The Spoils

   ’Where’s Pablo?’ I asked Butch.

   ’I don’t know. He’s around somewhere, he said something about making sure we got them all.’

  Butch grabbed Cline by the hair and dragged him into the large open room, he squealed as he was dragged. Kicking and cussing Butch through him down in front of me. Cline laid there on the ground in front of me quietly sobbing.

   ’Cline?’ I called quietly.

  He looked up into my eyes, ’Curse you. When they come for you, I will dance on your ashes.’ spit Cline.

   ’You’re right; they probably will come for us. But you won’t dance on anyone’s ashes. Do you know what I’m going to do to you Cline?’

   ’I piss on you and your w***e!’ he snapped.

  With a quick swing of my hand I slapped Cline across the face, ’I’m going to cut you to pieces, then I’m going to make you watch us burn those pieces. Sebastian if you would, please remove his legs for me.’

  Without hesitation, Sebastian walked up to Cline. Cline tried to worm away from Sebastian, But Butch and Allen grabbed him and held him down. With two swift swings of his sword, Sebastian took Cline’s legs. Cline howled in pain at the loss of his legs

   ’Butch take your people and get a fire going in the courtyards, I would like to get all the dead burned as soon as possible.’

   ’You got it Conner.’

   ’Let’s go you guys.’ Butch said to his group.

   ’Sebastian did you find Ava down stairs?’ I asked scratching my head.

   ’No’

   ’Emma can you go see if John is ok? I forgot all about him again.’

   ’Okay Conner.’ Emma turned and headed through the doors back into the hallway.

   ’We need to find Pablo and make sure the fortress is clear.’ I said to Sebastian.

   ’Conner…’ Sebastian was at a loss for words, ’You know, I feel much better now that Augustus is dead. There’s two thing is this world that have filled me with dread, the Queen Mother, and him.’

  Cline laid there on the ground moaning in pain. I looked at him and marveled that someone so weak and pitiful looking could have cause such horror, in a way I felt cheated.

   ’Let’s gets some fresh air Sebastian.’

  I headed towards the doors, ’Grab him if you would, we don’t need him sneaking away on us.’

   Sebastian grabbed Cline by the hair and dragged him behind him as he followed me out of the large hall.

  John was sitting on the floor holding his chest, it turned out that John did not abandon us during the fight. Right as we entered the hallway Augustus had tried to attack us from behind; John saw him and defended our backs. John was no match for Augustus and he knew it, but he slowed him down enough for us to even the odds. When I find Tabitha I’m going to have to tell her that John saved us, if it wasn’t for his bravery we would have been out numbered at least ten to four plus Augustus. John was hurting, but he would be fine after a few more minutes.

  By the time Sebastian and I got back to the courtyard Butch had a large bonfire going. They were throwing severed limbs of different vampires into the fire. Looking up at one of the windows above the doorway one of the Southerners was throwing vampire limbs, heads and bodies out the window. Seeing me he smile and waved, I smiled up at him.

   ‘Butch how many people did you all kill up there?’ I asked in wonder at the carnage that was falling from the upstairs’ window.

   ‘I don’t know, twenty or so. Having the weapons help immensely, none of them were armed. I don’t have any idea how many Pablo’s group killed. We could hear them fighting, so when we finish up we went and helped them clean up. That’s when we found Cline.’

   ‘Good. To be honest Butch I didn’t think we were going to win this fight.’

   ‘Well don’t get the champagne out yet, when we caught Cline one of his got away. It safe to say that it won’t be long till those old dudes find out what’s happened.’

   ’Damn. They would have found out anyways, but I had hoped that we would have had more time to figure out what we’re going to do next.’ the rush of victory was already starting to fade.

   ’Oh that’s easy,’ Sebastian said smacking my arm, ’we’re going to have a bonfire.’

  I looked at Sebastian and we both laughed.

   ’Damn devils. Both of you, do you hear me? Devils!’ Jason said storming off back into the fortress. Sebastian and I just laughed harder at Jason.

   ’I don’t think he’s ever going to get over hating you Sebastian.’

  Sebastian smirked, ’I think he hates you equally Conner.’

  We both got another good laugh at Jason’s expense.

  As Sebastian and I stood watching the fire burn, as Butch adding the dead to it we heard a loud thrashing and screaming coming from outside the wall.

   ’Gloria!’ I couldn’t believe I forgot about her.

  How could I have been so careless to forget the love of my life? Right as Sebastian and I started to run in the direction of the screaming something came flying over the wall and landed right by the fire. Gloria came quickly over the wall followed by Tabitha, Tom and Chloe. Gloria almost landed right on horribly disfigured screaming creature.

  Gloria yanked the wretched thing off the ground by the neck, the sight of what Gloria had made me gasp.

   ‘Look who I found slithering away.’ Gloria snarled.

