by Lillian Sage
He was Yuri Vostrof, the patriarch of House Vostrof and Ruler of the Morinof Clan; easily the second most powerful member of the Elder Council after Alexander himself.
His sprawling empire could not equal Alexander's, but easily dwarfed that of any other clan within the Council. He was widely regarded as the second most powerful Vampire in the world.
Over four hundred years ago he had bent the knee to Alexander's father, and later to Alexander himself...and then spent every moment of his life since then maneuvering to destroy the Medai behind the scenes.
Alexander had proven to be a better player of the great game and Yuri had yet to shake off the yoke of Medai overlordship; yet still the game continued.
He pressed a button on his desk and Nikolai, Yuri's main lieutenant and personal aid walked in from a side door.
"Nikolai, come...tell me how things progress with section eight." waved Vostrof.
Nikolai pulled out a tablet computer and began to read columns of numbers "I believe we've discovered seventy five percent of the target locations. With a confidence level of ninety percent. I believe we can begin infiltration".
"What, already?" asked Vostrof, "I thought we wanted to wait until as close to one hundred percent of the targets were located as possible..."
"We're there sire." replied Nikolai "We've been searching for nearly four centuries. The numbers haven't fluctuated significantly in close to fifty years. I think seventy five percent is as close to one hundred percent as we're likely to discover. Besides, the main enclave is the most important, if we control it - the rest will fall with ease. I advise that we proceed with step two immediately."
Yuri stared into space, the wheels of his mind churning quickly. "I agree. Alright Nikolai, you are authorized to proceed. Begin infiltration as planned. But I want this handled as delicately as possible, just as we discussed."
"Yes sire, I'll begin preparations at once and report back when infiltrations have begun in earnest." answered Nikolai "Shall I copy you on the progress reports?"
"Yes, yes...keep me apprised" answered Yuri.
With that Nikolai turned and stalked out of the room.
Yuri tried to hold in his excitement. After all these years he was one step closer to his grand plan. He had to will his hand to stop trembling.
To be sure, plotting and planning was as natural to him as breathing was to the humans, but this was different. If this plan succeeded Yuri would be one step closer to being vaulted into absolute power within the Council.
He'd finally be able to crush the Medai and destroy Alexander Graves. And then things would change on this planet.
No longer would Vampires hide in the shadows content to share the planet with the humans. They'd sweep them all away.
Yes, thought Vostrof, it was time to begin...
CHAPTER TEN
Alexander entered the warehouse and calmly walked towards Natalia.
It had been a week since they had last met. Somehow each of them knew tonight was the night that they would meet again. The warehouse was the obvious location.
After pausing slightly, he looked deep into Natalia's eyes and then began to speak. "I am Alexander Graves, Lord of the House of Graves, Head of the Medai Clan and Ruler of the Elder Council."
"I know who you are" answered Natalia with a mixture of defiance and lust in her eyes.
"And you are Natalia," began Alexander "your father was..."
"Yes" shot back Natalia, her eyes on fire "...yes."
"So you survived after all." declared Alexander.
"No thanks to you" shot back Natalia.
"Yes, I tried very hard to kill you and I'd make the same decision again if I had to do it over... at least, I would have before last week" said Alexander unapologetically "I should kill you right now."
"You can try." answered Natalia "Maybe you should."
"You know I can't" said Alexander a little too quickly "No more than you could kill me..."
"Yes, I know" said Natalia as she lowered her eyes, some of the defiance slipping away. "So where does that leave us? This is madness."
Alexander's tried to focus as he thought about the Vampire before him. Why was he so drawn to her? She was beautiful, but beauty was commonplace amongst the Kindred. What was it that pulled him inexorably to her?
"I don't know." whispered Alexander as he stepped closer to Natalia, taking her in his arms.
He pulled her close, their lips touching in a furtive gesture that quickly became passionate. Alexander slid his hand up the side of Natalia's body to the back of her head.
As he grabbed a fist full of her hair and yanked her head back, a slight noise at the entrance of the warehouse pulled them both back to reality.
Faster than the human eye could comprehend, Alexander and Natalia hurled themselves towards the noise. The startled vampire at the entrance of the warehouse barely had time to register the fact that he had been discovered before looking down do see Natalia's hand sliding into his chest.
With a sickening yank, she pulled the beast's shriveled heart from the his body. Moments later he was dead.
"We might have questioned him first" intoned Alexander standing next to the quickly decaying body "I'm not in the habit of being followed, I would have liked some answers."
"Sorry," answered Natalia "habit I suppose."
"No matter," shrugged Alexander "I can hazard a guess as to who sent him and why. Though I'm surprised that a spy would be this careless."
"You didn't answer my question," prodded Natalia "where does that leave us? This can't work... for either of us. This dead body should prove that".
"We've found each other after centuries on this planet...I refuse to pretend that we didn't. But we'll have to be careful, if the Council found out it could destroy both of us" answered Alexander.
