Chapter 5: Feline Behaviour
Dwight shook himself out of the disturbing dream and crawled angrily out of his bed. This had to end and quickly, even if it meant doing something that he truly didn't want to. Ceridwen had been a kind enough person and had proven that she wanted what she thought was best for him. However, like most outsiders looking in on a situation, she had forgotten that she might not have known what was best for Dwight. He growled and clenched one fist as a small twinge of pain began to pulse through the back of his head and down his spine. During his recovery, the Bureau had installed a smaller and somewhat less powerful microchip at the base of his pons, making transformation once again painful. Any raged outbursts or sudden onsets of fear would be punished in a like manner as well. Dwight felt amused that even sheer joy might cause him pain. He huffed to himself and stood in front of the dark amber glass window. A small rumble of thunder ignited the atmosphere in the distance. He sighed. Storms and nastier weather seemed to be some norms here. He remembered his home as sunny most of the summer, but now it seemed like a typical dismal cloud had followed him the way it followed all Hollywood vampires. A deeper growl found its way from the back of his throat at remembering what he was. He hated that word; no, loathed it. He was strange, abnormal, and perhaps even frightening, but he was no monster. He was a natural and necessary part of nature's new food web. Population in all parts of the world had exploded since the time of his birth. Obviously the disease was nature's natural way to control the numbers before a pandemic took nations by storm. He was doing people a favour! Why weren't more people grateful for the release of death in such a wicked world? He groaned and stalked away from the window, heading down the stairs and back toward the cellar once again.
As he made his way slowly into the lower regions of the old mansion, he listened carefully to the conversation going on above him. The voices that had caught his attention were unmistakably Ceridwen's and Jeremy's. He stood perfectly still, leaning against a wall and trying to listen closely as they argued not more than two rooms away in the level above him.
"He's had plenty of time to recover from that escapade, Ceri. There's no reason why he can't start the education process!" Jeremy argued.
"I do not want to overwhelm him, Jeremy!" Ceridwen shot back. "He's been through so much. A little time adjusting to life here may seem like a chore for you, but it is exactly what he needs."
"Yeah? Well headquarters isn't interested in what he needs. It's what they need. What they need is paperwork proving progress in the rehabilitation program," Jeremy snorted.
Dwight suddenly heard something unusual; Ceridwen slinking back with her head lowered silently. This was not only unusual because one doesn't usually hear a person stepping backwards and lowering their head, but also in that Ceridwen had never backed away or been silent before. Furthermore, it was difficult to imagine Ceridwen with her head lowered for anything other than loss of consciousness. Jeremy's words must have hit something sensitive within her.
Jeremy sighed heavily. "Look, he already seems to trust you enough and if you make things interesting he's sure to pay attention at least for a little while. You're good at making things interesting. Heck, you got me to actually listen to that piece of junk by Dickens. What was that again?"
"Great Expectations, Jeremy; it was Great Expectations. Whether or not its appealing is beside the point. Do you remember how intimidated you felt when you walked into your first physiology class?" Ceridwen said in slight frustration.
Jeremy nodded in return. Dwight scooted closer to the edge of the stairwell and leaned even closer. "Think how intimidating it must be for a person suffering from an illness that has been romanticized into anything but what he has experienced and he has been missing out on the eighty odd years that have passed right in front of him. Sure, he's seen things and heard things as well, but that pales by comparison to being involved and alive around them. Dwight needs more time."
"He doesn't have more time, Ceri," Jeremy said heavily.
Ceridwen's heart stopped and a prickly cold branched through every vein simultaneously. Dwight felt his own breath catch uneasily in his chest at the sound of her pulse skipping with dread. Was he in danger? "I needed to tell you this yesterday, but you had that little me-time thing and I thought you might be needing to relax a little. You've looked so tense lately. Maybe you could let me . . . "
"What did you need to tell me, Jeremy?" Ceridwen asked harshly. Jeremy frowned and averted his eyes from the hot gaze of his sister for a moment.
"They're sending someone to do an assessment of him, of the project." Jeremy watched as Ceridwen's gaze shifted to curious rather than upset. He relaxed slightly and moved an inch closer to her. "They said she's a hemopathologist, whatever that is, and she's going to take a look at things from every angle; physical, metaphysical, economic, ergonomic, all that good stuff. They need to make sure that everyone involved is benefitting."
