Loud and Clear

[Dragging the stone slowly down the length of my blade, my lip curls into a sneer listening to the lessers squabbling behind me.] Can you two not shut yer traps? Ye’ whine like females. It’ll be your end. You and the rest of your forsaken kind. [The stench of them still burned my nostrils, there was no getting used to the foul odor of powder and decay, no matter how long I’d been entrenched in their camp. I chuffed a laugh at that. Their ‘camp’ was naught but a rotting cabin in the last bit of forest left in this new world. The Great Camp had spanned acres, was filled with the raucous shouting of my men, fighting and fucking indistinguishable in the flickering light of a dozen fires, the air scented with sweat-soaked leather and roasting meat. That was a place from where I could lead a battle. Not this vermin-infested crate. “You think you can do better, vampire? How come there’s so many of us and so few of you?” The lesser spat the question at me and I paused the stone in my hand to take to my feet, crossing the room in two short strides to stand toe to toe with the abomination and raising my dagger, the tip of the blade pressed to the lesser’s still chest] There are more of you because I do not have my brothers at my back. [digging the blade’s tip into his chest, lip tugging up seeing the bloom of black blood spreading on his shirt.]  But, once this business of my young is done, I’ll be remedying that. We’ll be coming for ye’. And these numbers that yer so proud of will be naught but a story our females will tell the young to get them to quiet for bed. So what say you we make haste in the task so you and I can settle this discussion with fewer words, eh? [His teeth bared in a grimace, hatred pooling in his eyes as he took a step back, brushing the sting of my dagger from his chest as if brushing away a spider web. “Let’s do that, you fanged, fuck. But, remember who brought you back. I doubt the boss will take too kindly to you biting the hand that fed you. Learn your place, vampire. You’re a prop. A Trojan horse. You’re job is to take out the pair of WMDs you spawned and then you’re getting dropped right back in the hot box where you should have been from the time you hit the fucking floor. Some master race. Taken out by your own daughter. I hope your new balls drop before you catch up with them. As much as I want to annihilate the brotherhood, watching your own kids cap you again would just be too sweet to miss.” Turning back to the other, who stood watching, bristling, my eyes dropping in a split-second glance to where his fingers itched at the handle of his weapon.] Draw it, ye sorry fuck. Draw it and we’ll cull some of yer herd right now. [“All in time, vampire. When you do what you were brought here to do.” He strode away, the stiffening of his shoulders saying it was more retreat than dismissal.] All in time, indeed. And sooner than you’d like, I think. [A low growl built in my throat. The pallid vermin was right. This was taking far too long and my patience was wearing thin. My messages were being lost in a cavalcade of bodies on the Caldwell streets that I had naught to do with. These humans murdered their own in droves. So preoccupied with carving out their own piece of this festering cesspool that they stood oblivious at the power that was there for the taking with the right strategy. That would be of use to me. When my blade had sent my young back to their bitch mahmen, I’d begin anew. There’d been signs. My men were here. The tracks they left were nearly imperceptible but unmistakable. It pleased me to see the bastards had gone forth with what the training at my camp had provided, teeth cut in my raiding parties in the Old Country now being used to gnaw away at the crumbling hierarchy the Blind King sought to solidify. Sightless fool. Politics wasn’t the way of the warrior and it wasn’t so very long ago my dagger knew the taste of gentlemale blood. Caldwell was ripe for the picking. Pivoting on my heel, heavy boots creaking the splintered floorboards beneath them, I slammed through the flimsy door, warping its hinges and scattered myself to the wind, in the direction of the city lights, coming to form in the alley I’d been favoring behind the row of brothels-posed-as-pubs that lined Trade Street. Eyes keenly scanning for tonight’s sacrificial lamb, a grin pulled at my lips finding the female drunkenly trying to rake the chocolate tresses from her face as she poured herself out of a doorway brimming with barely clad patrons. Jerking my jacket into place to hide the scabbard at my hip, I sauntered up and caught her arm as she tripped on her own feet and nearly hit the pavement. She blinked up in surprise, a sultry smile curving her mouth when she saw his face. ] Allow me to help you home. Someone so beautiful ought not walk these streets alone at night. [She nodded and leaned into him, the scent of her blooming and flavored with liquor flaring his nostrils even as his hand crept to the dagger at his side and guided her into the alley. He’d be sure that Vishous got the message this time. He and his murdering sister.]