Intertwined Fates 27: Battle

"So he is the man you battled with?" asked Michael.

"Yes, he is exceptionally skilled for a vampire only months old," said Joseph.

"He has a very strong will. I think I will need to use the strongest methods to get answers from him," said Michael.

"I'll try the woman. She's his wife so it might soften him up," smirked Joseph.

"I'll prepare for more interrogation. Work on the woman while I get ready," said Michael.

"Ok," said Joseph.

"Stay strong, Laura. They will find us," said Aaron.

"I know they will. We will survive this," said Laura.

"Of course we will," said Aaron reaching out to touch her cheek. The door squealed open and the guards strode in.

"Take me you bastards," goaded Aaron, they chuckled at him and launched a kick at him slamming him to the ground.

"Aaron!" shouted Laura as the guards' grabbed hold of her. She struggled against them as Aaron laid on the ground groaning in pain.

***

"Not again," sighed Carl as they walked into the trashed front room of the mansion.

"There's more ash this time," said Joy.

"Looks like they were more prepared this time," said Adam inspecting a damaged silver blade wincing as the metal burned his fingers. "Silver. Can't tell if the dagger belonged to one of your guys though."

"Most likely. I don't think the Sabre have silver plated weapons," said Carl drawing his sword, the intricate designs on the metal glinting in the dim lights of the chandeliers.

"Do we put the crates in your room, Carl?" asked Craig hauling a crate through the door.

"Yeah put them in there. We'll deal with them soon. We need to see if anybody survived first," said Carl.

"I'm sure they would have survived. They just can't be dead," said Joy with an edge of desperation surveying the piles of ash scattered throughout the living areas.

"Carl! Come at look at this. I found something," called Rachel from another room.

"What is it Rachel?" asked Carl as he stepped into the library.

"I found a pendant on the floor," said Rachel.

"I don't know whose this is," said Carl picking it up when Joy entered the room. He turned to her and asked,

"Do you know who this belongs to, Joy?"

"Yeah, that's Laura's. Aaron gave that to her on their anniversary, the night Laura got taken," said Joy.

"There was a definite struggle. The chain is broken and there's a splash of blood on the carpet," said Carl.

"The crates are in your room, Carl," said Craig from the entrance.

"We could do a tracking spell on that pendant. It might lead us to where at least Laura is. If you guys know of something that Aaron has had recent contact with and is special to him, we could try a tracking spell on him," said Katherine reaching for the pendant.

"Sure, give it a shot, Katherine," said Carl.

"I'll go into their room and see if I can find anything that belongs to Aaron." Katherine put the amulet into her palm and closed her fist around it then closed her eyes beginning an incantation after awhile of trying to find it. She opened her eyes and said "Craig, give me your hand I need a boost. I need more power to lock onto her location."

After grasping his hand she closed her eyes and restarted the incantation, Craig was jolted as a spear of energy jumped into Katherine. She gasped as her eyes were forced open from the sudden surge. Slightly breathless, she said to Joy, "I have a location for Laura, but her signal seems weak however."

"What did you find, Carl?" asked Katherine as he returned to the room.

"I found a chain that Laura gave him for his birthday two weeks ago," said Carl holding up the thin golden chain.

"I don't know if that's long enough to create a strong enough impression but we'll try it though," said Katherine

"Ready, Craig?" asked Katherine

"Yeah let's see if we can find him," said Craig after trying to get a lock for a few minutes Katherine gave up and opened her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Carl. There is an imprint there but the signals are too indistinct to get a lock, but Laura would most likely be where Aaron is. She's in an old manor house outside the city and according to the signal the spell found she's underground," said Katherine.

"So it would seem that they have taken them to the royal residence," said Carl.

"Perfect. We won't have to find them then. Let's go rescue Laura and hopefully Aaron," said Joy.

"Maybe we will find Jake and Kally there," said Carl.

"Possibly not. They disappeared during the fight. I really don't think they were taken," said Cindy as Adam and Rachel came down the hall with her.

