“Bite his dick off and let him bleed out,” she laughed. He's already dead so he won't bleed out … nor would he probably let you get into such a position. Depending what Sabin has in store and how you are suppose to conceal weapons I would play into his expectations.

“He's arrogant and powerful. He'll probably assume that you will cower some, beg a little. He won't listen to you and carry on as he wills but then you strike when he leasts expects it. Before, after, during … though he might be expecting something before hand but figuring that you're just a girl he won't worry about it I don't think. I would probably hit him when he's not looking such as if he's kissing you or sucking on a breast when he might not see it coming or only assume that you are beating at him with a fist rather than coming at him with a weapon. Come, I will take you to Sabin he can answer your questions better.”





They found Sabin a short time later. Gustav was with him though he soon left the three of them alone in the study that they found him.

Sabin had his porcellin mask off on a table next to a half drunk bottle of wine and flicked his gaze at both of them.

“I assume you are here about Demetri, or is it Kurt again?”

Walking with my sister was definately reassuring, far more so than her words. I felt that I would likely miss her if/when I got my memories back and we separated. I wondered if there was some sort of possibility that we could actually remain freinds after all of this. I didn't have a chance to ask though as we turned a corner, stepping into Sabins room. He didn't look entirely amused to see us and I wondered what we had interupted. His comment however made me give a short bark of laughter.

I looked into Sabins face as my abrupt laugh took me a little by surprise.

"Its not Kurt." I reassured Sabin "After his idiotic attempt at gaining his own freedom I'm more than happy leaving him to contemplate his own lack of sense. With any luck a moment alone will help clear his mind and he can come up with a reason why trying to sabotage someone elses best efforts to help him is a stupid idea. Its about Demetri. I was talking with Daphne about it and I was wondering if you had decided what to do, or if I should go and get some sleep while you talk about it with your two... er... I mean Daphne and Gustav."

Sabin chuckled at that revelation about Kurt. “Oh there's no problem with him sticking around here for a little longer. But Demetri does prove to be a problem. I have no doubt that you can manage to get close to him. He is powereful but overconfident too.

“We obviously cannot help you but he'll dismiss us leaving you alone with him more or less. I will offer you as a gift to him and will be seen with Gustav at my side. After we meet with him we will get out of ear shot of his commands. Daphney will deal with the security for the most part but you will have Morgan to assist you.”

Daphney's eyes widened. “Morgan!”

Sabin nodded. “Yes. He should not be affected by Demetri's powers of mental dominace too. He will make a direct line to you more or less but will no doubt be slowed down by whatever security that Daphney doesn't take care of first.

“I do not like the fact that you will be alone with Demetri though and want to see about some possibilities there to at least limit your time alone with him.

“Here,” he moved to a draw of a table here and took out a silver dagger. The pommel barely existed being that it had a huge hole through it. “This is a dagger of concealment, place your finger through the pommel.”

He waited for her too do so before the dagger transformed into a plain silver ring. “If you remove it it tranforms bac into a dagger. It is quiet rare and I would like it back afterwards.”

That had to be the among the most awesome things I had ever seen. A dagger that converted to a ring? How had I never heard about anything like this before? I really had to get something like this! Taking it off it turned into a dagger again, balanced, ornate and looking quite up for the task. I smiled and slipped it back onto my ring finger of my right hand.

"Thank you." I said, quite sincerely. I'll do my best to get it back to you, although its a little dependant on me getting out in one piece! Which from what you just said is going to require this Morgans' help... So tell me, who is Morgan?"

Sabin grinned. It was a rare dagger indeed, a magical blade at that but in a realm of fantasy based creatures had it been too much of a stretch to consider the possibility. With dominating gazes, vampiric creatures and yet the matter was pressed aside due to her fascination with the magic of the blade.

He let her play around with the dagger a little before he addressed her concern first, her question next. “Yes, if you perish I doubt that it will matter. I have only one real shot at this and it is not everyday I run across those with Vlad's bloodline. I got fortunate in finding two. But the same can be be said of fining those with Van Helsings blood either.

“You encountered Sig. And there is Morgan. He wasn't always a Morgan but changed his name to conceal his lineage. His orginal name was Otto. Otto Van Helsing, vampire hunter … he has been convienced that getting rid of Demetri is in his best interests rather than dealing with me then him afterwards. Cut off the head and he doesn't have to worry about the body so to speak.”

