Valek opened the door to the old plantation house in New Orleans where he stayed. The house was not his, but as it was abandoned, and it was a convenience he enjoyed. He had pushed the pickup truck he had stolen from the slayers into Lake Pontchartrain. It was a deep lake and as it had done for ages untold, the lake would keep its secrets. Valek lit the fireplace in the main parlor and sat down in a large chair opposite the fire. He had poured himself a glass of brandy and twirled the glass between his hands as he stared into the fire and thought of the distant past .....

..... Valek was travelling the roads of farmland Illinois with Ru'ad, a fellow brethren he had met from the Middle East. Ru'ad was much older than he and Valek enjoyed Ru'ad's tales of debauchery when Ru'ad was a young prince in the court of the Kingdom of Armenia. Ru'ad, however, was often reckless with his feeding and killing habits and they both had several close calls with police on their journeys. Valek would scold Ru'ad about the dangers of being caught, but Ru'ad would simply close his eyes and laugh at Valek calling him "so very droll". As they were driving through a small farm community and Ru'ad decided that it was time to feed. Spying a house, slightly away from the others, they pulled the car they were driving off to the side of the road. Valek and Ru'ad got out and walked to the house, which was well lit. Valek could smell just prepared food flowing through the screen door of the home. They knocked and a woman in her late 20's, Valek would guess, answered the door. She was raven haired, not overly pretty, but attractive. They explained to her that their car had broken down and they wished to use her phone to call a towing company. In typical midwestern fashion, the woman obliged and let them both in. The woman introduced herself as Amanda as they walked into the woman's kitchen. Sitting at the table were Amanda's two preteen daughters, Rebecca and Louise. The two young girls waved hello and giggled at the two strangers as young girls are want to do. Ru'ad asked to use the woman's telephone. Amanda pointed to a black-dial telephone sitting on an endtable near the kitchen entrance. Ru'ad went to it and, with his back turned to the women, he pretended to dial the phone and talk to an imaginary garage mechanic. Ru'ad hung the phone back up and turned, smiling to the family as he spoke to Valek, "He said it shouldn't take long, not long at all." Valek could see that Ru'ad was eager for the kill. Valek looked at the two young girls and suddenly felt a pang of guilt. After his embrace, and eventual rebirth, oh so very long ago, Valek had watched his own daughter through her life as she had grown up, married a fine young man and bore him two boys. He had watched her as she grew old and gray and, with her last fading breath, passed on to that nether-region that Valek himself could never go. Pushing thoughts of guilt aside, Valek asked Amanda if she lived alone out here with her daughters. The woman smiled and said no, that her husband worked at a granary in town and would be home late. "An industrious fellow, is he?" asked Ru'ad. "He does his best. He's a good man." Amanda replied. "Yes," Valek intervened, "I'm sure he is." A pregnant pause hung over the kitchen and Valek noticed that Amanda suddenly felt nervous. "Would you both like something to drink?" she asked them. "Why, yes, we would." replied Ru'ad as he shut the back door and latched it locked. "Wh-what's going on?" asked Amanda. "Momma?" said Rebecca. Moving quickly, Ru'ad grabbed Louise at the back of her neck and yanked her roughly out of the chair she was in. Rebecca screamed and as Amanda tried to intervene, Valek slapped her hard and she fell hard against the refrigerator, bumping her head and falling unconcious. Before Louise could even utter a word, Ru'ad's fangs were deep in Louise's neck and he fed greedily; blood running down the front of Louise's white t-shirt. Rebecca screamed again and Ru'ad pulled his mouth away from Louise's neck and yelled to Valek, "Shut her up, damn you." Valek grabbed Rebecca and placed his hand over her mouth. Rebecca struggled, but could not break Valek's grip. Ru'ad resumed his feeding and Louise's arms tremored slightly as her life was drained from her body. Finished, Ru'ad dropped Louise's now dead body to the floor of the kitchen with a thud. "Young girls are always the best, Valek, their blood is soooo sweeet.", said Ru'ad wiping blood from his face with a napkin taken from the kitchen table. Valek opened his mouth to reply when he spied headlights and heard a truck pulling into the driveway of the farmhouse. Looking at Ru'ad and Ru'ad looking at Valek, they said to each other in unison, "Shit!"

"Don't panic." said Valek, "unlock the door, let him come in." Valek stepped over to a far corner of the kitchen with the still struggling form of Rebecca. Ru'ad smiled and nodded in agreement as he unlocked the back door to the house. Valek and Ru'ad watched as the man got out of his truck and walked up onto the back porch, whistling as he tossed his keys up in the air and snatched them as they fell down. Opening the screen door, the man said, "Amanda, Becky, Weezie I'm ho....". He stopped in mid sentence as he spied the blood on the floor next to Louise's corpse. Puzzled with a mix of shock, the man stared in horror at Louise's body. Not yet seeing Ru'ad and Valek, Ru'ad stepped from behind and quickly hit the man as he fell to the floor unconcious. "Now what?" asked Ru'ad. Valek smiled sardonically at Ru'ad as he said, "I've got an idea. Let's have some fun."

