Hollow Immortal

Samuel's Sire

Dmitri let his eyes sweep over the room, taking in every detail in the faces of the Nekrosenti in front of him. There were fewer since the battle with the zombies and Caine had also contributed to thinning them out. There had been just over seventy Nekrosenti, there were only thirty or so sitting before him.

"Do any of you recognise him?" he asked, indicating Samuel.

He looked for any sign that might betray one of them. There were no smiles or smirks or worried expressions. Just a lot of confused frowns.

"This Fledgling just walked into Castle Dracula with no knowledge of who turned him," Dmitri further explained, "so obviously it was one of you or he wouldn't have known how to get here."

Still, there was silence and everyone looked up at him, confusion clearly the dominant emotion in the room. He frowned, he knew most vampires were good at acting and denying their part in anything questionable but he'd never know them to be this good.

"Very well," he continued, "then I suppose I will have to go through all of you systematically and you'd better hope like hell that I don't catch you before you own up."

He felt ridiculous, like a school headmaster addressing a bunch of students after finding crude graffiti tag on a bathroom wall. He knew what Vlad would've done. He'd have gone to ask Caine's advice and he knew that Caine would've told him to keep it quiet. Then they would've somehow investigated it by telling everyone something else and eventually someone would disappear, never to be seen again. It seemed easy for them. They just did things and things happened, but it had been secrets that brought the coven to its knees before and he wouldn't allow that to happen again.

"Do you recognise anyone here?" Dmitri asked Samuel.

Samuel scanned the room for a familiar face then, slowly, shook his head. His eyes darted back and pointed at somebody across the room. Dmitri followed his finger and found the face. He nodded, trying to remember the vampire's name. David or Daniel or something like that. He thought a little harder and it came to him, Damien.

"Damien," he called him, "come here."

Damien's pretty, pale blue eyes widened and he looked around at all the others. Dmitri found it hard to believe that he could pull something like this off. Damien pointed to his chest and Dmitri resisted the urge to go and get him.

"No," he said dryly, "the other Damien. Yes, you!"

The worried vampire got out of his chair and walked towards Dmitri, visibly preparing his defence.

"I have never seen him before," he said, matter-of-factly, as he arrived in front of Dmitri.

Dmitri believed him and turned to Samuel, "Are you sure?"

Samuel stared at Damien for a moment longer then shook his head, "I'm sorry, I must have been mistaken."

"Damn straight you were," Damien retorted, turning to return to his seat.
"So you recognise nobody here?" Dmitri asked.

Samuel nodded, "Nobody."

"So we are no closer to finding your sire."

Samuel shrugged, "It would appear that way."