The Attack

A bitter wind blew across the frozen river.
The city of Prague slept uneasily. Two nights prior a vicious and bloody murder had occurred. It was still the talk of the town the chief constable and every person that had been at a gathering of his, to celebrate his recent promotion, were dead. The duke had offered a prince’s ransom, for the chief constable had been his nephew. And the constables were out in force.
All of this meant little to the small groups of men that were slowly converging on a quiet inn by the riverside. Each one new who had committed the murders but they wanted nothing to do with the bounty. They had their orders and every one of them had sworn a blood oath and they would die fulfilling it.
Martin was the first to the Inn along with Norman, the two men made a fair impression of being drunk as they staggered through the door way. Inside there was none of the frivolity that marked the other Inns in town. Men and women sat round tables talking quietly, but all of them stopped as the two men entered. Martin suppressed a shudder as cold dead eyes turned to face them.
Surveying the room, he took the lead in heading for the bar. Around him a soft murmuring began. It carried the tone of disbelief, prey simply did not walk bald as brass into their territory.
Reaching the bar, martin motioned to the bar tender, when he didn’t move or even talk martin grabbed a nearby bottle and smashed it on the ground. “What the bloody hell is going on here?” he shouted in his southern English tongue. “We have perfectly good silver to spend and you won’t give us a drop.”
Martins comment found an answer, at the back of the room a man stood up he was a towering figure shrouded in shadow. “We don’t have anything here that would be to you’re…. Tastes.”
“Oh really well I can tell you what I think of your tastes, milord.” Cut in Norman, in his best drunken voice. As he finished the shadowy man drew himself up to respond when he was flung back by a flaming crossbow bolt.
Martin’s face curled up in to a predators grin. Normans and his distraction had worked, and the company had begun storming the Inn on Norman’s code word, milord. Drawing his sword he stood back to back with Norman as the vampires realised what was happening and leapt to their feet.
The next few minutes flew by in a blur as Martin laid about him with his sword, the vampires were stronger and faster, but lacked coordination. Many were fleeing for the exits only to be intercepted by more members of the Company. As He turned the attack of one vampire and crippled another, Martin shouted to Norman. “Tell me again, why I agreed to this?”
“Because you believe in the truth and justice of our cause.” Norman replied in perfect dead pan.
“Oh and I thought it was for all about the interesting woman we get to meet.” Said Martin as he dispatched a stunningly beautiful vampiress. Norman laughed and the two continued to battle, but they were losing, they were but two against a dozen very angry vampires.
Just when Martin thought they were sure to die and make their way to the side of the good lady, Kudumu was at their side. The burly African made no war cry but it just made him even more unnerving as he laid about him with his spear. The spear had been a gift from a shaman and was instant death to any vampires it touched.
All of a sudden the room was quiet Martin turned looking for more enemies but found none. Instead he found the Captain. Swallowing Martin became aware of how much more terrifying the Captain was then walking in to middle of a nest of vampires. “Can you tell me what happened here?” He asked in a cold voice. It was Norman who came to Martins rescue.
“It wasn’t much sir, just our lousy vamp snitch falling to pieces on us, very small pieces.” He said in his Irish accent.
“You dusted him?” asked the captain with a hint of fury in his voice.
“No, no but a suspicious vamp that had been trailing him did, we dealt to the vamp but we then we had to improvise. The vamps were all distracted just like you wanted.” Norman added a bit weakly.
The Captain’s face was an unreadable mask for a few seconds before his face cracked into a rare smile. “That they were.” Turning to the company that had gathered around him “How’ bout it, three cheers for the crazy idiots?” Every one knew the captain was indeed proud of Martin and Norman and so where they. More than that, it was a victory, the first for the company in a long time. The cheers echoed down the street as the Company celebrated, and were for a few moments showed them selves to be more than cold hearted killers, but brothers-in-arms.