THE PRINCE OF HOUSE VLADD
BOOK 3
CHAPTER 11
BY ARTHUR
PLEASE SUPPORT THE NIFTY ARCHIVES WITH YOUR DONATIONS TO KEEP IT FREE.
Under peter's orders, every vehicle that could be found was used to make a fast transport back to his compound, they had had to wait for the sun to set before they could begin the removal of the New Bloods, the four in shackles tried at first to fight their way out of going but the numbers and the shackles soon changed their minds, they were not a happy foursome.
Peter was still mystified about not finding Michael Strong but at least now they should have a breathing space before the renegade Vampire could show his head again, with the slaughter of his minions he must have had little left to fall back on, had Peter known about Michaels present predicament he would have felt a lot safer but, as he well knew, when things were going too well then Murphy was inclined to step in and play games.
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Michael awoke to darkness, constriction and movement, it suddenly dawned on him that he was now mobile and encased in a black shroud, not the ideal place to be when one awakens from his death sleep, Michael opened his eyes and used his Vampire sight to see where he was, it took little time to realise he was in one of his blackout bags, the faint smell of his five boys entered his nostrils, his ears began to pick up their soft chatter, in the time they had spent with Michael they had picked up or invented a kind of pigeon English so they could talk to each other and understand their masters orders.
Michael listened for a few minutes before calling out to be released, he felt the vehicle slow to a stop then the scrabbling sound of one of the boys coming towards him, as the thick zipper opened up the bag he looked up into the face of one of the Russian boys, the fear on the boys face was evident from the first glance.
Michael looked at the scared boy and asked him with one word.
"Why?"
Michael watched as the boy tried to find the right words to explain why they were travelling and he was in a blackout bag.
"Many kill, run, run fast, now us only, you come, you see."
Michael looked at the scared face of the boy and tried to work out the meaning of the broken English, as best as he could decipher, they had come under attack, but by whom? He was now being taken away from the bunker by his boys, why? The bunker should have been able to withstand any attack from outsiders, how had they got inside with all those wolves patrolling?
Michael had too many questions and no answers, he had to find out more and quickly, if he had lost the bunker during the daylight then all of his troops, both his New Bloods and those imports, would now be dead, they could not defend themselves when in their death sleep, that left him with another problem, Chen Sin Yu and Senti Matsumoto, when they found out that he had lost every man would they still want to back his plan to take over, it looked as though one problem just caused more, he had to find out more about what happened while he slept.
Michael left the narrow bed he had been sleeping on and walked to the front of the large RV that had been his escape vehicle, one of the older Asians was in the drivers seat and looked a little like a doll at the wheel of the big vehicle, using a hand signal, Michael told the boy to pull over so he could take the wheel.
After the change over, Michael told the five boys to go to the back and sleep while he drove, when the dawn approached he would let one of them drive again while he slept, as they had been heading North he decided to keep in that direction, with luck he could make the Canadian border and disappear until he could make contact with his two backers, when that time came, Michael knew he would have to watch his words carefully, the only bright spark in all the chaos was the lack of transport on the roads, his escape was made easier as there was little to impeded his movement.
When it was time to make the driver change, Michael thought they were no more than a few hours from the border, he had selected a small country road to follow in the hope there would be little or no control for them to cross over, once on the other side and out of the New States, Michael felt he would be safe enough to try to recoup what had been lost, it was a long shot but the only one he now had.
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Peter sat at his desk, it had been nearly a month and no sighting of Michael Strong had been made, there had also been no sign or indication of the whereabouts of Chen Sin Yu, once his secret was out he had made sure to disappear as he well knew the Council would have their hunters out looking for him, while the Council knew of the involvement of the Yakuza, they could not find out which one was behind the attempted invasion.
The new calmness over the country had at last made Peter feel safe and secure, for anyone to raise another fighting force to attempt another invasion would take time, in the mean time he had the influx of New Bloods to contend with, most of those who had decided to go back to their families found little waiting for them, they were either shunned or looked upon as some sort of invalid, most ended up with the Vaga, only a very few were welcomed back into their families but, even those families who wanted to understand were still a little leery of have such a powerful boy under their roofs.
Of the four that Peter had taken back with him only one made any attempt to change his ways and thinking, the other three found themselves chained outside as the sun rose, Peter even wept at the loss of three young men, he had so desperately wanted them to have a real chance in the new land.
