove his “reserve" status. He chuckled, that was his Kitty, one hell of a firecracker. With that done, Harlow grouped his team together and with their gear ready, they made for the terminal where the mole had reported his group to be headed. They arrived there shortly, amongst a plethora of busy humans walking about, not noticing the killers in their midst.

"What are we looking for?" Alex said lowly as he scanned the crowds.

"Any of the targets I showed you in the briefing, stay low, we don't want to tip them off." Harlow replied.

After another few minutes of quiet searching, Harlow saw a person he recognized from the briefing; the woman named Isabelle with two others.

"Found you." Harlow said under his breath and motioned quietly to his team to follow him as they all tailed the small group from a respectable distance. Soon though, the group stopped, on of the men near Isabelle began speaking in an alarmed tone.

"They're on to us." Alex said quietly. "Certainly they wouldn't be foolish enough to engage us here in front of all these people?"

"No." Harlow said, not letting the small group from his sight. "They'll be headed to their hangar now, we corner them there, nobody escapes." He declared as the five wolves stalked around their prey.

.. Natasha's eye flickered open as she sat bolt upright staring at the grandfather clock across her chambers...she shook her head...she'd dozed for over two hours...not common for her lately.
She stood and stretched ...arching her back as she glanced about the room...the twins were gone, most likely off to feed...Natasha found she didn't care...not in the least...other than a certain physical attraction..and the kinship she felt for all of her kind...she admited to herself that she felt no real bond with them...they were an occasional pleasant distraction...nothing more...they were not Kerri...nor would they ever be...they were also not Erzuli...whom Natasha found herself longing for with a growing intensity...

Sighing lightly, the Wolf Queen made her way to her shower...disrobing and lowering her head under the steaming water, she smiled to herself slightly as she lathered her body...admitting that some human indulgences were indeed pleasant...wen she'd finished...she stepped from the shower and quickly dried herself...tossing the towel aside she stepped back into her bed chambers..

The twins were back, curled sensually on the bed...both smiling broadly at the sight of their Mistress " Joining us My Queen?" they said in unison..
Natasha shook her head..." Not just now...I have matters I wish to attend to" she said slipping into a revealing top , shorts and a pair of black leather boots
" Shall we accompany you Mistress?" the twins asked..
Again Natasha shook her head.." I will return later...tonight perhaps..." she turned and exited the chamber with out another word...
As the door slid shut behind her...the twins smiles disappeared...they moved closer to one another...speaking in low whispers.

Natasha moved quickly through the lower hallways of the Den...two Black Claw at her side as she approached Jarins office...entering with out bothering to knock..
The huge wolf stood as Natasha stepped inside.." My Queen..." He said with a small bow " How may I serve ?"
Natasha bit her lower lip lightly...her ice blue eye fixing on the powerfully built wolf..." I wish for you to accompany me...we go to visit my sister."
Jarin offered a small smile , pleased with this " At once my Queen" he said grabbing his leather coat and slipping it on...
" Jarin.." The Wolf Queen said..." I..." she trailed off.
" You seem...troubled.." Jarin said stepping closer to Natasha, concern on his face..
" I..have a nagging feeling ...one I can't seem to shake" Natasha said softly "...I sense...much danger for us...a..great storm brewing..."
Jarin nodded.." But...you've sensed this for some time my Queen...The Leech King..his plans against us..."
Natasha raised a finger, halting the big wolf's words..." This...is much more Commander...I smell death...betrayal...as though it were a living thing...stalking us all"
The huge wolf frowned " My Queen...our people are always in a position of danger to our kind...it has been so for ages...and with the increased hostilities of the Leech King...and these damnable traitors that Harlow has gone to dispatch...well perhaps..."
Natasha laughed " Is that your polite way of saying that I'm jumping at shadows my trusted warrior..?" her icy eye sparkled with good nature.
Jarin shook his head " No My Queen...I simply mean that due to the many advisaries we face...your vigilance is merited...quite understandable in fact...I shall see to it that all security messures here are doubled"
The Queen nodded.." Perhaps that is for the best...at least until I can deduce what it is that troubles me so.." she smiled warmly at Jarin " Come...let us go...no doubt you are as anxious to see Erzuli as I myself am."
Together the pair stepped out of the Den...the two Black Claw joining them as the climbed into a large Black Mercedes and pulled away from the compound..

...Player Event Introduction.....


