A/N: Before saying anything else, I need to thank all the readers that have reviewed or chose this story as a Favorite. I don't remember but I'm pretty sure that I didn't reply to the first reviews that I received, I didn't know how to reply and I'm still not sure how to reply (by PM maybe?) so I apologize if the readers felt neglected. For the readers that don't review, no worries, at the end I just want to thank the readers who take time to read this story.
In this chapter, I started referring to Vibiana (Vanessa) as Vivian, to keep continuity with the other characters, which I always mention as Ms. Rhodes, Mr. Bass, the Countess, etc.
I do not own any GG or other show and stories characters; if I did the TV show would have ended better than it did.
"…and, I know he clearly wasn't well, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He didn't seem like a bad person and during his illness it was obvious he wasn't able to rule, but it seemed to me that they were trying to impose Regency with haste. I mean, nothing against his son, his personal life is his business, but most people prefer the father over the son and the son has given proof that he doesn't have the same disposition as his father, whose disposition always pleased the people. Luckily he's well now, but the last attack of his disease was just last year, so who knows how long his current health will last" Ms. Rhodes finished saying to the Countess while they reached the drawing-room to meet with the others.
By that moment Ms. Rhodes had already given the Countess and Fritz the rooms keys, Fritz had already unpacked the things that the Countess was going to use during her stay in her chamber, and both women had made sure to install Fritz in one of the rooms immediately next to the one occupied by the Countess, which instructions of unpacking only what he was going to need to spend the night there, a task he should do while the adults were out. They also had time to show Fritz the kitchens and where was the food that he could use to prepare himself dinner.
In the kitchen they had found Ms. Hudson finishing her sowing, a while after she finished with that task she excused herself to go to her chambers and put on the garments she was going to use for the trip to town. This reminded Ms. Rhodes and the Countess that they needed to do the same, so they went to the chambers to do this before going to the drawing-room. Like at home, the Countess made sure to lock her chamber with key every time she was in and out of it, and she had instructed Fritz to do the same. By now Ms. Rhodes had also been made aware of this as well as of the Countess's behavior when they first went to her chamber with Mr. Bass in toe.
Once Ms. Rhodes and the Countess reached the drawing-room they found everyone else there already dressed for travel.
"Well, I see nobody wanted to wait to reach the stables before putting on traveling clothes" Mr. Bass observed.
"As soon as we finish with this the better, right?" Mr. Hudson said, while checking the buttons of his coat.
"Alright, follow me" Mr. Archibald said, and he started to lead the way to the stables.
As in the Countess's house, before reaching the stables they had to go through the kitchens. While passing through them the Countess told Fritz in German:
"Goodbye Fritz, we'll be back soon. Remember what I told you."
"You should introduce him to everybody" Mr. Bass told her in a low voice while they continued walking towards the stables.
The Countess gave him a look between annoyed and a glare. She knew Mr. Bass was right, but didn't want him constantly on her case. It wasn't her intention not to introduce her young servant to her peers, but with all the whirlwind of their arrival she hadn't been able to finish introducing him to all of them. Finally she said: "Fine. I will do it when we return from town."
They finally reached the stables. There Mr. Archibald showed them the horses and which ones were available to the visitors, since the owners of the house already have their preferred horses. Without further delay they all proceeded to climb on the horses and ride to the nearest town.
The group dismounted from the horses once they reached the outskirts of the town. They also left the horses under the shadow of a group of trees. Before going into town Mr. Archibald said the following:
"Alright this is the deal. We are going near the town's tavern. We can either lurk it until a drunken lowlife comes out of it, or we can send one or two of the girls there to lure one of them out."
"But it is going to take too much time if we just wait for someone to come out" Mr. Hudson reasoned.
"So, are you saying that you believe we should send one of the girls there? And if so who will go?" Mr. Archibald asked.
"I can go" Vivian offered.
"No, I want to go too. Celia can go with me" the Countess replied. "I want to see how you usually do this" she added, since everybody stared at her for a second.
"We are plenty of people. We are going to need more than one person. Why don't we try both methods?" Mr. Bass said. "Cornelia can go with Celia first and afterwards we can wait for a while to see if anyone else goes out, and if the wait prolongs itself too much we can send Vibiana to lure someone else."
