The silence of the springs was penetrating. It seemed to absorb every ounce of sound that might disturb the surroundings, wrapping itself around every bather's soul, soothing their bodies as well as their minds and spirits, enwrapping them all within a cocoon of quiet serenity and well-being.

The men had settled back into the spring and had ceased all talk and activity in exchange for the tranquility that the springs had to offer, each forgetting about his freshly gotten aches and pains, each allowing the rich, warm water to melt their troubles away from their bodies.

On the other side of the bamboo wall, the women were just as relaxed and soothed, soaking up the purifying steam and minerals of the water. Carmila and Caroline had lapsed into a light doze, each of them propped up against the boulder for support. Leila and Charlotte were both wide awake, but they had their eyes closed, and were completely lost in repose.

Through all of the quiet, none of the women noticed the slight shifting of shadows coming from some nearby bushes, the movements light and barely audible within the resort's hot spring area.

The thing had been waiting for quite some time, waiting for when its victims would fall into a complete collapse of awareness so that it could make its move without too much deterrence.

The thing shifted again, bouncing from one hiding place to another, getting ever closer to the edge nearest the unsuspecting women. They would be its first target since it deemed them the easiest ones to go after.

Its movements were quick and lithe, and almost completely undetectable. Only the most trained and wary eye would've been able to separate the thing's movements from the natural shifts of the spring's own atmosphere.

The thing was good at what it did, having had practice and experience for a countless number of years, having succeeded in most of its efforts throughout the duration of its lifetime. This time, however, proved to be a challenge, even to itself. The thing was excited by challenge---even thrilled---and it was determined not to be cheated out of the rewards of such an unusual opportunity and experience.

It finally reached the last of its vegetative cover, pausing in its advance just long enough to brace itself. For only a second, the thing would be exposed out in the open, and the thing knew from experience that a second of exposure to the likes of its current targets was all that was needed to spoil all of its plans. It had to make sure that the timing was just right, that the women were truly sedated from the hypnotic calm of the atmosphere.

After another moment of hesitation, it whipped out, keeping low to the ground, and slipped soundlessly into the water without stirring its surface. Its timing was good. Not one of the women had seen it or had been alerted by it . . . and they wouldn't sense it until it was too late, either. Even Caroline, who was so prone to the thing's definitive energy signature, wouldn't know what had hit her until after it had managed to get what it wanted from her.

Everything was going according to plan.

The thing wormed its way through the dark water, seeking out the women's forms through the murkiness caused by the natural minerals of the spring. It moved with the grace and ease of a salmon, slicing through the water with uncanny smoothness, but it took care to keep its movements slow at first. It had to approach them with the care of a creeping cat; otherwise, it could blow its cover.

There.

The thing caught its first sight of a woman's beautiful silhouette. From this distance, the water was still too murky to make out any details, but by her size and proportion, the thing automatically knew that it was dear Charlotte.

Good, it thought gleefully, heading right for her. She was tender and young, the perfect first victim.

As it drew closer and closer, it began to pick up in speed. It could feel its excitement---its arousal---as the sight of Charlotte's body began to take on more definition, her form becoming clearer as it drew ever nearer. Just a little farther, and it would be able to make out every fine detail of her succulent body, from the pink buds of her nipples to the delicate hairs of her womanhood.

Unable to contain its excitement due to its anticipation of its victory, the thing launched itself into full speed, reaching out its gnarled hands so that the first thing they would grab would be two big handfuls of well-formed breasts.

It closed in . . .

. . . just another split second . . .

---and the thing suddenly felt itself being wrenched from the water by its hair just before it was able to get a good glimpse of Charlotte's body. It was yanked around with such anger and violence that the thing thought it would be ripped apart, and then it felt itself being hurled away from the spring---away from its precious fruit.

The thing flailed as it sailed through the air, reaching out with its gnarled arms in an attempt to cushion its inevitable fall. It landed just by the edge of the spring with a loud "THUD!", just barely missing the stones that lined it.

The thing let out a yelp of outraged pain, daunted . . . but not defeated.

Above the ringing in its ears, the thing could hear the women's surprised screams. It let out a woeful moan as it worked to get its bearings back. "You lecherous old man!" it heard a man's furious voice shout. The thing paused.

A . . . a man's voice?

Curious, it looked up from the ground, its coin-like eyes searching for the source of the voice---and the thing smiled, a sly twist of its lips that was meant to mock the man he saw standing in the midst of all of the beautiful lovelies.

"Ah, Meier," the old man said as he picked himself off of the ground. Meier rotated his jaw, the muscles in his cheeks moving every time he ground his teeth down. He was fighting for control. It was all he could do to keep himself from completely annihilating the old man right on the spot . . . but for whatever the reason was, Meier held his ground as he watched the old man settle himself into a cross-legged position facing him and the women.

