My Little Ventrue Pt. 10 Ch. 09

Around Damien and the group, were spiderwebs. Big spiderwebs with heavy threads. Damien was all too familiar with spiderwebs and how constricting they could be, but the difference between these and Fiona's was obvious. Fiona's were precise and graceful. These were only barely subtle, meant to catch things that had to go through the area against their will. But, there weren't enough of them to keep Damien from walking around fairly easily. If the webs were actually meant to trap something, they were doing a poor job of it. Residue, then? Something the spiders left behind as they did... whatever it was they did?

Caleb, Monica, and Carter were invisible, hidden in shadows cast by the enormous boulders or the giant rock wall. Everyone else came in after Damien, and he made sure to spread his cloak out to engulf them as they did. He wouldn't be able to hide a transformed werewolf, but as long as everyone stayed in human form and stayed close, it should be alright.

He gulped when Sándor went through. For a fleeting moment, the shadow of the gargoyle surrounded him, and the man's size dwarfed everyone. Jack and Avery, the two last, noticed as well, and they looked between each other before looking to Damien through the tear. Avery hadn't seen the gargoyle before, and its size shocked her.

Once they were through, they all turned to scan what they could see. Nothing but rocks, and webs.

"The azlu's gotten bigger," Avery said.

"How can you tell?" Jack asked.

"The webbing's spread. Used to just be in the ravine before." She walked over to the small canyon they'd found earlier. Sure enough, the webbing in the ravine was bigger, too, and a couple of cocoons lay between some larger rocks within. "We think it's been coming down from the other end of the ravine, before it comes here." She gestured to the ravine, and where it eventually ended as it collided with the colossal wall of stone near the tear, and went on for probably miles in the other direction.

Damien squatted down beside the ravine, and gestured to the two cocoons. "What are--"

"You know what those are," Avery said, growling.

It was not a Kindred's prerogative to worry about kine lives, but that didn't mean they didn't. Vampires had been human once, and if one was completely incapable of feeling any empathy for one murdered in such a way, they were likely well on their way to becoming a draugr. And as much as Damien had a troubled history full of manipulation from the Lancea et Sanctum, even the Sanctified felt they were serving a duty to both God, and kine, by helping them, and they often did so with compassion.

Damien and Jack were visibly bothered by the cocoons. Avery looked livid.

"It's a big city," Jack said after several moments of silence. "There's no way to track down how the spider got these bodies, not easily anyway. Is there another tear it's using? We've been watching this one."

"It's azlu," Avery said. "The Hosts do not follow the same rules as us. I'm sure it's found many places where it can cross over between realms. Like spiders, crawling through holes in a screen door. I doubt it killed those humans here, or ate them here."

"Pretty smart for an arachnid," Damien said, "going to multiple locations to do its business. Not exactly common behavior for a spider."

"Maybe they are evolving..." Sighing, Avery stood back up and gestured forward down the ravine. "I didn't want to believe it."

"Given enough time," Sándor said, "anything can evolve."

The three of them looked at him, eyebrows quirked. A strange thing for a gargoyle, who emulated statues, to say.

"Alright," Jack said. "So we sit here and wait?"

"Yeah," Avery said. "We--" Her head snapped up, and she looked to the tear.

Jack and Damien did the same, and froze. Time stopped. Avery stopped breathing. Every nearby werewolf turned around, an eternally slow motion, too slow, and meaningless.

That was Jacob.

Standing on the other side of the tear, he held a book in his hand, and was dressed in robes that could have been made of dead skin dyed black. He lifted his head long enough to grin at them, before he resumed reading from his book. Whatever he was reading, it wasn't English.

"Damien," Jack said, face still pointed at Jacob. Message clear. Stop the 500-year-old vampire who could easily kill Damien with a single punch if he got his hands on him.

Damien withdrew his sword, his pistol, and bolted forward, pouring every bit of vitae he had into his body and his speed. Get through the tear, stop Jacob from whatever he was doing, and don't die in the process. Fiona would kill him if he died here.

He pointed his pistol, and shot nine times in half a second. But he already knew what would happen. Just as looking through the tear betrayed what passing through it had been like, the bullets hit the tear, and didn't go straight through it into Jacob. They veered, and disappeared into whatever blackness awaited them in the endless oblivion the tear's sides exposed.

Something black came seeping out of Jacob's book, mist, and following it, a black, skeletal arm. A skeletal arm they all recognized, much smaller than the colossal one that could crush buildings, but they knew it. And as Jacob lifted his head to again smile at Damien, the hand of the skeleton slashed down across the tear.

And it started to close.

Damien went as fast as he could, and it only took him a few seconds to reach the tear from where he'd been. But a few seconds was enough to have the tear shrink a few inches from all sides. And Damien was forced to grind to a halt at the last moment. If it'd been a normal hole, he could have jumped through, but not this hole, not without veering off path just like the bullet.

"Damien," Jacob said through the tear, "do me a favor, would you? Tell your buddies to stay put."

Damien glared at the man through the tear. Shoot at him again? Wouldn't work. Stab him? Same problem. It'd be like spear fishing, except with the water warping the length of space itself. Make some pointless threats? No. Get as much information as possible.