Everyone else agreed with their heads, even Vivian, all silently accepting Mr. Bass idea, and afterwards their started walking to town.
They managed to reach the back of the tavern unnoticed. Once there, everybody except the Countess and Ms. Rhodes climbed the external walls until reaching the rooftop. They lay down on their stomachs while observing the area near the tavern from their newly high positions. They settled their focus mostly in the street in front of the tavern and on a narrow street at the right side of the tavern. Mr. Rhodes decided to also keep an eye on the area around the back of the tavern from time to time.
Meanwhile, the Countess and Ms. Rhodes got ready to go into the tavern. They had opted for using capes with hoods for this trip to town, though less ostentatious than the one used by the Countess the first night she received her visitors in Germany. They decided to use these clothes based on the fact that they were a more manageable article of clothing. Also, they chose capes with toned-down colors; Ms. Rhodes a pearl gray, the Countess a sort of sky-blue. Ms. Rhodes was also not wearing the white dress that she had when her friend had arrived; instead she had changed to a dress that also had a gray tone, slightly darker than her hood, with a gold ribbon around her waist. It was clearly a dress for the night, since it didn't have long sleeves unlike the Countess dress and the cleavage was a bit more pronounced. She had obviously come ready for something like this.
"Ready?" Ms. Rhodes asked the Countess, and upon seeing her nod her agreement, both women headed towards the tavern's front entrance.
Ms. Rhodes clearly was going for the kill, because once inside she immediately pushed back her hood and began to untie the cape while going towards the innkeeper, while the Countess keep the hood over her head and even lowered it more to hide her face as much as possible. She also lowered her face and walked to the most shadowed table she could find, sitting at the empty table without a word. This was the type of routine that both friends knew to perfection. Without a word they have been able to communicate and agree how they were going to work this issue. While Ms. Rhodes performed all the job of luring the chosen target, the Countess was there to watch and support if it was necessary.
"Excuse me" Ms. Rhodes said to the innkeeper with her most charming attitude, "but my friend and I just arrived to the town today" she said, gesturing towards the table where the Countess sat. "We are just passing by, but the place where we are staying is simply dreadful. Do you think you can recommend us someplace else? Maybe we could stay here. And also, do you think you could bring us something to eat and drink? I swear this place where we are staying has the most dreadful service." By that moment Ms. Rhodes no longer had the cape around her shoulders and her outfit was fully visible to the view of anyone who laid eyes on her.
"Of course Miss" the innkeeper said, already charmed by her. "Unfortunately we don't have quarters for you and your friend to spend the night, but I can ask around. In the meantime I will bring you something to eat. Are you and your friend traveling alone?"
"Not too much to eat please, I think the food in our inn has made me lost my appetite" Ms. Rhodes said, while gesturing with her hands and slightly gracing the innkeepers left arm, unbeknown to him but totally on purpose from her part, to further charm him. "And yes we are traveling alone; it's the most unfortunate thing, really…" and she continued talking and giggling while giving a fake story of why this was so.
The idea wasn't to charm the innkeeper to lure him out, just to charm him enough so he would let them sit there without too many questions. The other big part of the act was to attract attention from the other men in the room. And the Countess was actually surreptitiously observing and studying the environment surrounding her.
Ms. Rhodes joined the Countess when she finally finished charming the innkeeper. By then she had already attracted the attention of several males in that room, and the story she had told was purposely fake enough to make some of them think that the two women were more than they appeared to be.
"May I join the two ladies?" a man with a rather sleazy appearance said when he approached their table after the innkeeper brought them drinks and food. Drinks that they were only pretending to drink.
"You may join us, if you like" Ms. Rhodes said with a flirtatious smile.
The man sat next to Ms. Rhodes. The Countess remained silent, like the man had not been there at all.
"What's your name?" the man asked Ms. Rhodes, looking directly to her eyes, unconsciously leaning towards her.
"Lucy" Ms. Rhodes said, still smiling, clearly flirting with him. "What's yours?" she asked in return.
"Peter" he answered. He then glanced towards the Countess and asked Ms. Rhodes "And your friend?"
"Oh, that's Christine" Ms. Rhodes replied "but she doesn't say much. She's shy."
"Really?" the man asked. "And you?" he said, still looking at her inappropriately, glancing briefly to her cleavage.
