The Chase

   ‘Sebastian, you don’t think we’ll need help keeping him still do you?’

   ‘We might want Butch in here.’

  I looked out from our pavilion two where our people had been gathered, ‘Butch!’ I yelled waving him to come to the pavilion.

  Butch jogged over to Sebastian, Gloria and I, ‘What’s up?’

   ‘We’re going to put Stephan back together and see what he has to say for himself. We want to make sure he doesn’t try to run off on us.’

   ‘We don’t we just chop off his legs first?’ asked Butch.

   ‘Because I would rather chop them off trying to get the truth in why Gloria was attacked.’

   ‘That works too I guess.’ Butch said with a shrug.

   ‘Sit him up Butch and make sure he doesn’t run off.’ I said.

  Butch sat Stephen’s lifeless body up; Sebastian grabbed his head and stood in front of his body. Gloria pulled her large knife from her belt; I could see she was ready for some pay back.

  Sebastian placed Stephen’s head back on his shoulders, with a jerk Stephen came back to life.

   ‘Hello.’ I said with a smile.

  Stephen looked around at Sebastian and myself, his situation started to dawn on him when he saw Gloria standing there behind us with her knife in her hand.

   ‘We won?’ he asked in a voice full of fear.

   ‘Yes, we did. But not you, you lost.’ I answered.

   ‘You lost bad.’ Sebastian said after me.

   ’Wait, I didn’t mean…’

  Before Stephen could finish what he was saying Gloria with all her speed and brutality slashed Stephen’s face with her knife. The blade chopped through Stephen’s mouth opening up both his cheeks.

  Stephen howled in pain from the slash across his face.

   ’You Heckle; you should have learned your lesson back when we first came to Spain. You know what that lesson was?’ I asked.

   ‘No!’ he said still in pain.

   ‘You. Don’t. Screw. With. Me!’ I said slapping him in the face with each word from my lesson.

   ‘Please!’ Stephen shouted.

  From around the camp large groups of vampires started forming around the pavilion. Stephen looked to them for help, but got nothing but unsympathetic eyes in return.

   ‘Please what? You think they’re going to help you Heckle?’ I asked condescendingly.

   ‘They’re not going to help you.’ Sebastian added, ‘You betrayed the one who routed the Queen Mother. What makes you think they’ll help you?’ Stephen looked at the ground in despair.

   ‘Your life is forfeit Stephen. Now what we would like to know is why you attacked Gloria.’ I asked standing over him.

  When Stephen did not answer Butch struck him hard on his head with the back of his hand, ‘I suggest you answer him little man.’

   ’I don’t know.’ Stephen said shaking his head still looking at the ground.

  I knelt down and lifted Stephen’s chin and looked him in the eyes, ’You will answer me. You will tell me what I want to know or I’ll have Gloria there cut you apart piece by piece and make you watch as I feed your parts to Frank. You know who Frank is right?’

  Stephen looked around at the large crowd that had gathered. It looked like the entire army was not watching his interrogation.

   ’Please Conner I don’t know why we were ordered to kill Gloria. Horatio told me and Rudy that once the fighting starts we were suppose to find her and kill her. That’s the truth.’

   Emma led frank under the pavilion; he sat down right next to Stephen. Frank had a large goofy smile on his face that made him look more insane then I could ever remember seeing. Frank opened and snapped his jaws shut at Stephen. Stephen tried to lean away from Frank but Butch held him firm.

   ‘Frank’s pretty hungry Heckle, he will eat you alive you know.’

   ‘Please Conner I beg of you, I don’t why Horatio wanted to kill Gloria.’

   ‘Did Roberto order it?’

   ‘I wouldn’t know. I’ve always received my orders from Horatio, if Roberto wanted Gloria dead there would be no way for me to know that.’ I stood up an looked at Sebastian.

   ‘He’s lying.’ Sebastian said without emotions.

   ‘Emma, grab his arm.’ I said.

  Emma reached down and pulled Stephen’s arm up with a little help from Butch.

   ‘Go ahead Frank eat his hand.’

   Frank bounced up and down in excitement at the thought of eating.

   ‘No! Please! Conner I’m telling you the truth.’

   ‘Stop Frank.’ Frank whined at not being allowed to eat. 

   ‘And John Barleycorn accused us Southerners of being cannibals.’ mumbled someone.

   ’Stephen, here’s the deal. Gloria was attacked by you, Rudy and Horatio. The three of you are servants of Roberto; you were beheaded in the middle of that attack. Horatio and your buddy ran off when you were caught trying to kill her and Roberto is missing. And you expect me to believe you were only following Horatio’s orders?’

   ‘I don’t know why Conner, please you have to believe me. I didn’t want to hurt Gloria but…’

   ‘But you did Stephen, you did. When were you given this order?’

   ‘Last night.’ Stephen quickly answered.

