"This the place?" Maarten asked and Mircea nodded in reply.
"You sure?"
"I can sense them." Mircea smirked and licked his lips.
"Good, I'm tired of chasing shadows," Maarten grumbled and loaded his gun, not sure if Mircea was hungry or just being weird again.
"There's not much left of them but shadows at this point," Mircea reminded him, his hands briefly brushing Maarten's shoulder.
"That's not creepy at all," Maarten rolled his eyes and braced himself for what was behind the thick wooden doors.
The sun was shining brightly and it was starting to annoy even him – but sunlight was a valuable weapon in this fight, although Mircea had already complained bitterly that he was sure he was turning into ash several times today.
Erik's little invention of a 'sunblock' that truly did block the sun's rays was certainly effective – if applied correctly.
Maarten had to help Mircea get the hard to reach places on his back, and despite needing Mircea alive Maarten had deliberately missed a few spots.
Not big enough to cause large burns or death; just enough to make Mircea itch and fidget with his jacket ever so slightly.
"Ready?" Mircea asked.
"Ready," Maarten nodded and aimed his gun at the door.
The blast of magic shattered the door to splinters and sawdust in a split second – only cost being a terribly loud noise that really made it hard to conceal that they had arrived.
However; it never stopped being impressive – although Maarten didn't like to admit that out loud to the vampire.
The house was silent – eerily so, and as Maarten stepped over the threshold he felt the temperature drop.
"I don't think they like us being so rude," Mircea chuckled and took a few steps into the entrance hall.
Maarten kept a small distance, gun raised and aimed – Mircea couldn't die, nor would the monsters attack their 'father'.
However, Maarten was halfway between friend and food.
He took no chances.
"Do you need some light?" Mircea asked, a spark of a red flame dancing around his hand for a moment.
"No... not yet," Maarten grumbled.
"As you wish," Mircea chuckled and walked further down the hallway.
Maarten followed closely after, glancing behind him and aiming his gun at shadows he thought moved.
"I sense nothing here, save your bullet," Mircea whispered and motioned for Maarten to come closer.
Grumbling, Maarten did as told.
So far Mircea had not failed him, and while trusting the guy with his life was perhaps still far away, Maarten at least trusted him enough to not be on edge all the time.
So far they'd caught seven 'monsters' – this would hopefully be number 8 to add to the laboratory prison cells for Erik to turn them less monstrous.
Mircea was sniffing the air, moving deeper into the house step by step.
Had he been doing this alone, Maarten would be checking every single room as he walked down the corridor.
However; this was a waste of time with Mircea around. If Maarten's keen sense didn't pick something up – Mircea's did.
"Upstairs," Mircea motioned and Maarten nodded, readying his gun as they started to ascend the staircase.
The chill was intensifying with each step, and Maarten wrapped his scarf tighter around his neck – his breath coming out as a small cloud of mist.
He was glad he had his thick coat on, or his teeth would have been clattering so loudly he'd be heard for miles.
The wood creaked under their feet, but Mircea beckoned him on.
"Bedroom," he mouthed and pointed to a door at the end of the upstairs hallway.
"Great," Maarten mumbled "Why is always at the end of the fucking hallways?"
"More time for them to escape," Mircea whispered and pressed on.
"Sensible thinking for a monster," Maarten muttered under his breath.
As they got closer Maarten could hear a low growl from the room; it reminded him of a scared and angry dog.
Scared and angry was a bad combination at the best of times – factor in being cornered and you had a likely recipe for disaster.
Neither of these things bothered Mircea; he was as careless as ever.
Maarten assumed that after living for so long the guy had simply given up and lost almost worry over his own body.
With a large blast of energy the door and large parts of the wall were reduced to nothing but dust.
"Knock, knock," Mircea laughed and stepped inside the bedroom.
Marten would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't so concentrated on the large, black and hulking figure in one corner.
"There you are you fucker," he muttered.
"That wasn't hard," Mircea huffed, conjuring up a large ball of fire to illuminate the room.
As the darkness gave way to the light, Maarten's eyes widened.
The monster was curled up around something.
Or more accurately – someone.
"Is that..." he blinked as tried to focus on the small body behind the monster.
"A human..." Mircea confirmed, frowning as he stepped closer.
"Let her go," he commanded the monster, but it made no movement apart from a growl.
Maarten swallowed nervously as Mircea tried once more to command the creature to let the girl go.
However, it wasn't budging.
"Is she even alive?" He whispered as Mircea retreated backwards.
"Yes. I hear her pulse,"
"Why is it protecting her?"
"He," Mircea corrected.
"What?"
"It's not an 'it', that there is a guy,"
"Sure doesn't look like one,"
"He will once Erik gives him the 'antidote', right?"
"Yes..." Maarten frowned.
Mircea stepped closer once more – again; all he received was a loud growl from the creature as it curled up around the girl even more.
It's eyes glowed orange, and Maarten wasn't sure if the monster's limbs were broken or just bent in an unnatural fashion.
It didn't matter how many of them he saw, they always made his stomach churn.
The fact that vampires could go from looking human to looking like a jumbled heap of black limbs and claws was beyond him.
