Moans and screams were coming from the door the Vlad had stopped at. I recognized the screaming, coming from my cousin as I tried to push open the door. Vlad's arm stretched out across it as he stepped into my line of vision, "Not so quickly."

"Let me in! What are you doing to him?" I demanded.

"Nothing that he didn't ask for," Vlad said as he took his other hand and stroked his chin, "Now, this matter of recusing the throne, I have you word do I not?"

"Yes, yes, now let me in!" I demanded as I tried to push him aside.

Vlad moved and pushed the door open so I could get inside. My stomach twisted at the sight. The smell was awful and I couldn't contain it. I turned my back to the stench and horrid sight. There, lying on the floor, naked, his legs outstretched and covered with the crimson blood that was his, and his arms out on either side of him chained to the wall. His head was back as two blood-starved females continued to eat away at his flesh and drain him of life. The very sight sickened me that Vlad and Ilona would do this to their own kind, and especially an Original. It would make the revenge so much sweeter when I came back to feed them to their own.

Vlad clapped his hands and the women looked up startled. They staggered away from Silas and hid in the corners of the room, "See, your cousin is here."

"What have you done to him?" I demanded as I rose and stood nose to nose with the man whom many feared throughout his life.

"Merely keeping his weak enough that he wouldn't be able to move, or say, take back what might be his and is ours now," Vlad said as if what he was doing was no consequence.

"The council will hear of this," I spat at him.

"You threaten me with the council?" Vlad laughed. "Do you not see what you are now? As if they would ever listen to you."

Fuming over the treatment of royalty such as my cousin and even myself considering my current status of human, I threw my fists into his chest. I yelled and screamed and threw him up against the wall. Vlad only laughed at my only strength as he matched and defeated mine with his own. His arms which I pinned to the wall were now coming close to my neck as he curled his fingers, hissing at me like a rabid snake. Soon, we had switched positions, my strength as a human couldn't match his as he turned me around and pounded me into the wall by my neck. "So you think you are strong enough to challenge me?"

Vlad laughed again as he flung me into the air and back towards where Silas sat, moaning in pain. "Please. Julius. No." I heard him say in short breaths as my head banged against the wall making me see stars.

"See, we have no use of either of you now. Since you brought the girl here, she is now ours. Soon, she will be one of us and with a power so limitless, we can take over the entire race," Vlad smiled.

I was huffing and puffing like a damn wolf at this point. My boiling point about to spill over. I searched the room for anything to use while Vlad continued his monologue of tyranny. I was in luck. In the far corner, where one of the feral ones crouched was a long pole. It wasn't attached to anything except the wall. If I could pull it back, I could use it to attack Vlad. Sliding ever so slightly as Vlad continued to rant and rave about how him and Ilona would be the most powerful on earth, that all would bend to their will, I reached the far wall and the pole. One of the feral women hissed at me and I hissed back at them. She crouched further into her hole of darkness as my fingers wrapped around the pole and I pulled.

Luckily the metal pole wasn't attached to anything hard and actually wasn't attached to the wall at all. At one point it might have but due to rust and the amount of force it had taken before Silas had come here, it was easy and light to pick up. I stood, the pole behind my back, it was no more than four feet long. Vlad continued to taunt me and threaten me and Silas. Threatening to kill us both. Finally what sent me over the edge was when he said, "And when we are finally done with her, I'll have much delight in raping her and then draining every last bit from her system before I send her to her final death."

I screamed as I ran towards him. I don't think Vlad expected it when I raised the pole over my head and forcefully brought it down on top of him. It was such a strong blow that I even compressed his neck and he looked like a head on top of shoulders. He took his hands around his face and pulled up on his neck. And as he was trying to fix himself, I lunged again, with a yell and plunged the pole through his chest and into his heart. His face drained and turned an ashy grey. His features sunk in and his eyes turned black as he let out his last cry and then crumbled to the ground.

I pulled the pole out of the wall where it had struck and turned to face the two feral women who were still in the room. They were screaming because their master was now dead. I moved towards Silas and twisted and turned the pole as each of the haggard women came closer. Their dirty bodies slithered closer as they hissed for retribution. "Stay away!" I yelled, hoping they would heed the command and leave the chamber. But they did something most unexpected. They unchained Silas and licked away the blood from his wounds. They clung to me as if I was a god to them, their hands reaching upwards, trying to touch my face, my hair, everywhere their hands were. I smacked one down off me and pushed the other off of Silas as I tried to pull his chains off the wall. The two women helped and with their supernatural strength, broke the bonds that kept Silas to the chamber.

Silas slouched and fell on top of me, his hands at my legs and his head in my lap. I touched his hand to see that a few fingers had been chewed off. "My poor, dear cousin, what have I done to cause this to happen?" I cried as I took him into my arms.

"Blood," Silas cried no more than a harsh whisper.

I bit hard into my forearm, it hurting much more than I ever remembered and shoved it to his face. Silas latched on and drank deeply, but soon coughed and spit. He started to choke and he fell over. "What is wrong?" I asked him.

"Bad. Blood," he cried as his hands went to his throat, choking more as blood started to pour from his mouth.

"Bad blood?" I asked not sure what he could be talking about, "Blood is blood, drink!"

"It's poisoned! Silver!" Silas screamed as he began to choke again.

