The Breed

By Dream Janus

Disclaimer: All rights are protected and the story cannot be reproduced without permission.

This story is a work of fiction and contains scenes of gay sex between consenting individuals. If you find this offensive, are under the age of 18, it is illegal wherever you are to read this, stop reading now. Leave this site. If you are offended by harsh language, please exit this page immediately. You have been warned. This work of fiction is property of myself and may not be copied or used in any way without my express consent.

Much thanks and appreciation goes to Rubilacxe, my editor and second set of eyes.

Note from Dream Janus: I now have a presence in Yahoo groups and MSN Groups.

On Yahoo it is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dream_janus_stories/

On MSN it is http://groups.msn.com/DreamJanusStories

If you want, I can be emailed at dreamjanus@yahoo.com.

2^nd Note from Dream Janus: This chapter jumps ahead in time from the time of the three explosions (Junkyard, Club Exiles and 7^th Street Haven) and includes the next six months in the characters' lives. As the title of the chapter hints, it is about what they do during the first part of the WAR.

Be prepared as this is a BLOODY chapter in some parts and there is a NASTY cliffhanger at the end. I personally rate this chapter NC-17.

Chapter 20 "War!"

Antino, Toban, Elzabeth, George and Marcus sat in the media center room on the large royal blue section sofa looking in anticipation toward the 60 inch flat screen plasma television screen on the nearby wall. As they watched the screen activated and the signal divided into three sections. The center section divided equally horizontally and then the lower section divided once again vertically. The right section divided both horizontally and vertically into six equally sized portions.

The left most section of the television began to transmit a live feed directly from the Whitehouse of the United States of America. Almost immediately the larger section in the center began to transmit from the Governor's mansion in the state capital. The lower two sections were quickly filled with the upset faces of the mayor and the chief of police. The remaining 6 sections were filled with the five leaders of the remaining Conclaves in the United States and a feed that showed what everyone else was seeing in real time.

Almost immediately upon everyone's arrival in the video conference the President cleared his throat and spoke, "I understand that this is your people's war and such, but damn it all, Ancient, it is now affecting my people as well." His frustration was apparent to everyone.

"I understand that the airliner that was struck was a civilian airliner, Mr. President." Antino began with a cool diplomatic tone to his voice. "I assure you that we were not the ones that attacked the plane, sir," he explained. "It was attacked because the former head of our International Conclave was aboard it."

"I did not know that," the president responded. "Who was this person in your world?"

"He was the equivalent to the leader of the United Nations, He was an Ancient older than me and his name was Chin," Antino responded. The fury growing in his eyes and attitude.

"The Grand Ancient chose to fly on a commercial airplane as our own planes have become too dangerous over the last six months since the war started," Toban interjected. "He and his staff arranged several dummy flights in the hopes that just such an action would not happen.

"It seems that you have a security leak in your organization," the police chief said with an almost tickled tremor.

"We are aware of that!" growled George. "And unlike your government, we permanently plug our leaks," he continued, bearing his fangs for all to see. George was pissed that he was as of yet unable to find out who the leak was and kill them.

"Do whatever you need to your own people, but try and keep mine out of it," the President said with a bit of a whine.

"Yes, please do," echoed the weak chinned governor.

"Gentlemen, I do not know how much you value our word as a people," Toban began. "But I am 3/8 human myself; I have a mate that is totally human, an adopted son that is totally human and many human friends," he explained. "I will do everything in my power to make sure that no more humans are hurt."

"I honestly believe that, your highness," the President responded with a weak smile.

Over the next two hours the video conference continued with the members making plans to protect the humans and the Breed to use their human contacts to attack their now mutual enemy. Even though this was the first time that Toban was allowed to be at one of these video conferences, he could tell that there was a long and good relationship between the Ancient and the human leadership.

Being that he was not really needed for the conference Toban allowed his mind to drift to what had happened over the last six months and how hard it had been. He really hated the amount of changes that had happened, but now knew that was part of being at war. Toban organized his thoughts from six months ago up to that day.

In the last six months several other targets had been hit by the Regia'an strike teams, each time with at least the same amount of damage be extracted on opposite targets as well, except for the last two months when thing have begun to escalate, almost to the point of hand to hand on the street open warfare.

The Junkyard had been totally burned and demolished. The mother dog named Mags, who had survived the slaughter of all the other guard dogs, was lucky in that she had moved herself and her six pups to an area that was partially underground before the attack. Junior returned half an hour after the explosions and attempted to rescue the dogs. He found the mother's hiding place and was able remove her and all but one of the pups before the structure collapsed in on itself. The remaining puppy perished and Junior suffered 3^rd degree burns over 90% of his body. He is presently a patient at Hillsmet Hospital, where he has been since that day.

