Blood & Carrots - Silverpaw Ep. 07

Decades passed for us in our new home, the world going mad in those years that followed, technology racing along at a breakneck speed. It seemed every year the world was filled with new marvels to adapt to. The mundane were getting stronger by the day, but their thirst for conquest had never been sated. Indeed, they plunged nearly the entire world into a bloody war for several years.

The dust settled on their little world war and peace returned to the planet after much life had been lost. It was a sad affair but meant little to those of us in the paranormal circles. I still felt it was a shame they made such grand things like machines to fly, but simply used them to kill one another.

I had been no slouch though in those years leading up to things. I knew the times were finding me and my family, so I made it a point to train myself more dutifully. The dreams were still present and each day made me feel I lost a little more grip on myself. Elias and I quarreled more frequently by the day, I even lashed out at family members regularly. Of course, I always apologized and was remorseful for my actions, but still, I could feel things changing in me.

It was in the spring of nineteen forty-three when Lorelai came to call. She had called us on the telephone line to warn of her visit, so we expected her a full week in advance. It did my heart good to look upon her, but I could tell with one glance she was not here for pleasantries.

Her soft brown eyes darted to the side upon seeing me and Elias, then they refocused upon us. "I hope you two are well."

"We are, was your trip a pleasant one, my lady?" Elias spoke the words and offered her a bow.

"Hardly..." Lorelai folded her arms across her stomach and sighed. "Let us do away with the pleasantries. I am here on dire matters."

"Very well... let's hear it, my lady," I spoke the words and set my jaw, feeling my tail go rigid behind me.

She took a deep breath though she didn't need to draw the air into her lungs, then spoke out in a concise tone. "House Shadowtail was razed to the ground last month."

I gasped out and felt my chest tighten at the words. Elias snarled, showing his sharp teeth as he spat out angrily. "Lady Diana's house? Wait... what of her and our family members?!"

Nearly a decade past, the council had levied new laws to minimize house sizes and foster more secrecy in light of the growing mundane threat. Several of our members had been shifted to other houses throughout the world. Shadowtail was one of those houses, with five of our family and my former crew going there.

I knew the answer before she parted her lips, I could see the look in her eyes. Lorelai spoke out quietly, barely a whisper of an answer, "They struck during the day... no one made it out..."

"No..." Elias growled the words and shook his head, putting his palm to his face. "By the gods..."

"My lady... was this the church or celestials?" I hissed the words, my ears flat as my tail furiously whipped about.

"The German church, they used the on-going war as an excuse to purge them." Lorelai showed her own sharp teeth and I could see the cold fury in her eyes. I knew what she and Diana once were, I could only imagine what she was feeling.

"So what can we do?" Elias spoke out, folding his arms. "Surely you did not come here just to deliver this woeful news."

"House Sandshore is within their borders. It will no doubt be the next target. Sir Harold is a mighty warrior, but he cannot stand to modern weapons of war. I came to ask your assistance in traveling there. We will extract their members and bring them to this part of the world." Lorelai spoke the words in a simple tone of voice, all business.

"So this is council business," I growled as the words came forth, thinking of my former shipmates and Diana.

"No..." Lorelai showed her canines, a look of hatred gleaming in her eyes. "No, I turned a blind eye in Moscow, I let them off easy then... They have crossed a line, they have taken... they have taken something from me that is- This is unforgivable."

The sheep put her hands on her hips and fixed us both with a level glare. "This is not just an extraction mission. I have temporarily resigned as head of the council. No, this is a personal request. Help me save our family members in trouble, but more than that... help me exact gruesome retribution on those monsters."

My heart leaped into a strong eager beat as I wagged my tail. "The rivers and deltas will run crimson with their blood... They will pay dearly for this."

I saw my husband's eyes practically burning with white fire in them. He folded his arms and gave a calm nod. "You have us, my lady. A tithe must be paid for their sins and like my wife, I have never forgiven them for our first home. Let the gods sort them out."

I put a finger to my chin. "What of the celestials?"