"Oh, I think we can say that I'm not shy" Ms. Rhodes said. She began to sit more close to him than what decorum permitted.
"What are you ladies doing here alone?" the man asked.
"It's an unfortunate situation, really" Ms. Rhodes began again "we couldn't stay in the last place we were living."
"Oh really?" the man said, convincing himself more that his suspicions about the two women were correct.
"Yes, really, the situation became quite dire" Ms. Rhodes continued. "It simply wasn't a suitable place to live anymore."
"How unfortunate" the man commented, also leaning himself more towards Ms. Rhodes, eyeing her cleavage more.
"They don't know how to treat two ladies" Ms. Rhodes said, while making the act of drinking, which she actually wasn't. The Countess had also kept the façade, all the while looking at the distance.
"What did they do?" the man asked. By this point it was becoming clear he was lusting after Ms. Rhodes.
"They treated us horribly, calling us names, implying that our presence was undesirable" Ms. Rhodes said, all dramatics. "All because we clearly have other ideas about what's suitable for young women like us" she added.
This increased her interlocutor's attention.
"Really? What sort of ideas?"
"But no, good sir" Ms. Rhodes said, all flirtation, while doing the act again of drinking a large amount of her drink. This time she did had to swallow a little to keep the illusion real. "You cannot ask me to tell you that. We just arrived to this town and we are just passing by. I cannot risk having us expelled from here when we haven't even been able to have a good night sleep."
"Such a beautiful woman like you shouldn't have to hide from others" the man said huskily, while leaning his face so close to hers that it looked like it could grace or nuzzle her face at any moment.
Ms. Rhodes laughed and swayed a little in her chair, pretending that she had begun getting slightly drunk.
"And what you would have us do, good sir? We had no other choice but to leave, to avoid facing the wrath of that people. We are two women alone, without anyone else in the world. Luckily for us, an old acquaintance offered to stay with her."
"It's that so?" the man said. "And you have no other choice but to live with that woman?"
Ms. Rhodes pretended to drink again, and then said: "no other choice I can think of. And our friend is being very generous with us, since she is already in charge of other people. Of course if the opportunity presented itself, I could be persuaded otherwise" she said coyly, while looking at him from under her lashes.
"Perhaps I could persuade you otherwise" the man husked, so enraptured by her that he haven't even been drinking much, but it that moment he raised the cup to his lips. When he was going to put it down on the table, however, Ms. Rhodes raised her left hand to stop him, placing it over the hand he was holding the cup with, and guiding the cup towards her lips.
"Perhaps you could" she whispered, and she brought the edge of the cup to her lips, gracing said edge with them, moving her lips side to side while continue gracing the edge of the cup with them for a few seconds before finally bringing down the cup to the table, all the while his hand still wrapped around the cup. She also placed her right hand over his left thigh; luckily their closeness was able to hide that from afar.
To say Peter was incredibly turned on was an understatement.
"I could offer you protection, you know, for you and your friend" he started, "but you would have to give me something in exchange."
"Money?" Ms. Rhodes asked, looking like she was bristling a little.
"No, not money" the man said, practically laughing at the idea. Ms. Rhodes seemed to calm herself after hearing that.
"Good, because we don't have much, only enough to reach our destination" she huffed. "With the hurry those scoundrels put us through, we had to spend much of what we had earned to get out of there safely" she said, while pretending to drink again, to make it look like she was saying more than she should due to drunkenness.
"I was thinking another way in which you girls could repay me" he said, while trying to place his left arm around her waist.
"I think I know exactly what you mean" Ms. Rhodes whispered, while moving her right hand up on his thigh.
"I think we need to continue this conversation somewhere else" the man cleared his throat, while proceeding to stand up immediately. Ms. Rhodes also stood up. "You should bring your friend too" he said, while eyeing the Countess. Now that he was seeing her from above, he could tell this girl was also beautiful, even if she was hidden in shadows. "She should have a say in our deal as well."
"Oh yes, she should have" Ms. Rhodes said, flirting again, "although I can assure you, she will have the same opinion than I have". She was picking up her cape while saying the latter thing, and she immediately started walking, but she didn't advance much before pretending to sway a little.
