Ancestor

In the Sanguini clan castle, the same night.

Lucien returned to the throne room, his mood fouler than ever. He pointed at the Sanguini clan members still hanging from the meat hooks and snarled: "Take those things into the dungeons! I expect you to be done within an hour at most. If you drag your heels, expect to join them once they are reinstated to their current position!"

Mary chimed in from her seat with a sadistic gleam in her eyes: "Oh, they're going back up once this mess is over, so leave the hooks in!" The victims' bodies would constantly try to regenerate and push out the foreign matter, causing constant pain. Mary was well aware of it and the though of that excited her to no end. She looked towards Lucien, her gaze containing reignited passion.

Once his stress had been slightly alleviated, Lucien took out a few blood packs and started devouring them vigorously, soon after falling into a slumber. His reign had turned into a mess, one problem followed another, no matter how many annoyances he had executed. He felt like he needed a break.

Once Lucien woke up, the throne room looked no different from how it had been a day after Vincent had been killed. Seeing that the guards had finished their job, he turned one of the handles on the throne, causing the throne and the wall behind it to start turning with a rumble.

After a while, Lucien was in a different room altogether. He rose up from the throne and went down a long set of stairs, until he reached a chamber with a few torches burning on the walls and stone beds with middle-aged looking people on them.

There was a tube with blood running into each of their mouths, both feeding them and keeping them asleep at the same time.

"Ancestor Caius, I'll be troubling you.", Lucien muttered, on the off chance the vampires enjoying their eternal slumber were aware of their surroundings.

He then removed the blood-carrying tube from the vampire's mouth and put it away so that nothing spilled.

After that, he waited for a few hours.

Finally, the vampire got up and stretched, causing his joints to give of cracks and pops, before looking at Lucien. "It looks like somebody has recently joined us in this chamber and left you in charge. Speak. What year is it and why have you awakened me?"

"Ancestor Caius, it's 1980. My father, your son, was killed in battle against a pack of werewolves lead by a bitch and a brat. I tried to get revenge on them, but they defeated our clan's warriors."

"I see, I've been asleep for barely half a century. So, you were appointed to be the successor by Vincent. Very well, I'll take a look at how he's been running things while I was in slumber."

As he talked, he had already taken a course up the stairs. He took a seat on the throne and Lucien didn't dare to comment on that – once an ancestor was awakened, they would naturally take control of the entire clan until they returned to slumber.

Once they had reached the throne room's side, Caius sniffed the air for a moment before saying: "I smell the blood of our kin in this room. What has transpired here?"

Lucien became as white as bleached paper and replied carefully: "Ancestor, there was a conspiracy against my rule among our clan, I punished them to set an example." There was no way he'd tell the ancestor that he had indulged Mary's hobbies in that room.

"It's good that you dealt with it swiftly. At times, the clan must be reminded that rules are there for a reason. Now, tell me more about the people who killed Vincent."

Lucien searched his pockets for a while before pulling out three phials and said: "Ancestor, I have the blood of those responsible for the attacks on our clan members. I believe blood says more than my words ever could."

Caius took the phials and sniffed them one after the other while commenting: "A witch, I have never met her bloodline. A Lestoat, most likely from the clan head's family."

After uncorking the last phial, the ancestor's eyes immediately widened in horror. He immediately slapped Lucien on the face so hard that a crack could be heard, and he flew across the room, landing only after hitting a wall: "You fool! What have you done!"

Lucien crawled back to his feet, with a small trickle of blood flowing form his mouth, but he still respectfully bowed before retorting: "It was just some brat!"

"You better pray you didn't harm that brat! He's of the Vywin bloodline! Not only that, his Vywin bloodline wasn't stripped after practicing the family's taboo, his father must've improved their methods. You may have condemned the entire clan to extinction!"

"Ancestor, the Vywin family was wiped out by the Anguaq family over a year ago. They no longer pose a threat."

"How? Where was Grant when that happened?"

"I heard that Grant was killed in a duel with that what's his name again, the dark wizard who's been popular these days."