Antino sent out three attack teams to destroy known Regia'an holdings. He also adopted two of the mother dog's puppies, naming them Jethro and Coltrane. Elzabeth and Ray each adopted another puppy; Ray gave his little female to Mike. Mike named the dog Hera, as the pup felt she was a goddess. It was decided that the remaining pups and their mother would make up the new protectors of the junkyard, wherever it ended up being located.

Everyone else that lived at the Junkyard was unhurt. The junkyard location has been closed. The residents temporarily reside in the Conclave complex until new arrangements can be made for them. Ray offered his property near the old junkyard as a replacement. The offer was quickly accepted and work has begun on creating the proper appearance both above the ground and below. The needed connections between the property and the Conclave complex would be the last part of the renovations.

The 7^th Street Haven building and all of its connections to the Conclave complex were also destroyed. It was the greatest loss of so much different types of life at one time that any member of the breed had ever seen. Over one hundred humans, ninety Ghouls, eighty bears, seventy five wolves, and forty symbiotes were killed within a five minute time frame. The only people that were injured were seven humans and five bears; they were part of the teams that attempted to put out the fire.

Tyler's charred remains were found on the first floor of the Haven, apparently he was attempting to free some of the people that had been trapped by a nearby falling steel beam. His body was burned to the point that only by DNA comparison were they able to identify him. Antino ordered Tyler's body held in State for a week of mourning at the Conclaves complex massive rotunda and then he was given a hero's funeral. Antino sent out five more attack teams after they found Tyler. To say he was pissed was to put it mildly.

Antino took the loss of Tyler as if he had lost a child and in many respects Tyler was his child. He refused to leave the rotunda at all while Tyler's body was there. Antino only left when the body was finally prepared for burial.

Two new locations were selected as replacements for the 7^th Street Haven, both of them with tighter parameter security and hidden access to the Conclave Complex. It was decided that the both the new junkyard and all Havens would be directly supervised by Rex as the new Director of Interspecies Protection.

The building that housed Club Exile and the surrounding businesses was a complete loss. The explosive nature of the shrapnel bombs sent debris from the bar area into the nearby street, causing several car wrecks. The bathroom debris shot into the boutique next door and not only shredded the clothing but accelerated the fire itself. Since the whole building was owned by the Conclave as well plus everyone in the building used the same insurance company, all the businesses were paid handsomely for their losses.

The club's underground entrance collapsed into the tunnels that led into the Conclave Complex and started several smaller fires in the complex itself. Thankfully the complex's fire suppression system was state of the art and quickly put them out, but the fire created by the building above had to be put out by more conventional means and took several hours and the fire and smoke also damaged buildings near the club.

Plans for a new, bigger club in a more active part of the city were in the works and several areas and locations were being discussed. Four of the seven locations were already totally breed owned and two others were partially breed owned, the last was owned by the city. Regardless of location, the new club had the working name of `Club Maximum'. It was understood that Ray/Toban would be at least be the manager and a part owner of the club.

The attack teams that Antino sent out destroyed a total of twelve Regia'an dens, one drug producing warehouse and obtained the locations of three of their genetic manipulation hives. Everyone knew that there would be more reprisals from the Regia'an and a general Code Red was given. It was upgraded to a Code Black (no unprotected movement at all) when the attack teams found a training facility; only one member of the attack team returned to inform the Conclave that it had been destroyed, but it was rumored to only be one of many such facilities.

The night after the explosions, the Librum Guild sent a team to the mansion to take and sequester Mike in the Guild Library. Ray was pissed beyond compare that they did not even ask him, Mike or any of the others if he wanted to be taken. It took a very angry telephone call to Antino so that it was explained that as Mike was now a member of the Librum Guild, even the war would not stop his training. The sequestering was only as a safety precaution because of the war.

After a week of Mike not being let go, Toban made a very public demand to the Librum to at least be able to visit his Zomé. The demand was in the form of Toban pounding on the Librum's massive oak library doors and demanding to see Mike or he would send the would send the whole library into the shadow realm a piece at a time. The Guild allowed them to visit but only in the confines of the library itself. The Guild's library was three levels below the Main ballroom and exactly the same size as the ballroom itself with well over one trillion Human and Breed books and scrolls as well as other forms of information stored in inside its walls. It was a combination of both ancient and high tech merged perfectly.

When Toban and Mike greeted each other it was like they had not seen each other in years, not days. They kissed and hugged for several minutes and held each other through the whole visit. Mike was dressed in a black robe with the markings of the Librum Guild, but Toban could tell that the robe was made of shadow material and not regular material. Mike explained that as part of his training they had been using secret techniques to teach him each and every breed language, but also to enhance his natural affinity for shadow energy.

