"Mmmme personally about a hundred. My other partners have sold about the same each."
"How many partners do you have?" Wilbert asked moving closer to Marcel.
"Twenty, at last count."
"When was the last count?"
"Three months before I came to London."
"All right."
Wilbert pounced. Barkley, Franklin and Gabriella took turns feeding from him. Four very old vampires finished him in no time. Athos pointed the pistol at Marcel's head and fired.
We ran back to the cave.
We told the Council members what Marcel told us.
"Thank you my friends. Benoit was not harmed?"
"No Sir, he was not with Marcel." Athos said.
"Interesting." Councilman Antonio observed.
"Thank you again. Please go and pack your things."
"You are leaving?" Franklin asked.
"Yes Franklin, my friend, we were only here for a short visit many of the young ones of our community have not been here."
"I see."
Paddy signed to Councilman Antonio. 'Is this the first time you have seen them since we arrived?' The Councilman nodded.
'I had asked them to come and see you three weeks ago to tell you what they have been up too.' The Councilman smiled.
"So my friends tell me what you have been up to since the last gathering?"
"Well for the last couple of months we have been following anyone with one of these creature trackers and ruining their business." Barkley told him.
"Good what else?"
"Well we have been travelling around like we normally do around Europe and Asia sometimes going into Russia."
Councilman Antonio knew they were hiding something he just had to be patient for them to let it slip.
We left to pack our belongings.
Early the next morning all the vampires went out to feed before we left for the 'Santana'.
By noon we were all on board the 'Santana' including Barkley and Franklin. We sailed that evening.
Councilman Antonio came to our cabin once we were on the open sea.
"Sir please sit down." Paddy offered him a chair.
"I am fine Paddy thank you. I am sure you noticed that I brought Barkley and Franklin with us."
"Yes Sir."
"They are hiding something. You guessed right Paddy. The rest of the Vampire Council will question them when we return home. Shaun has told the rest of the Guard and crew they are not to leave the ship under any circumstances."
"Yes Sir."
"Good job Paddy."
"Thank you Sir."
"I will let you go back to what ever you were doing."
"Yes Sir. Thank you Sir."
He left. We went back to unpacking our bags.
A few days later we were all on deck enjoying the sunshine. Barkley and Franklin were pacing the deck. Councilmen Samuel and Vincent were standing behind the ship's wheel chatting and watching.
