CHAPTER 5 – Seclusion
There was a smile on her face that she couldn't quite mask. Lucian. Lucian was the cause of her happiness. Her new-found friend and faithful guardian. For all his dark humor and pride, she knew that he really cared, that in his seemingly impenetrable heart, she had made an impact. And his tall, dark form, his warm blood and earthy scent, he too had made an impact on her, with all his character.
He would sometimes hold her hand, and together they could laugh, lightening the dark chapel air with their presence. Together they told so many stories, and they could talk for hours during the days. When the time came for him to leave her, their parting was easy, for they knew the next day would come with the rising sun and their freedom. For when Lucian was free, then Sonja was free too, confined indoors as she was. Lucian had lit her world in a way she had only ever dreamed of.
The nights were unbearable, now, locked in the castle as she was. No amount of reading by firelight could calm her restlessness, so that she found herself pacing, the written words read, without comprehension. The conversation of old friends was not enough to keep her mind from wandering, once more, to the conversations she could be having with her Lycan...
He was so warm. She had never realized that, in all her years of dealing with them. Lycans had warm blood, which radiated through their skin, in ways that Vampires simply didn't. When he would take her hand in his, it felt, each time, that she was receiving life, flowing from his hand into her own. Everything about him was warm and renewing, living and vibrant.
She could not stop herself from smiling as she paced the library, touching a book, here and there, turning a page, then passing on, uninterested in simple bound-paper companions. Her heart pounded, waiting, as she mentally counted down the hours for yet another perfect morning, to be born again.
Kraven saw himself as an intellectual, ready to learn, ready to understand, and, more importantly, ready to act, when and where he saw necessary. He studied hard, the things he wanted to know, and did the things he saw best to do, in response. The obvious weaknesses of others, those too afraid to speak their minds, or those too 'indebted' to see clearly their own opportunities, troubled him, and yet reassured him of his own security.
In Vampire years, he was quite young, and yet the past decade of immortality had been one of learning, and growth, not to mention the acquiring of a completely new social spectrum. Yet, though they were immortal, he found in the majority of these Vampires the same faults he had found in the fellow human beings of his past. Fear. Unquestioned subjection.
There were the few exceptions, more obvious than not. Viktor. He knew what he was doing, and Kraven respected that, showing him the guarded fear he deserved, as leader of the clan. Cephas, Viktor's general, and of course, Amelia...
Kraven forced himself not to linger on the thoughts of Amelia. She was beautiful, but obviously unreachable. He never thought of her long, for when he did, he felt young, and foolish, controlled by mere passion and lust. Much better to think on possibilities.
He much preferred the willed, and powerful women, the ones who could drive him to the brink of madness with one look from their steel cold eyes. For, in the end, what greater prize could there be than attaining a stark individual, who, at last, would bow beneath you?
There weren't many of those, but of late, he had been watching one... She seemed prime, ready for a suitor, yet oblivious to any man who gave her their regards. She seemed in a world of her own, making her own decisions, walking her own paths... And a klutz, she was, too. That seemed a bit beneath him, really, to consider, but there was a grace to her, and a quick temper, which attracted him.
He made no scene, of his watching her, as he sat, reading his book in the castle library. She was very often in there, however, today her mind was obviously somewhere else. She had hardly even noticed his presence, and now stood, walking down the isles, fingering a book here and there, absently, setting it back, her movements slow, concentrated, and dreamlike.
There was a light in her eyes, a bounce in her step, the past week or so that he had observed. At first he had been curious if his own attention to her had been discovered, and this lightheartedness was a flattered response... But that possibility he quickly dismissed, as her eyes continued to glance over him, hardly aware. However, there was certainly something, something hidden, kept secret in her own heart, fueling her from within.
Yes, he was envious. And yes, he would find out what of, and change the circumstance, at any cost.
Lucian sat on his own, for the moment, in the chapel. He didn't like entering when Sonja was already there. The idea of his opening the outside door, letting in the sunlight, with Sonja present... The thought made him shiver, so on these days when Sonja arrived late, he was silently grateful.
