Pulling a Breath
It was on his way back to the mansion with Jaera, put
to sleep by a mental suggestion, that Renfield felt
his blood bond with Mina break. She had made an error
of some kind, a fatal one. Now Renfield would need a
new assassin.
It was with these thoughts that he pulled up to his
haven. He eased the car to a stop and shut off the
engine. He carried the mage's body inside as easily
as if she weighed no more than a briefcase.
Two pairs of eyes watched him enter. Bregan covered
the distance to the mansion quietly and with as much
strength as he could muster, preparing to barge in on
the Beast. Behind him Katrina steps came heavy, she
was betraying her sire, and the blood bond wouldn't
let her forget it.
Renfield was upstairs in his room, with Lucy two
doors down, when he heard the door crash in. The
vampire sat up from feeding on his, now barely
concious victim. Odd, he thought, she shouldn't be
awake yet.
"Lucy!" He immeadiatly shouted. The ghoul was in
his room instantly. "Call Varney, guard her," he told
her simply as he moved to see who was interfering with
his feast. Lucy turned to the phone and dialed
Varney's cellular number.
Behind the ghoul, Jaera went from semi-concious to
concious within a moment. She had instinctively
continued the fight against Renfield's command and had
shortened its duration dramatically. Now she worked
the pattern of her body anew, repairing wounds and
blood loss. Then she stood up as Lucy turned about.
Jaera dropped into stance, forgoing her bird-like
enhancements against this more vulnerable foe. Lucy's
surprise was brief.
"Okay Lady, let's see what you got," she said
dropping into a short-hand kung-fu fighting stance.
Downstairs, Bregan had shifted into Crinos and caught
the mage's scent upstairs. His crinos form was what
the Garou would call distinguished. He stood well
over eight feet and weighed nearly five-hundred-fifty
pounds. His gray fur was short and appeared
disheveled, as if he had just woken up from a nap.
'The mage's other leads seem to have betrayed her,'
he thought to himself.
"Well, well. Look at what we got heah," came a
youthful, mocking voice from somewhere above him. He
looked up, as he stepped on the first stair to see the
teenaged face of his enemy.
"What buisness might you have with me, Lupine?" the
man asked. He sounded sincere and trustworthy,
infinately incapable of evil. How Bregan could even
consider harming this being, he had only been
protecting himself.
Bregan shook his head and howled in defiance of
Renfield's emotion manipulation. Renfield sighed,
presence was entirely untrustworthy when dealing with
foes who knew his nature. Domination was a much
better power, even with the necessity of eye contact,
emotions were a minor concern then.
"You had my brother shot," the beast growled
carefully avoiding the vampire's direct gaze.
"Ah do a lot o' that, which one would yous have
been?" the vampire asked as it advanced down the
stairs. Outside, in the night, a pure beautiful howl
erupted and was answered by the howls of not to
distant coyotes.
The sound distracted both creatures for the briefest
of moments.
"What was his name then?" the vampire asked again,
smiling.
"Micheal Rohan," was the answering growl.
"Ah the stubborn one. Then ah have you t' thank for
my minion's death?" Bregan didn't answer. Crinos
form wasn't for talk, it was for battle! The werewolf
charged up the stairs growling all the way.
Upstairs, Lucy closed to a boxing distance with Jaera
and let loose a hail of strikes, sped up by her
ghoulish celerity. Jaera managed to block each one
and return a barrage of her own. Soon the two
appeared to be only a blur of motion as punches and
blocks flew with astonishing speed. Occaisonally a
leg would fly out in an attempt to connect, but
neither was gaining ground on the other.
Lucy was nearly a master of her art, the fighter more
skilled than her was rare. Jaera, however, practiced
Do, the martial-art form that spawned all others. She
was nowhere near masterhood, but even a minor disciple
of the pure form was more than a match for its
descendants. Only the powers of Lucy's ghoul blood
kept her even with her opponent.