"Hu-huh, watch your step" the man said while taking her from her elbows. Once she was standing on her feet, she laughed freely, like she didn't have a care in the world. Meanwhile the Countess had stood up too and was following them, so when the man glanced back to see if she was coming with them, she was just a few steps behind.
"Miss, miss" the innkeeper came towards them, and he started talking before anyone could stop him, "I asked our other clients but I couldn't find you anywhere else to stay. Perhaps you could…" he said, while frowning to the man accompanying her.
"Excuse us" the Countess intervened, taking the innkeeper to the side while Ms. Rhodes kept talking nonsense to Peter, "but we were able to find a place to stay. That man" she said, briefly signaling to Peter's back, "knows an old maid that has a spare room. He's going to escort us there now. Thank you for your service" she continued, while placing money on his hands, "and for the food. It was delicious. It's a pity we cannot stay more" she finished, and with those words she turned around and followed Ms. Rhodes and Peter outside the tavern. Peter already had his left arm around Ms. Rhode's waist, clearly an inappropriate behavior between an unmarried man and woman.
By the time they reached the street, it was already pretty empty, and the few people around seemed drunk or minding their own business. Upon reaching the street, the Countess started walking next to Peter instead of behind him, to his right while Ms. Rhodes continued at his left. Seeing the other girl next to him, Peter also placed his right hand around her waist. Ms. Rhodes giggled tipsy. What he didn't know was that was all an act.
"Aren't you a pretty one?" He mused while looking at the Countess, who in turn looked at him and gave him a smile, flirtatious in appearance although more haughty than Ms. Rhodes.
"I feel like we are going to have a lot of fun tonight" he said. Without realizing it, both women had made their small group turn around the tavern's right corner, entering the side street next to the establishment.
"And more" the Countess said flirtatious, while raising her right hand and ghostly caressing the front of his jacket with the tip of her fingers, from his chest to his waist.
Peter laughed, mentally preparing himself for the night he was going to have with the two women. "She speaks!" he laughed, causing both women to laugh as well.
Suddenly Ms. Rhodes stopped, and while still pretending to sway a little, she said to him: "Come on darling. Give me a kiss."
She was laughing, while placing her left hand on his right cheek to bring his face closer to hers. Meanwhile the Countess placed her right arm on the front of his body, with her forearm slightly crossed across part of his chest and her right hand over his right shoulder, in a way that for any observer it would look like she was holding him to prevent him from falling drunk on his face, more so because she also had her left arm around his waist.
Just when his lips were about to touch Ms. Rhodes's lips, she made a quick movement and brought her face to his neck's left side, effectively biting him. Before he could register what was happening, the Countess had made another sudden movement to move her right hand from his shoulder to the front of his neck and while holding him this way, she bit him on the right side of his neck. He couldn't even scream, just an "Oh" escaping his lips.
Being effectively held and dominated by both women, their started to slowly bring him down to the ground, while crouching besides him and effectively drinking his blood, since they didn't let go of his neck one second. Meanwhile, the others, that were watching the last scene from above the tavern's rooftop, started to quickly descend to the ground directly from the rooftop, with incredible jumps from there. Mr. Hudson and Ms. Hudson each quickly took a wrist and shoving upwards, and even tearing the sleeves of Peter's jacket and shirt, they began to drink from his wrists, she from the right one and he from the left one. Mr. Bass and Mr. Archibald went for his ankles, right and left ones respectively, effectively removing the shoes and other garments in their way. Mr. Rhodes and Vivian had it more difficult, because all the good places were already taken. Mr. Rhodes decided to crouch down next to Ms. Hudson and tearing the sleeves more he began to drink from the arm. Vivian tried to do the same crouching down next to Mr. Hudson, but seeing she wasn't going to get much blood there, she switched places and crouched down next to Mr. Archibald, effectively tearing up the trousers on the area of the right thigh and starting drinking from there.
"Dammit" Vivian said sitting up after a while, "he doesn't have any more blood there." You could still see her fangs while she was saying this.
Mr. Rhodes also stopped drinking and sat up, while trying to wipe out his mouth with his hand.
"He's not enough to feed us all. We have to get another one" Mr. Bass said, sitting up. The rest started to sit up as well. Ms. Rhodes and the Countess were the last ones to finish.
"Of course he's not enough, since you drank a lot from him by the time we arrived" Vivian said accusing the Countess and Ms. Rhodes.
