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Monday, November 24, 2008

Thrill Of the Hunt6 - Icongruous

Thrill Of The Hunt
By Tina c.

Heart pounding, rain pouring off the room edge in a cascade of mirrored moonlight, Trevor Snow ran for his life.

The warehouse was just three blocks away. Three blocks to safety and he felt like his heart would explode long before then. Not even super-human speed could get him there fast enough or so it seemed to him at the time.

****

Tamlina crouched low next to the ground. She could sense eyes on her, but she could not locate their source. She frowned. Trusting the werewolf had been the stupidest thing she’d ever done. Paranormals couldn’t be trusted, obviously.

“Come out and face me.” She screamed into the twilight gray outside her new home. Her nerves were frayed and she did not feel like waiting. With a huff, she stood tall and stalked angrily out of her hiding place. “Come out, you coward!”

There were muffled footsteps off to her left.

****

Seth looked out over the graveyard behind the monastery. His red eyes glowed in the low light and a sigh froze, a light fog, in the air. He sat down heavily on a stone bench and waited. He was a Teacher and he needed to report to the others, his superiors. It had been many, many long years since he had taught the younger generation, but still the Teachers came to him on occasion with “special cases”. Trevor had been one such case and now he was required to give reports on the vampires progress. If it was not within the parameters of the Teacher’s satisfaction then the young vampire would have to be put to sleep.

Seth did not want that to happen. He felt that real progress had been made, but ultimately it was not up to him and he knew that. The day was closing softly and he reveled in the rare moment of peace and quiet. His red eyes slipped closed, covered by dark lids. A sigh escaped between black lips as he relaxed.

“You really should learn to be more aware.”

There was something hard being suddenly pressed against the back of the werewolf’s head. Seth groaned.

“Bad form sneaking up on me, Jethro.” Seth admonished his brother gently. “You could have warned me.”

The cane handle was removed from where it had been set in mock intent against the werewolf’s head. “Sue me.” The man replied flippantly. “So, how have things been here.” Looking around he took a seat on the stone bench. “Looks peaceful enough.”

“It was.” Seth agreed with a toothy grin, insinuation in his voice

“I never was blessed with good timing.” Jethro admitted casually. “You have the report?”

“Of course.”

Seth pulled a thick scroll of parchment from an inner pocket of his robe and handed it over to his human brother. It is an ancient custom that he prefers over the modernized CD compiled reports or even the oral reports many give recorded on tapes. Seth always loved the old fashioned sense of “right” that came with writing things down on parchment paper. He blamed it on the monastery, living around that much history was bound to rub off on anyone. He sighed into the cold, damp air.

“It is complete, but I fear that the Teachers will not see it that way.”

“You know how they can be.” Jethro supplied.

“Exactly what I fear, brother.” Seth acknowledged. “I believe strongly that Trevor Snow will never kill again and that those he has killed were not intentional. I believe that he can be a strong ally. Every vampire we can recruit on our side is one less the enemy will be able to control.”

“We’ll wait and see what the Teachers decide, hm?” Jethro said standing. “It was good to see you, brother.” He bowed low. “Until next week.”

Seth watched the human man walk away at a leisurely pace. A smile turned up the edges of his fierce mouth. If anyone could sway the Teachers it would be Jethro. Seth closed his eyes and let the peace of the graveyard filter back into his conscious mind. A few more minutes and then he would return to his duties inside.

****

Jade Suon glared at the ghost of her long-dead Grandmother, Violet Suon.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” She said with perfect certainty.

“Oh, I may be dead, but I’m not blind.” The older woman responded with a low chuckle. “You like Seth and it is apparent to me.”

“I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.”

Her grandmother raised a finger, pointing it knowingly at the ceiling. “Ah, but you are the one who was calling out his name in your sleep.” The older woman ducked her head and plucked at invisible threads on her apron. “I know because I heard you.”

Jade blushed all the way to her hair roots her hands shaking a bit as she turned to the stovetop. The water for tea was beginning to boil, a whistling sound alerting her to the fact. She took a china cup down from a cupboard over the stove.