The Leader soon fixated its gaze on all of them, its stare mocking and derogatory. He was somewhat disappointed to see that the women were all now clutching towels to their bodies in addition to keeping themselves submerged beneath the surface of the water so that the old man wasn't able to get a good look at them. He also noticed that each woman looked violated and mad-as-hell . . . but each was still too confused to act out.

Hmm . . . the old man thought as it observed the women's shocked expressions. Apparently, they were just as clueless to Meier's presence in the spring as he had been. This hadn't been a planned effort on their parts. Meier had caught them by surprise, too . . . maybe even more so. Nobody knew where the vampire had come from. He had just suddenly appeared out of the water in front of Charlotte.

The vampire glared at the old man with such intensity that the women could feel the heat of his stare, his red eyes burning like melted nickel, his hands balled into tight fists of fury.

The old barbaroi only smirked, shaking his head at himself for having not sensed the presence of the meddling Noble.

Suddenly, the water erupted again in six different areas of the spring, drawing further gasps of surprise from the women. As the water began to rain back down again, it was revealed that D, Kyle, Benge, Mashira, Nolt, and Borgoff had also been hiding in the water. They were all glaring down at the old barbaroi, almost as pissed-off looking as Meier who continued to fume without acknowledging their presences.

Charlotte let out a inward sigh of relief---they were all wrapped with towels.

"You guys take him down!" Grove's voice called out from the men's side, his shout slightly muffled by the distance. For obvious reasons, he hadn't come along.

The old barbaroi blinked a couple of times, taking a good look at the scene in front of him. It seemed that the situation had just gotten more interesting . . . and, he realized as he glimpsed the women's looks of indecision, he could use it to his advantage.

"My, my, my," the old barbaroi said with a slight lilt to his voice. "Quite an assembly we have here now, yes . . . did you boys want a little action, too, hmm?"

All of the men looked taken aback, suddenly realizing what they must look like to the women. Nolt stiffened and arched his neck so that he was looking up at the sky, careful to keep his eyes off of anything he wasn't supposed to see. The others, with the exception of D and Meier, threw apprehensive looks in the general direction of the women as they felt the women's battle auras suddenly coming to life . . . except for Caroline who seemed oddly pleased with the situation.

"What're you guys doing here?" Leila demanded slowly, her voice so finely edged that it managed to send shivers up most of the men's spines.

"You stupid old man!" Kyle suddenly blasted, outraged at having the blame suddenly focused on him and the others. "Don't try to twist things! We didn't come here for any cheap thrills!"

"Yeah!" Benge joined in. "Who do you take us for? We just picked up your life force over here and already knew what you were up to!"

"So then how did you end up on this side of the spring?" Carmila asked accusingly, standing up as she carefully wrapped her over-sized towel around her body.

"We swam under water," Left-hand answered cheerfully, oblivious to the women's rising anger. "We didn't want to let on to the old man that we knew about him, so we just swam all the way here."

"You expect us to believe that?!" Leila shouted, also standing. "With the exception of D and Meier, not one of you could possibly hold your breath long enough to get all the way around that wall, and then stay under until the old man showed himself! Where's my damn blaster?!" she shouted again, looking around. She had brought it with her---just in case---and had laid it down somewhere where it wouldn't get wet.

"Now don't get carried away, Leila!" Borgoff said, waving his arms out in front of him. "There's an opening just big enough for us all to squeeze through under the wall over there. You can go look and see for yourself! C'mon, Leila, you know us better than that!"

"Oh, do I!" Leila screamed. "I know that you're all men and only have one thing on your dirty, little minds!"

"You all think about dog food, too?" Mashira interjected, looking around at the others in surprise. There was a sudden flood of silence as everyone turned as one to look at Mashira. He returned their stares with a baffled one of his own, unable to understand what was going on.

"C'mon, ladies," Nolt said, blushing, and still looking away. "We didn't come here to get cheap peeks. We only had your best interests in mind." Caroline jumped out of the water and grabbed his arm again, rubbing her cheek against it in adulation.

"Nolt, my hero," she purred, making Nolt turn even redder. Leila watched the two of them for a moment, feeling some of her anger beginning to slip.

"And you, D?" Leila started again, turning to him with an accusing eye. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'm a tortured soul destined to wander the Earth for all eternity," D said impassively. "What makes you think I'd be made any happier by peeping at naked women when it's something that women show me all the time anyway? Take Doris Lang, for example . . ."

"Point made," Leila sighed. "And you, Meier?"

"I'm only interested in Charlotte," Meier said with just as much ennui. "And I care about her well-being. I'll not be having a dirty lech laying his hands upon her. You can think what you like, I don't give a damn. All that matters is that I keep Charlotte safe."

"Oh, Meier," Charlotte sighed lovingly.

"Charlotte," Meier said with adoration.

