(This is one of those edited chapters. This time because of some of the violence I thought I should be careful. Again most of the chapter is here but the full chapter is in the M I needed to give you a bit more information on Lyric. Hope you enjoy and please review if you do. Thanks Precious)
Lyric carefully pulled out his battered parchment charts and gently weighted them with the crystals. When did the stars decree would be a good time for misinformation? For sleight of hand? How much longer did he have to play with the Dream Walker before she would become his?
Lyric studied the numbers and worked through his calculations, systematically repositioning the worn brass model of the major star system as he went. Lifetimes had passed and he knew that the charts had to be corrected so many times to correlate to today's time frames that they were near useless but still he could not bare to throw them away or source his information from the internet. No. This was important and had little to do with today's science.
As he sat back and considered the answer, next Friday his eyes as they always did drifted to the dark smear on the edge of one of the scrolls.
Myra.
Lyric scowled as he considered all that he had and still he wasn't free of her. When he had been human he had been an astrologer in Venice. At that time Venice was the powerhouse of the modern world and everything in the world eventually passed through its ports on its way to the Royal Courts and houses of Europe. The ruling classes were educated, wealthy and would dabble in everything illicit if there was a profit in it. Lyric had been rich and trusted by the most powerful merchant families. They would come to him and ask when would be the best time to launch their new ship? Or should their fourth daughter marry the silk trader or the spice trader? Which match was the most advantageous?
He had sumptuous apartments, several servants and wore nothing but the best silk, velvet and brocade. He was handsome, rich and in the prime of his life. He had spent years scrabbling to the top of a dangerous and cut throat pile of money hungry thieves and nobles. Finally he could afford to indulge in some of his darker past times and luxurious desires including keeping two mistresses.
The first mistress Clarissa was tall, pale and elegant with a beauty that would dazzle the eye. She was clever and witty and would accompany him to plays and to the opera. She irritated him with her intelligence and he knew that she considered him impotent. The thought that he was so repulsed by her he was physically unable to be aroused around her would never cross her mind. He cared nothing for her except that she wore clothes well and she allowed him certain connections. She was like a sharp edged pebble in his shoe that he must constantly ignore and continue on with.
Lyric would fall asleep at night sometimes and fantasize about how he would kill her.
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Oh he would look devastated of course. Oh I couldn't stop them. How could this have happened? Oh my darling Clarissa! He would tear his hair out in grief and run through the city in near madness…until the death was deemed accidental.
And then others would come to him with plans to soothe him and offer him information in exchange for gold and a place in his bed.
When his dark thoughts got too much and threatened to ruin the position he had created for himself he would go where he always went. To his other mistress Myra. The one no one knew about. Myra was the daughter of a pig farmer. She was tiny, big breasted and as plain as a piece of paper.
Lyric would come to her enraged over his fate that he must kneel and scrape to those that considered themselves better than he. And he would beat her.
He would beat her until the fear started to rise in her eyes that perhaps this would be the time that he went too far and he killed her. Then she would break free and run. He could chase her crashing through her tiny apartment and capture her pinning her small body beneath his, hearing her heart fluttering desperately like a tiny bird and her frightened gasps. It was then he felt his power over her. She was helpless with her life in his hands.
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Everything had been perfect.
That is until the night Lyric was at the top of his tower above his rooms taking readings for a nobles chart. The night was dark but clear and the stars sparkled brightly over head when he heard the lightest footstep behind him. He whirled in alarm the key to the only door still securely in his pocket. It was then that he saw her.
She was as beautiful as a rising dawn with flaming red hair and a strange green satin dress the likes of which he had never seen. The color matched her eyes as she studied him.
"I have been watching you. You have ambition and ruthlessness. That is something I would like beside me. I have decided to give you a gift so that you can join me. Together we can rule the city and destroy all those in our path"
Lyric backed away until he felt the edge of the stone tower behind him. He had his own plans. He didn't want anything to do with this woman who looked at him with contempt. How dare she? She knew nothing of him.
"No. I don't want whatever it is you wish to give me"
She had smiled then and it had made his blood run cold.
"You refuse a mighty gift. Perhaps I didn't make it clear that you didn't have a choice in the matter."
Before he could think of an answer, faster than he could blink she was at his throat and he screamed as he was flooded with a burning white hot pain. He felt his heart stop and he screamed into the darkness……..
It was days later before he could collect himself enough to escape out of the underground room he seemed to have been placed in. Everything looked strange as if he was looking at things through foreign eyes, everything felt different although he knew he had walked these streets a thousand times before.
It was night and he had returned to his apartments only to find a crowd clustered around the bottom of the building. Something made him hesitate and he hid in the shadows. He found he could easily overhear the whispered conversations.
"Who is she?"
"What a terrible way to die"
"Do you think she was pushed?"
