The Fifth Clan

by Ryan T. Nelson

"Not bad. Again."

  I picked up a small chunk of stone and tossed it lightly a Rachel. She held out one hand and before the stone reached her she grabbed it with her mind and redirected it to the side. That was incredible progress in the last hour and could be crucial to our escaping long enough to find Grim. We needed to get to them and get them on our side as quickly as possible.

  If we were even successful in getting out of our cell in the first place. At the moment we didn't have much of a plan in place. We were simply waiting until I had enough time to establish the feasibility of the wild half-baked idea that I had come up with.

  In the meantime I had Rachel practicing with her gifts. She did have the same Fifth Power as I, making our escape plan a good opportunity for her to practice. I held up one finger as she smiled at me after stopping the rock from hitting her and cocked my head to the side.

  The vampires on the other side of the wall were moving. The schedule was finally fixed in my mind. They kept a constantly shifting schedule, only stationary for five minutes at a time then the Vasith rotated ten feet around the square prison they had created.

  They spread their minds out creating the psychic barrier I had felt that prevented me from sending out any signals. They rotated five of their number out every half hour so that I wouldn't get too used to the minds around me. Given enough time I might have found a way to penetrate the shield but with the constant introduction of new minds it made the effort more than it would have been worth.

  On the other hand their physical location through the wall was far more interesting to me. I nodded once to Rachel and she ran around me, placing her hands on the wall behind where I stood. I waited a moment and then the signs of her power became evident. The stone rippled like waves on a pond and Ghost and I plunged our arms through the suddenly immaterial surface. On the other side I grabbed a Vasith around the neck and dragged him through the wall and into our cell. Before he had a chance to make any other sound I twisted hard and broke his neck while Ghost supported the suddenly slack body. Without removing his head there was a chance he might recover so we dropped his body and followed Rachel six feet to my left where she was already adjusting a new section of wall.

  We continued in this way for six of the Vasith, pleased with the success of our plan when Rachel finally messed up. I had almost been expecting it. Only hours old and extremely inexperienced with her powers I was certainly taxing her abilities with this plan. With the seventh of our guards her concentration slipped. Just for a moment. But in that instant the wall became solid, with the guard we were pulling only halfway through.

  The sudden stop of her lower body didn't register at first as I pulled and with my enhanced strength I tore the poor woman in half at the waist. As blood and entrails splattered across the ground and splashed across her, Rachel flinched back and outside our cell raised voices could be heard. The stench of blood filled the air and the three remaining guards burst through the door.

  "NOW!" I roared. Despite her panic Rachel still responded quickly and pushed at one of the guards. I pulled on the other two at the same time and their bodies collided in midair with the loud snapping of bones and they began to scream.

  I grabbed Rachel, slapped one hand against the wall and then plunged through it with her held in my arm and Ghost just head of me. Outside I set her down and took her face in my hands, concern welling inside me. "You ok?" I asked her.

  She looked more than a little green but she nodded and swallowed hard. "We need to move, right?"

  I smiled at her. Thrilled and impressed with her now that I knew that this was her first real exposure to this. Having Tatsuhito controlling her before certainly couldn't have been fun but she had been spared most of the bloodshed. "Let's go."

  The halls around us weren't marked in any way, and there was no real way to tell which way we were going at first. That's why we decided not to follow the halls.

  "It's times like this that I wish Grim was around," I muttered as I adjusted the wall directly opposite our cell and stepped through it.

  "Looking for someone stronger, huh?" Rachel didn't sound too upset by the thought she had just voiced, but she definitely wasn't thrilled. I had expected some disappointment or even depression as soon as the words left my mouth but instead she was pissed. And I think it was at me.

  "Not entirely. Grim could tell the wolves to back off and they have to obey. He's the Alpha." I didn't voice that we might need him against Tatsu. I had no idea how to fight a telepath with his level of power. I wasn't even sure it was possible. Unless I managed to overwhelm him somehow...

