THE QUESTERS, PART V

I am a Seeker of signs. But there is something about signs that many do not realize.

Sometimes you don't seek signs. Instead, they seek you.

I did not know precisely what was coming, but I could tell that events were coming together with increasing speed - like a ship being helplessly dragged onto jagged rocks by great waves.

Sooner or later, there would be a crash. And then we would see who lived and who died.

We were in the back courtyard of the temple. I could still smell the blood, hate, and fear of the battle against the Hand, but in the waning light of late afternoon, it seemed increasingly distant.

"Jonah is related to you?" Priestess Kathryn asked Faye. Kathryn was obviously puzzled.

Faye nodded. "He's my husband's nephew. But the two of them are pretty close - they're more like a big brother and a little brother."

I could tell it was on the tip of Kathryn's tongue to ask about the oddity of a Spider married to a Green. But then courtesy and common-sense took over and she let it pass.

"Jonah's handsome," Aurora said with a tiny smile. Aurora was the Storm acolyte who'd helped us in the fight against the Hand. It turned out that she didn't limp because of an injury. Rather, she'd been born lame. Aurora was sitting next to Kathryn, catching up on some sewing while being available to serve the high-priestess.

Faye gave Aurora a long and steady look.

"Be careful around Jonah," she warned. "And, dear God, don't ever look him in the eyes. The next thing you know, you'll find yourself naked and upside down in some weird Spider sexual position. Jonah's a good kid, but the way he so easily wanders from woman to woman is kinda scary."

"He does have that look about him," Rose laughed.

"Yeah, he's even worse than his uncle," Faye grumbled. "I swear, all you have to do is say 'hi' to Ben and the next thing you knew your skirt is up and you're holding onto your ankles while he..."

"We get the point!" I interrupted hastily.

"I definitely got the point," Faye told me in exasperation. "Over and over again, as a matter of fact."

"You don't have to worry about me," Aurora told Faye with a reassuring smile. "One of the conditions of being an acolyte is that we must be chaste."

Faye made a disgusted face. "Yeah, and what the heck is up with that? You're right at the age where boys should be falling over themselves chasing after you. It doesn't seem fair to miss that."

"It's a blatant act of control by the Temple," Rose announced with remarkable disregard for the fact that a Temple High Priestess was sitting right next to her. "The goal is to get acolytes used to the domination of the temple hierarchy. I really wish I could blame it on men, but it's actually women who are responsible for this one."

"It's a sacrifice to the Ladies," Kathryn said without any sign of anger. "It demonstrates an acolyte's commitment to the Temple and to the goddess she has chosen to serve. And it keeps her undistracted during the part of her life when she needs to focus on learning the mysteries of her order."

Faye looked skeptical. "Is one of those mysteries the best way to diddle yourself on long and lonely nights?"

Kathryn barely managed to hide a smile. Aurora looked either shocked or guilty. Maybe both.

"Most figure that out on their own," Kathryn told Faye with a straight face. Aurora's eyes shifted away.

"So Jonah hasn't found anything?" I asked.

Kathryn shook her head. "No, but it was unlikely that he would. So far, all he has are old tales."

"What kind of tales?" I asked.

"He talked to a tough old bird named Cross. About a century ago, she fought in something called the Wrecker War. Cross is one of the few still around from those days."

"What did she have to say for herself?" Rose asked eagerly. She likes stories from the past.

Kathryn seemed amused by Rose's eagerness. "It sounded like any old soldier's war story. Filled with fighting, drinking, and eager bed-partners. According to Cross, she ran into a mysterious nobleman after the final attack on the holding of a renegade lord. By he somehow slipped away."

"A noble? From where?" I asked.

"Supposedly from the other side of the Lant," Kathryn replied. "He said his name was Dragla or Drakle... something outlandish like that."

"The name was Dracula, Honored Lady," a guard standing in the background corrected politely. He was the guardsman who'd been with Jonah that morning.

Rose looked at the guardsman sharply. "Dracula? Did you say Dracula?"

The guardsman - I think his name was Alexander - nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

Rose's eyes were wide. "Oh, shit..." she whispered softly.

