The Vampire Prince

Chapter 19: Bella's Plan

.

.

----

.

.

The look Lucius Malfoy was wearing was the type of look designed to make whoever it was aimed at start running for the hills, and it was a look that Lucius wore often. Unfortunately for Malfoy, the look worked wonders, but was also rendered useless upon two types of people: those too stupid to understand that they were stupid and needed to get out of his way, and those who were too desperate to risk leaving. Rodolphus Lestrange fell into that category.

“I’m sorry, Lestrange, you want me to what?” Lucius queried, one blonde eyebrow raised to emphasize the stupidity of the entire idea.

“Please Lucius I need your help,” Rodolphus said instead of repeating himself, practically on his hands and knees begging already, and not willing to debase himself further by repeating something the blonde wizard had heard well enough the first time.

“I’ll say you do,” Lucius said smugly. “but I’m not letting you send me out in some squad to search the countryside for your wife, and especially since those you’ve been sending out there haven’t been coming back in as great a shape as one might hope. Traipsing around the country is bad enough without adding injury to insult. After all, demeaning tasks like those are what we have the lower-ranked Death Eaters for. The Dark Lord did give you leave to use however many men you thought necessary for a reason, didn’t he?” Lucius pointed out smugly.

“The Dark Lord told me I could use whoever I wanted, and that means that the Inner Circle will be going out in two days to look for Bellatrix, Lucius,” Rodolphus said angrily. “Clearly pulling from the lower ranks is a mistake, since it appears none of them know how to use a wand anyway. The only people I can trust to not bungle the entire thing up and get themselves killed are those of us in the Inner Circle, and since the Dark Lord did not say I could not assign you to help me, you’ve been assigned. Unless you’d like me to notify the Dark Lord that you’re being most uncooperative in this task?” Rodolphus ended sweetly. He might have been near begging moments before, but he was a Slytherin, so he knew how to manipulate things around to his favor.

“The Dark Lord will not be happy when you’ve managed to get us all killed, Lestrange,” Lucius hissed, the glass of wine in his hand shaking with the force that he was grasping it with.

“So I should tell the Dark Lord that you’re too afraid to be in His service anymore?” Rodolphus queried.

There was a pause in which only Lucius’ furious breathing could be heard.

“Two days from now you said?” he asked reluctantly, face going from anger to a more pleasant expression in an instant.

“Meet in the usual spot at half past eleven. The entire Inner Circle will be there, so dress to impress,” Lestrange added with a sneer aimed at Lucius’ obviously expensive Italian shoes. He stood abruptly and grabbed floo powder out of a jar nearby, tossing it into the fire and yelling his destination.

Malfoy watched the flames go from green to red before snarling wordlessly at his fireplace. The wineglass in his hand shattered from his grip.

Two days later and yet another glass was falling victim to the strength of his grip, this time in a deserted room in Riddle Manor, surrounded by all of the inner circle, save Rodolphus. The others were standing scattered around the room, holding meaningless conversations in hushed tones, but Lucius had forgone the niceties and simply conjured a chair for himself after seeing that their “fearless leader” was going to be late, and magically served himself a nice glass of red wine to go with the wait. That had been 10 minutes ago, and he had been there for nearly a half hour total. Peeved as he was at his punctuality, especially considering he had assumed foolishly that Lestrange would have had the courtesy to show up to his own raid on time.

“Stressed, Lucius?” Severus Snape murmured as he swept closer to the chair that Lucius had conjured. Lucius sometimes didn’t like to admit it, but he usually appreciated his friend’s sense of tact and delicacy. Another could have easily goaded him into a far worse temper, but Severus simply mentioned his temper with the simple delicacy and avoidance of a Slytherin and then things could go on as they were.

“Impatient, more like it,” Lucius growled. “Of course not, Severus,” he added louder. “I was simply testing the strength of conjured crystal to see if it would hold up to the same stressors as regular crystal. It appears that this particular glass failed the test, although the delicate pattern may have lent a little bit too much delicacy into the structure itself,” he continued on as if there was nothing wrong, stopping only once he was more sure that no one else in the room was paying him any attention. Snap made a sympathetic sounding noise in the back of his throat and moved a bit closer, but drew back at the last second as a crack echoed around the chamber and Rodolphus appeared in the center of the room.

“Good, you’re all here,” he said into the now silent room. Lucius barely suppressed a snarl as the other Death Eater’s gaze came to rest on him for a moment. “We shall be portkeying to the beginning of our trail, and moving onward as a unit from there,” he explained without so much as a by your leave or apology for his tardiness. “Grab hold,” he added curtly when no one moved.

