THE PRINCE OF HOUSE VLADD
CHAPTER 9
BOOK 3
BY ARTHUR
For the next five days, Peter watched with care, surprisingly there were no attacks and, while it made him wonder what was going on, it also gave him a feeling of dread.
Were the enemy now holding back while they built up for a massive attack or were they now low on numbers and waiting for reinforcements; there was a lot to think on while the quiet period lasted.
Out in the seven new states, the people began to notice that the number of strangers was increasing, also the Medicine Elders took note of the large increase in the number of birds now flying high in the skies, during the day there were many more Eagles, Hawks and Ravens seen high up, during the night, every tree seemed to be a home to an owl, their haunting hoots could be heard over most of the land where there were inhabitants.
On the ground the number of young men seemingly taking their time in small camps all over the land was also being noticed by some, it was on the third day of this new and unusual amount of movement that the Elders of the First Nation Council found out what was happening, a short message from Swiftwing told them all they needed to know, the newcomers were people that worked with Swiftwing and the Night Walker Prince, they were now there for the protection of everyone in the seven states.
On the fourth night of the current week, Swiftwing returned to the home estate, there he related all he had seen as well as the co-ordinates of the hidden bunker, at last Peter could start to plan some offensive actions, they now had a location for the enemy home base, the location of the much needed food source and a plan of defence for most of the Vaga houses, it was time to make plans for an offensive.
Jake had called as many of his people together and explained the situation, all those who could, agreed to be on call for any action against the enemy of the Vaga, they all well knew that if these battles were lost, so was their way of life and all they had sacrificed for their new country, Jake now found himself with an army of well seasoned Wolves numbering well over six thousand which included a large number of what he called pups, wolves that were still in their early twenties but, he reasoned, it was a good way for the young pups to be blooded, there were plenty of older wolves that could keep a steadying hand on the young ones.
Nearly all the Avians volunteered for duty, only those in a position of authority stayed back to watch over their many flocks and to collate the reports to be sent on to the Prince, in the thick woods and forests, every shadow seemed to hide a Feline of one sort or another, those who would previously not have been to happy to work closely together, were now almost brothers in arms as they set about getting ready to defend their homes.
As they had been the main focus of the attacks, the Vaga houses were almost emptied as their inhabitants answered the call for observers and defenders, only the minimum number of Vaga stayed back to watch over the remaining houses, they were told in no uncertain terms to leave the houses if they came under attack and could not hold out, they were not to fight if they were outnumbered and could not save the house, as Peter told them all, "The houses can be rebuilt but we can't replace the people" the plan was to make it as difficult as possible for any attacking force but too escape as soon as it became untenable.
Those who stayed behind worked quickly to check all their security systems, with the help of Jakes men they also installed a number of booby traps on the floors above the basement level, apart from the rooms on the ground floor which were used by those staying behind, every other upper floor was set with the booby traps, anyone daring to go up there was in for some very nasty shocks, the basements were left as before with their previous traps being checked for any defects, none were found and everything was ready for a quick escape if needed.
Peter had surmised that the five days of no attacks was due to the new food arrival, a lot of the enemy, especially the new bloods, would have needed the fresh blood to continue the attacks as ferociously as before, it was the delay they needed to ready themselves for what was too come.
The important information of where they would attack next came from a most surprising location and was right inside Peter's own house, the two boys, now known jokingly as the `Nerd Defenders', Leon and Carter had been the true backbone of the electronic defences for as long as Peter had been in charge and had now once again done the almost impossible.
It was Carter, the virus maker, who had seen the emerging pattern of the attacks, where everyone else had thought them all random, he saw a pattern beginning to show up and, as he now had a centre of operations, thanks to Swiftwing, he could see the pattern more clearly.
Both boys had well known that everything, no matter how random it was thought to be by others, would at some stage form a pattern of sorts, Carter had now found this one, with a nod to Leon he watched as his partner lifted the house phone and dialled the Princes number.
Peter and Swiftwing waited for Leon and Carter to join them in the conference room, both were anxiously waiting for the revelation that Leon had promised on the house phone, as the two boys arrived, Peter motioned for them to take a seat and explain what they had found, as usual, it was Leon that began.