  At first glance I could not tell whether the thing was male or female. It had no hair, it’s skin looked melted. The wretched thing’s hands were melted so it looked as if it had two claws instead of fingers. One of the creature’s eyes were melted away.

  Emma had heard the commotion from inside where she was tending John Barleycorn, when she saw what Gloria had thrown over the wall and now was hold up by the neck snarled and howled horribly.

   ’Ava.’ I mumbled to myself.

  Gloria drew her large knife and pushed Ava away from her a step. In the blink of an eye she slashed Ava down the back with the knife. Ava howled and stumbled into the fire where she screamed horribly. She quickly rolled out of the fire and slapped at her clothes with her claw like hands trying to put out the fire.

  No one moved to help Ava extinguish the fire. She flopped around on the ground like a fish trying to get the fire out when her hands could not. Emma moved towards her with her sword drawn, I could see she was going to dish out some well deserved revenge.

   ’No Emma.’ I said stopping her.

  Emma turned and snarled at me in frustration.

   ’I have something special planned for her. Tabitha, you and Chloe keep an eye on her, I have some things to take care of before I deal with her. Emma trust me, leave her to me.’

  Hearing Tabitha’s name, John weakly came outside. The fight with Augustus had really taken it out of him.

   ’John!’ Tabitha shrieked running to him.

   ’Tom watch Ava will you.’ Sebastian asked.

   ‘John what happen to you, are you okay?’

  I walked over to Tabitha and John and smiled watching Tabitha try to hug John without hurting him.

   ‘John saved us today Tabs. Augustus tried to jump us from behind and John fought him and pretty much saved the day if you can believe that.’

   ‘You fought Augustus?’ she asked in a panic, ‘Are you okay?’

   ‘I’m fine, and Conner gives me to much credit. It wasn’t much of a fight. It was more of Augustus beating the hell out of me.’

   ‘Well whatever it is you did you saved us. Sebastian, Emma and I were outnumbered and John kept him off of us.’ I explained.

  Tabitha was about to say something more but a shriek came from inside the fortress. We all looked up and the window as Pablo looked out.

   ‘Look what I found hiding up here.’ Pablo disappeared for and second and jumped from the window with a small young vampire.

  He looked not much older than Emma. He wasn’t very tall; I towered over the young vampire. He was thin, and his features where boyish. He had sandy blond hair and fair clear skin. He could have been Gloria’s little brother.

   ’Well, well, well, what do we have here?’ I asked.

   ’Please don’t hurt me!’ the young vampire pleaded.

   ’I found him hiding in a chest in what looked like a bedroom.’ Pablo explained,

’Oh and another thing, I found something else you might want to see.’

   ’What is your name?’ I asked the young vampire.

  The young vampire did not look answer, he just looked at the large fire and all of us standing there watching him.

   ’Please don’t burn me.’ he pleaded.

   ’His name is Eric, Conner. He belongs to Cline.’ answered Emma.

   ’He what?’ I asked confused.

   ’He belongs to him.’ she said again.

   ’What in the hell does that mean?’

   ’Ask Cline.’ she said coldly.

   ’Well?’

  Cline snarled at the Eric.

  Emma walked over to Gloria and whispered something quietly in her ear.

  Gloria sighed heavily. I knew Gloria well enough that whatever Emma had said to her had not been pretty.

  Gloria spoke quietly to the Eric, ’Eric if you sit still and do nothing out of the ordinary, you’ll be safe. Do you understand me young one?’

   ’Yes.’ he whispered.

  Something tells me that I was getting a new member to my growing family.

  Pablo walked over to Cline and looked down at him.

   ’Hello Cline, so were you surprised to see me? I bet you thought I forgot about you. Why Cline, where are your legs? I know you had them the last time I saw you. Did that mean old Conner cut them off? I bet he’s going to do a lot more to you before he’s done.’ Pablo smiled mockingly down at him.

  Normally I would not allow such a thing, but with Cline, I would make an exception.

   ’As much as I enjoy tormenting Cline, I really need to show you something I found up stairs.’

   ’Okay Pablo, if you would be so kind as to get your people to help Butch clear out the down stairs of the dead?’

   ’Sure.’

   ’Oh you’ll find Cline’s legs down there, save them I don’t want them burned yet.’

   ’You got it Conner.’ Pablo whistled and spoke Spanish up towards the window, ’They’re marveling at what we found. But I told them not to touch.’

   ’What did you find?’ I asked.

   ’You’ll see.’ Pablo smiled ear to ear.

  I slid my claymore back into its sleeve, ’Sebastian.’

  Sebastian nodded and followed me into the building. As we entered the foyer, Jesus dragged Augustus by a stump and Juan had the two pieces of his head and his arm. They smiled as they went by.

  Upstairs Pablo led me deep into the fortress; he stopped in front of a steel door. I hadn’t been paying attention until we stopped that I heard nine different heart beats behind the door.

   ’Is that what I think it is?’ I asked.

