Forever Young The Beginning (81 page)

The five came running from the kitchen
toward them, all calling out her name “Aimee, Aimee! Oh Aimee we
have been worried to death! Are you all right sweetheart?” Ian set
her on her feet then. Liri, Celeste, and Alandra were on their
knees beside her and they covered her face with kisses and were all
hugging her. Mustafa and Louis patiently waited their turn,
questioning Ian about what had transpired.

After the greetings and tears had
subsided somewhat, Ian drew Alandra to him and kissed her and then
while still holding her he said “I have to leave now. We found
their house and surrounded it. We’ll return when this business is
finished.” He kissed her again, turned and bounded out the door
without waiting for a response.

From a rooftop Ian surveyed the site.
He eventually saw Li and Sophia. Bounding twice he landed lightly
next to them. “Aimee’s safe with the others now. What have you
seen?”

“
Seven have gone in and none
came back out.”

“
Let’s have a meeting then.”
He stood up then and waved his arms and hooted like an owl.
Bounding to the street in front of the house he was followed by Li
and Sophia. In seconds the others joined him. He whispered and
gestured. They moved quickly and silently down the street a
bit.

“
Aimee’s safe with the
others. Sophia tells me that seven went in?”

Several said “Yes.”

“
I think we should wait an
hour more to see if any more come back. That will give us an hour
until sunrise to kill them and be gone. There’s a woman in the
cellar that will need our help to
imprint
. She’s the one that Tom saw
being taken. What do the rest of you think?”

Robert spoke then and said “When this
is done, I’ll go to my contact and call off the constables. Have
you a plan, Ian?”

“
I think that we should put
four or five at the two windows, but inside. There are likely to be
two rooms there, one window for each. The windows should be closed
after we’re in. That will help to keep people from hearing the
pistol shots.

“
What can we
expect?”

They’ll try to escape from the third
floor where they’re used to coming and going. You can kill them as
they come. Just hide inside the two rooms on that end and wait.
Close the doors and that way you’ll have a warning when they try to
get away. Again, be wary now for a latecomer to try to enter behind
you at one of the two windows! Any questions?”

No one had a question, so he turned to
Robert, Margaret, and the three young Adepts with them. “All right;
you five will shoot for the brain. Get as close as you can. You
want to hit them in the brain if possible. If not, then the spine.
That will disable them for a bit and you can hack off their heads.
If you get overrun fall back to one side and let them escape if
they’re armed. They’ll want to get away and not fight. Margaret,
don’t try to grapple or struggle with them. If you can’t cut them
down with pistol or sword, let them go. I want to check everyone’s
weapons now.”

He went one by one and adjusted a
scabbard here, a sash and pistol there as he always did, finishing
with his own family. He looked at Margaret then and said “You don’t
need to do this. We have enough help.”

“
I want to be here. I’ll
stay close to Robert.” she said. Catching Maries’ eye, she winked
at her and Marie smiled knowingly.

Speaking to the five newcomers Ian
said “Be of good courage. We’ll win this thing. We have more
weapons and we have surprise on our side. They’ll think an army has
invaded.” He shook hands with Robert, Margaret and their three
protégés and then embraced each of his family.

“
Let’s go wait at our posts
now. When I go, we all go.” He turned and bounded toward the house
and onto an adjacent rooftop and settled down as the others took up
positions all around the house on adjacent buildings.

It was a little over an hour before
dawn when four black shadows flitted into the yard and leaped
silently to the windows and melted through them. One was carrying a
bundle over his shoulder. Ian gave them a minute and then he hooted
like an owl and leaped to the ground, bounding up and into the
house. Soon the others were behind him. He glided to the stairs and
motioned the others to go past him and wait. Robert and Margaret
and one Adept entered the room and waved to them. He whispered
“Beware of latecomers.” Then he closed that door. They had stared
wide-eyed at him in his hooded black suit and then had noticed that
the whole team had the same suits on. He glided to the other room
and waved to the two Adepts whispering “Beware of latecomers.” and
then he closed that door too. Quickly he flitted to four other
rooms on the third floor and found them empty.

His team followed him then as he
glided silently down the stairs to the second floor. They split up
into two groups and silently flitted from room to room. No one was
on that floor either. They hopped up onto the handrails of the
staircase then and descended it walking on their hands. Making a
silent descent to the first floor they heard voices. As they got
closer, they could make out words “You sold the little girl so I
brought a snack here for my new mate.”

“
You took your time about
it. She must be nearly dead from the sound of her. You’d better get
down there and see to it.”

Laughter then “I barely bit her so she
hardly got any venom. I’ve waited so that she’d be nearly dead.
She’ll be all the more grateful to me. She and I will have some fun
today, or at least I will! Is there some rope down
there?”

“
Yes, in the cell with your
sweetheart.” There was the sound of tittering laughter. Ian could
hear at least two feminine laughs.

“
And why did you bring a
child? Someone will be looking for him.”

“
Not likely. He was eating
from a garbage can when I found him.”

“
Well, let’s go truss him
up. Your sweetheart won’t need all of that blood tonight. We’ll all
help drain him. Let’s be sure that your sweetheart can see us slit
his throat. I love it when they see that for the first time.” Lots
of laughter followed, and the sound of a door opening and people
descending stairs.

Ian glided forward and took out a
pistol and held it up to signal the others behind him. He glided
down the stairs into a sizeable cellar with a dirt floor. There was
the sound of voices and laughter. Ian rounded the corner and
motioned Li to his side and Andre to his other side as he advanced
silently toward the vampires. All had their backs to the
approaching group. The boy was bound and lying in a corner with a
gag in his mouth.

