"What are they doing here?" Liliana asked Cristian when she saw Peter and Ivan letting themselves in the front door.

"We have work to do out back," Cristian replied. He quickly ate the last few bites of his dinner and stood up to greet his friends as they entered the kitchen.

"But the other day you said you would take me to see a movie tonight." She got up and walked over to her husband. "Can't you do this later?"

"No, I can't do this later," he said. He moved toward the back door but Liliana grabbed his arm.

"Please Cristian, you promised. I haven't been out in so l-" Cristian pushed Liliana away causing her to let go of his arm and stumble back and when she bumped into the table, the bottle of milk slid off and crashed to the floor.

"Clean that up," he snapped at her. "And don't come out to the barn pestering us for anything." The men left the house and Liliana got to work on cleaning up the milk.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ivan asked as they approached the barn. "Keeping him here, I mean. Won't your wife find him? What if he bites her?"

"I told her to stay away from it," Cristian said. "If she knows what's good for her she'll do as I say. If she gets in and he bites her, I'll kill them both myself." He unlocked the barn and the three of them went inside, locking the door behind them. "Oh good, you're awake!" He exclaimed when he saw Von Krolock sitting up and leaning against the wall. He knelt down, being sure to stay just out of the vampire's reach, and looked him over. He was covered in bruises where they had kicked and beaten him and red welts had formed where he had been burned by the silver chains and holy water. There were small cuts on his chest surrounded by similar welts caused by the silver razor. "You look like shit," he said with a soft chuckle. "I bet you could use something to eat. Are you hungry?" He watched with amusement as Von Krolock's blank stare began to change. "You must be famished. I bet you'd like to eat me, wouldn't you." When Cristian noticed Von Krolock's muscles tense his smile broadened. "You should give Peter a try."

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Peter stepped forward and glared down at Cristian but Cristian just laughed.

"He drinks so much of this stuff," he said as he gestured to the bottle in Peter's hand, "that I think he must have whiskey running through his veins. Think of it as a marinade." He winked at Von Krolock but the vampire just stared at him. "Here..." He threw something at Von Krolock that hit his chest and fell into his lap and the vampire looked down to find a dead cat.

"I will not eat this," Von Krolock growled.

"Well, that is completely up to you." Cristian stood up to stretch his legs and walked over to a nearby table outside of Von Krolock's view. "But the next time I feed you won't be until twenty-four hours from now and if you don't eat what I have generously provided for you this evening, I might be offended and not bring you anything else." When Cristian stepped away from the table and returned to stand in front of Von Krolock he was holding a wooden rod in one hand and a whip in the other. He handed the rod to Ivan and Peter pulled out a flask from his breast pocket.

"Water," he said as he held it out for Von Krolock to see. "Had it blessed on the way over." All three men laughed but Von Krolock just stared at them.

"I'm going to ask you once, and only once," Cristian said as he took a few steps toward Von Krolock. He held the whip so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. "Where are the other vampires?" Von Krolock closed his eyes and took a deep breath, hoping this time they would kill him.

"I will never tell you."

-.-.-.-.-

"Father?" Von Krolock looked up to find Herbert and Breda beside his coffin. At least thirty years ago it had been his coffin but after he had killed Anneliese he had sealed her in it. Not wanting to leave her there alone, he ordered Herbert to sleep in his bedroom and since then Von Krolock had slept in Herbert's coffin. Both Herbert and Breda would take turns sitting with him as he mourned over Anneliese's coffin every night; that is, until the smell became too strong for them. The smell of a decaying vampire was barely noticeable to other vampires but the smell of a fully dead corpse as it rotted away was almost unbearable, yet it didn't seem to affect Von Krolock. Day after day he slept in the coffin beside hers and night after night he sat in a chair holding her cloak and thinking about her, sometimes even talking to her. Eventually the smell had gone away but Herbert and Breda rarely came down to sit with him after that.

"Breda and I are leaving now, Father," Herbert said. "Please change your mind and come with us." Von Krolock sighed and looked at the coffin.

"I've already told you I can't leave her."

"But you can't even take care of yourself." Herbert knelt down in front of his father and held his hands in his own. "There will be no one here to help you. You're in no shape to go out on your own and even if you did manage to lure someone back here, I don't think you have it in you to bite them... not after all these years of Breda draining them for you."

"There's the stored blood," Von Krolock reminded him, never taking his eyes off Anneliese's coffin.

"That will last a few months. Then what will you do? Assuming those men don't come to the castle before that happens..."

"Either I'll starve or they'll kill me," Von Krolock shrugged.

"Oh Papa, just stop this!" Herbert released his father's hands and stood up.

"What do you want from me, Herbert?" Von Krolock shouted. "What is it you want me to do?"

"Let her go! I want you to move on! I want you to stop sitting here all night as if you're as dead as she is!" Herbert snatched the cloak from his father and threw it on the ground. "The way you sit here with that thing every night... it's sick, Papa! I don't know why you can't just let her go!"

"I loved her," Von Krolock said softly. "She loved me..."

"She didn't love you! She was afraid of you!" Von Krolock rose from his chair and before Herbert could say another word, the older vampire hit him so hard he stumbled back into Breda.

"There just wasn't enough time!" Von Krolock shouted. "If she had just stayed and given me more time..." His voice began to tremble and he collapsed back into his chair. "If she had stayed she would have seen she didn't have to be afraid of me. I loved her and she loved me. I can't leave her."

