The sunset was blinding on the cold waters off the California coast. Alisa Merchant let a smile drift through her exhausted features in a brief moment of deja vu. It had been a month since the day she had fought the most important battle of her life, and already she could feel the differences between then and now.
For instance, at this time of day she was usually relaxing in the hot tube in her spacious "bathing" room off her bed room, luxuriating in the warm water and the sent of the lavender she always added. Instead, for the last month she could expect to find herself ready to keel over at this time of day. And all thanks to one person: Chiryuken the Soulflame, whom while only 5 years older than her was her superior in almost anything you cared to name. Well, anything not having to do with technology. Chiryuken was amazingly dense when it came to the modern comforts of the world, and it was the one thing she could hold over him.
Not that she would. While she might be able to hack Pentex mainframes, he could slice her into equal and separate parts without really even trying. She had come to trust Chiryuken almost as much as she had her own father before he passed away; but even her father had given her spankings before she learned how to shift-forms.
She was getting one of those spankings now. She had been too exhausted yesterday to do her 'exercises' (more like 'masochism' in her book) and so Chi had taken it upon himself to work her extra hard today to make up for the missed workout last night. And of course, he expected her to do the exercises tonight, even after the extra severe lessons this afternoon.
Her moment of 'wool-gathering' as her father used to put it was shattered when a giant fur-covered foot/paw seemed to materialize in the air next to her face, close enough for her to see the individual hairs covering the huge appendage. She startled back and hit the low railing of the terrace with her thighs; and this was one moment of deja vu she did not want to relive. Alisa groped frantically for something to grab on to, when a hand, a human hand, grabbed hers and pulled her back from the brink of a 200 foot plus fall onto jagged rocks, of all things.
She looked up into her saviors face and then quickly looked down again at her feet. Since that day he had first come he had taken to speaking only infrequently, but she had found that his facial expressions could convey absolute volumes of information. If she hadn't known for a fact that he was a homid Garou, she would have had a hard time believing he was not born Lupus.
Right now she didn't even need to read a facial expression, she knew what he was thinking. She had, in a very short amount of time, mastered the basics and even the more advanced movements that didn't involve changing. She could perform them in Homid, Glabro or Crinos form, but where she had come up short was on the techniques that involved changing while she was doing them. The most important part of shape-shifting in the middle of an attack was focus, focus, focus. And she was not focused.
Chiryuken had told her at the outset that it was not common for kailindo to be taught outside of the Stargazer tribe, and this was the prime reason why; it took a great deal of willpower to control your rage at the deep levels that kailindo required. But she was making head way, even if it was inch by inch. She no longer changed when she didn't want to; when she had first started after about three blows she would slip in her control of her Rage and transform to Crinos. Depending on when this was she very rarely gained an advantage; but the grand majority of the time she would find that this only made her a bigger target for her sensei to hit. At least the blows didn't hurt nearly as much, but that didn't take in the embarrassment factor.
Sometimes she felt like giving up, just falling down and refusing to get up. It would be so much easier. But every time she felt like throwing everything away, every time it seemed that she couldn't go on, she came out on this terrace, and remembered. Two-hundred feet of air below her. The feel of the wind tugging at her clothes, and the absolute knowledge that she was about to die. Then the smell of incense would drift out of her memory, and the pain as her freefall was brought to an abrupt halt by the clawed hand gripping her wrist.
"Sensei," Alisa forced herself to look her teacher in his eyes, those eyes that glowed like two candles in the dark, "I don't think I ever said thank you for saving my life that day."
Chiryuken for once was the one to look away into the sunset, his hair seeming to catch on fire as he stared at the disappearing orb. "I didn't save your life, Alisa, I put it in danger. If I'd been even a little bit slower you would have died that day."
"But I didn't. And even so you didn't let me die, you risked your own life. What if I had decided to drop you off that cliff after you saved me? Anyone else who had more brains than I did would have done it." Alisa replied bitterly.
