Chapter Two: Demons and Children (two weeks earlier)
"How many children have gone missing?" Mina asked softly, pacing back and forth. Tom cleared his throat and murmured, "Twenty to thirty."
"All of them… different?"
"Yes."
"Damn. What's going on? What do these bastards want them for?" The vampiress snarled in frustration, then slammed a fist into the wall. A single bloody tear trickled down her cheek. Three of her own fledglings, vampires she had made, were missing too. Her thirteen-year-old niece, Lucy, whom she saved from near death by pneumonia. Her "son" Richard, the fourteen-year-old boy who'd nearly died in her arms before she'd given him what her third fledgling, Jillian, termed "the Dark Gift." Jillian had been a half vampire dying from a micro cellular conflict of human and vampire cells tearing her body apart. She'd become a vampire at age eight. And now all three of them were missing, kidnapped by whoever was taking these extraordinary children.
"Mina…" Tom trailed off, then jumped when the last of Mina's vampire children, Ash, glided by. The vampiress went to Mina, murmured, "Mina, you're crying." The ten-year-old floated up to eye level, caught Mina's crimson tear on a fingertip and ate it. "We'll find them, Mina. Won't we?"
"Yes, yes… we will." The vampire ruffled the ash-blond hair and gently shooed her away. "Tom, where are the others?"
"They should be here soon." A ring at the door announced the arrival of the rest of the League. Henry trudged in, followed by Skinner, Nemo, and Huck, but Mina gave them no time to settle in before she demanded, "What have you found out?"
"Apparently… apparently a man known as Adolph Hitler, rising in power in Germany, is keeping the people he commands in line with a secret army. Nobody's ever seen this army, but it's supposedly made up of demons, beings with extraordinary powers." Nemo replied.
"And we have reason to believe these are the children why?"
"Among a few escapees are sisters Roberta and Rebecca Moreau, Dylan, Cody, and Cawyer Rainbird, Lillith and Jonathan Connor, Kelly Blues, a girl named Natil, Danyel Faust, Peter Greystoke, and Jillian, Richard, and Lucy Harker."
"What did you say?" Mina cried. "They're alright? Where are they?"
"They're coming. However, we need to do something about this. According to Newt, it isn't just Hitler who-"
"Who?" Mina asked, going to answer the door again.
"Rebecca Moreau. Newt is her nickname, because... never mind. Anyway, she says its not just bloody Hitler, although he's trying to take over the whole bloody world with a bloody super army, but Joseph Stalin, that bloody bastard from Russia. He's trying the same thing, ah… Mina? Mina, love?" Skinner called. Just as he began to worry, a bloodcurdling shriek of fury chilled him to the bone. For a moment, he froze, then leapt into action, rushing to the front hall as Mina slammed into him with bone crunching force. The others froze at the sight in the doorway. A black, writhing, oily… thing coiled and gurgled in the door, then solidified into what looked like a large, shiny, cockroach with spikes. It let out a shriek, then took three lumbering steps forward. Mina hissed in defiance. The creature lifted its tail, tipped with a wicked looking stinger, and leapt forward a few yards. It was poised to strike when a voice cried, "NO! Get away from them!" The monster whirled around and exploded in the face of a double dose of ultrasonic sound waves as two child voices screamed. As soon as it did, the screaming stopped.
"Well," Skinner muttered, "that was anticlimactic."
"Shut up, Skinner." Tom snapped. "I wanna know what happened to it."
"Dylan and I blew it up." In the doorway was a little girl of about ten, with stringy blond hair and green eyes, in a pair of suspenders with holes in the knees and a patched, holey, frayed silk shirt, standing beside a boy that could have been her twin, both in looks and dress. She jerked her thumb at the boy. "This is Dylan. My cousin. I'm Newt. Hi, Mr. Skinner."
"Newt, love!" Skinner stood, strode up, and knelt in front of her. "Shoulda known it was you, soon as I heard that lovely voice of yours. Where's your father?"
"He sent us ahead, with Ripley." Skinner jerked, startled, as he finally noticed the tall, slim woman with the burning dark eyes and long, curly black hair, not exactly scowling but not smiling, either. She wore a pair of black suspenders, a white shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, with the sleeves cut off, and a pair of black leather riding boots. Skinner knew she had several weapons hidden under her clothes, and was loathe to go near Roberta Moreau, aka Ripley, Newt's older sister. The scariest woman he'd ever met, besides Mina Harker.
"Dammit, Skinner, who's this?" Tom snapped.
"This is Newt, and her sister, Miss Moreau, and her cousin, Dylan. Warnin' you now, Dylan can't talk, and if he opens his mouth for something other than eating, run away." Skinner had seen first hand the damage Dylan could do. "Newt, why did the Doc send you ahead?"
"Well, Vulnavia said Dr. Phibes sensed someone coming, and Dani seemed real tense, and kept sniffing, like she smelled something tasty." She looked around at the other people, and sighed in exasperation. "Dr. Henry!" Henry stopped in the middle of crossing himself. "Are we going to see what's… oh. Oh, oh. Oh, no."
"What's wrong?"
"Cawyer says trouble, and he says Cody's unconscious. He says men are hurting Natil, and Papa's bleeding." Skinner stood up and looked back at the others.
"Well?"
"How does she know?" Mina asked.
