Chapter 14

~o~

Alfred didn't breathe. He stared at the Romanian, eyes wide.

Then he plugged his ears.

Their intruder rolled his eyes. "Sit," Vlad commanded. his voice carrying through to the vampire's mind regardless. He gestured to the chair across from him and Alfred found his body obeying without permission. Though he was forced to do this, Alfred gave the Romanian his most defiant glare even when Vlad surveyed him like a prime piece of meat. He tsked softly. "Already deteriorating again," he murmured, noting how thin Alfred was in comparison to just a couple weeks prior. "Your kind is not meant to drink cold blood. Now I uill have to start all over again. Uit a new Urea Ring too. How troublesome."

He sighed and lazily swept his hand over to the captive human. "Kill him."

Alfred's hands slammed against the edge of the table, physically stopping himself from rising. Two wills warred within him, as the Collar immediately worked against Vlad's command. Yet he could feel the Collar slowly losing. Arthur's order had been a little too specific. "I-I won't... Won't bite him..." Alfred declared, even as his features twisted monstrously.

Vlad stared at him, his red eyes flicking over the vampire's person. The truth rose from Alfred's thoughts and the Romanian let out a sharp serpentine hiss. "Zat meddling..." he started, before biting back his words. "Fine, ue uill do zis ze hard uay." He rose from his seat and went to the knife block. When he pulled out a long chef knife, Alfred knew exactly what he was going to do. Vlad came up behind Raivis, his hand fisting in the little Watcher's hair to yank his head back and expose his pale neck. Raivis groaned softly, slowly beginning to come back to consciousness. The knife pressed against the Watcher's delicate skin.

The vampire watched very carefully, the Want lapping hungrily at his insides. Yet Alfred still fought. "You- you don't want to do this," he told Vlad quietly. "The Watchers will be all over you. They'll never let you go once you get your hands dirty."

Vlad smirked at him. "Zey are but a shadow of zeir former selves," he said as he gleaned the images of them from Alfred's mind. "Do you fink zat zey can compare to my power?" The very air around them seemed to shift, churning like the sickly green winds of a summer storm. The ground quaked and cracks appeared in the stone walls. Black pus oozed through them, dripping down to the floor like blood. It smelled wrong, like a rank, old sponge that had soaked up the essences of a thousand reactive chemicals, a bubbling volatile bomb in the making.

It made Alfred reel back, nearly suffocating. All those powers Vlad absorbed didn't belong together. They were fighting against each other, even now. God, how had Vlad not self-imploded already? It wasn't natural. It wasn't even supernatural. Everything about the Romanian, if that was even what he was, defied all the laws of this plane of existence. All those powers were rotting him from the inside out.

Vlad smiled at him, not in the least bit bothered by the vampire's thoughts. Alfred couldn't pin down his features anymore. He looked like a thousand different faces at once, different facets flickering at every angle. A wolf's maw, a hooked nose, fanged teeth, stone skin, serpents hair. "So you see now? Zey have no idea how to defeat me. Zat ridiculous plan of zeirs uould have never uorked. Zey cannot stop me..." However, those constant red eyes gave Alfred a long and considering look. "However..." he said slowly, "Kirkland uill be a problem..."

"No," Alfred breathed, horror sluicing down his shoulders and into his heart like ice. "Don't touch him!" he howled, slamming the table into Vlad's body with all his power. The table crumpled into two, wood splintering and showering the floor. But Vlad didn't even budge.

Instead, he smirked and lightly dusted the wood chips away. "It is not my fault, Alfred Jones. He uas ze one who put ze Collar on you. I need him... removed." The smirk slowly widened, the red eyes flashing with sadistic delight. "And you uill be ze one to do it for me..."

With that, he turned the knife and neatly sliced Raivis' throat open. Crimson blood spilled from the opening like water overflowing from a cup. The sweet, coppery, intoxicating smell was more than Alfred could take and his eyes drank in the beautiful display. The Want was screaming inside his mind, dimming out any other thoughts.

"Now," Vlad said, wrenching Raivis' head back further, straining torn sinew and skin. "Eat."

With a piercing shriek, the vampire descended, fangs and claws ripping into the flesh of his dying prey.

~o~

A sharp tremble ran through Toris' shoulders.

"Are you alright?" Arthur asked, setting his binoculars down. The pair of them were situated on top of one of the buildings at Columbia University, laying low as they watched Vlad through his office window.