   ’And yet you said nothing to me or anyone else about it. So where do your loyalties lay? Stephen did not answer me, ’If you felt what you were ordered to do something that was wrong why did you go through with it? You could have told me. But you didn’t Stephen, you didn’t. So you know what that tells me? That tells me that your loyalties lie with following Roberto’s orders.’

   ’I don’t know if the order came from Roberto Conner, Please you have to believe me.’ Stephen pleaded.

   ’You don’t know if the order to kill Gloria came from Roberto?’

   ’No, please believe me.’

   ’Oh I do, I do believe you Stephen.’ Stephen sighed in relief, ’But that does not help you.’

  Stephen quickly looked at me, ’See if you followed an order to attack Gloria without knowing if Roberto gave the order, that tells me where your true loyalties lie.’

   ‘They lie with killing the Queen Mother Conner!’ Stephen pleaded.

   ‘No, sadly they don’t. You, followed, willing an order that would point to treachery from your master. Knowing that, you did not hesitate. So you know what that tells me?’

   ‘No.’ Stephan said sadly shaking his head as he looked to towards the ground.

   ‘They point to Horatio. That’s where your true loyalties lie Stephen, and if there with Horatio lies your true loyalties, I can never trust you. Because Horatio tried to kill my wife.’

  I looked at Butch standing behind Stephen, when our eyes met I made a slashing motion across my neck with my thumb. Butch nodded and raised his axe, everyone quickly backed away from Stephen. Seeing everyone moving away Stephen looked up just in time to take Butch’s axe across his neck.

  I picked up Stephen’s head and tossed it to Sebastian, ‘Burn it, feed the body to Frank. What he doesn’t eat, burn.’

  I walked out into the crowd of vampires; Sebastian and Gloria were right beside me. I spent several moments looking into the eyes of the soldiers that surrounded me. Some could meet my gaze; others could not and quickly looked away.

   ‘The Queen had friends on the Council, did you know that?’ I asked loudly, ‘They conspired against us, those that willing risked their lives. They conspired against you, all your sacrifices. It meant nothing to them! They called you here to this place, to fight a war against a Queen that they betrayed four thousand years ago. They used you to defend themselves against that revenge, did you know that?

   ‘And now they’ve abandoned you, where are they? Where are your masters? Hephaistion is here. Roberto was here, but now on the verge of victory he betrayed and deserted us!’

  A grumble went through the army, ‘Some of you perhaps new of these betrayals.’

  Some shouts to the contrary broke out within the army, ’Why do you deny it? You know it is true? Do you think that the Ancients acted alone?’ growls rumbled through the army.

   ’That’s fine if you sided with the Queen, she lost. Now what will you do? Your masters betrayed you and left you, your hope in the Queen is over. Her army destroyed and routed, and now you’re left with your enemies.

   ’Here in a moment I shall set out after the Queen Mother, when I find here I plan on killing her. Who are the Ancients that we need them? You see where their loyalties lie, with themselves.’

   ’To hell with the Ancients Conner, we’re with you!’ someone shouted. The army erupted in cheers in agreement.

   ’Good!’ I shouted, ’Line up in your companies, leave all that crap that the Ancients made you bring and we’ll move out as soon as you’re lined up!’

  The army went crazy at the idea of pursuing the Queen Mother without the lead of the Council. The army quickly knocked down all of the tents and pavilions in the camp and formed up in their five companies.

   Hephaistion walked up to me and smiled; ’Well now it looks like we traded a queen for a king.’

   ’I ain’t no one’s king Hephaistion.’

   ’Oh I beg to differ, to hell with the Ancients Conner, we’re with you? Sounds like we we’re just over thrown and replaced by the applause of the vampire subjects.’

   ’That’s the difference between me and you Hephaistion, you seen them as subjects to further your own ambitions. I see them as people.’

   ’Sure like you really would have chased after the Queen without them.’

   ’You think so? Sebastian, find our people. Get John to find the Queen’s trail, as soon as he does we’re moving out.’

  Sebastian nodded and took off into the mayhem that was the Council’s army.

   ’If you want to come with us Hephaistion, I’m more than willing to have you, but you will not be the head of the army.’

   ’Oh I wouldn’t miss it. I can’t wait to see the historic hunt of the Queen Mother by the Emperor Conner.’

  John found the Queen’s trail running south from the battle field, how he was able to find it was beyond me. But Hephaistion once shown the trail agreed that it was her. Also we found Roberto’s trail with the Queen Mother, a fact that greatly distressed Hephaistion.

  Once Sebastian gathered my Northerners, we headed after the Queen. The army seeing me leave quickly organized themselves and followed me. I did not run at the head of the army, Hephaistion did. My Northerners ran in two single files, then Hephaistion ran at the head of the Council’s column. John set a pace at the absolute fastest I could run, the army had a horrible time keeping the pace. With so many vampires running inline, it caused a horrendous accordion effect within the formation.