Slowly, as the time passed and there was no sign of any more attacks, things in the seven states began to get back to normal, or as normal as is possible when trying to rebuild a new country, with the needed rebuilding and repairing of so many Vaga houses, there was plenty of work for those who wanted it, once again the country was beginning to come alive but, far underneath, Peter felt something was still not right, of the notorious Michael Strong there had been no sign and the central council had not been able to track down Chen Sin Yu, this fact alone left Peter with many doubts, the Asian did not seem the sort of man that would take such a loss lying down.
Peter and Swiftwing sat quietly on one of the sofas, Peters young brow wrinkled in thought; Swiftwing looked at his partner with worried eyes.
"What is it Love?"
"I don't know, something is not right but I can't put my finger on it."
"You worry too much, let the people go about their business, we've heard nothing from that man and it looks as though Chen Sin Yu has given up on his plans to take over, he can't afford to be found or the Council hunters will have him, now settle down and relax."
"I can't Love, look at those last figures about the numbers of people leaving and emigrating overseas, the country has lost another two million in just the last three months, our population is down to less than eighty five million, if this keeps up we won't have enough people to rebuild."
"That's not your problem, Love, we can't keep those who don't want to stay, remember, this is not like the old days when the Government tried to subjugate its people, if they want to find new lives then it is their decision not ours."
"But we are being weakened, what if we come under another attack."
"You have to settle down Love, there's little we can do now, it's really up to the people, things will get better in time and we both know we have a lot of that at our disposal."
"It's just I feel so useless, I really wanted the country to be freed from all the tyranny of the old ways of Government but now it looks as though they don't really want that sort of freedom."
"They do Love, it's just some can not handle the fact that they were never really the owners of the land in the first place and that those who were really here first are now back in control of their lands, some humans just can't reconcile those facts in their head so it's better they find a new home if they can not adapt."
"I know but it still rankles that we have lost so many people, even after the boys had finished with their escapade, we still had one hundred a fifty million, now we have lost nearly half of that number."
"Then look at it this way, the earth will now have a chance to recover from the raping that went on before, given time all the toxic waste and poisons that were pumped into and onto her will slowly disappear, the country now has a chance to regroup, it can only be a good thing."
"Yes, I know you're right, I just can't help thinking that it's all too easy and quiet."
"Come here, I know what you need."
Peter looked at the beckoning arms of Swiftwing and, with a smile lay back into them and felt the warm embrace start to wash away some of his concerns, he sighed as the arms closed around him and pulled him into the firm chest of his Lover, the bustling of the house went on around the two as they sat quietly and felt the love of each other.
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Michael looked around him at the small cabin, they had made it far to the North of Canada without being seen, it had now been months since his close escape and, in that time he had found no way to recover what was his, only the gold stored in the back of the RV for just such an occasion had kept him viable.
He had now turned four of the boys with him, the only one not wishing to join him in the night was the older of the three Asians, he had decided to remain human but it had been for the better as the boy could now watch over all of them during the daylight hours, for his four other boys the change had meant they did not have to worry about the freezing cold days and nights as they sat far in the hinterland waiting for their Sire to make new plans.
Michael had finally been able to make contact with Senti Matsumoto of the Yakuza, as yet there was still no sign of Chen Sin Yu but Michael had little doubt the old Vampire would resurface when he was ready and able, for Michael it was time to look back and try to see where he had made mistakes and next time correct them, he had no intention of giving up on his dream of owning the New States.
The call to Senti had been filled with tension, the old Yakuza Vampire had not been happy at losing so many men so easily although he had thousands more to call on and his plans for new lands was still foremost in his old mind, it had come down to whether he still needed Michael Strong for his plans, he had finally decided that he did need the man but there would be a tighter leash on him in the future.
Unknown to either Michael or the Vampire Council, Chen Sin Yu was easy to find if you knew where to look, Senti Matsumoto knew exactly where to look, Chen Sin Yu was staying in Senti's guest rooms at the rear of his palatial estates in Kobe as Senti's guest, neither of the two old Vampires had given up on their idea of owning some of the New States and making them into their own countries far from the problems of their now over populated countries where corruption was rife and, even the underworld was at times, at war with each other, the plan the American Vampire had brought before them had given them a way to make their own mark in history.