"Bad feeling," Toris replied quietly, his brow knitting into a frown. He settled back down behind the scope of his sniper rifle, waiting for the perfect moment to put a bullet through the Romanian's head. The others were in secure locations around the building, ready to grab Vlad if Toris somehow missed. The poisoned blood golem waited inside the van by the building, embedded with the remaining scraps of the black bracelet, ready to be drained when the hit was made.

There was really no good reason for Arthur to be up with Toris. He just didn't want to be on the other side of the rifle, despite everyone's assurances that Toris was actually a talented marksman.

Arthur frowned, then turned back to his binoculars. All they could see of Vlad was the back of his chair and just the top of his head. He'd been that way the entire time during his office hours, working away on his computer. He had to get up sometime. Then it would be their chance. The Brit checked his watch, waiting for the Romanian's office hours to come to an end. Then he sensed Toris go completely still beside him.

Arthur's eyes returned to the binoculars. Finally, he thought, watching Vlad get up from his desk. He willed Toris to fire true. He didn't want the mad scramble to finish the job before the real police showed up. He held his breath, waiting, watching...

BANG

Arthur's heart nearly leapt out of his chest as the shot seemed to pierce his very soul. His skin raised in gooseflesh when he saw Vlad go down, crumpling to the floor like a ragdoll. "Perfect," he whispered, patting Toris' shoulder heavily in congratulations. His lips pulled into a giddy smile, unable to believe that they had actually pulled it off. "We need to go," he said, helping Toris to gather up their things. "Get back to the van. Hurry."

They met up with the other Watchers at the van. Almost immediately, Arthur knew something was wrong. It was written all over their faces. "What is it?" he demanded, looking inside the van. His stomach fell. The blood golem was still unharmed. It sat hunched against the wall of the van, like a waiting puppet. "I... I don't understand. That should have worked!"

"Zat was not Vladimir Negrescu," said a voice behind them as Ivan finally joined their group. The slav held out a bloodstained note. "Zis is for you."

Arthur snatched it out of his fingers and read it. The blood drained from his face. "That Vlad was a fake," he whispered. Had they just killed an innocent man? Yet something far more urgent pressed his mind. "We need to get back home. Now!"

The word had but to sink in for a second before everyone rushed into the van. "I knew I had a bad feeling..." Toris whispered as they closed the door behind him. Arthur couldn't reply, his own stomach filling up with dread as they headed back towards HQ.

"Arthur, look," he heard Ludwig call out from the passenger's seat as they neared their destination. Arthur crouched forward, ducking down to look up out in front of them between Ivan and Ludwig's seats. His eyes widened. The very sky above them was funneling into deep dark clouds, circling above like clouds of ravens.

"Don't tell me that's-" Arthur started, before he confirmed it with his own eyes. It was above the asylum. "Hurry!" he snapped to Ivan. The slav gunned it, sending their van roaring through the streets. The wind picked up as they came closer, whipping up garbage and papers in a torrent. Ludwig turned the radio on and the newscasters were screaming about the sudden tornado that had popped up on the northern end of Manhattan. But of course, their van got stuck against the traffic that was running away from the epicenter. "Damn it! We need to go on foot," Arthur decided. Everyone nodded, gathering up their things.

The Watchers ran the rest of the way, slipping through people like salmon swimming up river. No one paid them any mind in their police vests (and actual police officer), likely assuming they were here to help. Well, they were, in a way.

Arthur could barely see when they nearly ran into the asylum, the air around them whipping hard with dust and debris, even small bits of brick and wood from the boarded, crumbling buildings around them. They ran inside the doors, protected from the winds within the walls. Not a good idea with Vlad obviously here, but they didn't have a choice.

"I... I never thought he was this powerful," Ludwig said in a daze, coughing up dust from their stint outside. "How could our predecessors have let this go for so long?"

They barely had time to recover, when a gunshot rang out and Eduard suddenly went down screaming. He clutched his leg, blood blossoming over his pants leg. Everyone ducked down from whatever was firing at them. "I thought these protected us!" Arthur demanded, clutching at his police vest.

"Against magic! Not against guns!" Toris cried, dragging Eduard behind a barrier.