"That shouldn't be a problem for us at all, whether or not Dwight has begun lessons," Ceridwen said folding her arms like a pleased professor. "By the by, a hemopathologist is a specialist that studies diseases of the blood. I would imagine that she's been training for years under strict conditions to be a specialist for the Bureau. She must have studied all forms of lycanthropy and vampiricism as long as I have, perhaps longer."
Dwight felt his stomach churn at the mention of this. He couldn't understand why at the moment, but something inside him told him that this was not good news and Ceridwen should not be this excited.
"Whatever. Look, I know you've put your heart and soul into this case. You've almost died for it already. Please, just try the start of one lesson and see how he does," Jeremy pleaded. Ceridwen frowned and looked at her brother sternly. He sighed and placed his hands on both of her shoulders. "He's not going to get any better if you don't start taking things up a notch."
Since when did you care about my well-being you little twit? Dwight thought to himself. He shook his head as another jolt of anger moved through him. Why was he feeling so enraged now? He had spent weeks learning to control himself and hide emotions from his own body. What could be bringing on this sudden rush of negativity? Certainly it couldn't only be the need he had for freedom. He groaned and clenched his fist near his face, willing the anger away fully as he continued to listen carefully.
"That's a good point, Jeremy. I'm very surprised you thought of it," Ceridwen chuckled.
"I have been known to think from time to time," he replied with a laugh. "She'll be here in four weeks. We have time, but I think you owe it to all of us to get started ASAP."
"True enough, big brother," Ceridwen replied.
The door opened and the two exited the room. Dwight breathed deeply and listened as they approached the stairwell. He smiled. This would be the perfect opportunity to exact a little revenge. There was nothing more exhilarating or satisfying than seeing someone scared senseless even if it was only for a brief second.
"Just think; a hemopathologist qualified to assess a patient in rehabilitation. What a story she must have of her education and internship. You are sure it's a woman? Fascinating that it would be another female! She might be just the person I could share my theory about vampires and lycans with."
As the two rounded the corner on the landing, Dwight darted into the shadows in the darkened hallway beside him and watched the two begin to pass him on the staircase below. He smiled and crept out from the darkness, suddenly grabbing Ceridwen by the shoulders and growling loudly. Jeremy let out a high-pitched shriek that rivaled Ceridwen's scream. Neither were able to outshine the cry of anguish that was to issue forth from Dwight. Fortunately for the young vampire, both siblings did not have the same physical reflexes. As Ceridwen turned and planted her kneecap firmly into Dwight's groin, the ageless pilot was sure he felt every remaining fluid in his body rush to his esophagus and eyes. He heard Jeremy roaring with laughter as he sank to the floor, clutching his abdomen. He coughed and gagged loudly, but was able to hear Ceridwen shouting reprimands at both him and her brother. She knelt beside him and began to ask if he was all right at the moment. Dwight breathed heavily for a moment and then reached up to wipe the streams of tears away from his face.
"I was just trying to play a harmless joke," he coughed.
"Harmless," Jeremy snorted with another peal of laughter. Ceridwen glared up at him.
"Don't you have somewhere you need to be getting off to, Jeremy?" she said coldly.
He frowned as if having been scolded by a nanny and turned away slightly. "Now I do," he muttered. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me."
Dwight gasped for breath and finally found the strength to raise himself to his feet. Ceridwen sighed heavily and stood cautiously beside him.
"What on earth were you thinking, Dwight? Did you want to end up sterile?" she asked in a heavy sigh.
Dwight groaned and steadied himself. He looked down, ready to shoot fire into Ceridwen's soul since he was unable to act otherwise in anger against her. The look in her perfect green orbs caught him more off guard than her defensive assault a moment before. Now all the fluids in his body rushed straight to his face and hands, causing warmth and anticipation to begin flowing freely throughout the rest of him. Ceridwen seemed to be both examining him and calming him at the same time. She obviously felt no real need to apologize since she had been acting in self-preservation mode, but the energy coming from her gaze told Dwight that she truly hated to see him, or any other being, in pain. What upset her all the more was that she had been the cause of it. He frowned and looked away. What he had done had been completely sophomoric and not in the least funny, but it had brought back to mind why he wanted to be freed without harming this innocent creature.
"I thought the mood could be a little lightened after that heated discussion you two had," he admitted quietly as he turned back toward the stairs. Ceridwen frowned.
"You were listening to a private conversation?" she said angrily.
