Kindred Of Seth
Last Chapter
"The Legend states that the 'four' arrived in Prague, where Seth was Head Vampire, and freed him from the Men who had captured him. No alleged 'Vampire' text states the 'four's names so we can not tell wether they really existed or wether they are mere-folklore."
iv) Seth.
It had been just over an hour after they left the mountain-side before Freeda felt it was safe to emerge. He climbed down from his tree and studied the footprints left behind by the five strangers. As he thought.
One of them was a werewolf. One set of footprints were heavier set than the others. Alone this would not have been sufficeint evidence to claim anyone to be a werewolf, but he had studied them for years. High in the trees he had heard one of the five's voices alot clearer than the rest, Freeda had learned a long time ago that werewolf's voices and howls were heard much clearer the further up you were, something to do with them having to commmunicate within dense forests, he thought. He didn't linger on this thought though, Freeda had one redeaming feature. He concentrated on the task in hand.
One question remained, however: Who were the other four? He guessed the werewolf must be leading some innocent prey to his pack deep in the Radom forest, which was renowned for housing several Werewolf 'packs'. He glanced down at his silver dagger and the silver quivers for his bow which laced his belt. He felt confident, he had slain many werewolves before. This one would be no different.
The wolf led the four vampires through the forest path as they all shuffled behind him. The wolf paused for a second and looked back. The others turned, none of them could see or hear anything.
"What is it?" Gangra asked the wolf.
"Nothing...I mean I..." the wolf stuttered
"Did you hear something?" said Malkove a little worried.
"I thought I did... maybe it was nothing."
Freeda regained his balance atop the tree. He had nearly blown it there. He looked down at the five. He was almost on them. He was going to save the four innocents, probably blissfully unaware of their fate.
Then he noticed something.
Something odd.
It was pitch black. Freeda had long since trained himself to see well in the dark forests but these aparent 'humans' with the werewolf. They had no torches... how could they see? He silently hopped down a branch and looked closer. They DID appear more nimble and silent than any human. They must be werewolves too, they werent human, that was for sure, no human, besides a werewolf hunter like himself, would be able to move so swiftly in the dark forest without making so much as a whisper of a footstep. They must be newly bred werewolves, the werewolf was taking them back to join the pack! It was so obvious and yet Freeda had overlooked it. Briefly he tutted at himself for being so stupid then reached for his bow.
"Ahhhh! What the...." Malkove yelped staring at his newly wounded shoulder
The wolf turned round and gasped, his eyes fixed on the silver arrow lodged into Malkove's shoulder blade. Although silver didn't harm Vampires quite so mortally as the lycanthrope, it still hurt like buggery, and took alot longer to heal than any 'normal' wound. The pain was like being stabbed with a solid block of Poison Ivy, this left Malkove yelping for a few seconds as the others looked around them.
Impossible. A werewolf would have passed out or even died from a silver arrow in his shoulder, and a human would be in much more pain than the body which was currently standing up and pulling the arrow out his shoulder and looking very annoyed was. He had misjudged something but he couldnt tell what. Still he thought, better to attack now and still have the surprise than wait till the wolves found him. Freeda lept from the trees with amazing grace, pulled the silver dagger from his belt mid-fall and landed with the dagger poised for battle.
"What's this?" inquired Gangra, rasing one eyebrow in vague interest
"A werewolf hunter..." replied the wolf, his eye's half-fearful and half-intrigued as to what the Werewolf hunter would make of this lot.
"I am Freeda! Slayer of the evil of this land!" quipped Freeda, a little too confidently.
The wolf backed off as the four vampires walked slowly towards Freeda, when they were a few meer feet on him Freeda ducked to the left and launched himself off a tree towards Ventria his dagger poised to catch him in the head. Mid-flight he was grabbed by the troat by Toriah and catapulted against a solid oak tree, some twenty feet away.
If Freeda had had a chance to think he'd have thought "Werewolves arent that fast", unfortunately for him, he didn't have time to think. Gangra was right next to him almost as soon as he had thumped, bone shatteringly, to the oak.
"You really have no idea" sighed Gangra as he reached for the Mortals neck.
The Mortal managed to duck away and roll to his left just in time to avoid Gangra's attack. He stood for a moment staring, his dagger still in hand, at the four. His instincts had told him that attacking them was not for the best. His instincts told him also that these creatures seemed to attack one at a time, his instincts were right. He waited for one to attack. Malkove stepped forward, blood still spurting from his shoulder. Malkove jogged towards the Hunter and stopped, about ten feet away from him.
