Prince of House Vladd

PRINCE OF HOUSE VLADD

PART 16

BY ARTHUR

When morning finally dawned, the city looked like a minature war zone, a full council meeting was in progress which included the Mayor, the Chief of Police, representatives of the FBI and Homeland Security, all emergency services were active and almost inundated by the calls for help. The men around the table began to put together what the night of terror had brought.

The streets were the scene of rioting, cars ripped open like sardine tins, flames still rose high in the morning air from the many fires from gas mains and broken homes, the body count was rising by the hour as panicked calls from misguided citizens called in to report some weird fantasy dreams of werewolves and vampires running amok, these reports went into a madcap file and were forgotten by most of the council, only one member at the table took sereptitious notes of these crank calls.

Up to that minute there had been reports of 73 adults and 16 children killed with another 18 children missing, 28 paramedics had been killed while trying to give assistance to the injured and there had been the loss of 45 police officers, the only thing that could not be explained was the way in which most had died, while the city looked like a battle ground, there had been no explosions as would be expected in an attack by terrorists, most of the fires had been started by broken mains and exploding cars.

Reports were still coming in from some of the outer areas of the city, in some cases there had been attempts by citizens to form vigilanty groups to defend their homes and streets, in most of these cases there had been losses only by the vigilanties, there was no evidence of any of the attackers being caught or killed, another report was dropped on the table in front of the Mayor, some form of attack was taking place in a downtown industrial area, The Mayor tossed it aside, the area was known to be derelict, only street kids and whores lived there amongst the deritous of the cities lower classes and homeless.

David Shaw quietly asked to be excused from the meeting for a minute, he left the room and took out his cell phone and dialed a number, it was quickly answered.

"Yes?"

"My Lord, there's just been a report of an attack down at Ellis Street, they may need help."

"Thank you David, we'll send reinforcements immediately" replied Peter.

As the dawn broke over Ellis Street, five figures took up positions on roof tops surrounding 747 Ellis Street, the old factory had obviously been renovated and two new buildings stood at either end of the old factory, the men spread out to cover all of the front of the building, from their positions high up on the roof they could see all of the surrounding buildings, below and one block away they saw the eight black vans pull to a halt, hidden from the building below them, a stream of black suited and armed men flooded from the vans.

The attackers quickly fanned out in groups of four, their equipment showed top of the line weapons and explosives, four of the men even carried RPG's on their shoulders. Slowly they sent out scouts to inspect the street from the nearest corner, returning to the main group, the scouts reported and confirmed that there were a number of young kids lounging around the entrance of the target building, they could see no obvious alert or defenses from these young street kids even though they had been warned that they could be dangerous.

Most of the attackers were from the hard streets of central Europe, some had even been members of the Stazi and KGB, they knew when a site was dangerous and this was not one of them, what kids in their right mind would take on these armed and trained men. The leader called most of the men to him and began to give instructions as to how to attack the building, using his comlink he instructed his five snipers to begin to clear the street of the kids and any others standing around.

The five snipers settled down on the roof top and began to take line on their targets, none of them looked up, why would they, their targets were down on the street, none of them heard the woosh of large wings above them until to late and when they heard the loud screech above them and looked up, all they saw were five very large eagles almost on top of them, their razor sharp talons stretched out in front of their huge bodies and aimed at the faces of the five men.

The five snipers could only issue their own scream of fear as those same talons began to sink deeply into the flesh of their faces and shoulders, within seconds it was over, the eagles flew back up into the heavens leaving behind five torn and blind snipers to stumble around the roof top, two of them never saw the edge of the building and were suddenly in free flight towards the hard cement covered ground below.

Gregor Antovich had heard the screech of the attacking eagles but was only in time to see the five large birds fly heavenwards when he looked around the corner, his men were moving into position in front of the old factory just as the two bodies of the blind snipers hit the sidewalk, there was no sign of any people in the street, all the kids had miraculously disappeared from sight, the street was empty.

Gregor sent his men into the attack, his four expolsive experts ran for the large front doors, the men with the RPG's lined up the ground floor windows, the rest of his small army cocked and readied their personal weapons ready for the imminent breach of the doors, they would then rush in and kill anyone and everyone in sight, once that was completed they would destroy the building until it was nothing more than a pile of rubble in the street.

