The Keeper Of Darkness (a gothic tale of love, desire, desperation, and music)

The Keeper of Darkness

Ch. 14 - The Hunters And The Hunted
Cannes 1996



Fourteen years isn’t much in the life of a vampire, but it had certainly taken its toll on the twins.

It had been particularly tough on Petra, since she had spent more than half of those years confined to a mental institution.

No one except her brother Peter had believed her strange story about their little sister Vicky being abducted by vampires.
Even he had difficulty believing it at first, and he had actually experienced their supernatural presence first hand.
However, after some time spent following the bloody trail the three girls were leaving behind themselves, he was convinced that they were definitely dealing with something not quite of this world.

The twins had spent the intervening years since Petra’s release studying, training, and tracking.
Petra hadn’t totally wasted her time while she was locked away either.
She had spent as much of it as possible keeping her mind and her body fit for the day when she would be free and able to resume the hunt for her little sister.
The chess games with Dr. Perry had helped to keep her mental faculties sharp, and rigorous daily workout sessions in the privacy of her room had kept her body in superb shape.

Peter had done the same, and had also been able to do some studying of their prey on his own, something that Petra had not been permitted to do by her doctors.
The well-meaning staff at St. Andrew’s had denied her access to any reading material having to do with vampires, fearing that it would only serve to feed her ‘delusional obsessions’, as they put it.

In any case, by now both Peter and Petra had become quite adept at finding and destroying vampires.

They had found quite a few, but had never managed to get close enough to Vicky and the women she traveled with to even catch a glimpse of them.
The elusive trio had been almost within reach more than once, but had always managed to disappear like wraiths into the night before the twins could strike.

Fourteen years of false leads, cold trails, and near misses.

Peter sincerely hoped they could finally catch up to them this time; both he and his sister were getting a little older, and maybe just a little bit slower, too.
Not what you wanted to be when facing a skilled and powerful vampire opponent, much less three of them.

Still, they had always beaten every single vampire they had faced up until now, although both of the twins bore enough scars to remind them of how close it had been to a loss now and then.

Timing was everything when fighting vampires.

You had to catch them when they were at their weakest in order to have any chance at all of eliminating these unholy creatures, Peter thought as he looked back at the previous fourteen years’ worth of battle, almost nine of them all on his own while his sister had been locked up at St. Andrew’s.

Those years had been the hardest for him as he worked alone, in secret, unable to share what he was doing with anyone, his psychic connection with his two sisters muted.
Of course, he had been actively hunting vampires during that interval; in fact, just about every minute of his spare time had been dedicated to that pursuit.
No wife or girlfriend, estranged from his co-workers at his job, his parents dead, no friends to speak of with whom he could share either good times or bad ones … he had become somewhat hard and cold emotionally as a result of his lonely quest.

Yes, he reflected bitterly, apparently vampires could transform you even without having to take a sip of your blood.

The three they were about to face were going to be some of the smartest, fastest, and strongest they had ever taken on, with the added complication that one of them was family and shared their psychic connection.
It was not as strong as the connection between Peter and his twin sister, but it was enough that the vampires could usually anticipate their moves and stay ahead of them, avoiding a fight.

The twins were aware that at any time they had wanted to, their vampire prey could have simply used Vicky’s psychic connection to find them and bring matters to a head.
For some inexplicable reason, they had chosen to remain the hunted … so far.

Well, the reasoning behind it didn’t really matter much one way or another.
The important thing was to not let that make the two hunters careless.
At any moment, their prey could turn around and become the predators, and the Pushkin twins would probably have to pay a steep price for not noticing the change.

Peter started to take inventory of their weapons.

Petra’s favorite crossbow and the steel-tipped arrows she preferred were laid out on the table, ready to be coated with fresh garlic.
It was really just the arrows that did the work; one of those through the heart would put down anything, really, alive or undead.
The garlic was just a little extra insurance.
Peter had never seen a vampire succumb to an overdose of garlic, but better safe than sorry.

He figured it certainly couldn’t hurt … then laughed at the thought.

“‘Couldn’t hurt’? But I want it to hurt; I want it to not just hurt, I want it to destroy them!”

From the hotel bathroom where she was getting ready, Petra called out to him.

“Peter, did you say something?”

“Nothing important, sis. I’m just talking to myself again.”

He pulled his .357 Magnum out of its holster and popped the chamber open, making sure he had a full load of rounds.
All of the bullets were carved with an x, or cross, at the tip.

Dumdums, with the power of the .357 behind them, would leave a hell of an exit wound.
He placed the handgun back in its holster and laid it on the table.
Now it was time to look over the semi-automatic weapons.

The twins were fans of the Heckler & Koch machine pistols; Petra carried the MP5 while Peter preferred the MP7 model. Both guns were light, compact enough to conceal under a coat, had a good rate of fire. and also packed a decent wallop at close range without the penalty of excessive recoil.

Full clips for each gun, plus at least six extra ones apiece.

He put the clips, some C4 and a few mini detonators into a black nylon rucksack. C4 was always useful for blowing open barricaded doors or tombs, or for taking out a large group of too-eager pursuers in a pinch.

Although vampires had amazing regenerative powers, it was pretty hard to come back from being completely blown to smithereens, he had noticed.

He added a few flashbang grenades to the rucksack as well as three sets of night vision goggles; it was always a good idea to have a spare pair of those, just in case.

Petra came out of the bathroom, dressed entirely in black leather. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and it now had a pronounced white streak at her right forehead.

She walked over to the table and picked up her knife in its scabbard.

“Sometimes you just have to reach out and touch someone,” she said to Peter, as she stroked the sheathed blade almost sensually with her long fingers before strapping it to her slim thigh with a well-practiced motion.

They both laughed at her grim joke.
Hand to hand combat with a vampire was really no laughing matter and both of them definitely hoped things wouldn’t come to that, but they wouldn’t be caught unprepared in any case.

Peter picked up his matching knife from the table, withdrew it, and checked the edge.
Honed to perfection, just as he was, and just as Petra was.
He was eager for a fight now, the adrenaline starting to pump through his system.

“Too early,” he thought, and began to breathe and count slowly to ten again.


=================================

A light rain was falling outside and the hotel room clock was showing 23:10 when Petra stirred in her chair as Peter called to her quietly.

“Come on, sis. It’s time to go.”

Petra had been dreaming another one of her bizarre dreams again, the one where she was tied up tightly at the mercy of those vampires who had taken Vicky, and been forced to wet herself over and over again.

As she woke up, she could feel a warm dampness down between her slender legs, and she hoped that that warmth was only from the arousal she had felt while dreaming, and nothing more.
Ever since the incident at the house in Porte de Vanves, she had often had trouble with incontinence; there were instances where she had wet herself during the daytime, and she had started wetting her bed frequently at night also.

