A/N- And it begins... I hope you enjoy this chapter, I've been looking forward to writing it!
M&M's to my reviewers:
Hypercaz- Well, not quite! At least, we hope not.
The Princess Anna Valerious- Long? I thought that one was short. It would've been longer, but I worked as fast as I could just for you... satisfied?
Anthem82- I'm really glad you enjoy Cathy so much! She's my baby, I really enjoy her as a character too.
Irish Anor- We all have those days of not wanting to login, all is forgiven!
You know, I've heard of those books but never read them, so I wouldn't know if this was similar!
NO! NO PHANTOM! I'LL START SINGING TOO! -clamping hands over mouth lest she sing- I'm trying to break myself of the habit... I'm always walking around singing it and I get some funny looks! It's a lovely, wonderful, amazing musical, but it gets rather scary when it takes over your life as it has taken over mine!
Now you get to find out what Cathy sees! Sort of.
kydasam- Well, that was meant to make you laugh! I am generally a humorous person. The fun of my friends is always had at my more-than-willing expense.
I am so happy you enjoy Cathy so much! That was a fun chapter for me to write, very eerie. I had expected more action, but I like the way it came out all the same. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Ragweed- And I've returned too! -joins in dancing-
Enjoy!
Chapter Ten:
Betrayed With a Kiss
When Cathy came downstairs the next evening, her face was adorned with a calm, assured smile and her eyes filled with a devilish twinkle that drew the attention of the other two Hunters instantaneously.
"Oh no. I may not have known you long, but I know that smile means you have something up your sleeve." Van Helsing said with a warm smile of his own.
"What makes you think I'm planning something?" Cathy laughed lightly, cracking her neck to both sides. It was a gesture that startled Anna and Van Helsing, who had never seen her do anything like that before. "It's just that there's this new nest that popped up."
"How do you know this and why does that make you happy?" Anna said slowly, suspiciously. Normally Cathy gave them an earful of whining when they dragged her out of bed and plunked her on a horse. She only perked up at the thought of bloodshed, and that usually wasn't until they actually started fighting.
"Oh, it's just that I went out and fed on some deer andman am I charged!" She beamed wickedly, rolling her arms forward in their sockets backwards a few times and then forwards.
"When did you feed? You looked exhausted last night." Van Helsing frowned.
"Oh, I got up early and went out a little before dusk. I'm used to walking around in daylight." Cathy shrugged, rolling her shoulders again. Van Helsing was starting to wonder if she had hurt her joints or something similar when she had gone hunting, but he let it slide.
"Another nest you say?" He sighed, eating the last bite of the eggs Anna had cooked for him.
Of course, with the eggs, bacon and toast he was also served a severe lecture on Anna's thoughts of chauvinistic men as well as a detailed description of what she thought she be done with them. Needless to say, he was considering hiring cook along with Anita instead of learning to cook himself. Married life with Anna was beginning to sound more dangerous than the bachelor life of a Vampire Hunter... but he had never been one to back down from a challenge. This one happened to have the perk of being gorgeous and witty as well as tough.
"Yup. Another nest."
"Do we have to go in now?" Anna asked with a sigh similar to Van Helsing's.
"Jeez, you sound like kids on the first day of school after a long break. Yes, now is the opportune moment. They've just settled in here, so we need to get rid of them before they start establishing territory and gathering up strays as followers. Nip it in the bud." Her fingers made scissoring motions to accompany this statement.
"Very well." Van Helsing sighed. "If it simply won't wait one more night..."
"No." Cathy said gravely. "It won't."
"You are not taking us all the way to the mountains," Anna said firmly. "Not in one day. How can you not be exhausted after last night?"
"I told you, I went out and fed!" Cathy almost snapped at the princess.
"It never affected you this way before."
"Well, sometimes it's different! I dunno, maybe the deer had hormonal issues or it had just gotten high or drunk or something, but right now I just can't stop! We have to get to that nest and kill them. At least help me be productive with my energy." She pleaded.
Anna pursed her lips, looking at the Carpathian Mountains in the distance. Van Helsing leaned against the door of the building where Cathy had wanted them to hire a coach.
"We'll take it more slowly. A day." Cathy sounded defeated as she offered the suggestion. When she was set on something, she hated to compromise. "You can sleep on the coach." Anna, however, didn't seem to be paying any mind to the vampiress at all.
"Those mountains..." She whispered as though she was just seeing them.
