Path of the Vampire forum

Ginny still sat on the roof of the truck when the pair stepped out of the shop. A few taps of her fingers, and the cat climbed into Angela's arms quickly-purring up a storm. "Stop for no one," she signed to Randy. "Just get the hell out of here as fast as you can."

"Maybe I want to stay,"

The words hit her like a brick. Zodiac began to shake her head and made a gesture of reproach. "You have no idea what you are thinking! There is no way I could keep you safe here. Weren't you listening to what I was saying in there?"

"But…,"

"And don't you dare suggest the other thing!" Her hands moved furiously. "I made one mistake and I will not do it again. No matter how well Sable turned out, I will not sire someone on an impulse!"

She watched the air go out of his arguments. "Besides. You would have to take the truck back and get your RV first."

"Make up your mind, Angela." Randy glared at her. She approached him calmly and placed a hand on his chest for a moment.

"No. I am giving you the gift of time to consider this long and hard before you make a decision. We have Syzgany vowed, so I know you will not betray me and the secrets I have given you this night. And if you decide this is what you really want, then return to me. If not, keep going."

He considered her words for a few moments and nodded. "It is wise council. Just as Nanna would have given. You know if I do return, I would not be…"

"I know," she smiled. Randy nodded and climbed into the truck. He started the motor and looked out the open window at her.

"Angela? Did I ever tell you I love you?"

She approached the driver's side and leaned in the window. "You remember that day when your mother made those oatmeal cookies and you ran out of the camper with fistfulls of them wanting to give me some and you tripped and ended up in a heap in front of me with hands full of crushed cookies and you just looked up at me?"

"Good god, woman," he laughed. "We were what? Five? Six years old?"

"Yes we were," she smiled. "And when you looked at me, your eyes said you loved me, and you have been saying it ever since."
"Well, I still do." His hand reached out and pulled her closer. She did not resist his touch and went willingly to his lips. For the first time in years, the memories of how men had
touched her in the past vanished. Randy was soft, gentle, leading her slowly as the kiss became more involved and personal. She basked in the moment till a familiar taste filled her mouth a second before Randy recoiled in pain.

"OH NO!" Her mind screamed when she saw the blood oozing from his lips. Frantically she dug through the pockets of her skirt and pulled a handkercheif out for him to use. She kept tapping his shoulder in double taps-her childhood way of her telling him she was sorry.

"Eels ike ees in my outh," he tried to smile as he set the cloth against the inside of his lower lip. He did his own tapping of her upper arm-his way of replying that he forgave her. In reflex, she licked her lips and swallowed the warm source of her existance as he began to wipe his mouth clean, leaving a mismash of his blood and her lipstick on the hankie. "I'll keep this," he spoke slowly and shoved the cloth into his pocket. He saw the concern still in her eyes and kissed her forehead. "Consider it a taste to remember me by. May I?" he asked as he pulled the black and purple bandana from her head and began to tie it around his neck. "I really like that scorpion you have on there."

"I have more," she signed. They looked at each other for another moment before she slapped the side of the truck. "Get going. Be safe."

"Here," he began to work the ring her Nanna had given him free of his finger and handed it to her. "A fair trade. Keep that for me. One way or the other, I'll be back and reclaim it." With reluctance she accepted it and slipped it on her own finger so she would not loose it. "Doesn't mean we are engaged or anything like that," he offered.

"Says you," she signed with a smile. Randy nodded and put the truck in reverse. She watched as he backed out onto the still street. She saw him tap his chest and point at her and she did the same in reply. Zodiac stood in the shadows of the alley till the sound of the truck faded into the night.

~to be concluded~

(Five days later)

Her step was lighter as she walked to her shop. At times Zodiac was almost skipping along to music only she could hear. The time with Randy was a well needed balm on her inner spirit and some of her friends wondered what had changed in her. Angela just smiled secretly as they asked their questions. She had no illusions about the future but could not help but feel giddy inside. His ring sat on her ring finger of her left hand with a small wind of green yarn to hold it secure to her smaller finger. 'It's NOT an engagement ring!' she kept telling herself but when she looked at it, she smiled regardless. Her Nanna's advice from the past came to mind when she thought about it long enough.

'A bird and a fish could fall in love, but where and how could they build a nest that would suit them both?'

'Ah, but two vampires perhaps…' she thought to herself in reply with a sly smile and the mental debate would begin again.

She arrived and saw the note on her door. She had packages next door, so she went on down the line and entered her neighboor's shop to retreive them. After a bit of chit-chat she reutrned to her own place and unlocked it. It was the usual fare. New catalogs and a few samples, along with a curious package. She laid the pile down and began her rituals of the night. Fussing over and feeding Ginny, watering her plants ( 'I need to find you guys a new home or find a way to get you into the sun more often,' she fretted) and making sure all was clean and proper before she opened for the night.

She finally sat down and attacked the pile. A few samples, the new Llewellyn catalog and a couple of reference books she had ordered to have a working knowledge of expanding her services. It seemed the town was getting a larger assortment of faith systems and if she wished to cater to their needs, she had to have some kind of a grasp of them.

On purpose, she had let the small mystery package for last. A childish habit of hers, but she liked little mysteries. She looked at the oversided enevelope in confusion for a moment. It was a regular enevelope taped to a larger packing one with her business card taped to it as the source of the address and the zip penned in with block numbers. The smaller one had a 1st in the corner while the larger had a 2nd on it. 'Okay, this is different,' she pulled a knife out and cut the two apart and opened the smaller one first and unfolded the letter and began to read.