After laying 2 pounds of C4 at the center of the large doors, the four men moved back and, once everyone had taken cover, threw the detonator switch, a loud explosion reverberated down the empty street, dust and debris scattered around the hidden men as the street shuddered with the blast, after a few minutes the scene in front of the building became clear of dust and grit, too the surprise of the men the doors still stood solidly, although there was a deep indentation in the center and some of the concrete had been blown from the face of the factory.

Gregor sent his four men in again, "double it" he told his men, the men went back and laid 4 pounds of C4 at the same spot, this was enough to drop a steel bridge, everyone went through the same process, this time the street seemed to lift upwards as the explosion took place and it took longer for the street to clear of dust and debris, much to Gregors relief they had blown one door until it sagged open on a single hinge, the other door still stood but was obviously not going to stop his men from entering, it was then that Gregor could see why they had needed so much C4, both doors were over two feet thick and were made of many layers of thick steel with six large heavy bolts going through them, his men moved forward and began to enter the large foyer like room behind the doors.

The first men to enter thought the room was empty until they looked closer at the sheet of glass covering the reception desk, there, behind the desk stood a young boy of no more than twelve, he was smiling at them as they raised their weapons and, with the guns on full automatic, sprayed the desk area with bullets, nothing happened apart from the men having to dive for non existant cover as their bullets ricoched around the room, the glass remained unbroken and the young boy was still smiling at them, with a small wave he disappeared from sight as more men invaded the reception.

There were now fifteen men crowded into the reception area, Gregor took the lead and gave orders for a search to be made to find access to the inner rooms, after a short search, his men found a door on the left of the desk, there was no lock or handle to open it with only a touch pad, Gregor signalled for more explosives, once they were set everyone retired outside until the door was blown but again they had to do it a second time.

Finally the door hung on its hinges, down the passage were a number of closed doors and a set of stairs leading upward, Gregor sent in two teams of four to clear the passage and check the rooms, the first door opened easily to the touch, two men entered and seconds later two loud gurgling screams rent the air, fear began to show on some of the faces, the scream had been of terror and fear then death, two more men cautiously entered the room, weapons at the ready.

The first thing they saw were the two torn bodies of the other two men, next they saw two young teens standing in a corner smiling, raising their weapons towards the boys they made ready to fire, then it happened, the two boys suddenly began to shimmer and within a second the two men were faced with their worst nightmare, instead of two young teens, they were faced with two werewolves, both over seven feet tall, it was their last understanding as they screamed out their own fear and terror which ended the same as the other two had, with a gurgling sound as their throats were torn out and their hearts forcefully pulled from their chests.

The two wolves looked at each other and let out a roaring snarl, their maws covered with the blood of the mens hearts, quickly they took up a position on each side of the open door just as three gun muzzles appeared and let loose with a long stream of automatic fire, spraying the room with bullets, the wolves casually reached out and took hold of the weapons and pulled the three gunmen into the room where they dispatched them with the same calousness as the others.

As the next three were being torn apart the other five doors opened, suddenly the narrow passage that constricted the movements and fire power of Gregors men, was filled with towering werewolves and snarling Felines, Gregors men knew they were in troubles as the first tiger lept forward and took a large bite from the throat of the first man in line, as he screamed his death call, Gregor heard heavy firing from outside, screams and yells filled the street the same as they now filled the inside of the building, Gregor began to make his way towards the entrance of the building in an attempt to get out of this factory of death before he was caught.

When Gregor made his way into the street, the scene that met him was no better, eagles and falcons were attacking his men from above, on the street were four young men but, Gregor noticed, not ordinary young men, one was dressed in Indian garb and held two strange knives, another younger boy moved with inhuman speed and accuracy as he carved his way through his men with a very fancy Japanese sword while a pair of twins were using both swords and hand guns to disasterous effect, all four boys seemed oblivious of the bullets flying in their direction, even when hit, the boys seemed to ignore the wound and just kept on slaying the men on the street.

Gregor had seen his fare share of blood and gore but this was something new, something he had ever expected to see in all his life time, it was a slaughter, nothing his men could do could stop the insane attack by the four boys and the strange birds, men blinded by the bird attacks walked unknowingly into the scything blades of the boys, one man tried to get a shot off with his RPG only to watch as his weapon was rendered useless by a slicing blade which continued on its path to sever the mans head from his shoulders.

