Sanguini Castle I

Inside the Sanguini family castle, a few hours later

An elderly-looking man was sitting behind a desk and writing into a book. The book itself was rather old-fashioned – the pages were made of parchment and the ink was a reddish brown. Suddenly, he rose from his seat and made haste into a corridor before opening a window and taking a look outside.

"Which pack of mutts dares?", he shouted. A moment later, he was walking with hastened pace down the corridor and into a large hall where the direct descendants had already gathered for an early dinner.

Naturally, there were no servants eating together with their masters. A maiden blood slave was lying on the table and being slowly drained from all four of her limbs. Those perpetrating the act were wearing fine clothing that was appropriate to their noble status. Not a drop was spilled, their table manners were impeccable.

"Virgin blood is truly the best.", Lucien, the firstborn said.

"I have to agree with you on that one, brother.", Mary admitted. She would've been second in line if she wasn't born a girl.

"I say, as long as their legs are like this one's, I don't care if they're a virgin or not.", Davi commented.

"You shouldn't speak while you eat.", Dorne admonished, inadvertently coming off as a hypocrite.

However, no matter how early, the dinner would have to come to an abrupt end this time.

"Enough having fun! Did none of you notice the reek of wild mutts? We are surrounded! Prepare to defend the castle!"

That was all the encouragement the noble scion-looking vampires needed, they cleaned their mouths with a handkerchief and after removing their top layer of clothing, revealed pale skin underneath that quickly turned black. Wings sprouted out of their shoulder blades and their fingertips turned into sharp claws.

The vampires made haste to armor stands at the end of the hall and waited until the servants that had been standing at attention so far helped them equip, then each slashed themselves across the chest, causing shallow wounds from which red mist started pouring out and formed a sphere around five feet thick around Vincent and his four children. While some of the servants rushed into the castle to pass on the rallying call, the rest followed their masters into battle. As the vampires rushed forward, the sphere kept up with them, concealing their exact location from sight and smell perfectly.

At the same time, many more transformed vampires kept pouring out of the castle – the service staff, members of the branch families that had been accepted by the head family.

Once the service staff reached close to the short lineup of Werewolves that were approaching the castle, they clawed at their own chests as well, causing a cloud of red mist to erupt. The mist was so thick you wouldn't be able to see past your nose. It was the vampires' intention to swarm the small-sized pack of Werewolves and take them out in one fell swoop.

Gaude had given the Werewolves the command to remain visible, he wanted to see a fair and square battle in the beginning.

The vampires then maintained complete silence. This was the Sanguini family castle, so everything that smelled different than their kin and/or had a heartbeat was their enemy.

"Stay in line. Strike by hearing.", Irma's voice commanded.

They had been startled by the seemingly perpetual twilight that surrounded the castle, but they wouldn't be able to do anything about it for the time being.

Gaude, instead, took out something he had picked up a while ago, a certain conch. He raised it to his mouth and blew as hard as he cold – he had discovered it's strange properties a while ago and was now making use of it. After all, he couldn't have his Werewolves dying in the first large-scale real battle they had.

Suddenly, a small breeze appeared. At first, it was gentle and caused the red mist covering the entire grounds to shake a little, but it picked up quickly, and not too long after it had become a proper gale. The red mist produced by the servants was blown away in an instant, leaving them without cover. Yet there were four balls of red mist remaining, the approximate locations of the family head and the direct descendants.

The conch, while extremely useful for getting clear weather, consumed magic proportionately to the strength of the wind produced, meaning there was only so long that Gaude could keep it up.

"Disregard that order. Attack! Now! Take down as many as you can and when you get in a pinch, call an elf to recover you! Remember the rules of engagement: as much as possible, do not harm the non-leader personnel beyond disabling.", Irma shouted, rushing into battle herself.