“Don’t dismiss this, sweetheart. It could be important.” Violet pushed. “If he makes you happy then there is no reason for you not to tell him how you feel.”

“Why?” Jade asked defensively. “So that he can laugh at me? Besides, he’s much too old for me.”

Her Grandmother made a slight ‘tsking’ sound in her throat. “Now, now, Jade. You are immortal. There must be some hope for you both. Isn’t he immortal too?”

“Well, not exactly.” Jade answered. “Werewolves and vampires aren’t the same when it comes to aging. Werewolves do age whereas vampires don’t. The aging process has only been significantly retarded by the werewolf genes.”

“Oh. I didn’t know.”

“Well, I do. I researched it, remember, back when the Teachers still thought I could be there little human pet.” She bit out the sentence angrily, pouring the steaming water into her cup and tossing in a tea packet with a flick of her wrist. “I know plenty.”

“Now, now, dear. I wasn’t trying to get you all upset.” The older woman shook her head. “I guess I’ve ruined enough of your evening…I’ll just go out for a little while, how’s that sound.” She tried to smile.

Jade smiled back. “Sounds good to me.” She said coldly.

They usually got along very well. Violet’s experience gave her an advantage in knowing when a comment crosses the lines that Jade Suon had constructed to separate her from the world. Everyone once in a while though the ghost would stick her foot in her mouth and the results would be a very broody Jade. With a sigh, Violet faded into the wall and disappeared.

Jade sipped her tea and tried not to think about what her Grandmother had suggested, but like the elephant in the room it refused to leave her alone. She swept a long bang out of her face and behind one ear. Her slanted eyes stared at the opposite wall unseeing. This was the trouble with falling in love with a werewolf.

Seth not only had a very long history that Jade knew nothing about, but there was also the many hints that he had once been happily married. The last thing the Asian werewolf wanted to do was give him the wrong idea or lead him on. She did not want to hurt him, because he had saved her life when she had been most vulnerable he had been there for her and the most she could do to make it up to him would be to leave him to his peaceful life. As far as Jade could tell he never dated and tried not to leave the monastery for long periods at a time. She understood that he feared for his charges and his children.

The children did not like her, Jade felt certain of it ever since their first introductions. They had gawked at her like a display at the carnival. Something to be studied and feared. Werewolf children with human traits were rare, but not unheard of, but for Seth to be luckily enough for all three of his children to be born blessed without the traitorous fur and paws was a miracle. Jade knew that he did not want anything to happen to them. He loved them more than life and if she guessed correctly, it was for his children that Seth had opened the monastery.

A safe haven for those with no one and no where else to lean on. The children of Seth were curious about most things and learned in a variety of different subjects. They all appeared younger than twenty, but that was their werewolf DNA lying to the world - all of them with the exception of Dory Anne - were over forty years old. They had been learning and growing all of those years in every sense but the literal. Jade swallowed a hot sip of tea, it burned her throat as it went down and she winced, blowing across the surface of the liquid still held in the china cup.

Maybe her Grandmother was right, Jade thought. She could tell Seth how she really felt, but then would it even change anything. She wrestled with herself. It would be easier to pretend she didn’t fall into his charm every time they met in the hall. She breathed deep, smelling the spices and herbs from the tea and letting it calm her nerves.

She would decide later. For now, Jade knew that she had to talk with Trevor again. She had promised the boy that they would have regular talks about eating habits. She glanced towards the tiny fridge in the corner of her kitchen and grimaced. She hated thinking about the abominable amount of blood inside. It made her insides crawl. She swallowed hard, this time to keep down the urge to vomit. She closed her eyes and set the tea cup down with a sharp clatter. Jade hated her knew taste for blood, she despised it with every fiber of her being.

Together she would work with Trevor. Maybe they could help each other through this time of transition.

