The woman led me into one of the warehouses, clearly they were using this building for their den. They had probably took it over after the dead rose again and took over most of the city, if I had to guess what the corpses were outside they were either the previous inhabitants, which would be bad news for Patrick, or they had been attackers trying to take over the fortress they had. The first would require blood for blood again. Patrick was one of my people and thus I would need to avenge his family. If they were attackers then I would simply move on with my unlife.

"This is our Alpha's room." The woman spoke pointing to a door.

Upon entering an office I found myself suddenly angry, were they playing me for a fool? "Greetings corpse, I am the lord of this city."

The child in front of me couldn't have been more than fifteen years old, a young man sat at the desk as if he was the ruler of this apocalyptic world. Dark hair and dark eyes stared as if he was the unequaled ruler, the arrogance of a youth who had not found his match. "Boy, your people take this joke too far for this old one. Bring out your Alpha before I lose my temper." My voice was flat but I felt a rage burning in my chest. I have not been looked down on by another race so much in the last few hundred years.

"I am the Alpha of this pack and..."

My fist slammed through the steel desk in front of the boy. "Enough! You are not even old enough to have hair on your balls and you expect me to believe you are the Alpha of this pack? I will torture you slowly, making sure to keep you alive and awake for seven days and nights before I bleed you dry. Where. Is. Your. Alpha." With humans I would be like an iron fist within a velvet glove, but these dogs were of lesser standing and this brat dared to declare himself as the lord of the city. This entire city was my territory, no other vampires were welcome and other races were merely tolerated to maintain a balance.

Obviously my threat seemed to have gone over his head, as he stood up and took a fighting stance. "This is my territory, I don't know you, but you come to our home and kill Pack then threaten me! I won't put up with your shit!" He threw a punch only to find his arm was shattered, for one of his people it would heal within the week but the pain and shock seemed to have thrown his cool off. "AGH! What did you do?!"

"I broke your arm here..." I jammed my finger into his arm an inch from his wrist. "Here..." I jabbed the elbow joint. "And here!" I dug my claw into his shoulder. "Now, hospitality seems to have broken due to your people's actions. First I was shot on sight. Then they brought me to this pathetic creature claiming to be the Alpha... then on top of that insult you dared to attack me." I leaned in close to his face while grabbing his short hair so he couldn't move away. "To my people I am known as the Eldest, recognize me and dispair child for your actions have brought doom to your Pack."

The door burst open and I threw the child at the person who had opened the door, there was a crash followed by grunts and a gunshot. Obviously they figured out I was now hostile with them and the negotiations were short. "Foolish dogs dare to insult me! I will tear you all apart! Putting up a child to act as your Alpha, do you take me for a fool, a knave... a fucking idiot?!" I roared out into the warehouse.

Several of the werewolves were there already with weapons drawn... and the scene caught me off guard.

"The Alpha!"

"Protect our leader!"

"Shoot that crazy bastard!"

I froze for a moment, no one shot yet and I looked at the child. "You have to be fucking kidding me. This teen, this child is your Alpha?" I sighed heavily, apparently I had been played for a fool. I locked eyes with someone who was getting ready to pull the trigger. "I will rip your arms and legs off and feed them to you if you pull that trigger." No one seemed to move.

I pulled my glove off and grabbed the wounded Alpha from the floor and dragged him back into the office by his ankle. The others wanted to interfere but my threat still hung in the air. The boy tried to speak but I bit into my own flesh to draw blood and force him to drink it. My ancient blood was a powerful thing, for many who drank it they would find their injuries healing before their eyes. The arm that was shattered soon seemed to be fully restored, then I threw him into his chair. I burned a little bit of blood to seal the wound on my arm before looking at him with fire in my eyes... figuratively.

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"I will let you keep your life for now, however I am the sole Sovereign of this region, given your age I assume you know nearly nothing of your people nor their customs. Normally I would kill you all in a rage, but right now I have some things I need from your people." He went to open his mouth but I held up a hand. "Speak before I give you leave to do so and I'll kill a person here for every word, I am not in a good mood."

There was a gulp but the boy didn't speak.

"Good, you can be trained." I gave a cruel smile. "Now... I am Tullius Maximus Gaius, known as the Eldest to my fellows that you would call vampires. I am lord of this city and the nearest five hundred miles. No other may claim such a title or they will be slain. Do you wish to challenge me for dominance here? If you do, by all means, attack me, transform, speak if you think you have a chance." I waited for a handful of seconds but he didn't so much as flinch.

"Good! I have a simple question for you. Is there anyone here with the last name Murphy?" A couples seconds passed but the boy didn't speak. "You may verbally answer the questions I ask you until I say otherwise." I could hardly believe this was necessary but I did threat to kill people for every word... perhaps I over did it?

A deep breath before the boy spoke. "I don't think so..."

My cheek twitched. "What do you mean you don't think so? These people are your Pack, unless you have prisoners hidden somewhere you should know them all."

"I uh.... turned a large group shortly after the... end... I don't know them all very well, but the hierarchy forces them to listen to me."

I grabbed my hair and gave a slight tug, careful not to rip it out. I couldn't believe this, this 'Pack' was a bunch of unrelated people turned by a child. "Hoc est iocus? Is this a fucking joke to you? I should wipe you all out before you spread this like herpes." I said the last part in disgust. I had never seen such a reckless formation of a Pack before.

"I did it to save them. WIthout it everyone would have died because the zombies were beating on the walls and some of them even moved the containers!" The boy tried to argue but all he got for his trouble was a backhanded slap.

"Gather your people. I need those named Murphy, their older brother Patrick is worried about them."

The boy nodded weakly and was heading for the door before I stopped him. "What's your name child?"

"Andrew, but my friends..."

"We aren't friends."

A few minutes passed before all of the 'Pack' was gathered together. They were a mishmash of people, old to younger than Andrew, from all backgrounds, a Greek, a Scandinavian, an Oriental, there were nearly three women for every man. Total there were a little less than a score. "Ummm... this is Tullius, he's friends with someone named Patrick Murphy and is looking for Patrick's family."

"If you are related to Patrick please step forwards I would like to invite you to join our group with your brother. Or if you prefer you can stay here but I need a message to take to him to let him know you are alive so he doesn't act stupidly to try and find you." I said simply as I scanned the crowd, no one stepped forwards for a moment until the woman who took me to meet Andrew stepped forwards. "And you are...?"

"I am Brenda Murphy, Pat is my older brother."

"I see, I was told there were more of you..."

"There were." The words were simple but they held a heavy meaning, the others had likely died.

Nodding I waved her over. "How?" I glanced at Andrew as if asking if he had a hand in their deaths. However she shook her head and I nodded. "Would you like to join your brother or stay with this lot?"

There was indesicion on her face. "You will NOT be part of this Pack if you join me, I will not stand divided loyalties."

Andrew looked at me petulently, I was taking one of his people, well if she joined me and her brother I would be. This was a great insult to a were's leader of any breed. I did not care, if it was a century old Pack Alpha I might give him some respect, but a child not even multiple decades old would only receive my contempt, his actions so far have told me everything I needed to know about him. He was reckless, didn't think ahead, and didn't even know those underneath him who could end up stabbing him in the night.

"I'll come with you." Brenda eventually said with a determined nod.

"Perfect, grab your personal gear and we'll head out." I turned towards Andrew. "If you grow your pack further I will cull you all to ensure there isn't a second sort of outbreak." Some of the Pack seemed angry at this but I released my anger in a sort of fear glamour across the entire Pack. They would see short glimpses of ways I may kill them, or at least I assumed so, usually using this ability made others fearful of me.