Love Bites

Back Again

They abandoned the car at the usual spot and sped through the forest, breaking through the line of trees in no time. Cal's teeth were gritted as he pushed on, Marcus would pay for this. He was done with his shit; with him. 

Tasha could feel the energy radiating from Cal, a mixture of anger, frustration and something else she couldn't quite put her finger on. As they pounded up the stone steps he turned towards her, "Come on!" he barked, his face twisted into a frown. Guilt. It was guilt. But what did he have to be guilty about? Now wasn't the time to question him as they came to halt in the middle of the large ball room. Marcus sat in a dirty, torn armchair placed at the stage end of the room. Exactly where Cal and he had sat when they made their pets fight to the death. Cal's stomach turned over at the thought of it.

"I knew it was only a matter of time. And you brought your little girlfriend too." Marcus chided.

"Fuck you!" Tasha spat.

"I know you did darling, and wasn't it sensational?" Marcus licked his lips and touched his crotch suggestively. Tasha growled and flew forward but Cal caught her round the waist and held her firm.

Not yet, his voice echoed in her mind.

"Where is she?" Cal demanded.

Marcus threw his head back and laughed, long and loud, the sound echoing off the empty walls and assaulting them from all side. Mocking them and their helplessness. A feeling Cal had promised himself he would never feel again.

                                                                                           ***

She stared into the icy blue eyes in front of her; they searched hers and before long she felt the familiar push against her mental barriers. Did they really believe she was that weak? That she'd spent so long in the company of vampires that she'd not learnt how to defend her mind? Stupid creatures. The face remained, its features contorting, twisting in anger. She smiled sweetly back.

"You have broken our laws," he eventually said and Cassie could hear the unrelenting rage in his voice.

"I don't recoginse your laws."

"Damn it, woman!" he hollered, standing up suddenly. "You live in our world. You will abide by our laws!" Spittal flew from his lips as he spoke, his voice quivering.

"No, I live in my own world. I abide by my own laws. I am a Wiccan. I follow Wiccan laws." She bit back, unable to hold back her frustration. She didn't see the backhand coming but the sting across her cheek, the crick in her neck as it wrenched sideways, and the trickle of blood that ran from her lip, she definitely felt.

"Wiccan bitch!" he spat, literally.

Another man stepped out from the shadows, "That's enough Dalziel. You may leave."

Cassie watched as the six foot vampire bowed meekly and left.

"My apologies Cassandra. Some of our brethren are very protective of our way of life and sometimes it makes them forget how to conduct themselves." He reached into the breast pocket of his immaculate, dark grey suit jacket and produced a white handkerchief and handed it to Cassandra. She took it, unable to keep the suspicion from her eyes, and dabbed at her split lip. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you." he paused a moment, staring intently at her and she braced herself for yet another mental attack, but it never came. "We as a race, are cautious creatures. You may not see that but we need to be to survive. We make all our rules, with survival in mind, and all vampires must abide by them. Do you have the same?"

Cassandra nodded slowly, not really wanting to admit that she had anything in common with these monsters.

"Hmm," he hummed, sitting back in his chair and crossing his legs. "The surely you can understand why we feel so aggrieved when ours are broken so blatantly."

She couldn't bite her lip any longer. He was good. He invited confidence. Made her feel as if this were an equal conversation and not an interrogation. "What law has been broken?" The question was barely more than a whisper as the fear of a violent reaction to her question buzzed more strongly than she had when Elder Peters stood before her.

"Our most sacred, which is why everyone is so highly strung right now." He paused, one hand resting on his knee, the other on the desk beside them. He watched as she digested the information he was feeding her like a baby bird. "We, the elder council, take care of our community. We are responsible for them and ultimately for their actions. Cal Lucien's actions brought shame to his family but they also shone an unwelcome spotlight on us. A spotlight that threatened our very way of life like a magnifying glass raised to the sun, burning whatever happened to be unlucky enough to be beneath it. Do you understand why that couldn't happen?"

Again, Cassie could do nothing more than nod, because she did understand. Her family, and others like hers had been persecuted through the years for their way of life, for their ability to wield the magic that the earth possessed. They had been hunted, tortured, drowned and burned because 'normal' people were so afraid of them. They had, and still would, do anything to keep themselves safe.

The silence stretched out between them. She knew the trick. He was waiting for her to start talking, to fill the awkward silence that was almost palpable. That wasn't going to happen. She began concentrating on her surroundings. She was in a small office off a large conference room. The space was nondescript, obviously rarely used. It was not home to a secretary or P.A, but no matter she only needed one thing.

The suited man sighed, his good guy persona slipping a little. "We have a punishment, much like the death penalty you humans seem to like so much, it's called the chair. It does not take life however, no, just the vampirism of the victim."

Cassie gave a small non-committal noise to show she was listening. She was not, her eyes still raked the room.

"Cal Lucien was a problem and the council were deciding whether or not to administer the chair."

Bingo: a pad on a small coffee table in the corner held a logo,and it was one she recognised.

"But we needn't have deliberated quite so hard. Call came to us, asked for the Chair."

Cassie fortified her mind, built the walls higher than usual, then carefully she began chanting in her mind. 'Te le hey oh vayato' she chanted again and again and again. She concentrated hard on the logo and on Cal. The suited man was white noise now.

"Cal realised very quickly his mistake, and that is where you stepped in."

Cassie nodded meaninglessly, not listening to what was being said at all. 

"So you admit that you aided Cal Lucien in re-turning?"

"What?" Cassie suddenly raised her eyes to her captor. His own blazed red with restrained emotion and she knew she didn't have much more time left.

"How did you change Cal Lucien back into a vampire?" He snapped, his amiable tone gone.

"I don't know." Cassie whispered, desperately trying to keep both the spell and the conversation going, if either were to falter, she was dead.

                                                                                           ***

Marcus watched Cal turn on his heel and dash from the room shouting "Cassie" in a panicked tone to Tasha. He smiled knowing exactly what was happening - it was all part of his plan. Cal Lucien was about to learnt he hard way that you don't fuck with Marcus Walker.