Rocky was right, the next afternoon Angel Grove was attacked by a monster. The whole process seemed weird to Rocky and he found the helmet claustrophobic but he didn't say anything. He found that Tommy took any comment as a personal offense if it involved the way something was done.
After several weeks Rocky found himself hanging out with the Rangers more and more, much to Oliver's delight. He was also sleeping more often and generally didn't feel as bad when Oliver woke him. Rocky was also pleased to see that Devon was making more friends and was doing well on his own. Despite everything that was going well, he was getting more frustrated that his brother still had not responded to his letter. There were also rumors coming in from Europe that Lillith was on the move again.
Their kind had enemies and those that disagreed with their choice not to eat humans, but none stirred as much hatred and fear as Lillith. There was more than a few that had been saved by Rocky, Dimitri or Nicoli from one of Lillith's followers.
Rocky knew that if the rumors were true he would be hearing from both Franklin, whom protected the Coven to the North or Emilio and Juan who were to the East. While they weren't friends they had formed an alliance that benefited them all. Weeks of silence passed that made Rocky nervous. In turn his nervousness was making Oliver and Devon nervous partly because Devon had never dealt with Lillith and because Oliver had.
Every day while he was out fighting the monsters of Angel Grove more letters would arrive asking for information on Lillith, but he never seemed to know what to tell them.
Even the Rangers were beginning to notice something was going on, Devon was staying closer to Rocky, but not in the creepy unsure way he had at Stone Canyon. But everything time they asked what was wrong he told them 'nothing'.
Rocky saw nothing good coming from telling them of Lillith when the only thing he had were rumors, each more absurd than the next, and he had told Zordon he did not want them involved and he meant it.
The stress of it had Rocky slowing cutting back on his sleeping and hunting and when he didn't sleep it wasn't restful.
Months after the rumors started they began to taper off but it didn't make Rocky feel any better about it. His letter to Dimitri had gone unanswered and he was furious. Between that and the rumors, he was ready to fly to Russia and demand an answer from his brother, but the constant attacks from Zedd kept him from leaving.
Devon stood at Rocky's locker going on about the fight that had nearly broken out in gym that morning. Rocky hadn't been paying attention; his thoughts were on the things he had to do that weekend, blocking out time for the inevitable monster attack that seemed to come like clockwork. Although he tried to block out all the background noise and smells his extra keen senses made it difficult. He could hear the other's plans for the weekend and more about the almost fight; he could smell all the perfume and sweat. But then something different caught his nose. Something that didn't belong, something that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up and his hand tightened on the door to his locker.
Devon stopped mid-sentence, "Master? What's wrong"he asked when he saw Rocky go white.
"Lillith" he said barely loud enough for Devon to hear.
"Lillith?" Devon turned around to look, even though he wasn't sure he would recognize her. Rocky glanced over the hallway not expecting to see her. The only thing that seemed out of place were the two girls what had passed them and stopped at a locker just down from Aisha's.
"Who is she"he asked Devon.
Devon let out a lustful sigh, "Heidi. They just started and just about everyone is lined up to ask her out…. I guess except you." He sounded annoyed, still watching the tall thin blond girl.
"Not her. The red head" Rocky clarified.
"Oh, I don't know. Geta, Gretchen, Gertie, something like that." She was much shorter than the blond and she had coppery red hair pulled up in a ponytail. "She's Heidi's sister" Devon added. "Why did you bring up Lillith?" he asked finally tearing his eyes off the sisters.
"She's tagged her".
"Woah… wait. What? Lillith, your mortal enemy has marked them?"
"Not them" he corrected.
"Heidi?"
"No, dipshit" Rocky shut the locker loudly. "The other one."
"Oh" was all Devon said. He didn't seem bothered with it.
"She can only do that if she is here." Rocky reminded Devon.
"She's at the school?"
"No, it's been in the last few days" he said inhaling deeply. "This is bad" he muttered more to himself than to Devon, who was still trying to grasp everything his Master was going on about.
Both vampires watched the girls load their bags and head down the hall, presumably heading to the door to start their weekend, not knowing what danger they may be in.
Rocky spoke to Oliver when he got home trying to decide what to do about the girls and Lillith. It finally confirmed everything he had been hearing over the months, but now it would mean decisions had to be made. After talking to Oliver Rocky made the decision he hadn't wanted to make. He called a meeting with the Rangers for that evening.
Oliver led them into a large room with a boardroom-esque conference table, "Master Tristan will be with you in a moment. Can I get you anything to drink?" The teens looked horrified. "Water or tea perhaps" he clarified internally enjoying their expressions.