... " Do we take them here or not?" Alex said in a low whisper as the group they'd targeted moved quickly for the terminal exit...
" Come on..move." Harlow said to his squad , they'd been spotted for sure...their targets were doing there best to rapidly avoid them now...
Moving faster Harlow and his wolves closed the gap between themselves and the trio of wolves ahead as they stepped from the terminal...
" Remember...we want them alive if possiable" Harlow repeated as his hand fell to his weapon...
The big male wolf ahead of Harlow began to turn...a look of anger passing over his face as the female wolf and her companion continued to move rapidly away...
" Here we go" Harlow thought to himself...readying himself for the confrontation ...
" What the hell do you.." Atlas begin to say...but his words were cut off as a statico of gunfire filled the night...
" Who the hell!!" Harlow shouted leaping for cover as asphalt desintegrated near his feet under a hail of fire...
Quickly the wolf rolled to a kneeling position his weapons at the ready...scanning the tarmac for any sign of who the hell was shooting at them...he could see the trio of wolves they'd been after had also crouched into cover and were looking about nervously...
" There" Alex shouted, pointing into the distance..
Harlows eyes narrowed...there roughly fifty yards away..he saw them...a half dozen Human...well armed and moving quickly..
" Looks like things just got complicated " Harlow thought to himself as he raised his weapons and prepared to engage these new comers.

Across the airfield, Derrik and his squad entered a hanger, moving low and quick they searched for their targets...
" What the hell man" Alberto whispered " were off here hunting down Vampires?...I thought we were looking for renegade wolves.."
" Shh" Admonished Derrik " Keep tight...we don't know what might hit us in here.."
" That's my point" Alberto murmured sweeping his weapon towards a shadow in the distance..." What's that?"
" Relax" Schultz said from behind..." It's just a rat..."
" Why the hell are.." Alberto began...but snapped his mouth shut...his eyes narrowed..." That's not any fething rat.." He said quickly
Derrik crouched low...sniffing the air..." Humans.." he said.." Lots of them..."
" Humans?" Shultz said as he crouched near Derrik..." Why the hell would humans be hiding in here?"
" They weren't hiding" Taylor said quietly..." They followed us...came in the back way...they're...hunting us.." he racked the slide on his shotgun
" They're what..?" Alberto said, a hint of disbelief in his voice..." You must be gaking me.."
Derrik shook his head " No...he's not...everyone stay tight...they're only humans.."
" I got movement" Alberto snapped " Over there.."
From behind a stack of barrels, two shadowy figures appeared...a moment later a small cylindrical object was flying through the air...

Four months ago, downtown L.A - just before dawn.

Anya slipped back into the black Jeep's front passenger seat, slamming the door shut and letting out a final sigh. She was glad to be back in there. Martin looked to her from the driver's seat and placed a hand on her leg. Flecks of blood covered her white trouser suit and her normally well groomed hair was as ragged as it had been when they'd first met at the mansion all those months ago.

"You okay?"

Anya nodded.

"Heather is taking care of the final... actions. She should be here soon and this whole business will be finished."

The Black Claw rubbed the young wolf's thigh. The past four months had indeed been, different and he for one would be glad to see the end of this particular part of it. Since that full moon night when Erzuli had come back from the bunker alone... nothing had been the same. She had sworn Anya, Heather and himself to secrecy before introducing them to her 'inspiration' and her new pet, Pike. Despite all his years of experience, Martin had never seen the like of the beast, its size and especially its creation. While all three of them believed that Erzuli meant well; hell, the thing was impressive, if vile. The training, the tests he could see some sense in but the Pure Blood's rants to her 'ghostly muse' were, eerie. Though Anya had reassured him the spirit was harmless, the very realization the thing was there set his senses on edge. This last urgent errand had done nothing to ease his worries.

"Got it! Picked up a snack too!"

Heather's enthusiastic voice, followed by the loud 'WHACK' of the left passenger door slamming shut broke Martin's thoughts. He glanced at his comrade in the rear-view mirror. The she-wolf was near beaming with elation as she sat back, splattered with blood. She saw him looking at her and held up the dead body of some bum in one hand and a large, bloodstained, black plastic bag in the other, like morbid trophies. He couldn't help but smirk; at least Heather had been more cheerful since that night. Shoving the Jeep into drive, he sped off out of town.


Present day - the bunker

Reclining on the large sofa in the huge living area of her house, Erzuli ran her fingers through Heather's hair. The Black Claw had become a lot more co-operative since Erzsébet's intrusion into the most private area of the Pure Blood's life. Still questioning but very much more loyal. If keeping up the pretense of attraction was just another thing she would have to do to ensure this went to plan... well she found it was getting easier with time. She chuckled as Heather slept on her lap. With her other hand she tapped onto a pc tablet that was hooked up to a projector. The room was in darkness except for the images being beamed onto the wall in front of them. Pictures of the cubs and their progress, alongside the notes she was currently typing. Anya had insisted on this way of doing things... well, Heather had insisted, Anya had suggested... regardless the discovery that technology was useful had been quite the time saver, not to mention she'd been able to continue her notes back at the Den without anyone seeing them.

