Jerico had followed Jeremiah in, being stealthy along with him. He must've done a better job than Jeremiah too, for he noticed the vampiress upon Jeremiah. Though he did take a look behind him, making sure no one would sneak up on him, all while keeping an eye upon Jeremiah, for if he started to struggle, he would back him up.

Her stare was placed upon the bookcase. She ran her fingers across the books in search of a specific one. A journal of sorts. It's age attracted her and she decided to take it. Her hand fell upon the parchment and she grasped it quickly. She turned to Thomas and said, "Might come in handy, you know."

Her eyes scanned over the many books. Some about random stories or awkward adeventures. Save one. This particular book caught her eye. It was worn and dusty. The leather cover was torn in places. She pulled it out and sat at the table. She opened it and began to read from page 1.....

Dalthalagus pondered in a chair, away from feeding areas. There were a few other vampires in the room, and despite that they were from other covens, each of them was ready to talk. It relieved the tension.

"Y'see, I think we vampires are misunderstood. Right now, I am working on a solution to find peace and harmony between us and humans."

"Hmm... that is very noble of you Dalthalagus, but why would we want to comply with your idea if it follows through."

"Basically because it involves finding a new source of blood. If we can avoid draining humans and animals, we may be able to live peacefully among the day dwellers."

"Interesting... y'know, I might look into it."

"But what if we don't want to take a substitute. What if we want real blood? Human blood."

"I can assure you, whatever I do, it will be to find a better blood source. Heck, it may have a better taste anyway."

"What about the hunt?"

"You would probably be able to hunt humans, just not to drain them would be the key. I have not fully thought out this plan, and I have no idea if it will work. The other problem is getting other vampires to comply. Especially the Elders and heads of the covens."

The discussion continued on through the night, but changed to more friendly topics...

As Elesia quickly read the first page she discovered that this was a family bible. It had been passed down the family line for well over 1000 years, the tree was meticulously filled in, and had been for every generation, including their name, birthday as well as their date of death. But as Elesia's trained eyes danced along the names, she noticed something peculiar.

It fell upon every third male of the family line, each one was missing a date of death. This pattern continued all the way back to the trunk of the tree, the first of the family to own the bible, and the first to go without a date of death; his name was Adrian Farenheights Tepes.


Eric felt more at home as Geoffrey spoke but there was something which just picked away at him. "Where is the fang survivor I've heard so much about. Bring him here." The doors swung open as Guy made his way out of the room.

After being slighted by Geoffrey he knew he had to stay, if only to be in on the information that was being distributed amongst the covens. Making his way down several twisting hallways he came upon a door, a door which was barred and locked in more ways then most people of the day could count. After a few minutes of unlatching, unlocking and unhooking, he opened up the door. Heaving the heavy door open, the scent of stagnate air assaulted his nose, "Hurry now, your coven grows impatient."

A behemoth of a man sat upon the floor of the room with his head in his hands, but upon the mention of his coven he shakily got to his feet. They marched in unison back towards Guy's study, the giants clunking feet matching the click of Guy's for every step. As they marched into the study Guy cleared his throat to introduce the giant of the fang clan, when the giant lumbered forward knocking the Nightfall elder aside. "I am Orson Ba-" Orson's eye's caught the Fang leader who sat before him. "Eric! Is it really you?" Orson moved forward to embrace the vampire but Eric held up a single hand to hold him back.

"Orson, it has been a long time. Have they treated you well?"

"Well enough. You must know, the vampires of the fourth coven," Orson continued in a tone of speech which screamed of information he had yet to share with the nightfall. "They aren't a new coven. They are the throw-aways of our covens."

"What do you mean?" Eric was growing angry once again.

"I recognized one of them, the one who rended my arm from my chest." Orson moved his rag of a shirt over to display the shift in color between his new arm and the rest of his body. "His face delighted in the removal of my arm, I never thought I could see such cruelty from a creature I had sired myself." A look of confusion washed over Eric's face. "I sired him only 15 years ago, he ran away when he found out what he had become, I thought him for dead, but now he's returned, and he's as strong and fast as you." Orson looked up and realized he was explaining this not to an old friend but to all the coven's.

Artemis wandered among the coven non-elders, keeping a close eye on Piotr, nodding off the eyes of those who wanted something more to snack on.

Eventually he managed to find himself among a general assembly of discussion, and decided to see if other covens shared the same interests. "So...has anyone seen any of these 'Gutenburg' Bibles. I find the promise of mass printing exciting, but I just wish he would have chosen something more enticing. Chaucer perhaps." Artemis pondered aloud. He wondered if he should have chosen a little more inclusive, current wars or skirmishes perhaps, in order to include the less library-dwelling Fang, but he was well versed only in literature and swordplay, and discussing duels might have been too close to comfort for the decimated Fang. And he did like him some Chaucer.