"Excuse me, but what would you have us do?" Ms. Rhodes said defending herself. "Keep him ready so you could come up and drink while he tried to scream for help?"
"Enough, it's not worth fighting for. We all knew that we would need more than one" Mr. Bass said standing up, which forced the rest to stand up as well.
"He's dry, right?" Mr. Bass asked, while the Countess and Ms. Rhodes nodded with their heads in answer.
"What are we going to do with the body?" Mr. Rhodes said. "Maybe we should take it to the woods now."
"No, we need to eat more, and it's too risky to go carrying bodies back and forth. We should hide him here and later bring all the bodies with us just one time, after we finish eating" Mr. Bass said.
"What are we going to do about that?" Mr. Archibald asked. "We need at least one more."
"We should try to clear the street from possible witnesses. There really wasn't anybody respectable when they came out from the tavern, just some drunks and old beggars. Couldn't you get one of those for us?" Mr. Bass asked to Mr. Rhodes.
"A beggar? You want me to get an old beggar?" Mr. Rhodes said rather surprised.
"I think you have more possibilities to lure one than we do. Just make them believe you are feeling sorry for their suffering" Mr. Bass said.
"It doesn't have to be an old beggar" Mr. Archibald said. "Beggars go to sleep somewhere in this town. Maybe we could go look for it."
"What if we split? We could go look for the beggars and Vivian could go to the tavern and get someone else out and some of us could stay with her…" Mr. Rhodes said.
"No, I don't want to split" Mr. Bass said. "I think we should stay together for tonight."
"There must be a way to reach other places in town where the beggars could be" Mr. Archibald said. "We could try get there, and Lucius can lure someone, and after we drink we can go back here to see if Vibiana can get someone more to come out."
"I think we need to move this guy out of sight before someone sees him" Mr. Hudson said joining the conversation, "it looks like things are getting more animated inside" he said, referring to the increasing volume of the voices coming out of the tavern.
The men started to surround the body to see where they could hide it better. In the meantime, Ms. Rhodes and the Countess had smoothed their clothes and tried to tide themselves up as much as possible.
"You did a pretty good seduction act there" the Countess said to Ms. Rhodes, "it was quite impressive."
"Please, it was nothing" Ms. Rhodes said with an almost eye-roll, "you are still the better temptress I've ever seen."
"What are you two talking about?" Mr. Bass suddenly cut in with a frown in his face while turning his head to look at them from where he was standing. Because the women were speaking in low voices he really wasn't able to hear their conversation, but he had caught a few loose words and got the feeling he might not like the conversation they were having. His interruption prevented the Countess's replica to Ms. Rhodes's statement.
"Nothing, nothing you should worry about" Ms. Rhodes said while gesturing with her hands dismissively. Damn her brother and his prying ways! She knew he would be like this, over-attentive towards everything her friend did or say, at least for the next days. Nobody could talk with Cornelia without him wanting to know immediately what they were talking about. To further distract him Ms. Rhodes added: "Do you need help with something?" she asked, while walking with the Countess towards the rest of the group.
"No, we are fine" Mr. Bass answered, refocusing on the task at hand, still with a frown in his face though because he wasn't entirely satisfied with his sister reply, though he figured she was being sincere.
The men with the women's help were able to move and hide the body in the alley, and then explained their plan to them. After hearing it, however, Ms. Hudson said: "No. I have a better idea."
"You have a better idea?" Mr. Archibald asked with his eyebrows raised.
"Yes I do" Ms. Hudson answered, who was by now sporting a little smile on her face. "Follow me." And going toward the tavern's external wall that was just a few steps from them, she started to climb again towards the rooftop.
The rest looked at each other for a moment before climbing after her. Once they were all together, she went to the other extreme of the rooftop and jumped to another building that was left of the tavern, falling with such ability on her feet that she was more silent than a cat. The others were capable of doing the same and started following her, though in the case of the other women, their clothes were a bit of a hindrance. Not for Ms. Hudson though, who seemed to have a lot of practice in this way of moving from one place to another. She finally stopped in a rooftop from which you could see a group of streets with a rather worn-down aspect.
"Here" she said, "I noticed this area from afar when we were waiting in the tavern's rooftop. It's darker. Wouldn't this be the poorest area in the town?"
