Dreams of Despair and Freedom
Katrina saw her hands before her face. They were
stained red with the blood of men and women. Before
her was a fountain carved with multiple strong and
healthy human figures. Katrina touched her hand to
the water and suddenly the figures necks began pouring
blood, soon making the fountain as bloody as her
hands. The blood seemed to beckon her to it, to dive
into it and lose herself and her worries.
Katrina jumped back in revulsion turning to run away
from the fountain. Each step became harder to take as
she seemed to get ever closer to the fountain, rather
than farther. Ahead of her she saw that she was fast
approaching a shadow figure embracing one individual
after another.
As she closed on the figure he saw that the person
the thing was embracing was her sister, exactly as she
had seemed five years ago. Behind the figure and its
victim there was a pile of corpses. Katrina could see
her family stacked on top of the pile, only her sister
remaining. She looked at the figure's feet and saw
Renfield's boots.
She must save her sister, whatever the cost!
"Stop!" she demanded, pulling the vampire away from
her sister and turning it towards herself. "Leave my
sister..." she trailed off as the black haired vampire
stared up at her with a monstrous mockery of her face.
The doppelganger's laughing and smiling face was dyed
red with the blood she had taken from the countless
bodies. Katrina could see the hit man's and the poor
girl's bodies on the bottom of the pile. Somehow she
could see them through the pile now, staring at her
with blaming eyes.
"Would you interrupt my feast?" the...the thing asked
her. Katrina let go of the monster and shook her head
in denial as she slowly backed up. Then her sister
stood up and spoke, fangs bared.
"You've given me eternal life, Katrina. How should I
thank you for that?" Then all the corpses stood up
and stared at her either with blank, blaming eyes or
bared fangs and cold, hungry gazes.
"Yes, how should we thank you?" the horde asked of
her. Katrina turned away from them all, fountain,
corpses, doppelganger and sister and she ran.
"NO! NO! NO! NO!" she chanted in denial of the
things pursuing her.
Then the fountain was in front of her again, and she
was falling and then sinking. She sank into the
fountain unable to swim back to the surface. She sank
deeper and deeper, never drowning, always in complete
awareness of her situation. Forever, sinking,
sinking...
Jaera arrived at the industrial park just in time to
hear the scream. She had no idea what to make of it
so she choose the safe route. Nobody was nearby, she
could use her magick to change slightly. She couldn't
enforce a complete transformation yet, but one day she
would. That day would be great indeed, but for now
she would have to settle for the enhanced vision,
dexterity, speed and talons.
The rote complete, she raced for the office building
the cry had come from.
Somewhere beneath him, Bregan heard a voice chanting
one word over and over again with increasing volume
and agitation. Then suddenly a scream erupted from
the voice, ending the chant. A scream packed with
more rage, revulsion and fear than he had ever heard a
creature produce. He shifted into his Homid form and
made for the source of the sound as quickly as his
two-legs would carry him. He came to a door then and
heard weeping on the other side.
Opening the door was easy, it hadn't been locked, it
had just warped into a misshaped thing. So it opened
with a large creak, and the room's occupant instantly
knew that she had company.
"Stay away," declared the young girl with her back
turned to the door. "You don't know what I could do
to you. Stay away!" Bregan had a brief glimpse of a
pale red-streaked face before she turned her face away
again. Bregan ignored her and began walking forward,
keeping a ray of sunlight between him and her. Her
voice sounded strained and tired, maybe day-time had
an effect other than to burn vampires
"Why do you care to warn me," he asked. "What does
it gain you."
"What do you know, you don't even know me, much less
what I am. What knowledge allows you to mock me and
my warning?"
"Knowledge that is my own miss...?" he paused
politely. The girl appeared to have to think a moment
to come up with the answer. "Katrina Wujick." Bregan
blinked.
"I've heard of you, you disappeared on your way home
five years ago, your killers...sucspected killers were
convicted..."
"Am I on Unsolved Mysteries or something then, or
maybe they made my life into a movie of the week?"
Bregan laid off, this was a vampire he was talking to
yes, but apparently not of the normal ilk, or at least
what was supposed to be the normal for the undead.
"For your life's sake leave, now!"
"You couldn't get close enough to harm me." He
decided to play it straight. "There is sunlight
between me and you, and even if it wasn't there, I
would lay wagers that I'm more than a match for you."
"You know what I am!? You know what I am and you
stand there and make jokes about it?!?" She had
turned around and there was an angry glint in her
eyes.
"No I do not make jokes about it, I'm disobeying one
of my people's laws by even talking to you, but you
might be of use to me."
"Might be of use to you? Is my survival to be based
on serving others forever?"
