Prince of House Vladd

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