Lust for Darkness
-Overcome-
A/N: Hello my dears... I write again, so enamored am I of my characters. I hope you enjoy as much as I do. That doesn't mean I shall be doing this every chapter but... who knows? I was inspired by my reviewers to continue writing this. Please do not get angry with me for adding two more characters; Corpse and Rell. They are crows and spies working for an unamed master. I am eager to get further into the story and so I think I shall combine my earlier and much shorter chapters. I want to include all this involving Pyramus, Astarael the crows and the Master as they will be in the story later on. Thank you for reading as always , please r&r -Love Azzy
IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS IS A COMBINATION OF CHAPTER 4 & THE NEW CHAPTER 5 ENJOY
Draco stopped outside the deplicated old house that he ment to enter. A small smile flitted over his features as he remembered how scared he had been in his third year. Then, the Shreiking Shack had seemed foreboding, menancing and grim. Today he viewed it with new eyes. It was empty and cold. The house was broken and beaten and left there to rot.
He felt a strange sort of pity for it, the house. No one would dare come close to it, it had been marked as evil. Fear controled the mind, Draco knew. He had not conquered it yet. He had seen many horrors but the world was vast and its shadows dark.
He ran a slim pale hand over the warped wood, careful to avoid splinters. He would enter the house through the front door. The many boards that had sealed the entrace had taken a beating by the elements. They had snapped under the pressure of a fallen tree, leaving a hole like a gaping wound in the door. Picking his way over the massive trunk he dodged the rusty nails that poked from the hanging boards. Sliding into darkness, he felt his heart ease. For a while he would be free from social expectations, his father's wrath, and the fools who pretended to know him.
Draco walked slowly, his attention captured by the unfamilar corners and doors. Thin shafts of light filtered through the gaps between wooden boards at odd interveals. They could never really penetrate the darkness that clung, like the smell of smoke to the skeletal house.
Its funny... he thought idly, that everyone is so afraid this place when inside it's empty... empty like me. His hand abslently caressed a brass doorknob while he wandered in search of what... he could not name. He found himself infront of a staircase and, pulled by some mysterious force, he climed. He walked into the last room on the left and was struck by a gust of cool air. The only window in this room had been broken. Half of the glass still stood in place. The sun emerged and filled the room with a sudden light, and Draco threw up his hands to block the light. Slowly he lowered his arms and looked at the window in silent wonder.
The sun light had clearly illuminated the beautiful, albeit broken, stained glass window. The image was that of an angel with black wings reaching up to heaven. The glass sounding him was a deep crimson red. Draco wondered why something so beautiful had been destroyed. He bent down and picked up a piece of the broken glass, it was a woman's face framed by red hair. The rest of her body had been destroyed.
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Came a soft voice.
Draco turned slowly, the bit of glass still in his hand. A man stood in the doors frame, cloaked in black. The phrase "Death Eater" sprang into Draco's mind first, but that wasn't right. "Who are you...?" He asked slowly, still caught in the dream-like spell. His senses and reflexes had not yet taken control of his mind.
"You may call me Pyramus, although more impolite names are used among the lesser beings." He said smoothly.
Draco nodded as if accepting the truth behind thoses words. "Im..." He began, but Pyramus interupted him. "Let me guess... " He drawled. "You're not a Malfoy are you?" Pyramus asked, his voice hinting of amusement and snide inflection. Draco wondered if it was that obvious, that a complete and total stranger should identify him. "Yes... I am. And what buisness of it is yours?" He said forcing the words to come out harsh. However he could not fully raise the cocky mask he normaly wore, and his grey eyes were not icy like his words.
But if Pyramus chose to judge him, then Draco was determined to play the part.
NOTE: This Is After Pyramus leaves Astarael and before he meets with Draco in the shreiking shack. My apologies for any confusion.
Pyramus forced his way through the crowds; his patience with those fools had gone, leaving his nerves raw. It seemed uncontrivable that after all these years Astrael could affect him so strongly. He thanked the Gods that it was not often he ran into the damnable creature.
"Hey, Watch where you're going!" A burly man shouted as Pyramus roughly shoved him out of the way. For a moment Pyramus stopped and stood motionless. The man took advantage of his pause and drew his wand. Pyramus turned to face the wizard, he slowly licked his extended canines. The wizard opened his mouth to yell but was silenced by the glare of Pyramus' red eyes.
"Foolish mortal," He spat. "your death will be mine." The wizard, so eager to fight a moment ago fell to his knees in fright. He begged for his miserable life, but when he looked up the vampire had gone.
Pyramus entered the line of trees and began swearing loadly and in the many languages he knew. It was impressive the array of curses he knew. But shouting them did not ease the aggitation that settled on his soul. He would walk until his feet could no longer bear it, and maybe then the fires of hate and anger could be quenched.
A crow flapped its wings and cawed racously to its fellow as they watched the figure below. He fumed in anger, they observed, cursing long and lound as humans so often did. The crows cackled wildly. They knew many curses in their own language that they flung at him now.
Of course the vampire would not understand them. Even their Master was not that adept at crow speak. It was not often the crows pledged their alligance to anyone, they were unconcerned with politics and wars. But they willing entered into the service of the vampire they called "Master". They had been promised the bodies of the dead to feast on, and plenty gold trinkets in reward. It was a glorious offer.
The crows, brothers by the names of Corpse and Rell, had preened modestly when their Master had called them the best. They did not deny the thruth of it though. The Master had sent his spies to find a formidable vampire that had dissapeared. They found him quickly despite the speculation of the vampire the Master comanded work with them.
She was a haughty one, Corpse had thought, and Rell had readily agreed. "Dumb" She had called them. "Worthless" She sneered baring her fangs in contempt. In retaliation Rell had "accidently" splattered his droppings upon her clothes. Corpse itched to rip the shiny red hair out of her head, but he refrained. "ASTARAEL" The Master had shouted in his loud voice. Internally the crows laugh at her fear. She bowed at his feet and begged for forgiveness. Still, the Master insisted that his crows put up with her. His words of flattery and praise coupled with a diamond for each brother bought their willing cooperation.
Rell clacked his beak to signal his brother, and Corpse abandoned his memories and looked up. The vampire Pyramus was begining to move out of sight. Rather reluctantly he spread his black pinions and flew from the comfortable perch they shared in the tall poplar tree. Artfully they dodged the many trees as they flew close to the ground. They were silent, they understood the need to be unnoticed. They followed him as he ran himself to exhaustion. When he stopped Corpse and Rell alighted on a jack pine at the edge of a small clearing. They watched as he sat and stared moodily into the stream. Rell shifted and nudged his brother slightly, they rolled their eyes, it looked like they would be there for quite some time.
Pyramus sat in silence, he had fianlly lost the burning edge of his anger. He allowed the soft music of the stream to invade his his thoughts to drown out everything else. It wasn't long before the blissful serenity faded and he was asaulted by the aura of a human. Pyramus growled low in his throat his violet eyes quickly shifting back to red.
He was in a mood to shed some blood.
A/N: I did some of writing about the house from Draco's perspective. He viewed it as "marked" by evil, as empty, cold, and beaten. This is Draco's self-pity moment. He doesn't go far with words to describe what he feels but he associates himself with the house. So what do you think of that?