Natalia moved closer, "Then we'll have to be careful...".
They embraced once again...
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tym floated in complete darkness. He knew that he was falling and had been for what felt like an eternity but he wasn't afraid.
On the contrary, he felt perfectly at ease, like he'd made this journey many times though he couldn't remember ever experiencing anything like it before.
At some level Tym knew that he was still asleep on his pallet back in the sewers, but at the same time he knew that this was something more than a dream.
It felt different than a dream.
As he fell Tym thought about his recent experiences. For some time he'd known that there was something strange occurring within himself.
There was a small corner of his mind locked away, and something was going on in there that he couldn't begin to comprehend.
Those in his family looked upon him as a younger vampire, probably because of the way he acted. But Tym was old...very old. Old even for one of the Kindred.
In fact, Tym couldn't even remember being turned, it was so long ago.
In his long life he had experienced many strange things; wonders and cruelties few could comprehend.
Old age lent him a special sort of patience that made his current situation tolerable. In fact, Tym was sort of enjoying himself as he fell. Here was something new! A new puzzle or mystery to uncover.
He couldn't wait to see where this was going...
His family thought of him as insane and often didn't know what to make of him. "Maybe I am insane." mused Tym as he fell with a chuckle.
The thought didn't begin to bother him. He was as he had always been. That was all.
In Tym's opinion, it was the rest of the world that was insane anyway. He'd always known that something was wrong in the world...and he suspected it was something large.
Call it a feeling of unrightness. Something had happened that was never meant to have occurred in the world. It was almost as if...
"Hello brother" echoed a voice in the darkness.
Tym snapped out of his reverie. Was the voice real or did it come from inside his own head? "Hello?"
>
The darkness around him remained unchanged and he continued to fall.
* * *
Natalia knocked on the door to Quinn's room deep within the sewers. She had spent the rest of the night with Alexander in the warehouse and had left as confused as ever.
Confused might not be the right word, she thought to herself. She was absolutely certain of her feelings towards Alexander and certain of his towards her.
Uncertain was a better way to think of it. She simply didn't know what to do.
"Hello there child" smiled Quinn "you look like you've the weight 'o the world on yer shoulders."
Natalia smiled, "Not the whole world, just a corner of it... we haven't had the chance to talk since Markus and the others left, how are you?"
"Me?" answered Quinn, "I'm right as rain, same as always."
"Good" replied Natalia "Good...I never got to talk to you about their plan, Markus and Brenden's... what do you think about it?"
"Oh I don't rightly know" answered Quinn "If they want to go traipsing off into the world and get theyselves killed I suppose they have the right to do it. Don't rightly think they'll find anything, but a body needs something to keep itself occupied I suppose!"
Natalia smiled at Quinn's earthy point of view before turning somber "And if they get caught?"
"Caught?" answered Quinn, frowning slightly "I hadn't rightly thought of that. Who would catch em?".
"The Medai, or the Morinof's, or any of a hundred lesser clans. News of our location would be valuable to the Elder Council." suggested Natalia.
"Them Elders got better things to worry about then the likes of a few straggler Forsaken living like rats in the sewers, me thinks. What could they want with us?"
"To finish the job that they started four hundred years ago," answered Natalia "or they may just enjoy destroying us merely for sport..."
"Maybe" shrugged Quinn "But Markus and Brenden and the others would never give us up...you know better than that child."
"I don't question their loyalty or their love for us" said Natalia, her voice growing more forceful "But who knows what capabilities the Council has. The machines they have these days, I doubt Markus or the others could resist even if they wanted to."
The room grew quiet as Quinn digested what Natalia had just said.
"It's as may be" admitted Quinn "but what's done is done, we can't do nuthin about it now that they've already gone and left".
"No, but we can prepare for the worst." suggested Natalia "we need to begin evacuation preparations. We need to post guards and set up a bolt hole out of here in case we come under attack...and we need to prepare another haven"
Almost lost in thought, Natalia continued "I won't be caught..." she almost said again, but stopped herself at the last moment. Not even Quinn knew about her past, or knew who her father was.
Quinn sighed "I suppose you're right child...I was starting to grow fond of this dump tho".
Natalia chuckled "It's definitely got it's charms" she said dryly "Will you start to spread the word to the others. Explain the situation and get people comfortable with the idea of moving? I'll start scouting for new locations should we need to make a fresh start."
"Aye, I'll do that child" answered Quinn.
With that Natalia left to try and sort out her other problem...
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jason Grey tore down the road on the back of his latest motorcycle, the sun beat down on him as he pushed the bike to the limit of it's speed.
A tone pulsed in his ear, signifying an incoming call. Jason twitched his eyelid and a translucent overlay screen appeared before his eyes.
"Sir, the stock we discussed yesterday has risen to twenty seven dollars a share and seems to be heading even higher, are you sure that..." began the image of Jason's head broker.
