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1 week later


"We have another 20 minutes before we leave so please, if you have any last minute packing to do, do it now and make sure everything of value of yours is locked in the appropriate places. Remember we will be gone for 1 month. I believe most of you remember what happened last year. If anyone comes to 'our' house again unexpected, I better be able to insure myself that you will watch over things. I do not like uninvited guests, and rebellious chi-, family are treated the same. I know that some of you mourn the death of Amber and her cohort but betraying me to the Setites will not be stood for. Nor will betrayal against each other. My rules of life are quite different than those followed by most of the rest of our kind. I make them so that we don't end up killing ourselves over petty squabbles, I would like if we remained family." As the vampire Demodus Morlandski (pronounced Dim / o / Dus ) stood at the end of the rather long banquet hall he spoke his last words and gave one of his childer a stern look. The entire brood was present. His own little family. There were over 30 vampires there in all, every one of them were modern day people (that is to say embraced within the last 25 years) except his two wives and himself. Mostly everyone was dressed just like anyone else on the street. Janice blinked furiously sitting in her chair looking at the wall opposite to her plate. She could feel his stare on her momentarily as a silence hung in the air over the entire table. Some knew that something big happened a week ago when the Master came home with slashes and huge cuts all over his body. Only his butler and very close friends knew, and of course Janice. She could still hear that scream that echoed through the Tremere cells. Now that she knew what had caused it she found herself thinking of it at odd moments, making her think about her sire all the more which was the last thing she wanted.

The table itself was long and slightly narrow with exactly 35 spaces for people. The chairs were decent, maybe 200 dollars each, not too vain, but nice to sit in. Her fingers slipped into the grooves between the silver buttons that held the smooth fabric down on the arms of the chair. She didn't have to worry about protecting her mind for any mental intrusions because it wasn't allowed. That didn't mean that she wasn't scared to death that one of the people in this room besides Demodus would find it out somehow and try to kill her. She carried a dark secret and she wasn't about to let anyone else find out about it that didn't already know.

That was the fact that she had betrayed her family here and her master above all and even knowing his laws she meet him that night when she got back and she had yet to be convinced that this trip wasn't her last supper so to speak. She thought that someone would have found out what had happened and what she had done. She had sat down tonight in front of everyone and not a soul had given her a funny look, even hardly a second glance. She knew that most of them were also slightly scared at doing something wrong, but that alone wouldn't have stopped them from shouting out 'betrayer' and starting a mob. She expressed the fear of mental intrusion to her sire and he explained to her that simply that "Anyone who broke the law of intrusion would feel their own mind freeze up and they would start foaming blood at the mouth, unable to speak." He said it was a relatively safe and easy ritual to do through Koldunism; it just needed a few changes to fit the situation. When he explained how it worked, she wished she hadn't asked. He said that the ritual gave the power of knowing to a air spirit that would instantly know the offender and proceed to force its way into their mouth and start to force blood up through their mouth, indicating that they were indeed the one doing it. He displayed this for her himself just to show that he was also not immune to the effects of such a power. She had seen a slight change in him since she had come back, one not entirely noticeable by anyone except her.

"Good luck, to everyone." Demodus said in a rather cheerful voice. As he stood, all eyes were on him. His wives who where usually at his sides on either side were at the University campus preparing for any attacks while he was away. He had already given his love to them, and would not be seeing them again for a little while. He was dressed in black Docker pants and a simple red short sleeve shirt.