"Do you have any idea how idiotic that is?!" the author cried, hiding himself behind a pillar as more gunshots followed. He chanced a peek around and saw their shooter up on the second floor at the top of the stairs. He paled when he recognized him. Raivis aimed two guns at them, his head still barely attached from where his throat was torn out. His eyes were white, dead, his skin ashen from loss of blood.

Oh no. Arthur could feel Toris' eyes on him. For good reason. There was no way the Collar should have allowed Alfred to ghoul anyone. Chopping off the head it is, he thought, rolling up his sleeve to find one of the spells specifically for this purpose. Toris and Eduard could hate him later. "Ανεμος, στενή εστίαση σας και απεργίας αλήθεια!" he cried, focusing the air to his command. It whipped sharper and truer than the torrents outside, slicing the ghoul to ribbons. The flesh fell apart, parts falling down from the platform to smash against the ground floor with a wet splatter.

"Arthur!" he heard Toris cry at him in horror.

"Stay with Eduard!" Arthur snapped back at him. He pulled out his gun, loading it up in case they ran into Vlad. They did still have that blood golem around somewhere. This may work yet. "Ivan, Ludwig, you're with me!" They rushed past the open area of the entrance hall, letting Ludwig go first to clear each room one by one.

When they entered the kitchen, Arthur felt an unexpected bout of queasiness when he saw the entire floor drenched in blood. Strange that this was somehow worse than seeing Raivis' shambling body. Footsteps tracked across the floor, one off in the entrance hall's direction and the other... The Brit stared down at them, watching human feet transition to claws.

"...I'll go first," he said softly, treading around the crimson ring and along the trail of bloody footprints. They were heading upstairs, up to the cells. He scarcely breathed, his eyes darting around for the slightest movement.

"Stop!" Ludwig hissed at him, when Arthur suddenly stepped on a bright rune that activated under his feet. He sucked a breath, expecting the worst, but then it fizzled and popped and his vest grew warm. Hn, so the vests were good for something. "Arthur!"

Before he could blink, a huge fist knocked him down to the ground. He landed with a pained cry, his head knocking sharply against the floor. Grossly transformed, Alfred hovered over him, grinning maniacally down at his prey with his bright red eyes. Arthur's eyes snapped to his wrist. Another bloody bracelet!

"Don't shoot Vlad!" he cried out to his companions as the vampire's fist connected with his face. His entire world spun and he could barely string two thoughts together. Something dripped into his lips and he could feel blood rushing down his throat, choking him as he struggled to breathe.

"Zis again," Ivan muttered darkly, swinging his pipe up to connect to the underside of the beast's maw. It sent the vampire flying onto its back with a howl.

"Arthur!" Ludwig rushed to the author's side, trying to shake him out of his daze. The shaking was not helping one bit. "Call him off! Use the Collar!" Arthur worked his mouth to issue a command, any command through the bleary haze. Yet not a sound issued from his lips. He could feel his throat beginning to close up and his breathing twisted into shallow and laboured gasps. Arthur wheezed for breath, flailing wildly as he clawed at his throat. He couldn't think, everything spun. God, he needed air. Everything was going dark.

~o~

"Arthur!" Ludwig shook the author again, trying to rouse the man from whatever was wrong with him. He swore in his native German under his breath. How were they supposed to stop both Vlad and Alfred without Arthur to call off his dog?! "Arthur, what is wrong!" he demanded, when the Brit didn't answer.

A dark chuckle echoed from the room behind them. They looked up to find Vlad casually leaning against a doorway, arms folded over his chest. "Poison really is a novel idea. It might have uorked if you ueren't uorking uit a broken ring. It really is put to much better use on our dear Arthur. Isn't zat right, Alfred Jones?" The vampire growled as it rose up from the ground, crouching down as it readied to pounce. It let out a piercing screech, throwing itself at Ludwig again. Once again Ivan held him back with a swing of his pipe, sending the vampire sliding across the floor.

Ludwig pulled out his gun, pointing it at Vlad as the vampire slowly recovered. "You will call him off now!"

Upon sight of the weapon, Vlad let out a throaty laugh. "You fool. You know zat uill not uork! You are so uilling to sacrifice your companion to take me down?"

"He's nothing but a monster now," Ludwig hissed, narrowing his eyes. "Nothing matters more than taking you down. It was a mistake to let you live for this long."

