Chapter 2 – 2 AM

"Please, kind lady! Please spare us!"

I frowned as I looked upon the creature that addressed me. A vampire we had just found hiding in a building that had once been a prosperous bakery until a tragic fire had destroyed it; now only a crumbling series of walls remained. As it was we had not been bothering to investigate a burnt out building and were now making amends for this folly. A small group of vampires had created a nest there and had preyed on the locals. Now I had stumbled upon them and a woman, from the looks of her recently turned, had fallen to her knees before me begging for my mercy wrongly assuming that I had any for her brood.

"I beg you my lady, please spare us!" She scraped her knees forward so she could touch the hem of my gown, "Please good lady, do not turn us in, not to the Sarafan!"

My lips curled into a snarl as her filthy fingers curled around the edge of my gown so she could kiss it. I snatched it away and muttered a few blessed words under my breath. She howled with despair as a wall of blue flames closed in around her and her sisters; they would not be harmed by it but this would ensure they could not escape. Meanwhile I could hear Vance's shouts from outside the building, "Veronica! Where are you, Veronica?"

"In here, Vance!" I called calmly, refusing to take my cold eyes from the face of the beast before me. Her golden eyes widened as her mouth opened into a silent, empty scream. Vance and my brothers in arms piled into the ruin and came to a halt beside me. I smiled smugly at Vance as he took in the scene before him; three female vampires huddling together from fear of us, trapped in an unyielding circle of holy blue flames.

"Well done Veronica," he said his voice full of admiration, "Release them and we shall take them to the stronghold." I nodded and with a simple word, the mystical fire vanished and my comrades fell upon them. My eyes trained to detect any sudden movement darted between them, a spell on my breath ready and waiting lest they try to attack or escape. It was not needed in the end for their will was broken and they did not even whimper as we took them away.

Upon our return there was a hero's welcome for recently we had captured double the fiends that was expected of our patrol. As a Sarafan I had learned the virtue of modesty (or at least the appearance of it) yet even I could appreciate that it was because of my brother and I that our particular patrol were doing so well. Unlike in other units where the sorceress was used as a support tool only Vance decided early on that my powers of entrapment could be used against the vampires. Therefore he split us up as to cover more ground as opposed to other groups who stuck together. Their disadvantage was that as one if they found a vampire others nearby were alerted and could escape. With us it was different; if I found one who raised the alarm with the others by their damned telepathy then my brothers in arms would be lying in wait for them while I trapped them within the holy fire. It was a bold plan but an effective one nonetheless and now we would reap the benefits of our bravery, for here was our local leader welcoming us both with open arms to praise our feats.

"Vance, Veronica," he announced proudly, "Congratulations," he said eyeing the vampires our support officers were dragging behind us.

"Another nest rooted out," Vance assured him, "It was mostly Veronica." I smiled at this praise which was no more than my due. I did not seek fame but merely sought recognition for my work.

The ageing soldier smiled upon me as a father would smile on a favored daughter before he gestured for us to follow him, "Come, there is someone who would like to see you." I exchanged a curious glance with my brother for neither of us could imagine who would be here to meet us. All our family and friends were here in Uschtenheim, there was no need for anyone to come here for us.

Our curiosity was put to an end when we were ushered into our leader's office. There, admiring the artwork hanging there was one of the six brothers. I had to stifle a gasp when I saw who it was. I recognized him at once from his armor which was of far greater quality than was available than to any other Sarafan. He carried the best of swords and held himself with confidence and determination which seemed to radiate from him. He was one of the six leaders of the Sarafan who answered only to Moebius and lived in our greatest stronghold south east of the pillars. Tales were constantly told throughout the order of their bravery and if we were exceptionally lucky we might catch a glimpse of these legends in our lifetimes. Now there was one in the same room as us! We were truly honoured.

He turned to us and removed his helmet which until now had concealed his features. He had a thin, pointed face with a thin wave of bright ginger hair atop his head.

"This is Lord Zephon," our leader said by way of introduction. Vance was already bowing so I lowered my face to look at the floor and sank into a deep curtsey.

When I arose Zephon was looking at us bemused, "this is it? These are your best? They are little more than children" he asked and I tried not to let my face betray my anger.