Along with time came change and change for better or worse must be accepted he kept telling himself; and so too one must change their outfits with it. Oh he still had some of the traditional stuff, but that was for another time. His left hand rose from his side and everyone else stood. He bowed first to them low, so low that he couldn't even see them. He explained the reason for this to each one of them when he trained them for their dinner parties saying "If I expect any respect from any of you, I have to show you respect first." The rest of them bowed in unison, back. A butlers' spoon against a glass dismissed them all. Demodus walked his way over to Janices' side as everyone was filling out and put his hand on her shoulder to show that he wanted her to stay behind. After everyone left the room and the butler shut the door she had backed away from him slightly putting room in between the two of them just in case this was it. Her movement garnered a slight smile from him. "I only wish to ask you something on behalf of a friend Janice, it is rather interested if it did its job properly or not." "Whom are you talking about?" Replied Janice. "Sheaa, show yourself here in the plate." Demodus held up a silver plate so that the reflections of them both were in plain view. "Now watch. I will pull away from it and you will see it" He pulled himself out of the reflection and moments after a misty shape in the form of a face appeared for only a second and seemed to smile before creating a slight breeze by her hair before dissipating. She dropped the plate when the unfocused whoosh of air fluttered past her and down the hall. "Sheaa was your personal guardian tonight. I told you Janice, I will not let anyone harm you. Not while I have the power to stop it here." She didn't like the Kolduns of the brood or the almost religious like fevor that they followed it with. He was the one teaching them but that didn't mean that she had to like it at all. She would prefer it if no spirits were to ever have been brought into the world at all so that at least people would know that they are not being watched all the time by things. "Now, we must make haste; we have to go soon. Your things are already in the car, I suggest you go to the library and see if you can find anything that will occupy yourself during the times when we are not going to be together. I'll meet you at the front door ok?" "Yeah, I'll..I'll be there." "I haven't let you down yet Janice, and I don’t intend to. I will not go back on my promise."

She noticed that he almost called her childe again. It wasn't the fact that she hated it so much, it was the fact that he did. It wasn't something that you called someone on a regular basis in his mind, and as such he started to call everyone by his or her first names instead. Trust was to be earned with honey, not an iron hand. She walked away from him then. She put her fleeting trust in him to not stab her in the back. She went to the 2cd level of the library where her personal section was and decided that instead of taking one of her books she would go downstairs to the translation section and take out a Book on Spain. That was where they were going after all. She grabbed it and rushed up to her room to get her makeup carry bag that had the usual stuff. Keys, makeup, pictures, paper, pens, money, phone numbers, books, checks, notes, candy, gum, hair brush, manicure kit and a 8 inch knife. She was going to have to carry the book, but no matter. It was carry that or the knife and while she wasn't worried about carrying a knife around the people she was going to be travelling with, she didn't feel like having to explain how she accidentally killed the driver if he slammed on the brakes, sending her knife into his back through the seat. She was amazing herself. She was actually paying attention to detail for the first time that week. The rest of it was still a daze, but she was promised time to think about that later.

Walking down the 4th story hallway by himself, Demodus (not his given name, but one he answered to anyway) thought of how best to explain the situation to his friend who was waiting patiently upstairs for their game to continue. He opened the door to the game room where a variety of different things were to be played only to notice that his friend had already left. Rounding the pool table and walking over the cords of the video game controllers, he came to the chess table where all the pieces had been rearranged to their original positions save one. The black king was gone. He knew that would happen. Bastard loved that piece. Demodus had 'made' all the pieces himself from quality materials imported from the some of the finest chantries... around the nation. The black ones had to be treated of course to get the black sheen on them, but they were no less precious. Demodus could only smile. It fitted him after all, the black king. "hmm hmm mmm" he chukled to himself. He enjoyed his games. All kinds from games of the mind like chess to games of the reflexes like these relatively new machines that had 4 pieces on them that would light up in a certain pattern and get faster as the game went on. They were wonderful self-testing devices. Getting sidetracked, need to leave the game room now. He had to visit the library himself to get the new book that he had stolen from the chantry across town recently. It was a history of their clan, and he would be soaking it up with every part of his being. After being 5 minutes late he came walking down the main stairs and upon closing his mobile phone, he opened the door for Janice. She picked up her bag and followed. They were getting into the University's car. He owned it after all anyway. Blood bonding all the boards' members were necessary after the almost complete take over of it by the Tremere and Setites 3 years ago.


The car had been outfitted with new windows. They didn't have the traditional window tinting, they were a new type of plastic that was bullet proof and was black through and through but still allowed outer viewing. It was mirrored on the outside but the people on the inside could see out good enough. The trip was only 4 hours anyway so they could afford to travel the main roads. Demodus looked at the house one more time just to take it all in. The double front oak doors were massive. 15 feet tall and 4 feet wide, they presented a presence in and of themselves besides the fact that they were a 3rd of a foot thick. "These doors..." He reminded himself had been the front line of more than one battle down through the years; the first being well over a hundred years ago.

