The Rat Race

　　Irena's POV

　　"Pablo, take me to the airport, I need to get back to LA as soon as possible!" I ordered with rage in my voice, reinforced by what I had just learned, after everything I've done for that little snake. How could he?

　　"You got it boss, but uhhh, what's the matter?" He inquired.

　　"We caught the guy, what's got you so pissed now?" He continued.

　　"I'll tell you on the way, Pablo, for now just drive," I ordered blocking any more questions with the stern look of authority that I wore across my face.

　　On our drive back to the airport I pulled out my phone and called Magnus.

　　"I want you to mobilize every vampire you absolutely trust available to you right now, I need you to apprehend the mole, and prepare for a fight! " I instructed.

　　"What, you found the rat?" He said with relief in his voice

　　"Who is it, who's the rat bastard?" He continued with conviction.

　　"It's Pete, head of security for Sodom City at LA," I informed fanning the flames of my anger, even more, I hadn't said it out loud until just then, the thought of it alone was sickening enough, or maybe I thought saying it out loud would make it more real than I cared to admit, I trusted that little shit, I guess even then it was still hard to believe, there wasn't much logical reasoning going on, I just knew that I had to get him in my custody before any more damage was caused.

　　How could I let this happen?

　　Someone so comfortably placed in the inner workings of a major part of my life, a rat.

　　Magnus always said that 'That silly policy of not reading the minds of those loyal to you, will bite you in the neck one day.

　　Oh no! Something even worse than a rat just occurred to me, I have to listen to Magnus say 'I told you so'.

　　"Que! What?!" Pablo and Magnus reacted almost simultaneously and in the same manner to the news with Pablo even losing his bearings and swerving the car a bit.

　　"Precisely why you have to prepare for a fight because a rat in a position like that would obviously have loyalists" I explained as they both listened attentively.

　　" We're not dealing with one rat, the way I see it, it's an infestation!" I concluded as we arrived at the airport.

　　"I'll round up the innermost circle for this one Irena, see you soon." Magnus expressed in one of those rare serious Magnus moments.

　　"Start the hunt, I want to progress by the time I get there!" I commanded just before we got to a stop in front of the airport.

　　"You have been absolutely wonderful Pablo, I am grateful for your loyalty, especially now that I've realized just how in short supply it actually is, we will rebuild Pablo, you'll be back on your feet in no time, I promise. And in the meantime your expenses will be under me, I'll take care of everything until the club is back, which in all honesty would take a while because I have to settle out this mess."

　　I assured him just as I was about to leave.

　　"Gracias Boss, I won't let you down, you can count on me." He said and I could tell from the look on his face that he was being genuine, it was a refreshing look but it fanned my rage even more. Pete never had that and yet I couldn't see past the ruse, when I get my hands on him, he'll wish he wasn't born!

　　I got on my plane back to LA trying to make the pieces fit together but none of it seemed to go where I wanted it to go. It was a frustrating plane ride, and as soon as we landed Carlos was waiting for me.

　　"What's the news on the rat and his colony?" I demanded still enraged and frustrated at the lack of answers.

　　"Well, we caught a few of 'em,-" he started out avoiding eye contact implying that he didn't have anything good to report.

　　"But?" I urged impatiently, there was no time to baby anyone, there was a rat in my court and he was causing way too much damage!

　　"-But taking them alive has been challenging." He timidly explained as we got in the car.

　　"And why is that?" I inquired, with a look on my face that demanded a quick response.

　　"The thing is the colony has these special words that they say once they're in custody that instantly kills them, or they just won't go down without a fight and that usually leads to fatalities." I suspected something like this would be afoot, they have help from someone using the arts, it reeks of it, things are getting a bit crazy.

　　"I do have an idea on how we can get the rat though!" He suddenly announced in a reassured tone, he always was a smart kid.

　　"What do you have?" I inquired.

　　"I want all the solutions on the table Carlos.

　　"You said it yourself, they're a colony of rats, but not just a colony of rats, a colony of vampire rats with a plan and a series of tasks to fulfill and a leader to report it to,"

　　" Go on," I urged as he spoke.

　　"I've been able to get my hands on all their phones so far and they all made calls to each other and the lead rat himself,"

　　"Interesting, but what's your point?"

　　"Well there's one more phone and hence one more member of the colony missing from the grid, but if I can get my hands on the last phone I can build a sort of tracking device with the similar network grid of all the other phones sending and receiving calls between each other and the lead phone which is owned by the rat, giving us his exact location so we can be prepared to get him without any suspicions."

　　"That's brilliant, and I can get rid of all the rat loyalists as well!" I exclaimed excitedly as we arrived at my villa.

　　We entered the villa to find the innermost circle Magnus talked about waiting for me.

　　A room full of people whose loyalty to me could not be questioned no matter the circumstances. They were August, Monica, Izzy, King, and a few others. And at the head of that table was Magnus, my oldest, best, and most trusted friend.