"I think you are right" Mr. Rhodes said. "This is the poorest area in the town. I think I remember it from the last time I was here. We don't come here a lot, though."
"I noticed some hoodlums coming out of the tavern towards this direction" Ms. Hudson said. "Why don't you go back a little and start walking from the beginning of the street?" she asked, pointing towards the main street below her feet. "Or even better," she said, on a second thought "why don't we distribute ourselves on several rooftops and wait for one that comes alone and drunk? With the tavern's noise that we were hearing before, a fight is bound to happen and some guy will probably come this way after being thrown out from there. We could jump over him when he comes to this point or enters one of the smaller streets here."
"You think you are able to do that? Jump over a human surprising him?" Mr. Bass asked, slightly amused by Ms. Rhodes idea, although he did see the potential in it.
"And what we will do with the body once we finish?" Mr. Hudson asked.
"Don't worry about the body" Ms. Hudson said, "if necessary, I will carry him back myself. As for the rest, yes I can do it. Unlike what you all seem to believe, I'm perfectly able to hunt alone or in group. Years living alone in the Mainland do that to you."
Mr. Archibald gave a surprised look to Mr. Hudson, who looked hesitant of adding anything more, yet a tacit understanding passed between the two men establishing that Mr. Hudson was going to explain what was all that about later.
"Let's do this then" the Countess said. "Let's decide our positions and wait for someone to pass."
They all agreed and decided which rooftops they were going to occupy and how they were going to distribute themselves. After that they all took their positions, with Ms. Hudson, Mr. Hudson and Mr. Rhodes on one rooftop, the Countess, Ms. Rhodes and Mr. Bass in a second rooftop, and Mr. Archibald and Vivian in a third one, all laying down on their stomachs near the edges of the rooftops, peering down the streets below them.
After a while waiting, a man came down the main street. Mr. Archibald and Mr. Bass were already starting to move to jump over him when Ms. Hudson whispered: "No. Something is not right."
"Since when you are an expert?" Mr. Bass said annoyed.
"I'm telling you, something is not right" Ms. Hudson insisted. "That man is not drunk enough or something."
In that moment they heard a noise, and when they looked down, the man had opened a door and a wife talking about a sick baby or something of the sort received him.
Ms. Hudson exhaled the breath she was holding. Mr. Bass rolled his eyes and laid down again, this time face up looking at the stars in the night sky, and the rest continued watching the street.
"You have become pretty good at this" Mr. Rhodes said to Ms. Hudson with admiration. They continued talking in whispers for a while.
Mr. Bass was bored out of his mind. With his left leg bend by the knee and his hands interlaced over his waist, he kept looking at the stars while hearing from time to time the Countess and Ms. Rhodes exchange a few whispered words. He knew they wouldn't say anything of significance in front of him, and he couldn't blame them. He also knew he was on edge and shouldn't behave like that, but he couldn't help it either. Whatever perfume she was wearing, it was driving him crazy since Germany. He just wanted to take her in his arms and beg on his knees that she forgave him. But he knew that wasn't on the agenda at the moment. They had a seriously pressing matter to attend, that needed to be solved if he ever wanted another opportunity with her. In order to have one more chance they both needed to live first.
"There" Ms. Hudson suddenly whispered, pointing towards a figure in the street. "That's our man."
Walking from the beginning of the street towards them was a man who was drunkenly swaying and even singing unintelligible parts of a song. And judging by his appearance he very well could be a beggar or some lowlife of sorts.
Everybody remained silent while the man continued walking down the street. Mr. Bass turned around to lie on his stomach again, while peering towards the street with the rest of the group.
"He's drunk, but he's still a large man. Are you still sure you can do it?" he whispered to Ms. Hudson.
"I can" Ms. Hudson answered.
"Wait a second, alone?" Mr. Hudson asked surprised.
"Well, it was her idea, wasn't it? I think she should take the prize first, if she can" Mr. Bass answered, smirking.
"You think she can?" Mr. Archibald whispered to Vivian, who just shrugged her shoulders.