Gregor knew when he was beaten, he turned and began to run towards where they had parked their vans, it was obvious no one was going to survive the slaughter going on in the street, this failed attack with fifty men and all the technology they had at their disposal was not going to be his last fight, Gregor ran on, suddenly he was within sight of his vans but something was wrong, he pulled to a stop as he saw the bodies of the four men he had left to guard the vehicles laying on the sidewalk, Gregor felt his gorge rise as he saw their heads laying in the center of the road, as he took in the sight before him, Gregor heard a small cough behind him, reaching for his sidearm, he turned towards the new sound.

The sounds of the battle and died to nothing, Gregor stood alone in the silent street facing a young teen boy, the boy held a blood covered sword in his right hand, his shirt showed he had been hit at least six times by automatic fire yet he stood as straight and seemingly as healthy as ever, the boy smiled.

"Gregor Antovich, I've been waiting to meet you."

"Who are you? what are you?"

"Your worst nightmare, I'm Prince Poitre Vladd" as he said this Peter let his Vampire side show, his fangs dropped and his eyes turned red, the fear he saw in Gregorts face sent a sudden thrill through his young body, he didn't really enjoy the slaughter he had been responsible for but he also accepted his role as leader and Prince. At the sight of the boys true form, Gregor began to feel the wetness slide down his legs as he wet himself, now he knew he was not going to escape this last defeat, he raised his sidearm in what he knew was a futile attempt to defend himself.

It was a wasted movement as he felt his wrist bones crumple under the intense preasure of the young boys closing hand, the gun fell to the ground unfired as Peter looked up into the fear laden eyes above him, quickly Peter read Gregors thoughts and memories, here was one man that truly deserved no pity.

"That's right Gregor Antovich, we're real, we're not just a figment of some writers imagination, this is your last minute on earth and the last time you will cause destruction to anyone else."

Moving with his unearthly speed, Peter lifted his Katana and, with one smooth stroke, watched as Gregors head joined those of his men in the middle of the street, the look of shock and horror still imprinted on the face of the bodyless head, it was over, now all they had to do was track down Seaton and finish this stupid little war. Peter returned to House Vaga, the boys from inside were already clearing away the bodies of the attackers, some even enjoying a snack as they worked.

Ten minutes later and all that remained on the street were some thick patches of blood where the slaughter had taken place, as he was looking over the destruction of the doors a pickup pulled into the curb and Jakes deep rumbling voice came from the wound down window.

"Hey Prince, couldn't you have waited till we got here, we missed all the fun,...ahh shit, look at my doors, what's the inside like, did the defenses hold up?"

"Hi Jake, we couldn't wait, it wasn't fun and yes the defenses held and you'll have to replace the doors, besides what are you doing here, we didn't call you?"

"Part of the security system, the alarms went off as soon as those idiots tried to blow the doors, there's about four packs on the way to help but it looks like we're all a bit late."

"Yeah Jake, just a bit late, we'll need these doors fixed as soon as possible and one inside as well."

"Ok, we'll have it done by tomorrow morning, any idea how many tried to take the house down?"

"I'm not sure but I think it was about fifty."

"Hmm, not bad for your first little battle, did you lose anyone?"

"No, most of us have got a few holes but they've already healed and the Vaga boys did a great job, I don't think we'll have to worry about them any time in the future."

"That's good, so what now?"

"If you and your guys could take over here and start the repairs, I'm taking my people home to rest and start a search for our real enemy."

"Who's that then, who's really behind it all?"

"Our so called architect, Seaton, I've got to get back and start the search for him, I'm pretty sure he will know about all this by the time the sun sets."

"Looking at the mayhem of last night, I think he may have a lot of help from some of the folk, he couldn't do it all by himself."

"I'm sure your right Jake, I just can't work out how we didn't hear about this before, if he's got other folk working with him then how come no one has heard anything?"

"I don't know little Prince, but going by the carnage last night he has to have more than just Vampires working with him, well I better get on to the guys and make a start on those doors."

"Yes, thanks Jake, I've got to get moving, and tell your guys thanks for trying to get here to help the Vaga boys, I'll see you around Jake."

"Ok Prince, don't worry we'll get this all straightened out by the morning."

"Thanks again Jake."

