Well, this is kind of amazing, a new chapter less than a week after the previous one. And it's the longest Vacationing in 1878 chapter ever!
Unfortunately (well, depends how you look at it really...), I'm going to London soon to visit some friends/family, so I might not be able to update for a few weeks. I'll try, but I can't make any promises :/
Thank you to those who reviewed, I hope you enjoy the conclusion to the Berlin chapters :)
Berlin, 1927 [part 8]
The sight had momentarily stunned Simon, whose brain might have actually short-circuited for a second. He had been convinced that the perpetrator of the murders had been Zorini himself or one of the circus performers. Apparently Adeen had been right – her people were innocent. The small child at the centre of what was quickly becoming a storm of wind and lightning looked terrified of what she was creating. The red scales that spread down parts of her arms, neck and, presumably, the rest of her body, were quite a flagrant demon's mark – she was a warlock and she had absolutely no idea how to control her powers.
His companions looked just as surprised and worried as he was – the only difference was that they were looking to him for directions and orders. He tried to kick-start his brain, knowing that the situation could go from bad to worse in a matter of seconds if they couldn't find some way to stop it. The trouble was, he had absolutely no idea how to stop a young, powerful warlock with no grasp on their powers. While he was trying to come up with some way of diffusing the situation harming as few people as possible, he turned to the others.
"Okay. Victoria, Leo, Marta," he said, thoughts still racing, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible, "you guys take care of the others, make sure everyone gets out of here alive. Bernard, you need to go to the High Warlock as fast as possible, tell her we'll need multiple mundanes' memories altered – with all the disarray they're bound to have seen past the glamour. Magnus will be here to help her, he's good with mind spells," he rattled out the orders, ignoring the inquisitive look Magnus had shot him, probably wondering how he knew he was gifted in that area. The vampires he had named nodded their understanding and set off. The vampires he had selected weren't a coincidence – the ones that remained were the quickest, the strongest fighters, the most adept to deal with this kind of problem.
Simon ran a nervous hand through his hair. How was he supposed to help this girl? It wasn't like he'd had any experience with this kind of thing before – at that moment, something clicked in his mind. He turned to the warlock beside him, eyes wide with the sudden revelation he had had.
"Magnus!" he exclaimed. The warlock flinched mildly at the sound of his name as his attention had been fully absorbed by the sight before them. "Don't you have some kind of – "
Before he could finish his sentence, an ear-splitting ripping sound burst through the circus, momentarily deafening them. Ears ringing, Simon's jaw hung low as he saw what had caused it.
Behind the girl, a tear had formed in what seemed to be the very fabric of reality – a portal that was swirling mass of lightning and purple fire. As if the situation couldn't get worse at that point, creatures began emerging from the portal. Horrific beasts, on par with the ones he had fought in Prague. Among them, a monstrously large, dark green elephant that looked like an evil, mutant Dumbo, with razor-sharp tusks and dull red eyes. Well, it seemed they had found what had killed the man the other night. Accompanying it were huge, feral cats, their fur mangy and their teeth glinting, as well as what looked like the scariest unicorn ever and a swarm of huge, fluorescent wasps.
The first thing Simon heard once his ears had stopped ringing, over the lightning and wind, the monsters snarling, growling, buzzing, was the screaming voice of the little girl in the middle of it all.
"Nein! Nicht die Monster! Keine Albträume mehr, keine Albträume mehr!" No! Not the monsters! No more nightmares, no more nightmares! Tears were streaming down her face as she screeched, huddled up in a small ball, hands covering her ears. Beside her, Hesper was utterly surrounded by the beasts, her fangs out, snarling. Her back was towards Zorini and the girl, her arms spread out as she tried to shield them. As much as she tried to defend herself, one rough sweep of the giant elephant's trunk hit her directly in the head, sending her crashing to the ground, as limp as a rag doll. Seeing her lying on the ground, defenseless, sent Simon into action.
"George, Andrei, Adair, Kendra, Claudia!" he shouted over the noise, though his voice was barely audibly over the chaos around them. "Try and deal with the monsters! Kaspar, help them, direct their attacks, see if you can find any weak spots!" His second seemed reluctant to obey, his eyes darting towards his sister lying helplessly on the ground. "Jane, get Hesper out of there!" The vampires set out to fulfil his orders, Kaspar sending one brief nod of thanks in Simon's direction. Surprisingly, among all the vampires, Adair seemed the most reluctant – he fought the creatures with all his might, followed what Kaspar said, but seemed to be keeping an eye on the small girl as much as he could. Simon didn't have time to dwell on that little detail and turned immediately to Magnus.