****

Seth walked through the quiet halls in the maze of the monastery. He could feel the weight of Jethro’s words on his shoulders. The Teachers would probably not be satisfied until Trevor gave a blood oath never to kill again. A heavy sigh shook the werewolf’s wide shoulders.

There were three ways to kill a vampire’s soul. This mattered because there were only two people on the planet that knew all three and sometimes that was how many it took for the death to be permanent. Vampires were notoriously resilient. Not by desire, but by design.

The three ways were discovered by a vampire who made a studious career out of suicide. Unfulfilled by the twist his life had taken when he had gotten bitten, Jared Stetson had worked for decades on a way to die. He had craved death so badly it had taken over his every waking hour. Drinking blood had taken a back seat and because of that the Teachers and others like them had learned about chicken’s blood. No one knew why, but it was the only other blood that vampires could drink and remain healthy. Other bloods would keep them alive, but sap the energy. A few weeks on a diet of bad blood and a vampire could fall into a coma.

He had to send out Darian out later that evening to check on Tamlina. Seth knew that the girl Hunter was going through a very difficult time and he recognized that what choices she made now would forever affect her life. The man just wanted to make sure that she made the right choices - ones that she could live with later. He had known her family and their loss hit him hard. He felt responsible for Tamlina Gray.

A low light lit the hallway and Seth almost missed seeing the drops of blood splattered across the corner of the floor, but his nose would make no such mistake. He crouched down and touched his hand to the cool, flaking spots. Bringing it up to his dark snout, Seth sniffed. It was chickens blood.

A smile cracked the brooding expression on his face. This meant that one or both of the vampires had gotten over their phobia.

****

Blood red covered the entire surface of Jade Suon’s apartment. She looked about herself with satisfaction, her eyes wide with desire. Blood tasted good.

“Well, that went pretty good.” The vampire said licking her lips,.

Trevor Snow glanced at her over the rim of his cup and grinned widely. A red film covered his white teeth and a small rivulet of blood spilled out the corner of his mouth. Jade reached over and wiped it away, licking her hand and savoring the taste of life.

“Who knew that chickens could feel so much.” Trevor noted casually.

“So very much.” Jade agreed with a faraway look in her eyes.

She could feel his heart beat, heat racing through her body with the new blood. She had no idea feeding could be this pleasurable. She chuckled. It felt good and light and right. She turned to the boy.

“Lets have some fun?”

His return expression was blank. The inference lost on his age. She ran a finger over his chin and chuckled again. This would be fun. For a brief moment she wondered what he would taste like to feed on. Her eyes went to his neck and the vein pumping chicken’s blood through his pale body.

The pale body that held so much attractiveness. She felt her breathing coming faster and her body shivered. Jade turned away from him, momentarily regaining control of her mind. She had never felt this rush before and as good as it felt, she knew that there was something inherently non-human about it. She desired life and lust was an insatiable part of that life. She wanted to have sex with this young man. He was technically about twenty one, but she still felt that it would be improper.

Hands were on her back, kisses raining down on her neck. He was coming onto her from behind, brushing his body up against hers. Jade turned around and with both hands, pulled his face to hers and kissed him long and deep. His hands roamed over her shirt, his tongue pushing past her lips. This felt so right, but it was not what she wanted - not who she wanted. Jade’s kiss deepened still further and with a rush of blood in her ears, she let go of herself.

****

Seth’s keen hearing picked up on the lovemaking long before noon and he felt a small smile hang sadly across his face, but the smile stopped there. His soul felt clouded and overcast with regret. Jade had reminded him so strongly of his dead wife. He had hoped that there would have been a chance for him to say something.

With a regretful sigh, the werewolf returned to his work trying his best not to hear the sounds coming from down the hallway.

****

Tamlina had found no one. She had felt their presence, challenged them openly and searched high and low for whoever had invaded her new sanctuary. Now she just felt betrayed. It had to of been Seth or one of his children. The meddling werewolf clan just could not leave well-enough alone. She frowned and thrust her knife back into it’s sheath. She would deal with them later, but for now she needed to finish moving in.

