Rush, Meredith's vampire companion, was not like any of the masters here, though he also wasn't what Ezra would call kind. Silent at all times, the man had seemingly zero emotion and only moved if Ezra drifted closer to Meredith or left his line of vision. Speaking to the man had done little for anyone, so he'd agreed to take them to Natalie. It wasn't something he wanted to do, but with several of the masters dead and the ones remaining soon to fall, his time here was up. One way or another, this was all about to end, whether it crashed on top of him or not.

Natalie's quarters were in the central most room in the complex, for good reason to keep them from thoughts of escape, but it wasn't too far from the shambles of Rastos' experimentation rooms. As he approached, he could feel her magic and his child's faint aura from down the hall through the shield that kept her locked in. It was markedly weaker which meant another master had fallen. That left only one, and he doubted the man was hanging around with Rastos felled.

At the last turn, Ezra hesitated, knowing Meredith was here to help Natalie but not liking the idea of another vampire so close to the mother of his child. Rush wasn't friendly either, and Ezra looked back to where the man followed behind. As soon as their eyes met, Rush pulled Meredith closer and backed up a step, as if Ezra was going to attack him.

All of the men here thought of him as detestable and a threat, something to serve a purpose until uneeded.

Ezra shifted his attention beyond Rush as several men arrived, the ones from before with Laros. Meredith pulled out of Rush's arms to run up to her allies, but Rush gripped her shoulder and yanked her back just as quickly. Just behind the aristocrat, two lycans filled the hallway with their large bulky forms. Mendel's lycans. They were loyal to the master completely, and yet they crowded the small man with no magic as if he owned them. Raf even whined as the small man tried to get further away. It was futile, and the lycan returned to his side, rumbling a low growl of affection as he rubbed shoulders with the man.

"I said not to leave me behind, Damien," the man said, jumping ahead of the lycans and gasping for air. "These things have imprinted on me and I doubt Cael wants friends."

Raf and Sid moved to follow the poor man they'd attached to again but stopped as they recognized Ezra standing near the other men. They stiffened, as if caught doing something they weren't supposed to, and Ezra sighed. Those two were so lost without their master that they must have latched onto the first thing nice to them the moment Mendel had fallen. Perhaps they were happy to be rid of their cruel master, but what place did this world have for such men, ones trained to rip apart anything on command and heel to only one man.

About as much as it did for Ezra and the rest of the slaves.

Ezra wanted to flee, to hide behind the protective wall of the remaining master's magic and pretend this wasn't happening, but losing Natalie was necessary for her and their child's safety. As much as he wanted to stay by her side, these men would tear him away from her and kill him the first chance they got.

At least the assassin looked to be out of commission.

The thick scent of blood came with Damien as the aristocrat found Rush and closed the distance instantly, holding the assassin passed out in his arms. Vampires only lost consciousness from grave injury, and there was a hole in the assassin's chest from claws but nothing that looked large enough to have incapacitated him this badly.

"Remus, we were worried about you and Meredith," Damien said, glancing at Ezra not a moment later. "Ezra, we didn't mean to scare you off earlier, and we could really use your help."

His help? There was a short list of things he could do for the man.

"I hate to ask this, but I'm not sure how much time we have. Vice needs blood or he's going to die. I'd take him elsewhere, but I don't know if I'd make it out before being caught by another master and vampires shouldn't be moved this weak."

Ezra dead-eyed the man and grit his teeth with a hatred that he couldn't bridle.

"Please," Damien begged.

"Who?" Ezra said with a low growl, and Damien didn't understand his sudden hostility. This man couldn't understand. "The only humans here are slaves, ones terrified of vampire kind and you want me to bring some to feed your half-dead friend? Do you realize how little control a vampire has in that state and how terrifying that is for any human? Or do our lives mean nothing to you?"

"I wouldn't ask if it weren't life or death," Damien insisted, slipping the assassin on the floor and leaning him up against the wall.

"You have two non vampires in your party, so why must it be the slaves here?" Ezra asked.

A snarl tore through the hall that had Ezra pressed to a wall as Rush bared his fangs. "Meredith is injured and weak from using her magic. She hasn't blood to spare." The mention of injury drew Damien's eyes down to her bandaged leg before he lifted them back to Ezra.

"If I had other options, I wouldn't be asking you," Damien rasped, clenching his fangs with frustration. "When vampires are weak they can't tolerate Lycan blood or I'd have asked the wolves. The magic would be too strong and corrupting, and Paul is a nothing, a creature of anti magic. You don't want to fill up a creature desperate for darkness with the opposite. That would kill him."