She wasn’t really sure why it was happening; whether she really couldn’t control it any more, or if it just felt so good to let go.
In any case, in her mind the act of weeing was inextricably linked to the feeling of sexual arousal now, and she couldn’t ever experience the one without at least a bit of the other.
It was as if those few hours under the control of those two vampire girls had conditioned her for life, she thought.

She had gradually managed to re-train herself to be able to hold again, but had never been able to get back to the level she had been at before that night. Holding for ten hours or more just seemed impossible now, even if she wanted to, and the act of urinating was always accompanied by an ecstatic feeling whenever she had to go.

It was both a blessing and a curse, depending on where she happened to be when the urge overtook her.

She was glad she had taken advantage of the opportunity while she was getting ready in the bathroom, but decided to make another visit before they left, just in case.


-------------------------------------------------------------------


On the street outside of the small house, Petra waited after ringing the doorbell.

The door was opened by a tall, thin, pale man with a bald head, very long fingers and unnaturally pointy ears.

“May I help you, mademoiselle?” he asked, in a tone which made it quite clear that he had no real desire to be of any assistance whatsoever.

“Excuse me; I’m so sorry, but my rental car has broken down around the corner and I was wondering if I could possibly use your phone. My cell phone isn’t getting service here for some reason.”

Petra tried to sound as innocent as possible.

“I’m afraid that our phone isn’t working either at the moment, mademoiselle. You will have to seek assistance elsewhere, I’m sorry to say.”
With that, the thin man shut the door in her face.

“How rude!” Petra thought to herself, laughing.

Vampires were usually such a polite lot too; at least while they were trying to entice you to enter their lair.
It was only after you were inside that things got nasty.

She walked back around the corner to where Peter was waiting and reported the situation back to him.

“Small private house, no lights, probably about twelve to fifteen bloodsuckers inside judging by the sound of it,” Petra said.
“The host is an old one, definitely. He didn’t invite me in … they must already have something going on.”

“Twelve to fifteen, you say? I don’t like those odds at all, especially in a small space,” Peter muttered.
“I think we’d better wait outside until at least some of them leave. At this point we’re not even sure that Vicky is in there, anyhow.”

“Fine, Peter. Most of them will probably leave before daybreak in any case,” Petra said.

She pulled out a slim package of Gitanes, placed one between her lips, and lit it, inhaling deeply.
As she exhaled, she blew smoke rings towards her brother.

“Some things never change,” Peter thought as he smiled to himself.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few hours later, there was the sound of the front door opening and the first vampires began to take their leave, bidding their host farewell with varying degrees of formality and affection.

“Good day,“ he said as each guest passed through the doorway. “I hope you will come back again soon.”

“Good day?” said one of the departing guests in a flippant tone. “Is there ever such a thing for us, really?”

The host replied, “Any day that you don’t get to see is a good day.”

They all laughed at his comment before disappearing into the night.

The twins, meanwhile, were keeping a head count on the guests as they left the house.

By now there would only be about six vampires at most still inside including the fellow who had answered the front door when Petra rang the bell, but that was still quite a disadvantage in numbers.

It usually took both of them fighting as hard as they could to dispatch a single weakened vampire adversary from up close.
Vampire teleportation wouldn’t work easily once both of them had a good grip on the bloodsucker, the twins had learned that much from hard-won experience; but then you had a tiger by the tail, no doubt about it.
It would be better if at least a couple more vampires left before the fighting started.

As if on cue, the door opened again and two more bloodsuckers exited the house.

One was a tall, striking woman with smooth olive skin and wavy dark brown hair, and the other was a shorter redhead.

At first the twins thought that these were the same two women that their sister had been abducted by, and Petra was ready to take them on right then and there.
Peter had to hold her back.

He whispered urgently in her ear, “Wait … I don’t think it’s them. I mean, where’s Vicky?”

As Peter asked that, the smaller girl turned to her companion.

“I thought that went rather well, all things considered,” she said.

The tall woman laughed.

“Yes, we got what we needed for the moment. Now that Victoria is our sister, we should be able to find her whenever we wish,” she said. “We will follow her psychically, and when the odds are more in our favour we can free her.”

‘Free her…’

As the Pushkins heard that, they were both glad they had paused before starting a fight.
Strangely enough, it actually appeared that these two bloodsuckers wanted to help their little sister.

Suddenly, the tall woman looked straight into the darkness where the twins were concealing themselves.
She spoke softly, but her voice seemed to carry on the pitch black of the night.

“I know you’re there,” she said.
“I also know who you are and why you’re here, so please come out now. Don’t worry, you’ll be safe with us.”


(to be continued)

\/-----\/

frostyjr2 said:

Keeper of Darknees Pt. 2
Ch. 12 - Stage Fright (cont'd.)

https://soundcloud.com/frostyjr2%2Fshadow-essence-in-effect

The assembled guests looked on raptly, every one of them wishing they had won the right to drink from her.
They were all so busy jealously watching Hannah feed that none of them noticed as i discreetly unfastened the buckle securing the ball gag behind Victoria’s neck.

“Shhhhh,” i murmured, loosening my grip slightly and stroking her light brown hair gently with one hand to comfort her,
because i knew what was coming next.

As Hannah finally retracted her fangs from Victoria’s jugular vein, i could see and feel the two perfectly round holes already beginning to close rapidly.
The small girl was still in severe pain, her eyes closed, her entire body convulsing uncontrollably as the shadow vamp venom streaked through her like liquid fire.

Hannah gestured to me again, letting me know it was time to remove the ball gag from Victoria’s mouth.

I whispered in her ear again.
“Hannah’s going to do something now and you’re not going to like it, but it’s absolutely necessary. You need to take what she’s about to give you.”

Hannah laughed loudly, and said, “After such a long drink, I think I need to relieve myself. Erica, would you please help me find a place to do so?”

That was my cue; i quickly removed the ball gag from Victoria’s mouth and pressed her cheeks inwards, forcing her lips open as Hannah positioned herself to let some of her shadow essence flow into Victoria’s mouth.

I was almost jealous myself but Victoria just sputtered and tried to close her mouth or turn her head away so as to not have to swallow any of Hannah’s shadow.
She wasn’t one of us yet, so Hannah’s shadow essence definitely wouldn’t taste very good to her.
Even so, all of her attempts to avoid drinking it down were useless of course; my grip on her was far too secure.

The audience murmured with delight as Hannah then ordered me to clean up after her, and i eagerly raised my fingers to my lips and licked the bit of it that had overflowed onto them, then cleared off the remaining bit of shadow essence from Victoria’s face as tenderly as i could.
Next, i surreptitiously took a tiny bite of the flesh at the heel of my hand, drawing a small amount of my blood.
Holding it in my mouth, i let it mix with some of my own shadow venom before kissing her deeply, teasing her mouth open with my tongue and spitting that mixture of my blood and shadow venom into it.