   ’I have no idea what you may think that is, but it was not what I expected it to be.’ responded Pablo.

  I unlatched the door and swung it open to screams. There against the back wall were four human women and five human men.

   ’What that hell is that?’ I asked point into the cell.

  Sebastian laughed right out loud.

   ’Well it looks like we won’t have to go far for dinner.’ Pablo said as he turned and walked back the way he came.

   ’Are you serious? Why are you laughing Sebastian, this isn’t funny. What the hell are we going to do with them?’

   ’Eat them I guess.’ Sebastian said laughing.

   ’Were not going to eat them. I’m sorry I’m not going to kill humans that have endured this place. It wouldn’t be right to do that to them.’

   ’Well what else are you going to do with them?’

   ’Let them go.’

   ’Conner you can’t let them go. You know that, what do you think they’ll do if you did?’

   ’Are they French?’

  Sebastian spoke quickly in French to the nine scared humans.

   ‘Oui.’ they all said.

   ‘Ask them if they know what’s going on.’

  Sebastian spoke quickly to them; he quickly got what sounded like nine different answers. Sebastian shouted at them what must have been quiet, they all stopped speaking at once.

   ‘They don’t know what’s going on; they’re all to scare to really understand. Let’s just destroy them and be done with it.’

   ‘I’m not going to kill the Sebastian, and neither are you.’

   ‘Okay whatever, then you figure out how to not have the French Army out here.’

   ‘Just translate what I say in French to them please.’

   ‘Conner you’ve been a vampire now for how long? Why haven’t you learned another language yet?’

   ‘Are you going to translate for me or are you gonna irritate me in a way that I normally reserve for John.’

  Sebastian laughed, ‘Okay, okay, this should be good. Work your magic.’

   ‘You all have been imprisoned by a mean a*s vampire. Not some fake goth knuckle heads, but the real deal. Do you understand?’

   ‘Yes they do.’ Sebastian answered.

   ‘I, Sebastian and the rest of us attacked the one who was holding you. Now Sebastian here thinks that we should just kill all of you and be done with it, I do not agree. You’ve all are now caught up in a real world vampire civil war, I want to let you go back to your families, but I can’t have the cops or anyone else up here bothering us. Do you understand?

   ’Yes they do, but I think they’re B.S-ing you.’

   ’I want to show you all something.’  I turned back and grabbed a hold of the door to the cell and pulled the inch thick steel door right off its hinges. I brought the door into the cell and turned it over length wise.

   ‘Are you all watching?’

  As soon as Sebastian finished translating I tore the inch thick door in half and dropped the pieces onto the floor. Two of the women screamed, the rest gasped at the sight of vampire strength.

   ‘If if you bring the authorities up here into our vampire war, people will die, something I do not want. Do you understand?’

   ‘They said yes.’

   ‘I’m letting you go home to your families do not betray the trust I putting in you, because there’s nothing to keep Sebastian here from coming and finding you.’

  Sebastian snickered as he translated the last thing I said. One of the men asked Sebastian a question, to which Sebastian chuckled, ‘He asked what should we tell our families about being missing?’

   ‘Tell them you were abducted by aliens or something, why the hell should I care what you tell them. Tell them you were kidnapped by vampires and see what they. Just don’t bring people up here.’

  One of the women spoke to me in a heavy French accent, ‘You are really going to let us leave?’

   ‘Right now if you want to.’ I replied.

   ‘Please, I want to go home.’ the unknown women said.

   ‘Let’s go.’ I said nodding towards the door.

  When no one moved, ‘Now!’ I shouted.

  The group jumped up and headed out the door. Sebastian led the terrified group back to the stairs. As we came down the stairs into the main foyer, the ground shook slightly below us and we heard a large roar, all of the humans froze.

   ’What the hell was that?’ I asked Sebastian

   ‘I don’t know, it’s hard telling what Cline has hidden in this place.’

   ‘Get the humans out of here Sebastian.’ I said nodding at the nine frightened humans.

   As Sebastian led the humans to the front gate I looked around the courtyard Pablo and his Southerners were there. All of the Northerners were out sanding around Cline and Ava as they laid on the ground, John was on his feet and look a great deal better then he was five minutes ago. Tabitha was there next to him under his arm. Emma was poking Ava with the point of here sword and growling quietly. Cline laid on his side and watched the large fire burn. The new comer Eric sat on the ground next to Gloria, Gloria looked greatly distress. What could I do, Gloria had a soft spot in her heart for strays.

  Sebastian came walking back over from the gate, I did not take his eyes off of Cline as he laid there on the ground. I took my claymore and its holster from my back and handed it to Sebastian; he raised an eyebrow when I handed it to him.

   ’Emma stop.’ I snapped.

  Emma growled at me but obeyed.

   I walked over to Gloria, ’Knife.’ I said holding out my hand. With a confused look on her face she slowly drew her knife and handed it to me.

