"What?"

The word reverberated around the room. The sheer volume of the exclamation caused five of the six men present to jump and squirm uncomfortably. The six sat around a heavy, dark oak table that measured some twelve feet in length and five in width. If any of those present had had the time they might have noticed that the chairs did not quite match the grand table, the wood was of a different colour and the style almost matched but the plain sigils on the chairs did not quite fit in with the lavish carvings along the table's legs. The room too, was an enigma. It was huge, but completely bereft of any other furniture. There were no paintings on the walls, no tables with ornaments and no books inside the shelves that covered one of the walls. A lone chandelier hung forlornly from the centre of the room and valiantly tried to push back the gloom. At least half of its bulbs were dark and the glow from the remaining bulbs seemed to create more shadows that they banished. The stark interior only served to emphasise the size of the room, and the bare walls amplified the thunderous report as it echoed around the terrified men.

Tony Williams fidgeted nervously in his chair. He looked down at the papers on the table in front of him, but knew that all eyes were directed at him. It had been his news that had made his master explode with such anger. He took a second to swallow and nervously repeated his message.

"Romulus and his clan were killed this afternoon. His mansion was att..."

"Attacked," interrupted the figure at the head of the table. "Who would dare?" The angry figure spat the words out between pale lips drawn back over wickedly sharp teeth.

Williams felt warm liquid trickle down his leg when the figure leaned to within inches of his face. Foetid breath assaulted his senses and bile rose in his throat. He swallowed desperately to prevent his stomach from spewing its contents.

"We... we don't know for certain," he stammered finally. "There has been a group causing minor inconveniences ..."

"Is that what you call the death of an entire clan?" Nero snapped at him.

"Nnno, Lord," Williams stammered. "Of course not. But this group have never done anything ..."

"Romulus fought with me alongside Alexander, did you know that?" Nero interrupted as he appeared to lose himself in thought for a moment. Williams felt his breathing begin to slow as he watched the vampire. Maybe ...

The creature suddenly moved in a blur. One minute it was leaning over the table toward him, the next it was beside him. Williams felt the strength of its arms as fingers gripped his neck and lifted him level with its six-foot-three frame. Williams wasn't a small man at just under six feet and he was at least two stone overweight but his legs kicked free in the air regardless as the creature held him effortlessly.

He gasped for air, but only succeeded in drawing small painful breaths. Cold seemed to seep from the creature's hand into his skin and it spread throughout his body almost instantly. He had never been so cold in his life. The creature loomed towards him and he was immediately assaulted by a foul stench from the creature's mouth. The smell was vile, like someone had killed a roomful of people and left them to rot in a heated room. But there was something sweet there also, something that attracted as much as it repelled, something intoxicating and terrifying at the same time. He struggled to swallow but the creature's grip was too tight, his stomach lurched from the smell and bile burned its way up his throat. Williams felt his lungs burn as the creature's vice-like grip blocked his airway and forced the bile back down.

"Romulus was one of the council." The creature stared hard into William's eyes. "Where was his guard detail?"

Williams was turning blue when the creature finally loosened its grip. He fell to the ground and the bile in his throat spewed onto the floor and down his suit. "Dead," he finally managed through his tortured throat.

"Dead?" the creature hissed incredulously. "How many thralls did he have?"

"Twenty-five," Williams replied as he struggled to his feet. "They were slaughtered. Bodies everywhere. It was a very professional job. We arrived fifteen minutes after the silent alarm was set off in the house, but, by that time, the guards were all dead. Romulus and his clan had been dragged out in the garden, and the bastards who did it were nowhere to be seen."

The creature crossed back to its seat and sat in one fluid, catlike motion. Williams took the opportunity to stagger over to his place at the table where he continued to shake uncontrollably.

"What about the serum records?"

Williams breathed a silent sigh through his tortured throat as the creature turned its attention to Jack Norton, administrative head of the city. Williams saw Norton stiffen and grinned at the other man's misfortune. Norton took a manila folder from the pile in front of him, but before he could open it, the folder was torn from his hands.

"As you will see, all humans received their monthly quota on schedule..." Norton began.

"Don't give me that," the creature interrupted. "If they had received the serum they wouldn't be out ripping Romulus" house apart, now would they? I want a full investigation," he continued, not waiting for a reply. "Some of them have obviously found a way around it. Every one of these cattle is to be checked before and after each dose."

"But, Lord," Norton blurted out before he thought about what he was doing. "There are ..."

The vampire silenced him with a glare and Norton felt his bowels loosen as his brain finally caught up with his mouth. Was he mad? Arguing with a vampire lord was insane no matter how impossible the task he had been given.

"We could always go back to the prison system," Nero replied amiably and Norton paled.

"Nnno, Lord," he stammered as he remembered the hell that they had all gone through when the humans had been held in prisons just after the war. "We'll find a way."

Williams chuckled to himself. The sheer numbers involved in that undertaking made such an investigation impossible, but at least failure in this would take attention away from his own failure in guarding Romulus and his clan. His job would be a lot easier if the humans were locked up again like they used to be but the resources for keeping guards in every prison was prohibitive.

He shuddered as he remembered the stink of the over-crowded facilities. They had lost more humans to disease than to the vampires" feeding. That was why they had introduced the serum in the first place. Besides without the serum too many of them kept trying to escape and they had had to waste good food to make an example of them. As well as the waste involved the threat of imminent death had never seemed to deter the humans anyway and it had been a constant battle to police the human population.

The serum had changed all that. Now the humans were docile enough to be allowed to roam free within the walled cities but still able to look after themselves on a day-to-day basis. Thrall resources required were minimal and life for the thrall officers like himself had become very easy. They had the best food, the biggest houses and an almost unlimited supply of humans for their carnal pleasures. All they had to do was keep the blood flowing for their masters. It was a perfect solution, at least it had been until those bastard humans had figured out a way around the serum and had started killing their vampire masters. This wasn't their first attack but he had never brought this rebel group's actions to Nero's attention before because they were a minor nuisance. Something had changed though. The scale of this attack had shocked him. Why would they take such a risk? Why would they want to set the whole city aflame? He didn't know but he had to find them and crush them quickly. Their actions threatened his own position. Now he, and the other thrall officers around the table were in the firing line and that was not a place he wanted to be.

"Lord Nero," Williams really did not want to interrupt the creature. He knew that he was lucky to be alive, but he also knew that there were worse things than a quick death so he steeled himself and continued. "We found this beside the coffins." He leaned forward and offered the card.

Nero snapped the card so quickly Williams didn't realise the note was gone until the creature was unfolding it. He watched the vampire examine the neat flowing script and he tensed as he waited for its reaction. Williams had looked at the note earlier, when he had found it at the scene, and he fully expected the creature to fly into a rage. He wondered why the humans would add insult to their actions by baiting the vampires further. Why would they threaten them?

But Nero didn't fly into a rage. Instead the creature smiled a horrible, grotesque smile, and crumpled the note. "I want two hundred humans rounded up at random for tomorrow night. These heroes," Nero spat the word sarcastically, "will be shown the consequences of their actions."