My Little Ventrue Pt. 10 Ch. 04

Triss sighed relief, and looked around for Jen. Her friend did the same, before she went around and re-lit the dead candles.

Sam stood up and brought Mary with her, hugged her and spun her a couple times and hugged her a few times more, and finally let her go.

"I... I can't believe it worked." Sam managed a whole three seconds before she hugged her kid again. "Are you alright? Is everything working?"

"I'm ok mom. I'm ok. I... I can think again."

"Think?" She let her go again and stepped back. "You mean... as a ghost..."

"I couldn't think, not really. Any thoughts I had hit me so hard, like in a dream. Just... images, sounds, scents, they came and went and every second I was just trying to hold on. I--" Mary finally looked down at herself, then at the room full of people. "Ah!"

Jennifer laughed and stood beside Sándor. "After what we've been through, Mary, I think you can stop worrying about the nudity." But before Mary could say anything, Jennifer turned Sándor around anyway. That got a chuckle out of everyone, save the gargoyle.

Triss caught a peek of the man's eyes before he finished turning around though. There was a hint of... something there. Concern? Disbelief? Whatever it was, it wasn't the unmatched joy she saw in Sam's.

Triss also took a moment to take in Black Blood's eyes. Elen's eyes were old, lots of wrinkles and sagging skin, hard to read, but she did look interested in what was happening, like a scientist making mental notes.

"So you remember everything?" Triss asked.

Mary half turned and nodded to her, big smile in full bloom. She really was a pretty lady, a bit taller than her brother, decently lean, if a bit soft. Her face had a certain softness to it too, like her mom, and she had brown hair to her shoulders, also like her mom. It was a little hard to see the similarities between the two when looking at the ghost, but they were blatant when looking at the actual body, especially now that she was up and moving.

"I remember everything. I remember... getting stabbed in that alley. I remember running home, not really knowing I was dead at first. I remember when Jack and Mom found me there. I remember--" She snapped her gaze to Elen. Thankfully, this time the head snap didn't do that freaky instant snap thing it did when she was a ghost.

Elen chuckled, and balanced the knife on one finger over the book, teetering it so its blade tip and handle end tapped the book over and over.

"It appears the possession was a success."

"I don't feel like I'm possessing a body," Mary said. She squirmed a little, covering her breasts and privates, so Triss wrapped the tarp around her they'd used to hide her body. "Thanks. It... It feels like me. I don't think I could, um, de-possess it? Or anything like that."

"That's good," Elen said. "Then it appears this was a success. Body and soul, and the mold to fit them together."

Mary took a deep, slow breath, and leaned into her mom, who happily hugged her again, with one arm this time so they could walk together, toward the wall. They leaned their heads into each other. It was so precious, Triss thought she might just puke, in a good way.

"I'm alive again," Mary whispered. "I... I can't believe it." It was inevitable. She sobbed. And unlike her already sobbing mom, Mary had plenty of tears to make.

Sam hugged her full on again, and the two of them cried for a little while.

"It worked," Jen said, turning Sándor back toward the group. Triss made sure to watch his expression again, but relaxed as the man smiled, barely, and set his eyes on the two hugging women.

"It worked," Triss said. "I don't know if we'll be able to get back Julias's soul to do the same, but at least Mary's alive."

Mary let go of her mom, and with the biggest, happiest, tear-filled eyes Triss had ever seen, she waddled her way to her, tarp still wrapped around her with one arm, and hugged Triss as best she could with the other arm.

"Thank you."

Well, shit. Triss smiled over the girl's shoulder at Sam, and pet Mary on the back once. She was tempted to tell the girl it was all about Julias, and Mary was just a test run. But that shit wasn't true. Seeing Sam smile like that was so god damn amazing, it made the fucking shitshow they'd pushed through seem worth it.

Slippery slope, thinking it was okay to go around murdering people so they could resurrect someone.

"You're... welcome." She pat Mary on the shoulder, and gently pushed her away. Yeap, girl was still crying. "Fuck me, it actually worked."

"It did!" She giggled, and for a moment there, she looked just like Sam. "Oh my god! Oh my... god..." Slowly, Mary looked around at the room again, and this time her eyes lingered on the pile of bodies in the corner. The tarp covering them didn't do a good job covering the limbs sticking out closer to the bottom of the pile.