"Do you think the final ritual is ready then?" Erzsébet's voice drifted out from behind the sofa. Erzuli just nodded. "Because, you know... the bonding will be required again."

Letting a finger move from her guard's hair to the scars visible on her lower stomach, Erzuli fought back the bitter response. The damn scars still bled green smoke when the spiritual power was upon her... it was most disconcerting. She continued typing and leant her free arm across the back of the sofa.

"You've been let free a few times Bett... I cannot have you loosing my inhibitions for me again so close to the end." Erzuli held back the urge to grin at the deep frown she knew was on the ghost's face. "I believe we will be locked in until you are fully released this time. We have Pike to check this time after all."

The grunt of a snore echoed from the back of the room, causing the ghost to squeak and flee to the edge of the projected screen.

"I hate him... despite the use he has been." Erzsébet pouted.

"Oh but Bett... he's just adorable in how he tries to eat your skirts. Its a sign of affection!"

Another snore echoed and ended abruptly, followed by the padding of four paws towards the side of the sofa. Pike put his nose on the arm of the seat and started to lick Erzuli's arm. The she-wolf paused briefly to scratch his deeply scarred head before going back to her typing.

"Affection... humph." Grumbled the ghost. "You should have at least let him keep his original name... suits his intellect."

"I do not name my creations after condiments." Erzuli frowned as the pc did something yet again confusing as she typed, typing and deleting letters at the same time again. After a few moments she got it working again but it had irritated her. "Besides, he gets distinctly better once I do this... Pike..." She tapped his nose twice. "Shift!"

The dog crouched next to the sofa and the sounds of cracking bone, pained growls and ripping flesh filled the room. Heather woke to the noise but just looked over sleepily and smiled, she liked this version of the animal.

"No need to do that... I am aware of the results."Erzsébet cowered against the wall, reluctant to pass through it; the chase last time was rather unpleasant in its end as he had carried her back to Erzuli.

With a final snarl of irritation, Pike sat up, eyes glowing green, the spiral on his chest now but a scar, criss-crossed with the many others from his Mistress' alterations to his imperfect form. The beast's head looked down at Erzuli and gave a twisted, dumb grin towards her. The head, once a scarred, yet strong rottweiler, now resembled a thing with more feral heritage: the huge lower fangs jutting at strange angles either side of the canine muzzle and all too gorilla-like brow. Huge, shoulders bore ape like arms, ending in paws extensively scarred from surgery to give some sort of thumb to them. Hindquarters appearing almost as much dog as bear bore him to his full sitting height of around six feet.

"Iztresss..?"

Erzuli smiled at the creature's ability to speak as much as he could. Around eight single, half mumbled words were about it but she was impressed enough with that. He understood far more.

"Do you want to play Pike?" She scratched his chin, causing his tail to wag frantically. The beast nodded.

"Betti wants to..."

Erzsébet screeched and ran through the wall! As the huge creature bounded down a corridor after her, sensing where she had gone as easily as if she had been living; she knew it would only be a few minutes before she was caught and dragged back to Erzuli. Perhaps she should not of taken it so far that night eight months ago, she mused... it was beginning to show that Erzuli had not quite forgiven her!

Part Seven... Revelations.


Scarlett tried to focus, her mind still groggy from her near death at the hands of Dracula, something was buzzing in the back of her mind, like the echo of the blood, screaming out against a burning pain that tore at the flesh. Although she could barely feel anything herself, everything was on fire in her mind, the blood, Areto's blood was like molten fire coursing through her veins.

Gripping tightly to Olivia, she managed to glance backwards, through the red haze of her blurred vision she could see a huge fur covered shape roaring as it tore a door off its hinges busted out into the night air behind them. Argural grappled with the beast, his huge shovel like hands grasping the Werewolves own paws in a dance to the death, she could see shards of flesh and tentacle like limbs strike out against the Vampire, but the weapons of the blood did not touch him. Instead they recoiled in fear, as the flesh was burned by the same aura that protected Areto.

Even with that advantage the werewolf was no mere mortal and roar of anger it picked up the kindred and threw him aside, then began to charge Scarlett and her companions. It bared its teeth as it seemed to barrel toward them, its muscular limbs tightening under the force of its lunge.

Scarlett Screamed, and Areto threw both of them to the side and span to take the hit as claws raked down her side. Areto cried out as her blood splattered across the floor, she tried to push it up, but it buried its maw into her throat and bit down hard, bone and flesh where torn open, and it slammed its rear paws into her belly and tore down. Areto tried to gasp out, burning powers to raise her strength but the blood loss was too dramatic, she slumped backwards as the Werewolf began to tear at her.