"Breda and I love you too, Papa." Von Krolock looked up at his son and sister to find they both had tears in their eyes. Leaning forward slightly in his chair, he opened his arms to them; they knelt on either side of his chair and he hugged them tightly.

"I love you too," he whispered. "That's why you need to leave here without me. I've been nothing but a burden to you all these years and if I go with you now, I'll just slow you down."

"Papa..."

"No more, Herbert." Von Krolock released Herbert and Breda so he could look at them both. "This is my decision to make and mine alone. Nothing you can say will change my mind. I'm tired... very, very tired and I can't do this any longer. Just promise me you will always take care of each other better than I ever did, alright?"

"You always did take good care of us, Papa," Herbert whispered against his father's chest as he and Breda embraced Von Krolock one last time.

-.-.-.-.-

Von Krolock lay on the cold cement floor curled in a tight ball until he heard the three mean leave and the door lock behind them. Once he was sure they weren't coming back he stretched out and rolled onto his stomach. His back burned furiously from the lashes he had received from Cristian's whip but he tried to ignore the pain. Resting his head on his folded arms he closed his eyes and tried to picture the way Anneliese had looked sleeping peacefully beside him in his bed the night they had made love.

"You cast me aside a long time ago, Lord," he whispered, "and I do not deserve Your kindness, but please... accept my suffering for Anneliese. She..." Von Krolock groaned loudly and his body tensed up with pain. All the wounds that Cristian and his friends inflicted upon him could never be worse than the agony a vampire felt when he was starving. During the months since Herbert and Breda had left, he had been so caught up in his own misery that he would often go days without eating and now with all the trauma he had suffered he realized just how long it had been since the last time he had eaten.

Opening his eyes he saw the dead cat a few feet away from him. He never imagined that he would be put in such a degrading position that he would be forced to feed upon dead animals. He considered trying to just ignore the pain but there was no telling how long he was going to be kept in the barn and tortured. Cristian and his friends were causing him enough agony; he needed to do whatever he had to to ease himself of the pain his own body was causing him.

It was a struggle but he forced himself onto his hands and knees and slowly crawled over to the cat. He picked it up and brought its neck to his mouth but quickly pulled it away as the stench of it overpowered him. He had wondered if Cristian stole some family's pet and killed it but it smelled so horrible he knew it had to have been dead for a few days. He probably found it lying dead on the side of the road.

He stared at the cat for a while, running his fingers through its silky black fur. It had been so long since he had petted an animal; whenever he came near one they'd growl and run away, if they didn't try to attack him first. Turning the stiff body over, he grimaced when he saw the gaping wound on its side. Not only was it filled with dirt but it was also filled with maggots. He brushed the little white worms away then brought the cat's neck up to his mouth again. He held his breath but the smell was so strong it was almost as if he could taste it.

He opened his mouth and bit down on the cat. At first all he felt against his tongue was its dirty fur but when its blood-thick and sour after having been dead for days- began to ooze into his mouth, he gagged. He wanted to spit it out but he forced himself to swallow it. As it settled uneasily into his stomach, the pain of his hunger eased a little but long before he had his fill, he had drained all the blood from the animal. Tossing the carcass aside, he laid down again and closed his eyes and waited for sleep to come.

-.-.-.-.-

"What do you think we can get for these?" Peter asked as he examined one of the large rings. He sat with Ivan and Cristian, huddled around a table in the corner of the tavern.

"More than all three of us earn in a single year, I bet." Ivan turned one of the rings slowly, watching the way the lights reflected off the sapphire and diamonds. "Where are we taking them?"

"Timisoara," Cristian said. "If we leave first thing in the morning we can be back by nightfall."

"What will we do with the money?" Ivan asked.

"Give it to charity," Peter mumbled into his glass and all three of them laughed.

"We should split it four ways," Cristian suggested. "A share for each of us and the rest we can put toward new equipment."

"I'm going to pay off my parents' mortgage," Ivan said. "It's the least I can do for them after all they've done for me. What about you guys?"

"I'm going to get drunk," Peter said with a hiccup.

"You're always drunk," Ivan pointed out. Peter just smiled and opened another beer. "What about you Cris? Are you going to buy Liliana something nice?"

"Yeah, a one way train ticket out of the country," Peter said, making Cristian chuckle.

"No, she won't be seeing any of it." Cristian told them. "I haven't thought of what I could use it for though. For now I'll set it aside in a separate account at the bank."

"Alright boys." Cristian quickly swept the rings back into their bag when the waitress walked by. "It's closing time." They stood up, paid their bill and left the tavern together making their plans for the following day as they walked home. Eventually they parted ways and when Cristian reached his home, he stumbled inside and up the stairs and into bed, waking up his wife.

"Please Cristian," she groaned, rolling over to face away from him. "Not tonight. You're drunk."

"Come on honey, I'll be quick..." Cristian slid his hands under Liliana's nightgown and tugged at her underwear as he kissed the side of her neck.

"No, I'm not in the mood tonight. Stop it..." She tried to push him away but he forced her onto her back and placed himself firmly on top of her.

"It's your duty," he said, his voice slurred from the alcohol. "You said you'd honor and obey me." He pulled her underwear off and quickly fumbled with his own pants. Forcing her legs apart, he pushed himself inside her and she bit down on her lip to suppress a cry. As he roughly moved against her, she closed her eyes and prayed it would end soon