They Wouldn't Believe You
Disclaimer: I don't own it, end of story... But not this story thankfully, It would never leave me alone if I tried to abandon it. Lol
AN: I'm so, so, so, so sorry that this took so long. After I put it aside because of my collage work (which took longer than I planned anyway) my writing was a lot harder to get back into than I had thought it would be. Hopefully the next one wont be anywhere near as late as this one now that I'm back in the swing of things.
A huge thanks to my Beta, Ananke Adrasteia, who has been a big help in trying to get me to fix my grammar... I just hope she realises what a lost cause I am lol... I'm joking, I'm joking! Writing this fanfic has done wonders for my spelling, don't see why it cant help my grammar too :)
Now if only my English teachers had managed to get me this motivated in school...
And last but certainly not least, to my reviewers, a huge THANK YOU! You have been a big encouragement. And don't panic guys and gals! The story for this, as it exists in my head, is huge. It has been bouncing around my brain for months and months now, and now I have started to write it down I don't plan on stopping, not yet at least!
Chapter 7: Seen and Unseen
She was drifting, warm and comfy as white lights flashed ahead, the feeling of movement threading its way through her consciousness as voices filtered through to her sleepy mind, pulling her to the surface.
"What happened to her?"
"Mild hypothermia, at least on the face of it. Some signs of exhaustion too."
"Hypothermia? In this weather?"
Hypothermia? Ah, yes. I was feeling cold wasn't I? Didn't think I was quite that cold...am I in hospital?
"Apparently. Though she isn't exactly dressed for it: no coat, no hat - and there is a bite to the air tonight, about four points below freezing last I heard. They said she had collapsed outside - someone called for help and when they went to investigate, they found her unconscious."
"Who called for help if she was unconscious?"
"They don't know. It was a male voice but whoever it was, wasn't there when they reached her."
"A male voice...?"
...Raziel... he really saved my life didn't he? I wonder where he is?
"She had no signs of abuse but her sleeve was ripped, she had a few scratches and her left shoulder showed some signs of bruising. The rip and scratches were probably down to the bramble thorns found caught on her clothes but the bruising is more likely to have been caused by a bad fall or a similar strain."
"This was at old Annabel's place right? What the hell was she doing outside?"
"They don't know. The police will want to question her as soon as she wakes up."
... Oh bugger...
The sun shone bright and clear in a way that only really happened in dreams. She was warm now, she was glad to observe; the cold had a nasty habit of making itself known in dreams - so in that respect, she knew she was safe. She was sitting under a tree, old and twisted but beautiful as very old trees could be. The tree lay in a clearing in a very slight hollow in the land, lush forest lay all around, green and very much alive. Opposite the tree a rock was jutting out of the ground, sloping, so that one end was taller than her - but you could walk up there from the other end. The rock was side on from the tree so she could see both the tall end and the end that disappeared into the ground. On the highest point sat a man in his mid- to late twenties, thin and willowy, like Brianne. His long, brown hair that sported a very slight curl was swept back in a fairly loose ponytail that just brushed his shoulder blades.
Brianne smiled "Its been a while."
The man turned to look at her, smiling back. "I suppose it has, although -" he said as he stood up and made his way to the edge of the rock, "- that really is a matter of perspective." His eyes were brilliant green, just as she remembered, his nose slightly crooked but only a little, his smile as warm as ever. He jumped down, then mock-bowed before holding his arms out to her. Grinning, she ran the short space between them to be pulled into a huge hug.
"Hay, dad," she said into his shoulder. A few loose strands of his hair tickled her nose.
"Hay," he murmured back.
"Missed you."
"I know." He pulled back, letting her go to lean against the rock. was still smiling faintly, but had grown more serious. "I hear you have been getting into some... interesting situations lately."
"Well, kinda," she muttered, moving to lean against the rock next to him, side by side.
"Kinda? Is the sea kinda wet?"
