Coven

Chapter 3

I sat in the darkness of our Haven, Roxie\'s apartment, surrounded by my Children, as well as a few that I could not claim, searching for a place to stay while this Valin character was stalking our kind, absent-mindedly listening to the girls singing quietly. Still not sure why, but it just seems like when we\'re all nervous, the girls tend to sing a lot. Not that I\'m gonna complain, Roxie\'s music (there ya go, panda) was awe-inspiring, and with the added effect of Aleda and Datstara, it was almost unbearably beautiful. Mara, who would have usually been singing right along, sat with the new Childe\'s head on her lap, absorbed in some other world, away from all of us. Riordan looked up at Mara with an odd mix of revulsion, and pure ecstasy in his eyes. The change was working quickly in this one, he had already been lifted out of the normally hours long depression, and accepted what he had become almost willingly, though he stil lseemed to be in a bit of a stupor. Leos and Ferrus were out, looking for the hunter, or atleast information on him, and there was no telling how long those two would take. I needed to work of some tension, and there was no point in killing anyone needlessly, so that left only one option.
I stood and walked over to where Roxie sat with Aleda and Datstara in the middle of the floor. I kneeled and placed my hands on Roxie\'s shoulders, rubbing them gently. \"Hey, girls, you mind if I steal your lead singer for a while?\"
\"No, please go ahead with whatever diabolical scheme has seized your crazed imagination.\" Datstara quipped, giggling in an extremly creepy fashion.
\"Why do you two get to have all the fun?\" Aleda pouted.
\"Well, you are free to join us, but i can\'t promise I will be willing to share. I\'ll take care of you later, all right?\" I took Aleda\'s hand in mine and kissed it lightly, biting her knuckle before giving her hand back. I pulled Roxie up onto her feet, and turned her aroud so that I could kiss her on the lips, biting gently before letting go of her and taking her hand in mine. We walked hand in hand to her room, and I turned and shut the door. \"well, shall we get started?\" I asked, laughing slightly as I sat down on her bed and began to remove my boots. \"Do I really need an invitation?\" she said quietly, pushing me down and sitting over me with one leg on either side of my hips. she ran her hands over my pants, up to my chest and under my shirt, running her fingers over my skin....
This would be the first time we had been together, without any one elses distraction, for quite a while. One of the drawbacks of being the leader of an ever-growing band of night walkers, I suppose. I say would, becuase just as we were getting to the good part, as we were interupted by the sound of glass breaking and of multiple screams of agony in the room we had just left. I threw Roxie off of me, and bolted into the room, followed closely by Roxie, crouched as if readying to pounce upon whatever threatened her home.
Standing in the center of the room, with a silver stake in one hand above his head, and a crossbow in the other, was the hunter. Around the stake, drifting on the breeze created by his movement, was what was once one of my kindred. Thankfully, as I glimpsed quickly around the room, I noted it was not one of mine. Still, any vampires death is cuase for anger, and anger me it did. \"Roxie, if you would, fetch my sword.\" She complied quickly, sticking close to the wall and out of the range of Valin\'s stake.
\"Not so fast, babe.\" He let loose with his crossbow and I cringed as Roxie\'s shoulder was pinned to the wall behind her. As I was watching her, I heard the sound of something hitting the concrete floor next to Valin. \"Bro, Valin\'s coming....Oh, SHIT!\"
\"Yeah, thanks for the update, Leos...Where is Ferrus?\"
\"On his way, the Rage took him again, you know what happens when...\"
\"This could be bad, my brother.”
“Okay, Yay for family reunions, can we commence with the dying here?” Valin shouted as he spun to attempt to stake my brother. Leos stopped his hand as it just barely peirced his chest. “I don’t think so, Bub!” Leos spun Valin’s arm around and pinned it to his back, then tossed him across the room, spinning into the wall with a THUD.
“Would some PLEASE give me DAMN SWORD!” I yelled, agraveted by the whole situation. But, I did not have another chance to ask for my weapon, as it came hurtling out of the darkness towards Valin’s exposed back.
