~O~
Sinclair stared in surprise at the raven-haired teen. "Shun? What are you doing here?" the Vampire Lord asked and then turned to Alucard, "What is he doing here?" Alucard's face showed a bit of uneasiness upon being asked this. "My apologies, Sir, but he snuck out from the enclave and followed us," Alucard explained and seemed to be bracing himself for Sinclair's wrath to be directed towards him.
But the Vampire Lord kept his composure, despite being rather upset with this development. He took a step towards Shun, who was still keeping Alexander pinned against the wall with his telekinetic powers, and said calmly, "I thank you for your enthusiasm to want to help us defeat him, but Alucard and I should have it all under control from here. You're in no shape to be out here anyway, so it would be for the best if you return to the enclave now and resume your treatments."
Shun narrowed his eyes. "I don't think so," he spat defiantly. Sinclair drew back in surprise; he had never really had many of his underlings defy his orders, so it always caught him off guard whenever it did happen. But the Vampire Lord knew that the raven-haired teen must have had some kind of reason for this act of defiance, so he asked, "And why not?"
Shun's glare shifted over to Alexander, and Sinclair could see the hatred in the raven-haired teen's eyes burn stronger.
"I want to be the one who puts an end to this piece of trash's life. It's partially because of him that I killed my grandfather. He caught me while I was going into Bloodlust and suffering from withdrawal and tossed me a vial of his drug, knowing I would take it! And because of that drug, I was unable to control whatever I did, and that includes killing my grandfather! On top of all that, he's also the one who first introduced that drug into my system! If I didn't know how its effects felt, then I probably would have never been tempted to start using! So, I believe I owe a bit of revenge, don't you think?" Shun hissed.
Sinclair could see the hurt in the teen's eyes. In a way, the Vampire Lord could understand Shun's desire for revenge. Not only was it partially justified, seeing as Alexander had caused him more pain than most in the Clan, but also because Shun needed some kind of outlet to deal with the pain that came with the reality of his grandfather's blood on his hands.
Sinclair took a step closer to Shun and asked him, "I know you think killing him will help ease the pain in your heart, but think about this for a moment; do you really want somebody else's blood staining your hands and name?" Shun tensed and appeared to think about this for a moment.
He finally shook his head and told Sinclair, "I won't feel anything if I kill this scumbag. It's different with him." Off to the side, Alexander, still pressed firmly against the brick wall by an invisible force, wheezed and coughed as he tried to take in more air.
The blond-haired Vampire then chuckled weakly and said in a hoarse voice, "I feel of such importance right now." Shun's eyes flashed in anger and he turned to face Alexander. "Shut it!" the raven-haired teen snapped.
Alexander only chuckled and said, "I thought I told you to remember who helped you in your time of need. I gave you that last vial of blood mixture that you body craved so badly. I ended your suffering, even if it was for a little while. Tell me, what has Sinclair or any of the rest of his Clan done for you that's helped you without causing you pain?"
Sinclair turned and looked over at Shun to see if the raven-haired teen might have been falling prey to Alexander's little mind game. But by the looks of it, Shun didn't seem to be falling for it. "You don't know half of what they've done for me, and it's all been in my benefit, which is more than can be said for you," Shun said coldly. The raven-haired teen then turned and faced Sinclair.
"Please," he said, "Just let me put an end to him. That's all I ask. I know he's caused your Clan and Blood Ring a great deal of trouble, but give me this one piece of solace. That's all I want." Sinclair looked back over at Alexander. A line of blood had dried on the corner of the blond-haired Vampire's mouth from where Shun had placed enough telekinetic force on Alexander's body to cause him to cough up the crimson liquid.
The Vampire Lord thought about Shun's request for a moment. He knew that the raven-haired teen had complete and total control over Alexander right now, meaning that it would be simple and quick to allow him to put an end to the nuisance's life. Sinclair didn't care who put an end to Alexander, just as long as one happened.