"My Lord, we have found the pattern of the attacks, Carter has been working on it since the first ones but needed the location of the centre, thanks to Consort Swiftwing he now has the final position needed."
Here, Leon opened a large map he had in his hand and laid it on the table for both of them to look at.
"Using his own algorithms, Carter took times and dates of the attacks and came up with this scenario, if you look at the pattern you will see that they are slowly trying to encircle our compound by taking out all the Vaga houses and so leave you with no support when they come for us, each attack is one small link in the circle, by starting at different places, they slowly form the circle but it is not at first apparent as they are widely spread around the circle but, now we have the centre it becomes obvious what they are trying to do. Now with Carter using his own form of algorithms we can predict where the next attacks may come from, each time it comes down to three possibilities, by the look of this pattern, the next attack will be tomorrow night and one or all three of these places marked in red."
Peter and Swiftwing lent over the map and studied the blue marks of the previous attacks, now that they could see the location of the central headquarters, it became more obvious, the blue lines of attacks were forming parts of a circle just like Leon had said although at first glance it made no sense unless you were really looking for it, the times and dates soon showed the next possible places.
Peter looked up at the two boys with a wide smile on his face, at last they had something to work with, it was time to call in his tacticians and set a few traps of his own, and looking over at Leon he said.
"You've both done great, now I have an order for you both that you can not refuse, you will go and lock your office then go to the garage and take the Beemer, you will go into town and have the best night out you can think of, no expense spared, go and get ready you leave in ten minutes and here's my credit card to use, if you come back before sunrise and have not spent at least ten thousand dollars, I might have to fire you, now get going and thanks."
Leon and Carter looked at Peter as though he had gone mad, every one knew the two boys much preferred to stay in their little office and play with their computers, the last time they went out was more than a year ago but, the Prince had said go and they would obey but how do you spend ten thousand dollars and keep him happy.
Leon felt a nudge in his ribs and looked at Carter, he was smiling and, as usual must have worked out a plan for them both while Leon did all the talking, both boys stood up and, with a low bow, Leon said.
"My Lord, we will try to do your kind offer justice, thank you for letting us go, we will be back at dawn."
The two boys gave Peter and Swiftwing a stiff bow and then, grasping each others arm, they turned and ran towards the lift to lock their office as Carter was whispering something in Leon's ear, Peter and Swiftwing chuckled, they both well knew the two boys did not like to go out much, in fact they would both prefer to hide away alone in their own electronic world.
After the two boys could be heard racing the Beemer out the front gates, Peter lifted the phone and began dialling numbers, the first call was to Jake, after that he contacted the other council leaders and set a plan in motion, if the two boys were correct in their assumption, then the attackers tomorrow night were in for a big surprise.
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Michael Strong stood behind the long table; behind him was an upright board with a modified map of the new country showing each of the seven new states, a black dot showed where his bunker was and then the radiating lines of concentric circles showed where he wanted to attack, each house Vaga was shown in blue with the ones destroyed or badly damaged in red, his plan was slowly coming together, with the added wolves now at his command he would speed things up and, in two months would have the Prince's estate surrounded with useless and destroyed Vaga strongholds, the Prince would be on his own with no one to call on for help, he would then totally destroy everything the Prince stood for.
Michael looked out on the sea of faces before him, as he thought they would, each group stayed close to each of their own, the Tongs men were on the right, next came the Wolves and next to them were his own new bloods, on the far left were the rest of the Yakuza, Michael smiled at the way they distrusted each other, it was all to his own advantage when the time came to rid the country of them all, only the Wolves and his own new bloods would remain after the Prince was dead and gone.
Michael called for silence and the low hum of voices dropped to nothing as he turned to the map, he had translators for both the Tong and Yakuza men so he had to speak slowly so they had time to translate his orders.
"Tomorrow night we get back to our work of ridding us of the Vaga, here, here and here is where we are going to strike, I want all three of these houses to be raised to the ground, nothing is to be left that can be rebuilt and, I don't want one single Vaga to escape."
Michael had pointed to the three locations as he spoke.