"To hell with them. If they get in the way, they die." Lorelai snarled the words, her eyes now red. "I have warned Toroah that we are declaring war and that the celestial council will do well to stay out of this. I have already spent the last weeks creating temporary alliances with the region's lycanthrope clans and magi circles. If the celestials involve themselves they will have all of us on them, a fight they cannot hope to survive."

"Even in your rage, you are wise and calculating... You're a hell of a sheep, Lorelai." I spoke the words with admiration in my voice, feeling myself grinning upon her.

Lorelai met my eyes with hers and I saw the pain in them for an instant, then she gave me a knowing nod. "Sarnai... my fox. When this is over with, you and I need to speak of our unresolved issues. I left words unspoken with Diana and now I must hold them indefinitely, I'll not repeat this mistake again."

Elias wasn't a clueless dog and picked up on the body language right away between us. He gave the sheep a curious look, then an inquisitive one to me. "Sarnai... you and my lady?"

I shook my head and frowned. "Nothing like that, my husband. I have been ever faithful to you, as I have been for all these centuries."

Lorelai shook her head as well. "It is a matter of the heart, nothing more my fox." She spoke the words gently towards Elias and offered him a smile. "I do not seek to disrupt your marriage. We simply need to address many feelings and concerns."

He set his jaw and gave a nod to the both of us. "As you will. If I am being truthful, I respect both of you more than anyone else on this earth. You would have my blessing if it made the two of you happy."

I couldn't help but show my teeth in a grin and leaned against my husband. "But surely you would wish to spectate if anything came of it, am I wrong?" I hummed the words in a playful tone.

"Isn't that assumed?" He spoke back to me in an equally playful bark.

Lorelai gave us both a soft laugh and sighed out. "Thank you... both of you, for lightening my mood before we undertake this... I do love both of you dearly."

"So when do we leave?" I tilted my head curiously.

"Can you be ready within the hour?" Lorelai responded right away, the look in her eyes saying she was eager to get started.

"I will leave Jennifer and Jason to mind the house. If the worst should befall us, Silverpaw needs reliable successors." Elias spoke the words in a serious tone and we both gave him a nod of agreement.

"Will you call upon Val as well?" I asked Lorelai with curiosity.

"I will not. We need reliable leaders here in this region as well. Also, though I do not doubt his prowess, the three of us are more inclined to the brutish way of things." Lorelai gave a shrug and looked between the two of us. "This is personal and the ones that have lost the most will take up arms."

"You said we were at war?" Elias tilted his head, rubbing at his chin, his white tail flicking about in agitation.

"We are. Within the coming days, it will be announced to all our houses throughout the world that hostilities are open upon the church. They have used the mundane war to strike against us, but we can do the same."

"What of all the talk of an unstoppable juggernaut, my lady?" I growled the words and folded my arms, giving her an irritated look. "We could have done this centuries ago and avoided all this."

"Their power is dwindling. The fact the whole world is at war again so quickly and many of their kind are dying needlessly have soured the general faith of the mundane. The church is still powerful but it's at the weakest it's been in centuries." The arch-vampire gave us both a coy grin. "Likewise the celestial's have weakened from the worldwide lack of faith. We are in a strong position for once, and I aim to see justice done because of it."

"Ha... the abominations doling out justice, oh the irony." Elias barked the words, amusement clear in his voice.

#

Jennifer and Jeremy were beside themselves with ire that we wouldn't bring them along, but they eventually relented to Elias's decision that someone needed to take over the house. If this adventure in revenge went awry, they would be the new Marquis and Marquess of Silverpaw.

We arrived within three days to house Sandshore. Harold was furious about the news and stubbornly demanded to stand with us in battle, but Lorelai pulled rank upon him and ordered him to withdraw his family to the west. The lion begrudgingly gathered his family, and within a day's time had fled on ship back to the region we came from.

A few days passed as we traveled through the war-torn country in the night, before arriving at the remains of Diana's home. There were still bits of charred remains upon the large lot that held the grand home. Given the state of the war, it was no surprise minimal effort had been made to reconstruct upon the plot of land.