The reason why she gave the reminder was simple: from what Gaude had learned from the butler, he had discovered that the vampire clans had their own royalty, a small and secluded clan whose abilities weren't known; however, it was known that they were extremely powerful and would pass judgement when conflicts between the clans became too great. The butler had even revealed that once a group of four royal envoys had wiped out the strongest clan besides the royals that had been gathering troops to take over the castle of the royal clan.

As the Lestoat family had engaged in vampire research with humans, the royal family had rescinded their protection, as if saying: 'It's free real estate!', causing the Sanguini clan, desperate to increase their quota, to forge a temporary alliance with the other clans, promising them all the loot and a portion of the Lestoat quota. Vincent had risked his life that day, as he would've been held responsible if the royals saw it as over-stepping their boundaries, but no punishment had ever come.

The Werewolves took the order in strides, brandishing their claws and rushing at the nearest vampire. They had transformed and armored up before leaving the barracks, to avoid any mishaps that could occur during sidealong-apparition while wearing armor that was multiple sizes too big in their human form.

Irma was wearing a leather armor with rune-engraved steel plates protecting her forearms and chest. With how much training had gone into developing her hearing, there was no way anybody would get behind her without her notice.

Gaude simply stood there, blowing the conch, as there were still thick streams of red mist erupting from the chests of the vampires, a sure sign that the area would be drowned by red mist the moment he stopped.

He was wearing a leather armor with runes drawn onto it with blood ink, allowing for extremely agile movement and moderately good defense. While it wouldn't be enough to completely mitigate any damage from a direct hit from a pissed-off vampire, it would still keep him in fighting shape.

Yet, another problem soon occurred – Gaude saw a black shadow rushing towards him.

"Oh, looks like mama bear came out to play." he commented after taking a deep breath. He flicked out his wand and continued blowing the conch. Gaude had gotten quite a bit of intel from the butler he had captured, including the fact that there was a vampire from the Tenebrel family in the mix, a shadow user. While the butler didn't know her exact abilities, Gaude had found out that particular vampire was the clan head's wife, in other words, likely to be strong and fierce in battle.

Gaude cast a Bombardment hex into the shadow. That wasn't very effective. As such, Gaude decided to do the one thing he knew every vampire would hate.

'Lumos Solem!', he chanted in his mind.

Bright light burst out from the tip of his wand, lighting up the area around him. Except, the area that was lit was only a few square feet in size, Gaude's immediate surroundings. It turned out that whatever was keeping the light of the real sun at bay, did the same to the sunlight charm. Gaude decided that instead of pumping his all into the charm, he would just keep it up at a lower rate of consumption, keeping whoever was hiding in that shadow from attacking him.

However, the black shadow that had been rushing at him with seemingly unstoppable momentum, had come to a standstill just before touching the lit area. It seemed that the lady of the house was quite wary of the pillar of light surrounding Gaude. Somehow, it didn't look like she was vicious at all, or perhaps she lacked offensive abilities?

Seeing that, Gaude smirked. Suddenly, he jumped towards the center of the shadow as fast as he could, but the shadow retreated even quicker, not giving him the chance to find out what would happen if the shadow got hit by light.

Like that, one of the most peculiar chases started. Gaude was blowing the conch, casting the sunlight charm and hopping after a shadow, as if he was a part-cat and the shadow a laser dot.

While Gaude was engaged in a near-meaningless chase, the Werewolves were fighting against the service staff. They were matched claws against claws and teeth against fangs. With the sturdiness of a trained Werewolf's body, the strikes from the wings were only enough to bruise, not even breaking skin.

Even though the Werewolves were heavily outnumbered, something that Gaude had expected thanks to the information he had gotten from the butler, they were holding their ground just fine – the main forces of the vampires weren't armed nor armored, only using their wings and claws to fight. There were only ten or so vampires with proper battle gear among them, except for the ruling family that couldn't be seen at all due to their concealment.

If things looked dicey, he could always summon reinforcements, he could even outnumber the vampires three to one if the need arose, yet, from what he heard from Amanda, the Sanguinis were among the weakest of vampire clans, right after her own.