She sputtered and choked again at first, but once enough of it it went down it took effect pretty quickly.
Once it did, her eyes rolled back in her head and she moaned again, but this time it was with pure pleasure instead of pain.

The vampires in the audience all watched in hot fascination as i then began to work Victoria with all my ability, and believe me, Hannah had taught me a few things in the time i’d known her.

That was fun, definitely … but it was also more misdirection.

Thanks to that surreptitious exchange of blood and shadow between the three of us, Victoria, Hannah, and i were now bonded as a vampire family.

Vicky was now our sister.


\/——\/

(to be continued)

Click to expand...

The music composition is great, the story is compelling.

ibmorjamn said:

The music composition is great, the story is compelling.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much!

The Keeper of Darkness
Ch. 15 - FOURPLAY (Petra and Cool)
CANNES, 1996

https://soundcloud.com/frostyjr2%2Fits-in-the-mix-1

“Please do come out now,” the tall woman repeated.

Peter and Petra looked at one another, both of them thinking the same thing:
friend or foe, this woman knew where they were hiding, so there was no point in trying to stay concealed any longer.

Petra stepped out of the shadows and approached the duo warily, one hand on the machine pistol hidden under her long leather coat.
If this was some kind of a trap, at least one bloodsucker was going to get a face full of lead in a minute or so.

Meanwhile, Peter was hanging back with his machine pistol at the ready, trying to keep both vampires in his sights when suddenly the smaller one vanished.

In a fraction of a heartbeat, she had re-materialized behind him, and was tapping him gently on the shoulder.

“You can put the gun down,” she said, exposing her snow white fangs as she grinned at him.
“If we had wanted to harm you, you would both be dead already … so you might as well just trust us.”

Peter laughed out loud, recognizing the truth of it.

Even Petra had to agree that there was no denying what she had just said.
Two teleporting vamps at full strength, in the darkness; the odds weren’t good on them winning that fight at all.

Peter dropped his weapon to his side, flicking the safety catch back on as he did.
If these two bloodsuckers wanted to kill them, they were already as good as dead anyhow, so what difference did it make?

“Let’s get away from here,” the tall woman said quietly.
“We need to talk about a few things now; very important things. I’m Hannah, and I suppose you've already met Erica.”


—————

Chapter 15 - FOURPLAY (cont'd.)

https://soundcloud.com/frostyjr2%2Fwhats-the-411-9-7-23-1554

Hannah had decided that the best plan would be to hide in plain sight.

The film festival truce made vampires and humans sitting together a common enough occurrence that we wouldn’t draw attention to ourselves, so we were back at that same café in the center of town.

The twins had stashed all of their considerable arsenal away in the trunk of their rental car, so i figured that they had decided to trust us at least for the moment.

As i sat, i pulled my skirt down towards my knees again; this darn thing was really starting to get on my nerves.
I wanted a cigarette badly too, which wasn’t helping.

Unfortunately, my pack was empty. I had already smoked my last Gitane a half hour ago but i wasn’t about to interrupt our meeting just to go buy another pack either.

As the one named Petra pulled a small, flat, blue box from the inside pocket of her long black leather coat, she glanced over in my direction.

“Cigarette?” she asked, offering the pack of Gitanes to me after pulling one out for herself.
I guess she must have noticed my hungry stare.

“Thanks, don’t mind if i do,” i replied, taking one from the pack.

I reached somewhat awkwardly into the tiny pocket of my tight miniskirt for my lighter, and then lit her cigarette before putting the flame to my own.

She inhaled deeply, and then she smiled a very pretty smile at me as i took in the smoke from mine.

We both laughed at the same time as we realized that we had more in common than just the desire to see Victoria free of those two demon vamps.

“Now, let’s talk about exactly what we’re doing here,” Peter said.
“I think we all want the same thing, which is for Vicky to be free and happy, am I right?”

“Essentially, yes,” Hannah said.
“I’m not sure we would interpret that state in precisely the same way, however. Things are a bit more complicated now.”

“Complicated in which way?” Petra asked tersely.

I could tell she was a bit on edge, and i knew why, too.

She had to pee really badly but didn’t want to show it, LOL.

Of course, it was totally obvious to a shadow vampire like myself, but she had no way of knowing that, so i just sat quietly enjoying her growing desperation as she began to squirm ever so slightly in her chair.

“Well, Victoria is actually part of three separate families now,” Hannah said.
“She’s your sister, of course. But she is also a sister to those two devils, and now, also to the two of us.”

“So what does that mean exactly?” Peter asked.

“Well, most importantly, it means we can track her accurately from now on,” Hannah explained.
“We have a psychic link to her now, just as you do, but ours is much more precise and specific. It also means we have a responsibility to look out for her, something those other two have obviously not been doing,” she said, anger turning her eyes red for an instant.
“They have been exploiting her, and we’re not going to stand for that.”

As Hannah spoke, i kept my own eyes on Petra.

She was irresistible, really … such a beautiful girl, so intense, and so charmingly desperate.

Her desperation was increasing with each passing moment, too.
It was actually kind of cute, the way she was doing a sort of sitting pee dance now.

I glanced quickly over at Hannah, and our eyes met for a second; it was obvious to me that she was trying very hard not to smile herself.

Finally, i took pity on the poor girl.
”Sorry to interrupt, but i really need to pee. Would you all excuse me for a brief minute or two?" i said.

I probably could have continued to hold for hours, but i didn’t think the pretty girl sitting across from me could have taken too much more, and In fact, she jumped at the chance i had subtly offered her.

“I rather need to freshen up a bit myself,” Petra said.
“Do you mind if I come with you?”

“The more the merrier,” i responded, smiling at my new friend.

We both stubbed out our cigarettes in the ashtray on the table and stood up, me vainly tugging at the hem of my mini skirt yet again. You’d think it wanted to be a scarf, the way the darn thing kept heading towards my neck, ugh.

We walked to the rest room at the back of the café together, but as soon as we got there Petra rushed for the single open stall.

“Do you mind? I’m rather urgently in need of a wee!”

I laughed and said, “I could tell. Don’t worry, i can hold on for at least a few more seconds.”

"Thank goodness!” she said, as she rapidly skinned down her tight leather pants and undies.

As i heard the sound of a strong stream splashing into the toilet to the accompaniment of a deep sigh of pleasure i had to make a real effort not to burst in on her and do all the things i was thinking of ... OMHG.

“I’m so sorry, but I very nearly wet my knickers this time,” she said softly.

“It’s OK, really. I’ve been there quite a few times myself,” i said reassuringly.
She had no idea, really.