Rose was obviously alarmed. Suddenly, we were all paying attention to her.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Rose gave us all a grim look. Then she told us about the King of Vampires.

Eventually, Rose and I found some privacy. We had to talk.

"The King of the Vampires," I repeated slowly. The very phrase seemed wrong. As far as I knew, there had always been a Queen of Vampires, but never a King.

"The Queen supposedly destroyed him long ago," Rose told me. "So long ago that now he's only a whisper of a memory."

I shook my head. "I've never even heard of him."

"The stories about Dracula are ancient. He was evil, brilliant, perhaps mad, and he ruled the vampires for centuries."

"Who told you about Dracula?" I asked.

Rose let out a long breath. "Dad."

That wasn't a complete surprise. Our adopted father is quite old and remembers much that has otherwise been lost to history.

"We need more," I said.

Rose nodded.

"We don't have any telepaths here, but there are some in Nyack," I suggested. "We could have one of them contact Emma, and then talk to Dad through her."

"What we need might actually go beyond whatever he could tell us," Rose pointed out.

I felt my eyes narrow. Rose had something in mind.

"Rose, just what are you thinking?" I asked cautiously.

She told me.

After we finally decided to make ourselves guests of the temple, Kathryn granted us a room. It was an austere stone chamber barely big enough for a pair of beds. Faye and Rose took turns sleeping with me in the larger bed - which was the most efficient way to bodyguard me at night. Whoever was the odd person out took the smaller bed. As always, any suggestion on my part that I really didn't need a bodyguard was greeted with a dual-voiced suggestion that I should shut up.

At the moment, the beds were flipped on their sides and shoved up against the walls. We needed some space to work with. There were no windows in the chamber. It was lit by the indirect light of the lanterns in the hallway, and by a trio of candles that were spaced in a triangle on the chamber floor.

Then Faye walked in on us. She stood just inside the doorway of the chamber, looking more puzzled than anything else.

"What are you two doing?" she asked.

Rose and I were naked. Rose was drawing triangular symbols on the stone floor. More triangles were smeared over our bodies. Rose was using a bowl filled with a mixture of our blood.

"We need to talk to someone," I told Faye.

Faye suddenly looked alarmed. "Is this a summoning? What the blazes are you summoning?"

"The Queen of the Vampires."

Faye closed her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them again, they were bright green. That was always the first sign that she was transforming into her Green form.

"Sorry," she said in a voice that was suddenly gruffer. "I could have sworn you said you were summoning the Queen of the Vampires."

"Because that's what I said," I told Faye.

"What the fuck!?" Faye demanded angrily. "I mean, what the complete fucking fuck!? And just what the fuck is Priestess Kathryn going to say when she fucking finds out about this?"

"She's going to say, 'get out of my way' and 'stop cursing in my temple'," Kathryn said from behind Faye.

Faye grumpily moved to the side and found some space out of the way in the nearest corner.

Kathryn was barefoot and wearing a long white robe. Aurora - looking suitably worried - was standing next to her.

After entering the room, Kathryn pulled the robe over her head and handed it to Aurora. She was as bare as Rose and I.

"Why is everyone naked?" Faye asked plaintively. Aurora looked like she wanted to ask the same thing, but her junior position made that impossible.

"It's part of the spell," I told Faye. Then I dipped a finger in the bowl of blood and began drawing triangles on Kathryn's body.

Faye grunted. "Is that blood you've smearing on the floor and each other?"

"Rose and mine's," I confirmed.

"Of course," Faye through gritted teeth. "Stupid me and my stupid questions. Why triangles?"

Rose was still intent on floor designs. "According to many sources, triangles are a stylized representation of vampire fangs."

Faye looked up at the ceiling for a moment, probably hoping for some kind of divine aid. It didn't appear.

"Blood would obviously be part of any ritual dealing with vampires," I explained. "And our father has a connection to the Queen, so our blood has a shared connection as well."

"What connection!?" Faye said. "It can't be a blood think - you're both adopted!"

Kathryn shook her head. "That doesn't matter. After all, the Queen of Vampires was adopted as well. Before she became a vampire, the Queen was a heart's daughter of the Old One."

