Florence awoke in a smelly, dark, wet cellar behind several bars.
On the outside of her cage she could see blood stained all over the floor and the furniture, which consisted of a few chairs and a table. She tried to break the bars with her vampire strength, but they were too strong for her.
She soon noticed a young girl, crying and hiding at the far end of the cage. As she went to comfort her she could see the girl, who was no older than 14, was covered in cuts and bruises.
"There were 12 of us." She whimpered to Florence. "I've been here for two weeks, and each time they take one of us outside, I can hear them screaming above. It lasts for hours each time. The last time was different however. They took two of us, a young girl and a boy, and they."
"They what?" Florence said as she tried to comfort the poor girl.
"They read from some book, and they turned him into a monster. They then made me watch as he tore her to bits! I don't know when they're coming for me but."
"Don't worry, I'll protect you." Florence said as she hugged the poor girl.
"Oh really? You couldn't even protect yourself. Would you be in our cage otherwise?" A voice from outside said.
It was the Alpha vampire that Florence had fought in the hospital. Some parts of its face were still badly burned, and once again Florence felt there was a depressing sense of familiarity to the beast's face.
The siren pushed the girl behind her and stood her ground against the monster.
"I'm not going to beg, as I know that'll only make it worse, can I just ask you who you were before you became this?" Florence said defiantly.
The monster smiled. "I believe you once knew me as the butcher of Ivory."
"Malstrom," Florence said.
"I don't understand? They hanged you years ago?" She continued.
"The book can also bring back the dead, it seems. They're picking the best and brightest for their new army." Malstrom replied.
"Even by their standards I wouldn't have thought they'd want you. Surely even vampires know you're pathetic." Florence said back.
"They don't judge me unlike you bitches. You all thought I killed that girl, you threw the noose around my neck without ever even knowing the truth."
"What do you mean?" The siren asked.
"That girl they supposedly caught me for killing. I didn't do it." Malstrom explained.
"You're lying"
"Why would I lie now? It's not like you or anyone else can hurt me. I can take what I want, but I assure you, I did not kill that girl."
"So what you're saying you were just some poor misunderstood guy that we all formed a lynch mob against. Blamed for killing his parents, his wife and his patients?"
"Oh no I killed all of them" Malstrom said in an extremely casual way. "But the last one, that slut from the brothel, I was innocent of! She was killed by one of the vampires here, before he became a vampire. He was a supposedly decent family man who didn't want his wife to know. Not that it matters now I suppose as he ate his wife yesterday. I enjoyed turning him. Still he used his connections to frame me for it, and I was hung for his crime, something I didn't even commit. Worse, it also tarnished my reputation. Now people think I was just a random killer picking off people for no reason. The patients I killed, had brought it on themselves. Smokers with gunked up lungs, people who ate too much, alcoholics. I was just clearing the deck and I always made sure their deaths were humane. Now I'm forever immortalised as a heartless killer."
"Well" Florence continued. "If it makes you feel any better I'll make you pay for the things you have actually done."
The vampire smiled. "Oh really? There's a reason I've singled you out, Florence. I know you helped testify against me when you were a little girl. Yes the master knows all about you lot, the Circus freaks. I told you I am no random butcher. You testified against me and helped to send me down to supposedly protect the people of London from me? Even though I'd saved far more people than I killed. For that reason if you can beat me here, I'll let the little brat go."
The young girl clung to Florence.
"He's the worst of them all." The girl said as she held onto the siren.
Florence wasn't sure what to do. She knew she couldn't take him in a fair fight. Still maybe she could trick the demon and buy the girl enough time to get free.
The giant vampire opened the door with its tentacles and then battered Florence to the back of the cage as she tried to fight, before wrapping its tentacle around her feet and pulling her out of the cage. The monster then threw Florence to the other side of the room before punching her into a wall. When it tried to make another move against her however, Florence jumped over its head and picked up the table behind Malstrom and smashed it over the Alpha's head, before using one of the planks from the broken table, to repeatedly hit the Alpha over the head again and again.
