Blood Rider

Charade was a hopping vampire club in a modified cathedral. That made it a great place to party and ironically as well. Aged vampires were easily amused by some of the more religious myths about their kind. When they entered it was already in full swing, with pulsing lights, spotlights swinging to the beat over the domed roof. It had stain glass windows and chandeliers full of candles. All about the atmosphere.

Walking in on Jak’s arm was like being royalty. They were immediately noticed and anyone near them bowed. The Elite created a buffer so no one approached too close. Lee preferred to be on the sidelines, as a careful observer and not the one being openly stared at. She was not timid, but it made her feel in the open, exposed and paranoid.

Unfortunately, living centuries amidst human culture had given vampires a taste for the pomp and protocols humans flavoured their royalty with. One large and significant difference was that a vampire prince was not worshiped or adored, but feared for his raw aged strength and authority over every life beneath him in the vampire Clan hierarchy. Jak had a healthy indifference to this power, but apparently, that hadn’t always been the case with vampire royalty.

Eric led them to a spacious curved booth, raised on a dais at the far end. The music was all thumping techno mixes which severely limited verbal communication. Lee sat somewhat uncomfortably as thoughts were tossed around on a level of communication she wasn’t used to. It required a certain level of openness to the inner aura while keeping the innermost mind locked down. She was rusty in this sort of communication as well as unskilled in most of the mental powers vampires used to control and influence mortals around them.

Courtiers in Eric’s court would approach, bow and make general remarks about how pleased they were with Jak’s presence. She didn’t believe in their sincerity at all but their immobile vampiric looks made that belief based on experience rather than looks. Most of the men were dressed similarly to Lee. It was the current fad to wear velvet jackets, vests and trousers. It was the colours that were vibrant, making them look sleek but eccentric. The women were more varied in styles. Some with coloured tights and tunic styled dresses, others in corsets and fitted leather pants.

-There are wolves here,- Charlie said. It made Lee aware of the deeper mind speech she had with Charlie, rather than the light telepathic speech level she had opened herself up to. She knew others couldn’t pick up Charlie, as Jak was always perplexed when Charlie spoke. She saw Fiona frown at her from across the table. Lee smirked back since she practically had a young fledgling draped on her lap. He wore no shirt and Fiona was running her hands through his short blond curls. Eric still sat close at her side, his arm around her shoulders as he carried on an intense conversation with a man standing by their table.

She scanned the room, looking for what Charlie sensed. The rippling aura of a were-shifter drew her eyes to a large table in the corner.

That is Brand, is it not?

-The alpha himself.-

The stout, reddish-brown haired werewolf was with his children by the looks of it.

Jak leaned towards her, his hands skimming up her back causing a shiver of pleasure. She immediately leaned back into him. Her body melted into his presence with a natural ease that was disturbing, to say the least.

‘You see the alpha, I see. I wondered how long it would take you to notice when they came in.’

‘Are you not enemies with them?’

‘We were, during the war for territory. In this day and age, we are working on an alliance. Obviously, our natures don’t agree with each other, but we can share a cause.’

‘Ah, predators unite?’

He laughed and nuzzled her neck. ‘Your Council wishes us to be tamed beasts. We wish to keep our people free and governed as we are. The world they want is not a world we could live in.’

Lee nodded. She was wondering herself if the City life was for her as well. She wasn’t a believer in their grand plan, never had been, but it seemed they were not capable of letting her be what she was. Afraid of her being what she was. Yet there was the general idea that humanity, and in general all the humanoid races, should have a ruling government. Without one, things tended to be violent and testy. People didn’t get along unless you made them get along. She learned that from Wilhelm, who had always said goodness wasn’t innate in humanity but imposed on them for fear of consequences.

‘Your Council is aware we meet with the packs and that with our truce in place werewolves can enter our claimed lands without fear of attack. They are trying to break that alliance any way they can. They try to lure wolf-kin from the pack. It serves their purposes to have us fight each other.’

-Divide and conquer. It is a sound strategy, but has not quite worked as they planned yet,- Charlie said.

‘What of the other shifters?’

‘They are uniting. The smaller packs, without the numbers or influence, are seeking protection from the larger ones.’

‘It’ll take more than that to oust the Council out of the city.’