Magic fascinated me far more than the gifts of the undead. Being a vampire gave a pile of powers, but with it a pile of problems. Always being under your masters thumb, never seeing the sun again, needing to kill. Ick. A magic blade though... Something that literally transformed itself like this. With Vampires on my doorstep and now this I started to wonder what else.. perhaps actual magic like you read about - people that could shape reality to their will... Now thats something I could learn!

With part of my mind on the knife and the other possibilities I belatedly perked up my ears at the name. Otto Van Helsing? A dyed-in-the-wool Vampire hunter helping out a Vampire? Who the hell was this Demetri that managed to piss off so many people??

"How did you get a Vampire hunter of the Helsings to help you out? And how in the hell have you found them? I thought the Helsings were pretty much an extinct family?"

Well... in truth I never thought they existed but given everything else I had seen I modified by thoughts a little. With the ring firmly on my finger I looked up, expectantly awaiting his reply.

“There are still some distant Van Helsings left. Sig, suprisingly was one so they are not all vampire hunters as the stories make out. Well, Sig had a rather distant blood tie to them.. Otto or Morgan as he goes by hates Demetri for personal reasons governing his brothther but Demetri's security was too tight.

“I had some run ins with him some five years back, he mistook me for Demetri but found out that I was merely his pawn. He would have killed me too had it not been for a degree of luck that kept my head upon my shoulders.

“In all that time Morgan has never gotten close to his target so when I pitch a means of him getting bu security he was hesitant to do it and suspected a trap. He was reluctant to join us but realizes without us he wouldn't get such an opportunity again.”

"So... This leaves me with three questions then" I replied, a sardonic smile on my face at hearing about a vampire expericing luck. The thought behind it was simple, an adage from the back of my mind. "The devil's own luck". It made me wonder briefly about where Vampires actually came from but really there were better times than this for history lessons.

Holding up my fingers I ticked off the points.

"One. When do I meet Morgan? Two. What are you going to do with Kurt and Three. When do I get to meet this lovely Demetri I've heard so much about."

Of course the last few words were dripping with amused sarcasm. I wasn't worried, although I was pretty damned certain I would be a little closer to the time!

“Kurt will hold up here in the meantime. I do not need him arriving at Demetri's castle while I'm there and attempting to kill me while we are in the midst of all this. Norgan you will meet tomorrow night and Demetri the night after or two nights if there are any big changes to the plan that we must make. Unless there are any more questions then you're best getting some sleep. Daphney.” And the other vampire stepped forward.

“Yes, Master.”

“Show her to the guest room in the East wing, that is provided that you have no further questions for me.”

And just like that I was dismissed. I followed Daphney mostly in silence, my mind wondering about many things. About what would happen in these couple of days, about what it would be like when (if?) my memory came back to me and what would happen then. I did think that Sabin was cutting it a little fine based on the fact that my memory could come back to me in a couple of days, or perhaps even sooner. I, nor anyone else to my knowledge had any idea of how long that would be.

We reached the room and I stepped through the door into a lovely castle-suite. It was warm, and looked like I would be able to sleep well there, a blessing I certainly wasn’t going to turn down. Rather surprisingly (even to myself) I turned and gave Daphney a hug, kissing her cheek.

“Thank you Daphney” I said. I wasn’t entirely certain quite what I was thanking her for… Maybe it was just being there to talk to earlier. Maybe it was that I thought me having a decent room was because of her. But I pressed against her briefly, her cold flesh cool against my warm.

They embraced and Daphney wasn't ertain why she was being thanked. “I don't know what I did but you are welome ...” she smiled upon her, then left.

The night was actually relaxing and while she thought over the day's events, from savagely being attacked by Sig, to her dealings with Sabin, talk with Kurt and her sister she let these things come to the fore of her mind.

Sabin was probably cutting it close with her memory returnuing, if it were to come back at least … she came to realize that even uif it had that might be a small blessing. She might reall how to fight better. The vampires ould not dominate her and get any information from her in that regard but by the same token Demetri was suppose to be stronger than Sabin, and she could feel it when Sabin tried to press into her ming though it was pressed away …

That second day she was shown about the castle, giving breakfast but it had not been until evening at dinner when she met Morgan.

Damn he was tall! Larger than Sig. Broad shouldered and blond, wavy hair. He wore sunglasses and had a habit of chewing on toothpicks. He wore black, a coat opened at the front save for the top button showing off an emblazed cross on the back of it.

Oddly he broke out his own silverware and seemed weary of his host.

“So … there is no better way to get at him?” He sighed when Sabin shook his head.

“Not that I know of.”

“Now who's Anne?”