  I walked over to Cline and looked down at him, ’Where are his legs?’ I asked no one particular.

   ’Here.’ said Jesus in his heavy Spanish accent.

   ’Don’t give them to me, throw them on the fire.’ I said coldly.

  Jesus tossed Cline’s legs onto the fire, a fresh sizzling sounded at once with the addition of the new vampire flesh. I stood watching Cline watching his legs burn.

   ’Butch, Allan, hold his arms out.’ Butch grabbed his right arm and Allan grabbed his left.

  Without mercy or hesitation I chopped both of Cline’s arms off. Cline screamed at the pain of being quartered out. Still holding onto the arms I nodded at Butch and Allen to throw them onto the fire. The fire burned hotter and brighter with the addition of Cline’s arms.

  All were quiet as they watched Cline slowly be destroyed; no one took their eye’s off the bonfire. I walked slowly around behind Cline. Reaching down I grabbed Cline by the hair and pulled him off the ground.

   ’Do you believe in God Cline?’ I asked in his ear.

  Cline did not answer; all he could do is pant heavily.

   ‘I didn’t for a long time. But you know what; you have given me hope there this is a God.’ Gloria turned and looked at me with a look of surprise.

   ‘Do you know why I hope that there is? I’ll tell you why, because the suffering that I’m giving you is nothing compared to what you deserve. I hope there’s a God so after you die and you are going to die Cline. That He will torment you in hell forever and ever, that’s why I hope there’s a God.

Good bye Cline.’

  Slowly and deliberately I cut Cline’s head from his shoulders with Gloria’s knife.

  I tossed the knife back to Gloria, still holding Cline’s head I said to Sebastian, ‘Not only have those knife’s seen action in war, that one will be known as the one that ended the terror of Cline.’

  No one moved and no one spoke, I looked at Emma who was again poking Ava with her sword.

   ’Emma,’ jumping she turned and looked at me. ’Chop Ava to pieces, but don’t kill her. I have something special planned for her.’

  Emma spun and Ava like a snake, ’Sebastian, lets go find out what the hell that was.’ I said throwing the rest of the carcass of Cline onto the fire.

  Sebastian and Gloria followed me back inside the fortress, I sighed heavily going through the doors. Cruelty was not something that I stomached very well. Though I told myself Cline and Ava deserved what I did to them, it did not matter to me. Cruelty was cruelty, and as grouchy as I could be I was not cruel.

  I dropped Cline’s head just inside the door way, ’I’m planning on saving that.’

   ’What on God’s green earth for?’ asked Gloria.

   ’I’m going to give it to the Council.’

  Sebastian stopped me, ’Conner I don’t know if that such a good idea.’

   ’Why?’ I asked.

   ’I’m not sorry we killed Cline; I have no regrets in that. But antagonizing the Council with Cline’s head could end up backfiring. The vampire’s of Europe love the Council, and flaunting that you killed one of them…I don’t know, it seems dangerous to me. But on the other hand everyone hated Cline.’ Sebastian shrugged, ’What are you planning on doing with Ava?’

   ’I’m going to tie something heavy to her and throw her in the ocean.’

   ’That Conner, is a new one even for me.’ Sebastian laughed.

   ’Are you really going to do that Conner? asked Gloria.

   ‘Yeah, I am.’ I said.

  Gloria shook her head, but said no more. This was a war we were in, how could I explain that to her? Make her understand that war was not won by strength alone, but by having the stomach to do the things that your enemy does not.

  The fortress was quiet as we walked back into it. The knot in my stomach returned as we walked though the foyer into long hall that Sebastian, Emma and I had our first fight with Cline’s people.

  ‘Sebastian, where are we going?’ I asked as we walked down the hallway.

   ‘Cline’s dungeon has cells that can hold vampires if you can believe that. I’m betting that whatever it was we heard was in one of those cells.’

   ‘Gloria once said that Roberto knew how to imprison vampires, how do they do that?’

   ‘With holes in the ground. They’re circular holes that go down very deep, then large cut stones are placed over the openings.’

   ‘Wouldn’t the person be able to just punch handholds into the wall and climb up the walls of the holes?’

   ‘Then what? The hand holds wouldn’t be strong enough to hold you when you pushed the large cut stones off the top of your hole, trust me Conner, you can’t get out.’

   ‘Sebastian, how wide are the holes?’ asked Gloria.

   ‘Maybe two feet wide if you’re lucky, some are a little bigger then others.’

   ‘They’re down in the dungeon?’ I asked.

  Sebastian sighed, ‘Yes, down in the very bottom.’

   ’Sebastian, were you ever locked up in them?’ Gloria wondered.

   ’Yes, many years ago.’

   ’That’s so sad.’ Gloria said sadly.

   ’When it comes to Cline, one of those prison cells is the best you could hope for. Those humans Conner let go, they weren’t for feeding.’

   ’What do you mean Sebastian?’ Gloria carefully asked.