Peter turned and called for his boyfriend and the twins, minutes later they were on their way home, the only signs of their fight were the tears and rents in their clothes from the gunfire, their bodies had long since repaired any bodily damage, Swiftwing was cleaning his Kama as he sat in the back of the car with Peter, his cheeks were still a little flushed with effects of the fight, his heritage as a warrior had enjoyed the conflict even though his modern day mind abhored the slaughter, after cleaning the Kama he settled his head on Peter's shoulder and sighed with contentment that his lover was still ok.

On his return to House Vladd, Peter immediately saw his incoming mail light flashing, opening the page he saw a list of close to thirty messages waiting for him, most were offers of assistance, others were reports on the beginings of new houses for the Vaga in the other states, for the next hour, Peter sent replies and reports to each of the messages, he also added a note for the undertaking of a search for Seaton or any sign of his activities.

Once he had finished, Peter and Swiftwing adjourned to their bedroom for some much needed rest and recreation, both of which they needed after the hectic morning.

As the sun set for another day, Seaton's eyes slowly opened, he stretched his stiff muscles and called for his personal boy to bring a man from the cells for him to feed on, the boy was back in minutes and waited until Seaton had fed then carried away the body to be disposed of.

Seaton felt revived and went to his computer to read the reports, he wasn't expecting too much from Gregor but he hoped they had managed to enter the house and at least kill off a few of the Vaga boys and destroy as much of the house as possible, he was disappointed in the report from his spies, still he had been able to use the humans to start a general dislike or more likely, a hatred for all folk, soon the government and the humans would rise and take their own revenge on house Vladd and most of the others.

Seaton felt safe and secure, as was his usual system, he had taken his household and disappeared into the mountain retreat he had had built in secret many years ago, from there he could control what was happening and be out of the way when the humans turned against the folk, when it was all over he would be the only one left and then, he alone would be in the position of power, even if it took years he could afford to wait, after all it had taken thirty years to get to this point, a few more years would make no difference.

He knew he was hidden and secure, all the people involved in building this facility were long dead, only his personal boys and close offspring knew about the hideaway and they were all here with him, his contacts amongst the other species of the folk had no idea where he was, only that he was going to give them total freedom to do as they wished once this small war was over, the whole country would belong to them with Seaton at its head.

He had taken a lot of time to set up this hideaway, his communication system was sent through a number of satellites and overseas servers, for anyone to try to track him down would take forever, he was as secure as he could be, even if the others tried to track him down and, if they did, they would never be able to penetrate his sercurity systems so deep under ground.

Seaton began to set up his next night time attacks, this time he would set all five states alight, all his followers were just waiting for his go ahead to start their own nights of terror, the sooner he could entice the human government into the fight the better it would be for him, just a few more serious and devastating attacks would get their attention in a big way.

Seaton made his calls and then sat back with one of his boys sitting naked on his lap, the boys young face grimacing as Seaton used all his power to force his way deep into the boys innards time and time again until with a loud grunt he unloaded his pent up frustrations deep inside the boy, as the boy collapsed back against Seatons chest, his small hole on fire from the heavy pounding it had just recieved, Seaton slowly masterbated the boy to his own ejaculation, once done he settled back with the boy still planted firmly in his lap, he would be ready again soon.

By the middle of the night the reports had begun to come into Peters office, all the TV's in the house were tuned into different stations, all of which had nothing else on but the violent attacks taking place in all five states, Peters message page began to fill with questions and requests for help, Peter sat back and let his fathers memories take over for him, what was happening was far beyond his young years, all his guardians were present and as he asked them for advice along with his deeper memories began to form a plan of defence.

Switching to conference mode he began to give out his advice to all the other folk online.

"It appears that this is a concerted attack on the humans, my advice is to contact all and any Vaga that are going to benefit from your assitance with their various houses and ask them to help build up your numbers, I'm issuing orders now for my own people to start to retaliate and defend all humans to the best of their abilities, make sure everyone knows we're up against species of the folk, this time we are going to lose people, my advice is to make sure no one works alone, ask the Avians to get up high and be observers, use combinations of the other folk to the best advantage, for example, if the attackers are wolves then it would be best to use a combination of Felines and Vampires with the Avians as back up, if its Felines then use the Canines and Vampires, in the case of Vampires you'll need all of the others in a concerted attack, everyone agree?"

The answers were quick in coming back, everyone agreed and began to set up their attacks and defenses it was going to be a very long and rough night, Peter closed the conference and began to set up his own attack strategy, sending out calls to everyone he knew to start to fight back, within minutes he had a report from house Vaga that all Avians were in the air and reporting back to Torson, who was now back in charge of house Vaga, Jake had already begun to call in all the packs and placed them under Peters orders.

