Many many thanks to everyone whos commented most especially to Diomede,
any of you who have problems with my commas, sorry, too much to do, too
little time, treat this as a grammer exercise ;)
Theirry still looked tired from the earlier altercations in his office but from the look in his eyes the explanation he had to come wasn't all that pleasant "Ash, you don't want to hear this" Ash's eyebrows rose until they touched his hairline and then he set a tiny Dictaphone on the desk and hit playback, then watched the Night lords face as the threats unwound several of them people specific and one of those people was Hannah. When it stopped Ash spoke "I want to hear this"
The Night lord sighed and leant back in the chair "Very well. how long have you known Lynx Redfern?" Ash looked back mentally at his association with his icy cousin "We were children together when her mother brought her to the island when she was around three years old until hunter took her away with him aged nine then at Hunters 'school' for a little while, so around seven years, I met her again when I was on the job aged around seventeen although I think she was sixteen." Theirry nodded "I'll start the story when she was born then it makes it all easier; and anyway" he half smiled "I was there"
"This isn't a fairy story it wasn't a dark and stormy night in late October it was a particularly beautiful night in mid august when Lily Redfern turned up on my doorstep heavily pregnant by one of the mercenaries she had been stupid enough to fool around with. I say stupid because she had no real interest in him nor he in her but they were both Lamia, and that's what happens." He paused for a moment as if thinking how to go on "I took responsibility there and then, you'd think someone who had two children roaming around the world somewhere already would have known where to go; but according to her the birth was both early and difficult and she of course didn't make her home there and knew of nowhere else to go. So I got her laid up on a couch and called on one of the Harman witches who was in residence at that point to help" The Night lord shook his head "What we didn't expect was twins" he saw Ash's shock and smiled slightly "Yes, first out a squalling little girl with a scraggy mop of red hair and half a minute later a little boy as dark as his mother and both their eyes were gold; which even for Lamia babies is unusual; even your eyes were blue at first according to your mother."
Ash still looked slightly dazed but waved a hand for Theirry to continue "The Harman girl saw them and went white to the lips, I couldn't understand why she dashed out of the room and returned two minutes later with Ishtar Cybele, who was at that point the maiden of all witches but is now the mother, she has a rare healing gift and went to work on Lily immediately she even allowed her to feed from her wrist. when she finally slept she motioned me outside and told me that the children had to be separated and right now" Theirry took a drink of water from the desk and shifted position. "As you can imagine I wanted to know why, they were sweet little children both of them amazingly quiet during the cleanup operation and vampire children were so rare it would have been a triumph for Lily. During the next ten minutes I was to learn why Lamia twins are so rare"
he looked at Ash his eyes suddenly a thousand years old "What Maya did to create the original vampire line the Redfern's was barbaric, but the blood magic demanded a price of her, she would only ever bear one child. So of course the ritual had to be repeated for a woman when Redfern was old enough to breed and they together had twins; but as I said blood magic always had a price. These twin boys were Darken and Shadow one was very cool, very calm and the other was volatile; the problem was that if they got mad at each other they were quite capable of decimating large areas of ground around them and everything in it ." Theirry looked into Ash's eyes to check that this was getting through "The smallest area was fifteen miles in diameter" he bowed his head "Shadow killed Darken in a rage he also wiped out a large are of northern Russia" Ash shook his head to clear it and opened his mouth but Theirry spoke first "This was the curse of vampire twins, to pay for Maya's immortality with their own pain.
'I looked at those babes and for all the things I have done for this world I could not commit infanticide; so I woke Lily and told her that one of the children was very ill and she needed to name them right away. She wasn't concerned she told me 'they're Redfern's they're strong' but she named them anyway. The girl was to be Lynx Redfern and the boy Cougar she said there were too many birds and trees in her family" Theirry paused "I managed to convince her to stay with me for the first three years letting the children grow and flourish together both little firebrands" he smiled briefly in reminiscence before continuing "but on their third birthday when they blew up the living room in an argument over the T.V I knew it was time to separate them, so I faked an accident for Cougar with a large wooden broom handle and sent him to his father. Lynx knew though, you cant fob off twins, they know. But Lily thought he was dead and she cursed me and decided it was time Lynx went to her relatives" Theirry paused then and his eyes were sad "I should have kept her here, but that odd little girl came and forgave me, she said that she couldn't hate me for keeping her brother safe and I wasn't to hate myself for what was going to happen to her" he looked at Ash his half smile was wry "You and James and Her have convinced me there's a gift of prophecy in the Redfern line"
Ash sat in stunned silence for a moment and then spoke up "So she has a twin brother in Ryars Valley, and together they could destroy the world?, and you still sent her there?" Theirry inclined his head "The person who's there has to die and I wouldn't trust anyone else not to botch the job by getting killed, she won't go near Cougar she values his safety I think more than her own, he's the better half of that pair there's still a little tenderness about him that Lynx lost when Hunter took her, if you'll pardon the pun he has retained his humanity" Ash shut his eyes for a moment remembering "She was always a strange little scrap, so much older than the rest of us even while she was younger, that could explain it" He looked at Theirry and saw the older mans pain and made a questioning movement and Theirry answered it "Even forgivness out of the mouths of babes can't absolve me of sending her anywhere near FallenStar" Ash's lips were set "She can take care of herself" Theirry bowed his head and clasped his hands as if in prayer before he spoke "I hope so, by the goddess I hope so"