"If you wish, I'll pay you for your help." Katrina
appeared to think it over, she really didn't know of
what use she might be to this man, except as a killer
or some more intimate purpose, but he had plucked a
heart string with his offer of payment. Perhaps she
could buy a new violin, her old one had been broken
when she was kidnapped.
"No, he'd come for me, and then you'd die. Best to
leave me alone."
"I can defend myself against, whoever it is you mean,
though I can guess."
"What can you do to him?"
"What can I do? I'll show you." Bregan shifted to
wolf form and back, stopping for moments at each
individual form, and then returning to his homid
form. "I believe that I am quite capable of
protecting myself. Katrina stared with awe at him,
even now as a vampire she disbelieved many of the
other legends. Inspite of her disbelief this here was
a werewolf standing before her. A young werewolf,
probably no older than she was truly, but he was a
werewolf.
She made up her mind then and there.
"I want a new violin," she requested quietly. "Then
after I help you, you leave me alone here." Her blood
tears had dried to her skin and her voice, though
still tired, sounded more gentle at the mention of a
violin. 'Could vampires feel anything other than
bloodlust then?' he asked himself, 'or is this merely
a trick.'
"Fair deal," Bregan scowled, he didn't like dealing
with a vampire. Even if she could lead him to his
prey, which was far from a guarantee, she was still
the undead herself, and thus, of the Wyrm.
"I still might not accept, I haven't heard what you
want me to do."
"Is your master a drug-lord named Varney," Katrina
felt a sudden stab of hope, this creature before her
was hunting her sire.
"No. My sire is Varney's master." With the
appearance of actual hope that her sire might be
destroyed, the blood bond linking her to him was
weakened. Though she didn't notice that. Bregan was
taken aback, he hadn't expected someone to be behind
Varney on this. "There's a house..." she paused for
brief moment, suddenly afraid. "I can't say anymore."
"Can't, are you sure about that choice of words."
"I'm bound to him by his blood, I can't reveal
anything more. He would know." Bregan was good at
solving riddles, and this sounded like a riddle to
him. A riddle to which he had an answer.
"You've already escaped him, what have you to fear of
him."
"He'll come for me, he'll know I've betrayed him and
he'll punish me for it," she spoke in shaky whispers.
She was full of fear now, where before she had been
angry. Bregan could see new blood tears begin to form
and then proceed down her face.
"Do you know where he is now?" Bregan asked her.
"Does your bond to him tell you anything?"
"No," she admitted to him sounding curious under her
fear.
"Then how do you know that he'll find you?"
"I've never succeeded before, why should I now?"
"Did he ever come to get you when you'd escaped him?"
"No."
"Did you go back to him?"
"Yes, but if I didn't he would have been angrier than
if I returned. He would have given me to Mina." The
mention of the name "Mina" caused the vampire to
shiver.
"It's a mind trick, that's all it is." he said. "A
plucking of emotions to induce loyalty. It is nothing
without help." Of course he could always be wrong,
but he cautioned himself to avoid mentioning that.
Katrina looked at the logic Bregan spoke and couldn't
deny it, but the feeling was still there. She was
betraying her sire, her regnant and she knew it, but
she could fight it down for now.
"Will you help me now?" he asked as he approached her
across the shrinking sunlight.
Katrina nodded her head slowly, wondering what would
happen if she lost control of her actions while trying
to help free herself.
"Then where is this house?" He asked her as he
smiled and brushed aside one of her tears. He was
surprised at himself, almost suscpecting the vampire
to be manipulating his emotions just as he had been
describing. In the space of this one conversation he
had convinced himself that this vampire was still
salvagable.
"Yes, where is the beast's house?" a voice aboved
them boomed. Bregan and Katrina looked up to see what
they both immeadiatly thought of as a were-hawk. She
had feathers instead of hair and great talons instead
of hands. Her eyes were those of a bird's and
obviously had the accurate vision of that group of
animals. Even her human features, like her nose and
the shape of her body, reminded them of a hawk.
"Where is the lair of Jared Mason, the killer of my
sister and mentor. Lead me there and I shall honor
the agreement made by the pit bull."
"Pit bull!" Bregan began shifting into Glabro form
with anger. He moved forward to confront the bird
lady. "Listen lady, you should be more respectful of
those you choose as allies."
"I need no allies, I am a magus of the Akashic
Brotherhood. I need only my Do to defeat my enemy."
"You're not the only one with a score to settle,
mage, and either way you'll have to wait for nightfall
to learn anything."
"What makes you think you can stop me from doing as I
please?" Bregan grinned at her in a I know something
you don't know manner.
