"You move like him, talk like him, and even inherited that raging temper of yours. You are clearly your father's son."

"Enough with the unneeded words, vampire," Louis spat, "tell me where my father is or I'll throw you out onto the main street where you'll burn alive in the morning sun."

"Alright alright!" the vampire cried. Flustered, he collapsed onto the alley floor.

I felt almost sorry for him. His skin was unusually pale, even for a vampire. According to what Louis taught me before he went missing, vampires grow weaker if they did not feed. This one must have avoided blood for a very, very long time.

"You really do have your father's temper," the vampire smirked, "learn to control it, for it could lead to your demise as well."

Stefan's eyes turned red. It was not a wise idea to provoke an enraged werewolf.

"Ok, calm down! I'll tell you where I last saw your father."

The glowing red in his eyes disappeared.

"Where," he asked tersely, the tone of his voice chilled the air around us.

"He's locked in the ice palace across the frozen tundra," the vampire confessed at last, pointing a bony finger down the alley. I let the savage side of me take over for just a second so that my vision could be enhanced. True enough, past the long network of alleys and shop houses lay a wide expanse of pure white snow.

"Let's go," Stefan order, halfway through his transformation.

"Wait up, rash young pups," the vampire called out.

I turned to him, what did he want now?

"You'll never make it alive through the tundra. You'll be frozen to death."

"Uh, if you haven't noticed already, we're werewolves. We'll survive."

"You'll survive only if you know the way. I can tell you this because I've seen it before. Other wolves have come by this town to the ice palace and not a single one has returned," the vampire warned grimly.

"The cold takes away all your senses. The howl of the wind renders you deaf and wipes the tundra clean of any smells. You will be lost, for whatever your werewolf abilities are worth."

Ever the more rational of us two, Stefan reversed his transformation.

"So what do you propose," he asked.

"I just so happen to have a map that leads you to the ice pala-" the vampire found himself pinned against the wall yet again by an enraged Stefan.

"You will give it to me or el-"

"Yes, I will give it to you, rash young pup, but..." the vampire's voice trailed off.

"But what?" I asked.

"The map just so happens to be hidden up my butt." whatever blood was left in the vampire rushed to his cheeks as he uttered those words to our disbelief. Was this guy serious?

"It's yours if you can 'retrieve' it."

Stefan looked at me, I looked back at him. Our determined eyes met. We nodded in unison.