"Here in the North will be the men of the Dragon Tong, in the south the men of the Yakuza, both of you will have help from fifty Wolves, this house here in the east will be taken by my New Bloods along with the rest of the Wolves, all attacks will take place at the same time, that is midnight, each leader will have a watch set at the same time, disregard any local time we will work only on our time, on the stroke of midnight you will all hit together, this has worked in the past and will work again, they can't send help to all of the locations so they will lose at least two of them if not the third as well, that's all men, go and get some rest, tomorrow we start again now you are all well fed."
Michael turned and left the room followed by two of his youngest new bloods and his small retinue of boys from Russia and Japan, his plan was coming together nicely and he planned to enjoy this night, he was one step closer to taking over and his long awaited destruction of the Prince left him with an insatiable need for young meat.
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Peter watched as, over the next twenty four hours, every council member sent teams to each of the three locations they had selected as the possible site of the next attacks, he only hoped they were right, if not they had almost stripped all the defences from every other location, it was a scary thought that they may be wrong, if so they would lose three more houses without a struggle.
Each of the three selected houses were now covered with over two thousand of the folk, every Vaga had volunteered to help, even the youngest wanted to do something to help protect the only home they had, at times it was difficult to say no to the very young until finally they had agreed to let the youngest ones act as runners and messengers just to placate them.
Waiting for the possible attacks was more nerve wracking than any actual fight, so many thoughts ran through Peter's mind as he sat with Swiftwing and waited for the first signs of trouble, finally, at twenty minutes to midnight, the first of many reports started to come in, the boys, Leon and Carter had been correct, all three targets were the next to be under attack.
The first reports came from the Avians as they either circled above on silent owl's wings or sat unmoving and silent on some outcrop of rock or an old building ledge, slowly the numbers were reported as they watched dark clad figures trying to move in close to the three selected houses.
Hidden in dark shadows all around the three houses were the low lying forms of the Felines, their ability to blend in giving them a distinct advantage in the rubble strewn surroundings, inside the houses hid the Vampires and Wolves, each house had at least two hundred senior Wolves as well as many younger ones along with four too five hundred Vampires, all were spread throughout the many floors of the building, in the basements were the youngest ones, it would be their job to set off the traps if the enemy got down that far.
The trap was set, now all they had too do was wait and listen to the reports from the many owls that watched the approaching forces, as guessed, the attackers never once looked upwards unless it was to watch the top of a building for any lookouts, the presence of owls never crossed their minds, many of the men had never seen one so took little interest in them even though the numbers were larger than should have been expected had they known about the solitary nature of owls.
When Peter got the reports from the three houses, he added another red spot to the map on the table in front of him that Leon and Carter had supplied, it confirmed everything the two boys had said, they now had at last got a small advantage on their enemy, they knew where they would strike next and that gave them hope for the first time in months.
In the South, the Yakuza were getting ready to mount their attack, as had worked in the past, they sent thirty men up onto the roof of the five story building, from there they could rappel down into the upper rooms and dispose of any Avian they found, by this time they all knew what the layout of most of the houses were like.
On the ground, five men got the heavy charges ready to blow the front doors while the others readied themselves for the race through the doors, the fifty Wolves waited in the back ground until they were needed to clear the lower basement of deadly ultra violet lights, they had been told by their pack master to let the Vampires do most of the killing and to keep themselves safe unless they had to fight, their job was to clear the basement not do the Yakuza's work for them.
The three hundred Yakuza waited patiently for the doors to go down, at the sound of the explosion, those on the roof would descend and finish off anyone on the upper floors, it was all too familiar to them, they had done it a number of times before and held no fears it would work again, the five men approached the front doors with their arms loaded with the explosives, it would take them no more than a few minutes to plant them and pull back until it had done its job of destroying the doors.
Inside the building they listened to the reports from the owls that were watching from on high, behind the attackers, the Felines waited for the right time to strike, the order had gone out that none of the attackers were to be left alive to report back to their home base, even if it meant hunting them down as they fled, a game the Felines relished and hoped would happen for no other reason than that they would have a great race and hunt although the Wolves had laughed and told them they had better learn to run faster or they would be beaten to their targets.
Finally, when the explosion had come, it was huge and only just enough to break through the well built doors, as the smoke cleared and the Yakuza began to run towards the now open breach, the Vaga and their helpers came up from their hiding place below the ground floor where they had waited in safety until this moment.