"No." She grinned despite herself, but then turned serious. "Things have gone completely off the wall dad, I don't know what to do."
"You want to talk about it?" I wasn't a question, not really. He already knew.
"People are dying," she choked out, her fears, regret and guilt bubbling to the surface. "People are dying, innocent people, because they killed them and I was the one who called them. It's my fault, I did this, it's- I -" She couldn't stop herself. The first tears had fallen before she could catch them.
He turned back to face her, pulling her close again, "Hush." He held her, letting her cry what tears needed to be shed, offering support and comfort while she recovered. "You can't change that they are here, no one can, but" he stepped back to look her in the eyes, "you can't back out of this, you must stay with them. Even when things get so difficult that you can't think of another way but to leave, you must stand by them."
"What?" She hadn't expected that. "Why? They are dangerous!"
"Yes, they are, but you must have a little trust in them, there is a lot going on here, a lot at stake."
"But what? What's happening? Dad?"
"I'm sorry Brianne, truly sorry, but it is not my place to say."
"Why not? I don't understand."
"You will, soon enough. Take care, Bree, I have faith in you."
"Dad?"
"No," said a voice to her side she felt was quite out of place in the wood. "it's just me dear, you were dreaming."
"What?" She blinked, confused for a moment. A white ceiling loomed above her; everything smelled of cleaning fluid. She was lying in a bed in a small room - by herself, surprisingly enough. A few machines lined the wall next to her bed. A small TV was set on the wall at the end of the bed; next to it there was a clock which read 10:56. Light was streaming in through the slats in the blinds at the window. Annabel was sat next to her on her left, between her and the door, folding up a magazine and setting it on the table next to her. "I'm in hospital, right?"
"Yes, the one in the village, nothing major. It's just for a little while, I imagine, just so that we are sure you're alright."
"Am I?"
Annabel smiled warmly at her. "Yes, I don't see why not."
"That's good, I suppose." She remembered what she had heard before the dream, "Are the police going to want to talk to me?"
"Yes." The smile faded.
"Oh."
"Do you know what you are going to say to them?"
"No idea."
"Hmm, I suggest that you think about that," Annabel shrugged, "we can hardly tell them the truth."
"No, they wouldn't believe us if we did."
"If anything, we would be earning ourselves a one way trip to a psychiatrist." Annabel laughed at her own joke, even though what she said was probably true. She glanced up at the clock and got up to turn on the TV. It was just the finale of another decorating show. Annabel ignored it and sat back down. Turning back to Brianne, she asked what had happened last night after they had been separated.
Hesitantly at first, Brianne slowly began to fill her in on everything that had happened, from the moment Raziel had switched his attention to her to her last memory of him carrying her back towards Annabel's home. "But what about you? And Kain? Where did he go?"
Sighing, Annabel was quiet for a moment before she began to speak. "I'm no expert in the - shall we say: needs?- of a creature such as him. However, from what I could tell he hadn't been feeding anywhere near what he is accustomed to - and Raziel, well, you saw what he was like. Between the hunger and the fight, he had been pushed too far. It was just as well Raziel's focus switched when it did." She was silent again, gathering her thoughts. On the TV, the home improvement show had just ended; the last of the credits were just fading. "As he led me away, he told me not to fear for your safety, but he warned me that I must not interfere - that while Raziel may not be a danger to you, he was still a danger to me."
"How would he know that?" And why would he care?
"I don't know. He seemed confident in his prediction though. Once he had led me closer to the house, close enough to see the lights again, he just stopped and I thought he was going to collapse." Brianne was sitting up in the bed, listening with bated breath. Annabel had gone very pale. "His, eyes... oh Brianne, I have never seen anything like it, even in nightmares..." She fixed her haunted gaze on Brianne. "He looked wild, his injuries weren't healing, like they had before, they weren't even bleeding. What- whatever self-control he possesses must be phenomenal. Brianne, I may not know much about vampires like him, but even I know my fair share of vampire legends. It was the Hunger, I - I know it was, his eyes-" She stopped herself, swallowing, calming remembered panic. When she continued, her voice was cold, empty even, "He asked me where the closest settlement was." On the TV, the opening sequence for the countrywide news started to play. "I knew what he wanted, needed, but I didn't want to tell him, even then... of course not."