Dropping off eventually, I had slept like the dead (although that phrase might be a little inappropriate!). After pacing for a little I had shut my eyes, and the next thing I remembered it was the next night, with me stretching in the same bed that I had gone to sleep in.

I think at the back of my mind I had hoped that it was all a dream, but you didn’t go to sleep in a dream and wake up! Well… Not to my experience at any rate. So, looking to my next day of reality while having no history or memory I braced myself, made sure the door was shut and I was alone before sliding out of bed and quickly moving to the cabinet where an array of dresses was hung.

Taking a similar dress to the previous night (I rather wanted something consistant and really wasn’t in the mood for anything flowery) I changed, letting the soft fabric slide over my curves. Say what you want about Vampires but even their “cheap” dresses were luxurious!

The day went quickly, shown around the grand castle. It was.. well, grand. Impressive, overbearing and cold in places. I’m not sure how else to describe it. My questions were answered and I slowly found out about the area and the arrangements made that let the vampires exist with such impunity. Some of what was said made little sense to me but I was sure I would join in the dots when my memory returned.

I had just stepped quietly through the door when I heard the surprisingly soft voice of what had to be Morgan.

“Now who's Anne?”

“That would be me” I replied. “Morgan I presume?”

I stepped forward, holding out my hand. Politeness cost nothing and I had a feeling that this huge bear of man would be a formidable ally. Or enemy if I annoyed him which I rather hoped I wouldn’t!

Morgan was huge. His eyes, now that she had been close up to him where a deep blue like the ocean but their was a sharpness to them. They reflected the years, though he did not appear to be an overly old individual, no more than ten years her elder if she had to guess there had been a lot that he had witnessed over the years.

Her hand extended he looked down at it then at her features watching for something before his head dipped back down from her features to the swell of her breasts … no, not there actually, lower, she had assumed at first but it appeared that Morgan was ensuring that he hadn't been duped, that he color was still fleshy, that she still drew in air and was no sort of mock up then je embraced a forearm with her so she could do the same as he pulled her a little closer.

He appraised her again, nodded and seemed to see something he liked.

“Demetri will be smitten,” he said after a moment though it appeared that smitten would not be the right word here there were cruder words but Morgan had not seemed to want to use lewd languages.

“Attack me,” he near commanded, Demetri and the others watched on as if seeing what Anne was going to do here.

If she hesitated though or refrained from strking Morgan would spring to the attack stepping in with a knee as he grabbed at the back of her head to pull it down into it without any hesitation on his part other than the initial 2 or 3 seconds it took to register things on her mind ...

I was rather surprised as he looked at me so frankly, not taking my hand immediately. I suppose that he wanted to make sure I wasn't some sort of trick or something like that but even so, it wouldn't have killed him to at least shake my hand!

That thought came just as he grasped my forearm, pulling me closer, his eyes roaming around my face and eyes, making me consinue to feel a little uncomfortable with such appraisal. Uncertain what to do I held his arm (which I think I would have hard a hard time putting both of my little mitts around!). His next words made me blush. My mouth dropped open trying to form some sort of reply. The only one I could think og was a rather confused "Thank you?"

Just as those words escaped my mouth his next further confused me.

“Attack me”

I stood there, blinking. Attack him? Why in the blazes of hell would I do such a th...

A voice wordlessly boomed in my mind, and as I felt more than saw his hand whip past my face, grabbing a fistful of my hair and drag my head down. My arm came up in front of me, elbow pointed down as and my head decended, my arm was faster driving the point into the top of his leg. My head hit a fraction of a second later but on my own arm, with my elbow having arrested his rising leg and my own arm being a lot softer than his knee it reduced much of the force to almost nothing.

My next motion was vindictive and completely by reflex, no concious thought powering it. My arm, elbow lodged into the top of his leg flattened, and with a short strike curled and lanced directly to his groin.

A grunt with the impact of her elbow upon his leg though it was more a grunt of discomfort more than pain. She had not been strong enough to drive that knee down though it hit her own arm preventing too much damage though her hand lashed out as his leg began to lower, striking at his groin.

In addition to finding that he was rather endowed the blow was stringing, and more than a little discoforting. He grunted deeper then before and dropped to one knee though it had not been out of pain but rather to launch a leg at her, to sweep her legs out from under her.

Morgan did not seem to be in too much pain but as large as he was he snatched up one of the chairs at the dining table, either hurling it straight at her if she were still standing or smash it down upon her if she were prone.

They had just started, his breatning even as he came at her, no regards for fighting fair it seemed, no holding back either though the features on his face were fairly bland and unchanging making it difficult to read his intentions or the whole reason behind this attack in the first place.