Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:48:06 +1300
From: Arthur <artcart65@vodafone.co.nz>
Subject: Prince of House Vladd 18

			   PRINCE OF HOUSE VLADD

				  PART 18

				 BY ARTHUR



NB: This chapter is for Charles B and his many children for their
friendship and dedication to this story, as well as his kind introduction
to, Wolfsnest.n40c.net, thank you Charles.



Trantor lead the Princes guest to the rear area where Peter and the others
waited in the boardroom.

"Your guest, My Lord."

"Thank you Trantor." replied Peter." Please take a seat Captain, I hope you
will make yourself feel at home here."

"Ahh... Thank you Prince Vladd."

"Please, Captain, just call me Peter, I hate titles unless it's
unavoidable."

"Thank you again..uhm, Peter."

"First let me introduce my life partner, Armand Swiftwing, next to him are
the twins, Levi and Caleb, they're my personal guardians, there are three
more which you'll meet as soon as the sun sets."

The Captain shook hands with the other three boys, he was still astounded
by their youth and found it difficult to imagine the power the three young
teens had, once he was seated again, Peter continued.

"I would like you to stay in the house, there's a suite set out for you,
once your men are taken care of and you've had time to rest, I'll show you
what you have to work with as far as technology goes, I have two very able
young men that look after it all so you won't have any trouble keeping in
contact with your men at all times. After dinner tonight, the guards for
your men will arrive and in the morning they will escort them to their
respective cities, I can guarantee their safety so you have no need to
worry on that score, do you have enough NCO's to cover your five teams?"

"Yes Peter, most of them are NCO's themselves so there should be no
problems with orders being carried out."

"Good, thank you, I sincerely hope that this can work Captain, we'll be
doing our usual patrols tonight to let you settle in but we'll need you on
deck as of tomorrow both day and night, I would like you to go over the
city plans so you can set your men in the best places, I'll give you a map
of the places that have been hit most often so you can devise the static
stations for your men."

"How are they going to be defended if your Vampire men can only operate at
night?"

"During the day they will have folk of the daylight, wolves and cats as
well as some birds for top cover, at night it will be all Vampires, your
men will be safe Captain, you need not have any doubt about that, all of
their guards have vowed to die before letting any of them be hurt and, as I
told you, we are not easy to kill."

"Thank you Peter, it does ease my mind a little, I'm not sure about how the
men will settle in but I think they will grow to understand in a short
time."

"I'm sure they will Captain, now by the smell of things, dinner is almost
ready, do you have any other questions for the moment?"

"Only one, Peter, why do you have those windows covered in steel shutters
if you have all these guards?"

"That's for the protection of the house during the daylight hours, not all
Vampires can go out in the daylight like us three so they need to be
protected during the day and, also this house was built a long time ago
before their were any of us daywalkers around so they needed the protection
then as well."

"Thank you but it appears that there is not that much defense if someone
breaks in here?"

"Ahh, Captain, some things are not always what they seem to be, the house
and grounds are well protected, never fear, we've had two attempts at break
ins and none have got past the front gates, don't let appearances deceive
you Captain." Peter laughed.

The Captain smiled and then let out a small chuckle as he realise the
double entendre of Peter's words.

"Yes I've seen what you mean by your own example earlier."

"Well Captain, lets go out to the dining room and have dinner, I'm sure
Trantor has informed your men by now." said Peter as he rose to his feet
along with the other three boys.

The extra long table in the dining room was almost full, the new men and
Peters off duty security guards were making themselves known to each other,
just as Peter and the others took their seats, the window shutters rolled
up and revealed the approaching darkness, Peter almost laughed at the
re-actions of the new men at the sound of the shutters, they all
immediately took on a look of fearful alertness at the sound but, as they
saw no immediate threat, they all began to relax and start to eat the huge
meal set out in front of them.

It was only a few minutes after the shutters lifted before Sin Yu and the
other two appeared as well as two very tired looking young boys in the form
of Simon and Max, it looked as though the two younger boys had spent most
of their energy in other pursuits apart from cleaning the upper rooms, even
after their recovery sleep they both still looked tired, Peter quickly
realised what was happening and called Sin Yu aside and whispered to him.

"You better take the two boys upstairs, they need to feed right now before
their blood lust takes over, how did they go this long without feeding?"