With the sudden loss of their men in the New States, the two powerful Vampires now had another thing to think of, Chen Sin Yu no longer had his seat on the Council and therefore had little knowledge of what was going on apart from the certainty that he was being hunted, while being a guest of Senti, he was at least safe from the Council hunters, the Yakuza Vampires had refused to be a part of the Council when it had been formed two hundred years ago and so were outside their laws, it was one decision Senti had been happy with, he had free rein with no oversight by anyone and, as he was so long lived, he had been able to outlive any of his opposition in the ranks of the Yakuza, as he had grown more powerful, even the mighty Emperor of Japan had been under his influence without the people knowing.
At any one time, Senti could call on twenty thousand black clad soldiers, like his new guest Chen Sin Yu, who could also still call on nearly twice the number if needed, Senti had kept his head when the first proposition had been made to them, it would have been simple to just use his power and influence to invade the new country but that would have brought out more trouble than they both wanted, like now, it was a time to wait and watch, now that the foreigner had made contact they still had a way of getting what they wanted, of course the American Vampire would have to be sacrificed but that was neither here nor there, it was just a means to an end that would favour both Senti and Chen.
Michael knew none of this but he was glad that he was still able to keep his head and no threats had been made at his miserable failure, it seemed that Senti had understood how it was impossible to defend against an attack during day light hours when you are in your death sleep, the Tongs and the Yakuza had no real understanding of most of the Folk, too their purest ways, the Avian, Feline and Canine species were no more than an abomination and were quickly disposed of when found, to the ways of the ancient ideals and those Asian Vampires in particular, anyone not the same as them were not accepted, had they known the effectiveness of those same species in bringing down Michael and his plans, they may have changed their opinions.
As there had been no survivors except Michael, and he had been in his death sleep, none of them knew who had been able to cause the destruction in the first place, the two powerful Vampires had assumed that humans had been the cause as they could go out during the day and would not be affected by the sun, it was the only time that the humans would be stronger, even with Chen's knowledge that Peter was a day walker made little difference in their opinions of what had happened as one single Vampire as young as the Prince, could not have caused the collapse of their plans and so, it had to be mainly humans that had destroyed their planned take over.
It was now full winter in the far North, while the low temperatures had little or no effect on Michael and his four New Bloods, the sole remaining human boy had to be looked after and the old cabin kept warm, to this end and as practice for the four New Bloods, they were set the task of keeping enough wood in for the sole human boy to keep warm, for blood they used animals that they hunted down when needed, although the fresh blood was not as invigorating as human blood, it was enough to keep them from going feral, for the small Asian human, it gave him a good source of meat for his meals, something the five vampires did not need to bother with.
During the winter of the North, the Vampires needed little sleep as the days were actually as dark as the nights, this gave Michael a lot of time to work on his return to the South and the final destruction of the Prince and his New States, power and wealth was one thing but nothing was as sweet as revenge.
It took another month before Michael found a way to contact his cohorts in Asia again, they were not happy to say the least but, with a lot of humble pie eating, Michael finally convinced them to stay with the original plan although somewhat modified, it would now be more under the control of the two Asian men with Michael now playing a small support role, he was not happy but it would be the only way for him to get his revenge on the young upstart.
The new plan would now look more like an invasion in force, with the absolute power of the two older Vampires, the new army would be in the many thousands, far too many for the prince to keep at bay, the take over would be final and absolute, there would be nothing left of the old power structure of the young Prince.
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Times had returned as before the troubles, the winter months brought no new problems and everyone settled in for the long nights that the winter brought, slowly the damaged Vaga houses were repaired and those that had been totally lost were now well under construction and those that had not had the modifications were next on the list, there would not be a repeat of what happened last time, all Vaga houses would now be installed with the new Ultra Violet lighting as one of the defences.
As most of the country was now in the grips of winter, Peter had a census taken, when it was finally finished and there was an allowance for those not counted, the country now held only seventy two million, these were the hardy ones that truly believed that the country now had a chance to regain its former status and, with all the new work now available in reconstruction there was a good income for everyone, people were starting to get their lives back together.