   ’Cline loved to watch things suffer; he did not care if it was human, or a vampire or even an animal. I remember years ago, Cline used to give humans to Augustus for him to…do things to.’

   ’Oh.’

   ’It is well that you were never captured by him; I saw it in his eyes back when you and Conner were before the Council. I’m glad that Conner did not let you participate in the attack here, if we would have lost,’ Sebastian shook his head, ’He would have made Conner watch.’

  We walked through the door that led down into the dungeon. I went to Alcatraz Island once as a kid, immediately as I walked down the stairs I felt I was back in that prison. There was no light down there in the dark; it was only through my vampire eyes was I able to see.

  The stairs switched back several times as we descended into the blackness. The stairs emptied into a hallway that reminded me of a prison cell block, there were no electric lights on the ceiling. The cells reminded me of the inside of a public storage warehouse. The cell block was no wider the four feet, there were iron doors on either side of the hall; the hall was crammed with doors on either side of the walls.

   ’These cells are where Cline would keep the humans he would feed on. He would throw them down here in the dark for several days with no food or water, b*****d.’

   ’It’s so dark.’ Gloria said grabbing onto my arm.

   ’Some things are so evil Gloria; they can only exist in the darker places of the world.’

   ’I wish you wouldn’t say such things Sebastian, you sound so menacing.’ Gloria said quietly.

  There was a large wooden door at the end of the cell block, Sebastian pushed open the large door, ’This is Ava’s chamber.’

  The chamber had a table in the center of the room and nothing else. There was dried blood all over the walls and floor, the room smelled like death. Gloria covered her face with her hand, ‘Oh Conner, poor Emma.

   ‘There on the right is the Cline’s chamber; over there on the left is how we get down to the vampire cells.’ Sebastian explained.

   ’I don’t want to go into Cline’s room.’ Gloria said sounding sick.

   ’We won’t.’ I said trying to reassure Gloria.

   ’Conner look.’ Gloria said pointing at the ceiling.

  I looked towards what Gloria was pointing at, there hanging from the ceiling were several large meat hooks. The hooks looked like large fishing hooks without the barb. I studied the large hooks for a second; there under the hooks were large dried pools of blood.

   ’Oh Conner.’ Gloria sad with a sob in her throat.

   ’Lead on Sebastian.’ I said trying to maintain my composure.

  Sebastian led us through the door that led to another staircase; the air smelled spoiled and left a grit film in my throat. The stair case ended suddenly into an open space, it was just a large square room. There was nothing on the walls, or the ceiling. The only things I could see were large eyebolts sticking out of the floor. The floor was made of cut stone blocks; they were around five foot by five foot in size. On either end of the blocks across from each other were the eyebolts. I did a quick count of eyebolts and cut stone, there were twenty five of them.

   ’Sebastian, do each of these blocks cover a cell?’ I asked.

   ’Yes.’

   ’How large are the blocks?’ I asked kicking one of the eyebolts.

   ’They’re five foot square.’

   ’Do you think that howl came from down here?’

  But before I could answer Gloria one of the far block across the room bounce followed by a large howl.

   ’Conner you’re not thinking of pulling open that block are you?’ Gloria asked starting to tremble.

   ’Whatever is down there Gloria, I can’t just leave there.’

   ’Conner sometimes things are imprisoned for a reason. Cline was evil, but whatever is down there Cline didn’t even want to mess with.’

   ’Gloria obviously it’s a vampire; we can’t leave it in there. If it’s so bad that Cline had to lock it up then we’ll destroy it. But the wickedness of Cline will be destroyed, and that includes whatever in the world is down in that hole. Sebastian, grab the other side of that bolt.’

  Sebastian and I walked over to the stone that covered the occupied cell.

   ’On three, you ready?’ I asked Sebastian.

   ’One.’ he said quietly

   ’Two.’ I said.

   ’Three!’ Sebastian and I both said at the same time.

  We both pulled on the large stone’s eyebolts together.

   ’Son of a b***h!’ I said as we both lifted the large stone out of its hole.

  We slid the stone over onto the cell next to it and jumped back away from the hole. Quietly I walked back over to the other side of the room where Gloria was standing.

   ’Conner, don’t block the…’

  Before Sebastian could finish his sentence, a male vampire jumped from the cell and bolted right towards the door, howling and screaming as came running. Gloria screamed like a normal human woman would as the filthy naked vampire rushed the doorway.

  The naked vampire grabbed me by the shirt and ripped the front of it off of me and shoved me out of the way, Gloria scream changed into a snarl as I was shoved. The unknown vampire stared Gloria in the eyes and snarled and ran through the door way and flew up the stairs.

   ’What the hell was that!’ I said as I started to laugh.

   ’A naked dirty vampire that’s what.’ Sebastian said laughing back.

   ’No not that,’ I laughed, ’Gloria, I can’t believe you just screamed like that.’ I laughed some more.