It only got worse as Mary, now in the flesh and a living breathing person, took in the rest of the reality. An old woman, a flesh witch, possessed by a god-like spirit of death, with a knife and weird magic book in hand. Symbols carved into the floor and walls. A giant metal bowl, where the smell of blood would never fade. This wasn't the scene you'd expect for a happy family reunion.

Sam came close and guided her daughter toward the exit. "Let's go somewhere else."

"I... I'm ok, I am. I still remember everything. It's just, when I was... dead, all this stuff seemed... I don't know, reasonable? It..." She shivered and took another step toward the cave's exit. "Ok yeah, I agree. Let's go somewhere else."

Jen came up and stood beside Mary, opposite of Sam. "My dear, you live and breathe once again! We must celebrate!"

"Jennifer, we are most definitely not celebrating in one of the ways you like to celebrate."

Jen laughed and leaned in front of Mary to look at Sam. "We. The way we like to celebrate."

Triss grinned after them as they made for the exit, but didn't follow. Neither did Sándor. Mister Gargoyle watched them go, his small smile turning into a small frown when they passed him, his eyes locked on Mary.

"I can't see her anymore," Black Blood Elen said.

Triss looked down at her. "Say what?"

"I am a spirit of death and the dead. I can see others who touch that realm." She grinned up at her. "Why do you think I like vampires so much?"

"Didn't think you liked all vampires. Just Jacob... and me, I guess."

"Ha. Perhaps. But it is also because I can connect with vampires in a very real way. A physical way, if necessary. You are partly dead, after all." Slowly, he handed Triss back the knife and book, grin unfading. "With ghosts, I can see them, where they move, where they flow, even when they hide out of my reach. I can't see her anymore. As far as I can tell, she is alive."

"I guess that's as good a confirmation I can hope to get."

"Indeed. Who is truly alive, when any scientist ultimately considers everyone to be robots, and slaves to determinism."

Triss rolled her eyes. "Oh fuck off, you're not a scientist, or a philosopher."

Elen laughed, in that quiet granny way. "True. She's alive, and we will be hard pressed to prove otherwise."

Sándor joined them, glancing back over his shoulder to the curve of the cave entrance, now that everyone else was gone.

"Can you tell?" Triss asked.

"No. I will be able to tell if she dreams, but vampires dream as well. Are they alive?"

She shrugged. "No fucking clue."

"Then I consider this a success." Elen chuckled again. Chuckled turned into a gargling mess, and black ooze poured out of her mouth. The black mist in the cave grew denser, and more of the ooze poured out of her from her other orifices. Eventually the black blood coated the floor, and oozed along the walls and ceiling again. Elen was no longer possessed.

"I..." Sighing, Triss kicked at the floor a few times, and paced around for a half minute. Fuck, she had say it. Really didn't want to, but she knew she did. "Thank you, Black Blood. Sam's lost so damn much. It's nice to give her back a piece of it. A damn big piece."

The blackness around them rumbled with a chuckle.

"That's a mighty fine thank you, little pardner."

Oh god. She rolled her eyes again and flipped her middle finger up at the whole cave. "Yeah yeah."

"And I look forward to Samantha's continued pursuits of the dark arts."

"I--wait. You think Sam's going to join the Circle?"

"I do indeed. She's got the itch now, after seeing what it can do."

"Did you fucking help us knowing that?"

The darkness chuckled again. "A little."

Triss would punch the fucker in the face if she could.

"Please leave her alone."

"I reckon she'll come to me, Triss. Or Jacob. And besides, you don't think Samantha fits in the Circle?"

"I think she does, maybe a little too well. And I think she'd probably live a happier second life if she stayed the fuck away from the Circle."

Again the darkness laughed. "Maybe. Maybe. But witches don't become witches easily, Beatrice. Something drives them. And you know Sam has the fuel for that fire."

Before she could snap back and tell him to leave Sam the fuck alone again, the blackness disappeared. The mist seeped into the walls, the black ooze vanished into the cracks in the stone, and the heavy presence of death incarnate went with it. Elen slumped, exhausted, and probably asleep.

"Yeah you better run!" She threw up her hands, stomped once, paced a couple times more, and groaned. Okay, yeah, Black Blood taking an interest in Samantha was not good, but it wasn't like Sam wasn't neck deep in witch shit all the time. For three months she got to see the darkest, most horrible shit humanity had to offer, and then watch Triss and Jen kill that person. She watched them drag the body back to the cave, and with Elen's flesh magic, dismantle the body like it was nothing more than a bunch of parts attached at the joints.