-And then the region and country. Not to mention the hefty influence the Council has in the southern countries, where the normal human population flourishes.-

Lee drained her drink and poured another. She couldn’t help but think it was a good move on the vampire court’s part. If the human population began to cluster together and solidify, then the other races might do well to have a solid alliance.

Eric leaned forward. “We have a problem.”

Jak stiffened. “I feel Lucien is in distress.”

“That is the problem. Viona’s is under attack by the horde.”

Lee stood up immediately. Viona may be outside of the Quarter, but she was well respected. Jak got up as well. “Then we had best get him out of that mess.”

Eric barked out some orders to his personal guards and soon about thirty vampires were tracing out of the bar. She followed right on Jak’s heels. When they arrived it was chaos. The spawn were everywhere and Viona’s Place was on fire.

Jak flashed a feral grin, pulled out his short sword and charged into battle. She knew from the primal gleam in his eye that his confinement caused a lot of unreleased aggression which he planned on releasing. She pulled her thin sword from the cane and winced. It wasn’t made for battle and certainly not when dealing rabid spawn. She made her way towards Viona’s, scanning the battle for the woman herself. She didn’t see Viona or Lucien, which meant they could be inside or dead. Lee maneuvered her way to the back door, using her cane sword as epee, with thrusting jabs and dodging until she reached it.

She looked back at the battle and froze. Jak was changing. With a ripping force and fluxing of his aura. He got taller and muscle mass increased. His fangs extended and his ears became pointed. It was impressive and raw. When the black bat wings ripped out his back she felt a sort of awe and was transfixed. She should be horrified to see the true demon of his nature exposed, but instead, she was drawn to its power. This is what she was truly and completely. She wasn’t sure if that terrified her or excited her.

She tore her eyes from Jak and kicked in the door. Her teeth were fully extended and her aura aggressive stretched out in case of trouble. It seemed the spawn were outside rampaging on Viona’s patrons. The aftermath of that was going to ripple through to Town. Likely they would think the vampires were at fault. This could cause more violence in the streets. The horde had chosen a good target, but why that target? Just to upset the balance? Did this wizard want a war?

She slipped inside and ignored the smoke-filled air, her rider would be repaired any damage even as it happened from smoke inhalation. However, fire was something vampires needed to be wary of. If the damage was too severe, regeneration took too much energy, which in the end resulted in the same as sun exposure, a rapid deceleration from too much energy being expelled. Or ashed.

-You lack a healthy dose of fear. You should fear that which can burn you.-

Yeah, but I don’t. Not a death wish, but extreme indifference. Why fear when I can simply do as I wish?

-Yet you choose to do nothing. You don’t grasp the power you have and use it as you should.-

Not the time for a damn debate.

She moved away from the main room and made her way back to Viona’s office, hoping she had missed the massacre in her main room.

She sensed Lucien before she even stepped into the office. She found him crying and hugging Viona close to his chest. She was deeply charred, but also quite dead with a gaping wound into her chest and her head barely connected to her shoulders. Parts of her flesh were already turning to fine silt. Lee froze for a moment, with careful stillness, her senses sweeping through the room but only finding Lucien.

“Well,” she said slowly, her eyes swinging back to her father, “She’s a goner.”

Lucien looked up, still weeping. “I can’t save her?”

“I don’t think it is likely,” she said dryly. She gestured around the room flippantly with her sword. “You might not have noticed this, but the building is on fire. Fire makes vampires go poof.”

-Obviously he is too crazy to have some sensible fear as well. Must be genetic.-

Lee snorted back a laugh.

“Yes, they came in. They came in and rampaged. The wizard started a fire. Blue fire.”

“Interesting,” she said. It certainly was interesting that the wizard had made a personal appearance in order to take out Viona. Perhaps not depending on spawn to handle the aged vampire. “Fire is fire, Lucien. Let’s get going.”

He didn’t make any effort to move and Lee had no time to cajole the madman. She heaved him to his feet and began to drag him towards the door. The hallway was consumed by fire, so she turned to go into the main room, find a way up or see if the lounge was clear. Wizard fire burned fast and hard. It was possible it had already swept through the lounge. Lucien started hollering and pulling away like a child in a tantrum.

When she entered the lounge she heard a grinding click that was all too familiar to her. She had little time to tackle Lucien as the shatter bomb exploded. She hissed in pain as shards of metal slammed into her.