   ’Shut up Conner, that thing scared the hell out of me when it came out of the hole.’

   ’No what was funny was it started as a scream and it turned into a snarl.’ Sebastian and I laughed some more.

   ’You guys are a******s you know that?’ Gloria said starting to laugh.

   ’Don’t feel bad Gloria, if it wasn’t for the fact I’ve been a vampire for over four thousand years I think I would have s**t my pants.’ Sebastian said laughing.

  We heard a large crash and a bunch of yelling above us as the vampire made his way through the fortress.

   ’Looks like we’re not the only ones that that scary b*****d has run into, Conner we better get up there before he gets lose. That thing is way too out of control to be lose in the world.’

  As we came out of the fortress everyone was standing out front looking up the mountain’s face above the door. Up about a hundred feet was the naked vampire, he appeared to be growling at the sight of the afternoon sun.

  I walked over to what was left of Ava, ’Why was he down in that hole?’

  Ava snarled at me with a deep hate, all Emma had left was a section of her torso and her head. The cut off pieces of Ava were nowhere to be seen, the fire had a fresh sizzle to it. I grabbed a piece of wood that was sticking out of the bonfire that was still on fire and walked back over to Ava.

   ’You see this fire witch? I’m going to teach you manners with the fire do you understand me?’

  Ava answered me with a hiss; I knew that the old vampires could burn you without scaring you; I could care less about scaring Ava. Ava screamed as I put the fire to her face.

   ’I’m going to burn out your eyeball you hear me!’

   ’Yes! Please no burn, no burn.’ she screeched.

   ’Conner baby…’ I could hear in Gloria’s voice for me to please stop. 

   ’Now I ask again, why was that vampire imprisoned, was it because he was so out of control?’

   ’No, he was made, thrown in hole.’ wept Ava.

   ’What do you mean made and thrown in hole, you mean you made him into a vampire and then threw him down there?’

   ’Yes, made vampire, thrown in hole.’

   ’Has he ever fed?’ I asked horrified at the thought.

   ’Not known, Ava never fed him.’ said the wretched women as she squirmed on the ground.

   ‘Ava, how long has he been down in that hole?’

  Ava hesitated to answer me so I threatened her with the fire.

   ‘Please no burn, mercy! He thrown down hole about hundred years ago. Please no burn.’

   ’Why would you do that?’ I asked in disgust.

   ’Ava no did. Cline did, Cline’s idea.’

   ’And you’re innocent of any wrong doing.’

   ’Yes Ava innocent.’ Ava said looking up at me with her melted face.

   ’Innocent,’ I looked up at the vampire hanging on the mountain’s face, filthy and naked and howling at the sky, ’Emma come over here.’

  Emma walked over next to me into Ava’s view, ’Ava’s innocent of hurting this young one? How long did you torture this one, twenty years? You pulled her skin off of her body. You made into a vampire, trapping her forever at fourteen, and you think your innocent and you gave her body to Augustus to watch her suffer?’ I asked in disbelief.  

  It was funny how someone could be so blind to their own nature. Maybe Ava was a lesson to us all, Horatio once called us of the vampire kind an abomination, maybe we are. But who was I to judge the right and wrong of our existence. All I knew was that if there was a God, he placed this witch into my hands to do as I see fit.

   ’Sebastian, everything that is inside is to be destroyed by fire, everything Sebastian. Everything, every piece of furniture, every painting, every rug. Every statue is to be crushed to dust. Anything that has been touched or loved by Cline is to be destroyed. Do you understand?’

   ’Yes, and the weapons?’ he asked raising an eyebrow.

   ’If they were made by Cline or his people, if it is possible destroy them.’ I turned and looked back to Ava.

   ’Conner, some of the things that are here are priceless; we shouldn’t be so rash in destroying these things.’

   ’John Barleycorn, thank you for your advice. Anything that he has collected here is to be destroyed, the corruption of Cline will burn, do you understand? Nothing will survive him.’ I said to John without taking my eyes from Ava.

   ’What about him?’ Sebastian said nodding up at the vampire on the mountain’s face.

   ’Try and get him down from there and get him something to eat. I don’t want to destroy him if he can be controlled, see if you can clean him up and feed him.’

   ’Humans?’ Sebastian asked.

   ’No, try the wild life, the last thing we need is something happening like what happened in Spain.’

  Emma seemed like she wanted to blush.

   ’Where you going?’ Sebastian asked.

   ’Ava and I have a date.’ I said looking down at her, ’Sebastian, make sure everything’s burned. I need some rope.’

 

  As I came in the following evening from dropping Ava into the ocean I felt a sense of peace for the first time since before Augustus paid Gloria and I a visit. I could smell the Southerners scent all over the place as I got closer to the fortress, off in the distance I could see smoke rising. The snow felt refreshing as I ran, I felt clear and renewed. Cline was dead, the mighty Augustus had been destroyed and Ava had been cast into the bottom of the ocean.