"It wasn't very private, Ceridwen. I can hear most things in this house very clearly, even if they are near silent. You two were speaking loudly enough to reach someone in the next county by my standards," he remarked casually. He suddenly felt a burst of heat from behind him. Ceridwen's features were now glowing with intense anger. He turned and stared at her in confusion. "What is it? Why are you angry?"
"You've been listening to everything in the house? Private conversations, meetings, phone calls, prayers?! Is nothing sacred to you? Can't you tune out for the sake of others' basic need for privacy?" she raved. Her form heaved with angry breaths and thoughts coursing through her.
Dwight stared at her intensely for a moment, trying to discern the cause of this sudden burst of anger. Ceridwen was many things, but rarely unreasonable and never cruel. Why was she behaving so strangely now? The glowing red in her cheeks offset the soft jade in her eyes and the cream-ivory texture of the rest of her skin so perfectly. He wanted to reach toward her and feel the softness he was sure would be waiting for him. He hadn't felt anything soft or welcoming on another human being in years. He shook himself for a moment before moving toward her. A scent caught his attention and he smiled. The moon must have been reaching perigee. Ceridwen's pheromones from her feline lycanthropy were not only intoxicating to him, but they were quite heightened at the moment. Unlike an average girl that experienced simple premenstrual ailments, Ceridwen had the crippling blood illness to contend with as well. While it might have been a hell to deal with, Dwight was sure by the way he was interpreting her signals that there was a silver lining in this somewhere, but it was too inappropriate for him to see or mention at this time. He smiled slightly and folded his hands behind him, bowing his head.
"I am sorry, Miss Nistuart. I should not have allowed myself access to a conversation between yourself and your brother. It was rude of me," he said calmly.
Ceridwen frowned and took a step back. "Are you condescending to me?" she demanded.
Dwight straightened and glared slightly at her. "Are you refusing my apology?" he retorted.
Ceridwen turned a deeper shade of pink, this time on all of her features. This colour indicated shame instead of indignation. Dwight felt perfectly pleased. He may not have been able to scare the living daylights out of her, but he had won a prize well worth pursuing through a kick in the pants; he had made Ceridwen ashamed of herself on no less than two counts in the past few minutes. He dared not smile at the moment, but within himself he beamed brightly. She sighed and placed one hand on the back of her head as she looked away from him.
"That news I received was good, but I guess that and a few other things have put me on an edge. I'm sorry, Dwight. I shouldn't have been so offended. It must be annoying to have such keen hearing in a house full of people," she said.
Dwight smiled and began to saunter past her onto the stairs. "I have come to find ways around it. I have other keen senses as well and believe me, smelling everything around you is no picnic either," he mused. "Still, they do come in handy."
"I agree. There are times when my senses are heightened by the lycanthropy and I am so grateful that I'm not in the dark about things around me. I think that's more why people are frightened so easily at night; they can't easily detect things around them." Ceridwen knew that what she was saying was old news to anyone, especially someone as learned as Dwight, but tedious conversation was better than strained silence. She cleared her throat as she followed him down the stairs. "Are you going to check on the litter, too?"
"They are mine," he said casually. He could hear the frown on the girl's face. Ceridwen was of the firm belief that no one owned an animal. Pets were to be called companions and were to be treated with the utmost care and respect. Dwight found her need to nurture absolutely every living thing charming. It was quite annoying from time to time, but charming at moments like these. "About what you said a moment ago," he added as they approached the door to the cellar. "Am I able to have children? Am I still normal in that aspect?"
"Why should that matter?" Ceridwen asked in genuine curiosity. Dwight turned and stared harshly at her. Ceridwen's gaze remained unmoving.
"Men see their fertility as somewhat more important than women do," he commented.
"Debatable; centuries of information and events would say otherwise," Ceridwen corrected. Dwight ceased moving and stared at her more harshly. She smiled. "You're perfectly normal in that regard. It may dehydrate you more than the average man, but lovemaking for people with DNA altering conditions is intense. You not only have human romance and passion, but you also have animalistic instinct and hunger as well. That aside, vampires and lycans both can have offspring with or without transmitting the virus fully to them. They'll either be born with it in remission or develop it fully at puberty."
"Fascinating," Dwight said lifting one brow as he grasped the hidden handle and pulled the door toward him. With a loud creak, the cellar door opened to them both. Ceridwen breathed deeply and fished something from her pocket, slipping it immediately into her mouth and starting forward. Dwight took her by the arm and stared down at her. "Don't you remember what happened the last time you followed me down into the cellar?"