"Yes, moooouunnnnttaaiiinnnnssss. Giant rocks. Lots of caves. Good for hiding in."
"What do you see?" Van Helsing spoke with none of Cathy's dripping sarcasm. The day was one of those deceptive ones where the sky was entirely clouded over with grey but light was at its most piercing level. He had to squint as he came to stand next to his fiance.
"Those are the same mountains you led me to a year ago." She turned to look at him now. "When you were going after the Wavewriter." Van Helsing frowned and looked back out over the tiny town, which was more of a place for traveling coaches to stop.
"There are lots of things in those mountains."
"Still." Anna whispered, unable to resist glancing at Cathy out of the corner of her eye.
The vampire stared back at her, gold eyes suddenly hard as steel. She was daring her to challenge what she was saying about the clan up there.
"She saved you. How could you doubt her?" Van Helsing's whisper felt superfluous to him. The woman he was talking about was standing about five feet from him and had supernatural hearing. No matter how low they pitched their voice she would hear. The only way they could have a private conversation short of walking away from her was by telepathy, and even then he wasn't so sure she couldn't tap into their minds. Cathy did have a way of pulling tricks out of her hat.
"I don't know. Maybe I just don't feel like traveling." She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. "Last night..." She trailed off and shivered again; Gabriel wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back against his chest, dropping a kiss on the crown of her head and then resting his cheek there. When his beloved gypsy princess spoke again, her voice was distinctly small. "I felt something. Something terrifying. Something I don't ever want to be under the power of again." Gabriel bent down so that they were nearly cheek to cheek and whispered in her ear:
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." 1 He clasped her hand in one of his and then held them out. Her engagement ring and his claddagh glinted in the piercing light. "Trust, friendship and love. You said that this ring is the symbol of your trust in me, and yours is the symbol of my love for you. If I love you and trust Cathy and you say you trust me, how can you not trust her too?" He kissed her cheek lingeringly.
"You're right." Anna smiled faintly, closing her eyes. "I was the one telling you to trust that I could take care of myself, and you were right that I needed Cathy to save me this one time. I guess I'll just have to trust both of you again." With that, she turned around and planted a kiss on his mouth.
When they broke away her eyes went immediately to Cathy. At some point during their quiet talk she had averted her eyes and then cast her head down completely so that her hair cascaded in front of her face. There was more than just simple courtesy behind the action.
"We'll take the coach. Give us a day of rest and we'll be ready for anything you want." Anna said firmly, still holding one of Gabriel's hands. Cathy looked up at the sound of her voice.
"Alright. Just one day." Then she looked away again, and seemed to be talking to herself. "Just one day won't kill me."
Anna truly, truly, truly despised these mountains.
She had even considered giving them their own name. They seemed an entirely separate entity from the Carpathians. Magic was abound here, and for her mistrust. The way Gabriel had led her this way and that through the mountains in search of the Wavewriter was the same way Cathy was leading them. Regardless of what she had said to Van Helsing, she still didn't like this.
"Where is this clan?" Anna asked, out of breath. They had paused in a small clearing with several trees. It was one of many that lined a ridge they had been hiking along.
"Not far from here. Just around the bend, in a cave." Cathy looked around, keen gold eyes searching. She had only been out of breath for a minute or two; she seemed perfectly refreshed now. "You two should rest here. I'll scout ahead a little." She turned and started to leave, but as she did, she tripped and almost fell. Normally she might've given them a rant to laugh about for minutes, but instead her whole body tensed. Her hands opened and closed convulsively and to Van Helsing it suddenly seemed like she might cry.
"What, am I drunk or something?" She choked out before storming away. Anna and Van Helsing shared a glance and knew that she had not been talking to them.
"I'll be right back." Gabriel said moments later, giving Cathy enough room to control herself before following. There was no need for him to have his head lopped off by an irrational- not to mention irate -vampire before he got on to the real challenge.
Cathy hadn't gone that far, just to a clearing far enough away so that if she cried she would not be heard. Just far enough away so that she wouldn't cause any harm.
Any unintentional harm, that is. There are harms that can be caused from far away too, like a siren singing a sailor to his doom.
Van Helsing watched her start as he stepped on a branch. She had probably sensed him coming; he was downwind, and if you looked through the trees at the right angle you could see all the way back to the place where Anna was watching.
"Careless." She snorted with weak acid, hearing him.
