FicWad

Chapter 9



Jean-Claude sat and ate as he listened carefully to the details. He now did not know what to think. Anjou then said, "Could they be a separate foe?"

"I don't think so,"said Mickey, "I would have detected that the last time they were in the restaurant."

"Then just what, in the name of common sense, would werewolves from Romania want here?" pondered Jean-Claude.

He shoveled down the last of supper and went back to the files. Something struck him as funny. There were papers in there in a language that he had never seen. He had tested it against things on the internet, but that had not given a lead in either known or dead languages. However, there were other papers detailing common business not uncommon to what they had seen amongst the houses they had vanquished. Yet, whoever it was that was sending these messages were being enigmatic about the whole thing. They seemed to not want to reveal who they were. He picked up the glyph again and stared at it. The odd thing about it was that, though it was done in the glyph styles of the houses-simplistic and yet unique-it did seem to have the feel of royal heraldry. He then went back to his computer as the others watched him and followed him as he analyzed, wanting to hear what he had found. He brought up a search engine and started to look for old Romanian crests and heraldry through history. After about 20 minutes of looking, and the others doing the same, having an idea where he was going with it, he hit upon one that looked the closest to it, but barely, and he stared at both the design and the name. Some of the writing also seemed to match what he had seen in the files, and it was indeed from the Middle Ages. He then printed it up and decided to see if he could jog Chiyuki's mind, and Ryuu's, considering that she was entertaining him that night.



Chiyuki was explaining all that was going on with Keelin, and not just her coming out. It seemed at times that you didn't know to whom you talked. It seems like there were three people and not one. Ryuu ruled out multiple personality disorder, considering that Keelin had not seen anything as traumatic as to cause her to fragment her mind. This was when there was a knock at the door and Ren answered. "Hey bro," he tried to say, but Jean-Claude brushed by and went right up to the couch and laid out the sheets before them. He then asked,"You've been around for a long while; what do you make of this medieval writing and that glyph, as well as that heraldry?"

"Hmm...doesn't look much familiar," Chiyuki said, moving over to it, and scrunching her eyes to see it. Ryuu then spoke up and said, "It's familiar."

Jean-Claude, to confirm his suspicions said, "From what I read here, it's an old house that goes back to Romania itself, and I think you can guess which one. When the 12 houses that we knew, and destroyed, existed, sometimes people would pull up defunct glyphs like this when they thought they could form their own thing, even though the other 12 houses were quick to put a stop to them."

Chiyuki nodded, and said "I follow."

"What I'm wondering is if this new movement is just borrowing the glyph, or if there is indeed aRomanian connection," stated Jean-Claude, "If so...well...I wonder..."

He let the statement dangle; hoping someone else could say something. Chiyuki then added,"I would bank on it being a borrowed glyph, but you can never be sure these days."

Jean-Claude responded, "Well, if it is, we need merely to shut it down. If not, then there is a MUCH bigger hand in this, and one that makes me actually a bit frightened. I always hoped that HE was a legend. If not...that is the last vampire on earth with whom I would want to tangle!"

"Who?" she thought, thinking, if not a bit arrogantly, that she or Ryuu would be that vampire. However, by the heraldry, Ryuu already knew where this was going, and he said,"Well, who's the granddaddy of them all in legend, books, song, movies?"

Chiyuki blinked and said, snickering, "Dracula?" but Ryuu didn't look so amused. Jean-Claude then asked, "Could it be possible that there is some truth to Vlad?"

"There might be, but it is obvious he isn't the grandfather of vampires," Chiyuki said, putting her hand on Ryuu's shoulder as he shook his head.

"That's not the point," said Jean-Claude, "The point is that, if he is real, and the legends are true, I would put Vlad on even par with Ryuu. Hey, even I wouldn't fight Ryuu. I like to breathe!"

Chiyuki grinned and said, "Yeah...true...but that's only the legends; there is no telling that this is true."

"Then we have to start here, in New York, and find out how far this thing extends," said Jean-Claude,"If it's here, easy fix. If it goes further than that, then be ready to face your worst nightmares!"

Chiyuki nodded and played with the tips of her fiery red hair, then let it go as Ryuu said, "This is not a legend...there is some truth to this."

After a short silence, Sheila asked, "Father, if that was true, what does that mean for us?"