Hearing that, the ancestor's eyes widened and a glimmer of hope could be seen on his face as he asked: "Did anyone see his body?"

Lucien seemed to fall into thought for a while before replying: "I don't know. There wasn't any talk about that."

Immediately, a slight veil of disappointment and suspicion made its way onto Caius' face as he said: "Then I should investigate the matter further before acting. An old fox that has lived over three hundred years, he might have used a trick to fool the world." To himself, Caius thought: 'I should inform the Anguaq clan. I won't risk our own clan for the off chance that Grant is playing dead.'

"I understand, Ancestor. I will have our best investigate the brat more closely."

---

Gaude's private military base, a few days later.

Gaude was standing in front of his troops while they were all looking at him, waiting for him to reveal why they had been lined up this time.

"I have some good news to all the knights here. The eggheads in the lab have finally managed to mass-produce a serum that could grant each of you one of three transformations: Lycan and vampire, for the price of one thousand contribution points, and part-dragon, for the price of a thousand and five hundred points.

Anybody that's interested and has enough points can contact their commanding officers. There are also a few new items on sale in the points store, so make sure to check it out on your free time.

As for ways of earning more points, we have three big security contracts coming in worldwide and two mercenary missions. That's all for now."

For a while, Gaude had felt a presence beside him, and finally gave it his attention. It turned out to be one of the guards.

"Boss, master Dracula is waiting for you in the reception."

While Gaude was walking towards the reception, a separate house with a café, restaurant and a bar, he thought: 'Sounds like the royals have finally come through. Heh-heh, it's time to see what they're made of.'

Soon, he was greeted with the sight of a disgustingly handsome young man seated behind a table and sipping tea while two of Gaude's guards were standing beside him, as if they were the guest's servants.

Gaude sighed and muttered: "Seriously? I thought I trained them better than that."

He extended his hand towards the young man and waited for him to get up, which he didn't.

Gaude didn't let that disturb him too much and instead made the introductions: "Gaude Vywin of house Vywin."

There wasn't any change in the guest's expression when he finally rose from his seat and shook Gaude's hand.

"Reigel Dracula. I heard that your family became extinct?"

Gaude smiled wryly and replied: "Well, you're looking at living proof it didn't. Came damn close to it though."

Suddenly, Reigel's eyes widened in shock as he said: "Beast blood? Isn't that the taboo of your family?"

Gaude replied with a smug grin: "Well, sometimes it's good to be the sole survivor. Since I found a way to circumvent some of the more troublesome aspects of introducing beast bloodlines, the taboo has lost meaning for me."

Reigel nodded at that. "Interesting. I should let the family know about it. Why was it that you wanted to contact us?"

Instead of answering the question outright, Gaude said seemingly to nobody: "Please bring in Mandy, Irma, Brigitte and Dorne."

A few moments later, the four mentioned by Gaude sidealong-apparated in with the help of four house elves.

"What is the meaning of this?", Reigel asked with mild annoyance.

He had quickly discovered that while there were three vampires in the mix, the fourth person was very obviously a werewolf. However, he wasn't too worried – he could take on everyone in the room blindfolded and with both his arms and legs tied behind his back.

Gaude replied calmly: "Let's all have a seat, it's time to discuss the reason why you were contacted, as well as a few other matters that I think might warrant the attention of the Dracula family sooner or later."

Reigel threw a sharp glance towards Irma, but still settled down.

Reigel usual faint smile was replaced with a small frown, a sign of displeasure as he asked: "What is the meaning behind miss Lestoat having Vywin blood in her veins?"

Gaude made an expression as if he had remembered something amusing from a long time ago as he replied: "Oh, that. She is cute, so I adopted her into my family. There was also the matter of using my house's name as a deterrent against anyone that wanted to get her quota or whatnot, but that's just a minor issue."

Reigel looked slightly taken aback by the time Gaude finished his explanation, but he corrected his posture a moment later. This was big news. A wizarding family blood-adopting a pureblood vampire, and a clan head no less, it had never happened before. It was way above what Reigel could pass judgement over on his own, he'd have to raise the matter with the king.

