Lucien LaCroix was furious and every vampire in the city knew it. Even he couldn't contain the rage that echoed through the ability of the vampires to sense one another. It was all he could do to control himself physically. The King had taken both of his favored children from him and had given him no explanation as to why. When he had gone to demand a reason, Nicholas had not even allowed him to see the King. He had turned him away. Him, one of the Elders of the Council! Nicholas had told him that the King would see him when he met with the Council of Elders and not before.
"It is the right of the King to claim any vampire he wishes Lucien. You know this," Elder Ari said.
"Yes, but to take both my favored children without so much as an explanation is not something I can except quietly!" he hissed.
"But I don't owe you an explanation Lucien." Stephan stood in the doorway of the backroom at the Raven. This was where the Council was meeting with the King. Lucien's rage was so great, and the other Elders were so strong, that the only customers out front were mortal. Every other vampire in the city had cleared out. "And even if I did, you should have figured out at least a few of the reasons why I chose Nicholas and Janette without my telling you."
Stephan strode to the head of the table and sat down, with Nicholas shadowing him every step of the way. "Nicholas and Janette are now Royal Guards, Nicholas for myself and Janette for my mortal lady, just as she was for my mother."
"Well, that explains it," one Elder, a short Chinese woman, muttered. The Elder next to her jabbed her in the ribs.
"There are other reasons of course," Stephan continued smoothly, as though he hadn't heard and seen the by play. "The Enforcers will begin the Purge tonight. This way they need not concern themselves with my safety nor that of my lady's." He turned hard eyes onto Lucien. "It also allowed me to save your life, Lucien."
"WHAT????!" the cry came from all of the Elders except LaCroix. "That mortal doctor!" he hissed.
"She wanted your head Lucien! Be grateful that what she asked for was Janette and Nicholas' release from you. You brought this upon yourself. She does not have the full story of what you have done to your 'favored children' over the centuries but I do. You almost drove Nicholas mad! How could you have refused to teach him to shield himself when you must have known how strong he is? He has been bombarded from the moment he crossed over!" Stephan didn't have to fake his fury.
"There was no need," Lucien began only to be interrupted by Stephan.
"I have only one thing to say about that Lucien, Gregory!" he snapped. That silenced everyone. They had all been present when Gregory had come to court. His master had been not much older than Stephan was now but he had not taught his first fledgling how to shield. Once they had arrived at court Gregory hadn't lasted long and he had taken out the last of the Royal Guard in his attempt to stop his torment.
"I did not realize he was that strong," LaCroix whispered.
"You never bothered to look you mean," Stephan snapped. He took a deep breath and continued, "Our debt to Dr. Lambert as a nation is now repaid. She and Detective Tracy Vetter, one of Nicholas' partners on the police force have both agreed to become ladies in waiting to my lady. Dr. Lambert will be able to care for her better than any midwife from Prejnar and Detective Vetter will be able to protect her during the day.
"Do any of you have any business you wish to bring to my attention?" he asked changing the subject.
"James Grannis wishes to establish a new Community," Elder Annittas began.
"Where and who are the locals?" Stephan asked. The next few hours were taken up with similar tasks, determining the general placement of new Communities, the planning of new refuges, the Archive being open to the Council, and Stephan's announcement that Castle Vladislas would be rebuilt.
"Are you going to turn the entire reconstruction over to mortals?" Elder Mari asked.
"No, Lucien, who knows more about Castles than anyone else, will supervise the reconstruction. Lucien, see to it that all of the crypts and coffins are removed to the Prejnar Fortress before the mortals begin. Karl will show you where they are to be stored. A coffin isn't going to cause any comments in a monastery," Stephan instructed.