On the screen, the presenter was talking, "-update to last nights horrifying event-"
"But he said that either I told him what he wanted to know, or he would go back to my home and take what he needed there-"
"-following the murder at a country manor in the heart of the peaceful-"
"-What was I to do? Give him my friends and family?-"
"- police have identified the bodies of three individuals -"
"If I had lied, he would have just found his way back, he swore that he would and I believed him-"
"- no eyewitnesses, but CCTV has confirmed that this is the work of a single individual-"
"So I told him. Told him which way, even how far-"
"-None of the victims survived-"
"His body seemed to collapse into itself. I couldn't see much in the dark of course, but it was like watching the earth fracture and break apart, lines appearing over his skin and sinking deeper and deeper-"
"-police have called in reinforcements to help catch the perpetrator. Surrounding counties are on the alert-"
"- Then he just... fell apart, I can't think how else to describe it."
"Bat form."
"Yes, yes that's what it was."
"- authorities are asking all residents to be vigilant, do not go out unless necessary and do not go out alone, whoever is responsible for this atrocious act of murder-"
"Atrocious act of murder?" A familiar male voice spoke from next to the door, the sardonic tones cutting through the tense atmosphere like a blade. "Do humans always have to be so flowery in their terms? Well, I suppose it depends on your perspective."
Both women jumped; neither had known he had been there. He looked to be in his mid- to late thirties, fairly tall, had with straight brown hair that just brushed his shoulders. His face was sharp - handsome, if a little cold at first glance. His clothes were average, but smart; long black jacket, possibly a fine wool, over a very deep red polo-neck. His trousers almost looked like black denim but a second look made Brianne think otherwise, yet she couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was.
"- the families of the victims are still being traced. If you have any information, contact the hotline-"
He strode, no, stalked over to the TV and ran his fingers over the front until he reached the power button and turned it off.
"W-who are you, sir? And what are you doing in here?" Annabel said, standing up.
"Oh, don't you recognize me?" He said with feigned hurt. "Brianne?"
"No, I don't-" She started, but then his eyes flashed yellow suddenly. "Kain!"
The man's amused chuckle could only have been that of Nosgoth's Scion of Balance. "Glad to see you are well; it would have been unfortunate for you to have fallen ill." Brianne didn't have the courage for a witty or sarcastic reply. Kain's amusement faded instantly. "I saw that - news broadcast. The people of your world are far more perceptive that I had imagined. I will not make the same mistake twice - but that does not change how things have played out thus far." He turned to look out between the slats of the window. "We will have to be careful."
"A bit late for that," Annabel snapped, although it seemed slightly forced.
Kain didn't even glance at her. "You think to lecture me? Old as you are, you are still but a child to me; you have no right nor experience or grounds for comparison. Speak to me in that tone again and you might not speak again."
The silence that followed was tense and deafening as Annabel sank slowly to her seat, shaking.
Brianne was feeling as shaken as Annabel looked. Between the news bulletin and Kain threatening Annabel - not to mention having to confront the police later - this really was not shaping up to be a good day.
"Where is Raziel?" She said it before she had the chance to think about it.
Kain took longer than he should have in answering, his expression distant, even troubled. "I don't know."
"Oh. Is there-"
"You don't understand." He interrupted her. "I have always known where he is, I could feel him, even as a wraith - although it was distant then." Brianne watched him quizzically; there was something odd about the way he was talking, as if he was somewhere else entirely, lost in a memory perhaps. "But since we came to this world... nothing. Even in the abyss I could still feel something; this absence is almost disturbing... but perhaps..." He blinked, shaking off whatever had been distracting him. "Anyway, with Raziel in his current state, the authorities on the alert and with no obvious way to track him, this could easily get worse before it gets better."