He had not patrolled his area of the clan's territory for nine days, now, but had no doubt the Vampires were safe enough, without him. He felt no guilt. In fact, he felt a surge of pleasure when he thought on it, his quiet little rebellion, his own private war, won. It was all he could afford to do, but the small independence he found in it reminded him that he was alive, to chose.
He had always defied, in his own way, as stubbornly as he could dare. To see confusion and angry surprise on Vampire faces was what he lived for. To be able to see, with his plain eyes, that he was frustrating their plans and ideas... Again, he felt alive, invigorated.
And now, what would they do, when they found that Sonja, at the heart of Vampire future, had befriended him? The anger that would lie in their eyes as they saw their power stripped from them, and the scales tottering dangerously close to equality... What could be done with equality? He had never even dreamed of the possibility of freedom...
At the back of the chapel, the door flung open, and Sonja's light footfalls entered. He turned to see her, her eyes, now familiar, upturned, her lips parting into a wild grin as she practically skipped to the pew on which he sat. "Lucian." she greeted, saying his name with release, as if she had been waiting to say it all night.
"Sonja." he replied, humored at her exuberance, trying, for the most part unsuccessful, to hide his smile, which gave away, too easily, the stricken beating of his own pounding heart.
"Ah. Last night was awful." Sonja explained, rolling her eyes in her defined way. "To hear the conversation for one minute, alone, would have driven you beyond insanity. So dull!"
Lucian could not keep himself from laughter, and she joined in, her eyes turning down in slight embarrassment. "Is that so?" Lucian asked, chuckling and shaking his head at her.
"Yes." Sonja said, feigning defense, with her chin stuck out proudly. "It was awful. To think. Immortality. They certainly make mortality look quite appealing, with the level of excitement that goes on in this place all night. One can only take so much..."
Lucian laughed once more, but found that he was, quite soon, distracted by her. Her cheerful eyes, the smooth curve of her laughing chin, her hands, curled lightly in her lap. He breathed out slowly and gently took them in his own, smiling still. When he returned his gaze to her face, her eyes were warm, watching, and pleased. A strand of hair lay across her cheek, and so, gently, he brushed it behind her ear with a delicate flourish, that made his heart skip a beat at the closeness. She blushed and turned her eyes down, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, relentlessly.
She was so delicate, that the sudden, nagging thought which popped into his mind made him shudder in revulsion. He saw, for a moment, his open rebellion, his Sonja, the weapon he would use against the Vampires, to defy them with his aggression and demands...
His Sonja... She would not be a weapon. She could not be. She was his falling leaf, his beautiful flower, vulnerable to the striking winds and bitter cold, which would undoubtedly destroy her. He could not use her to set himself free. Without her, he could never be free.
And so Lucian held her hands once more, stroking the soft skin with his thumb, sighing to himself, understanding the submission he was choosing, but knowing that his Sonja would be safe. "We will just have to make sure the conversation here is much more meaningful than talk of blood and old repeated stories, then, won't we." he comforted.
Lucian had run back to the tree line while the sun was still in the sky. Casually he wandered through the oak trees, feeling the setting sun trickle through and light upon his face. He had to look natural, as if he had never been gone, or rather, had never stayed at the castle. That he had been gone.
As the sun passed below the horizon he turned and headed in, quickly catching the scent of his friend, and following it forward, catching up. "Evening." he said in greeting, sneaking up behind Kare, who was dragging his feet, and obviously tired from a long day.
"Ah, Lucian." Kare replied, hardly shocked at his sudden appearance. "Thought I heard someone approaching."
"You heard nothing." Lucian accused, forcing his teasing tone. He was not much in the mood for lighthearted play, yet he knew it would be best, to keep the others from becoming more suspicious of him than they already were.
"I did, I swear to it." Kare insisted, though from his hollow voice, it was apparent his thoughts were elsewhere, not feeling much for the argument either.
"No matter." Lucian softened then. "There will always be time in the future for me to prove you wrong. Your ears are not as good as you say they are."
"They are, and all you will prove is your impenetrable capacity to harass and bother."
Lucian laughed, throwing his arm around the fellow Lycan in a brotherly hold. "Kare, do not say such things. How it pains my heart to hear that I annoy you..."
Kare shoved him off with a laugh and a fierce snarl, a smile dancing across his eyes.
