Prisoners Found

When all was ready, Animir brought the prisoner round, and they began to interrogate him. At first he was defiant, taunting them; "You've no idea what you've got yourselves into..." When asked where the owners were he laughed. "Legal or actual?"

"Both," said Animir. "The legal owners are dead, decades ago," he answered, "and if you meet the current owner, you'll wish you hadn't." He tried to deny that there were any prisoners in the building, but after Animir kicked him brutally in the smashed arm, he caved in and admitted that there were two, in the cellars. Guards? Yes, three in the Hall of Death and two in the stairwell. They gagged him and left him.

Sneaking back through the northern guardroom, they closed the door and descended the stairs to the main lobby. The three guards were still there, loafing against a pillar and chatting idly. With infinite care, Animir and Dorlas slid through the shadows until they were within reach of the three - and struck!

A short and nasty melee ensued, ending in the three guards' deaths, just in time for a door in front of the fight to bang open and two more to emerge from what could be seen to be the stairwell. The fight commenced again, but this time was over very quickly; the guards seeming almost like sleepwalkers by comparison.

Handed the location of the cellar on a platter as it were, the pair took it gladly, and sneaked down the stairs carefully. At the bottom they found a large square cellar, with ornately carved double doors in the north and a cage made of floor-to-ceiling bars at the south-eastern corner.

In that were Thorkil and Zada; Thorkil was snoring, but Zada was wide awake and watching them intently. Carefully, the two rescuers made their way across to the cell, and Dorlas unlocked the door. As he did so, it struck Animir that neither of them looked at all well; pale, drawn faces, hollow eye-sockets, bloodshot eyes, weary movements.

As the cage came open, Thorkil woke, and stood up, saying "Oh, good, you got here at last! I was beginning to lose hope," The rescued two moved towards the exit, and Zada's collar fell a little further open. Dorlas gasped, and Animir's attention was drawn to her comrade's throat.

Two small, red puncture wounds were visible at her jugular vein, spaced three inches or so apart. A little blood was smeared around them. Her eyes snapped back to Thorkil; he too was marked.

By a vampire....