Slowly, but without making any grumbling noise whatsoever, the others in the room all gathered around and extended their arms to touch the object and were transported to a clearing deep in the middle of the forest. Instantly, masks were put on and wands drawn.

“You really think your wife is hiding in a forest?” Lucius couldn’t help but ask snidely.

“Just outside this forest are several abandoned houses that we could check. The people I pay to keep an eye on such things said they’ve seen smoke coming from the chimneys,” he added. Lucius grudgingly nodded, and followed Rodolphus as he headed purposefully towards the edge of the clearing, striding though the greenery as if it wasn’t there, which he was dearly wishing it was. One by one the others followed, showing the same reluctance to go traipsing about in nature as Lucius had, but obeying orders nonetheless. There was nothing but the sound of rustling underbrush and snapping twigs for several minutes and then the group was breaking free of the forest and moving across a lush carpet of grass, broken only by the sight of several ruins, nearly overtaken by vines and other plants.

Rodolphus motioned for them to fan out and approach the closest mansion (for that’s what they were, given their size). As they got closer they could see that someone had been inside it recently, since the bushes had been moved and trimmed to allow for better access to the doors, but not so much that it was clearly evident that the house was occupied. Lucius gripped his wand tighter and took a step forward.

With a twang and arrow stuck itself into the ground right next to his foot. He froze, searching the house for any sign of someone with a weapon and called out an order of the company to halt. Rodolphus turned around to say something snappishly, but there was an odd whine and more arrows fell out of the sky. One or two Death Eaters were hit, but none were fatally injured, and most had managed to erect a shield charm to protect themselves.

“You were saying,” Lucius said smugly. Rodolphus just motioned them forward again, holding his wand at the ready for an attack. None came.

What are they doing? Lucius wondered as a blasting hex took care of the front door. Cautiously they entered and fanned out, searching through deserted rooms filled with a thick layer of undisturbed dust and furniture covered in white dustcloths. First floor explored, they regrouped in the entrance hall and started up the stairs.

“Why look, Bella, they did come to rescue you just like you promised,” a male voice said. Heads turned and a few spells were shouted out but they all fizzled harmlessly against the wall behind the stranger, who was still standing calmly, hands firmly planted on the wooden railing. “Too bad this is as close as they’re going to get to you,” he added with a nod to the space behind the Death Eaters.

From the doorway came several bodies and even more jets of spell light directed towards the Death Eaters, joined by more from the balcony. Hastily the Death Eaters split ranks and turned to face each of the threats, sending as many nasty spells as possible at their attackers. It was to no avail, however, as Death Eaters began to fall, some wounded and others dead.

Seeing the numbers dwindle, Lucius began to perspire, which made him all the more panicked. Just as he was about to try to turn tail and run, a figure dashed forward, heedless of the spells coming from his own ranks and those of the Death Eaters, and stabbed the man in the back. Lucius got a small glimpse of a wooden stake before the leader fell forward and out of sight, obscured by the banister he had been leaning on. Almost instantly the spells shifted so that those sent flying from non-Death Eater wands went soaring towards those on their own side, the outnumbered purebloods in the center of the room being left out of the fight all together after one point. Then, as suddenly as the shit occurred, the fighting stopped and Lucius looked around the smoky, dusty room to see that only 5 or so of their opponents were still standing, and they were putting their wands away. All that remained of the others were piles of ashes that dotted the entryway floor.

“Our deepest apologies that we could not intervene on your behalf sooner,” one said, as another ran from the top of the stairs into one of the rooms on the second story.

“Who are you?” Rodolphus asked harshly, wand aimed dead center at the man’s chest.

“They’re friends, husband dearest, not to fret,” came Bellatrix’s familiar tones, echoing slightly against the empty walls. Moments later she came into view, escorted by the running man and two others. The witch had a crazed glint to her eye that wasn’t common even by her standards, her robes were torn in several spots, past the point that her artistic preferences usually ripped them. As she passed a pile of ash on the stairs she kicked and sent it flying, giving a gleeful cackle before continuing her way down the stairs and pulling Rodolphus, completely unexpectedly, into a scorching kiss. Carefully timing it to last past the point where a kiss wasn’t awkward but not so long that she wasted too much of her precious freedom and time she released him after the shuffling of feet caught her attention, pulling back from the kiss and reaching out to take his lower lip between her teeth and bite down just short of drawing blood. Just for the sake of causing a scene she pulled his lip, still between her teeth, out towards her a significant amount and let go with a savage grin. Rodolphus’ hand went to his lips wonderingly.

