The Coven
Chapter One: In the Rain and Darkness
Plink!
Plink!
Plink!
The sound of rain reverberated off of the metal roof over the picnic tables. Four young women sat, almost statue-like, staring towards the still-swinging tire swing before them. A little girl's body lay crumpled underneath it.
"We're going to be blamed for this, you know," one of them finally spoke aloud, her violet eyes dull, but wide. Dark, nearly black curls framed her face, paling out her already milky complexion. The tallest of the four turned away from the graying child, to sigh sadly, her breath puffing in the chilled air.
"It's not the first time this has happened, Victoria. We'll manage as always," a slightly shorter and thicker girl sniffed towards the body. Her short, light brown hair spiked in a mini-Mohawk defining her from the rest. It shook slightly as she inhaled deeply, fangs sprouting from her canine teeth.
"What do you think you're doing?!" The tallest, who appeared to be the leader, with dark eyes that flashed a metallic golden color, snatched the daring vampire by the throat, forcing her to turn her eyes away from the little girl, and glare back at her with ferocious scarlet eyes.
"I wasn't going to do anything, Elizabeth! It's just the smell…," she trailed off, glancing hungrily back at the body, now turning the mud around her reddish.
"Drinking from the dead is suicide! If your bloodlust is so strong, then return to the manor! We'll clean it up without you!" Elizabeth hissed as she spoke, her shoulder-length blonde hair falling in front of one of her molten eyes.
"You'd send me back, to my room, like a child? I've yet to give in to the thirst in centuries! Why can't I help?" Her fangs receded, the crimson turning more hazel in her irises. The bloodlust apparently overcome just as quickly as it'd started.
Elizabeth gripped tighter for a second longer, then released the young vampire, letting her rub her neck although it hadn't hurt. She clenched her teeth, not blinking away from the seemingly humbled vampire.
"Your moods change like the temperature, Miranda. One moment, you're craving a dead little girl, the next, you whimper at Elizabeth's feet. How can we be sure you won't decide to drink from her after all?" the dark-haired Victoria spoke behind the chastised girl, leaning leisurely back on the old picnic table.
"Quiet. We don't want any stray humans waltzing in on us. We're sitting across from a freshly dead body, with odd colored eyes and pale skin," Elizabeth smoothly stepped into the rain, her hair matting down to her face, "and you, Miranda, may stay, but only if you keep watch."
The previously red-eyed girl sighed and backed into the dense foliage behind them that led all the way up the trails to the main road, doing as she had been ordered. There wasn't even a rustle as she moved like a ghost into it.
Victoria and the remaining girl, with longer deep brown hair than the rest, slowly followed their leader, who was now striding towards the stiffening body. The downpour instantly soaked them, but they didn't flinch or shiver.
They surrounded the little girl, her eyes still wide and her mouth open in terror. Two delicate puncture marks marred her smooth grey neck. Elizabeth frowned, then reached down to grasp the left wrist. As soon as her pale fingers touched the skin, she hissed and snatched her hand back.
"What is it?" Victoria caught the stench of burned, dead flesh coming from the cradled hand of her sister.
"…the little thing has a surprise trinket, ladies," the shortest of the group, with one eye of silver, the other of blue, knelt down and pulled the girl's collar down to reveal a cross haphazardly thrown around her neck. She smiled, pulling her black trench coat closer around her shoulders, murmuring, "…that fool thought this would scare us…"
"Wait, you knew someone left a cross on her and didn't tell us?! She could've been seriously hurt!" Victoria spun to yank slightly on the girl's hair.
"The future's never a sure thing! My visions aren't certain facts, they can change! How was I to have faith in such a small vision? It wasn't even a full act! Just a flashing picture!" The shortest vampire growled deep in her throat, defensive against Victoria. Suddenly she stood up and closed her blue eye, the silver one expanding until her entire eye was solid polished silver.
"Victoria, go warn Miranda. We have a serious threat around here," Elizabeth quickly wrapped her burned hand in a corner of her old-fashioned cloak, tearing it to make a quick bandage.
"What about the body? We can't just leave it here!" The curly-haired vampire hesitated as she glanced at the sickeningly grey little girl. The thought of leaving it to bloat and rot in the mud seemed almost crueler than the act of killing her in the first place.
"…the fool hastens with the help of your wound…its smell beckons like a fire in winter…," the short vampire reopened her eye, letting the silver one shrink to its normal look.
"Elaine's visions of the present are never wrong, as you know, Victoria, so we've not the time to be compassionate! Go!" Elizabeth's hand throbbed painfully under the wrapping, making her wince slightly. She turned to the girl still in front of her, "I need blood, Elaine, where's the closest suitable animal?"
"…not far, but it's in the wrong direction. The Reaper will catch you if you hunt that way," the vampire hissed slowly when she said the reaper's name. The tallest vampire shudder at his mention, and glanced longingly towards the direction of her healing.
"Then I must suffer and wait," Elizabeth pulled her soaking hood up on her head and ran inhumanely fast with Elaine on her heels, silent as the dead. Not so soon however, before Elizabeth imagined a pair of neon yellow eyes appearing out of the forest behind the tire swing. Panic made her run all the faster, Elaine straining to keep up.