Jaera shot forward with one finger, appearing to aim
for Lucy's eye. Lucy sneered as she easily blocked
the shot aside. Jaera jumped back then, out of Lucy's
range in apparent retreat.
"Learn your lesson then? Lady." the forty-two year
old teen-ager asked. Suddenly Lucy dropped her stance
as immense pain worked itself through her system.
Jaera's magick coursed through Lucy's system,
inflaming every nerve and altering the physical
make-up of her throat and heart.
Lucy clawed at her throat in an attempt to gain
breath as her heart built up pressure, and, in
completion of the decidely vulgar magick, exploded. A
large hole appeared in the ghoul's body as her blood
covered everything in the room.
Jaera detected a slight shift in the weaves of
quintessence about the ghoul. Intellectually she knew
it was the spirit forming into a wraith, but she
couldn't know for sure. Either way, it was free
quintessence for the moment.
Jenny watched as Lucy's wraith began to manifest in
the shadowlands. She was about to move to attack the
new wraith when suddenly the manifestation ceased.
Before she could form, Lucy's pattern was dissolved
into the most basic of energies and funnelled into the
mage. Caught between the transition of living to
dead, the ghoul had no defense against the attack.
She literally ceased to be. Jenny stared for a moment
at the woman who had killed the ghoul and waited to be
destroyed as well, but the mage merely ignored her.
The wraith went downstairs to the developing battle
there.
Jaera felt the cold touch of Paradox even as she
looked over her handiwork in satisfaction. Many of
her colleagues said that her attacks were too brutal,
but she felt that such individuals as Lucy deserved
ugly deaths.
Below she could hear a battle going on, and
Renfield's laughter. The fiend who had killed her
sister and just now violated her own will and body was
down there. 'Now was time to make him pay,' she
thought as she worked her transformation.
As soon as Bregan was close enough to Renfield the
werewolf used one of his few tricks. He leaped past
the vampire, raking him with his claws as he passed.
Renfield was knocked off the stairwell to the floor
below from the impact, but the fall was a mere
annoyance for the vampire. The oozing slash marks,
however, were objects for concern.
Bregan leaped off of the stairwell and slashed at
vampire again as Renfield returned to his feet.
Renfield ducked as he grabbed the hairy arm and
slammed the werewolf into, and through, the wall
behind him.
Renfield laughed at the dazed werewolf.
The air suddenly filled with a blaring metallic song
Renfield's laugh increased in volume at its sound.
"Ye trying t' scare me spook? Ah'm not so easily
whipped."
"Nor am I!" screeched the hawk-like Jaera as she
leaped down and slashed with her talons. Alone they
were of no more concern to the vampire than a bullet
or knife, but fueled with magick of the prime sphere
they became deadly. Three more slashes sprouted
bloody and oozing upon the now annoyed vampire.
He whipped out his hand faster than Jaera had
believed anything could move and grabbed her by the
throat. The vampire lifted her up into the air as if
she were a rag doll. He began to direct his gaze
toward her, but she stubbornly shut her eyes as she
used life magick yet again.
Suddenly she was very heavy and even Renfield's
terrible strength could not lift her for long. She
dropped all the way through the floor into the
basement. Then the werewolf slammed into Renfield
again. They landed five feet away, the werewolf
pinning the vampire to the ground and lowering his
fang-filled maw to bite.
Renfield liked his head where and like it was, so,
gritting his teeth, he pulled his legs to his chest
and pushed out. The werewolf again flew, but this
time as Renfield directed. By the time Bregan stood
up Renfield was preparing for another attack. Behind
him Jaera jumped up through the hole and landed as
lightly as a bird.
Renfield laughed.
Outside Katrina stared away from the house, down the
dirt road, and saw the fast approaching car by its
headlights. It would be here in mere minutes, and she
suscpected she knew who it was. Katrina tried to
think of something she could do to stop Varney's
approach.
She didn't know how she would fair in combat with
him, she'd never tried to learn, and she didn't want
to learn now.