Turning her back to the courtyard, she remained certain that eyes were watching her every move. A vampire would have been stealthier in it’s surveillance so at least she could knock that off the list of possibilites. Still, it concerned her that so soon she had been compromised.

Tomorrow she would find several new haunts. Options were life savers.

****

Trevor Snow shuddered as he rode out the last wave of pleasure from another round of frantic love-making. They were trying things that were new and yet seemingly familiar. He wondered if being bitten passed on genetic memories. A cup of blood by the bedside had become both a lubricant and a sauce. He poured some more over her torso and then started lapping it up as she writhed beneath his young body.

****

“This has got to stop, father.” Dorian complained that evening.

It was past three in the evening and still the affair between Trevor Snow and Jade Suon was far from over. Seth rubbed his forehead with a weary paw. He did not want to interrupt them. It was obvious that this was just a step towards accepting who and what they had become. He knew from years being a Teacher that vampires, sex and blood were a triangle that never broke. The feelings aroused during love were almost the same as those aroused during blood feeding.

It was why vampires needed to feed. The blood kept their bodies going, for sure, but all Teachers worth their salt knew that really it was the feelings and characteristics being absorbed that a vampire’s body needed. Go too long without it and the creature would turn into flat, gray emotion. Nothing but the husk of a body. Still. Seth had hoped he could share these things with Jade. Instead, the woman had found out about them on her own. He sighed again.

“Why don’t you go out and see how your brother is doing with Tamlina.” He suggested. “Bring back more chickens blood, please. I have a feeling we will need it.”

Dorian bowed his blond head and stood to his feet. All of Seth’s children were tall, but Dorian, his middle child, was tallest of all. He towered his seated father and hesitated a moment.

“Was there something else, son.” Seth asked, thick eyebrow raised.

“I was in town the other day and I heard rumor of someone waking vampires. The abnormal community is getting very upset - they think it could be one of us because there has been no new faces.”

“A human no doubt.” Seth spoke softly from long experience. “It usually is. I will report this to the Teachers tomorrow.” His brow furrowed, long ears perked. “Until then, keep your eye out. Go by the usual hiding places and see if we have any homeless abnormal creatures.”

Dorian nodded and walked out of the room. Seth felt worry fall onto his shoulders, an unwelcome and heavy feeling. He had felt for years now that things were beginning to spin out of control. The golden age that his kind had known filled with peace and most importantly anonymity. Well, it appeared to be fading into the past and he did not look forward to a future without it.

Humans and abnormal creatures were never meant to coexist. He knew this from the many, many histories he had read while working with the Teachers. Biographies and Autobiographies going back thousands of years. Werewolves, shape shifters and vampires all telling their tale. The very first - the oldest few - were the ones that still held his interest. They spoke of a time in the past when humans had experimented with the laws of science and nature. All paranormal creations were the work of humans. Not many knew or cared about this fact, but it was important to Seth.

****

Trevor lay in exhausted sleep, Jade in his arms.

They were both sated and content. Blood filled stomachs and tingling bodies left them healthier than either had been in their entire new lives. The stigma broken, both had done far more than enjoyed the last few hours. It had been life changing. They knew now that this new side of themselves was not a curse or a gift. Simply an evolution from how they used to be. Trevor mumbled in his sleep, eyebrows drawing together in distress.

In her sleep, Jade responded by stroking her hand down his neck, this had the effect of calming the young man. Together in sleep they let their bodies take over and the result was peace. A peace and a solace that neither had thought possible that very morning.

Vampires in body and in mind now. Their story was just beginning to be written.

**Erm, Yeah. Uhmmm….*Scratches Head* Not sure where this came from. :P. Sorry, for the sucky writing - I’ve got a deadline. Will fix and repost later. ;).




2 comments:

TLC's said...

hmmm, very interesting! Did you finish your quota? I hope you made the deadline. Keep up the good work!

Ebbtide said...

Nope haven't made the deadline yet! But I will. Thanks. :D.