Alcingeria Chapter Forty Three: First Strike

The vampire mafia mounts their first attack on the evil queen Yuka at her daughter's birthday ball!

            Chapter Forty Three First Strike:

Thursday July 1^st 1690

I caught a glimpse of the young witch that I met earlier, Antoinette. She was wearing a dress that was the same color as her witch outfit; brown with gold trim.

            “Oh my goodness Tabatha, you look so pretty!” She exclaimed when she saw her friend.

            “Thanks Antoinette. You too.” Tabatha replied with a smile.

Just then, the band stopped playing. I looked to the band for an explanation. Curious chatter filled the air. The band members stood on stage holding their instruments. The one playing a drum looked to his friends and nodded. They all looked back at him and nodded themselves. They each reached behind them and pulled white fedoras out of the insides of their jackets. They put them on. The people playing violins reached inside their instruments and pulled out… Flintlocks! The drummer turned his drum upside down and retrieved a flintlock of his own from within. The other band members reached into their instruments and pulled their own flintlocks out as well. The guests in the room all started screaming. What was going on!? I saw panic shoot across Queen Yuka’s face.

            “Guards! Guards!” She yelled at the top of her lungs.

I looked up to the balconies where I’d seen the guards earlier, only to see several men wearing white fedoras standing there instead of the guards. Who were these men? The drummer from the band raised his flintlock in the air and fired at the ceiling. This quieted everyone down. He quickly reloaded. He sported a nasty grin on his face.

            “Good evening everyone. Enjoying the ball?” He asked, still grinning.

The drummer had light brown hair that came down to his neck. His eyes were pale hazel and his skin tone was pale and he was fairly tall. Maybe a little taller than me. He was thin, too. He wore a black and white tuxedo with a bowtie like every other man in the room.

There was only silence in the room. You could have heard a pin drop. The man cleared his throat and continued.

            “I’m sure you’re all wondering who we are. To put it simply, we are with the mafia. Don’t even think about running. No guards will come to protect you. My associates and I have incapacitated any guards who were in the room, except for the guards surrounding Queen Yuka there. We have every entrance and exit covered, so don’t expect any help from outside.” The man said.

At last, Queen Yuka got the courage to speak.

            “What is it that you want?” She asked, her voice almost shaking.

The drummer grinned, spinning his flintlock on his finger while walking towards the queen. Any guests between him and Queen Yuka scattered. I didn’t blame them. This man and his associates took out all their pals and locked the place down. Who knew what other tricks they had up their sleeves?

            “Indeed I do want something. That’s the sole reason you are still alive.” He said.

Queen Yuka was silent, waiting to hear his demands. I looked around desperately. I saw that Robert stood glaring at the men on stage, his fists clenched. The others looked afraid, so did everyone else in the room.

            “We are going to take a select few people from this room. We have had operatives inside this castle for a while who have been watching everything, so we know exactly who we want. To ensure that no one interferes, we have planted explosive charges in this room throughout the course of the evening. If we see any sign of resistance, I will detonate them. If everyone is cooperative, I won’t. Understand?” The man asked.

Queen Yuka’s head sagged. There was nothing she could do. These men were willing to die for the vampire mafia! One question I had was this: How had the vampire mafia breached Queen Yuka’s defenses so easily? Then again, they had vampires with them. Killing guards would have been a piece of cake.

            “I thought so. Men, begin the extractions.” The man ordered.

The rest of the band members stepped off stage. The other men who had taken out the guards on the balconies came down as well. They all picked their way through the room, taking men and women seemingly at random. One of the men came to my friends and I.

            “Antoinette, Tabatha, Walden, come with me.” He ordered.

            “What! Why?” Antoinette exclaimed.

            “Because you can all use magic.” He said blankly.

The vampire mafia was collecting magic users! Who knew what they would do if they had enough? What did they want magic users for? This wasn’t good.

            “No! I’m not letting you take Tabatha!” Don shouted, stepping protectively between the man and Tabatha.

The man just chuckled.

            “You forget that we have explosive charges set up around the room. My boss warned you that he would detonate them if there was any resistance. Do you want to have the blood of all these people on your hands?” The man asked Don.

Don’s shoulders sagged.

            “I’m sorry Tabatha.” He said as he stepped out of the way.

