“Have I not repaid every promise that I made ten times over?” Alessandro replied easily. “We live here as we wish. We have all the resources we want, all the food we could possibly need. House Dukart is feared by the black and open markets. We have political and crime based power enough for every member of my House.”

“That’s not what you promised us,” Kenneth said quietly.

“I gave you everything!” Alessandro charged at his subordinate.

Kenneth was once again locked with his old master. He moved and attacked, feigned and defended. He shifted and moved. Sometimes letting Alessandro press him, other times fighting with everything he had to gain an inch, or gain nothing. He tried to keep his back to Alessandro’s desk. The keypad lock for the elevator was there. He had to punch in the code.

Alessandro caught him with an inside uppercut and Kenneth was thrown into the air. He landed hard on the steel desk that Alessandro was sitting behind when he first stepped into the office. He blinked away the pain. Groaning he slid off the desk, but not before he punched the elevator code into the key pad mechanism.

Kneeling on the floor holding his jaw with one hand, propping himself up with the other, he looked up at his master through his eye lashes. “You promised us freedom, Alessandro. Where is it? All I do is what you tell me to do. I could have stayed in the old country under the Duces!” He heaved himself to his feet. “But I believed in the garbage that you spewed daily. Follow me to America, you said, the land of opportunity and the freedom that we would find there would be so much better than here in Italy, you said. It was bullshit! All of it!”

Alessandro squinted at his subordinate. “What is this really all about Kenneth?”

Kenneth raised two fingers.

Suddenly a rupture appeared in the bullet proof glass pane behind Alessandro. The Head of House was rocked forward. Kenneth clenched his hand into a fist in triumph.

Alessandro looked down at his abdomen and smiled. “A worthy effort Kenneth. Trying to kill me with guns and bullets?” He looked questioningly at the glass behind him.

“Guess it wasn’t made in America,” Kenneth scoffed. “Or it wasn’t rated against a fifty caliber sniper rifle, two actually.”

“Kenneth, haven’t you learned anything.” The Head of House stepped towards Kenneth. “After about a hundred and fifty years we vampires become almost impervious to gunfire anyway. Why do you think I’m still alive?” He smiled.

Kenneth returned the smile with one of his own. Alessandro hesitated and looked down at his gut. Blood was still pouring from the wound.

“What’s the matter Alessandro?” Kenneth asked with mock concern. “Having trouble? Wondering why you aren’t healing yet?”

Alessandro took another step towards Kenneth. “What’s… happening to me? What have you done?!” The Head of House stumbled but kept his balance.

Kenneth kept smiling. Trevor’s gaseous form of his compound had worked perfectly. Brian’s preparations the day prior had done its job. He had wondered if there would be a wearing off of the gas. Apparently his fear was unnecessary.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Alessandro held his gut with his hand. His face held a frozen expression of shocked disbelief.

Kenneth walked to his old master. “It’s been a rough day, Alessandro. Why don’t you take a seat!” he shoved the older vampire to the ground. He moved back around the metal desk and looked at the security feed for the elevator. Brian was there with Rachel but there was also Tyler and John, and another taller man with them. He was built with black hair. The three men were holding him and Rachel had a gun trained on him as well. Now, who might that be?

“Are you expecting anyone?” Kenneth asked.

Alessandro was gasping for air and struggling to get to the elevator, crawling on his belly like a worm.

Kenneth laughed. “How the mighty have fallen.” He walked over to the Head of House and kicked him in the gut for good measure. “Now we’re even,” he sneered.

Soon the elevator doors opened. The three guys muscled the larger figure, which Kenneth could see was a vampire, into the office.

Simon took in the scene before him, the damaged window wall, Alessandro on the floor, Kenneth standing over him, and the trail of blood left by Alessandro on the floor. He caught the pleading eyes of his friend.

Suddenly his knees bent under him and an irresistible pressure forced him down to his knees.

“Do you want to introduce me to your friend?” Kenneth asked the man on the floor.

“He drove up in a sweet looking black car,” Brain said. “He got out and the car sped off before we could do anything about it. We stopped him though. Said he was here to see Alessandro. I thought it best to bring him up ourselves.”

Kenneth nodded. “Who are you?”

Simon didn’t say anything. He struggled against the three men holding him though. They held him tightly.

“I know you’re not with House Dukart. How much could it hurt by just giving me a name?” Kenneth asked.

When Simon again said nothing, Kenneth grabbed Alessandro’s hair and yanked his head up. “You might want to say goodbye to your little fuck buddy, Alessandro.”

Rachel tossed her gun to Kenneth who caught it with one hand. He put the muzzle to Alessandro’s temple and pulled the trigger. He dropped the smoking skull back onto the floor.

Simon struggled against the three men and almost got one of his legs under him before his was kneed in the face and his leg was ripped back behind him again.

Kenneth pulled up a chair and looked at the black-haired vampire. “You know, we could be friends. Whatever he was paying you, I’ll double it. I do own House Dukart and with it, all of Los Angeles. You can have anything you want. All you need to do is swear to me. It’s not that hard, is it? Standard vampire oath of fealty. You’ll find I can be very generous when I want to be.”

Simon stared up at Kenneth with pure rage and defiance. He spit on the floor at Kenneth’s feet.

“Hmmm,” Kenneth sighed. “Well, I have ways of dealing with that too.”

Kenneth stood up and starting walking toward Simon. Simon gripped one of the wrists behind him with his bound hands. He lurched his way to his feet and he was able to throw off one vampire. With his free hand he punched the other guy in the face driving him to the ground, and threw his head back solidly connecting to the one behind him.

He dove over Alessandro and charged at vampire speeds towards the fractured window. He launched himself through the translucent pane. It shattered in a shower of glass and plastic upon impact. A normal man wouldn’t have made it. He fell down the multitude of stories toward the base of the tower.

Kenneth ran to the edge of the now broken window wall. He glared back at Brian. “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know. He just broke my grip somehow,” Tyler explained.

Brian wiped his hands on his pants. “Oh, come on. It’s not really going to matter. He probably won’t survive the fall from this height, anyway.”

Kenneth turned back to the brightening sky as dawn rapidly approached. “Would you?” he asked quietly. Not turning around, he said calmly, “Find him, Brian. And kill him.”

Brian nodded behind him. “Whatever you say, Kenneth Pacifico, Head of House Dukart.” Brian and the rest of his team piled into the elevator. The stainless-steel doors closed leaving Kenneth alone with a rapidly decaying corpse, and a night sky that was ready to give way to another dawn.

He muttered softly into the predawn breeze, “No loose ends.”