“I don't know, baby. Maybe that is going to be your extra gift.”
“Extra gift?” he questions.
“Yeah, each of us has a special added talent in addition to all the regular White Wolf abilities. Your father could move really fast, like the wind itself. So maybe yours is being able to see things the way that they had happened, or something. It's too soon to be able to tell.”
Back in Katrina’s bedroom, the small creature leaps from the dresser and onto the doorknob and turns it, opening the door slightly. He slowly creeps through the crack of the door, slides along the wall, and hides beneath the table in the hallway. It tiptoes to the corner, peers around it, and starts heading for a nearby closet until it hears Katrina say the name “Gilles.” The name brings back horrible memories of werewolves hunting down its entire family and Gilles devouring them for their magic power. As far as the creature knows, it is the last one in existence.
“Sorry to interrupt, but what ever happened to Gilles?”
Katrina sighs, and the creature rushes underneath the couch, eager to find out what happened to the monster responsible for so much of its misery.
“Not long after he killed Lance he started eating Gremlins to collect magic from their life force. He used that magic to make the Shadow Cats. Once they were all created, they turned on Gilles and destroyed him.”
“Wait, how could they have killed him, wasn’t he immortal?” Namon asks befuddled.
“An immortal can only be killed by their own creations, or a more powerful being, like a demon, or its’ creations,” she replies as if this is common knowledge.
The creature tears up from the news. Its' attention still on Katrina, it gets comfortable as she continues talking.
“The poor Gremlins were hunted to extinction. They weren't evil beings, either; maybe a little mischievous, but not evil.”
The little Gremlin's thoughts go to the vacuum cleaner, and it grins.
“Were all the Shadow Cats panthers?” he asks.
“No they were different variations. A tiger, panther, cheetah, lioness, a lynx. They also had different forms like the White Wolves as well. Some shifted into a bipedal warrior form and some shifted into a four-legged animal form.”
“Okay now, no more interruptions,” she scolds, “On to Lance meeting Alexandria, and their battle with Galamythe.”
In Atlanta, one of Cyrus's vampires is getting restless. Night after night, she is trapped in the mansion, and under constant surveillance. She stares at herself in the mirror, and fixes her hair even though no one ever gets to see it other than the vampires around the mansion. There are several myths about vampires that are not true, and vampires’ not being able to cast a reflection is one of them. Her hair is slightly below her shoulders in length, and jet black with red highlights throughout. She is five feet seven inches tall with brown eyes, and a very beautiful tan complexion. She’s wearing a classy, but sexy low cut dress with spaghetti straps, showing a little bit of cleavage from her average-sized breasts. She is a very beautiful treasure indeed, but her memory of her life before becoming a vampire, is gone. She doesn't even know her name, so she accepts being called Aluana since that is what Cyrus had everyone call her. The name sort of stuck, and seems to fit her. There is a gentle knock on her bedroom door, and she gives a lighthearted response.
Tiffany enters the room shutting the door behind her. She is a beautiful short-haired blonde vampire, and has one of those personalities that it’s unclear most the time if she is bitchy or not. Sweet to your face and stab you in the back are her best and worst qualities.
“Hey, are you busy?” Tiffany asks.
“Am I ever busy? Stuck in this hellhole day in and day out? All I do is walk around this museum and write my music. Which, by the way, no one is ever going to hear because I never get to see outside of these walls other than when Cyrus wants to parade around to these special events where he wants some eye candy,” Aluana spat, frustrated at the situation and even more annoyed that Tiffany was there making it worse with her very presence.
“Okay, well I was wondering, how would you like to get out tonight? There’s a songwriter's showcase in Buckhead tonight at one of the nightclubs, and I can help you sneak out.”
Aluana mulls over the proposition for a few moments, but doesn't trust Tiffany. Tiffany has always made it very clear that she is jealous of Cyrus's affection, and protective nature towards her. She can have him, she thinks to herself. The idea of getting out and seeing something besides the same walls is very intriguing to her, though.
“What's in it for you?” she asks suspiciously.
She knows good and well that Tiffany wants to be in Cyrus's good graces. She would do anything for it. She is power hungry, and Aluana could do without power. She craves freedom and independence.
“Oh nothing, just consider it a favor among friends,” she says with a wink and a half grin that shows off one of her canines.
Yeah, like I'm really going to believe that, but what the hell?
“Okay, when and where?”
“Tonight around nine thirty, meet me at the south gate. This will be a night you won't ever forget, I promise.”
Namon is getting ready for bed and his head is swimming with information that he learned today. The Gremlin sets up a bed underneath Namon's from a shoebox and missing socks. He also uses a few large marshmallows for pillows. It feels like this is where it belongs. It feels at home.
Katrina enters the room and kisses Namon's forehead, and she reaches for the light beside his bed to turn it off, but he stops her.
“I want to stay up just a little bit later and read out of Mom's diary.”
She smiles and nods.
“Just try not to stay up too late, okay? I love you.”
“I love you too,” he says with a smile.
She leaves the room and closes the door behind her. He then pulls his mom's diary out from under his mattress and turns to the day after her first Shadow Cat encounter.
