Hello vampfans!

Well, now things are starting to get interesting. Thus we finally begin what we've all been waiting for...but you'll have to wait for chapter 13 to find out how the Boys ended up being under Max's authority. Goldenpeaches, summoning dark and ghostwriter, I'm glad you liked chapter 11. And yes, the cats do rule. Especially fat cat...in a special sort of way. I based some of Fay's feline friends on actually cats that I know. Fat Cat is actually my own over-fed housecat by the same name and Figaro comes froman old classy cat that one of my good friends own.

I wish this chapter was longer, but I'll promise you this. The up-coming chapters will be, shall we say, to die for? (no pun intended)

Happy Reading

I spent the next two days playing Florence Nightingale and let me tell you, it was no easy thing to do. I swear I honestly do not know which is more frustrating, running a daycare center or nursing four male vampires back to health. If you had asked me then, I would have said that running after a bunch of toddlers would have been easier. Mind you, on some days I still think that, but anyways. Between constantly threatening to tie David to the bed and having Paul demand being waited on hand and foot, I was half tempted to leave them there to starve. But the good Samaritan in me wouldn't allow it and so I stayed, yet by the third day I had to leave for the sake of my sanity. Thank God that vampires heal quickly, so I left Marko to play nursemaid while I went home to feed the cats, take a long hot shower and get some decent shuteye. Now, by the forth day they should have been well enough to get back into the swing of things, but with all the moaning and groaning going on you would have thought that they were dying from the Bubonic Plague. Heaven forbid that they should do anything for themselves! C'mon, that would require too much effort and they were going to drag it out as long as possible. So a word from the wise my friend, never pamper a vampire because you'll regret it big time.

On the fifth day after the fight, I had promised to go back to the cave to make sure that they weren't going to die from malnutrition. As I was busy preparing their supplementary meals, I got a surprise visit from someone…

"Now where did I put the container of cow blood?" Fay muttered to herself as she bustled about the kitchen, moving various items out of her way as she hunted for the plastic container that contained the key ingredient to that evening's meal. Figaro sat stiffly on one of the kitchen chairs with his slender tail curled around his paws. He kept looking at Fay and then at the large cardboard box that was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. Nestled inside the box was a litter of four week old kittens that Fay had found abandoned in an alleyway when she had gone to the dance studio to explain to Alice and Mimi why she hadn't been to work for the past three days. The kittens looked more like rambunctious cotton balls with pawsand Fay had told Figaro to keep his eye on them, least they should wander off and end up god knows where.

"Ah ha! Found it." Fay said as she pulled the see-through Tupperware container out of the freezer and lifted the lid off. She had placed the container in the freezer to keep it chilled and had forgotten all about it. Ah well, if the boys didn't like smoothies then they could go out and hunt for their food. Figaro sighed and began to wash himself, ignoring the tiny mewls of protest that came from the kittens as they began to pounce on each other. Just because she had to look after a bunch of brat vampires didn't mean that he had to get stuck with kitten-sitting duties. That's why there were female cats in the house. Keeping track of energized youngsters was their job, not his.

"Mao?" Fat Cat asked as he waddled into the kitchen. Something smelled good and if there was food to be had, Fat Cat was going to be the one to have it. The chubby cat tried to rub up against Fay's legs, but his efforts to mooch food from Fay were in vain. Working the blender with one hand and grabbing raw hunks of stewing beef with the other, she didn't hear Fat Cat enter and accidentally stepped on his tail as she moved to grab a spoon from the dish rack.

"Ah shit! Fat Cat!" Fay cursed as the over-fed animal screeched and bolted from under her, taking shelter underneath the kitchen table. Figaro looked down at Fat Cat with a smug look on his stripped face before he went back to licking his tail. Sucker.

"Ok. I've got that, now what else do I need? Am I missing anything?" Fay asked, looking over at the stove clock to check the time. She still had enough time to get changed and catch the 10 o'clock bus down to the Boardwalk. Flicking a piece of carrot peel off her cheek, Fay began to put all the used plates and utensils into the sink. She'd wash them later if she got the chance, but they would most likely end up sitting there until tomorrow night. This is what happens when your dishwasher breaks down and you don't have the money to repair it. She began to hum along with the new Def Leppard song that was playing from her wall radio as she untied her apron.