Freeda looked puzzled, he poised ready for an attack, staring back at Malkove's, almost demonic, grin. They paused for what seemed like hours to Freeda but in fact was a mere second or two before Malkove was whisked into the air. Freeda froze out of sheer shock. His face turned a pale white and even the thump of something landing behind him didn't break him out his coma-like trance. Freeda had never known fear like this before, fortunately he didnt have to know it very long as his head was ripped clean of his shoulders by the ever-smirking vampire behind him.
"I thought he was actually going to put up a fight for a second there" said Ventria, genuinly dissapointed
Gangra laughed and turned to continue down the path and was greeted by a strike of bolt lightening travelling towards him and into his face, sending his body hurtling back into some bushes far beyond where Malkove and his newly found 'scared as shit' face were standing.
Ventria, Toriah and the wolf all darted round to see where such a mystery had come from and saw a man dressed in red robes and four other men standing,menacingly behind him. The man in red's fingers were glowing a very faint blue and the four men, more commonly dressed, were holding a whole manner of crucifixes, wooden stakes and silver weapons.
The man in red grinned "Strayed too far?"
"Who are you?" Vantria demanded
The man looked a little puzzled (but not in a worried way, more in a 'famous person who hasnt been recoginsed by insobordinates' way), surely everyone recognised the attire of The Inquisition.
"That doesn't matter, beast"
The man in red held his hands high and sent a ball of glowing red towards the Vampires and their wolf companion.
"Tie them up" The man in red barked at the four peasant-likes.
The four men ran towards them while untangling the ropes around their waists to capture the four still standing. All at once they tried to attack the four mortals but somehow they didn't have the strength. Somehow they couldn't even think straight anymore. Their minds became blank and they felt dizzy.
"A...mage..." slurred Toriah
Gangra lunged forward at one of the men but fell to his knees and was swiftly kicked onto his back by the man. He proceeded to tie Gangra's hands together and shoved him violently back up to his knees. The others were similarly overwhelmed. The mage stood menacingly in front of them.
"You didn't honestly think you could stand up to the Inqusition did you?" he laughed "Take them to the cart, we'll take them to Radom and have a celebration of out latest capture."
The five kneeling could barely se in front of them but they could sense each others fear as they were dragged along by the four men. Suddenly the were dropped, Toriah blinked to try and regain focus. She couldn't see much but they weren't in Radom that was for sure.
A murmer of words came from the mage which none of them understood. The spell the mage had cast had weakened them to near blind-ness. Gangra turned round to look in his direction, he had his left hand raised as if to indicate the others to stop. The mage was looking around into the forest, suddenly there was a brief moment of blur and the mage dropped to the ground. There was a sound of shuffling around and within a few seconds there were four thumps of bodies hitting the ground. Gangar blinked a little but still couldnt focus, he managed to struggle pathetically to his knees. Suddenly a blurred face was in front of his own. The blur held up its blurred hand and placed it over Gangra's face and held it for a few seconds.
Without reason, Gangra could suddenly focus perfectly and saw the tall, dark stranger looking down at him. Gangra stood up to his level and, with his strength regained, broke free of the ropes. The man was tall, a clear foot over Gangra, with straggled hair and a long dark coat on. The other four still remained flustered, wondering what was going on. Malkove tried to ask what was going on but just mumbled incoherently and gave up.
"Hi..." Said Gangra cautiously
"What are you doing here?" said the stranger angrily
"We... came to see.." said Gangra still a little flustered "...wait..are you...?"
"Yes, I am Seth." said Seth, staring blankly and irritated at Gangra "What do you wish to see ME for?"
Gangra got on one knee "Sire, we were hoping to seek your assistance in dealing with the Inquisition"
"Who are you? and why do you think I'll help you?" Seth snapped
"Forgive me Sire, I am Gangra, Prince of Middle England." Gangra cowered a little more than he was used to "We feel that if the Inquisition is not stopped then our kind, those of-blood, will be all but wiped out. We wish to offer our assistance in any way possible"
"I see." Seth grinned, calming a little knowing that these were not just laymen Vampires, and pointed at the four lying on the ground "Why is there a lycanthrope with you?"
"Sire, we needed a guide... someone who knew safe-passage to Radom"
"That is forgivable in such circumstances" he moved over to the four and placed his hand on each of them in sequence, waking them from their fluster.