"I don't know,"said Jean-Claude, "I...I don't think he would just go, 'Oh, hi, your taking over rulership? Okay!' with a happy grin on his face. Anyway, we still have to start here in New York."

"When do we start,"asked Anjou, who had followed him down.

"Give me a few days to go over this," he answered, "I want to know everything we can before we dive into this."

With that, he took his leave and went back to the computer in his apartment.



As he sat down, Ryuu and Chiyuki, with Ren in tow, decided to come up and join him. "Good, Imay need your help," said Jean-Claude.

"Well, I can, but there is only so much I could say. Truth is, I know much, but if Vlad is real, and still crawling around, I have kept my distance from him, as he has from me."

Jean-Claude began to look at the history behind the emblem, and it turned out that indeed it was the master household behind the 12, but it was not at first. Jean-Claude then said, "He's not the oldest, but how did he get to be so powerful?"

Ryuu shrugged and said, "I don't know."

He then went back to the files, and began to put "Vlad" or "Tepes" in the places where the source had been in question, and then began to ponder the connection to things. He then said, "According to this, his household has been calling the shots for some time. My wonder is how has our world of vampires escaped his detection, because, certainly, he would not have approved of it-Dream or no dream."

"He's the kind that likes a challenge every now and then, if what I have heard is true," answered Ryuu.

"So, does he expect us true, pure blood vampires to give him a challenge?"

"Alone, no, but, all together like this, maybe..."

Chiyuki laughed and said, "Ah, so apparently, I nor Ryuu would be any sort of challenge."

"I don't think he realizes how old you are," said Jean-Claude, "Yet, if any of this is true, you may get the chance to inform him."

Ryuu then said, "If he is for real, then Dracula has hordes of minions. Fatigue reaches everyone at some point."

"It does," agreed Chiyuki.

"I have never seen that in either Chiyuki or Ryuu," pondered Jean-Claude.

"I get fatigued,"she said, grinning, "Just ask Ren."

Ren just got that look in his eye, but Chiyuki said, "Nu uh uh," making sure he didn't try anything.

"However, I do think Vlad is old as you, sis," said Jean-Claude.

"I figure as much,"she said, "which makes us equals."

"If so, he's got one whale of a fight on his hands."



Meanwhile, the royalty was in deep consultation, deep thought, each one pondering the next move that needed to be made, none sure what the other plotted, but one thing was for sure: no one trusted the other! Suddenly, with complete surprise, Kannon said, "I'm all in! I have aces over eights-dead man's hand!"

"Not quite," said Mickey, as he turned over the other two aces, "We split the pot!"

Keelin growled lightly at the scene and she grumbled, "I wanted skittles."

"We played for Skittles the last time," said Kannon, "unless you have a spare supply to put up," as she pumped her eyebrows up and down.

Keelin's left eye twitched. She ran downstairs, grabbed her bag of skittles out of her room, and brought them back up. Kannon said, "Right on!" as the others rolled their eyes, and then went for their hidden stash. Kannon was hoping to clean them out again. Yet, both the parents of these two were going to be unprepared for what was to happen as a result of this game...there would not be any sleep that night with a bunch of preteens on a sugar high! Keelin snickered and said, "Nu uh, I'm munching on this right now!" as she set the Skittles in her lap. "Hey, if we're gonna play for them, you can't go eating them all!" said Kannon, lower lip stuck out. At this, Keelin's sack of skittles floated up and landed on the table with their stacks of Oreos, (what they'd been using for chips!) "I thought you were gambling with them," said Sophia, with a kind smile. "No! I grabbed them to eat!" Keelin said, she got a look not too far from her mother's same mischievous look and grinned.

At this, Kenta walked in and said, "What are you all doing?"

"Texas hold 'em!"they all shouted.

"How do you play? What are the stakes?" said Kenta. The kids all got a glint in their eyes! Keelin then shouted, "Candy, and anything sweet and sugary!"

"Um...kids, are you sure that's safe? She may try to drain NYC dry after this!" pondered Kenta.

Keelin didn't say anything more, munching on her skittles, and checking her next hand with a devilish look on her face.




