"We're back!" I shouted, running into the hotel and jumping to the balcony of the floor with Alfred's office.
I heard things shatter and a deep demonic growl.
I froze.
Oh fuck.
Francis and Antonio exchanged shocked glances behind me, and I turned to look at them, a knot in my throat.
I'd heard that voice once before, only once.
That was the sound of Ludwig using his full strength, something he only did when he was genuinely pissed off and bloodthirsty.
Francis, Toni, and I ran in, ready for a fight to see seven members of the Star clan recovering on the floor while Ludwig gripped Alfred's throat, creating cracks in it, revealing our hardened body's true nature.
Alfred looked at us, pleading, and I ran to Ludwig and put my hand on his back.
"Ludwig," I urged, "put him down and explain what's going on."
Ludwig's ordinarily blue eyes were pitch black, but after turning to look at me, they slowly faded to red, letting his demonic side hibernate again.
He let go of Alfred, who fell onto his desk and glared daggers at Ludwig.
"It's his fault," Ludwig repeated the message in his text.
"No, it ain't," Allen said behind us. "We were had, all of us."
Antonio whipped around the face him, "explain."
"The LCAC...it's not what it stands for, not at all," Alfred spoke up instead. "At some point, it completely ignored its true purpose and began experimenting not to find lupus alterations but to toy with and experiment with humans using a wide variety of chemicals mixed with venom just to see what it would do...at least that's what I think is happening."
My heart stopped, and I was as still as a statue as I deduced what he was getting to.
Francis interrupted him, "this government agency that ___ was working for....it was them... it was you!" He snapped, and Allen tugged him back away from Alfred. Toni hissed and moved to strike Allen, but Matthew and Matt held both his arms from behind.
Toni flipped backward, twisting their arms and sending them to the ground as he broke free but was quickly restrained again, biting Matt's shoulder in desperation.
Matt flinched, and Matthew grasped Toni's neck in a releasing technique unique to vampires that forced their mouths open.
Toni made guttural hissing noises, and Francis looked aggrieved for his mate while being restrained by Allen.
Alfred continued to speak. "I have no idea what these missions they've been sending her on are all about. Maybe to test the limits of the vial's contents by giving them impossible missions meant to exert them and endanger them forcing the venom to take effect; however, it's been working."
Ludwig held my shoulder firmly, noticing my offensive stance and hand slowly forming a fist.
"Yeah, so...what all this means is I'm gonna fucking kill everyone who lied to me and experimented on innocent people, and I assume you'd like to come with me. Based on what I know on Subject 0, aka ___. She's the strongest and first survivor of the experiment; she's the only one to survive her specific formula. Everyone else has something different going on, according to the analyzation documents. I assume all other personal information was completely falsified. I was led to believe she was a man and a convict of all things."
"Fine," I grit my teeth in frustration. "You kill the man that did this, and maybe we'll call it a day, but don't think we'll ever forget this."
Francis nodded, but Toni wasn't satisfied.
"No. I will kill the man who did this," he hissed, and I felt a shiver down my spine; though I agreed with him, the malice radiating from him was enough to scare even me. I'd been on the battlefronts in wars against humans and vampires, yet Toni could scare me like no other.
"Ja. So what now?"
"We need a plan. There are vampires involved, lupus at that, so I imagine it won't be easy on our own," he mumbled.
I nodded.
I wouldn't mind getting a chance to take out all the rage I felt on the men who tore my girlfriend away from me.
How was she handling all of this? She was surrounded by vampires and people as dangerous as her, hundreds of them.
I could tell similar thoughts swarmed Francis and Antonio's minds.
Antonio grit his teeth and sends his chair flying across the room, shattering against the wall above Alfred's head.
Alfred didn't flinch, but he did glare. He wisely chose to keep his mouth shut for once in his life.
Alfred pressed a buzzer on his wall and called for Kevin, Matthew, Matt, Hudson, and Anya.
The four showed up promptly and lined up next to Allen, Amelia, and Ashlyn.
Antonio took a seat on Alfred's desk, glaring at him. I stood in front of the others, arms crossed.
I was a tactician in World War Two; it was merely a disguise, and I purposely screwed everyone over, but I had a good deal of training in plans.
I slammed my hand on Alfred's desk and growled, "give me all the information. Jetzt."
