FicWad

Chapter 17

Wolfgang worked quickly, rushing to the approximate location of the princess’ inner sanctum, the specific location of which not even he knew. He ran into Vera coming the other way, and she took note of the anxious, stern, and quite businesslike look on his face, and knew that he was not the bearer of glad tidings at that moment. She knew at that point that this was no time for pleasantries and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Get the princess out of here,” he responded firmly, “Vlad is on to her tricks, and he was also able to not only see some of the Clan in action, but to also see Romulus and Remus in action, though he does not know that they are them.”
There was no need for an explanation. “I’m on it,” she answered without hesitation, and they both turned on their heels to tend to business. There was no need to say anymore, and time was of the essence now. The slower they moved, the less likely they could spirit Mina out of there without problem.

Vera entered, and by her hurried pace, Mina already had an idea what was happening. “Is everything ready?” she asked.
Vera stared for only a half-second, being briefly surprised at Mina’s intuition and remembering how well she was at reading things. “Everything is ready,” answered Vera, “The hideaway in Bucharest is all set for you. All we have to do is watch for their arrival, and hook up with them.”
“Then let Wolfgang know to be ready,” answered Mina, “The next time we return to here, it will be for a coup d’état.”
With that, she was up and out of the room, moving swiftly, hoping their luck did not run out.

At that time, the Hand was wrapping things up, and they were asking final questions. Jean-Claude then said, “I know that you have limited knowledge of things, but anything you can tell us would be helpful.”
“Okay, I don’t know much about Dracula, besides he has got a very heavy guard around his castle, lots of wards and magical things protecting it. I also know his brides are his soft spot, sort of…” Aurelius said, speaking to Onyx, who only nodded and took mental notes, “If you had a witch amongst your number, that might help, or a holy man.”
Jean-Claude indeed could have fit the bill of “holy man,” but he then said, “Don’t fear that. We have our ways.”
Aurelius seemed to be glancing up at the roof, while Tarai was hiding behind her brother. Jean-Claude looked up himself just to see what he was looking at, which happened to be a bug that was flying around. Thinking nothing of it, Jean-Claude said, “Okay, let’s wrap it up…Die Kaiserenhand!” to which they shouted, “Achtung, baby!”
“Let’s head back to Clan Tower and help Aurelius here, after actions review later,” responded Jean-Claude, “Well, Aurelius, are you ready to see the Clan nerve center in the U.S.?”
“Sure?” he said, still staring at the bug.
Now Jean-Claude was intrigued. What was so interesting about that thing? He then asked, “What's so interesting about that bug?”
“I dunno really, something seems off about it,” stated Aurelius, in a casual but curious way.
Anjou noted this, and used her abilities to scale the wall like a spider to get a better look at it. The bug was a microchip spying one, and the top of the line in fiber optics and spy cameras. With lightning speed, she snatched it, but did not crush it, and gave it to Big Brother. The bug squirmed as Aurelius asked, “Did I mention that he sometimes has the entire place bugged?”
Jean-Claude got cross and stated, “Oh, now you tell me!”
He pulled up his scarf, looked it dead in the face and said, “To who this may concern: be ready! We’re coming for your behind, and your days are numbered!”
With that, he crushed the thing, and then said, “Make sure no other of these follow us. We'll now have to take precautions against these suckers! Let's go home.”
Chiyuki nodded and glanced around, moving around and crushing all the ones she saw. “Keep a watch on us as we go,” said Jean-Claude; he then whispered to Chiyuki, “You’re the only one with the speed to catch them if they follow us. We'll take the scenic route home, just to throw them off.”
Chiyuki nodded at her orders and kept a close eye out for the bugs.

