by Lillian Sage
In the end, Natalia had kept everyone safe and that was all that mattered. But lately the others had grown discontent.
"Do what you want," answered Natalia "I'm going to hunt."
And with that she stalked out of the hall.
Of course Brenden and Markus were right. Something would have to be done eventually. Natalia had known that from the beginning when they had first settled in these sewers. But the longer she delayed, the longer they all stayed alive.
They might not thrive down here in the sewers, but they survived.
She pushed the thought aside and began to hunt.
CHAPTER FIVE
Alexander hunted.
In the days since the Council meeting Alexander had become obsessed. The scent haunted him relentlessly and he could focus on nothing else.
It should have bothered him. Never in his long life had he cared for anything but power and expanding his control of the Council and the world.
But now his days were spent in a sleepless anticipation and his nights were spent hunting. He had to find that scent, though he didn't understand why.
He knew only that he needed to find that scent, and destroy it. Or more importantly, destroy him. For truly that scent belonged to a powerful Vampire though Alexander didn't yet understand the nature of that power.
Gabriel was becoming more and more suspicious but had yet to openly confront Alexander since the night of the Council meeting. He covered for him in his absence but was not equipped to truly rule on his own.
Alexander had begun back at the warehouse where he first discovered the scent, and combed the entire city to no avail. Now he simply waited in the same spot.
Waiting came easy to many Vampires - likely because time meant very little to the long-lived; but waiting burned Alexander up inside. Patience was not a trait that the Lord Graves maintained or appreciated.
But still he waited.
The night had grown long and dawn would soon break. In less than an hour Alexander would need to admit failure once again. He impotently clenched his fist and focused on the warehouse.
Suddenly; a rustle of movement and a hint of the now familiar scent materialized and Alexander moved.
* * *
Natalia left the sewers to think. The night after the Council meeting she had caught a meek little human who had sustained her family's immediate hunger.
Then strangely the rats began to appear again, alleviating the food problem for the time being.
Still Markus and Brenden, as well as a few others, had begun to make preparations to depart on their journey to find the other Forsaken.
In the end Natalia had been unable to dissuade them and she needed to get some air.
From time to time she would roam free above ground without fear. She was confident in her ability to defend herself, and besides - lately there were less and less of the Kindred about.
Seems they'd rather spend their time in polished office buildings running global businesses instead of roaming for food amongst the docks and warehouses. Natalia didn't blame them.
Times were changing. Maybe they had changed enough.
As she often did when left to her own thoughts, Natalia's mind wandered back to the days with her father. She had learned so much from him, but now he was gone and his dreams were gone with him.
Someday she would have her vengeance. Someday she would see the Medai ground into dust. Maybe bringing the Forsaken together again was a good first step, even if it was madness.
As the night grew old Natalia began to wander towards the warehouse district.
Suddenly she caught a flash of movement from the corner of her eye and knew instantly that she was under attack.
She spun towards the danger and prepared to throw herself at her attacker with all her preternatural power.
The blur of the predator swept towards her and she leapt into the air but then faltered in confusion. She dropped her defenses and stood staring mutely.
Alexander had taken no chances. As soon as he had spotted his prey he flew to the attack. With inhuman power and speed he dove towards that scent ready to rip his foe's non-beating heart out with his bare hands.
Blinded by all else he rushed forward, his lust rising in a wash of what would have been adrenaline if he was still human.
But then he faltered...
CHAPTER SIX
Alexander and Natalia stood facing each other mere inches apart, their defenses down, confusion playing across each of their faces.
Wordlessly they stared into each others eyes, unable to move, unable to speak.
Time stood still as the world dropped away and still they remained; frozen like two ancient and regal statues.
In his mind, Alexander was transported back four hundred years to the day his father died. Suddenly he knew why the scent had called to him. It was the scent of the man who had killed his father.
But that man's family had been completely wiped out, including his heir. This could not be his scion...unless...
Though he should be enraged, Alexander could only stare mutely into Natalia's eyes, unable to understand what was happening to him...
Natalia was equally lost.
As she stared into the eyes of the creature before her; she knew.
Though she had never seen him, this could only be Alexander Graves. The power flowed from him in almost tangible wisps but she felt no fear.
Before her stood the son of the man who had destroyed her father; the man who himself had systematically hunted and wiped out her Forsaken brethren these last four hundred years.
Yet she could only stare into his eyes, her mind frozen stiff as her body raged with a heat she had not felt since she had been turned. A heat that was all but forgotten. A heat that should not have been possible.
Both were aware that the sun would soon be up, though neither cared. What did death matter now? But then the thought struck them both at the same time; to wait for the sun meant the death of the other.
Wordlessly they released each other with their eyes, turned and departed in different directions; Natalia to the warehouse and the safety of the sewers, Alexander to the side of the building where his limo would shortly arrive to whisk him away.