It was almost half an hour before the nurse came to check up on her, asking Annabel and Kain, who still looked human, to leave. Annabel, who hadn't spoken at all since Kain's threat, left with only a fleeting backwards glance at Brianne; Kain didn't move. When the nurse tried to ask him to leave a second time, Kain stared at him, his expression completely bland, giving nothing away. The nurse faltered, a tremor visible even to Brianne running through him. His eyes turned glassy for a moment before he turned back to Brianne and continued with his work as though Kain simply did not exist.
He asked some basic questions, took some readings from a couple of the machines; in no time at all he was giving her the all clear and retreating from the room. As he left, Brianne could hear hushed voices outside the room. Just as two uniformed officers were about to enter Kain strode up to the door, blocking them. He stepped outside, making them back down and as the door swung shut behind him Brianne heard... nothing.
Less than thirty seconds passed before he came back into the room looking, well, bored. "At least the human authorities of my world were trained in psychic resistance," he muttered.
"What did you do?"
"I made certain they wouldn't bother you," he said plainly, making it clear that he would speak no more on the subject.
"So... Now what?"
His pointed expression was recognizable even on a human face, not to mention his sarcasm. "Well - Might I suggest you get dressed first? After that, I think attempting to find Raziel would be wise." He stood right next to the window, his features shifting into their accustomed mask of indifference as he gazed between the slats at the world beyond.
"Um, right." Some of her warmer clothes were in a neat pile next to the bed, probably brought by Annabel or one of her friends; the clothes she had on last night were in a bag next to them. She glanced back up at Kain, uncertain and uncomfortable.
In a flat tone he said without taking his eyes off the window, "I'm not going anywhere, so get dressed."
Fine, I'll just be quick about it then...
She grabbed her clothes, and would have attempted to put them on under the sheets - but a somewhat distasteful glance from Kain made her suck it up and get dressed as normal, even if she did so with a slight blush on her cheeks.
As it turned out, they were able to simply walk out of the hospital, after a quick stop at reception to say that they were going. It felt too easy and Brianne suspected that had something to do with Kain. No one sent suspicious looks their way, no one seemed to find anything of curiosity about them at all. There was one moment when Brianne suddenly thought that their luck was out when one of the women working at the office called out to them just as they had gotten outside the hospital. In the end it turned out to be nothing more worrisome than a note from Annabel; she had already got the taxi home and paid in advance for one to take Brianne back so that she could collect her stuff. Kain approved of the idea of going back to Annabel's home, as it was their best bet for finding Raziel.
The taxi had already been called and was waiting in the car park. The driver sent a questioning look at Kain, obviously not expecting him, but quickly shrugged it off... it was as though Kain's very presence seemed to make people more docile.
The drive back was tense for Brianne; the things that had happened after she had woken up had set her on edge, again. Kain sat next to her in the back of the taxi, his face turned towards the window. His currently mid-length brown hair hid most of his face from her, but even from this angle he seemed surprisingly undisturbed by the notion of cars, or even the speed they were able to travel.
No one said a word the whole way back.
Kain was out of the taxi as soon as it pulled up on the drive and Brianne let out the smallest sigh of relief at not being forced to sit so close to him anymore. She got out, thanking the driver as he cut the engine, to wait for someone it seemed, and looked over the house and the police car still parked next to it. It was slightly overcast today, unlike the very clear skies of the last two days... Dear Lord, has it really been only two days?
Suddenly remembering herself, she looked back toward where Kain was. She blinked, frantically scanning the grounds around her, but no - Kain had vanished.
"Brianne?"
Spinning back to face the main door, she saw Annabel who had gotten changed since she last saw her this morning and was looking better. Doing a double take, she also saw the uniformed constable who stood next to said door. How the hell did I miss him? Did he see Kain? No, he can't have seen anything unusual, or he would have reacted.