"I never thought that you would know your way around a kitchen. But I guess it's an inherited gift that women have. After all, a woman's place is with the pots and pans." Said a voice that made Fay's heart skip a beat. Her eyes darted to the chair that Figaro had been sitting on, but it was empty. Fat Cat hissed as he slunk further back under the table, trying to hide himself between the legs of one of the chairs. Max casually looked around the kitchen before his eyes came to rest upon the six kittens that were completely oblivious to the evil that had just walked through the door.

"More strays? It looks like you have enough already." Max said calmly as he nodded towards the bottled concoctions that Fay had made as he leaned up against the frame of the doorway. He took off his glasses and began to polish them with the edge of his jacket.

"Where was it they say that you come from again? Was it a zoo or a barn? I think it's a barn because it smells like pig in here." Fay replied tartly as she turned around, placing the apron onto the countertop. Max just gave her an amused look as he inspected the lenses of his glasses.

"Something tells me that this isn't a social visit." Fay said, never taking her eyes off of the Austrian vampire. Max raised an eyebrow and simply smiled. And that is when the kittens began to scream.

"Hey Marko. Can you fluff up my pillows? I can't seem to reach them." Paul asked innocently as he lay sprawled out on the ragged couch, his injured arm tied up in a linen sling.

"You're an asshole Paul." Marko growled as he went over to the couch and punched the pillows into misshapen lumps. "Happy?"

"Very. Oh, and can you pass me that Rolling Stones mag?" He asked, pointing towards the dog-eared magazine that lay on the floor. Marko's left eye twitched slightly as he grabbed the magazine and threw it at Paul, who caught it with his left hand.

"Is there anything else?" Marko asked, walking away from Paul, completely ignoring his request for a busty blonde in a whip-cream bikini. He stalked over to Dwayne who was sitting on the edge of the fountain, staring moodily at the flaking mural on the wall in front of him. David was sitting up on the bed and was carefully tilting his head left and right, making sure that everything was working properly.

"Man, what time is it? I don't know about you guys, but I'm starvin'." Paul said out-loud as he flipped through the magazine, eyeing a picture of the Led Zeppelin band that he had come across.

"Fay's late." David said as he gently massaged the back of his neck. He had all of his motor skills in working order, but his neck was still as sore as hell.

"That's what's bothering me." Dwayne muttered as he tucked a strand of hair his ear. Fay should have been here over two hours ago. His watch read ten to one and he knew that Fay was one to always arrive on time. He didn't like this, not one bit.

"Maybe she got held up?" Marko suggested, but no one seemed to buy into it.

"Or maybe she ran into our good friend Max." Dwayne growled as he stood and began to pace around the cave. Marko shrunk back sheepishly as Dwayne stalked past him. So much for trying to be the optimistic one.

"You figure that's what happened?" David asked, watching Dwayne prowl about agitatedly. Paul lost interest in the magazine and sat up a bit straighter, looking from Dwayne to David. Were they not telling him something? And since it was about Fay, why then was he left in the dark?

"It's what I'd do if someone interfered with me." Dwayne said, kicking aside a stone that lay in his path.

"But we don't know for sure. C'mon…we'd know if Max tried to pull any shit right?" Paul asked as an icy feeling began to creep up his spine. Ok, the little voice of reason in the back of his mind that he usually kept on mute was starting to panic.

"And it's not like Fay can't take care of herself." Marko added. When he had come to, Paul had filled him in on all the details that he had gleaned from Dwayne and David. From the sounds of it, it seems that Fay brought cat fighting to a whole new level. David and Dwayne looked at one another with a grim expression on both their faces.

"Whatever." Dwayne grumbled as he headed towards the rocky ramp. He walked with a slight limp, but that would be gone in a few more days. And in a few more days he was personally going to hunt Max down and beat the proverbial and literal what-not out of him. "I'm gonna go and look for her." He told the others as he started up the ramp.

"Not alone you're not." Marko said as he rose to his feet. Dwayne shot him a warning look over his shoulder, but Marko didn't back down. Hell, Fay had saved all their butts back on the beach and Dwayne wasn't the only one who cared about her. If he wanted to be territorial, that was his problem not Marko's.

