Jackal Among Snakes

The ring of keys in Kretthan’s hands jingled as he fit them into their slot. The cell door opened, and the aged patrician stepped beyond. The cell looked seldom-used. He walked to a spot just beside the bucket in the room for privy use and pushed at the wall. One brick sunk in, but nothing happened. He dug his fingers against the stone beside it and pulled. The wall turned, knocking aside the bucket and leaving two entrances.

“Durran, please wait here,” Argrave commanded with a smile.

Kretthan eyed them begrudgingly, and then walked into the chamber. Argrave and Galamon followed. The humbly dressed patrician marched forward silently, and the path sloped downwards. They walked on and on, deeper into the cells.

The patrician grabbed a rod from a wall at a certain point. Galamon eyed him as though he meant to strike Argrave, and yet the patrician turned a knob on the rod and it came alive with light—a magic lamp, Argrave recognized. Now illuminated, another cell awaited them. There was a person in this one.

“Must’ve been difficult to keep him fed,” Argrave noted as he watched.

The man lifted his head, his iron fetters jingling. He bore a slight resemblance to the shrewd-eyed Kretthan. There was a lot of blood in that cell. Some of it had caked on the vampire’s face, but the areas around his mouth had been licked clean. Despite being plain brown, his eyes had an uncanny resemblance to Galamon’s in certain unpleasant moments of vampiric frenzy.

“…what do you mean to do?” the patrician asked angrily. “It’s done. My secret is found, and now confirmed. You will have my support at the council. All I ask… he’s my nephew. His mother, my sister, she… she died. I cannot. I will not,” he said emotionally, unable to even voice the idea of killing him.

Argrave rubbed at his chin. “Someone did this to him, you realize. Someone made him a vampire,” he pointed out. “Your nephew… I’d like to make use of him. These vampires in Relize—they overextended. Your vote at the council is nice, but what I need… is a little bit of help in catching that overextension.”

Kretthan eyed him warily.

#####

Argrave looked around. He was in another decadent mansion. Maybe it was just imagination on account of knowing the family well, but this place seemed quite grim. There was much more gray and black everywhere. It seemed he travelled from fancy place to fancy place without end of late.

Kretthan, his nephew, Galamon, and Durran accompanied Argrave. The nephew, whose name was Wulfgan, was kept firmly at heel by both of his companions. Durran was a little lax, but Galamon kept his hand on the back of the vampire’s neck at all times. Wulfgan was fully sated, though, and looked like a terrified young man more than a dangerous vampire at present.

“That we have not been cast out is miracle enough,” Kretthan said. “The accusation you’ve made against House Wratson will not be forgiven, even if they do not sit on the Grand Council,” the patrician said quietly. “They are one of the founding houses of Relize. Their word bears immeasurable weight.”

to us, I hope you know,” Argrave

elven vampire said gruffly as ever. “One’s been waiting in front of the door for a time. Ceiling one

doors swung open. A tall pale blonde man stood there, his expression stern and his green eyes cold. He looked quite neat. It was hard to guess his age just by appearance alone—or at least, his age when he was turned into

see we’ve decided to skip the song and dance, get right into the heat of things,” Argrave said pleasantly. “Welcome, Melan Wratson. I’m

a freshly bloodied knife. There was a strange presence to him and a deception to his appearance that was deeply unnerving. This was a man who had been cultivated and tempered over centuries. Being both an S-rank mage and a powerful

but to come,” Melan

party. Though alone and far smaller than Argrave was, Melan seemed to

did you come to my home?” Melan prompted. “With so few guards…

could give it,

opportunity, Argrave shifted on the couch. “Melan here is one of the former patricians of House Wratson. He was a C-rank mage, a long, long time ago… but he turned himself into a vampire. I don’t know the details, sadly,” Argrave shrugged wistfully. “Now, he continues to watch over his house, keep it strong, rule it from the shadows. Sometimes he makes more vampires from among his family—usually talented people. Like this, they’ve been steadily expanding their influence. Time was, Melan was content with

Argrave knew the vampire was ignorant of this newborn vampire’s existence—most of this overextension wasn’t his doing. But a big family is difficult to control, and doubly

to any number of S-rank mages that are actively hunting vampires. An army of willing participants could’ve swarmed

here,” Melan

of your family… I’ve seen a lot of vampires. Some use people like livestock. You… keep it in the family. The feeding, that is.” Argrave leaned back. “Still, the

pushing him backwards. The couch skid back, weighed down by Argrave and Kretthan both. The two vampires met. Melan was monstrously strong—far more so than a normal vampire. Even

If it pierced his flesh, Melan would have great difficulty casting spells below A-rank. And A-rank spells… well, they were quite eye-catching. The last thing a vampire coven in a big city wanted was attention. Despite all that, the vampire didn’t know many truly devastating

pain but feeling none. After experiencing that assault, he was somewhat glad Anneliese was resting at the Dandalan estate.

that might happen,” Argrave said steadily. “Little show of intimidation, is it? I get it. You want to minimize losses. After all, this is quite the big happening—anything you can do to get a better position, unnerve me… you’ll take it.” Argrave stepped a bit closer where Melan had been planted into the ground by his companion.

his outburst, and despite the axe

me to kill my

Argrave thought somewhat

that card on me,” he instead said, dismissive of the vampire’s comment. “This overambitious distant kin of yours—do with them what you will. What I want is those beyond the family, those like Wulfgan. Your family is turning people into vampires that have no relation to your family.

a crusade against vampirism

‘crusade’ we might initiate,” Argrave looked to Kretthan’s nephew calmly. “And it isn’t as though you’re tied to this

his fear somewhat and said, “You want