It began as only a vague idea but finally Peter and Swiftwing told the other Folk leaders it was time to let all of their people know who and what they were, those that had stayed well knew there was more going on than what some of the older generations would want to believe, there had been whispers and rumours of strange goings on, the Leaders of the folk finally agreed, it was time to come out of the dark and hidden places, after all they had been on this earth far longer than most of the people now living in the new country.
It started with a few quietly whispered rumours in the right places, the First Nation people had had legends of skin walkers for centuries and so it was put about that they were in fact based on truth, as would be expected, some laughed at the idea while others started putting two and two together.
Over the next month it slowly came out more as unsubstantiated rumours but the believers numbers grew slowly until the idea of letting the people see some of the more friendly looking Avians, slowly the stories grew until it became almost common place to see an Avian or two flying around, after that it was only a matter of time before the others were allowed to show themselves.
Most of the new revelations started in the schools, the younger ones were more likely to be accepting, also; who in their right mind would want to take on a young kid who could suddenly grow into a very large cat or wolf? The older people took longer but, with much of the influence coming from the younger generations, they too started to change and accept, the only ones that held back were the Vampires, these everyone of the folk knew would not so easily be understood, the bad press of over a hundred years could not be wiped out in a few months and the fact they still needed to feed on live blood would put more fear into those humans that held old fears.
For a long time Peter wondered over how to reveal their presence, it would be difficult and hard for many to accept them, for now they would have to stay in the dark, only the First Nations people accepted them and understood the need to keep their secret for now, their tolerance was the only thing that kept Peters faith in what they were doing.
In the case of the Avians, Felines and Canines, the revelations and acceptance went far smoother than what they had first thought it would, this was mainly led by the younger ones and the lack of aggression on the part of the folk also helped to be accepted, this new acceptance also made way for many of the younger Vaga to return to a school and once again begin to learn, something they had had to give up when they were all still living in the dark, only the Vampires kept away, it also helped that no schools were open during the hours of darkness for them to go too.
The new spring weather was well underway when Peter and Swiftwing got the first hint that all was not well, it had started just as before with the sighting of small school groups from Asia, it took little working out to realise that they were not what they wanted to portray, too many were arriving during night hours, the alerts went out, the school visitors were kept under close watch where ever they went, it was now obvious that they were not school kids but Vampire soldiers trying to infiltrate and gather intelligence, everyone of the Folk were now on alert and watching for the soldiers auras, the old tensions began to grow again.
Peter contacted the First Nation Elders and began plans for the eradication of those Vampires trying to infiltrate the East Coast; it quickly became apparent that the East Coast Vampires were nothing more than a decoy, the numbers needed for any further invasion would have to be larger than was being landed as tourists.
Once again it was the two tech boys that came up with the answer, while most of the old USA had been destroyed in one form or another, all of their satellites were still functioning and this gave the two boys a good long look around the new country, on this night it was most noticeable that there was very heavy sea traffic just above the Canadian border, it did not take one plus one to come up with two.
Leon and Carter gathered detailed satellite photo's of the thirty large ships, all appeared to be something close to super tankers, towed behind them were large powered barges that had inside their open holds what looked like four large metal tanks on wheels, attached to the front of each tank was an armoured military tank.
On the decks and under tarpaulins, the two boys made out the vague shapes of smaller landing barges, this was definitely an invasion force, they also noticed that there were very few men walking around on the decks, as a further precaution they set the satellite cameras to infra red and night vision, it was then, on the first night that they saw the huge numbers of vampires on the ships, all had been kept below decks during the daylight hours but were free to roam about during darkness, they quickly reported everything to Peter.
Peter saw the ships were now only two days out from the Canadian coast, once they all landed it would be hard to fight the sheer numbers of men involved, there was only one way he could see that they had a chance of winning, if the invaders were allowed to get a good foothold on the coast, the humans were going to suffer greatly as this army would need to feed often.
Peter sent out his orders, all humans including First Nation peoples were to pull back from the border area and move inland as far from the expected landing site as possible, all the folk of the daylight, that is Avians, Felines, and Canines, were to head for the expected area and wait for day light, until then they were to just follow the invaders during the night, no attacks or contact was to be made with them, they would use the same daylight attack as they had on the bunker.
Peter's vampires were not happy about being left out of the fighting once again but the sheer numbers of the enemy would have caused a lot of deaths that could easily be avoided by using the one thing the attackers could not fight against, the Sun.
