Blood Rose Ch. 08

***

Kaeli meant to wait only just until they were gone before she came out of hiding. As it was she remained crouched behind the table for several minutes after the car left. For what must have been thirty minutes, starting from the moment Dorian threw Electra on the floor until long after the hideout was empty, her breathing was virtually the only movement she made. And when she finally stood up her body was trembling and she was supporting her weight on the table.

She had known Dorian for years, since before she'd been old enough to hunt. He'd been one of the many father figures she'd had in her life, and perhaps one that was closer to her than her own father. That fact that he was always so gloomy and seemed to hate the world was just something she'd learned to accept about him, and she learned early on never to ask about his past.

What she had just witnessed had changed everything.

This was hardly the way she expected to learn the truth about his history with Electra, and now that she knew it she almost wished she could forget. She also wished she could forget seeing that side of Dorian; the side that could do that with Electra after what she did to him. She finally understood what Electra was to him. She wasn't just an enemy. She was poison in his veins. She was a drug that had completely destroyed him, and yet he was still fighting his addiction to. When he said he had to end it tonight, he didn't just mean his revenge; he was fighting to be free of her.

Then Kaeli came back to thinking about her own situation, and the overwhelming question of what she was going to do now. She came back here because she couldn't think of anywhere else to go; because even though she knew Dorian would probably kill her, she had no one else to turn to. There was no one in the world she trusted more. She came here hoping against hope to find help from him, but...

She wasn't the one who needed help. At least not as much as he did.

Her eyes turned toward the weapons rack that her longbow still hung from. She picked it up, and found the feel of it in her hands had not changed. It still felt like the same powerful weapon she had carried every night as a hunter. She held it for a moment, and slung it over herself, just as she had night after night throughout her adult life. The rest of her gear followed; her arrows, her iron stakes, her hunting boots and gloves.

Then she stepped up to the mirror on the wall. She opened her mouth took a good long look at her new set of fangs. She had ended a human life with those teeth. She had spent the daytime sleeping in a condemned building amongst a bunch of junkie runaways, hiding from the sun, knowing her apartment was no longer safe from the people she'd spent her life fighting alongside. This wasn't what she wanted, but she allowed it to happen. This was her own fault. But she was done feeling bad about herself. Dorian needed her now.

Looking into her own eyes, she put a hand on her crucifix, whispered a prayer and crossed herself. She stepped up to the computer screen that still displayed the address they were headed for and printed it off. Then using the key she kept to Andy's car, she drove out.

Tonight would be Kaeli's last hunt.

***

Anthony lay spooned beside Nina's nude form, his head touching one side of her face, gently stroking his knuckles along the other. "How do you feel?" he asked her.

"Strange," she said. "Everything feels strange."

Anthony clenched a fist until his fingernails drew blood from his palm, and held it over her mouth. Nina's tongue extended, tasting the blood he offered her. "Blood tastes strange," she said. "I can't tell if it tastes good or not. I think it doesn't, but then I think it does. It's weird, but it's exciting."

"It's all like that," Anthony said, slowly gliding his fingers down her body. "It's strange at first, but it's exciting too." His fingers slid between her breasts and down her belly. "And it only gets more exciting," he said as his fingers neared her sex.

His fingers never reached their target, as both of them bolted upright at the sudden blaring of the security alarm. "Damn it," Anthony snarled as he leapt from the bed and ran out the door. Of all nights for someone to break into the building! This probably wasn't a coincidence. Someone may have been coming for her. Or more likely, someone was coming for the sacrifice the Blood Squad had brought back. Electra said the plan was to take a hunter, after all.

He hurried to the monitor room where the Blood Squad was rushing also, and arrived to find Electra already there, her eyes focused on one monitor in particular. Three men, probably hunters by the look of them, were standing in the main elevator. "My, my, my," Electra was musing. "You never cease to surprise me, my precious." With that she opened the plastic cover on a failsafe button and punched it, bringing that elevator to a screeching halt. The three hunters reacted instantaneously, looking around attempting to figure out what happened.

"That will delay them for a while," Electra said, before turning around. "But only for a while. We still have three hours before the ritual must begin. Jackie! Chill! Shao Li! Make sure they don't reach the penthouse in that time. I must continue making the preparations, and the ritual must not be interrupted. But remember this: you may dispose of the underlings however you please, but if one hair on Dorian Steel's head is harmed, you will answer to me." Anthony could hear blood dripping from Electra's voice when she said that. "Now go!"