I could feel her arousal as she relieved herself, her trousers and delicate black silk and lace panties down around her booted ankles now as she sat on the toilet continuing to sigh with pleasure, as well as her embarrassment at not being able to control those sounds.

Meanwhile, i leaned back against the counter enjoying her ecstasy empathetically while trying to ease both her sense of mortification and a bit of the pressure on my toes from those pointy stiletto high heeled pumps.
I sincerely hoped that it would be a long time before Hannah 'asked' me to wear an outfit like this again …
several human lifetimes, maybe, if i was lucky.

At least there were some benefits to us being here, though, i reflected as i glanced at the mirror on the wall behind me, which refected nothing in return except for Petra’s leather trousers, filmy black undies, and booted feet visible beneath the stall door.

Finally, the stream and the sighs abated: i heard the toilet flush, and the lovely Petra emerged from the stall appearing all businesslike and properly British now that she was no longer desperate.

It was kind of a shame, really; i liked seeing her the other way better.

Well, i would certainly get another chance soon enough, i thought to myself, smiling.

“So, Erica, what are we going to do about Vicky then?” she asked as she ran warm water to wash her hands in the basin next to me.

“Hey, Hannah’s the planner,” i replied.
“I just do whatever she tells me to, really.”

“You don’t say? Anything at all she tells you to?” she said, as she arched a pretty eyebrow at me while coating her hands with a lather of soapy suds.

“We have an, ahem, interesting relationship, the two of us," i replied with a grin, thinking back to the scene just a short time ago at Le Petit Bal.
"Not sure i want to get into all that with you right at the moment though … it’s a very long story, and we should probably be getting back.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she said, rinsing her hands and then drying them off thoroughly with some paper towels.

She wadded the used paper towels up into a tight ball and then tossed them into the wastebasket behind her without even looking.

A perfect 3 point shot … of course it would be, i thought.

Perfect, just like everything else about her.

“Perhaps some other time then,” she said with another pretty smile.

“Hullo, don’t you have to use the loo?” Petra asked as i walked out with her.

“Not really, but i could tell that you certainly did, and also that you weren’t going to get up to go unless i gave you an excuse,” i answered.
“I really didn’t want to see you suffer any more.”

I may have been enjoying her desperation a bit more than i wanted to let on, but it was still the truth.

“Well, thanks for that, then,” she said, smiling at me once again.
"I really do appreciate it."

I liked this girl; yes, almost right from the moment we had first met.
She had beauty, skills, intelligence, charm, and tact.

She was, in point of fact, ‘most impressive’, to quote a famous film character, and she looked almost as good as Hannah did all dressed up in her tight black leather outfit; yes, i do have a serious weakness for pretty girls in black leather.
--------

Chapter 15 - FOURPLAY (cont'd.)

We made our way back to the table where Hannah and Peter were sitting and laughing together.

“So he actually wet himself when you pulled out her picture?” Hannah asked.

“I think he must have been expecting a gun or something like that,” Peter replied, smiling and pointing a finger.

“Well, considering how much in the way of weapons the both of you had on you tonight, I can see why he might have been a bit concerned,” Hannah said as she smiled back at him.
“Not that any of it would have done you a bit of good against us.”

“Hmm, probably not in the end. But we’d have put up a good fight ... for at least a few seconds,” Peter replied.

They both laughed at that as Petra and i sat down at the small round marble-topped café table again.

“Did you girls enjoy yourselves?” Hannah asked with a slyly arched eyebrow, although she already knew the answer thanks to our empatheic hookup.

“It was simply marvelous,” i replied.
“In fact, we’re thinking about visiting again just as soon as we can.”

“Yes, we can hardly wait to go back,” Petra quipped, following my lead.

“AHEM … I hate to interrupt the travelogue, but can we get back to the business at hand?” Peter said.

“Right,” Hannah said, serious again.
“We certainly weren’t going to win a battle against that evil lot at the Petit Bal, so we just made sure we’d be able to track Victoria no matter where they take her from now on.”

Hannah didn't go into any details about how that came about, and the twins didn't ask ...
but for me it brought back some more pleasant memories that were still quite fresh in my mind.

"Even without that though, I have a feeling that they will be returning to Paris very soon,” she continued.
“Victoria can’t sustain the two of them for more than a few days and they are far too ravenous to stay anywhere they can't feed constantly.”

“So then, what’s the plan, planner?”
Petra smiled at me as she said that.

“We simply follow them to wherever they are going. Hopefully then we’ll be in a situation where we aren’t outnumbered, and we can claim her by simple right of seniority.”
Hannah paused before continuing.

“Of course, we may very well still end up having to fight to get her away from those two demons.”

“We’ve fought vampires before. We’ve even put a few nasty bloodsuckers to rest now and again,” Peter said.

"No offense meant to present company, of course,” Petra added quickly with a smile at me.
“We’ll be glad to help in any way we can. She’s still our sister, no matter what else she may have become.”

"I guess that makes us all family in a way then,” i said, exposing my fangs once again as i smiled back at her.


(to be continued)

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The Keeper Of Darkness
Ch. 16 - EXTERMINATING ANGEL (The Enforcer)
somewhere in Upstate New York, 1980

https://soundcloud.com/frostyjr2%2Fan-appointment-with-destiny

An invitation from the High Council of Elders was not something one could simply turn down.
You went, and whatever happened, you simply had to accept it just the way it happened.

So we went for a little evening drive through the Catskills to the compound on the outskirts of the small town in upstate New York where the vampire Elders held their formal meetings.

I had insisted on coming along, even though it was pretty obvious that Hannah would have preferred for me to remain at home.
Personally, i figured that if there was any trouble brewing for us my staying home would only delay the inevitable.
I like to get the bad news as soon as possible, if there’s any coming at all.

By the time we arrived, it was past midnight.
Hannah steered the car through the front gate and onto the long, winding, tree-lined driveway leading up towards the main building; it was still a good couple of minutes after that before it actually came into view.

“Quite the spread,” i murmured.

“This is nothing," Hannah replied.
“In the Old Country, they owned property the size of this whole county.”

=============================================================


So i waited outside the mansion, pacing back and forth on the large porch as i chain smoked cigarette after cigarette.

I had begun smoking shortly after being turned; somehow, it just seemed to work with my new existence.
Now i inhaled the smoke deeply, savoring the taste of it and the burning sensation in my lungs.

I paced, because i was worried, scared, and angry all at once, and to top it all off, i was really desperate.

As usual.

But Hannah had asked me to wait outside for her, and that's what i would do.

So, i paced, and i smoked ....

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Ch. 16 (cont'd.)

-------------------

“Welcome, Hannah Oliveiros. It is good to see you again after so long an absence from this circle, and looking so happy too,” the rather portly, almost cherubic man said, beaming at her from under a fringe of snow white hair.