Vlad saw the face that filled the screen, and this was the first close up look at the juggernaut that he had seen. He was only upset that he had pulled up his mask before he could get a good look at Jean-Claude. He then heard the thread, and then watched as that was rudely and abruptly cut off, as was all the other images. Nonetheless, he knew what he wanted to know, and he began to prepare for the inevitable clash. He knew there was no way that the ego of the da walker would ever prevent him from hunting him down now. The only thing was that the day walker had never come after the likes of him before. He may have not been as old as the Elder One, but he had become much more powerful than he. He also had a few tricks up his sleeve. He was far more ruthless, and more than likely had a lump of coal as cold as lead where one’s heart should be. It was time to build an army. He could not trust the Beowulf anymore, because there was no telling how many his treacherous granddaughter had corrupted. He wasn’t even sure if he could trust Wolfgang anymore. There was just no knowing of that. However, he had his own ways, and it was time to show them what true, pure, and unadulterated evil could do.

They all took the most circuitous route, and then Jean-Claude said, once they reached home, “You are now going to meet the ones that will help you cross over.”
“Are they royalty?” Aurelius asked which got him a brief nod from Onyx. Aurelius sighed. “Why the sigh?” asked Jean-Claude.
“When we go to Romania, which is obviously the next step,” answered Aurelius, “You’ll see why well enough.”
Letting it go for the time being, they reached Clan Tower, and they immediately went to the back. As the special doors opened that led to the lift, Jean-Claude said, “They are the future rulers of the vampire world, and essentially are now to all who acknowledge them. The whole council in Japan and Maine both seem to do this.”
“You say that,” Aurelius responded, “But you may not like what you find when we get to Romania.”
“Are you saying that there is rival royalty?” probed Jean-Claude.
“Well, what do you think Vlad is?” asked Aurelius rhetorically, “Besides, there is another of his line that does not exactly see eye to eye with him. She may also have something to say.”
Knowing that they may be walking into something greater than he had originally thought, he just said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” knowing that this may take some time to digest.

Soon, they were at the top in the elegant throne room wherein the royalty held court. For Aurelius, it was not nearly as elaborate as what he had seen before, but it did smack of a people who held some power. Then, something interesting happened. Aurelius bowed and said, “Your majesties,” but Keelin, (who had been taking a nap,) suddenly woke up in the presence of the undead vampire. When Aurelius saw Keelin, he fell to his knees. Sophia said in her gracious way, “Please, arise. My dear lost soul, have you come to us for help?”
Aurelius seemed to ignore Sophia, gazing in awe at Keelin, who blinked in confusion. Kannon snapped her fingers and said, “Um...her majesty asked you a question.”
However Sophia said, “I see you seem to know Keelin.”
Keelin glanced over to Sophia for help, mouthing, “What am I supposed to do?”
“Greet him graciously,” said Sophia, “Just start a conversation with him.”
"Hi?" Keelin said, waving at him. Aurelius got wide eyed. “Hello, Princess,” he said, flushed in the face. His face was sort of like that of a strong believer seeing his god. Sophia smiled and said, “Keelin, are you shy?”
Keelin sent Sophia a side-ways glance. Aurelius seemed enthralled by her. “Have I displeased you princess?” he asked, his face contorted into a shameful one, fully believing he had upset her. Jean-Claude came up and whispered, “She may be a princess, but she is still a child, and she is new to all of this. Be gentle with her, and build up her trust.”
Aurelius didn’t seem to hear him. Keelin blinked and said, “Umm, please return back to normal...” she paused to close her eyes, “Aurelius.”
Aurelius then blinked and said, “What just happened?”
He stood up and glanced around. Even the royalty was surprised at this. At this, Sophia opened her third eye on her forehead and started to scan the two of them to see what the connection is. What she saw was thousands and thousands of strings connected to Keelin, one for every undead vampire. Sophia smiled broadly, and told everyone to look at this. When they did, she said, “It is incredible! It is so beautiful! Keelin, you are the salvation to all the undead! You must be the one to turn him! Jean-Claude Makka, you must try to convert as many undead as you can.”
Jean-Claude looked shocked at this, and he said, “But, this was a rare case! How would you expect...”
But she cut him off and said, “They are undead, but they are of us, in a sense. They too must be brought home. Keelin is the key, and your upcoming adventure may have much to do in helping them. Dracula thinks he rules the undead, but he was not the promised one...she is. In addition, there is another—a strong and thick string—connected to her, that between the two of them, the world of the night shall have order.”
Keelin was biting on her lower lip in utter confusion. “Chiyuki,” said Sophia, “You have to bring your daughter on this adventure, because she can greatly aid you. Yet, she needs your great guidance. She is like this because of how you were. You were converted by what was essentially me, and she is quite interconnected to me, as she is to you. Because of you, she has the chance to make some great things happen.”
She then looked a Keelin and said, “Start to raise your blood. You can be a fount temporarily in this case. Raise your blood and bite him. You can do it. I have so much confidence in you.”
Keelin nodded and focused, her face starting to get redder. “Aurelius, come here.” she said, beckoning him, and he instantly obeyed. Keelin then latched onto his neck and put the fount blood into his system. Sophia closed her eyes and looked like she was having an out of body experience, preparing to enter Aurelius’ mind. Keelin fell backwards when she was finished, and Aurelius collapsed to the ground, twitching like he was having a heart attack. Mickey and Sheila caught Keelin as Aurelius heard in his head, “Fear not, but see through my eyes.”
And thus, Aurelius’ body started to become alive again. Keelin blinked and said, “Wow, do I feel faint headed...”
To which Sheila said, “That is because you may have given a touch too much. Just relax and let it come back to you.”