Mike lifted his robe and revealed that he was also wearing a pair of military style black boots, black pants, and a black shirt all made of shadow material. He explained that the Guild knew that his place was at the side of his Zoméa in the war and they wanted him to be as prepared physically and mentally as he was already emotionally. Mike was never again to refer to himself as a human when asked, but as a Shadow Librum Warrior.

Ray did not know if he was saddened, proud or both by the changes he saw in Mike that day. It was not until the next week when Mike came home also dressed in black shadow gloves, a shadow bracelet and a shadow necklace that his emotions finally settled on pride. Not only did Mike come home with full shadow armor, but a small arsenal of shadow based weapons as well. Within five minutes of seeing him practicing with the weapons Ray's heart soared.

Ray watched in awe the first time Mike activated his new array of Shadow based armor. The hood of Mike's robe became form fitting and covered his ears, eyes, nose and neck. The remainder of the robe formed into shadow tendrils that flowed behind Mike's back. The pants and shirt also became more form fitting and began to flow with shadow energy. The necklace connected the edges of the shadow tendrils to Mike's shirt. The bracelet reformed into a solid mass of shadows that connected his shirt to his gloves. The Joining bracelet also morphed slightly and began to exude smaller shadow tendrils, which Ray later learned could be formed into a shield. The gloved hands became deadly shadow claws and the shoes reformed into a combination of clawed feet and tendrils.

While the shadow armor did not completely protect Mike, it was able to give him the greatest protection possible and a power that he and Ray could share. He had learned that with a slice of his claws, the shadow energy drained life force from the end of a person's life, 3 years for Mike's armor, more for other shadows. Everyone but vampires died when their life age and their true life energy arrived at the same time. The vampires' bodies just aged until they appeared to be the age equal to number of years taken.

With him missing two weeks of school Mike was forced to withdraw from public school, but it did not affect him as the Conclave also had a recognized school that he could attend for the remainder of the year. Ray and Rex even considered also withdrawing from public school but a forceful Iris and Antino explained that in the present environment it would look too suspicious, they both grudgingly agreed.

The first month after the three bombings was generally quiet with only small individual battles between members of the Breed and the Regia'an. Everyone knew that the Regia'an were planning something big and it made them nervous. It was the month anniversary of the bombings when the assassin groups struck again.

The night was set to be a memorial night for all those that had been lost, but the air did not feel right to everyone in the Shadow Council and especially Elzabeth and Toban. A war council had been called to discuss the next set of plans that night. Ray had ordered the Mansion cleared of everyone just to be on the safe side while the meeting was being held. Ruth and David planned on taking Davey and Shanny out to dinner, a movie and a late desert. Unfortunately Davey got sick on the movie popcorn and they had to return early.

The first group of assassins were waiting to see any movement in the house and attacked when they saw David and Ruth enter the house. The assassins attacked David in the living room and were in the process of gutting him from his belly button to his throat when Ruth walked in and was also attacked. They had planned on making her watch the execution of her husband before they did the same to her and blew the house up.

The assassins restrained Ruth as they continued to flay David before her eyes. His screams could be heard outside the house but not far enough for the neighbors to hear. Ruth's mind began to fall apart as she watched the love of her life die before her. After loosing her other children it was too much for her mind to handle and she was a mental vegetable long before David breathed his last breath. Davey heard his parents' screams and called Ray's cell phone in panicked tears.

A technical based assassin detected the cell phone transmission and alerted the team that they were out of time. The mentally void Ruth was knocked unconscious and left for dead as they set a combination of incendiary and shrapnel bombs all over the house. There were enough bombs left to destroy the house three times over, Ray found out later.

Ray and Mike were only marginally thankful that the children were still in the car and the puppy "Hera" was at the meeting with them, when the house blew up. There was so much force that Ruth's limp body was blown over fifty feet away from the house and covered in burning debris. The car was rocked and the paint pealed in the heat of the explosion, but Shanny held her adopted brother protectively as they watched their lives change forever. The young girl hissed continually as the car rocked and the house continued to explode. Once the explosions ceased she began to purr similar to the cats she resembled as the only way she knew to calm herself and the shaking Davey.

A single tear leaked out of Toban's eye as he remembered the faces of the children when he found them huddled together in the car. Davey's eyes were blank and void of life until he felt Ray's touch. Shanny had a feral and hate filled glare in her eyes until Ray pulled her into his chest. They both cried into Ray's chest for several minutes as he held them and sent loving and comforting thoughts to their young minds. They refused to leave his side that night even sleeping with the Zoméa, for the first but certainly not the last time.

