"How long do you expect to sit here like that, my lady?" I ask. "You do realise that the Navoks won't discriminate when they finally attack us."

  The lady just stares at me as I say this. She looks like she is about to say something. Then she shuts her mouth. It is almost like somebody has glued her mouth shut.

  I wonder if I should just stick my sword into her and call it a day. The sword should technically have the same effects as a vampire's fang. She certainly won't fall into a trance where she tells me everything. I should be able to do it but I don't know how I am supposed to do that. It involves some kind of blood magic.

  Well, if pain had loosened her mouth, then she would have been squealing like a pig in front of the Searchers. Maybe, sticking my sword in her is still the best way for me to kill the lady. At the moment, I have no way of threatening the lady.

  That reminds me. I turn to look at what the other people in the room are doing. The searchers have stationed themselves in another corner of the room. Every few moments, Amelia stares at me, waiting for me to get something out of the vampire.

  Right now, I would say that they are more worried about what is happening outside of this building. They have cast some kind of magic to monitor our surroundings. They have a blank look on their face. I have seen the same look on Trevor's face when he made those illusions in the inner keep. They are using all of their mental faculties in the maintenance of this spell.

  Well, I can understand why they are so worried. After all, the Navoks could be here any second now and we cannot fight them for long in our present position. The only thing good about this place is that it is relatively hidden. That is not so effective when a dozen people are emitting their mana.

  Once they find the place, the Navoks are going to have an easy time breaching this place. Thankfully, we have not seen the Navoks till now. We have seen the effects of their searches. The first thing we notice is the bursts of mana that they are emitting. I am sure that some very powerful magic is being cast by them even now.

  That can be seen in the way in which the people are running away. The people in this part of the town have the instinct of a rat that knows when the sewer will flood. That means that people are leaving this place already. They are packing up all that they can and running away even as we look. They are running away so quickly that we are sure that the Navok must be coming here. We have taken all the precautions that we could have possibly taken.

  I don't know how they are tracking us. The searchers might know but they won't tell. Well, whatever the case may be, it is clear that they are coming here. The effects of that can already be seen in this room.

  The best example of this tension can be felt with Sentinels. Even now, they are pacing across the place, reinforcing all entries with whatever they can find. It is not going to hold against a determined mage, but it should delay them for a bit at least. My troop is assisting them as much as they can.

  The only people oblivious to the danger that we are in seem to be the Aegis. Well, it would be wrong to say that. The troop looks plenty nervous, all right. The issue again is the leader.

  The man is just glaring at all the people in this room, looking indignant. It is almost like we have something of his hidden away. Well, I guess that I have wasted enough time already. I still don't know what I can do to get the lady to listen to me. Still, it is my duty to try. I feel like I just need a little push to get what I need. Let's try to crack this lady again.

  "My lady, the Navoks are coming." I repeat my statement. I feel like the lady is about as worried as we are about the Navoks. (Don't ask me why I feel that, though.) "Do you want to gamble with your life for mere pride?"

  The lady finally replies to this.

  "Well, what makes you think that the Navoksp will harm me?" The lady replies, her voice so confident.

  I wonder for a second if the lady is telling the truth. We still don't know what the relation between the vampires and the Navoks actually is. They could be allies.

  Then I look into the lady's eye. Regardless of how confident she is, the Navoks are an undefined variable. At least, I think that is what I see. For all I know, I could be fooling myself at this very moment. The bastards are on the verge of coming here, and I need to know that the lady will open up.

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  "Well, my lady. I can't bring myself to believe that." I reply. "Even if they were your allies, will they respect the alliance when you are the only vampire left in this town. It is always wiser to kill a vampire than to make a deal with him after all."

  This causes the lady to pause for a second. I seem to have hit her right in one of her worries as panic takes over her face. She disciplines herself a few moments later. Good, that is a crack in her confidence.

  "Then have you hunted all of my brethren here?" The lady speaks, looking me straight in the eyes.

  "Yes, we have hunted all of them." I reply. "I can reasonably say that you are the only vampire in this town."

  That causes the lady to become silent again as she ponders about what I have just told her. As I prepare myself to speak, a panicked voice breaks my train of thought. It is searcher Amelia who is screaming. A single glance and I can tell that the lady is not in a pretty shape. Whatever magic she is using is not an easy one, it looks like.

