Path of the Vampire forum

No, I don't know where I'm going
But, I sure know where I've been
Hanging on the promises
In songs of yesterday
An' I've made up my mind,
I ain't wasting no more time
Here I go again
Here I go again...

She found herself dead, again. In the Shadow Realm for the fourth time. Two of the trips she owned. It was her own mistakes that had bought her those tickets to hell. But the first time? She had no regrets. She had given birth to an abomination that was the death of her but she was not sorry. If she had it to do over again, she wouldn't change a thing. That first night with him was well worth it.

The other two? They were her own fault, for not being more careful or quick enough to lower her bounty enough. Alex knew and respected many of the members of "Ty" who did what they could to keep the bounty list clear, and had no one but herself to blame. Although she still had an itch to kill 'Windbag over the part he played her last death before this one.

But this time? It was different. Alexandrea had only been defending her childe. She has used a power on her self, 'Monstrous' and been hit several times, making her rather hideous to look at. Not awake of how much she stood out, Alexandrea had tried to feed. She was very low on blood. But after getting spotted several times, she checked her bounty and was shocked and dismayed at how high it had gotten so quickly.

And at the end, Alex actually called out to the 'Owls' to be the ones to take her life, rather than than her death blow be given by the one who manhandled her daughter and then sought out Alex's own life blood for her retaliating on behalf of her childe. Alex would be damned before she let him get the kill.

She'd been hunting Ferals and Mooncalves in the Quarantine Zone and had managed to get a few of each before Ripper and his Thrall found her and starting attacking her.

Not having time to pull out her cell phone, Alexandrea sent out a call to Every's mind. A woman who she knew for the town meeting and who had attacked her with Ty before. Alex liked and respected her. All she had to say was the amount of her bounty and her location. After that it was only a matter of time.

“Cypriana,” Every asked as she stepped through the fadeportal, “look for ferals. I need more blood.” Her newest wraith rarely, if ever, talked back and seemed to enjoy the tasks that the small brunette set for her – this particular one simple and easy. Reaching up to pull her hair into a low ponytail, she followed the wraith through their connected minds to the Asylum.

While she entered the door, she gave a small sigh of relief as she rolled her shoulders, her custom blade moving to rest in her hand when her wraith found the first. It attacked first, the two struggling before Every was knocked to the ground and her blade cut through the creature’s throat – blood staining the front of her purple shirt before she kicked it off her. One could imagine her annoyance when all she received was a fang in the end.

Pocketing the fang, she muttered in Spanish as she headed in the direction of the back, only pausing as Cypriana yelled out ‘TRAP’ a second too late. The explosion knocked her off her feet at the same instance a few bullet pierced her gut, Every slamming into the ground with an unhappy groan. “Go on ahead and look for more traps.” She instructed quietly before rolling onto one side, moving her hand to the burned cloth of her jeans as droplets of the inky, black blood hovered in the air.

Shortly after, the brunette inclined her head at the sound of Alexandrea’s voice, giving the bounty and location before Cypriana’s mind linked with her own – the wraith forcing herself into Every’s head as she heard Ripper's voice echoing through her wraith’s mind. Cypriana responded and Every could see the traps laid out before a sigh escaped past her lips. Getting up as she healed the gunshot wound, she moved to disarm the poison trap and then posted a message to Tytonidae. A few moments later, she felt her phone ringing and answered a moment later to explain what was going on.

It had been nice at first, being able to hang out with a small group of people, expressly if her sister Kira was there. However, the peaceful nights were not to last.

Dru was as confused as Kira, about as to why Ripper decided to toss Alex’s childe around, then would not say as to why he did it. It was Kira that came up with a theory but all Dru knew was she lost her temper, normally Dru was very calm, it took quite a bit to get her upset. As much as she wished she was good as Kira, all the nights of training with her didn’t amount to much, she was better suited to hacking, and providing support. She’d try of course however, if given the chance.

She sent her wraith to go help Alex seek out ferals. It was Ripper’s fault she was on the bounty list. After a while of waiting, Dru went to the QZ herself, following after the sound of her wraith and warned her of traps. Dru rolled her eyes, of course traps, why wouldn’t he put traps down. He kept doing that to the mall.

“I’m going around.” Dru said to her wraith, she made her way around and waited for him to walk in front of her, which she assumed was hard for him because he had an annoying habit of staying on the walls.

“There traps here as well..” he said before moving on by himself to see where the blonde woman went. He returned, “That man dis around.”

“I know. Find him, we should try to distract him from her.” Dru explained. When her wraith did find him, he drained some power. The first time he ever done it before. Dru couldn’t land a hit, she knew that. But his thrall was around. If she was a human controlled by a coward, where would I hide here? Dru took off towards the stairs and made it to the basement. Finding the human there, she spilled his blood then returned to the top to try to find Ripper again.