Lucian laughed harder, but did not snarl back, as he was tempted to. Instead he smiled and continued walking on, with Kare falling in beside him as the two hurried their steps to return to the cages.
At the gate the two Vampires, Ademar and Clotaire, stood, their pale faces tightened into scowls of disapproval and impatience at the Lycans, who had done nothing.
The Lycans grew silent as they approached, keeping their heads down, so as not to give the Vampires any cause for alarm, which, in their case, meant defending their superiority with the quick slash of a whip to bare Lycan flesh. The wounds healed fast enough, but their bite was all flame, and deep. Lucian knew the painful sting of it from experience.
Ademar and Clotaire seemed preoccupied with their own muttered conversations to pay any of the Lycans real attention, so Lucian, his hands sweating of their own accord, with guilty conscious, breathed a silent sigh of relief once through the gate, and back in the cage of his nighttime home.
Inside, the cage was churning with life, which only grew in volume once the Vampires had locked them safely inside. Friends pestered friends about the day's finds; mothers barked at children who misbehaved, or played too roughly too close to their neighbors. Kare left Lucian's side, without word, to find his mate, Inna, who sat near the back corner, yawning, and then standing as she saw Kare approach. The two embraced, Kare nuzzling Inna's ear quietly, and then, less quietly, as a slow growl rose in his chest. Inna giggled then hit her nose, playfully, against Kare's jaw, letting out a quiet snarl herself, and launching her lips and teeth at his chin. A tussle began, and Lucian moved his attention elsewhere.
There were no secrets in the cage.
He began making his way over to the bars, where he knew he would find a drink, but a tall figure stepped in his way, blocking him intentionally. Lucian didn't feel the need to mask the growl which rose in the back of his throat, smarting the hairs on the back of his neck. He could feel his arms, fingers, and back grow taut, the skin almost jumping with anticipation for a change, which would include claws and fangs. "Platon?" he asked instead, saying the Lycan's name as a question. He was being challenged. For what, he was not yet sure.
"Your trail was cold." Platon stated, his eyes never lowering their steady gaze at his own. "I was curious, so went to see how you have been patrolling your part of the boundaries, of late. You had not been there since speaking with her..."
Lucian held still, swallowing, subtly, the protective roar which had nearly burst. He did not flinch.
They had all known, the Lycans, since Sonja had come and cried to him before them, that something had happened they did not fully understand, with their brother Lucian and the Vampire. They had overheard his planning to meet with her in private, and yet, they had kept his secrets, pretended to their nonexistence, with only the understanding respect a Lycan could know.
Platon had no right to be making any such accusation, bringing her to attention...
Lucian remained quiet while Platon watched. Lucian's eyes twitched slightly, as if they were weakening in his dominant stare. Platon parted his lips in a wolfish snarl, grinning, and then...
Lucian had Platon's throat gripped in his left hand, no need for Lycan form, as he hammered his fist down on Platon's face, crippling him with the one shocking blow, knocking Platon to his knees. He delivered one more blow to the Lycan's face, this time with his foot, slamming Platon, broken nose bleeding, to the hard floor of the cage, with a shattering thunk from his head.
No snarl could escape the Lycan's throat as he struggled for breath through the pain. And Lucian stood over him, one foot pressing down on his ribs, more and more pressure, building... Platon whimpered as he felt ribs cracking, and Lucian only lowered his face and growled softly, eyes red, face half-human. "You have quite out-stepped your bounds." he snarled. "Do not let it happen again."
And he removed his foot, casually stepping aside to the bars of the cage for his drink.
Platon, quieting his whimpering, rose slowly to his feet, but bowed his head and made for a corner. The other Lycans watched, though pretended they had not noticed the very personal matter of the encounter, for dominance. Yet they were uneasy.
He could feel the air tense around him, now, and there was no escaping it. His violent reaction had frightened even himself, and Lucian knew, even Lycans could not ignore the the source of the problem for long, the cause of the fight.
Sonja... Her memory was so soft, so delicate... It ran over him like a pair of hands, wiping the tension away, the fury of his fight, cooling the ache, releasing the tension, filling the emptiness with still calm...
He knew why he would fight, who he was protecting, and why. He had already decided this.
But had he thought about who would be the cost?
