Somewhere In Between

Title: Somewhere In Between
Author: MakaiKitty
Rating (this chapter): R
Category: Original Fantasy, "Fate" storyline
Pairing: Victor/Blaine, Victor/Caspian, North/Victor, Victor/Tamara, Sorrel/Tamara, Telen/Caspian
Warnings: Slash, Het, and Yuri, M/M, M/F, F/F, Violence, Language, Catbois, Vampire Sex, Werewolf Sex, Daemon Sex, Anal, Rimming, Who knows what else... I haven't decided yet *LOL*
Distribution: My website, My LJ and any LJs I choose to post at, AFF.net, FicWad, and DeviantArt. All of my accounts are under the user name MakaiKitty. If you'd like to use it just let me know.
Disclaimer: The characters, daemon realms, and situations in this story are all original and belong solely to MakaiKitty. Please don't steal, borrow, take, or otherwise use anything from my fics.
Updates: Just join my YahooGroup to be informed of any updates to this or any of my other fics - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/makaikittyfics
Status: Complete
Story Notes: This story contains characters that were first introduced in "Fate". However, it is not really necessary to have read "Fate" to understand this story. In fact, you may like Victor better if you haven't read "Fate". As for those of you who have read "Fate"? No, Shayne and Lexi will not be showing up in this fic. Maybe in later stories (Victor has a long back story), but not this one. Also, I have a general outline for this story, but everything isn't set in stone yet. Just like with "Perceived Perceptions", I'm sure that some things will not go as planned. So, the warning lable above is just a general guide, I really don't know for sure where this fic will go. Just a warning, if you're squicky about some stuff (don't worry, there won't be beastiality or scat or anything too extreme) then read the warnings at the start of each chapter. However, I know from experiance, that most of my regular readers can handle anything that I throw at them, so I'm not too worried about any of you. Either way, I hope you enjoy the fic...

Author's Notes: I'm so sorry about the delay between chapters. I tend to drag my feet towards the end of a long fic, and since this one is nearing the end I let myself get distracted for a few months by "Unexpected Places". I also just finished a new Dorian/Connor vampire fic for Easter. But, now, I promise to get back to work on this fic. There are only maybe five or six chapter left, so I hope to have it finished in the next few months. So, if I haven't scared off any of my readers, please enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think by way of review. Thanks!

Somewhere In Between

Chapter Seventeen: Never and Always

"Do you really think me that cruel, Victor?" Sorrel's voice was but a whisper, yet it carried clearly across the room and to the ears of it's intended target. "Am I truly that heartless in your eyes? Such an abhorrent monster?"

Victor didn't answer the question, but something in her voice made him want to believe in her pleas of innocence. In fact, he could almost swear that he saw a glistening in Sorrel's eyes as she looked at him, a moisture that in anyone else he would have seen as evidence of unshed tears, proof of deep felt emotions. But the Lady Sorrel didn't cry, not for anyone. It was a sign of weakness, and the sorceress had none. He knew that. All the same, Victor still let himself believe, just for a moment, that the thought of him suspecting her of such a betrayal would wound the older vampire. He wanted to be her one weakness. Wanted it more than he had ever wanted anything.

The silence stretched on, the only sound in the room the slightly heavy breath of an enraged sorceress, but it was not she, nor her accusing pseudo-son, that was the first to speak. No, it was Talfryn who finally broke the silence. "Told you that you should have put them both out of our misery when the curs were born."

Victor was speechless, his throat closing with the force of his anger, his vision tainted red with rage. His hands balled into fists, his body stiffened, his entire being ready to leap at Talfryn and shut his mouth forever. He was used to the insults from the older vampire, but no one spoke about his sister like that. He didn't have to shut Talfryn up, however, although he sorely wanted to. He didn't have the time. Talfryn's own mother took care of that for the both of them.

Sorrel backhanded Talfryn before his next words could escape his full, sneering lips, the movement lightening fast even to a vampire's eyes. One second she was standing between the two boys, facing Victor, and the next she was in front of her son with one elegant hand still raised in midair as if ready to strike again if the need called for it.

