Camilla sqwaked as she was tossed around her disorientation fading rapidly now that she was removed from physical contact with Elspeth. The vampire stalked like a cat on the far side of the room, oddly curved sword held at the ready. As Cydric pivoted the woman lunged at his back with cat like speed, the point of her razor sharp sword leveled. Camilla tore the gun from Cydric's belt and batted the point of the weapon aside. The force of the blow sent it spinning from her hand and carved a sliver the length of her thumb from the stock. Sparks flew as the steel grated along the barrel. Camilla spun dizzily as Cydric turned to drive the vampire back but Elspeth had no need of such encouragement, she danced back with the same lovely grace with which she did everything, clearly not in a hurry to try conclusions with the Ostlander.

Now looking back at the door five big burly men burst through the door ignoring Ricardo as they rushed to their mistresses aid. All held swords of varying types and looked positively fanatical.

"Save me, please!" Eslpeth yelled with a heart rending helplessness which belied her very armed and lethal state.

"You heard the mistress!" Ricardo yelled, "Kill the Ostlander!" The men hesitated perhaps unused to being give orders. Elspeth frowned too but the men turned back to Cydric. Over their shoulders she saw Ricardo wink and then the Tilean moved. In the space of a heart beat he had two pisols, short barreled dueling guns out of his waste belt. The guns banged spitefully and were falling to the ground before the spray of grey matter from two of the charging henchmen sprayed over Camilla's face and Cydric's back. Elspeth's eyes widened in shock as she realized that whatever binding she had laid on the handsome mercenary was well and truly gone. Ricardo was through the door with rapier and a long dagger in his left hand. He slashed the blade across the ham string of one of the man and thrust the point of his long sword up through the back of the neck of the second, ropoping him with a boneless twitch. The last man stumbled on the bodies of the first and spun to face Ricardo just in time to catch the thrown dagger in the eye.

Camilla could only blink in astonishment at the display of speed and precision, all the more so because he had been as entranced as the rest of them only a few minutes earlier. Elspeth curled her lip and spoke a single word. The vampire exploded into a fine black mist which surged upwards in an odd reversal of wine being poured from an amphorae and they were suddenly alone in a room full of bodies.

"I'll be hanged," Camilla whipsered a little woozily. Ricardo let out a long breath and took up a bottle of wine from the dresser. He sniffed it first and then took a long swig.

"Maybe Ucellina, but not today I'm thinking."