"Run now" Florence shouted to the young girl, who instantly obliged. The Alpha however batted Florence away, and wrapped its tentacle around the young girl and lifted her into the air.
"You lose, I'm afraid." Malstrom taunted. Florence however jumped onto the Alpha's back and dug her claws into its still burnt flesh. Her actions hurt both of them as its boiling blood burnt Florence's fingers.
The Alpha however simply swung the young girl back into Florence knocking her off. It then threw Florence back into the cage and locked the door.
Florence tried to pull the bars down, but it was no use. She was forced to watch as the Alpha wrapped its tentacles around the young girl and started to slowly crush her to death.
Meanwhile back at the Tent, Carlene had brought Ashlei and Daniel there, not wanting to risk the threat of Brian returning. The Tents magics were a lot more powerful than those that protected Carlene's mansion and could prevent any vampire or anyone else from entering. Carlene was also worried what the angry villagers would do after all of the commotion involving Brian.
"You'll be safer here." Carlene said to Ashlei who didn't respond at all.
Daniel, who was still out cold, was secured in Denika's magical chains at the corner. They still didn't know if he was going to change into a vampire or not, so they had to be sure. The Strange Boy was also left behind to protect Ashlei if Daniel did change, and somehow managed to escape the chains.
Carlene tried to comfort Ashlei, assuring her that they wouldn't be long in dealing with the vampires (even if she didn't believe it.)
Ashlei however still didn't respond. Carlene didn't know if the young girl was going to stay put or not, but sadly she didn't have time to focus on Ashlei. The vampires needed to be stopped.
Outside Denika had created a magic bubble that would encase all of the Circus Folk (except for the Strange Boy who was left on guard) and allow them to travel much quicker to Lourouse. They reached the village in about five mins thanks to Denika's magics, which would have taken four times longer otherwise. They were still cutting it fine to the limit the vampires had given them, but Denika had needed all the time she could to try and master the magics in Carlene's beehive.
When they arrived at the village it was seemingly deserted. It also stunk so badly they could smell it from miles away. It was in fact the stench of the vampires themselves. Most vampire breeds had an absolutely foul stench, so when that many congregated together, it was almost a toxic wasteland.
Many of the buildings had crumbled to bits, or at least looked worn down, though there was still a gigantic church right in the middle of the wretched place that looked more or less intact.
Denika took the Circus folk down into a square right in the middle of the town.
The Circus Master stood in front of the others calling out to the vampires. A few minutes passed before vampires from various different breeds started to emerge from all the corners of the square.
There were at least five different types of vampires, all utterly grotesque. They included three blue skinned vampires, with plated skin, green eyes and no hair. Two yellow skinned vampires with long flowing red hair and red eyes. Two vampires with huge bat-like wings, hideous snout like faces and long flowing black hair. Three vampires each with eight tentacles, flailing around and large rock like heads. And finally a woman who had a greenish hue to her skin, massive blue hair, and large claws. She looked the most human of all the monsters there, but there was something cruel about her that went beyond even being a vampire.
The monsters all had blood dripping from their fangs, as they hissed and snarled at the Circus Folk who huddled together in fear except for the Circus Master who stood his ground.
"Even just looking at you is enough to make me sick, vandal." Said a strange figure who emerged from behind the two winged vampires.
Unlike all the other vampires he looked almost completely human, though he was still incredibly thin and pale. Carlene instantly recognised him as Marcozia.
"I still can't believe it's true," Carlene said.
"Well if it isn't the traitor." Marcozia sneered.
"Oh so suddenly you're a born again vampire? Unbelievable. I remember when you used to give me shit for being a vampire. It was all, a vampire can never change, I'll always be a monster no matter what. Yet now I'm a traitor?" Carlene replied angrily.
