He past the people in the darkness, the sun had just set and he was just staring at the curious people packing up their things, their belongings into their bags as they hurried inside. Weaved bags, beautifully weaved bags could take a lot of weight and a lot of items. He did not pay them much attention, his hood up, his cloak cascading down his back, hiding part of his dark clothes. He liked to blend in with the darkness, into the night. It was an old habit, a horrible habit but it stopped him being seen by the people of the kingdom, the same people who could potentially be his victims, his face being the last one they would see.

He kept walking down the large, long street, his hunger burning with anticipation. This was it, the end of his humanity, poetic irony screamed at him. The king had been the start of his cruel, twisted downward spiral to hell, to the hell that was his life and the king was going to die and be his humanity killer.

He did not mind, he did not care really. The blood was all he cared about, all he needed. It was as if he could feel it pulsating round his body, as if his heart was once again beating. It was the thrill, the thrill of the long and bloody chase. The king had tracked him down, made his first move so he made himself a target and Valenus was happy, happy to slaughter such a man.

He hated the king, there was nothing there other than pure hatred because the man was a monster who acted like a man, wore the face of a man and yet underneath was just as monstrous as Valenus and the others, just as sick and twisted. The chances of him caring for or about anyone but himself was probably less than zero, his need for power had twisted him, made him into something sickening and cruel, weak and damaged. He was a broken man, a dog that learnt how to bite and finally had the courage to bite its once master.

He had the courage, he had the plan he just needed to execute it and execute the one man who had brought trouble to his door even though he knew it would not be the last trouble, he had left witnesses of his horrific crimes alive, not on purpose however sometimes the painful murders had been witnessed, the darkness not dark enough. Humans were becoming stronger, braver and bolder but with the king, the monster of all monsters, dead and buried the others would surely scatter out of fear, hatred.

His hood remained in its place, hiding a head of black curls, hiding his red eyes, like a hunter. He had scanned every man, woman and child, deciding who lived and who died. No child, not a single child caught his eye, he still had some parts of a soul, not too much of a taste for innocents. He was not that sick, not that cruel, he did not have such a brutal taste for the blood of children but for men and women, it burnt, scanning every artery in their body, every source of blood. It was as if the monster was expecting a fine feast of blood but only royal blood was on the menu.

He made his way towards the castle but there was something odd, a smell in the air, familiar and yet not easy for him to place. He knew it, it was on the tip of his tongue but he could not remember where it was from, that smell.

Guards littered the floor, dead both of them with similar, familiar rips in their neck, the artery a vampire was most likely going to go for, it was easiest, less fuss or pain. He could sense the presence of something, the smell so familiar, could it have been the one man he had not seen in so long, could it have been the one he had felt most anxious about meeting? Alector, the man he had avoided, felt guilty for creating... the true monster, was he here?

He calmly walked through the castle gates, the glistening silver a warning of what was to come. The king's obsession with silver, ironic actually when Valenus thought about it, the irony being how sick the king was, how he betrayed God like Judas, like Valenus did.

Valenus forced his way into the castle, he was strong but then again the door was too. He continued to walk up the stairs; the smell of blood no longer present but the original smell, the one that he had originally caught and the one he suspected was Alector.

He hurried up the stairs, hoping the king was not yet dead. The king was his, was his toy, his plaything and not his brother's, his brother did not have an issue with the king, not as much of one. He was the one the king seemed most anxious to meet, the one the king thought would be easiest to break the will of, if only the king had realised what Valenus had. The monster had made him stronger, the king knew how physically strong but did he know how mentally strong he'd become?

He had left most his human world behind, most of the world he knew behind. The last thing he wanted was to break for that man, that horrible man who called himself a ruler, a king. His monstrous eyes were sickening to look at, that head of trimmed, neatly groomed blonde hair.

"Alector, is that you, my brother?" Valenus called out, barely above a whisper. With all that blood in his system, Alector could hear him, sense him even.

"Valenus, have you come to share my meal?" Alector asked softly as doors flung open.

"Enough, you are better than this. Please stop this madness before you kill us all!"

"Why would I kill you or myself? You are my brother, here with me again. This time we shall taste the blood of our one true creator, our one true father"

"Alector, this is madness, surely you must see that. If you kill the king, the price on your soul... you will never be able to undo what you have done!"

"What about you? What about your soul? Why care for mine when you do not, your own?"

Valenus stepped towards his brother, his eyes red with the smell of blood, there was no point in hiding himself, his ghostly white complexion, his dark red, almost ruby red eyes and his long teeth. He hid the rest of himself, the frightening monster he could turn himself into, change his shape into a less than human one, only because he wanted it to be the last thing the king saw, not the first.

"What are you doing, brother?" Alector asked.

"You want him to suffer? Then you watch him suffer. The damage to my soul has already been done, my humanity sacrificed but yours, yours is still intact"

"Valenus, you are not this!" Alector yelled out as Valenus approached the aging king, his face filled with a kind of desperate plea for help or vengeance.

"Valenus, Alector, why do you do this to me, to your own king?"

"If you knew of the monsters we have become, you would not be asking that question" Valenus snapped cruelly, his words as cold as ice as he picked the king up, holding him, looking him deep in the eyes.