"No!" yelled Argural as he slammed his sword into the were's back, he yanked it down hard, splitting two vertebra and causing the wolf to howl in pain, two tendrils lashed out, and slapped the Kindred across the face knocking him to the floor.

As he sat up, blood dripping across his eyes he could see Areto was fading, the Werewolf was going to rip her apart.

Two tendrils slammed into the Wolf, piercing flesh and out the back, causing it to howl in pain again and stumble backwards off Areto. Argural snapped his head to see Olivia staring at the Wolf, her arm outstretched with a scythe like blade forming as she slashed open the monsters throat. Her eyes where pure white, her flesh seem luminescent, and she struck the wolf again and again, until its body lay crumpled on the floor, like tore newspaper, the flesh decaying under a strange aura like flame.

"It worked" he gasped.

Scarlett sat up and watched as Olivia fell suddenly, passing out from the burst of energy that had whracked her system, she crawled over, and pulled the hair away from her face, she was okay. She then looked towards Areto, the wound where horrific.

"Will she live?"

Argural moved quickly over, and opened his wrist, letting his comrade drink from him, she couldn't move her limbs, just opened her mouth and could just about lick as the blood trickled down.

"These wound will take a long time to set right, we need to find somewhere safe."

Scarlett burning some blood lifted up Olivia into her arms, and walked over to him, she looked down and motioned for him to bring Areto.

"I know a place."


--------------------


Ruxandra sat cross legged in silence, she had taken a meditative position as soon as it became apparent that there was no way out of the cage. Time with her order in her youth had tempered her mind from the anger that plagued the minds of a foolish opponent. Rage would not solve the riddle, although she had to admit, sitting her in the darkness of the large room, no where to go when the sun would surely rise, her options seemed extremely limited.

From outside she could clearly hear the sound of laughing voices, the twins, down below on the street. The inward opening window seemed almost ironic to her predicament. The exit was there, it was sadly caged off for her. She could accept the blood, but she had not seen what it would do until the others where effected, it was sharing them, but something was not right. She had been raised among Templars, holy men in a war against Turks and worse. Such loss of the mind seemed like a abomination to her, even centuries later.

"Forgive me father." She muttered as she waited for the dawn.

The door clicked behind her. She didn't move as it opened, it was her grandfather, one more chance to take his side, but she would disappoint him again, she had chosen her fate.

"Already given up?"

Ruxandra opened her eyes and glanced back at the voice that was not her grandfathers, Nero was standing in the doorway looking down towards her his arms folded. She turned back to the night sky and looked at the park that lay out before her, the trees where somewhat calming.

"Not even willing to talk?"

She paused, then glanced back towards him with a frown.

"Why would I wish to talk to one such as yourself, you have failed everything you once stood for."

Lifting a cigarette to his mouth, Nero lit it and tossed the lighter to the floor, taking a long drag before blowing out smoke from his ancient and withered lungs. He looked at her, and allowed a slight smile.

"Things aren't all as they seem."

Ruxandra shook her head and looked back to the window.

"Leave me, I have no interest in riddles."

Nero chuckled, and tossed the cigarette to the floor beside her thigh, she looked at it from the corner of her eye, but did not move.

"Do you know how old I am Ruxandra?"

She closed her eyes, annoyed at his continued presence.

"Old!" She snapped.

"Yeah, old, really old, older than your Grandfather."

"I know, you are Roman blood, older than most."

"Older than that."

She looked back at him.

"How old?"

Nero grinned.

"You see this stuff is nasty" he muttered as the fingers on his hand extended. "It gets in your bones, even after we defeated it the first time, some of us remained infected, but once the blood has died in you, they no longer have much of an influence. They can hear the echo of what was once inside you, but the spirit is gone, some of us mastered these powers over time, but it's no more than a boon now."

Ruxandra stood and turned towards him, stunned at such a revelation.

"You are not infected?"

Nero didn't let the grin drop.

"Not since an eternity ago."

"But you killed the one trying to help the girl who carried it to my Grandfather, I saw you, before I left with Klauth."

"V'ral worked for Caine, that's not a future I see for Scarlett. Besides I needed it to be convincing for the Dragon, and now I need you to go."

She looked at the open door.

"Where, and how do you plan on explaining?"

"Scarlett, I need you to help her, Olivia is more important that she realises.. as to an explanation, leave that to me, lets just say Samuel is going to be pretty confused on why he's getting blamed for all this shortly, well before he dies.

Ruxandra was confused, but she could see he wasn't going to try and stop her, even if this was a trick and her Grandfather was waiting outside the door, at least she could make a break for it, to die on her feet. She went to walk past, but Nero raised a palm, causing her to glare at him, perhaps a trick after all.