any of you who have problems with my commas, sorry, too much to do, too
little time, treat this as a grammer exercise ;)
Theirry still looked tired from the earlier altercations in his office but from the look in his eyes the explanation he had to come wasn't all that pleasant "Ash, you don't want to hear this" Ash's eyebrows rose until they touched his hairline and then he set a tiny Dictaphone on the desk and hit playback, then watched the Night lords face as the threats unwound several of them people specific and one of those people was Hannah. When it stopped Ash spoke "I want to hear this"
The Night lord sighed and leant back in the chair "Very well. how long have you known Lynx Redfern?" Ash looked back mentally at his association with his icy cousin "We were children together when her mother brought her to the island when she was around three years old until hunter took her away with him aged nine then at Hunters 'school' for a little while, so around seven years, I met her again when I was on the job aged around seventeen although I think she was sixteen." Theirry nodded "I'll start the story when she was born then it makes it all easier; and anyway" he half smiled "I was there"
"This isn't a fairy story it wasn't a dark and stormy night in late October it was a particularly beautiful night in mid august when Lily Redfern turned up on my doorstep heavily pregnant by one of the mercenaries she had been stupid enough to fool around with. I say stupid because she had no real interest in him nor he in her but they were both Lamia, and that's what happens." He paused for a moment as if thinking how to go on "I took responsibility there and then, you'd think someone who had two children roaming around the world somewhere already would have known where to go; but according to her the birth was both early and difficult and she of course didn't make her home there and knew of nowhere else to go. So I got her laid up on a couch and called on one of the Harman witches who was in residence at that point to help" The Night lord shook his head "What we didn't expect was twins" he saw Ash's shock and smiled slightly "Yes, first out a squalling little girl with a scraggy mop of red hair and half a minute later a little boy as dark as his mother and both their eyes were gold; which even for Lamia babies is unusual; even your eyes were blue at first according to your mother."
Ash still looked slightly dazed but waved a hand for Theirry to continue "The Harman girl saw them and went white to the lips, I couldn't understand why she dashed out of the room and returned two minutes later with Ishtar Cybele, who was at that point the maiden of all witches but is now the mother, she has a rare healing gift and went to work on Lily immediately she even allowed her to feed from her wrist. when she finally slept she motioned me outside and told me that the children had to be separated and right now" Theirry took a drink of water from the desk and shifted position. "As you can imagine I wanted to know why, they were sweet little children both of them amazingly quiet during the cleanup operation and vampire children were so rare it would have been a triumph for Lily. During the next ten minutes I was to learn why Lamia twins are so rare"
he looked at Ash his eyes suddenly a thousand years old "What Maya did to create the original vampire line the Redfern's was barbaric, but the blood magic demanded a price of her, she would only ever bear one child. So of course the ritual had to be repeated for a woman when Redfern was old enough to breed and they together had twins; but as I said blood magic always had a price. These twin boys were Darken and Shadow one was very cool, very calm and the other was volatile; the problem was that if they got mad at each other they were quite capable of decimating large areas of ground around them and everything in it ." Theirry looked into Ash's eyes to check that this was getting through "The smallest area was fifteen miles in diameter" he bowed his head "Shadow killed Darken in a rage he also wiped out a large are of northern Russia" Ash shook his head to clear it and opened his mouth but Theirry spoke first "This was the curse of vampire twins, to pay for Maya's immortality with their own pain.
'I looked at those babes and for all the things I have done for this world I could not commit infanticide; so I woke Lily and told her that one of the children was very ill and she needed to name them right away. She wasn't concerned she told me 'they're Redfern's they're strong' but she named them anyway. The girl was to be Lynx Redfern and the boy Cougar she said there were too many birds and trees in her family" Theirry paused "I managed to convince her to stay with me for the first three years letting the children grow and flourish together both little firebrands" he smiled briefly in reminiscence before continuing "but on their third birthday when they blew up the living room in an argument over the T.V I knew it was time to separate them, so I faked an accident for Cougar with a large wooden broom handle and sent him to his father. Lynx knew though, you cant fob off twins, they know. But Lily thought he was dead and she cursed me and decided it was time Lynx went to her relatives" Theirry paused then and his eyes were sad "I should have kept her here, but that odd little girl came and forgave me, she said that she couldn't hate me for keeping her brother safe and I wasn't to hate myself for what was going to happen to her" he looked at Ash his half smile was wry "You and James and Her have convinced me there's a gift of prophecy in the Redfern line"
Ash sat in stunned silence for a moment and then spoke up "So she has a twin brother in Ryars Valley, and together they could destroy the world?, and you still sent her there?" Theirry inclined his head "The person who's there has to die and I wouldn't trust anyone else not to botch the job by getting killed, she won't go near Cougar she values his safety I think more than her own, he's the better half of that pair there's still a little tenderness about him that Lynx lost when Hunter took her, if you'll pardon the pun he has retained his humanity" Ash shut his eyes for a moment remembering "She was always a strange little scrap, so much older than the rest of us even while she was younger, that could explain it" He looked at Theirry and saw the older mans pain and made a questioning movement and Theirry answered it "Even forgivness out of the mouths of babes can't absolve me of sending her anywhere near FallenStar" Ash's lips were set "She can take care of herself" Theirry bowed his head and clasped his hands as if in prayer before he spoke "I hope so, by the goddess I hope so"