"How do we stop her?!" he asked. A strange, dark look crossed the warlock's face and he hesitated. "Magnus, we don't have time to – !" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a ripped, twisted piece of sharp metal flying straight towards his left. Acting on instinct, he flung himself in the same direction, sending both himself and Adeen crashing to the ground, narrowly missing being impaled. Adeen's unique eyes stared up at him, wide in surprise, either at her near-death experience or the fact that Simon had saved her, it was hard to tell.
"You – You saved me," she spoke stiffly, but there was a soft kind of awe in her tone.
"You're welcome," Simon murmured back gently, his eyes fixed on hers. For a moment, things were no longer hostile between them. Their small bubble was burst as they were brought harshly back to reality and the ongoing battle between his clan and the monsters summoned by a young girl. He got to his feet awkwardly, extending a hand to Adeen to help her up. She refused, but shot him a brief, wry grin.
It seemed as though shadow creatures had joined those who had emerged from the portal. Towering humanoid figures made of pure darkness, their mouths constantly open like gaping black holes, their eyes sunken pits in their heads. They moved like stains of ink, everything they touched dying almost immediately on touch, as if they had sucked all the life out of it. Grass withered beneath their feet, crumbling like ash after they had passed.
Simon shouted out a desperate warning to his clan, trying to tell them to stay as far away as possible from the shadow men, but they were all too absorbed by what they were doing and didn't hear him. He was moments away from running to join them, to protect them, his muscles already tense, prepared to move, when he felt Adeen hand on his arm. He turned to her, his eyes a little wide and frantic.
"I can help," she said. "After all, what does darkness fear more than light?" She was already heading towards the others before Simon could reply, but she cast a glance at Magnus over her shoulder as she went. "And by the way," she told him, "I'm a fire sprite, not a nixie." She punctuated her words with a burst of flame from her fingertips that engulfed her entire hand as she ran into the thick of the fight.
Simon watched her go, but quickly turned to Magnus again.
"Well?" he asked. "How do we stop this?"
The warlock bit his lip, his head downcast. His eyes were closed and he took a deep breath before opening them again and looking right at Simon. "She's not in control of her powers. This isn't the kind of situation you can deal with by reasoning with her, because she isn't able to make it stop. The only... The only way you could make this stop right now, without waiting for it to fade away on its own, would be by..."
"By?" prompted Simon.
"By killing her." Magnus delivered his words swiftly, without emotion. They hit Simon like a hard blow to the chest.
"I – " he wanted to speak, but didn't know what to say. For one sad, sickening moment, he seriously considered acting on Magnus' words, wondering how he would go about it. He put a stop to those words immediately, not wanting to actively plan out the murder of a small child. While he was still searching for something to say, some kind of response to the warlock's words, he saw Adair approaching them, leaving the ongoing fight behind him. While the fact that he was leaving a dispute was in itself surprising, more surprising still was the look of utter rage on his face directed at them.
"You will not harm that girl!" he snarled at them.
"It's the only way to stop what's happening," replied Magnus, his voice eerily calm for the matter they were discussing.
"It's not," he growled, "She's a little girl and she's scared." He turned his fierce glare away from Magnus and looked at Simon, "Please. Let me try something else. Anything else."
"Of course," he replied. Adair thanked him and sent a parting glare at Magnus before running towards the little girl, ignoring the fight raging around them. He knelt down to the grown, crouched beside her, raising his hand to her arm, removing it when she flinched away from the contact. And then, one of the last things Simon had been expecting to see (it seemed this night was just full of those), Adair started to sing softly to the girl.
"Nàili bho hò hì,
Nàili bho hò hì,
A' ghrian 's i 'g èirigh,
O nàili bhò hò,
A' ghrian 's i 'g èirigh,
O nàili bho hò hì,
'S i gun smal oirre,
O nàili bhò hò,
'S i gun smal oirre,
O nàili bho hò hì,
Na air na reultan,
O nàili bhò hò."
Simon watched, enchanted and amazed, as the burly and brawny ginger vampire took on a much softer side. Though he couldn't understand the words he was singing, the vampire sang them soothingly and the girls tears began to subside a little as he went on. That such a huge, brawl-loving man could possess such a voice was bewildering. As the song went on, the little girl became more and more relaxed, eventually going as far as to let Adair put his arm around her tiny shoulders, rocking her gently as she buried her face into the crook of his arm.
"Nuair thèid mac mo righ-sa,
Fo làn èideadh,
Gu robh neart na cruinne leat,
'S neart na grèine,
Neart an tairbh dhuibh,
'S àirde leumas."