“Thank you, Elder Severin. It is good to see you as well.” Hannah spoke softly.

‘Indeed, I am truly happy at this moment; I hope that will not all change in the next few minutes,’ she thought to herself.
Hannah was wary of Elders to begin with, and when they were in a seemingly good mood even more so than when they were angry; at least their anger was predictable.

“To what do I owe the honour of an audience with you this time, Elder?”

“We have a small problem we are hoping you can help us with, Hannah Oliveiros. You seem to be ideally suited for this task, and we know that you will not refuse us this service.”

Elder Severin looked at Hannah intently as he spoke those words.

“In what way might I be of service to the Council of Elders?” Hannah inquired cautiously.
She couldn't help thinking back to the last time she had met with the Council of Elders, and the nature of the service they had demanded then.
What would they require of her this time? Hadn’t she already given them enough?

“We have selected you to be an enforcer,” Severin said.

“Your clarity of mind, purity of soul, and unique physical skills make you more qualified to take on this mission than any other we already have in service,” Elder Philippa answered in reply to Hannah's unspoken question.

Philippa was a beautiful woman with alabaster skin, blue eyes like icicles, ruby red lips, and long flowing blonde hair, as pale and as willowy as Severin was ruddy and rotund.

An enforcer?
Hannah’s mind was reeling from the shock.

To call this ‘service’ was an understatement; ‘enslavement’ was perhaps a more appropriate definition.

It meant that you were constantly on call, always ready to do the bidding of the High Council of Elders, enforcing the rules all vampires had to obey or face the consequences … and those consequences could at times be quite severe, even terminal if the offense warranted it.

Enforcers could destroy almost any other vampire practically at will with no need for justification and no fear of any retaliation or sanction, acting as they did with the authority of the High Council behind them.
As a result, only the most faithful, pure, and trustworthy were ever appointed to the position. Their moral compass had to be absolutely above question.

To be chosen was a great compliment, yes; but also a huge burden to bear.

“Although I am most honoured to even be considered, I must respectfully decline,” Hannah said, choosing her words carefully.
“I have no wish to destroy anyone, and whether they deserve it is not for me to decide in any case.”

“It is precisely because you do not desire the position and will gain no personal satisfaction from discharging your duties that you are the perfect candidate for it,” the Elder Magdalena said. “And have no fear, the decision will not be yours to make; this Council will make it for you.”

“Is there no one else who can take on this task? I cannot willingly assume such a great responsibility by my own choosing.”

Hannah was entering dangerous territory here and she knew it, but she had to at least try to evade the trap she found herself in now.

“You misunderstand us, Hannah Oliveiros, for we are not offering you a choice. It is quite simple; you will either serve as required, or both you and your little one will be destroyed.”
Elder Philippa's eyes narrowed and briefly flashed red as she spoke sternly, and Hannah had no reason to doubt the seriousness of her threat.

“That’s quite unfair; Erica has nothing at all to do with this business, and should be left out of it. Any consequences stemming from my decision should be mine and mine alone to face.”

Hannah was both angry and concerned now, although she knew better than to let her anger show in her own eyes.

“What should be and what is are often two different things, Hannah Oliveiros,” Elder Magdalena said, laughing.
“Have you not realised that by now, having existed for as long as you have?"
Magdalena was voluptuous, raven haired, sensual, and rumored to be cruel beyond all powers of imagination.

“Indeed ... for example, that worthless little thing waiting for you on the porch outside should be dead, but you intervened to prolong her existence,"Phillippa added contemptuously.
"And to what purpose?”

“I don’t know really; something just told me I should save her, and I did," Hannah said.
"It was as simple as that at the moment, just pure instinct … but I love her now like a daughter and like a sister both.”

Hannah couldn't help thinking about a couple of other ways as well, but quickly turned her mind from those images.
This was business here.

“Is her existence even more dear to you than your own?” Elder Severin demanded.

“She has a pure soul, Elder. It would be a shame to waste such a thing,” Hannah replied quietly.

“Indeed, pure souls are quite hard to come by these days,” Severin remarked, smiling again now.
“So I’m sure that you will see to it that hers continues to exist by doing our bidding.”

Hannah was well and truly trapped now and she knew it.
If she were to refuse the position, then the Elders would send enforcers against Erica as well as herself.
If she accepted, she would have to face an unknown evil, and more than likely not just once.

‘Damned if you do and damned if you don’t,’ Hannah thought, quoting one of Erica’s pet sayings.
‘Well, being damned comes with the territory, I guess'.

“I accept this honour, and will undertake the mission.”
She bowed her head and bent the knee in submission now.

'For Erica’s sake, if for no other reason,' Hannah thought.
If she were to lose everything, at least Erica would still survive.

“We thought you would come around to our point of view in the end,” Elder Sivad said, speaking for the first time in his distinctive raspy voice.
“Now get out of here and wait for us to call you, bitch.”

“There is no excuse for such language, Sivad," Elder Philippa said, fixing him with a disapproving glare.
"Hannah is a true and faithful servant of the Order and as such, she deserves our love and respect.”

“Oh, she knows just I how much I love and respect her,” Sivad said with a grin.
“We go way back together. Waaaayyyy back …”

Hannah laughed, the tension of the moment broken.

“I’ll walk you out,” Sivad said.

As the two of them proceeded out of the antechamber and down the hallway, their footsteps made almost no sound on the polished hardwood floor.

Sivad turned to Hannah suddenly and said, “Hey, I haven’t seen Cool in a long time. How is that crazy bitch anyhow?”

“You can ask her yourself, Sivad. She’s waiting outside.”

“I wish I could, but we have other business to take care of,” he rasped.
“Tell her I said hello, and to keep on the axe. She might even play somethin’ worth listening to one of these days …”

He adjusted his large dark sunglasses on his nose and laughed as he turned to go back into the audience chamber.

“Don't call us; we'll call you. I’ll see you around, Hannah Oliveiros!”

--------------------------

I was squirming pretty obviously as i stubbed out my last cigarette just before Hannah finally came through the huge double doors leading into the main house, interrupting my by now frantic pee dance.

As Hannah's little one i was getting better at holding for long periods thanks to lots of practice but the uncertainty and stress of the moment had brought matters to a head a bit more rapidly than usual this time.

Hannah smiled just a little as she saw me in my desperate condition.
Maybe she was looking forward to the long drive back in to the city; there’s nothing like having a girl that might lose control at any moment in the passenger seat, she always said.

“So, how did it go?” i asked, warily.

“They offered me a job.” Hannah said, noncommittally.
“I took it.”

Despite her forced smile, i could empathetically feel the tension in her body and the unusually agitated state of her mind, and they spoke quite clearly to me: the two of us weren’t anywhere close to being out of danger.

“A job? Doing what?”
I was totally bewildered at this point.

