CH18

Guest - You really should sign-in and make this easier. Yes her arranged betrothed was indeed a vampire. How and why Kate was converted to a vampire gets talked about a number of chapters later. And who it that has found her and converted her will also be explained in a number of chapters.

I try very hard not to leave any questions unanswered in the story. When someone in the story wants answers that's when the reader learns about it also. Until then, the reader is left with his opinion, hopes and dreams.

Trust me answers are coming!

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Rick didn't make any more demands of Kate on his night of being in charge. Not after she had answered all of his questions about how she became a vampire.

She joined him in their bedroom after taking a shower that felt better than ever after the evening she had spent. "Come on Kate, lay with me and cuddle till you fall asleep," Castle wheedled.

Kate shook her head and made sure all of the shutters were locked and the blackout drapes were closed. She stepped over and pulled out a new tube and attached the stainless steel tips to each end.

"You're mine again tomorrow Castle and I don't share well." Kate held up his chastity device for Castle to see, along with a tube of lube.

She approached the bed and Rick just laid there naked like they both had been all night long. He watched as Kate locked him up in his steel cage again and then used the lube on the tip of his penis.

And watched as she had lube flowing down the length of the tube. The tube went in just as easily as it did the first time while Rick felt her twist it to lock it into place.

"Don't worry Castle, a month from now I'll let you out again and place you back in charge of me," Kate informed him.

"Until tomorrow I'm still in charge, so climb into bed and come here." He lifted up his arms and waited for her to crawl into his waiting arms to hold her close.

"You're too good for me Castle. I'm a vampire and you should be scared shitless of me. I drink human blood to survive," she told him with her face buried in his neck while feeling his arms wrapped around her.

"Perhaps, Kate, but I'm not. Actually I find you being a vampire to be very interesting. I can't resist unusual things or people. Besides you've changed a lot since we first met."

"Two minutes." Rick turned to look at the alarm clock that only he actually used.

"Here, nip my finger with your fang and suck, Kate." Rick ran his finger along her lower lip.

She couldn't resist. She grabbed his hand, placed his finger in her mouth, used her fang to give him a little more than a prick from a blood sugar test lancet, and started sucking. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she moaned from the taste of him.

"And I trust you even more now that I know about the man who turned you. The man that even today you still try to emulate because of his teachings," Rick explained as Kate pulled his finger out of her mouth and buried her face into his neck satisfied that she had his blood in her system before… And Kate died the second the sun hit the shutters.

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"We've found where Castle is living since moving out of the loft in Manhattan," she was told.

She snapped her head around to look at him. "Excellent! Take two others with you and pick him up. Do not damage him in any way or I'll castrate you without any anesthesia," she warned them.

"And if he's not there yet, wait for him to show up and bring him here, UNHARMED!" She emphasized the last part. It was bad enough that the two idiots she sent to pick him up last time had ended up killing his daughter and mother.

Those two idiots that were now compost in some farmers field had cost her 3 long years, working on 4. "Well, what are you standing there for? Go get him." She was losing her temper which didn't take much these days.

Three years of delay were taking her toll on her. Well, actually it was closer to over 600 years but at least now she had a clue; she just needed Castle in her hands. If only she had known at the time what she knew now, she wouldn't even need Castle or what he knew.

She was checking on the number of vampire killer rounds they had when her cell phone vibrated. "You better tell me you have him," she growled into the phone.

However, they don't answer her right away. "Now what happened?" Did Castle bathe in grease or something?

"His apartment is completely empty. He was staying in a one bedroom apartment that he was renting in Brooklyn on the fourth floor. The forwarding address he left with the on-site manager is a PO Box," she was told.

She was just a nano second from throwing and breaking her cell phone before she caught herself. "Find the Post Office Box and watch it 24 hours a day. Maybe we'll finally get lucky and the idiot will actually show up," she told them and ended the call.

"I will find you and I will kill you, even after all this time," she swore to herself yet again. Pissed that she hadn't been able to solve this years ago.

"How many rounds do we have?" She approached the area that were making the vampire killers.