"I'm back."
"So I see. Come on - you can't stay here. Just grab your things and go. Even I am getting a room at a bed and breakfast for a while."
Annabel led her up to her room herself. "You realise they have been through your things, don't you?" Brianne didn't say anything; she just hoped the altered games wouldn't cause more trouble by getting her done for forgery or something along those lines.
When they got to her room, it was obvious that it had been gone over with a fine toothed comb; nothing had been left untouched. Her bags were on the bed, the contents scattered next to them.
Annabel sat down on the second bed. Brianne had barely begun to sort through her things when her old friend asked, "Where is Kain?"
"I don't know. Here, somewhere."
"Here? He came back here?"
"He's trying to find Raziel."
"So we have lost them both now."
"They will find us, if they want to."
"That's what I'm worried about."
Brianne said nothing after that.
It didn't take too long to gather all her things - she hadn't brought much to begin with. The two women were walking down the stairs, bags in toe, passing an officer as they went, when Annabel spoke up again for the first time since she had asked about Kain.
"There is someone who wants to talk to you. She had been asking for you since I got back."
"Who?"
Annabel waited until the officer was out of ear shot before she said calmly, "Sesdoras."
"The shadow!" Brianne hissed.
Annabel motioned for her to stay calm and quiet. "She's not dangerous, tricky yes, but not dangerous."
"Tell that to Raziel!"
"She has spoken to me about that. I would tell you myself but she wants to speak to you personally."
"Why would she speak to me? She didn't even acknowledge my existence last time."
"To be fair on her, she was distracted then."
"I suppose, but still..."
"Brianne, trust me, you will want to hear this. Make your way back to the entrance at the stream. Try not to be seen, the police are crawling all over the grounds at the moment. Sesdoras has promised to help you get there but she can't do all the work for you."
"Annabel-"
"Just do it, Brianne! You need to hear this." Brianne flinched back slightly - Annabel had never snapped at her before. Taking her arm, Annabel led her back outside to the parked taxi. Letting her go, Annabel leaned down to talk to the driver; Brianne didn't hear what was said, though it seemed they knew each other.
Turning back to her, Annabel said, "He will take you up the road and drop you off in the woods. It's a bit further to walk but easier to hide." She opened the door for her and Brianne climbed in.
"Annabel?" She asked after the door was shut, winding the window down as the driver started the engine.
"Yes?"
There was something she had been wondering ever since last night... "Sesdoras."
"What about her?"
"Well, how do you know she's a she?"
"Oh, isn't it obvious?"
"No."
"Oh. Well, she just is." It was as though Brianne had just questioned the colour of the sky.
"Okay..."
"Trust me." Annabel almost sounded scandalised.
"If you say so."
"I do." Annabel smiled despite the earlier seriousness. "Be careful Brianne."
"You too." They paused then, there was something in the air between them. Brianne couldn't put her finger on it, but she didn't like it. "Annabel?"
"Brianne, I'm sorry but I have to ask you to stay away from here from now on." She held up her hand to forestall anything Brianne might have said. "It's just - just too much. I am sorry, but after everything that has happened... I'm old, Brianne, and even in my younger days I couldn't have kept up. I need to ask - no, I'm telling you - speak with Sesdoras, find Kain and Raziel, then leave, don't come back and don't ask for anything else until they are gone. Do you understand?"
Yes, she understood, understood perfectly. After last night, after the hospital, she probably would have done the same thing in her place. It still stung though. She nodded mutely.
"That doesn't change what I said earlier, I want you to take care. Tell me you will do that."
"Yes." Short and simple. She just couldn't seem to manage anything else.
Annabel sighed, she didn't press further. Stepping back she signalled the driver who began to pull away from the old house.
Twisting around in her seat, Brianne watched until the house and her friend disappeared from view.
In the end, it wasn't far at all; up the drive, round the bend, down a slope, then along a short dirt track. The taxi pulled away and drove off as soon as she got out.