When Antino arrived the demonic visage that few ever saw was etched deeply on his face. The Ancient was beyond pissed, beyond hurt, beyond any human emotion. Few people knew that David and Davey were the last members of Tobias' human family and were the direct descendants of Elzabeth's human brother Jon. Antino had spent all the time since before Elzabeth's change protecting her human family back to her grandfather Tobias. The pain radiated off the Ancient as he surveyed the damage and the rage re-intensified when the body of Ruth was found. He felt as if his family had been targeted and he wanted retribution, he wanted it painful and bloody.

Ruth was still alive but just barely. Her mind was gone and the desire to live had also fled. Ruth's body was burned with first and second degree burns over most of her body, it was also cut and scraped to the point she was in critical physical condition, but everyone that saw her knew she would not survive the night; the will to live was simply gone. Antino and Toban both thought they could get no angrier, until the carved and mutilated body of David was extracted.

Toban immediately turned his body around so that neither of the children could see the remains of David's body. He erected a shadow dome of protection around himself and the children to protect them from accidentally seeing anything else. The moment the shadow dome was completed a distraught Antino rammed his own head through the trunk of a two hundred year old oak tree in frustration and despair.

Not even the sight of his own blood could calm the Ancient; he rammed his head into one of the concrete pillars that was part of the fencing around the property. Only when he again saw the distraught eyes of Davey did he calm down to an almost human level of rage. Antino was ready to go hunting for these murders himself.

Antino made sure that Ruth was taken from the scene and went with her. Toban later that night learned that she gave up the fight while being cared for at Hillsmet Hospital. Antino informed Ray that as per Ruth and David's wishes, he and the other Zoméa were now Davey's parents. Ray learned later that Antino and Elzabeth both set up a fund for the permanent care of Davey. They refused to budge when Ray explained that he did not need the help. What Toban did not learn was that Antino indeed did go hunting for the killers that night and several other nights.

Elzabeth went into a self-imposed mental coma. Her body aged but being she was nearly an Ancient herself, did not die. Antino explained that she was mourning in her own way. She would be restored to her former glory when she decided to awaken. Elzabeth remained that way for two months.

Toban had to evoke his power as the Shade Prince to get the children away from the scene as the Conclave investigators wanted to question them, but had no experience with human or nearly human children. One investigator was verging on insubordination until Toban's eyes changed to black and he asked, "Do you want a one way trip to the shadow realm, asshole?"

For the next week and a half Iris and Gene played host to the four Zoméa and their newest Great Grandchildren. The slaves remained at the Conclave compound. The Zoméa slept in Ray's old room in a hastily purchased King sized bed. The children slept together in the living room on a hide-a-way bed. Shanny always slept with at least her hand if not her whole arm on Davey protectively. Hera slept beside the children on the floor with her face toward the door.

During that time the assassins struck several other locations as well. Each time there were greater and greater numbers of casualties, both breed and human. Antino finally got a lead on the whereabouts of a couple members of the assassin group that had struck the mansion. The Ancient was cold, calculating and brutal when he exacted his revenge on the men.

Antino found the men inside a human biker bar, near a known Regia'an stronghold and suspected location of the Regia'an Queen. Antino was silent as he entered the dusty and smoke filled bar. No one but the large human doorman noticed his entrance and when Antino slipped the man a $1,000 bill, he quickly forgot even seeing him. Antino walked to the bar and ordered a beer, when it came he paid the bartender with another $1,000 bill and placed five more of them in the glass tip jar, leaving the beer at the bar untouched. A moment later the bartender and the tip jar disappeared.

By now several of the large bikers noticed Antino's actions. They all realized that he was pre-paying for any damages that would happen to the bar. Being that few of the massive men ever saw someone do that but understood the meaning, they gave Antino plenty of room. When Antino's parahuman nose picked up the smell of his quarry in a back room, he walked to a nearby pool table, picking up a pool stick and three of the balls.

Everyone in the room knew the meaning of that action and began a slow but steady exodus from the bar. When Antino reached the backroom he noticed that not only was the two he was after back there but also three other males and two human females all apparently drinking and talking loudly.

Antino struck without warning, he launched one of the pool balls at the nearest Regia'an. The ball left his hand going faster than most bullets and with the same deadly result. The man that was struck by the first ball had the right side of his head torn off in a concussive blow that was many times louder than a gunshot. The man's brains and blood splattered the others in the room. The body dropped to the floor and continued to thrash about for several minutes.