Marcozia laughed. "Well you see that's the thing, vampires, hunters, vandals, demons. They're all just trying to survive. They'll delude themselves into thinking that they have the moral high ground, but ultimately everyone just roots for the team they are a part of. When I was a human, I was on their side and wanted to kill every vampire. Now that I'm a vampire? I'll be just as dogmatic against my former team. You on the other hand Carlene? You're an idiot. You still cling to the memory of what you once were and fight for a side that wants to kill you. I've never realised just how sad you were until now."
The vampire's words stung Carlene. She didn't doubt that what she was doing was right, but Marcozia's words did remind her of how no matter what good deeds she did the overwhelming majority of people would only ever see her as a vampire.
Marcozia continued. "You do know that I'm not going to release your friend, right?"
"A vampire that doesn't keep his word? Shocking!" Keptis said from the back.
The vampires moved closer to the Circus folk, whilst the Circus Master still stood his ground.
"I admire your courage. I didn't think either vampires or vandals were capable of it." Marcozia said.
The Circus Master responded by bowing in a mocking fashion and dropping his large top hat on the ground, upside down. Two of the yellow vampires looked into the hat out of curiosity and saw nothing. Suddenly however the Circus Master reached into the hat and pulled out two silver blades, both coated in holy water and started slashing at the two vampires. Their wounds both sizzled, though he wasn't sure if it was the holy water or the silver that had hurt them.
The Circus Master then picked the hat back up and started throwing weapons to the other Circus Folk, including Keptis' flaming chainsaw.
Keptis managed to slice the head off of one of the blue vampires as it attacked him, whilst Denika blasted the winged vampire several feet backwards with her magic. Carlene meanwhile had been given an axe which she used to hack at the vampires. She cut one of the winged beast's legs off and sliced the arm off of the blue vampire.
Unfortunately however the yellow skinned vampire's flame red hair was able to stretch out and envelope both the Circus Master and the Carlene from behind.
The hair was so strong that neither could break free. Denika who was hovering about 20 feet in the air above blasted the yellow vampire that had ensnared Carlene and the Circus Master. Unfortunately another yellow vampire used its hair to smack Denika in the chest, sending her flying across the village. The Circus Master however managed to catch the yellow vampire that had attacked him and Carlene, whilst it was off guard and stabbed it through the heart with a copper knife, killing it instantly. The Circus Master knew this breed in the far future.
The other yellow vampire that had overpowered Denika tried to ensnare The Circus Master, but Carlene tackled it from behind. Before the vampire could defend itself, The Circus Master tossed one of his knives to Carlene who stabbed it through the vampire's heart.
Keptis meanwhile fought off the tentacled vampires. He sliced off a few of the monster's tentacles with his flaming saw, but there were so many arms attacking him that they eventually knocked the saw out of Keptis' hand. One of the vampires then wrapped its tentacles around Keptis' throat and brought him to his knees. The monster prepared to strike another through the last Martian's chest, but the Circus Master stabbed one of his silver blades into the monster's long arm, and then helped Keptis up, though not before Keptis was able to grab his flaming saw.
The Circus Master jumped over twenty feet in the air onto one of the few remaining buildings with Keptis in tow, whilst Carlene and the vampires followed them.
Meanwhile back at the tent Ashlei hadn't moved for ages. She couldn't muster up the energy for anything. Not that there was anything to do mind you. Daniel hadn't woken up. He occasionally groaned, but he was still completely out of it.
Suddenly the torturous silence was interrupted by an all too familiar voice. It was Brian.
"Ashlei, Ashlei please, help me. That thing it's gone now, I don't know for how long, please!"
"What, what's going on" Daniel grumbled as he started to come round, but as soon as he looked down at the stump where his arm had once been it all came screaming back.
"Oh god Ashlei, I'm, I" suddenly he noticed Brian's voice calling from outside.
"He's here he found us" Daniel said as he struggled in the chains
"Relax he can't get in here" Ashlei said somewhat coldly.
The Strange Boy was still standing outside the tent. He hadn't moved however despite Brian calling to Ashlei.
"Why am I chained up? Is this the Circus? Where's the vampire? The Circus Master? The witch, the," Daniel asked before Ashlei interrupted him.