"Uhh, no thanks" Tommy answered for all of them. Oliver nodded and left. They no sooner had taken their seats when Devon came in. "Hey" he said.
"Hey Devon. Do you know what this is about?"
"Yeah." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and flopped in a chair. "Rocky will tell you. He had to finish a letter to Franklin and Emilio."
"Who?"Adam asked wondering if they should know who Franklin and Emilio were.
"Neighbors".
"Neighbors?"
"Yeah".
"Franklin has the territory north of California. Emilio and Juan have everything east of Arizona" Rocky said coming in the room. "California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona are mine" he said closing the door.
"What… you vampires just divided up the whole country like it was your kingdom?"
Rocky frowned "No. The whole world is divided and we play by state rules. Plus I was out here long before this area was even part of the country. Also, it's more for the protection of the people that live in it".
"What do you mean?"
"We each have our territory rules, break them and pay the consequences. Anyway, that is sort of why I asked you here" he went over to the table and sat down. "I told Zordon I didn't want you involved with our affairs, it's too dangerous for you, but I need help".
"What's wrong?"
"Lillith" the Rangers each looked around to each other.
"Lillith?" Billy asked, "The same Lillith who turned Oliver?"Rocky's eyes narrowed at Devon.
"Sorry Sir" Devon looked guilty.
Just then the door opened at a very tall, well built man with shaggy dark hair strode in, "yes. The same Lillith that turned all of us" he said with a Russian accent.
"Dimitri!" Rocky jumped up from the table and hugged his brother, his anger momentarily forgotten.
"Hey Little Brother" Dimitri clapped him on the back.
"What are you doing here?"
"I got Oliver's letter."
"What…" he caught Oliver disappearing from the doorway.
"Damn Tristan," he held his brother's face in his hands "you look like hell. No wonder Oliver wrote," he said letting go of his face. "And you have friends. Hello Devon".
"Yeah" Rocky said turning back to the group, "Billy, Kim, Tommy, Aisha and Adam" he said pointing them all out, "this is my brother Dimitri" he introduced as he headed back to the table with Dimitri following.
"Oliver told me she was back" he said slipping his jacket on the back of the chair.
"Lillith has tagged a girl at school"
"What do you mean by tagged?" Adam asked.
"It's a way of marking a human as one's own. It's not very common any more".
"Lillith does it to mark them as hers. She does it to toy with us. Eventually she takes them and turns them, then tortures them until they go mad."Dimitri said cutting to the chase.
"Who is it?" Kimberly finally dared ask as they all tried not to imagine what Lillith was doing.
"The new girl, Heidi's sister" Devon said "or Heidi".
"Greta?" Aisha asked. Devon shrugged still unsure what the unimpressive red head mattered.
"It isn't Heidi" Rocky said getting annoyed with his apprentice.
"How do you know for sure? They were together and there were like 50 other people in the hall, including all of them".
"Devon" Rocky let out a loud breath "I know because I am very old and I have played her games before, and Heidi is ineligible."
"Ineligible? You can be ineligible to be made into a vampire" Billy wanted to know. He'd never heard anything in the legends about there being requirements to be made a vampire.
"It's" Rocky shifted uncomfortably.
"Virgin's only" Dimitri said. "You can only be turned if you are a virgin". The Rangers all looked confused and horrified.
"And Heidi is not".
"How in the hell do you know that" Tommy demanded.
"The same way we know 3/5ths of this table are, excluding Devon because he no longer counts". Dimitri said folding his hands on the table. Everyone's mouth dropped except for Tommy and Kimberly where were completely red faced.
"Anyway, we need someone to keep an eye on Greta. You are too much of a wild card." Rocky pointed to Devon.
"Maybe not. He's young; Lillith won't recognize him or his scent if she gets close again." Rocky shook his head.
'He'll blow it with the sister."
"Ohh. A blond?"Dimitri guessed.
"How did you know that?" Devon asked. Dimitri shrugged.
"You seemed like the blond type. We can use him for surveillance".
"Someone needs to get close. Find out where she ran into Lillith at".
"Why not you?" It made sense to Adam that Rocky should do it, since he seemed to know more about it than any of them.
"No, I can't –" he stopped midsentence as his attention turned to the door as did Dimitri's. "Stay here". He said getting up and leaving pulling the door shut behind him.
"What is it?"
"Sounds like a trouble maker."
"Why is Rocky so disturbed by Lillith" Billy asked since Rocky wasn't in the room and he doubted Rocky would be willing to tell them the truth.