He nodded to my surprise, and his clan mates stayed silent and watchful as I waited for the aggravatingly long time it took to print out the information Alfred had though most of it was falsified.
Antonio snatched up the papers with Subject 0 printed on top and his eyes scanned over them quickly, crumpling the papers in his hands as he gripped them tightly.
Another growl rose in his throat.
"These aren't experiments. They are torture," he spat, and Francis read over his shoulder.
"Relative resistance to fire, resistance to substantial weight applied upon him...."
I felt my body burning, and I began scratching my arms, trying to alleviate the pricking feeling in my veins.
Francis eyed me carefully, and he stopped reading aloud to avoid angering me further.
Alfred's eyes darted to Francis, who shook his head.
My eyes must be turning red, I could feel my mind becoming fuzzy, and now Antonio eyed me warily too.
"Gil—"
I raised my hand to cut Francis off.
"I-I'll deal with it...." I hissed, but I felt myself losing control. I sat down on the only surviving chair and took long deep breaths.
I refuse to let sex be the only thing that calms me down. I know I have it within me, but it hasn't worked so far, and it didn't work this time, either.
I opened my eyes and stared at the beige ceiling, body sticky.
"Scheiße," I groaned.
I was alone in the room. I must've blacked out; I was so pissed off. The pricking feeling in my veins was gone even though I was still pissed off, more so now that I'd wasted time again.
I dressed and stormed back upstairs.
The office was empty, so I focused my hearing on finding Alfred's voice.
I leaped across the balcony to the opposite side of the home and burst through the doors to find everyone seated at an oval desk.
"Good, you're back. We have a game plan," Alfred informed, and I grumbled and plopped down in the seat Francis had reserved beside him.
Visible bite wounds were still healing on his neck from him being the one to subdue my venom, but we both ignored this, and I focused on Alfred.
I should've been the one to make these plans. ___ was my girlfriend after all. I'm responsible for her safety, verdammt.
"We're headed up to Michigan; that's where the compound is located. There should be five hundred and sixty-eight subjects under examination and experimentation there unless some are deployed on test runs. There should be at least five vampires on site. I suspect they're all lupus as no sane vampire would associate with them otherwise."
"Unless, of course, Vlad happens to be there," Francis added.
Alfred nodded, confirming this as a possibility.
Vlad had been a thorn in my shed since childhood—tearing off my hand just to screw with me, sending me down the path of priesthood under the assumption I was facing a demon, and then turning me into a demon feared by vampire kind—Finally I had an excuse to tear him limb from limb.
Francis knew what I was thinking and shook his head. "As much as I'd love to kill the man right now, that wouldn't be wise."
Alfred nodded again, "yeah. We need to keep him hostage and get more information on what's really happening. I get the feeling lying to me is just the tip of the iceberg; who knows what else is really going on."
"Dammit, I can't believe we have to deal with something like this," Hudson cursed.
"Yeah, Alfie, how the hell do you keep getting in these situations?" Matt asked, and Alfred grit his teeth.
"I wish I knew, but I can't see the future," he complained, and I rolled my eyes.
"No, but would it kill you to think things through?"
He glared at me.
"Did you see this coming? You spent three Damn months with her. Would you have guessed she thought she was an assassin this entire time and was under vampire experimentation?"
"Nein, who the hell would?"
"Ex-fucking-xactly," he snapped back.
Antonio growled and silenced the room.
"Anyway, back on track. Everyone in this room will be headed to the compound. I want it surrounded on all sides. It should be easy to find out where the people are, and we'll secure __. It would be safe to annihilate the rest of the experiments, and by doing so, we can test their true strength and if they pose any threat to us. After that, we'll keep any vampires hostage; if they're lupus, kill on site and get back up if you need it. I'll be having a long talk with the doctor." Alfred growled, eyes glinting.
That doctor was in for hell. That much was obvious.
"Ludwig, I'd like you to come with me specifically. We'll look more into the venom once we've got the dr talking," he added, and Ludwig nodded.
This was a fairly basic plan; it didn't need to be detailed when dealing with strength like ours. No guns or weapons to avoid, no worries about being outnumbered or immediately found. We were unstoppable in comparison.
Even vampires should be afraid to face the likes of me, Ludwig, Alfred, and his clan.
By the end of the day, we'd have ___ back.
I'll make sure of it no matter the cost.