Meanwhile, Aurelius was seeing interesting things. In the misty image he viewed, he saw an old sweetheart—Matilda—smiling and standing before him. “Hello, lovely,” she said “It’s so good to see you joining the world of the living vampire!”
“Matilda? B-But, h-h-he killed you,” he stammered wide-eyed, “When I was turned, you died, why are you here?”
“Oh, is that how you see me? I am Pistis Sophia, the spirit inside the empress, and I appear as the dearest thing to you. Was she special to you?”
“Yeah...” Aurelius said, in amazement.
With that, she kissed him. Aurelius stuck his hands up in surprise and slowly started to gain consciousness in the real world. Sophia came around with him, and she was now smiling at Aurelius, saying, “Welcome to the day of your rebirth.”
Aurelius seemed bewildered. “Wow...so pretty!” he said, able to see things in better clarity then he had ever seen.
“You should check out the night sky like that,” said Karin.
Aurelius nodded and said, “I suppose it would be pretty, if you could see anything in the city.”
“Believe me,” said Jean-Claude, “Should our trial lead to the Romanian countryside, you'll have plenty of chances. Oh, and, I welcome you to the first day of the rest of eternity...if you live that long.”
Aurelius smiled and nodded, “Thank you.”
“Now, let me show you around the shop, if we may have your leave?” said Jean Claude.
The kids nodded and smiled, and Jean-Claude said, “Follow me.”