  There is a sheen of sweat covering her and her brethren. She is furiously manipulating the mana that is surrounding her. Whatever spell she is casting is not one that she can maintain for long.

  "Prepare for attack, everybody." The lady screams. "The Navoks will be reaching here within five minutes."

  As she says this, she gives me a pointed look. (As if to say, quickly get to work.) The vampire in front of me has also heard what the lady has just said. Even as I open my mouth to speak, the vampire's confidence has begun to break.

  "Well, my lady, I wonder if serving the court is worth sacrificing your life." I speak. "Because we certainly won't be moving from here."

  "Who are you trying to bluff, mutt?" the lady sneers, though it does little to hide her fear.

  "Well, the honour of the Black mountain has been damaged, my lady." I reply. "There are things on which we cannot retreat on."

  Well, this is a bluff, if I am being honest. We should be escaping right now. Even now, I can see the look of shock on John's face. The man did not expect me to have such bluster.

  Thankfully, he doesn't try to interrupt my bluff as the lady in front of me begins to sweat. He just takes his position while giving a stinkeye to Anthony. The man will be able to hold back anybody who enters the place. It should buy me a few moments at least. Searcher Patrick approaches me even as I see the people around me prepare for a fight.

  "We have left a little surprise for the Navoks. That should buy us about five minutes before they find us. Once that is done, the only option left for us is to fight." He says.

  Hearing this, I can see that the vampire is on the verge of breaking. She really doesn't want to get involved in a fight now.

  "Looks like we have about five minutes before we march to our deaths." I speak in her general direction. I am focusing on my mana sense to look for any mana signature. "Are you sure you want to die with us here?"

  "What guarantee do I have, human? I can give you what you ask, but how do I know that I am safe?" The lady replies, looking at me.

  It is a wonder that I can keep my calm. At the moment, I feel like panicking. If I were to show even a bit of that, though and the lady will shut up completely.

  "Well, we have no use for. killing a single vampire that is not even in our lands, vampire." I reply. "I shall guarantee you safe passage on my honour."

  "And yet, honour is something that you can be forgotten in the face of profits. A demon's contract was not enough to bind you. Do you expect me to take you at your word?" The lady sneers.

  "Well, I followed the contract perfectly. If you couldn't detect the tracking rune, what can I do?" I reply.

  "How about this, there is a variant of contract magic among us vampires. Let me cast it on that sword of yours, and. I shall give you the location." She speaks, an edge of defeat in her voice.

  As the lady says this, I can feel the stares of all the people in the building with me. Well, we were supposed to have left the place already. The navoks could be here any second now.

  "Fine." I say. "Do your thing."

  As I say this, I swing my sword at the bindings on the lady. (The magic of the binding breaks on being broken physically.) As the lady gets up, she swipes her claws at me. I can barely stop myself from swinging at her as she grabs my sword. Even as she does so, blood mana gathers into the tip of her index finger.

  I can't stop myself from being distracted as I study the complex rune that she weaves on my sword. This might be the only chance that I get to study blood magic like this. That is why I almost miss it when the lady throws the sword back at me.

  "That is the rune of the destroyer, human." She speaks. "As long as you trigger that rune with pure blood mana, then it will destroy my bloodline. I have the same rune. Etched on me."

  As she points to her arm.

  "So if I were to activate it now, you would become a human." I ask, tempted to trigger the rune. The lady looks at me, ready to kill me with a look.

  "Well, that is not the case. That rune has been fitted with a contractual obligation." She replies as she begins playing with her claws. "As long as I am safe, destroying your rune won't harm your sword. As long as the location that I give you is valid, destroying the rune will be useless against me as well."

  As she says this, I can hear the footsteps outside. Looks like the Navoks are here. Even as I begin to move, I can see that both John and Anthony have gripped their weapons tightly.

  The searchers have begun gathering mana to cast a certain spell. Well, I regret breaking the binding now. I could have just carried the lady with those bindings on her. It would have been so much safer.

  Now, she is more than capable of fighting back. Well, I still can't let her move freely. That would be dangerous. So I activate the sword as I charge towards the lady. Before she can do anything, she is safely over my shoulders. Thankfully, it doesn't look like she is willing to attack me pointlessly.

  Sadly, even as I do this, the doors to the warehouse are kicked in as a shadow passes through it like a blur.

  There are many factors to this, the primary of which is that I am not satisfied with the quality of my work.