The first of the reports from the human forces were coming in via Leon and Carters interventions, the national guard had been called in and other out of state forces were on their way from variousd bases, Peter knew most of them would arrive to late to make much of a difference so sent out his orders, they were the same as he discussed with the other states, where possible all parties had to have some form of cummunications so they could co-ordinate with each other.

At the outset of the new attacks, most humans began to make a run for their homes in the hope of surviving this new attack by the unholy, cars were attacked by terrifying beasts on the streets and highways, werewolves, werecats and other terror animals appeared in the night to tear and maim anyone out on the roads, the Police lost men at a terrifying rate as they tried to get some sort of order back but they were overwhelmed by the sheer ferocity of the attackers, nothing seemed to work as they themselves came under attack and had to fall back to their stations in the hope of forming some sort of defence.

Peter began to send out co-ordinates of ongoing attacks, his people began to take damage and losses but nowhere near as many as the attackers, the use of his combined spieces attacks quickly showed the wisdom of his design, for every one of his people that was injured and in some cases killed, the attackers lost five. The carnage was grusome, blood flowed on the streets and in the gutters, humans could be heard screaming as they witnessed the terror and blood in the night.

Peter quickly realised that the key to winning was his use of the Avians, the enemy seemed to have none or were not using them in the way Peters forces were, as spotters of trouble spots, the Avians were far superior to any man made devices and as back ups they were more than effective in attack as the enemy were not aware of any danger being above them as they were too busy with the ground assaults to look above themselves.

The many fights were brutal in the intensity, no quarter asked or given, every fight was to the death. With only an hour to sunrise the fighting began to subside into small sporadic raids, the streets of the city were a mess but this time there were fewer humans laying in their own blood, although to look at the many scenes of carnage all that could be seen were the decapitated bodies of young men and girls, all the folk once killed returned to their human form, it was going to be very difficult for the authorities to make sense of all the death and destruction.

Peter sighed with fatigue, he himself along with Swiftwing and his guardians, had lead three attacks and to his own despair, and that of Steven, during the last fight, Dmitri had been seperated from his friends by two wolves in the face of an alley, the first wolf he dispatched quickly, the second was more difficult but as he swung his sword and decapitated the wolf, a panther had leapt from the dark alley and closed its powerful jaws around Dmitir's neck and, with the strength of a werecat, bit through Dmitri's neck, Steven had been to slow to get to his lovers side in time but afterwards he went slightly berserk and carved up the cat into so many pieces he would be hard to find.

Steven was inconsolable as they lifted Dmitris body into the limo and took him back to the house, Steven caressing Dmitris dead hair with his eyes streaming tears as they returned, nothing could be said to relieve Stevens pain, at the house there was silence as the small group carried Dmitris body to the great hall to be laid out before burial, it was a sad day for Peter to lose one of his own, in his mind he made a pact to see that the traitor Seaton would pay dearly for Stevens loss, his death would be neither quick nor merciful.

At Stevens request, Dmitri was dressed in his best clothes and then laid on a table, he was then taken outside to meet the rising sun, it had been his own request to Steven that, should he die he would be laid out to greet the sun, all those of House Vladd that could be present, watched with downcast eyes as the sun rose over the horizen and took away the body of Dmitri in a burst of flame, there were many tears by those of the house hold, Dmitri had been a quiet but considerate Vampire, he would be missed by all just as Steven would miss him.

All the boys had been injured in one way or another, they had all needed to go to the cells to feed and replace their blood loss, the gouges and cuts took longer to heal as they were from other folk species but by night time they would all be back to normal, Swiftwing had three nasty gouges across his chest where a werewolf had got to close, Peter was only a little better in that he had taken a heavy swipe by a panther and had the deep claw marks across his upper arm, Mbeda had a large piece of flesh missing from his thigh and was limping slightly, Steven had multiple slash marks on his chest and arms from both felines and wolves claws, he had gone into a berserk rage at the loss of Dmitri and had dived into the middle of the fighting mass of wolves and cats, Sin Yu was the least hurt although the two gashes down his cheeks looked bad he didn't seem to acknowledge them, the twins seemed the least hurt, when they faught it was as a team and they were very hard to get close to, a few light scratches was all they had recieved.