But another scenario crossed through the Vampire Lord's mind, one that he favored more than allowing the raven-haired teen to commit murder. "No, don't kill him. I don't want him dead," Sinclair stated confidently. Both Shun and Alucard turned and looked at the Vampire Lord in surprise and confusion.
"What?" Shun snapped, "You don't want him dead? Then what was the point of having this entire fight with his Clan if it wasn't to kill him?" Alucard nodded and spoke up as well. "I have to agree with Shun. If you don't kill Alexander, then he'll probably just go and do this all over again," the second-in-command stated. Sinclair's lips twisted up into a grin, and he turned to look at Shun.
"You want Alexander to suffer, right? You want him to pay for what he did." Shun nodded but didn't say anything in response; it was clear that nobody else knew where Sinclair was taking this. "But does it really matter if he dies at your hands or not?" the Vampire Lord asked.
Shun glared over at Alexander and said, "I suppose not, as long as he gets what he deserves. I'm sure I could go on without being the one who put an end to him, although I would prefer if I had." Sinclair smiled and nodded.
Alucard, apparently unable to take the confusion any longer, asked, "What are you getting at, Sir? If we're not about to kill Alexander and put an end to this madness, then what do you suggest we do? Letting him go isn't an option, and it's not like it would be the best of ideas to keep him locked away in the enclave. He might escape. So, what are you scheming?"
Sinclair crossed his arms over his chest and said with a confident smile, "Despite my rather unpleasant relationship with the Society, I still have some pull on some strings there. And Alexander, being the main reason for a suddenly explosion of Blight, on top of the deaths of hundreds of humans, wouldn't stand good in a trial.
He'd most surely receive one of the harshest death sentences that the Society has. He would suffer more at the hands of the Society than he would by us three." Sinclair glanced over at Alexander and saw the uneasiness and fear in the Vampire's eyes.
This brought a bit of satisfaction to the Vampire Lord. Alucard leaned against the brick wall behind him and said, "So, you're pretty much saying we'll throw him to the Society? But what about us? Surely the Society already knows about our Blood Ring because of this whole mess. And running an underground organization like ours is against their laws, despite the fact that we don't exactly cause harm to make our product. They'll most definitely arrest us too and put us on trial."
Sinclair couldn't help but chuckle. Alucard, even though he hardly ever left Sinclair's side, sometimes didn't know a lot about the Vampire Lord.
"That's where you're wrong, Alucard," Sinclair stated, "With the pull I have within the Society that I mentioned, I can make our handing over of Alexander anonymous. They would never know it was us. But odds are the Society will still be looking for us after this, which is nothing new, seeing as they've been doing that for years to try and peg charges on us. All we'll do is go back underground and carry out our business with a bit more discretion until it dies down. Simple as that."
Off to the side, Alexander began laughing, which was gravely from the pressure that Shun was still keeping held down on the Vampire. Sinclair turned and narrowed his eyes. "And what, might I ask, is so amusing about us speaking of your future death?" Alexander continued to chuckle, but stopped for a moment as a bout of coughing took him over.
Once that passed, he looked at Sinclair and smiled. "You're planning on throwing me to the Society, huh? And you're going to use some connection you have in their to get away unscathed? I don't think so. You see, Sinclair, I know where your secret enclave is. All I have to do is bargain for a more merciful punishment by giving them the location of your hideout, and you'll be finished," Alexander sneered.
Sinclair kept a flat expression as he walked right up to Alexander. "You think you're slick, don't you? But I hate to burst your little bubble, but I am more than capable of wiping that little bit of information right from your mind. In fact, I can put a whole false story into your brain and have you tell it to the Society, and I assure you, it would be a story that would only make your punishment worse."
Sinclair saw the blatant fear flood into Alexander's eyes when he said this, which gave the Vampire Lord a sense of satisfaction.