"What?!" Faye gasped in surprise. For someone so spiritually distant from the Old One, that bit of barely-known lore certainly seemed to bother her.

"It's not well known," I told Faye.

Then Faye glared at Kathryn, "And why are you here?"

"In a mystical sense, I am the Temple and the Temple is me," Kathryn told Faye. "My presence will ease the passage for any summoned being."

Kathryn was carefully turning in place, presenting her body as Rose sketched symbols onto Kathryn's torso. She avoided the bloody triangles on the floor, making sure not to step on them. Then she joined me in the center of the room. We each picked up a candle.

"Since the triangle is the mystic symbol of the vampire," I explained. "This ritual works best with three participants. Each representing one side of a triangle."

Faye seemed to grudgingly accept that. "Okay, but let's go back to my first question. Why are you all naked?"

Rose looked up from her work. "It seems that the Queen likes pretty, naked, girls."

"Of course she does," Faye sighed.

"Faye," Rose said as she put down the bowl of blood and got to her feet. "Get out, shut the door, and make sure nobody bothers us. We need to be alone for this to work."

Faye was grumbling as she left her corner and walked out the door. "Faye do this. Faye do that. Faye, pick that up. Faye, get out of the way. Faye, kill that guy. Faye, just stand outside while three of your friends get themselves killed..."

Aurora hastily stepped out of Faye's way. Then the door slammed shut behind the two of them. Suddenly, the only light in the room was from our candles.

Rose picked up the last candle and stood with Kathryn and I. I noticed that Kathryn's unusual eyes had a slightly reddish glint in the candle-light.

"Faye's decided that you're one of her friends," I told Kathryn. Despite the situation, I couldn't stop myself from smiling.

Kathryn smiled back at me. "I'm honored. I know she'll be a good friend."

Rose chuckled. "There's nobody better, but be prepared for a lot of complaining."

Kathryn nodded. Then she looked around - not that there was a lot to see in the chamber.

"Now what?" Kathryn asked. "Is there an incantation?"

"No, but this part is a little weird," Rose admitted.

I took Rose's chin and tilted it up. Opening a claw, I put a careful cut in Rose's neck.

"Oh, dear," Kathryn said quietly. Nobody sworn to the Bladed Lady fears a cut, but the symbolism of what we were doing was unnerving.

I licked the streak of blood - warm and salty - from Rose's neck. She was shivering slightly and I had to put my hands on both sides of her face to keep her still. Then I stepped away from Rose and looked at Kathryn.

After taking a deep breath, Kathryn took Rose's bare shoulders in her hands and then fed from Rose's neck.

After that, I opened my neck and they drank from me. Rose smiled shakily once she was done.

Kathryn endured the process without any reaction. In fact, it was almost as if the act of cutting her had somehow banished her doubts. One look at the scars on her bare body and you could see why. She was no stranger to wounds. The Old One had often spoken of pain as an old friend. The Blood understand that as well, but perhaps there are others who have also found that ancient truth.

After Rose and I were done with Kathryn, the temperature suddenly dropped. I felt my nipples harden as goose-bumps covered my skin. Despite our lack of clothes, we huddled together, bare skin brushing against bare skin.

Then the candles flickered out.

"That was nice," a strange voice spoke up from the direction of the door. It was a woman's voice that somehow seemed to be both young and old.

Faye, Kathryn, and I immediately knelt.

"Okay," the voice continued. "I know Rahne and Rose. Who's the lady with Remy's eyes?"

I looked at Rose. Blinded by darkness, she couldn't look back at me, but her hand groped in my direction and I grasped it. How the blazes did the Queen of Vampires know us?

Kathryn kept her voice admirably steady. "Honored Lady, I am Kathryn, the High Priestess of this temple. In the name of the three goddesses, I welcome you to their home."

The voice chuckled. "Thanks, sweetie, but I knew all five of the originals and they were my friends... well, most of them. Elektra could be kind of a bitch. But I suppose coming back from the dead thanks to an evil ritual does that to a person. So what do you three want?"

"We ask the boon of your wisdom," I replied carefully. It's important to be careful when talking to ancient and evil powers. A misspoken word can be disastrous.