　　This felt right.

　　"Thank you all for being here for me in my time of need, this will not be forgotten, I promise!" I announced to the room as I walked towards Magnus who smiled and hugged me.

　　"I'm sorry love, so far we've got nothing, but I promise you, we will find that rat and snuff him out!" I always welcome a little bit of serious Magnus, it's always refreshing to see how much he's willing to do for my sake.

　　"Thank you, Magnus, Carlos may have come up with a way to do just that, all we have to do is find the final member of the colony." Just then the doors flew open as two vampires dragged one more into the room, struggling and screeching as he fought back to regain his freedom. I recognized this clown too.

　　"Davis!" I whispered to myself with conviction.

　　He fought off the two vampires on him and turned to the door to make his escape, but he was already surrounded. He eyed the room with a face full of despair at the realization that he could try absolutely nothing that wouldn't be completely futile until he finally locked eyes with me.

　　"Where is he, Davis? Where is Pete?" I demanded knowing that I was wasting my time, of all the loyalists that Pete had under his seat, this was the last one who would ever betray him, I knew that already, but it was made even clearer by the searing look in his eyes as he ignored my question.

　　"I said, where is Pete!" This time while still maintaining eye contact, perhaps he hoped to burn a hole through my face with heat vision or something, he ignored me again only this time he spat on the floor, perhaps as a sign of disrespect.

　　"Ewww, that's disgusting." Magnus moaned at the sight of this.

　　"Fine, I'll make you tell me, grab him!" I gestured pointing at him, all the while maintaining eye contact as well.

　　Realizing that this was the end for him, he faced torture and then death the look of unwavering conviction on his face turned to pure despair as the tension in the room laid so thick you could cut it with a knife.

　　He still had his eyes fixed on me as he muttered.

　　"Death to the queen, hail to the emperor, but should my heart be seen, then death to me I live no more," after that he shriveled up before our eyes as though time had caught up to him aged up looking more and more like his actual age of a hundred and seventy until there was nothing left of him but dust and bones.

　　But just before that I invaded his mind and found a series of meeting with a man in a cloak, something didn't add up, it would seem that Pete alone isn't the mastermind either but rather took orders from someone as well, I had always assumed that Pete was tired of being a follower and had decided to move up, I pictured this as a clever but poorly executed hostile takeover, but this is so much more and so much less, Pete the rat bastard is betraying me just so he can play lapdog for some other overlord.

　　This made me even more pissed. The feeling was absolutely sickening, it made me even angrier. And I would be sure to show it once I got my hands on him!

　　"Carlos, grab his phone and get started at once, I want the rat in my custody yesterday!" I commanded as he scrambled towards what was left of Davis to grab his phone and begin his science thing.

　　"Hey Irena, sweetheart, how about a drink?" Magnus suggested leaning in, perhaps I was laying it on a bit too thick.

　　He was right I guess, I needed to ease up, I wouldn't want to scare away the ones that are actually loyal to me while trying to get to the disloyal ones.

　　"Yeah, let's all get something to drink and eat, even you Carlos, we've cut off his entire network and sent him into hiding, the rat is now just a sitting duck waiting for us to get our hands on him. Which we will in due time, thank you all for your faith and loyalty." I announced to the room as Magnus and I went out into the yard to share a glass of wine while we waited.

　　"Is there something else bothering you, love?" He asked worriedly.

　　"What do you mean?" I countered trying to deflect.

　　"I know you love, I've known you for centuries, I know when you're feeling more than you're letting on." He does know me, and he was always spot on about this kind of thing.

　　"Did something happen down there in Mexico? Something that you don't know what to feel about? Something that you're not sure if you should feel about? Maybe one of those rarities that even you have no power over?" Shit, he's got me, the fucking bastard always knew exactly what was going on with me, and I'm the one who can read minds.

　　"Guess I have to come clean huhn?" I insert emotion here.

　　"I guess you do." He said with a giggle and a smile on his face.

　　"When we raised the club over in Mexico to catch the arsonist, I saw Alexey!" I said in a somber tone of voice.

　　"Ouuu, and what's the bad news?" Opening another bottle of wine.

　　"He kissed some other woman, possibly a call girl at the club before she led him to one of the back rooms." Now that I think about it, even more, I feel so sad and I hate it.

　　"Shit." He cursed, handing me the glass of wine he just poured for himself, a gesture that anyone who knew Magnus would be moved to tears by.

　　"Well, maybe he-"

　　"-I found him! I found Pete!" Magnus was interrupted by Carlos who came running out holding some sort of beeping device.

　　"He's holed up here where the red dot is on the screen." Carlos showed it to us as he pointed at the screen.

　　"Good job Carlos, instruct the others, let's go catch ourselves a rat!" I ordered fiercely.

　　Now I can finally find out the question that's been on the back of my mind since the horrible demise of Davis.

　　Who is the cloaked figure calling the shots?