"I can, you'll see" Ms. Hudson said determined. She stood up on four, like a feline about to jump, and actually taking impulse, she did just that. She grabbed the man's shoulders from behind while landing on her feet, and with an incredible fast movement, she then moved her left hand from the man's shoulder to his mouth to cover it, to also help tilt his head while keeping her right hand on his right shoulder, and going for the bite on the right side of the man's neck.
The others started descending from the rooftops, first Mr. Hudson and Mr. Rhodes, then Mr. Archibald and Vivian. Mr. Bass then noticed that the Countess and Ms. Rhodes were not hurrying up to descend.
"Aren't you going to eat?" he asked the Countess, while Ms. Rhodes finally descended to join the rest of their group.
"We already drank plenty with the first one, so we figured we should leave the rest of you have the first bites before we go" the Countess said referring to herself and Ms. Rhodes. "You should go eat first" she added.
Mr. Bass kept staring at her without saying a word. She had her hood down, so her hair and face were visible. She looked lovely under the moonlight. She locked eyes with him for a moment, trapped in the energy that always flowed between them wherever they exchanged a look. She suddenly snapped out of it and stood up, gathered her skirts in her hands, leaned forward to take impulse and jumped landing on her feet, immediately joining the others. Mr. Bass watched her do all that still marveled by her and with his heart aching and elated at the same time because as much as she was trying to hide it, she cared about him. He then stood up and jumped to join the others and drink.
Between all they dried the man and quickly moved to an alley to hide from view. Then the problem of what to do with the body came up.
"We should leave the town as quickly as possible and move this body to the forest" Mr. Hudson said.
"I told you, I can carry him if necessary" Ms. Hudson said.
"The horses are far from here, how are we going to reach them fast?" Mr. Archibald said.
"We could take him there and go back for the other body" Ms. Rhodes said.
"Alright, let's do the following" Mr. Rhodes said to help his friend. "A group can carry the body until we reach the street besides the tavern. The members of that group can take turns carrying the body if they want. One or two of us should go ahead of that group to make sure the way is clear, and one or two of us should walk at the end to make sure nobody saw or followed us. We should move little by little, first securing that everything is in order before advancing another stretch. Once we reach our destination we can put it with the other body and decide what to do then."
"We should do something like what we did when we rode over here" Mr. Bass said. "Celia can go ahead to clear the way and Cornelia can go with her if she wishes. Lucius should go at the end to make sure nobody is following us. Vibiana and Helvetia can join him if they want. Decimus, Numerius and I will take turns carrying the body. Or maybe we can move faster if we carry him between several people."
"I told you, I can carry him myself…" Ms. Hudson started to argue.
"We get it, you can carry him" Mr. Hudson cut her off. "Sister, please try to understand. We are no longer questioning your capabilities. You have proven yourself tonight. You took care of this meal; please let us now take care of the rest" he pleaded to her.
Ms. Hudson looked at him for a moment and then nodded her head in agreement. Mr. Bass and Mr. Rhodes looked at each other, nodded their heads too in agreement, and started working with the others to put their plan in place.
At the end, Ms. Rhodes and the Countess made sure that the way was clear, Mr. Archibald and Mr. Hudson carried the body, Mr. Bass and Vivian were next to them looking sideways of the group to make sure everything was clear, and Mr. Rhodes and Ms. Hudson made sure that nobody was behind them. In that way they returned safely to the street besides the tavern and put that body next to the other one.
"Now what?" Mr. Rhodes asked once they were all there. "One last meal before returning home? Or do you want to go back now?"
Everybody looked at each other, each thinking internally what they wanted to do. Finally Vivian said: "I can get another one."
"You are that hungry?" Mr. Bass asked with his eyebrows raised. "You really need another one?"
Vivian was silent for a moment, and finally looking at everybody, she said: "Watch me." And she started walking towards the main street.
The rest either climbed to the tavern's rooftop or hid in the shadows to watch her. She walked determinately to the main street, throwing away her brown cape, unpinning her hair and fixing her dress to look more provocative. When she reached the street, it was empty, but still she started walking differently, like she was slightly dizzy. She crossed to the sidewalk in front of the tavern and waited in the shadows for her next target.
She was lucky and didn't have to wait long. A burly man came out drunkenly from the tavern, still drinking. She came out from the shadows and walked towards him, practically throwing herself at him.
"Hello darling! Don't you want to spend a good time? I can make you spend a good time" she whispered, while placing her left hand on the man's right cheek to try to make him turn his head towards her and kiss him.
