Father and sons

　　Irena's POV

　　The restaurant was nearing its closing time and its customers had begun to clear out, there were only a handful of us left.

　　"Wow we made a lot of powerful enemies over the years Irena," Magnus said fighting back a yawn, understandable we had been at this for some time now.

　　"You don't live for this long and look this good and not attract the attention of a few haters," I said in a sassy tone that immediately took my mind back to the time I spent in the south in the sixties.

　　New Orleans 1969 crazy time to be alive, but then again when is it not?

　　The effects of a certain activist's assassination had only just then started to die down and joy was starting to creep its way back into the homes of people everywhere, especially in the birthplace of jazz, it was always a party in New Orleans, until people's kids stopped coming home from school or the park or anywhere else, and instead were turning up dead in the woods with their bodies horribly mutilated, missing organs like hearts, kidneys or livers or missing an arm or a leg or something.

　　Brutal stuff, very disgusting business only a monster could carry out such acts and do so consistently. But what kind of monster are we dealing with here?

　　This caused a major outrage amongst the people of the community, investigations, and manhunts were started and that's never good for a vampire trying to lay low and mind her business.

　　So I started my investigation to find the real culprit and bring him to justice before the city dissolved into a cesspool of chaos and madness.

　　I started my investigation by questioning the families of the missing children. For some reason, I couldn't read their minds. Something about New Orleans was blocking that aspect of my powers but through my conversations with the victims' families, I noticed a pattern: eight children had gone missing, all male and all within the ages of nine to twelve.

　　"Can you tell me about your son ma'am, anything that can help me find out why he was taken and how to stop this from happening again?" I inquired, making sure to be as sensitive and considerate as possible. These families are in the process of healing and could be bitchy when asked triggering questions.

　　"You gon' bring the devil that did this to my lil' boy to justice miss?" Mrs. Sherman asked, holding back the tears, her son Timothy Sherman was eleven years old, he was found with his heart removed, what kind of monster would do such a thing, I was going to find out.

　　"Yes I will ma'am, you have my word." I fucking swear it.

　　"They took his legs, they took my baby's legs. Why'd they have to go and do that?" Mrs. Foreman wailed as she clutched onto a picture of little David Foreman, her son who was only eight years old, found dead and missing both his legs.

　　"I promise you ma'am I will bring whoever this monster is to justice,"

　　" It was the klan, it was the motherfucking klan, ain't nobody else gon do a young black kid what they did to ma son" Mr. Simeon yelled in an outraged tone, he was convinced this was a hate crime with regards to race as his twelve-year-old son Samuel Simeon was found missing most of his skin, the poor child had been flayed, but I knew different, this was the work of some power-hungry dark arts practitioner hoping to gain favor and coin their own twisted notion of ultimate power from some dark lord, this was a crime but this was a heinous crime done by an equally sinister monster to the klan, but a different monster all the same.

　　The conversations with the rest of the parents went on pretty much in the same fashion, highlighting similarities and so many differences: a maze, but a patterned maze.

　　I've seen patterns like this before, they're sacrifices for some kind of ritual, someone is out there killing innocent children for some sort of ritual.

　　This will not go unpunished.

　　I will find the monster responsible for this and when I do that sick and disgusting creature will face the same fate that they have put these innocent children through.

　　Next, I investigated where the children were abducted with the help of the local police working hand in hand with lead investigator Inspector Daniel Babatunde, as I had implanted myself into the police using my powers of persuasion to gain access to their rather useful array of equipment and library of information while steering them from the path of their own incompetence as is so often the case with the police.

　　"The boys were all taken within a ten mile radius of the school and their bodies all turned up in and around Crowwood Forest. Is that right Inspector?" The inspector was a hard man to read so Sternly and serious, perhaps it was as a result of his African heritage, but then again ever since I got to New Orleans it feels like something is blocking my mind-reading powers, it must be tied to the rituals, I'll get to the bottom of it soon enough.

　　A very passionate man, it showed in his hard work on the case though. And his dedication to his sons.

　　He talked about his sons a lot, twins both sixteen both too old to fit the bill but he often wondered throughout the course of the investigation, what he would do if his sons turned up dead with their corpses horribly mutilated to fit the MO of the Defiler.

　　That's what the press was calling him; a serial killer. They thought so, but I thought differently. The defiler was much eviler than some serial killer.

　　"Yes ma'am we're doing a perimeter sweep as we speak we'll find that disgusting monster and bring him to justice soon enough," he said reassuringly

　　" You've done quite a lot for us, why don't you head on and get some rest now ma'am" he would've in fact reassured me with his soft southern accent had it not been for this gnawing feeling in the back of my head.

　　Seven boys were found in the area seven out of eight.

　　But the eighth was found a long way away and we seem to be ignoring that as some sort of fluke in the actual pattern. But what if it's not, what if it's a slip up in an otherwise full-proof plan that would've seen the Defiler get away scot-free with these heinous acts?