The second ball was launched almost instantly after the first at a second target. This target was one of the assassins that had attacked the house and he still had David's scent on him. The ball crashed into the mans chest with the force of small missile. It went in the back of the man and exploded out the front with so much force that it also hit one of the women in the chest as well. Both bodies' chests exploded spraying entrails and other organs everywhere. The blood splatter only added to the blood from the first body.

The time between the first ball hitting the first target and the second hitting the second and killing the woman was less than one second. While the remaining three Regia'an and the other human woman were realizing what had happened, Antino had time to prepare the pool stick. He swung the stick as a master swordsman coming in contact with all three of the Regia'an within the time it took for them to inhale to scream. The blows were so fast and glancing that none of them actually killed, just knocked the men to their knees, and broke the stick.

With deadly accuracy Antino used each half of the broken pool stick on separate targets. The first target was a "nearly innocent" Regia'an, but Antino rammed the jagged edge of the stick downward and into the man's heaving chest. A moment later he repeated the process on a second man. Both men survived for several seconds after they were impaled by the pool sticks. Antino quickly rammed the last pool ball into the last mans mouth, destroying his jaw, teeth and throat. Antino stopped for a second and contemplated the scene of his hand being wedged deeply in this creature's gullet and throat. The man continued to twitch as Antino forced more of his arm into the mans former air passage and into his stomach. When Antino forcefully ripped his arm out of the body, it fell to the ground and did not move again.

Antino turned to the woman that remained and looked at her with the eyes of a predator. He felt no compassion for this female; she chose who she associated on her own. There was a feeling that Antino had though, it was one he had not felt in decades. He then realized it was pure animalistic hunger. Antino walked up to the scared woman, he bent her neck, pulled back and then roared. In a flash Antino latched onto the now thrashing woman's neck. His fangs slid into her artery as if it was warm butter.

When the blood touched his tongue Antino felt the fear and terror, he then felt the alcohol that was in her system. He was surprised to feel under that the unforgettable aluminum taste that told him she was also a drug user. Then finally he tasted something that brought him totally out of his bloodlust, the unmistakable taint of diseases, not just any disease but touch of HIV or AIDS.

Antino forced his body to expel the tainted blood he had just consumed as he almost as an after thought broke the nearly dead woman's neck, like it was a twig. He let her body fall like a rag doll onto the floor and then walked out of the backroom, without even looking back. Antino noticed that the bar was now totally empty. He stripped off his blood soaked shirt and walked out of the bar.

Antino found the bartender hiding behind an old pickup truck getting very drunk very fast. He smiled softly at the supposedly tough biker and gave him another five $1,000 bills. He then said, "I will call for someone to clean the bar, it is a mess."

The man nodded silently.

"Put your closed sign up and go home for the night," Antino instructed. "Everything will be cleaned by opening time tomorrow." He then smiled. "Just make sure that no one is here while they clean." The last part was a friendly warning.

Antino the opened his cell phone and called for a clean-up crew. The operator was so shocked that the Ancient was calling for a crew for himself that she sent two. The bartender never did return that night and quit a week later. The owner was burned out of business three weeks later by the Regia'an assassins.

The next weeks became an even bigger bloodbath for Breed and humans alike. It became so much that the human police and finally the chief of police and mayor became involved. Antino was short with the men that before he always had a working relationship. He made sure that every financial form of assistance was available to human families though.

When the third month arrived Ray and the other Zoméa had found a larger house. They had used the help of a human realtor named Chuck that was Conclave connected and happy to make a larger than normal commission. Ray had decided that he would keep the land the old house was on, but not rebuild. The new house was 8 bedrooms with 3 full baths and 2 – ½ baths, an office, playroom and small library. It also had a pool outside and a built in play area as well as a 3 and ½ car garage with apartment above it.

Within a week of their arrival at the new house they received a package of materials and items that had been salvaged from the assorted safes around the old house; including all the weaponry and jewels. George quickly took the items that he had hidden before and hid them again. He realized that the time to use them had not yet arrived.

Even though Davey and Shanny were given separate rooms, The Zoméa found them sleeping in each others beds nightly, Shanny always with a protective hand on Davey. At first Ray was going to separate them, but then felt their sleeping emotions and realized that they needed each other's closeness. Nothing was ever said about their sleeping arrangements. Hera never left Davey's side unless it was for a quick trip to eat or outside to use the bathroom.

Karl had become a fixture around the new house to the point that everyone knew his schedule and he knew everyone else's as well. He spent most mornings at the hospital visiting Junior, picked up Davey and Shanny from school and then spent most of the evening with them. The only exception was for a couple hours when they all three visited Junior. He and Hera began taking turns watching the youngsters.