* * *
Back in the sewers, Tym shot upright and began to babble loudly in an incoherent language that no one understood.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The rest of Natalia's family had gathered in their main chamber when she returned.
Tym continued to babble incoherently in a strange sort of trance in front of everyone as if addressing an audience, but one far larger than the one gathered around him.
As soon as he saw Natalia though, he stopped speaking. With a slight smile and what might have been a sigh, he collapsed onto the floor of the sewer and passed out.
"What's going on here?" demanded Natalia.
"No one knows" replied Quinn, the vampire that many in the family thought of as a sort of mother figure or older aunt, "He just up and starts speaking that gibberish that you just heard. That mouth of his was going a mile a minute non-stop".
"How long has he been like this?" Natalia asked.
"Since sunup, about two hours I'd say" replied Quinn "No one knows what he was sayin' and he looked like he was completely out of his mind... not that Tym's ever really IN his mind if you catch my meaning."
"Does anyone else know anything?" asked Natalia one last time.
She was met with blank stares and a few muffled denials. Tym seemed to be ok now, although he looked exhausted.
"Bring him back to his room but keep an eye on him" instructed Natalia "Let me know when he wakes up again."
The entire way back through the sewers Natalia had been in a daze. She couldn't begin to sort out what had just happened, and she wasn't even sure that she wanted to.
She didn't know what was more startling, the fact that she had come face to face with the one person she hated most on this planet, the fact that she couldn't move to kill him, or t
he fact that a hint of the strange warmth still flowed through her body.
And she knew that he felt the same way about her...she wasn't sure how she knew or why, but she was absolutely certain.
But she wouldn't fall into the trap of trusting him, no matter how either of them felt.
* * *
Alexander entered his office to find Gabriel standing in his customary spot, waiting.
The entire way home had been a confused blur. What he felt simply couldn't be possible, both for what it meant to him personally, as well as what it might come to mean for the Medai.
...the heir had survived.
If news got out, his position would be severely weakened. With the income from the economy being down as it had been these last few years, and the Elders especially crafty as of late...
No, it wouldn't do.
Alexander resolved himself right then and there as to his only course of action. She must be destroyed...
...or at least ignored. Natalia had kept herself hidden for four hundred years. Maybe if left alone she would stay hidden for another four hundred...
As he settled into his office chair, Alexander knew both options were impossible; he couldn't ignore her and he couldn't destroy her. The thought and it's implications sent a shiver through his body.
"I'm glad you're back" said Gabriel hurriedly "We've got a bit of a problem. There's been some activity in the cage".
"The cage?" shot back Alexander, all his previous worries quickly forgotten "On seven?".
"Yes." answered Gabriel "It started a couple of hours ago, the sensors started going crazy. I went down to look into it personally. You're going to want to see it yourself I think".
"A couple of hours ago? Right before sunrise?" asked Alexander, lost in thought "...no, never mind. Let's go take a look".
He moved to a small unnoticeable alcove in the corner of the room, slid back a tiny panel and punched in a security key code. Silently the back of the alcove slid open revealing an elevator door.
He entered with Gabriel in tow, pushed the button for sub-level seven and settled in to wait as the elevator began to swiftly descend.
The sub-basements of the building held various special projects; most of them secret, all of them deadly. Seven was a special case.
The elevator doors opened into a cavernous vault of a room with nothing in it except what appeared to be a glass cubed box roughly thirty square feet, suspended in the air.
Inside the glass walled cage flowed a brilliant white light that seemed to pour fourth from what appeared to be a figure, roughly human in form though much larger...
The creature measured nearly eight feet tall and roughly three hundred and fifty pounds, but had no facial features. No eyes or nose, and no mouth - which made questioning it impossible.
The light danced and flickered madly, casting and then destroying shadows that seemed to jump about the room.
"Interesting" noted Alexander.
"For hundreds of years that creature has been emitting a dull sort of glow" explained Gabriel "and two hours ago it erupted into this light show".
Alexander tried not to flinch as the light cascaded and pulsed over his body. When they had first discovered this creature centuries ago, they had learned the hard way that the light it emitted burned vampires the same as sunlight did.
When it had first been discovered, Alexander had used human servants (many human servants; the creature was incredibly strong) to capture and place it into a deep cave.
Years later, technology had advanced far enough to create the specially treated glass cage that blocked the deadly sunlight UV rays; the same material that Alexander used to treat the windows in his high rise building which allowed vampires to walk freely throughout the halls during the day without fear of a fiery death by sunlight.
But still, old habits died hard and Alexander had to remind himself that the he was safe from the light. After all, weakness of any type could never be shown, even in front of Gabriel.
"Do the sensors detect anything else?" asked Alexander.
"No, not a thing. The cameras detected movement triggered by the light, but other than that, it's not emitting x-rays, gamma rays, radio waves, radiation of any kind." explained Gabriel "What do you want to do with it".