Of course, if one looked at the numbers, Amanda's clan with a single surviving member was nothing compared to the Sanguini clan's sum total of exactly a thousand, matching the quota they had been given. Those that had fallen in Bryan Sanguini's manor had already been made up for, as thralls could simply be disposed of when a true vampire was born. Yet, most of the families lived away from the clan's castle, in their own mansions with their families and small numbers of service staff, depending on their standing in the clan.

Gaude had seen a chance to test his army against another, without ridiculously outmatching them. Right now, it seemed that the numbers were just right and either side would win if a variable appeared, which was exactly why he was keeping that shadow user at bay.

Meanwhile, the decisive battle was being fought between Irma and the head of the Sanguini family and the four part-dragons were facing a direct descendant each. Fortunately for Gaude and his troops, there were no branch family heads present either, another piece of information he had pried from the butler – he had found out that there had been a clan council a few days ago and there wouldn't be any of them coming over for at least half a year, unless an emergency occurred.

Meanwhile, Vincent was unwilling to call for reinforcements, as that would go against his pride – he was the head of the strongest family and asking for help would make him look weak, especially if he called help to deal with such a small group. He would rather die than allow his own clan to ridicule him.

The four spheres were occasionally invaded by a fighter from Gaude's side, but the spheres kept moving about rapidly and erratically, while the attackers were the subject to slashes from claws and blades. The part-dragons and Irma didn't let that stop them, however – their armor providing plenty of protection, even if the Unbreakable charm had already been proven to be named inappropriately, as with enough damage anything protected by it could still be broken.

The weakest of the part-dragons was having a bit of trouble – his opponent seemed to be fighting differently from the other powerful vampires, the sphere of red mist sent out spikes from its surface, striking at the enemy. The part dragon dodged the spikes barely, not even able to take a step into the sphere. Maybe not entering it was for the best, who knows how dangerous things would get on the inside, if the outside was that bad already.

Sounds of metal striking metal continuously resounded across the battlefield, neither side gaining a clear advantage. The werewolves kept kicking and punching the regular vampires away and onto the ground, but by the time they were done with one, another had recovered their footing, it was like whack a molerat.

Gaude noticed that his magic reserve was down to a third. That was no good, he hadn't even cast all that many spells, except for being a human beacon. He yelled out: "Reinforcements! Bring the Alpha batallion in stealth, we need to make quick work of the leadership!"

A moment later, more and more men in shining armor, brandishing a variety of weapons that gleamed with sharp light appeared on the battlefield. They quickly moved about, each Werewolf getting a backup of six 'knights', taking the heat off of them and allowing the Werewolves to show their true might, no longer hindered by having to worry about the vampires ganging up on them and getting through the gaps in their armor.

Unfortunately, the invisibility charm had turned out to be very ineffective on Vampires – through sound and smell, they quickly located Gaude's men in an instant and attacked what seemed to be thin air to them. The next instant they were counterattacked, however, the invisibility was already broken.

"No! My children!", a feminine voice screamed out from the shadow Gaude had been chasing – even the part-dragons had received reinforcements, now making it impossible for the clan head's descendants to keep the enemy at bay.

The shadow suddenly accelerated towards the red spheres in the distance. Gaude, discovering that he was about to run out of magic, deposited the conch and commanded: "Use the minimum numbers to hold back the grunts, the rest of you converge on those red balls!"

The battle continued, however, now with a heavy numerical advantage on Gaude's side. He had decided to bring the battle to an end as he believed that the Werewolves had gained enough experience, at least when it came to fighting against vampires. The vampires weren't disheartened by their numerical advantage disappearing – they had already noticed that the wind that had been blowing their cover away was fading fast and soon they would be able to get rid of the enemy stealthily.

Yet, their plot wasn't meant to be. Irma, now supported by ten others with weapons much heavier than her own, managed to wear her opponent down quickly.