"I don't know, My Lord, it's my fault, with all that's been going on I
completely forgot about them, I thought they understood that they had the
freedom to go to the cells whenever they were hungry."

"It's ok sin Yu, it's not your fault, it's mine, I should have given them
more time, I just got caught up with everything that's going on and haven't
taken the time to really talk to them."

As Peter turned to look at the two young boys he saw that their eyes were
already turning red and a small dribble of saliver was showing on their
lips as they looked at the large number of men at the table, Peter quickly
caught their attention and took them aside, after quickly explaining to
them both and then finding out why they had not fed sooner, Peter sent them
upstairs to feed with the understanding that they would not wait for his
permission in the future as they were a valuable part of his
household. Both the boys had bowed to Peter and took off to feed, a look of
relaxation on their faces as they held hands and ran for the lift.

Once back at the table, the Captain asked Peter.

"Prince Vladd, can I ask you a personal question?"

"Of course Captain."

"Uhm,...I don't really know how to ask this without feeling I'm being a bit
sanctimonious, but, I've noticed that all of your Vampires seem to prefer
boys and that there are no women present in your house except for your
cook."

Peter almost laughed at the deep frown lines on the face of the Captain.

"Captain, all Vampires are gay, we don't know why except that any time we
have tried to turn a women, she has died an extremely horrible death during
her change over sleep, some of the older Vampires think it is to do with a
females mental attitude. The only exception to this was in the earliest
days there were a few women that took to the turning, they proved to be
lesbians, we think it has a lot to do with the sexual deviation of the
genes, four of those original woman are still alive today but a normal
woman can not be turned.  There have been one or two cases of a Vampire
mating with a human woman that have been successful but never when they
have tried to turn their woman into a Vampire, very few Vampire even have a
wish to have a woman, it is usually only done with the permission of our
Ruling Council for special reasons."

"May I ask what the slecial reasons would be, Prince Vladd?"

Peter could not help smiling at the Captains use of his title in front of
the men.

"Well as far as I know there have only been two occassions so far, I'm one
and the twins are the other, that's why we can go out in the sunlight, we
have a small amount of cross blood as well as a royal background, it takes
a very special type of Vampire to be able produce daywalkers."

"Oh, so really the twins are princes as well?"

"In a manner of speaking, their sire is very old and very powerful just as
my father is although their sire is much older than mine."

The discussion had brought a silence around the table as the new men learnt
more and more about the strange situation they found themselves in, this
was the most wierd assignment they had ever been ordered too do.

"Dare I ask who their sire was, Prince Vladd?"

"Oh, I'm sure you know of him already, Captain, you see my house is the
second oldest, the twins are from the first house, Levi why don't you tell
the Captain who your Father is?"

Levi smiled at Peter as though he was imparting a big secret, Levi was well
known for his sense of the dramatic.

"Tell me Captain," aked Levi, "When Vampires are mentioned, who comes to
mind first?"

The Captain thought for a few moments and then a light seemed to dawn on
him.

"Dracular,...are...you telling me...he's real?"

"Very real Captain, his real name is Count Viktor Drakula, his is the first
house of the night and also our Father."

The loud gasp around the table brought smiles to all the Vampires present,
the mens immaginations of vampires was coming true, Dracular, Vladd the
Impaler, Dragon Princes and all the horror movies of the ages were actually
real people or in this case, real Vampires. The amusment of those present
was obvious as the thoughts of the humans showed in their faces, snickers
and giggles broke out in the large room as they watched the men trying to
come to terms with the new revelations, only their hard military training
kept the men from bolting out of the room in fear. Peter quickly put their
minds at rest as he saw how upset they were.

"It's ok gentlemen, you are the first to ever know about us and I promise
you that you are all safe, reguardless of the stories and movies you've
seen or read, we don't go around mercessly killing normal humans, we're all
here to do a job and your protection is the upper most thing in our minds
so you need not have any fear from us. I think now would be a good time for
you to see what you will be up against, Sin Yu, could you ask one of the
youngest canine vaga to come in?"

Sin Yu kept up the formality as he bowed and left the room only to return a
few minutes later with a young boy of about 12 years old, the young boys
obvious arrogance showed as he looked at all the humans sitting at his
Princes table, Peter rose to his feet and smiled at the boy.

"Hi Allen, how is it ouside?"

