Chapter 4
The sun dipped past the horizon in the west as Jaycie opened her eyes. She immediately scanned her resting place to see if any intruders had managed to get past her safeguards. When the coast was clear she rose out of the ground and made her way out; checking the entrance to the cave and the surroundings before taking to the air in owl form.
It took her a few a minutes before she reached the RV. A quick scan of the RV told her that the boys had returned.
Jaycie quickly assumed her regular form as soon as she landed and headed inside.
Vince sat at the table with his shirt off, his upper back showed several bleeding scratches. Cole stood behind him, busily applying disinfectant and bandages to the wounds while Damon sat at the table, counting the money they had gathered from the performance.
"You boys look like you had fun last night." Jaycie said, not in the least surprised by the sight.
"I like this village" Cole said. "This is a good village. Full of wonderful people, generous elders, great culture. And limber young women."
"True that" Vince added. "I don't know what chores these village elders got their young women doing, but they are doing the Lord's work."
"You say that but, damn, this girl did a number on your back." Cole said.
"Yeah, she did." Vince said with a big smug smile on his face.
"It wasn't that quiet one your were talking to the whole night was it?" Damon said as he looked up from his counting.
"It was indeed. I'm telling you, the quiet ones are where it's at. A kitten in the streets but a tiger in the sheets"
"A freak indeed, I think some of these need stitches." Cole added.
Jaycie sighed and motioned for Cole to step aside.
As soon as Cole did, Jaycie began using her tongue to close up the wounds. This was something she had been doing for them ever since they were little. She licked his wounds with a clinical precision that spoke of the countless times she had done this before. Despite the size of the three boys the sight of Jaycie standing among them gave off the image of an experienced mother jaguar cleaning her cubs who had spent the day playing.
Cole opened up his laptop and began checking his email.
"Hey, leave some of them there." Vince said.
"Huh?" Jaycie replied.
"For a man like me whose job it is to save young beautiful women from their virginity these are stripes of honor."
"I see. Well then. Good luck with that." Jaycie said. She patted his shoulder before making her way to the small fridge that held her blood packs. She quickly set herself up with a blood pack before taking a seat and began leisurely drinking.
"I don't know man. You say that but that girl did a number on your back. Plus this morning we had to practically peel her off of you." Damon replied.
"Yes, it is a blessing and a curse to be a gift to women. Which is why I plan on letting her down easy and visit her again before we leave."
Jaycie snorted. "She's probably gonna tie you to her bed next time. Like that guy in that Stephen King movie."
"A saint in the streets, but a demon in the sheets." Damon reiterated.
"That's fine too." Vince replied. "I'll just remember to dip my condoms in holy water."
The boys chuckled while Jaycie wrinkled her nose.
"Plus I don't even know why you all are concerned about me while Cole over there is one email away from scoring with a man!"
"She's not a man." Cole replied.
"She calls herself TemplarKitty. She's obviously a guy who's catfishing you." Vince retorted.
"She." Cole started. "Is the reason we always stay one step ahead of Morrison and friends."
"A member of the Morrison Research Institute who thinks you really are hunting vampires. Please be careful Cole." Jaycie said.
"I know. I know." Cole replied.
"Yeah, be careful she don't split you in half while manhandling you." Vince added.
Damon and Jaycie both burst out laughing.
"Hey, don't be jelly. Just because I've found a sweet girl to talk to."
"A sweet girl sure." Vince said. "That's until you peel off her clothes and find out she's packing heat."
Everyone started laughing again, even Cole couldn't help but crack a smile. He looked over to Damon.
"Damon I don't know why you're laughing, spending all of last night with your harem of woolly mammoths."
Damon merely smiles as he continues to count their earnings.
"Ain't nothing wrong with au naturale boys. Right Jaycie?"
"Why am I getting dragged into this? I'm just an innocent bystander!" Jaycie exclaimed.
"So" Cole began. "Now that we're all here, how'd we do?"
"Well," Damon started as he continued counting the money. "a lot of our stuff was purchased in exchange for jewelry and expensive watches. So our end result is 26,578 euros."
The group all sit there for a few moments of total silence, letting that number sink in.
Finally Cole speaks. "Wow….At last. We can finally retire and live like kings for the rest of our lives."
Jaycie furrowed her brows as she asked: "Was this a poor village?"
"This village is supposed to be a tourist hot spot." Damon replied. "So our take should have been much larger."
Cole instantly started pacing.
"We missed our window of opportunity." Cole said. "It's because we got hung up in Germany with all those music festivals. We lost a lot of time there."
"And most of our money." Jaycie added.
Vince walks in and plops himself down on an open spot on the couch.
"So what now?" Vince says.
"We could try another village, but we may end up in the same position as before despite how much work we put into these performances." Cole started.