"We may be young my lord," I said, my voice too obviously full of disdain for him, "but we have captured more vampires than any two other patrols together."

My commander was shooting me subtle glares as though I were an impudent child about to be beaten. Zephon however smirked, "She has spirit," I was vaguely annoyed that he spoke about me rather than to me but this time I held my tongue. "And you boy, what think you?"

Vance looked up rather indifferently, "Whether I am young or old I live to serve the Order," he spoke calmly and without false reverence, "I serve it well now and just as well in the future. I am young sir yes, but I serve the Order as well as any older man."

Zephon smiled this time, "Well said young sir. Far more eloquently put than your sister here." I felt my face flare red but again said nothing. It seems I was to be punished for my outburst by way of humiliation.

"I did not invite you here to mock you," Zephon announced, obviously seeing the scarlet shade of my face. "I have a mission for you both. Xathuas here claims that you are the best in this side of Nosgoth. Indeed he has put your name, Vance, forward to be consideration to be transferred to the stronghold in the future when you have more experience to act upon."

I felt a jolt of envy and could not help myself glaring at my brother with undisguised spite. Vance however did not even smile and merely replied, "I am honoured sire. If it shall come to pass then I shall endeavour to serve the Order there as well as I have here."

Zephon smiled genuinely at my brother's motivation. "Anyway my young warriors as I said I have a mission for you. We have caught wind of some rumours about the vampire Vorador living nearby in the dark forest. Of course these are just rumours which is why we are not looking into them too deeply. Vorador has eluded us for decades so we are not going to indulge this rumour however we choose to investigate it. We have decided to send you two into the forest."

"Alone?" I couldn't help but blurt out hoping that my fear was not betrayed by my tone. The black forest was dangerous even for those as experienced as us. I did not see how sending two of us into a possible ambush would benefit anyone least of all us.

Zephon raised an eyebrow in my general direction, "Is there a problem? We seriously doubt that Vorador lives in the forest, we have sent people in before now and they have found nothing. We should not waste valuable resources and men to search what will probably be an empty forest. Instead we shall send you two. You shall investigate and if you find anything report back and the main force shall take over, otherwise you will just be going for a walk in the woods."

My brother replied before I could argue against the decision, "We would be happy to investigate on your behalf my lord. We shall leave immediately." He bowed and with it I was forced to curtsey as we left the room.

"What an honour," my brother whispered excitedly as we made for the exit. He obviously missed my look of absolute annoyance that he should volunteer our lives so carelessly.

"What if it isn't a rumour?" I hissed, "People go missing in the black forest everyday and yet you volunteer us as if we can't wait to die."

Vance looked at me blankly, his entire expression completely uncomprehending, "We have been charged to investigate the forest," he said slowly, "and that is what we shall do. We shall do our duty to the Order." He paused, "You have never minded anything like this before Veronica, is something the matter?"

I shook my head refusing to grace him with an answer; if he was too stupid to work it out I would not lower myself to explaining it. Vorador's home in the forest might be a rumour yes, but there were far more terrifying things that haunted the trees which is why hardly anyone went near there if they could help it.

We went straight to the forest. Vance was convinced that we would be home in time for dinner. Seeing as we had been out on patrol for most of the morning anything we would have taken was already with us. He was eager to get underway, he felt that if Lord Zephon were convinced that there was nothing worth fearing then that was good enough for him. He believed that the sooner we got there the sooner we would return. I wasn't so optimistic, the forest was much darker than we thought it would be. The trees conspired together to block out the natural light to keep us in darkness. I muttered an incantation under my breath and the ground around us lit up moving with us wherever we went. It was not brilliant but it would not draw the creatures of the dark towards us as a flaming torch would.

It was an eerie experience to put it lightly. Our feet sank into the mossy ground leaving deep footprints where we stepped. It was as if no living thing had walked there before and there was a strange sensation of being completely out of time as though this place existed out of our own world. The density of the trees blocked off all sound even though the town was very close by. It was as a curtain of silence veiled the trees, the only thing we could hear was our own feather light steps on the soft ground. The air was damp even though it had not rained for some time. The closure had retained the moisture and dew from the last downpour we had whilst also maintaining the heat of the warm day. It was sticky and we were both sweating, for once I thanked God that I did not have the extra protection of Vance's armour. I could hear his breath coming out in gasps as he struggled against the humidity. I shivered, even though I was far from cold. I did not like this place, it was far too quite for my liking and I feared the odd rustling that we both heard but knew could not have made ourselves.

