A cry was heard. Well not exactly a cry, more of a thought wave, coming across the dreams and consciousness. Someone had whispered his name, summoning him from his slumber. He shifted, feeling his bones creak and rattle together. As awareness returned to him, he could feel the sting of flesh growing on the old bones that his spirit was tied to. He embraced the pain for soon he would feel nothing. Every molecule and atom formed together to make up his body as it had been. As soon as the last squish of his organs forming subsided, he took a gulping breath and his heart started thrumming in his ribs.

Once fully aware of his location, he soon became claustrophobic. He was in a box probably buried 6 feet under. He pulled away at the rotten wood and started clawing his way through the soil to freedom. He was lucky it wasn't winter or his fingers would have come out of this as bloody stumps. Had happened before and was not fun. After struggling for what felt like a lifetime, his hand broke through into warm sunlight.

Once top side he looked warily for whomever had summoned him. No one could be seen. Strange. For the spell to work, there was usually some priestess or something dancing around with blood. He was about to take a step when a familiar voice filtered into his head.

"Hello brother."

He looked about in every direction. Impossible. It had been at least 1,000 years. It couldn't be. Why wasn't he dead!? It had to be a game or a trick.

"Wh-Wh-Who arrre you?" the words struggled out of his newly formed lips.

"You don't remember me? You don't remember your big brother? You wound me."

The words came from behind him causing him to swivel around. There before him, standing only an inch taller, with that annoyingly emotionless face was in fact his brother. He hadn't aged a day. He still looked about 17 but his hair was much shorter and not in braids. And his clothes were strange.

"How?"

"How? Really? I thought you knew me better than that. You really thought they could kill me."

His brother had been burned before his eyes for his magic. He had smelled the flesh melting from his fair brother's bones.

"Don't stare at me like that. Come give me a hug before you start to smell like rotting flesh again."

He moved warily closer, still unsure if it was truly his brother. He was pulled into a crushing embrace once he got within an arms reach of his brother. He could have sworn he felt his brother tremble but perhaps his brain hadn't formed right. He'd never seen his brother tremble or show any sign of weakness, even when he faced a horde of enemies. When his brother pulled away, he held him at arms length and inspected his handy work.

"I looked for you, you know. I never stopped looking. I can't believe I finally found you. Hey. Call me big brother. I know you want to."

There it was. His annoying insistence of being called big brother. They'd been raised apart during their childhoods and when they'd found each other, the elder demanded he be called that even though they were both considered adults by their people.

"Never."

"I'll get you to say it. Just watch. Come, we've got work to do. Also I don't like seeing my brother's dick, we have to get you clothes."

Ah yes. His clothes had mostly rotten away and what little there was left of it wasn't leaving much to the imagination. He dutifully followed his brother out of the clearing.

Emil had barely spoken, but perhaps he wasn't fully developed yet. Who knew how long it had been since someone had required his services. The longer a corpse stayed in ground, the harder it was for them to bounce back. Lukas was just relieved he had even remembered him. He'd been chasing mention of his dear little brother off and on for centuries. From some of the books he'd crossed, he knew what his brother had become and what would be sacrificed to keep him around. There was no permanent fix for what his brother had become, but he was willing to slay millions if it meant keeping Emil alive. Now to find him some clothes.

"No no, you're doing it wrong. You'll get your throat ripped out if you leave your neck exposed." Vash growled with impatience.

Mathew picked up the wooden sword that had just been parried out of his hands, wiped some sweat from his brow, and took his stance again. Vash was a tough and surly teacher. He never lessened his attacks or went easy on Mathew. Over the past week Mathew had been given a crash course in vampires and beaten black and blue during training to help him learn to fight one.

Vash came at him hard and fast, leaving him no time to think and strategize a plan. He had to learn how to move with instinct because vampires were faster than humans and they'd never give him time to plan his next move. The main thing they had on their side was the element of surprise. Vampires wouldn't expect their dinners to know how to properly fight back. Mathew blocked the first attack, this time keeping the blade closer to his upper half to try and guard his neck. Vash feinted and swiped Mathew in the side, knocking his breath out and bringing him to his knees.

"Mr. Tino's on the phone." Erika called, entering the room with a cordless phone.

"How fun." Vash said sarcastically taking the phone and leaving the room.

"Do you want some tips?" Erika offered Mathew as he collected himself from off the floor.

"They would be very helpful."

"You're pointing your sword in the direction you're about to swing which makes it obvious. Also, you need to attack more and not tire yourself out defending. Don't let them get in more than one swing before you attack them. You have to be quick. Don't just focus on protecting your body, watch their arms and feet to see how they are about to swing."

Mathew tried to mentally take note of everything she said. Fighting was a lot harder than he'd thought. This was only one small aspect of it too. He still had to learn several other mediums of fighting in case he found himself in a situation where he was swordless. He needed to learn years worth of fighting skills in as little time as possible if he was going to be able to find Alfred.

"I'll try to keep all that in mind."

Erika grabbed herself a sword and took a stance. Before Mathew could think of what to do, she lunged forward in a stabbing motion instead of swinging like her brother had done. Mathew wasn't expecting it and didn't have time to block. She stopped short as not to injure him.

"You have to be able to protect yourself from anything. Some of these vampires have been alive for many centuries and are extremely skilled at combat. If you can't defeat a human, you have no hope against a vampire."

Mathew knew that. These things were superhuman and could kill him easily. He just wasn't used to this kind of thing. Why couldn't it be like Hockey? He was a natural at that. Wait. Why couldn't it be like a game of hockey? If he could dodge multiple people coming at him at once with sticks, why couldn't he dodge one person coming at him with one sword. Instead of fearing the sword, he should pretend it was a hockey stick coming at his face. And he should try dodging instead of staying in one place. Would it affect anything? Only one way to find out.

"Can we go again?"

Erika slashed up from below in an unexpected move, but Mathew twirled out of her reach. When she came at him again, he blocked and moved to the side as to not take the full force of her blow. Before she could recover, Mathew rammed his shoulder into her side, knocking her over. She was quick to get back on her feet and parried the sword out of Mathews hand.

"That was much better. I didn't expect you to just throw yourself at me. Keep doing unexpected things and you may beat me one day."

Mathew sat down to take a breather as Vash came back in.

"Tino's group lost the vampire they were tracking. They're coming back here." Vash ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

"Are we going to send anyone else after it?"

"Tino's group will rest up and then tomorrow go back and see if there's anything they missed. We might have to wait until more bodies show up."

"Do you want me to order take out?"

"Sure, anythings fine."

Mathew guessed that lesson was over for the night.