They had won round two of the war and that's what was important, they also knew who was at the back of all the carnage. The Vampires that could not stay up for the sun had retired to their rooms while the others had seen to Dmitri's remains. Peter sent the others to their rooms to rest, Swiftwing wanted to refuse but knew it was for the best, Peter stayed up and watched the TV stations along with some of his Vaga guards.

It was obvious very early on that the government had decided for a coverup, but it was also obvious that their story of unrest by labour unions and criminals in five states was a little far fetched, they had tried to clean up any video evidence and had instated very close censorship on all news broadcasts, unfortunately they could not control the internet or private cell phone cameras, it didn't take long for the news to get out that there was an invasion of mythical creatures invading the states, blurred pictures and the aftermath of the fighting in the streets made for great news, the only thing making it hard to believe was the pictures of giant wolves, cats, birds, and most strange of all, were the blurred images of boys that looked like Stokers vampires.

As hard as they tried to keep a cap on it, the government could not keep it down, the reality was out and there was nothing they could do to control it, the myths and legends were real and humanity was under attack by the most viscious horrors of the imagination. The streets became bare of traffic except for local stores, they seemed to be doing a roaring business along with the churches and hardware stores.

Peter watched the reports and sadly shook his head, to many horror stories had mislead the humans, garlic was being purchased in unheard of quantaties, wooden stakes were now the top seller on the hardware lists, the churches were inundated by requests for holy water and jewelers were rapidly selling out of silver trinkets to be melted down and turned into weapons, Peter could understand the fear and unreasoning desire for the actions of humans but they were off on the wrong foot if they thought their attempts at weapons was going to make them safe, still he had to admire them for trying, was he still the same as them he would probably have done just the same.

A huge influx of military men and eqipment was underway in all five states, the federal government had declared a state of emergency and placed them under martial law, all the local councils were in a state of panic, their local police were now depleted to the stage of being ineffective, only the military could hold the line now, Peter shook his head in disbelief at the amount of panic setting in, they just didn't understand what they were up against.

It looked as though his people would be under more stress now as, if they went out to assist they ran a very good chance of being the targets instead of the saviours, he had to sit back and rethink their strategy, humanity needed their help but it was no good if they themselves became the prey, they would be eventually overrun by the sheer numbers of humans, he had to have a new plan that would let the humans know they had help, Peter started to make a list of all the Simbiots he had access to that could help to make the leaders see that not all of the folk wanted the destruction of humanity.

Thirty minutes later, Peter had made his descision, he lifted his cell phone and dialed the number he wanted, it was answered almost immediately.

"Yes My Lord?"

"Can we speak David?"

"Just a moment My Lord, I'll go out into the hall."

A minute later and David Shaws voice came back on.

"How can I help My Lord?"

"David, I think there is only one way we can help you, I need an emergency meeting with the president, can you get me in?"

"I think so, there's chaos here at the moment, most of them are trying to think of ways to save their own asses, when do you want it?"

"As soon as you can arrange it, hopefully today before the next sundown, the major problem is to get to the Capitol from here."

"If I can set up the meeting My Lord, I'll have a jet down there for you within the hour, can I call you back, I have an appointment with the President in less than five minutes, I'll bring up your request then."

"That'd be great David, and thank you, I'll be waiting for your call."

"Thank you My Lord."

Peter closed his hpone and sat back and let his eyes close to rest, the rest of the house was silent except for the security guards coming and going occasionally for a meal. It seemed only seconds later that Peter heard his cell phone ringing, sitting up with a start he reached for the instrument.

"It's david, My Lord, the jets on the way, I haven't told the President who you are, only that you may be able to help, all he knows is your name, Peter Vallison."

"Thank you David, there'll be four of us, we'll get to the airport now and wait for the plane."

"I'll be waiting for you to get here My Lord, everything will be arranged."

"Thank you again david, I'll see you in a couple of hours."

"Yes My Lord, thank you."

Peter closed his phone and called for his boyfriend, Levi and Caleb, once the other boys were present he outlined his plans, at first the others were a little wary of going out into the corridors of power where the military had more to say about things than was commonly known, after a quick explanation, the boys agreed with Peter that it would be best to get some sort of official backing for their plans for the defence of humanity in the five states.