That's when I put all the pieces together. The water, the metal taste in the water that I drank, Vlad had poisoned me in case I were to try and save Silas. He did it intentionally, knowing that I might not live up to my promise of making Silas give up the right to the throne, not that I had any intention of asking Silas to. I had to get Anabelle then, she would be the only one to help at this point considering my blood was useless. There was one last thing I could do, I could take Silas to the sitting room with all the ancient royal bloods that Vlad had in storage, that should help, though living and fresh blood was undoubtedly the best for him.

"Silas," I said, slapping his face as he had fallen over dazed, "I'm going to pick you up, okay?"

Silas was not responding, this couldn't be good. I threw his arm over my shoulder and pulled him up on his feet. I half carried, half drug him out of the chamber he was being held, the feral women still crouched in their corners as I made for the door down the hall to which I had just come. Silas's body was heavy to me in a human form and it was a struggle to walk. I eventually got to the room and flung Silas down on one of the couches where I grabbed the first bottle of blood that I could. Ironically it was Grom, the Viking King that lived some fifteen hundred years ago. Good Viking blood is what Silas needed and I could see the color coming back into his cheeks, but he was far from restored. He would need more and I he would need some fresh blood as well. I needed to find Anabelle. She would have to help and I'm sure she wouldn't mind a bit. I grabbed another bottle, placed it in his hands which only had a few fingers on each as I wrapped my own on top, "I will be right back, I will not leave you."

Silas nodded took a large swig from the bottle as I exitted the room. Now my anger was boiling. I wasn't feeling anything from Anabelle. Not anxiety, fear, anger, nothing, as if she couldn't feel anything at all. I knew that had to be trouble. I opened the door to the long narrow corridor and ran. I knew that the only way out was to the stairs, so eventually I would end up there. When I reached the stairs, I bounded up them like an olympian and burst through the door of the pantry. I heard the heavy footsteps of the guards as I pushed towards the parlor, where I had left Anabelle.

"Well, hello again. Are you lost?" the cherry woman, named Sandra, asked me as she popped out of no where.

"Yes, I need Anabelle, where was she taken?" I demanded.

Sandra looked less than pleased at my deposition but answered none the less, "She's in the dining hall with the Queen."

I didn't wait much longer as I took off, I barely heard Sandra yell, "She asked not to be disturbed!"

I could care less if the thieving Queen wanted to be disturbed or not, I was going to interrupt. It was a good thing I did too because when I came to the door as Seti and Setahkt were exiting, I saw Ilona stalking Anabelle as she lay unconscious on the couch. Seti quickly put his hands behind his back as he caught my gaze, "If you so much as laid a hand on her, I will stake you myself."

Seti just smirked as she pushed Setahkt down the hall, towards pantry that lead to the cellar. I would need to get Anabelle quickly and then to Silas before they both came back, otherwise, I might have to make good on my promise.

I burst into the room, startling Ilona whose arms were up in the air, her fingers curled, mouth in a snarl as she tried to straddle Anabelle. "What the fuck do you think you are doing?"

Ilona jumped and turned around. The snarl on her face turned to confusion, "Oh! Well, you're back. Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Yes, actually, I did. I've come to take Anabelle and Silas and we are both going home, now," I said as I brushed past Ilona and checked on Ani.

Her face was bruised and flush with heat. She had been beaten, but for what cause? I gathered her in my arms as her head fell against my shoulder. If she would not awaken, I would have to think of something else for Silas. Or perhaps, she would wake in a moment. "So help me, Ilona, this will not be the end of it."

Ilona smirked, "I think you'll come to realize that you have bigger fish to worry about than me."

I pushed past her and towards the exit to which I came down the stairs towards Silas. Seti and Setahkt would soon find that Vlad was not with me and that he was nothing but rubble and dust. I would have to move quickly. I could set Anabelle down on the stairs and I could swiftly go in and grab Silas, well, maybe not as swiftly as I had hoped or could have if I was still a Vampyre, but I could manage to move quickly if needed. And that's what I did. I saw Seti and Setahkt move past the doors towards the chamber that Silas was held. I crept to the lounge where I left Silas and picked him up gently.

"Julius?" Silas mumbled.

"Shut it, you're going to get us caught. Now grab one of those bottles and get on your feet," I told him.

His body was starting to heal bit by bit, but not totally with the ancient drink. The sustenance was Anabelle, and he would need to wait to have that. He did as he was told and grabbed the bottle closest to him as we made for the door.

"Sound the alarm! The King is dead!" I heard one of them shout.

Shit, we were out of time. Luckily, the door was next to the exit and I hoped that I could possibly lock or bar the door from being opened. The alarm sounded above and we both scrambled through the door. Again, as luck would have it, the door did lock and bar itself from being opened. The wood in the front slid and I pushed it closed to lock the door on the two Egyptians heading towards us. The door thudded as they slammed up against it. I pushed Silas up against the wall, "Stay." I told him as I threw Anabelle over my shoulder. She was beginning to come around, but not enough to move. Once over my shoulder I pulled Silas to my side and we made it up the stairs as fast as we possibly could.

At the top was Ilona. She hissed at me but I pushed her away. "You just remember whose responsible for what happened down there," I said as I walked past her, the alarms still sounding in the house as I walked out to the car, placed both Ani and Silas in the back, laying on top of one another as I sped away.