Chapter VI

Interlude, or, I'll lower the price! I-I'll Lower The Price!

The team of vampire hunters left the gardens behind, entering a long white corridor. As they progressed they began to find themselves growing more and more uncomfortable. Loretta absently looked up and immediately wished she hadn't.

"Um, everyone…you might want to look up, we seem to have some…spectators."

Staring back down at them like vultures were a terrifying number of strange red crows.

"What are those?" asked Jonathan, "I mean, I've seen blue crows and black crows, but never red."

"Be careful, those crows are red because they live off of only one thing: Blood," Alucard said forebodingly, "They can't turn you into vampires, but they can still tear you to pieces, they're incredibly vicious."

Jonathan drew his Dragon Slayer sword and hoisted it up in front of him. Charlotte opened up her spellbook to 'Chain Lightning.' Stella, who was now unarmed cowered behind her sister. Alucard carefully reached for is sword. The crows all struck at once, lifting off and then swooping at the group. Too late, Maria realized that she was being targeted by two of them. Just before they bit her, she was suddenly struck by a strong feeling of inspiration. She didn't know why this would work, she just did. As though she had always known. She didn't understand, but with two ravenous man-eating birds about to dig into her for dinner, she didn't feel like questioning the strange knowledge.

"Doves of the Heart!" Her two avian familiars instantly shot into existence and incapacitated the two offending parties. The crows dropped to the ground dead as the doves seemed to perch on her shoulders cooing in an almost relieved manner.

Jonathan, meanwhile, was swinging Dragon Slayer around in an unidentifiable pattern. For every swing of his sword, three crows would fall out of the air. In truth however, he was mainly just trying to keep them away from Charlotte while she cast a spell that would by all likelihoods save their skins moments after it was cast.

"Chaaaiiin Lightning!"

The moment the spell took effect a bolt of lightning shot out from her open palm striking one of the crows, frying it in the air. But the line of electricity didn't stop there. It continuously jumped from crow to crow, electrocuting each and every one of them. Moments later all the birds in the room save for Maria's doves were nice and crispy. Perhaps even too crispy.

"Why didn't you do that earlier?" Stella asked irritably.

"I hadn't noticed the crows! If I'd seen them before they were about to attack I would have cast it! And Chain Lightning takes a few moments to cast anyway."

Stella looked at her shoes, "I'm sorry…I guess that rapier meant more to me than I thought. I shouldn't be taking my anger out on you."

Charlotte just smiled and waved her hand back, not even bothering to say anything. Jonathan was already up ahead… They had passed a few adjacent hallways and a set of double doors before coming to a halt at the end of the corridor, it was a dead end save for an axe armor which seemed to be insistent on attacking them. It didn't enjoy the last moments of its existence.

"I thought you said that this hall would lead back to the entrance?" Jonathan accused Alucard.

"I did not guarantee anything. I just said…what are you doing exactly?"

The other party members were giving him equally questioning looks. Jonathan was plunging his sword in and out of the stonework floor.

"You're lucky that sword was tempered in dragonfire, Morris. Otherwise you'd be damaging it severely." Jonathan apparently ignored the reprimanding.

Charlotte suddenly noticed s pattern in Jonathan's apparent hole punching: He was moving around in a circle. He had almost completed that circle when there was a groaning sound like creaking stone and the floor beneath them gave way, flattening several zombies as it landed in the entrance hall.

"See," Jonathan laughed, "The floor was really flimsy, just like everything else in this accursed building." Nobody laughed.

"Okay, I make lame jokes, just rub it in will ya?"

Maria immediately made a dash for the exit, avoiding the zombies like a disease they likely carried. The rest of them followed, except Jonathan who decided to try killing a few zombies just to see if he could end up summoning a wraith. He didn't get far when he heard Oliver cry out.

"They—They killed Jonathan!" At that moment while he was distracted the wraith he was hoping to kill rose up and knocked him clear out of the hall and into the front courtyard.

"Nah, I'm still around. I'm like that annoyingly incompetent henchman: You beat me up a hundred times, but I never learn my lesson and I keep coming back. You can rely on that more that a boomerang."

"You're still here?" Oliver asked, "I thought…"

"Hey, why does a boomerang make a terrible gift?" asked Charlotte with a grin.

"I don't know. Why?" Loretta asked curiously.

"Because no matter how many times you try to throw it away, it always comes back!"

Loretta went into a fit of giggles while everyone else groaned.

"What was wrong with my joke?" Charlotte asked.

"Everyone's heard that one Char…" Jonathan said sympathetically, a look of exhaustion suddenly written on his face.

"Anyway," Oliver began "What can I get for you? I just finished a pair of swords that I think Stella might be interested in."

"Really? Where are they?" Stella asked skeptically.

"Oh, they're set to appear in their pedestals in the castle once you pay me," Oliver said with a grin."

Stella glared at him.

"Um, how much for potions?" Charlotte asked worriedly.
"$100."

Charlotte gaped, "You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm completely serious, I got a pretty big shipment. There's a huge sup—"

"I love you Oliver!" Charlotte cried. Her proclamation was even convincing enough to unsettle Jonathan.

'Wait a minute, am I jealous? Why the hell…?'

"Okay, we'll get nine for me and Jonathan, another nine for Stella and Loretta, and a third set of nine for Alucard and Maria."

Alucard's wince as Charlotte paired them together went unnoticed by everyone.

"So, Jonathan, if we tried this with Vincent do you know how much we'd be spending?"

"Probably enough for him to retire immediately?"

"…that too, but the actual calculation is $13,500."

"Sheesh, that guy must have been one hell of a cheapskate," Oliver observed.

"You're one to talk!" scolded Stella, "I'm being left defenseless until I can find those two swords. By the way, how much money have we got, Loretta?"

"We have about $30,430 from monsters."

"Do you have the funds ready?"

"Yes, Stella," Loretta confirmed, handing her a bag of money.

"How much do the swords cost?"

"$12,000," Oliver said simply.

"Here you go then," Stella resigned, handing the bag to Oliver.

"—apiece," Oliver finished.

Stella drew back her hand and smacked Oliver upside the head with the heavy bag of money, knocking him over before throwing the bag at his face–where it settled heavily.

"Oww," Oliver moaned.

"Just take it all, why don'tcha?" Stella glowered down at him.

Oliver quickly took the necessary funds out of the bag and tossed it back to Stella. Before running to hide in what appeared to be an underground tornado shelter.

"Let's hurry up and get moving. I need to find those swords Oliver's promised me."

Author's Note: So, yeah; a lot of references to Vincent in this chapter. Cookies to anyone who can find them all.