The more he sang, the girl's sobs diminished and, amazingly, the tear she had created began to grow smaller, the creatures weaker and weaker, fading little by little from view. Adair reached up to stroke a hand through her hair, the movement soothing her further as her sobs turned to soft hiccups.
"Trì chruinn sheilich innt',
Gu bheil stiùir òir oirr',
Gu bheil tobar fìon innt',
Agus tobar fìor uisg."
By this point, Adair had caught the attention of most of his fellow clan members, as the monsters they had been vigorously fighting started to get pulled back into the vortex they had originated from. They looked just about the same as Simon felt – completely amazed by the sight, the beginnings of hesitant relief starting to warm their grim faces.
"Shìos san deireadh innt',
O nàili bho hò hì,
Nàili bho hò hì,
Nàil leams gura nàili bho hò,
Nàil leams gur e nàili,
Nàili bho hò hì."
With the final verse, the monstrous creatures were sucked into the portal, which closed up neatly behind them, with a resounding finality. The girl was nestled comfortably in the Scotsman's muscular arms, her face still wet with tears and snot, but clear of any sign of worry. He brushed his thumb against the red scales that ran down her arms and looked at her with an expression Simon had never seen on his face before. Gentle, kind and sad.
The fight was over. The monsters were gone. The case was solved. Unfortunately, as Simon raised his head away from the sight of Adair and the little girl, he realised that the damage had been more devastating than he had originally thought.
Among the dead were Jane and Andrei. Jane had fallen beside Hesper, trying to get her away from the danger. Her skin was turning grey, shrinking until it seemed too small for her body, stretched across bone, her eyes already sunken deep into her skull. It looked as though one of the shadow men had gotten her. Apparently they could not only suck the life out of everything, the could even kill what was already technically dead. Andrei was practically unrecognisable. They could only make out it was him due to the ring he wore on his left hand. He had been surrounded by the large cats, ripped mercilessly to shreds by their claws and teeth.
George had been alive to see the fight end, but had been severely injured during it. He would have needed blood instantly to survive, but none of the people present were fit to feed him anyway. The only person who had been viable was the girl and she had been through a lot already without being a vampire snack. Besides, George hadn't wanted to feed on her. Hadn't wanted to be saved. He had been accepting of his fate, even more when he heard of what had become of his two treasured companions, Jane and Andrei. He had died with a smile on his lips, at the hands of Simon, who had fulfilled his wish of a quick and painless death rather than waiting to succumb to his injuries. Simon was still feeling a little sick to his stomach.
Kaspar had not been found at the end of the fight, when the dust had settled and everyone was being checked on. Presumed dead, the news had been hard on Simon, so he couldn't possibly imagine what his friend was going through once she awoke to find out that her brother had died due to what she perceived as her inability to stop it herself earlier. Simon had been the one to break it to Hesper and he had sat by her side in silence while the others dealt with the aftermath. She hadn't cried or shouted or even spoken a single word since he had told her – she just sat, looking at nothing in particular, eyes glazed over.
Eventually he had left her, having to deal with what remained of his clan and their current situation. Magnus had helped the High Warlock change the mundanes' recollections of the event and the two were currently discussing the fate of the young warlock child. Magnus was trying to convince her to train the child how to use her powers, or at least to find someone else willing to do so. Bernard was tending to Claudia, who had been injured during the fight, while the rest of the clan set about arranging how to deal with the corpses of their fallen comrades – mourning would have to come later. Adair was sitting off to the side, cradling the girl, now asleep, in his arms.
As Simon looked up, he saw Adeen walking towards him. She looked exhausted, dark circles under her eyes, faint blisters slowly healing on her hands.
She stood face to face with Simon, her eyes flitting over him as if examining him. Simon was growing steadily more uncomfortable under her scrutinising gaze as she finally met his eyes.
"You saved my life," she stated simply.
"...I did," replied Simon, a look of mild confusion crossing his features, "You're welcome again?"
"I owe you a favour."
"Oh! No, that's really not necessary, it was more instinct than anything else – "
"No, I owe you a favour. You saved my life." She had a strong, resolute look on her face.
"No, really – " Simon was cut off this time by her mouth on his. Startled, he froze, a look of unnecessary horror on his face. This night just kept getting stranger and stranger. When she eventually pulled her lips away from his – just as he was starting to get used to the kiss and was thinking of reciprocating – he was left with a tingling, slightly burning sensation on his lips, as if he had just eaten spicy food. He was left there, speechless, his mouth hanging open, his body still frozen in the same shocked position as when she had initiated the kiss.