"Katrina fell asleep while we were arguing." The
mage turned her gaze upon the vampire and saw that she
was indeed asleep, as only the dead could sleep. The
mage cursed him, and turned to leave.
"I have my own leads, ones not tainted by the enemy."
Her hawk-like features faded and disappeared as she
became a normal, attractive, though cold and
unfriendly, young woman of about twenty-three. Then
she was gone. Bregan blinked and suddenly she wasn't
there.
"Mages," he muttered.
Jaera ran back to her apartment as she had run to the
industrial complex. Imagine a shape-changer
suggesting that she would need help. Then again she
rarely imagined herself using a derogatory term for
anybody. This hunt had her worked up, that was all.
One had a right to be nervous on their first true
hunt.
At any rate, on to the Shadowspot.
The car started, and nothing was missing from under
the hood. This was the big event for the day; now
Renfield could go hunting as soon as the sun set.
Pushing the car away from the vicinity of the house
had helped matters greatly. Though Jenny was
conserving a lot of energy after her attack earlier in
the day she was causing enough trouble with missing
tools and other small problems.
They finished just in time, for the sun set and all
three could feel Renfield waken as his conscious will
flowed through their blood bonds. Their master and
god was awake and that was all they needed to know.
Three miles away Carmilla felt the blood bond flare
in strength as well. She felt the shame and guilt
from her willing betrayal increase as it worked to
bring her back into her master's fold. She glanced
over to where the werewolf sat and watched her. He
was right, it was all in the mind, and more than that,
it was only in the mind. She had to believe that,
true or false. Otherwise, there was virtually nothing
she could do against her sire.
She was more worried about the Hunger. It was
growing inside her spirit, reaching up to release the
Beast from its cage. She would make it through
tonight, but soon she would need blood. Then she
would have to feed on, to kill, another human being.
"Where did the bird go?" she asked as she became more
aware of her surroundings.
"Off to follow other leads," he said, simply. "Night
has fallen, so I think its time you started to lead me
to this house." Carmilla blanched.
"I have to go to the house?" she asked shakily. She
had betrayed Renfield, to go back was suicide.
"I can't leave you behind me," he admitted bluntly.
"It would be dangerous for us both."
"You don't trust me," she concluded. Bregan searched
for a diplomatic answer to the statement. He couldn't
think of one, but he had always been somewhat lacking
in diplomacy.
"No, I don't."
"I can't trust myself, why should others trust me,"
she resigned herself to that truth. No one could
trust her as long as she remained a vampire, and as
far as she knew, there was no cure. She collected
herself then, to leave, maybe Renfield would be
merciful when Carmilla brought him...
"Katrina! Katrina! Katrina!" Bregan stepped back
surprised by the sudden outburst. "My name is
Katrina! I am not Carmilla, I am not what he wants me
to be." She spoke the words as she had for the past
year and a half, as a litany against loss of self.
She calmed down quickly, as she recovered her
identity.
"What was that?" Bregan asked suscipicously. Katrina
stared at him a moment.
"You wouldn't understand, now can we get this over
with?" She wouldn't have to worry soon, soon Renfield
would be dead and she would be free. Then she could
do what she wanted to do, and not follow other
people's commands.
He felt her prescence the moment he stepped into the
building, the spark of life that she possessed called
to him from across the room. He saw a beautiful woman
with Mediterrennian features and dark, auburn hair.
Here was the woman that had been hunting for him,
without a doubt.
He should just wait to find a way to kill her, but
the spark of life was too tempting. Here was one with
the potential to be his most prized minion, if she
would come under his fold. He examined her aura and
was almost blinded by its brilliance. A mage, he was
sure of it, for as vampires are pale so are mages
bright.
Her aura held mainly the light blue of calm, this was
coupled with the orange of a sense of justice, and the
yellow for spiritualism. These colors intermixed
beautifully, the orange and yellow rippling through
the serene blue. In places, however, other streaks
appeared like wounds. The black of hatred, the purple
of aggressiveness, the bleeding red of anger, and the
light, pale green of distrustfulness. All these were
trying to dominate over the central calm. It was an
odd mix for one person, but who was he too say what
was normal for a mage?
Yes, tonight she would be his prey. True she wasn't
the sweet innocent he usually preferred, but here was
a greater challenge. Corrupting someone who knew what
he was, he was certain of his success. Of course, if
he failed she would die and he would still have one
less enemy.