"Do not blame your problems on me. Speak to Merlin, he can cure you, he can fix it!" the king begged as if he were begging for his life but Valenus was having none of it. He held him in place, ripping off his shirt, exposing his neck. "If you kill me, you will never be free; my men will always hunt you down. Just look at me, Valenus and ask yourself, do you really want that? If you kill me, the madness and bloodlust will take over; it will be all you know for all eternity"

"Valenus, listen to him! Let me do it, let me be the one to end him, not you. You have enough blood on your hands!" Alector begged and pleaded.

Valenus in a moment of distraction lowered King Arthur down, his head turning to Alector as he asked "why should you be the one to kill him? You have a wife, a family and I... I have nothing"

Alector walked towards Valenus, their hands briefly touching as Alector grabbed the king, pushing Valenus out the way. "I had a family, a wife and two daughters. I spent many days in the company of women I never truly loved and yet my wife forgave me. The last thing she said before she died was that she forgave me... despite the monster. He was the hand that ordered her death, he was the hand that butchered her and ended me. With her death, came mine"

"Killing him will not bring her back" Valenus snapped.

"Killing him will bring justice. I could never live with myself like this. Since we turned, I have felt that way, the need to kill... I cannot do it. Let me end him, let me end him and start again. If I can do one good thing, let it be this" Alector begged softly.

"It looks like you have already decided my fate, if I am to die, I will let Merlin make you suffer"

"Merlin can take my life when I am done!" he yelled as he plunged his teeth into the king's neck. It took Valenus every ounce of strength not to attack, his eyes widened from hunger as the king screamed, the colour drained from his pathetic face. All Valenus wanted to do was end it, help his own brother end that monstrosity.

As the king's heart weakened, Valenus could hear it, it almost fascinated him. He could hear the slowing of the heart like the slowing of a song, the end was near, they all could sense it. Alector had not stopped, not even for a second, his eyes, his mind so desperate for that last drop of blood. Was this what Valenus would have become? So desperate, emotionless with eyes so sunken in from the taste of blood.

"Alector, stop, he is gone!" Valenus almost begged, looking at the poor, pathetic creature. 

Alector just looked up before completely draining the corpse, the blood he wanted, as if he needed it, as if his very life depended on it. He was obsessed with the blood he wore on his face, down his shirt. He looked awful, a pale version of himself with no life in his eyes, no emotion. Valenus had not kept his promise, he could not. His own blood brother had merely knelt down by his dead king with nothing but silence all around him, as if he just cared for and about the blood.

"Alector, what has happened to you?" Valenus asked softly as he walked slowly towards his own brother, nothing but love and sympathy for him.

"You need to do it" he whispered in a slight state of sanity with his own panic stricken eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Valenus questioned with confusion written on his face.

"You need to kill me" he whispered very quietly, the only emotion was fear in his eyes.

"I cannot do that, Alector; we are brothers so we cannot kill each other!"

"If you do not, he will" Alector replied frighteningly. Who did he mean? Did he mean himself and was just being poetic? His long fingers pointed towards the door, the broken in door. An older man walked towards the broken door. He was clearly an old man but not as old as he pretended, something in his gut told him that he was more than he pretended.

"Who is that?" Valenus asked, not bothering to face the man.

"That is my death... that is Merlin. Do you not see? He has come to take me from this world, to reunite me with those I have lost"

"I cannot let you, I cannot lose you" Valenus whispered.

"Yes you can, you know you can" Alector replied softly as he lay on the floor.

"If I kill you, our brothers will kill me, please do not do this... please do not make me do this" Valenus begged with tears in his eyes. Seeing the look of defeat in Valenus's eyes, Valenus broke a wooden table, the table leg made a great makeshift stake. He did not want to do it, he did not want to kill Alector but he had no choice, he could not leave Alector in his blood-crazed state, not alive at least. He dropped down to his level, the sadness in Alector's eyes, the pain... how could Valenus let him continue?

He held the stake over his heart, a tear rolled down his cheek as Alector whispered "goodbye, my brother, may you last longer than I have"

"May you find peace in death, my brother" Valenus whispered softly as Alector held the stake, not reacting as he held it over his heart. With one quick, clean strike, Valenus gave him peace. One quick, clean strike, he was gone and so was his pain. He first turned into the monster Valenus recognised, the monstrosity with strong wings and pale skin before it vanished and out came his mortality, this slightly aged man with gentle eyes and soft hair. With one last breath, it was over, he was gone and Valenus shut his eyes before he turned into ashes before his eyes.

"There will always be one of you left" Merlin warned.

"What are you talking about?" Valenus questioned.

"Only one of the seven can kill another, there will always be one left" he replied almost cryptically.

"Did you know what we would become?! Is that why you left us?!" Valenus asked in a rage, his eyes burning red, like embers.

"I had my suspicions. I tried to warn the king but he would not listen just as I tried to warn him about these events. Everything that has happened, has happened because it had to happen, therefore everything that has been done, everything that will be done is a direct result"

"You did not think to tell us? Did you not think to warn us? Did you not think it best to drop the slightest hint of the chance?!" Valenus screamed at the top of his lungs.

Merlin just remained calm, stroking his floor length beard. "I warned the king, not the seven. What happened, has happened because it was meant to happen. Your lust for power has consumed you"

"And now I have a lust for blood, now I consume human blood!" Valenus yelled. "Give me a reason not to kill you, either by the same way your king died or by me throwing you out this castle, give me a reason!"

Valenus, covered in blood and ashes wrote a small letter to Mork, one that he hoped would be received with a little mercy, not anger. He knew what he had done, there was no changing that but the others... they were not going to show him the same mercy.