"No, no tricks, just one last thing."

Her face softened and she acknowledged him with a nod.

"Scarlett, tell her.. tell her, she was worth the risk and I'm sorry I couldn't share this plan with her."

"I will.. and thank you." She said as she crept up to the door.

"No need, just keep them safe, oh and use the fire escape at the rear, its not being watched."

Nero lifted up a fresh cigarette and lit it, taking a long drag as he stared at the empty room. The Blackrook, it had always been about shadows and echoes in the night, watching against the evil that could tear down everything the Kindred held dear. For too long he'd helped them stand against the return, until it was too late, a Kindred was infected and no one knew who, a risky plan was suggested, to draw it out and destroy it properly this time. Areto's blood with Olivia's gift, it was all going perfectly so far.

Sadly he'd just not realised how much he'd wanted a normal 'life' until he spent the past year with Scarlett. "Good luck Elizabeth, the heavens know you'll need it."

Smiling, he stood and spat out blood and flesh to the floor that would be recognised as Samuels from the wound he'd given him shortly before he opened the door. Poor lad was on Guard duty, all he needed to do was watch a locked door. Now he'd need to explain why the door was open and how the wound he had on his chest, was scored from inside the room.

"Sam is good as dead." Muttered Nero as he stepped past the unconscious Kindred and disappeared into the building.

The two vehicles came to a stop outside of a small apartment complex outside of the main city. The brick of the building dark after decades of exposure to the city's atmosphere and the inside of the building looking seedier than the gardening section of the local supermarket. Graffiti was scrawled over one of the walls attached to a stairwell indicating that it was the property of either KGB or somebody with cerebral palsy.

"I know it doesn't look like much." Jim said with a shrug, "But its only temporary so far.".

"I hope." Andy replied as he helped Wendy up the stairs with the baby carrier, which was covered with a clean piece of linen now.

"We're going up to the fourth floor, room 421, when we get there I'll knock so they'll let us in." Jim replied as he stomped up the stairs.

"They?" Andy asked.

"Yeah, there are two others with us." Jim said, "Don't worry though they know all about what's going on."

"Are you going to explain everything when we get there?" Andy asked.

"Yes, we are all somewhat confused." Mikhail added in.

"One second..." Jim said while counting the doors and their respective numbers, "...421 here we are.". Jim pounded five times on the door in rhythm and stepped away so the occupants could see him. They could hear footsteps stop behind the door and then the sound of the deadbolt coming undone along with several other locks. The dull green door opened up to reveal a large man wearing a pair of jeans and a tight fitting black t-shirt. The man seemed to be a layer of fat covering what could be Arnold Schwarzenegger, a trimmed beard hand on his chin as he greeted the group, "How ya doin' Jim? Looks like everything went well." he said as his meaty paw guided them inside.

"Well not as well as I had hoped." Jim said as they began to enter.

"Who are these other guys?" Mike asked.

"Well Andy, Wendy, their... son and these other folks are family friends from what I gather." Jim said as he motioned for the giant to lower his head, "Listen that baby carrier has two dead kids in it.". Mike stood upright in shock, his eyebrow raised in question, "They're their kids, one of Pontius's goons killed them before we got there, try not to mention it.".

"So where can we place everything and everyone?" Andy asked.

"Oh yeah, sorry." Jim said rubbing the back of his head, "Let's see, Trish and Kristen are in that room and Mike and I have been living on the couches so I guess you all get to share the remaining room until we find somewhere better. To be honest we weren't planning on you guys being here." he indicated Mikhail and Vasha.

"We can make do." Mikhail said, "Back in my home country the houses were much smaller.". He walked with his wife and Wendy to the room and helped them set everything down. Wendy placed the carrier in the room's closet and closed it. She felt terrible for doing so, but if it would keep Michael or Natalie from looking at them she would have to do it. Her mind was not yet ready to accept the fact that they were gone yet. She went back into the main room where the others were sitting. The couches did smell lived on and she could tell just by smell who was sleeping where. Another young woman had joined them and was introducing herself.

"So I guess introductions are in order." Jim said with a clap, his red Hawaiian shirt slightly shuddered. "This is Andy and Wendy." he said as the couple made quick hand gestures acknowledging their names.

"And these two are..." Jim said as his voice tapered off.

"I am Mikhail and this is my wife Vasha." Mikhail said softly, "We are friends of the Bruss's.".

"I'm Kristen." the young woman introduced herself.

"And I'm Mike." the big man added as he sat down.

"Great, now that we all know each other we can get down to business." Trish said, leaning against the short wall separating the living room from the kitchen.