"Use what he gave you against him," whispered the
strange voice that had urged Katrina to run. Then it
was gone again.
She thought of something then, a trick Renfield did
not possess. Something she had learned over two years
as a vampire with no friends in human shape. She
looked deep inside herself and found the power to do
what she needed to do.
Katrina's voice erupted into a pure, primal,
beautiful cry into the night. Almost instantly she
was answered by a pack of coyotes, their howls
proclaiming their approach.
By the sounds of things they would be her long before
the car below could navigate the twisting road. She
waited and soon a pack of ten coyotes appeared before
her. She could see Varney's headlights below and knew
she had only a minute or two to ask them for help.
She took the gaze of the leader and met it, eye to
eye. Unlike Renfield, however, she did so merely to
communicate.
"A man with black hair and a goutee is driving up in
that car," she said. "Please stop him from entering
the house."
I have nothing against this man, the coyote's eyes
said.
"He is the servant of a vampire," she protested.
You are a vampire.
"This man has forced me to feed on one of your
brothers before." The coyote appeared to think it
over. "I had been starved and couldn't control
myself," she said to the coyote, hoping he had some
small understanding of a vampire's Hunger. It being
something that often went hungry itself.
We will fight this man, for our brother. It
expressed a silence, as a man would pause between
thoughts, and then continued. I thank you for your
honesty and for not commanding us as others of your
kind would. With that the coyote and his pack melded
into the terrain around the house.
Of course she didn't have the power to command
anything, nor the desire, but the coyote didn't need
to know that. Inside the house the battle continued,
Katrina thanked whoever owned the voice and began to
move toward the house. She reached the remainder of
the door and saw the battle going on inside, between
the mage they had encountered earlier, the werewolf
and her master.
Katrina looked down saw a long, sharp piece of wood.
Her immeadiate action was to recoil, for she
associated stakes with any number of tortures. No one
held it though, so even her sub-concious admitted that
it was safe. She reached down slowly and picked it
up.
"Carmilla, don't just stand there girl! Defend me!"
yelled Renfield once he noticed her prescence. The
young vampire stood there in confusion as Carmilla
warred with Katrina. As five years of torture,
domination and blood bond competed with her true
desires and a will weakened by years of helplessness.
She managed to at least advance to the battle during
the struggle.
Bregan watched her with concern, worried that she
would lose this battle. He shifted into Glabro form
to more easily talk.
"It's all in your head, Katrina!" he shouted. "You
don't have to obey him." Renfield, recoiling from a
slash by Jaera's unrelenting talons, threw all his
weight behind a punch into the face of the distracted
werewolf.
Bregan was knocked off his feet by the force of the
punch, he even thought he felt his jaw break. The
pain passed quickly, a vampire's fist didn't stop the
process of regeneration.
Coming out of the punch Renfield went into a roll to
control his inevitable fall. He came back to his feet
facing Katrina.
"What are you doing I commanded you to aid me!" he
yelled at her. "Are you not my thrall? Am I not your
regnant?" Katrina eyes lost their distracted light as
she looked up at her sire and regnant. He smiled down
at her as he turned to face the approaching mage and
healing werewolf.
Then he felt his connection to Katrina break, as
Lucy's and Mina's already had. He remembered the
stake she had been holding and tried to turn around to
face its approach.
The speed of his turn made Katrina miss the heart,
but wood piercing a vampire's skin anywhere was agony.
Renfield clutched the stake with his left hand as his
right back-handed Katrina.
He was no longer holding back, conserving blood for
later in the battle. Katrina flew backwards into a
wall as the force of Renfield's blow. Her eyes rolled
back into her skull as she slipped down to the ground.
A bright spot of red on the wall where she hit, and a
trail of blood following her down.
Renfield ripped the stake from his chest as he dodged
the mage's semi-frenzied attack.
Jaera's rage, however, was nothing to the depths of
emotion contained in the souls of Garou and Kindred.
