Chapter 2: of old grudges and new wounds

Of Old Grudges and New Wounds
Friday night 17 September 2009

Eibenheizer mansion, outskirts of Paris, France 

Softly and with careful enthusiasm Caleb Eibenheizer proceeded to drink the blood of the busty, blonde bleeder woman nestled in his lap. He gently but firmly caressed her C-cup left breast with his hand while his mouth was affixed to her throat. I could do this for hours thought the 836-year old vampire prince contently as he drank deeply from the half nude woman he was fondling. 

Alas it was not to be as the door to his bedroom opened and a 6.9 ft tall dark skinned, portly but muscular man stepped in before giving a brief bow of apology “Master Caleb, your Lord Father and Lady Mother request your presence” said Benjamin Ketlyn,a Turned blood servant and Lord Arkos Eibenheizer’s most loyal warrior. 

With a sigh of annoyance Caleb reluctantly ceased feeding and after checking Alicia to ensure he hadn’t drained too much blood he laid her carefully on his four poster before carefully slicing his own wrist with his claw and feeding the exhausted woman some of his blood to help her recover from her blood loss. After throwing a blanket over his bedwarmer Caleb proceeded to use his super speed to hurriedly assemble a presentable outfit which he put on in minutes after a light shower in his walk-in bathroom.

After the required freshen up and dress up sequence was completed, centuries of practice having made it practically ingrained, Caleb stepped out of his suite and headed to the meeting area. Benjamin dutifully followed as per his duty to watch over the heir of House Eibenheizer not that Caleb needed much in terms of bodyguards, the prince having fought in his fair share of conflicts as far back as the Crusades. 

“Send Margaux to tend to Alicia and have her memory wiped of any important information before returning her to the Pleasure Garden tonight, also tell me has there been any word from Tareeq?” Caleb briskly stated and asked respectively.

“The girl will be seen to as you wish and regrettably no word has yet arrived from Tareeq in Egypt as to why those Djeeru werewolves are acting up now.” Benjamin informed his Prince before sending a message via his smartphone to the witch Margaux to see to Alicia. In but a few moments the duo had reached the meeting area of the mansion, Benjamin gave a slight bow to Caleb before speeding off to tend to other tasks for his Lord and Lady.

Caleb briefly felt some concern at Benjamin’s departure. After all as far back as he could recall, ever since Benjamin had been promoted to the position of Bloodguard Commander of House Eibenheizer, he had been allowed to attend nearly every meeting Lord Eibenheizer called, bar when all the Heads of Houses gathered together as old prejudices meant many of them scoffed at having a Turned blood present for such meetings. For Benjamin to not attend this meeting meant Arkos and Saniya must have words meant for blood family alone......which in itself was nowadays seldom good news.

Temporarily dispelling his dark thoughts Caleb drew himself up to his full 6.3 feet, adjusted his red suit which offset his Mediterranean colouring and dark black hair and proceeded to push open the doors and enter. Once inside the Prince made a brief scan of who else was present as he made for his seat at the long rectangular table in the centre of the room. As expected his father Lord Arkos sat at the head of the table, a brief smile on his face at the sight of his heir, a smile Caleb returned and also shared with Lady Saniya whom sat at the right of her husband.

Caleb kept his smile, albeit it became more sensual at the sight of his not-quite-sister Miriam. The smile dimmed though when facing the next member of the family.....his brother Daemon. When did he return to Orleans? This can’t be good if they felt the need to involve even him and aunt Tifa wondered Caleb as he tersely nodded at his brother and then greeted his uncle Robert Eibenheizer, aunt by marriage Tifa and cousin Simone. 



After Caleb took his seat Lord Arkos began the meeting in earnest. “While it gladdens myself and my lady to see all of you present I regret to inform you all that there is ill news to be shared” stated the House Head plainly. “Well apologies for being forward but in that case out with it brother, what could possibly be worse than the still growing strength of the Children of the Moon in North America which even now continues to stymie our efforts to gain a proper foothold?” asked Lord Robert not unkindly.

“I regret to inform you all that House Zaikiri has been destroyed, root AND stem” said Arkos. Dead silence reigned throughout the room as the news sunk in, Caleb for his part was left reeling in shock as he tried to fathom how could one of the oldest and most powerful vampire houses, one that boasted more Pure Blooded members than almost any other house bar one could have been extinguished. At this point Daemon slammed his fist on the table and demanded to know if there were any leads on whom was responsible. 

“Was it the Nobunaga clan?!?!? I knew we should have destroyed them when we had the chance in World War 2!” Tifa stated furiously. “Was it perhaps the demons?”asked Daemon asked less loudly but no less heatedly “It was after all the Demon Prince Memnoch who promised our people would pay dearly for breaking ties with the Fallen whom created our species.”. At a raised hand from Lord Arkos everyone calmed down and silence fell again. “I cannot say this with absolute certainty but my sources tell me that the fall of our allied House may have been the work of one man.......Ichi Kamiyon.”

At the mere mention of that name Caleb felt himself briefly shudder as among all the threats his House had ever faced, current and hypothetical, few ever instilled as much fear as that dreaded Hunter. A quick glance at his siblings showed that even Miriam and Daemon looked concerned. As they should thought Caleb For the Left Hand of Death, the Twilight Terror and the Predator of Predators is no simple Slayer. 

As the meeting progressed further Arkos revealed even further dire news. As Caleb and Simone had jointly suspected demons were starting to appear across Europe, Asia and Africa in greater numbers and frequency than they had for nearly a century not to mention there were rumours that at least two Greater Demons had surfaced in Spain. Added to that was the grave news that Houses Gehanna and Vishra had officially formed an alliance and thus were likely to move soon against House Eibenheizer to settle their old grudges, which was bad timing Caleb knew due to their own House still not being at full strength after their war with House Melark barely a decade ago.

All these topics in the discussion led to the family having to face the unenviable fact that they needed allies especially with the destruction of House Zaikiri which had been for centuries since the Renaissance their most stalwart friends. “Since our offer to the Paris Institute has been met with silence and the witches of Lohair have needless to say been wrathful since the hunts of 1854 I have taken the liberty of looking further afield for allies.....and I may have found a powerful one” declared Caleb’s mother in a determined tone. 

“Well spit it out then.” said Tifa ignoring the look Arkos shot her in anger at her flippancy at addressing his lady wife so disrespectfully. “I have recently received word that after all these decades.... House Tepes is willing to consider an alliance.” stated Lady Saniya. “Furthermore the Tepes representative made it known that they are currently intending on opening negotiations with the Hale Pack in Florida which we are invited to join-”“What the Hell!?!?!?!” at this point Daemon exploded and stood up in a rage. “Mother I do not deny that House Tepes would make a valuable ally but surely you do not imply we are to consort with mutts in the process?!?!?” 

Caleb could not help but cringe here when he saw his uncle Robert’s eyes start to turn red with anger. Few in their House knew that Robert was one of those radical vampires who didn’t subscribe to the racism that was so often present among their kind towards most other species, bar demons of course along a few other exceptions. Robert had also been the most vocal in recent meetings that their House make alliances outside of their species, especially when the Nephelim seemed to be increasing in power and numbers.

An argument occurred briefly as everyone bar Caleb and Lady Saniya argued either for or against making common cause with werewolves. Eventually Lord Arkos invoked his authority as House Head and gave the order that Caleb was to leave France to meet with the Tepes representative in North America and obtain the needed alliance even if it meant breaking bread with werewolves, their kinds ancient foes.