The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

A Final Defense

The tall vampire finally looked over his shoulder at the frowning slaver.

"Yet, here you finally are well after Ventru has blasted through the city's gates to ravage its way through the city, undiminished by our pogrom and looking to spill the blood of its enemies. Which, thanks to the Ventru High Lord Ingamon Lash, have been identified during his burning charge across Europe towards the inevitable confrontation we all knew would happen if we couldn't kill him right away."

Demaskieros turned to once again stare at the wall.

"Soon the enraged High Lord will be here, looking for retribution. The captive liliths will hold him at bay only until he figures out how to free them. Then he will kill everything that isn't them in this room."

"You, you said we would be safe!" one of the African councilors stammered in fear at hearing the fake Vorinov councilor make his grim prediction. "You said the Nocturnum was impregnable and that Ventru wouldn't have the power ..."

"Silence!" Demaskeiros tautly snarled without looking at the babbling councilor with enough force, the vampire immediately fell silent. "You made a blood vow in exchange for our protection, resources, and beneficial treatment for your clans, Nkosi! Now our fate will be yours!"

Demaskieros finally turned enough to stare at the trembling African councilor.

"If we escape, you have purchased the right to accompany us with your vow. But if we fall ..." he turned back to the wall.

"You will fall with us!"

Romanescu chuckled quietly at that.

"You find our precarious position amusing, slaver?" Demaskieros bit out, twisting to look over his shoulder at the Nosferatu traitor, his long, chiseled face an annoyed and disapproving mask..

"A little bit, yeah," Romanescu said with a smirk. "Fifty years of plotting and scheming, of corrupting High Lords all across Europe, and buying off councilors on the council itself to convince them to declare Ventru blood traitors at the least little provocation, because you knew the original clan would resist your coup. You replacing the Vorinov sitter to put yourself on the council to restore Toreador power, making deals with Janner and his augments, enslaving liliths across the planet in an attempt to break their power ... And yet, here you are."

The Nosferatu traitor stood.

"Hiding in the Nocturnum's council chamber, waiting for me to extract you." He made a show of dusting off his combat armor. "Like you couldn't develop your own plan of escape in the fifty years you've been plotting this coup."

"Day Witch's left teat," Truk hissed over the comms. "This idiot is giving us everything!"

"I'm not surprised," Chescu growled. "Once a traitor, always a traitor. And now he betrays his final master by revealing every sordid detail of Demaskieros's treachery! Fah! Lord Ionescu wanted this treacherous maggot gutted a decade ago. Hearing this slaver's self-important pontificating, I wish he had!"

Lash slowly nodded, both agreeing with Chescu and noting what Truk had, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. The slaver certainly had become very revealing, Romanescu confirming every theory and suggested reason for Demaskieros's efforts on the council. Which, while he appreciated the M'tada commander's reasoning, he still had to, of course, wonder why.

While the last few weeks weren't shrouded in secret, the build up to Demaskieros taking control of the council certainly had been. Decades worth of secrets had been kept as he maneuvered to put himself in position to make his move. And now his underling was letting those secrets out like blood spraying from a severed carotid.