This is a continued story from the first 3 parts: By AcrypT

Janice stepped out of the car along with A woman named Amy. She looked like more of a girl really. Around 18 years old, no bra or underwear, and only wearing a plastic tank top shirt and mini pants that almost covered her butt cheeks. But none of this worried Janice. Nope, not even the fact that the girl had stared at her for more than an hour once on the trip. It was the fact that the entire time that Janice had spent at that damned house she had never heard this girl speak; ever. She went everywhere with him when he went out into the city or anywhere else for that matter. "Are you going to come or are you just going to stare at her Janice.." She snapped her head up almost instantly as her sires' voice addressed her. She didn't even glance at him. Two servants were unloading the luggage as Demodus, Janice, Amy and the driver walked down toward the boat. It was a nice yacht, about medium sized and it was pearl white. The servants were loading the boat up with the gear from the car and after about an hour making sure everything was in place, they set sail. The power yacht was of European design, but at 181ft long and 3 decks, it was rather nice. Up on the main upper deck Demodus was talking to Thomas, the owner of the boat when Janice came through the main deck door just in time to see Thomas getting his share.


"I am sorry Thomas, but I can't have you argueing with me anymore over petty matters, when I say we have to go now, we go and we don't wait until some dock controller says otherwise, do you understand?" A hoarse choking noise came from the captains throat as he tried to speak. Janice almost couldn't watch. She didn't agree with the way he did alot of things but had learned her lesson well enough the last time she interuppted him. The cold earth made for a lonely home... She looked back in time to see Demodus put his thumb claw through his wrist on his other arm and put it to the ghouls mouth. As the ghoul began to drink, he released his neck to a degree, and finally pulled the young blonde haired main away from his wrist. The young man went down to his knees and croched down as his stomach contracted once, twice and finally a third time as it tried to vomit up the foreign substance, but in the end, he stood up again, tears on his face. "I..I won't dis disobey you again master, I promise with my very life I promise please I" "Make sure that you don't Thomas, because now you have let an unknown into the equation. Look."


He pointed back toward the docks where the lamp posts were shining down on the wooden planks with a dull yellow haze. What stood out more than anything though was the limo that had pulled up to the very docking point where the boat had left. 4 shapes had gotten out of the car, one with long hair. They stood just outside of the lights glare, but still within viewing. "They were following us for about an hour and now I don't know what they are going to do, much less who they are. Go down below and change our route, ..." Demodus looked at Janice for a second and said " We will be going to Spain after Azores now." The younger musculed man took off at a hurried pace and shut the deck door firmly behind him.




"Must you insist on looking at me like I have just killed someone; it had to be done, I can't have him telling anyone we run across that he has alot of people below deck." "But...we don't have a lot of people.." Janice said with a slight questioning tone. "That's what Florida is for." "What do you mean, exactly." " I mean that when we get to Florida, we are going to shore and we are going to find plenty of people who want to go for a party on a yacht on the docks where their will be plenty of drinks. Most people who go down their do not have alot of family life to worry about and won't be reported missing for some time. " Janice looked almost disgusted at the thought. He was just going to take those people away from their lives forever, feed off of them and maybe even kill them.


"You can't do this, please there is another-" " Will you stop being my conscience for one minute and think logically woman. We are going on a boat trip and it is going to be a little long. We will stop off at Florida, and after that we will go to Bermuda, then on to Azores which will be our last stop until we reach Spain. I am pulling a couple of favors as it is to get us a good meal at those places. I will not have your nagging about mortal concerns. You have to accept what you are because you asked for it. I will not have a guilty conscience for embracing you and giving you what you wanted." "But you took what I wanted away from me!!! You made my lover practically kill himself for you and your stupid hate of the Tremere! I won't let you destroy anyone else's lives for some petty vengance an-" "Petty vengance!!! ararahhhh"