An hour later Peter, Swiftwing and the twins walked towards the lear jet that had landed in a private area of the airport, at the steps stood an obvious NSA agent, in the doorway was another agent, quickly Peter and the others moved to the steps of the jet, the agent looked at the four young teens with obvious confusion. Peter spoke first.

"I'm Peter Vallison, these are my people, I believe Mister Shaw is waiting for us."

"Uhh...oh..uhm..I'm sorry Mister Vallison, we were expecting an older man, please come aboard, we'll taking off immediately."

The agent stood aside but still had a quizzicle expression on his face as he watched the four boys board the plane, they were not what he expected but he had his orders from the highest office in the land. Minutes after they had taken their seats the whine of the jets twin engines growled to a high pitched whine and they were moving down the runway, seconds later and they were airbourne, the agnet asked them if they would like something to drink or eat, and when told that they were ok left them in peace.

An hour and a half later and the jet was taxying towards a black limo sitting on the tarmac, standing by the front fender was David Shaw, just as he had promised Peter, once they were at a standstill, they were quickly escorted to the limo and once inside they were speedily on their way to the arranged meeting place. Their motorcycle escort got them to the underground car park in record time, once there they took an elevator and, much to Peters surprise and that of the other three teens, the elevator went down instead of up, after a minute or so the elevator stopped and the teens walked into a wide passage, every ten feet or so stood an armed Marine, quite a few starnge looks were directed in their direction, after all they were dressed in jeans and tee shirts and looked pretty young to be down here in the halls of power.

David lead them down the passage to a set of steel doors in front of which stood two more armed guards, David, once again for the umpteenth time showed his securty pass and was let into the large office behind the doors. At a large wooden desk sat the President, beside him were four men, two in uniform and two in suits, they were his advisors. David made the introductions.

"Mr. President, may I introduce Mr. Peter Vallison and his friends."

The look on the Presidents face as he stood to extend his hand was about what Peter had been expecting, it was a look of shock and confusion, Peter shook the offered hand and then introduce the others to the President, once the introductions were over, Peter waited for the President to make the first move but it was one of the generals that started.

"What is this Shaw? some sort of joke, we don't have time for this sort of BS."

Peter saw something flare in David Shaws eyes as he turned towards the General.

"Franckly General, this has nothing to do with you, this was meant to be a private meeting between Mr. President and Mr. Vallison, if you want to leave then do so or stay silent, what we have to discuss may be the only answer to our present problems."

"You can't be serious Shaw, they're only kids, what can they ever offer."

"If you'd stay quiet general, maybe you will find out." replied David with a distictive edge to his voice. "Mr. President, young Peter here has very special abilities, abilities that we are going to need desperately to stop all the mayhem going on in the five states."

"And what would those abilities be Mr. Shaw, that they would be better than what we can put inot the field?"

Turning to Peter, David asked.

"My Lord, would you show them what you can do, if it is not to inconvenient?"

Peter gave David a nod of understanding and stood up, seconds later the President and his four advisors were trying to find somewhere to hide as they looked into the red eyes of a mythical being, not only the red eyes but the long white fangs that extended from the young boys mouth, quickly Peter returned himself to normal appearance and watched in facnation as the fear on the faces of the top men in the country began to subside.

"Mr. President." Peter began." My name is Prince Poitre Vladd of the House of Vladd the Impaler, my family has been around for many centuries, we have always maintained a balance in any society that we have lived in, what is happening at the moment is the work of a rogue family, we don't want it to go any further as I am sure you don't. We have very special abilities that the normal human can not match, I'm here to ask if you will allow us to work with you to bring this trouble under control, we are all members of our society, what affects you affects us, we are not here to cause any human trouble, we are here to offer our help in maintaining the status quo, the last thing any of us need is a wild uprising that would cause nothing but the death of hundreds of thousands."

"You put your case well, Mr. Vallison, or should I say, Prince Vladd but, why do you, a Vampire, want to help us, surely you can see that now you're known you and everyone like you could be a target."

"That's true Mr. President, but we don't want this internal war any more than you do, I can assure you Mr. President, that if it came to a fight between species, it would cost you dearly."

"One thing that confuses me, Prince Vladd, how can you come out in daylight, I thought that your people were only out at night, that the sun would kill you?"

"Most of what you have read in books, Mr. President, is false, there are very few ways to kill us, if I mat give you a demonstation, Mr. President?"