They responded instantly, rushing out of the room to fulfill her command. "Come, Anthony," she said. "We must ensure that everything is ready on time."

"Electra, if it's alright, I'd rather check on Elizabeth."

Anthony had seen her give him some nasty looks before, but it never got any easier to see her whirl on him the way she did now. "Do not make me repeat myself!" she snapped. "Your sister is not going anywhere! You will assist me in making the preparations, and I will hear no more words to the contrary! Now come!"

He was thankful her back was turned when she strode out of the room, so she couldn't see him snarl behind her back. If only obtaining power didn't mean having to put up with Electra's inherent bitchiness.This is for Elizabeth, he reminded himself.It's not for the bitch queen. Maybe when we finally have the power she promises, I'll be able to get rid of her.

***

It took Dorian and Andy a while to get the elevator doors opened, and then there was only a thin gap at the top of the elevator doorway that they had to climb through. It was a pretty tight squeeze, and Ethan had to be helped through last, and not without straining his broken arm.

But at last they were out of that elevator and on the floor, and they turned around—to be greeted by the barrels of Jackie's guns and the tip of Shao Li's sword, with Big Chill cracking his huge knuckles behind them. "Don't move," Jackie warned.

"This feels familiar," Andy said. "Haven't we already done this tonight?" The flat of Shao Li's blade pressed onto the underside of Andy's chin, the tip pointed straight at his jugular.

Dorian attempted to stealthily direct his hand towards his gun, but the motion was quickly spotted. Big Chill stepped forward and extended one massive paw that grabbed Dorian by the shirt collar and lifted him off the ground. "Wouldn't do that, wonder boy," the giant brute said. "I don't know why, but Electra wants you in one undamaged piece, but she didn't say dick about your buddies there. So I suggest you be a good boy and don't move, or Jackie's gonna give your boys some blowholes to breathe through when we toss 'em in the river!"

Powerless, Dorian compliantly didn't resist as Chill turned and began carrying him somewhere else—but the big lug only took four steps before he stopped suddenly, releasing his grip and dropping Dorian on the floor. Dorian was baffled at first, but then he spotted the bloodied arrowhead jutting out from Chill's chest, where it had pierced his heart.

"Dude, that ain't right," were the brute's last words. Dorian narrowly avoiding being pinned under the monstrous body when it fell.

All eyes turned down the hall where the arrow had come, only getting a brief glimpse of the figure before she dashed away. But Dorian didn't need to see her to know who it was. It only took one look to identify one of Kaeli's arrows.

Jackie fired off a few shots in her direction before Kaeli disappeared around the corner. Shao Li took off running after her, but only made it halfway down the hall before turning to use her sword to deflect the knife Andy threw. Jackie whirled on Andy, about to pump him full of holes until Ethan whipped out his own gun and fired off. Jackie tried to evade, but took one bullet to the shoulder. A gun dropped from one hand that flew to her wound. When she tried to raise her other gun she convulsed and stiffened. "Mercury bullets?" she grunted.

"Bet that regenerative factor of yours don't like that, does it?" Ethan said.

Jackie again tried to raise her remaining gun, but was too slow to avoid Andy's knife flying to her heart.

Even as Jackie collapsed, Shao Li leapt into the fray, preparing to attack, but was left to bring her sword up to deflect the bullet that Dorian fired. She landed on her feet, keeping her blade whirling around her, warding off any approach and deflecting every bullet or knife that came at her. Just as Dorian was cocking his 12-guage, he felt a whoosh go by his ear. Shao Li spun to cut down the arrow that came flying at her—and Dorian seized the split-second opening to fire his shotgun.

Dorian marched towards where the blood-covered Shao Li lay writhing on the floor, drawing an iron stake. He stood over her, kicked her sword away and planted a foot on her wrist. "I'll be sending your boss to join you soon," he said before plunging the stake in her heart.

The three men looked about at the scene around them. Electra's feared Blood Squad lay dead at their feet, but the only things they were really looking at were the arrow embedded in Big Chill's back and the broken one next to Shao Li. "Kaeli!" Andy called down the hall. "Where are you? We know you're here!"

