The crackle of the fire had long been extinguished, the noise of the
fire brigade long past when Lyra looked around again. She could feel
the chill of Michael's skin, evidence that the young one had stayed
with her and refused to go feed as she slept. And the agony of
Steve's injuries still throbbed in the pit of Lyra's stomach as she
looked around at the dirt walls that surrounded them. From above,
she could sense the presence of the arson investigators still
lingering through the ruins of the house over their heads.
Concentrating her will, she found the mind of their leader and
planted the thought that the evidence to be found would be more
clear in the light of morning and commanded him to leave the
building. The man was hardened by years of experience and, at first,
he resisted what he thought was a bad move. His training taught him
to stay until there was no more to be gathered from the scene, but
in the end Lyra's will was simply to strong for him. The others with
him, looking askance at him but following his orders, walked slowly
out of the decimated building, though Lyra could hear the questions
the man would face in the car. But, she hoped, all she needed was an
hour to get Steve clear from the situation he was in. Then she could
let the investigator return and, hopefully, trace the origin of the
fire back to the villains who'd set it.
She waited for the sound of tires crunching on the gravel, but after
a while gave up. Obviously, the men must have walked up the long
drive, she thought. Her hold on Steve's mind, keeping the younger
vampire entranced, was still strong and only she felt the
seriousness of his wound as she began to carefully clear away the
debris next to her. Michael stirred at her side just as she
uncovered Steve's hand only inches from where she'd lain all
afternoon.
"How is he?" Michael asked softly as he moved to get a better view
of what she was doing. "I can still feel something wrong, but not as
strong as before…"
"That's because he can't feel as much of it as before," she
whispered, following the line of his arm up and moving dirt away as
quickly as possible. "I've, well, I've got control of his mind at
the moment. It was the only way to guarantee he didn't scream and
bring those men down here to find out what was going on."
The dirt had become a mudslide under the gallons of water the
firemen had used to put out the fire and Lyra was having some
problems simply brushing it away from him any longer. Looking down,
Michael could see his shoulder coming clear as Lyra's nails flashed
in the moonlight. She clawed at the clay-like muck, large clods
falling away as she uncovered the muddy mass of Steve's once white
blond hair.
"Lyra!" A harsh whisper came from the opening above them and Michael
jumped at the sound.
"Phil!" she sighed. "I could really use some light down here! Aside
from that moon, it's dark as the grave in this pit." Hearing a small
splat in a nearby mud puddle, she saw a bright beam of light
penetrate the gloom as Phil said, "Yeah, I thought you might be able
to use this." After a moment, he whispered, "How is he? I thought
maybe he was getting better, but how…"
"We'll talk about it later," she answered, her voice a bare murmur
just outside the circle of light. She took the torch from his hand
and began to study the situation more clearly. The mass of dirt
covering Steve looked like a burial mound from the Native American
cultures and Lyra had to shake her head to clear out that image.
This wasn't a burial, it couldn't be! Then, as the beam traveled
over it, she found what she had been dreading. A metal pole, about
as thick as a grown man's thumb and longer than she was tall, stuck
straight out of the top center of the dirt.
"Keep the light on that pole," Lyra said as she handed the light
over to Michael. "Phil, work on uncovering his head. And hang on,
guys, cuz this might get rough." With that, she braced herself
beside the rod, leaning over to the wall on the other side. She slid
a bit, then paused to catch her balance before wrapping her slender
hand around the projectile. Gently, she tried to lift it straight
out of Steve and the mud. But it wasn't moving. Leaning back, she
let out a sigh and rubbed her temples as she tried to think.
"Maybe there's just too much mud?" Michael suggested.
Wordlessly, Lyra nodded and fell next to the mound on her knees.
There was a flurry of dirt and muck as she tore into the pile,
slinging the mud carelessly away from her. Michael only barely
managed to jumped out of the way before getting covered in the
refuse. Near Steve's head, Phil seemed to be working at the same
frenzied pace, but far more carefully than Lyra. After all, he
didn't have three foot of mud lying between him and his best friend.
Steve's head was quickly clear of the mud and muck, his eyes closed
and mouth pulled tight in unconscious pain.