“Thank you for rescuing me, my husband,” she said huskily, voice carrying through the awkward air that surrounded them. “Friends, colleagues,” she amended. “I give you my new recruits,” she introduced with a wave of her hand in the general direction of the vampires, for that’s who the strangers were. She followed that with a girlish giggle that somehow made the entire situation jarringly weirder. Such things were Bella’s specialties.

Since Rodolphus seemed too out of it to notice much for the time being, Lucius took it upon himself to play leader.

“Bella,” he began warmly. “It’s good to see that a stint in captivity does not diminish your energetic and enthusiastic spirit. This occasion suits you,” he added complimenting her, although Bellatrix’s usual mix of dark and tortured mixed with a hint of insanity usually made him uneasy. Still, he couldn’t deny that any length of time in prison or anywhere else similar only brought out more of her personality, even if it was as long as 14 years in Azkaban. “The Dark Lord will want to hear from you and your new friends but first, I’m curious. Who was it who captured you?” Lucius only asked because he had been faring so badly in the duel he had considered leaving, and that made whoever it was they had just freed Bella from very dangerous people.

“Lucius,” Bellatrix purred. “You are as flattering as ever. The men and women you see standing here,” Lucius looked again and found that, true to her word, there were a few women in the group of what he had thought was all men. “Are rebels against their ruler, who has set harsh restrictions on them that they would see lifted. I give you, of course, children of the vampire Celdere, and those within her nation that feel sympathetic to our cause. It is they who set up this mutiny so they could set me free,” she added.

Lucius remembered a time, during the summer, when vampires had not been on their side. “I seem to recall that they were on a different side of the line last our forces encountered vampires,” he drawled, reminding Bella of their failed attempt to bring in Harry Potter.

“But Lucius,” Bella cooed with a broad grin that had crazy written all over it, “These are not those vampires. Shall we continue this discussion under the presence of our Lord?” she added impatiently. There were general murmurs of agreement and nodding of heads. Bellatrix accepted her wand from a vampire near her and apparated away with a crack. Several cracks followed it and the manor was empty but for a few piles of ash.

Bella had been lying face down on the floor for pretty much all of the time after she had arrived here, which was irritating since she had thought herself done with that sort of thing forever. I seemed forever was not as long as people thought it was.

“So these vampires managed to kidnap you, Bella?” the Dark Lord asked again. It seemed as if he was having a hard time understanding that she, like all the other Death Eaters, could be captured. She neglected to inform him that she had willingly given herself up, and that she had practically kidnapped herself. What no one had realized was that she had never been tied up at all, she had simply been waiting for someone to tell her it was time to come out and play. She had ripped her robes herself.

“Yes, my lord,” she said softly, face still pressed into the dirt.

“And why set her free?” Voldemort asked the vampires, who were still standing although they had given him extremely deep bows and curtsies.

“Because she is of more use to us alive and in your hands than dead in Celdere’s,” the man they had decided should be in charge stated calmly.

“Your assistance in returning her to me is greatly appreciated. Kneel,” Voldemort added cruelly, fully expecting to see the vampires before him fall to the ground and grovel at his feet like the rest of his servants.

“I believe you misunderstand our cooperation,” the man said with a smirk, no one in the entourage moving, let alone kneeling. “We gave you back Lestrange as a sign of goodwill but we can easily take her back again if the situation calls for it. We shall continue to do similar acts of goodwill as far as we are able, in exchange for your cooperation and proper payment.”

“Payment?” Voldemort asked, curiosity tinting his voice.

“Yes,” the man said simply. “We stand in a position to offer you quite a lot, and you stand in the position to offer us just as much. What we demand is that we are equals, not servants. What you do with the humans is your business, but we’re allies, not slaves, and will be treated as such or you lose our cooperation. Not only that, but when you win this war with our help you will give us a significant seat of power as well as diplomatic immunity. Agreed?” he asked carelessly. The significance behind the tone was clear: the vampires were more than willing to walk away.

“Agreed,” Voldemort said with a wide smile after only a moment’s hesitation. He only needed to agree for as long as it took him to win the war, and then he would be powerful enough to take on this faction and bring them to heel, or to their graves.

“Good,” the other man said with a nod. “Bella knows how to get in touch with us,” he said, disappearing on the spot with the slight blur that said he had used a portkey. Seconds later, the rest of the group followed him, leaving Voldemort alone with his Death Eaters.

“Tell me everything, Bella,” he ordered. “I want to know every little detail.”

And Bella told him many things, some of which were even true.