"Continue to monitor it, notify me the moment anything changes" commanded Alexander as he peered into the glass box, inches from it's flawless side.
Smack!
With superhuman speed Alexander slammed the flat of his clenched fist against the glass causing the entire structure to vibrate; yet still the figure inside remained unmoved, not even so much as flinching.
Gabriel chuckled lightly.
The creature had been a mystery from the day it was discovered hundreds of years ago and Alexander could wait a while longer to discover it's secrets.
Besides, he had other things on his mind.
With that he turned and strode towards the elevator and back to his office. There was no way he'd be able to sleep today, so he resolved to head back upstairs to get some work done.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The night was filthy and wet, and Natalia ran. For the first time in her life she knew true fear.
At any moment she expected to hear the noise that meant death or worse, but so far fate had been kind and she and her companion Matrin evaded detection.
She knew that Medai warriors were pouring into her family estates from all directions and that her father was very likely dead.
At that moment a dozen Medai burst forth from a copse of trees and wheeled on Natalia.
"Go!" shouted Matrin "I'll hold them off".
"No!" screamed Natalia "We fight them together!".
"I promised your father I'd get you out, ten of us have already fallen making your escape, you cannot stop now. Go!" commanded Matrin.
And so she ran.
Natalia slammed upright from her bed in the sewers, sweat streaming down her forehead. Her eyes unfocused and focused again before she knew where she was.
"So long ago" she mumbled to herself, "and now...?"
She got up and wandered into Tym's small room to check on him but he was still dead asleep, his face reposed with an almost beatific expression.
Something had changed in Tym but she had no idea what it was or what it meant. But it troubled her. Too many strange things were occurring as of late.
She had met Tym three hundred odd years ago hiding beneath a burnt out monastery in eastern Europe. No one knew much about him, but everyone suspected he was some sort of monk before he was turned.
Natalia had always suspected that there was more than met the eye with Tym but he seemed like a decent vampire and Natalia had grown to consider him a true friend.
Still, his madness had grown worse as of late. It began very subtly, and had increased almost imperceptively over the years. She didn't think Tym was a danger to anyone, except maybe himself.
Natalia began to wander the sewers. So much had changed recently. The very air itself seemed different. There was a hint of something...Hope, or despair; she couldn't tell which.
"I must be going crazy like Tym" she thought to herself "Nothing's changed, things are the same as they've always been..."
She turned a corner and nearly crashed into Markus who was busy preparing a traveling pack.
"So you're really going?" asked Natalia.
"Yes, Branden and I; a few of the others. We're each going to take a different direction and wander for a while. Hopefully we'll find more of the Forsaken" answered Markus.
"How long will you be gone?" asked Natalia.
"As long as it takes... years at least I would imagine." shrugged Markus "I know you don't approve but this is important, I wish you could understand".
"I know," responded Natalia "and I do think it's important. I wish you luck. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Just hold down the fort while we're gone" answered Markus "but you always do that, don't you?".
Natalia sm
iled and hugged Markus. "Take care of yourself out there. Keep in touch when you can."
"We will" grinned Markus.
Change.
Maybe they'd find a few Forsaken. Natalia held no illusions. She knew most had been killed during the culling. What few survived were likely hidden far underground.
Chances were that Markus and the others wouldn't find a single Forsaken, but Natalia couldn't bring herself to crush their hopes. And it was always possible that she was wrong.
More likely they'd get themselves killed or worse, captured. Natalia realized that if any of the party were taken, they could possibly lead the Medai back to the sewers.
Evacuation preparations would need to be put in place. Natalia refused to be caught unawares again. It was something to think about, and the sooner the better.
But it could wait a night; right now Natalia needed to think about other things. She returned to her own room, closed her eyes and began to think about a face...
CHAPTER NINE
Vostrof sat at the expansive marble office table, reading a report that flashed across the small flat panel screen to his right. One of his human blood farms in China was getting dangerously low on livestock and would need to be replenished soon.
He typed in some simple instructions authorizing a hunting party and pushed a button, sending the report off to his manager in Shenzhen. Human slaves were easy to round up, especially in rural China.
With a quick glance towards the world stock market index numbers streaming across the bottom of another screen, Vostrof turned toward the figure standing patiently in front of his desk.
"And you're sure of this?" prodded Vostrof.
"Yes sire, our sources say that Alexander has been personally hunting for several weeks. He's all but ignoring his other duties." purred the shadowy figure.
"Fine." clipped Vostrof, "Continue your surveillance. I want to know exactly what the Lord Graves is up to."
"Yes sire." intoned the figure as he spun on his heals and glided out of the room.
Once the vampire was gone Vostrof took a moment to consider the news he had just heard.
It wasn't like Alexander to neglect his duties, it must mean some major game was afoot. He would need to discover the implications for his Clan and determine if there was any way to turn this information to his advantage...