  Loud snarls and growls went ramped through the formation behind us for the first few hours of pursuit of the Queen Mother. But eventually the pace evened out and the accordion effect subsided and we made good time as a group running down the Queen.

   From behind I could her Hephaistion giving orders to the army to kick out groups out on the flanks to protect the rapidly moving column. He also set a rear guard to run behind us. Though the army said to hell with the Ancients, they still followed Hephaistion’s orders without question. As the sun started to set Hephaistion ran up next to Sebastian and myself with several other soldiers, he set them up front to protect John as he followed the Queen Mother‘s scent.

   ’We only collected about a hundred weapons off the battlefield. This means that the Queen escaped with several hundred of her followers.’

   ’Well, for once the good guys outnumber the bad guys.’ I said cheerfully.

   ’Conner I would really like you to trust me.’

   ’Yeah like that’s going to happen.’ Sebastian said sarcastically, ’You just don’t want Conner to kill you now that he controls the army.’

   ’Yeah, there’s a bit of truth to that. But also people need allies too Sebastian.’

   ’There’s nothing you could do or say that would make me trust you Hephaistion.’

   ’Really, what if I told you who blew up your house?’

   ’How would that make me trust you? All that would do is prove that you’re a rat.’

  Hephaistion laughed and said, ’Well if you knew who blew up your house I bet you would trust me more than you do now.’

   ’I doubt it.’ I said without looking at him.

   ’Really? What if I told you I’m the one who blew up your house?’

   I stopped dead in my tracks hearing Hephaistion’s confession; the sudden stop caused the huge pile up behind me.

   ’Oh s**t.’ I said watching that collisions taking place behind me as the army kept crashing forwards into the stopped vampires in front of them. I quickly started running again trying to get the column going. There was a steady stream of cussing and growling as the column started forward.

  Once everything was back to normal I turned to Hephaistion, ’You blew up my house?’

   ’Yes I did.’

  I grabbed Hephaistion by the arm and pulled him out from the formation and stopped. Sebastian and Gloria stopped also. John seeing that we pulled out and stopped slowed his pace to about half.

   ’You blew up my house!’ I said turning grey, ’You almost killed us!’

   ’I didn’t almost kill you so relax.’

  Gloria pulled her knife and stepped towards Hephaistion, ’You did too almost kill us.’

   ’Would you all relax for a minute and let me explain.’

   ’I’m about to kill you Hephaistion.’ I growled.

   ’I didn’t try to kill you; I just wanted you to think I was.’

   ’Oh you made me think that we almost died, now we’re going to play the same game with you.’

   ’Look Conner I did not try to kill you, the order I gave as soon as you left for the Council, plant the bomb and wait till you came back.’

   ’Roberto was going to kill me before the Council.’

   ’I know that, I told Roberto that he wouldn’t be able to kill you, I told them all that they wouldn’t be able to kill you. So when you did what you did it made it all the more perfect.’

   ’So why did you blow up my house?’

   ’I figured you would blame Cline and that it would piss you off enough for you to go after him.’

   ’You blew up my house so I would go after Cline.’

   ’Yeah, turned out I was right too. Conner the stalemate that the Council has been in has made me about crazy, the shadow of the East needed to be dealt with. The Council’s refusal to deal with them bothered me beyond belief. Once you came along, you gave me hope that things could change.’

   ’So now I’m your hero.’

   ’Something like that.’ Hephaistion joked, ’Look, the reason I told you about the house is because I’m tired of not having an ally to count on. I figured that if I came clean you would be able to trust me a little more.’

   ’Well you thought wrong.’ I snapped.

   ’Well that’s to bad, you know I trust you completely right?’

  I found that hard to believe, ’Right.’

   ’I do, Conner if you were so motivated you could become a high king of the vampire world. The Council’s scattered, you command the loyalty of the army. Do you think I would trust anyone else to give it all up once the Queen Mother’s dead? Asked Sebastian, he’ll tell you that I’m right. I know I wouldn’t trust him in your shoes, he wouldn’t pass up the crown you could take.’

  I looked at Sebastian, in typical Sebastian fashion he just shrugged.

   ’See? Don’t worry; when this is all over I’ll make sure that you and Gloria are taken care of. All of your stuff will be replaced.’

   ’What about my house you a*s!’ Gloria snapped, ’How are you going to replace that?’

   ’I won’t, but I promise that you’ll get something better than your old house back in the New World.’

   ’Yeah okay.’ Gloria said sarcastically.

   ’You will, ask Conner what I told him.’

  Gloria looked at me not understanding what he was talking about.

   ’What is he talking about?’ she asked.

   ’Nothing. Nothing you’ll want to hear.’ I said.

   ’Why don’t you let me be the judge of that.’