"She-"
"Isn't it enough that I know? Where's the ghost?" The click of a rifle made her look past the others to a pale man with a short gray beard and short, silver hair, with dark eyes. "You're Allan Quartermain. Good. You can shoot the bad guys. Come on. Mr. Skinner, Dr. Henry, come on! Captain, let's go!"
* * *
The first thing they saw was a tall young woman of about sixteen, with long brown hair that covered the tips of her ears, sparkling blue violet eyes, and pale skin. She aimed a kick at one man, caught him in the chin. Something flashed in her eyes, and she turned to the right and slugged him in the face. She was bleeding from the corner of her mouth, and a deep, heavily bleeding gash opened her side to the cold London air. Somehow, she managed to fight. Three shadows were flying across rooftops, followed by something pale white, and men were dropping from them like flies. A boy of fifteen was duking it out with a group of about five men, and a scarlet band of flesh across his bare back throbbed horribly. A little girl that looked a lot like the first girl was cowering with a wounded old man by a bullet riddled white automobile. The others didn't even think, just rushed into the fray.
The girl with brown hair cried out in pain, then righted herself and came back at her attackers with a cry of "Elthia!" The boy roared and proceeded to break the necks of two of the men. Another boy, of maybe twelve or thirteen, hurled rocks at the men from the shelter of a large box, along with a little girl of six with white blond hair and flashing red eyes. Under the onslaught of the two teenagers, the League members, and the things on the roof, the attackers were either dead or escaped. Newt ran forward.
"Cawyer! Cody!" Two boys crawled out from under the car and ran to Newt. She threw her arms around the oldest boy. "Cawyer! Cawyer! Are you and Cody alright?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm good."
"John, Lilith!" The two rock throwers stood and went over. "Peter, are you hurt? What about… Natil!" The brunette girl limped over and pulled her hair back, revealing delicately pointed ears. Her eyes flashed, shining with something unknown, and she murmured, "Elves are known for surviving."
"Elves are known to get themselves killed!" Ripley snapped.
"Do not worry, beloved. I will be fine, once Kelly attends to me. She is with Dr. Moreau now. I worry for Dani. This fight will open emotional scars, create new soul wounds."
"Danyel's a good lass," Skinner said, and Natil murmured, "Despite her inner demon, she does not like to kill. Dani, are you alright?" A girl of about Newt's age approached warily, as if expecting a blow, head down. Her black hair hung in her face.
"I'm eating." The adults jumped in surprise. Her voice was deep and raspy, hungry.
"Then go back to your meal. I was merely worried for you, beloved." The girl walked away and disappeared down an alley. A few moments later, a man screamed. "Don't bother. He'll be dead by the time you get there." Natil murmured. "Peter is unharmed, as are the vampires. I… Henry, move!!" Henry leapt aside as a bullet struck the pavement three feet in front of him. If he had not moved, he would have been hit, probably killed instantly. "Elthia… Mother, help me. Elaenore and Ravyn are here now." Mina and Tom did not understand the look of horror on the faces of their comrades. They didn't know Ravyn's fierce killing streak in regards to anyone who threatened her two children, or Elaenore's destructive inner beast. The men shooting were dead.
As if on cue, a chorus of screams ripped through the frigid night, rising in pitch, a cascade of terrified sound, and then ended abruptly. Suddenly there was utter silence. Tom almost wanted to scream with the oppressiveness of it. Out of the shadows two women came out of the shadows. Both had long black hair, hanging almost past their waists. Both had pale skin and delicate bones. Both had green eyes. Both wore clothes drenched in blood. It didn't matter to the little girl with blond hair, who ran forward crying "Mommy!" One of the women lifted the girl up and hugged her, then jerked her head as if catching a noise.
"Damn. Waphax. Waphax!" She put the girl down and shooed her back. "Goddammit, you son of a whoring bitch, follow me!" She melted back into the shadows, and a pair of yellow, glittering eyes sparkled in the darkness before a shadow moved in the night. Three shots rang out, a cry of pain, and then a terrifying, full blooded roar. A man flew out of the shadows, landing in a crumpled heap. A writhing mass of black descended on him from the sky.
"What in heaven's name-" Henry cried, then realized what these things were. They were huge, slimy, glittering cockroaches. The man thrashed under the blanket of insects as they ate at his body. "Why are they… doing that?"
"Daddy's angry." Lillith whispered. "Really angry." A man strode out of the shadows, eyes glittering an animal yellow in a pale face. He had black hair, a bit longish but not really, and very pointed teeth. He grinned down at the man with heart stopping malevolence. In his arms was the woman Lilith had called "Mommy." He cradled her as if she weighed no more than a child, and Henry, with his doctors eyes, saw she was bleeding from a gunshot wound in the shoulder, the chest, and the ribs. The man, Waphax, grinned and walked past the screaming man. It suddenly stopped screaming. "Daddy?" Lillith whispered.
"Silence."
"Is Mommy okay?"
"If Mom was okay, Lil," John, her brother said as Waphax walked past them, too, "Would Father have done this? In front of us? Father's evil, Lil, but he doesn't try to swing our pendulum. This would."
"Oh."
"Dr. Henry," Natil put a hand on his shoulder, "Dr. Moreau's okay. He can walk. Waphax is taking Ravyn to your League headquarters, so you might wanna follow him. A demon who's mate is wounded is a dangerous thing."
"D-demon?"
"Yes. Now, beloved, come. We must catch up to him. And you must ensure Ravyn Connor lives."
Things will be fleshed out to crystal clarity with time. People introduced etc. These peoples literary origins will be revealed as well. Cao.