"Then let him die," Ezra spat. "I will not give over an unwilling slave to someone so brutal when he has control of himself. I don't want to think of how he'd treat a human in his current state." Ezra backed up a few steps as Damien and Rush squared their shoulders and stared him down, but he wouldn't bend on this.

"This argument is moot," a weak voice came from the floor, and they turned to the assassin as he opened his eyes. They were so dim that he looked on death's door. "I would never drink blood from an unwilling slave. I'd die first." A growl rolled from his throat, but he groaned and his fangs lengthened. "I need blood."

"I know, Vice," Damien said, coming over and kneeling in front of him.

"I saved you," Vice said, reaching out and touching the sides of Damien's face. "So don't move for a moment, okay?" Light left Vice's eyes as he pulled Damien in and sank his fangs into his neck.

Damien remained in place, rigid as a statue but flexing his hands as if he didn't know what to do with them. If Vice didn't desperately need the blood, Ezra got the feeling that he'd have already pushed him away. The assassin was cannibalizing Natalie's brother, and by the fear echoing in Damien's eyes, he was as surprised as the rest of them. It showed the man's character, that he was willing to give what he had to save his friend even though he was terrified.

Every time Ezra was certain Natalie's rescuers couldn't get any more frightening, he was proven wrong. He'd never seen a vampire drink from one of their own, so Ezra was unable to tear his eyes away for the slowest thirty seconds of his life. Most vampires drank for longer in that condition, but Vice dropped his fangs from Damien's neck and turned away immediately, wiping is mouth. Silence filled the hall, and Rush looked as if he'd just watched his comrade's head explode.

"You utter a word of my drinking vampire blood to anyone and my master will kill you and whoever you tell," Vice said, standing up and looking to his allies and not at Ezra. They weren't that close if the man was threatening even them. "If I hadn't needed it to live, I wouldn't have–"

Mendel's lycan's appeared at the assassin's side so quickly that he stopped speaking and lifted his eyes up to theirs. Ezra half expected Mendel's lycans to break his neck, but Sid whined as he normally did when he was concerned about something, and Raf shifted his head in thought.

"Thank you," Raf eventually said in a low growl, and the assassin did the strangest thing.

He smiled.

"Sure," Vice said, reaching up his hand and touching Raf on the side of his face. The wolf closed in on him with his brother, and a blush darkened the tanned skin of the assassin's cheeks as they clung to him. A chuckle escaped Vice, and Ezra was at a loss for words as the assassin allowed them to touch him without fear. "You don't need to cozy up to me that much. I will take you home with me." Vice's genuine smile shined into his eyes, but the lycans froze up, silencing any sound. "Do you not want to come?"

"We..." Sid rubbed his arm. "You would want us?"

"I want to protect all of you," Vice said, his gaze briefly shifting to Ezra before it returned to the men with him. "With Mendel's death, that leaves only one lesser master remaining and a few of their underlings. I will personally hunt down and eradicate what is left of the men who harmed you and the other slaves. I would like to take your people somewhere you can live in peace and safety, if you would not mind." Vice turned to Ezra, but he was at a loss for words.

This was not the same man who had tortured Laros and spoken so coldly of them. Or perhaps it was. If Ezra had power, he would have gutted them himself. For a moment, Ezra considered the humans here and spoke earnestly to the man before him.

"They will not be comfortable among vampires, the humans here at least. There are less than half a dozen servant vampires who tend to them during the night, but none are cruel like the masters. I'm not sure there is a place they could go where human society would not be overwhelming or vampires wouldn't cause them to live in constant fear."

"I'm aware of what they suffered and what they'll need, Ezra," Vice said, pulling down the neck of his skin-tight fabric to show the black sun tattooed on his neck. "I know you figured out earlier that I had a vendetta against the masters. I was a slave here a little over forty years ago and I escaped them. That being said, our first priority is to take Luna Aurion to safety, but her brother and niece can see to that. You know where she is being kept?"

"I can sense Luna from here," Damien said, rubbing his neck and keeping closer to Rush than Vice. "Were you taking Remus and Meredith to her?" Damien spoke to Ezra, and the pits of his stomach turned in knots.

"I was, and she is just around this turn," Ezra said quietly, heading around the corner with a need to see her once more.

Right at the barrier, Natalie sat on a pile of blankets, waiting for him with the door open. Ezra couldn't help the purr of affection that slipped out of his lips, as she stood and smiled in his direction.

"Ezra," Natalie called, and warmth flooded through him. Touching her stomach and looking to Ezra, her gaze softened and she held out her hand for him. Ezra wanted to take it, to go to her and press his face to her hair, but he got the distinct impression that if he move, one of the vampires behind him would break his legs.

Word Count: 2032