  Sooner then later I was going to need to go shopping for clothes, so to speak. I was still wearing the pants that I stole from somewhere in Africa and I had yet replaced the shirt that the naked crazy vampire had torn off of me. Allen was walking along the top of the wall as I came around the bend, he looked as if he was keeping guard.

  Way above the fortress Butch called out, ‘Conner’s coming in!’

  The urgency in Butch’s voice made me uneasy, I kicked it into high gear as a ran towards the wall. With a small jump I cleared the wall and landed in the middle of the courtyard. Sebastian, Pablo, John Barleycorn and Gloria came out of the fortress. All were armed; Sebastian had my claymore and its sleeve in his hand. Didn’t look like I was going to be shopping anytime soon.

   ’What’s up?’ I asked taking my claymore and slinging it across my back.

   ’Southerners went out hunting late this morning and came across a fresh track.’ Sebastian explained.

   ’Anyone we know?’ I inquired.

   ’No.’ Sebastian said, ’and the scent isn’t one that has been smelled here.’

   ’One of the Ancient’s spies maybe?’ I wondered.

   ’I believe so, so does Sebastian.’ John added.

   ‘How long do you think it will take for the Council to move against us?’ I asked Sebastian.

   ‘It will take several days for them to sort out all the facts of what has happened here, Chloe said that when they grabbed Ava, one of Cline’s people got away. My guess is that he ran straight for Hephaistion’s place.’

    ‘Why Hephaistion’s?’ I asked.

    ‘Cause it’s only a few hours away.’

    ‘Then Hephaistion could be on our back porch within several hours then.’

   ‘He could, but I doubt it.’

   ‘Why?’ I asked Sebastian.

   ‘That’s simple; we took down a Ancient without much trouble. Though Cline did not have his entire army gathered and armed, the shock wave that will go through the Ancient’s psyche of the lost of one of their own will be enormous. Hephaistion won’t be that stupid, he’ll gather the Council.’

   ’So, are we planning on defending this place against a siege?’ John asked.

   ’No, you see how well it was defended for Cline. Where’s the loon at, were you able to get him to feed?’ I asked looking up where the wild naked vampire hung on the wall above the fortress door.

  With the typical Sebastian smile he filled me in on Frank.

   ’Before I tell you about Frank, did you really drag Ava all the way to ocean by her neck?’

   ’I did, then I stole a boat and drove it out into the ocean till it ran out of gas. Then I tied the boat anchor around her neck and threw her over bored.’

   ‘I think you should have burned her.’ John said with regret.

   ‘Oh yeah?’ I asked.

   ‘Throwing her into the ocean doesn’t make her dead. I don’t know, I bet we haven’t seen the last of her.’

   ‘You worry to much John.’ I said, but when I looked at Sebastian, though he wasn’t saying anything I believed he agreed with John.

   ’So the unknown vampire’s name is Frank?’ I asked the group.

   ’We don’t know, Emma started calling him that and for some reason he responds to it.’ Gloria said smiling.

   ’You remember how he was hanging off the wall up there,’ Sebastian said looking up at the wall above the door, ’Well it took just about all of us to get him down from up there, it was quite comical to tell the truth.

   ’Anyways it was Butch who ended up just knocking him off the wall. He screamed and howled and ran around, I was half temped to chop him in half and throw him back down into that hole when Emma out of the blue yell at him to stop and come here.

   ’To all our surprise he came over to Emma and laid on the ground like an upset puppy who just got scolded. Emma said to him that he should be ashamed of himself for acting that way. Then he whined a bunch and then Emma took him out to eat.’

  I smiled as Sebastian explained the weird bond that Emma and this new vampire Frank had between them, ’So how did that go?’ I asked.

   ’Not so well at first, Emma led Frank up to a heard of deer, he just went nuts and just chased them all down and ripped them to pieces. He didn’t even feed, he just went bananas. But Emma scolded him again and then took him to find something else, she showed him how to feed and then let him look for something. He seemed to have gotten the hang of it when I left,’ Gloria smiled then continued, ’He reminded me of someone I once knew who ate a bear.’

  I smiled thinking back to the first time I fed; I had gotten the better of a bear back in Washington State. Gloria was absolutely disgusted at me for tearing the bear to pieces. She didn’t think we were going to be able to live around people because of it. Gloria and I looked at each other and smiled.

   ’Who ate a bear? Disgusting.’ John asked Gloria.

   ’Do you really think Frank was down in that hole for a century?’ I asked Sebastian.

   ’There’s no reason not to believe it. Emma said that she remembers hearing Frank back when she was first brought here as a human. She was kept down there in one of the dark cells for a time before she was changed into a vampire. I guess Emma was caught not for Ava, but for Cline. And when Ava saw her, there was a fight between them for her.’

   ’But I thought…’

   Gloria cut me off, ’Now that she’s been here, she’s remembering more of her human memories Conner. She was still here when Eric was brought here.’