The slap didn't hurt overly much, no more than a sting really, but the shock alone was enough to shut the vampire up instantly. In more than sixty years his mother had never put her hands on him. Never.

"You slapped me." Talfryn put a hand up to touch his cheek tenderly with two finely manicured fingertips, wincing slightly, then rubbing at it as though he could wipe the feel of his mother's anger away with a touch. His eyes were wide, and he looked at the woman who was a near mirror image of himself as he repeated, "you slapped me."

"Watch your tongue and I won't have to do it again."

Talfryn growled low in this throat, still rubbing absently at his wounded cheek, but he kept his mouth shut. His mother could hit a hell of a lot harder than she had.

"Sorrel." The fight between mother and son seemed to have diffused the heat of their argument somewhat, and it was with a more level head and a calmer voice that Victor spoke once again. In fact, he sounded almost exhausted. "Just tell me the truth, Sorrel. Please."

She looked into Victor's dark eyes for a long moment before conceding with a sigh. "All right, my child, I'll tell you everything that I know. You deserve that much. It may not be all of it, but what I have is yours."

Talfryn couldn't take anymore, so he pushed his way past his mother, intending to leave her alone with Victor. He wasn't needed anymore anyway. The vindictive vampire, however, couldn't resist one last parting remark. Under his breath, with the slim hope of his mother not hearing in mind, Talfryn hissed at Victor as he passed by. "Sorry about earlier. I was wrong." Triumphantly, Talfryn noted the look of hopeful acceptance on Victor's face. "Your sister shouldn't have been put down. She'd be more valuable as a breeder. Hell, if she's nice to me maybe I'll even-"

Talfryn didn't even have time to laugh before his ears were filled with the sound of roaring, not even given enough time to put a hand up to protect himself as he was hurtled against the wall by the force of Victor's body connecting with his own. Only the harsh feeling of knuckles connecting with the side of his face, in almost the exact same spot as his mother had hit him, was enough to spur him into action.

"I'll fucking kill you if you ever touch my sister!"

His hands going around Victor's throat, Talfryn sneered, "Hell with the sister, I don't need a reason to kill you!"

Sorrel, ever the powerful sorceress, was too shocked by the sight of her sons tearing into each other to even move. Her dark gray eyes were wide and, for once in her life, she was powerless. A part of her knew that this fight was a long time in coming, bubbling just below the surface almost from the day of Victor's birth, and that there was no way to end it before the combatants were ready without leaving gaping wounds that the two vampires would feel the need to avenge in the near future. If she didn't want the two men tearing each other apart the next time that they were alone together she needed to let it happen. Not that the knowledge made her inaction any easier.

Beside her the room's other two occupants were in much the same situation. Caspian held Lennora in his arms, the young woman shaking with fear as her brother and Talfryn fought, tears sliding down her pale face. Caspian wanted to fight at his friend's side, but he knew that Victor could hold his own. At least, he hoped that he could.

The two vampires crashed about the room, using fists and teeth, knees and elbows, to pummel each other. All the while they shouted and roared, screaming out insults that had been building since childhood. "You're nothing but a worthless half-breed experiment!" "You've always been a whiny cocksucker who's in love with his own reflection!" Then, just when it became obvious to all assembled that Victor would be the clear winner, the metallic gleam of a dagger shot out from Talfryn's waistcoat and Victor's face was bathed in blood.

"Thrice damned coward!" Caspian hissed, ready to leap in and even the odds, but Victor just laughed and lunged at Talfryn again.

No one even saw him make a move towards the wall, but within moments Talfryn was also covered with his own blood, a ceremonial dagger that had been mounted above the mantel now in Victor's able hands.

"That's an enchanted blade you son-of-a-bitch!" Talfryn shrieked, taking another stab at Victor while attempting to stop the bleeding with his other hand.

"Guess that means it'll scar." The smile on Victor's lips was anything but friendly. "What a bitch, huh?"