“Sorry, but I think I may have found a better use for it, Mi’lord.” came a voice that I was just starting to recognize. The sword stuck into Valin and pinned him to the wall, as Riordan came striding towards us all, idly tossing a knife from hand to hand as he came away from my chair.
“Ah...the one...I ...left..behind...I should..have taken...care..of you when...I had..the chance....” Valin gasped, in obvious pain as his blood spilled out onto the floor as he struggled to stay standing. With a loud crack and a cry of pain, I saw the hilt of my sword clatter to the ground as Valin broke the sword and spun off of it.
Ooh, that’s sexy...” came a sigh from somewhere across the room.
Everyone of us cried in unison “ALEDA!”
“What? It is...” she said, swalking over to Valin. When she reached his quivering form, she ran a hand over his chest where the blade had gone through and picked up some of his blood. She placed a finger to her lips seductively and gasped “Oh, and he tastes good, too! Is there anything you can’t do, I wonder?”
“Get...your hands...off...me you...bloodsucking FREAK!” With that, he reared back and slapped Aleda across the face, sending her to the floor. His face returned to it’s normal passive gaze and his chest seemed to be healing before my eyes
“It will take more than some shitty piece of metal to get me off your back.”
“So, there is more to you than it seems, my friend....interesting. It also seems I am unarmed, no matter, I am certain I can still take you on with my bare hands.” I called upon the strength in my ancient blood and felt my body respond by reshaping my fingernails to a claw-like extensions, and heightening my senses as I took a step towards my prey. I leapt, preparing for an impact...only to hit bare concrete as Valin was yet again taken by forces other than mine. The shape that accompanied him across the shadowed room was one I had only seen a few times before, and was one that struck fear in even me. The 7-foot tall dog-like beast rolled to his feet, towering over us and Valin, who lay in a heap on the floor.
“What the HELL are you supposed to be?” He screamed as the beast started shrinking, and taking on a form I recognized as my Second, Ferrus.
“Well, that was interesting.” Ferrus quipped, then collapsed where he stood.
“DAMMIT, some one take care of him....Datstara, come here!” I yelled, taking Valins downtime to achieve some semblance of order to my group.
Every one of the vampires that did not belong to my group fled from any available exit, while my Childre flocked around me, save for Datstara, who was attending to Roxie as she dragged Ferrus behind her. Mara was crouched on the floor next to Riordan, wo had drawn another dagger and was idly spinning them around his wrists. Leos had retreated behind me , and I walked cautiously toward Valin’s unconcious body sprawled in the middle of my (un)living room. He started to stir, then struggled to his feet as the lot of us rushed towards him.
“Let me have him, since I am the reason he is here, apparently.” Riordan stepped in front of me and turned his knives so that the blade faced behind him as he walked towards Valin who was pulling his sword from it’s sheath across his back and planting his feet firmly on the floor.
Valin raised his sword and brought it down hard, only to have Riordan spin out of it’s path and slash Valin across the face. Valin dropped his sword and relied instead on his fists to attempt to take on my newest Childe. “Bad move, buddy.” Riordan said, diving in for another hit. Valin struck his arm as he slashed, redirecting his momentum to carry him forward into Valin’s shoulder.
“Obviously not.”
Riordan fell back, stunned, but regained his footing and ran towards his opponent once again. When he had closed to a sufficient distance, he turned his whole body to his left and spun around to stab Valin in the same spot that my sword had gone through earlier. Valin took hold of Riordans neck in both hands and tugged, snapping It loudly. With that, he stepped back into the shadows and disappeared with a flourish of black as his coat caught the low light of the moon streaming through the broken skylight.
“Hurry, since he seems to have not turned all the way quite yet, there may still be time to save him.” The burning that usually accompanied the breaking of a vampires spine had not started consuming him, which could only mean one thing...he was still human enough to live through it, though he would most likely either be trapped forever in a crippled state or, if it was soon enough, would heal as the Change took him fully.