Lucien nodded. His temper had cooled a great deal when he had learned just what the 'good' doctor had wanted and why. That Nicholas was as strong as Gregory had been had never crossed his mind but now that the idea had he could see how so much of his son's frustrating behavior was similar to that of the doomed fledgling. Of course, the fact that they had spent so much time in areas with low vampire populations had built up Nicholas' tolerance. It was probably the only thing that had kept him from greeting the sun. And now the King was giving him an important assignment. There would have to be modifications to the old ruins to ensure that the mortal woman lived long enough to bear his King a child.
"Majesty, it's midnight," Nick said.
Stephan nodded to him and turned to the Council. "The Purge begins," he said simply and left with Nick trailing along behind him. The Council looked around and wondered who among them would still be there when they met again.
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"So much for a slow week," Schanke muttered as he held up the crime scene tape for Tracy. From midnight on it was like homicide was the new national sport, or at least reporting it was. They had yet to find a single corpse. There were reports coming in from all over that some kind of crazies were running around staking people, chopping their heads off, and one report claimed that man was set on fire. He just hoped Nick and Janette weren't on someone's hit list. 'Now if it was Mr. CreepyCrawly I wouldn't mind,' he thought to himself.
He supposed he ought to include Tracy's snitch if he was praying. He knew the guy had to be a vampire if the looks he and Knight had been shooting each other behind Tracy's back were any indication and he had been helpful. "Did anyone find a corpse this time?!" Schanke called out annoyed.
"Yep! And this one's a doozy Detective," the uniform said. "We also got a witness but she isn't talking. In fact, she refuses to say anything. I mean she won't even open her mouth."
"Great just what we needed, a witness that we're not even sure is a witness," he shook his head. He walked through a bunch of trees to a small clearing in the park. To one side crouched a young woman staring at the body, she was curled into herself and completely ignoring the uniform standing next to her. In the middle of the clearing the body of a tall man lay, staked multiple times to the ground. There were wooden stakes in his arms, legs and in multiple places in his body, most noticeably right where his heart should be.
"Tracy, take the witness, maybe she needs a woman's touch. I'll take the body." Tracy nodded and Schanke went over to where Natalie was examining the body. "What have we got Nat?" He really didn't want it to be what he thought it was. The last thing he wanted around was some loony tunes who were randomly hunting down people they thought were vampires. His own little bunch of blood drinking creatures of the night might be in danger. 'And Myra and Jenny would kill him if anything happened to Uncle Nick!' Schanke thought.
"Damned if I know what to make of it, Schanke. He's been staked multiple times and I'm not sure that it was just with the wood stakes," she pointed to the flesh surrounding the wood. "That looks to me to be some kind of corrosive. I'll know more when we get this guy back to the lab. It's going to be a hell of a job getting him off the ground though. Those stakes went all the way through and into the ground."
"Oh man, oh man, oh man," Schanke just shook his head. "I want these guys Nat. It would be just our luck for these nut cases to go after Nick."
"Don't even think that Donald Schanke!" Natalie hissed. She knew who was behind the killing and most likely why. This had to be part of the Purge that Nick and Stephan had told her was coming. She had to get this one back to the lab before the sun came up and toasted the corpse. The last thing they needed was to get that on tape!
Later at the morgue, she was very careful not to remove any of the stakes in the body. Whoever this was he hadn't just been part of the Purge, he had provoked the Enforcers into a real rage. "Natalie?" Tracy said as she poked her head into autopsy room. Natalie turned and waved her in. "Well, what are we going to do now?"
"Well, this one wasn't supposed to be found. What ever he did he really pissed off some Enforcers. Usually they just stake, decapitate or set someone on fire, they don't do things like this all the time," Natalie said. "I think he was supposed to be finally burned in the sun. Contact Nick, and let him know where all of the evidence is. The Enforcers did this, so they have to clean it up. I'll put Mr. Soon to be Toast into drawer 15. I think I'll have other customers to do first," she said.
Tracy nodded with understanding and took off, pulling out her cell phone. This was more than a slightly dangerous situation. If they couldn't get a handle on the evidence, make it disappear or something, the existence of vampires could be confirmed and that would be a disaster for everyone.