Notes: Ooh boy.
I know I said that chapter 12 would basically be the last chapter with an epilogue to follow, but as I was writing this chapter I realized that in the end it's better to just tack on one more rather than bog everything down. So, yep, expect one last official chapter before the epilogue and enjoy this one.
The long walk up the stairs to Markov Manor is spent in relative silence as they both spend time in their heads, thinking about what they may or may not be walking into. It's occurred to Valeria that they are heading into the werewolf's den more than once on this trip. The stake made of freshly cut Hawthorne provides some comfort to her nerves. It won't protect her from all vampires, but it's good for a precaution. It's better to be safe than sorry, and Valeria has had to deal with too many bloodthirsty vampires in the last few weeks to not at least attempt to safeguard herself.
It's when they reach the gates that Valeria realizes how correct she is.
Elizabeth with a small group of guards meet them there, complete with weapons. The woman smiles wanly when her eyes go to Sorin and Valeria feels a quick jab of vicious protectiveness, which is of course silly given that Sorin is more than capable of protecting himself in this instance than she is. Nonetheless she feels it and her fingers itch to go for her weapon. Sorin, meanwhile, places a firm hand upon her shoulder to keep her from doing it.
"Elizabeth. I should have known you'd be here."
"And yet you still come. You're either exceedingly brave of foolish to try and kill Edgar. Again. After it worked out so well for you the first time. Come with us without a fuss."
Sorin's jaw shifts and he nods stiffly. When Valeria raises her eyebrows at him, he tightens his hold on her shoulder and she gets the hint. This is what he wants. Reluctantly, she relaxes. She follows him and their captors without a word into the manor and down a flight of stairs to where the dungeon is located. They're quickly dispatched into a cell together and the door slammed and locked.
"You two behave until I return," Elizabeth says, turning on her boot heel and leaving there.
Sorin and Valeria settle down on the floor, equally discontent. Somewhere in the distance, she can hear the sounds of water dripping and rats scurrying. Next to her, Sorin shifts and his arm pulls her closer when he must realize that she's shivering.
"Why did you not just fight them?' she asks, huddling against his side for the scant warmth he can give, which is not much at all.
"Because this will be the easiest way to get close to Edgar. He'll come seek us out eventually. In the mean time it's best to just do as they please." He's not happy about it, obviously, but his words make sense.
"What if one of us dies?"
"Then the other will carry on as needed."
That sounds rather depressing, Valeria thinks, falling silent.
They sit for who knows how long. It could be hours or it could have been only minutes until she gets an idea in her head that she hopes that she won't regret. Hesitantly, Valera pulls away from Sorin's side and shifts until she's sitting in front of him. He's watching her with curiosity as she does and then goes still when she leans forward on her knees to press her lips to his.
Valeria expects that he'll push her away and lecture her about how dimwitted it is for her to be attracted to him again, something she hasn't heard in a while. It's understandable then that she's surprised when he instead returns the kiss with much more fervor than her awkwardly chaste attempt. She makes a sound and tries to match him with considerably less finesse. She hasn't had much experience with the art of kissing and suspects that she's not being the most graceful with her first real attempt at it.
Valeria wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him closer, and buries her hands in his hair -which is surprisingly soft to the touch. Sorin's large, calloused hands gently cradle the sides of her face as he lightens his kiss into something that Valeria can keep up with.
When one of his fangs accidentally cuts her lip, she gasps, and the moment comes to an abrupt screeching halt.
Sorin immediately goes still for a millisecond and pulls away like she's stabbed him with one of her sewing needles. He doesn't go far, however, and when Valeria opens her eyes she finds him staring at her as he always does, like she's mystery he cannot seem to solve; she's become quite used to it. This close to his face she can see all the various shades of gold that make up his curious irises. In the gloom of the space of Edgar's cellar they practically glow, glinting like a cat's. They're hypnotic, pulling her in like a current in the sea.
Valeria licks her swollen lips and watches his eyes dart down to them briefly before they return to meet hers
She doesn't know what to do. Should she try and continue what she's started? It's not exactly an ideal space for anything, let alone kisses, and he's the one that stopped.
"Sorin," she sighs, sitting back on her calves. "I'm sorry, I don't know whats gotten into me."