"No worries, I just took something that will take care of any reactions," she said proudly and moved past him.
Dwight watched the girl move effortlessly onto the stairs and start into the most sacred part of his childhood. It seemed wonderful and sad to be reunited with this little bit of magic once again. He sighed and took in the sights and smells over and over again. No matter how many times he had been down here in the past few days, it never satiated his desire to be back beside his father working on a model or map. This would have to do for the moment. In a few short days, he was sure that he could be back in the sky and away from any of these memories again. When he wanted, he might be able to return and replenish himself emotionally, but he felt it unnecessary to do so as a general rule. He sighed. Part of him wanted to stay and try to recapture what had been stolen from him, but the greater majority of him wanted to be rid of this whole mess. A soft growl came from him once again. Ceridwen whirled around and stared at him in concern. He coughed and shook his head, motioning for her to continue toward where they had set the nest with both mother and her five kittens. Ceridwen moved nervously down the hallway in the cellar. She might have been acting strangely, but Dwight seemed to behave just as abnormally as she did at every turn. Perhaps Jeremy was right and Dwight needed to start learning about his illness and the world very soon. Maybe lessons would take his mind of off old habits.
"They're still so small," Ceridwen remarked as they approached the large cloth and fur bundle. The kittens lay comfortably tucked around their mother, sleeping peacefully. Dwight watched her kneel and settle behind the mother, taking the cat's head in both hands. The cat was positively smiling as Ceridwen cradled her chin and began to stroke the top of her head gently.
Dwight found this very odd since the cat and Ceridwen should have been at odds with one another given the current status of them both. Ceridwen was definitely hormonal with her illness and the cat should have been extremely defensive of her young. Perhaps there was some kind of unseen bond between the two as females that gave Ceridwen license to handle the cat even in her altered state. He frowned. Altered or not, when females were on the defensive they behaved exactly like cats; defending with claws extended and teeth bared. There was something else at work here, or maybe it wasn't her lycanthropy that he had smelled at all. Maybe he had caught the scent of something else and Ceridwen had been genuinely offended. He scratched his chin, thinking for a moment, then decided it best not to say anything else for the time being.
"They look more like kittens, now," he mused. Ceridwen smiled and began stroking the cat's back. Her tail began to swish for a moment, then settled back over the cloth nest. "Their eyes are not opened yet," he said as he looked over them carefully. "When will they be able to see and walk?"
"They're able to walk a little now. They're just tired. I believe their eyes will open in about three weeks, but I can't be sure. That sort of thing never really mattered to me. What mattered was weaning and litter training, which will both come much later," Ceridwen said with a laugh.
Dwight smiled and did something uncharacteristically reckless. He had wanted so terribly to feel the softness of Ceridwen's cheek earlier. Softness was not something he had ever thought that he would crave, but it was the very reason that Lenore was lined with velvet and silk rather than less expensive and more practical cloth. He reached forward and gently brushed the tips of his fingers against the head and back of a small grey kitten. Warmth filled him at how delicate and magnificent this creature was. Without thinking, he began to very carefully stroke the kitten. His presence of mind returned when a loud snarl, hiss, and flash of black fur struck at his hand. A sharp pain suddenly went through his hand as he instinctively retracted it from the kitten. He held his hand closely to him and looked down at it, breathing sharply. Three large gashes began to drip with bright red blood as he looked at it. The sharp pain at the base of his neck was tolerable as he tried to think of a way to nurse this awkward pain. Ceridwen, who had gasped at the sudden attack and had been repeatedly asking Dwight if he was hurt, now stood leaning over him.
"I think I overstepped a boundary," he said between quick breaths.
"Breathe calmly, Dwight. It's very easy for a vampire to hyperventilate," she instructed and hurried toward one of the nearby tables. Dwight turned and watched her search the drawers of the desk until her eyes lit up with relief. The desk looked as if it had been disturbed recently; the dust on the surface was nearly all wiped away. Ceridwen returned to his side carrying a first-aid kit. She knelt and took his hand in hers. "I brought down supplies last night. I thought that something like this might happen to one of us, or worse, one of them," she said nodding toward the kittens and their mother.
"Somehow I do not see her allowing any harm to come to those little ones," he said as Ceridwen began to clean the wound with Bactine. He grunted and clenched his teeth. "She seems to be quite protective."