“Exterminating pests.” Hannah replied.


<to be continued>
V----V

Ch. 17 - KILLING FLOOR (Nemesis)

New York City, 1991




The phone rang, and i picked up the receiver.

It was Kat; she was on assignment in the UK, shooting some fashion spread at the Hadleigh Castle ruin in Essex.

I was distracted and somewhat distraught, but tried not to let on.
I forced myself to focus on what she was saying from across the ocean, but my thoughts were really with the woman in the next room.

“The most exciting thing that has happened so far is that I almost got run over by some jackass and his girlfriend in a black BMW M5. Yeah, typical Eurotrash… dark hair in a long ponytail, black suit, sunglasses at night; the girlfriend was smoking a cig, then flicked the butt out of the window, it almost hit me.“ Kat said.

“Yes, Cool; she was very pretty; pale skin, dark hair, skinny as a rail … just your type, really. Sorry, Hannah …”

Kat really did love to tease us every chance she got.

“Listen, I really should let you go,” Kat said finally.
“I have to get back to work. Just wanted to say ‘Hi, from sunny Essex’, except it’s not … sunny, that is. It’s raining non-stop. Effing English weather.”

“OK, Kat. Later … Hannah says hi, and we love you!” i said, trying to sound bright and cheerful.
“Yeah, she’s here … but she’s getting ready to go out. We’ll see you when you get back.”

Almost as soon as i’d hung up the telephone, my sweet Hannah emerged from the bedroom.
She was wearing her black leather catsuit, and as usual, she looked as sexy as anything I’d ever seen.
I vividly remembered my reaction the first time I’d seen her in her enforcer getup.
It was in 1982, and she had just been given her first real assignment.

“Gosh, Hannah. You look like Emma Peel in that outfit!” I had said, smiling broadly at her.
It made me hot then, i recalled.
It still does, even after all these years.

Then again, she looks exactly the same now as she did then.
Only what's inside us ever changes.

Her dark brown hair moved softly in cascading, shiny waves as she bent down to pick up the black nylon duffel bag which held her usual array of weapons: hand gun, machine pistol and a couple of very sharp knives.
I knew they were very sharp, because i’d honed them myself.
She had the duffel in one hand, and the lacquered sheath of her favorite katana in the other.

I could tell she was already starting to think only about the mission; she had her game face on, but i couldn’t help myself.
I threw my arms around her, and smothered her with sweet, tender kisses, literally disarming her as she dropped the duffel bag to the floor and wrapped one arm around my waist, holding me in mid-air effortlessly as she returned my embrace.

“I’ll be home late. You needn’t wait up for me,” she said, smiling.

It was a little private joke of ours; of course, i hadn’t slept since I’d been turned.

An insomniac shadow vampire … some joke.

As Hannah went out the door of the loft and into the cold night rain, i turned to my axe. It was the only thing that could help me take my mind off of the fact that once again, the woman i loved would be in harm’s way and might not ever return to me.

I opened the worn leather case, pulled out my old Les Paul Custom, plugged it into my Tesla amplifier and sat down.
I needed to play something that would take my mind off of the memory of Hannah’s very first ‘seek and destroy’ mission as an enforcer.


--------------------


Ch. 18 cont’d
New York City, 1982 (the first sanction)




Standing in front of a large dilapidated building on the Brooklyn waterfront in New York City, Hannah paused for a moment, preparing to take on her first target for destruction.

He was holed up in there, she was certain of it this time.
She had tracked him to his lair, finally.

Or maybe, just maybe … he wanted her to find him now.

Before its current abandoned state, the building had been a garment factory, a storage warehouse before that, and back at the turn of the 20th century, it had been a slaughterhouse, she remembered. That was certainly appropriate, she thought.

To a vampire, the smell of blood still lingered even after all those long years … so of course he would pick this place to have the fight.

That was a distraction she didn’t need; she closed her eyes for a brief moment, centering herself until she felt calm again.

Scaling the outside wall rapidly, she entered the building through a hole in the roof, the falling rain pattering onto the corrugated sheet of metal which had been tacked haphazardly over it before she pulled it aside.

Dropping down through the hole and onto the damp concrete floor three stories below without making a sound, she crouched down low, trying to make herself the smallest possible target.

She had no idea what weapons, if any, this adversary might deploy, so she was carrying the black nylon duffel bag with spare clips, an extra knife and a few other items which might come in handy.

Her missions so far had consisted of giving out a few ‘cease and desist’ orders to relatively light offenders and a couple of heated discussions with one particularly stubborn one over whether something she was doing was actually breaking the rules or just bending them somewhat to suit the situation that had finally devolved into a fistfight despite Hannah’s best efforts to keep things civil, a fight which she had won easily anyway.

Pretty light work, up until now.

Old school vamps would battle with fist, fang, muscle, sinew, and claw, and nothing else; it was almost feral.

Then there were those who, like Hannah, preferred the sword, and the even less traditional ones who liked modern armament best: handguns, machine pistols, high explosives, and all the rest of the varied hardware available to them in the present era.

The Rules of Engagement required a meeting on neutral ground, with the choice of weapons going to the challenged vampire, not the challenger.

If this vampire was new school, he might be able to get in a sniper shot without her even realising where he was, but since she was hunting him she was fully fair game herself right from the moment she took on the mission.

She was well equipped, however.

Strapped to her back she had her katana, her weapon of choice. On her left hip, a MAC-10 machine pistol, on her right, a brand new Glock 17 handgun. In a pouch slung around her waist, the most dangerous weapons of all: the daylight grenades.

Using a daylight grenade was a last resort; It would destroy any adversary, even a great number of them, but if you were too close when the flash went off, it would take you out with them.

“Hannah Oliveiros … your fame precedes you,” the deep voice resounded as a large dark figure emerged from out of the shadows.

“You know my name?” Hannah asked, incredulous.

“Your name is already legendary in certain circles, my dear,” he replied. “It is revered by some, feared by others, respected by all. Yes, I have heard of you, Hannah Oliveiros.”

He laughed, then added, “… but I’m sure that you have not heard of me, or at the very least that you haven’t heard the full story. What exactly did your masters tell you when they sent you on this fool’s errand?”

“They told me that you were a rogue vampire existing in utter disregard for any rules, that you were a ruthless taker of life without a single shred of compassion or pity, and that I was to destroy you,” Hannah answered in return.

“And what do you see before you? Does the picture match the frame?” he demanded.

Hannah’s senses were on full alert.
The evil exuded by this vampire was almost palpable; an aura of impenetrable darkness surrounded him like a heavy cloak.
Usually even the very worst vampires had at least some mitigating aspect; a small ray of light, a tiny spark of soul not yet fully damned.
Not this one.

Hannah had never encountered pure evil in all her long years until just now.