Chin remained at the Conclave headquarters and monitored similar actions all over the earth. He never interfered in Antino's rule of his territory and only offered advice when it was requested. For the first time since they met, Antino and Chin were able to stand each other for more than a few days every so many hundred years. They actually began to spend time together even when not planning their next attacks.

The Afro-Simeon Ambassador and the rest of the Simeon delegation made every appearance that they were returning home, when in fact the Ambassador, his aide and a small team, began hunting for new and previously unknown cells of Regia'an and their sympathizers. Their work uncovered several new groups both in the United States and World wide over the months they worked.

The third month was a month of relative silence as neither the Breed nor the Regia'an sent out attack groups against each other, though an occasional individual battle was heard about, either between individuals or small groups. During this time Antino, Chin, George, Marcus, Charlett and Toban sent out spies to research Regia'an activities. They already knew that the Regia'an apparently had spies amongst the Breed.

The forth month it was decided that Ray would go to Hillsmet Hospital to give a series of `donations' that were to be used to impregnate the three daughters of the Ursine regent Thomas. Even though it was Ray making the donations, he made sure that the date and everything were approved of by his Zoméa. The first of the women would be inseminated the following day, the next a week later and the third the week after that. Thomas wanted to make sure that even though he would not be financially or emotionally responsible for the women, that at least one if not all three of them produced a healthy child for Toban.

Toban was notified three weeks after the final sister was inseminated that all three were pregnant. He did not know if he should feel happy, scared or worried. Toban knew that he would make sure they were taken care of regardless. He made all three of the women move into the new house and then promptly hired round the clock security for the house.

The last month was busy for everyone as the new updated junkyard was finally opened. It had plenty of secured sleeping and hiding areas as well as two entrances into the Conclave complex. Unlike the old junkyard this one used two of the old trains as part of the daily upkeep of the yard. The first larger train was used as a meeting room and all-purpose room. The second train was used by those that ate actual food as a kitchen and dining room. The fence that surrounded the yard had the ability to electrified directly off of the electric pole, which was enough electricity to kill most and badly hurt all trespassers.

Club Maximum was also opened. Just like its predecessor, the club was geared primarily toward the gay youth; but due to its location directly across from another gay bar and down the street from several straight clubs, it became a bisexual-straight friendly high energy dance club. The club was five times the size of Club Exile and had two hidden areas as well as a state of the art entrance to the Conclave complex. The first hidden area was behind one of three two-way mirrors and became known as the `VIP Room' to the humans and the `Blood Jane Room' to the Breed as only Breed and friends of Breed were allowed to enter the room. The second hidden area was the manager's office/security room. The third area behind a two-way mirror was the entertainers' dressing room that was just off of the DJ's booth.

Even though Ray was the partial owner of the club, he only occasionally visited. Usually he left the day to day business to the very capable hands of Bill, the former bartender of Club Exiles and present manager of Club Maximum. The one time that Ray came to visit just after the opening of the club, a new doorman sat at the door.

Ray began to walk into the club without paying the cover charge or even looking at the wispy looking twink of a doorman with spiky blue and red hair. The irritating voice of the twink stopped him in his tracks, but also sent him straight into anger.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, BITCH!" The twink yelled over the music.

"Who I am is the person asking to see Bill," Ray said calmly but loud enough to be heard.

"I ain't getting him for some muscled up `roid clone like you," the twink yelled back.

"Then get the GOD DAMNED SECURITY, BITCH!" Ray said moving to throttle the much smaller door twink.

The doorman screamed even before Ray touched him and it drew the attention of the clubs security. The two security officers that hurried over were both Thrope Wolves and personally hired by Ray. They were surprised to see him beginning to pull the screaming doorman over the counter and momentarily frozen in shock. The taller security office who had dark hair and eyes gulped noticeably and then walked over to see what the situation was.

When the thrashing doorman saw the security guard coming, he screeched, "Help me.!"

Ray mockingly then boomed out, "No, Help me. There isn't much here to eat but it would make a small snack."

The security guards both began to laugh, even though they both had to admit the doorman was not worth more than just a small snack to any of them. "What happened, Toban?" The darker security guard asked.

"This little queer refused to get Bill for me when I asked and was very insulting," Ray said calmly, but still held the much smaller doorman by the throat.

The security guard shook his head and then said, "Ty, you royally fucked up, Bitch. You may be queen of the door, but this is the big dog daddy of the whole fucking building. HE OWNS THE CLUB, DUMBASS!"

Ray then released the doorman, tossing him away from the counter and walked though the club door, "This crowd gets in free!" He said waving his hand to the group of people between the outside door and the clubs inside door.