"Alisa," Chiryuken looked back at her and grasped her wrist, the same wrist he had caught to save her life a month ago, "whatever deficiencies you may have, stupidity is not one of them. Many people and Garou who think themselves smart may say that honor is just an excuse for stupidity, but in reality it is a great strength. It is much harder to be honorable than to simply follow expediency. No matter how much smarter those Garou claim they are, they will never be welcomed by their peers, nor trusted by their rivals. Even the Wendigo tolerate my presence on their land, and ask me to teach them what I know. Where ever I go, I am welcomed by those who know of me, for everywhere my name travels, honor is spoken with it." Chiryuken's eyes seemed to be burning brighter than usual, and he seemed absolutely serious as he stared into his student's eyes. Suddenly he realized he had given a speech, and that he was holding Alisa's wrist in a bit more friendly a fashion than he should be. A blush crept into his face and he dropped her wrist as he turned back to stare once again at the last sliver of sun still visible in the rapidly darkening sky.
"I think we've both had enough for one day. I believe there is a hot tube calling your way." Alisa blushed a dusky red as she realized that her Jacuzzi was the first thing on her mind when he said that.
"If you say so, sensei," Alisa tried one more time to see into his eyes, but he had already turned to enter the mansion proper. And she had been so close. She had promised that she would get Chiryuken to open up, but so far he had been a tough nut to crack, to say the least. But she could not think on that right now; she was tired and sore, and the only thing she could even picture herself doing at this point was soaking in the hot waters that were waiting for her.
Then, just as the Soulflame was about to enter the house an idea slipped it's way past her exhaustion, and into her consciousness; "Chiryuken!"
Chiryuken stopped at the threshold and seemed to turn almost reluctantly, "Hai, Merchanto-dono?"
"If we were to wear bathing suits, the Jacuzzi would fit both of us comfortably." Alisa mentally crossed her fingers; usually after lessons Chiryuken disappeared to perform his own meditations and exercises in the room which had been specially transformed for his living and "recreation" needs, as her trusty Kinfolk butler Williams termed it, though Alisa knew in reality his nightly activities were anything but; a Garou, especially an Ahroun and a Stargazer to boot, depended on his mind, body, and spirit to keep him alive and to win his battles against the enemies of Gaia. And for one such as Chiryuken, to fall out of shape, or to be at conflict with himself in battle, meant assured death, and often a painful one. The life of a Garou was not meant to be easy, nor was it.
"Alisa…I…" Chiryuken sighed softly to himself then nodded his head in acquiescence, "I will see you there shortly. But Alisa, be prepared; we will be staying up all night. The wind spirits who are friendly to me have been whispering of a vampire group who has been watching this house for the last week. I do not know their interest, but I feel that it will come to a head sometime within the next few days. We will get our rest now, but then we must prepare ourselves for assault."
Alisa stared in shock at her mentor. Vampires? Here? She had heard of vampires, but she had yet to run across them. But obviously they knew of her. "How many are going to attack? And what time? What if they attack while we're in the hot tube?" Alisa was shooting out questions as fast as they were occurring to her.
Chiryuken held up his hand for silence. "They will not attack until later; for them it is just now morning, and the later it is the more advantage they have. The wind spirits are keeping watch over us even now as we speak, and will alert us if they attack. Also, there is no guarantee that they will attack tonight, they may wait for another night. The only time we know they will not attack is during the day, and so we will do as they; rest during the day and continue our practices during the dark hours. I will, however, make them a bit less harsh on you. Now, if we are going to take our break, we should do so now, otherwise we will not have time." And with that Chiryuken disappeared into the house.
"But Chi…" Alisa was too late. "You always have to be like that, don't you?" Alisa asked the air in frustration, then, squaring her shoulders as if she were going in for another confrontation, she followed Chiryuken into the house.
Several hours later Alisa found herself sitting in a dark room in the upper levels of the house, with wind chimes swaying gently next to her ear. Her body felt relaxed, and it was the most tempting thing in the world to just fall asleep in her chair, but the threat of a vampire attack was just enough to keep her from doing so.