“Oh, no. Oh, no,” he whimpered. He shook his head emphatically. “No, no, no.”

Disgusted she pushed him away and sat up, feeling each shard slice and burn as she did. She grimaced, clamping her jaw shut to hold in useless curses. When she pulled a shard of pure silver from her shoulder she agreed with the sentiment. In a detached fashion she stared at the shard a moment before flicking it away. In the very moment of impending demise, even she was a little stunned she felt nothing about it. Her breathing hitched. “Hey, do I have some in my back?”

Lucien didn’t reply but she felt the sting as he plunked some out. The silver would already be in her system. She waited for him to pull out more and then heaved to her feet, feeling dizzy and her breathing becoming a shallow wheeze. She grabbed Lucien and tried to trace out, but could not. Her energy was being sapped, the wounds not healing. Slowly she moved forward, a plodding, shuffling pace that would get her where she was going, but not likely before she fell face forward.

She got up slowly, weaving a bit. ‘Hey Jak, might want to come get Lucien and me. We’re inside. And I’m injured.’

She tried to walk further but fell to her knees, heaving as gasping for air. There was very little pain, just heaviness in her lungs. “I can’t breath.”

Lucian sat down beside her, gently laying her on the ground. “My poor baby girl.”

“That…is…not…helping.”

He actually began to pet her. Stroking a hand through her short hair. “Poor baby.”

Jak and Saer traced in. Jak snarled something out, scooped her up and traced back outside. As he lay her down Saer had traced beside them with Lucien, who he dropped on the ground in front of one of Lucien’s slick guards. Jak lay her down and began to check her for wounds.

Lee looked up at the sky, blinked and said, “Hey, it’s snowing.” Large, fluffy flakes drifted downward in a lazy fashion and landed on her face.

“Silver,” Saer said. “Bleeding in the lungs and likely some inflammation from the reaction as well. She won’t heal fast and the silver will cause severe damage.”

She could barely breathe, just a heaving raspy wheeze in and out. Took effort to concentrate on breathing, but she wasn’t worried. If she was getting air then it was good. There was nothing more she could do but maintain that breathing and not panic. She would bleed out and the silver would prevent healing, causing death or a long healing state or they could help her and her healing would kick in.

The slivers of burning pain made her stiffen and clench her jaw, as the silver penetrated deeper.

“She isn’t fighting it off,” Saer said. “We’re going to have to purge the silver.”

Jak tore her shirt open. “Yes, and before the blue streaks get to her heart or brain. I’ve called the Elite to me. Hold her down.”

Sine and Revel traced up, both of them covered in blood and grinning. Until they saw her, heaving for air in shallow ragged gasps, as streaks of blue and black spread from her wounds.

Sear held her legs down, even as her muscles began to contract and jerk. Thad appeared last and immediately knelt by her head, forced a piece of leather between her teeth and held her down.

Jak leaned over her. “Sine and Revel are going to have to bleed the blood from you and spit it out. At the same time you will feed from me and then them until you are replenished. Are you doing all right?”

“Do it,” Lee wheezed out.

Sine and Revel each took a wrist, punctured deep and ripped open. She felt very little as they bled her, just the sharp sting of silver burn through her. Jak muttered a curse, and then bit into her neck. He sucked blood into his mouth and spat it to the side. Her body began to tingle deep within, with a cooling numbness. It was such a relief.

-Stay awake!-

Hey Charlie.

She felt Charlie surge up within her, drawing them closer in order to survive. Her mind retreated into a fog as Charlie made herself more present. She watched as Charlie smiled at Jak and took his offered wrist.

Her vision darkened and memories surfaced in an intense rush. She could feel the crispness of the grass under her hands. Feel the hand knotted in her hair pulling her head up, so that she could watch her mother die. Lucien held Lee’s mother in a tight embrace. Lee could see her eyes, glazed and unfocused, powerless to resist the full force of Lucien’s aura assault. Blood ran down her neck and soaked into her shirt, as Lucien feasted on her. Lee was frozen in terror and revulsion.

Her mother lost consciousness silently, without struggle, going limp in his arms. And still he fed. Lee saw him jolt from the moment of her death. Her father released his wife, letting her slide to the ground. He turned to face her, his jaw dripping in blood and his eyes feral. And she screamed.