Angela Francezci. So you still live-if what you are now is considered alive.


She dropped the letter as if it were a slice of toxic waste. She knew her mother's handwriting very well and was surprised to see it again.

So you came to visit us with your little group of friends that night. What were you thinking, child? That we would not notice what you were trying to do? Did you seek to cash on on the old ways with us? Set yourself up as some Lady with your supplicant tribe in place ready to serve your whims and protect you as you sleep away the day? HA!

The days we were servants when we were known as the Ferenk are long gone, little vampire slut! The elders among us remember the tales handed down to us over time and you were not the only one to study at Nanna's feet, child. I too heard those stories of the days of blood and fire. How we finally freed ourselves of those shackles. The long fight? The stake, the sword, and the fire. We knew what needed to be done to the thralls that made there way here after you and your friends had their ways with them. It tore at our hearts to do it, but as we had been told there is no escape once one had been claimed in such a way.

So think long and hard about the damnation you brought down on Randy's head. Oh, you got him good and hid your mark well on him. You knew he would come willingly between your legs. He had always loved you, girl. He denied you till the end he did. Only proof how well you seduced him. No thralls remain among us now and we will dispose of any we do find over time again! Aront thee! ARONT THEE!

And be warned! If you ever seek us out again, you will find yourself the Devil's own bed warmer before the night would be finished. Consider it my Syzgany Vow to you.

And then a list of curses in Romany began to cover the page. Curses her Nanna had taught her with the understanding such things should never be done lightly. What would possess her mother to say these things?

Randy?

She ripped open the larger envelope and dumped the contents out onto the table. The white cloth screamed at her eyes. The handkerchief she had given Randy, now stained with his blood and her lipstick. She grabbed the wad of black silk and lifted it only to find it was two pieces instead of one. She could just make out the purple scorpion on one half of the silk that was now thick and unyielding rather than soft and supple. It was dry and matted with something her nose recognized at once. Randy’s blood. The entire bandana had been sliced in two by something very sharp and unforgiving. The last time she had seen this was when it was wrapped around his neck.

She began to tremble and shake as the clues melted together in the only way they could. Angela jumped up from the table and backed into the counter behind her as the tears began to come. Her eyes flashed as a glow passed from her hands into the counter. Her plants suddenly shivered and began to collapse into themselves. The green leaves turning black and sickly. Large swellings expanding on their stems and branches bursting with thick ichors that reeked of death.

She looked up and screamed. The few remains of her misformed vocal cords straining in protest at her attempt to use them. Normally she would be embarrassed as anything to be heard making sounds like this, for to her she sounded like some sick dying animal when she did and the analogy was not far from the truth. Ginny yowled loudly as the cat scaled one of the bookcases to escape the power radiating from the girl’s hands.

Zodiac turned and grabbed the phone and punched the speed dial key as her sobs grew louder. The phone rang several times before Tempy’s voice was heard saying the familiar lines suggesting the caller leave a message. She stared at the phone as the beep was heard and screamed again as she yanked the phone from the wall and threw it wildly across the room. She grabbed her cell next and began trying to text, but she could not focus on the small keyboard. Blood from her eyes landing on the tiny keys, her rage grew and her hands erupted in power again. She screamed again, but this time from physical pain as well as rage as the cell phone began to boil and melt in her hand in thick gobs of melting plastic. She threw it as well and held her hand as she watched the hot oil begin to damage her flesh. The remains of the phone hit the counter and slowly began to crawl down the glass in ribbons of melted goo. She grabbed the counter for balance and the fake wood covering on the surface began to buckle and blister from the heat she was creating.

She dropped to her knees and wailed. Her mouth trying to form words and her anger grew more furious within. As her eyes flashed a third time, the entire block began to shake as the power erupted from her again. Books and supplies raining down around her as her fury was unleashed in abandon. He was dead! Dead because their information was wrong. A single bite did not make a thrall and only an allurist could do it as easily as her mother claimed she had done to Randy. Damn her, damn them all! She screamed again as she mentally made her own Vow. She would pay for this-all of them would pay one day. Not just for Randy, but all of the innocents who died that night. She tried to recite the curses she had been given and more down upon her mother. Things Nanna had taught only her and would plunge her soul into eternal damnation for using so carelessly, but she didn't care now. He was dead because…

She dared to still love him.

No crack of thunder to announce the spirits had heard her Vow or other acknowledgment was given by the beyond. Just the sound of her heavy sobbing, the clock, and a car outside that’s alarm was braying away after being shook by the small earthquake. As her rage began to drain her, Zodiac fell to the floor in a heap and cried loudly. Her mouth trying to say the things that ran through her head.

"Scorp…mamma? Tempy? Sable?" she begged now. Again, the world around her-the mundane and beyond-gave no notice of her cries for help.

"Somebody?" Her voice broke into a single note whine as she lay on the floor of her shop for a very long time, ignoring her familiar as it tried to comfort her as best it could.

***

((Of course, there will come the day when Amanda and Angela will meet face to face, but that is a tale for another time yet to come. Sorry this one was so long, but just went with the flow as it was being born. *waves* that’s all for now. Bye bye))