Chapter 270One of Nine - Thinking

We were falling apart. Tensions rose by the night and fighting was almost common now. It wasn't for me though, I was one of the 'clever' ones. And some interesting thoughts and conclusions went through my head as the nights rolled by.

To start with, it was kind of curious to see we stuck together regardless of our inner turmoil. Everyone wanted to be leader, but no one really left, taking their chances with the world and leaving the rest. We were a group and we stuck together like one. Was that Kryss' plan all along? To choose people who'd prefer to think as a group?

Not that everyone stayed close, obviously. We didn't really go out to hunt as we knew that one of the other group with the girls might be stronger than us. So, individual members left for feeding, but never for long and they didn't appear to return that well fed either. A rush job most of to the time.

Then there was the fighting.

The stronger ones of us fought for leadership but everyone wanted to become leader. Unfortunately we were in a weakened state by lack of sufficient blood and the fights changed the victor every night. Two of us, me and another, were the only ones never participating in the fights themselves. We stayed on the sidelines, watching as all we'd built was slowly eroding.

Such a shame...

Some of the change came when the both of us called the others and made a contest out of the fighting instead of making it as random as it was before. The others allowed this as we proposed the winner would have his choice of victim and the first suck.

Then the others would be allowed to drink a little as well. Keep the group strong, keep the victor stronger. The loser had to get rid of the body and we tried to get them to tell how they did it as well, praising inventiveness. Some of them found really interesting ways to dump the bodies, like putting them in cars of rich people to cause problems for them.

It worked, up to a point.

What we needed next was a plan. A proper plan, one that gave us purpose.

We'd never been a hundred percent certain that Kryss had perished in the fight with Amy. But he'd never stayed away for this long. It'd been weeks now and no sign of him. So... A plan.

The easiest one would be revenge.

Revenge was a wonderful motivator for people as aggressive as this.

It worked even better.

We told them that we planned to get rid of Amy and consorts and that we were planning to find out where they stayed and we'd need to find someone to fight her or bring her into a trap. When Kai had done it a month ago, he had to use most of his strength and deviousness for it. If I was honest, there were none among us that could match that combination he had.

He had probably made sure that no one did.

But, we were starting to think more as a group, as a team. And using the individual strength to get to our goals.

There wasn't a clear plan to kill or destroy Amy. She'd lived through the sun, even though we were not sure how, so that made it very hard to think of a way to take her down. But we did our best.

The nine once more.