  When I did not answer her she looked at Hephaistion for the answer.

   ’Conner’s probably going to sit in Cline’s seat on the Council after this is over with.’

   ’Probably nothing, I don’t want nothing to do with that head ache.’

   ’Conner you may not have a choice, if you don’t there’ll be civil war, you know that.’

   ’Hephaistion that’s not my problem.’

   ’It is your problem, if you don’t sit on the Council the army will rebel and they‘ll make you their king. That I’ll promise you, I’ll make sure that happens.’

  I growled at Hephaistion.

  ’Conner, the army far away and you’re not so fast. We might want to get going here soon.’ Sebastian said.

  I looked at Sebastian, then off in the distance at the army running towards the horizon.

   ’Damn, come on.’

  We turned and chased after them.

  It took close to an hour to catch the army; John had only slowed enough that in time I would be able to catch back up. It took almost a second hour to get back up to the front of the line. The army had broken its rank to only three, so it was spread out over a mile, I wouldn’t have thought that it would have taken so long to get back to the front but I could see that once we were back with them, John had picked up the pace. I had to run at almost a dead sprint to get back up to the front. 

  On the second day of pursuing the Queen Mother we came across some unpronounceable outlining town in central Russia. The little town supported the farming community that we had been traveling across.

  The Queen and her fugitives had murdered the entire town. Some of the dead had not even been drained of their blood, just killed for the sake of not leaving anyone for us. Walking up the main road through the town I was horrified at the carnage that the Queen Mother had left. The number of dead just in the middle of the town had to be several hundred.

   Some of the vampires in our army started ripping some of the limbs off of the corpses for something to eat, as disgusting as it was to see I did not stop them. The Council’s army had not had the luxury of feeding on the wild life like we had done, so who knows how long it had been since they had eaten last.

  Gloria walked beside me with her hand over her mouth like she was trying to stop from crying.

   ’How could they had done this?’

   ’I don’t know.’ was all I could manage to say looking at all the death.

  Looking down the street I could see Frank handling something, ’Emma go see what Frank has will you?’

   ’Okay Conner.’ Emma ran down to where Frank was standing.

   ’Sebastian, what the hell?’ I asked.

   ’She being chased, she doesn’t want to leave us anything. This won’t be the last time we see this. The Queen Mother will avoid all major cities, and basically any town she comes in contact with will be massacred.’

   ’And I thought Cline was bad.’ I mumbled to myself.

   ’You should have see the Queen Mother and Cline together.’

   ’No thank you.’ Gloria said from behind her hand.

  Emma came walking back towards us carrying something in her arms. Frank whined as he walked next to Emma, his attention was fixed completely on what Emma was carrying.

   ’Now what in the world?’ I said watching them come back to us.

  Sebastian, Gloria and I heard the same thing at the same time.

   ’Oh no.’ Gloria said.

  Sebastian just frowned, I just shook my head.

   ’Oh Conner what are we going to do?’

   ’What do you mean what are we going to do? What can we do?’

  Emma brought the small child up to us; she had a look of concern on her face. Gloria walked up to Emma and pulled the blanket that the child was wrapped in back from the it’s small face.

   ’Oh Conner, it’s a little boy.’

   ’So? What the hell can we do about it?’ I said getting angry at the horridness of the lone child.

   ’Conner we can’t leave him? He so small, he’ll die out here all by himself.’

   ’Oh and taking him with us as we chase the Queen Mother is a good idea?’

   ’Well we can’t just leave him here Conner!’ Gloria said getting angry.

   ’Look it isn’t that I want to leave the human child here, but we can’t take him with us after the Queen, and what town will we could we drop him off in? Sebastian said that we’ll be lucky to find someone alive till we catch up to her. And until then we’ll carry him through all the winter he could handle? I don’t think so.’

   ’We’re not leaving him here to die Conner.’ Gloria growled.

   ’Gloria I want you to really think about this, how will we feed him? How will we keep him warm?’

   ’I don’t know we’ll figure something out.’

  I took a step towards Gloria and Emma, ’We’re not taking him, we can’t.’

  Frank jumped quickly in front of me and growled, ’Get out of the way Frank.’

  Frank bared his teeth at me, venom dripped onto the ground as he growled.

   ’Conner let it go, the damn kid will freeze tonight as we run.’ Sebastian said pulling me back from Frank.

   ’How old do you think he is Gloria?’ Emma asked.

   ’I don’t know, two or three I think. I’m willing to bet closer to three though.’

   ’How do you think he’s survived out here?’

   ’I don’t know Emma.’ Gloria said touching the boy’s face, ’He’s so cold. Frank find him another blanket.’ Frank grunted and ran off into one of the nearby buildings and quickly returned.

   ’Oh, it’s a little boy!’ Tabitha said running up to Gloria and Emma.

