Selina sat cross legged on the ground a few yards away from the building the Vampire Authority used as their headquarters. She sat there staring at it, her eyes wide, fist clinched and resting on her knees. Her all around body language gave off a bad vibe of a woman on the razor's edge of falling out of control of herself.
"You are not doing as I asked you." A voice spoke from behind her.
"I'm here, aren't I?" she answered. "I could have stayed in Shreveport."
"But, you are suppose to be in there, saving my son." The voice moved closer and its owner stood besides Selina looking down at her. "He is in grave danger, Selina."
"But he's still alive."
"How do you know that? You haven't been in there to see for yourself." Godric snapped.
"If they had killed Eric already, you wouldn't be here rushing me inside." Selina snapped back, looking up at her dead friend. "Has you meeting the True Death caused you to lose faith in me, Godric?"
"I have never lost faith in you, Selina." Godric answered in a soft voice. "No matter what state I am in, I will never lose faith in you."
"Then, go back to where the True Dead rest and let me do my job." Selina growled getting up and walking towards the Authority building.
-
Eric knelt in front of the conference table in the Authority building, his hands restrained in front of him. Blood dripping from his ears and nose and semi dry blood tears streaking his pale cheeks. He listened to Bill ramble on about Lilith and the rise of Sangunistas. Nora leaned against one of the pillars, listening as well with a proud smile on her face and Salome standing near Bill, her arms crossed over her chest and looking more like an egotistical bitch than usual.
"You see, Eric." Bill went on. "This is how Vampires are suppose..." his voice trailed off as a disturbance from the lobby became noticeable to them. "What is that?" Bill asked looking to Salome, who shook her head.
"Guards!" Salome called, waving her hand.
"No need for them!" Was announced as the doors leading into the the conference room from the lobby swung open.
"Who the hell are you?" Nora snapped, pushing off the wall and grouping with Bill and Salome.
"I am Selina Volso." Selina answered, chuckling lightly.
Her fangs fully extended and dripping blood, as was her chin, covering her nice white shirt. Her eyes panned the room, vaguely looking at Eric still on his knees, restrained and a bloody mess. She didn't allow her eyes to rest on him long, because she knew if she did, the tiny sliver of control she still had would have shattered into a billion little pieces. Instead, she looked to the row of hanging portraits on the west wall. Her eyes skimmed over them, frowning when she noticed the one in the middle of all of the paintings was covered by a silk sheet.
"And your name is important to us, why?" Salome asked, watching Selina walk over to the covered painting.
"It should be damning to you." Selina asked, touching her fingers to the sheet.
"You have some nerve entering the house of Lilith and disturbing us." Nora hissed.
Selina rolled her eyes at the mention of Lilith. "She can feed on a plague riddled rat, for all I care." she answered, gripping the sheet in her hand.
"You have no right to touch that." Bill warned.
"I have all the right in the world to touch it, Mr. Compton." Selina told him, looking back at him as she pulled the sheet away and revealing another portrait behind it.
Nora, Salome and Bill all wore a face of surprise on their faces seeing the portrait. It was a painting of five Vampires, all with their fangs out. Four of them were male and one was female. Their style of dress was traditional Bronze age armor. All of them looking seriously dangerous on many levels.
"Oh my god." Nora gasped, covering her mouth with her hands as she looked at the five painted figures.
Selina stepped closer to the painting, reaching up and touching the face of the Vampire sitting in front of the female. She blinked several times, fighting back the tears flooding her eyes. "Do you ingrates know who these three men are?" She asked sweeping her hand across the three men seated in the middle of the painting.
"They're the founding member of the Authority." Nora answered. "But I don't know their names. The ancient texts of their time is hard to read."
"You've read the ancient texts?" Salome asked looking at Nora.
"Of course." Nora replied. "I spent hours in the library when I first came here."
"Their names," Selina answered, half turning to them and pointing to the man on the bottom left, "are Asher, the first chancellor of the Authority." She moved to the man in the center middle. "Kyros, the first spokesman of the Authority." Finally, she pointed to the man she had first touched and licked her lips. "And this, this is Elias, the first and greatest Guardian of the Authority."
"What happened to them?" Bill asked. "They all seemed to scatter.
"Kyros was killed by a group of Slayers, essentially creaking the Authority." Selina answered, walking over to the long table and taking a seat at it. "Upset by the killing of his Vampire brother, Asher drove himself into the sun."
"And what of Elias?" Salome asked. "What did he do?"