"Stay put?"

Jacob nodded as he closed the book. The skeletal arm sank back into it, and once the pages hit each other, a small gush of black mist came out of it from all sides.

"Just stay where you are. Don't use Sándor to get out; he can't burrow from this spot anyway, the azlu made sure of that. And if you go roaming, you won't like what happens. I made sure of that."

"So you knew we knew you were casting a ritual."

"Of course."

"And I suppose anything I say, asking you to stop, will be pointless."

"Of course."

"Then at least tell me something!"

Jacob chuckled, crazy smile continuous, and he leaned down a bit to peek at Damien through what was left of the shrinking crack. "Just stay where you are, and we'll see each other again."

Jack joined them, eyes blazing.

"Jacob you fucking--"

"Be careful you don't lose that necklace, Jack. I'd hate to learn you killed everyone before we got to speak again. Though, if you killed Avery, I wouldn't mind." Jacob grinned at them through the ever shrinking hole, before it vanished completely.

Jack and Damien slowly looked at each other, before turning to face the werewolves and Sándor, and the endless cave of death and ghosts.

"Trap?" Avery asked.

"Trap," Jack said, nodding. "What'd he say, Damien?"

"He told us to stay here. He said we'd speak to him again if we didn't leave this spot."

Jack and Avery both half growled, half groaned, and threw up their hands. Almost like a synchronized dance for a moment, there.

"Sán--" Jack stopped himself mid yell, and quieted his voice. "Sándor. Can you get us out of here? Or to wherever that tear Mark's watching is?"

The Begotten shook his head. "Not from here. Opening my lair here is difficult, and I can't burrow. These... azlu webs, are blocking me. We'll need to go."

Jack clenched his fists until his whole body shook. "He tricked us. He fucking tricked us."

Sándor came closer. "Let's keep moving, and get away from the webbing. I can force my lair open there, and then take us to the tear deep beneath us."

"Yeah... Yeah, okay, let's go. Avery, sorry about--"

"The azlu can wait. If Jacob's going to start an apocalypse, I think that takes priority." She threw up her hands again and ground her teeth. "Fuck me I knew it. I fucking knew it, but my hands were tied. We have to kill the fucking azlu. And it's not like I could have left someone on the other side of the tear to stop him. It's fucking Jacob! He'd have just instantly killed whoever I left to guard it! Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" She managed to not yell, but she did put enough venom into her voice Damien kept a good distance.

He smiled slightly, but hid it quickly. As much as Jack and Avery didn't get along, they were similar in many ways. Perhaps that was why they didn't get along.

"Caleb, Monica, Carter," Avery said to the darkness. "Scout ahead. We need to get away from this area, without stumbling into any more fucking traps. We..." Her voice trailed off as she stared into the distance, head tilted up slightly.

Everyone looked up. One of those tiny, distant green dots, was moving closer.

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~~Scully~~

~Master is through the door,~ Scully sent to Mulder.

~Master is through the door.~

They both nodded as they looked down over the edge of the tall human house. Not a house, not really, but that's what the other crows called them, and it was hard to break old habits. And with dozens of their old kin nearby, cawing and hunting, Scully couldn't help but think about things the way she used to, sometimes.

They knew their master was through the door to the other world, because they couldn't sense him anymore. Ever since he'd brought them back from the black place, they could always sense him, except the few times he wasn't in the world anymore.

~Master said wait. Wait?~ Scully asked.

~I don't know. Wait?~ Mulder asked.

~Wait?~

~Wait?~

She thought about it for a moment.

~Wait.~

~Wait.~ Mulder sent.

So they waited, looking down over the building edge of the human home-not-home.

After a long moment, a few winds, and the cooling of the night, Scully looked down. The door had opened, and was closing.

~Did you see?~

~See?~

She flapped her wings and nodded down at ground below them.

~See! Saw something... something...~

~I don't see.~

Mulder didn't see. Mulder often didn't pay attention. But she saw. She saw something move, something that didn't match the wind.

A few winds later, it happened again! The door opened, and then closed. But she saw no one! Just bits of dirt and rock moving with the wind. Or maybe, not the wind?

She flew down, and smelled the air. Someone had been through here! Someone she hadn't seen. But she recognized the smell.

Mulder flew down a few winds later and did the same thing, patrolling and pacing as he sniffed the air.

~Recognize smell?~ she asked.

~I do!~

~From where?~

~I don't know~

She squawked at Mulder a few times. He squawked back. They both looked at the door blocking the path into the human not-home. It was closed.

She pushed against it. Too heavy. Too big. It didn't move. Winds definitely wouldn't move it, either.

~Something's happened,~ she sent.

~Because we smell something? We smell lots of things.~

~We smell something we know!~ And it was weird that she couldn't remember it. She smelled the wolf people. She smelled the monster who watched and waited. What was the other smell?

It smelled like... like... skin? Old skin? And... blood?