"Huh," she snorted. "You want wisdom. There's not a lot of that in the world. And what's in it for me?"

"Ask your price, Honored Lady," Kathryn replied immediately. "Help me save my people and I'll pay whatever you want."

Rose gasped. I grabbed Kathryn's hand, trying to warn her to stop. I think Rose did the same.

The voice laughed out loud. "Hey, Kathryn, you're really bad at negotiation. That was a damned dangerous thing to say."

"Honored Lady,..." I started. In those two words, I could hear my desperation.

"Shut it, Rahne," the Queen said brusquely, "I'm talking to Kathryn."

I ground to a frustrated halt. I should have seen this coming. Kathryn was in despair and people like that can be rash and self-destructive.

"I know what I've offered, Honored Lady," Kathryn said very evenly. "And I mean it."

"Kids nowadays," the voice complained. "They take the fun out of everything. But since you've kicked open the door, I'll just have to skip the part where I torment you. So waddya want to know?"

"The Hand is attacking us, Honored Lady."

"Meh. Here's my advice: kill them."

"And Dracula is here," I added.

"WHAT!?"

The candles reignited. It turns out that the Queen of Vampires looks even younger than me. She's of the people who originated from across the Pace ocean but she was dressed in fairly common clothing - except for a long and rather ugly dark-yellow coat. That seemed like an odd choice of dress for her.

The Queen of Vampires grumpily told us to get dressed. Then she marched us out of the room where we'd summoned her. Fay and Aurora were standing on the other side of the door. They stared at us wide-eyed but got out of our way. I made an open-hand gesture to Faye, signaling her to stand back and do nothing.

We ended up in the partial-courtyard in front of the temple. Kathryn told the guards to retire inside the temple's massive front gate. They obeyed instantly. To them, I suppose the Queen of Vampires just appeared to be an oddly dressed youngster. And whatever business she might have with Kathryn was the affair of the priestess.

As the gate was shutting, I saw Faye and Aurora join the guards. Faye was in her massive Green form. Aurora's eyes were ablaze as she strained to both summon and control Lady Ororo's power. They both looked frightened, and it was the kind of fear that could easily explode into violence.

"One yell and I'm coming right through this gate!" Faye promised me, just as the gate closed.

The Queen of Vampires sat on a short outcrop of decaying wall and looked at us.

"Tell me what you know about Dracula," she ordered. You could tell that it was an effort on her part to keep her composure.

Praying that Kathryn wouldn't say anything else, I answered immediately. "We don't have much, Honored Lady. The name turned up during a recent investigation by a temple agent. Someone going by that name was in the area over a hundred years ago."

Then Rose spoke up. "I know the name from old legends, Honored Lady. They speak of him as the King of Vampires. But he's otherwise long gone and forgotten."

"And vampires are being created around here," Kathryn added. "Young and weak, with long gaps of time between their appearances. That started around the time when our source said she met Dracula."

The Queen slammed her fist against the stone wall beside her. Rock splinters flew. One painfully clipped my shoulder.

"He's not the King of Vampires! He's a blood-sucking cockroach! No matter what you do, he won't stay destroyed!"

We stayed silent, waiting for the Queen to calm down.

"What was your agent investigating when Dracula's name turned up?" she finally asked.

"The Hand is being a problem..." I began.

"Buncha punks," the Queen growled. "Playing with undeath like it's some kind of game."

I then took a deep breath and told the full story to best of my memory: starting with the war against the Hand, the local fighting, the odd stories about the Hand looking for information about a sunken ship, Jonah's investigation, the Wrecker War, and what Cross had told Jonah about encountering a man who called himself Dracula.

"I'd say the Hand's looking for Drac," the Queen told us. "But you say you have vampires showing up around here?"

Kathryn took up the conversation. "Yes, Honored Lady. The last was just two months ago. He was young and weak - just turned. The local Blood dealt with him."

"He wasn't one of mine," the Queen said thoughtfully. "None of my people hang out around here - Nyack is too much of a freak show as is and I've told my people to stay away. Whoever's creating first-night vamps around here just isn't in the census. Which means they'll be watching a sunrise once I catch up to them."

"Is Dracula creating them?" Rose asked.