The time in the Jacuzzi had been both a revelation and a frustration; when he had slipped out of his kimono and wearing only the bathing suit Williams had produced from somewhere, she had seen the battle scars that littered his body. They were mostly superficial, but they must have been horrible before his supernatural body had healed them. It was a frustration that when asked, he replied only that it was the cost of fighting for Gaia. But in truth, when she felt the hot and bubbly water wash over her aching body, she lost most of her interest in anything but working out the kinks in her abused body.
After they had washed away their aches (thanks in no small part to their special healing abilities) Chiryuken had explained how they would spend the night. Alisa, being the less well trained one, would wait in stand by up in the tower room, where she could see everything around the house. Chi was assuming that either the vampires did not know of his presence, or they did not know of his prowess. Either way, he would be wandering around the house and staying hidden; by putting Alisa in such a visible spot he hoped to draw the vampires in sooner than later, when they would be better prepared, or when they had more undead with them. Chiryuken was good, but he was not immortal.
The wind chimes were the wind-spirits way of communicating with her; if the vampires decided to attack, then they would ring the chimes for her. She was then to wait for the second chiming, that would signal her that the vampires were out of sight, and she could go down to meet Chiryuken. Alisa could feel her Rage simmering under the surface, her excitement to show all the new abilities she had learned. This was her nature, to fight, to help save Gaia! It had been too long since she had been in a good fight that she could actually win. Sparing with Chiryuken day after day had started to make her feel like the youngest and most inexperienced Cliath in the Garou nation. But now all her battles with the greedy mages and other creatures were coming back to her, all the times she had defended this caern by herself, without Chiryuken's help or teachings. Alisa felt that she needed to prove herself to Chiryuken, to show him that she wasn't a waste of his time.
Alisa settled herself more comfortably into her chair and forced herself to calm down. She was supposed to be bait, and showing her teeth and claws at this point would only frighten off her prey. Alisa's smile was feral in the darkness.
The tower room was lit with a soft rose colored glow in the early dawn. The vampires had been no-shows, the wind chimes had not made a single tinkle all night. Alisa stood and stretched; any leech worth his stolen blood would be inside by now. Alisa was tired and frustrated, tired because she had stayed up all night, frustrated because she had not gotten the fight she was iching for. She climbed down the spiral stair case to the third floor corner gallery, where she found Chiryuken pacing in full Crinos form. He seemed to be right on the edge, and she instantly assumed that he was as frustrated as she was.
That was when the smell registered on her olfactory sense. A Garou learned this particular fragrance intimately in their defense of Gaia, usually from themselves and their packmates. Blood-smell. It was strong, very strong, and it was coming from the hall just outside the room. Alisa quickly made for the hallway, but Chiryuken quickly caught her arm with his Crinos-enhanced strength. But he was already shifting back to Homid form with the moon disappearing in the lightening sky. Alisa wasn't looking at him, but staring intently at the doorway from which the blood-smell was emanating.
"Don't go out there yet Alisa. You don't want to see that." Chiryuken's voice was a calm sea before the storm hit.
"Let me go Chi!" Alisa wrenched her arm out of Chiryuken's grasp and marched out through the doorway. What she saw stopped her in her tracks.
The blood-smell was overpowering now, and it was easy to see why. Words smeared in blood ran from one end of the hall to the other, slowly turning a dull rust red as the blood grew old. At the end of the hallway near her feet was an irregularly shaped lump wearing black dress clothes and lying in a small pool of what blood it had left after all the gruesome writing. Alisa looked down at the shape of the lump without recognizing it for several moments. Why does that face look so familiar? Alisa asked herself. Then all the pieces fell into place; the fancy clothes, the face so familiar.
Williams was more than just her butler. He was Kinfolk, and so not affected by the Delerium, as most humans were. He had been with her since she was a small child, and had been her only close companion after the death of her father 2 years ago, the one person she could trust absolutely with anything. It hadn't been so much as if he were serving her as taking care of her. Oh, she acted like they were just employer and employee, but the truth had been different. And now he was gone. He had lost so much blood from his slit wrists that he looked more like a wax doll than a human. It was fairly obvious what had happened; the vampires, rather than attacking, had used their mind control abilities to take over Williams, then, after having him slit his wrists, write their message for her in his own blood while he slowly died. She crouched down beside her dead friend, and noticed a sparkle under his blindly staring eyes. She reached down with her finger and brushed against the salty remains of his tears. He had been aware while they did this too him, he had been totally aware that he was going to die, and wasn't even able to cry out for help.