They all stood up and mumbled among themselves. Gangra turned and mouthed 'Seth' at them. All at once the three vampires got on one knee followed by a puzzled Werewolf who followed just so he didnt seem rude.
"Perhaps you should come to my abode? We can discuss our situation there..." Seth said walking off down a small forest pathway, stepping casually over the headless body of a Mage. the five followed led by Gangra a little cautiosuly.
Seth's mansion was smaller than it had looked from so far away on the mountain side. It still had all the dark gloomy presence, dust and eeriness they had expected though. Seth led them into a large sitting room where they all took there places around a table while Seth sat at the head in a slightly larger Carved wooden chair. Seth put his feet up on the table and leaned on one arm of the chair while the others perched neatly into their chairs, anxiously leaning over the table to look at Seth. Seth hadn't said a thing since they had left the forest and they had no idea what he was going to think.
"You know, I thought every Vampire had been killed. I heard England was swarmed only a week ago" quipped Seth "you're lucky to have gotten this far without being slaughtered"
"Yes, we know sire and we are grateful for your invaluable assistance" Said Gangra almost too grovelly
"Indeed " sighed Seth "I was hoping a few more Kindred had survived, as there is a way to beat the Inquisition.. I didn't really feel like doing it on my own though"
"We will help in any way you want sire" Gangra dipped his head in a mini-bow
"What generation* are you all?" Seth said quickly
"I am 4th sire, they are all 5th" Gangra replied, unsure wether this was good.
Seth hummed and thought for a second, he looked at them all and stopped at the wolf.
"there's no way my plan will guarantee your safety wolf. You can help however, it will greatly appreciated."
"i'll be glad to help" the wolf said with no dissapointment
"Then... i'll begin explaining" Seth coughed and sat up "Have you heard of 'The Cross Of Caine'?"
"err...." they all seemed to simultaneously say
Seth grinned a little
"You youngsters have no appreciation of History." he laughed for a second then paused "The Cross of Caine was built by God himself, it is designed so that when used properly it will trap Vampire's souls and spirits within it supposedly indefinitely. Used on a single vampire it is useless, the soul would just escape. But several vampires become entangled in it."
"Wait.. You want to trap us in a cross?" Snapped Toriah
"No, not you. It'll trap your spirits. Your Vampiric qualities. You see, The Inquisition will only last as long as Vampires. If we actually want the blood of The Kindred to stay alive then trapping us in this cross would allow our spirits to be released again in many years"
"But how? and how can we let the spirits out again?" Gangra queried
"A simple entrapment spell. A High power mage would be able to easily cast such a spell i'm sure we can capture a mage of the Inquisition and scare him into it, and if he does anything fishy with the spell, the wolf can rip his throat out" Seth grinned
The wolf laughed and the four Vampires all looked at each other then back at Seth.
"What will become of us, sire?" Ventria broke his silence
"That.... I don't know. This plan is only to save the Vampire kind, not ourselves. If you want to remain a vampire and be slaughtered mercilessly then by all means stay here"
"Where is this Cross?" Gangra asked, gulping what was left of his fear away
"It's here. In Radom. A Cave just behind this Mansion, i took the liberty of retrieving it some time ago in case i ever needed it and in case the mortals ever tried to use it in aggresion agaisnt us. One last thing, however, We are going to be relying on Chance as to wether our spirits ever are recovered from the cross"
"well... I'm willing to take the risk" Gangra said "If it even gives the Vampire kind a chance of survival then i'm in"
Malkove stood up, eager as ever to serve "Me too" he said heroicly
"Well, I guess it wouldnt hurt to try" Ventria spoke, standing up
Toriah stood up silently and smiled at Seth, sarcasticly.
Seth stood up "Well then, now all we need is a mage, if we head of to the cave in full visibility the inquisition will, no doubt, be alerted to our presence and then we can get started"
The six creatures stood outside the entrabce to the cave with their torches fully burning as they watched the slow pace of five torches heading up the hill towards them.
"They should be here in ten minutes" Gangra said, guessing randomly
"Yes, you lot search the cave and meet me in the section on the right hand passage of the cave, I'll get the cross and bring it there" Seth said
They all headed into the cave and extinguished their torches on the ground. Warily into the cave and searched around a little finding no traps.
Gangra and the rest headed towards the right section which turned out to be a large spherical cavern with a small golden coloured Altar in the middle.
"What now?" Ventria whispered
"We wait for Seth to show up with that Cross" replied Gangra
"Do you think this plan will work?"