"All is quiet My Lord." said the boy with a bow.

"I would like you to show these gentlemen who you are in a moment after I
ask them a question, ok?"

"Certainly, My Lord." The boy stepped back away from the table and smiled
at all the men as though he was doing them a favour.

"Gentlemen, some of the enemy you will be going up against will look a lot
like young Allen here, now I would like to ask you this, looking at this
young boy, do any of you think you could shoot to kill him if given the
order?"

All the new men present turned to look at the small innocent looking boy,
he was dressed in a pair of cutoff shorts and a tight fitting tee shirt
that showed his underdeveloped boy muscles, his feet were bare and his
brown hair was shaggy, only his bright green eyes showed any alertness,
many of the men could almost see their own cousins, nephews or sons in the
small boy, all of them knew they would rather be charged with mutiny than
shoot a young boy like this one, a few murmurs to that effect could be
heard around the room.

"So most of you think that you could not shoot an innocent and harmless boy
like this, well gentlemen, that's exactly what you will have to do if you
want to stay alive." said Peter.

The murmurs rose around the room until some of the men started to get to
their feet and demand to be returned to their barracks, they were not kid
killers, they were warriors.  Peter watched as they all began to become
very uncomfortable in the same room and then called for their attention and
at the same time nodded to Allen.

It took only seconds for total silence to take hold in the room as the men
saw before their very eyes, the small innocent boy suddenly turn into six
foot six of snarling muscle and fur, long canine teeth filled the creatures
mouth and his paws turned into long sharp claws the length of small knives,
only the same bright green eyes showed that this huge viscious animal was
the small young boy, Peters voice filled the room over the gasps and yells
of the frightened men.

"Now Gentlemen, do you think you could shoot this animal, because they are
one and the same, thank you Allen." said Peter and Allen reappeared as the
same young innocent boy as before.

"I'm sure you gentlemen can now see what you're up against, everytime you
think you're going to shoot at a young kid, just think back to Allen and
what he can become, that is why you're here, we have rogue elements killing
innocent people, your job will be to help us stop them and to do that you
will have to put aside any thoughts that they are just harmless kids,
they're not, they will kill you so quick you won't even see them coming,
that's why you will be backed up with some of my people to keep you safe
while you do the job your President has set out for you. In tonight your
backups will arrive, your Captain will have your assignments set out for
you and where you will be based, just remember what you saw just now, if
you hesitate, there will be a good chance that you will die, that's if they
don't decide to turn you into one of them, this is no joke, you can be
turned, if it looks likely to happen, you can be assured that one of your
guardians will make sure you don't turn."

All the men sat in stunned silence as Peter told them all of the truth of
what they were going to do, slowly there came a look of determination on
the faces of the men as they thought back to Allens transformation.

"One thing more gentlemen." Peter called before the men relaxed too
much. "Allen is one of the smaller wolves, tonight, if you still have any
doubts, I'll show you some of the full adult guys, both Canine and Feline,
yes it's true, there really are werecats and if you think Allen is big,
wait until you meet his friend, Mike."

At that moment, Trantor appeared beside Peter.

"Yes Trantor?"

"Your other guests have arrived, My Lord."

"Thank you Trantor, please show them in."

Trantor bowed to Pter and left the dining room only to reappear shortly
after followed by a large number of the folk, over half of them from the
other four states, among the Vaga of Ellis Street were Jake and a number of
his own pack and, too Peters surprise, was the huge form of the fight room
manager, Ned along with two of his pups, Peter stood and welcomed the new
comers, then called for more food from the kitchen, Jake casually walked
the length of the room and once beside Peter, ruffled the boys hair and
said.

"What you doing Prince, having a war and not inviting your friends?"

Peter laughed and indicated to Trantor to bring a chair up beside him for
Jake to sit on.

"Sit here Jake, why did you decide to come, there's plenty of Vaga willing
to look after these troops?"

"True, but things are slow just now and I'm getting fat from all the money
I made off you, so I thought a little exercise might be in order so I
decided to come along and see how the little spunk was getting on." laughed
Jake much to the amusment of Sin Yu and the other guardians.

Peter then stood up and walked over to the towering Ned, pushing out his
hand in welcome, Peter said.

"Welcome Ned, I know we haven't met officially but I've seen you down in
the arena, can I ask why you would want to join us here?"