"We need 2, maybe 3 weeks to arm everyone with at least 2 clips. We have all the C-4 that we need to blow our way in. We just need to know where," he informed her.

That was another one of her failings. She knew there was a vampire coven in this city somewhere. They had already searched all of the likely sites where vampires would hide and had found nothing.

"Send them back out; we have got to find that coven and take it over. He might show up there and we need to be there waiting for him and not need Castle, except simply to kill him since he is pissing me off, " she growled and left him to keep making more rounds.

"Three more weeks." It meant she needed more blood and more money. This time they would need to hit a bank hard and fast and get more than pocket change. Still she thought that guy in the bank looked like him so she had approved and organized that hit.

He was dead but he was human dead, telling her that it wasn't him. She went to her room to make plans for a bank heist.

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He opened his computer to read his latest message. His latest case was finished and his target was dead and lying in a pool of blood. No one was going to find him any time soon so he had time and to hack this guy's wireless router to do some snooping and reading.

'Target has moved, location unknown. No moving company or vans were utilized,' he read.

That was bad news. He didn't really want to have to kill the guy. He had already been through hell with his mother and daughter being killed by Lycans. Just where had he gone? Who had he met that would move someone that quickly and that quietly?

He silently cursed that he hadn't spent the time and resources to bug his place and put camera's outside to keep tabs on him. Instead he had left it to a team to check in on him every few weeks.

Nothing he could do about it now, so he opened his other message to see what was next. He raised his eyebrows at finding he was going to Kabul with where to meet his contact for his next job.

"Interesting." He had never been to that country before. Since he was in India at the moment, going to Afghanistan was an easy jump across the sand. Plus it would give him time to find a place to spend the day and not be discovered, which was important.

He pulled some pictures of Kabul up on his screen and jumped there. "Shit! It's as hot here as it was there. Why can't I go someplace that has air conditioning?" He hung his head for a second and got to work.

"First things first. Hmm, you look like an Al-Qaeda member. Someone who no one will notice missing." He smiled since killing a few scum bags didn't conflict with his own rules. So he jumped next to him and then jumped him back to where he started and sank his teeth into him and drank him dry.

He finished in seconds and opened his coat. "Profiling actually works." He began the tedious process of disarming the suicide vest that the man was wearing. "As if simply attacking America wasn't bad enough, now you kill Muslims too. Humans...makes me want to rethink my dream. Still there are only a few thousand of you… Now to get rid of the body." And he jumped the body, dropped it, and jumped back.

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"All set, got everything?" Kate asked as she watched the new death dealer squad slapping clips into their weapons. "And what do you think you are doing Paige?" Kate watched her pick up a weapon and slap in a clip.

"I'm going with of course," she informed Kate.

"Alexis, has she cleared all her training?" Kate turned to her daughter.

"Well, Paige is… She's gotten pretty good at hand to hand until…" Alexis was falling all over her words and digging her hole deeper and deeper.

"LEX!?" Paige couldn't believe her.

"I'm sorry baby, but your hand to hand is fine until someone gets in close and forces you to wrestle to get free." Alexis tried to make a face that says 'I apologize.'

"That's not fair, just because I'm a human! Of course I can't break away. He's a vampire and I have no intention of getting in close… If I can help it." Paige argued.

"Solomon?" Kate turned to whom she hoped was someone who was neutral in this.

"Paige is possibly the best single shot, however when she uses full auto her weapon tends to lift off target." Meaning she wasn't strong enough to hold the weapon on target like a vampire could.

"FINE!" Paige dropped her weapon on the table and stalked off, pissed.

"Paige!" Alexis called, but was stopped by her mother. "Let her vent Alexis; she's been trying really hard. She just needs more training. It's only been a few weeks. More work on the weights in the exercise room might help," Kate suggested.

Alexis didn't really want to leave with Paige angry at her but she had a job to do. "Mom!?"

"I'll talk to her sweetie, be safe." Kate asked and turned to leave. "Oh - you might want to start with that storm drain from Castle's video. If they used it, it must lead somewhere."