  I looked both ways as we stepped through the wall into the next hall way and stared sprinting to my left as soon as we were through.

  Grim, get your ass to the Hall as quickly as possible, I sent out as loudly as I could. I had no idea if it would reach him but I knew it would reach a lot of other wolves and vampires between there and us.

  I'd been accused of not having a plan a few too many times in the last month. And this time I did. I just hoped it would work without Tatsu interfering.

  "Gabe, I really hope you've got some idea what you're doing," Ghost growled as he and Rachel pounded along beside me down the hall. We weren't being subtle and that was part of the plan that I wasn't thinking about.

  Not thinking about something was a skill. One I had perfected early on due to my unusual nature. With multiple vampiric gifts floating around in my genetic makeup I had had to learn to compartmentalize my thinking. I used a different head space, as I called it, depending on which gift I was using and using multiple gifts at once required more focus. I tended to stick to one power at a time but I had kept the fifth power strictly controlled, hidden behind a mental wall.

  It sounded all very technical when I put it that way but basically it amounted to I simply didn't think about it and if I wasn't actively thinking about it a Vasith couldn't pull it out of my head.

  Sounds simple but try it. Don't think about a pink elephant right now. The majority of you reading these words just thought about a pink elephant. I however am not thinking about it even as I write it.

  See how that works?

  Moving on.

  "I do, and I don't, Ghost. There is a method to my madness."

  Rachel cried out, drawing my attention away from Ghost beside me and I saw her struggling against a hulking beast of a wolf. This one dwarfed Ghost's eight foot height by nearly a foot and even in the high ceilinged hallways he had to hunch slightly to avoid scraping his head on the stones above us. I pushed myself harder to reach her when she cried out again and the air around her distorted as a wave of telekinetic energy burst out of her.

  Much as happened in the smoke shop in Oregon the wolf was caught in the blast and sent flying headlong down the hallway. He howled in outrage, which turned quickly to pain as he collided with three vampires as they rounded a corner. The four of them went down in a heap and I scooped Rachel into my arms as I ran past her, Ghost and I leaping over the tangled pile.

  "Strike!" Ghost yelled.

  "Good job," I told her and she smiled weakly at me. She was getting weaker by the minute. Still stronger than she had ever been but the boost she had received from my blood in the process of making her was officially worn off. She needed to rest and she needed to feed.

  "We're almost there." I glanced up again, stone walls whizzing by me to find a huge set of double doors waiting at the end of the hall with twelve vampires and six wolves waiting for us.

  We needed to get through those doors and taking my cue from Rachel I tapped into my Vasith head space and sent a wave of power ahead of us. Physical momentum, of which we had built up plenty, coupled with my own innate power meant the force that struck the creatures was incredible.

  Bones splintered. Wood and stone shattered as the eighteen of them struck the massive doors and punched through into the chamber beyond.

  I came to a stop, set Rachel down, and the three of us stepped into the Hall to face the council and Tatsuhito.
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  28

  March ????, 2005: Scotland

  When eighteen bodies come flying through a door and three others, accused of treason walk calmly through into a room with the leaders of a nation in attendance one expects a certain degree chaos and mayhem to ensue.

  When you're dealing with creatures that measure their ages in centuries however there's a certain amount of latitude involved. Many of the still assembled wolves and vampires in in their balcony seats leaped to their feet but the expected general outcry didn't come.

  Now that I knew what to look for however I could see the evidence of Tatsuhitos' influence. Their bodies practically vibrated with the desire to move, to attack, to do something, anything almost. An outside force however was holding them still Tatsu was affecting the minds of everyone in the room save for myself, Rachel, and Ghost.

  Behind Threntüs' chair I caught a brief glimmer of an image, a flickering shadow of a figure standing just to the side of the chair. Tatsuhito was present. Good. That would play an important role in what came next.