"Something tells me you won't have to." David said quietly when a faint sound reached his ears. It sounded like gasping. "Go check it out." David said to Dwayne, who instantly picked up his pace and vanished in the darkness of the cave entrance. The three of them did not say anything until Dwayne returned, holding a small gray figure in his arms. Figaro hung limply, patches of fur missing from his body as he tried to breath in shallow pants. The cat looked like it had been dragged through hell and back. Instantly David, Paul and Marko were up and crowded around Dwayne who moved over to the bed and gently laid the cat on it.

"It's Figaro. How did he get all the way down here?" Marko asked and his question was greeted by silence. Indeed, the pampered housecat had bolted from the house to get help when Max had arrived, but before he had gotten clear across the lawn, Max's demonic Shepard was standing there waiting. None of the house cats were a match for the vengeful canine and Figaro had escaped by the skin of this teeth. Without stopping, the loyal cat had ran from Fay's house in the suburbs, across a busy intersection where he almost got hit by a truck and tore his way into the downtown core. His legs gave out when he reached the stairs and if it hadn't been for David's keen sense of hearing, the boys probably would not have known that he was out there.

"Something must have happened up at the house." Dwayne speculated as Figaro raised his head and mewed in agreement, too out of breath to do much more. David kept his eyes on the cat for a few more moment, his face as expressionless as stone. The tabby slowly turned his head and looked up at David, his green eyes almost pleading with the vampire leader.

"Marko, Paul, take your bikes and hit the Boardwalk, find him. Dwayne, search the beach. If he did anything to Fay he would want to be discreet about it and make sure that only we would find her body." David said quietly. Marko went a sickly shade of green and Paul looked like death had walked over his grave. Dwayne's worried frown turned into an angry scowl as he gave Figaro one more look before he took off in a flurry of movement. He'd cover more ground if he flew and he'd like to see Max try to fend off an aerial attack if he crossed paths with the bastard.

"And you?" Marko asked as David grabbed his coat off the bed and headed for the cave entrance. The other two fell in step behind him as they exited the cave together and stepped out into the night.

"I'm going to see what happened. If you two find anything, come straight back here. If you find Max, don't approach him. I don't need anyone else dying tonight." David said gruffly as he dragged his Triumph from its hiding spot in a shallow outcropping in the rock face and kicked it to life. Without another word, he roared off leaving Paul and Marko in his wake to do what he had instructed them.

"Do you really think that…" Marko began but couldn't get the rest of the words out. He was afraid that if he finished the sentence, it would come true. Paul shook his head, his eyes fearful but he tried not to show it. Max had beef with them, not Fay. But if Max saw Fay as an enemy ally, it stood to reason why he would go after her. But what the hell did she ever do to him, aside from carving him up like a Thanksgiving Day turkey and preventing him from tearing them all into fish-bait?

'Help me." He said to his friend as he tore the sling off from around his neck and tossed it aside. His arm was still bandaged and sore, but he could not drive one-handed. Marko quickly helped him pull out their bikes and after giving Paul an uncertain look, revved his bike to life.

"You sure you can drive?" Marko asked, eyeing Paul's arm as his best friend started his motorcycle. Paul gritted his teeth as he clamped his right hand around the handlebar and squeezed. The muscles and nerves in his lower arm were still on the mend and despite the shooting needles of pain that flared up every time he closed his hand, Paul just bit the bullet. Personal discomfort was the last thing on his mind right now.

"Yeah. Listen. When we hit the boardwalk, we'll split up and meet at the Midway. If Max is there, we'll catch him in both sides." Paul said, taking a page out of David's book. The pincer movement had never failed them yet.

"But David told us not to go near him…" Marko said uneasily. It wasn't that he chicken but they had gotten their asses handed to them only five days ago by the same vampire. If they couldn't beat him as a team, what chance did they have as a fractured unit? Next to none but only David seemed to realize this besides himself. Paul gave Marko a disgusted look before he maneuvered his bike around.

"You gonna do everythin' David tells you? If this bastard hurt Fay, he's gonna pay big time. I don't care what David said." Paul growled before he tore off down the well-worn bike path. Marko watched Paul drive off and with a heavy sigh, followed him up the path. Tonight was going to be bad, he just knew it.