"You're dead!"

The fight had been almost childish at its start, nothing more than two brothers deciding who was stronger, but once Talfryn was cut everyone in the room could see things change for the worse. There was killing intent in the elder vampire's storm gray eyes, and Victor's darker eyes matched that intensity when he saw the challenge. If nothing was done soon then the blood spilt would rise to fatal levels, Sorrel knew that, but she wasn't entirely certain how to stop them without being the one that took a life.

"Brother!" Lennora was crying as she clung to Caspian, not sure what was going on but knowing all the same that it could not end well. "Stop it!"

"You should listen to the lady, boys." All eyes turned towards the deep, gravely voice that sounded from near the door, the two combatants stopping mid-step as they were caught by surprise. "There's not nearly enough space in here for a proper fight."

"Stay out of this, wolf!" Talfryn tried to lunge for Victor while his attention was momentarily taken over by North's appearance, but before his blade could strike home the werewolf stood between Talfryn and his intended victim. No one had even seen the lycanthrope move.

"'Fraid I can't do that." He batted away the sharp blade with one large hand, smiling when Talfryn's eyes went wide with shock. The more conceited of the vampires tended to forget that lycanthropes were stronger than the near-dead. And Talfryn was very conceited. "You see, I kind of like his pretty face just as it is, so I can't let you go carving him up like a piece of meat."

"This is my fight, not yours, and I do not need any help." Victor's voice was muffled from behind the larger man's form, which was good for Talfryn because the anger in his words was sharp enough that it could have cut the vampire without a single touch. "Get out of my way!"

"Get him out of here, North." Caspian was grateful for the werewolf's intervention, and he knew that the other man was the only one that would succeed in getting Victor away from Talfryn without further bloodshed. The time for words had passed. They couldn't let this go on.

North nodded, his golden eyes serious despite the lazy smile that graced his lips, and he turned in one fluid motion to grab Victor around the waist before slinging him over one broad shoulder. Victor, for his part, was too shocked even to make a protest, and Talfryn seemed to be in much the same state as his mother came up behind him and put her deceptively strong arms securely around his shoulders.

"Put me down!" Victor sputtered indignantly. "Now!"

"Don't think so, sweetheart." With that he casually lopped out of the room with a struggling Victor cursing viciously over his shoulder. His steps were even, his pace unhurried to the unknowing eye, but he did not put his back to the other vampires in the room until Caspian had securely shut the door behind them. For that Caspian was grateful.

The smaller vampire wanted to stay in the room with Lennora, knowing that Victor would want someone to watch over her until he was certain of Sorrel's intentions, but he thought his time better spent with calming Victor down. North may have been strong enough to force Victor from the room but someone would still need to keep the dark vampire in his rooms until he had come down a bit, and Caspian was perhaps the only person in the realm who could do that. At least without hurting both Victor and themselves. Victor would forgive him. Sorrel would keep Lennora safe. At least, he hoped that she would. If not, then nothing in any of the realms could help them. Any of them.

"I am going to kill him!" Victor continued to shout as North and Caspian dragged him steadily towards his rooms. "No. I'll kill you and then him! Put me down!"

Victor got his wish shortly thereafter, when he was thrown down unceremoniously onto his own bed, landing with a thump to glare heatedly at the rapidly retreating werewolf who had dropped him there. He didn't get to glare for long, however, as the door was soon shut securely with North on the other side of it.

"Where in the Hells does he think that he's going?"

"Back to Sorrel." Caspian told him calmly, making sure to keep himself between Victor and the door should the younger vampire decide to make a run for it. "He'll keep an eye on Lass for us until Talfryn's calmed down a little."

"Maybe I won't have to kill him if he manages that." Victor thought about bolting for the door, but he didn't particularly want to fight with Caspian. Not only was he his best friend, but he wasn't sure if he could beat the other man. And he didn't feel like trying. Most of the fight had gone out of him by the time they'd reached his rooms anyway, and now he was angry but not feeling particularly violent any longer. He didn't really want to kill Sorrel's only son. So, instead, he paced.

