The Nosferatu Adventures
page 331, chapter 331
Out of Time
She looked up at him from under her lashes, unable to breathe. The unspoken thought waved through him as he stiffened his back standing to his full height. Vlad knew something was wrong. The two vampiric creatures still held a psychic link. Still able to communicate silently between them. A fact not even her fledgling knew. The dark haired male left his seat on the second floor landing, gingerly taking the stairs so that no one else asked where he was off to. He walked at what would for him be a snails pace down three blocks before turning and walking another four till he found himself ironically outside a cemetery. Nosferatu appeared a half second later, leaning on a large rot iron fence.
"I need to know what's going on?" she spoke with tired authority.
"In what manner do you mean?" the dark haired male responded as he moved a step closer, his hands clasped together in front just under his belt, his right leg swinging to be planted firmly and noisily in the gravel in front of him. After all these centuries, something as simple as the sound of gravel crunching under boot still gave him a sense of satisfaction.
"I left here we were basically under attack. Big bad evil sorcerers hundreds of years old were up our arses. I get home and nothing." she raised her hands palms up letting them slap against her thighs. "I'm confused. Did we win?"
"There has been no trace of them since you left." he move again towards her. "I have not sensed them. I have not seen them. I have not smelled them. It is as if they just vanished." his brown eyes were soft as he spoke, the spark between them daring to dance in his gaze.
"Did you know?" her tone took on that of bitterness, her eyes slits of emptiness verging on anger. "About Edric?" raising her left arm she gestured mindlessly. Vlad snorted as he tilted his head back, his eyes softening some more before becoming jeweled flicks of gold. The smile cold on his lips. The dark haired male moved again in a half circle around our heroine, as if plotting his mark. The sound of the denim and flannel he was wearing whispering in the air.
"Not at first. But by the time I figured it out, you were already gone." he brought his hand up touching one of the taller grave stones. "Does it really matter now?" he felt the roughness of it as it scraped his palm and fingertips. For all this modern reality gave him, he missed the simpleness of stone buildings, wells and pathways.
"You know how he betrayed me. Betrayed us!" her voice actually quivered at the memory. She dug her hands then into the depths of her jacket pockets, as if defending herself from not just the snowy air but the very thought of it.
"Jacob Oaken betrayed us over six hundred years ago. Edric, poor little whip that he is. Has been nothing but faithful to you. To your pack of rugrats." he continued to circle her, the circle itself getting tighter and tighter. "Can you say the same?"
"Three years passed for me where I was. In that time, I did the same thing for Reuben and Rolf that I did for you back in the 1400's." she didn't bother to tell him how she copied his tactics. How she left a field of raiders planted on spikes like a forest of death. How she became known as the Impaler as far as the edges of two kingdoms on either side of Rolf's. Not only had our heroine defended her adopted brother's lands, but expanded them as well. Nosferatu had left there not just Reuben's mate, but his queen.
"So you spied on your enemy. Spied on them from their own bed." he ran his tongue over his teeth at the thought of her whoring herself out. "I suppose you felt it was the lest you could do, given you dumped your soul into Rolf making him crazy." Vlad's tone never rose over a whisper as he brought his hand up to cup his ear. "There is something I need to tell you that I'm not sure you can handle." his right hand reached out as if on it's own accord before pulling away, afraid of the jolt he expected from the mating barrier, before remembering it no longer existed. "Your friends. Matilda, Rufus, even Dagan. No one has seen them in months. I went there one afternoon, and the place was gone. Not just empty, but the occult shop didn't exist. Nor has anyone mentioned them." he tilted his head to the side waiting for her response. "It's as if they never existed. Wiped from their minds." He stared at her for a long pause, his eyes squinted up. "You don't seem surprised."
"I made a deal with Odin. In this case, returning those souls back to their own reality. What happened to them after that, is no concern of mine." she said too casually shrugging.
"So you were reunited with your sire while you were gone? With Dagan?" a hint of jealousy began to creep into his tone.
"Don't be stupid!" our heroine turned now to face him as he stopped moving to lean against the nearest grave stone. Clearly she felt insulted as if being slapped. "Why does everyone think I would...I left him more times than I could count! That abusive possessive self centered..." she nearly spat the last sentence. "Clearly everyone seems to have one way tunnel vision, because no one; no one wants to admit that was an extremely abusive relationship!" her fist slammed hard into the side of a grave stone causing it to shatter into pieces. "Everyone. Everyone was so blinded by him. So charmed by him, that no one ever wanted to see what was really going on! I never wanted to be his! I chose Reuben. But everyone seems to conveniently forget that part." she crossed her arms now under her chest giving her boobs a boost. "All I ever planned with Dagan was a quickie. And look what that got me. Huh? A couple of years of abuse from an over possessive lycanthrope who couldn't handle being rejected by the fat chick. Poor male ego! Bent, broken and bruised like some deranged child." she shook her head, her eyes the pure white of the banshee."If it hadn't of been for that stupid sire bond he would never have claimed me and I would only have needed to leave him once. But instead, because of that forced bonding, he was able to track me down. Went insane too every time. I'm glad he's dead."
"Dead?" Vlad propelled himself away from the grave stone. "You said nothing about him being dead, you said he was returned to his original reality." Our heroine let out a breath that nearly shook the trees a few feet away.
"Odin took him as payment in order for me to break the no touching barrier. So that I could get close to the king. The same thing I might add that Bacchus did when I was with you." she leaned her upper body towards Vlad, her eyes never breaking contact. "Of course he's dead." she shrugged. "Why else would Odin ask for him?" she blinked finally, her eyes returning to their human hazel colour.
"And Loki had nothing to say about this?"
"Loki abandoned us." she shook her head slightly biting her bottom lip. "Something I never dreamed he'd ever do. No one has seen him or heard from him in...I'm not sure how long? Before I ended up back with Reuben in that reality."
"None of us have had any contact with him either in months." Vlad's brown eyes began to rock back and forth as he thought silently; doing the math in his mind. Licking his lips, the dark haired male ran his hand through his hair then over his neck. A smile once again teasing at his mouth. "When was the last time you did see him? Or even get any visions from Loki?"
"I don't remember." it was our heroine's turn to run her hands through her short spiked hair, clasping them behind her neck. "Bacchus had said something about Loki trying to make a deal with Odin for my soul back when I dumped it into Rolf. That was so long ago now for me." she let out a sigh of frustration. "Edric and I were at the warehouse talking and going over notes when Bacchus showed up covered in blood..." she stopped cold. "The blood. Damn it!" she bent down at the knees. "Oh my god! Why didn't I...course cause we had the iv bags everywhere...the blood Bacchus was covered in didn't have a scent."
"Everything has a scent." Vlad began.
"Not ghosts or gods." she reminded him.
"So you think Bacchus killed Loki?"
"No. He'd brag if he was able to do something that powerful. I mean, power like that..." her eyes flashed back to the pure white of the banshee. "But I do think he hurt him badly enough."
Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me(straight up story. New mission new season)
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