Alisa's heart beat seemed to be the loudest thing in the world, louder than the surf pounding the beach below. It was primal, all the instinct and power of the warrior of Gaia lay within that steady rhythm. Alisa could feel the quicksand under her feet again, the same quicksand she had been fighting ever since Chiryuken had become her mentor. But today, she didn't fight it; she dived in, encased in her pain and her Rage.
Chiryuken the Soulflame had seen this day coming. Not these circumstances, but he had known that Alisa would slip into a frenzy in the near future. As a Stargazer he was sometimes given awareness of the future, though usually not specific events. His Master had told him that he was given warning before hand when Chiryuken first frenzied during training. It wasn't surprising; even with his Seal he had an inordinate amount of Rage within him; the Seal merely kept that Rage from flaring up and killing him. He had spent as much time in meditation focusing his willpower as anything else, for with his fighting prowess frenzying while fighting in a pack was simply not an option. One of his pack members had been an Ahroun from the Get of Fenris tribe, and had a problem with frenzying. Three times the pack had to stop him from killing all of them in his madness, and finally Chiryuken had as the martial leader of the pack had given the Get two choices; either leave the pack in disgrace for his lack of control, or allow Chiryuken to teach him meditation. Ahrouns as a rule were neither interested in nor adept at mental exercises, Chiryuken being an exception as he was from a tribe of monks. The Get was not pleased; he was already in competition with Chiryuken for the right of leading the pack in war time, as they were both Ahrouns, but to be kicked out of the pack would have been a grave mark against him within both their sept and his tribe. From the moment Chiryuken started teaching him, the feelings of disquiet had started, and though he tried to ignore them. One day while they were doing a joint meditation, the other Ahroun had shifted to Crinos form and attacked him, hoping to remove Chiryuken and thus gain the position of war leader within the pack. Caught off-guard, and without the moon unable to change, Chiryuken had no choice but to use his tachi, Dragon, to save himself. The extremely sharp silver edge of the weapon easily cleaved through the traitorous Ahrouns neck. It had been Chiryuken's first major failing as a teacher, and he had since sworn to never ignore his special feelings.
For the past week he had gotten the same feelings from Alisa whenever they would train. He had been extra careful to watch for signs of frenzy so that he could put her down before she got truly started; everyday that went by the more and more dangerous she became due to his teaching, and the later she learned to control her Rage the worse it would become. Chiryuken had been trying to induce Alisa to frenzy directly before the threat of the vampires had come to his attention, but had given up on it in light of the new danger.
But now, even with his careful planning and watchful observations, he had not time to stop Alisa now. Perhaps it was the fact that he was trying as hard as he could to avoid frenzying himself at what the vampires had done, but to do so would be a death sentence for both of them.
Now he quickly drew his other weapon, the tanto, Tiger, and turned the blade as he had a month ago in his first fight with Alisa. But then as now the fight was in deadly earnest. If Chiryuken could not find a way to put his Raging student out of commission, he would die. He had no doubt that he was skilled enough to stop her, it was stopping her without killing her that was his concern. He had decided when he first took on Alisa as a student that when she frenzied, and frenzy she eventually would, he would not kill her, no matter what. Even though he had killed the Get of Fenris out of self defense, the killing still haunted his thoughts, and forced him to come to this conclusion. But now his convictions would be put to the test, her Rage-filled eyes had turned upon him, and she was gathering her massive Crinos body to attack. Chiryuken raised his blade so it stood out in his upper torso, and lowered his body into a defensive stance, his mind racing. If Alisa hit him, would he be able to keep a hold of his Rage? For no reason, the words written in Williams's blood leapt out at him:
WE'RE COMING FOR YOU WEREBITCH.
