****Mausoleum, the next night.
At first they had been reluctant to go with Vince, but it was pleasant enough to see one of their fellow Halflings still free, despite having to suddenly disband after Lord Madoc's sudden defeat and unexplained deathly fall. The strange girl with him greatly intrigued Rael, but Rita instantly did not like her and wanted nothing to do with her or this messed up town.
Yet something had drawn them back to New York by an instinct she could not completely resist. So, out of simple curiosity of who wanted to meet them and whom Vince now worked for, Rita and Rael went with the former Dracon bouncer and his strange friend.
Now, the two Halflings stood before a man of clear noble descent dressed in aristocratic garments from Eastern Europe, but of the fashion of the mid 20th century. Although his hair was closely cropped and well combed, his short mustache cleanly cut, his skin was clearly far too pale, as though a slowly decaying corpse that had been out of the Sun for far too long, and his pale blue eyes also seemed lifeless, yet 'soulful' somehow and were still piercingly cold.
His 'family' around him gave off the same feeling, yet while Rael had stared at the aristocratic man and his wife with frozen awe, Rita made it obvious she was less than impressed.
"Seriously?" she scoffed indignantly, "You would have me believe you're the 'original' Count Dracula?"
Rita gave a short laugh as Vlad stared at her dangerously, yet kept a cold neutral demeanor. He held up a hand as his wife, Elizabeth, tensed up for an attack as her upper lip curled up to reveal fangs.
"Believe whatever you wish, child," Vlad said with a cold dignity, "The mortals trivial entertainment is nothing more than demeaning insults to my name that mortals once feared to even mention. Something of which I will remind the kine of in due time."
A slight chill went down Rael's spine while Rita just huffed with a shake of her head and smirked. This greatly intrigued Imre, who eyed Rita with great interest. Rael only noticed this for a moment, but knew he did not like Imre one bit.
Rita then spoke up in irritation, "Look, pal, whatever you want from us, just get it over with. I've had it up to here" _She holds her hand over the top of her head_ "with this freaked up town and those goddamn gargoyles. Rael and I are gonna live it up big somewhere like Vegas or Hollywood."
Vlad continued to glare at her as he said with an ever cold demeanor, "It will do you well to mind your language, child, for it will only bring you more unnecessary trouble. However, on the matter of the gargoyles, we can agree upon."
"Whatever," Rita huffed, "What the hell do you want with us?"
"Rita," Rael warned, as she sighed.
Vlad's lips curved only slightly at the corners of his mouth as he momentarily glimpsed at Rael, pleased that the young man was willing to show him a little more respect.
"What I want, child, is simple," Vlad said coldly, "Though we are not quite the same, we all have one thing in common."
"I doubt we have anything in common," the female Halfling commented, "Aside from having really cool fangs."
Rita gave an unfriendly smile to reveal enough of her own sharpened canines, making Imre smirk at this.
"Though your transformation was more by the hand of the mortal sorcery know as 'science'," Vlad said as he continued to coldly ignore Rita's rude remarks, "I have also been touched by the magic of Madoc Morfryn, the Lord of the Banished Ones."
This caught the young Halflings' surprised attention, leaving the couple momentarily speechless.
However, it did not keep Rita silent for long, as she then smirked widely as she said,
"So that means you're leftover rejects to serve the old Unseelie Court, and we're the new and improved 2.0 versions. Oh, yeah."
Rita clenched her fist to a self triumph punch as she said the last two words, then suddenly gave a heavy gasp as she felt what was like a hard punch from a champion heavyweight at the forefront of her mind. It lasted only a microsecond, but she suddenly became overwhelmed with a wave of darkness that pierced her very soul, an ancient primal fear of being stalked by an unseen predator from the darkness set to unexpectedly pounce from the unknown and consume her very being at any moment with power to be feared and demanding respect.
As Vlad bombarded Rita with his 'lightest' psychic assault, he sensed something within their minds which greatly intrigued him, something he might be able to use to his advantage at a later time.
The next moment, Rita looked at Vlad with a look of absolute shock and horror, an expression of true fear in her wide eyes.
"That is quite enough of your incipit remarks, child," Vlad snared coldly, "Though my power originally came from Lord Madoc, same as you, I serve no one. I was once the Prince of Walachia and brought order and prosperity to my realm, and I am the rightful King of the Black Court of Vampires."
Both Halflings remained silent, which greatly please Vlad.
"Now that I have you properly disciplined," Vlad said with his ever present cold tone, "You will tell me of what you know of the fate of the Banished Lord. Has he truly been slain or does he merely hide in waiting to draw me out and those like me to him?"
Rita and Rael momentarily looked at each other, waiting for one or the other to answer the infamous vampire.