"They chained you up" Ashlei said as she searched through a chest.
"What? Why?"
"They said you were infected by my brother. They're not sure on whether you'll turn into one of those vampires or not. You'll have to wait a couple more hours to see if you're in the clear."
"What!" Daniel shouted in anguish. "No, oh god please tell me I won't become one of those things, please Ashlei."
"I'm sorry" Ashlei said almost with no emotion which disturbed Daniel.
"I have to see my brother now."
"What? You can't go out there. It's not your brother anymore. Ashlei, please I need your help. Ashlei!" She continued to ignore him as she marched outside to confront her inhuman brother.
As soon as she stepped outside Ashlei could see Brian was lying, as he came into view. Not that she expected her brother to be himself mind you, but it was still a shock to hear her brother's voice come from the hideous abomination. The Strange Boy instantly hopped towards Brian, but Ashlei held him back.
Brian started to cackle. "I can't believe you fell for that. You never were too bright were you sis?"
Ashlei tried to keep her cool. "I know this thing isn't who Brian really was." she said whilst trying to hold back her tears.
"You're right. It's the product of your failure. You were supposed to look out for me, for both of your little brothers and look at what happened. If those monsters had just killed me, you could have mourned for a few seconds and then forgotten me like everybody else. Instead they've immortalised your selfishness and cowardice for all time."
"I swear I never meant to leave you, I" She held back the tears. "No I know you're not him, but I do want the real Brian, if he's in there, to know that I'm sorry."
"Sorry," the vampire laughed. "Is that all you can say for letting me become this?"
"No, I meant sorry for what I'm about to do." Ashlei pulled out a small bottle of holy water that she had taken from the chest in the Circus and threw it over Brian whose flesh began to burn and sizzle just like before. Again the Strange Boy attempted to intervene and finish him, but Ashlei held the little boy back. She was determined to finish Brian herself.
As the vampire fell to the floor writhing in agony, Ashlei made a move towards the monster with a wooden stake. She stabbed it through his heart. Nothing happened however and Brian grabbed Ashlei by the throat and threw her in the opposite direction from the Circus.
Brian laughed as the holy water burned his flesh.
"You should have done your research Sis" he taunted as he pulled the stake from his chest.
The Strange Boy meanwhile jumped Brian from behind. The Jiang Shi's strength was greater than Brian's breed, but nevertheless Brian was able to use his superior body weight to push the Strange Boy back into the Tent.
Brian then caught up with Ashlei and held her by the neck, stopping The Strange Boy in his tracks.
"Try to follow me and I'll rip her to pieces." Brian continued as he headed to a nearby abandoned factory.
Once they reached it Brian shut the two gigantic, reinforced steel doors behind him and threw Ashlei to the floor in front of him.
"Let's have some fun" the monster said to Ashlei who tried to flee ahead into the darkness of the factory.
She evaded her brother for a few more minutes, but unfortunately she soon became lost. No one had set foot here for quite a long time, though the stench of misery and death was still everywhere. All she'd found in the way of weapons were a few crowbars, but nothing that would be particularly useful against a vampire.
"Oh god Circus Folk where are you?"She said bitterly whilst clutching her crowbar. "They said that creepy boy was supposed to protect us!"
Just then Ashlei heard a sound of glass breaking in the distance. "He's here, oh god."
It was so dark and cluttered ahead, her vile brother could be around any corner.
"I was right" Brian's voice came piercing through the darkness. "This is fun."
Ashlei couldn't believe she had got herself into this situation. She should never have tried to take on a vampire on her own and just let the Strange Boy deal with Brian. Ironically it had been because of her love for Brian. She was determined to be the one to free him from this nightmare.
"No" she thought, pulling herself together. "I'm not going to die in here, not by that thing wearing my brother's corpse."
Ashlei ran through the dark room ahead, not even sure where she was going, until she suddenly heard another screeching sound.