He took a step towards her, and she could see that his almost coal-black hands were empty.

No guns, no blades … old school.
It would be feet, fists, and fangs only tonight.

-------------------

The Keeper Of Darkness
Ch. 17 - Killing Floor (cont'd)


She put the bag down and started to take off her weapons, placing each gun and knife carefully into it, stashing the belt of daylight grandes securely inside of it as well, and then finally unstrapping the katana from her back before laying it gently on top of the duffel bag.

‘He’s huge,’ Hannah thought, trying to assess the threat level.
It wasn’t looking good for her at this point, but she hadn’t seen him in action yet.
‘Maybe he’s slow.’

She definitely hoped that was the case.
Otherwise, she didn’t have ‘a snowball’s chance in hell.’

She smiled slightly at the thought; it was another one of Erica’s pet sayings.

“What do you call yourself now, then?”, she demanded stridently, all business now.

No matter the consequences she had a job to do and to neglect her duties would be putting Erica in danger and she couldn’t allow that, so whatever might happen, for now she was focused on only one goal: winning this fight.

“I have chosen the name ‘Lucifer’. It is a particularly ironic joke, wouldn’t you say?
“For a vampire, to bring light is to bring destruction,” he said.

“Well, I suppose we’d better get on with it, then. We haven’t got all night, ” Hannah said, smiling grimly.

The giant laughed at the joke. He might have been pure evil, but he could still enjoy a wicked sense of humour.

“Don’t worry, my dear,” he said.
“This won’t take very long but unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that it will not hurt much.”

The two of them squared off for battle, the tall olive-skinned woman in her tight black leather catsuit, and the giant, hulking black man in his loose African robes.
Suddenly, he peeled off the robes, leaving him clad only in a small loincloth with hide bands around his bulging biceps and thigh muscles. His well-defined solar plexus muscles showed not a trace of fat, despite his enormous bulk.

It would be his Mukumbusu-rooted style against her Capoeira-based one now.

Hannah began to move and weave, her feet dancing the quick pattern of her ginga.

“So, Hannah Oliveiros … may I ask why you of all people would ever agree to become their executioner in the first place?” he asked as he circled slowly opposite her, forcing her to turn in order to keep him in view.

“My reasons for being here are my own,” Hannah replied.
“What gives you the right to ask such questions of me?”

She had no real cause to be rude, but she hoped it might just annoy the giant a bit, distracting him.

“Now, now,” he said, laughing as he replied in his deep rumbling voice. “Just because you are here to destroy me is no excuse to forget your good manners, Hannah Oliveiros.”
He would remain calm and composed no matter which way things went; she could sense that now.

No point in delaying the inevitable then.

Hannah spun quickly and unleashed her first strike, a queixada high kick towards the giant’s head.

With surprising speed for such a big man, he easily evaded the blow, moving to the side and countering with a rapid hand jab towards Hannah’s stomach, which she managed to block just in the nick of time.

The force of his counterstrike shook her to the core of her being, even though she had been able to deflect most of it.
If it had landed with its full strength, it probably would have sent her flying across the room.

‘Good Goddess, he is fast!’, she thought. ‘And powerful!’

She knew she was in trouble now.
She backed away quickly while still dancing her ginga, trying to put a bit of distance between her adversary and herself.

“This is a fight you cannot win, Hannah Oliveiros. Our speed is virtually equal, and I have the clear advantage in power.”
Lucifer smiled at her, his yellowed fangs exposed in his round black face.
“I offer you this one chance to withdraw with honour because of my respect for you, dear girl,” he said.
"I take no pleasure in preying on those weaker than myself.”

“Only by battling an equal, or even an adversary superior to oneself, is there challenge and honour in the fight,” Hannah said in reply.

“So be it,” the large man said softly.

Without warning, he suddenly closed the distance between them, looking to get his arms around her.

This was just what Hannah had hoped for, though; close up, he wouldn’t be able to use any long sweeping moves that would amplify the power of his strikes.

She let loose a series of short chain punches to his midsection, a flurry so rapid that there was no way for him to counter, and she heard him let out a grunt of pain as they landed in quick succession.

He was fast, yes, but she was faster, if only by a small margin, and that narrow margin was just enough to give her hope.

Now it was the large black man who backed away, shaking his head in surprise.

"You are even more skilled than I could have imagined, Hannah Oliveiros," Lucifer said.
"I have not met an opponent of such caliber for a very long time. I think I shall enjoy this very much."

'Enjoy this,' she thought.
‘Sweet Goddess, this is nothing but a game to him, a game he is barely invested in. The stakes are too high on my side for me to lose though; all of the pressure is on me.’

Hannah took a deep breath, calming and centering herself once more.
You had to fight the fight and not worry about the outcome before it was over.


----------------------------

Ch. 17 (cont'd.)


"Well then, although you choose not to give me your reasons, perhaps you may allow me to share mine with you," Lucifer said in his deep, resonant voice.
"There was a time when I actually feared for my soul. As a man, I was a simple goatherd, living a simple life with my family. A good Christian, I went to church every Sunday, prayed to God, and gave coins to the missionaries.
One night, a creature like us came to call at my home."

My wife offered hospitality; would the stranger like to come inside, would he like something to drink? Oh, he drank his fill all right, killing my wife and two children and leaving me for dead."

I myself was too strong to die so easily. Enough of his venom remained inside of me, and I survived long enough for it to change me into what he was. Now, as a vampire, I worried that I had been cursed, a soul fully damned by what I had now become through no choice of my own."

He continued circling as he spoke while Hannah kept dancing her ginga, each one of them looking for an opening, a chance to land a strike.

"While alive, the missionaries had told me to put my trust in Jesus, and that that would be my guarantee of salvation after I died. But now I was undead; a state seemingly not covered by any faith."

He laughed softly to himself as he said that before continuing.

"I went to visit the missionaries again, this time as an undead seeker of the truth. They rejected me, saying I had become a minion of the Devil."

Hannah found his story as intriguing as his voice was hypnotic.
They continued to circle each other warily, but neither could find an opening through which a fist or foot would fit.

"Was this the measure of their God's love? 'And what of my immortal soul ?' I asked. They had no answer for me."

He laughed yet again, more bitterly.

"And so I took communion for the last time, but instead of the blood of Christ, I drank the blood of the missionaries who had lied to me."


Unexpectedly, he lashed out with a vicious kick as he spoke those words.

As it landed on Hannah's left side, she could feel that arm breaking and her ribs cracking and she gasped with the pain.

Her left arm now dangling down uselessly, she turned that side away from Lucifer, keeping her guard up now with her right.

"When my rash anger had subsided, I felt guilty for what I had done. I wished to atone for my transgressions, and hoped that in doing so somehow I might still attain salvation."
"Rather than drink blood again, I fasted, denying the very nature of what I had become.