"Why are you apologizing?" he asks. A quizzical and somewhat bemused look crosses his face. He shakes his head and brushes a finger down the top of her nose playfully. "I was not hallucinating the action, was I? If not then I would have to say that I reciprocated."
"I know, but I didn't want to just force it on you." She physically aches when his touch leaves her and she suddenly has the violent urge to slam her head into the wall. How in the world does this man manage to render all her common sense silent?
"You could hardly force anything on me, Valeria." The way he says her name makes her stomach stir. Low and affectionate. He leans back against the stone wall when Valeria scoots back and brings his knees up to rest his arms on them. "For what it's worth, I should be the one making apologies."
"For what? Kissing me back? I'm not exactly complaining." They're obviously not getting back to that any time soon so she settles in beside him.
"For all of this." He gestures with a hand. "If I had not been an idiot and let my guard down, you wouldn't have been dragged into this whole affair between my family and myself."
"I made my own choices," Valeria retorts gently and leans to rest her head on his shoulder. "I got myself involved. I have no idea what in the hells our relationship could be called, but if nothing else I'm your friend and I help my friends. I value your friendship, Sorin."
There's a sort of wistful lift to the corner of Sorin's mouth, but if he's going to say anything it's put to a stopped as the door to their prison creaks open and in steps Elizabeth with two large male vampires flanking her. Sorin's expression goes blank, hiding his thoughts behind his characteristic mask as his former childhood friend approaches them.
"What do you want?" Sorin asks before Valeria can ask for herself.
"Sorry to interrupt your romantic moment, but Edgar wants me to retrieve you." Elizabeth's eyes narrow in on the two of them for a moment until she focuses solely on Sorin. "Clearly my all of my warnings have gone unheeded."
"What does he want?" Sorin pointedly ignores her second comment.
"To talk? How should I know." Elizabeth shrugs her pale shoulders. At the way Sorin's body visibly tenses, she rolls her eyes. "I would rather you come with me easily, Sorin. I hate having to use force. It's too messy. Besides, without your magic and sword, you're rather useless, and that barbed tongue of yours will only do so much for you."
"Go with her," Valeria says, her eyes darting to the guards in the room with them. She doubts that they've been starved as Sorin has been and for all of his strength, he won't be able to take care of two of them plus Elizabeth.
Sorin turns his head to glance at her and something passes through his eyes. She knows that he wants to fight back, not be kept as a prisoner to his grandfather's whims and grudges, but he can't. Valeria stands up quickly and steps towards Elizabeth. Her guards stiffen, hands on their weapons as if they couldn't easily catch her before she could cast anything.
"Don't you dare do anything to him. If you do I'll rip your heart out myself." Valeria's surprised by the ferocity in her words, but she'll stand by them, even if she has to burn down the manor to do so.
"I'll give you credit where credit is due, child; you're a brave little thing. I think I'm beginning to understand why Sorin loves you so much."
"I trust that you understand that I can say the same as her. Hurt her and you'll pay," Sorin warns, pulling himself to his feet.
"Yes, yes. She'll be treated well. In fact, Edgar wants her to be shown to nicer quarters. I personally would rather keep her here." Elizabeth smiles a bit. "Now, come on, darling. Edgar won't want to be kept waiting longer than necessary."
He doesn't trust her, that much can be said, as Elizabeth walks ahead of him, her hips swaying in an exaggerated manner and the folds of her red silk gown rippling with each movement of them. He doesn't trust that she'll not try and do something to Valeria. She had not been such a jealous person when she had been a human but she radiated it in waves. He knew who she was could still be there, beneath the vampire nature that's taken hold of her like so many others, but is it worth saving that tiny sliver of her? Is it possible to save her?
Sorin's thoughts run through his head rapid fire as she leads him down various halls. His arms are being held by her personal guards, tugging at him roughly if he doesn't keep up with their brisk pace, and he decides that they'll be the first people he takes out after Edgar. He's grown far too tired of being dragged around like some piece of luggage.
He's lead again to the old ballroom where he expects to find Edgar waiting for them, and indeed the old man is there, but he's not alone. Instead there's something much worse.