"Now, I think it's time you took a little nap," Sinclair said and smiled. The Vampire Lord focused his powers and tapped into Alexander's mind, shutting down parts of it to induce a coma-like trance on the blond-haired Vampire until otherwise; he also made sure to erase the location of the enclave from Alexander's memories while he was at it.
Alexander's eyes grew hazy and stared off blankly at nothing as he was knocked unconscious. Sinclair glanced over his shoulder and said, "Shun, you can let him down now." The raven-haired teen nodded and released the telekinetic force that had been holding Alexander against the wall.
The Vampire's body then dropped to the ground in an unconscious heap. "He'll be fine if we leave him here for a little while. He's not going to be waking up anytime soon," Sinclair said and nudged Alexander with his foot, "As for us, though, we need to be getting back to the rest of the Clan and put an end to the fighting by informing everyone that Alexander has been defeated."
The three then started to leave the alley and return to quell the fighting that was still taking place. As they walked, Sinclair noticed the dark expression on Shun's face. The Vampire Lord sighed and told him, "I know you had your heart set on being the one to kill Alexander, and I understand why. But handing him over to the Society to face all that he has done and receive punishment by death for it is the best thing that can be done."
Shun nodded and said in return, "I know, I know. Like I said back there, I would have preferred if it were me that put an end to him, but as long as he suffers for all that he's done, I'm fine with it." The raven-haired teen picked up his pace a bit, walking in front of Sinclair for a moment.
That was when the Vampire Lord noticed the four claw marks running down Shun's back. Sinclair stopped walking and stared in shock. "Your back," was all Sinclair was able to say at the time. Shun stopped walking, and without looking at the Vampire Lord, said, "Yeah, I know. I got scratched earlier before I came over here." Sinclair continued to stare at the claw marks, which were starting to heal over. "How long ago was earlier?" he asked.
Depending on how much time had passed from when Shun received his injuries would help determine if he had contracted Blight. The raven-haired teen shook his head and told him, "I'm not entirely sure. Maybe almost right at an hour since I was scratched?"
An hour was much too long for Blight to settle in and take over its host. Even the most weakest cases of Blight didn't take more than twenty minutes sometimes. Sinclair let out a sigh of relief. "I think you're fine then. If it's been that long and you haven't been displaying any signs of Blight, then you should be fine."
Shun let out a sigh of relief of his own, and his shoulders dropped down a bit, as if he finally let go of whatever weight he had been holding up on them.
"Good. That's good," he said, his voice sounding tired and drained now. But Sinclair knew that the fatigue in Shun's voice was more along the lines of relief flooding out than actual weakness; the Vampire Lord didn't blame him.
He knew just how frightening a possible Blight infection could be for any Vampire, especially when each minute that passed by might end up being one's last moment of sanity.
Sinclair patted Shun on his shoulder and told him, "I'll get Loran to take a look at those wounds later on and make sure they're healing up appropriately." Shun nodded and thanked Sinclair for the offer. They then continued on their way back to where the rest of the Clan was fighting to bring an end to it for good.
~O~
A hooded figure emerged from the shadows that were cast by a crevice in the alleyway. He had watched the altercation between Sinclair, Alucard, Shun, and Alexander from beginning to end. And for whatever reason, the hooded figure had had a feeling that Sinclair wouldn't kill Alexander; it just wasn't in the Vampire Lord's nature to kill somebody out of cold blood.
The figure had wanted to see, though, to observe and make sure his gut-feeling had been correct. And it had been. All of the years of standing by in the shadows, watching in silence, had finally paid off and proven just how well he had come to know those of the Yoru Clan. The hooded figure walked down the alleyway towards the unconscious body of Alexander.
The long, ankle-length cloak the figure wore fluttered behind him as he walked, making whipping sounds almost like a flag did in strong wind gusts. He then stopped and knelt down in front of Alexander. Sinclair was planning on throwing the blond-haired Vampire to the Society and had left him there for the time-being, thinking that nothing would happen to his prisoner as long as he was unconscious.
