They evolved.
Werewolves, gorgons, vampires, succubi, skinwalkers, changelings, fallen angels and worse—those malformed entities that had once rallied under the Noctyra flag were now independent.
Much to The Grim Reaper's irritation.
Thanaros sat in a recliner, watching the news play out on his seventy inch TV from his chamber of evil under the heart of Castle Dracula—or where it once stood, anyway.
The first error he made was that once Vladira was gone, he lost access to her castle.
Once the castle vanished, all her magic implements were gone with her.
He had to restart from scratch. Over the last few centuries he had managed to collect a respectable sum of magical artifacts, but to the Countess they would be mere knick-knacks.
Novelties with little practical use. Why, she could transform any cauldron or mirror into an object of remarkable power.
But Thanaros—well he was mostly just good at killing stuff.
Thanaros's bones rattled a bit as he threw one leg over the other, shaking his head at the newscaster.
He was tuned in via the profane magery of the internet to a news station based in Wisconsin, keeping up to date with his
would-be wife, Bloody Mary.
"In other news, a brutal murder took place two nights ago in Wapa Lake. The small city, home to only twenty-thousand residents, has seen more than its share of high profile murders in the last decade all of them purportedly conducted by a beautiful woman with red hair and a knife.
The W-Mart slaying was, unfortunately, no exception to that rule, and police are baffled
by the lack of eye witnesses and security footage able to give a clear picture as to the she-devil's true identity…or purpose."
"Mary, Mary, quite contrary," Thanaros said, swishing a goblet of Nosferati bloodwine in his bony digits, "How does your little brain work?"
He slammed back the drink, letting it pour through his open mouth only to drench his rib cage and spine with alcohol. With a flick of the wrist, he chucked the goblet aside, shattering it in the corner.
"Has that fool forgotten her purpose? Really, Mary? Are the theatrics actually needed? Would it kill my gal to be subtle for once in her fucking life?!"
Not that the mission was blown or anything—and not that the Undying Duchess hadn't been useful. She had succeeded in ending his spell, after all, and bringing Vladira and Alaric back into the world at a time and place
where he would be able to kill them.
It had taken her a few decades longer than he'd hope it would, but the job was done either way. "Beggars can't be choosers, I suppose," he grunted as he reached for the crystal ball on the coffee table in front of him.
The newscaster continued to blab on and on
about something, but it was inconsequential now, so he pressed the mute button on his remote control and brought the orb into his lap.
He tapped the glass. "Show them to me now," he rasped. "Let me see them."
The image in the crystal ball swirled, and soon two shadows appeared, separate from one another.
One shadow was clearly the masculine figure of Alaric Voss, standing behind a counter and in front of a cash register, his whip on his hip. The other shadow was the naked-looking silhouette of the Countess hanging upside down, suspended by her feet.
"Well, glad they've settled down so quickly," he murmured. "They don't even seem to be concerned with me at all."
That thought actually kind of annoyed him, but then he supposed it had reason to it.
Until they had some kind of base of operations, Vladira couldn't take any action against Thanaros. He assumed that she remained entirely clueless as to Mary's involvement.
In any case, it didn't matter. Before they could recreate her castle, or even begin to, Mary would take them out of the picture.
She'd been waiting for this vengeance for centuries and certainly wasn't looking to take her time.
In fact, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, he suspected that he'd hear back from her on the matter.
He set the crystal ball down and stretched, letting out a big sigh. Thanaros stood up and surveyed his room, nodding in approval. It wasn't much—he didn't have a knack for interior design like the Countess—but it was his little slice of Hell.
Soon, once Vladira was dead, the magic and power she commanded would be released back into the universe, ready for him to claim.
He poured himself another goblet of wine, eyeing the shattered goblet on the floor. He'd been too hard on Mary when he threw that. He knew what he was getting into when he put her on the job, and so far she had done what he'd asked.
Patience was a virtue, and virtues weren't only for heroes like the Voss. Well, some of them. Besides—she was as sexy as they
come.
"Yes," he purred as he pretended to sip another goblet of wine, "Soon you and I will be united in unholy matrimony. Once you slay the Voss and the vampire queen, I will seize their strength for my own, and with you by my side, we will rule this world and remake it in our own image."
Thanaros hadn't yet worked out just how consummation was going to work.
He was looking forward to plowing that Bloody Mary pussy, as one does, but the logistical challenges he faced on the way to that feat were… noteworthy.
For one thing, being a skeletal apparition and incarnation of death and decay, he had no penis.
He didn't even have a tongue, and his
phalanges were too skinny and sharp to provide a lot of pleasure to a woman. But these were minor concerns.
When the time came, he'd find some way or another to fuck her. Somehow.
Thanaros tapped the call button on his intercom. A deep voice belonging to his minion, Ghoulexander, bellowed back to him. "Yes, Master?"
"I'm bored," he replied. "Do you want to play Uno?"
"Of course, Master. I'll be there in a moment."
Thanaros nodded in approval and sat on the floor, folding his legs as he found a spot in front of the coffee table. A few minutes later, Ghoulexander knocked on the door.
"It's open!" Thanaros called out to him.
"Come on in!"
"Of course, Master," the flesh hulk said as he opened the door and made his way across the room.
He eyed the spilt wine on the floor and the recliner and furrowed his brow. "Shall I call Miss Howler in to clean that for you, sir?"