Demodus was shaking. His face changed ever so slightly as his lower jaw pulled itself back just a tiny amount as his massive fangs came down, almost twice as large as a regular vampires and his voice had changed from it's regular deep tone to a hoarse meaty voice that was half full of malice. "I have saved you from a fate worse than death twice now and still you defy me!. I haven't and didn't send him on any such errand. He wanted to go! I had to stop him before he left without the others! That's right! Their were others besides him that night, it was just unfortunate that he-" "That was killed?!" screamed Janice. "He was killed because you told him about a local Tremere chantry that had just been found out about, by you!!" She shoved a finger in his face, not caring if he was close to frenzy or not. He turned around at once and gripped the metal hand rails that surrounded the deck. He controlled himself and let go of his anger, squeezing the bar until it gave way under his hand, bending like a thin piece of aluminum. He couldn't do it. He couldn't break the promise that he made to Winston, he would not.

"Now you feel guilty, well it's not good enough! I caught the last glimspe of him as he got into the car. I saw him for the last time and I didn't even get to see his face! You let them go and didn't help them yourself you selfish bastar-" She had stopped just shy of letting herself go and do whatever it took for him to kill her when she saw something she had never seen before. A tear had fallen off his lower jaw and had hit his hand. The moonlight reflected its rich red color as it faded into shadow around the curve of the side of his hand. "You think I have no idea what so ever about love do you?" Demodus whispered to her. You want to see me as a monster soo much just like most of our clan when you just can't, and tears you up inside. If I was the monster you so paint me I would have snapped your throat by now and drained you for the upstart childer you are Janice. But I haven't because despite what you may think about me and the fact that I am many things, I am not a monster. I have seen what you saw at that house a week ago. I saw and felt your fear as you stood before him and those gargoyles. You constantly compare me to the very enemy I loathe but you got a real taste then. Even though it pains me to say it, you deserved what you got their." Janice had nothing to say. She honestly couldn't say anything back to that because she did go of her own free will and didn't care about the consequences of it.

"You call my vengance a petty thing but I can assure you, you have no idea of the scope that my vengance encompases against them. For three of your lifetimes Janice I hunted them down for one reason alone and in the end, they were still able to keep what was rightfully mine away from me." He turned around with his back to the moonlight and faced her; his features were almost completely shadow except for his bloodstained hand. She told herself that she had to be seeing things because the blood was disappearing before her eyes back into his skin. He must have licked it.

"What did they take from you that could possibly be anywhere near what you have caused me to lose." She wasn't going to give in just because he shed a tear, this had been building in the house for a while now and she was finally letting it all out. She started to cry slightly herself now. He held up his right hand to where his pinky finger shone in the moonlight, bearing the ring that had been there for over 200 years straight. A single band of gold, almost in pristine condition for its age. It would be just large enough for a womans finger. He said nothing. He knew that Janice was smart enough to know that since that ring was a wedding ring, she had better stop pressing her luck because it wouldn't last. "But you are married..to two different women even, you-" "I have been with Carmilla for 34 years and Saki for 5, they are my loves now, but before I was put into torpor, before many many things that I have done, I was mar, joined with another; and I'm not married to them, we are joined. I refuse to use the married term as it implies being religious. As small as it was, he could see a slight smile on the left side of her cheek. He knew that that was all he needed to press on. "I know you don't believe every word I say, but trust me on this one. This trip to Spain is to show you something. It's something you need to see, in order to believe me.

He had lost a wife, or as close as. She instantly felt like a true ass. Well she did ask for it, again. "I..I didn't mean th-" "You don't have to say anything. I don't expect you to. In fact I expect you to sit there and be a pig-headed as the first day I met you, only this time, I'm glad you don't have a vase handy to hit me with." "Hey I loved that vase. You came into my house completely unexpected and you broke in! What was a woman supposed to do? Just sit there and be bitten?" He turned to her as she shifted closer to him, crossing her arms. "Something like that yes.." "Teaches you to knock before you come in. The way I was then all you had to do was say something and I might have just invited you in and taken you to bed anyway." She emphisized the word anyway to such a degree that it made her sound like she was gagging for ..something. He went to put his arm around her and she moved away and swished her hair in his face saying flatly "I am still mad at you so don't try any funny business." He exhaled deeply and chukled slightly as he was about to say something, but changed his mind. He smiled slightly and looked up into the night sky wishing he knew who the hell was after him this time.