"Yeah, we've been through a lot recently." Wendy said, "I'm guessing something with Pontius."

"You're almost there." Jim said.

"Who's Pontius?" Mikhail asked.

"A blood sucking bastard who needs to die." Trish said angrily.

"Well that's why we're all here." Jim said.

"Some sort of Pontius hate club?" Andy asked.

"Yeah, we've all had Pontius do something to us directly or indirectly." Kristen said.

"But who is Pontius. He's some vampire you said but why is he doing this?" Vasha asked.

"Pontius was the big bad vampire in Empire City." Andy answered as he rested his arms on his knees, hands clasped together, "In Empire City he let a bunch of larva loose to ruin the city while he escaped. We ruined his plans and he was mad so he kidnapped Wendy in Prague. I thought we had killed him there, but Wendy came back and so did he." Andy added, "He still wants revenge. That's why he... had that guy go after our kids.".

"Its not just Pontius though." Jim added, "Its also the Hand."

"The Hand?" Vasha asked again.

"Sorry to break this to you guys, but you just entered the perfect gak storm." Andy said. "The Hand is a group of fanatical hunters, they tried to kill me and Vegas in Prague after we were turned. That's the Vegas Lil Vegas was named after, she basically saved my life and died before I could thank her. Same with Sven, that was another hunter who helped us out in Prague. Jim and Trish here actually got Wendy and I out of Prague so that's how we know them and they know us. I don't know Mike or Kristen here."

"Well do you remember Murray and Sylvia." Jim asked.

"Yeah, Sylvia was the one who told Joker about getting us out before the Hand got us and Murray was the guy who died on the gun while covering us." Andy said.

"I present to you Sylvia's younger sister and Murray's big brother." Trish said, "Everyone here hates the Hand and everything they stand for."

"And Pontius has something to do with this?" Andy asked.

"Yes, believe it or not Pontius and Cain are guiding the Hand in their attacks." Jim said, "Kraub thinks he's getting messages from God, but its just Cain.".

"You're gaking me right?" Andy said angrily.

"Nope, not at all." Jim said, "The attack was probably just a distraction so his goon could get in and get to your family."

"But Claudius said that we would be protected from Vampires." Wendy said.

"Claudius doesn't have the pull like Pontius does." Jim said, "Claudius got played just as much as you did probably."

"So he's going after his own kind then." Wendy said, "We were slaves for... for nothing."

"I doubt that that Claudius guy knew that they were going to kill him and go after you two." Jim said, "So I would say that you guys made the right choice at the time to take care of your family."

"Yeah, I guess." Andy said, "So what do we do?"

"We get more help, I'm sure that if we can find that Joker guy we pulled out of Prague with you then we can get some of his friends in on it and then maybe that mage too."

"Don't know, we haven't been connected to the Network for more than a few months." Wendy said.

"The Network?" Mikhail asked.

"A bunch of humans who are called Hunters who go around killing vampires and werewolves. Wendy and I were both hunters before we were Claudius's play things." Andy answered quickly.

"Oh, the story is so much wider now." Mikhail said, "Any way you go Andy you know that I will be there to help. Vampire or not there was no need for him to do that."

"Thanks Mikhail I really appreciate it, you stabbed the guy in the back and saved Wendy so I doubt you aren't up to it." Andy said with a small smile.

"So we get some more people in this party and we kill Pontius then." Mike said.

"No, we killed Pontius once and we came back." Andy said with his head bowed. "I've got a much better idea for Pontius, but we need to kill Cain too."

"Cain's a tough target, I think we should start with Kraub." Kristen said.

"feth yeah!" Mike added, "Get that little prick first and then work our way up."

"I agree, find a new place, get more help, kill Kraub, get Pontius, and then finally Cain." Jim said.

"Okay so basically we're just killing a god and his puppets." Andy said, "As long as I can take care of business and get them back for what they did to my family I'm in."

"I think we're all in that same boat." Trish added.

"Well, rest well tonight because we're moving out tomorrow." Jim said as they retired to their own rooms.

..............

"What do you mean?" Andy asked Wendy.

"I mean what about Michael?" Wendy said as she held the child against her, his breathing slow and deep.

"You're thinking about turning him?" Andy asked.

"Well not right now," Wendy said, "but what if we're attacked again and it could save his life?"

"I... I just don't know." Andy said as he looked at Michael.

"Think about it, please." Wendy said, "I don't want to loose him too if that can stop it."

"Maybe as a last resort." Andy said after a few seconds of silence, "But I don't want to jump the gun.".

"I know, its weird talking about this, but we might need to do it." Wendy said, "I don't want to either, but if it could save him and there are no other options we do it."

"Okay." Andy said, "But only if its the only way.".