The three of us sat there in silence, thinking of our lost family members. I recalled the collie's warm gentle smile as well as my crew members and family that came to her home. I shook my head while whispering, "She was such a kind gentle thing. Always there when you needed her... My mates were the best any captain could ever hope for..." I spoke the words softly, bitterness in my voice.

Lorelai nodded and placed her hands upon her hips. "She was... even to the mundane as well. I never personally saw her kill, even in the old days. She routinely donated to the poor and downtrodden as well."

Elias simply gave a bitter laugh before lowering his head. "Everything the church is supposed to do..." He clenched his teeth and looked upon us both with a hard glare. "What's the plan, my lady?"

Lorelai lifted her ears and nodded. "Yes... this is not the time for mourning." The sheep composed herself and folded her arms. "There is a holy site in this city, no doubt that is where the acolytes came from. It is a grand thing, a citadel with a military base full of trained soldiers of the church."

Me and Elias shared a nod before I spoke. I already knew the orders but asked all the same. "What will you have us do, my lady?"

"Kill them and raze the whole damn compound to the ground. There are hundreds upon it and I want naught a soul to flee. Children, females, sick and old. Everyone dies tonight. We make it clear we are at war now." Lorelai hissed the words out, her sharp teeth gleaming in the street lights.

I saw Elias flinch at the words and I lifted my ears sharply. "Husband, do you not have the stomach for this? Their spawn has already been indoctrinated, they are parasites that would grow and seek vengeance for our mercies." The white fox jerked his head away from our gaze, saying nothing to my words.

"It is disguised as an active military base for the church, Elias. Rest assured there are no mundane children there. Though if there are, I expect them to be put to the sword, war is hell and you know as such." Lorelai showed him a hard look and spoke the words with authority.

His ears lifted and he gave her a nod. "I understand. Forgive me for my moment of doubt."

"You are a kind dog, my brother. I do not relish in such barbarism myself, but a statement must be made this night." Lorelai spoke the words in a resigned tone as she placed a hand gently on my husband's arm.

"Well, the statement won't make itself, let's go." I barked the words and turned to leave the two of them behind, striking out myself for the compound. In truth I had no reservations, the demons in me didn't care if it were children or the aged. The blood of my clansmen and friends were on their hands, I would see all of them charred to ash this night.

I leaped to the rooftops and began bounding through the city, the others behind me as if I were leading the charge. My thoughts turned inward while I hopped from building to building. Centuries ago I too would have shown reservation about laying low children and the weak, I wondered if it were my madness making me more eager for the slaughter. I dashed my thoughts as we arrived on the fringes of the compound and focused upon the task at hand.

"Sarnai... we are a small group, if we go in full force, we will be overwhelmed. I have improved my study of tactics over the centuries, but I still feel more confident in your abilities. Can I trust you to direct us?" Lorelai spoke the words next to me, cutting her blood-red eyes upwards to my own crimson set.

I showed the sheep a hungry grin full of pride at her words. "Of course, I am honored, my lady."

Even in the middle of the night, the compound had armed sentries and watchtowers with searchlights. The acolytes were not armed with swords, they wore modern combat armor and carried assault firearms. Vampires or not, we wouldn't walk away unscathed from a clip of one of those guns emptying into us and that's assuming the bullets weren't blessed.

I studied the compound for nearly an hour before deciding upon a plan. Finding a proper insertion point the three of us leaped into the compound while the searchlight was tracking the far side of the property and the guard's patrol had passed by. From there we split up into separate tasks.

Elias made his way to the watchtowers to deal with those. Lorelai I set loose upon the three groups of soldiers patrolling the compound. I knew she would easily be able to handle them by dominating their wills. Finally, I set myself to strike at the most dangerous portion of the compound, the barracks with several dozen acolytes in them.

Perhaps the madness gave me a deathwish, mayhaps the demons in my soul just craved the destruction. Regardless I strode into the building as if I owned the place, not even trying to conceal myself. A few of the soldiers who were still awake saw me and called out in warning to their companions. I saw dozens of guns being pulled to the ready from under beds or the sides of them. I simply showed my teeth and clapped my hands together before thrusting them outwards, sending a corona of black flames outwards.