   ’Oh yeah, what’s his story?’ I asked.

   ’He was Cline’s cabaña boy.’ John said with a smirk.

   ’John shush, that isn’t very nice. The poor boy was brutalized.’ Gloria snapped.

   ’Cline made for his own sexual deviancy,’ explained Sebastian, ’And if Eric didn’t give himself to Cline willingly, he was given to Augustus.’

   ’I don’t want to hear anymore about that.’ I said raising my hand to stop Sebastian from giving me anymore details.

  I looked around at the courtyard and saw that the burn pile that was smoldering was about four times the size it was when I left, ’I see you all were busy.’ I said nodding at the burn pile’s ashes.

   ’It was a shame really. Priceless artifacts, thousands of years old, gone in a moment.’ John said regretfully, ’Sebastian had a blast.’

   ’It was good. We worked through the night clearing and burning everything, found a lot of gold and precious stones. Gloria said to keep those; she said you would want them so we didn’t smash them. But everything else was burned or smashed, found some weapons that I made some thousand years ago. But there was nothing that the world couldn’t live without.’

   ’I take it Cline wasn’t much of a collector of antiquities?’ I asked.

   ’Cline was collected other’s pain.’ Sebastian said sadly.

   ’So where is everybody?’ I asked.

   ’Pablo has the Southerners running patrols around the mountain side looking for other scents or for newer ones. He worried that we’re all going to get killed before he has his revenge. Emma is getting Frank fed, Butch and the rest are hiding out of sight up the mountain in case we get company. If anyone shows up, he wants to ambush them.’ Sebastian explained.

   ’I heard him call down when I was coming in.’

   ’Chloe, Tom, Ed and Tabitha are gathering clothes and other things for us.’ Gloria said, ’I told Tabitha to make sure she gets you some knew pants.’

   ’Good, I forgot to get some when I was out. When everyone gets back, we all need to have a sit down and figure out what we’re doing next.’

 

                                   ***

 

  Elsewhere, there was a knocking at a door.

   ’Enter.’ said a voice from behind the double doors.

  Horatio opened one of the two doors and walked into the large spacious office.

   ’What is it?’ the young looking vampire said without looking up from his desk.

   ’Your Grace, a message from Hephaistion.’

   ’What does it say.’ Roberto said without looking up from his desk.

  Horatio broke the seal on the scroll and started to read aloud, ’Brother, I regret to inform you that it was reported to me…’

  Horatio did not continue aloud, the shock of what he had read left him completely speechless.

   ’Horatio?’ asked Roberto looking up from his desk for the first time.

   ’Conner sacked Cline’s fortress at Chamonix.’

   ’What?!’ asked Roberto as he came around his desk to retrieve Hephaistion’s message from Horatio.

   ’Conner sacked Chamonix.’ replied Horatio in a shocked tone.

  Roberto grabbed the Hephaistion’s message and read,

 

               

                Brother, I regret to inform you that it was reported to me  by a servant of Cline’s that yesterday a company led by Conner successfully sacked Cline’s residence at Chamonix. After a thorough interview with  the servant he reported that the company in question was indeed led by Conner. Cline was present during the attack and was taken alive by Conner. The servant that reported this attack was fighting in defense of Cline when Cline was taken. He fled once all hope of victory was lost. The servant then tried to help Ava escape but was ambushed by Gloria and three others several miles away from the fortress. Cline’s servant has since been executed for his cowardice in the face of the enemy. I have sent a party to confirm the now executed servant story, and it was reported back to me smoke from a large fire could be seen within the confines of Cline’s fortress. I have sent word to Carver and have requested counsel.

                                     

                                      Hephaistion.

               

                P.S. Pablo is with them.

 

    ‘This changes everything Horatio.’ Roberto said in sadness.

   ‘Yes your Grace.’

   ‘I did not think Conner would actually attack Cline here in Europe.’

   ‘I do hate to remind His Grace, but several weeks ago someone detonated a large bomb inside the Lord Conner’s home. Perhaps such an attack prompted the Lord Conner to act in such a way.’

   ’I doubt that Conner would go to such an extreme over a house Horatio, he must know that the full might of the Council will now come after him?’

   ’Remember your Grace; Conner did not grow up civilized. Before he was a vampire he was an American. And Americans have never been known to act in a civilized fashion.’

   ’Horatio, we should have never aloud that country to be born. Cline aloud the people under his authority to leave his authority and then refused to govern them. I told Cline to allow the humans to govern themselves was dangerous. And now we all reap what he has sewed.

   ‘And now Conner has found Pablo in exile, and of course he will be all too willing to help Conner destroy everything. Horatio what are we going to do?‘

   ‘It is not for me to decide such things your Grace.‘

   ‘Send Hephaistion a response to his letter. Then gather everyone, we shall leave for Prague as soon as we can.’

   ’Yes your Grace.’