~Wait! I know! I know! I know!~ She hopped left and right until Mulder cawed at her. ~I know!~

~What is the smell? What is it?~

~Do you remember the dangerous blood drinker? The one Master warned us about?~

~Jacob.~

~Yes, Jacob. Jacob's smell!~

Mulder hopped over and pecked at her a few times. ~Blood drinkers have no different smell. They all smell like dust.~

~Jacob smelled! I've been near him before, when he was...~ Wearing the weird clothes. The dark clothes. The scary clothes. The clothes that smelled like death.

~You think dangerous blood drinker was here?~

She pecked at Mulder a few times. ~I do! Master is in danger!~

~What do we do? Master told us to stay out of danger.~

~Master didn't know!~ She flapped her wings, and joined the wind again. With the wind beneath her, freeing her from the ground, she could go wherever she wanted, safe from the humans below with the night sky behind her, hiding her.

Mulder joined her, and the two of them flew toward the center of the big place, with all the colors and lights and noise.

~We should tell the Prince blood drinker? Master's mate?~ Mulder asked.

~I don't know. Should we?~

~I don't know. Should we?~

~I think so.~ She cawed once, and the two of them turned in over the dark ground as some warmer wind helped them fly higher. ~She can help!~

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The Prince woman blood drinker couldn't help. Both Mulder and Scully perched outside her nest, at the top of the not-home, but the see-through wall showed she wasn't there. They pecked at the see-through wall a bunch of times, and made a lot of noise, but she didn't come.

~What now?~ Scully asked.

~Door at ground?~

~Why? Fat man?~

~Fat man.~

They flew to the ground, and pecked at the multiple see-through doors that blocked them from getting into the not-home. But there was no fat man sitting behind the small wall he usually sat behind. Was someone else there tonight? Maybe, but they weren't there now.

As panic set in, Scully flew over to the tiny, flat, weird forest near the tall not-home, and perched on top of one of the square bushes. Mulder joined her, and perched close, close enough they leaned into each other.

~Girls?~ Mulder asked. ~Veronica, Leilani, and Rachel?~

~They can't understand us.~ Unless they tried to use their human voices. And that could take time. They had to act quickly!

~Then... the other blood drinkers in master's family.~

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Mulder and Scully perched on the see-through wall of someone the master called Jessy. No one was there. They flew to the see-through wall of Natasha. No one was there. Master had said they would be busy tonight, but what else could Scully and Mulder do?

They found the nest of the wolf humans. Not all of them went with the master, but Scully didn't know who went, or how many. Mulder squawked and pecked at the see-through wall of their nest, but no one waited inside, no one came, no one answered.

Scully and Mulder took to the air again.

~The Prince must be in her nest,~ Scully sent. ~She's always in her nest, deep where she doesn't let us go.~

~Yes. But how to get to her?~

Why had they not made a plan for this!?

~I... I... don't know what to do,~ she sent.

~We can trust master.~

~But the Jacob blood drinker is too dangerous.~

Mulder fluttered his wings. ~Do you think he's in his nest right now?~

~No. He's out in the world, doing dangerous stuff.~

~Then... maybe we should go to his nest?~

Scully looked at Mulder. ~Dangerous!~

~Yes. But, if he's not there, maybe Beatrice is?~

~Beatrice...~ The master had said they couldn't trust her, because she was Jacob's family. But, he also didn't think she was helping him with whatever he was doing, whatever it was that made everyone so scared.

~One of us should go find her,~ Mulder sent. ~Other goes to Master's pets, and try and get them to reach Prince?~

Scully cawed once, nodding. ~I will go to dangerous blood drinker's nest. I will find Beatrice. She can help.~

~Are you sure?~

~Am I sure?~

~Are you sure?~

~I think I'm sure.~

Mulder cawed once as well. ~I will go to Master's home, then. Be careful, Scully.~

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The dangerous man and his family of blood drinkers often nested in a cave, far outside the man world. Mulder and Scully explored much of the man world, and the outer edges of it. The blood drinkers didn't try to hide the cave other than it being deep in a crack in the world, and many blood drinkers knew where it was. Most were smart enough to stay away from it.

Scully flew down into the world crack, hopped over the rocks, ducked under sharp bushes, and walked into the cave. It had a small entrance, but plenty big for her, and she hopped and hopped as she stepped into the scary darkness. Something in the rocks told her it was dangerous here, that animals didn't come here. No six-legs or eight-legs, no biters or hunters. But she had a goal and she was going to chase it.

Scary! The cave was scary! There was one of those hard bowls in the center, humans called it metal, and it was old and dirty and smelled like blood. There was a man, a blood drinker, with his family woman that he liked so much. Sex. Blood drinkers had sex all the time. Neither of them cared about Scully, so she hopped along through the large cave, looking at the alcoves, small caves inside the cave, filled with soft things humans and blood drinkers liked to sleep on.

One of them had Beatrice and her family Jennifer in it. Scully took a deep smell of the air. She could smell the dangerous man, or at least his clothes, but it was faint. Was he gone? She could only hope he was gone.

She hopped over to Beatrice and Jennifer's alcove, and cawed.

Beatrice sat up, and looked at her, eyebrow raised. "Uh, the fuck?"