Swiftwing had a call from his fellow Elders, they said if he needed good scouts then they would be provided as they could hunt down any of the invaders during the daylight hours should any escape the first assaults by the folk, Swiftwing acknowledged their offer and said he would call on them if needed, he desperately hoped they would not be, any human caught by these invaders stood little chance of escape.
For the next two days everyone watched through the eyes of the satellite cameras as the ships drew closer to the coast, the border area was now swarming with Folk of every kind although they stayed well hidden, after the initial landing they would watch and follow until sunrise, they would then make use of their advantage but, nothing could be done until the enemy crossed the border.
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Chen Sin Yu and Senti Matsumoto stood on the bridge of the leading tanker, it was one hour after sundown and the deck below them was a hive of activity as the men readied the many small landing barges, behind each tanker, the larger barges carrying the tanks that would be the mobile homes during the daylight hours had slipped their tow cables and were forming up along the sides of the larger tanker ships, they were now only three miles off the Canadian coast and no more than six miles from the border, by sunrise tomorrow they would be inside the new country and ready to make their first attacks, the plan was simple, kill anything that got in their way, Michael Strong would meet them on the beach this night and he would be used as a figure head once the country was theirs but, until that time came, they had a lot of fighting to do.
On the thirty large tankers were more than forty five thousand well trained and blood thirsty vampire soldiers, had it still been the old USA they would have stood little chance of success but nowadays there was no formal military to stop them and the two old Vampire leaders were sure they could soon take care of one very young Prince.
The order was given and the landing barges began to make for the shore line, behind them came the larger barges carrying the mobile homes in the shape of large metal tanks that had once been used for fuel deliveries but now, after some alterations, were the homes for the troops until they found safe havens from the sunlight.
The two old Vampires watched as the landings took place in text book fashion, nothing disturbed the tranquil night except the loud roar of the towing tanks and the shouting of men as they formed up in their many units, unnoticed by all were the many eyes watching them from the dark undergrowth and from the night sky far above.
The large flat beach of the isolated cove was now a heaving mass of dark clothed figures, as each full unit formed they would start towards the south and the border, behind them came the rumble of the many tanks towing the mobile homes, the rough terrain around them stood little chance against the might of the tanks, their turrets tracking left to right and back again as they moved forward.
The Vampire squads were soon well ahead of the tanks, their faster speed and strength had them across the border in less than half an hour where they reformed and waited for the shelters to catch up, the terrain around them was rough with long rolling hills covered in trees, the going for the tanks was not going to be easy until they found the expected highway of the old USA, the troops continued to swarm over the border.
It was little surprise to Chen and Senti that there was no opposition to their invasion, the new US had no formal military to stop them, this was going to be easier than they had at first thought, perhaps the smashing of Michael Strong's bunker had been just a lucky one off incident by humans, the plan called for them to be at least ten miles over the border before sunrise, it looked as though it was going to be easily made, there had been no sign of any defence and even the humans had made no appearance, apart from the noise created by such a large army, there were no other sounds, even the forest was silent.
An hour before sunrise, the large army of forty five thousand Vampires, their vehicles and equipment, were settling down in the wide flat valley just ten miles inside of the new US, the landing had been a total success and without so much as a hint of any opposing troops or army, the take over was now in full swing and would be over much sooner than at first thought, the two old Vampires, now joined by Michael Strong and, surprisdingly, every wolf from the Ozark hills.
For the wolves it was all they could do as they were now on the termination list of Jake and his wolves, Michael had told Chen and Senti that the wolves would be their daylight guards, Chen and Senti were more than happy to have the added help, for the landings, they were also very happy at the result, it had been fast and precise with no alarms given to the enemy, a perfect start to their invasion.
From the dark trees on the sides of the valley, many eyes watched as the army began to set up its first camp, the strange metal tanks were parked in long lines and the rear doors opened to reveal row after row of narrow wooden bunks for the troops to get out of the coming sunlight.
Jake turned to the small black clad figure beside him.
"Looks like you were right once again, skinny, this is going to be easier than I thought, they only have those damn renegade wolves as guards, this should be a piece of cake."
"That's a good thing Jake, it looks like another slaughter, I think we're all going to be sick of the sight of blood after this is over." Replied Peter, Swiftwing looked at his boy friend and gave him a grim smile.
TBC.
artcart65@vodafone.co.nz