The late as hell post of deadness and some commentary on religion!
 

Je found his way to the nearest cemetary in town. He didn't know much of local customs, but he knew that if he ran in carrying a dead corpse on his shoulder there would probably merit a horde of villagers with pitchforks.

It was the holiest ground he could find for the time being, but it would have to do. He had heard of vampires that could ressurect the dead and create "ghouls", but didn't know if it were true or not. And he didn't want to find out. Fortunately, there was an already dug grave, which missed only a tombstone and a cross.

Fortunately, there was an unmarked stone nearby, and Jager had a nicely sized one already on him. There was some comical dillemas faced with the placing of the body, and a few crows laughed when Jager fell upon the tired Je in the midst of an effort to place him in "just so." Je spent a few minutes extricating himself, and placed Jager in the grave on his back, arms crossed.

The holy cross was lain between his arms,and he was dressed in what he had worn dying. Je had no intention of stripping and dressing a dead man, no matter how important the man was to him. Je scratched the name "jager" on the tombstone as well as he could, using only his knife. There was bound to be a crypt keeper nearby for help in these matters, but they tended to be a bit too overzealous in their trade and wouldn't want him burying someone so roguely in the first place.

Then, all that was left was to say the final words. Blast. Je was no poet.

"Umm....We're err I'm gathered here today..tonight for Jager's death. Jager was...umm... a good man, and also a good vampire slayer. Despite being a bit over zealous and enjoying risking his own and my own life. Bastard. I'm surprised I'm still alive to bury him!" Je fumed, in the "anger" phase of dealing with loss.

But even he knew this was not something to say on the man's funeral. "Well, I liked you alot Jager, and I'm sorry that you died. Despite our differences, I respect you alot and your ideals. I'm sorry I'm not quite the man you are, nor will I ever be as great as you. I suppose, I suppose I'm not quite cut out for this Vampire hunting stuff, no matter what you thought. I'm only here to bury you because I ran. If I were you, I would have slain them all I suppose. Get revenge for your death. Die fighting...but, but I JUST DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Je yelled at Jagers corpse, scattering the watchful crows from their corpses.

Je balled up into a tiny ball before Jager's grave. Why? Why had fate led him here? To bind and rip him away from people he had come to care about? What kind of god allowed such a horrid place to exist?

Jager shouldn't have died. He left him here, armed yet still quite vulernable in the den of undead lions. Jager was a mad man....No. Jager was a vampire hunter. A man who threw himself into the depths despite the odds to bring light and life to the world. It is what he is, it is what he was made to be. Such a vigilant soul could not hold his head up high if he did nothing while the vampyren ran amuck. For the two cannot coexist on this plane, the righteous and the turned.

Je found himself standing up and holding his knife like a sword over Jager's grave.

"Have your final rest, worthy Hunter, for though you die in this dark place your soul shall not be ensnared within it and you will go to a place where there is no darkness. Your greatest deeds have been done, and after such wearying work, to deny you such rest would be a great sin. So rest, sleep, and return to the soil. Truely live forever by dying, and remain solid while the Vampires slowly crumble into dust. In god's name Amen."

Je was spellbound. Those words he had uttered. Were they his own? They came from his mouth, yet he could not quite claim them. Perhaps those days spent with Jager had burnt something into his head, or mayhaps what was said was something universal and would always be said at a hunters funeral. LIke some kind of natural phenomenon.....

Either way, this was creeping him out and his first impulse was to leave the general area. He quickly shoveled the loose dirt onto the grave, buried his master, and ran off into town.
---------------------------------------------------

The town was empty. Or at least no one could be seen. Perhaps they had all decided to leave or something like that. Je could find no fault with that, especially given the nearness of manor filled to the brim with vampires.

It was a rustic town, a bit in disrepair, and full of the usual spookyness that was commonplace in this region. Even London, with it's frequent rain and lack of sunny days was far more cheerful than this place by far! But despite all this, it was still a town, and no better a place to find food, medical attention, and a church. Je knew there must be some vampires after him after his escape, and Jager always made a point to say that the church was always the best place for them to lose the scent. Even if Je's faith wasn't enough, there was bound to be someone with strong faith to serve for him.

After some wandering through the abysmal heap of rundown cottages, he found a large building with a cross upon it. Thankfully, it wasn't catholic. Je's descrimination of church orders came from his father, who considered the Catholic order the "New Pharisees", who worshipped the law of the bible and some more freshly made laws more than the meaning behind them. Je's family belonged to a radical church that believe good works and piousness came naturally to those who had faith, and that if you had to learn to do such things you were going about it wrong.

They weren't very well recieved by the other christians of the age, which caused Je to have some doubts about religion in the first place. Of course, Je had to admit there was none in the world as "good" or "divine" as his father. If Je ever escaped this dreadful place, he and his father would have alot to talk about now.

