Stronger Together chapter 81 (Patreon)

My immediate reaction to the noticing our waiter was to jump and  crush him, but on reflection I decided the note was a better course of  action. The girls needed to know but saying it out loud would have  alerted him. Cinder looked momentarily confused and I realized remnant  hadn't had vampires that I'd seen, so I scrawled a quick explanation and  passed it to her. I looked at the other two intensely "Hey I forgot I  ordered that pizza at home, but since we're already here we might as  well finish dinner, the others will get it, and we can deal with it  after."

After  reading my note Cinder was all caught up and burned the napkin to ash  with an imperceptibly fast fire spell. She nodded that she'd understood  my point. Barb did the same and Kara smiled brightly and said "Sure, we  can figure it out after dinner. No need to ruin a nice night for  ourselves or for others by rushing out. What do you think you're going  to get?" The implied message that we needed the vampire away from  civilians was clear to all of us and knowing the same would be true of  us I relaxed a bit. We ordered our food and ate making companionable  chit chat. Oddly the promise of after dinner entertainment made the meal  more enjoyable not less.

The  food was amazing, I got a twenty ounce prime cowboy ribeye with garlic  mashed potatoes and a side salad. Kara got the thirty eight ounce  tomahawk ribeye for two. Cinder got the ten ounce kobe flat iron and  Barb got the six ounce maine lobster tail. They all got side salads as  well though only Kara and Cinder got the whipped garlic potatoes like i  did, Barb went all in on the lobster and got the lobster mac-and-cheese  as her side. We got a plate of the jumbo lump crab cakes to split for  the table, warning Kara she could only have one. All in all the food was  amazing and the company was better, it was one of the best nights I've  ever had.

We  considered dessert but figured we had put things off long enough and  headed out behind the building for our nights entertainment. Dinner and a  show as it were. The waited slipped out behind us, and whatever magic  he was using to mask his lack of heartbeat from Kara didn't hide him  from sight as he followed us into the parking lot. I assumed that they  hadn't been able to get close enough to see us train with River and the  wizards around and just thought we were Harry's garbage apprentices,  which was going to be a funny notion to disabuse them of, but I gestured  Kara down and decided to let the bastard monologue a bit so we could  see what he knew.

I  turned to see him step from the shadows and jumped with a fairly  convincing yelp if I do say so myself. "Oh wow, sorry buddy, didn't see  you there. You scared us. Hey, wait I know you, you're Mick right? Our  waiter? I hope I didn't forget to tip, your service was really good. I  don't have cash on me but I can go back in and change it for you if  you're worried about it." That was of course a lie, I almost always had  cash on me, it was harder to trace which was a must when you were  teleporting around the world using eldritch back roads. But we did have  cards we used at places once we'd been around enough to explain the  distance.

Mick  the vampire (or whatever his name was it said Mick on his uniform)  sneered. The sun was already setting after dinner, apparently we'd  killed a few hours in there so there wasn't really sunlight to bother  the smug vampire. His drawn lip exposed his sharp fangs and even in the  fading light his sallow skin and dark eyes were visible. "Your teacher  should have told you to be careful out on your own. I was only supposed  to observe and report but with such lambs ripe for the taking I'm sure  Lord Raucus will be most pleased. He's been in a poor mood since that  bitch Mavra sent him on this pointless errand."

Well  that was certainly a whole shit load of information. I got the feeling  this guy hadn't been able to talk to anyone recently and had been  stewing on this. I figured poking it a bit might get us more, so I put  on a feigned expression of fea. "Mavra the black court vampire? I've  heard of her, she's supposed to be one of Drakul's most powerful  lieutenants, oh gods what could she want with us?" I might have laid it  on a bit thick there, but this guy seemed to have an overdeveloped sense  of drama anyway, I was guessing his mommy or daddy vamp didn't  socialize him properly when he was a fledgeling. Sure enough the sneer  curled even more as rage painted his features.

He  pointed a finger at my cowering (I was going all out to sell this) form  and snarled "Lord Raucus is ten times the vampire that whore is! Even  for a young one his blood is strong! Mavra thinks she should be in  charge because she's been the Dark One's lap dog for a bit longer, but  Lord Raucus becomes stronger by the hour. Soon enough he'll have the  power to tear that ancient bitch apart and take his place at the Dark  One's side. Mavra doesn't even begin to approach his greatness, you  should fear his might much more than her pathetic wrath!" He voice was  an enraged hiss as he ranted about our impeding demise.

Apparently  politics and drama didn't mix well. We literally would have gotten less  information about the landscape here from a vampire news letter. There  was only one more thing I wanted to know. I forced a quaver into my  voice. "B-but why us? Harry hasn't even talked to any vampires from your  court in years? Is this still about Bianca's masquerade?" This was the  part that really threw me, the vampires had been gathering strength in  Chicago but I wasn't sure why. I didn't remember the reason in the books  but it hadn't been important enough for all this nonsense, there had to  be more to it.