As they went, he began to describe the setup: “Now, we have humans and vampires living here. Some humans are actually wed to the vampires, and they all live here. Every apartment is designed to be comfortable for both occupants, and the windows are polarized and designed to block ultraviolet light. So, if you have to be up in the day, you can see the sunshine—tinted—and not get fried.”
He then took him to the underground area. “Okay, we have our training facility here, on the next floor is our armory, on the next is our ‘war room,’ and here is the last one.”
The door opened up to a 20 lane Candlepin bowling facility, complete with a snack bar and arcade, and Anjou was down there getting in some practice. “Cool!” Aurelius said, with anime sparkles in his eyes.
“You ever play candlepin styled bowling?” asked Jean-Claude, “I know they have duckpin where you’re from.”
“Eh, there are different styles of bowling?” he asked.
“Oh yes,” said Jean-Claude, “There’s standard tenpin, there’s this, (slender pins same height and weight as tenpin, but with softball size balls,) there’s duckpin, and the Germans have their own version.”
Anjou spotted the crowd, and she challenged their new guest to come down and play. Jean-Claude then added, “It was this or a hockey rink, but not everyone ice skates. This, everyone can have fun with.”
Aurelius blinked and said, “I’m not that great at it, I just like bowling.”
“Then come give this a try,” said Anjou, as she tossed her ball back, popped it off her bicep, and back to her hand. Jean-Claude then asked him for his shoe size. Aurelius gave him his shoe size and walked over to Anjou. She then said, “In this, you get three balls instead of two, and you can use pins that are knocked over to knock down other pins. They stay on the deck. You cannot lob the ball past that line about 20 feet into the lane, and other than that, it's just like tenpin.”
She was wearing her old University of Maine team shirt which had patches all over it from the tournaments she won. “It was also great feeding time for me. A lot of stuck up rich girls did this to get out of phys ed, and they were always jealous of me—my feeding preference!”
She said the last statement with her quiet way, gentle grin, but sly look. “I guess its preference. Just give it a try—it’s a challenge!” she said. By this, other family members were coming down, but they had their own balls as well. There were some house balls for him to use. Anjou stepped up to the line and said, “Watch.”
She measured herself up, took a four step approach, and snapped it hard down the lane. She used the rare hook shot, (rare for this type of bowling,) and it found the pocket. The pins danced around, taking down everything but the kingpin, which then was taken by the four pin coming off the side wall—strike. “Now, you try.”
He punched out the middle, leaving the 2-3-4-6-7-10...the Spread Eagle. “Try to get them on your next two, because it is nearly impossible to get that in one,” she said.
He cleaned them up for a ten, and they proceeded. He was encouraged by seeing how Anjou was seemingly doing things easily. However, this was frustrated by him being unable to match her. Frustration started to mount. After about five frames, Aurelius was frustrated. “Gaak! This game is confusing,” he said.

Jean-Claude then remembered: “I know you just got an infusion, which means the Thirst will have gone down quite a bit. But, you have to find your preference.”
Aurelius nodded, “Preference? That means the type of blood I like, right?”
“Correct,” said Jean-Claude, “Most undead are blood addicts, they take anything they can get, and normally kill whoever they feed from. Not anymore for you. For you, once a night, one pint, and you WILL have certain people you prefer. It has much to do with chemical balance in the blood caused by emotions that pump endorphins into the blood, and some vampires react differently to different mixes. That's what adds the kick.”
Aurelius nodded and said, “That sounds...well different.”
“Let's go,” he said, “Times Square is a good place to start—not too far from here. Walk around and read auras. The strongest one that brings up the most desire may be the one. Oh...and I’ll have to teach you how to erase memories as well.”
Aurelius nodded and followed him.

While this was going on, Remus was meeting with Miriam, trying to gauge how she felt about things, considering what had just happened. He told her about the impending danger, and what Mina had set up for her kind. Miriam then said, “Well, I would tell you that I bear something that would be of interest to Mina.”
Remus tilted his head and said, “Really…well, what would that be?”
Miriam began to pace a bit and said, “You know what happened to her mother, correct?”
“Yes,” he said, remembering the wars between the clans in Europe that sprung up from the actions of Vlad over the centuries, believing that they would eventually be rid of him, and then be able to control the world of the night through Mina. She then said, “Well, I was there when they killed her. By happenstance, it was our presence there that tipped her off about our existence.”
“You have my attention,” he said, now keenly interested.”
“You see,” she continued, “The Selibri have been trying to achieve a state to which the children attained to by birth. Along the way, we gained an ability to take possession of souls. This was because of an ambition preserve the soul of anyone we may have killed, and keep it until we can find a place to deposit that soul so that that person may live on. When they went after Queen Lucretia, there were too many for me to try to stop. Thus, I did what I could to salvage her soul, an awaited a day when she could be reborn. However, before that could happen, we were discovered. There were many myths told about us, and because of them, people have tried to destroy us. After this event, we were hunted. I traveled with a group that had shrunk to the size they were when you rescued us. All this time, I have held her soul, and I have waited for the day. Perhaps now it could happen.”
Remus was near tears at hearing the story, and he said, “Because your lives may now be in danger, the princess has offered to grant you safety. Here, take these instructions and follow them. If you do, then you shall meet the rest of my specialist team. They will take you to safety to be with the others that she is keeping safe.”
She looked it over and said, “We are as good as there. Soon, if everything works out correct, we shall be free, and if face plays in, we could see the queen once again.”