“Kurt?” Dru said, looking around.

Her wraith returned, “Dispelled..” was all he said.

Dru sighed, “Figures.” She muttered. She stayed right outside the room, right outside the traps. If Kira was here, she’d go right in there. She closed her eyes, feeling useless.

"Another so called friend has done wrong. Must teach a lesson. Wake up, wake up now!"

'Damnit' Kira thought, it was no wonder she was tired all the time. If she was awake, she was working at her businesses, and can't forget her extra activities of getting rid of gangster. If she was asleep, which was quite a bit during the week, she had all sorts of dreams. At least she was sure she wasn't effected by sleep deprivation just as she was also sure she didn't get that deep sleep that at least humans need. Did vampires need it too?

Her green eyes looked over those who were there, she couldn't speak of what was going on within her. There were other issues at hand. She didn't want to admit that Warrior might be right about friends, not that she was close to Ripper. He paid her for inspires sometimes, or just exchanged inspires. She hadn't minded the man, unlike most of the people, he had never done anything wrong to her or to her own. But now he had.

It all started when Ripper tossed Lexy's childe over to the shark. Tossing was no big deal to her, of course she wouldn't admit she quite enjoyed it as long as she wasn't thrown into something, like computers. Not the best things to land on. But to toss someone into a shark tank? Even for a vampire, that would be a mess. Her mind got distracted on if a shark could become a vampire shark. Surely not possible or they'd have vampire bears, wolves, mountain lions, rats, chickens, rabbits...not that they lived very long here, but there might be some new vampires out there to be kicked around by a bigger animal at first. World thrown into chaos...

But then he had the nerve to ask where she was? A simple eye spy made it clear where she went, followed by reading her memories lead to exactly what happened. And yet, he wouldn't say why he did it.

Kira's theory was simple. He brought up being Quartermaine, so maybe he was simply upset over there being other Quartermaines while he was kicked out. If the theory was true, no one Lexy sired would ever be able to live peacefully with him around.

The traps he left, Lexy had taken care of. Oh Kira would have been pissed if one of her dancers got a leg shot off or damaged any other way. She warned Ripper if he kept it up, she would get involved. Of course why would he listen.

When sleep called to her again, Kira didn't know she'd be waking up to read memories of her 'dead' friend. If only she could have stayed awake. She would have been right there in the QZ, helping Lexy and Dru. She would dismantle those traps to let Dru in.

"You are so weak.."

'Let me sleep *****.' Kira thought, she directed her dream state to dream of Kira ripping the head off of a much meaner, red headed version of herself, Warrior.

"That's just rude.."

Returning to the Shadow Realm got less traumatic and more boring each time. This time had been an exception, in both ways. Soon after Alexandrea arrived, Ripper was there. But he wasn't dead, like she was. He was fade-walking and could leave anytime. First he attacked and stole power from her. But someone had also called forth many spirits and Alex had to wonder... had it been Ripper?

Why would he accost her child, attack her, plot her death, find her in the Shadow Realm and attack her again, plus steal her power only to draw spirits and leave them for her?

Still... if Alexandrea didn't consume them just because Ripper might have been responsible for them being there she would only be cutting off her own nose to spite her face. Someone else would be bound to come across them eventually. And so Alex went ahead and ate them, her power energy gaining a lot more strength. She went to leave then, but was unable to. He had blocked her in.

She rested as far away from him as she could in the small confined area, and tried to just rest. First she used mind speak to communicate with some loved ones and then after quite some time, Alex was finally able to sleep some. Once she opened her eyes the next time, Ripper was at least gone but Alexandrea found that she was still trapped.

It was some time before the Shadow Realm shifted it's self, and she was free to wander around the black and gray landscape again. The whole experience with Ripper's "visit" had been so odd, she didn't know what to make of it. The whole time, he hadn't even said a single word. Which was just as well, the last thing she heard before she had died was his taunting voice saying; "Now you'll burn, witch" and the words still stung.

And Ripper wasn't the last visitor Alexandrea received. She came across Robert Pratt, her old comrade from the 5th column. And he was still alive as well. He said he was there looking for her, to offer her help... and Alex was surprised but grateful. The Fifth Column had seemed so quiet after Robert left. They hadn't really gotten to know each other very well yet but Alexandrea welcomed his company. It was nice to have someone to talk to, even if it was only for a short time.

It had failed, again. His summoning power hadn't worked again, and it was really beginning to piss him off massively. He'd seen she'd had a bounty on her head and so had set up a place for her. It was hidden away and locked up tight, with only one way in, and he'd summoned a number of zombies and locked them in a cage, ready for her arrival to make it easy for her to sort out. He was tired and close to the end of his reserves of strength for the night and needed a rest. He just had had enough strength left to summon her and it hadn't worked, and the next thing he'd known - she was dead. He'd ended up slaughtering the zombies himself as he lost his temper, and then just standing there and fuming as tears pricked his eyes. There was nothing else to do but to go to bed, it was getting early and all of the summoning and killing had drained him - he needed a rest.

