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, Death, Angst
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...

Somewhere In Between

Chapter Twenty-Two: Always Hurt the Ones You Love

"Victor."

"What." He stepped over the threshold with careful movements, barely holding himself in check. "Have." His voice was nothing more than a rumbling growl. "You." There was pure hatred in his dark eyes, all aimed directly at Sorrel. "Done?"

"It's just a little experiment gone slightly awry." Her casual air was completely at odds with the situation at hand. "It's nothing to get all worked up over, darling."

Victor would have laughed at the absurdity of her words, but as he knelt at his sister's side he couldn't conceive of ever laughing again. Lennora was barely recognizable as a woman anymore. She was more wolf than girl, but at the same time she wasn't a wolf either. In truth, she was nothing more than a mass of tangled limbs and fur, all covered over in a coat of gore and dark blood. She was whimpering almost continuously, and when Victor put his hands on either side of her face and turned her to look up at him her gold and black eyes rolled aimlessly in her head, fighting to focus on her brother through a haze of pain and anguish.

"Don't worry, Lass, everything will be okay." Even to his own ears it sounded like a lie. "I'm here now."

He ran his hands soothingly over his sister's fur, trying to calm himself as much as her, but his mind was reeling. His blood started to run more freely from the wound that Talfryn had delt him, flowing from him in the same way that his tears threatened to, and Victor began to grow so dizzy that he was forced to sit heavily on the ground. So many scenarios had passed through his mind as he'd fled down the hallway towards Lennora's rooms, but this had not been one of them. He had never, in his wildest dreams or his darkest nightmares, conceived of a moment when he would walk into his sister's room and see this. He had never thought that Sorrel was capable of... Victor couldn't even bring himself to voice what she had done, even in his head. It would make everything too real. Too final. Instead he looked up at the sorceress whom he had once considered a mother, his eyes pleading despite his hatred, and he repeated his question once again. "What have you done, Sorrel?"

"It wasn't supposed to be like this." Her shoulders were a little too set. Her head held a little too high. Her voice a little too forced in it's flippant air. Only Victor would have seen the strain. But Victor didn't care anymore. He didn't care about anything, except whether or not Sorrel could save his sister. Let the sorceress suffer. "This just hasn't been my day, honestly."

His head snapped up so fast that it sent his dark hair flying in all directions, and Victor just barely stopped himself from standing and sending his sister's head toppling from his lap and to the floor. "It has not been your day? Goddess, Sorrel, I knew that you were conceited, but that is too much even for you!"

"Victor." There was a mixture of warning and pleading in her voice, but she said nothing else. Perhaps, after all that had happened over the course of the day, Sorrel could not. Even she was left unable to defend herself. Even she could not justify everything.

"My sister lies bleeding on the ground, mangled beyond recognition by your experiments... a child that you reared stands before you, wanting nothing more than to have never seen your thrice damned face before in his life... and the woman that we both loved is lying in my room even as we speak, the only truly dead thing in this cursed castle... and still you say that it has not been your day?!" The tick at the corner of Sorrel's eye had returned sometime during Victor's speech, but it was no longer of any amusement to the vampire and he didn't find it even remotely funny. She wasn't a challenge anymore. She was an enemy. "This has nothing to do with you, save for the fact that the blame for all of it lies squarely with you. All of the blood shed today is on your hands. And you will pay for every drop of it, this I swear."

He hadn't really expected an answer, so when he heard the sorceress' voice, barely more than a whisper, Victor was taken by surprise. Her words, as well, were more than a bit unexpected. They may even have been shocking, if he had actually believed in her sincerity. "Do you think that I am not aware of the multitude of my sins?"

"Shut up."

The confusion in her storm gray eyes, in Victor's opinion, was the first honest emotion that the sorceress had shown since he'd entered the room. Or, perhaps in the entirety of the time that he had known her. He wasn't really sure. He just knew that he wasn't going to listen to her lies any longer.

"Just shut up."

"Victor?"

"I am not the naive child that I once was Sorrel. You have seen to it that he is dead and buried." He heard something sad and filled with longing in his voice as he said this, but Victor did not allow himself to dwell on it over long. The time for such things had passed. What was, could never be again. "I will not be fooled by your honied words any longer. I know now that you care for no one but yourself, and I will not be fooled for a moment by this hurt act that you want to put on right now. The lives of those around you are nothing but a game to you!"