The Queen shook her head. "That would be a stupid thing for him to do if he's trying to keep his head down."

"Why is the Hand looking for him?" I asked.

The Queen considered that before replying. "That part doesn't make sense. If Dracula was fighting them, the Hand wouldn't be a problem. But if he's helping them, you wouldn't be alive. So he's somehow... somehow off to the side of all this. Involved, but in a way we don't understand."

The Queen fell silent. It seemed to me that she was considering possibilities.

Then she came to a decision. Her eyes focused on Kathryn.

"Come here," the Queen said.

Kathryn - standing on the line between courage and madness - didn't hesitate. She walked up to the Queen and looked her in the eye.

"Tell me my name, Kathryn," the Queen said softly.

That obviously surprised Kathryn.

"Honored Lady, I only know you by your title," she protested.

The Queen put a hand on the side of Kathryn's face, a sharp-nailed thumb on Kathryn's eyebrow. Kathryn didn't flinch. It was one of the bravest things I've ever seen.

"No, sweetie," the Queen said in an oddly distant way. "I know you're in there. Come out. Come out and tell me my name."

Then the Queen pushed her thumbnail into Kathryn's eyebrow. Blood appeared, clotting in the eyebrow for a moment, before descending around Kathryn's eye and down her face. Again, Kathryn didn't flinch.

And then there was a manifestation.

As a Seeker, I can see things others cannot.

I can see spirits.

And as I watched, something appeared within Kathryn. Suddenly, it was as if there were two of her, one overlaying the other. The motions of one were perfectly echoed by the other. One form was Kathryn as I knew her. The other was a young Wilder woman, with brown hair and eyes and a modest build. Her clothes were skin-tight and made of an unfamiliar leather-like material that was yellow and black in color.

I knew what I was seeing. There was an ancestral spirit imprinted within Kathryn. Kathryn was a reincarnation of someone who had walked this world before. That was unusual, but nothing to fear. Some spirits, for reasons we mortals often can't understand, do not move on when they die. Most of those spirits become what are crudely called 'ghosts', but others find a place in the world of flesh.

"What's my name?" the Queen repeated once again, her eyes were locked on Kathryn's.

Kathryn suddenly smiled. "Hello, Jubilation," she said warmly. Except it wasn't just Kathryn who was speaking.

Suddenly looking very human, her teeth glinting white and sharp in the moonlight, the Queen returned Kathryn's smile.

"Good to see you, Kitty," the Queen said softly. "I've missed you. Have you found what you're looking for?"

"I'm close, Jubes. Very close. I might be done after my time with Kathryn."

"Do you understand what's happening?" the Queen asked. "Did you hear what we were talking about?"

Kitty shook her head. "Something to do with Dracula and the Hand? I swear, the more things change, the more they stay the same."

The Queen nodded her head in agreement. "Logan and Ororo and Betsy would have loved this."

"Oh, Jubes... they're here," Kitty told the Queen gently. For some reason, I was reminded of an older sister correcting a younger sister.

That actually made the Queen pause. "Yeah. Yeah, I see what you're saying," the Queen eventually replied.

Suddenly, I could see a redness in the Queen's eyes. It took me a moment to realize that they were tears of blood. The Queen wiped them away with the back of her hand, leaving a red smear across her face.

"You're not as alone as you think, Jubes," Kitty said. "You never have been. You never will be."

Her face twisted with emotion, the Queen blinked hard. "You can go back now, Kitty," the Queen said softly. "But when you and Kathryn need help, an old friend will be there for you."

Kitty vanished from my sight. Kathryn wavered, suddenly unsure on her feet. Several quick strides later, I was at Kathryn's side, holding her steady.

"I can't fight Dracula directly," the Queen told me. "I can't even acknowledge his existence. But I can make sure that when the time comes, you'll have some big damn help."

Suddenly, the Queen canted her head to one side and seemed to look off into the distance. There was a surprised look on her face and I had the impression that she was hearing some kind of communication.

"Again?" she said in distant amazement.

Then she looked back at us and put one cold hand on my shoulder and the other on Kathryn's.

"Here's to old friends," the Queen said.

She drifted into a mist, and then the Queen was gone.