Water splashed onto the man's face and a harsh voice spoke to him, "Wake up." The man moaned as unconciousness seemed to grip him again, "WAKE UP!' the voice said again this time puncuating his statement with a hard slap to the man's face. The man opened his eyes. He was in the living room tied to a kitchen chair. He scanned the room and saw his wife with her hands tied behind her back laying face down upon the floor. His daughter, Rebecca, was sitting on the couch with her hands tied and folded on her lap. Her mouth had been gagged with masking tape and tears streamed down her face. His thought fell on Louise; "Weezie..... oh no" his mind cried as tears welled up in the corner of his eyes and a lump formed in his throat. "No time for tears, old man, the party is just getting started." said a man, obviously of Middle Eastern descent. The man was stripped naked to his waist. Looking in the corner of the room, the man spied another, a dark haired man, standing with his arms crossed. "Who are you?" asked the man. "Obvious first question. They always ask that." laughed the Middle Eastern man. The dark haired one in the corner smiled at the remark and laughed as well. "Not that it matters," said the half dressed man, "You'll be dead soon, but the name is Ru'ad. and my quiet friend in the corner is Valek." Valek uncrossed his arms and approached the man asking, "And you would be ??" "Dav...David Adams." Valek paused for a moment and then spoke, "Well, David, I won't dance around the subject and I'll get straight to the point. We are vampires. Yes, that's right, vampires and you and your family are our ..... I guess you could say..... our evening's entertainment". Rebecca's eyes widened as Valek spoke and she cried in terror. Ru'ad chuckled at this as he walked over to where Amanda lay on the floor and picked her up effortlessly by her bonds. Amanda winced in pain as she was lifted upon her feet. "Before we dine, old man" spoke Ru'ad "we are going to have a little fun. You don't mind if I dance with your wife, do you?" Ru'ad turned on the nearby stereo and danced in circles with Amanda. Amanda was crying and David tried to struggle in his bonds. Valek noticed the struggle and spoke "They always do that. Why can't you humans just be good food and be quiet when we kill you?" He backhanded David hard across the head and David and the chair fell on their side. Unknownst to Valek and Ru'ad, the back of the chair David was tied to cracked in the fall and became loose. David watched in a sideways glance as Ru'ad continued to dance with Amanda; his hips rubbing against Amanda's. "I dare say," said Ru'ad, "but I think that Amanda is getting turned on. Why .. yes she is .. look at those tits. They're like bullets. Hmmmm .... just ripe for the picking." Stopping their dance, Ru'ad pushed Amanda face down upon the floor of the living room. Her nose hit the floorboards and blood flowed from the impact. "Tasty indeed." said Ru'ad as he hovered over her and licked the blood from Amanda's broken nose. Straddling himself ontop of Amanda, Ru'ad tore Amanda's pants exposing her buttocks to the open air. Ru'ad unbuckled his jeans and exposed his erect penis. Lifting Amanda's hips up, Ru'ad rammed himself into Amanda's anus. Amanda screamed through her gag and David again struggled to get free only to be silenced from another blow from Valek's hand. Ru'ad rode Amanda reaching peak ecstasy and climaxed onto Amanda's back. Grabbing Amanda by the throat with one hand he turned her over onto her back. With the other hand, he grasped her left breast and brought his mouth to it and sunk his fangs into the soft flesh. Amanda struggled briefly and then finally struggled no more. As Ru'ad fed, Amanda's face turned to face David and David stared at Amanda's dead eyes. David squinted his eyes in intense grief and anger as tears flowed down his face. As Ru'ad stood up and buckled his jeans, he said to Valek, "Okay boss, its your turn." Valek turned and looked at Rebecca still sitting in horror on the living room couch. Smiling, Valek walked towards Rebecca just as the front door to the home burst open and a group of armed men enterred the home. The men carried bright lights and they shone them into Valek and Ru'ad's faces, blinding them. Valek could only make out dark shapes. "Ru'ad, I do believe that it is time to leave." Valek spoke just as a gunshot erupted in the living room and hit Valek square in the chest and knocking him back towards the kitchen. Valek sat up on his elbows and watched as Ru'ad, always the natural fighter, casually tossed one of the attackers aside and backhanded another sending him flying into the stereo, knocking it to the floor. Ru'ad laughed in pleasure as he grabbed another attacker and easily snapped the man's neck in two. Letting the body fall, Ru'ad did not see another of the group charge him with a metal spear. Turning to face the attacker too late, the spear pierced Ru'ad's chest and he fell backward onto the floor. Another of the group jammed another spear into Ru'ad's throat and blood spurted upward into the air. Valek watched Ru'ad struggle but he that his struggles would be in vain. Gathering his strength, Valek got up to his feet and rushed to the back door. The back door opened and a young man, barely into his twenties enterred the kitchen with a shotgun in his hands. Before he could react, Valek reached and snatched the shotgun out of the man's hands, turned it around and fired it point blank into the boy sending him backwards and out the door. Valek ran out the door and into the backyard. Another member of the group ran towards Valek with an axe in hand. The man swung the axe and Valek grabbed it in mid-air and threw man and axe out of his way. Not seeing any others, Valek ran into the blackened fields. As he did, he could hear Ru'ad's screams in the evening air.

...... Valek roused himself from his thoughts as the clock in the parlor bonged 4 o'clock. Dawn would be approaching soon. Placing the partially drunk glass of brandy down on a nearby end-table, Valek stood up. He would have to leave here. He had no doubt that David would find him just like he found him in Chicago, like he found him in Norfolk and Atlanta and then again in Miami. Now, David had found him here, in New Orleans. David was persistent. Driven by an unholy vengeance, Valek knew that David would not stop until one of them was dead. There were other vampires in New Orleans, and Valek made a short phone call to one of them. Moments later, a dark limousine pulled up in front of the house. A black chauffer opened the door for him and Valek stepped inside. Yes, he thought, he would meet David Adams again. This time, to finish the chase once and for all.

...TO BE CONTINUED.