"Sell it short, the entire block, as much as you can, right now" shouted Jason over the screech of the motorcycle "and begin to short as much Sony stock as you can while you're at it".
"But sir..." began the flustered stock broker.
With that he twitched his eyelid again causing the images to disappear and the call to end.
Jason was twenty four years old and had made a small fortune creating an app that allowed people to create and then share funny icons with each other.
The whole thing had seemed ridiculous to Jason until a major media company offered to buy it from him for fifty million dollars. Jason took the fifty million and quickly turned it into nearly two billion dollars by riding the crest of the latest tech wave on the stock market for the last three years.
Most of the world thought of him as the goofy icon kid; few realized the extent of his fortune or the serious nature of his latest work.
For the last year and a half Jason had been pioneering a new ocular technology that allowed HD quality video to be projected right onto a person's eyeball. No longer would people need expensive television screens.
If he played his cards right, the technology had he power to potentially disrupt a cross section of different industries around the world from television electronics and semi conductors, all the way to teleconferencing, cell phones, even the movie industry.
The thought made him grin as he flew down a lonely stretch of highway. The speed helped Jason clear his mind so that he could plan his next move.
His technology was nearly ready for release and as of yet the entire project had remained completely secret.
Jason had been strategically selling short the stock of the major electronics companies, telecom companies, cell phone manufacturers, and software firms in anticipation of the huge drop in share prices that would occur once the world discovered his new technology that would essentially make those old companies obsolete overnight.
Short selling was basically a bet that the price of a stock would drop dramatically. If the price dropped, you stood to make a ton of money, but if the price increased you could lose your shirt.
The economy may be down, but the stock market was booming. Coupled with those recent inflated stock prices from the tech boom; Jason stood to make trillions of dollars if things worked out the way he planned.
His technology would ruin many companies and destroy legions of powerful people.
The thought made him smile as he flew down the country road. It was only a matter of days now...
The next step of his plan was to go into hiding. With technology this disruptive, Jason knew he'd be a walking target. He had no illusions, and expected prolonged assassination attempts from multiple companies.
Jason had spent the last six months setting up a series of safe houses around the world. His plan was to keep moving every couple of weeks and to keep in contact with his office virtually using his new technology coupled with a private cell phone network developed exclusively for this purpose.
Only a small transition team that he completely trusted would go into hiding with him.
Hopefully within six months the dust would settle and he could make a more open return. Of course, with the kind of wealth he stood to make, Jason would need a small army for protection for the rest of his life, but the thought didn't bother him.
There was so much to do, and an Empire to build....
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Markus settled into the hold of the ship as it glided across the Atlantic Ocean. He'd snuck aboard the boat fairly easily and was happy to find a seemingly endless supply of rats to keep up his strength deep within the bowels of the ship.
If his calculations were correct, the ship should be docking soon and he could begin his search in earnest.
He didn't hold out much hope. If there were pockets of Forsaken left, he was sure they'd be found in America, not Europe; simply because the culling had occurred in Europe so long ago. It stood to reason that the few who managed to escape would have fled as far as possible...and that meant America or possibly Asia.
But Brenden and the others had wanted to search America and Markus was not one to argue, so he agreed to take
Europe. It was probably more dangerous anyway because the Council had always held a strong position in Europe, established over long centuries.
And Markus was always more careful than Brenden...so it was probably for the best.
He'd decided to start in England, explore the sewers of London, then move to France, Germany, Italy, and then into Eastern Europe and eventually Russia.
Russia and Eastern Europe meant the Morinof Clan, and Markus wanted no part of them. It was they who had originally attacked his home during the culling. He knew that he should crave revenge, but the truth of the matter was that Markus hoped he'd never see another Morinof again for the rest of his life. It was better just to pretend they didn't exist.
He wasn't sure if that made him a coward or not. Probably so. But he didn't care. What's done is done, Markus thought...and he saw no reason to dwell on the past.
As the boat rocked back and forth, he wondered; not for the last time, whether this was a fools errand. He wanted to believe that there were other Forsaken out there, but he just wasn't sure he could believe.
And what if there were? It wasn't like they could band together and rise up against the Clans.
Still, something had to be done. And so here he sat.
He thought back to when he had first met Natalia. She had taken him in and made him a part of her family instantly. He owed her so very much. Though he had only been gone a couple of weeks, he missed his family fiercely.
Markus turned his head and opened his mouth. The boat had begun to slow down, almost imperceptively which probably meant that it was nearly time to go.
Luckily dawn was several hours off and Markus would have plenty of time to find shelter in the sewers of London.
* * *
Brenden was wandering through the sewers of Kansas City on his way towards the West Coast.
His plan was to make his way towards California and then up the coast to Seattle and eventually into Vancouver before swinging back east through the rest of Canada.
The thought of going to California unsettled Brenden simply because it was known as the 'sunshine state'.