In that moment I was angry and sad. I didn’t want the men to take Tabatha, Antoinette or Walden, but the situation was absolutely hopeless. The vampire mafia held all the power in this situation. There was nothing anyone could do. Walden flew up to the man. Antoinette and Tabatha surrendered themselves. The man pulled two coils of rope from his back pocket and tied Antoinette and Tabatha up separately, each with their hands behind their backs. Lastly, he pulled some string out of his pocket and tied Walden’s hands behind his back tightly. I looked around the room to see that the men in the white fedoras had restrained many other men and women and were leading them out of the room. The man began to take Tabatha, Antoinette and Walden out of the room as well. Don reached out to stop the man, but Robert held him back. Don realized that he had to get his emotions in order and gave in. He closed his eyes and pursed his lips. He looked ready to cry. Tabatha and Walden cast one last look back to us just before they were taken out the door. Their faces held total misery. Don reached a hand out, as if he could pull them back into the room. When only five more men in fedoras remained in the room, the band’s drummer looked to them.

            “You four, search the rest of the castle and round up any others that we may have missed.” He ordered.

The four men he spoke to left the room in a hurry. The drummer turned to the last remaining man.

            “As for you. I want you to find that traitor, Florence Escar, and bring him to me. I have plans for him.” He said menacingly.

The man nodded and hurried out of the room as well. The drummer turned to address the rest of the room.

            “On behalf of the mafia, I’d like to thank you all for your time.” He said with a sly wink at all the guests.

He then spun on his heel and faced the queen.

            “It was such a pleasure meeting you, Queen Yuka.” The man said with venomous sarcasm in his voice.

The queen was fighting back the urge to say something.

            “What is your name?” She asked.

The man chuckled and scratched his chin.

            “The name’s Artemis Blaine.” He said.

The queen leered at him angrily.

            “Oh, and Queen Yuka?” He asked.

            “What is it?” She snapped.

            “May I give you a word of advice?” He asked.

Queen Yuka looked at him suspiciously.

            “Go ahead.” She said.

            “Never trust the word of a mafia member.” He said with a wink.

Just as I was wondering why he said that, he aimed his flintlock at a red curtain across the room. The curtain was translucent and I could see the outline of a shape behind it. I knew what it was. Without giving it a second thought, I grabbed the two people nearest me; Robert and Don and dragged them to the ground.

            “Everyone get down!” I screamed.

The drummer began to run out the door of the ball room. He fired his flintlock over his shoulder and shot at whatever was behind the curtain. Just as the man left the room, a thunderous explosion sounded, shattering glass cups, splintering the wooden tables and sending everything that wasn’t secured to something flying across the room. Several more explosions sounded. He set off the explosive charges! Each explosion ripped its way through the air, sending tables, glass fragments, food, silver platters and other objects flying through the air. The explosions rattled me and I was nearly hit by a table that was thrown across the room on multiple occasions. Several more explosions sounded, they sounded more far off. I realized that there was only one explanation for explosions sounding farther off; the explosives were planted in the balconies high above us. They would blow the roof out! We would be crushed by the rubble if we didn’t get out of here!

            “We need to get out of this ball room!” I shouted, getting to my feet and hauling Don and Robert up as well.

            “She’s gone… They took her…” Don said distantly.

I grabbed Don’s shoulders and wrung them until his eyes focused on me.

            “Don! Snap out of it! We’ll sort that out later, right now we need to move!” I shouted at him.

The distant look in his eyes faded and he snapped back to reality. He nodded.

            “Okay, okay let’s get a move on.” He said.

Another explosion shook the room. This one sent a few large pieces of the ceiling down. Thankfully, no one was underneath it when it hit the ground. The guests started screaming and running to the door. Macalister and the others ran over to us.

            “The roof is collapsing!” Ceberus shouted.

            “We need to get everyone out of here!” William said urgently.

            “I think they have that under control.” Macalister said, pointing to the countless guests who were running out the door.

            “Let’s follow their lead!” Francella said nervously.

We took off running towards the door. I heard a gunshot. Another explosion sounded.

            “That’s odd, the last few explosions have come at unusual intervals.” Ceberus observed.

            “There must be another gunman setting off the explosives that weren’t triggered by the main blast.” William added.

            “That gives us all the more motivation to get the heck out of here!” Erin urged.

We finally made it to the door. We started piling out, although it was difficult because all the guests were screaming and shoving each other around, trying to get out of the ball room first. I walked into the swarm of people, making sure that everyone else was right behind me. I broke through the crowd and out into the hallway. The others were all with me, except for Don. He was falling behind and was still in the ball room. No one else was with him. It looked like he had let everyone else out into the hall before he went himself. Just then, four things happened in a quick succession;

Don tripped, a flintlock shot sounded, followed by an explosion. This explosion knocked a section of the ceiling down that blocked the door! Don was now trapped in the ball room!

Author's Note

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