   ‘Hey John.’ I said annoyed at the whole kid thing.

   ’Hey.’

   ’How long ago do you think they were here?

   ’Not long a couple of hours maybe. Someone of the bodies are still pretty fresh. I’m figuring the time it took to burn the dead from the Battle of the Tundra, getting the truth out of Stephen and getting on our way is the amount of time between us.’

   ’So three hours maybe?’ I asked.

   ’I would say about that.’    

   ’I’m going to go find some food for him, I know he has to be hungry, poor little guy.’ Tabitha said running off.

   ’Unbelievable.’ I said shaking my head.

   ’Do you want me to just kill him Conner?’ Sebastian asked.

  Instantly Gloria and Emma snarled at Sebastian an drew their weapons. Emma quickly gave the boy to Frank; the boy started crying from being startled at Emma’s sudden drawing of her sword. Frank stood behind the two women growling at me and Sebastian.

   ’Something tells me that would be a bad idea.’ I said to Sebastian.

   ’I was kidding you guys calm down.’ Sebastian said to Gloria and Emma.

   ’Some things aren’t funny Sebastian!’ snapped Gloria.

  I let the army cool their heels for a time here in the butchered town. I really didn’t care if they needed the rest, but the bodies that were left needed to be destroyed. So whatever was not eaten was burned.

  The little boy became almost like a pet to the army, news spread quickly that the child had been found and that Emma and Gloria had adopted him. One of the soldiers had found some kind of heating blanket that was oil stained and dirty, it ran off of battery power so the blanket was given to Tabitha for the child.

   Tabitha had become the child’s liaison to the army, so it did not take long for Gloria, Emma, Frank and Tabitha to be burdened with supplies for the child they were now calling Gabriel.

   After spending about an hour destroying the town and burning it with fire, we started back after the Queen Mother. Gloria, Emma and Tabitha were never more than an arm’s reach of Frank who to my surprised carried the boy in rapped in the electric blanket and was bundled up in a sleeping bag. The child did not fuss at being carried by Frank, but the whole ordeal with the child still boggled my mind.

  As we ran we would occasionally find a slaughtered family in a car or a field of live stalk destroyed as we headed south. During the night we came across another destroyed town with its residences murdered.

  I had told John not to stop, I made a mistake destroying the evidence of a large vampire attack last time, we lost valuable time cleaning up the Queen Mother’s mess, I could only hope that the Queen’s rampage through the town helped us make up that time that we lost.

  John had said that he did not think we had gained on her any, but at best we had made up the time we had lost in little boy Gabriel’s home town. I had asked where he thought we were and to my surprise John had said he thought we were somewhere near Mongolia. I shook my head at the thought, Mongolia out of all places.

  As the sun came up on the third day of chasing the Queen I dropped back to talk to Hephaistion.

   ’What do you think happen to Roberto?’

  Hephaistion did not answer at first, but with dread he said, ’I don’t know.’

   ’Do you think he abandoned us for the Queen Mother, helped her escape?’

   ’I’ve often wondered if he did, but in truth I doubt it.’

   ’Why?’ I wondered.

   ’Because of what we did to her. I have a hard time believing that she would have forgiven him enough after all these years to except his help.

   ’Oh.’

   ’The Queen Mother does not get over a grudge. You heard the tale of how the Queen Mother came about?’

   ’Yes. Horatio told me back when I came to Spain the first time.’

   ’So you can see why I doubt the Queen would welcome Roberto back with open arms.’

   ’Yes. But I what I can’t figure out, is where in the world Roberto ran off too.’

   ’The same question vexes me also. If I wasn’t concerned that the end of the Council would mean complete disaster I could care less if I never saw a single one of those pompous blowhards. But Roberto on the other hand Conner, he like a brother. He turned on the Queen mostly because I did, granted he wanted the power that it would naturally bring. But he went along with what happened because he would not leave me to fight the Queen alone.’

  Hearing that one of the Ancients cared for someone or something other then themselves seems weird or unnatural.

   ’You might find this hard to believe Conner, but the only reason Roberto stood with us against the Queen a few days ago was because I would not let you stand alone.’

   ’You really think Roberto’s innocent in the attack against Gloria?’

   ’In my heart yes. But I cannot fathom Horatio acting alone.’

   ’Another Ancient maybe?’ I asked.

   ’Possibly.’

   ’Cline?’

   ’Cline’s dead Conner, remember you killed him.’

   ’I’m mean before you a*s.’

   ’Maybe,’ laughed Hephaistion.’ ’But Cline wanted you and Gloria alive remember.’

   ’So that wasn’t bullshit that Roberto told me about that?’

   ’No, Cline wanted you alive more than anyone. As hard as that is to believe. It was Roberto that wanted you dead the most. Why do you think I blew up your house?’

   ’I’m so confused.’ I said scratching my head.