The mad beast snarled in its primal Rage and launched itself at the puny human standing before it. Chiryuken's eyes blazed.
For instance, at this time of day she was usually relaxing in the hot tube in her spacious "bathing" room off her bed room, luxuriating in the warm water and the sent of the lavender she always added. Instead, for the last month she could expect to find herself ready to keel over at this time of day. And all thanks to one person: Chiryuken the Soulflame, whom while only 5 years older than her was her superior in almost anything you cared to name. Well, anything not having to do with technology. Chiryuken was amazingly dense when it came to the modern comforts of the world, and it was the one thing she could hold over him.
Not that she would. While she might be able to hack Pentex mainframes, he could slice her into equal and separate parts without really even trying. She had come to trust Chiryuken almost as much as she had her own father before he passed away; but even her father had given her spankings before she learned how to shift-forms.
She was getting one of those spankings now. She had been too exhausted yesterday to do her 'exercises' (more like 'masochism' in her book) and so Chi had taken it upon himself to work her extra hard today to make up for the missed workout last night. And of course, he expected her to do the exercises tonight, even after the extra severe lessons this afternoon.
Her moment of 'wool-gathering' as her father used to put it was shattered when a giant fur-covered foot/paw seemed to materialize in the air next to her face, close enough for her to see the individual hairs covering the huge appendage. She startled back and hit the low railing of the terrace with her thighs; and this was one moment of deja vu she did not want to relive. Alisa groped frantically for something to grab on to, when a hand, a human hand, grabbed hers and pulled her back from the brink of a 200 foot plus fall onto jagged rocks, of all things.
She looked up into her saviors face and then quickly looked down again at her feet. Since that day he had first come he had taken to speaking only infrequently, but she had found that his facial expressions could convey absolute volumes of information. If she hadn't known for a fact that he was a homid Garou, she would have had a hard time believing he was not born Lupus.
Right now she didn't even need to read a facial expression, she knew what he was thinking. She had, in a very short amount of time, mastered the basics and even the more advanced movements that didn't involve changing. She could perform them in Homid, Glabro or Crinos form, but where she had come up short was on the techniques that involved changing while she was doing them. The most important part of shape-shifting in the middle of an attack was focus, focus, focus. And she was not focused.
Chiryuken had told her at the outset that it was not common for kailindo to be taught outside of the Stargazer tribe, and this was the prime reason why; it took a great deal of willpower to control your rage at the deep levels that kailindo required. But she was making head way, even if it was inch by inch. She no longer changed when she didn't want to; when she had first started after about three blows she would slip in her control of her Rage and transform to Crinos. Depending on when this was she very rarely gained an advantage; but the grand majority of the time she would find that this only made her a bigger target for her sensei to hit. At least the blows didn't hurt nearly as much, but that didn't take in the embarrassment factor.
Sometimes she felt like giving up, just falling down and refusing to get up. It would be so much easier. But every time she felt like throwing everything away, every time it seemed that she couldn't go on, she came out on this terrace, and remembered. Two-hundred feet of air below her. The feel of the wind tugging at her clothes, and the absolute knowledge that she was about to die. Then the smell of incense would drift out of her memory, and the pain as her freefall was brought to an abrupt halt by the clawed hand gripping her wrist.
"Sensei," Alisa forced herself to look her teacher in his eyes, those eyes that glowed like two candles in the dark, "I don't think I ever said thank you for saving my life that day."
Chiryuken for once was the one to look away into the sunset, his hair seeming to catch on fire as he stared at the disappearing orb. "I didn't save your life, Alisa, I put it in danger. If I'd been even a little bit slower you would have died that day."
"But I didn't. And even so you didn't let me die, you risked your own life. What if I had decided to drop you off that cliff after you saved me? Anyone else who had more brains than I did would have done it." Alisa replied bitterly.