They were closing the distance when
one of the females turned. Her eyes widened seeing the six
black-hooded figures advancing silently. She screamed and
pandemonium broke loose. Ian had already pulled his second pistol
and he shot two males through their heads and in less than a blink
of an eye had shot two more, but not through their heads. He was
aware of pistols being discharged on each side of him as he plunged
into their midst. Li hit his target in the head with one pistol and
then got another in the gut with a second shot. Andre got one in
the head and hit another in the throat.

They all screeched and bellowed in a
blind panic as they bounded into their midst, swords flashing like
lightning. The vampires only saw a mass of black hooded figures
that were attacking with swords drawn and pistols blazing. It was a
chaotic melee now with the coven in an absolute panic, each trying
to find a way past these grim looking figures, but failing. Any who
made it past Ian, Li, and Andre faced three more, each with four
loaded pistols. The gun smoke hung thick in the air and it had
become hard to see.

Ian had one now that had a knife out
and made a lightning jab toward him. He sidestepped and cut off his
arm, kicking it away and bored in with a thrust through the gut. He
kicked that one who was roaring in pain so as to free his sword and
hacked at the neck of another twice, lopping off his head on the
second try. Li pulled a pistol and shot one of the females between
the eyes then, kicking her to one side and drawing his sword to
lunge at another.

By now two had gotten past and had
been thoroughly riddled by Marie and Sophia who had dropped their
pistols and pulled two more. Henri had shot another in his throat
and shoulder. The noise was at a crescendo, and smell of cordite
was thick in the air. It was now impossible to see anything farther
than ten feet distant due to the smoke.

One who was hit had streaked past
Henri, Marie, and Sophia. Ignoring him they kept advancing and drew
their swords. They advanced carefully in the hazy air toward the
sound of the fighting and suddenly an enemy lunged out of the smoke
running toward them with a knife in one hand. Henri sheared off his
knife arm and Marie ran him through, twisting her sword violently
as he screamed. Sophia lopped his head off then with a two-handed
stroke and kicked it to a corner of the room. The three kept
advancing as a unit, Henri at the center. As they advanced the
three decapitated three more who were thrashing around on the
ground with bullet holes in their heads

Ian, Li, and Andre had lopped off the
heads of two more and had two pinned to the ground now with their
short swords. One was minus a foot and the other minus a hand. It
was over then and the place was suddenly quiet except the two who
were moaning, pinned to the dirt by the others.

“
Who is hurt, say so now!”
said Ian. Henri said “I think we just have some cuts here.” The
others then answered. Sophia had two cuts across her abdomen and
Marie had a cut along one arm. Ian walked around to look at each
one and gave Marie and Sophia hugs and the others a slap on their
back with a grin. “Well done, everyone. Did any get past
us?

Henri said “Yes; I’d better go
upstairs. He turned and bounded out of sight up the stairs.
Margaret was lying wounded in Robert’s arms, moaning softly, and he
minus two fingers. The three Adept protégés were with them, but one
of them was missing a hand. There were two beheaded vampires on the
floor. “What happened here, Robert?”

“
One came in trying to
escape and another came through the window at the same time. Were
it not for these two they would’ve gotten away. I got a shot off
but hit one’s neck. The other cut Margaret down from behind. With
all of the noise we never heard him come through the window. The
wounded one cut off the hand of Steven here. He had a sword. My
other two companions here burst in and cut him down and finished
off the other.”

About then Ian came in and surveyed
the scene. He knelt beside Robert and Margaret and gave one of his
flasks to Robert. Shifting and holding Margaret then, he held up
another flask for her to drink from. She thanked him and began to
recover. He eased her to a place where she could lean against the
wall. Then he began to look for Robert’s fingers and found both
behind the door, carrying them to him and pressing one into place.
He held it for a half of a minute and it began to knit itself back
to his hand. Robert grimaced and nodded as he gripped it himself.
Going back to Margaret, Ian carried her to come to sit with Robert.
Henri had found Steven’s hand and had brought it to him.

“
Well done everyone. None
escaped. I have to go back downstairs. It may be best if we just
take the heads away for now and come back for the bodies
tonight.”

Grimacing with pain, Robert said
indicating his three Adept protégés “Not necessary, Ian. These
three will take care of that.”

Ian turned to them and said “See if
you can find a table cloth or bedding to bag their heads. I have to
question two of them.” He bounded away to the cellar again. Along
the way he saw Sophia sitting in the parlor with the boy, talking
with him.

Making his way through the smoky hazy
mess, he picked his way to the back of the cellar and found the
cell door closed, but unlocked. He looked at the others and said
“Anyone been in there yet?” They all shook their heads as Ian
cautioned for silence. He opened the cell and peered into the
gloomy interior trying to see through the smoky haze. His prickly
alarm started up and he felt an icy chill descend his spine, so he
cautiously proceeded in, sword drawn. Hearing a noise behind him to
his left, he turned that way. Suddenly he heard a commotion behind
him and turned in time to see a vampire bearing down on him, eyes
blazing and wielding a sword that was already starting to descend.
Suddenly a figure from behind that one bowled into him and locked
its arms around the vampire’s waist. That was just enough to cause
his sword stroke to narrowly miss Ian’s neck and hit his shoulder,
cutting it deeply. Fiery pain enveloped his shoulder area as at
that same instant, Ian transferred his sword to his left hand and
pivoted while stepping back. As the vampire moved past him, Ian
reached out and snatched the hair of his head and bore him to the
floor as the one who had attacked from the rear rolled clear. He
struck viciously downward and severed the vampire’s head from his
body, kicking it to the farthest corner of the cell. The one who
had grabbed the other one from behind bounded to her feet at
vampire speed. Ian whirled, eyes blazing like two sapphires as he
crouched, ready to launch an attack. In the same instance that one
leaped back, holding her hands to her sides, palms outward. She
said “I’m Jennifer! I’m not one of them!”