The demon -for there's nothing else a thing like this can be- stands beside his grandfather.
Its a twisted looking creature that's tall and emaciated, slouching forward; its thin, pale skin hugs its bones, which are clearly visible beneath. There's a skeletal grin pulled too tightly across its face. Above the grin are two gaping holes where the nose should be and a pair of jet black eyes that are much too large to be natural. Just behind the demon, Sorin can see a long, thin tail and at the top of its head sits two curling horns. Everything about it is disproportionate as he realizes that its legs are too short and its arms too long.
It slowly tilts its head to stare at him as he's brought bodily into the room. If possible the grin widens further and it takes several halting steps towards him, circling behind him and the guards.
"Sorin Markov," it says in a voice that is low and rattling, spoken like a whisper and yet managing to be clearly audible, "how kind of you to grace us with your presence. I presume that I need no introduction.
"Shilgengar," Sorin replies knowingly. He knows it instinctively even without having actually seen the thing before now.
"Indeed," it says. It makes a gesture with a hand. "Consider this motivation to have this conversation without a fight."
Sorin blinks as Valeria is dragged into the room, kicking and screaming her frustrations at anyone who so much as looks at her wrong. If it isn't for the two guards that hold either of her arms, she would have fought them all with her teeth and nails, and in that moment he's proud of her. She won't go down without a fight. This appears to be true until her eyes land on him and her face suddenly goes strangely slack, her body slumping forward as all that fight leaves her body all at once. There's been something cast on her, but he's not entirely sure what it might have been.
Edgar walks by her and pats her head before continuing towards Sorin. "There, now that your little pet is nice and quiet, we can continue uninterrupted," Edgar says, pacing forward as if stalking prey.
Sorin sends him a sour look. "This is what all of this was about? Being subservient to a demon? You're aware that you've brought this whole thing on yourself when you made a deal with him in the first place."
Shilgengar moves to stand behind him and a hand with too long fingers and nails curl over Sorin's shoulder. Supernatural chill and a feeling of sickness flows from it, and it takes a decent amount of determination not to shudder at the sensation. "Your grandfather saved you by making his deal," the demon's harsh, hoarse voice all but whispers.
A shiver runs down his spine. "What is in it for you? I can't imagine that you're doing this simply for the use of my grandfather, especially after so many centuries."
"I like to bide my time and observe the going-ons of this world." The hand on Sorin's shoulder lifts, but the bone-deep chill remains. "I am older than any living creature in existence on Innistrad. You should know from experience that long-lived nature that gives us the ability to see what may come to pass. I have seen what you have done here, for these humans, going against your kind."
Shilgengar circles around again to Sorin's front as its pit-dark eyes rove over his form. It's a deeply unsettling action and being up close and personal with the skeletal grin doesn't serve to be of any comfort. Sorin swallows thickly and raises his chin, curling his lips back to show off his fangs. "That does not answer the question I asked, demon. Enough with the games."
One of those terrible clawed hands shoot out and grasps his jaw tight enough that he can feel the sensation of bruises forming beneath them already. He tries to jerk his head back, but the grip holding it in place does not give. Shilgengar leans forward, scrutinizing him with intensity. Its eyes flicker off to the side before they move forward to stare at Sorin once more.
"Bring that girl over here," he says, and Valeria is led towards them, still unfocused to what is happening around her. Sorin can see one of her hands slowly forming and unforming a fist, telling him that she is trying to fight her way out of the stupor.
"Leave her be. She has nothing to do with any of this."
"Planeswalkers are an unusual species -so very rare in the grand scheme of things- and to think that Edgar's grandson, his only living true blood relative, is amongst them. You have to imagine how surprised I was to learn about it. You have quite the reputation on your home world, Sorin. Creating angels, protecting humans, and even, evidently, falling in love with one."
Sorin doesn't like the direction this conversation appears to be going. There are plenty of being that would use and experiment on Planeswalkers if they had the opportunity to do so. It's a threat to himself and others like him that he wants to avoid and attempted to in the past. With the way Shilgengar is speaking, he has the distinct feeling that that is what may be happening.
"What I want, as you so asked, is to leave this place. It has become rather dull to be stuck in one location for thousands of years. What I have now is the chance. If that requires the removal of whatever it is in your soul that allows you to travel from what plane to another, then I will do just that," Shilgengar continues to say.