"You are right. He is menace. I suppose I should do somezing about him," Ivan said suddenly, his lavender eyes narrowing on Vlad. There was an eerie calm about him as he spoke. For the first time, he sounded as though he had fully stepped into the world instead of observed it. It was enough to stay Ludwig's hand as he looked back to stare at the Russian in wonder.

Ivan shoved Ludwig roughly away from Arthur, his huge hands ripping away the vest and his shirt until the smaller man's chest was exposed. He spoke something ancient and powerful, his hand glowing over Arthur's chest. When his hand drew away, a symbol lay burning against his flesh. Yet the author was still gasping, turning blue in the face, tongue black from poison, as Ivan rose up to his feet.

Vlad stared at him, his red eyes wide with horror. "You," he breathed, looking from the symbol on the dying man's chest up to the doctor. He began to tremble, stumbling backwards away from him. "You cannot exist. You are myth. Dark legend!"

The Russian only answered with a small smile, his eyes glowing with malice.

The vampire finally recovered. Letting out a shriek as it turned its attention to its assailant, it launched itself once more at Ivan as Vlad let out a sound of terror. Ivan looked to the beast, almost bored as he caught the vampire by the throat and slammed it down into the ground hard enough to make the floor beneath them crack and shatter. The vampire's eyes rolled back into its head, falling unconscious.

Ivan's hand slipped over the new bracelet, unclasping it from Alfred's wrist to slip it around his own instead. He let out a faint grunt as the link transferred from the vampire to himself. Then he stood up to his feet and turned his lavender eyes to the Romanian.

"Stop! STOP!" Vlad screamed at him in vain. Ivan only stepped forward and snatched the gun away from Ludwig's hand. When commands didn't work, the Romanian turned and began running as fast as he could.

Ivan raised the gun. BANG. The shot hit true, sending Vlad tumbling into the floor. BANG.BANG. BANG.Apparently one wasn't enough, as the slav emptied his load. Vlad let out a wet gurgle, black blood pooling around his body. He twitched, entire body trembling as he looked up at Ivan in terror. The bracelet around Ivan's wrist began to glow red as the draining began to activate.

"Ludvig," the huge man called out to his fellow Watcher. "You take care of Arzur."

The Captain stared at him in wide-eyed horror. "Ivan, Arthur's dying!" he said, pointing to the author's prone body. It had long since stopped breathing, all the color gone from his features.

"Don't vorry about it," Ivan replied lightly. He raised a short salute the police Captain with a final, "до свидания." He knelt down over Vlad's body, putting a hand over the Romanian's throat as both of their bodies began to glow bright red. The glow intensified until it was blinding, forcing Ludwig to turn his eyes away. Heat and magic blasted through the halls like a bomb, sending doors and pictures flying from the sheer force.

Once it was safe, Ludwig brought his eyes upwards and looked to where Ivan and Vlad were. Only Ivan was no longer there. Only the glowing red hot bracelet remained and Vlad's twitching body. The Romanian convulsed wildly, his body going into seizure as the slav's essence was absorbed into him. But something was going horribly wrong.

Black was leaking from every orifice of his body, sizzling like acid as it touched skin, clothes and floor. Vlad let out a scream of agony as the convulsing grew worse. A thousand voices screamed with him, shattering the air like crystal glass. Ludwig let out a cry of pain, covering his ears as he felt blood dribble from them. Bulges appeared in Vlad's body, like fists pounding up against the inside of a sandbag. They grew in number, until the body wasn't even recognizable, growing more and more volatile like boiling water until...

The tormented body exploded, sending the ooze flying everywhere. Ludwig was forced to take off his vest and shirt from where the black pus landed on him and began to sizzle. He breathed sharply, looking around at the mess that surrounded him. Nothing could be repaired, whole walls and floors blown away, whatever left was being slowly corroded by the corrupted blood. Noticing the cooling bracelet, he delicately picked it up and pocketed it as he turned to the two bodies sprawled on the floor.

Slowly, the vampire grunted and moaned, the beast slipping back into its more humanoid form. He coughed, burying his face into his arms as he tried to breathe properly. His naked form was covered in bruises from Ivan's pipe and more notably the mark around his neck where he was nearly strangled. "L-Ludwig," Alfred said hoarsely, looking up with eyes pricked with tears from the pain. "Ludwig, Vlad, he's..."

"A little too late for that," Ludwig grunted at him, his blue eyes falling on Arthur's body. Alfred's eyes followed his gaze and he let out a sharp gasp when he saw his lover.