"Alisa," Chiryuken looked back at her and grasped her wrist, the same wrist he had caught to save her life a month ago, "whatever deficiencies you may have, stupidity is not one of them. Many people and Garou who think themselves smart may say that honor is just an excuse for stupidity, but in reality it is a great strength. It is much harder to be honorable than to simply follow expediency. No matter how much smarter those Garou claim they are, they will never be welcomed by their peers, nor trusted by their rivals. Even the Wendigo tolerate my presence on their land, and ask me to teach them what I know. Where ever I go, I am welcomed by those who know of me, for everywhere my name travels, honor is spoken with it." Chiryuken's eyes seemed to be burning brighter than usual, and he seemed absolutely serious as he stared into his student's eyes. Suddenly he realized he had given a speech, and that he was holding Alisa's wrist in a bit more friendly a fashion than he should be. A blush crept into his face and he dropped her wrist as he turned back to stare once again at the last sliver of sun still visible in the rapidly darkening sky.
"I think we've both had enough for one day. I believe there is a hot tube calling your way." Alisa blushed a dusky red as she realized that her Jacuzzi was the first thing on her mind when he said that.
"If you say so, sensei," Alisa tried one more time to see into his eyes, but he had already turned to enter the mansion proper. And she had been so close. She had promised that she would get Chiryuken to open up, but so far he had been a tough nut to crack, to say the least. But she could not think on that right now; she was tired and sore, and the only thing she could even picture herself doing at this point was soaking in the hot waters that were waiting for her.
Then, just as the Soulflame was about to enter the house an idea slipped it's way past her exhaustion, and into her consciousness; "Chiryuken!"
Chiryuken stopped at the threshold and seemed to turn almost reluctantly, "Hai, Merchanto-dono?"
"If we were to wear bathing suits, the Jacuzzi would fit both of us comfortably." Alisa mentally crossed her fingers; usually after lessons Chiryuken disappeared to perform his own meditations and exercises in the room which had been specially transformed for his living and "recreation" needs, as her trusty Kinfolk butler Williams termed it, though Alisa knew in reality his nightly activities were anything but; a Garou, especially an Ahroun and a Stargazer to boot, depended on his mind, body, and spirit to keep him alive and to win his battles against the enemies of Gaia. And for one such as Chiryuken, to fall out of shape, or to be at conflict with himself in battle, meant assured death, and often a painful one. The life of a Garou was not meant to be easy, nor was it.
"Alisa…I…" Chiryuken sighed softly to himself then nodded his head in acquiescence, "I will see you there shortly. But Alisa, be prepared; we will be staying up all night. The wind spirits who are friendly to me have been whispering of a vampire group who has been watching this house for the last week. I do not know their interest, but I feel that it will come to a head sometime within the next few days. We will get our rest now, but then we must prepare ourselves for assault."
Alisa stared in shock at her mentor. Vampires? Here? She had heard of vampires, but she had yet to run across them. But obviously they knew of her. "How many are going to attack? And what time? What if they attack while we're in the hot tube?" Alisa was shooting out questions as fast as they were occurring to her.
Chiryuken held up his hand for silence. "They will not attack until later; for them it is just now morning, and the later it is the more advantage they have. The wind spirits are keeping watch over us even now as we speak, and will alert us if they attack. Also, there is no guarantee that they will attack tonight, they may wait for another night. The only time we know they will not attack is during the day, and so we will do as they; rest during the day and continue our practices during the dark hours. I will, however, make them a bit less harsh on you. Now, if we are going to take our break, we should do so now, otherwise we will not have time." And with that Chiryuken disappeared into the house.
"But Chi…" Alisa was too late. "You always have to be like that, don't you?" Alisa asked the air in frustration, then, squaring her shoulders as if she were going in for another confrontation, she followed Chiryuken into the house.
Several hours later Alisa found herself sitting in a dark room in the upper levels of the house, with wind chimes swaying gently next to her ear. Her body felt relaxed, and it was the most tempting thing in the world to just fall asleep in her chair, but the threat of a vampire attack was just enough to keep her from doing so.