Looking through the woods around her, it was easy to see what Annabel had meant; the woods were so dense that it would be easy to hide. The downside of this was that scrambling through the undergrowth was far from easy and slow going. Still, anything was better than the night-time escape of barely twelve hours ago; at least now she could see where she was going.
Over here.
Brianne jumped and stumbled at the voice... like an echo on the wind, heard but so distant yet so close...
Here, turn left.
"Sesdoras?"
Hush, this way.
Ok, following strange voices in the middle of the wood did rank up there with taking candy from strangers - but what choice did she have? Annabel had said that Sesdoras would help keep her hidden, was this the help she had meant?
She turned left.
It wasn't long until she heard the snap of wood breaking to her right. She ducked down on instinct, hiding among the twisting plants and partly frozen autumn leaves. The steps, human steps, continued past without paying her any attention whatsoever. She waited until they had faded away completely before re-emerging from her hiding place.
Slowly and cautiously, she continued picking her way between the trees, guided occasionally by the mysterious voice on the wind. She quickly lost all sense of direction. She didn't encounter any more people and it was with the dual feeling of relief followed quickly by apprehension that she approached the sound of running water.
She was a little downstream of the hidden door and could only just see the tail end of the rocks between the trees up ahead. Clambering over fallen logs and trying to stop herself slipping into the cold water - or the equally cold, but much more messy mud - she wondered how the hell things would play out after she found Kain and Raziel again. They could always go on the run like in the movies... Although that might be hampered a bit if Raziel couldn't stand being around Kain, or if having the two of them in close proximity would cause him to go off the rails again. Yet Raziel had seemed to pull out of it a little the other night when the cold had gotten to her. Maybe if she could talk to him...
She laughed aloud at that. She might as well take him to one of those group talks. Oh, or better yet, a chat show - 'Being imprisoned in a vampire blade messed with my mind'... yeah, that would be the day... Hmm - not to mention: My father damned me to an eternity of torture. That'd sell even better. She smiled grimly.
Joking aside, how was anyone supposed to even come close to understanding what he had been through, or how to help him? Those games had only just scratched the surface, barely a glimpse into their lives and she wasn't sure she wanted to look any deeper. In fact, the very notion made her blood run cold; ignorance, as they say, is bliss.
Finally her feet touched solid stone, dirt and moss covered as it was. From there, it was easy to step, jump and hop from rock to rock further up the stream towards the door. As it slowly came into view, she had to wonder why it hadn't been found yet, why the police weren't all over it. The door was wide open, a gaping black hole in the side of the bank.
Slowly and cautiously she edged closer to it.
In here.
"Yeah, I kinda figured."
Having the door wide open had left it exposed to the spray from the stream; she almost slipped on the damp stone that had been swept clean by the force with which the door had been opened. Ducking into the narrow corridor, she had to pause as her own shadow smothered the light from outside and she had to let her eyes adjust.
Even here, the signs of recent and vicious battle were evident. Loose stone, claw marks... blood, a lot of blood, both deep, dark red and brilliant turquoise. Such loss would be of little problem for Raziel; if he lost too much energy then a quick trip to the spectral realm would see him restored. Kain on the other hand... She tried not to think about the news earlier; if she was going to do anything worthwhile in all of this, she would have to try to stop herself dwelling on that; unless some otherworldly miracle suddenly turned them both human, those deaths would almost certainly keep on happening until they leave. Fixating on that could get her killed, and possibly make it worse for others, too.
She edged her way towards the stairs. With no torch to light, the way they seemed even steeper and more treacherous then before. Sinking down onto her backside, she slowly made her way down, one hand on the wall, one hand on the floor. Even so, she nearly slipped halfway down when her foot landed in something slick, her hands scrabbling on the ground for purchase as she thumped heavily down three steps, tearing her skin. Hissing at the burning sting, she edged sideways to press herself against the wall, peering at the offending dampness in the dim light filtering in from above. Again more blood, more blue blood - and a lot of it, at that. Ironic, had she been less cautious she could have easily have fallen and met her death on the cold stone here; and after Raziel, owner of the blood that now stained those steps, had saved her life the night before.