"Because Lillith is completely evil" Dimitri looked over his shoulder at the door listening for movement in the hall. "If any of you repeat this, you will cease to exist. Including you." He pointed to Devon. "About 600 years ago Lillith tagged a young Spaniard. On his wedding day she and her goons slaughtered both of their families, his new bride and turned him into a vampire. If we were royalty, she would be a queen and she had every intention of making him her king. But he refused and you don't refuse Lillith and live to tell about it".
"Rocky?"
"Tristan Gaspar Roque DeSantos, he was 17. Lillith held him prisoner in a dungeon for a year, maybe longer, who knows but her. She hung him from his arms in chains until his shoulders dislocated. He was beaten with anything on hand. Before they could kill him, he would be chained to the floor by the neck with only a two foot lead. He was starved for weeks before being set upon a room full of innocent people. The blood hunger for a new vampire is bad enough without being starved. It would have made him crazy and unstoppable until they were all dead, only to be dragged back to the dungeon for more torture. We found out after he had been there about a year and he can't remember how long it lasted, other than it felt like a life time.
"Nicoli and I had managed to escape her about 10 years before. We were being mentored by Olaf then. He taught us there were other ways to live than killing people. It sounds cruel now, but then he ran a brothel of sorts. Vampires were allowed to feed off the girls in exchange for protecting them. Olaf fed and clothed them and after a time he found them good families or husbands. It took a lot of get Tristan out and Lillith vowed revenge when she discovered him missing.
"For what they did to him it took years for us to undo. Most of his bones had to be reset, infected wounds healed, he had to learn to live properly, but mostly he had to learn to trust again. After a time, when he was doing better Lillith reappeared. She would mark someone, usually a girl, in Tristan's life. He never let anyone close, but Lillith would find someone close enough to hurt him."
"Why?"Kim asked wiping away a tear that ran down her cheek.
"To remind us that she is more powerful".
"How many have there been?"
Dimitri shrugged "8 or 9 maybe".
"And you've saved them?" Aisha asked hopefully.
"Um, well, there is always a first. We almost got the last one."
"That's awful" Adam said. "The whole thing. What can we do to help Greta, to keep her from Lillith?" Dimitri shrugged again.
"We sent a few vampires to sit on the last girl's house. It worked, except he had no way of escaping Lillith. Our power doesn't work on mortals."
"Like what kind of power?"The door opened and Rocky came in. He had changed clothes and his hair was wet. The two elder vampires shared a knowing look.
"Janice again?" Devon asked.
"Yes."
"We were discussing a plan, the last one failed with the escape." Dimitri tried, but he knew the look on his brother's face. The cold icy stare of betrayal. Taking a breath Rocky let it go before turning back to the rest of the group.
"I think I solved that problem".
"Oh do tell Little Brother" Dimitri looked truly interested.
"These, Dimitri, are the Power Rangers" the name was completely lost on him. "Superheroes with the ability to teleport."
"Teleport?"
"Anyone and anything as long as they are close by."
"Wait, you think we can keep this girl safe from getting killed by teleporting her?" Tommy asked.
"I realize it breaks every rule, but we are supposed to be saving people. If we can save this one it might be enough to shake Lillith into doing something stupid like coming out into the open or at least make some of her followers start to question her."
"Well... Kim and I can try to make friends with her" Aisha offered.
"Good. It's a start; they are new in school so it won't look suspicious."
"Why don't you ask her out?" Adam suggested to Rocky.
"I don't date."
"Why not? You, more than any of us could better save her, and you can teleport to. You don't have to marry her, just get her to go out with you a few times."
"Is she cute?" Dimitri asked.
"You stay out of this" Rocky warned his brother "You'd look like a pedophile."
"Excuse me, I am only 27".
"Excuse you indeed. You look 30 and she's barely 16".
"She's sort of cute, I guess" Devon offered, "If you are into boring looking red heads. Not really my type". Dimitri looked from Devon to Rocky and shook his head with a hint of amusement no one other than Rocky seemed to understand.
"Shut up" Rocky warned before he said anything.
"What?" Billy asked trying to understand.
"Tristan has a weakness for red heads" Rocky rolled his eyes and got up heading to the window. "I'm sorry Tristan. This time we'll stop her".
"How many others have to die because of me?"
"Not because of you. Because Lillith is crazy and obsessed. Do you think you can find out where she lives" he asked the Rangers. They all shrugged but nodded. "Good. We'll find some people to watch her."
"Will you ask her out then?"Adam asked again.