"She's not gonna come out of hiding that easily," Dorian said. "We trained her better than that. Anyway, we're here for Electra. We gotta get moving."

"Well I'd say the elevator's not an option anymore," Ethan grunted. "Who's up for taking the stairs?"

***

Elizabeth waited. For hours she sat in that room with nothing to do but wait. She tried sleeping; she lay on the bed for a long while with her eyes closed, but too many questions and fears kept her awake all night. There wasn't a clock in the room, but eventually Elizabeth began to sense that dawn was approaching.

Finally the door opened and Anthony stepped inside. "We're ready," he said.

"Ready for what?"

"You don't have anything to be afraid of, sis. We're not going to hurt you. I promise this will be the best thing that's ever happened to you." He gently took her arm and lifted her from the bed to her feet, and guided her out of the room.

He brought her out onto a landing and down a set of stairs into a massive room lined with glass and metallic decorations and polished wood floors, plus rows of skylights that were currently covered by aluminum shutters. On the floor in the middle of the room was a large white circle dotted at evenly spaced points with fourteen unlit candles on four-foot stands, with straight lines within the circle connecting every candle to every other, with a smaller circle in the middle. Electra stood patiently waiting off to the side.

"Come," Electra said, motioning toward the circle. "Stand in the center."

"What's supposed to happen here?"

"I told you what my significance is," Anthony said. "We're going to see to it that you can share in that glory."

"You will be granted the power of the Old Ones," Electra said, "just as your brother has. Power befitting the future vampire princess. Now come."

Anthony bent close to her ear and whispered, "Just trust me. When we have the throne, we won't need her anymore."

Hesitantly, at Anthony's beckoning, Elizabeth stepped forward, into the circle, coming to stop at the center within the smaller circle. She looked towards Electra, anxiously waiting to see what she would do, in spite of the nagging fear that she should be anywhere but here.

"Anthony?" Electra said, communicating some unspoken signal that Elizabeth wasn't privy to. To Elizabeth's great dismay, Anthony turned and walked out, leaving her alone with Electra. "Now then, shall we begin?"

Going to a small table off to the side, Electra struck a match and lit the end of a long candle-lighter. She shut her eyes and inhaled deeply. "I invoke the power of the Dark, in the name of the Black Church and by the souls of the Old Ones!" She began moving around the circle, lighting each candle, and for each candle she intoned a name. "Rogen... Valek... Jeradin... Mannorok... Tyrannis... Sidian... Dmitrius... Traxil... Beodrell... Marcolio Jonarti... Esmerus... Zoran... Memnon... Dracula." Then she put out the candle-lighter, shut her eyes, spread her arms and shouted to the air,"Foldein escelei!"

The flames of the candles suddenly turned black, and a strange black and purple sort of glow ran from each of them along the lines on the floor to all the others, coming together at the center where Elizabeth stood and engulfing the center circle around her. The dark light shot up from the circle to gather above her head, and the black flames flew off the candles to join with the light, forming a strange dark blob floating above her.

While Elizabeth stood gaping at what was happening, Electra called, "Bring in the sacrament!"

Anthony returned, pushing a human along in front of him. The hapless figure walked with his head down and his hands tied behind him. He looked like he'd been beaten, he wore no shirt, and a circle with a pattern very similar to the one Elizabeth stood on had been painted on his chest in blood. Elizabeth's anxiety quickly began turning to horror, which mounted as he was brought closer to her and she realized who he was. She kept praying she was wrong, that her senses were confused, right up to the point when Anthony pushed the figure to his knees in front of her.

"Drink," Electra commanded. "Take his blood to complete the ritual."

The human kneeling before her looked up, making her heart freeze. "Tyler?"

"Elizabeth?"

She knelt down, putting a hand on his shoulder and taking his hand in the other, looking into his badly worked-over face. "Oh my god, what did they do to you?"

"What are you doing?" Electra snapped. "Drink!"

Anthony stood over them, studiously examining Tyler. "Wait a minute, I recognize him now. She was with him last night before I picked her up. Seems she has a bit more in common with you than we thought," he said to Electra.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean you're not the only one with their eyes on a human."