But he hadn't taken anyone else into account. Careless, careless Sinclair, the figure thought to himself and tilted Alexander's head back to where it now faced him. The hooded figure then reached back and removed the hood from the cloak that he wore, revealing his face.
He reached up and brushed his black hair from the eye-patch he wore on his right eye. He then reached out and placed his right hand on Alexander's forehead, focusing the powers that he had been honing in secrecy for years to break through Sinclair's hold on the Vampire's mind.
When he shattered the hold, Alexander's eyes fluttered open. He began to look around, still dazed and in a state of confusion as he woke from the coma-like sleep his mind had been put in. Recognition then flooded into Alexander's eyes. "Hey! You're one of Sinclair's underlings, aren't you! You're probably about to take me to the Society! Well, you're out of luck, buddy! I'm not going with you!" Alexander yelled and tried to make a run for it.
But the figure extended his hand out, sending out ropes of darkness that wrapped around Alexander's body, restraining him. The blond-haired Vampire fell to the ground and struggled against his bindings of darkness. "Let me go! You're not taking me to the Society! I refuse!"
The figure only smirked and said, "I'm not taking you to the Society, so you can calm down." Alexander stopped his struggling and stared in confusion. "Then, what do you want?" he asked skeptically, "Drugs? Is that it? Are you trying to rob me out of my product? If you are, then I hate to tell you this, but I was just put out of business a second ago. Sorry, buddy."
The figure chuckled and knelt down beside Alexander. "No, I don't want drugs. I want to make a proposition. You see, I left Sinclair's Clan to pursue….Plans of my own. And I need extra man-power for the job I have in mind. And I stood by in the shadows and watched you fight Sinclair. You are the only Vampire that I've seen all these years that was able to stand his own and fight back against him, which tells me that you are fairly powerful. I could really use some of that power to help achieve my goal."
Alexander just continued to stare up at the figure. "So, what your saying is that you want me to help you with whatever this cockamamie plan of yours is?" the Vampire asked. The figure shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's either that, or I leave you here and let Sinclair take you to the Society so you can face death. Your choice."
Alexander seemed to weigh his options for a moment. And when finally made his choice, he told the figure, "Alright, I'll help you. Now, would you mind letting me go?" The figure smiled and said, "Not at all." He then released Alexander from the hold of the tendrils of darkness.
The blond-haired Vampire stood up and brushed the dirt off his clothes. "Thanks for this opportunity, uh. Might you mind telling me what your name is so I can at least address you properly?" Alexander asked with a tinge of irritation in his voice. The figure nodded and said, "Zoran."
Alexander nodded in response. "Well," he started, "Thank you for this, Zoran." Zoran waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "No need for thanks. Now, it might be best to get out of here before somebody comes looking for you."
Zoran was about to put the hood of his cloak back over his head when he caught the ever slightest movement from around the corner of a building. He reacted quickly, sending a rope of darkness out in that direction. There was then a high-pitched squeal as whoever was eavesdropping on them was caught.
~O~
Jessie had run off and hid the moment the fighting between the two Clans had started, just like a coward. She didn't care, though. It wasn't like she had signed up to ever fight in a war when she joined Sinclair's little organization, so she really had no obligations to fight.
If anyone questioned her, she was just going to say that she had been chased by some of the enemy Vampires and got lost. In the meantime, Jessie was walking down the abandoned streets, looking at shattered windows of buildings that were crumbling in on themselves.
She couldn't help but think just how ideal this location was for the fight between the Clans; there was nobody else around to witness the bloodshed, and most of the sounds made by the fighting would be drowned out by the buildings. It was really an ideal location.
Jessie walked a little further, enjoying the cool night air; if it weren't for the war taking place at the time, it would have been a peaceful night. She then stopped when she heard the low mummer of voices. Curious to know who else was this far away from the heat of battle, she cautiously made her way over to the source of the talking. Jessie leaned against the wall of an old store and peered around the corner and down the alley.