But despite his relief in finding a church, he sensed something was wrong. He looked at the church carefully. Naturally, the grass and plants about the church were the only that properly and healthily grew, and the wood was more solid than any of the other buildings in the town, but there was still something wrong about it....Je looked up at the cross he had seen earlier.

Je drew his gun and loaded it.

It was upside down. While Je knew that was no big deal, as those who believed and practiced turning a cross upside down to show defiance for the cross were largely mistaken in their sinful ways, for the cross itself was meaningless and it's use as a symbol to worship was against the bible anyway. Besides, an upside down cross would only have made Jesus's and the true criminals of that age's death much more pleasant.

But there was something far worse about it. There was a dead man upon it, along with the knowledge that there was no safety to be found within. And there were vampires afoot.

He'd have a hell of a night tonight.

"I'm not a fan of The Canterbury Tales, though the thought of the Gutenburg bibles does amuse me somewhat." A man sitting lazily across a couch ran a finger along the elegant spine of a woman seated next to him. Keeping his eyes beset upon the woman before him, he continued to speak to Artemis as if they were the only two in the room. "What entranced you more, the thought of the first mass-production in history being wasted upon bibles, or the fact that the people have so much faith in god their first move into a new era of technology praises his very name."

As it does usually, time moved quickly for the vampires, they hardly even noticed the passage of times as their discussions continued. But night was rolling on quickly, there were less then two hours left till dawn when the elders came to a final decision. Petros spoke calmly as he had throughout the evening, "Now that we've agreed upon our circumstances as well as the fact we must band together our forces, mayhaps it is time we inform our coven's as well. They have every right to know what we do."

Orson nodded, he was ready to tell the story over again. As the marched into the main living room a light in the distance caught their eyes, it came from village, the light peered through the open doors Guy had never bothered to shut; the church was on fire.


The townspeoples fear subsided as the light of the churches flame illuminated the entire town. They surrounded their burning temple with tears in their eyes, it wasn't long before someone called out what seemed like a brilliant idea. "It's the manor, its always been them! Gather your weapons, we can't let this carry on any longer!"

(Lets see... I got bored so, time passed, the covens came to an agreement about how the team should be formed and who should be in it [basically the pc's, krylo and inbred will just sneak along with us], and now that the church has been set on fire the vampire hunters have something to do to.)

Marcus and the two vampires assigned to him arrived at the manor of the Nightfallers not long after Eric did. Marcus fought the urge to enter boastfully and announce his presence...but he figured that Eric had done so, and he didn't want the others to think the Fang were a one-trick pony. The knife-edge between fury and intelligence Marcus thought to himself.

He stayed primarily with the Fangs as the night wore on. He knew better than to barge in on the meeting of the Elders. The others were feasting on the "cattle" that had been pre-caught for this event. They store humans like so much meat. Marcus thought to himself. I wonder if they're Elders have left their holes to hunt in the last decade, or if they have their food brought to them on a platter.

A light in the distance caught everyone's eye. "The village church is on fire." one of the lesser Nightfallers said. Marcus smiled.

Now why didn't I think to do that?

Geoffrey was elated and dissastfied at the same time, the negotiations had gone better then he had hoped, but they had not reached the heights of what he had wanted, though his goal would come with time once this current crisis was averted. The elders of the coven had reached an agreement on how this situation would be handled, and all involved were pleased at least slightly. The plan was reasonable, and it would help cement relations between the covens, as well as solve this mystery. Unless of course there was an unforseen action, such as lighting the church of the townsfolk on fire.

The first thing Geoffrey noticed as he, Eric, Guy, and Petros walked into the main room was the firey light coming into the room from the view of the church and the town. The change upon him was almost immediate, wheras before his expression had been somber, yet also comforting and welcoming, it now was graced with the fury of one who had lived centuries. Nothing had angered him in so many years as the burning of the church, but for reasons one would attribute more to a vampire then to a human.

Geoffrey's voice rang out across the main room with a dreadful and terrible sound to it "Who. Who was the fool who lit the church on fire?" He asked pacing his words one by one emphasizing each one by looking around the room to the shocked inhabitants. "Which, which simpleton was so absent minded as to destroy the humans place of worship and of faith?". Finally his voice rang out even louder "Who was so absent minded as to destroy it?"

"Who? Do you not realize that you can take away a humans food, his home, his belongings, and even his family and with care he shall go back to his day, but you never take away their faith. What fool did this? Do you all not realize that the humans are now most likely marching towards this very manor, the first gathering of the covens in over nine hundred years? Who does not realize, that with all of this how close, how very close it is to the advent of day?"