We had been wandering around for hours and still not found anything, that said we may have been wandering in the same spot and we would not have noticed. The trees were all the same to us and we had no way of marking them adequately. We knew we had repeated ourselves at least thrice by the footprints we had left. "Vance," I sighed, "we're not going to find anything we should go."

I saw his eyes dart from side to side as if he would suddenly find something but there was nothing. He nodded grimly, I could see that he had hoped we would find something and increase our prestige but there was nothing. Now we were faced with an even greater task; trying to find our way out of the forest. We figured that if we walked in the same direction long enough we would emerge but so far this proved fruitless and we just seemed to be walking deeper and deeper into the trees. It was getting darker and colder and we could not figure out if that was a reflection of the outside world or the forest itself becoming more dense.

"Veronica!" Vance called, "Look!" I hurried to my brother's side and followed his line of sight through the trees. There was a faint green glow piercing the forest calling us towards it. "Should we take a look?" he asked me. My mind conflicted; part of me hoped that this light would lead us out of our predicament but the other part of me (the more logical one) thought that this would probably lead us to ruin. I nodded mutely, I could see no other way out of this and so we stepped into the clearing with the light.

We could see that the light was a ball of glowing green flames. It burned in a basket held by a sculpture of a skull. It was not alone either there were many of them, all identical, leading us down a path in the woods. "What do you think?" Vance asked me in barely more than a whisper. He obviously did not trust this either.

"Do we have a choice?" I asked resigning myself to my fate whatever that may be.

"We should pray to God to keep us safe," I heard my brother mutter to himself as we followed the illuminated path before us. Under my own breath I whispered every prayer I knew in a desperate attempt to ignore the feeling of foreboding that crept upon me the closer we got to whatever our destination was.

We seemed to be walking down a slope now and my sense that something was wrong was becoming more and more defined as we seemed to descend into hell itself. We felt the odd sensation of being watched but there was nothing around us save for several dark birds that were occasionally perched upon the skulls that held the ominous green fire in their mouths. Suddenly and without warning Vance pulled me aside behind a tree somewhere. I couldn't understand why he would do this until I followed his gaze and saw that we had arrived at mansion house hidden within the depths of the forest.

"Vorador?" I asked my brother but he didn't seem to agree.

"It could just be abandoned," he muttered, "abandoned and forgotten with the forest grown around it."

I shook my head in disagreement, "It's not overgrown like the rest of the forest and look," I pointed at one of the windows, "a light, there's someone in there. We should go back and tell the others."

Again Vance didn't seem impressed, "What if it's nothing? We go back and say we found a house? It could be anyone, Lord Zephon says that he doubts Vorador is here, unless we are sure it is him we should not bother them with this."

I rolled my eyes, there was some logic in his madness. If we were to advance in any way we could not afford to claim we had found Vorador when this could be nothing more than an eccentric nobleman. Still, my senses told me differently but Vance was already stealing across the grass to get near one of the windows. I wanted to follow but I decided to stay where I was in case anything happened to him. I kept my eyes fixed on him but the further away he got the harder he was to see against the dark walls of the manor. I strained my eyes to see him but he was gone. My heart was beating so loud in my chest I felt it would betray us to anyone in the area. Vance had been gone for a while and I still could not see him. I shifted slightly and then decided that if I would stick to the trees then maybe I could still escape unnoticed. I turned slightly and froze. Standing right next to me and regarding me as if they could not quite figure out what I was doing were three vampire females. They had been there the whole time and I had not noticed them despite them being within an arm's reach of me. I opened my mouth to scream for Vance but one of them was already striking out at me, she caught the side of my head and knocked me off my feet with her superior strength. I stumbled backwards and my back hit a tree. I slipped down the length of it and sank slowly to the ground. I could barely see the women now, my head felt fuzzy and they appeared to be fazing in and out of my vision. It only lasted a moment however for soon the darkness took me and I felt nothing.

TBC