Her eyes widened when she saw Zoran standing there talking to Alexander. She had heard word of Loran's brother running off unannounced when it had happened. She, just like everyone else, had no idea where Zoran went. Now, here he was, talking to their Clan's enemy.
From where Jessie was standing she was able to catch bits and pieces of their conversation. Zoran was talking something about a plan and how he needed some extra power to help with those plans. "What in the world are they talking about?" she whispered quietly to herself.
Jessie took a step closer from the corner in an attempt to hear more of what was being said. But when she did, Zoran suddenly turned around and looked in her direction. She quickly drew back around the corner and pressed her back against the brick wall, hoping that he hadn't seen her. Suddenly, something lashed out from around the corner, wrapping Jessie up and yanking her into the alleyway.
She cried out in surprise as she landed on the ground in front of Zoran's feet. Cautiously, she looked up and was met with the icy gaze of Zoran's uncovered eye. Alexander stared down at her as well and licked his lips. "Looks like we have an unexpected guest. What do you suggest we do with her?" he asked as he eyed her like some kind of rare delicacy.
Jessie felt her blood run cold. Was Alexander really hinting at drinking her blood? If he was, then he would be committing one of the most taboo acts for a Vampire, not to mention illegal. But then again, he had already killed hundreds of people for their blood, so it shouldn't have surprised Jessie so much. Zoran narrowed his good eye down at her and asked, "So, how much of that did you hear?"
Jessie swallowed the lump that was starting to form in her throat. If Zoran thought that she might go and run back to Sinclair and tell him about this betrayal, then she would surely end up dead. A thought the crossed her mind, one that could keep her alive and get out of the Clan at the same time. "I heard you mention something about needing help with a plan of yours. Well, I'd be more than happy to offer some assistance," Jessie said with a smile.
Zoran appeared surprised by her statement. "Oh, really? And why is that?" he asked, obviously not entirely buying into what she was saying. Jessie held her smile strong, despite the fact that the rope of darkness that was still wrapped around her arms and chest was getting tighter, making it hard to breath.
"Everyone knows I hate being a part of that Clan. I only joined it in the first place to get away from my family and to make some money as well," she said bitterly. It was true. She had only accepted Sinclair's offer to let her join so she could get away from the strict rules of her family. So, it wasn't just a lie she made up in an attempt to save her own skin.
"Please," she begged, "I'm sick of Sinclair and all of his rules. Let me help you. I swear I can be useful!" Zoran stared at her for a while before finally giving his answer. He released the rope of darkness from around her and said, "Fine, but the first sign of betrayal that I sense, you're finished. Same goes for you, Alexander."
Alexander nodded, showing the he fully understood. Zoran brushed past them both and started down the exit of the alley. "Now, let's get a move on. I have something that needs to be taken care of before I make my move." Jessie and Alexander glanced at each other; she took note that the hungry look was still in the Vampire's eyes, which sent an uneasy chill down her spine.
But past that she could see a sense of uncertainty in his eyes, the same sense of uncertainty that she was feeling as well. And with that, she knew that they were bother wondering what exactly they had both agreed to in accepting Zoran's offer.
Yup, well, if that doesn't give you a hint in what the sequel will be about, then you might wanna get some help. Naturally, Alexander is not dead; he's going to play another major role in the sequel. And I decided that Jessie should get some play a part as well, seeing as I only made one mention of her prior to this. I didn't intend for this chapter to be this long, but it just turned out that way, seeing as this felt like the best time to put in Zoran's betrayal. In the sequel, you all will find out more about what his 'plan' is and how he will achieve it. But this story isn't finished quite yet. There's still some more that needs to be said and done. Anywho, go and check out my profile for a poll concerning a possible revamping of some of my older stories. And read and leave a review on the way out! ~Copperpelt~
