Winter - Part one: Night Warden.

Seven

As Winter came around and began to regain her composure, she had noticed that the searing pain she had felt had vanished. She looked down to her wrist computer with the intention of contacting Raige, only to notice on the scanner that something had destroyed the bulk of the Templar ships. They were down to only three units. What the hell just happened? she thought to herself. She had no recollection of anything since blacking out.

Father! she gasped, remembering what she was here to do. She quickly scrambled to her feet and climbed through the door of the lift. At the end of the hallway she could see the Elder vampires sigil on her fathers door. She didnt hesitate and ran down the dark hallway towards the door. Half way down the hallway the door shot open and Winter slid to a halt. A figure emerged from the doorway and she identified him as the head of her fathers Royal Guard. But she sensed something wasnt right. Something was very wrong. This time she decided to trust her instincts instead of smother them. She slowly drew her Night Blade and began moving backwards. No sooner had she started backing up when the guard shot his head up and looked directly at Winter, growling, with blood fresh on his face. His eyes had the same dead look as the vampire who attacked Winter at the crash site. The Royal Guards never left the grounds. How did this happen?

She had nowhere to run and here father was in that room. She needed to make sure that he was ok and that thing was in her way. She didnt like how things looked but at the same time there was no way that even a Royal Guard could take on an Elder Vampire, even with all the power in the world. It would be suicide. But she needed to find out what was happening. She needed her father. This time she wasnt waiting began on the offensive, running towards the vampire who in turn recognised the threat and ran, screaming, towards Winter. She was ready this time and as she got close, she dropped to the ground sliding underneath the legs of her enemy and slashing her sword straight through the armour and bone below the guards right knee as he let out a howl and fell to the floor with a painful smack!

He turned to begin crawling towards her, but Winter was already above him. So many feelings were rushing through her at this moment - Fear, anger, hate. She mercilessly drove her sword through the centre of the guards spine, pinning him to the ground. She had been pushed too far in a very short space of time. With her hands gripping the hilt tightly, she mouthed an incantation and the blade of her sword ignited and with one quick twist of the blade, there was a snap, and the vampire was engulfed entirely in flames. She pulled her blade out, wiped the blood from it and sheathed it, and began walking towards her fathers quarters leaving the burning beast wailing in agony. She stood in front of her fathers door until there was silence, accompanied by the smell of burning flesh and bone. She placed her hand onto the sigil and the door shot open.

As she stepped in she could see that there had indeed been an altercation. The furniture was scattered everywhere and broken. Precious relics smashed. Consoles destroyed. Then against the far wall she seen the body of her fathers young assistant, battered, bloody and lifeless.

Just above the corpse were deep scratch marks embedded into the wall. She followed the marks, across the wall, to a figure, slouched over a table with one hand placed on the wall where the scratch marks ended. The figure was unmistakable. It was her father.

Father, what's going on? Winter asked in a low tone almost alike to a whisper as she began cautiously approaching him. He began to take a more upright position and now had both hands leaning on the tables edge. Answer me! she shouted, trying to get some sort of reaction. And she did. Her father spun round towards her, launching the table at her! Winter had no time to react as the table came crashing into her chest knocking her off her feet and forcing the air out of her lungs.

Pain was shooting through her body but she managed to slowly bring herself back to her feet, thanks to adrenaline, as she looked upon the stationary figure of her father. 'It' had happened to him, whatever 'it' was. There was absolutely no doubting it. Winter was now having to dodge broken relics and furniture as her father, or at least what used to be her father, was relentlessly launching anything at her that he could grasp. Object after object came towards Winter like missiles. She was nimble enough to avoid most of the projectiles when she wasn't being taken by surprise.