"We could always try our luck in a city." Vince added."Large cities would have a tremendous amount of wealthy people just looking for things to spend their money on."
"There is lots of money in the city." Cole agreed.
"Also, lots of attention. Lots of chances of getting caught." Jaycie added. "There's also the Morrison Research Center in the city."
The three brothers let out a collective groan as they recalled their past run-ins with the fanatical vampire hunting organization. The so called vampire hunters couldn't even differentiate a true vampire from a normal person, causing countless innocent people to die by their hands.
"So what then?" Vince asked.
Everyone was silent for several moments as they all thought hard about their next move.
"I have an idea." Jaycie said. The three brothers looked to her. "There is a certain village, near the Carpathian mountains, that is said to be the home of a reclusive billionaire. A man by the name of Mikhail Dubrinsky."
The three brothers sat there thinking for a moment.
"Dubrinsky...I've heard that name before." Cole said.
"Yes. You may have heard of his daughter." Jayce added.
As he thought about it some more his eyes suddenly lit up. Excitedly he said "Wait, are you talking about Savannah?"
Jaycie nodded.
"Thee Savannah?!"
"Yes" Jaycie shrugged.
The jaws of the three brothers were practically on the floor.
"Till this day. Till this very day!" Vince enunciated each word with a pounding of his fist on the table. "Magicians have yet to be able to figure how she did more than half of her magic tricks. The woman is a legend."
As fellow performers, nearly all of them had a lot of respect for Savannah Dubrinsky.
"And you wanna rob her father?" Cole asked Jaycie.
"Well. Robbing is a bit of a strong word. I like to think of it as us putting on a performance for him. And when he meets The Vampiress" Jaycei points to herself. "If he so happens to throw a few million dollars towards our brave vampire hunters. Well. I'd call it a good evening."
"How do we know if he's gonna pay?" Damon asked.
"Why wouldn't he pay" Vince replied. "A man like Mikhail Dubrinsky is most likely some super pampered feather weight softy. Who's probably surrounded by ex-military rent a soldiers who'll probably wet themselves at the sight of our glorious Vampiress."
"Exactly" Jaycie added. "Men like Mikhail, most likely spend their time buying expensive cars and bedding beautiful women. They'll be practically eating out of our hands."
"They?" Damon said.
Jaycie smiled "I haven't even told you guys about the bonus. Mikhail happens to be close friends with several other billionaire families that also vacation out there. Families like the Daratrazanoff family whom Savannah married into. Mikhail even has close ties with the De La Cruz brothers from South America."
The three brothers looked at her stunned.
"Think of it boys." Jaycie added. "Think of all that money, just laying in the hands of those over privileged billionaires, in desperate need of our liberation."
The three brothers sat there, thinking. Soon a smile began to form on their faces, and the longer they thought of the scenario the wider their smiles grew.
"I love it." Cole said.
"Guys," Vince started. "This plan, this performance, it's gonna be legendary."
All of the others looked at Vincent and started to laugh at his enthusiasm.
"I'm serious!" Vince added. "I can't help but get this feeling that this performance, years later, we're gonna look back at this as the game changer for us."
Everyone settled down at the sight of his serious tone.
"I hope so." Jaycie said. "It's a huge risk, I know."
"So is every time we perform." Cole replied. "But in this case, the gains clearly out weigh the risks."
Vince and Damon both nodded in agreement.
"So, we in?" Jaycie asked.
"We're in." The three brothers said in unison.
"Alright then. Let's do it." Jaycie said.
"May fortune smile on us time." Cole said.
"As long as nothing goes wrong." Damon added.
"You always say that." Vince said. "You always say that for every performance and nothing ever does go wrong. Don't jinx us now."
"Okay, okay. It just had to be said." Damon replied.
"We'll plan for as many contingencies as possible." Jaycie said. "to reduce the risks. So, unless something truly unexpected happens, we should all walk out of this as wealthy individuals."
Several miles to the north of the Carpathian mountains Ion flies through the air in the form of an owl. The nearly full moon painting him in a luminous glow, giving him the appearance of a deified wraith prowling his domain.
After a few moments of searching he spots something on a riverbank.
Setting down he changes back into his normal form.
A dead body lays on the shore, listlessly shifting from the subtle waves.
Scanning everything with extreme attention to detail he surveys the surrounding area. Seeing that there is no traps he approaches the body.
Judging from the marks on her body, the young woman had died painfully; with her face frozen in terror.
Ion studies the body, seeing if he can find anymore clues from her body.
Just then he notices something else floating down the river.
Another body.
As Ion begins to approach the body, he notices another body floating down the river.
And then another dead body. Soon over a dozen dead bodies have filled river. All of them young women, some even in their teens.
"Vasya" Ion quietly mutters.
The night is young, and Vasya had just sent Ion an invitation.