Mick  threw back his head and cackled, which I imagine he was hoping was  intimidating but mostly just made him sound like Mandark from the old  Dexter's Lab cartoon. "Fools! You think Lord Raucus would be dispatched  to aid that bitch over some petty revenge. The iron crown has been  found! The Dark One will harness it's power to blot out the sun and  usher in a thousand years of darkness! Vampires will overrun the earth  and all will fear us! We-" He would have kept going I assume but his  head developed a rather sudden case of no longer being attached. I  looked around confused at the girls, but none of them had done it."

A  deep sigh rang through the alley, but no one appeared, a deep urbane  voice drawled "Poor Mikeal, always so loyal, if only you hadn't been so  incredibly stupid. Cliche as it may be to say, good help really is so  hard to find these days. I kept telling him he should just follow  orders, but his constant need for validation was a terrible combination  with his need to rant about his victories. It's a damn shame, but I  doubt he would have survived your battle anyway. Mavra may be a  condescending bitch but the Dark One put her in charge and she said you  weren't to be harmed."

Kara  couldn't find who it was either, presumably because they were using  magic to bounce their voice off every damn surface. I felt like I was  standing in an evil mosh pit. I cleared my throat, addressing the empty  air"Well then why don't you come out here and talk to us in person.  Maybe we can talk all this out. No need for us to be adversaries if you  aren't trying to kill us." I spun in circles slowly trying to locate  even a shadow out of place and I got nothing, whoever this guy was he  was fucking sneaky. I activated my magic eye spell and found the whole  place was shimmering under one huge spell. It seemed like it was some  kind of veil.

I  nodded to Barb and tapped my eyes and as soon as she focused she  grinned and nodded beginning work on breaking the seeming. The voice  spoke directly to me this time "Come now, my idiot servant may have been  rambling nonsense but he mentioned enough to get your backs up at  least. No, I'm afraid the time  for negotiation is at it's end. I'll be  withdrawing from this godforsaken mountain soon enough. Of course,  you'll doubtless try to stop me, even now you seek to break my stealth  and drag me into the light do you not?" my surprise must have shown on  my face. "Oh children, there is no need for rudeness, should you wish to  see whats behind my veil, you need only ask."

And  as he said that, he dropped the illusion hiding the entire alley from  us. Unfortunately there wasn't a vampire behind us. There was about  fifty living breathing humans with wild eyes and enraged snarls.  Thralls. Wily bastard had guessed we had something up out sleeves and  set up a field of meat shields. Hell he might not even be in the city  anymore, we'd been talking more than long enough for him to slip off  into the nevernever, Cinder stepped forward, white orange fire blazing  up next to one eye, but I put out a hand.

She  stopped and looked at me confused, I shook my head "Wait. They're  thralls, they might not even know what's going on. We need to subdue  them and call River and the wizards. They might be able to help, or  worst case we might need to get Raven up here to look at them once this  is all over. Just, no killing, even if they try to kill you first. We're  strong enough not to need to anyway." Cinder stared for a second but  nodded solemnly and we all went to work. Barb and Kara both moved  forward with ease having been more than trained for this sort of combat.

I  pulled my lightning aspect around me and...froze. I had no idea how to  non lethally subdue a large group of rabid humans, rather than kill some  or give them brain damage by accident I let my aspect drop and frowned,  before having a great idea. I manifested the reverse combination of my  Juggernaut combo. Lightning aura and my force aspect for super strength.  Then I just walked up to them and grappled them with my overwhelming  strength until the low voltage lightning aura knocked them flat. I had  to be very careful so i didn't knock my ass out like I had with the  Juggernaur combo, but it worked pretty well.

It  only took the group of us a minute or two to knock them all out and  then barb had them trussed up with zip ties within another minute. We  all stared at her in confusion and she shrugged, "Wizards are just like  Bats. Pays to be prepared. I always keep a box of zip ties on me just in  case. I'll have to refill actually this tapped me out. Good thing I got  the hundred pack to put in my purse." She looked smug at our disbelief  and I smiled fondly at my girlfriend. She looked around gloomily "I  don't see the asshole with the voice anywhere. Kara you got anything?"

Our  Kryptonian shook her head. "No. Not during the entire night. I never  sensed anyone nearby, if he was following us he wasn't just faking a  heartbeat like Mick the waiter, he was invisible to sight, hearing,  smell, and any other senses. Even Barb's best veil has problems with  that. He's damn good, he's strong, and he's smart enough not to fight us  head on. We should keep an eye out for him in case he comes back, but I  personally believe he really left. The issue is what he's doing back  home. We need to tell Harry about this ASAP."