The sphere around the strongest fighter that Gaude's side had unanimously voted the most likely to be the leader started flowing onto the ground, as if it was melting. A man, seemingly barely over twenty was revealed.

He was still fighting fiercely, even with all the blood escaping the confines of his armor through the deep gashes in it.

Gaude took out the conch once more and blew it as hard as he could, leaving only a drop of magic in his system – he wanted good visibility for the finale.

"Alright, take him down!", Gaude commanded. Everyone around the clan head redoubled their efforts and even Gaude himself put a few slashes in with his sword.

The interesting thing was that the lady of the house seemed to have no interest in what was happening to her husband. Looking towards the rest of the red spheres, Gaude understood why – she was much too busy. Black shadowy spikes were shot towards anyone that got too close to those spheres, the shadow on the ground bolting from one place to another, like a tiger protecting its cubs.

Finally, Vincent Sanguini was too exhausted and wounded to continue fighting and he was grabbed from both sides by two strong Werewolves while Irma stood behind him, in case he tried anything.

Gaude spoke to seemingly empty air: "Bring Amanda!"

With a quiet pop, an elf holding Amanda's hand apparated. She was wearing light blue armor that contrasted her currently glowing red eyes.

Gaude used both hands to present his sword to her and said: "Here you go, you can do the honors as per tradition."

"If you do this, not just the Sanguini clan, every clan of Vampires will come after you! The Royals will come for you!"

"Oh, and after who exactly? Haven't you noticed it yet? That they all smell the same? That all of them have the same face? The only two that they could possibly make trouble with are me and Mandy, unless they plan to hunt down every Lycan and every human that likes to wear armor."

Looking around, Vincent noticed that indeed, each of the Werewolves and each of the humans was wearing the same face. It was only a shame that he didn't recognize Heisenberg, as there were four hundred of them present. The only difference between the Werewolf and human Heisenbergs was the fact that in case of Werewolves, there were pointy ears sticking out from the sides of their top hat. Truthfully, each of the voices were modulated as well, but still recognizable for their own side.

Each of Gaude's troops, along with Irma had taken a potion that would overshadow the smell of their blood. The potion would be gone from their system in a day, but any blood that was spilled on the field of battle would have no way to metabolize it.

There was no point in Gaude doing that – his blood had already been collected and spread among the vampires, so until he added to his bloodline once again, he was easy to recognize. The only thing Gaude had done was changing his face, so that he wouldn't have to worry about random vampires recognizing him on the street.

Amanda swung Gaude's sword, enchanted to increase its weight by tenfold and have sufficient sharpness to cut solid steel. As the leader of her clan, something only possible due to her being the sole survivor, she had the right to be compensated by the offending clan.

Once the head was properly and well separated from the body, Amanda spoke solemnly: "With this, may the grudge between the Sanguini and Lestoat clans come to an end. Appoint a new and wiser leader. Anyone who wants to leave the clan, you're welcome to join mine. All you need to do to accomplish that is show up and register at Long Street Number 9, London, you should be able to find the right room by the smell of refreshments.

I give my word of honor as the head of the Lestoat clan that none who come seeking asylum will be harmed."

Of course, Amanda's word of honor didn't seem to be worth much, as he had used great numerical advantage and hadn't even fought the clan head herself at all, instead having Gaude and his subordinates do all the work for her. Not to mention that she was working with Werewolves, the enemy of all Vampirekind.

Right as Amanda finished, Gaude noticed that the wind was fading once again, a sign that time had ran out. He could also see red spheres rushing towards them from the direction of the castle, a sign that the heads of the branch families had been summoned.

"Goal accomplished! Return to base!", Gaude shouted, once again casting the voice amplification charm. With telekinesis, he held a few phials to gather the blood that was still gushing out from the neck stump – he had a feeling that Snape had been getting bored in the lab. In situations like these, a choice of words was very important. Saying 'We're done here, full retreat' would've been somewhat demoralizing, at least in his opinion.