"I would be most interested, Prince Vladd, what do you have in mind?"

"Perhaps the General would like to arm himself with one of the guards weapons, if he can get one shot off at me before I disarm him, then you will see how little real chance humans have against us if it came to a fight between species?"

"General, arm yourself, lets see if Prince Vladd is as good as he says."

With a snide grin on his face, the General walked to the door, in his mind he had decided to take the guards sidearm and turn and fire before the stupid boy could react, reaching the door, he looked over his shoulder at the so called Prince, he was still sitting in his chair some ten feet away, this was going to be too easy, opening the door he asked for the guards sidearm and spun around to fire at where he knew the boy to be. As his finger tightened on the trigger he felt a very strong preasure on his wrist, looking down as the pain became unbearable, he saw the grinning face of the boy standing right in front of him, his small hand clsoing ever more on the wrist bones of the Generals wrist. With a loud grunt of pain the General let go of the pistol, as it slipped from his hand the pain receeded and he looked again at the boy but he was not there, he was again sitting in the chair by the far off desk.

"What....how...?"

Peter answered the unasked questions from where he sat.

"General, I told you we have certain abilities, one, I know what you're going to do before you do it, two, we move a way lot faster than your reactions can defend against, three, our strength is far superior to yours in every way, as you can see, it would be a case of no contest f it came to a fight between our species."

Peter did not want to mention anything about being outnumbered or the real results of that advantage to the humans, Peter waited for the General to regain his composure and return to his place beside the Presidents chair.

"Most remarkable Prince Vladd, I can see what you can do, but why bother to help us and what can we do that would make you safe from vigilanties or our own troops if you went to help them, they wouldn't know who was on their side and who was not?"

"I've been thinking about that Mr. President, firstly, only the people in this room can know about our involvement, the why is as I've already explained, as to being on the same side and not getting taken for one of the attackers, we will have to have some type of garment that will be instantly recognisable by your people and can not be copied by the enemy."

"Do you have anything in mind Prince Vladd?"

"Well it has to be something that all of my people can wear, as you no doubt know by now, not all of our people are Vampires, when they go to their change, their bodies are different, in their transformation they may have feet, claws, wings and talons, they would need something that's going to be able to stay on them when they change."

"You... you're telling me that it's not only Vampires we have to worry about?"

"Yes Mr. President, the Vampire population is only a small part of our species, there are many more of the others than us."

"How can you be sure they would follow your lead in this, assuming we come to some sort of agreement?"

"I'm the head of the most powerful house in the five states, Mr. President, I already have their promise of loyalty, these people do not break their word whenever it pleases them, they stand to loose too much, if we can agree to work together to stop this war, I can personally guarantee that you will have our full co-operation, we can defeat the enemy without you but it would entail a lot of losses on your side that would only increase the hate against us, we would end up with a perpetual war with humanity, we want to avoid that at all costs."

"I see, Prince Vladd, there's only one thing more that I'm not sure about, is it true you have to feed on human blood, to survive?"

"Yes, Mr. President, that part about us is true."

"Then what's to stop you from taking over and destroying the human presence here after the war is over?"

"That's not now nore has it ever been our intention, Mr.President, if you wish to check, you will find that at no time has there ever been an honest citizen in any of the five states that has gone missing due to our needs, those we feed on are only the lowest of the criminal element around the area, many of those have been untouchable by your legal system, to us it's a matter of our own justice."

"When this war is over what do you ask of us, Prince Vladd?"

"Only that this office and those present keep our secret from the general public and continue to allow us to live our lives, also allow us to dispense our own justice on those that avoid yours, as we have been doing for a long time."

"Well Prince Vladd, could you give us a little time to discuss these new events, Director Shaw, perhaps you could ask one of the guards to escort our guests to the dining room while we go over all we've learned so far."

"Certainly, Mr. President."

David lead the boys to the door and asked one of the guards to escort them down to the dining room and then returned to the office for the rest of the meeting, he was well aware that he had a fight on his hands, not with the President but with the two military men, the other two would be more interested in agreeing with the President than puting their political futures in danger by disagreeing with him.

Peter and the other boys followed the guard down the passage, he felt that they were half way home, the President had been subconsciously agreeing with his proposal, it was only the thoughts of the military he was worried about, both of them were definately against the Vampires, they would just have to wait and see what happened.

TBC

artcart65@vodafone.co.nz