"Cindy! You're alive!" crowed Carl.

"It's not easy getting rid of me, Carl," grinned Cindy. "Dave and Amelia are safe. I managed to get them away from the Sabre."

"So they are still..." said Carl.

"Yes unfortunately. They don't seem to be responding to anything even though all their injuries have healed," said Cindy.

"Carl, we need to get ready. The sooner we get out there, the faster we can rescue Laura and Aaron," said Joy.

"I'm concerned about Aaron. He got cut up pretty good trying to protect Laura when they were hauled out of here," said Cindy. "I don't know where he got it from but Aaron is pretty skilled with a sword."

"We've been training together with the swords since I proposed to Joy," said Carl.

"Well that explains it. Now go and get ready. Bring them home, Carl," said Cindy.

"Don't worry we will," said Carl.

***

"How is it going?" asked Joseph.

Aaron screamed in agony as Michael seared his chest with liquid silver.

"Not good I'm afraid. He just won't be broken," sighed Michael he picked up a vial of bronze looking fluid and splashed it over the silver. It vanished in the blink of an eye leaving red blistering burns over Aaron's bared chest. "Take him back to his cell, Joseph. I don't want him dying just yet, he's fun to play with. I always break them and I will break him but too much more and I fear I will kill him before I get a chance to do so."

Aaron moaned weakly as Joseph picked him up off the table and carried him through the catacombs with Michael behind him.

"How did your interrogation with his wife go?" asked Michael.

"She's as stubborn as this one is proving to be. She won't reveal anything. I can't even get her name from her," said Joseph.

"With patience we will get it from them. They can't hold out forever. If we keep them on the edge of blood hunger it should be easier to break them," said Michael.

"Good. We won't give them anything tonight then we will?" asked Joseph.

"How bad is she?" asked Michael.

"Not really bad, just unconscious. But I think Aaron might need a bit of blood because if the blood hunger bursts out of him, he'll be too strong to contain even in his current weakened state," said Joseph.

"I think that would be best," said Michael as he opened the cell door. Joseph threw Aaron in and hit the ground with a thud and a groan of pain.

"Laura..." croaked Aaron as he spotted her unmoving form on the far side of the cell.

Laura opened her eyes blearily and saw Aaron lying on the ground torchlight flickering against his raw and bloody chest.

"Aaron..." gasped Laura as she struggled to speak.

"Oh thank god you're alright," croaked Aaron.

"What about you Aaron? Are you going to be ok?" asked Laura.

"They won't break me, baby. I'm going to be fine," groaned Aaron as he struggled to move but couldn't even sit up.

"Hold on, Aaron. Carl and Joy are coming for us," whispered Laura remembering the flashes she saw of them bursting into the cell.

Aaron closed his eyes then and slipped into unconsciousness.

***

"You look amazing, Carl," said Joy as Carl stepped out of the room wearing the full set of dark red armour adorning his body.

"Damn... Murdoc really knows how to make things. This fits so well. He even knows what colour suits me best," said Carl amazed as he looked at his reflection in the mirror.

"They are going to run away in fear just from looking at you, Carl," grinned Joy.

"And you too, my warrior goddess," grinned Carl checking out the dark scarlet plates that moulded to her body.

"You look so much like a war god, Carl, with your helmet and sword together with that armour," said Joy.

"Let's go raise some hell. Let's make them sorry they ever tried to kill us," said Carl.

"Can't wait," said Joy taking a test swing of her dagger.

"Wow, you guys look absolutely amazing," said Adam as Carl and Joy left the room.

"I'm going to be using my tiger form. I'm quite hopeless with magic. That's Katherine's field of expertise," said Craig.

"You'll get better at it, Craig. I've had years of practice with these spells," said Katherine.

"Yeah right," muttered Craig rolling his eyes.

"We'll go in as a distraction to give you guys sometime to get in," said Adam.

"Then we'll take the heat off you, so you can find Laura and Aaron," said Craig.

