Chapter V Metamorphosis
After the drive back to Walnut Creek, the four Cainites made their way into Klaus estate to continue their conversations. Hanz walked Angelique to the large double doors and left to pick up a "drink" for the rest of the guests. Angelique, Killian and Klaus spent their time making themselves comfortable in the main drawing room chatting about local events and various curiosities of popular culture in the Americas.
"So Killian, what brings you here to the East Bay. If you tell me you are a California I will certainly not believe you, unless perhaps you are one hell of a liar." Klaus questioned and made use of a small antique snuff bottle.
"Well, I was just travlin' around Europe, like I said, I am a musician, I tour a lot and I caught wind of the war goin on down here and thought I would take a stab at finding me self a good fuckin pack to run with. How's it that you all come here. None of ya lot seem to be from this country either. You boys sound German or something and she sounds French , it this all a big fuckin coincidence, everyone commin over from Europe all of a sudden?."
"No, everything happens for a reason my dear. Most of us heard the call at Palle Gande in Mexico City. I was shown this place by the other Angels, you see I am somewhat of a prophet for our sect. They told me that this is the next great battle in our Holy Crusade."
Sudden slam of a door and heavy footsteps interrupted the conversation as Hanz returned with a blood stained shirt carrying an unconscious man who reeked of whiskey.
"Here you go. You said you like them Irish. I do not know if he is Irish but he had an accent and was drinking Bushmills-good enough." He said as he dropped the body at Killian's feet like a cat presenting the remains of a bird on his human's doorstep.
Killian nodded her thanks and kicked the man hard in the ribs to revive him from his stupor so that he would be aware of what was about to happen to him. Each Vampire laid clam to a choice spot on the drunken mortal's body as they dug their fangs deep into his warm flesh, lapping up his welling blood. The victims garbled screams and attempts to push off his attackers became whisky laden moans as the kiss took effect. He was soon silenced as his heart ran out of blood to fuel his veins for the greedy parasites who were determined to enjoy every last drop. Appetite satiated, Klaus stood and gestured to Angelique.
"Do you still want your present?"
She slowly nodded and smiled innocently blinking her eyes the way a patient child would when expecting treat.
Klaus escorted the three Cainites to his bedchamber sanctuary leading Hanz and Angelique to his large inviting bed and bid them to disrobe. Killian, unsure what was to come, kept a safe distance, finding seating on the large marble steps on at the bedrooms entrance, an escape rout to her back at all times. Klaus removed his clothing and anointed the two on the bed with sacred oils and holy symbols. Prayers began to fill the room in Latin in German almost seeming to overlap, their meaning lost somewhere in translations. He took Hanz' powerful hand in his and intertwined their fingers and did the same with Angelique's slender digits. As he spoke, he let his mind seep into Hanz' psyche, thumbing thorough his memories like and old family photo album. He shared Hanz pain with her, snapshots of his joyless upbringing and his years with the Hitler jungen trying to become the perfect solider for the Fürher-seeking some form of guidance and acceptance in a impoverished country. What sweet perfection, the blade was sharp tonight and Klaus' cuts were precise and expertly angled. He stopped on the bitter mortal memory when Hanz first met Angelique back in Germany. Her boyfriend at the time, Hanz' superior, wished to punish his woman for her insolence and he had ordered Hanz to rape her in front of the entire company to teach her what a whore she truly was. Feelings for this beautiful, fragile seeming woman whom he has seen on many occasions walking arm in arm with the general, ones he had never admitted to even himself, had to be pushed aside as he followed his commanding officer's orders and forced his way inside of her on that squeaking army bunk in front of a jeering crowd of soldiers. Klaus dissected and prepared the memory of how Hanz saw her the next day and the guilt he had felt over his weakness, his inability to listen to his own voice and disobey orders. She was bruised, with a bandage over her right eye, obviously a new present from her beau-she would never see the world the same again thanks to his love and the world would see her as a freak with one eye that stares through a milky white cloud beyond the blood drenched atmosphere of wartime Germany.