Bregan, returned to Crinos form, roared out in anger
directed at the vampire. Renfield answered him with a
primal cry of his own as he swatted aside the mage.
The two came together in a blur and then locked in
place. Jaera stood up and watched as the werewolf and
vampire tested their strength against each other. The
smaller vampire soon proved to be the stronger, at the
moment a small car would have been easy to lift for
him. Despite this the werewolf stubbornly against the
vampire who was trying to force Bregan's hands back
against his arms.
Jaera shook her head to clear it of the awe she felt
as she watched the titan's aura's ripple and collide
with each other. She attacked as the vampire brought
the werewolf forcibly to his knees. Renfield fell and
rolled back to his feet sending a fist flying at the
mage. She blocked and tried to slash at him again as
the werewolf leaped past her, slashing as he went past
the vampire's reach.
Renfield dodged away from the Garou's leap, catching
Jaera's hand and snapping it off. Jaera cried in pain
as she struggled to clear her mind enough to use
magick to heal.
Bregan meanwhile twisted himself about and came
flying at the werewolf again.
As Varney pulled up he knew something was wrong
immeadiately. Like his master he possessed knowledge
of the discipline auspex, but even without it he could
have heard the bestial roars and his masters battle
cries inside. He parked the car and shut off the
engine as a cry of pain emerged from inside. Some
woman he hadn't met yet, perhaps the one that had been
hunting his master.
The moment he stepped out of the car and shut the
door, Varney knew that he too was being hunted. He
drew his gun prepared to face whatever it was. Then
suddenly the gun was pulled from his grasp and thrown
away by some power.
Varney had only his fists and his vampric powers of
potence and celerity when the coyotes swarmed over
him.
Inside they ignored Varney's cries of rage and pain
as he was torn to pieces by the pack of coyotes.
Renfield reached out with his hand and intercepted
the leaping werewolf by grabbing it's throat.
Immeaditly the five-hundred pound creature felt itself
pushed backwords until it hit a wall, three feet above
the ground. Renfield bared his fangs and launched
forward to try to bite the werewolf and recover some
lost blood.
Bregan had different ideas, he brought his claws up
and slashed off Renfield's arm at the elbow. The
werewolf dropped as the unfazed vampire kicked up.
Bregan felt his neck break from the blow. He would
heal quickly, but not before the vampire could bring
the deadly weapons of his fangs to use.
Suddenly the vampire was flying backwards, blasted by
an unseen force. He was standing again quickly and
again approaching the temporarily incapcitated
werewolf. Bregan could feel his body again, and, like
the Kindred, wasn't out of rage yet.
Jaera watched as she tried to heal her hand. She
knew the werewolf couldn't win the battle as he was,
so she delayed the healing in order to perform another
effect. She reached out with her mind and drew a
simple pattern, something found everyday but with
larger dimensions. Finally she filled it with
quintessence to make it real. She felt paradox infest
her pattern as her magick took shape.
A foot long wasp appeared just in front of the
vampire.
The insect had no real mind or soul, just physical
life and programmed instincts. It attacked Renfield
as the closest threat, stinging the angry vampire in
the chest. Renfield grabbed at the thing and crushed
it in his hand, his momentum stopped for the moment.
Bregan limped ahead, pain racking every movement. He
had to rest in order to heal, but he couldn't rest
with this vampire still standing. Despite the hole in
his chest, despite his missing arm, despite the deep
gashes on his body, despite several broken bones,
despite all that, Renfield was unfazed.
Katrina woke up with a terrible pain on the back of
her head. For brief moment she couldn't remember what
had happened, but the scene she saw across the room
jolted her memory.
Jaera was cradling her arm as her magick slowly
reformed the flesh of her hand, paradox touching her
even more as she healed what should not be possible to
heal. Then the paradox began to leak out of her and
take shape. Sensations flowed into her mind, twisting
the appearance of things. Jaera forced herself to
concentrate on the healing, shutting out all other
considerations.