On the roof top, the Yakuza got ready to rappel down, as they did so they heard in the darkness around them the sound of an owl, it was the last thing they were to ever hear as at that moment, all around them the bright glaring light of multiple ultra violet lamps sprang to life, they had been installed under the top ledges of the roof, from the ground all they heard was the high pitched screams of dying Vampires as they looked up and saw the glow emanating from the roof.
Next came the high pitched screams and growls of Felines as they seemed to emerge from every shadow, they were quick and effective as they would grasp one of the Yakuza by the neck, crunch down with their massive jaws and then just as quickly fade into the darkness only to reappear somewhere else and do the same thing to some other Yakuza.
The leader now saw he was in real trouble, his men on the roof had gone the worst way any Vampire could go and now he was under attack from the rear by countless Felines who pounced then disappeared not giving them any chance to fight the cats, as this became clear and he was starting to think about retreat, his worst fears came to life as, from the still smoking doors came a torrent of large Wolves followed by countless Vaga Vampires, from above came the screech of the many Avian varieties, Eagles, Hawks and the ever silent and vigilant Owls, all had talons that could tear flesh from your bones with ease as well as beaks like razors, the leader now found himself not only trying to find a way to retreat but trying to stay alive, one glance and he knew he was outnumbered by three to one and not by young inexperienced Vaga but well honed and old fighters, the slaughter was on.
It took the enemy wolves no time at all to realise they had made a mistake with this house, having hidden well back to await for the Yakuza to call them in when the time was right, the wolves had no part in the raging fight that was going on outside the doors of the Vaga house, added to the fact that the hiding wolves also saw a large number of older wolves with the Vaga and they knew it was a good time too not be seen, with little thought for the Yakuza, they slunk off into the dark night without lifting a hand to help, there would be another day when they had the numbers.
The fight raged on for over an hour as, one after another, the Yakuza soldiers were cut down, there were those, the leader included, that managed to make a break into the night, some were soon being hunted by the many cats that had lain in wait for them but some, the leader included, managed to make a clean break and run as fast as they could move, this had been the worst beating in their lives, their bosses were not going to be happy.
At the second and third Vaga houses the scene was similar although the participants were different the end result was the same, with the numbers of defenders available to the Vaga, all three battles turned into a slaughter, some of the enemy did however manage to make their escape, those would soon report to Michael Strong what had happened.
Unknown to all concerned, this was the night that the full force of the battle they were going to fight had begun, it was to become a confusing war of all the folks worlds, the hunted became the hunters and visa versa, in the months ahead there was going to be bloodshed not seen since the God boys had taken their revenge ten years ago.
Peter sat with Swiftwing, the feeling of a red tear falling down his cheek as he read the list of dead and injured from the three fights, oh yes he well knew they had won all three battles but, the loss of so many did not sit well with him, admittedly they had been up against well trained soldiers and assassins and, had it not been for the older and more experienced wolves at each house, the losses would have been a lot higher but the end numbers still did not make him happy.
The enemy had hit all three houses with over twelve hundred men, of those Peter's men had accounted for over seven hundred, while they had lost men of their own, the enemy losses far outweighed their own, twenty eight Wolves, thirty Avian and sixty two Felines as well as ninety one Vampires, but the three houses still stood as solidly as before, the enemy had been struck a hard blow and would not be to quick to return in the same manner.
Peter sent out word that those lost in the battles were to have special ceremonies in recognition of their sacrifice and bravery and that everyone that took part in the defence of the houses were to be paid a special bonus for their efforts, much to Peter's surprise, every survivor refused the bonus, they told him that they were fighting for their own freedom and needed no bonus to do the right thing.
It was midmorning when Peter was alerted to the arrival at the gates of a large eighteen wheeler asking for entry and that he carried a cargo for Prince Vladd, with a look of doubt and worry, Peter cautiously gave consent to let the large rig through the gates after its cargo had been inspected, he didn't want a truck load of enemy soldiers to appear from the covered back.
As Peter pondered over the large rig and why it was even in the compound, he heard a soft sound behind him, turning he saw his two tech boys standing and looking at him with an embarrassed grin on their faces, Peter looked at the two boys with a grin.
"So?"
"My Lord, the truck has a few things we ordered, we are sorry we sort of over spent on our night out."