[I leave whether he is fired or not up to Bill,] Ray transmitted to the security guards as he scanned the bar for the manager.

That night Ray helped the security guards throw out two pedophiles that had been barred from Club Exile and hoped that they could get in the new club to prey on the teens. He stopped a fight between three lesbians that seemed to be over one of them looking at another one's ass. Ray also stopped a fight between a very drunk, straight college fraternity jock and a small gay boy that had done nothing more than tell him that he was cute.

Ray learned that the doorman's name was Tyler but no one at the club would call him that and only called him Ty. He figured it was a respect issue over the recent death of `Tyler the Fang', but he did not ask. When Ray decided it was time to go, he found that one of the security guards had taken up a permanent position beside Ty the doorman.

"Is this so I don't eat the dumbass?" Ray asked partly joking.

"Naw," the lighter haired security guard said with a smile. "It is to make sure dumbass doesn't loose us any real customers with his mouth."

That same night Chin decided to return to his home. He and Antino agreed that Breed airlines were too dangerous at the moment so he would travel on a human commercial flight instead. Over the next three days Marcus, Jeremiah, Rex, Antino and Chin all created several different flight plans on several different airlines to get him home. That way no one would know which airlines for sure until he was already in the air, or so they thought.

Three days later Chin took his seat on TransContinential Airlines flight 7854 and left the center of the United States for his connection in Chicago. He did not have to change planes and waited as the international plane refueled in preparations to fly to London.

Fifteen minutes after take off a suitcase bomb exploded. The suitcase was constructed out of a Breed-based plastic explosive that was not detectable by x-ray or bomb sniffing dog and only required a timing device and small amount of rubbing alcohol to set it off. The bomb was of the size and shape that it atomized the front section of coach and the back half 1^st class as well as making the rest of the plane a flying fireball.

By the type and extent of the explosion it was a known fact that the Regia'an definitely had members of the Breed working with them. Antino began to suspect several members of different attack teams who each had explosive knowledge to do such a thing. He even had a nagging feeling that there might have a traitor even closer than he expected.

The room growing quiet brought Toban out of these memories and he looked around. Apparently they were all waiting on a response from him. Toban bowed his head for a moment and then said "Apologies, gentlemen, the last months have been difficult for me and my mind drifted."

Everyone either present or there by video conference knew the momentary lapses due to stress and thought nothing bad about it now. The president smiled and explained. "Your Highness was asked to lead a mission to the base of operations for the explosive makers."

Toban thought for a moment and then nodded. "I accept."

Antino surprised everyone when he exploded, "NO I HAVE LOST TWO SONS, I REFUSE TO LOOSE THE LAST!"

With Antino's outburst, Marcus stood to his feet and left the room, it was very evident that he was pissed.

No one understood Antino's comment as by bloodline Marcus was in fact his son, not Toban.

"My team and I will destroy their base!" Toban said appearing to not pay attention to Marcus' departure. It was also evident that he was not going to back down from the mission. "My team is Sherry, Rex, Karl, Mike, George and Myself."

Antino's face was solemn as he considered. "One modification, I need George here to act as sys-op for the operations, but you can have Jeremiah instead."

"Agreed," Toban said as if they were really bargaining.

The next evening the group of six headed out to the only known explosives manufacturer of that type. The building was a partially abandoned warehouse, with offices on one side and two entrances, one ground level on the shop side and the other second story on the office side. The warehouse had tracks of people and vehicles of all sorts coming and going from it. Toban felt tense but chalked it up to the fact they had no intelligence about the operation at all.

Sherry, Rex and Karl took the upper entrance and Mike, Jeremiah and Toban took the lower. The upper entrance was locked, but a well placed kick from Rex solved that with considerable noise. The lower door was unlocked and Jeremiah was the first to enter. Both Mike and Toban called on their shadow capabilities to act as protection. Something just did not feel right to Toban.

The insides of the warehouse were dark, but with their Breed eyesight no one but Mike had problem in the darkness. Mike on the other hand had to concentrate and focused the shadow energy so he could see as if he were in the shadow realm, but still retain vision in the physical. For most people the sensations would be very dizzying, but with the extensive training Mike had, the modified sight was almost as normal as his regular sight.

Sherry felt a large presence the moment she entered the warehouse and decided to loop around behind where she felt the presence and try to get a better look or at least give everyone else the chance for a sneak attack. She was so focused on the large presence she did not feel the much smaller one that shadowed her every move.

Rex and Karl were both used to Sherry circling an area to the right, setting up for an attack that they did not need to know her exact plans, but already were aware of the general idea behind them. Rex nodded toward a hallway that was just ahead of them and to the left. Karl nodded blinking three times silently conferring a question <We change now?> without transmitting a thought or saying anything.