"Intentional. No need to sneak up on you." Gabriel corrected, walking to stand beside her. She was sitting on a rock, her back to him. Directly ahead of them was a cliff, around which ran a narrow shelf he presumed they'd be using to cross. It led to an opening in the mountain. "Is that the cave?" She just nodded. He sat beside her and waited a minute before asking his next question. "So, what was that about being drunk?" At first Cathy shook her head viciously, vehemently, but it slowed as Van Helsing said nothing. He waited for her to come to him. She uttered two words when she did.
"Watcher Boy." The two words were silly ones, but like the nonsensical smile of a Cheshire cat it was curved and could cut. That probably made it more like a scythe. There was a deep, deep, deep pain in those words, bone-deep, soul-deep. A pain that had crossed centuries with her and had not faded.
"Adrian Berkley, I suppose I should say. He was... a friend. A great friend. A bit goofy. Loved to play pinball, and he was damn good at it too. Sometimes he was a bit clueless, but at the same time he was one of the smartest ones of us. He and Carl would have interesting conversations. We argued constantly. He and I loved getting drunk together..."
"I see." Gabriel said quietly, nodding.
He hadn't intended to go further than that; he'd intended just to sit there beside her, wait until she was ready to call Anna to them and go fight another battle. Another battle that probably brought back memories of a place over a century removed from them, a place that didn't exist yet. People whom she had spent years of her life fighting next to, living and dying with them. He didn't want to press into those wounds, not when they were already weighing on her. That was that sorrow that stole over her when no one was looking: a deep yearning for home, and for friends.
"You always hear about the fatalities of war. The ones who didn't come home. But what of we who have to live with our scars? What of those who are left behind? Why are we forgotten? All of us live and fight in anonymity on the same battlefield. Only when we die are our sacrifices recognized and applauded. Do we have to die to be noticed and thanked?" She turned to him, her face hidden mostly by a trick of the light and the fall of her hair. But there was a desperation in her voice, an emptiness that was all too clear. She was tired of being alone, cursed with being the one who could live through all those physical trials with nothing but scars that she would bear through eternity. Because that was the other side of the coin, the price she paid to be a vampire. "Have you ever felt like that before?" She asked timidly.
"Always." Gabriel replied, not meeting her eyes when he said it.
"I've said too much." Cathy said abruptly, standing and making to walk off.
"There's nothing wrong with what you've said." Gabriel replied, standing and catching her arm. "None of us can make it alone in this. We all need help once in a while."
"No, not me. I have to be able to stand alone. If I can't, then there'll come a day when I will have finally lost everyone and I will be alone and then I'll die too. I have to survive for those who have already been lost. Ihave to." Her words got faster and faster, more and more passionate.
"Let me help you." Gabriel said, his voice slow and firm.
Looking down into her face, he watched a change go over it. She looked briefly away, almost coy, and then back at him. There was something darker in those gold eyes than before, something more primal. It was something those gold eyes had hinted at before, the darkness inside. Cathy had an excellent hold on her demon, but no vampire would ever be able to completely control it. And there it was, staring up at him, the serpent offering the apple.
He felt a change coming over himself. He felt himself falling into those gold eyes, into that dark place of old instincts and bestial urges. Before he knew it her hands were on his neck, crushing him to her, their lips pressed together with brutal force. He was holding her as hard as she held him, two creatures of the darkness locked together.
It was a rough kiss, almost painful, with nothing tender in it. But to Anna, watching from the clearing, it didn't make a difference.
Gabriel left Cathy in the clearing at her command, going to get Anna instead of calling her over.
The gypsy princess was sitting on a log, looking out over Transylvania. If she knew Gabriel was there, she gave no sign.
"Anna, we're ready to go." His tongue stumbled over the words. His world was reeling; he felt lost and dazed. Everything became suddenly, painfully clear when he locked eyes with his fiancee.
"I understand." Anna said, her eyes as soft and sad as her voice. She suddenly seemed like an angel of mercy, granting him pardon from above. "You are so much alike. You are both called murderers and monsters, and yet you spend every day of your life fighting evil. You want to help her..." Here, at last, there was a very human moment of hesitation. She looked down but didn't cry, always the strong one. When she looked back up, the ring was off her finger and into his hand. "Far be it from me to stop you." It was far from Gabriel to stop her as she walked away. With that angel of mercy light flew suddenly from his world. He had fought for her, crossed time for her, spent every night crying for her. She had been added to his nightmares, and then to his dreams, and now she was gone.
