Blood red love by Dripping Creativity

Blood red love 

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Vidar was in a bad mood as he stepped out of the shower and dressed to join the others. He glanced at his phone as he put it into his pocket. Three hours since Charlie had left with Caine. They should be at home by now and Vidar was sure her brother and his husband would look after them. As he walked into the restaurant of the old hotel, his mother looked up from the discussion she was having with several other vampires and gave him a knowing look. Vidar hated the look; he had gotten the same look from almost all the vampires at one point since Charlie and Caine had left. It wasn’t quite pity, it was compassion and understanding. It still reminded him every time he saw it that he didn’t have Charlie by his side or Caine at his 

back. 

“Well?” he asked as he walked up to the members of his clan. He had stopped trying to be nice. He was feeling grumpy and he had no patience to pretend he wasn’t. 

“Have you called and checked on them?” Adisa asked. 

“Answering a question with a question?” Vidar hissed. 

“It would probably make you feel better,” Adisa continued. It was like they were having two separate conversations. 

“Or it would make me feel a hundred times worse because I would have to hang up after a couple of minutes,” Vidar said. 

“Oh, didn’t think of that,” Adisa confessed. 

“We have contacted werewolf packs and clusters of demons. They are more than happy to 

help as they don’t like the thought of being outed to humans any more than we do,” Liwei 

told him. 

“Thank you,” he said, not talking about the information but the fact that she let him switch focus to the work ahead. She smiled and nodded. “Witches?” he asked. 

“They have a hard time making up their minds. They don’t like being outed any more than the rest of us. But a large portion of them don’t condone violence. At the moment the odds 

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are they will support us by giving us protection spells and be on standby to heal our casualties. But they won’t participate in the fight,” Henry told him. Vidar nodded. It good news, but it wasn’t unexpected. 

wasn’t 

“The elves don’t care. The fucking bastards have their own fae realm to retreat to if the humans become a problem,” Nasir said. 

“We have some giants, gargoyles and yetis joining us,” Jun added. 

“Sounds like we have a chance,” Vidar told them. They nodded. “Are we heading there now?” he then asked. 

“No. We will rest for a couple of hours. Get some sleep and some food and then hit them at dusk tomorrow,” Henry said. 

“Isn’t that what they would expect?” 

“No, we think they are more likely to think we will retaliate at once. Hopefully they will keep their men on watch and tire them out,” Adisa said. Vidar nodded. 

“Get some food in you and go get some sleep. You promised Charlie you would do your best to get back to her. No one wins if you go out there starving and tired,” Liwei told him. Vidar nodded again and headed for the food that someone had ordered and stood waiting for them. He wasn’t hungry, but he saw the wisdom in Liwei’s statement. He forced himself to eat and headed for the room to get some sleep. He took out his phone and looked at some of the photos he had taken of Charlie. Some of them she posed for, some of them he had taken when she didn’t know. His favourite was of her sitting on the grass field in Switzerland outside the castle. She was looking out over the lake and she looked happy and relaxed in a summer dress. Vidar sighed and propped his phone up on the nightstand so he could look at the photo while he fell asleep. 

A soft knock on the door woke him up. His phone told him it was time to get up and make the final preparations before heading for New Orleans. They gathered and ate while talking. All the clans made sure to pull in every favour and every contact they had. The amount of people that would gather outside of New Orleans would be huge. But they wanted to crush this in the bud. They would show the magical community that this would not be tolerated. Just after lunch they all got in cars and headed for the private air strip in the desert. There 

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was a small armada of private jets gathered around the small runway. One by one they all set off and steered towards the same city. When they were in the air, Vidar took out his phone and texted Charlie. 

V: We are heading out now, baby. Are you okay? 

He got a reply within a minute. 

C: I’m fine. So is Caine. He woke up, but I gave him the sleeping potion so he is back to sleep. Be safe. Love you. 

V: I love you too. 

Vidar then messaged Huxton. 

V: Thank you for looking out for Charlie and Caine. I’m trusting you will continue to do so. 

H: She is my sister. Is it that bad? 

V: I don’t think so. But you never know with this kind of thing. Charlie knows where she needs to look if the worst happens. 

H: I will make sure she is okay and be by her side if she needs to do it. 

V: Thank you. 

nk you. 

H: Stay safe. The best thing you can do for her is to come back. 

Vidar smiled. He would never have thought Charlie’s brother would be okay with their relationship. Vidar knew that with his reputation, he wasn’t what a big brother was looking for, for his little sister. But he was grateful towards Huxton, and Tyson, that they had looked past it and saw how much Vidar loved Charlie. The planes landed in different airstrips in and around New Orleans. They tried to move in as small groups as possible as they all made their way to the gathering point. It was just after four o’clock when Vidar reached the clearing in the swamp. The cypress clad with Spanish moss and the leaves of the spider lily hid their presence and numbers. It was still a couple of hours until sunset and Vidar walked around 

talking to people he hadn’t seen in decades. While they had only invited the clan councils to 

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Vegas, they had called in all vampires associated with them. Caine would have liked this, 

Vidar thought as he left a group of vampires he and Caine had briefly fought in a war some hundreds years back. Charlie would have liked it as well and Vidar would have loved to show her off. He missed them both, but tried to push the feeling to the side as he got into the mindset he used for battle. It was like slipping into well worn booths. He felt the cold calmness wash over him as he joined Adisa and Nasir. The three of them had fought together many times, it was like riding a bike. Nasir had his scimitar ready and two large daggers strapped to his sides. Adisa was holding his terrifying looking knobkerrie made out of wood with a large round knob at the one end, used for smashing joints and skulls. The other end 

had 

crescent moon shaped blade. At his sides were his deadly looking throwing knives. They were the size of meat cleavers and had a top blade in the shape of a wave and a smaller knife–like blade sticking out from the handle. He looked like death in person. Vidar was satisfied with his short sword and axe. Henry, Jun and Liwei came walking, they were just as armed as the rest. 

Ε 

“We are ready to go, everyone that said they would be here are. Some of our allies even brought some allies of their own,” Henry said. 

“We need to get the blessings from the witches and then wait until sunset,” Adisa said. They all nodded and then stood in silence, waiting, watching and listening. The group of over a thousand creatures all did the same, they all were preparing for the battle. As the witches. surrounded them and started changing, the voices carried and Vidar listened to them as he sent a thought to Charlie, he prayed to the old gods she would be safe and that he wouldn’t let her down. The scent of magic was heavy in the air and Vidar’s skin tingled. His tattoo5 glowed as their protective magic was reinforced by the witches. As the sun set behind the trees, the witches fell silent and melted into the swamp like ghosts. Vidar and the other five in his clan raised their weapons above their heads and then slowly lowered them to point towards their goal. An old plantation house nestled deep in the swamp. Everyone had been made aware of what their target was in advance and as they started to move, they spread out. As they moved through the swamp in the dark, not even the alligators bothered them. Tonight they were not at the top of the food chain and their instincts told them as much as they kept clear of the army that silently moved forward.