Rex nodded again. He then began to the change to his bear form. Karl smiled and then cracked his neck and began his own transformation. Within two minutes both Rex the bear and Karl the wolf stood shaking the residual effects from their minds. Karl then walked slowly down the hallway.

Rex paused and headed down the hallway in the center. He walked down the dusty hall and into a small office. What he did not see was the pinpoint light coming from a laser beam at the level of his ankle. When the beam was broken, a large metal door slammed down behind him and a small concussive bomb exploded in front of him. The force of the blast was just strong enough to knock him back into the metal door and into unconsciousness.

The sound of a small blast distracted Sherry as she entered an open office area and she tripped over a small wire attached to grenade. The grenade exploded sending the ceiling crashing down on top of Sherry's body. The small form following her stopped and watched as she slowly stopped struggling to get out from under the cave in.

Downstairs Mike had activated his shadow armor and began slipping into the shadowy region between the physical world and the shadow realm. He prepared for a trap that he felt was coming but was not prepared when it sprang on him. A large animalistic hand swiped at his face and connected. The force was such that Mike's nose began to bleed even though the shadow armor. He knew that his recent training was going to be called into action now.

Mike attacked his attacker but was greatly out trained as his sneak attacker was a trained assassin not a librarian guard. The shade forced its hand into Mike's chest and began to shred the shadow armor as if it were tissue. Each of its attacks drew blood and the very life essence from Mike. Mike knew he was going to die, but he was going to make sure the shade knew that he had given it a fight. The shade won the battle and cast Mike's shredded body and mangled shadow armor back into the physical realm, pieces of the armor merged permanently with his now inert body. The shade nearly had lost and it would remember.

Back upstairs, Karl had walked into a small office and came face to face with the scariest thing in his whole life, a 6'6 dhunphir who looked as if he had been waiting for him to enter the room. Karl began to back out of the room when the man spoke. "I cannot allow you to leave now."

Toban walked into the large warehouse area and looked around quickly. He noticed that the second floor had balcony area less than fifty feet away from him. Toban heard the screams of Mike and Sherry as they were hurt; he looked around for a way to help them when another sight caught his eye.

The trussed and chained body of Rex was dropped from the second floor balcony. Toban flinched in preparation for the bone crushing hit at the end of the fall but it never came. He found that Rex's body was suspended approximately 5 feet off the ground, head down. It surprised Toban to see small wisps of smoke rising from Rex's body where it was touched by the chains. He then realized that the chains were gold infused titanium, the gold was causing Rex's skin to burn.

Ray screamed and turned to Jeremiah expecting to receive help but instead he found himself looking down the barrel of a .22 Glock handgun. The gun was lavender and being held by Jeremiah himself, who instead of waiting fired a single bullet into Toban's chest. The bullet impacted with such force that he was knocked back around and looked into the terrified eyes of Rex.

A feline looking woman dressed in a black pant suit walked out from behind a large pile of boxes and smiled weakly at Toban. "Hello Shade Prince." She said in a sing song voice. "I wanted to be the one to do this so everyone knew who and why."

Toban was confused by this woman. The bullet hole had begun to foam and boil. He gripped it and tried to walk toward her to protect his Zoméa. A second shot rang out from Jeremiah's gun and tore into his large back. Toban screamed out in pain, but continued to get closer to the woman.

"I am the Regia'an queen" the woman announced as she flipped her long hair out of her feline yellow eyes. "I sentence you and your Zoméa to death for crimes against the Regia'an people."

The queen then quickly grasped Rex's head with her hands and twisted. Rex screamed in pure agony as the horrendous sounds of muscles and tendons tearing could be heard followed by the bones in the neck snapping. She growled deeply as she continued to twist Rex's head and then pulled. His head wrenched from his body with a torrent of blood and bile flooded the room. She laughed as Toban's screams of unadulterated agony echoed after Rex's death screams.

The queen then turned and looked coldly at Toban and said, "Kill the mutt bastard." She then had Rex's body dropped from the chains.

Jeremiah fired five more of the specially crafted bullets into the screaming form of Toban as he fought to get closer to his fallen mate's body. Each bullet splattered Toban's formerly muscular body with bloody foam and meat chunks. The colorful vampire felt no remorse for killing either Rex or Toban as he felt they both were a waste of skin and only distracted Antino from greater and greater achievements. He smirked when Toban finally collapsed next to the mutilated form of Rex.

Ray touched the lifeless hand of Rex and closed his eyes for the final time...

Final note from Dream Janus: Just wait for it (evil laugh)