As Paul and Marko worked their way through the boardwalk, David gave the word haste a whole new meaning. He drove like a man possessed, his expert driving skills preventing him from wiping out every time he cut through traffic or jack-knifed a left-hand turn. He made it to Santa Carla's suburbia district in less than fifteen minutes, but he knew that he would not find Max or Fay up at the house. He just hoped that he could scrounge for clues and figure out what happened before the police mucked things up. As he swerved onto Alexandria drive he mentally swore as he cut his speed down to half. There were at least four cruisers parked outside Fay's house and the entire thing was taped off. Neighbors in bathrobes and pajama's stood around on their lawns, talking amongst themselves. As David edged closer to the house, he could pick up whispers of the conversations. Some were saying that it was dug related, others were muttering about serial killers, tying the attack to the rise in the death toll, convinced that they were all going to be murdered in their sleep. But not one person mentioned vampires. When David could get no further, he killed the engine and parked his bike by the curb. He stood on the sidelines as he watched a few officers question the next-door neighbors, keeping one ear on the multiple conversations as his eyes swept both sides of the street. While he was doing this, the hair on the back of his neck prickled. He was being watched. David causally turned his head to the side, letting his instincts guide his eyes until his gaze rested on two boys standing off to the side further on down the street, watching the going on's with identical serious expressions on their faces. They must have been around fourteen or fifteen and judging by the way they were dressed, had watched one too many Rambo movies. This was the first time that David laid eyes on the Frog brothers and it wouldn't be the last.

"Can you please explain once more what you heard sir?" a young officer asked Fay's disgruntled elderly neighbor, who just growled something back at him.

"Like I said for the past five times, I was sitting in my living room, reading the paper like I do every night for the past forty years, when I heard this god-forsaken caterwauling going on outside. Figuring that it was a couple of Fay's cats fighting again, I ignore it but it only gets louder. Then I hear a smash and this god-awful scream and my wife Ellen comes running out of the bedroom screaming that someone was being murdered. Well, Fay's always been a good neighbor so I grab my shotgun and rush out to see what the hell was going on. There were dead cats all over the place, like something had attacked them. Instead of going into the house I run over to the backyard where this sort of whining sound was coming from and when I got there I say Fay laying on the ground surrounded by broken glass and more cats. Most of them were dead, but there were a few that were still alive and it was them who were making all the noise. It was like they were trying to call for help or something. I didn't go inside the house but had Ellen call 911 and waited until you guys got here." Mr. Grisham said as the officer took down notes and nodded his head.

"Did you see anyone go into or exit the house during this time?" The officer said, looking up at the old man. Mr. Grisham thought for a moment before he shook his head.

"No. I didn't see anyone. But I did hear something though. When I entered the backyard I could have sworn that I heard wings…like the sound bats make when they fly all over the place." He said and the officer just nodded his head. Wings…right. David listened to the conversation and stayed where he was until the old man was done talking to the officer. When the man moved away to go into the house, David weaved his way over to Mr. Grisham, making sure to make himself heard as he approached the guy.

"Is Fay alright?" He said as he tapped the man on the shoulder. Mr. Grisham turned and when he saw who it was that was talking to him, bristled up like a porcupine.

"Alright? How should I know? Those damn medics wouldn't tell me a damn thing. All I know is that they took her to St. Michael's hospital." He growled, giving David a hard look as the vampire turned to leave. St. Michael's hospital was about fifteen minutes east of here. David knew that he could make it in half that time. Yet, before he took a step towards his bike, Mr. Grisham grabbed him by the arm and held him back.

"This is your doing isn't it? Ever since you and those other long haired punks have been creeping around here, there's been nothing but trouble. You hoodlums and your drugs and gangs. You see what happens when you get good, honest people involved? If Fay dies, it's on your head. Her blood is on your hands!" Mr. Grisham growled before David wrenched his arm away. Mr. Grisham's gravelly voice rose as David stalked away, the old man's words hitting their mark. If he had listened to Fay when she had tried to warn him none of this would have happened. David scowled as he mounted his bike but the roar of the engine could not drown out the man's last words.

"This is all your fault! And it's just the beginning!" Mr. Grisham swore as David pulled away form the curb and drove off, heading towards St. Mikes. No one knew it at the time, but the old man's words were going to turn out to be prophetic. This was just the beginning of a dark time for Santa Carla and all of its residents, undead included.