　　I couldn't shake the feeling so I went towards the sight where the eighth boy was found where little David Foreman was found without his legs.

　　While the police investigate this side I'll investigate the other area.

　　I can cover a lot of ground since I'm so fast.

　　As I left I couldn't help but feel an eerie presence as though malicious eyes were watching me but I couldn't get a read and so I went on my way.

　　On my way, I stopped at a payphone,

　　"Magnus? It's me, Irena." I said urgently, hoping he would read my tone and sense how serious I was.

　　"What's up girl, you're missing the craziest party in Chicago," he was talking loudly and he seemed to be in a noisy area as music was blaring from the background.

　　"Magnus this is serious," my tone was firm and I was trying hard to not clench my jaw.

　　" Shit okay buzz kill, you sound distressed are you okay?"

　　"Assemble some help and find me in New Orleans. I need you, something crazy is going down," I instructed urgently.

　　" Irena? You've got me, worried about love, what's up?" His tone was now changed from hearty to concerned.

　　" I'm headed for a place called Deadwood, meet me there, hurry!" I hung up.

　　When I got to the sight; the Deadwood, merely at the entrance of the woods I could feel it in the air.

　　It loomed over the entire area like a thick mist, the ever so easily distinguishable stench of the dark arts.

　　Like a lure, I followed it deep into the woods until I came upon a cabin in the middle of the woods.

　　I let myself in and looked around for a bit overwhelmed by the stench of the arts before realizing that it was coming from the basement.

　　I made my way down there and was shocked and horrified at what I saw.

　　I've lived a long life I've seen some fucked up shit.

　　But when you walk into the dimly lit basement of an eerie cabin out in the middle of the woods to find two young boys chained to a wall hunched over, looking ragged and beaten with claws and teeth like animals and completely black eyes, each eating the legs of a child raw, it stirs you up a bit.

　　But what was scarier still was that I recognized the young boys.

　　"Martin and Mason?" I called out to them, bug-eyed.

　　"How did you know?" The sudden sound of a familiar voice speaking in an unfamiliar accent compelled me to suddenly turn back to find the inspector's claws and teeth with completely black eyes. He spoke in an African accent completely different from his soft southern accent as he yelled.

　　"HOW DID YOU FIGURE IT OUT?!!" His roar seemed to agitate the twins as they reared backward and balled up into the corner.

　　There he was before me, the Defiler, not what I was expecting but there he was.

　　"I had a hunch," I answered coolly, regaining my sense of calm after fully adjusting to the situation I found myself in.

　　"And how did you know it was me?"

　　"I had my suspicions from the start," I replied as though this was anything but a hunch.

　　" You are a very clever woman, but now you will die and my boys and I will feast upon your flesh," he said menacingly as he pointed his gun at me.

　　Just then the twins lunged at me from behind tearing through my flesh as easily as through mere fabric, I immediately realized that these were not creatures I would want to play around with before killing them as I jolted away from their further attacks.

　　It took me mere seconds to scan the room before deciding on a plan of attack.

　　I lunged at Martin first, ripping his head clean off of his shoulders as his father and brother watched on hopelessly to stop me.

　　Before his body could drop I was on Mason next I grabbed him by the head and twisted it until his face turned completely to his back he dropped dead instantly.

　　Just then the Defiler fired his gun and it grazed my side just below my ribs, his aim must've been off as a result of just watching his sons die.

　　Good for me because I quickly realized from the burn I felt and the time it was taking for my wound to heal itself that he had just shot me with a silver bullet.

　　Did he know I was a vampire all along?

　　Was this just a fluke?

　　I didn't care.

　　He had to die.

　　I rushed at him before he could react or even shoot again. I put one hand on his gun while simultaneously putting the other through his chest to rip his heart out.

　　His body fell lifeless to the floor

　　I felt the satisfaction of ridding the world of another evil and that's when I heard it.

　　"The boys didn't complete the ritual, I did. You cannot kill what is already dead,"

　　I turned in shock to find The Defiler slowly getting back up to his feet as the fatal wound that would kill any vampire inflicted of it healed itself on The Defiler before my very eyes.

　　"You killed my sons, my world, die you bitch!" he shot three times and I was out cold.

　　I woke up later to find Magnus and the doctor above me.

　　"Hello love, how're you feeling?"

　　"Where's the Defiler? Where's Babatunde The Defiler?!"

　　"We were right outside when we heard the gunshots we rushed in to find you on the floor with the maniac about to kill you, only you could survive four silver bullets but eight would have surely been lethal, we all attacked him it took some doing we killed him three times and he got three of us sadly but we finally captured him, we handed him to the council, he's locked away now Irena, forever."

　　" But as you and I recently learned since the council neglected to mention he escaped during the commotion of the Pompeii incident at the last council meeting," I said face-palming angrily.

　　"Yes and now he's out there doing whatever the hell Defiler's do this time of year," His comment seemed to be more of him wondering.

　　" Could he be the one plotting against me?"