Although what he feared the most was the potential he too had to end up like one of them.
He shuddered at the thought, pushing his own worries and fear away.
"Stand back," Maarten muttered and aimed his gun at the creature's head, and before Mircea could argue he fired the bullet straight at the creature.
For a moment it appeared as if the whole earth had stopped turning.
Nothing moved except the bullet.
The creature let out a horrific scream as the bullet hit it, its body trembling and shivering before it appeared to freeze solid; sinking slowly to the floor in a lifeless heap.
"I thought you said you'd stop killing them," Mircea hissed, eyes glowing for a split second as he glared at Maarten and the gun in his hand.
"Stun bullet," Maarten replied, reloading the gun with another bullet. He didn't trust that just one bullet would do.
"I didn't know you had that," all anger was gone from Mircea's expression; his eyes wide in wonder instead as he demanded to inspect the gun.
"Erik and Gilbert made it," Maarten said as he began trying to untangle the little girl from the tangle of limbs.
"Hey," he tried to shake the girl gently, but received no reply.
"She sleeping?" Mircea leant over Maarten's shoulder, brushing the girls blonde hair away from her forehead.
"Seems so..."
"I'm sure Cecilé will be delighted to have another woman in the house hold," Mircea laughed.
"Great... what are we? Some kind of orphanage?"
"Yes."
Maarten rolled his eyes, but picked the girl up gently. She looked peaceful, which was almost disturbing considering she had just been tangled up with something that appeared to have escaped right out from hell.
"Why do you get to carry the girl and I get him?" Mircea whined as he dragged the monster after them.
"Because you're more likely to bite her."
"No I'm not."
"Statistics are against you you know."
Mircea grumbled bitterly, and Maarten could hear him try to argue to himself the entire way home.
Cecilé was indeed somewhat please to have another woman in the house, wasting no time in preparing a room for the newcomer.
Erik on the other hand was less enthusiastic about a new monster for his lab.
"I'm going to run out of space to keep them till they're treated," he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "They're taking more time than usual..." Erik grumbled after a while, rubbing his temples and glancing towards the 13 'monsters' currently in separate cells.
"I can possibly place some of them in the same cell, but not all of them are suitable for that either... not yet anyway," Erik scratched the back of his head and grumbled over his predicament.
"Expand the cells?" Maarten suggested.
"Possibly..."
"How about we stop hunting for more of us for a little while? At least till we've cured a few of our fellow kin?" Francis suggested.
"And risk more humans being turned or eaten?" Maarten frowned.
"Relax," Gilbert interjected with a smug grin, "We can just spread a little rumour that a vampire hunter is on the trails and for them all to lay low."
"And that will work?" Maarten raised an eyebrow.
"Should do," Gilbert smirked.
Erik rolled his eyes at them all and retreated back to his desk – he wasn't sleeping much these days.
Between trying to revive Mircea's brother and curing the vampires of their monstrous forms he was so busy he often forgot to eat and drink.
Cecilé was possibly the only reason he hadn't fainted by now; although she did comment on the dark circles under his eyes that in her words "makes you look more dead than me,"
Progress was slow – too slow.
The newest addition to the cells was already giving him a headache.
Erik wanted to shoot it, and not just with a stun gun.
The creature howled, snarled and bashed its body against the bars of the cell – making such a horrible racket that Erik had started to want to ask Maarten to silence the creature once and for all.
"You should sleep," Cecilé suggested softly as she wound her arms around his shoulders, kissing his neck and smiling as he leant into her embrace.
"Too much to do," Erik mumbled.
"It can wait. You need to sleep," Cecilé hummed softly "Everything will still be here tomorrow, there's no rush to finish it all right now, and everyone understands you're only human,"
"This would be so much easier if I wasn't," Erik mumbled.
"Nonsense," Cecilé ruffled his hair affectionately and pressed another kiss to his cheek.
"But get some sleep,"
"Only if you join me," Erik yawned.
"Of course," she laughed "Hopefully by tomorrow our new guest will be awake too."
"Mhm," Erik nodded as he stood up slowly, stretching his arms above his head until his back gave a satisfying crack.
She took his hand, dragging him out of the lab as fast as she could before he changed his mind and tried to go back to work.
Erik was the worst workaholic she had ever met, and their current situation hadn't made it any better.
Cecilé didn't need sleep – not any more, and Erik had fallen into the bad habit of not going to bed unless she did.
She was certain he was starting to go a little mad; the screams of the newest vampire in the holding cells was certainly not helping his nerves or train of thoughts.
Shuddering, she locked the lab door behind them.
The little girl was still sleeping, but Cecilé had given clear instructions to both Anika and Veronique to come fetch her should the girl wake up while she rested.
Erik mumbled something incomprehensible as Cecilé unbuttoned his shirt, and despite herself she had to giggle when he fell to the bed, asleep probably before his head hit the pillow.
"Idiot husband of mine," she sighed to herself and climbed into bed with him, playing with his hair and watching his chest rise and fall.
"Stupid, idiotic and sleepy husband of mine," she whispered, kissing his forehead before snuggling up close to him "Never change," she added under her breath as she closed her eyes and tried to 'sleep' herself.