"Leave me alone" the man said while drunkenly drinking.
"Why do you want me to leave you alone?" Vivian asked him. "When I can make you…?" and she whispered the rest to this ear.
Suddenly the man grabbed her by the waist with his left arm and gave her a bruising kiss. He even quickly slipped his arm upwards to try to cup her breast with his hand. She parted the kiss laughing loudly like this amused her enormously.
He tried to kiss her again, but Vivian kept laughing and with her left hand grabbed the lapel of his worn out jacket to drag him towards the side street. When they were reaching it she allowed him to gather her in his arms and start kissing her mouth and then her neck in frenzy, while they were both tumbling down inside the street. He finally pushed her against a wall and started pulling up her skirts while saying intelligible and unintelligible nonsense, like "we are going to have such a good time." By that moment Vivian's arms were circling his neck, and she was pretending to enjoy herself by moaning in his ear. Just before the man could start kissing more than her neck, she suddenly grabbed his face with both hands, opened her mouth with her fangs on display and went to bit his neck right in the jugular.
The rest came out of the shadows or descended from the rooftop. The minute she felt they were around her, she pushed herself off the wall and threw all her weight on top of the man to land them both on the floor. She quickly moved to continue drinking from his neck but leaving space for the others to drink.
When they finally finished with him, they all stood up and started preparing to carry the bodies to the outskirts of the town, where the horses were waiting. In the meantime they started talking.
"Vibiana, that was very dangerous…" Mr. Hudson started.
"Decimus, not now" Vivian replied to him, with a face that broke no argument.
The Countess, who had scrunched up her nose in disgust when she watched the kissing scene from the rooftop, told Vivian: "that's how you do this? You let him put his hands all over you?"
"I'm sorry" Vivian said with irony, "but not everybody can pretend that they are prostitutes hiding behind an innocent façade. If I had gone into that tavern like you and Celia did, they would have thrown me out or asked immediately who were my masters or what was a slave doing there" she said, turning around without waiting for an answer and going to search for the cape that she had thrown away. The Countess kept frowning at her back, but then turned around and went towards Ms. Rhodes, while Mr. Hudson kept looking at Vivian for a moment and then at the floor, sighing while putting his hands in his pockets.
"Ugh, I still can't believe I had to drink beer tonight" Ms. Rhodes commented to the Countess that had just joined her, while looking at Peter's body that lay on the ground.
"This will be a difficult one to move" Mr. Bass mused while looking at the last's man body on the ground, while Mr. Archibald and Mr. Hudson also surrounded the body.
They decided that the Countess and Ms. Rhodes would have to carry Peter's body, Ms. Hudson, Mr. Rhodes and Vivian would carry the second body and Mr. Hudson, Mr. Bass and Mr. Archibald would carry the third body. Halfway towards the horses however, Mr. Rhodes had to help the other men with the third body because it was too heavy and was stalling everybody. Once they reached the horses, they put the bodies in three of them. Ms. Hudson then shared a horse with her brother, Ms. Rhodes shared another horse with her brother, and Mr. Archibald accepted to share his horse with Vivian. Nobody even dared to suggest that the Countess and Mr. Bass share a horse.
"We should bury the third man as far away as possible" Mr. Bass said. "The other two men can be buried more close to town."
"You know, tonight we did all the hunting" Ms. Rhodes mused, pointing towards all the women. "Tomorrow you guys should do the hunting" she said, pointing towards all the men.
"Alright, tomorrow we will take care of the hunting" Mr. Bass said, rolling his eyes over his sister's antics. "We should go now, it's getting late and we still need to dig the graves."
They all started riding, also controlling the reins of the horses carrying the bodies. They did three stops along the way back home to dig the graves and bury the bodies. Normally, the men would have taken care of this singlehandedly, but due to the urgency of going back home, they all dig the graves. After they finished burying all the bodies, each person rode their own horses until they reached the stables of their home, going back in the same order in which they had departed from it.
A/N: Once again it wasn't my intention to finish this chapter where it ended. Actually it was easier to write than the previous one, everything flowed more easily, and it turned out that it was the longest chapter. I will do my best to include in the next chapter the details of their return to the mansion as well as the visitors they are expecting.