  I strode calmly forward into the room and once again took a spot on the Seal of the Brotherhood. Kargon, healed from his attack, Keilyn, Shad, and Grim all stared down at us. Kargon appeared far less curious than he had before, not that I could blame him. Grim arched one bushy red brow at me and a small smirk twisted his lips. His eyes flickered briefly to his right, an indication to me that he knew Tatsuhito was standing there by the Old Windbags chair.

  I filed the information away and refused to think about it. A wolf of Grims' age would be very difficult for even a powerful Vasith to penetrate. He had luckily retained some measure of his own will despite the machinations of an enraged boy.

  "Lucy," Ghost called out as he stepped up beside me. "You got some 'splainin, to do."

  I sighed but successfully hid the grin that threatened to bloom across my lips. I would not do to show the Council that I took them lightly. Smiling would imply that I was a little too at ease, given the circumstances. Rachel let out a nervous titter but quickly silenced herself. Based on the sound of flesh on flesh I can only imagine that she slapped her hands over her own mouth to silence the involuntary response.

  "I came here. For no purpose other than to seek inclusion in the Brotherhood, as the father of a Fifth Vampire Clan," I called out. "Keilyn, you asked to what purpose here would be a conspiracy against me. I say now that there was no conspiracy. There was a single person, manipulating the lives of many in an effort to exact a personal degree of revenge against me."

  "How can you be sure of this?" Kargon asked.

  "Because he came to my cell, disguised as my old mentor, Grim." I indicated Grim in his seat with the wave of one hand and Kargon frowned. He growled and his frown deepened as he glared down at me. "Disguised, you say. You would accuse one of my Clan of perpetrating this event? You say you wish to be included yet already you bring accusations against us."

  "I bring no such thing," I cut in before he could get up any steam. "The person to which I spoke was no member of the Kargoni Clan. He disguised himself, yes. But not through the manipulation of his own features. He did so, through the manipulation of our minds."

  Keilyn bristled like a cat. If she'd had any fur it would have been standing on end in anger. "And now you accuse my clan."

  "Not yours either, my Lady," I corrected her.

  The four heads looked very confused now. "Lady Keilyn. Do you remember, some two centuries past, donating your blood, along with all the members of your clan to Threntü? I would imagine he did so under the guise of an experiment? Perhaps seeking to understand why it was that certain clans held specific powers?"

  Her silence spoke volumes and the shadowy image I could see of Tatsuhito became slightly more pronounced. He was getting angry. Poor Tatsu had spent too long in the shadows, hidden away from everyone. The threat of exposure made him mad, and when he was mad his focus would slip.

  "Threntü did not use that blood for the purpose he claimed. He used it to create a single vampire, a Vasith endowed with incalculable amounts of power. This vampire has been hiding in the background for quite some time. He has been manipulating you and your Children to his own end. He drew me into this event, orchestrated revealing my power only to hurt me. He is a coward and he's about to lose his temper."

  Tatsuhito suddenly screamed in rage, long and loud, and he threw himself forward from the dais. Shad swore as he knocked into the Shadow Vampires chair on his way by, nearly unseating him in his rush to reach me.

  Keep him angry. Keep him off balance and he won't be able to focus enough to use his gifts. So far it was working.

  I barely dodged his attempt to take my head off with his left foot, executing a perfect back spin kick that I wouldn't have expected from him considering the typical Vasith propensity to ignore their physical skills in favor of the mental. Ghost growled and leaped toward him but he was thrown back with barely a glance by a wave of power.

  Ok so he was still focused enough to use some of his abilities. Telekinesis required a lot less attention though so perhaps his telepathic hold on the others was still weakening.

  The breath exploded from my lungs as Tatsu buried his fist into my stomach so hard I was forced double. Before he could react I forced myself to straighten up as fast as I could and the crown of my skull caught him under the chin. Teeth broke as his jaws snapped together and he staggered back, blood dripping down his chin.