   Hephaistion laughed, ’Don’t worry Conner in time it will all make sense. After you tore up Augustus Cline wanted you as an ally, Roberto feared that. He tried to manipulate you with the whole Governorship, but in truth he wanted you dead.’

   ’Yeah but the Council.’

   ’The Council was nothing more than an act. If I didn’t blow up your house Cline would have sent you a message in secret.’

   ’I would have told him to piss off.’

   ’Yeah but in time you would have accepted.’

   ’I doubt that.’

   ’Well I wasn’t going to chance it.’

   ’So you blew up my house knowing I would blame Cline.’

   ’Yes.’

   ’Was that why he was so undefended when we attacked?’

   ’Cline knew nothing of your house being blown up. He had no reason to be afraid of anything. Now if he found out that your house had gotten blown up, you would have walked right into Cline’s full guard.’

   ’I don’t understand the point of all of this? Why wouldn’t you all just leave me in peace?’

   ’Because they’re bored Conner.’ Sebastian said over his shoulder at me, ’Why do you think the Council starts human wars within their and other Ancient’s territory, because they’re bored.’

  I looked at Hephaistion after Sebastian finished his explanation. 

   ’Is that true?’ I asked.

   ’For the most part. There are certain rules that we play by. Horatio isn’t playing by them. The Queen’s playing by her own rules, and I’m afraid Roberto is in the thick of it now because of those new rules. I so glad I’ve met you Conner; life hasn’t been this interesting since the birth of the Christian religion. Wouldn’t you agree Sebastian?’

  Sebastian did not answer Hephaistion; he just looked back at us and went back to his own thoughts. The Queen Mother has always hunted Sebastian; I hope that whatever demons tormented him he would vanquish after this was over.

   ’Conner can I ask you something?’

   ’Sure.’

   ’What on earth are you going to do with that child, he doesn’t even smell appetizing.’

   ’I don’t know Hephaistion.’ I said annoyed having the child brought to the forefront of my mind again.

   ‘I do not envy you Conner. You will be the first vampire to grow old.’ Hephaistion laughed loudly.

  I scowled at Hephaistion which only made him laugh again.

    As the sun was setting in the west, we came across the several dead vampires.

   ‘Well now, looks like the Queen is having some trouble with some of her people.’ Hephaistion said as we ran by them.

   ‘Burn them!’ Hephaistion said over his shoulder as we ran. You know what sucks when vampire fight battles against each other Conner?’

   ‘No.’

   ‘When two vampire armies meet one side is completely destroyed and the other is left without any casualties. Once the fighting is over the winning side puts all their people back together again.’

   ‘Yeah.’ I said.

   ‘It wasn’t always that way was it Sebastian?’ Hephaistion said.

   ‘No.’

  Hephaistion smiled. ‘Sebastian doesn’t like us Ancients to much. Tell Conner what the Queen used to do the ones that fell in battle in the past.’

   ‘She would burn them.’ Sebastian said solemnly.

   ’That was one of the things Sebastian would have to do; he would have to burn our dead. Some of those that he burned were dear to him, weren’t they Sebastian?’ Sebastian did not answer Hephaistion.

   ‘Don’t look at me like that Conner, if you knew Sebastian, really knew him you would feel no pity for him.’

   ‘Sebastian has become my friend Hephaistion, what he’s done in the past is in the past.’

   ’Ask Sebastian what he’s done to friends in the past, and see if he still is your friend. He’ll answer you if you ask him you know.’

   ’I have no doubt that Sebastian is a monster Hephaistion. But out of all the vampires from Europe, he is the only one that hasn’t tried to kill me.’

   ‘He hasn’t yet.’

   ‘Why do you think the Queen killed those vampires?’ I asked changing the subject.

   ‘It’s hard to tell. They could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time; they could decided that they weren’t going to follow her anymore. It could have been just as simple as she being angry at the routing of her army.’

  As the sun came up the trail veered to the west. There was still snow on the ground, looking at it made me laugh. When I was in the army as a human we were always were outside when the weather was bad, and now as a vampire I basically had spent my second winter outside in the cold. In the western sky I could see black clouds, looks like the kid’s going to be wet.

   Great. I thought to myself, not only did we have to bring a kid with us, but now we’re going to get to listen to a cold wet kid crying all damn day.

   ‘Here Frank.’ Tabitha said handing Frank a folded bundle.

   ‘He’s not going to be able to get that thing over him while he’s hold Gabriel Tabs,’ Gloria said.

  Tabitha opened the bundle and to my surprise was an old army poncho. Tabitha and Gloria ran a little in front of Frank and held the poncho out like a sail; Frank ran with his head down and ran right into the poncho. His head slid right into it, the poncho once let go of rapped completely covered the boy and Frank. I smile a bit that they were able put the poncho over Frank without slowing or breaking stride.