"Over spent, really, by how much?"
"Uhm...forty thousand credits."
"Forty thousand, well that's not as bad as fifty thousand, so what did all the money buy?"
"Well My Lord, we sort of got way laid by a young guy we knew a few years ago, he had access to a lot of tech systems used by the old government, sort of black market, well he had a big lot that was not usable by anyone and so offered it to us for cost, with what we got we can now make just about anything we could ever want, we apologise if we over stepped our mark with such expenditure."
"Answer me this Leon, did you two have fun buying all that gear and did you have fun being out for the night?"
"Of course My Lord, we did everything we ever wanted to and, perhaps a little more, we were just pulling on our clothes in the park when we saw Jimmy, he told us about the stored gear and we could not resist buying it."
"Good, then it is a good investment, now you better go and unload it all and get it stored, you can use some of the guards to help unload."
"Thank you My Lord, we truly didn't mean to spend so much of your money but, well it was too hard to resist."
"If it gives us an advantage over others then it's money well spent, you have no need to worry about a few credits, now go and unload your treasures."
With Leon leading the way, the two boys ran from the house and out to where the large rig was opening the curtains on the trailer deck, it was packed tightly with so many boxes and wooden cases that the boys knew they would need help, they set about clearing the truck of all their new toys.
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Michael Strong looked at the ragged band of men that had returned from the disastrous raid, in total there were only five hundred returnees of the more than one thousand two hundred that went out, somewhere along the way, their plans had been intercepted and the damned Prince and his Vaga were waiting for them, he had to find out who the insider was, there was no other way for them to know which three houses were going to be attacked.
Certainly, they could have got lucky with one but not three houses, there was no way they could have known which ones would be attacked, his plan from the start had been to keep the raids well separated so it would look random until it was too late for the Prince to do anything about it, he had to have a spy in his house, but who?
He began to go over all the possibilities, the Tong would not under mine him as they had as much too lose as the Yakuza if the plan was too fail, his own New Bloods would never dare to fail him or turn against him, that left only the Wolves but, there again they had too much to lose and they were not fans of the Prince and his way of doing things, his human staff had no contact with the outside and so Michael was back where he started, who the hell had under mined his plans.
With a worried look on his face, Michael decided it was time to make use of the six young Indian boys, their turning had been difficult and he had had to force feed them as they had refused to feed after their turning, they had preferred to die an agonising death than become New Bloods, Michael had had to use brute force to make them feed, a very messy way to make them do what they were told but even now, after all they had gone through with the turning and force feeding, the six young boys had still fought him every inch of the way, their stubborn streak had made him lose his temper more than once.
As a last resort and to gain the needed acquiescence over the boys, he had taken the youngest one and given him to six of the Wolves for a play thing, they had beaten and raped the boy all night long, the boys five friends were tied to chairs and made to watch what was happening, although the boy healed during his sleep, the actual event would stay in the minds of the boys for the rest of their long lives, the following night it looked as though they had got the message and were docile and pliant to his will.
Now, after waiting for the last two weeks, it was time to make full use of the boys, three would be sent out and three would be kept as hostages and a guarantee that the others would do as they were told, unknown to Michael was the fact his plans had not been laid with the full understanding of the Native Culture, after all, the Indians had been subjugated for centuries and had been looked upon as no more than quaint animals that had been something of a thorn in the side of the old American Administration.
Michaels plan was simple, if a little misguided, he would send three of the boys out to separate tribes and insinuate them into the tribe, they would then report back to him on everything the Prince was doing, unknown to Michael was the fact that you did not send out three Lakota boys to work with tribes that had been their enemies for centuries, had he taken a little more time to understand the ways of the Native American boys he would have known this small fact.
That night Michael called the six boys into his main office, there he explained what they were to do and what would happen to the three boys left behind, all he got in reply was an exchange of brief looks between the boys and some rather rueful smiles that he did not understand, as he gave his final instructions and watched the boys walk away, he was sure he could hear three of them singing in a low voice, it was a mournful sound from the three boys.
Michael turned away from the disappearing backs of the young boys and set about making plans to get three of them into the Princes communities, Michael Strong had never heard the death song of the Lakota; it was something he would learn about too late to do anything about.