There were no answers throughout the main room as all stood, sat, or lay in silence, none knowing who had done it. Almost all of a sudden voices sprang out cluttering the room with noise of a dozen questions and comments all spoken at once. "ENOUGH" Geoffrey yelled out displaying his power and stature as he rarely if ever did before. "We have not much time but I shall tell you all of the fourth coven before our plan of action is set in motion"

His fangs almost barred as Geoffrey fumed inside with smoldering anger he told the vampires present in the room "The fourth coven is not even a coven. They are throwouts, rejects, weaklings from our own." An instant uproar came from these words, but one silencing look was all it took for Geoffrey to quite everyone down. "Some how, some way unknown to us now they have all been endowed with powers that make them equal to an elder of our own, despite all of them being under the age of fifty years"

"The elders of all of our covens and a select group shall investigate the latest scene of the massacre of the fang to see what we will be able to find out." Geoffrey spoke the anger present on his features seemingly dissapearing, though it was impossible to tell how he felt on the inside. "Dalthalagus, William, Livia you all shall be part of the Nightfall delegation along with myself and Guy" He said indicating the two, and Livia who was the female vampire Brunette that seemed so interested in Jeremiah before.

"Artemis, Nikulas, Jerico, and Jeremiah, you shall be apart of the Spirit delegation along with Petros" Geoffrey said signaling all out in turn. Finally he called out the last group "Marcus, Telres, Kareth, and Alastar, you shall all be part of the fang delegation along with Eric." The last three names were those of assorted Fang members that had come along with the rest of the group. "Now we have to deal with those townsmen before the sun sets, due to the fools actions who set the church on fire" Geoffrey said last afirming the vampires the truth of his before words before any else noticed or even heard the townspeople coming.

With a snap of his wrist and a wave of his hand Geoffrey blew open the large double doors that comprised the main entrance to the manor with seemingly little effort revealing the oncroaching horde of humans approaching them. With a quick spin he snapped his other hand around drawing dozens of arrows out from a quiver hanging on the wall and speeding them along at almost unatainable speeds for anything other then a gun, each of the arrows impacted against the throats of one of the townspeople some even going through their necks to pierce the next person. "Stand and fight, they shall not back down, to them their faith is worth more then their life!" Geoffrey yelled to his companions after his quick almost immediate actions.

Hoping I'm being vampiric enough, or going with I'm supposed to do. Eh.
 

William had to agree. In his former life, Will was made all too aware of the vicelike grip man had for the church. His mother was a devouth catholic, who forced him to remain in church all day sunday, even when service wasn't being held. It was because of this he loathed the church and sought to skip it as much as possible.

Of course, now he could skip it as much as he wanted. And now if he went, he'd burst into flames or something. He'd not yet seen what would happen, but they had impressed upon him that it was very bad. He could feel it in his gut that a church was not the place to be, but he had assumed that was where Je had probably run off to.

He worried for Je even more so now. They had been seperated for so long, and when he'd been told a vampire hunter pair was arriving, and one fit Je's description, he was ever so hopeful. Of course, he didn't believe for one moment that Je was a vampire hunter. He could believe that perhaps Je hired a hunter to find his missing friend, unaware he no longer needed any aide.

There were some people who were vampire hunters, and he had seen a few. They were bold, daring, and devout. All three things Je wasn't. It's not that Je couldn't try to be one, it's just that he didn't have it in him as far as Will was concerned.

It did however seem that Je possessed something of power. Will had never seen anything like it. That gun, that thing he shot from it. It was as bright as the sun Will had come to reject, and it burned him for his rejection the same as well. It had killed a few of the young, and burned off a few limbs of all who were lucky enough not to be too close to it's center. The damage would heal and the attack didn't destroy or burn anything, so all could be swept up without any outroar. But Will knew that there'd be trouble for his mortal friend.

That weapon was powerful, and if there was anything he had learned from his new life, it was that the vampires kept a close eye out for anything powerful...

But before he could worry about such things, there was a task at hand. He grabbed the nearest crossbow he could find. He had passed with flying marks in archery, and knew this would be an excellant time to show his skill. He took aim at a villager and fired. The last thing that villager knew was death.

It was a masterful shot, but soon Will became aware it wasn't as masterful as he'd thought. For one of the older vampires was loading, aiming, firing, and reloading again with such speed he could have been a one man firing squad.

Damn! He was still thinking like a mortal. He had dark gifts now, and he had to use them. He took out his crossbow loaded it and fired. Another villager fell. His fangs went out as he concentrated, loading and firing, faster and faster, until he too fired supernaturally fast. But alas, it was still slower than the other vampires, and the accuracy had been sacrificed.

He sighed. Perhaps he shouldn't try too hard. They had obviously plenty of experience with a crossbow with the many years of unnatural life, and the amount of experience they had made what skill Will had almost as nothing. But he knew, that with time, such things would come easily to him as well.

He only hoped Je would understand.