BT: Second on the List

Gaston's 'mother, the vampire Vanessa. Her knack was controlling animals. And Accessorizing.



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Vanessa

Nightfall came and the heat of the day dissolved like mist into the twilight. The nights were so empty now. I had thought such heart aches left behind me, but now there was this pain that haunted my waking hours. There was a hole torn in the world, a place that used to be filled by my handsome darling. I had felt his pain from far away, but been unable to find him until it was too late.

Why had he wandered so far from me? My dear, sweet-voiced one... There would never be another to match him. I sent out my legions, swarms of bats, snakes, cats, owls, hawks, wolves, foxes, weasels, alligators, all my little bright-eyed children to search for news, to find his murderer. All that came to me were whispers of songs in the night and green eyes in the dark, and laughter in the trees. The moon had changed and was dark over the hills when my wrath faded enough to let me grieve.

The pain was still fresh and hot, throbbing in my chest like the heartbeat I no longer had. I had lost other children, but I confess Gaston was my dearest. So dark and beautiful, the night itself was more empty without him.

I walked my halls this night. The urge to hunt hadn't come over me for the past few nights. My two shadows paced behind me. They were hungry. I could feel it in them. Perhaps I could allow them out tonight to hunt. It wasn't fair to make the dear ones suffer with me. Judas rumbled softly and his tail lashed against his brother. Their thoughts were heavy and thick with hunger and I gave in.

I turned to walk down the stairs to the menagerie gates and out into the evening. There, I stopped, sensing something in the night air. My tigers rushed past me as my focus left them. In only an instant, they had disappeared into the darkness. I waited, listening.

I could hear leaves sliding together in faint breezes, small animals hurrying about in the grass, the breathing of my pets in their cages, the shadow-soft rushing of my tigers as they hunted. Something else was there, though and I became nervous. Once safely inside again, I reconsidered. What was there that I could not tame after all? If there was a new creature in my domain, Judas and Grendel would find it. If it was prey, they would kill it. If not, I would go out tomorrow night and find it for myself. A new pet might ease the loneliness in me. My interest faded so quickly these days. Only Gaston had been always new and interesting. I had never tired of him.

The misery swelled up in me again. My poor, sweet boy! Reduced to dust and ash. I pressed my hands to eyes that could no longer weep, though the grief was there. I walked the house blindly, paying no heed to where my feet fell or what room I wandered through.

Then, something snapped across my awareness like a crack through a mirror. Something was here. I was not alone and I was watched. I turned quickly and saw nothing. I listened and heard the faintest of panting. Then came soft footsteps. Someone was walking in my halls! Outrage sang through my body and I screamed a challenge that made the cats in my menagarie cower.

A blur of red made me look and a wolf attacked me from the side. I was suprised, of course, at first imagining that one of my pack had escaped its cage. But none of my animals was such an odd, gangly creature and none of them would have dared set tooth to me. I flung the beast off easily enough and sent my focus out to it, to still the creature, perhaps even stop its heart for being such a nuisance. My control slid off like water off a duck's back. I was taken aback. The thoughts brewing in the red wolf's skull were not the thoughts of an animal, and while I reeled from that shock, the second attack came.

This wolf was much larger and black as my anger. Its teeth tore into my shoulder, tearing silk and flesh. I screamed again, and heard my tigers answer. They would come to help me, but I couldn't spare that any thought. The black wolf grappled with me and I grew talons to slash at it. It let go of me to dodge away and the red one charged into my knees, making me stumble. I whirled on him and he leaped back as the black one came snarling in again.

Losing patience, I blasted them both away. Somewhere in the manor, a door was splintered as Judas and Grendal returned. It was a girl that came through the nearest door, however. Surprise was all that kept me from destroying her utterly. She was no vampire, and certainly not old enough to be a true vampire hunter. She was so plain that I had to stare at her a moment. She wore no adornment except for some cheaply made earrings. Her hair was an unremarkable shade of autumn-brown, her clothing was black and gray and faded. How dare such a nobody come to my home??