Today was quite interesting, to say the least. I am really going to need therapy after everything that has been happening the last few days. First the talking panther, and then today I see a fight between a huge werewolf and a giant tiger on two legs. Chase kept me safe, though, and made sure I got away in one piece. I'm not sure how much more excitement I can take, so I am hoping tomorrow will be dull, boring, and uneventful.
Namon's eyes begin to get really heavy, so he places a bookmark in the diary. Then he turns off the light and covers up. Within a few moments, both he and the Gremlin are fast asleep.
Aluana is getting ready to go out and puts on one of her favorite short dresses. It has a wild design with gold and black animal stripes, and she has matching fingernail polish on and high heels. She is very excited and almost glowing, ready for a night out. She meets with Tiffany at the south gate of the mansion just as she was instructed to, and just as promised, she has a way to leave. No guard is in sight, and Tiffany is waiting for her with a cab right by the gate. Aluana smiles, and from all the excitement, she hugs Tiffany before walking over to the cab. She gets in alone and the driver drives off toward Buckhead.
Tiffany smiles and then looks over to her left where the guard is tied up. Slowly she approaches the guard, and once the gate is closed, she bites into his neck and starts feeding on him. When done with her meal, she wipes her lips, pulls out her phone, and dials a number.
“Yes, Cyrus, I just found the guard dead at the south entrance and someone fed off of him. Another thing, I can't find Aluana anywhere.”
She hangs up the phone and smiles.
The cab pulls up in front of the club, and Aluana gets out wearing the biggest smile that she can remember ever having. Good thing Tiffany already paid the driver, though, because she forgot her money.
“I'll worry about how I am going to get back later. I am going to enjoy myself while I can,” she says with a big grin.
She walks in with her sheet music in hand and signs up for her turn at son
gwriter’s night. The man at the table gives her a number, and voucher for a free drink at the bar. She walks over to the bar and sits, nervous as can be, and the bartender comes her way to get her order. She orders a cosmopolitan, then hands him the free voucher. All the people stand around, or dance rhythmically to the music, and she sits there swaying to the music, enjoying every minute of it. Several men approach her to ask her to dance, but she turns them all down because none of them gives her a feeling of excitement comparable to the excitement of finally getting to sing one of her songs.
An hour and a half passes by, and her number is finally called. She walks up on stage and passes out sheet music to the house band. She pops her neck and cracks her knuckles as she approaches the microphone. The guitar and drums beat and play at a fast pace as she sways her head back and forth, and her hair waves with each motion. She starts to sing with an aggressive voice:
As I sit here thinking tonight.
I look into my past I realize
The difference in truth and lies.
You feed me false promises and broken dreams.
I'd give anything to know the past memories
I'll give anything you want for the answers that I seek.
Just a glimpse at who I was and who I'm meant to be.
I'll give you anything your dark heart desires.
So I sit here and plead.
Tonight, what do you want from me?
Happiness and love are things that I crave.
To have them I must find myself and I must be brave.
I must prepare for the bad things that I must see.
I'm so tired of not knowing the true me.
So once again, I am on my knees.
I'll give anything you want for the answers that I seek.
Just a glimpse at who I was and who I'm meant to be.
I'll give you anything your dark heart desires.
So I sit here begging and pleading, can't you see.
I'll do anything you want me to, so please,
Just tell me what do you want from me?
Tell me, what do you want from me?
She put all of her emotion into it and put on one hell of a show, dancing all around the stage to the beat of rock music. Once the music dies down, the crowd goes wild, cheering. Encore, encore! Over and over that is all they say. She smiles and is happier than she has ever been; knowing that the crowd loves her and want more. Then she looks over to the front of the crowd, and her heart sinks as she sees Cyrus standing right there, glaring at her with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.
“Well so much for my night out,” she thinks to herself.
“I am sorry, but I need to go.”
The crowd vocalizes its disappointment with a chorus of “awe” as she exits the stage. She creeps slowly to the exit like a teenage child would when called by an angry parent. Cyrus waits for her inside a limo just outside. She opens the door and gets inside, and Cyrus still has the same scowl on his face.
“Do you know how difficult it is to find good help? I know this is the first time that you have done this, but you cannot just kill the guards whenever you want to just go out and sing. You are too damn important!”
“What are you talking about?” she asks in confusion.
“Don't play dumb with me! Tiffany called when she found the guard’s body by the south gate. She said you weren't anywhere to be found and that all you could talk about earlier was about how much you wish you could go to this club to sing. I hope you enjoyed it because it will not happen again, I promise you that much.”
Oh, so this was her plan.
Not another word was uttered the whole ride back to the mansion, and when they pull into the driveway, Tiffany stands waiting with a smart ass smirk on her face.
“One of these days she's going to get it,” Aluana says under her breath.