"Don't you two start that up again," Benge broke in, annoyed. "Did you two forget why we're here in the first place?" Anger spent, Leila sighed as she finally spotted her blaster sitting on top of the smaller boulders set close to the big boulder.

"Okay, you guys," Leila said absently as she adjusted the blaster's settings. "I believe your story . . . but we can take care of ourselves. Next time, don't rush in here without at least a word of warning, because I'm not going to look at what I shoot at if this ever happens again."

"Fine," Meier said. "In the meantime," he commented as he turned back around to face the old man again, "we're going to make sure you pay, old m---"

He stopped.

The old barbaroi was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, hell!" Caroline cried. "Now the freak's out on the loose! Once he gets started, he never stops!" She whirled on the man other than Nolt closest to her. "Borgoff, what the hell was the point in you idiots coming over here if you weren't going to keep your eyes on the old man?!"

"Hey, now wait just a damn minute!" Borgoff piped defensively. "I did you girls a favor in coming over here, and this is how you thank me?"

"You call letting that pervert get away a favor?!"
"That wasn't my fault, damn it!"
"Oh yeah?! Then who's fault was it?!"
"More yours than mine!!"

"And how the hell did you come to that bright conclusion, honey?!!"

"The same way I came to the conclusion that you're a real bi---"

"Hey!"

Leila shot off a single blast, silencing the both of them. She held her blaster over her head, watching Caroline and Borgoff just long enough to make sure that they were going to behave.

"Okay," she began slowly, "it's nobody fault . . . does everyone understand that?"

Borgoff and Caroline only snorted, but they didn't try to disagree with Leila . . . she had the blaster, and she was a good shot.

"The old man wanted to set ourselves against each other," Leila said, looking around at the others. "And he did well enough to get away . . . now we have to work on holding it together---at least long enough to bring him back under reins. No more fighting among friends, you got it?"

There were murmurs of consent, including from Borgoff and Caroline.

"Yeah, we're going to have to do something," Kyle said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "We can't just let that pervert run around and doing whatever-the-hell he wants."

"You can do what you like," Benge sighed, turning away, suddenly sounding very bored and tired. "I'm going to back to rejoin Tinkerbell on the men's side."

"I said stop calling me that!" everyone heard Grove's voice floating over from the distance. Benge made a mental note to remember that Grove could hear over long distances thanks to his astral projective ability, something that Benge would have to watch out for whenever he was muttering to himself anywhere near him.

"You really want that pervert just running around trying to feel up the girls?" Kyle asked with an arched eyebrow. "It's the duty of every able male to protect vulnerable women."

"Vulnerable women?" Leila repeated, cocking the blaster's nozzle at Kyle's head.

"Okay, just anyone in general," he said quickly, working to appease her.

"It isn't just women with something to worry about," Benge stated, turning his head to throw a look over at both Meier and D. "Any pretty boys have got their backs to watch, too."

"What do you mean?" Meier asked cautiously.

"The old man's not picky about gender," Caroline explained, her head resting against Nolt's side. Her face was very serious. "All he cares about is if you look good to his eyes . . . D can vouch for that fact."

All eyes turned on the vampire hunter. He only shrugged.

"He's not something I have to worry about," Meier said, waving his hand as if to blow the idea off. "He's no match for me or D."

"Think again," Mashira suddenly broke in.

"What?"

"The Leader is a master of the perverted arts," the wolfish barbaroi explained solemnly. "No one has ever been able to match his skill, and I doubt that either you or D will be able to stand up against him alone."

"What are you talking about?" Meier huffed. "His source of power was that stupid unicycle he's always riding around on. You said so yourself. Without it, he's nothing but a dirty old man."

"That's where you're wrong," Caroline said somberly. She suddenly broke her hold on Nolt and stepped away from him, surprising everyone. She was deadly serious. "The old man's unicycle is the source of his magic power," she said, looking around at everyone. "But he has other ways of dealing with those he wants something from, and he's very good at them all. It's not known what the extent of his abilities is---no one's ever been able to get that far. All that's known for certain is that the old man has different channels he can access with that unicycle being his favorite. Without it, he'll seek the others which he can easily tap into whenever he wants."

"Then why hadn't he done so earlier?" Borgoff argued, crossing his arms. "Sounds like a bunch a crap to me."

"That's because he's playing with us," Caroline said, throwing Borgoff a dirty look. "He lives on games---thrives on them---and he'll be working from here on out to drive every one of us insane."

"Then tell me why---," Leila began, barely being able to contain her anger, "---you three agreed to bring him along with us back in those woods?"

"Because he had already found us out, honey," Caroline answered with a sigh. "We thought that if we brought him with us that it would at least keep him in check . . . what can I say? We were wrong."

"Great," the hand muttered. "This was supposed to be a relaxing vacation . . . what the hell happened?"

"Evil," the three barbarois answered simultaneously. "Pure evil."