"As the years went by, I became weak from lack of sustenance, but still could not pass into whatever lay beyond this undead existence and so I roamed the world, starving, searching for the answer. During the course of my journey i met many vampires from many different clans but joined none; nowhere did I feel at home and at peace.”

He shook his head sadly as he said that before continuing with his story.

“At long last, I met your Council of Elders. When I finally came before them for an audience, they had no answers for me either but they did offer me a job which seemed to me might hold a chance to save my soul, finally."

Hannah was still moving, but she had only one good arm to defend herself with.
It was only a matter of time now, but Lucifer seemed in no hurry to finish her off.

He continued to tell his tale, and she listened raptly despite her certainty now that this first major battle would also be her last.

"You see, once I was just like you, and they asked me to become an enforcer.”

He reached out quickly as he said that; Hannah was so surprised by the absolute unmistakable truth of his revelation that she didn't even have a chance to try and block with her one good arm, and so he was able to grab her and hold her firmly in his crushing grip.

“They didn’t tell you that, did they? No, of course they didn’t.”
The bitterness in his deep voice was clear now.

“I was a good one too, obedient and efficient, and for many long years I did their bidding just as you are doing now but there was something about the job that they didn’t tell me, and I am almost certain that they probably failed to mention it to you as well," he continued on, holding her by the throat now with one enormous hand.

"The price for destroying another vampire is to assume some of their attributes. Some of each one you destroy lives on within you, tainting your essence, and so you change, almost imperceptibly at first, then more dramatically as time passes and your successes accumulate … until finally … you have become the very thing that you fought against all this long time.”

He sighed wearily, as if feeling the weight of all of those years, all of those battles pressing down upon his damned soul now.

“And then, they send someone new on a mission to destroy you,” he said softly.

Hannah could feel his pain almost as if it were her own, and in fact it would be eventually; Lucifer was merely giving her the truth of her own fate if she somehow managed to survive this encounter, she mused bleakly now.

Suddenly, he sank his sharp fangs deep into her neck, penetrating the jugular vein and drinking deeply until she passed out.

------------------------

Ch. 17 (cont'd.)

I was sitting in the living room area of the loft, feeling quite desperate as i waited obediently and patiently for Hannah to return home from that first mission.

I was playing some swing jazz and actually sounding pretty good for once after almost twenty-some-odd years of daily guitar practice when i suddenly felt this major sharp pain in my left side, the sensation so intense that it made me wince and double over, and i instantly knew what was happening.
Hannah had been badly injured in the fight.

This was the downside to our psychic link. We shared our pleasure, yes, but also our pain. It wasn't pleasant to experience this by any means, but I had to try to ignore it.

I picked up the guitar again but when I felt the sharp sting of fangs at my neck i knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that she had lost the fight, and my heart sank.
Now she would be destroyed by her opponent, and i would be left to face eternity alone with my grief.

Tears began to stream down my face as i felt the shadow being drained from her.

I put my guitar down and sobbed like a little girl, ”Hannah! Nooo …”

I felt weak, and then came an excruciating pain from each of my limbs in turn.

Her adversary had broken both of her arms and both of her legs now.
Why, I wondered?
Wasn't it enough that he had emptied her fully?

Oh, my heavenly Goddess ... he hadn’t!

I reached out to her through our psychic connection then.


-------------------------------------------------------



When Hannah regained consciousness, she felt the pain from her broken body, as well as her weakened state.
Her opponent had drained almost all of the shadow essence from her and had shattered her arms and legs, but he hadn’t finished her off.

Instead, he had carried her back up to the roof, and was laying her down almost tenderly.

"You are probably wondering why I haven't destroyed you, Hannah Oliveiros, and I do believe I owe you at least this one final answer: you are simply too good, too pure. "

The black giant turned his back on her and started walking away.

“It has cost me everything to become what I am now and I have no desire to start over or to be anything other than this. I do not wish to be tainted by your purity of soul, so i will let the rising sun finish what I have begun."

And with that, he faded into the night.

Weakened by the loss of her essence, her body broken, unable to stand or to even raise a fist, Hannah could do nothing except watch him disappear.
She didn’t even have the strength to be angry with herself for losing to her adversary in her first real battle.

“Letting go of this existence won’t be all that hard,” she thought. “Except for …”

As she was lying there preparing to leave this plane, suddenly she felt a familiar presence in her mind.

It was Erica, her sister, her daughter, her lover …

Erica’s voice was speaking to her by way of their shadow vampire psychic link.

“Don’t worry, sweetie. I’m coming for you,” was the reassuring thought.
"I'll be there before the sun rises, come hell or high water."


-----------------------------------------

TKoD Ch. 17 (cont'd.)


A few weeks after the fight, we returned to the mansion for another audience with Elders Philippa and Severin and once again i waited on the front porch, but this time it was by my own choosing.

I couldn't even think of facing them and trying to hide my resentment and anger at what they had forced Hannah to go through.

Yes, forced; i knew her far too well to ever believe that she had chosen to do this enforcer gig of her own free will despite what she pretended to be the case.

So once again, i smoked, i paced, and i was desperate; somehow, i had a bad feeling that this was going to become a regular routine of mine.


--------------------------------------------------------

“Hannah Oliveiros, welcome back. We are glad to see that you have almost fully recovered from your injuries,” Elder Severin said. “We were all quite worried for some time that you might not survive.”

“Thank you. I appreciate your concern,” Hannah said softly.
“I’m sorry to have failed you.”
She spoke more emphatically now.
“I wasn’t even good enough to win my first real battle. Please accept my resignation as enforcer.”

“You didn’t fail. You survived that encounter. No one else we sent to fight him has ever managed to do even that much,” Elder Severin replied.

“But I didn’t succeed in putting an end to him.” Hannah said, bitterly. “It was almost the other way around instead, actually.”

If it hadn’t been for Erica, she thought …
The memory of that crippling defeat on her very first mission as an enforcer was still fresh in her mind and agonizing pain still wracked her as her broken body slowly healed itself; this was not the best way to begin a new job, really.

“All the others were defeated, and did not return. You, at least, have survived,” he repeated.
“Only you have done that, and this alone is proof enough to us that we have chosen well.“

Hannah looked at him directly for the first time now as Elder Severin continued on, fixing her with a blood red stare.

”You will not question our decision any longer, for it is final.”
The words had been uttered as a command, and a command from an elder was ignored or disobeyed only at great peril to one’s entire clan.

“You are the very best we have, Hannah Oliveiros, the absolute best. There is no one better.”
He waved his hand at her in both dismissal and farewell as he turned away.

Elder Philippa finally spoke again, much more gently this time than the last.

“Take your little one home and rest now, Hannah. We will call when we have need of you again.”


< to be continued >

\/-----\/