"You may want to let the wolf live yet." Caspian joked, uneasy but calming by the minute as his midnight eyes watched Victor moving back and forth across the room. "He has some information for you."

"What sort of information?"

"From what he told me earlier, another version of the prophecy, something slightly different than the version that I heard from Telen."

Victor's eyes widened and he instantly made for the door, intent on finding North, "Why did he not say something?!" Finding Caspian in his way, as if he were just now seeing him for the first time, Victor said, "Move, I have to ask North what he found out about the Kokkonor."

"Later." Caspian answered easily, placing one small hand on Victor's shoulder. "After you and Talfryn have both had some time to settle down."

"I do not have time for this, Cas." Victor was trying his best to keep his temper with his friend, but it was obviously taking all of his control to do so. "Move. Now."

"No."

"Move." Victor repeated, but Caspian only placed himself more directly between the door and Victor, never once removing his hand from the vampire's body. "What are you going to do? Take a knife to me like Talfryn did to you?"

"No." The calmness in Caspian's voice made Victor grit his teeth. Did Caspian think that he could not take him without a weapon? He did not like being thought of as weak. "And I'm not underestimating you either."

"Then you know that I can make you move if I want to."

"And you know, my beloved friend, that I don't need a knife to take you down." There was a smirk on Caspian's cherubic lips as he looked up at the taller man. He was all confidence and certainty. "If you don't sit down and stop this foolishness right now I'll just use a spell to knock you out. And you know that I've always been better at magick than you." He placed one hand square in the center of Victor's chest and pushed. "Now take a seat."

"You are a prick." Victor huffed indignantly, but he did as he was told. He never could deny Caspian anything, even in the face of anger and curiosity. "You do know that, right?"

"Of course." Caspian chuckled, steering Victor towards the small table and chair set that occupied a place in front of the fireplace. He pulled out one of the hand carved chairs and patted the gold embroidered cushion invitingly. "Now sit."

"Yes, dear." Victor grumbled, cursing softly under his breath about meddlesome demons masquerading as angels, but he took the proffered seat all the same.

"So," Caspian offered helpfully, batting his eyelashes in an exaggerated manner that was certain to make Victor laugh, and thus earn him forgiveness instantly, "want to play cards?"

"I hate you." Was the only answer he received, but Victor's hand reached for the deck anyway. "And we're not playing that stupid human game that you like so much. It's pandorian spades or nothing."

"Yes, dear."

***
"I told you to stay away from that door."

"He cut me, mother!"

"I'm not letting you touch Victor, and that's final." The whining in Talfryn's voice grated on Sorrel's nerves, and she pinched the bridge of her nose and took several deep breaths, lest she lash out and do something that she'd regret later. "If you do not stop acting like a petulant child this very instant you will not have to worry about what Victor did to you. You'll be worrying about me."

"But he cut me." Talfryn said sulkily, if a bit more quietly. "It was an enchanted blade. It'll leave a scar on my perfect face."

"Scars make a man look distinguished." Sorrel sighed. "You can just make up some harrowing story to go along with it. Tell them that you felled a great beast or something of the sort. The men will be fearful of you and all of the women will swoon at your feet even more so than they do now."

"You really think so, Mother?" Talfryn visibly perked up at this suggestion, the lies already forming in his twisted mind.

"That's not important right now." Sorrel waved her hand absently, hoping to head off any further questions from her son. "We have more pressing matters to deal with."

"More important than my face getting cut up by your favorite pet?"

One glare from narrowed gray eyes was enough to silence Talfryn instantly. Sorrel didn't need to say a single word.

"What would you have of me, Mother." Talfryn's pale head was bowed, his voice as respectful and submissive as he could make it. He hoped that it worked.

"Find out who told Victor about the Kokkonor."

"And?"

"And deal with them however you want." Sorrel's voice was empty. Void of emotion. Cold. "I will not have a traitor in my midst. No matter who it is."

TBC ...