"Thank you Prince Vladd, I did see you with Jake that night, as to why I'm
here, Alex asked if any of us would like to volunteer for this little
shebang, well I don't get out much so I thought it might be fun, these two
pups will be with you as well, they need the experience if you don't mind
having them?"

"Thank you Ned and yes they are also welcome, come and join us at the top
of the table, I want you to meet the Captain of these troops and help set
up their protection."

"Sure Prince Vladd and thank you." Ned's deep rumbling voice echoed in the
large hall now almost filled to capacity with all the extra folk.

Peter made the introductions to the Captain while the new men looked in awe
of Ned's size and yet noted that the huge man moved easily around room as
though he was half the size, Peter noted the interest in the large negro.

"Gentlemen, I know you took notice of young Allen and what he became, to
reinforce that lesson I'd like to ask my friend Ned to show you what you
could reallly be up against, Ned would you show these fine men what a real
wolf looks like and what they might encounter out there?"

"My pleasure Prince Vladd."

Ned seemed to glide from his seat at the table to the center of the room
and then, with a grumbling roar, transformed into his wolf form, nearly
every human in the room came close to falling off his chair as they saw the
12 foot werewolf, it's jet black hair shimmering in the reflected light and
six inch fangs bared for all to see, the sight, even for a lot of the folk
present, was awe inspiring as well as the sheer size and fearsome visage of
the wolf, quickly Ned changed back and returned to his seat beside Peter.

"Thank you Ned, well gentlemen, now you know some of what you will be up
against so when your guards tell you to shoot at a target you can see what
you will face if you hesitate."

All the new troops nodded their heads in agreement, the image of the huge
wolf still clear in the minds, they were in a real war with creatures that
could tear them apart with little or no effort, they all knew they were the
elite of the armed forces but compared to what they had seen tonight, they
were just babes in the woods, they began to feel glad that they were on the
same side as these creatures.

"Captain, do you have the assignments for your men?"

"Yes Prince Vladd, do you wish me to tell them now?"

"Yes if you could please Captain then I can assign their guards so that
they can all get an early start to their states in the morning."

"Very good Prince Vladd, MEN, ATTENTION."

All the troops came to their feet and stood at attention waiting for their
orders, taking a written list from his pocket, the Captain began to call
out names, as each name was called, Peter looked at the assembled Vaga and
others of the folk to see who would want to take the position of guarian,
as each of the folk nodded at a name, at Peters returning nod, they would
go and stand beside the trooper and introduce themselves. Once everyone had
a guardian Peter turned to Jake and Ned.

"Jake, Ned, I would like to ask you to look after the Captain, he's going
to be travelling a lot to keep his men in order and I need two men I can
totally trust to keep him safe, is that ok with you both?"

"No problem Spunky." replied Jake with a huge smile. "With Ned along side I
can spend most of my time sleeping."

"Yeah right, Jake, I can just see you sleeping through a scrap while Ned
does all the work." laughed Peter.

"True, but then why have a dog and bark yourself." replied Jake with a
chuckle.

Peter and the others laughed while Ned performed a half hearted 'woof' at
Jakes remark. The room quickly settled into a hum of conversation as
everyone got to know each other, strangely, as the night progressed, there
were no reports of any action in the city, in fact it turned out that the
other states were also quiet on that night, eventually the new men began to
return to their new quarters followed closely by their new personal
guardians, finally at about 2.00am, only Jake, Ned, the Capatain and Peters
boys were left in the now empty room and it was only a matter of minutes
before they also decided to adjourn to their beds for the rest of the
night.

---------------------------------------------------

In his hidden underground fortress, Seaton sat back to take stock of his
dwindling resources, the previous night had taken a real toll on his
people, it was time, he decided to bring in more of his people from
outside, to give the young Prince a few quiet nights while he rebuilt was
not a problem, he would have to start to bring in as many Vampires as he
could, the Princes tactics of using combinations of folk had taken him by
surprise but had also given him the idea to do the same thing himself, no
more daytime raids, if he kept it to the nights it would be more difficult
for the Prince to cover all of the cities at the same time, especially as
there would be a large increase in Vampires to fight against.