"This can't be the reason you've summoned me."

"I'll start from the most important matter. There's a bit of a feud between the Sanguini clan and my family, and they recently involved the Allino clansmen in it. I fear that they'll soon bring even more clans into the matter, and I might end up having to give my men a kill on sight order towards any vampires. I figured that if I managed to reach an understanding with your family, this issue could be resolved in a more peaceful manner."

Reigel almost rolled his eyes at Gaude's statement, but managed to hold back as he asked: "What is the reason behind the feud with the Sanguini clan?"

Gaude explained nonchalantly, making sure to put emphasis on a few phrases, even expressing regret at a few points: "Well, they were originally after Amanda and I stumbled into the scheme. One thing led to another and we ended up fighting them. The leader of the Sanguini clan lost his head during our skirmish, it was a horrible affair. We offered asylum to anyone that felt uncomfortable with staying in the clan and Lucien used underhanded methods to take the throne from the appointed heir Dorne, even executed those loyal to the poor kid to send a message.

After that, Dorne and a couple hundred of those loyal to him took up my offer, and they've been living in a facility adjusted to vampires. It seems that Lucien has no love for my family either, since he sent about five hundred to attack this very facility. It's a good thing I was prepared for most of it, except for the Allino clansmen."

Gaude got a glare from Dorne in the middle of his monologue – for all intents and purposes, Dorne was way older than Gaude, and he had taken some offense to being called a kid.

Reigel looked a lot more serious. He looked at both Dorne and Brigitte and asked: "Is this true?"

"Yes, your highness. Although I'm not sure about what we didn't go through ourselves, everything regarding our clan is more or less what happened."

Reigel's brows knitted together, this time there was visible and audible displeasure coming off him as he spoke: "That... I felt something was strange when I went to officiate Lucien's ascension, so I didn't report it to the family immediately. It turns out to be like this. If anyone that has barely become someone would dare to break the old law like this, would there still be a need for our family? I feel like a reminder is in order.

I believe there were more matters you wished to discuss?"

"Yes, indeed. I would like to know your family's views on using bloodline serums on vampires, to enrich their abilities. For example, Dorne has developed an ability different from the general Sanguini abilities, and I'm thinking about introducing it into the rest of his loyal followers so that his clan will have a leg to stand on once this whole drama gets resolved."

Reigel had heard of the Vywin family's exploits in the field, it had been the reason why the Lestoat family had been ousted by the Dracula family, turning them into free game for all the other clans when one of the Vywins had started adding abilities from various vampire clans into a Lestoat.

"If I'm not mistaken, our family allows facilitating the sharing of abilities within the same clan, which would happen naturally with time in the first place, however, artificially merging another clan's ability calls for exiling the clan that goes along with it from the council, similar to the Lestoat clan after Septimus', Grant's son's actions."

Gaude adjusted his sitting posture, since his part-dragon flesh wasn't much more resistant to sitting than that of a regular human. 'Sounds like that Grant was some kind of a bigshot on this body's father's side. Too bad he's not around anymore, I could've probably learned a thing or two from him.'

Cutting his musings short, Gaude said: "Alright, that leaves us with the final matter. At some point, it might come to your family's attention that I'm harboring a rather large pack of werewolves. I assure you, they're all tame and won't bite without explicit orders. I'm also not planning to use them to wipe the vampire kind out of existence."

The statement earned Gaude a venomous gaze from Irma, promising him a whole lot of pain, no matter what.

Reigel once again glanced sharply at Irma before asking: "Then tell me, why have you harbored those creatures?"

The last word was said with quite a bit of enmity, making it clear to everyone in the room that he held no gentle feeling towards the species.

"It's quite simple. There are many people with a lot of money in this world that lack a sense of security. Meanwhile, the werewolves are good at fighting and sniffing out threats, but very lacking in money. I came up with the idea of giving werewolves training to keep their wild side in check and getting complete control over their abilities, then making the two meet and taking a small management fee from the deal."