  Not long after Frank and the boy were covered the half frozen rain started to fall.

   ‘Great.’ I grumbled to myself.

   ‘It’s not like we’re going to get cold Conner.’ Hephaistion said to me.

   ‘I hate the rain. I have ever since I was in the army. Stupid army, hey it’s going to rain lets sleep outside for a week.’ I said giving the rain a thumbs down.

   ‘You were in the army as a human Conner?’ Hephaistion asked me.

   ‘Yes.’

   ‘Were you a captain or something?’

   ‘No, just a good old foot soldier, who did what he was told.’

   ‘Really? I would have thought you would have been on officer. You seem like a natural commander. I would have made you a captain over a hundred men easy.’

   ‘The American Army doesn’t work that way. You have to go to school to become an officer, very similar to the old times when rank was passed down.’

   ‘The old times,‘ Hephaistion laughed at my comment, ‘Idiot humans will never change. They did that when I was young and they still do it now. It’s a good thing that they do that, if they made the best fighters officers imagine what an army would be like if it was made up that way.’

   ’Imagine that.’ I said back.

   ’So what did you do before you became a vampire?’ Hephaistion asked.

   ’Went to school full time.’

  Hephaistion laughed hard at my answer, ’What, what the hell’s so funny about that?’

   ’Conner has anyone told you you’re about the most grumpiest vampire I have ever know outside of Sebastian, no wonder you two get along so good.

  I scowled at Hephaistion which in turn made him laugh again, ’You as a student, as an academic you must have been bored to death.’

   ’I wasn’t that bad Hephaistion, after the army it was kind of nice.’  

   ‘Lie to me Conner I don’t care,‘ Hephaistion laughed, ‘John Barleycorn, where the hell are we going?’ he yelled up past my Northerners.

   ‘Looking for a place to bury your ugly face!’ John snapped.

  Hephaistion laughed at John’s anger, ‘You know Conner your grouchiness is contagious.’

   ‘John doesn’t care for war like you do Hephaistion.’

   ‘Nor like you do Lord Conner.’

   ‘I don’t care for war, but for the life of me I can’t stay out of them. Do you know how old I am Hephaistion?’

   ‘No.’

   ‘I’m thirty four.’

   ‘And this isn’t your first war is it?’

   ‘No, it’s my second.

   ‘Second war in less the twenty years, and you say you don’t like war.’

   ‘I don’t.’

   ‘Really? Then why are you fighting your second? John Barleycorn is old for a vampire, and this is his first. Isn’t John.’

   ‘Get bent Hephaistion.’

  Snickering broke out around us at John’s comment, ‘Your friend’s in a bad mood.’

   ‘That because John doesn’t like dealing with all of this Hephaistion.’ I explained.

   ‘I know. He’ll be alright in the end.’

  Hephaistion was quiet for a time, ‘I’m willing to bet the Queen’s heading towards southwest Asia.’

   ‘That’s what I’m thinking.’ John said from the front.

  I as fast as I could I tried to catch up to John up front. Hephaistion followed me, Sebastian followed Hephaistion. By the time we got to where John was the Northerners had found me trying to catch John quite comical.

   ‘You Conner have got to be the slowest vampire I have ever seen.’ Hephaistion joked as we fell in beside John.

    As the sun set on the third day of pursuing the Queen Mother we came across another slaughtered village, we stopped to take a quick look around.

   ‘Where are we?’ I asked no one particular.

   ‘Afghanistan I think.’ Hephaistion said turning of a corpse with his toe, ’He looks Afghani.’ 

   ‘Conner, we’re an hour tops behind the Queen Mother.’ John nervously said running up to us.

   ‘How can you tell?’ I asked looking around the village.

   ‘Not all the villagers were killed, some were scattered. She must have gotten word that we were so close and abandon the raid here.’

   ‘Damn.‘ I said looking up into the rain as the sun was almost set behind the clouds.

   ‘These poor people.’ Gloria said looking around.

  I looked quickly at Gloria and looked at John, ‘Do you have her trail still?’

   ‘Yes.’

   ‘Go!’ I said to John.

  John quickly turned and ran after the Queen Mother. Hephaistion seeing that we were off again yelled, ‘Let’s go everyone, we’ve got her!’

  The army cheered and formed up to follow John and the Northerner’s lead.

 Hephaistion, Sebastian and myself ran with John down the Queen’s trail, Emma after a few minute was beside Sebastian with her sword drawn. She had left her pack that she had been carrying with the human child’s belonging with little Eric.

   ‘Hephaistion, do you think the Queen Mother brought all of her soldiers to the tundra?’ I asked.

   ‘I would think so.’

   ‘How many fugitives to you think she has with her?’

   ‘Several hundred maybe, but they will all be armed.’

   ‘I’m not worried about that, my concern is that she’s has a sizable force that she left behind that she’s trying to get back too.’