"He's just toying with me. I need to get out of here now." As she turned the corner however she suddenly bumped straight into Brian.
Brian batted the crowbar out of her hand and easily restrained Ashlei, but as the monster prepared to sink his fangs into Ashlei's neck, she managed to pull one arm free and punched her brother in his burn wounds, which threw him for a few seconds.
Ashlei then picked up her crowbar and stabbed it straight into her brother's forehead, ramming him into a nearby wall. The vampire however in response pushed Ashlei with all of its strength which sent her about ten feet across the room, after which it then pulled the crowbar out of its forehead.
Brian threw the crowbar at Ashlei, who only managed to just avoid it. Ashlei then picked the crowbar up again and hit her brother over the head with it, as he attacked her. She knocked Brian to the ground and repeatedly hit him over the head, smashing his brains in. The monster however simply got up, hissing and slabbering at its former sister. Knowing she'd never be able to fight him off or even hurt him, Ashlei again tried to flee.
Back in the village, the Circus Master (who was carrying Keptis) and Carlene had barely kept ahead from the horde of vampires by jumping from rooftop to rooftop, (or rather what was left of each rooftop in most cases.) None of the three time travellers were really sure where they were going, they just wanted to get a bit of a distance between themselves and the demonic horde and find Denika as soon as possible.
Since they fled the square, literally hundreds of vampires had started to emerge from practically every building and corner of the village.
Carlene however quickly stopped on the latest building they had landed on. It was mostly intact, compared to the other buildings in the village.
"Carlene, what are you doing? Come on!" The Circus Master shouted.
"Hang on, I think I'm picking up a scent. It's Florence, she's down there." Carlene replied.
Suddenly two new types of vampires jumped onto the roof. They both had three heads, all long and serpent like, and six arms, whilst their skin was thick, armor plated and yellow.
"Go find her, I'll hold these things off. Go now" The Circus Master said. Keptis and Carlene jumped down to an alley between the two buildings whilst more and more vampires jumped or flew onto the roof to attack the Circus Master.
The Circus Master pulled out a long sword from his hat. Its blade was made of fire just like Keptis saw. The vampires all attempted to dogpile on the Circus Master but his sword prevented any of them from getting close. Arms and tentacles and even the odd head from the attacking vampires went flying all over the roof, as the Circus Master swung his sword back and forth.
"She's in there, in the basement I can pick up her scent, only just. Come on" Carlene said.
Two vampires however had picked up Carlene and Keptis' scent and descended on either side of the alley. They were both skeletons, whilst their faces still had some flesh on the bones that was rotten and decaying. The monsters were both far stronger than their light frames suggested however, with the vampire who attacked Carlene easily overpowering her, whilst the other vampire managed to hold back Keptis' flaming saw by the handle and toss it out of his hand.
Carlene in response bit the vampire that pinned her in the throat, shocking it for a minute before she punched it in the stomach, the face and then flipped it over her shoulder onto the other vampire that was attacking Keptis.
Whilst the two vampires were down Keptis used his saw to slice one of the vampires heads off. The other vampire however jumped to its feet and struck Keptis before he could attack, knocking him to the ground. Carlene attempted to fight the monster again, but this time it was too fast for her and delivered a flurry of punches to her stomach and face. Keptis however went for the monster's legs whilst he was on the ground and sliced one of them off, before taking the monster's head off when its body fell to the ground.
Using her vampiric strength, Carlene then punched a hole in the wall, leading to the cellar in the house, which she and Keptis fled through before more vampires could pick up their scent.
In the cellar the two time travellers saw the remains of a young girl, literally ripped in half, just by the cage where Florence sat looking completely broken.
"Florence," Keptis whispered. "We're here."
"You have to get out of here it's" before the Siren could finish her warning, a massive tentacle suddenly came bursting out of the ground and grabbed Carlene by the neck, before smashing her into a nearby wall. When the tentacle attempted to grab Keptis however, he sliced it in half with his saw.