A day or two had passed and he'd recouperated enough to carry out his plan. He might have left fifth column because of Madison's inability to be civil and a decent human being, not to mention the lack of respect and acknowledgement he'd received, and he knew that without him - they were nothing, and were seriously lacking in a major power component. The fact he'd heard not a thing from Killian since then, only spoke volumes on so many levels and had soured the man in Robert's mind. Yet despite it all, he stil gave a damn about people and would reach out to them regardless. Hence his little trip now.

He settled himself down on the bed and then drew his power to him, letting it and the shadows welcome him and draw him into themselves until with a slight 'pop', he felt his body and mind disconnect from one another to allow his spirit to be consumed by the shadows. He felt the chill and heard the rustle of whispers that announced his arrival, rippling out and away from him to spread the news to the furthest corners of the realm. A shiver ran through his body as he began to wander and used his limited tracking ability to find her. It was difficult in the realm because there were no faces on the spirits and wraiths that roamed around, so trying to find someone and recognise them was never an easy thing.

However finally, his senses told him that this one before him was her and he smiled sadly as he saw her ethereal form hovering there and looking so sad, pathetic and lonely. Once more his guilt came back and he found himself apologising for the fact he'd not been able to summon her, that he'd not been able to save her and for failing her. Words tumbled from his lips as he protected the area they were in to ensure no-one could come near nor attack. Once the barriers were erected and they were safe, their conversation continued and he hovered himself over a bench while using all the energy he had to call to the dead that wandered the realm to come to him.

He let his Light and goodness shine out from within himself and waited while those dark spirits sensed it, were drawn to it and wandered through the dark depths of the shadow realm to come to him like moths to a flame. It wasn't long before they were surrounded by a number of them, too many to count, as they banged against the barrier like flies against a window. They were trapped in place, summoned specifically for Alex as they spoke.

Offers were made to her as he reached out to her emotionally, wanting to soothe all the pains she had in her life and to hopefully soothe one in his at the same time. Madison and Alex were best of friends and he hoped that perhaps, were he to prove to Alex what he was really and truly like, she might be able to help Madison see that all she thought of him was bollocks. He had no idea where Madison had even come up with the thoughts she had, but obviously he couldn't do anything himself to fix it, as she'd made it very clear that regardless of his intentions and attempts - she was having none of it. However, regardless of Madison and her emotional and mental issues, he wanted to reach out to Alex, to be there for her and help her in any and every way he could.

Unfortunately, all of the exertions of the night had left him exhausted, and regretably he had to crl up on the bench to nap. However he promised he would be there for her, once she returned - and he truly and deeply meant that. When he awoke from his nap, he found she was gone and felt a slight pang at that fact. He had really enjoyed her company when they'd been talking earlier, and he hoped they'd do it many times in the future. However, he needed to find his way out before Muga located him as he must have known he was there by now and was out searching for him. He found himself a tear, and as he rejoined his body, he awoke with a smile and hope that perhaps he'd made a new friend tonight. Though it would be up to her, as he'd made the first move - it was down to her to make the second.

She felt a whole lot stronger after Robert helped her and she felt even more better for the company. But things got awkward when he spoke about adopting her and Alex put off answering, as politely as she could. A part of her really DID like Robert but Madison came first. And Alex explained to Robert how anything she decided would be based on what Madison had to say.

She hoped he understood. Madison meant more to Alexandrea than almost anyone and they had been friends from long before either one had been turned. Besides, just because Rebecca Quartermaine was awol (again) didn't mean Alex didn't have a Sire. It was just a more often than not absentee one.

And although she was sad that her bloodline family was so absent... they were still, her family. She did really like Robert though. He was nice to talk to. She had every intention of going back to speak with him again at that point.

But for the time being, she excused herself and went off on her own to mind speak with Maddie. Madison's opinion was pretty clear and firm on the matter, straight off. And Alexandrea understood. The thought had also crossed Alexandrea's mind as well, that Robert might look at Alex as a chance to become closer to Madison again.

Well, there wasn't much Alex could do about that. Although she had never been clear on what went wrong between the two, Alex's first loyalty was to her friend, Maddie. And she wasn't willing to risk that that friendship for anything. Even if it meant finally belonging to a family of her own. How could it be that she had so many friends yet still felt so lonely all the time?

Madison said some things to make her feel better and Alex moved around a little, just wandering with nothing to do and no where to go. That's when she saw him. Well, she 'felt' him more than saw him. But she knew who it was right away and moved closer to him, every inch she came closer to him making her soul feel lighter and happier.

"Odin?" She called out softly... "Hello?"