It was a curious feeling, matching the face of the Devil to his name. A name was something abstract - you couldn't really hate it. A face, on the other hand, you could hate. Oh, you could hate it quite a bit.

The man on the laptop screen was elderly - with the appearance of a man in his eighties - bald, leaning on a walking stick. He wore the plain brown habit of a monk, simple attire but easily maintained. Wrinkles crossed his face like spider-webs. There was a look in his eyes - a look you noticed the moment you saw him - like that of a shark. Sizing you up, working out where it would be best to take the first bite.

Abbot Tain, head of the Family. The first vampire.

When looking through Rhodes' manager's laptop, Nathan and Athena had found a video message - nothing specifically intended for the manager, but a message to the whole Family. A State of the Union for those who enjoyed the taste of blood.

'My sons and daughters,' said Tain, a gentle smile on his lips. 'It's good to speak to you again.'

He was standing in some sort of grand dining hall, chandeliers glittering above and grand paintings adorning the wall. From what Athena had told Nathan about the Family, he guessed that the video was recorded in Castle Aeternum. It was supposed to be the Family's worldwide base, but nearly nobody knew where it actually was. Even among the Family members Nathan had watched Athena interrogate, it was said that only the highest leaders even knew what country it was in.

'I'm gladdened to hear that so many of you are doing well in your service to the Family - and in your own endeavours, of course,' continued Tain. 'Our Family spreads further around the world everyday, and you are all to thank for it.'

'Smug bastard,' muttered Athena. Nathan's eyes flicked to her. It seemed that her bitterness was reserved mostly for the leaders of the Family. In Nathan's eyes, every member was worthy of scorn. When they agreed to turn, they knew that they were signing up to kill people to extend their own lives. There could be no sympathy for that.

'In regards to the Circles we have relations with, those relations remain cordial. As long as we continue to leave them and their members untouched, they have no quarrel with us.' Tain's eyes suddenly took on a look of deep sadness - but to Nathan's eyes, the transition was too fast. Too sudden. Rehearsed. 'As you all know, the incident last November caused serious tension between us and the Circle of Alhazred. While I do not regret executing the members of our Family responsible, I do regret that it became necessary. Please keep that incident in mind when coming into contact with members of Sorcery Circles. I have no wish to repeat those punishments.'

Nathan paused the video. 'Last November?'

'From what my Alhazred contacts told me,' said Athena. 'A few newly turned vampires went and killed some students at that Circle. They and the one who turned them were killed by Tain for it.'

'Personally?'

'Of course not personally. Wherever that castle is, he never leaves. He got some goon to do it.'

So even the Family didn't want to mess with some people - the Circle of Alhazred must have been able to pose a threat to them, at the very least. Then again, the reason the Family had been able to spread so far was that they did their best to keep under the radar. They didn't cause trouble, or start conflicts with those who could fight back - they just spread, like a virus. Everyday, they controlled more and more, and nobody did anything to stop them - because, of course, nobody really cared.

Nathan pressed play again, and the video went on. A long speech about how the pride of the Family was what kept it together, a few personal congratulations for members who had done well in getting the Family more influence in society and, as a conclusion, Tain asking the viewer to continue their hard work for the coming year. All in all, it seemed to Nathan like thirty minutes of Tain congratulating himself for being a piece of shit leading other pieces of shit. Smug bastard indeed.

Nathan didn't speak again until half an hour later. He usually went quiet when he started thinking about the Family - the leech sucking the blood out of the world. Taking down one vampire was difficult but doable, even for him. But the Family as a whole? It seemed invincible. You kill one member, and they'll replace them soon enough. Nathan had no doubt that they'd find someone to take Calamity Rhodes' place in their plans within maybe a month. The loss of her Blood Drive might effect them, but not too harshly. If they couldn't influence people directly, they'd do it indirectly - they were good at it.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

'What would happen if Tain died?' said Nathan. They were in the car, him and Athena, on their way out of the city. They wanted to be far away before any connection could be made between them and the dead body in the community centre. Plus, Athena had apparently done quite a number on a hotel room while fighting with Rhodes' manager, so the police would want to take her in too.

'Tain?' said Athena. 'He won't die, far as I can see it - unless another leader goes for him. If that happens, they'll just be the new Tain.'

'What would happen, though? If someone outside the Family did it, I mean?'