"I'm sorry that we can't offer any support, but all of our supporters that weren't killed by the Sabre are too injured to do anything. They really wiped us out," said Cindy. "And they took Steven too! I just remembered that, but I don't know if he's still alive. He was seriously injured when they took him out of here."

"If he's there we will find him, Cindy," said Joy.

"Are we ready?" asked Carl.

"Yeah all ready to go," said Craig.

"Let's kick some royal ass," grinned Adam.

***

"We only have one more thing to take care of, my love, and then we can do whatever we want," said Miranda.

"Queen Regina won't rest until all of her threats are dealt with. But I think that if we go in with a large enough strike force we can take them out. She's only one even though she is super old and can control minds. With enough of us she won't be able to survive it," said Gregor.

"Great plan, Gregor. But what are we to do about Carl and Joy? There is something about them," said Miranda.

"Pardon me for the interrupt my lord and lady," said a voice from the door.

"Yes, Malak?" asked Miranda.

"I found something of interest that you might want to see," said Malak.

"What is this?" asked Gregor.

"It's an old book Markus had in his private archive. Some of these books are one of a kind," said Malak. "It seems that the prophecy had marked Carl from his birth to become the king, as he has royal blood in his veins. It seems that Queen Regina is not a true queen. She is an usurper who stole the crown from the rightful queen. This is the personal diary of King Carlos who was deposed by King Geoffrey four hundred years ago. The rightful queen, Queen Joanna, was assassinated by one of Regina's followers it left a hole on the throne a thousand years ago, and Regina was elected to become Queen by her most loyal supporter, the High Councillor at the time."

"So how does this link Carl to the noble blood?" asked Miranda scowling slightly.

"Once Carlos had found out what Regina had done to his wife, who he had loved for hundreds of years, he plotted revenge against her. Knowing that she had too much support in the council chambers and the fact that Geoffrey was gaining support, he had to do something before he lost all his control. He impregnated a human woman who had given birth to his child; something nobody thought could be possible as all vampires are supposed to be sterile. But there are rumours that Carlos received the kiss of the demon in the form of an injury he got battling the end of the world in London during the Black Plague. This is what enabled him to impregnate the woman with his seed, her child carried his blood through the generations," said Malak.

"So what do you want to do, Miranda?" asked Gregor.

"We can't do anything. The rightful King has come back to the throne. Queen Regina is a twisted old bitch. Carl and Joy will be far better for our people considering that it won't be long before the royal genealogist who tracks all registered vampires figures out Carl's royal blood connection," said Miranda.

"We'd get lynched. We'd be no better then Regina and her puppet king Geoffrey if we took power now," said Gregor.

"So what do you want to do Gregor?" asked Miranda.

"I don't know, but I think I will go and scout out the area. See if we can't help secure their victory," said Gregor.

"I'll be waiting back here for you, my love," said Miranda as Gregor walked over to her and kissed her passionately.

"I'll be back soon," said Gregor walking out of the room.

"That will be all, Malak. Thank you for the information," said Miranda.

***

"Here we are. Spooky looking isn't it?" asked Adam.

"Yeah. Though I can't imagine why the Queen wouldn't want to use this building. It's quite large," said Carl.

"Ok, let's get ready," said Rachel and she started undressing.

"We'll see you inside," said Adam pulling off his shirt.

"Hold on a second. We'll give you guys protection charms they should help," said Katherine she and Craig walked over to them and cast the charms over them.

"How long do we wait?" asked Joy as Katherine placed the charm on her.

"Five minutes," said Adam as he finished undressing. He dropped to the ground on his hands and knees as a thick coat of fur burst through his skin and his joints cracked and popped as they changed into wolf limbs.

"You're one massive wolf, Adam," said Carl looking over at the massive ebony wolf standing before him. Adam gave what Carl thought looked like a grin as he loped off to join Rachel who entered the abandoned looking manor. Five minutes later there was a howl that sounded like it was from underground.

"Let's go!" shouted Carl as he pulled his sword out and raced towards the mansion his armor clanking together as he ran with Joy following close behind.