Rick was three hours into his workout using the exercise equipment when Paige came storming in and immediately started using the weights. "Aren't you suppose to limber up and get loose first?" Rick questioned, a bit concerned.

"I'm already loose." Paige started pumping the machine. "Stupid over muscled vampires." She started pumping faster.

"I take it you didn't get to go?" Rick guessed.

"I can't escape from the grasp of a vampire because I'm not strong enough and I can't keep my weapon from rising on me when I fire it." Paige stopped pumping and punched it instead.

"Did that help?" Rick asked. "YES!" Paige yelled at him.

"What are they teaching you?" Rick queried.

"He's…they are…I don't know." Paige wiped the tears away that were leaking out.

"Go find the guy who has been training you and meet me here. I have to get something." Rick told her and left the exercise room taking his towel with him.

Rick was back minutes later with his laptop with him and found Paige and Michael waiting.

"You know Paige was rejected today?" Rick asked Michael and watched him nod his head. "Humans just aren't strong enough. I've been demonstrating the strength of a Lycan and she's going to get herself ripped to pieces."

"I have an idea about that. Can you give her hand to hand fighting weapons and teach her how to fight like this?" Castle turned on his movie. "Give her some in-close weapons made of silver that can also discharge this silver nitrate stuff. Maybe even give each blade a hidden-in-the-hilt dagger that emerges when the proper button is touched, made just like those Lycan rounds you are making."

"Paige is a young human female who has speed and flexibility; teach her how to use that. Lycans are idiots who are too busy wanting to try and bite you. Maybe you can give her some spare rounds that she can insert into the hilt of her weapon after she uses up each silver nitrate round, kind of like a shotgun shell," Rick suggested.

"I'll…I'll talk to Solomon about making the weapons and have him make some dummies that we can use for training. Close-in training like Castle is talking about is going to cause bruising and leave you sore for days," Michael warned her.

"I don't care, so long as I can stand next to Alexis and protect her. Fill my body with bruises!" Paige was suddenly excited.

"Then let's go talk to Solomon about getting some weapons that you can handle like what he described," Michael offered and started to leave the exercise room.

"Thank you Rick." Paige wrapped her arms around him, kissed him quickly, and ran after Michael. She needed to get started on her new training.

Rick started to leave but he came up short when Kate suddenly showed up in front of him. "Whoa! Hi. …Um how long have you been standing here?" Paige had kissed him.

"Long enough." Kate glared at him.

"We weren't, I mean Paige was just…" he suddenly stopped talking when Kate began kissing him.

"Paige already loves you for it and Alexis will too. How does it feel to be the father of a 19 year old, who just happens to be a vampire who can kick your ass?" Kate asked him, proud of him.

"Lost actually. I can't get past that my Alexis is 5 years old. She had just started school and called me daddy and depended on me for everything. This Alexis, your Alexis, doesn't really need me."

"Sure she calls me dad, because she knows her history of who she is. But I'm not her father." Rick didn't FEEL this Alexis, not like he felt his daughter.

"Have you talked to her about it?" Kate asked and watched Castle shake his head.

"Then talk to her when she gets back. Maybe she'll surprise you. I know she is capable of loving you like a daughter. She loves me like a mother. Talk to her Castle, give her a chance. Maybe she'll surprise you." Kate offered and headed off to take care of some house matters.

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They were watching the area and decided that things were quiet enough so one of them opened the manhole cover. Alexis immediately dropped through the opening and stepped to one side to allow the next person to drop down. The last one down put the manhole back in place.

As expected there were two directions to go. "Upstream." Alexis told them which put her in the rear. It was dark so they were forced to use flashlights with their weapons drawn.

The lead swept the area while Alexis made sure nothing and no one came up behind them.

There were a number of smaller pipes that dumped into their large one allowing them only one direction to go.

Naturally they came across a fork in the tunnel. A short debate ended with them going right with Alexis out in front sweeping ahead of her with her flashlight.

