A Little Less Sixteen Candles... Continued

Traitor in the Midst?

"Oh, how sweet!" Brendon laughed, his tone heavy with sarcasm, as he entered Andy's cell, closing the door quietly behind him.

In front of him, curled up near the wall, a truly exhausted Andy was sleeping, for the most part, peacefully. The occasional twitch or eyelid flutter were the only indications that it was a restless sleep.

"You might be able to fight the younger members of the Coven, but you're helpless against me. Trust me, I'll break you, just as William wants. I'll snap you like a twig!"

It was probably the sound of Brendon speaking, or it could have been that his words filtered directly into Andy's sleeping mind, but it was at this moment he woke with a start. Jerking his head up, his eyes widened as he saw Brendon standing, once again, only a few feet away. Shaking off his sleepiness in an instant, Andy pushed himself to his feet and stood nervously with his back to the wall. After his earlier encounter with Brendon, and now alone, Andy couldn't help but feel scared and at least able to admit it to himself.

"What do you want?" he asked, trying to sound braver than he felt.
Brendon smiled at the reaction, he could smell Andy's fear and he liked it.
"William wants you as a slave, I don't see you needing much convincing, do you?"
"I'll never work for you!" Andy defiantly snapped in return.
"Really? Well, it looks as though he chose the right one after all," Brendon gave a light shrug.
"Chose the right one? What do you mean?" Andy asked, confused by the reply.
"Haven't you wondered yet why all four of you aren't here?"

Andy frowned; he didn't want to contemplate what Brendon was suggesting.

"Because Joe escaped you! It's that simple!"

Brendon grinned arrogantly at the vampire hunter.

"Ah, but even you don't really believe that do you? You do know you were led into a trap don't you?"

Andy merely stared back, tight-lipped. He had already suspected as much, but now it had been confirmed. It seemed that they had used the same trick that the four hunters had themselves used on dozens of occasions. Two vampire groups fighting and tearing up the neighbourhood – they were the bait, as Andy himself had been in one of their own traps only a few nights before. The four hunters arrived only to find everyone scattered and the powerful and feared Dandies waiting for them. Yes, they had fallen for it and been lured into a trap – one from which they had failed to escape.

"You're not saying very much," Brendon mocked as he ran his fingers down the smooth line of his jacket's lapel. "Don't you even want to know how it was arranged?"
"Not really," Andy scowled, suddenly feeling braver as Brendon tried to implicate his friend as being a traitor. "But you seem to like the sound of your own voice and like you said, I can't really stop you can I?"
"Oh, Andy," Brendon slapped a clenched fist to his chest. "You wound me!"
"I'd like to!" Andy spat in reply.

Catching Andy unawares, Brendon rushed forward slamming Andy against the wall, his right arm pressed against his neck. Andy's brow creased with pain, his eyes shut as the vampire pushed harder, preventing him from breathing. Struggling uselessly against Brendon's preternatural strength, Andy quickly used up all his air. As the muscles in his legs went limp, Brendon released him and watched unsympathetically as he collapsed to the floor, gasping for air.

"We arranged for one of the more violent vampire groups to encroach on another's territory. Naturally, the fights broke out almost immediately. Your runner caught it all on camera and obligingly relayed it back; until he was killed, of course."

Brendon laughed at the pained expression on Andy's face at the news, that, as yet, he hadn't realised.

"So," he continued, "all you saw were rival groups fighting and you all came charging in; white knights on your steeds, as we knew you would. But by the time you arrived, we were already there and those not in our employ had scattered. We arrived en masse, enough of us to split you up. Pete was always going to go after William, and he was dealt with. Patrick, ever the hero, risking his life to save three apparently human and terrified girls from vampire attacks. Ha! The fool had his back to them. Well..." Brendon grinned cruelly. "You saw how he looked, what they really were."
"Yeah, and you got me through sheer force and numbers," Andy scowled at the memory as he pushed himself to his feet once more.
"Yes," Brendon replied ending in a smirk.
"But you didn't get Joe!"