   ‘I doubt it Conner.’

   ‘We only had some seven hundred people Hephaistion.’

   ‘She didn’t know that. She may have left a small garrison back in whatever hole she climbed out of, but they would have had to be someone she could have trusted so they didn’t run off at the first chance. But then again she wouldn’t have gone to battle against us without her best troops. She knows better than to come after us with just conscripts.’

   ’You don’t think she made a small force before she left?’

   ’I see what you’re getting at Conner, how would she had kept them around without somewhat of a large garrison to watch and train them?’

   ’Yeah your probably right.’

   ’She’s doing what you did Conner, running to find someplace that suit’s a good defense. Which I’m willing to bet is the hole that she climbed out of.’

   ‘I wonder where that will be?’ I asked myself out loud.

   ‘That’s easy, Persia. When Alexander the Great conquered Persia they steered up a vampire hornets’ nest, the vampires weren’t organized, but he asked the Council to help rid his new empire of all the renegade vampires. Which we did, now I see that the Queen Mother was trying to build a new army out here and he got in the way.’

   ‘That was awfully nice of him.’ John said sarcastically.

  As the sun rose on the fourth day we had started to climbing some mountain range. Around noontime Sebastian pointed off to the north, ’I’m willing to bet what that body of water is off in the distance is.’

   Looking hard out to my right I could just make out a large body of water.

   ’I bet I know what it is too.’ John said.

   ’What?’ I asked not having the slightest clue.

   ’The Caspian Sea.’

   ’Where the hell is that at?’

  Sebastian point back to our right, ’Right out there.’

   ’Ha, ha, ha funny man.’ I said to Sebastian.

   ’The Caspian Sea you meat head is sits on the northern border of Iran.’ Sebastian explained.

   ’Iran? Are you kidding me?’ I said to myself, ’I started in Washington State, ran to South America. Back up to the east coast of the States, across the damn Atlantic Ocean to Africa. From there up to Ireland, over to Scotland. Then to France, then we almost crossed all of Russia. Now we’re come down through Mongolia, I’m sure part of China. Then across Afghanistan to Iran?’

   ’Conner you sure complain a lot.’ Hephaistion laughed, ’Sebastian, how do you put up with him?’ 

   ‘I can smell them I think.’ John said out of nowhere.

   ‘What?’

   ‘I think I can smell them in the air. Every time the wind changes and blows out of the west I think I can smell them.’

   ‘You sure it isn’t the trail?’ Hephaistion asked.

   ‘No I’m not sure. But I’ve been smelling the same smell for four days, and when the wind changes I get something different.’

   ‘I can’t smell anything.’ Hephaistion said.

   ‘Then get your fingers out of your nose.’ John snapped.

  As the day grew old we all became anxious, we all could smell the Queen’s group. John believed we were no more than a few miles behind her. The mountains became more rugged as we traveled west. Off to our right we could see the Caspian Sea, out of all the places to fight a war I thought to myself. I always figured I would fight here in Iran, but never did I think I would be fighting vampires here.

   ’Look!’ John shouted point ahead.

  There going over the next ridgeline, was the Queen and her fugitives.

   ’We got her.’ Hephaistion said.

   ’Go John, don’t wait for me! I’ll catch up!’

  I ran for everything I was worth, but without much effort John started to pull away from me. The Northerners stayed with me but a large part of the army followed John. I figured we would be in a fight here within the hour.

  I was towards the back of the formation when we heard the fighting start.

   ‘Damn it!’ I said trying to catch up, Hephaistion had stayed with John. I had no idea what was going on up front, but it did not take long for me to see the first victims of the fugitives. Those of the army that stayed with me made sure the heads of the fallen were kicked well clear of the bodies. Out of nowhere Pablo came flying towards me.

   ‘Conner you need to hurry!’ Pablo said spinning around next to me.

   ‘Pablo what the hell are you doing here?’

   ‘Horatio, we’ve chased him and a few others since the battle. We had just about over taken them and we ran right smack into the damn Queen. Though there was only the six of us we attacked, we figured at the rate they were moving you all had to be right on their heels. I was right, almost immediately after we attacked John Barleycorn and Hephaistion came out of nowhere. I never thought I would be happy to see John.’

   ’Pablo did you see Horatio?’

   ’Yes he’s with the Queen Mother.’

   ’That doesn’t make any sense. What about Roberto?’

   ’I didn’t see him, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t with her.’

  The running battle was just what the army needed; they were thinning out what was left of the Queen Mother’s army. The Queen turned up into the mountains, it wouldn’t be long till she would have to turn and fight. I had caught back up to the front of the pursuit; the chase had slowed considerably as we climbed up the mountain side. We had to be on the watch for car size boulders being thrown down at us. Nothing like acting like a billy goat as someone threw boulders at you.