The creature the tentacle belonged to, the hideous Alpha vampire Malstrom, then burst out of the ground screaming in anger.
Keptis stabbed his saw into the monster's chest, which caused the Alpha to fall to its knees in pain. However its blood soon splashed onto Keptis' arms, burning him horribly.
Keptis dropped the saw and fell backwards, whilst Malstrom's tentacles slowly wrapped themselves around the Martian.
Florence again struggled to try and break the bars, but it was no use.
Above on the rooftop, the Circus Master had managed to hold off the vampires, with the roof now being covered in nothing but vampire body parts and entrails. Still however the relentless monsters kept attacking and eventually one of the abominations was actually able to stop the Circus Master's sword dead in its tracks.
It was a large completely orange skinned vampire. It must have stood over seven feet tall and it had piercing yellow eyes and very long fangs. The bloodsucker actually managed to hold onto the flaming blade itself, which it then snapped in half.
The Circus Master reached for his hat, but the giant creature thumped the vandal in the chest, sending him flying towards the edge of the building as well as breaking all of his ribs. (Such a punch would have caused a normal person's entire chest to collapse.)
The monster then picked up the hat and reached into it, but this proved to be a mistake. Just like Carlene's beehive, there was a booby trap system in the hat which fired various weapons into the vampire's hand.
Only one of the knives harmed the monster. A gold knife which became embedded in its hand. The Circus Master then jumped forward and reached for the hat, but the vampire pulled the gold knife out of its hand and stabbed the Circus Master in the heart, before getting him in a headlock. The Circus Master clawed in vain at the monster's arm, but the beast's hold around his neck grew tighter.
The Circus Master tried to dig his talons deep into the orange vampire's arm, but it barely made a mark. The vampire literally laughed at the Circus Masters attempts to hurt him, as did the other five vampires who gathered round to laugh at the Circus Masters plight.
As all seemed lost, a blue light enveloped the large orange vampire from behind and though it struggled, the light pulled it away off of the roof.
Another blue light blasted the five vampires in front of the Circus Master backwards off of the roof. The Circus Master then looked up to see Denika hovering above the building.
"Denika! Here I was trying to rescue you!" The Circus Master laughed as he went for his hat.
The witch scooped the Circus Master up with her magic as more vampires began to crawl up the building, and the two then flew over the village encased in a magical bubble.
"Where are we going?" The Circus Master asked.
"Marcozia. I followed him to the ruins of the church. That's where he's keeping the book. I could sense it. We have to get there now. I think he's going to turn someone else into a new Alpha."
"Well we should go back for Carlene, Florence and Keptis" The Circus Master responded.
"No time I'm afraid, if we don't move now some other poor soul will become one of those monsters." Denika insisted.
Back in the basement, Carlene had managed to get the drop on Malstrom just as he was about to crush the life out of Keptis like he had done to the young girl.
She jumped on the vampire's back and repeatedly hit him over the head with a piece of concrete that had come off the wall, ironically when Malstrom had slammed Carlene into it.
The Alpha threw Carlene off again, but this time she landed on her feet.
Malstorm roared in anger at Carlene and tried to impale her with one of his tentacles, but Carlene's reflexes were too fast and she kept dodging the monster's strikes. Carlene then tricked the Alpha by landing in front of the cage where Florence was imprisoned. When the Alpha tried to impale her, Carlene jumped up to and clung to the ceiling causing the Alpha to hit the bars instead. The Alpha's strength knocked the bars down instantly. Though Florence was also knocked down too, the siren was unharmed and instantly jumped back up and picked up one of the bars which she then used to repeatedly hit Malstrom in the face.
Florence was overcome with such rage towards the Alpha that she caught him off guard, and as he tried to fight back, Carlene started to hit the monster from behind with another slab. Carlene went for the monster's legs, whilst Florence went for his head over and over.
Malstrom however managed to wrap one tentacle around the pole and pulled it from Florence's hand and then smashed it into Carlene's face before confronting Florence.