Jaera saw him enter, but didn't respond to it,
letting him think that she hadn't seen him. She, too,
read auras, but without needing to concentrate on only
one person. The aura of Jared Mason stood out from
the white of innocence that dominated the club. Jared
entered the club and drug in with him a swirling, deep
red streaked with purple and with a core of blackness
at its center. The colors of psychotic lust,
aggressiveness and hate. All pale and dim revealing
his vampiric nature.
She had no doubts as to where his gaze would take
him. She possessed the spark of life, in essence she
was like a rechargable battery. Most vampires
wouldn't be able to resist her as prey.
She found it easy to keep track of him, his aura
acting as a beacon. When would he approach? She
found herself thinking after an hour had passed and
the vampire had paid only minimal attention to her.
She turned toward him to get more than just a glance
through the corner of her eye, and fell into one of
the most simple of traps Jared, now known as Renfield,
possessed.
She made eye to eye contact with the vampire. A
brief struggle between Jaera's young, stubborn, yet
unpracticed willpower and Renfield's mental prowess
plus decades of expierence followed. The result had
never been a question.
Lucy was in state of almost pure fear, she knew they
were being haunted. She knew that there was virtually
nothing that she could do to a ghost. Only her
loyalty to Renfield kept her from leaving the house
then and there. Even so, she was alone, Varney was in
town on the master's buisness, Mina was visiting Rohan
in the hospital and Renfield was hunting. She was
alone with the ghost of the girl she had helped kill.
Lucy heard a brief laughter behind her. That set her
off, she whirled and shot into nothing.
In the spirit world Jenny felt the bullet pass
through her. Passing through physical things was
tiring, and she had no idea what would happen if she
became exhausted. She wondered if she could endanger
her existence by using her energy.
Kill her, a voice remarkably similar to her own said.
Don't worry about the consequences, kill here now!
The effect of the voice was the exact opposite of
what it asked, and Jenny broke off from the frantic
ghoul.
Downtown, Marie still watched over the body of her
fiancee. The doctors had told her that he had a good
chance of recovery, but there was still some doubt.
She could hear it in their voices. Bregan had been in
and taken care of all the paper work for her, and then
he had left for some unsaid reason. She wondered what
could be more important than his brother.
The nurse came in then for the routine check every
couple of hours or so. It was a different nurse this
time, odd.
"Where's the other nurse," she asked suscipicously.
"Oh, she was giving some blood earlier," The new
nurse replied. She was rather young, couldn't have
been more than twenty, more likely seventeen. "There
were some complications," the girl's Indian features
began to twitch into a smile as she spoke in a British
accent. "She probably won't be waking up." The girl
produced a gun with a silencer.
Marie's eyes went wide. "How did you get by
security?" she asked as she backed away from the girl.
"Oh, it helps to look like a teenager, most just
don't see me as a threat. It makes it so much more
enjoyable when I kill them to see the looks on their
faces. Bye now." She started to point the gun at
Marie and then changed her mind. "Maybe I should let
you watch your lover die first." Suddenly the air
shimmered inside the room as Bregan's guardian spirit
moved to fulfil its orders.
It materialized near the window as what seemed to be
an abstract person made of glass.
I have been charged with the safety of this mortal,
you will do him no harm.
"I'm fucking tired of ghosts!" Mina yelled as she
fired at the new threat. Her bullets had an effect,
but not much, as each of the shards she shot off of it
merely grew back as the spirit used its power.
I am not a ghost, it corrected her. A large shard
removed itself from the creature and impaled the
insane ghoul. She died as she emptied her clip into
the spirit. Security barged in just after the spirit
disappeared, leaving a confused and frightened Marie
to try to explain things to them.
"This is it," Katrina whispered, as they pulled up to
the run-down mansion that contained Renfield's evil.
They had approached without headlights, Bregan in
Glabro form so he could see in the dark. The house
had been built nearly eighty years ago, now it was
almost forgotten, as Renfield wished it to be. He had
a great deal of influence through his control of the
heroin trade, he had used this influence to hide
records of the house. All that was known was that the
land around it was private property and had been that
way for as long as most mortals could remember. It
had been hiding up here outside of town all that time,
hidden in the terrain. When the industrial complex
had threatened to bring the city closer to his haven,
he arranged for it to be placed out of buisness.
Katrina didn't like being this close to a place she
had tried many times to escape, especially when it
seemed that she had finally succeeded. She knew that
to be only temporary, however, the blood bond that
insured loyalty told her that. To be truly free,
Renfield must die, and it looked like that was going
to happen.
Bregan parked his car behind some trees and shut off
the engine.
"What are you waiting for?"
"It's called a stake out," he told her. "He's not
here."
"How can you possibly know that?" she asked him.
"Instinct," he said. 'And a few chattering spirits,'
he added to himself.
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
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