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Sin Yu and Lim Soo had now been back in Peter's home for over two weeks, the younger brother had at first been stunned by the opulence of his older brothers home, now he was able to look at the same house as his own new home, every night he had been in training with Sin Yu and the other guards, at Sin Yu's suggestion, Peter had had no qualms about enlisting the younger boy as a replacement for Sin Yu's long lost lover and the sixth guard, to this end, Lim Soo was in training, each night it got harder as he was pushed to his utmost to bring him up to the standard expected by his older brother.
It was the capture of a young wolf in one of the battles that put Lim Soo apart from the other guards much to the surprise of all the others as well as Peter and Swiftwing, the young boy's experience under the hands of Chen Sin Yu had changed him in a way that no one expected although it took only a short time for everyone to see that the young boy had given his devotion to Peter and Sin Yu as his saviours.
Chen Sin Yu had made one single mistake in using Lim Soo to torture Sin Yu, he had underestimated what a young boy who was put under such terrible stress was capable of, Peter's people found out when Lim Soo volunteered to help question the captive although he had little knowledge of Wolves and had never met one.
No one had accounted for the creative and natural nasty nature of young boys, it seemed their very brains were wired differently from adults and Lim Soo was soon going to show them all what a very pissed off boy was capable of.
The young wolf had been shackled and carried back to the estate under the guard of four of Jakes best wolves, the pup was still only in his late teens and should not have even been in one of the enemy attack crews except for the position of his Alpha Father, now he was a prisoner and in very real trouble.
The recuperative powers of his wolf had quickly healed the wounds in his leg and back but the constant nagging feeling of an approaching disaster still played with his head, the cold stone room he was sitting in also did not give him any comfort, he knew he was now a captive of the enemy but which ones he was not sure of.
He had seen the aura of so many different folk in his short time in the dank room that he was getting confused as to who actually held him captive, one thing he did know for sure was that he was no longer even close to his own pack grounds and that left him with a very uneasy feeling.
It was his sharp hearing and sensitive nose that picked up the scent of a new comer, the smell was that of a young vampire and he was standing just outside the door of his stone cell, as yet no one had even tried to question him and he wondered why he was even being held, he knew next to nothing and was too low in the pack order to be of any importance to anyone.
The metal shutter over the small window in the door dropped down and he saw for the first time a very young looking Asian face peering at him from the darkness of the outside passage, when the young vampire spoke it was with the voice of a small boy.
The boy's voice echoed in the empty room, it was concise and clipped in its tone.
"Who are you, who is your pack, where are your lands?"
The young wolf felt his lips curl back in a sneer, this little squirt was no match for a wolf, even though he was a young wolf, let the little shit come inside and he would soon show him what was what, the wolf looked at the young boyish face in the small window, with a snarl he showed his canines and then howled out a challenge.
Lim Soo smiled at the childish antics of the young wolf, did the ignorant beast really think he would just walk into the cell and let it try to tear him to pieces, Lim Soo took out one of his Suriken, he then opened his wrist with the other hand and let the blood drip onto the metal star, if there was one thing he knew which would send a wolf into a frenzy of pain, it was raw vampire blood, with an ease of long practice, Lim Soo sent the Suriken flying faster than the eye could follow, the resounding scream as his blood entered the veins of the wolf brought a smile to his young face, he was going to enjoy this a lot.
The young wolf knew he was in trouble the moment the Suriken buried deeply into his shoulder, the small weapon itself was of no importance but the blackish red blood on it was another matter, as the vampire blood entered his own blood stream, the sharp feeling of acid sent him into a scream, the burning of a thousand fires was nothing compared to this, as quickly as he could, the wolf pulled the small chunk of metal from his flesh, the burning continued.
The wolf well knew he would take days to heal from that one wound, the vampire blood was like hot boiling acid to a wolf and would not let the wound close or heal for days, he felt his wolf calling as a means of defence, he smiled as he went into his change, his six foot six inch wolf would soon make short work of the little vamp at the door.
As his full wolf formed he felt another of the stinging Suriken hit his other shoulder, there was now fire coursing through both sides, his arms were now down by his side, the searing hot pain making him howl loudly in the confines of the small stone cell, with a snarling snatch he pulled the second Suriken from his shoulder with his long sharp teeth, this only led to his lips being badly burnt by the strong blood of the vampire, the wolf howled again, it seemed everywhere he turned he found pain.