Eventually, she did reach the bottom without further incident; but it was almost complete darkness that she was faced with when she got there.
"Sesdoras?"
I'm here.
"I probably should have asked you before, but why call me all the way down here? I could hear you outside too."
I am shadow. My domain is darkness, not light.
"Right. Of course. And why...?"
Your friends do not belong.
"Yeah, tell me something I don't know. Speaking of which, why can't I hear you properly?"
Your friends do not belong. This world was never meant for them. Yet they are here.
"What are you saying?" Not that the shadow had answered her question but still...
They have much power - more than I have seen for a long time. Yet it is a power that does not flow, it is fixed like steel and ice and chains and knives... They can not be changed, so this world must change for them.
Brianne felt a sinking in her stomach... this could not be good.
You have already seen it. Twice. Once, when you first discovered them, when the windows to their world were twisted and distorted by the reality of their presence.
... The games...
And in these very caverns, when the wraith and I clashed, you saw the effect of their presence on this world then.
Something in all this clicked. "You. They changed you. That's why I can't hear you properly now."
Yes. I am not flesh, I am not bone. I am shadow. The reality of their world would not allow me to exist like this, not in this form. They carry that reality with them. It would not allow for me, so it changed me in their presence.
Oh god... she really had unlocked Pandora's box, hadn't she? Unlocked it, thrown off the lid and scattered the contents on the floor for all to see.
"They're changing reality around them."
Yes...
"Do- do they know?"
Only that which is pointed out to them. They do not control it. It is part of them.
"And, what else are they affecting? You, the games..."
Everything.
"Wh-what?"
Everything, anything, anyone. All things within their sphere.
"Me too?"
All things, you included. Some things are more subtle. Their reality allows for humanity, some thing will not be obvious, not yet.
"Yet? This is going to get worse?" Something in the darkness shifted, shadows began flickering, just beyond her sight, but still strangely visible.
Their power, their reality, it flows from them like blood from a wound. The vampire, he has more power, much more, but his is more self-contained, it leaks from him, a slow drip and a shallow cut. But the wraith... it flows from him, like the gushing from a torn throat.
Brianne cringed at the metaphor but a dark part of her mind had to admit that so far as Raziel was concerned, it was fitting. The shadows were flowing around her, thickening, congealing like the blood the shadow spoke of.
And like blood, their power, their reality pools in this world, festering, a growing bloody trail in their wake.
Before her in the corridor, Brianne was just starting to make out a shape in the black, crouched close to the ground.
I am not the only spirit to prowl this world of ours and many of them will feel the presence of your friends like I have as will those humans who, like my hostess, can ssee and feel that which hidess beyond sssight."
Hang on a second... "Sesdoras?"
There was definitely a figure in front of her now, crouched low in the dark with too many limbs, just a silhouette surrounded by yet more black.
"I warn you now child, ass a friend of a friend, the power of your guestss iss ssspreading, the ripplesss of their pressence iss already being felt on many levelsss. It hass already begun."
The figure before her now was unmistakable, no matter how difficult to see.
"Beware, sssome will not wait for you to sstumble acrosss them, ssome will come to you. They have been noticed."
The shadow before her retreated, falling back into the dark until it was as though she never was. Alone in the black, Brianne wondered if she would ever know normality again.
The slightest scrape of claws on stone was all the warning she got as the meagre light coming from above was shadowed.
"Brianne."
She whirled around as well as she could to see Kain, in all his vampiric glory, towering above her in the stairwell, the light behind him catching his hair in a parody of a halo.
"You found him?"
He inclined his head slightly; with the light at his back, she could not see his face. He withdrew from the stairs, making his way back outside. "Come."
Did she even have a choice?
TBC