Sanguine

Planning

Even after Mircalla had vanished that night, the trio of humans stood trembling.

"She did it. She really did it," Margreta rasped. "She killed Magdalena..." the middle Karnstein child wasn't sure what frightened her more, Magdalena's demise, its propagator, or the violence with which it was propagated.

"Isn't this what we wanted?" Maximiliana asked feebly, though she already knew the answer. Initially, she had only joined the vampire hunt because it seemed fun and she had always wanted to go on some fantastic adventure. Now, she just wanted to go home.

"Yes, but not like this," Cornelius spoke everybody's mind. "But Magdalena is truly dead and there's nothing we can do about it. I am more worried about Mircalla now," he paused, giving one last halfhearted attempt to find his fiancée amongst the shadows.

"I just don't understand it," Margreta murmured. "Shouldn't she have been freed? She said that if we killed the one who turned her, she would be saved! But if anything, she seemed even more hostile and vampiric than before," the woman shook her head and fell silent again.

The others couldn't help but agree, though. Margreta was entirely correct. According to their research and Mircalla's own words, Magdalena's death should've lifted the curse and restored Mircalla. Clearly, that was not the case and the triumphant return they had expected to achieve had fallen very flat. Unless...

"What if she lied to us?" Maximiliana was the first to suggest it. "What if Mircalla lied to us about what would happen to her if Magdalena died? What if she only said Magdalena's death would free her in order to garner our support and sympathy? I mean think about it, didn't Mircalla say she had inherited Magdalena's power just after she killed Magdalena?" the girl trailed off as her sister and husband in law pondered her words. She was right. Just moments before Mircalla had vanished into the night again she had clearly said, "I have vanquished my creator and have inherited her power. Nothing can stop me now..."

Slowly, the realization that Mircalla had been playing them all along sank in and the three friends looked at each other in horror.

"What have we done?" they breathed. "What horror have we unleashed in Karnstein? Thanks to us, a true monster is now loose in the kingdom and is even stronger than before." Mircalla's trick for more power by killing Magdalena had worked like a charm. Her three friends had trusted her so blindly that they allowed for this lie to play itself out and now Mircalla had exactly what she wanted. Her one competitor was dead and she had gotten a boost in strength. That heartless monster had played them all.

"What will that mean for the rest of us?" Cornelius asked, sounding very small.

"It means we're still in big vampire trouble," Margreta sighed regretfully. "We have to round up the others and tell them about this," she said, gesturing to what was left of their second youngest Karnstein. Then, with a heavy heart and a hanging head, she led the others away. They were going to go find the sister whose castle was the closest. As of that moment, that castle was Marcia's. She was not going to be happy.

"You what?!" Marcia thundered at her middle sister. Behind her, her kids were peering fearfully. Her husband was nowhere to be seen.

"We accidently helped Mircalla become stronger by killing the original vampire," Margreta repeated, taking a fearful step back from Marcia.

"Explain. At once!" Marcia took a step forward to compensate for Margreta's step back. With that, Margreta whimpered out the story, starting from Magdalena's suicide and ending with her defeat at Mircalla's fangs.

"Oh my God!" Marcia ran tired fingers through messy hair as her sister finished the story. She covered her mouth next, shaking her head back and forth slowly as she tried to understand everything she had learned. This vampire hunt was going to be so much worse now thanks to them.

"I'm sorry," Margreta was crying now.

"Oh my God," Marcia repeated. She said this phrase several times more and she paced the room in which she and the others stood. Was this really Karnstein's fate? To be torn apart from the inside out by a family feud and a cunning vampire with a power problem? That couldn't be right! But that was exactly what they were facing. Marcia just couldn't believe it.

In time, however, the eldest Karnstein calmed down. She apologized for ever blaming either of her sisters.

"I would've done the same in your place," she told Margreta and Maximilian, taking them both in her arms after so long. They reciprocated the hug in relief, sniffling into her shoulders. "But now, we do have a really big problem at hand."

"We know," Margreta moaned miserably.

"But what can we do?" asked Maximilian.

"We can join the hunt again," Marcia answered. It wasn't a solution any of them wanted, but it seemed that it was all they had.

"Are Maria and Matilda a part of it?" Cornelius asked.

"Maria is leading one of the armies but I don't know about Matilda," Marcia answered him, slowly releasing her younger sisters. "I think Matilda is kind of torn, actually. I know she used to be in support of Mircalla, but I think that's changing."

"As it should," Maximiliana answered bitterly, still clearly sore over Mircalla lying to her and the others.

"What do we do first, then?" Cornelius asked.

"We join them. I can send us all to one of the outposts tomorrow morning. Tonight, though, I think you all need to rest," her stern face softened as she studied her downtrodden sisters closely. She murmured words of affection to them again before leading them to some of the fancier chambers in one of the towers facing the west. For everyone it was a night that was, mercifully, dreamless. They would start planning in the morning.

While miserable sisters hid in Marcia's castle, the others in the vampire hunt stood at the Karnstein chapel, planning. Jusztina was with them. Even she had turned against Mircalla. She was not able to do much in her old age, but she still wanted to be there for the planning.

"We need to find her and fast!" Ferenc brought his fist down on a table that had been dragged into the chapel.

"We know! But we have no idea where she is or where to find her!" Hans shouted back, quivering. The last few days of the hunt were starting to get to everyone and madness, paranoia, distrust, restlessness, despair and anger were setting in. It was just dumb luck that nobody had actually killed anyone else yet, but from the tensions rising in the chapel, a time like that would not be far away.

"Then let us figure out where she might be!" a voice interrupted the quarreling men. It was Maria, still helping in the vampire hunt despite being half blind thanks to Mircalla's earlier attack on the night of her birthday ball. "Surely you, Papa, know what she thinks like!?" she insisted. Ferenc turned on her with a vicious snarl but she met his eyes with equal anger and he finally conceded to let her lead. After all, she was his favorite child and she had proven herself quite aggressive in this hunt.

Hans, meanwhile, only watched with a sad shake of his head. His old heart ached for his young son whom he hadn't seen since the night Mircalla turned. No doubt, he was hiding in his room, crying. Hans knew how much that boy had loved the countess of Karnstein. Hans didn't even have the heart to ask the boy on their mission to kill her. But she had to be stopped, one way or another. So Hans rejoined the Karnstein army in their plot to find and kill Mircalla. Stakes were sharpened, crosses were worn, and plans were made.

Ironically, right outside the door, the vampire in question stood listening in.

"So, you think you can defeat me, O father and sister?" she asked coldly. "What fools!" she shook her head disdainfully. She continued to watch her father and his band of bumbling men continue to run around the chapel, making preparations against her. It filled her with anger and amusement to watch them scurry around her chapel, making plans to murder her, not even knowing she was right outside the door.

"We'll kill her to be sure, my men!" Ferenc cried to the troops.

"Nay, you shall not succeed against me!" she replied softly. "Instead, I shall crush you all like rats underfoot. Not a single one of you will remain alive and I shall be the only Karnstein left to tell the tale!" she decided. Then, after having spoken such words, Mircalla left the scene through the shadows, fleeing the chapel and returning to the mists from whence she came. There was planning going around on all three fronts of the vampire hunt and neither side was about to give an inch to the other.