The TwiceBorn

Calling Down The Demons

“There is a festival where we wear the faces of demons to ward evil spirits from our dead in the vale. Sometimes we fail."--Brown

Fresh bodies.  They would last Yzebel longer and take less magic to animate.  Alora reluctantly had to give the night hag credit. The entire time Verdelet, Molach, and Belphigor were laughing it up at the thought of Alain being used by the night hags, Yzebel had known exactly what Alain was and exactly how he could benefit her.

Alora knew Bune to be an enterprising bastard but she really didn’t care what he was up to.  Her concern was for herself.  She closed her eyes and still saw the silver of the moon etched against her eyelids.  Her run of thoughts had only taken a few seconds but it felt like much longer.

And there was something there…something that might save her…but her brain felt slow and clumsy as the shadowjack took a tighter hold.  One thing she knew for sure though and didn’t need to be sober to realize, was Yzebel had tricked three higher demons and duped them out of something they might have been able to use.

Alora opened her eyes.  And started to laugh.  She hadn’t meant to, because she knew it was a very serious situation she was in but the laughter tumbled out of her throat regardless.

“Do you find this humorous, Alora?”  Leonard’s voice was mild but Alora could hear just a touch of anger beneath the surface.  She struggled to get herself under control.  A part of her had already taken a step back and was simply appalled at the sound of so much laughter coming from someone who was possibly going to end the evening crawling on a leash behind Yzebel.  But that other part, where the laughter came from…well…what else was there left to do?

Alora squinted her eyes and peered at Leonard, whose image shimmered in her bleary vision.

“No,” She managed.  “No, it isn’t humorous at all, Leonard.”

She tried to assume a serious expression but her face simply wouldn’t cooperate.

Fuck it.

She at least had the forethought to offer a conciliatory shrug before she spoke.

“Actually, it passed humorous pretty early on and went straight to hilarious, if you want to know the truth.  Looks like a night hag got a leg over on the UnderRealms.”

Laughter burst out of her mouth again and Alora had to lean over and put her hands on her knees to steady herself.  A fuzzy cocoon of warmth wrapped itself snugly around her and a part of her distantly recognized the fact that the only sound in the entire clearing was the crackling of the bonfire.  And her laughter.

She could feel the heat of Leonard’s glare but he couldn’t reprimand her.  Not with Abigor’s blood coursing through her veins.  Her stomach hurt from laughing so hard and she cast a quick, sideways look at Yzebel’s face and took note of the tension and anxiety worked into every crack and crevice. Her face mirrored the slowly dawning realization that her pact with Bune might just come back around and bite her in the ass instead.

   Alora felt a moment of sour triumph.  She gave the hag a wild and beautiful drunken grin. She’d gone too far to try and take any of it back so she figured she might as well just keep plodding forward.  The thundering silence around her told her just how far she’d overstepped the Sabbat boundaries.

Yzebel, her lined face so pale it was almost gray, stepped forward and glared at Alora. 

“How dare you-“Yzebel paused as her eyes nervously skated over her now-silent clan.  She was afraid. Alora could smell it on her; it was briny and pungent like rotted fruit.  And she had every right to be afraid because she was delving into matters that were none of her concern.  Alora’s grin became a bit wider.