Anton had to force himself to hand over Constanta to Vasile, since Vasile would be leading the humans out through the kitchen and Anton would be guarding the tail. He didn’t want to part with her, but he wanted her out of the coven into the daylight as soon as possible.
Vasile insisted that they move as quietly as possible since some vampires were still unaccounted for. The front of the crowd, with Constanta in the lead, simply followed him, without giving a second look back at their former home. Many others were still gathering together their possessions, wanting to bring the many things they had acquired while living there. For some, their possessions had accumulated into a cumbersome collection, and they struggled to carry it all.
As Vasile passed Lina who still watched over Suma in the kitchen, he asked her, “Are you going to kill that one already?”
Lina nodded her head, and Vasile continued through the halls with a long chain of humans crowding behind him.
Anton, who had stayed behind to guard the rear, implored the stragglers, “Don’t worry about your damn stuff. We have to get you out of here.” The last few were carrying armfuls of things and they rushed to catch up with the rest of the group while Anton anxiously urged them on. When Anton finally stepped into the kitchen, and saw Lina still watching over Suma, he couldn’t restrain his joy and he leapt towards her, hugging her tightly. She pushed him away and said, “Careful.” But Anton hadn’t a concern in the world and he grabbed Lina’s face and kissed her full on the lips. Lina froze with shock and let him kiss until he pulled away, smiling and staring at her. “If only you weren’t a vampire,” he said to her.
“You’ll get infected if you do things like that,” she reprimanded.
“I don’t care,” he said in response, “You’ve done the most wonderful thing. How can I ever repay you?” As he spoke he backed away out of the room, not forgetting his responsibility to guard the humans who were disappearing out of the pen. Lina gave him a faint smile as he left and waved goodbye.
Then Lina turned to Suma and asked her, “Where is Sim? Is he still alive?”
“I think so,” Suma replied, “He was last being detained in his own room. Last I heard that is.”
Lina then leaned in close to Suma, who trembled and covered herself in anticipation of what she expected to be a blood-draining bite. Instead Lina whispered in her ear, “You’re going to live. Take all this food into the pen. Deep into the pen. We’ll hide there. I’ll bring Sim. They’ll never find us. Please hurry.”
Then Lina quickly darted out of the room to head in the direction of Sim’s room, hoping, even praying that Sim was there and still alive.
Just as she was leaving the kitchen, a muffled shout drew her attention to the barred room. She stepped into the barred room from outside the pen, and saw Mir, inside the pen, tied to the bars. He was seated on the ground with his hands tied behind his back by several rags pieced together by a nest of knots. A great number of separate pieces of cloth had been used to tie him, with several knotted loops running down either arm to secure him to the bars, along with a chain of loops down his legs to hold them together.
Lina walked towards him slowly. His mouth was gagged and he was only able to moan and scream in inarticulate words. He could just see Lina behind his back and called out to her in the hope that she might help him, but as she got closer, he realized that this vampire was not friendly. Lina didn’t hurry, sauntering towards him, so that she could smell his pungent odor. Mir kicked his legs and shouted through the gag, pushing with all his might to get himself free. Lina meanwhile squeezed her head through the bars and touched her lips to his neck. Her teeth followed behind this, opening up a large hole in his neck, through which cup-fulls of rich, fortifying blood flowed down her throat.
As Vasile and Constansta and a train of humans behind them burst out into the Great Hall, the soldiers looked down and saw them from above. A great cheer emerged from all of them at once. For most of them, not until that very moment were they quite sure that there really were any humans to be found in this coven. As they looked on them with their own eyes and saw the endless numbers that continued to pour out, their joy and excitement only grew until it burst out into riotous celebration.
In the rooms, though, the last remaining vampires still hid, just hearing the faint sound of the pattering of many feet escaping. It was like the sound of their great, accumulated wealth slipping out of their fingers, like a river of gold flowing down into the gutters. And they couldn’t just let it slip away, so out from their rooms they sprang and attacked.
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