In the absence of light, there is always enough darkness to take its place. He felt something falling over him again, making him turn around and meet Cathy's eyes. He was drawn back to that primal darkness, away from the light. He followed her without question.
She led him into the cave and there, in that second darkness that was nothing to theirs, they found a staircase. He moved feebly to take her hand when he almost slipped and at first she started and glared at him, eyes shining in the dark, then her face relaxed and she allowed him to hold it.
She released his hand when they reached the mountaintop and pulled away slightly. Van Helsing was left standing there, looking at her. That old sadness stole over her, not hidden now, as she walked around to stand on the other side of him. His back was now to a circle of trees, somewhat imperfect but a circle nonetheless. That sadness was in her eyes, in her touch, as she reached up to brush some hair away, her cool hand resting lightly on his cheek. It was the sadness of a lost mate in her eyes, that sadness that made him wrap his arms around her and kiss her again. This time it was almost soft, almost tender.
Cathy was the first to pull away- he knew she would be. Rome wasn't built in a day. That sadness would be there for a long time- maybe forever.
"God, I can't do this." She whispered hoarsely, one hand resting on his chest.
The breath was knocked out of Van Helsing with the forced of her push. His back hit a tree and then he whirled around it, falling on his face in the snow. The enchantment was broken when he looked up; he knew what had been done. He knew where he was.
Strong arms reached out to grab him and there was sudden heat at his back. He struggled wildly but couldn't break free, turning to see the portal behind him.
The Wavewriter's door is a doorway to Hell. Carl had said once.
Van Helsing went down fighting, but the slender woman with skin white as foam, eyes the color of the sea and golden hair with frothy curls dragged him easily with her, winking once at Cathy before she disappeared.
"Hm. Maybe I can." Cathy said with a soft, wicked smile.
The second that smile was gone she crumpled, hacking coughs escaping her throat. She looked around and couldn't remember where she was.
"No..." She whispered with the first tears, looking down at her chest and seeing the pendant clamped down there. She had bled on that pendant... "No... No... No..." She whispered it again and again until it was a scream. The vampiress wrenched herself away from that place, from the place where she had delivered her friend into Hell.
Her mind went blank with rage and fear as she entered the cave with its stairs. She almost fell down the last few. She wanted to crumple to the ground again when she reached their end, but she wouldn't let herself. She was going to go down standing.
With one hard jerk, she pulled the pendant out from her skin and ignored the neat circle of holes it had made. Slowly, she raised her pendant so that it dangled before her, glinting in the light that was as feeble as all her resistance. She smiled at it, equal parts hateful and despairing. They were almost like old friends by now. But this old friend got other friends killed.
Only a few more tears, she promised herself, her head tipped back. Just cry a little more. Shhh, it'll all be alright soon.
"I think I'm ready to let go now." She whispered to the frigid air- although that wasn't why she was shaking -to a voice inside only she could hear.
Her eyes slid closed as she closed her hands hard around the sharps spikes of the pendant and felt the blood run thick through her clenched fingers. With one more hard jerk- just one more, it's almost all over now -the chain snapped. The pendant slid out of her slick grasp to land on the ground.
With the impact her eyes snapped open and all the gold seemed to flee in rays of frightened light as black consumed them, rendering her blind. The veins in her eyes throbbed and she cried out from the pain, but it was too late to turn back now, too far past the point of no return. All at once, red began to flood the whites of her eyes and it overflowed, spilling out in tears of blood. When at last she opened her eyes, Cathy could see again... through eyes of black-on-red. Without warning, she exploded into bits of blood and skin. But before the pieces could hit the ground, they swirled around and, like a video on rewind, formed Cathy's body again. But this time, the hair was pure, rich ebony. The whites of her eyes were the deepest blood red, and instead of having a pupil and an iris, there was only a black circle.
Chaos's smile was calm and assured; a devilish twinkle lit up her eyes. She cracked her neck both ways, unfazed by her nakedness, and then spoke:
"Good to finally get out..."
A/N- That chapter reminds me of Bloodbath, a chapter in RIT... don't ask me why... Oh, and Adrian Berkley is not my character. He belongs to a dear friend and- in case anyone hadn't guessed -was Cathy's love interest on the RPG. Of course, so much as mention the word romance near them and they'd practically attack you.
So, let me know what you think... I can't say when the next update will be, but reviews are always a nice impetus.
1 Yes, I am aware of the fact that this quote had not yet been said in 1889. I don't care! Poetic license!