Lyra panted in pain as she tore through the sod. It seemed the
closer she got to the heart of Steve's problems, the worse her own
pain was becoming. Her nails raked across something firmer than the
mud and she paused. "Hand me that light!"
Michael passed the flashlight over to her and watched as she pointed
it into the area she'd been working over. "Okay, well, that's his
shirt." Leaning back on her heels, Lyra whispered, "Time to find out
how much damage this thing did to him."
Carefully now, she dug the mud away from his back. Michael heard a
hiss of breath as she found where the pole had entered his back,
then nothing as she concentrated on getting that area clear.
"You want I should help get the rest of him uncovered?" Michael
asked quietly.
"No," Lyra answered. "It's almost better if he stays pinned down
until we get this out." Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the pole
with both hands and tugged slightly. Her stomach lurched at the
sound, but the pole started to slide easily out of his body. His
eyes shot open at the sudden awakening of pain. But as soon as the
rod came clear, he seemed to sleep again. Phil started to unearth
him immediately, but Lyra faded away from them and out of the light.
Michael leaned down, eager to help get Steve out of his earthen
prison. At first, he tore into the dirt as ferociously as Phil. But
when it registered that Lyra wasn't by their side, he started to
look around. Phil had just finished uncovering his torso when
Michael spotted her. Curled into a ball on the ground, she seemed to
writhe in pain, though Michael couldn't find a source for it.
"Alyria?" Michael asked quietly. "Are you okay, honey?"
"Help Steve and I'll be fine," she groaned through clenched
teeth. "I took all his pain away," she panted. "Once he stops
hurting, I'll release the hold on him, let him feel for himself. But
he'd give us away without realizing it if it hurt him this badly."
"Everyone okay?" whispered Dovic from the ground above them.
"We will be, once we get Clark out from under this dirt," Michael
answered as he started moving dirt away from Steve's legs. Steve's
torso was uncovered. The sod over his legs wasn't nearly as thick as
it had been, so once all three males were working on it, it was
cleared in a very short time.
"Let's get the hell out of here," Phil swore as he picked up Steve's
light frame from the ground. Lyra still lay in a heap by the wall,
so Michael grabbed her as Phil flew up and into the night. Wrapping
her arms around Michael's neck, Lyra hung on as he followed Phil out
of the hole. Dovic brought up the rear, keeping an eye out over the
grounds to make sure they weren't spotted.
"Hold up!" Dovic hissed as he caught sight of the front of the house
they'd been hiding in. "Those investigators are still out front
talking to Cyra!" All three of them landed as Dovic
whispered, "We'll have to go around to the back of the house and
make sure Clark is out of the way! Those guys will want to see
what's wrong if they see him."
"He's not hurting as bad now, Dov," Lyra whispered as Michael set
her down on the ground. "Once he feeds, I should be able to let
control go and he'll be fine."
"Yeah, well, unless you want to have to take out those
investigators, I'd keep him hidden until then," Dovic replied. "And
even I know better than to take on authority figures unless it's
absolutely necessary." With that, the five vampires reached the back
door of the house and slipped inside. Leesha was waiting for them
and asked quietly, "How is he?"
"Getting better, but I don't suppose we have any bottles for him, do
we?" Lyra sighed.
"Cyra brought a couple when we came in," Leesha said, turning around
and looking for something. She found a cooler not far from the back
door and opened it quickly, grabbing out three bottles and handing
them to Lyra and Michael. She made her way to Steve, who was half-
conscious in Phil's arms and gave him the last bottle.
"Here, give him mine as well," Lyra said, pushing the bottle away
from herself.
Michael took it and said, "Yeah, man, let him have mine too." But
Lyra put out her hand and said, "Michael, you need to feed,
understood?"
"Yeah, but he's hurt…"
"No, Michael, you need it," Lyra commanded. "He'll have to make due
with just the two for now. Even as she spoke, she could feel the
blood working in Steve's body. The pain faded faster than before,
until it was little more than a throb by the time he'd finished the
second bottle. Phil sat him down in the corner and Lyra walked
slowly to his side, kneeling as she whispered, "Steve, sweeting? I'm
going to let you feel this again, but you can't make a sound, okay?
There are people out front who would hear and want to know what's
happening. So I'm going to let go slowly and you tell me if it's too
much, okay, baby?"