Seaton lifted his cell phone and began to speed dial a long list of
numbers, both local, interstate and overseas, he would create an army so
large that he would completely overwhelm the pitiful numbers that the
Prince could get from his few Vaga boys, added to the fact that most of
Seatons Vampires were from old blood and would be faster and stronger than
any of the rabble that the Prince had gathered from the Vaga.

By 3.00am seaton had all the support he thought he would need, his only
problem had been that none of the Avian folk wished to join his rebellion,
Seaton shrugged off their warnings, if they were cowards then he was better
off without them, although he had also had a lot of trouble finding any
Felines as well, most had refused his offer and only a few from the streets
had decided to join his ranks.

As Seaton had guessed, many of the older Vampires were ready to join him,
they were tired of the strict controls of the Council and wanted to take
their rightful place at the top of the food chain along with many Canines
who had joined en-mass, Seaton kept from them the fact that after the
revolution, they would also be hunted down and brought under his leadership
or they would die, one was as good as another as far as Seaton was
concerned.

His army of conquest now numbered well over a thousand, both locally and
internationally recruited, the international folk would be with him in two
days so he decided to stop all attacks for that time and concentrate on
forming his plans. His main priority would be the major attacks on the
Princes state, if he could weaken them then the other states would be esier
to bring in line once their leader was found to be unable to protect them.

The new plan that he began to form would use the other states as diversions
but with enough mayhem to make the Prince weaken his own defenses to help
the others, it was simple but would be very effective just as long as the
Council continued to refuse to intervene in the local problems he would be
able to destroy the young Vampire totally and rightfully claim his place as
the ruler of the five states.

--------------------------------------------------

The clock beside Peter and swiftwings bed read 4.30am when Peter heard the
buzzing from his computer terminal to inform him that he had important
incoming mail, Peter eased himself out of swiftwings arms trying not to
awken his partner but he was unsuccessful, the moment he moved, Swiftwing
was awake and alert.

"What is it Love?" asked swiftwing.

"Urgent mail, I wonder what it is at this hour?"

"I'll come with you, maybe it's some sort of early morning attacks."

"Ok let's go see."

Peter and Swiftwing left the comfort of their bed and went into the office,
the terminal was flashing red as they made it to their chairs, Peter
switched on the monitor and opened the mail page, both boys were astounded
at the rush of mail appearing on their screen, it had come from all over
the world from folk Peter had never met or contacted.  At the top of the
mail was one from the Council, his Fathers name at the top of the page,
Peter read that one first.

<Son, you need to see these immediately, it will give you a little warning
of whats to come, be careful and do what you can. The council can not get
involved as yet, but if your attacker tries to move outside your states or
it looks as though you are going to be overrun, then we will act, sorry we
cannot interfere as yet but it is still an interstate affair. be careful
and do the best you know how. Father>

Peter and Swiftwing began to read through the emails, the news was not good
but at least now they had some idea of what was going on outside their
knowledge, Peter called down to Leon and Carters office, the two boys
seemed to never want to leave their own private little world and as he
expected, both boys were still at their desks and answered immediately.

"Yes My Lord?" asked Leon.

"Leon, can you and Carter trace a phone number or email address from
there?"

"Yes My Lord, that's hardly stretching our abilities, if I may say so, just
give us the number or e-address and we'll have it for you within and hour,
or less."

Peter rattled off the cell number he had seen on most of the emails and
then sent a list of the e-addresses to the boys computers.

"Thank you My Lord, we have all that, we'll get back to you as soon as we
have everything for you."

"Thank you Leon, I'll be here waiting."

Peter looked over at Swiftwing and smiled as he saw the love in his
boyfriends eyes.

"It looks as though we're in for a real fight." said Peter." we're lucky we
got the extra help when we did, it could be our ace in the hole when the
first attack comes, how do you think he will plan it?"

Swiftwing sat back and relaxed as he let his warrior memories take over, in
a time of battle it was always the tried and true that had won the day in
the end, swiftwing let the trance take him to far distant battle fields,
both of his people and those of the whiteman, his knowledge of tactics
growing second by second as his mind accepted the stories of the past until
finally, after ten minutes, his eyes cleared and his memories settled into
a pattern, he smiled at the boy he loved and began to reveal what he had
seen.