"Arthur!" the vampire shrilled, clambering over to Arthur's prone form. He reached out, shaking the author by the shoulders. "A-Arthur. Arthur, wake up! Wake up!" he cried out, shaking the Brit's form uselessly between his hands. "H-he's not breathing..." Alfred whispered, his hands trembling as they brushed over Arthur's face. "H-his heart's not working. He's not... He can't be," he spoke, looking up to Ludwig with eyes bright with tears.

"...He's dead," Ludwig replied quietly. He had failed Ivan already.

~o~

When Alfred heard those words, he thought that his entire world would shatter. "No..." he whispered, still shaking his head with denial. "No, no, no, NO!" His voice tore with his agony, a hurt worse than being boiled alive in oil. "Arthur, no! Please, no!" he begged, tears streaming down his cheeks. "Oh God, Arthur, please! You can't be dead! You weren't supposed to die!" He curled up over Arthur, clutching the author desperately to him. His mind spun, his physical pain nothing to the one that was devouring him from the inside out.

Sobs wracked the vampire's body as he looked down at his lover's lifeless face. This was all wrong. How could he have ever let this happen? How could Arthur have died? Nothing mattered but Arthur. Not Vlad, not the Watchers, not Alfred. He was supposed to be off living his life, as wild and free as the wind. He was never supposed to be involved in any of this!

"No. NO! NO!" A scream of anguish howled from his lungs, stealing every last breath from him. This was all his fault! He did this! He'd killed Arthur. He gasped for breath, only so that he could cry all the more deeply. "Arthur... Art, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. P-please, please come back. Please... Please, you have to come back." he begged, burying his face into the crook of Arthur's neck.

"Alfred..." Ludwig said softly behind him. He felt a hand touch his back, but he shrugged it off. He didn't want comfort. He didn't deserve it. "Alfred," the Captain repeated, sterner now.

"WHAT?!" the vampire snapped at him, lashing out with all his loss and anger. Ludwig was at least partially to blame for this. It was his fucking Watchers that dragged Arthur into this!

However, the Captain merely nodded to the body in Alfred's arms. Alfred's head whipped around and he found himself facing tired, green eyes. He went completely still, unable to breathe as he felt Arthur slowly moving against him.

"Ung, wha..." the author murmured, sounding dizzy and disoriented. "A-Alfred... you're holding... too tight..."

Alfred immediately let him go, nearly dropping the author like a sack of potatoes. His wide eyes looked the Brit up and down, watching as color slowly came back to his cheeks. Something was... not right here. He couldn't feel anything coming off of Arthur. In fact, he felt like... like Ivan. His eyes looked Arthur up and down, only then noticing the strange archaic symbol branded on Arthur's chest.

However, when his eyes met Arthur's again, he found only his lover there looking back. All the same love, the affection, the annoyance, the exasperation. Everything that made Arthur Arthur was still all in place. Alfred's lips broke into a wide smile and he lunged for Arthur again, only to hold him all the tighter. "Arthur!" he cried, delving into a fresh round of sobs. Happy ones this time.

"W-what on earth?!" Arthur wheezed, awkwardly patting his lover on the back in the middle of his crying fit. He turned his attention up to Ludwig, who seemed to be the only sane one in the room at the moment. "Ludwig, what happened to Vlad? Where's Ivan?" he demanded, only then taking in the destruction all around them.

"I think first we should leave. There will likely be investigators coming," Ludwig commented, gathering up their weapons from the ground, including Ivan's favored pipe. "Then I can explain. But... Vlad is gone. We do not need to worry about him anymore."

"So... we can go home?" Arthur asked in wonder, his eyes wide.

"Yes, that is a good idea. We should head to your home," Ludwig replied, treading carefully around the sizzling black spots all over the floor and walls.

"Wait a minute! That wasn't an invitation!" Arthur cried after him. He gave a sudden yelp when Alfred suddenly picked him up into his arms. "Alfred, I can walk on my own!" he protested, though he didn't try very hard to get out of the vampire's grip upon seeing his lover's face.

"I need to hold you a little longer," Alfred said with a shaky smile, his eyes still red from all his crying. He pressed a kiss to Arthur's lips, reveling in the warmth and the breath he found there. Once he'd kissed his boyfriend breathless, he pulled back and nuzzled his cheek. "Now, let's go back home..."