Bregan was limping slowly forward to continue to face
Renfield. The warriors, though Bregan wasn't as much
of a fighter as many of his packmates, were beaten,
what could she do?
Jenny's spirit was outside searching the ground for
something to the background noises of battle and
howling coyotes. Then she found it and, using what
little energy she had, picked it up and carried it
inside to Katrina.
Katrina watched as a gun seemed to fly to her and
land gently before her.
"Use it," the voice that had advised her twice before
said before it disappeared.
"I don't know how to use a gun," Katrina protested,
voice weak and tired. There was no response to her
protest. She picked up the gun, paused "This won't
kill him," she whispered. Then she fired into the
wall behind Renfield.
If she failed to hit, she succeeded in grabbing his
attention. Renfield turned away from Bregan to face
her, his face displaying all the inhuman rage that was
driving him. Renfield advanced on this most recent
enemy.
Katrina unloaded the thirteen bullet clip at
Renfield, managing to hit six times. Each shot
stopped him for a brief moment before he continuing
towards her.
On the other end of the room Jaera began to regain
control of her senses. She thanked the powers that be
that the backlash had been such a small one. It would
have been unfortunate, to say the least, if she had to
battle a paradox spirit in addition to this vampire.
"How do you expect to stop me with a gun, child?" he
demanded of her as he came on. The only answer was
that she didn't, she only expected to buy some time.
Bregan, the only thing seperating him and Renfield's
fury being physical limits, used that time to rest for
a brief moment before he launched himself against
Renfield again. Renfield, actually starting to feel
the pain of wounds, turned around slowly as the
werewolf's claws slashed downward and sliced into his
leg. Renfield fell to one knee from the injury.
"Beast," the vampire spat as he pulled back his
remaining arm. A talon, shaped and empowered by
magick for the killing of the supernatural, sliced
into Renfield's face. "Witch, I'll see t' you later,"
the vampire promised as he sent his fist flying into
the werewolf. Bregan fell backwards and landed on his
back a mere two feet away.
Jaera moved for another slash with her rebuilt hand,
but the still fighting vampire turned his punch into a
back hand. The mage was knocked away just as Bregan
had been. Renfield stood up unsteadily, his vampric
rage and arrogance keeping him in a fight he had
already lost.
Eventually the claws or the magickal talons would
take him down in his weakened condition, but he didn't
care. He wanted to see who he could take with him.
"Who's next? Who wants to fight me now, eh?" he
asked of the two warriors. Bregan found that he
couldn't get up, that he needed to heal some more
before continuing the battle. The mage, however, was
well enough to rise again and come forward.
Renfield whirled on her and tried to catch her eye to
eye, but Jaera knew that trick now. He would not
catch her again so easily. She circled him, looking
for a safe way to approach.
Renfield did not have time for such games, but he
didn't dare press the attack himself. Soon the
werewolf would heal from the wounds Renfield had given
him, just as this mage had while she rested and the
werewolf fought. He planned to take one of them down
with him either way. He just didn't know which one
yet.
Suddenly the vampire jerked back as something erupted
from his chest. This time the stake didn't miss the
heart. Renfield fell to the ground paralyzed and
unable to move. He hadn't felt this way since the
night of his Embrace.
He could remember it clearly, from the slave woman he
had tried to take all the way to when his unit had
found his body and removed the stake that was meant to
keep him there until sunrise.
Lost in these memories, Renfield didn't see the claws
and talons that ended his life.
Kindred, Garou and Mage collapsed in exhaustion as
Renfield's body turned into dust.
"Excuse me," Katrina whispered weakly from where she
lay. Bregan turned to look at her. "What's your
name?"
"Bregan Rohan."
"You owe me a violin," she reminded him. He
chuckled, and suddenly had a thought.
In the Shadowlands Jenny's wraith also felt
exhausted, but also renewed as one of her ties to the
physical world was resolved.
=====
"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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