But more, more was needed and there was so much more to be given. Klaus resurrected the rage that impregnated Hanz over the indignities that he was ordered to commit against a woman he cared so much for. A rage that drove the little solider to the murder the General going against the strict regiment he has build his life upon. An act that labeled him a traitor to Duchland, an act that led his comrades to shoot him down like a Jew in the street that would ultimately lead to his embrace into Caine's army. A new Furher to control his path when other had failed. Each bullet his comrades fired at him cut through his soul and became metals of failure and dishonor. Something inside him died before his body even hit the ground and Klaus was determined to give Angelique a front row seat to the funeral procession. But there was so much more pain to be had, so much further for Klaus to drive before Hanzel discovered the destination.
He pushed forward and stopped when he found the memory of Angelique's lesson, the knowledge of Hanz' paternity. Klaus drove the knife deeper into Hanz frail brain and let the memory of pain and emotion of the situation flood his senses which he then passed like a dirty whisper into Angelique's eagerly awaiting mind. A sad smile of satisfaction passed her lips as she acknowledge her lesson has been learned well that evening. Her palate had been wetted and Klaus was determined to give her something even tastier.
In plunged the knife searching for a vital organ-information that Hanz did not want to pass onto Angelique. The blade found purchase in a memory of Hanz' horror and disgust, not of his child but of the thought that he created something that was not pure. His child was tainted, a mongrel, a mixed breed not of pure Arian blood. Hanz tried to struggle out of Klaus' grip but the spider had already caught the fly and the struggle only entrenched him deeper into the web. Angelique clutched her stomach as phantom pains of labor swepted over her body. However in one fleeting moment lost in madness and power as Klaus raped Hanz memory of the presentation of his daughter and his love for Angelique he failed to cover his presence in the room that night. As the memory replayed on a variable loop each circuit extracting a new facet to Hanz pain there was one fleeting moment of the memory where Hanz saw Klaus standing in the corner of Christopher study watching the events unravel before him. Something he had never notice before but would not soon forget.
Deeper, he need to drive deeper into both of them so that they would never forget this evening and it would forever become a new festering entry in their book of pain.
And there is was.
In just a flash of light like the glint of the sun off a steel blade, Klaus gave Angelique a glimmer of the putrid human emotion that Hanz felt for her, a desire for her love in exchange for his own. Angelique doubled over in the pain of seeing into Hanz humanity, something so foul and deplorable in their world of Vampiric superiority that it made her weep. The arousal at their discomfort and his power over their minds was so intense that it was hard for Klaus to control his steely concentrations. He wanted to laugh and revel in Hanzels' vulnerability. He could feel his Hanz cry out under the pressure of his mind trying desperately not to let him revel any more of his private thoughts to the woman he loved. But the damage had already been done, and so the Angel let them go satisfied in the storm he has created.
Hanz grasped his temples and swung his legs over the edge of the bed silently hung his head between his knees. Angelique collapsed into the fetal position onto the bed. Still weeping, she tenderly stroked her stomach in memoriam of her lost child. Killian stared wide eyed prepared for anything. She was not entirely certain what had jut happened but she was sharp enough to know that the situation could explode into violence at any moment.
Klaus let the silence blanket the room. Several minutes passed before he slowly crawled up behind Angelique to cradle her like a child would seek comfort from its mother. She accepted his embrace stroking him tenderly.
Seeing this tenderness towards this vile little monster that had just violated every trust he had confided in him awoke Hanz from his daze. A flame erupted in his eyes that sought to scorch the object of his wrath. Killian immediately sensed the shift in the young solider emotions and came up to his side, grasping gently at his clenched fist.
"Hey do you smoke? I could sure use a smoke. Ya know this place is so big I am not sure if I can find my way out, wanna come out an smoke with me? I could use an escort." She kept her cool and used her natural charm to distract the young Brujah Antitribu. He conceded to her rouse and quickly threw on his clothes and led Killian outside.
Fully aware of what was happing around him, Klaus indulged in a secret smile knowing that his strike had struck deeply into the young Cainite's soul.