Some kind of tension seemed to leave Reigel's body as he said: "It seems like I'll have to find the pact again. Since you're on the path to becoming a Guardian of House Vywin, the terms and conditions will have to be reviewed and renewed for another generation." It wasn't the first time that Reigel had signed a non-aggression pact between vampire kind and the Guardian of House Vywin, and he felt like Gaude wouldn't be the last.

Gaude felt like he had discussed everything that was necessary for this meeting, especially since he was confident there would be another one along the line to finalize the finer details. It seemed like he might just be able to reach some kind of a working relationship with the Dracula family, which should keep most threats of the vampire kind at bay. However, his heart had been thumping wildly during the entire discussion and his blood had been boiling – while his newly-developed danger sense told him otherwise, his dragon side was getting some ideas.

He said: "Now that business is out of the way, would you care for a spar? Purely physical combat, you and me, until the first blood, how does that sound?"

Reigel stared at Gaude for a good while before saying in a slightly amused tone: "You're the most impatient one in your family so far. I remember when Grant made a similar request, he was twenty at the time. Very well, let me see what you are capable of."

After the vampire prince had accepted out of curiosity, the training field was cleared for them, leaving spectators only on the edges. The army of house elves, apparently low on work to do, took the initiative to raise those edges up in steps and transfigure the stone underneath into seats, quickly forming an arena. Once again, popcorn and refreshments were passed around, as if the elves had already expected something of the sort to happen.

What followed after that was a one-sided beating, mostly. Reigel was moving so fast that Gaude could barely see a shadow, no need to mention attempting to defend himself. The only saving grace was that Reigel seemed to have mostly speed and little power behind his strikes.

Gaude was trying to make the most of this encounter, so he closed his eyes and concentrated his senses on the surroundings, trying to awaken the Thunderbird's danger sense to a greater degree. While bruises accumulated on his body without drawing blood, Gaude let go of his thoughts, of his plans on how he should defend or get a hit in. Slowly, in the sea of danger emanating from all around him, Gaude begun sensing something a split-second before a hit landed.

This continued for a while, until Reigel asked: "Is getting beaten up a hobby of yours?"

However, by that time, Gaude had gotten a glimpse at the sensation, and managed to hone in on it.

He replied while blocking two punches out of ten: "No, I was just getting accustomed to the feeling. You just made things difficult for me since you don't hit with the intent to kill or at least cause harm."

"Oh, is that a beast's ability? It seems life will be interesting when you grow up."

Gaude decided not to rebuke the probably century-old vampire who didn't look a day over twenty, instead concentrated on the new sense he had finally grasped, progressively managing to block more and more strikes. Gaude was blissfully unaware of the fact that there were actually twelve children in total in the Dracula family, and the gap between each of them was around a hundred years.

After another minute of Gaude trying and failing to block punches had passed, Reigel said: "That's enough, you lose."

Suddenly, Gaude, was blown across the lawn, accompanied by a sharp pain in his left arm and a much stronger response from his new sense. It wasn't hit because he managed to block an attack, but instead because Reigel had aimed at it and executed the strike much faster than Gaude managed to process the warning from the thunder sense.

The slight smile on Reigel's face twitched for a split second – at the instant he was mid-strike, he had seen Gaude's arm start moving in the direction of his attack. 'Is that even possible for a human so young?', he thought. Reigel's attacks had been difficult to avoid even for Asher, the Guardian before Grant during their final spar, yet now a child had already reached this level.

Blood flowed out from the wound cut by the sharp edges of a broken bone, marking Gaude as the loser of the bout. In addition, Gaude's shoulder muscles were torn to shreds, the result of instinctively overdrawing them. It was obvious that Gaude's body couldn't keep up with the signals coming from the thunder sense.

"If that is all.", Reigel said, turning around and walking towards the exit. His wrist was numb from the force of the blow, but he gave no outwards signs of it – he had an image to maintain for his family.