BREAK
"We shouldn't have run like little rats from it! Four to one are more than enough!" Miranda vented as the four lounged in a large, comfortable sitting room. Elizabeth was staring out the window, scouring the grounds with her sharp eyes. Victoria was pouring over a large book, a growing stack of already read ones teetering beside her. Elaine sprawled over a chaise covered in thick furs, listening patiently, if inattentively, to Miranda's ramblings.
"We could've gone right to the source! Found out who it is that knows about us!" She ranted on for a while before she realized no one was really listening to her. Growling impatiently, she grumbled, "fine then, I'll just go beat the crap out of the punching bag now."
No one said anything as she left the room, Elaine having finally dozed off, her hair falling in front of her face. Elizabeth gave up trying to find the invisible intruder and swept out of the room, bowing slightly to Victoria, who nodded half-heartedly back. As the door clicked shut, she slammed her book closed, sighing exasperatedly. Elaine cracked her blue eye open and looked curiously at her.
"The knowledge of ages lies in books, but it avails to absolutely nothing when I really need it! Nowhere does it have any information on vampires who touch crosses! Or of having counterparts that can! It's like this killer's just shadows and dust! Constantly staying out of the light of discovery! Argh!" She violently kicked over the stack of books, sending some flying across the room at the seer.
"…maybe you didn't check them all, sister. Some books lay rotting in the dark, on the bottom of the mind…," she flicked away a head-bound book, infuriatingly calm as always.
"Are you suggesting I don't know every nook and cranny of my own library?! Coming from someone who doesn't know half of her mind's workings, that's a bit hypocritical, don't you think?" Victoria lashed out, the lack of finding what she was looking for a slap to her ego, the taunting of her youngest sister only angering her further.
"I know exactly what's in my mind, that's my problem. Everyone else just ignores the part I hear loudest…even immortals pretend it isn't there…," Elaine defended herself, knowing that Victoria was just sulking because her books hadn't had the answer this time.
"Exactly! You hear voices in your head, you have hallucinations, your visions pop in your mind out of nowhere, availing useless information or gives it too late! Sounds like something the humans have medications for! And shrinks!" with another vicious swing, Victoria flung the book she'd been reading at the huge bookshelf behind her. The shelf broke, sending various volumes tumbling in a heap on the floor.
"…I've no reason to explain the Gift to someone who can't understand, or to stand here to listen to the insults of a vampire throwing a temper-tantrum. Good evening, Victoria," and without another word, she strolled out of the room, chin high.
With a huff, the dark-haired vampire tipped the desk over, letting it spill its contents on the already littered floor. About a half-hour passed before she could calm herself enough to go find Elaine and apologize, such was her frustration. She headed for the gym that was built inside recently for Miranda, who had a nasty temper and loads of unspent energy. She and Elaine were particularly close, having shared similar past torments and challenges. Miranda was also the one who'd decided to give Elaine the bite of immortality 400 years ago. Only they knew the circumstances, being unwilling to share it with Elizabeth or Victoria.
"Have you seen Elaine?" Victoria hesitated at the doorway, knowing the intimacy of a vampire's own special space. She rarely even walked the same corridor of this giant room, retching when her sensitive nose caught the scent of sweat and dirt. She wrinkled her nose, and breathed shallowly.
"Shouldn't you have your nose in a book?" Miranda asked, laughing good naturedly, her previous impatience worked away. A thin sheen of sweat covered her body, soaking through her tank and sweats. Victoria had to take a breath before she could speak; the smell was too nauseating to her.
"…ugh… have you seen Elaine? I need to apologize," she managed to choke out. She quickly covered her mouth.
" No, not since my huffy moment," she stretched, knowing that it would intensify her scent, which was obviously disturbing her fellow coven-member. She took a moment to digest the last sentence, and then added, "What happened now?"
"I mocked her Sight, without cause, out of my own disappointment from the lack of information yielded by my books, if you must know," she admitted with a sigh.
"Hmph, that wasn't very nice. Unfortunately, I've no idea where she'd be after being accosted, but I'd be pleased to help. Just let me shower and we'll be off," she shook her now limp hair, salty droplets landing on Victoria, emphasizing her point.
"That's disgusting. Please do! I'd walk ten feet from you if you wandered around like that," she backed away quick, shaking her hands, which had caught most of the dirty misting. Laughing even more buoyantly, Miranda jogged off to the other side of the gym, stripping as she went along. Desperate to leave the foul place, Victoria rushed out, preferring to catch her breath a good twenty feet from the door she'd entered in.
After about fifteen minutes of waiting for her to emerge from the shower, Victoria heard humming coming from nowhere and everywhere. Confused, she looked around, and, seeing no one there, she stood straighter, feigning confidence.
"I know you're there, Miranda. You know I don't like creepy music when no one's around. Come out, or I'll have to fetch Elizabeth. She doesn't tolerate teasing, as you know!" she waited for a second, the humming stopped, then started again, only this time singing nonsense words:
…Far from thine eyes shall my notes sound like cries
But you'll hear and you'll listen to this lullaby
Into the ashes,
Away from the day
Blood will fail as the dawn winks and flashes
Drinkers of sin shall whisper and fade
Awake must you be, fortune holds the keys
Stay in your mind, for others are waiting
Into the ashes
Away from the day
Far from thine eyes shall my notes sound like cries
But you'll hear and you'll listen to this lullaby…
End Chapter