Steve nodded, then stiffened as the pain washed back into his
stomach. Biting his bottom lip, he took a deep breath and
whispered, "I can handle it, Lyra."
"Good," she sighed, looking around at the others. "I couldn't have
kept that up much longer."
Coming silently into the room, Cyra looked around and said, "Okay,
they're gone. For now at least. The commander decided he was going
back to the fire after all. Indecisive little git, wasn't he?"
"No," Lyra said with a humorless laugh. "He was decisive enough that
I almost couldn't convince him to leave so we could get Steve out of
there."
"Ah," Cyra whispered as she realized what had happened. "I should
have known. Well, everyone ready to head back home now?"
"Take Steve and go," Lyra answered. "I've got to find Sav. They took
him with them."
"NO!" Lyra jumped in surprise as Steve spoke. "You're not going
anywhere near them until I can go with you!"
"We'll get everyone together and decide just what we're going to
do," Cyra said, waving Lyra's angry words away before she could get
them out of her mouth. "We've got the others to get awake as well,
so don't go rushing into anything, Lyra."
Lyra shook her head, then said, "Fine, and how do you plan on doing
that?"
"I managed to get Cyra up and moving, didn't I?" Leesha said with a
smile as she entered the room.
"How?" Lyra questioned, her voice a harsh rasp as she tried in
frustration to figure out what had happened.
"Ancient Chinese secret?" Leesha said, trying to make a joke of
it. "No, really, Kerrie was starting to come around, so after she
was okay, she and I worked a triad with Cyra and Cyra pulled out of
it."
"Gods, why didn't I think of that?" Lyra whispered to no one in
general.
"So, anyway, we get the others up," Cyra went on. "We could really
use Joe and Rick in on this. Then we'll see if we can't find our
little lost vampire."
"He may not *want* to be found," Lyra said quietly. "He's still
angry with me over, well…"
"Me," Michael answered when Lyra couldn't finish the sentence.
"Why on Earth would he be mad at her because you helped us out?"
Cyra said, confusion clear on her face. Then she really studied
Michael and her eyes went wide. "OH shit! You're one of us now! How
the hell did that happen?"
Michael looked at Lyra, waiting for her to explain the situation
they'd been in to Cyra. But she stared mutely off into space,
leaving only Michael and Steve to pass on this tidbit of
information. Steve just shrugged and said, "It's your story, mate. I
wasn't all there when that went down."
"It's pretty simple, really," Michael said after a long pause. "You
four were down, Phil and his girl weren't here, so that only left
Steve, Lyra and Savage to go looking for the girl and her baby. I
owed Lyra for pulling me out of that fire in Italy, plus I couldn't
very well do much with a broken back. The only way I could ever do
anything again was to became a vamp. So I offered, Lyra declined,
Savage told her it was the only choice. He seemed okay with it at
first. But later, when she was showing me how to fly, he got pretty
pissed. Apparently, that weakened his mind enough to let the
Brotherhood get their claws into him and he's with them right now."
Cyra let out a sigh and glanced at Lyra, who was staring off into
the space with bloody tears in her eyes. Closing her eyes, she tried
hard to think just what to do in this ever stickier situation.
Finally, she crossed the room and put a hand on Lyra's shoulder. "I
won't lie to you, luv," Cyra said quietly. "He's in a great deal of
danger. But we've pulled each other out of worse messes then this
one, I'm sure." Lyra refused to look at her as Cyra continued, "Once
we've gotten everybody up again, I swear, the first thing we'll do
is start to hunt for him. But for now, unless you or Steve can trace
him, there's, um, well, there's nothing we can do…"
Pushing out of Cyra's strong grasp, Lyra exploded. "He doesn't have
time, Siona! The leader of that little coven of witch bitches was
pretty damned impatient to become a vampire, okay? And he'd just
killed one of our kind yesterday! What's he going to do to Sav, once
he gets what he wants? Kill him? Enslave him? I WILL NOT LET THAT
HAPPEN TO HIM!" She turned to fly out the door, only to find it
blocked by both Michael and Steve. "Move, damnit!"
"No."
"Excuse me?" Lyra hissed. She shoved Michael, who went flying out of
her way, only to come face to face with Steve.