The hellfire washed over the mundane in the barracks, instantly burning them to death and washing up the walls. I looked up to see the structure unable to handle the supernatural wave of heat I had unleashed upon its interior, support beams and walls alike burning to ash as the building came down atop my head.

The barracks collapsed in on itself in a large plume of fire just as one of the watchtowers crumpled from the white flames engulfing it in a similar fashion. I climbed from the wrecked burning husk of the building, pushing a large slab of the roof away, having deftly sidestepped and dodged the bigger chunks of debris as they came down on me. The air filled with a loud high pitched warning siren from the second tower which was abruptly silenced as it went down in white flames like the first did.

My next task was their vehicle supply. A simple rake of fire across the various parked trucks set a few ablaze and the rest took care of themselves. The other vehicles ignited from the first ones beginning to explode when the unholy fires got to the gas tanks.

The whole compound was now aware of things, dozens of troops from various locations pouring forth to combat the unknown assault. I rendezvoused with Elias near the southern gate as had been the plan, but Lorelai was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is Lorelai?" I barked out sharply, another loud explosion booming out as a truck went up in flames nearby.

"I thought she would have been with you!" The white fox snapped back at me. In the heartbeats of our exchange, we had been spotted and several dozen acolytes trained their guns upon us.

We scattered in opposite directions as the bullets whirred by our ears. Dodging a bullet or two was a simple matter for us when our powers were fully opened up like this, but dancing through hails of them was another matter entirely. We dodged and darted through the gunfire, each taking cover. A few bullets had grazed my flesh and they had indeed been blessed, so the stakes were high.

I had taken cover behind the husk of a burning truck as sparks flew off the frame. The soldiers were laying down cover fire to keep me pinned while a group of them no doubt was moving to flank me from the sides.

"Cute tactic, boys. It's a shame you're not dealing with an amateur!" I yelled the taunt out over the hail of scattering bullets before leaping straight up into the air and backward. None of them expected their target to literally leap several stories up. It was a risky gambit, to say the least, it's hard to dodge when you're sailing through the air.

I pushed my hands forward and summoned my foxfire into a massive sphere of black flame that I pushed forth like a cannonball towards the main group that had been using suppression fire upon me. Some of the soldiers had already taken aim and started firing upon me in the air, but the launching of my sphere propelled me back further and out of the stream of bullets that followed.

The fireball splashed onto the ground as the group scattered, while I landed gracefully on the edge of the base's barbed-wire wall. I showed a grin and focused my will, making the sphere of flames pull in on itself before exploding outward in a wave of supernatural heat. This was one of a few new tricks I had mastered over the last century. I had learned how to pull the heat and flames of my hellfire in upon itself, creating a vacuum that made it explode out violently in a wave of heat.

The black flames washed over a few of the retreating soldiers, but it was the heat that spread further, several simply collapsing to the ground dead before the flames could reach them. The sound of bullets exploding and a few grenades succumbing to the heat filled the air, along with the scent of burned flesh and fur.

Bullets bounced off the concrete of the wall I stood on, acolytes that hadn't been in the blast radius now firing upon me once more. I quickly darted away, seeing gouts of white fire erupting and exploding across the compound. It relieved me to know my husband was safe and still wreaking havoc in his wake.

The dance lasted several moments as I and the other fox swept through the holy ground, slaughtering the ones that had taken so much from us. Eventually, I met back up with my fox, both of us sharing a grin as we joined together in the slaughter as husband and wife.

Dozens upon dozens fell as we moved through the complex before we got cocky and found ourselves in a large courtyard that was obviously used for training. Several high powered lights came on illuminating us. A blink of an eye later we saw it, multitudes of rifle barrels shining in the light as the acolytes sprang their trap.

"Ha... guess they started taking us seriously..." I spoke the words, pushing my back to his.

He showed me a grin and wagged his tail against mine. "Yeah... I can easily make out nearly a dozen snipers on the roof too, jumping is out of the question."

"Well... if it's happening, I'm happy it's with you, darling," I growled the words, my palm drifting over his, feeling his fingers lock into mine.