CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Vilona Waits Again

Vilona stepped inside the cottage door, closing it behind her with her foot. Carefully she laid Natashia on the couch and crossed to the secret panel on the far wall. She reached triggered the switch and the panel slid open. She unlocked the door and opened it. She turned to retreive Tashia from the couch, but paused. She listened for a moment at the stairs then looked inside and down the stairs. There was no one and no sounds could be heard, but something didn't feel right. She looked from Tashia to the stairs then decided to get Tashia in her room then investigate.

Tenderly she gathered Tashia's badly beaten body in her arms and lifted her again. Natashia is a tall and beautiful woman with strong arms and legs, but now she is slender and frail. The lack of nourishment and possibly poison has caused her to age and deteriorate horribly. Love and a deep care filled Vilona's face as she held Natashia firmly in her arms, Natashia's head gingerly resting against the base of Vilona's neck. Down the steps and across the underground Manor's entrance hall. As she approached the living quarter's hall doorway she heard a rustling in the darkness of the far hallway. She looked deep within, but there was nothing there. Nothing that she could see yet, but she knew she heard it. Her mind raced with who or what it could be, that hallway isn't finished and the construction that is being done there had been suspended when Heylo came to join her here.

She reached Natashia's room. Carefully she shifted Natashia to lean over her shoulder so that her hand was free to unlock the door. Once inside she laid Natashia onto the bed. She inspected her face for signs of reviving, but she laid there still and lifeless. The youthfull radiant skin had become withered and discolored. Bruises that should have healed in moments lingered about her jaw and browline. The cuts made by the barbed wire on her ankles and wrists were mere scratches now, but still the healing was not what it should be. Vilona brushed the hair from Natashia's cheek with a single finger then whispered,

"What have they done to you my sweet lil one."

Out of the corner of her eye Vilona caught a glimpse of something passing outside the door in the hallway. Playfully Vilona put a finger to her lips and whispered to Natashia,

"SHhhhh...it would seem someone has come to play...so I'm going to go play."

Without making a sound Vilona lifted the Maroon Sword of Darkness that she had placed in Natashia's room for decoration and as a gift from the wall plaque above her bed. Cautiously and slowly she stepped out of the door, looking both left and right. She then closes and locks Natashia's door to safegaurd her precious 'child-come-home.' Her first instinct was to check in her room to see if it was Cham, he may be hurt, but nothing smelled of him. Her room was empty and nothing disturbed. Then she checked Heylo's room. Worried that maybe she had given Heylo to large of a task. Watcher was a hunter, maybe his vengance overtook his fondness for Heylo. Slowly Heylo's door creaked opened, the journal and pen still strewn about the floor as it had been left and the bed ruffled with a hasty departure, but nothing else was touched. There was a smell of something else in this room though. Someone had been here. She searched with her eyes. Her gaze landed upon the bookshelf. Vilona had compiled this collection for Heylo. Knowing her friend's fondness for learning and her love for giving advice, she had put together volumes of things for Heylo to read. Things that would make Heylo even more valuable to the clan. Vilona needed a scholar and Heylo was perfect. The perfect person to advise, and the perfect person to be the keeper of the Book of.... Vilona's eyes widened and she stepped forward and put her hand in the empty place on the shelf. It was gone. The Book of Noble, the Ventrue lineage Sired by Vilona herself. This book had power in it: KNOWLEDGE and it had Vilona's blood on each page.

Who would want this? Why? How did they get in here? Her mind whirled and anger began to pulse inside her. Her eyes began to burn with the rage that was building. She no longer wished to play. She marched herself down the hall toward the stairs. She looked up and at the top of the stairs stood a man. The light from the moonlight shining in through the kitchen window from the upstairs cottage shone about his long white hair. He stood there looking at her for just a second. Then as if she'd blinked he was gone. She lunged up the stairs without touching a single step. The front door was wide open and the cottage empty. In the middle of the kitchen table was her ceremonial dagger still swaying from the impact of being stuck into the wood. Blood dripping down it's blade and soaking into the grain of the table. Vilona didn't know what this could mean. Her mind raced with the possibilities. She wanted to go after him, to go back to the house and help Cham and Cantaria, to see if Heylo was alright. But she had to stay here. Natashia was her part in this. Natashia needed fresh blood, and tending. Whatever poison they gave her, Vilona needed to take care of her. She had to trust in her clanmate's skills....and again...wait.


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