Much as it sucked, Black Blood was right.

Sándor took a step closer to her. His frown hadn't left.

"What's on your mind, Mister Stone?"

Even the hilarious and perfect nickname didn't change his expression in the slightest.

"Nothing."

"Uh huh. This is about Mary, right? I mean, there's no way we could have done that without Mary's soul floating around." She gestured to Julias. "I have no idea what to do with him. Yet." She gestured to Sándor, too. "How about you? This shit works. We got proof. Maybe you want to revive the people closest to you."

His frown remained, and instead of looking at her, he looked back to the cave exit.

"I... don't know."

"Ch'yeah, I get that. It's pretty fucked up," she said, gesturing to the pile of bodies in the back.

The man looked behind him at the bodies, then Triss, then back to the exit.

"I guess I'm not convinced yet."

"We really only killed people who deserved it, Sándor."

"Not that. I mean that it worked."

"Oh. I... fuck, I don't know. She's walking and talking and smiling. Crying. She remembers everything that's happened to her, and she's acting a lot more like a normal person instead of a psycho ghost. What more could anyone ask for?"

He nodded, expression softening a little as he looked down, thinking.

"I agree. "

"Then what's the problem?"

"I don't know, but I don't feel... I don't know."

That was fucking unnerving. It'd be easy to chalk it up to the dude just being wary and shit, which made perfect sense, 'cause she was, too. But Sándor was ancient, nearly as old as the Prince as far as he knew. His instincts meant something.

"Let's keep an eye on her then."

"Agreed."

"And... let's be happy for Sam, ok? Christ, did you see the look on her face?"

"I did." He met her eyes for a second time before looking away. A second was enough. If something happened to Mary now, it'd only make things a thousand times worse for Sam.

Triss scooped up Elen's cuffs, and put them back on the old bitch. But before she could hang the immortal witch from the hook again, Elen opened her eyes.

"Resurrection," she said.

Triss froze, and stared the old woman in the eyes. "What about it?"

"Long have witches such as I sought for a way to revive the dead. Hundreds, thousands of years. Perhaps you've finally done it. If you succeeded, please write it in the book."

This fucking bitch. Triss didn't know if it was her age and failing mind that had her focused on her book, or if Elen had been so obsessed in life that her magic was the only thing that mattered to her. Either way, it was pretty fucking annoying, having the old hag make a request like that, considering she was a prisoner and never getting out.

And yet, Triss nodded anyway.

"Okay."

If she succeeded. The first witch to ever successfully complete a resurrection.

Fuck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She really wished Sándor came, if only to see the look on Jack's face.

"M... Mary?" Jack took a step back, making both his crows flutter in surprise on his shoulders. But he didn't fall, half because one of his thralls got behind him and caught his weight.

"Jack." Mary grinned, and looked around at the big front door of his mansion. "This place is... wow! Can I come in?"

Jack stared at her, green eyes wide in that way Sam sometimes did. Total shock. Triss couldn't help but laugh.

"Um... sure?" Jack, dressed in dark suit pants and a white shirt, suit jacket and tie nowhere to be seen, motioned for them to come in. They did. Each step had Triss and Jen laughing, Sam and Mary smiling, and the thrall -- Veronica -- staring. Jack took a couple steps back, still staring.

A second later, Veronica had her phone out. Three seconds later, the other two thralls came running from the second floor, and they gasped as they stared down from the top of the stairs, half behind the railings.

"Jack, you dumbass, stop running." Giggling, Mary walked up to her brother and held out her arms.

It took a second for the reality to sink in, but once it did, Jack made a small finger gesture to the nearby railing at the bottom of the big stairs. His two crows flew over to the railings, each taking a post opposite each other, and both crows stared at Mary, too. Lot of staring.

Jack didn't recoil when Mary hugged him. Hell, if anything, the kid hugged her a little tighter than was probably normal for him, and Samantha let out a weak sob as she came up and hugged them both at the same time.

Jack snapped to attention, pulled back, and looked to Triss as his eyes shifted from shock, to confusion, to worry.

"Does this mean--"

"Julias is still out of my reach," she said. "And... and could be, for a long time. I put that on hold, cause your sister was around and your mom deserved help first."

"God, I... I--" The air got knocked out of him as Mary hugged him again, his mom too. But he managed to keep looking at Triss, and the shock in his eyes melted away to something Triss rarely got to see on the kid. Joy.