"He gave power of the Authority to Asher and Kyros's prongenies and left with his progeny. But he didn't survive more than a year after leaving. He met the True Death with the betrayal of one of his other prongenies."
Eric rose his head then, his eyes heavy lidded and just looking all around exhausted and depleted. He looked at Selina, blinking slowly at her. He understood then why she didn't want to speak about her Maker, like he didn't like speaking of Godric. It hurt too much to remember such things, no matter how old they really are.
"And you," Salome said, stepping closer to Selina. "Are Elias's child. The one in that painting."
Selina nodded very slowly at her. "I am." she admitted freely for the first time in two thousand years. "I am the last surviving child of the first Guardian of the Vampire Authority." Selina stood, the last bit of control she had completely gone now.
"You think, you can walk in here and take over?" Salome sneered. "I am the Guardian here. Not you!"
"I don't want the fucking position." Selina snapped. "Keep it for all the blood in the world. But if you stand in my way for what I really want here, I will show you to your Lilith personally."
"And what do you want?" Bill asked.
"Him!" Selina snapped, pointing to Eric, who dropped his head back down, a smile on his face as relief filled him.
"He is our prisoner!" Bill roared.
Selina flashed to Bill, slamming him to a pillar. "Over my cold, dead body." she growled, punching her fist through his chest and ripping out his heart, growling as he erupted into a mass of blood and guts.
"No!" Salome screamed, gaining Selina's attention.
As Selina turned to her, Salome sped from the conference room and into the chamber Lilith's blood was held. Rolling her eyes, Selina followed her, stopping in the doorway as Salome took the vile of blood from the case and consumed a mouthful of it.
"Her blood with protect me from you!" Salome moaned.
"You're fucking crazy." Selina rolled her eyes, flashing to the other woman and snatching the vile from her hands. "No one in a vile will protect you." she hissed, taking the pointed vile and using it as a stake to kill Salome. "Especially if they don't fucking exist." she groaned as Salome met the True Death.
Selina turned back towards the chamber doors, crushing and tossing the vile into the water and wiping her hand on her pants. She looked at Nora, who's face was full of shock and pain.
"You...you destroyed the blood of Lilith." she moaned, dropping to her knees. "How could you!?"
"That was not the blood of Lilith, Nora." Selina said, walking back into the conference room. "It was the blood of Asher, laced with the blood of a fae." She explained. "The tale of Lilith was told to humans by Vampires as a joke to insult the human's belief in religion."
"Lies!" Nora yelled, pulling a small stake from her shoe and charging Selina.
Rolling her eyes, Selina deflected the stake, grabbed Nora by the throat and picked her up off the ground. "I am six and a half thousand years old. I could rip you apart, feed on you and throw you away like a bone to an old dog."
"But, Godric told you not too." Eric mumbled.
"No," Selina corrected him, looking at him. "Godric never made me swear or promise to protect Nora. Only you. You are more important. He knew that Nora was easy to corrupt. You are not, Eric. That's what makes you a walking target. You won't follow the gain like everyone else, your entire existence as a human and a Vampire was to do what you wanted and not listen to anyone. People hate that." Selina told him.
"Fine," Eric replied, lulling his head to the side to look at the two females he loved to deeply. "Then do it for me. Let her live, for me." Selina stared at him, mauling over her options. "Please, Nena." he added, letting the begging tone lay thick in his voice.
Closing her eyes and rolling her jaw, Selina dropped Nora. "I want you out of Louisiana by next nightfall." she looked down at the heartbroken and dumped Vampire. "And if I ever hear about you making a mess with your Lilith beliefs, my love for Eric won't stop me from staking you."
"Thank you." Nora suppressed, disappearing from view of Selina and Eric.
Selina walked over to Eric, dropping to her knees in front of him. She pushed his hair away from his face and cradled it in her hands. "Eric." she whispered, her own exhaustion setting in from a day of no sleep. Eric closed his eyes, finally allowing himself to be unguarded and resting forward on Selina, his face buried in her neck. "You owe me for all of this." Selina chuckled, wrapping her arms around him. "Big time."
"You have my word, I'll make it up." Eric grumbled.
"Good." She said, standing them both up. "Now, let's get the hell out of here. It gives me the creeps."
"Aren't you too old for the creeps?" Eric asked leaning against her side as they started out of the building.
Selina looked at the painted face of Elias as they walked out of the room, unease and sorrow choking at her. "You are never too old for anything."