Their tunnel opened into a large catch basin that was designed to take water from several pipes and hold it before flowing out using the tunnel they were in.

There were two more large tunnels that joined in this area. "Two left, two right and one to watch our back," Alexis said and moved to the tunnel on the right.

It was long and dark leading to who knew where. It was enough that Alexis and the death dealer with her moved to the other tunnel.

There was a sound in that tunnel that Alexis didn't like. "Two lines, down in front, watch our asses." It left her standing in the second row.

The light of their flashlights picked up two Lycans in wolf form as they charged down the tunnel, running along the floor and moving up the wall, zigging and zagging.

All four of them opened fire on full auto using their new Lycan killer ammunition. It only took a moment before both of them were dropped as Alexis could just make out silver highlighting their veins. "Just two?" one of the death dealers who was kneeling down in front queried.

"Guards, if there were these two, we can probably expect company soon." Alexis theorized. "Light sticks." Alexis told them and snapped hers to activate it. She threw it down the tunnel followed by three more.

Alexis pulled the death dealer next to her over to the other tunnel just a few feet away and pulled out another light stick, snapped it, and threw it down that tunnel, followed by one more.

The sound of the two still kneeling open firing got both of them to step behind them and add their firepower. In seconds they had dropped three more Lycans and could hear the growling of several more. "Reload." Alexis ordered them as she ejected her clip. It actually still had a few rounds in it so she stowed it for later and slapped in a fresh one.

In only moments they saw four more Lycans come running into view so the four of them opened fire. "Alexis!" their rear guard yelled at her. When she turned her head she saw the guard kneeling on the floor and firing on full auto down the other tunnel.

Alexis also heard other weapons on full auto that were taking chunks of concrete out of the walls around her forcing Alexis to move over and stand behind her and open fire.

One tunnel had Lycans in wolf form while this tunnel had Lycans in human form with weapons.

"Seal that tunnel," Alexis told them just as she took two rounds in the chest. The impact on her tactical vest actually hurt a little, but it beat dying. Alexis also heard the death dealer in front of her grunt a couple of times. She probably took rounds to her chest as well.

A moment later Alexis heard a large explosion with a rush of wind and dust strike the three death dealers standing at that entrance. That was followed by a metal on concrete bouncing sound coming down her tunnel.

"GRENADES!" Alexis screamed, grabbed the death dealer in front of her, and stepped into the tunnel that was just sealed.

The other death dealers stepped into the same tunnel just as the two grenades exploded spraying the walls with shrapnel.

"Grenade." Alexis tapped the death dealer that she still had hold of and watched as she pulled a grenade out, pulled the pin, let the arming handle fly, and tossed it down the other tunnel.

"Withdraw back the way we came," Alexis told them and was the last to leave.

Just as Alexis entered the tunnel they started from, two more grenades came bouncing into the area and exploded moments later. Alexis had them running back the way they came with her bringing up the rear.

Alexis took out a device, threw it behind her, and kept running. It was only moments later when it was tripped by a Lycan and exploded, telling her just how far behind her they were.

Everyone but her and one other were up and standing in the street where they started. "Light stick." Alexis told her, snapped one of hers, and threw it followed quickly by one more.

Just a moment later she and the death dealer with her opened fire on full auto on the Lycans in wolf form that came running down the tunnel straight at them.

They emptied their clips and ejected them to the floor of the tunnel and went back to firing, seeing three more Lycans in wolf form running at them thanks to the light sticks.

They both ejected their spent clips. "My last one," Alexis was informed. "Mine too." Alexis knew they were both down to their partially full clips.

"Go up. I'll cover," Alexis said and felt her jump up to the street as Alexis opened fire. Alexis didn't jump until her weapon was empty.

Once up in the street, "Blow it and run for the cars." They did and took off running.

Moments later Alexis heard the satisfying sound of a muffled explosion. With three in one car and two in the other they took off driving the wrong way.

It wasn't till an hour later that they finally started making their way to the parking garage where they kept their cars stored. From there they went to the roof and jumped from roof to roof to get home.