A few days had passed since the run-in with the feds, and the one package, along with the thumb drive, had made its way to Liechtenstein by this point, and it was then carried away to a spot in a rural setting in Romania that was once known as Transylvania, and to a place called Castle Bran. For a fortress, it, in truth, did not sit on the highest hill of the area, which is odd for such astructure. It sat on a lower part of the hill, and it had indeed once been lived in by Vlad Tepes himself. Because of that, and because of the legends spun by Braham Stoker, it had become a popular tourist sight. In fact, it held tours daily, and indeed it sat in sight of the highway. Yet, the structure held a secret. It was not only once lived in by Vlad; it was still lived in/by Vlad. Being in such easy access to the public, one would find it odd that he would still be there. However, the real residence and nerve center actually rested below the castle itself, carved into the hill below, tunneling to the much larger hill beside it, making an area three times the size of the castle seen by the public. However, at night, the halls were still wandered by those that lived below, because it did belong to them. Pulling some strings that the Tepes had in the Romanian Government, the Beowulfs did the security for the castle, and that allowed for free movement in the castle proper. This whole thing would have been a case of hiding in plain sight. Everything had been fine until World War Two. The Nazis had controlled the area, and indeed occupied the castle itself, but the soldiers became terrified over time. Many were disappearing during night guard, and the rumors of vampires began to circulate. Some joked that the old silent German film /Nosferatu had come to life, but those jokes stopped when an entire squad managed to disappear within two weeks. When it came time for the Russians to liberate the country, the Beowulfs took an active part, and took great pleasure in ripping apart their former occupiers. However, this was followed by the Communists in Romania, yet it was not as bad, oddly enough, because the castle was a tourist site after all, and if it put a good face on the country, then using it for such was okay for them. However, things got to a head when certain officials disappeared in that castle, and the secret police started to poke around. Eventually, Vlad was able to plant some controlling agents within the Communist party itself to stop things from happening, but he also worked as much as he could with the resistance to oust that government. Indeed, Romania was of all the Communist nations of the old Bloc countries the most ruthless and evil. When the reverse domino effect hit with the fall of the Berlin Wall, Romania, outside of the Soviet Union, was the last to cling to communism. Ceausescu had, before this time, tried to be more open to the West, even being the first to recognize West Germany as a legitimate country within the Communist Bloc. However, as the years passed, he became more and more totalitarian in his approach. Vlad was a tyrant himself, but at least he had not yet lost his grip on reality ad Ceausescu had, (that would come later!) Besides, the best way to cultivate the kine, (the people,) was a free people that would be better controlled thinking they were free when in fact it was he calling all the shots behind the scenes. Besides, there was only room for one tyrant, so action had to be taken.

By 1989, Ceausescu had lost all grips on reality, and he began to see himself as a god, though he had to know that his time was short. What he did not know was that Vlad was working behind the scenes in lockstep with his granddaughter, (the only time where they worked in full cooperation with one another,) to put an end to the regime. Slowly but surely, he and she began, with their minions and Beowulfs, began to wrest power away from the government and begin to take over themselves. (This, incidentally, was where Mina learned her political savvy. He even worked in the revolutionaries, getting them to rise up, using the connections only they could gain and use, and caused the start of the Revolution on December 21st, 1989. It was supposed to be a meeting for support for Ceausescu on the anniversary in his denouncing and not getting involved with the invasion of "Czechoslovakia":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia by the rest of the Warsaw Pact, during a time when he still had some semblance of sanity. However, Vlad planted vampires and Beowulf in the crowd and started to stir them up. The crowd started to heckle and boo him, and he had the nerve to act surprised. Mina played in when, with the help of Wolfgang, pretended to be a girl that had been belted by one of the soldiers, (Wolfgang,) and that brought the crowd to total chaos. The president and his wife then retreated inside the building in which they had been observing things, not sure what was going to happen next. The state tried to cut off the images, but the people had seen enough: the chaos, the surprised look, that poor little girl. By the 22nd, every city was in revolt. Matters were made worse when the military not under Vlad's control by that point had opened up on the crowd as they forced their way into the building. Hundreds died, and though it was not as bad as some events of the past, it was still a massacre of unarmed civilians, and that cut whatever support Ceausescu had in the military. By this point, the government handed over power unknowingly to the Tepes. Ceausescu's days were numbered.