"Thank you Andy." Wendy said, "Thank you for at least agreeing with me."

"Of course dear." Andy said as he gave her a kiss, "But we should sleep, maybe it'll clear our heads a bit because we have a lot to do now."

"Are you going to do to Pontius what you told you're going to do?" Wendy asked.

"Oh yes," Andy said, "he'll regret ever sending that bastard after our children after watching the world go by him for centuries."

"So Claudia is missing and Claudius is dead, I think that means I get all of his property." one of the kindred said amongst the bloody walls of the house.

"What makes you think you get his property?" another kindred said, "I am at least a decade older than you and I deserve it."

"Neither of you are going to get his property." Brandon interrupted them.

"And who do you think you are telling us that?" one of them asked.

"Master Claudius left the disposal of his belonging to me, and me alone." Brandon said, "All of this belongs to Claudia."

"Its safe assume that she is dead which means the eldest kindred here would gain his holdings." the elder kindred said, "You are just some petty ghoul servant and..." he was cut off as the round entered his heart. His black blood poured from the wound rapidly as Brandon holstered the weapon again.

"I said that I was given the power to dispose of his property." Brandon said as the vampire collapsed to the floor, "You won't be getting any and you have been punished for trying to steal what is not yours.". He looked over to the other kindred who was already kneeling, another ghoul held a metal rod through his chest. "We don't belong to any of you now, and any of you who sought to claim us will be dealt with.". Brandon nodded to the ghoul who beheaded the vampire he had impaled and soon the screams of the several vampires in the house echoed throughout the rooms. The ghouls assembled in the main lounge of the house after burning the bodies and looked to Brandon.

"I know what you're all thinking, this is freedom from slavery. That we can finally move to overthrow the yokes of oppression, but its not." Brandon said, "The mistress of the house is missing and she is the rightful owner of this land and ultimately all of us. I know Claudius could be brash in his actions, but he also gave us all chances when we needed them." he said as the crowd mumbled.

"But she ain't here!" one of them shouted out.

"Yes, but I think we owe it to Claudius to go find her at least." Brandon said.

"Why we got to do something for him?" another asked.

"Because he sought us out when we screwed up." Brandon began, "When we would be sought out and killed he came and offered us help. Sure we were made slaves, but at least we weren't killed for doing whatever it was.". The crowd began to mumble some more. "Listen, listen, I say we find Claudia, save her if need be and then demand we be set free."

"What if she says no?" one of the ghouls asked.

"Then we force her to." Brandon said to a mass of ghouls, "My brothers we will be free, but first we should show some respect to the one vampire who gave us all a second chance.".

The crowd mumbled before they began to cheer for the idea. They had all been offered a new life by Claudius and they all owed him in some way or another so the decision became unanimous, they would rescue the true heir before making her relinquish everything.

... Player Event Combat Resolution....Part I...........


.... " Looks like things just got complicated." Harlow thought to himself as he raised his weapon and fired at the approaching humans...
" That's the god damned Hand" Lukas shouted as a round gut the air between him and Harlow..." How in the hell did they know we'd be here?"
Harlow aimed carefully and placed a slug through the skull of the nearest attacker , spraying his brains out of the rear of his fragmented head and spinning him like a top..
" I don't really think that matters a whole hell of a lot right now" Harlow snarled..." Let's just stay focused on not getting killed and taking our prey.."

A huge human with a SAW loomed into view, the weapon bucking in his hand as he open fired on Atlas and the others...
" They're going to chew us apart here" Steve shouted " We need to run!"
Atlas shook his head slowly " No.." he muttered " That's the last thing we need to do.." moving rapidly the big wolf whirled smashing Bella across the skull with all his might, knocking the she wolf to the pavement in an unconsious heap.
" What the hell are you...!!" Steve roared bounding towards Atlas...his words cut off as the Man with the SAW pumped a dozen rounds through him..
Steve gasped...staggering sideways...his hands clamped to his body as blackish smoke erupted from the wounds...the wolf tossed back his head..his eyes frozen in agony as a strangled scream gurgled in his throat...
" What in..?" Atlas whispered in sheer stunned surprise as Steve's eyes begin to boil in their sockets and tendrils of smoke drifted from his mouth as a stream of dark blood mixed with liquid silver streamed from between his fingers...