In Macon, Katrina leaves the apartment, and returns to the park to investigate the changes. Not much remains of the once beautiful Central City Park after the bulldozers have done their efficient work. She looks around to make sure no one is around to see her, and then she phases and starts sniffing around to see if she can find any clues as to why Cyrus wanted so much to buy the park. She doesn't find anything but rubble, and the slight hint of brimstone from the previous battle she had there. Then she notices a crack in the ground about four feet long but not even wide enough for a squirrel to fit into. She sniffs the crack, but cannot really smell anything. It's like the scents are blocked by something. Smoke starts to come out of the crack, and the smoke materializes in a strange form that is unfamiliar to her. Then it attacks her.
Chapter Five
The following morning, Namon sits at the dining room table eating his morning cereal like he does every day. Katrina isn't there, so he assumes she had to be at work early for a meeting at the church since she is the book keeper there, or something for the next book that she is writing. Then she walks through the door covered in blood. He gets up, and rushes over to her to catch her as she falls.
“Oh God, are you all right?”
He thinks for a moment, and realizes how dumb of a question that sounds, seeing her like this. Then he realizes that the blood isn't even hers, so taking her to the hospital is not a good idea—at least until she is cleaned up. She’s barely conscious, so he helps her into her bathroom, and starts the shower, making sure that the water is not too hot or too cold. Then he removes all of her clothes, and manages to get her into the shower.
“I swear I am going to need therapy after this,” Namon jokes weakly, desperately hoping to provoke a response or some sign of life from Katrina. She doesn’t even seem to know he’s there, much less that he spoke to her.
She fully passes out now as he cleans her off, rubbing a soapy cloth over her body to make sure she is clean, and is careful to remove all traces of blood from her. He takes the shower nozzle down, and rinses her off to make sure all the soap is off as well. After turning the water off, he carefully dries her off, lifts her out of the shower, and carries her, dragging her feet slightly, into her bedroom where he dresses her. He fumbles with the phone as he calls 911.
“Yes, my mother came home, and she passed out as soon as she got here, and she won’t wake up. Please send help!”
The operator asks for the address, and she dispatches someone. When he hangs the phone up his mind races with panic, not sure what is going on. Then he picks her up, takes her into the living room, and carefully lays her down on the floor since he told them she passed out soon as she came in the door. Then he returns to the bathroom, gets the bloody clothes all up, and puts them in the washing machine. He pours Clorox in the water so that the blood will be taken out. All the rest of the color will come out of the clothes too, which she may be mad at him about later, , but he is sure that would be easier to explain to her than explaining the bloody clothes to someone else. The police might be involved if that were to happen.
The paramedics knock on the door, and he lets them in. They bring in the stretcher to carry Katrina out. They check her vitals, everything seems normal, and she is breathing normally as well. The paramedics analyze every element of the situation—almost every element. What they don't notice is the Gremlin peering around the corner, watching in concern. Even though no one knows he is there or even that he exists, he feels part of this family. As the paramedics lift Katrina onto the stretcher, and roll her out through the doorway, he rushes over, and jumps on one of the legs to hitch a ride. Once the stretcher is loaded into the ambulance, Namon follows, climbing in, and holding Katrina’s hand as they leave.
Meanwhile at City Hall the mayor, Cyrus, and the city council members stride purposefully through the entrance, headed to one of the many conference rooms to have their meeting. The bright sunlight of the day doesn’t bother them. It only makes them marginally weaker then at night. They also look very pale. Another myth about vampires is the fact they cannot go out into sunlight. They can go out any time of the day that they wish; they are ju
st stronger at nighttime. They also look very pale in the sunlight, since their skin doesn't have the reflex action of tanning to protect itself from the sun’s harmful rays. The less time they spend in the sun, the less likely someone will notice.
Everyone has a seat, and Cyrus passes around pictures of an amulet that looks like a dragon’s face with hollow eye sockets. It looks as if the amulet is missing something where the eyes should be.
“This is what I am looking for. I want copies of this picture posted everywhere so that anyone can see it, and make sure it says there is a reward for any information leading to the retrieval of this amulet. I want every police officer to have this picture in their database, and I want daily broadcasts on the news,” Cyrus says.
“How do you know that it is in Macon?” one of the council members asks.
“Let’s just say that I know someone that had it was here when they died,” he responds before his thoughts wander to memories of the last time he had seen the amulet.
“So it is a deal then, Gilles? You give me the amulet if I have my sorcerer create creatures able to combat the White Wolves?”
“Yes, I have no use for the amulet anymore. The dragon has failed me before, so good luck to you in your venture. I want the White Wolves erased. It’s because of Lance Averett that I lost the love of my life. I will keep my vow that every last memory of his bloodline shall be eradicated. The amulet will be yours the moment that the creatures are created.”
Cyrus had his sorcerer Drake follow, and stalk each of the White Wolves, cursing them by transforming the person each of them loved the most into Shadow Cats, shape-shifting felines with very dark and evil powers. Once they were all created, they were presented to Gilles for his approval. Each of them fought each of their White Wolf counterparts to a standstill. Cyrus planned to meet with Gilles to receive the amulet, but his Shadow Cats showed up instead.
“Our team has not been completed. Cyrus, you failed to have a Shadow Cat for each White Wolf,” Liana said.
Blood Stained Lives (The Blood Stained Saga Book 1) Page 5