"If I had carried five babies at once and then given birth to each one several minutes apart, then I would be a little protective too," Ceridwen added. She finished cleaning the cuts, noting that Dwight was not transforming or becoming extremely violent with her. His eyes had shifted to a dark brown hue and his teeth seemed to be a little pointed, glistening brightly as he inhaled. "In fact, I might turn into a demon every time someone approached my babies after that much trouble."
Dwight nodded. A light went on in his mind. He turned toward the cat once again and smiled at her. Ceridwen looked up as she realized that he was staring at the cat once again.
"That's a perfect name, demon, but it is not very feminine. Let me think; Desdemona, that is very fitting," he said grinning. To Ceridwen's surprise, the cat seemed to be grinning in return, as if Dwight had deciphered a message that she had sent them directly. He chuckled and then groaned as Ceridwen applied a special ointment to the wound. "I take it that average, urgh, medicine is insufficient for, orgh, myself and others like me."
"You won't get sick or infected like other people with your immune system in permanent overdrive, but it is possible to have complications. Vampires are free bleeders until they repair themselves, and repair only takes place if you're at peak condition, ergo more than enough nutrients and rest. I can see by the dark circles hanging under your eyes that you haven't slept well in a while and that you've not been eating like I've asked you to, either. At least you've been keeping yourself satiated enough to stave off an attack," she muttered as she began to bind the wound. "You're lucky she didn't bite you."
"She wasn't trying to, urgh, be cruel. She was, oww, being a good mother," he corrected. "She didn't need to bite me."
"There, this should do just fine," Ceridwen said as she lifted his hand up in front of them both. "Look, a perfect example of basic first-aid for a skin abrasion."
"My mother did much better than that. The wounds she treated hardly hurt at all while she bound them," he snorted.
Ceridwen frowned at him. "That's probably because she kissed it first," she retorted.
Dwight laughed. "There, you see? Mother was not only a medical genius, but the very source of a cutting edge treatment for a specialized condition," he said.
"Oh please," Ceridwen chuckled as she rolled her eyes. "Anyone can kiss a boo-boo and make it all better," she said in a typical mock baby-talk voice heard with the word boo-boo.
"Not just anyone" Dwight argued indignantly, still allowing his hand to rest lifelessly in Ceridwen's. "I can guarantee that a kiss from my father or your brother would hardly do the same."
"I concur with that much," Ceridwen replied. "But a kiss," she said as she lowered her face to his hand and gently pressed her lips half against the bandaging and half against the smooth, pale skin; "is beneficial from any source of feminine tenderness."
Dwight trembled slightly and stared at the young girl in total shock. What had just happened? He felt as if someone had set him on a stool, then grabbed the legs and shook it madly in a makeshift earthquake. He swallowed hard and continued to simply stare into her eyes expressionlessly. Ceridwen stared back, tilting her head slightly as she tried to decide which emotion, exactly, he was feeling at the moment.
"Ceri! Phone call!" Jeremy shouted from upstairs as loudly as he could. The fact that it had reached the cellar and wrenched apart the intensity of the moment told Ceridwen that he was yelling at the top of his lungs, and may have been doing so for several minutes already. She sighed, frowned and stood up quickly. Dwight opened his mouth a little, hoping that words might magically form in the right order and tone without the need of his mind, which was completely numb at the moment. Ceridwen shook her head and turned back toward the stairs, hurrying to answer the call of her brother.
"Go and get something to eat and replenish your blood supply, Dwight," she instructed as she headed up the stairs. "I'll check on you later. We have something to discuss about the next few weeks, as well."
Dwight frowned and cursed himself as the shock wore into embarrassment. She kissed the back of your hand like a toddler, you ninny! And now you've shown her that the slightest show of tenderness turns you into some sort of helpless fop! You pathetic excuse for a man! His conscience chided. How he wished he could tell his conscience to shut up and mind it's own business without looking insane. He sighed heavily and stood up, moving back in the direction of the stairs as well. He turned and stared back at the cat for a moment.
"Desdemona," he whispered. "I hope you are the cause of her strange behaviour. I hope it is not something silly."
Desdemona smiled back at him and squinted her eyes. He was sure he could hear the cat speaking to him in the back of his mind.
"You mean you hope it isn't anything as silly as the reason for your strange behaviour," the cat's voice seemed to say.
He groaned and headed up the stairs. First he had fumbled all over himself and now he was hearing cats' voices. Ceridwen was right; he needed to eat and sleep.