Electra snarled, and marched into the circle, shoving Anthony aside. She threw a quick swipe with her claws to Tyler's cheek. He jerked his head and grunted, putting the bloody scratches on his face right in front of Elizabeth's eyes. "You may find another human to toy with after we finish here," Electra barked. "For right now, be what you are! You see his blood. You want it, don't you?"

Elizabeth stared at the blood in front of her. As much as it horrified her, the smell of his blood was exciting her. She could feel her fangs stirring—and Tyler was seeing it, too. "Elizabeth?"

"Please, don't make me... not Tyler!"

"DRIIIIIINK!"

Elizabeth looked at Tyler, feeling a tear on her face, and gently ran a loving hand along the side of his. Biting her lip, she stood up and gave Electra a defiant stare. Electra's snarl deepened, and Elizabeth was sent reeling to the floor by a fierce backhand. "I do not wish to be disappointed again!" Electra spat. "Do not force to deal with you the way I did with Annabelle!"

A chill ran through Elizabeth, and she looked up at her. "What do you mean? What did you do with her?"

"Last night, while Anthony was collecting you, I paid a little visit to your erstwhile mentor to explain that she wouldn't be seeing you anymore. She proved... disagreeable. I decided she was going to become merely a bothersome fly. So I swatted that fly."

Elizabeth fell onto her hands and knees, gasping for breath. "No... no!"

Electra pulled her up by the back of her dress and threw her on her knees in front of Tyler."Now DRINK!"

"Just do it, Elizabeth!" Anthony said. "I made you a vampire so you could rule the rest of them with me. Is this human really worth giving that up?"

"I never wanted that! And I won't hurt Tyler for it!"

"I should have known!" Electra growled. "Too much time with Annabelle has taken its toll. You're worthless!" As soon as the last word was uttered, Elizabeth heard the sound of a metal blade being drawn, and looked up to see Electra standing over her with a sword in hand.

"Electra, no!" Anthony shouted.

"Electra!" shouted another voice, one that tore Electra's attention completely away. Standing in the open doorway at the front of the room were three men loaded with weapons. Elizabeth instantly recognized the leader as the scary man from last night, who raised a loaded crossbow pointed at Electra. "Let's finish it!" he said.

***

Kaeli leaned her head around the doorframe, carefully peering inside while exercising all her training to stay out of sight. Electra responded to Dorian's declaration with a sweet-sounding, "My Dorian! I'll be with you in a moment, my love. First I must finish my business here." Electra's attention turned back down to the girl and boy at her feet—

That's Elizabeth! What's she doing here?

"Well settle this now!" Dorian barked. "You and me!"

Electra groaned. "Fine then. Let's settle it. Anthony, if you would?"

The darkly handsome man at her side flickered in the team's direction, and extended his arms, throwing forth what looked like a pair of giant hands made out of shadow and fog. Dorian ducked and rolled under the dark hands that pinned Ethan and Andy to the wall, but before he had a chance to get up off the floor, Electra was standing over him with her sword pointed at him, and kicked his crossbow away.

"I thought we understood each other by now," Electra hissed. "You can't fight me!"

Now!

It took Kaeli less than a second to draw an arrow and take aim. She let her arrow fly straight for Electra's heart, but it passed through thin air and pierced only an electronic box on the far wall. There were a few sparks and a mechanical whirring noise, and the aluminum shutters covering the skylights began drawing back, unveiling the dull blue glow of the predawn sky. Before she could make another move, Kaeli felt the flat of Electra's blade on her shoulder with the edge against her neck.

"Kaeli?" Elizabeth said, looking up from the boy in front of her.

"I remember you," Electra said. "I saw you in my club and outside Annabelle's mansion. And if I'm not terribly mistaken, you were watching me and Dorian tonight. Enjoy the show?"

Kaeli's response was to swiftly duck under the blade and draw an iron stake that she prepared to attack with as she turned and rose up, but Electra interrupted the move by clamping a hand onto her throat and lifting her from the floor, causing her to drop the stake. "And look at you now," Electra continued, carrying her by the throat into the large room. "A hunter become a Child of the Dark. How intriguing. I could use skills like yours. Interested?"

"Eat shit, superbitch!" Kaeli grunted, and spit in Electra's eye.

Electra glared at her through one eye, and threw her to the floor, wiping her eye. "I expected as much. Such a pity." She raised her sword, pointing it down at her, and advanced. "You may die a hunter, then."