Mascarade

Monster Party

Shen Wei stood on the balcony above the majestic staircase with red carpet, watching the grim festivities down below. According to Ye Zun, this was where he found the hunter. They didn't know anything more about SID's plan other than that they are supposed to execute it tonight. If Zhao Yunlan's position was important, Shen Wei wanted to cover it.

In contrast, having fun loudly, even amongst the unimpressed crowd, Ye Zun layed on a cheslong downstairs by the dance area, surrounded by his three beautiful female familiars. Bewitching and creating followers was his special ability and he was quite picky in choosing who to make his servant. But looking at them, one could easily guess his taste. Tall, slim, long-legged, dark-haired, voluptuous women with entrancingly reddish lips. Another thing - not noticeable at first glance - about these women was that they were amazing fighters, acting often as Ye Zun's bodyguards.

Enjoying a glass of non-precipitated AB negative he nuzzled the warm bodies in a seemingly playful manner but he made sure he had his brother still in his field of vision. Afterall, the vampire hunters might attack at any moment and they certainly weren't previously informed on the fact that two vampires will join their side, not to mention they'd probably never agree.

Afterall, if the SID actually came up with a decent and successful plan - which Ye Zun simply out of principle doubted - tonight, they might just get rid of all of China's vampires. At once. Shen Wei's decision was quite... self-destructive and suicidal to say the least... but not boring - unlike the ball itself - which might have been why Ye Zun agreed to join.

Besides, he himself was interested to finally see his brother's special ability in action. He knew, he had telekinetic powers but Shen Wei had never shown them to him before, refusing his brother's constant pestering. Not that Ye Zun expected anything powerful from a vampire who's lived of of animal blood until now, he just couldn't understand the reality of being denied something.

Noticing a swift movement on top of the second set of stairs, Ye Zun whispered a few words to two of his lady companions and after a light kiss they left for different corners of the ballroom, mingling in the crowd. He looked up. Of course, his brother already noted his preparations. But if he were a group of vampire hunters attacking a lair of inhumanly strong superior creatures, how would he first attack? There should be chaos, so vampires can't organize... not like vampires would EVER be fans of any kind of cooperation.

Chaos. Chaos. Chaos...

Meanwhile, Shen Wei as he was examining the place, he'd already noted maybe 2 suspicious personnel down in the ballroom, both leaning against the walls leisurely on opposite sides of the circular dance floor. Even with the dim light of the chandelier that hung above the ballroom solemnly, he could notice their stiffened expressions of pretending-to-have-fun-in-a-vampiric-way. Besides, one of them just waved away an offered glass of blood...

Then there was the very badly hidden hunter up on the other staircase... hopefully, Zhao Yunlan hadn't brought only these...

And that he hadn't.

A sound of air being pierced by a swiftly moving object trailed to Shen Wei's ears before he heard a rattling noise comming from the huge chandalier and as he turned to see what's wrong, he could only witness it crash loudly onto the floor full of the puppet-like dancers. The crash itself ended maybe 3 or 4 of them, the higher affinity towards fire was currently a problem of another 6. And the panic started. Amongst it, the two hunters previously standing by the walls put their art to work. Being actually down there, probably no one would notice, who are the ones contributing to the ill-fortune of the top of the food chain, however, watching the horror scene from above, all was clear to Shen Wei. He also noticed Ye Zun's ladies joining the fight, as per previous arrangement between the two brothers, on vampire hunters' side.

Actually, even with all his talk about repaying the vampire hunter he had... ehm... had the chance to feed on earlier... Even if he did always side with the humans' side rather than vampires... It still meant right now to murder someone, but strangely he felt fine with it. Was it his twisted nature? Or did finally drinking human blood make him a true monster? Whatever it was, he was glad it didn't seem to stop him from fullfilling his oath.

Slowly descending the stairs, he caught by neck the first vampire that wanted to escape past him. He picked the struggling kin up with one arm and threw him accross the whole ballroom. The man crashed loudly into the opposite wall, where he got viciously attacked by one of Ye Zun's female lackeys.

Feeling the immense power flow through his veins, much more strongly than ever before, Shen Wei smirked slightly - at this moment resembling his brother even more. He could understand he shouldn't get drunk on it, otherwise he would never be able to stop drinking human blood, just like his peers, however, it just felt so intoxicating... Like everyone else was just an ant under his foot, waiting to be smashed.

Shen Wei felt excited, tonight will be his night...

* * *

With a loud groan, Zhao Yunlan struggled to get back up as he had just woken up by falling off the bed. Looking around, and hissing in pain that emanated strongly from the right side of his neck, he confirmed, the pleasant nightmare of submitting and being violated by a vampire was in fact true.

Plus his behind, on which he heavily landed felt very much used. For a few seconds he struggled to untangle himself from the satin sheets. While holding onto the side of the bed he then wobbily stood up. He felt like a newborn baby fawn. Dammit, what a night!

Glancing towards the clock and according to the distant screams and crashing sounds, he'd deduced, the fight itself had already started. No time to celebrate his own survival, yet. He needs to join the others, fast. With a worrisome look he quickly pulled on his pants and grabbed his white shirt, hastily somewhat buttoning it up.

Barefoot he ran out of the room, his look disheveled and desperate, on the way he grabbed his silver gun out of the coat and a handful of bullets. Through the long slim corridor leading towards the balcony overlooking the ballroom, he'd met three fleeing vampires that charged one by one viciously against him. They were all already badly wounded and a fresh, though slightly anemic meal with still a bit of blood stench on himself would help their regeneration.

Too bad, they'd found a bad victim to mess with. Not waiting for anything - a single word or move or any kind of gesture - Zhao Yunlan put very accurately bullets through all of their icy hearts.

Was it that easy to kill a vampire? If you were a master marksman like the Chief of SID, hitting on first try the one place needed, than yes, at this range, not facing a vampire with long-distance power, if you fired with no hesitation, yes, it was as easy as killing a simple human.

Zhao Yunlan had arrived to the golden balcony. Looking down, he saw Shen Wei right under him, fighting on the staircase. But why were he and that psychopath brother of his fighting the vampires? He would understand, them not holding onto the promise and spilling the truth to the other vampires, though as soon as he woke up and saw the time, he'd realized that wasn't the case. If the plan went down the drain, there would be no fighting.

But they could have just run away! He would then put them up on the board as next targets and fun would continue, the victim card would be given back... A game of tag...

Just why? Clearly, Shen Wei was mercilessly putting down any vampire that tried to enter the staircase. Surprisingly, for a long time "vegan" his power managed to overwhelm almost all the vampires comming towards him, as he guarded the one crucial spot, Zhao Yunlan gave to himself to protect the gunmen and crossbowmen up on the stairs.

This position, however, meant to give himself up completely to the vampire hunters aiming their lethal weapons at his back.

Seeing a dangerous look on one of his subordinates, aiming straight between Shen Wei's shoulder blades, Zhao Yunlan hurried to stop him, pulling down his crossbow. "No, Chu Shuzhi! They're on our side!"