"She looks in a terrible state but she was dressed fine enough. She must belong to someone? Fancy two tragedies in so short a time…"
Lyric made his way to the edge of the milling crowd. And a screaming madness overcame him.
Myra.
She had leapt from the tower to crush her tiny body against the hard curved cobblestone bridge below. In desperation she had declared her love ultimately when she had heard of his death. It had been presumed that he had fallen from the tower into the canal below. His equipment was there, the remains of a half eaten meal, a cry was heard and the only exit or entrance was still locked from the tower side when the city guards were asked to investigate.
Lyric stared at her crushed body. She was the only one that understood him. She was the only one who would never betray him.
He had turned then and with the crazed blood lust of the newly formed vampire he had hunted down the one who made him and torn her to pieces. He had barely heard her screams as her blood filled his mouth.
Clarissa had been next and Lyric had torn into her tall thin body feeling her bones snap like frail twigs beneath his strength. He had enjoyed the screaming, her panic as she realized who it was at her window. There had been others too. So many it was thought the plague had returned to Venice that summer.
Lyric had barely heard the screams of others as he hunted through the centuries and the countries slowly acquiring power and wealth again.
He had been lost. And then he had seen Dante.
Dante had swept through the night sky like a vision, his wings rippling like a monarch's cloak. Dante with the strength of a life even centuries longer than his own. A solitary vampire who could have ruled those around him and chose not to.
Lyric had followed and studied him trying to understand this creature that was so different from him. The more he learned the more disgusted he became.
A lowly Roman foot solder who now only killed those that asked for death. Dante who wanted to feel again. A vampire who searched for a human Companion. A vampire who was happy.
How could one such as this weald the power he had? It was a waste.
Lyric found he had a purpose and that was to make sure that Dante understood that those with power needed to fight to keep it or be destroyed by those who wanted it. There was no middle ground.
Next Friday. Lyric felt relief. It was difficult to visit the Dream Walker in her dreams and shield his true intentions from her. She was strong and he found he had to be brief. He had never romanced anyone in his life and he was finding it a challenge.
Still. When he was done it would be a magnificent victory. Dante dead and hopefully the sweet Companion could be kept alive enough to act as his personal blood slave. Lyric delighted over the idea that every time he drank from the Boy he would be able to relive his triumph and Dante's destruction.
And Abigail. The Dream walker. Lyric felt nothing but revulsion for the woman who reminded him of Clarissa with her quick mind and tall slim build. He would enjoy killing her when he didn't need her anymore. Lyric smiled as he imagined her face as she watched her friends betrayed and then brutally slaughtered one by one. Perhaps he would leave her until last so she could enjoy it too. It would make her pain all the sweeter.
Lyric shook his head. Too soon. Don't get ahead of your self. There is much to be done first. She needs to trust you. Trust you enough to betray those she held dear. What was her greatest weakness? Her friends. He couldn't involve the Companion. In fact he was trying to keep him as far away from his plans as possible. There was another though……..What was his name? Tony.
Lyric smiled and called to Antonia.
A moment later she appeared at his door and bowed though she found it hard to keep the sneer from her face. She had been an Irish whore taken by 18th century slavers and she found Lyrics imposed rule difficult to accept.
No matter. She was beautiful and deadly.
Could you seduce this man?
Lyric sent her an image of the handsome dark haired man with a laughing smile and sparkling eyes.
Of course!
Antonia replied with contempt. Human men hadn't been able to keep their hands off her when she had been filthy and had a heart beat let alone when she was immortal and as beautiful that men fell to their knees at the sight of her.
I will need your services next Friday. Make yourself available
Antonia just bowed and left him to return to her torturing of the old man in her basement. He had caught her eye. There was something about the grizzled beard he had that reminded her of one of the slavers. A particularly nasty one. Antonia grinned as she trailed a fingernail down the corridor gouging a deep line in the brick and trailing dust on Lyrics fine expensive carpets. She was going to have some fun tonight.
Lyric shielded his thoughts until Antonia was too busy laughing over the mans screams. She had had her uses but now it was time for her to die.
What better way to gain Abigail's trust than to save a friend from a vampires clutches? He would get there just in time to save Tony from a violent death at Antonia's hands. Now how would he kill her? Slice her open first and let her scream?
No then Abigail would think him cruel.
Lyric sighed. He would probably simply stab her through the heart. Antonia wouldn't understand the threat and wouldn't resist until it was too late.
Still it would be nice to kill her. Her red hair reminded him too much of her. The one who made him and destroyed his perfect life.
The scroll laid spread out beside him, the ancient faded bloodstain just visible on the edge from the one woman he would ever care anything for. With a snarl Lyric rolled up the scrolls and prepared another delivery of perfect white roses.
He would make them all suffer as he had.