From the doorway, Lim Soo watched impassively, he had only just started so the wolf could howl all he wanted to, it was only going to get worse, Lim Soo fired off the next two Suriken, striking the wolf in each thigh, he then watched dispassionately as the large wolf collapsed on the floor of the cell as the acidic blood ran through his system with heat of a red hot steel poker.
Lim Soo stood and waited as he watched the wolf trying to remove the last two Suriken with his blistered lips, he knew that the wolf would not die from the blood but the pain would be like nothing he had ever felt, Lim Soo had formulated his plan after a lesson with Sin Yu on the advantages of being a vampire against other folk, that his new Lord and saviour, Prince Vladd, had let him have the honour of questioning the captive had given Lim Soo a sense of truly belonging in this new and strange world.
When he saw that the wolf was at last unable to attack him, Lim Soo opened the door and stepped closer although he kept just enough distance between them for safety, he asked again.
"Who are you, who is your pack, where are your lands?"
The previously angry howl and challenge was now no more than a whimper as the effects of the tainted blood still worked their way through the wolfs system, the young wolf lifted his once angry eyes up to the small boy standing over him, defiance was still in his pain filled eyes, he was after all a werewolf, the top of the food chain, he was not going to go down to a shrimp of a new blood vampire, with the agonising pain he could not hold his wolf form any longer, as he changed back to his human form, he spat out at the vampire boy.
"Go fuck yourself vamp, I'll tell you nothing."
The wolf never even saw the flash of the small Tanto as it cut through the fingers of his left hand, it was so swift and accurate he only knew he had been cut when he saw the four half digits lying on the floor in front of him and the bloody knife in the vamps hand.
"Answer the questions or I will not stop there."
The look on Lim Soo's face was hard and callous, for the first time in his life the wolf felt fear, this little Asian vamp seemed to have no feelings at all, instead he looked as though he was enjoying the whole experience, the wolf shook his head as the pain hit him, he would now find it hard to use his left hand without fingers.
An hour later and Lim Soo left the small stone cell, on the floor the young wolf was shaking with shock, gathering on the floor there was a large pool of blood and sundry digits lying amongst the gore as well as both ears, he was blind in one eye and his two large canine teeth lay broken in a far corner, it had only been the final threat of being castrated by the next blow of the deadly knife that had made the wolf tell everything, Lim Soo had stayed impassive during the whole torture, to his mind he had Chen Sin Yu here in the cell.
With his face still impassive, Lim Soo made his way to the main office to make his report to his Prince, what ever happened to the wolf now was out of his hands, he had done what he was sent to do and felt no qualms about his methods, Lim Soo turned aside and took the time to clean himself up before presenting himself to his Prince.
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From somewhere deep in the bunker, Michael was certain he could hear the deep thumping of drums, it was faint but noticeable as he followed the sound along the many corridors, the drumming was interspersed with the high pitched sound of young voices as they chanted some strange dirge.
As he neared the large cell where the six young Indian boys were being held, the chanting and drumming got louder, when he opened the door he was at first taken aback by what he saw, the six boys were sitting in a circle, their young bodies covered in a grey ash and they wore only the skimpiest of home made loin clothes, their faces were also covered in ash but also had a single black line on each side of their faces running from their forehead down to their jaw bone.
The six boys had no feathers to complete their dress but had instead tied a thin strip of blue cloth around their heads, their chanting sounded haunting as two of them beat on the home made drums, Michael had to stop and look at the strange scene, it was almost like something out of the story books, he suddenly felt a cold draft on his back as he watched the young boys, and with a loud yell of anger he demanded.
"Stop that infernal noise, you have to get ready to go back to your homes, now get some rest and get rid of that rubbish."
Much to his surprise, the drumming and chanting continued on as though he was not there, the six seated boys ignored him completely as they continued with their own private ceremony and it would not be long before it all came to an end, this, their death song, was to ready them to meet the Creator, it also gave them courage to go into the coming battle without fear, knowing deep inside that they had done all they could to be accepted by Creator as warriors of the Lakota.
TBC.
Artcart65@vodafone.co.nz