The time in the Jacuzzi had been both a revelation and a frustration; when he had slipped out of his kimono and wearing only the bathing suit Williams had produced from somewhere, she had seen the battle scars that littered his body. They were mostly superficial, but they must have been horrible before his supernatural body had healed them. It was a frustration that when asked, he replied only that it was the cost of fighting for Gaia. But in truth, when she felt the hot and bubbly water wash over her aching body, she lost most of her interest in anything but working out the kinks in her abused body.
After they had washed away their aches (thanks in no small part to their special healing abilities) Chiryuken had explained how they would spend the night. Alisa, being the less well trained one, would wait in stand by up in the tower room, where she could see everything around the house. Chi was assuming that either the vampires did not know of his presence, or they did not know of his prowess. Either way, he would be wandering around the house and staying hidden; by putting Alisa in such a visible spot he hoped to draw the vampires in sooner than later, when they would be better prepared, or when they had more undead with them. Chiryuken was good, but he was not immortal.
The wind chimes were the wind-spirits way of communicating with her; if the vampires decided to attack, then they would ring the chimes for her. She was then to wait for the second chiming, that would signal her that the vampires were out of sight, and she could go down to meet Chiryuken. Alisa could feel her Rage simmering under the surface, her excitement to show all the new abilities she had learned. This was her nature, to fight, to help save Gaia! It had been too long since she had been in a good fight that she could actually win. Sparing with Chiryuken day after day had started to make her feel like the youngest and most inexperienced Cliath in the Garou nation. But now all her battles with the greedy mages and other creatures were coming back to her, all the times she had defended this caern by herself, without Chiryuken's help or teachings. Alisa felt that she needed to prove herself to Chiryuken, to show him that she wasn't a waste of his time.
Alisa settled herself more comfortably into her chair and forced herself to calm down. She was supposed to be bait, and showing her teeth and claws at this point would only frighten off her prey. Alisa's smile was feral in the darkness.
The tower room was lit with a soft rose colored glow in the early dawn. The vampires had been no-shows, the wind chimes had not made a single tinkle all night. Alisa stood and stretched; any leech worth his stolen blood would be inside by now. Alisa was tired and frustrated, tired because she had stayed up all night, frustrated because she had not gotten the fight she was iching for. She climbed down the spiral stair case to the third floor corner gallery, where she found Chiryuken pacing in full Crinos form. He seemed to be right on the edge, and she instantly assumed that he was as frustrated as she was.
That was when the smell registered on her olfactory sense. A Garou learned this particular fragrance intimately in their defense of Gaia, usually from themselves and their packmates. Blood-smell. It was strong, very strong, and it was coming from the hall just outside the room. Alisa quickly made for the hallway, but Chiryuken quickly caught her arm with his Crinos-enhanced strength. But he was already shifting back to Homid form with the moon disappearing in the lightening sky. Alisa wasn't looking at him, but staring intently at the doorway from which the blood-smell was emanating.
"Don't go out there yet Alisa. You don't want to see that." Chiryuken's voice was a calm sea before the storm hit.
"Let me go Chi!" Alisa wrenched her arm out of Chiryuken's grasp and marched out through the doorway. What she saw stopped her in her tracks.
The blood-smell was overpowering now, and it was easy to see why. Words smeared in blood ran from one end of the hall to the other, slowly turning a dull rust red as the blood grew old. At the end of the hallway near her feet was an irregularly shaped lump wearing black dress clothes and lying in a small pool of what blood it had left after all the gruesome writing. Alisa looked down at the shape of the lump without recognizing it for several moments. Why does that face look so familiar? Alisa asked herself. Then all the pieces fell into place; the fancy clothes, the face so familiar.
Williams was more than just her butler. He was Kinfolk, and so not affected by the Delerium, as most humans were. He had been with her since she was a small child, and had been her only close companion after the death of her father 2 years ago, the one person she could trust absolutely with anything. It hadn't been so much as if he were serving her as taking care of her. Oh, she acted like they were just employer and employee, but the truth had been different. And now he was gone. He had lost so much blood from his slit wrists that he looked more like a wax doll than a human. It was fairly obvious what had happened; the vampires, rather than attacking, had used their mind control abilities to take over Williams, then, after having him slit his wrists, write their message for her in his own blood while he slowly died. She crouched down beside her dead friend, and noticed a sparkle under his blindly staring eyes. She reached down with her finger and brushed against the salty remains of his tears. He had been aware while they did this too him, he had been totally aware that he was going to die, and wasn't even able to cry out for help.
