Interrupted Laundry Day

"Doesn't anything stay dead when it should?" - Every vampire hunter ever

Aaron had been strictly forbidden to leave his room until he got more sleep and yet had crept downstairs to listen in anyways. Bea was sharing her report with Earnest and Kay. She let Lucian go deliver Vanargand to Sheridan with a promise to call him once they located the vampires. "So in short: This new vampire is unpredictable. He hasn't killed anyone, he's not mentioned anywhere in Dumas' database, no one recognizes this guy, he drinks tomato juice when fresh victims are in easy reach, no monologues about 'pathetic mortals' being inferior... Who'd Dumas bite?"

Kay polished the Ninja as he listened. "I mean, did Dumas actually bite the guy or just dig him out of some ruins?"

Earnest was thinking that too. "What does he want?"

"He seemed interested in Lucian? Lucian said Vanargand was acting weird around him."

"Remember that radar blueprint we got from the Vambery?" All heads in the room turned to look at Kay. "We finished building it? It was used by Dumas. Apparently he had a certain vampire that he wanted to make sure stayed dead. That one was in the habit of leaving spare bats in hiding so he could regenerate even when purified with the land-based Pile Driver of legend..."

"That required a piece of the vampire to be tracked. We were hoping to track Dumas with it."

"We find this guy, we find Dumas. The shield he dropped won't work. We need a body tissue sample or blood..."

"But where... Call Lucian!" Kay sprinted out the door in the direction of the laundromat as people frantically dialed their phones. The canid hoped he would not be too late to stop the coat cleaning. He had seen Lucian at the dry-cleaner once before.

After the three gunners left to get the tracker up and running, Aaron and Toasty entered the room to sneak a peek at the files

"He drinks tomato juice?" Aaron said, "Who ever heard of vampires drinking tomato juice?"

Toasty shrugged. "I've seen such a thing before. A half-vampire found it better than the alternative while he was looking for a cure."

"Really? You have got to tell me about that. What happened to him?"

"...He was murdered." Toasty looked so depressed that Aaron decided not to press him for the story.

"I'm sorry... Hey. That's the picture of the vampire."

"Oh my goodness! Aaron! I think I know this boy! I hope I'm wrong..."

"You know who it is?!"

"If I'm right, he wasn't saying Sartana. Quick! Let's see if we can catch up to Bea!"

Perrault and Dumas had brought up a number of reasons why they should stick together with Django. Not the least of which was that it started raining again. They found Django huddled in a spot to hide from the rain.

"Sooo do you have any undead minions under your command?" Django shook his head no. The Silvery White Knight did not count as a vampiric minion. Django could only imagine the knight would say if anyone even hinted at such a thing.

At one point Dumas asked Django point blank, "Did you work under Ratatosk?"

To which Django said, "H-E-single-hockey-stick NO." and left it at that.

The Duke sensed he'd offended Django and checked his map. They were almost to the foot of the mountain. "Oh good, they're raiding my secret warehouse off Belladonna Street." It was part of his saving the world plan. Slide thirty. The Guild would not accept gifts from the infamous vampire. They would, however, cheerfully raid monster-infested hideouts with their coordinated strikes. The trick was making them think it was their idea. Dumas had been seen in Old Culiacan near this warehouse. They'd investigated. Dumas had planned to disarm enough traps to avoid casualties while leaving enough to still look like it was meant to keep humans out. He and Perrault kept some hiding holes for themselves.

Finally they arrived at the foot of the Firetop mountain. "So, will you be joining us?"

"I need to think about it." Django said. Technically that was true. He was thinking no.

"That will suffice. I know they have been our prey in the past, but the humans have an admirable fighting ability and we would be fools to forget that again..." Duke Dumas took something out of his pocket. He handed over a small metal device with an antenna. "This transmitter is yours now. If you get in trouble again, press the button. One long press and we will come running. Three presses activates non emergency signal. Use that if you want to talk." The duke did not doubt that it would be used. They were the only vampires left and loneliness was a powerful emotion.

Django looked at the Duke and his cat. Perrault, sensing Django's reluctance, decided to exploit his cute cat charms. Django accepted the gift with a mumbled "Thank you."

Dumas replied, "It was my pleasure. Take care of yourself, Squire."

Django walked in a different direction, then doubled back and went the correct way home once he could no longer sense them. He spent a lot of time having to take detours to hide from people. He wondered if he should have asked to be dropped off at the Azure Sky Tower, even if Silver would have disapproved of the visitors.

Alice frowned as she looked over her notes. The canid and vulpid civilizations were on board. So too were the aveids. Too many other species were unwilling to join in open combat against the Immortals. If they were to have a chance to win this war against the Immortals, everyone was going to have to work together on this.

Alice glared at the reply from the ambassador this morning. One sentence in particular bothered her. "If this planet's native species can't even put aside their differences to work together, how can we expect to be able to work with them? They have been at war with themselves for centuries. It's a lost cause." He, unfortunately, had a point. While some people in the Guild were willing to forge uneasy alliances, the years of loss and abuse at the hands of vampires left people unwilling to trust even so much as a shoelace to the vampires.

Dumas had made polite overtures to them, but humanity had learned the lessons written in blood. Those who could fight often refused to show any forgiveness. Those who were willing to work with Dumas were largely people unwilling to show any fighting spirit.

Sheridan, surprisingly, was in total agreement with Alice. Dumas was not a trustworthy person, but he knew where all the stockpiled resources of the planet Earth were. Fighting against him drained manpower and materials from the coming battle against Polidori's people. Carmilla, with her cold logical mind, had a clear assessment of what was at stake here; She said it was not her decision to forgive Dumas, but they needed to at least listen.

Alice had something in common with Lucian: Revenge. Her aim in life was to stop the Immortals from destroying anyone else's home. While Lucian was out to get Dumas, she had Polidori on her hit list. Now he was gone and she was not gonna let any other planet fall to the Immortals.

Today had been a good day at the laundromat. Not everybody took pride in their work like Fastidious Teenager. Being able to enjoy his music while working was an added bonus. His perfect record with cleaning fabric earned this laundromat the business of Lucian. He didn't want to trust any other place with his coat.

Fastidious Teenager had carefully waxed the floor before the last customer had come in with the usual stains on his coat. (Plus the unusual tomato juice stains.) They knew better than to ask Lucian details here. That was another reason Lucian visited this cleaner. Fastidious Teenager cranked up his music after locking the door, which meant that he missed the banging on the door. He finished getting the coat into the machine and was choosing the wash settings.

Kay, ears flapping in the wind, kicked down the door. Kay sprinted to the machines in the back and found his feet lacking traction. Kay had not intended it, but he stopped the washing with a flying tackle. The floor was more slippery than it had any right to be and it took considerable coordination to avoid serious injury to the teenager. Kay was left apologizing to the confused Fastidious Teenager until Lucian called to tell the kid to hand over the coat.

At any rate, they had the blood sample.

Notes: Are you allowed to use someone as a curse word if you killed them? Hope other people have ideas. Wait, are Alice and the Info Broker the same person? Oh well.