"It's not like that at all, Victor." Still she tried to convince the young vampire before her, even though she knew that Victor would never listen to her again. She had lost him, as surely as she had lost Tamara. Both partings were equally final. "I love you. I have always loved you. I will always love you."

"Lies!" Victor hissed.

"I can still save Lennora." Sorrel countered, searching desperately for something that would placate Victor's anger. "It is not too late for our beloved girl."

The endearment left a bitter taste in Victor's mouth, but he held his tongue. He would do anything to save his twin. Even trust a betrayer. "Pray that you can."

"She is my creation. My magick lives in her blood." There was a hint of her usual confidence in her voice as Sorrel spoke, proof that although the day had left her severely rattled she was still a force to be reckoned with. "If I will it, then she will survive. Nothing is beyond my grasp."

"Then do it."

"Of course." Sorrel nodded graciously. "Anything for my children."

Victor snorted, but otherwise remained silent, staggering slightly while reluctantly moving to the side when Sorrel approached. He did not want to relinquish his hold on his sister, but he was familiar with the ways of magicks, and he didn't want to risk interfering with whatever Sorrel was going to do. Lennora's life depended on their actions, and Victor would not allow himself to be so selfish as to jeopardize her safety in favor of petty gestures. He did not, however, move very far.

Sorrel knelt beside the wounded werewolf, previously pristine nails coming away dark and stained as she gently touched the young woman, a small and strangled noise coming from one of them as they looked at each other. Had it been anyone else but Sorrel Victor would have felt for both of them, as the older woman was obviously suffering when she looked at the carnage that she had wrought. But, as a new wave of pain wracked his own body, his hand shooting out to hold tight to the weeping wound on his arm, he reminded himself that the other vampire deserved all of her suffering and more. She no longer deserved anyone's pity. Least of all his. It was hard for him to accept, but all was as it would be from that day forward. His pain reminded him of that.

Sorrel's head bent low, her lips nearly brushing the point of a bloody ear as she whispered something that would forever remain between herself and Lennora, before she raised her head and began to speak aloud. Power immediately sparked throughout the room, energies dancing around the room's three occupants, Sorrel's words calling forth elements both internal and external. There was a reason that she was considered one of the most powerful sorceresses in all of the realm. Even with his newfound animosity towards her Victor still had to be awed with the instantaneous show of might. Anyone else would have needed hours of preparation. Hours that Lennora didn't have.

"Stand back, Victor, dearest." She didn't even sound winded as energies began to glow on the palms of her hands. "I wouldn't want you to accidentally disrupt the flow of magick. You're too much a vampire for this spell to interact well with you."

He took a few unsteady steps backward, grimacing as he saw the dark trail that was left in his wake, sighing when his back at last came into contact with the steadying presence of the solid stone wall. The fight with Talfryn had taken more out of him than he had been willing to admit to the other man. With each moment it was becoming harder to keep his eyes focused on the two women before him, and he was grateful that it would all be over soon. That Sorrel, for once, was compelled to do the right thing. It almost made him believe that she did love them. Almost.

Lennora's whimpering grew gradually louder as Sorrel continued to work, but Victor did not stop the sorceress. Even his unfocused eyes told him that the flow of blood was slowing. She was far from safe, but Sorrel was true to her word and was doing her best to reverse the effects of her experiment. It was all that he could ask for at the moment.

Suddenly an unexpected noise made both Sorrel and Victor turn towards the other side of the room, although Victor was much slower to move than the other vampire. There, in the doorway, Talfryn rested against the door's frame, the heavy wood all that was supporting him. Blood, some sticky and nearly dry, some still flowing fresh, covered his chest and seeped into his once white shirt. Had the wound been made by a dagger not enchanted the blood would have already ceased to flow, the cut healing no matter where it had hit, but a blade touched by the right magicks sent straight to the heart was a death sentence for any creature, even an immortal.

Talfryn was a ghost standing the doorway, already dead but too stubborn to have stayed in the hallway where Victor had left him. Victor knew that. Talfryn knew that. And, most importantly, Sorrel knew it too.

When Talfryn crumpled to the ground, too exhausted even to hold himself upright any longer, Sorrel immediately rushed to his side, Lennora all but forgotten. Victor silently cursed. He had known that he would have to pay for slaying Talfryn. He just hadn't expected it to be so soon.

"Who did this?!"