'We can't kill Tain.'

'I never said we could.'

'You were thinking it.'

Silence for a few moments.

'What would happen?' repeated Nathan. 'You've thought about it, right?'

Athena sighed. She often answered Nathan's questions if he bugged her enough. 'I've thought about it, yeah, when I was starting out right after I was kicked out of my Circle. If he were to die - suddenly, without warning - the Family would probably split as other leaders tried to assume command. It'd probably splinter even more from there, as people lower down the ladder tried to make big for themselves too. You'd have dozens of smaller groups, instead of one colossal one.'

'That'd be good, though. They'd be easier to take down.'

'Maybe. But Tain keeps a lot of them in line, much as I hate to admit it - stops them running wild. If the Family split, a lot of people would die.'

'A lot of vampires too.'

'Not worth it - and not possible, either, like I said.'

Athena often said things were impossible. She'd been the one to bring Nathan into this fight, but sometimes he couldn't help but wonder if her heart was really in it. She was content to kill a vampire or two every month, members of the Family that wouldn't be missed, but he'd never seen the same desire for revenge that he had in her. It was like she wanted something else - and that fighting the Family was just incidental to that. He'd tried to talk to her about it in the past, but she never said a word. It probably had something to do with her exile from her Circle, but that was all Nathan had figured out.

Nathan sighed, leaned back in his seat, and closed his eyes.

-

Blood. The dream always started with the smell of blood. Then there was smoke, and he couldn't breath. Trapped in a scrunched up piece of metal, the smoke obscuring everything outside. He was going to die. He knew without a doubt, every time he had this dream, that he was about to die.

Then came the voices.

'Is this alright?' said the first. Young. Male. Nervous. 'Won't people find out?'

'Of course,' said the second, also male. Older. Patient. 'We've got it set up as a car crash. Nobody will ever know.'

There was meat around Nathan, in the wrecked car with him. The meat had used to be people close to him, but he didn't like to think about them, even when he had this dream. So they were just meat. Red. Burning. Something pulled them out the car. Something started drinking from them. Slurp. Slurp. Slurp.

Nathan didn't see a thing. He didn't see a thing.

'Um,' said the first voice. 'I think one's still alive.'

Something grabbed Nathan by the back. A hand. Strong. Impossibly strong. It could have crushed his head by merely squeezing. It pulled him, and he was out of the smoke and the meat and the fire. He was looking up at the sky. Night. The moon was out. It was pretty.

Two faces looked down at him. He couldn't make them out - he must have hurt his head in the crash. Was it a crash? He didn't remember them hitting anything.

'Ah shit,' said the older voice. 'No worries, this could be a good thing.'

'It could?' said the younger one.

'Yeah, sure. You haven't killed one yet, have you?'

I'm gonna die. It was a certainty - an inevitability. The moment the thought entered his mind, he'd accepted it. There was no choice, after all.

'Not...not yet.'

'Go on, then. It's easy - just grab the neck and squeeze. Probably doesn't even hurt if you do it that way.'

There was a moment of hesitation, then the smaller of the two figures reached down - his fingers gripped Nathan's neck. He still couldn't make out the figure's face, even when he was that close - no, he couldn't make out anything about him. He was a blur. It was less like he couldn't see and more like someone wouldn't let him see.

'Well, go on,' said the older figure, and then his head exploded.

Nathan felt the fingers on his throat release him, saw the younger figure whirl around - so fast it was a blur - just in time for a metal stake to launch itself between his ribs. There was a flash of something, and then the figure was gone. A moment later, a second stake launched itself from the darkness into the chest of the headless body on the ground. He too vanished as it penetrated his heart.

A new figure walked into Nathan's sight. A dark-haired woman, in a thick coat, with an eyepatch over one eye. In the air behind her floated several circles, like pentagrams, most of which holding a stake in the air at their centre. Only two of them did not.

She looked down at Nathan, and her face showed a mixture of horror and pity.

'You still alive?' she said.

That was where the dream ended.

Sometimes, Nathan wondered if maybe he'd died in that car crash, and that everything after was some sort of split-second dream right before the end. But then he felt pain. He was thrown across rooms, his bones were broken, an eyeball burst. He never felt pain in his dreams. So, of course, he must be awake - and like everyone else, he just had to deal with it.

What else was there to do?