The executive couple fled Bucharest by helicopter, but by the 24th, it was over. They were forced down by the military, arrested by the police, and then handed to the army. The tribunal in Bucharest was damning, and the judge seemed to have no mercy. However, if anyone had held up a painting of Vlad Tepes, they would have pegged the judge as dead ringer for their former hero. The Tepes gave a Christmas present to the people of Romania by sentencing them to death on charges ranging from illegal gathering of wealth to genocide. There were certain people of note that were members of Romania's elite paratrooper unit, but what they did not know was that those men were familiars and friends of Vlad Tepes lock, stock, and barrel. History also records that the couple were shot to pieces the second they were placed against the wall and too fast for the cameras to record the event. However, the truth was far grizzlier. In truth, the cameras were shut off that evening, and the Tepes stepped out. The couple looked askance at the pair, and Vlad said, "Now, did you at any point really think that you ran anything in this country? I admire how you stood against the status quo at one time, and kept your country well, but you well more than overstepped yourself, and got the true ruling power upset at you. That, my friend, is not good for your life expectancy."

Ceausescu looked confused at the pair that stood before him and said, "Just who do you think you are?"

Both smiled at this point, exposing a healthy set of fangs, and he said, "Do you recognize the Impaler now?"

Both of them were too terrified to scream now, and they both soiled themselves. Mina then said, "And now, you should be honored to be the guests of honor as we dine tonight-on you!"

Vlad took Ceausescu as Mina took his wife and fed. They did not die or pass out, but Vlad said, "I wish I had time to haul your sorry mortal excuses to Bran and do it the way I would have preferred, but my subjects deserve swift justice. Men, do it!"

They stepped back behind the troops and watched with giddy delight as the men ripped the two apart with their AK-47s, looking at the Tepes for mercy in the last throes of life, knowing they were the only that could stop it, but also knowing that they would not. It was then that the cameras and lights were turned back on so the cameras could send the images nationwide.



Since that time, sadly, Vlad went as demented as Ceausescu, though he would never dare to be so overt. However, he was becoming sloppy, and he had alienated the Beowulf in the manner that Ceausescu had alienated his own military. Mina knew that this had to end, and now she may have the way of doing it. She looked at the files and thumb drive and began to make connections. It seemed that "Makka" was only a cover name, considering that Karin's parents retained the name "Marker," which, in fact, was a cover for something else. "Makka" is how the Japanese would have pronounced the name, and "Anju" would have been the spelling also used in that nation. However, it was a French word-Anjou-and that got the wheels rolling for Romulus and Remus. Following that logic, they traced things back to 1809, and there was indeed aEuropean connection. The Markers were in fact, "La Famille Marquer." With this information, she began to flesh some things out. The first thing was that the living vampires had a vested interest in remaining concealed. The reason had to be tied to 1809, and after some research, she traced things to the birth of adhampir in France, in the heart of the Inquisition. This was discovered, and led to the direct hunting and killing of the living vampires. They fled Europe and scattered to the four corners of the earth. For fear of being found, they had become expert in hiding, even perfecting the skill that they had about erasing the memories of they upon whom the feed. However, she wondered why this did not affect where they were. She then went into her own archives and then discovered that something had been known about this, but because it was taking place in Catholic controlled areas, and quite far away, it was let go. They thought that it only affected their kind, but the living vampires even then we expert in hiding, and had only gotten better at it since 1809. Because Romania was Eastern Orthodox, they paid the purge no mind. She then went back into the records of France before that era, and it was discovered that there had been one Jacques Marquer who had been the mastermind behind the escapes of such family names as Aramash and Brownlick, as well as his own family. He changed his name to James Marker and moved his family to Japan with the other two, after which they disappear from the record. She was overwhelmed by this. How could they have been missed all these centuries? No other dhampir had ever been heard of until the appearance of Blade, and then this Jean-Claude. The ironic thing was that he was not bitter, and because of who took him in, as well as how his own parents had raised him, he became a propagator of something she sought, but in her own way. She only wished that she had known before this time because she could have helped him be even greater than he had become. He was not an enemy, and she wanted to keep it that way. She picked up the phone and called Romulus and Remus on a secure line. Their instructions were simple: befriend the dhampir and his crew, and bring them to Romania any way they could. She went back to the other dossier and took out the pictures of Karin and Jean-Claude, and said to herself, "With you two, your dream can become real, and no one could stop it. Please, you two, don't be fools."