"Do you really want to try that with me?" Steve said, his expression
a combination of worry and anger. "You won't get very far and you
know it…"
"Steve, I can't wait for everyone to decide how we're going to
handle this!" she cried pitifully. "You of all people should know
how dangerous witches can be!"
"And I also know it's going to take a couple of days for them to get
that spell completely in effect on him," Steve said, his voice
soothing as he tried to calm her down. "We've got a little time and
we can't be wasting it fighting with each other. If we do that, then
we will lose Sav. Come on, baby, you KNOW this!"
"We've also got one weapon that they aren't counting on," Michael
said as he walked up to her.
"And just what the hell is that?"
"Me."
Everyone's heads swung around to stare at the youngest member of
their group. Then Cyra let out a chuckle. "Let me guess," she said
with a small smile. "Vampires aren't the only thing the Hunters keep
tabs on…They watch the vampire lovers, too."
"Exactly," Michael answered with a slightly smug smile. "And maybe,
just maybe, they'll be able to give me an idea of where any little
hideouts for our not so friendly friends are."
Slumping down, Lyra had to admit defeat and listen to the logic of
what the others were saying. With no way of tracing Sav herself, she
was going to have to rely on all the help she could get. Even if it
came from the Hunters. "Then let's get out of here," she
sighed. "Steve, can you handle flying yet?"
"Yeah, but I may need a little help here and again," he answered.
"Then stay close to us and holler if you need it," she said quickly
as she made her way out the back door of the house.
"We'll not be joining you," Alexander said as he and Victor walked
into the room.
Lyra glanced back at him, her eyes going quickly over Alexander's
face as she whispered, "No, I didn't think you would."
"But," he interrupted, "I'm in your debt, Alyria. You saved our
lives tonight…"
"Except for Louis," she murmured.
"He was young and rash," Alexander went on calmly. "There's was
nothing to be done for him once he panicked. But we two owe you our
very existence and I'll not be forgetting that. If you have need,
you'll be able to find us easily enough." He turned towards Dovic
and said, "Will you come with us or stay with your mother?"
Dovic looked at Alexander, then to his mother. Seeing the anger and
worry on her face, Dovic made up his mind quickly enough as he
said, "I think Mum needs me right now, Xander."
"Very well," Alexander answered, motioning to Victor and turning
back into the room they'd come from. "You're welcome to join us as
well, young one."
"Thanks," came a male voice and a young vampire Lyra recognized from
the cages walked into the room. "I think I might." Then he looked at
Lyra and the others and said, "My name's Jacob and I owe you one,
man. If I can help, let me know."
"Thank you," Lyra said, though her mind wasn't on the vampires in
front of her.
"Thank you," Cyra answered, stepping between Lyra and Jacob. "I'm
sorry, my friend isn't herself at the moment."
"Yeah, I know," Jacob said, looking between Lyra and the males he'd
agreed to accompany. "I hope you find her man, know what I mean."
"I think I do," Cyra said with a smile. It was obvious that Jacob
was a youngster and Cyra could only laugh at how eager he seemed to
be liked. "Where is your coven, youngling?"
"Oh, I don't really have one," Jacob said thoughtfully.
Her eyebrow arched as Cyra said, "Oh, really? How'd you come to be
one of us, then?"
"Actually, I don't really know how," Jacob sighed. "I was partying
at this club in London and this bird came up and started dancing
with me. When the club closed, she asked if I wanted to go back to
her place and I was on it. But when we got there, she went all
weird. Talking about living forever and shit like that. Then, WHAM,
BAM, she was on me and you know how that goes. When we woke up the
next night, she told me the basics, then shipped me out as fast as
she could."
Puzzled, Cyra and the others stared at him in wonder. How could any
vampire be made like that? Just at random, it seemed. Cyra shuddered
at the coldness of it, then said, "If you'd like, you can come with
us."
"Nah," Jacob said, looking at Lyra again. "Somehow I think you guys
got your hands full at the moment. But thanks for the offer."
"We need to be off," Alexander interrupted. "You've much to do and
little time to do it in. My offer of assistance still stands.
Goodbye." And with that, he swept the other two males with him out
the door.
"Let's go," Cyra sighed. After going in to fetch Lily and the baby,
the coven took to the sky in hopes that someday soon it would be
whole again.