"In just about every battle there's always been some type of diversion from
the main attack to take troops away from the main objective, it appears
that they put a lot of energy into the diversions to make it seem as though
that's their main purpose, when they've pulled as many troops away from the
reserves as they can, they then put in a major attack on their priority
target and try to catch them with their pants down, I think that's what
Seaton will do, it's obvious he wants you and your center of power so he
needs to weaken you here so he can take it over."

Peter thought about swiftwings words and could find no fault in them as he
had somehow also seen in his mind what Swiftwing had seen although not
quite as clearly, Peter nodded in agreement with swiftwings suppositions
and could see where Seaton would have very little option but to follow
along the same line. Seaton knew he was strong at home but had to rely on
his deputies in the other states. Peters biggest advantage, one in which
Seaton had no idea of, was the fact he had a lot more support from all of
the folk and now also the government than Seaton knew of so surprise was
also on Peters side, Peter decided to call the Captain to his office and so
sent Sin Yu to get him from his bed and bring him up to the office for a
planning session.

When the Ca[tain had finally arrived at his office, Peter went through the
explaination of all that had so far happened and his and Swiftwings
observations and proposal for any upcoming trouble. The Captain thought for
a short while and then smiled at the two boys.

"Well it does seem that you both have a big advantage over your enemies, I
can't think of anything that could be done to smash your plans, your
summation of what could be the enemies next actions is right along with
what I'd be tempted to do in the same circumstances, so you suggest we set
up our plan as before but also be prepared for some extra attention in the
other states and keep our reserves hidden here in the city but make them
think you are sending all your support to the other places?"

"Yes, if we send out a lot of our support on the pretext of helping the
others and then bring them back soon after without anyone noting it we will
always have a hidden number here and in the city, there's any number of
places they can hide until needed."

"So we use my men in limited numbers until they are really needed and then
unleash them."

"Yes, we send out only one two man team each night and the same each day,
the others are kept back until needed but close enough to their assigned
places so they can be there in minutes, with their guardians they will be
well protected, the only thinig they have to remember is that if one of
their guardians points out a target, they have to react immediately."

"How can the guardians be sure of their targets though, I mean the kids
look just like any ordinary kid apart from ours which have your armband
on?"

"That's easy, you see captain, we can see another persons aura, the colour
of the aura tells us who is who, that's how we can tell each other apart
so, when a guardian says the kid or man is a target, you and your men
better believe it or they could end up as a meal for someone."

"Thanks, I'll make sure they all know it, is there anything else we can do
to get ready?"

"No, not at this time, I think we need to get as much rest as we can, I'm
sure Seaton won't take too much time before he gets set again."

"Thank you again, I'm going to get a couple more hours of sleep before the
men are up and ready to go."

"Thank you Captain, we'll be doing the same."

The Captain was escorted from the office and taken below by Sin Yu while
Swiftwing and Peter ran over the plan looking for any other improvments
they could make, there appeared to be little more they could do so retired
to their bedroom for a few hours, the house was slowly coming awake as they
could hear the people down below getting the dining room ready for
breakfast, Peter snuggled in close to Swiftwing as they lay on the bed
relaxing.

Four hours later and they were once again down in the main hall watching as
the new men were escorted by their respective guardians to the waiting
SUV's for transport to their assigned states and their new homes for the
forseeable future or as long as the upcoming war would last. As Peter
watched the last of the men leave he noticed Leon heading his way, the
Captain also noticed the new face and stood watching as the new young man
began to report to Peter.

"So Leon, what have you got for me?"

"Well My Lord, it's a little strange, all of the emails were sent from
legitimate addresses so as far as we can tell they are all bonafide, the
cell number was a little harder but after chasing it around the globe from
satellite to ground exchanges, we've narrowed it down to somewhere way out
in the middle of nowhere, looking at all our online maps and GPS readings,
it would appear as though it was coming from the middle of a mountain range
but there's nothing there, no towns close by and no cabins or other forms
of accomodation just barren mountains amd forrests."

"How clear was the signal?"

"Very clear, it would have to be to reach all the places the messages were
sent too."

Peter heard the Captain cough lightly in the background.

"Yes Captain?"

"Could the calls be made from underground, it wouldn't be that difficult to
run an aerial in a forrest and disguise it, to me it would be the obvious
place to disappear to and, if your enemy is a Vampire wouldn't he need to
be well hidden from the sun, what better place than underground?"

"That's a great idea thank you Captain, what do you think Leon?"