After a few moments, Angelique still naked and vulnerable, found her satisfaction in the pain that Klaus had helped Hanz to give her. Her naked back still spooned into Klaus small frame she began to slowly brush and move her body into the young boy's caressing curves. She was offering herself to him as a gift for his diligence and dedication to Hanz' education. Klaus was not sure how to take this advance, but he was never one to turn down a gift. Part of him decided that this was unneeded and it was time to leave the room but once again something in him lurched forwarded and spun at her attention. If Hanz were to come back in for his keys, he would see them together indulging in a very intimate moment, it may just drive him over the edge. The next step in the assignation of his soul must be to kill the love he has for this haunting apparition of a woman. What is it that Hanz felt when he was with her? Why did he have the ability to see the world through a mans eyes when Klaus could not? What must it feel like to be inside his skin and part of Angelique's body?
Klaus' face twisted an warped silently as he pushed though his own memories of Hanz' psyche. He need to be part of the soldiers' mind to find out what was needed to destroy him. His normally auburn locks shorted and and took on a golden hue. His thin, almost feminine body visibly broadened and took on an older form. The Angel had transformed into the Solider. Angelique's advances continued unaware of the change that had taken place in the creature behind her. The Solider grabbed her hip fiercely in one had and the back of her neck with the other pushing her face further from his one and pushing himself deep inside her. She cried out and bit down on his forearm drawing the blood from his veins and into her egger mouth. Klaus bit down on the nape of her neck ingesting all the memories he had collected of Hanz most intimate moments with Angelique. His head swam with the Solider memories and emotions as he thrust harder into her taught flesh. In all his existence, Klaus had never felt was to physically and aggressively dominate another Kindred. This was a new sensation, empowering and intoxicating in way unlike his uncanny ability to force his will and the voice of creation upon the minds of others. In this moment he was no longer the boy but the Solider. He was Hanz in body and even in loathsome humanistic mind.
The two canites released each other from their grasp, still intoxicated by the kiss. As Angelique twisted her body to face her lover he caught a fleeting glimpse of blond hair and a muscular form staring back at her though steely blue eyes. But even in the instant that her eyes connected the visage to her mind, the face change and she lay next to the Angel. She dismissed the strange vision that she though she had just seen and kissed Klaus on the forehead as heavy footsteps made their way done the hall and towards the bedroom.
Hanz threw open the heavy doors. The heavy scent of blood letting still air dominate the as Angelique was putting on her cloths. He stood their silently, as she finished dressing and nodded her goodbyes making her way out the door like a ghost in the night.
"Where are my keys Klaus." His voice trembled in anger. If he had only come in a few moment sooner he would have seen the two of them together. It would have been all too perfect. A new web would have to be woven.
"Oh, but it is such a lovely evening Hanzel and Angelique did so enjoy her gift. You could just stay a bit longer, or the night." Klaus was toying with him. Although the boy abhorred experiencing physical pain he know that to progress in the assignation of Hanz's mortal soul that he must bate the beast that lurked inside him. And the beast was always a violent predator.
"Why are you doing this to me! You said you were my friend how can you do this, you know what I feel for her!" Hanz yelled as he moved towards the bed.
Klaus rose and moved quickly towards has old pack mate.
"Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? You idiot boy, I am doing this because you asked me too!" Klaus' form undulated and warped until it reflect Hanzels own visage.
" You make me sick Hanzel you reek of mortal flesh and emotion you are no better than a blood cow! 'Help me Klaus, save me. Teach me to find a new path in my tortuous existence.' I do this because you begged me too! You told me you were strong but you are too weak to even face yourself." Klaus screamed at Hanzel secretly bracing for the blow that he knew would eventually come.
Confronted by this screaming reflection of himself, Hanz let loose his fire in a bust of unfathomable speed as his fist slammed into Klaus, shattering his delicate jaw. His was what Klaus was waiting for. The beast inside of Hanz was about to appear and must be caged before it come completely free so that Hanz can come face to face with what he truly is. Klaus opened his mouth and let the voice of God explode from the within the storm.
Hanz grasped his head as the world turned into a multitude of colors around him. His eyes were bulging from his head and he was certain at a colony of insects had begun to chew their way through his flesh. The sound was unbearable and Hanz collapsed within himself under the weight, trapped in his own mind.
Klaus undressed Hanz' body and dragged him onto the waiting bed. He wiped the bloody drool from off the young mans face and propped a pillow under his head. His eyes were still open but they saw nothing but the inner workings of his own mind. Klaus nursed his own shattered jaw and then curled up next to Hanz in bed to await the dawn and the oblivion of immortal sleep.