A/N: Thank you for the reviews :) Yes, this story has a different feel to it compared to Shadows of Agony, but I hope you still enjoy it. S.: I don't mind at all if you want to translate the stories. The more people who can enjoy them, the better :)
He didn't know how long he was out but by the time Von Krolock opened his eyes again he was lying on the floor in the back seat of a car. He tried to move but found iron shackles had been placed around his wrists and ankles. Two of the men were sitting up front but one was sitting in the back with him. "Where are you taking me?" Von Krolock growled at him. Ivan looked down at him and Von Krolock's eyes widened with the shock of recognition. "You..." He hissed.
"Shut up back there!" A voice from the front shouted.
"Tell me where you are taking me." Ivan glared at him.
"Be quiet," he snapped.
"Where are you t-"
"I said be quiet!"
"I swear to you," Von Krolock said as he struggled against the shackles, "when I get out of here I'm going to-" Before he could get the rest of the words out, Ivan swung his cross at Von Krolock's head and he passed out again.
-.-.-.-.-
Von Krolock drifted in and out of consciousness as he was dragged from the car and into a small barn. When he was fully awake he found chains had been attached to his shackles and were bolted to the floor. He tried to grab the chains in an effort to pull them out from the floor but he quickly dropped them, hissing as the silver plating burned his fingers. He wanted to stand but could barely even move as if all his energy had been sapped from his body and he realized why when a lantern was lit and he got a good look at his surroundings. He was lying on the cement floor, stripped of everything but his pants, in a corner farthest from the door. The windows were boarded shut and every wall was lined with crosses of various sizes.
"Where am I?" He rasped when the three men approached. "Who are you? What do you want from me?"
"Where you are is none of your concern," one of the men said as he stepped forward. "My name is Cristian. This is Peter and this is Ivan. What we want from you is information. We want you to tell us where the other vampires are." Von Krolock lowered his head back to the floor and closed his eyes.
"There are no others," he sighed. "They're all gone."
-.-.-.-.-
"Father, it's not safe here any longer." Herbert spoke softly as he knelt beside his father's chair. "There are men who have been watching us for a while. Eventually they're going to come for us and now that it's just the three of us-"
"I can't go..." Von Krolock caressed a frayed ribbon that was threatening to fall off of Anneliese's cloak. "I can't leave her here alone."
"She's gone," Herbert said. "She's been gone for nearly thirty years and she's not coming back. It won't make a difference if you're here or not."
"I know she's gone," Von Krolock snapped as he glared at his son. "I wake up to that fact every single night. I don't need you to remind me." He turned his attention back to her cloak and touched the small metal clasp. "Take Breda and go somewhere safe. I can't leave Anneliese alone."
"You need to let her go, Father. When those men come to the castle they'll find her and they'll give her a proper burial. Please... come with us." Von Krolock gathered the cloak into his arms and held it against his chest.
"Please, Herbert," he whispered, "take Breda and go. Just leave me be."
"They'll kill you if they find you."
"Let them," Von Krolock said with a shrug. "I don't care anymore."
-.-.-.-.-
"Answer me!" Cristian yelled as he kicked Von Krolock in the stomach. "Where have they gone?"
"I don't..." Von Krolock gasped for air. "Know..." Peter swung a metal pipe and Von Krolock cried out when it hit his lower back.
"Where are they?" He shouted and he swung the pipe again. hitting him across his shoulder blades.
"I don't know!" Von Krolock groaned. He tried to roll away from their blows but he only succeeded in rolling onto the silver plated chains and he burned his arms and stomach. Cristian forced him over onto his back with his foot and held an iron stake out in front of him.
"Maybe this will jog your memory. Where are they?" Von Krolock closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. "I'll kill you if you don't tell us," Cristian warned. "I'll pound this right through your heart. Tell me where they are."
"I don't care what you do," Von Krolock sighed, his eyes still closed. "Go ahead and kill me."
"Cristian," Peter whispered, "he's not going to tell us..."
"Come on, let's just kill the bastard!" Ivan picked up a fresh bottle of holy water and sprayed it over Von Krolock's bare chest, smiling at the vampire as he writhed in agony.
"No!" Cristian shouted. "Maybe this will get him to talk. Have a look, Von Krolock. Does this lovely little item belong to you?" Von Krolock looked over at Cristian and a feeling of panic arose within him when he saw the man holding Anneliese's cloak.
"Give that back to me," he hissed. "How dare you touch that! Give it back to me!" He tried to crawl over to Cristian but he didn't get far before he reached the end of his chains and the shackles pinched his wrists and ankles painfully. "Give that... What are you doing?" Cristian tossed the cloak into a metal bin and lit a match.
"Tell us where they are, Von Krolock." He held the match over the bin. "If you tell us where the other vampires are I'll give the cloak back to you." Von Krolock shook his head.
"I can't..." He whispered.
"Tell me, God damn it!"
"I will tell you nothing!"
"Fine," Cristian sniffed. He dropped the match into the bin and Von Krolock cried out, watching helplessly as the beloved garment was overcome by the flames. "Now is there anything you would care to tell us?" Von Krolock clenched his jaw and glared up at Cristian.
"Fuck you," he growled. As soon as the words left his mouth Cristian kicked him in the jaw and he fell over onto his back. Cristian walked over to the vampire and leaned over him. "Just kill me," Von Krolock gasped. "I'm not going to tell you a God damn thing."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you? You want me to kill you," Cristian sneered. "But I won't. I'm going to keep you here until you talk and trust me..." He held a silver blade in front of Von Krolock's face. "You will talk."
-.-.-.-.-
"So did you find your vampire last night?" Liliana asked when Cristian entered the kitchen.
"What I do is none of your business," he said as he pulled a bottle of milk from the icebox and sat down at the table.
"I will never understand," she sighed as she slowly stirred the eggs in the pan, "how a grown man can believe in such things as vampires. Your father-"
"My father was a good man!"
"I am just saying that he shouldn't have filled your head with such nonsense while you were growing up. The stories were bad enough but then to start taking you and your friends out to go vampire hunting... I'm sorry but it all seems so silly and childish." Liliana placed a spoonful of scrambled eggs and a few strips of bacon on Cristian's plate then did the same for herself and sat down across from him at the table.
"It's not at all silly and childish," Cristian said. "It's common sense, or don't you have any of that?"
"Cristian, that's not fair..."
"All of the people that have gone missing-"
"People go missing all the time. It doesn't mean they were killed by vampires." Liliana poked at her breakfast with her fork having suddenly lost her appetite. She was tired of having this conversation over and over again.
"People don't go missing at the rate they have from this village and the two others closest to that castle," he explained to her.
"But as I said last night, no one has gone missing for months now. Surely if the man you say lives there was a vampire he'd have starved to death by now." Liliana smiled in an effort to lighten the mood but Cristian glared at her.
"He is a vampire. I have all the proof I need."
"You didn't do anything to him last night, did you Cristian? Please... promise me you will leave him be. The last thing we need is for you to be arrested for trespassing or harassment or, God forbid, something worse."
"I have to go or I'll be late for work." Cristian pushed his chair back from the table and stood up. "Listen... stay out of the barn. Peter, Ivan and I are using it for our work and we don't need you messing around with our things, understand?"
"I understand," Liliana said. "What about your breakfast? Aren't you going to eat?" Cristian looked down at his plate and scowled.
"The eggs are runny and the bacon is burnt. You're lucky you're as pretty as you are otherwise I'd have no reason to keep you around," he said with a laugh. "I'll be back before dinner." He gave his wife a quick kiss on her head then left the house, leaving her alone at the table trying to keep herself from crying.