"I... Uh..." He was lost for words, his brain well and truly shut down.
"We are bound now. Should you wish to call in your favour, I will know." Adeen spoke as if she was concluding a business contract, which, maybe she was. At this point Simon had given up on trying to figure out what was going on.
"Maybe I'll see you soon then," she said with a smirk on her lips as she turned and started walking away, maybe to go find some of her fellow circus members.
"O – okay then," Simon was left saying to no one, still completely shell-shocked by the kiss they had shared.
After checking in on the other clan members, Simon walked over to the where the ginger man sat. He took in the serene look on the girl's face, calm and safe by Adair's side.
"How did you know how to do that?" asked Simon. Adair let a soft smile grace his lips as he brushed a stray lock of hair out of the girl's face.
"I had a daughter, once."
For some reason, maybe due to all the other crazy things that had happened that day, the revelation wasn't as shocking as it might once have been. He didn't push or question any further. A moment passed in silence between the two vampires, filled with the sounds of the hubbub around them. Then, Adair turned to him and said, "I don't think I'll be staying here. With the clan, I mean."
Simon nodded. "I understand," he said.
Adair smiled a little regretfully at him, before gently rousing the little girl and sending her off in the direction of Magnus and the High Warlock with a whispered word in her ear and a stroke through her hair. He stood and Simon followed suit.
"Send my regards to Taith, would you?" asked the Scot, and Simon almost did a double-take. It had been years since he had even heard Taith's name. Adair laughed at the expression on his face. "We knew each other a while back," he elaborated.
"Right," Another moment's pause followed.
"Will you?" asked Adair. Simon frowned; maybe the night's events had put in in even more of a daze than he had realised.
"Will I what?" he asked.
"Stay." And that one word opened up the matter Simon had been repressing ever since Magnus' arrival, trying to push it to the back of his mind while dealing with their more pressing situation. Now that that was over though... He glanced up at where Magnus was standing beside the High Warlock and the little girl. The return of the warlock had brought back all the old memories he had also tried to put behind him during his time with Thea. But now... He could actually go back to that life. But then, looking further around, he could see the faces of all the members of his clan. People he had grown more than attached to during his time in Germany. He was faced with a decision – would he stay or would he go?
Kaspar hadn't wanted to leave his sister or companions behind, but he'd not had much choice in the matter. After all, he knew well enough by now that he couldn't disobey a direct order from this particular man.
"You saw the wreckage at the carnival, yes?" asked the man before him, pacing, his hands tucked into the pockets of his large, weathered coat, the collar of which was turned up against his neck.
"Yes, sir." His speech was clipped, his posture stiff in a way he was more than used to – he was, ironically, at ease to be in his rightful place, no longer burdened with the weight of trying to act casually with his leader, as Simon and Hesper had encouraged him to do.
"But you ensured that no harm came to Lewis?" the man pushed up the hat that had been hiding his face his darkness. It was not the first time he had seen this man's face, but each time Kaspar couldn't help but notice how strikingly handsome he was. An angular face with high cheekbones, so sharp they could cut glass. Eyes that were the same bright blue as forget-me-nots and hair that was the colour of honey. His physical features, bright and innocent as they were, were the complete opposite of the man Kaspar knew, who was hard and cold and cruel. At least, that was what he had learned from his sire.
"Yes, sir."
"Good, good," the smile that shone on his face was another piece of the illusion Kaspar had taught himself to see through. "You were trained by Ulrich, were you not? And you know who am I, do you not?"
"Yes, sir. You are Mikael Jarlsberg de Vampyr."
The handsome man let out a pleased sound at his response and lifted the corner of his mouth in a smile, the faintest of laughs escaping his lips. "Yes, I am."
The song Adair sings is an old Scottish lullaby called Tàladh Dhòmhnaill Ghuirm. Since I couldn't find a full translation from the Gaelic, I can't tell you what the lyrics mean, but from what I understand from different sources is that it contains blessings such as, "May you have all the strength of the universe" ("Gu robh neart na cruinne leat ") and a description of the weather. It also speaks of the arrival of the king's son and a description of his magnificent boat. You can find more information, the full lyrics and a rendition of the lullaby on educationscotland (search "Scottish lullabies" and it should by the first link).
Soooo... What about that Simon/Adeen kiss, huh? Yes, no? Or Adair singing to a little girl to save them? The resolution of the Berlin murders? And Kaspar turning out to be working for Simon's mystery stalker who was, in fact, Thea's missing brother?
Let me know what you thought!
I hope the next update doesn't come too late and that I'll see you all again soon :)