  "You're not going to be able to beat me Tatsu," I mocked him. He still held the Wakazashi in his right hand but had yet to draw it. "I have quite a bit more experience than you do and I'm just stronger."

  "And I can read your mind." His voice was confident but the expression on his face told a different story. He could read my mind. But for some reason he couldn't find anything about my plans on how to fight him.

  I grinned at him. "When you don't want a Vasith to know what you're going to do, don't think about it." I leaped forward and drove my elbow into his chest, knocking him back a dozen steps as he struggled to keep his balance. I let him recover, not pressing my advantage.

  Stay calm. Don't let your emotions get out of control, I thought. You can't afford to let anything slip.

  "I don't want to kill you, Tatsuhito. Not again."

  He hissed at me and threw a punch at my face. I tried to dodge but he corrected his swing in mid throw and his knuckles dug into my cheek, sending me spinning to the floor from the force of the blow. Sparks of light danced in front of my eyes for a moment but I shook them away and climbed to my feet.

  Rachel cried out, her hands held out toward him and Tatsus clothes fluttered as if in a stiff breeze as she attempted to blast him away with her telekinetic abilities. Against someone of his power however she was less than effectual.

  "You can't kill me," he roared. "I can predict your every move. I would kill you like I did Threntü but I'd much rather do it with my bare hands you fucking coward!" He waved one hand toward Rachel without even looking at her and she was suddenly thrown into the air to come down on the stone floor with a resounding crash.

  "Not your smartest move, Tatsu," I said through a bloody grin. "You just attacked my Child. If I wasn't ready to kill you before, I am now. And you just admitted to a room full of vampires and wolves that you killed a member of the council."

  Checkmate.

  Get him distracted enough he'll admit to his crimes. Once he realized there were witnesses he'd attempt to erase their memory. As soon as he does he'll be distracted and...

  His eyes went out of focus for a moment, panic written across his face as he reached out, trying to wipe too many minds at once. I held out my hand and pulled on the hilt of the sword he was still clutching. It slid free of its scabbard and flew toward me, Tatsu right behind it as he made a wild leap in a futile attempt to catch it.

  The hilt slapped into my hand and I spun. My arm lashed out as we moved past each other across the stone floor. The blade in my hand met with no resistance as it sliced. Behind me I h
eard a clattering thump and then a heavy thud.

  When I reluctantly turned a few moments later all I could do was stare at Tatsuhitos' body on the ground, his head resting nearby and the pool of blood that was slowly spreading across the Seal of the Brotherhood as the chaos I had been expecting earlier erupted around me as his psychic hold on the room fell away.

  29

  March 10, 2005: Scotland.

  Madness and chaos had reigned supreme for a brief time after the short fight between Tatsuhito and myself. Keilyn was able to quickly ascertain exactly how much damage Tatsu had done to the rest of them. He had apparently been twisting all of their minds for over a century. Pushing them in subtle ways over time. All the while leading them to a greater degree of paranoia against me and the idea of a Fifth Clan.

  Rachel, Ghost, and I were incarcerated again, this time without getting knocked out and treated with draconian manners. They took two days, where we were treated with a modicum of respect and fed regularly, while they conducted an investigation and then we were released.

  "Think they'll give you the key to the city?" Ghost asked. The three of us were making our way to the Council chamber again, this time because we had been summoned to appear.

  "This isn't a city."

  "They could still give you the key."

  "Why would I want it? This place is old, drafty, cold, and it doesn't include the luxuries I have in my apartment."

  "Luxuries like a bed?" He asked with a smug grin as he looked back and forth between Rachel and I.

  "Exactly," she cut in with a grin of her own. It took the whole two days that we were sitting in our cell, communicating with our Vasith abilities, but eventually she started to come to grips with everything that had happened to her. There was going to be a lot more to discuss but we were well on our way.

  One thing I had learned from the entire ordeal was that I had obviously spent entirely too much time alone. It would do me good to work on my Clan for a time, and to work on a possible relationship with Rachel.