"We don't know what happened to Lord Madoc," Rael finally said with a submissive tone, "But we're sure he's dead. Rita, me, and a bunch of our friends followed Lord Madoc and our supposed leader, George Harrison, to the castle at the top of the Eyrie Building where we fought the gargoyles. I don't know what happened, but I'm sure we were winning, even if the gargoyles were still tough to beat. But all of a sudden it was as though we couldn't feel him in our heads anymore. In a weird and scary way it was like suddenly losing the most important part of yourself, like losing your very purpose in life, and at the same time a relief at finally being free to be yourself again. The rest of the Unseelie Court must've felt it too, because all of a sudden they disappeared or were captured by other Fey we never saw before. Some of us were lucky to escape but I'm sure a lot of our friends were captured and put on ice by Xanatos and those damn gargoyles. I now wonder what was really the point of fighting them the whole time when we only lose, even as a Quarryman, or a Halfling."
Vlad seemed to deeply ponder this for several moments; a tangible silence fell over everyone in the Mausoleum as dark and cold as Vlad himself.
"Interesting," he finally said in a low whisper that could be heard clearly by the others around him, "So, the rumors of the Dark Lord's demise weren't completely exaggerated or untrue."
"Do does that mean we can finally leave here and go out and have some real fun?" Imre asked eagerly.
Vlad gave the younger vampire a cold glare, making him stop smirking but he returned a look of resentment.
"You still have much to learn about patience, Imre," Vlad said with a cold patience, "For this information only eases one of our worries to replace it with another. Whatever force was powerful enough to be the downfall of Lord Madoc may still be out there, and may be powerful enough to doom us as well."
Imre did not show it to his sire, only showing his angst teenage defiance, but inside he did become a bit concerned.
"Mr. Maddox did often talk about some prophecy about the union of gargoyles and people," Rita spoke up, this time more respectfully and a clear tone of apprehension in her voice, "Which is just wrong on so many levels, if you ask me."
Vlad looked at Rita a bit curiously as she averted her gaze.
"So," he began, "Whatever was the cause of his demise unsurprisingly involves the gargoyles. That's a shame for such formidable warriors. How unfortunate that like this primitive kine country's weak judicial system, they must follow some misguided code of protecting the weak. A shame indeed."
"What does this means for us now, my husband?" Elizabeth quietly asked after a brief silence.
"It simply means," Vlad answered, "that we will need to be more cautious of the gargoyles for the time being, and begin our recruitment as soon as possible.
"You mentioned there were more of you," Vlad continued as he looked at the Halflings, "Do you know where they are?"
"Like I said, sir," Rael said, "Most of our friends were probably put on ice by Xanatos."
Vlad feigned a look of confusion; Imre then stated with obvious boredom, "It means they were captured and imprisoned, duh."
Vlad glared coldly at his 'son' but for now let his attitude slide.
"So their most likely prison is the Eyrie Building," he commented with disappointment.
"There were others still at Maddox Technologies," Rael spoke up, unsure why, "They were still going through the procedure when Mr. Maddox decided to start the fighting, so they weren't ready yet and might still be there."
This greatly intrigued Vlad as he thought carefully.
"I can't yet risk a raid on the Eyrie Building to free your comrades," He sternly stated, "But for now I shall have Walters scout out this 'Maddox Technologies' you speak of."
He then got a dark glimmer in his cold eyes as he gazed at the two Halflings.
"In the meantime," he said with an evil smile, "you two show great promise, though you are clearly rough around the edges and require some. . .polishing."
A freezing chill ran down Rita's and Rael's spines as they stared in frightful awe at Vlad. But before he did anything, a small blue light swooped down seemingly from nowhere and flittered angrily about Vlad's face. He held up his hands to momentarily shield his face from the attacking glowing wisp, but gathered enough of his wits to snarl,
"Be gone, pest!"
He then backhanded the little fairy hard enough to make her give a tiny high pitched shriek of pain as she flew uncontrollably through a stone wall and leave behind a hole several inches wide.
"Blue!" Rita cried as her tiny fairy friend disappeared from sight.
"What did you do to her!?" she then demanded.
"Something merciful," was all Vlad said with a cold tone.
All the Halflings could do was freeze in place with fear as they saw Vlad's eyes glow a blood red and his fangs seemed to elongate and become sharper as he hissed like a snake, making the air and ambiance of the tomb like structure grow more sinister and colder.
Out in the cold night, a tiny humanoid figure lay nearly motionless upon the cold moist earth near a rather large tombstone, her eldritch blue aura faintly twinkled weakly like the last dying ember of a long gone out burning fire.
Yet she was not alone, for another faint light steadily settled over the small wisp and a pair of hands the color of silken moonlight then lifted the tiny wounded fairy with the gentleness of a summer breeze.
"Easy, little sister," gently said a voice like musical wind with the flow of a graceful waterfall, "Thy gleaming light shalst shine again once healed upon thy home of Avalon."
The blue wisp communicated confusion with a weak twinkle like a Fey Morse code to her mysterious rescuer.
"Though many such as thee hast been misguided by the evil machinations of the brother of our benevolent High Lord, even those of the Third Race can find redemption and bring balance wherest it is needed. Thine glow can be a beacon in the darkness once more."
The moon white figure glowed with her silver iridescence to momentarily illuminate the tombstone of the deceased; Halcyon Reynard.
The next moment she was gone with her small rescued charge.