"The Captain has to be right My Lord, there's no other explaination, not in
the area where the calls came from anyhow."

"Ok, how close can you get to the signal source?"

"So far within about a mile so to search we would be looking at least an
area of one square mile of mountain and forrest."

"Thank you Leon, can you go back and work on it, see if you can cut it down
anymore while I set some searchers onto it."

"Very good My Lord, here's the co-ordinates we have so far."

Leon handed a piece of paper to Peter and left to go back to his little
private office as Peter read the numbers on the page.

"Excuse me Peter, but how did he manage to get that sort of info, if we
need something like that we have to go through the courts and get writs for
that sort of invasive work?"

Peter laughed as he turned to face the Capatain.

"As you have probably guessed by now Captain, we don't answer to your
courts, Leon and his friend Carter are the best of the best, they have
their own little setup downstairs and do all our IT work and they're very
good at it as you can see, if you would like to go and see then it's not a
problem, all I ask is you keep it too yourself, I won't be a moment, I just
need to make a call for some searchers to begin looking around this area."

Peter lifted his cell phone and called House Vaga, within minutes he had
three wolves and three cats ready to go and search the area that was
located three states away, well outside Peters territory so he had to make
another call to his Father for permission to send a team there, of course
there was no hesitation on his Fathers part and he also told Pter he would
let the other folk of thearea know his men would be in there territory and
what they would be doing there. Peter thanked his Father and turned back to
the Captain.

Just as Peter indicated for the Captain to follow him, Jake and Ned
appeared from the cell block with a smile on their faces.

"What have you two been up too?" asked Peter with a smile.

"Just trying out your larder, spunky." replied Jake as he wiped his mouth
with a huge paw of a hand while Ned just nodded like a little boy in a
candy shop.

"I'm just taking the Captain to see Leon and Carter, you two want to come
along or just sit back and relax?"

"I think we need a rest after all the excitment, we'll just wait here, you
go ahead." replied Jake.

Peter lead the Captain to the lift and once inside he hit the down button
and descended into the heart of the house, the Captain could ont believe
his eyes as the indicator on the lift told him how far down they went, once
the doors opened he was further into shock at the setup he saw. there was
eqipment that even the military had no knowledge of let alone try to get,
the two young teens at the consoles seemd to take it all in stride as they
went over keyboards and and other equiment with a familiarity that could
only come from a lot of experience.

"Well Peter, dare I ask what you can do with all this?"

"Just about anything, Captain and a lot more besides, most of which you
don't really want to know about." Peter replied with a smile as he watched
Leon and Carter work their magic, almost everything in the room was
controlled either by radio signals or touch screen and infrared wands, it
was faconating to watch Leon and Carter work, they made it all seem so
effortless as they chatted to each other and joked about the others
abilities, Peter noted a new addition to the room, on the back wall was
mounteda huge 54 inch plasma screen, the only objective of the big screen
seemed to be for the boys to play games as they worked on other things. The
present game seemed to be that while one was attacking a huge castle and
the other was defending, all this was going on while the boys continued to
work on the location of Seatons hideout.

The captain just stood and watched the two boys in action, they seemed to
be able to do the work of five others as they flashed from one part of the
room to the other and at the same time played their game on the big screen
TV. The Captain shook his head as he tried to imagine how many of his own
men would be needed to do the same tasks as these two young boys.  ** Over
the next few days there were no attacks of any kind so Peter had time to
set their plans in motion and to make sure that everybody knew their place
in the greater scheme of things, the Captain organised his own men until
each knew where and when he must be in position. Communications were
checked and rechecked, every item was gone over a number of times so there
would be no mistakes when the time came for them to go into action.

Too Peters astonishment, he began to recieve reports from government
agencies under the seal of the President himself, although he had full
access from his own network but he felt better knowing the government were
taking these attacks seriously. By the fourth day they were as ready as
they ever would be, now it was just a matter of waiting to see what Seaton
would come up with.

Two more nights passed without incident until on the third night the first
of the new attackers was spotted in another state, Peter and the Captain
were down with Leon and Carter as the first report came in, The Captain
sent out the order to fire when ready.

On a roof top in the states capital city, the sniper looked down his scope
as his two guardians pointed out the four young men strolling down the
street, they seemed harmless but the sniper had seen to much in the Princes
demonstration to doubt his two guardians, using his throat mic he contacted
his mate on another roof top a little further down the street.