Rocky turned around "Tristan, do it and we will discuss this" Dimitri said holding up a folded letter. Rocky gave him an evil look and turned back to the window, folding his arms across his chest.
"I hate you" he said darkly.
"I know".
"And if you ever tell anyone again, I swear to God I will rip your head off with my bare hands".
"I know." Dimitri said again. "If you are asking them to join our fight, they should at least know why".
"Maybe I should just give up. Why did I ever refuse her offer? Do you know what beautiful life I could have right now?"
"Yes. A murderous, violent, bloody life with a legion of thugs at your disposal. But you would be at the top of the world. My memory is getting old and fuzzy, but I seem to recall, in a rather lucid state, you told me you refused her because of Maribel. You didn't know she was already gone."
"Who was Maribel?" Aisha asked gently.
"My wife… is the loosest, shortest sense of the word. They were all killed at the reception".
"Just think of this as a great adventure Tristan. Maybe you'll get laid".
"You just did not say that. Get out you evil vile cretin" Rocky pointed to the door.
"Nothing new there, is it?" Dimitri said with an evil grin, "So you'll ask her then".
"I… fine" he agreed knowing there was no way out of this.
"It'll be alright. It's just like riding a bike."
"Yes, I am sure dating is just like it was in 1946".
"Your last date was in 1946?"Rocky shrugged as if he'd said it had been 3 months ago.
"It'll be fine." Dimitri said. "it will work out this time and maybe we will finally be able to take Lillith out".
"Sure Dimitri, after 600 years. Let's call it a night" he said to the Rangers.
"Let me know if you find out where Greta and Heidi live. You" he pointed to Devon "lay low this weekend."The 6 got up and Devon left and the Rangers teleported out the window leaving the brothers. "I should kill you right now" Rocky said as soon as they were alone. "What are you doing here? You've completely ignored me the last 3 months, Dimitri, and now you waltz back in and just share my life with people you've never met? How dare you! Don't you think, I would have told them if I thought they needed to know?"
"Tristan," Dimitri said gently, "I didn't ignore you. I got yours and Oliver's letters as soon as I got back from Nic's. I've been there for the last 5 months and came as soon as I could. I figured you would do something stupid like hand yourself over. Oliver said you aren't sleeping or eating again".
"I am too".
"Hardly. You are thin as a rail."
"I've always been. I think you always preferred the term 'scrawny'".
"Why do you still let her rule your life? All the moments in between these? You keep everyone away."
"Because unlike you, I live with what she did every single day. I didn't write you because I am enjoying life Dimitri. Every time I sleep for more than a couple days, my joints seize up. The pain is like waking up there every time. They are cracking down on the morphine and it's getting harder to get." He admitted.
"How much are you using?"
"Almost 2 to 3 vials a week."
"Tristan…" he said quietly.
"Oliver doesn't know, he thinks it's still one. I can't keep going on like this".
"But look at how long it took, you could still have decades".
"Decades of what? Pain and the torture of Lillith taunting me? You promised me Dimitri. You promised on Olaf's grave".
"I know. But you are my brother and I love you. I can't imagine life without you. 600 years is a long time."
"You still have Nicoli".
"He isn't the same. He isn't you. Oliver will never forgive us."
"I know. But he deserves a life of his own".
"He stays because he loves you too".
"I know."
Dimitri took a deep breath, "after this one. We at least have to try to save her".
Rocky nodded, "we always try".
"Why would it be so hard for you to ask her out?"
"I'm not good with girls" he admitted.
"You'll never find 'The One' if you don't try."
"Well it won't matter after this one, now will it?"
"No, and there is no reason to hold on to your virginity either, so get laid before you go".
"You seriously never think about anything else do you? I've had it this long; I might need it when I get there".
"You're just afraid you might actually enjoy something and will want to stay around a little longer. Come on, let's go hunting, I'm starved and could devour a mountain lion".
The Rangers sat in the park around the table, "I think I am going to stop going over there" Aisha said, "every time we leave I have to put my head back on straight". Kim nodded, but this was by far harder than their previous visits.
"Do we really want to get involved in a vampire war?" Tommy asked.
"They didn't ask us to. They asked us to be friends with Greta. Sounds easy enough" Kim told him.
"Yeah, but Lillith seems…"
"Can you imagine what she did to him? What if she does the same to Greta? I couldn't live with that. Like Rocky said, we can teleport so even if she did get one of us, we could get out" Adam reasoned.
The group continued to sit in silence until the park lights came on as the sun was setting. Slowly they each left for their homes still lost in thought of the news that Dimitri and Rocky had shared both about Rocky's past and Greta's future.