Sorin scowls. He wants to say that it's impossible, but it has been done in the past, rare that it might be, rarer than Planeswalkers themselves. The thing standing before him is a primordial demon as ancient as this world. Sorin has had more than enough years to study it. He knows that Shilgengar cannot have its own Spark, but that in no way says that it cannot steal it from someone who does. There's magics out there that not even Sorin is completely capable of understanding the full extent of. He glances towards Valeria.
"You intend on taking what is rightfully mine because you are bored," Sorin speaks, straightening up his posture and smirking coolly. It's better to take the attention off of Valeria."You're not very interesting as far as demons go. Thousands of years and this is what you come up with. How dull and unimaginative. I have to wonder how you've not been killed with wits as slow as yours."
He imagines if Shilgengar was capable of forming more an expression than a ghoulish, macabre smile, it would have as the creature snatches its hand away from Sorin's jaw and lines crease between its brow bones, indicating an approximation of annoyance. Edgar makes an offended sound on Shilgengar's part and the vampire guards holding Valeria look to one another, uncertain as to how to act. Sorin can see focus returning to Valeria's face as she begins to fight off the spell. He's buying her time and she's closest to Edgar. As far as he's aware and his grandfather is not, she still has a stake of Hawthorne hidden somewhere on her body.
Pain pulls Sorin's attention back to Shilgengar as the blood in his body heats up to uncomfortable levels and he's left gasping for air. A warning, he figures, that he's upsetting somebody.
"It would do well for you to be silent, child, before I boil every molecule of the accursed blood in your body," Shilgengar rasps. It removes his hand from Sorin's jaw and places it instead just above the center of his chest, pressing the long claw downwards. "You should be grateful that I gave Edgar the spell that has allowed you to live as you have. Now I ask only for this. A fair trade, I should think."
It starts as a tingling feeling centering where Shilgengar's touch is and grows into a pulling sensation, much like the first time he planeswalked but slowed down. It's not a physical pain -it's more like there is a thread connected to his very soul that's being slowly unraveled. There's no need to ask what Shilgengar is doing, even if Sorin could get his mouth to function. It has made its intentions evident enough. He finds himself incapable of moving even a single finger, and he can clearly hear the thrumming of Valeria's heart from where he stands. Everything is simultaneously hyper-focused and dulled.
And then everything drastically gets out of hand.
He knows that Sorin, great grumpy creature that he is, isn't going to be too terribly happy that Jace is getting involved much sooner than he's meant to be, and, to make make it worse, Liliana is by his side. Liliana isn't much pleased herself about being pulled back into Sorin's 'drama'.
"All I want, Jace, is to find the last of my demonic masters and be free. Instead, I'm being forced to be involved in the centuries-spanning family feud the Markovs have going on," Liliana tells him, exasperated. "Let it be known that the only reason I'm helping is because you asked. Remember that. Sorin and I are not friends and we owe each other absolutely nothing."
"Well, you sort of got yourself involved when you started working with Edgar," Jace is keen to point out. "Besides, you wouldn't have had to in the first place if you'd just come to me for help instead. It would have solved a lot of problems."
Liliana huffs. "So you've mentioned. I had my reasons. My point is that I've helped enough and risked my life and limb for that ungrateful bastard. I don't see why I need to do it a second time."
In the end, despite her arguments, Liliana comes with hi, which is what leads them to their currently staring up at the formidable structure that is Markov Manor. There's already tension in the chilly air, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up on end. Shivering, Jace sends out tendrils of his mind magic, seeking any and all available information from anyone that might be near the entrance of the double doors. It takes more digging than he wants to find what he's looking for and what he learns isn't very good.
"I found them, but it's not pretty," he alerts Liliana, pulling his mind back and out of the vampires occupying the house. "You aren't going to like it."
"I'm not surprised," Liliana sighs dramatically, adjusting her skirts. "Well let us go. The sooner we get this over with, the better."
It's one hell of a risk, taking on a manor full of vampires on their own, but worse things could happen if they don't. The last thing they need is another planeswalking demon wandering around the multiverse.