All of the snipers had spent the lull in the attacks to set out tell tales
to help with windage at the lower levels, some were innnocent looking
coloured tapes hanging from overhead wires or tucked into nooks and
crannies around the city so the men could gauge the wind speed so they
would not miss, at the go ahead he whispered to his mate and they set
themselves for the first shots in the new style war.

Their guardians had pointed out that the two young men at the rear were
Vampires and it would be best to get them out of the way fast, the two
wolves in the front would be taken care of by four young Vampires hiding in
an adjourning alley, dressed in the black body suits with their distinctive
armbands.

After making a few final adjustments to his windage and elevation, the man
quietly whispered again into his mic.

"The two at the back in three, two, one."

The two shots sounded as one, immediately the heads of the two Vampires
seemed to disintergrate as they were hit, they did not even have time to
hear the loud report of the two rifles as they echoed around the empty
streets, before the two wolves could react, the four young Vampires
appeared in front and behind them, their swords slashing at the two wolves,
it was only the reaction time of the wolves that prevented them from dying
immediately, although the cuts they received were deep and temporarily
disabling.

As the two wolves tried to defend themselves against the four young
Vampires, the close in fight became very ugly, the wolves would not go down
without causing as much damage as they could, the one saving grace for the
young Vampires was their speed and ability to seem to materialise from
nowhere to slice and harry the wolves as they turned from one Vampire to
the other, watching from above, even the soldier could see that the wolves
were losing the battle even though they gave as good as they got but their
strength was no match for four fast sharp swords welded by some very
determined boys.

Five minutes later and the two wolves were laying dead in the street, the
four boys had taken some damage from the powerful claws of the wolves but
they were healing even as the soldier looked on, the area around them was
splattered with the blood and gore of the viscious fighting, this first
action gave the man some indication of what they were really up against,
while the battle had been fast and viscious he had had trouble following
all the movement of the combatants because of the speed they could move at,
it was a sobering moment for him.

Within half an hour Peter and the Captain had had similar reports from all
four states, no real heavy attack but just small probes, each city had used
the same tactics of taking out the Vampires first and leaving the wolves
for the hidden Vampires with the snipers being backup in case the fight
went wrong. Peter asked the Captain when they shoulld use a full compliment
of snipers in each city.

"These are just probes Peter, but don't you think it strange that every
attack was only by Vampires and wolves?"

"Yes, if he's going to stay with this plan then he's going to be restricted
to night time only because of the sun, this could be to our advantage if we
could somehow track them back to their daytime hideaways. I did recieve a
message from the Feline King that he would instruct his people not to take
part in this war so maybe that's why Seaton only has wolves and Vampires at
his disposal."

"Well the number of probes makes me think he will come in force tomorrow
night, I'll get my men ready to be out in force from late afternoon, did
you notice there were no attacks here, not even a light probe?"

"Yes, it seems he's going to follow what we thought in the first place,
I'll inform the Vaga what's going to happen and we can start to set our own
trap."

Just as Peter and the Capatin were ready to leave the room, Leon attracted
Peters attention.

"My Lord, we've cut the search area down to about half a square mile, id
your hunters look around this area they should find something to indicate
where Seaton is."

Peter looked down at the map that Leon had printed out for him with the
search area circled in red, it was still a large area but with the
abilities of the cats and wolves they should find something, Peter dialed a
number into his cell phone and waited for an answer, seconds later he began
to relate the co-ordninates to the small pack of hunters who were now in
the approximate area and had been waiting for Peters final assessment, with
a nod of his head, Peter closed his phone and lead the Captain back to the
upper level where Jake and Ned were snoozing on seperate sofas.

Peter looked around and could feel the tension in the air as the
realisation that the real battle was now begun, he wished that Swiftwing
was here with him but his boyfriend had insisted on going out in the city
to work in the parks with one of the Vaga squads, Peter was thankfull his
lover would be back soon so he could wrap his arms around him, even a
Vampire Prince could have moments of doubt and needed comforting some
times.

Peter went to an empty sofa and collapsed into it with a heavy sigh, his
mind was a turmoil of thoughts and yes, even a few doubts as to what the
outcome was going to be.

TBC

artcart65@vodafone.co.nz