In my moment of bemusement, she attacked me. Sharper than the wolves fangs, a blade sank through the bones of my corset, into the bones of my body. I shrieked, more from anger than pain. We fought across the floor like savages. Her wolves set upon me from either side, but I could ignore them. The human was fast and brave, but no match for me in all my fury. She ripped her dagger free and stabbed again, opening a gash in my throat. My claws sank into her shoulder and I felt the joint pop from its socket like a pit from a squeezed cherry.

Her pale face clenched with pain, and she sank the stinging knife into my chest a second time. I threw her to the floor, and she spun to kick my feet out from under me. I landed on one knee before I caught my balance and my humiliation at being treated so rudely was worse than the black wolf's teeth in my neck. I threw the beast to the floor and seized the human by the hair. I flung her across the room with all my strength and felt only glee at the sound of her bones striking the far wall. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have thrown her out the other way and sent her through the window into the yard outside.

The red wolf lunged at me, his teeth laying my cheek open and his claws tearing through my ruined dress. His black packmate bit into my thigh, ripping away a mouthful of flesh. I took the red one by his spine and used his body to bludgeon the black one away from me. He wailed and I tossed him at the window. To my surprise, he caught himself on the sill and fell into the floor instead. His form shifted becoming a ragged and pathetic human form.

While I stared at that, amazed, the point of that cursed dagger suddenly sprang from my chest again and I looked over my shoulder to find the human on her feet once more. The gutter-slut had stabbed me from behind! Such base cowardice and bad manners deserved no mercy. I spun, one arm striking the bitch across her face and sending her sprawling across the room. There was not time to pull the knife free, and I was too angry to care in any case.

I was on the miserable girl in another instant, digging claws into her body to tear her ribcage open. Before I could break her open like a fortune cookie, the black wolf recovered and tore into me yet again. Teeth tore through my hair and grated into my skull. I shook my head to fling the beast off and then knife in my chest twisted. The red wolf/man creature had seized the hilt and dragged it sideways. The pain was terrible as I am sure my screams were also.

It was then my dear ones, Judas and Grendal arrived. They burst inside and the black wolf released me to face them with a bloody snarl. I flung out one arm and caught the shapeshifter by the throat. My claws ripped into him seeking the vein of life, but he twisted in my grasp. His muscle and bone flowed into a new shape. He was the red wolf again and his jaws snapped closed upon my wrist. I felt the bones and tendons sever and when I tried to pull free, I left my hand in his teeth for good.

Grendel was on him at once and they fought across the carpets much like the girl and I had. Like me, Grendel had power and size and every time he touched the wolf, blood flowed. Like the human, her wolf friend was fast and simply kept getting back up. I wrapped my bleeding wrist in what remained of my dress and went to finish the human off once and for all.

I'll admit the little maggot was brave, and tougher than I would have thought. She had made it back to her feet by clinging to a leather chair, and was glaring at me as she tried to stay upright. A bruise was already purpling on her face and blood ran from her temple and lips. Her dark clothing was stained darker on her shoulder and ribs, and she held one arm awkwardly to her belly. She was shaking and even her breathing was unsteady.

I advanced on her and she stepped away from the chair, holding a hand up as if that would halt me. I raised my remaining hand to slash the head from her neck and then she said a word. It was the first time I had heard her voice. Even as we had fought, she had made no sound. Despite her obvious pain, her voice was clear and strong and whatever the word she uttered meant, it summoned crackling storm-fire from her fingers. The lightning blasted me, rippling through my empty veins in waves of white-hot agony.

I fell then. I had never known such searing pain. In all the 200 years that I could still remember nothing had wracked me so. I was aware of my wounds sizzling. I could feel my limbs thrash on the floor as I convulsed and see the hated human girl stand over me again. She raised her hand again and then Judas slapped her to the floor. I heard her clothes and skin shredding and I tried to get up again. I raised my head and found myself staring into green eyes.

I remembered what the snakes had told me. The green eyes in the dark that had killed my favorite child. I screeched as if only the sound would destroy the hateful creatures, screamed until the sound was throttled between the black monster's teeth.