Talfryn couldn't even draw the breath necessary to name his murderer, so he let one once elegant hand fall from his side, his fingers pointing out the vampire who stood at the far side of the room. It took all of his strength, but he knew that his mother would understand his gesture. He was dying, he knew that, but he did not plan to see the Seven Hells for the first time alone.

Victor could hear Talfryn gasping for air, most likely taking his last labored breaths on the mortal plane, but he did not have the time to see the murderous glare that was leveled at him by the dead vampire's mother. He was already on his knees beside his sister, listening to a sound that was frighteningly similar to the ones that could be heard from across the room. Talfryn wasn't the only one who was beyond saving.

"Victor."

"Sorrel."

The pain of losses that should have united them instead drove a further rift between the once close pair as the two vampires knelt on the ground, each holding the lifeless remnants of their shredded souls in their arms. More than a vampire and a werewolf had just died. And they both knew it.

Sorrel was the first to speak. "What have you done?"

"I could ask you the very same thing." He wasn't sure how he could still find the strength, either physically or emotionally, to speak so calmly. He should be an uncontrollable wreck, sobbing and screaming and cursing the very gods for what they had allowed to happen. He should be up and fighting. Trying to repay Sorrel tenfold for the pain of his loss. But he wasn't. Instead he sat, oddly empty, staring across the room at the other vampire, who sat in a mirror image of himself and his sister. Sorrel seemed strangely detached as well. They were both aware, however, somewhere in the backs of their minds, that it would not last for long.

"You've murdered him."

"Yes." He didn't bother trying to deny it. "I did. And you have murdered my sister."

"Our happy little family is dead now, isn't it, my poor sweet boy?"

Victor wasn't sure which boy she was talking to, him or her dead son. He answered anyway. "He was never any family of mine."

This, finally, got a stronger reaction out of Sorrel. She didn't seem cold and disconnected any longer as she glared up at Victor, anger flaring in her impassioned eyes. "He was your brother, you fool! I chose Arailt as your sire because he had borne me such a fine son before. His noble blood flowed through both of your veins. And now you've taken all of my children from me in one foul swoop!"

"This is not my doing!" Victor fired back, more than ready to fight if it meant a distraction from the pain that was eating away at his heart with every passing second that he held his twin's mangled body. And if it meant that he was tempting fate and inviting his own death... then so be it. "You said that you feel the weight of your own sins? Well, look about you, Sorrel. These are the fruits of your labors!"

Sorrel only growled, standing up slowly, the head of her son falling to the ground with a sickening thud as she discarded his body like a broken toy. Her eyes were only for Victor as she stepped over the fallen body, the sharp heel of her boot crushing the delicate bones of one of Talfryn's hands, although the other vampire was well past caring. Her own hands began to glow, her lips moving, forming intricate spells and curses that only she could control as she stalked towards Victor.

Victor, for his part, was up and ready to fight, but only after laying Lennora gently on the ground. He would not treat the dead as Sorrel did, even if the fallen would have no true objections. His heart was not yet so cold.

"How could you do this?" Sorrel demanded inbetween curses. "How could you do this to us?"

"He murdered Tamara!" Victor shouted back, his anger fueling his already depleted body's reserves. "He killed your lover and still you mourn him?!"

"Tamara." The name gave her pause, but only for a moment. "I had no choice in that matter. It had to be done. She was a traitor."

That was the last thing that Victor had wanted to hear.

He knew that he could not last long. Her words left him convinced that Sorrel was utterly mad. Whether it was the pain of her losses, or if it had always been so, Victor could not be certain. Nor did he care. Not only was Sorrel a dangerous sorceress, whereas he was but a novice, but his earlier fight and subsequent blood loss were having an increasingly negative effect on his body. Regardless of the outcome, however, Victor could not help but prepare to battle to the death.

He reached behind himself, ready to once again draw Caspian's dagger, well aware that he was out of his league but still willing to try. He would not go easily to his grave.

Then he felt it. It was subtle, just a slight tingling at first, but soon the steady throbbing in his arm and then across his body told Victor exactly what spell Sorrel would use to bring him down. The blood flowing to the ground and unerringly making its way towards the sorceress, taking the last of his strength with it, confirmed his suspicions. She would pull the very blood from his veins, leaving him a dry and empty husk, tearing apart his wounds and draining him of his life. It would be slow. And painful. But still Victor would not back down. It simply meant that he had to move faster if he wanted to repay some of his suffering before he fell.

TBC ...