Florence still didn't give up and jumped at Malstrom, delivering a flurry of punches to the vampire's face, though it quickly overpowered Florence.
Malstrom then held Florence by the neck with one hand and lifted her up against the wall. Keptis however used his flaming saw to slice off the arm Malstrom was using to hold Florence up. Some of his blood splashed on Florence, giving her minor burns, but not enough to deter her.
Keptis struck his saw into Malstroms back, but he was still so weak from the burns he didn't have any strength to sink it in deep, and Malstrom then spun round and struck the Martian to the ground with a tentacle. Florence however kicked the monster with both feet in the back, knocking him over and then pulled out and rammed Keptis saw deeper into the Alpha's neck. Malstrom tried to pull himself up, but Carlene, using the pole Malstrom had hit her with, impaled the former doctor to the ground.
Florence sawed the monster's head clean off. Even though its blood splashed onto her hands and burned them, Florence was so overcome with rage, she fought through the pain until she killed the monster.
"Hopefully you'll stay dead this time." Florence muttered bitterly as she started to feel the pain from her burns, whilst Carlene helped Keptis up. "I'm okay," he said to Carlene somewhat proudly.
"Trust me, I lived on a planet full of those things out there. I've been through worse. Thank you anyway." The martian insisted
"No, thank you" Florence said as she tossed the martian's saw back to him.
"We need to get back to the Circus Master, he's alone up there." Carlene said.
When the three made it back to the roof however they saw it was deserted.
"He's gone? He wouldn't leave us." Florence said with worry.
"I can't smell any vandal blood here." Carlene tried to reassure her.
Suddenly the horde below noticed the three time travellers on the roof and started to scale the building.
"We need to get out of here, now." Keptis shouted as he powered up his flaming saw.
"We need to find their prisoners. They keep humans locked up as food for the new recruits" Florence responded.
"How are we supposed to find them?" Keptis replied.
"You forget, we're vampires, we could easily pick up the scent of any humans that are left" Carlene said.
Three vampires, consisting of one Octopoid Vampire, and two yellow vampires soon emerged over the side of the building.
"We need to go now," Carlene said as she jumped onto another building, carrying Keptis with her.
The Circus Master and Denika meanwhile had reached the Church. Through the broken window, the two could see Marcozia holding the Book of Khastran itself that created each new breed of vampire, with two young men and a young woman sitting close by, tied up.
"You make me laugh." Marcozia said, mockingly to the young woman.
"We both know who you really are, yet here you're pretending to be vulnerable and weak. Trust me. You'll love being one of us." He taunted.
Denika fired a magical blast at the book, knocking it out of the vampire's hands and across the room.
"Not very smart, leaving yourself, one average vampire to guard your book." Denika taunted the former hunter before blasting an energy beam at Marcozia.
Marcozia however managed to deflect Denika's beam back at her and sent the witch flying backwards to the other end of the Church.
"I'm not an ordinary vampire. I was once like you. I spent my whole life fighting the supernatural, remember."
The Circus Master pulled a copper blade out of his hat. He knew Marcozia's breed of vampire and their weaknesses well. They weren't among the strongest, but Marcozia seemed confident that he could beat the Circus Master even unarmed.
The Circus Master tried to slash Marcozia in the face, but the monster was too quick and kicked the knife out of the Vandals hand. With another kick he knocked the hat off of the Circus Masters head.
When the Circus Master tried to reach for his hat, Marcozia, stabbed the vandal with his own knife that he had picked up and then flipped him over his shoulder.
The Circus Master jumped to his feet and unsheathed his claws. Every one of his strikes however missed Marcozia, who delivered several blows to the Circus Master's face and stomach, before throwing the vandal to the other end of the room, through some debris.
Before the Circus Master could pull himself up, Marcozia jumped on him from across the room, and held the vandal down whilst he pummelled his enemy into submission.
"Whether I'm a human or a vampire, I still love killing vandals." The former hunter said as he lifted a stake from the rubble and prepared to strike his helpless enemy.
To Be Continued