Harlow stared wide eyed as one of the wolves they'd be pursuing toppled to the ground...his body convulsing as billows of black smoke rose into the air from the multiple wounds he'd sustained...
" They're packing silver nitrate!!" Harlow roared to his squad..." Everyone get low...!!"
His warning had come an instant to late for Cooper, The human with the SAW turning and opening up once more...filling the wolf's chest with the lethal rounds..
Harlow gritted his teeth in rage as he watched Cooper writhing in anquish ...dying just feet away..." Take that fether down!!" The wolf bellowed rising from cover..his weapons blazing...
The man with the SAW jittered backwards as Harlow and Lukas unloaded on him...his weapon firing into the tarmac as his insides exited through his back in a gory spray...
" Let's grab those two and get the feth out of here" Hector said gesturing towards Atlas and the crumpled Bella...
Harlow nodded " That's just what I was thinking"

As the wolf in the cowboy hat peered from behind the crates he and his fellows had taken cover behind , Atlas raised his weapon into the air and shouted to him..
" I would demand an audiance with your Queen...Natasha!!" Atlas yelled " Grant that and we will go with you"
" Demands..?" Harlow thought to himself..." Toss your weapons and we'll discuss your ...demands"
" I'm afraid I can't do that" Atlas said ..." But...I promise no hostilities...I again must demand...as a pure blood to be taken to address Natasha.."
" Pure Blood?" Harlow whispered..." How in the ..." shaking his head he yelled back, " It was my intentions to take you to the Queen to begin with...so if your willing to come peacefully"
" That I am..." Atlas said...a roar of gunfire causing him to duck..." But I believe we must contended with these...people first.."
Harlow shrugged...turning his attention to the advancing Hand...

..." Grenade!!!" shouted Taylor as the rest of the wolves quickly dove for cover...
the explosive detonated with a deafining roar sending a hail of silver shrapnel ripping through Taylor's body...the wolf flung backwards screaming.
" Over there !! it came from there!!" Ruiz shouted opening fire towards the barrels from where the grenade had been thrown....his fire rewarded with a muffled scream of pain and a mail sack thud as one of their attacker died.
" God Dam Ambush !!" Derrik roared firing his weapon into the shadows, searching for any sign of target as he did...
" Movement!!!" Ruiz shouted ...zeroing in on a group of shadowy figures rushing across the hanger...
" God Damned Humans!!" Abdi roared " They're everywhere..." The wolf snarled as he aimed his AK-74 and squeezed the trigger...the weapon roaring in the confines of the hanger..
" Keep in cover Abdi!!...watch yourself!!" Derrik shouted ...
A figure in the distance popped up from behind a stack of crates and opened fire...the rounds punching into the Somalians chest
Abdi shrieked as the silver nitrate began to course through his blood stream...searing his body from with in...

" They've got wolf killer rounds!!" Dutch roared , Firing his Tommy Gun as he rushed to Abdi's fallen body...
The Kansas city typewriter spat round after round into the gloom, Dutch smiling as he watched one of the attacking humans fall to the floor...his body gushing from over a dozen wounds..
Quickly, the one time gangster checked his fallen comrade, his lips tightened as he saw that the Somalian was dead...
" Abdi's gone!!" He shouted, leaping to his feet and spraying his weapon once more as he moved towards Derrik and Ruiz..." We need to get gone now!!"
From the shadows a a rifle cracked and Dutch yelped out as his leg jerked out from under him in a flare of agony..
" God Damn it!!" He shouted glancing at the smoking hole in his thigh as he gritted his teeth against the pain..." fething tagged me!!"

" Dutch!!" Derrik shouted rushing to the gangsters aid..." Come on man..on your feet we're getting the feth out of here!!"
" That's the best idea I've heard all say" Schultz said through a mask of pain..limping as quickly as he could to keep up with his friend..
" Ruiz!!..Let's move!!" Derrik called rushing for the door with Dutch in tow...
The Latino fell back, firing as he went...the armor piercing rounds tearing through barrels and crates and the bodies of two hidden members of the Hand as well....
" Ruiz!!..Move your ass!!" Derrik shouted again...
" Do you smell that" Dutch said urgently..." Derrik...that's gas...we got to go..now!!"
Ruiz turned rapidly ...moving to catch up with his comrades ..when a huge human leapt from the rafters landing on top of him and driving a silver dagger deep into his guts, grinning like a man possessed as he twisted the searing blade inside the screaming wolf's guts....slicing upwards and unzipping Ruiz's stomach...
" Get off of me mother fether" Ruiz snarled slashing at the stabbing human and opening several gushing wounds...
" Tonight you enter hell .." The Human gasped stabbing franticlly...driving the dripping blade into Ruiz again and again even as the wolf ripped his throat out...
" Derrik c'mon!!" Dutch yelled pulling Moss through the door " Alberto is done for!!"...
" God Damn it!! No!!.." Derrik yelled as Schultz drug him backwards with a limping gate..." We can't leave Alberto Dutch...we can't just.."
The hanger exploded in a roaring fireball throwing the two wolves backwards onto the tarmac...