Alisa's heart beat seemed to be the loudest thing in the world, louder than the surf pounding the beach below. It was primal, all the instinct and power of the warrior of Gaia lay within that steady rhythm. Alisa could feel the quicksand under her feet again, the same quicksand she had been fighting ever since Chiryuken had become her mentor. But today, she didn't fight it; she dived in, encased in her pain and her Rage.
Chiryuken the Soulflame had seen this day coming. Not these circumstances, but he had known that Alisa would slip into a frenzy in the near future. As a Stargazer he was sometimes given awareness of the future, though usually not specific events. His Master had told him that he was given warning before hand when Chiryuken first frenzied during training. It wasn't surprising; even with his Seal he had an inordinate amount of Rage within him; the Seal merely kept that Rage from flaring up and killing him. He had spent as much time in meditation focusing his willpower as anything else, for with his fighting prowess frenzying while fighting in a pack was simply not an option. One of his pack members had been an Ahroun from the Get of Fenris tribe, and had a problem with frenzying. Three times the pack had to stop him from killing all of them in his madness, and finally Chiryuken had as the martial leader of the pack had given the Get two choices; either leave the pack in disgrace for his lack of control, or allow Chiryuken to teach him meditation. Ahrouns as a rule were neither interested in nor adept at mental exercises, Chiryuken being an exception as he was from a tribe of monks. The Get was not pleased; he was already in competition with Chiryuken for the right of leading the pack in war time, as they were both Ahrouns, but to be kicked out of the pack would have been a grave mark against him within both their sept and his tribe. From the moment Chiryuken started teaching him, the feelings of disquiet had started, and though he tried to ignore them. One day while they were doing a joint meditation, the other Ahroun had shifted to Crinos form and attacked him, hoping to remove Chiryuken and thus gain the position of war leader within the pack. Caught off-guard, and without the moon unable to change, Chiryuken had no choice but to use his tachi, Dragon, to save himself. The extremely sharp silver edge of the weapon easily cleaved through the traitorous Ahrouns neck. It had been Chiryuken's first major failing as a teacher, and he had since sworn to never ignore his special feelings.
For the past week he had gotten the same feelings from Alisa whenever they would train. He had been extra careful to watch for signs of frenzy so that he could put her down before she got truly started; everyday that went by the more and more dangerous she became due to his teaching, and the later she learned to control her Rage the worse it would become. Chiryuken had been trying to induce Alisa to frenzy directly before the threat of the vampires had come to his attention, but had given up on it in light of the new danger.
But now, even with his careful planning and watchful observations, he had not time to stop Alisa now. Perhaps it was the fact that he was trying as hard as he could to avoid frenzying himself at what the vampires had done, but to do so would be a death sentence for both of them.
Now he quickly drew his other weapon, the tanto, Tiger, and turned the blade as he had a month ago in his first fight with Alisa. But then as now the fight was in deadly earnest. If Chiryuken could not find a way to put his Raging student out of commission, he would die. He had no doubt that he was skilled enough to stop her, it was stopping her without killing her that was his concern. He had decided when he first took on Alisa as a student that when she frenzied, and frenzy she eventually would, he would not kill her, no matter what. Even though he had killed the Get of Fenris out of self defense, the killing still haunted his thoughts, and forced him to come to this conclusion. But now his convictions would be put to the test, her Rage-filled eyes had turned upon him, and she was gathering her massive Crinos body to attack. Chiryuken raised his blade so it stood out in his upper torso, and lowered his body into a defensive stance, his mind racing. If Alisa hit him, would he be able to keep a hold of his Rage? For no reason, the words written in Williams's blood leapt out at him:
WE'RE COMING FOR YOU WEREBITCH.
The mad beast snarled in its primal Rage and launched itself at the puny human standing before it. Chiryuken's eyes blazed.