"I'm sure it will, it does seem like a last resort but... "Gangra paused "I guess it's all we've got"
Seth strolled casually into the room he had hidden the cross in as he stepped out he was greeted by a Mage and four fully armoured knights with silver swords.
"well well... Seth i presume?" The mage smiled
Seth merely grinned. The Mage eyed him up and down, the only thing that worried him was that Seth was holding a crucifix while smoke was churning from his palm and yet he stood there without the slightest sign of any pain.
"Guards...get him"
The four men charged forward. The first held his sword in the air and lunged it down but just before it hit, Seth rolled under his arm and tripped him to the ground. As he was about to punch straight through the Knight's skull with a certain Crucifix-like artefact a ball of fire hit him in the chest which knocked him back a coupel of feet away from the Knight.
This barely phased Seth. Not as much as the second Knight thought he would be anyway, as he ran up and grabbed Seth by the throat and held a small dagger ready to strike.
Seth grinned at the Knight and in a split-second movement snapped his kneck and watched as he lurched to the ground. The First and the Third Knight got back on his feet and poised themselves for an attack by Seth. The First went forward and slashed his sword at Seth's chest just nipping him and sending him off-guard enough for the Third to lunge his sword deep into his side.
Seth cringed a little, even so this was no great tragedy for him, he turned to the Third Knight and kicked him hard into the wall leaving him slumped agaisnt a pile of rocks. Seth held his side and laughed at the man slumped in a pile while the First knight lunged forward with a slightly sharpened stake and thrust it into Seth's chest
Seth felt betrayed by his power, he had never been hurt like this, not by Mortals. His chest felt like his heart had just imploded on its self and his stomache turned several times, a pain filled his body like nothing he had ever experienced, not since he was Mortal all those years ago. He coughed up a small amount of Blood and fell to his knees.
The Knight stood back and smiled. This, surely was the end for Seth. he stood triumphant on his sword and watched as Seth clutched his stomache and fell to the ground, lurched over an ever-growing pool of blood.
Then Seth felt it, as he looked down at the blood below him, the blood. His eyes studied every piece of it. All that blood, but it was his own. He couldnt drink it. There was another here, he remembered. His anger built up until he couldnt feel the pain in his body anymore. The stupid Mortal should have finished him off there and then. Seth's hunger was overtaking his pain. He suddenly felt the power to stand up, but he waited. He stopped coughing and began laughing.
The Knight suddenly stopped looking triumphant and gripped his sword even tighter and stepped back from the demonicly laughing monster before him. His hands trembled, he turned round to find out where the Mage was, he had gone... This was trouble, he watched as Seth stood up and ripped the Stake from his own body and tossed it to the ground. Seth could see only the Knight, in an instant he stepped toward the knight grabbed him by the troat and pinned him against a wall. The Knight looked deep into Seth's eyes and suddenly found himself powerless, seth slowly pulled of the knights helmet and bit deep into his neck. Slowly, and painfully the Knight lost his ability to live and faded into non-existence. Seth grinned and let the lifeless body drop to the ground then fell to his knees himself, waiting for the Knights blood to regain his strength for him.
Before he could, The Mage stepped round the corner, his eyes a deep blue colour. Seth looked up at him and leaped at him but as he did the Mage placed his hands upon Seth's chest and sent him hurtling across the room and into a wall. Seth got up on his knees but before he could retaliate the Mage sent lareg wall of flame at Seth, now too weak to resisit such an attack. Seth burst into Flames and hit the wall again.
The Mage watched. That attack was his last, he was drained. Unfortunately Seth was still standing. Seth stood...covered in Flames and looked at the Mage and began slowly walking towards him. The Mage was frozen in fear and could only watch. Seth was a mere three feet away, when suddenly, his head fell off. well, More precisely, was chopped off. And there, behind where the body had slumped to the ground was Knight number three, panting out of breathe and dropping his sword. The mage stepped back from Seth's body and stood by the Knight who stood, half-expecting Seth's body to come back to life. It didn't. It burned until nothing remained. The Knight stabbed his sword into Seth's decapitated head and picked up the cross he had been carrying.
"What's this?" he turned to the Mage
The Mage looked, at first curiously at the Cross, and then in absolute fear as a fist punched straight through the Knights chest grabbed the cross from his hand then pulled the cross back through his rib cage with a bone shattering crack. The Knight, to say the least was terrified, and the Mage, once again frozen in fear stared in a blind panic at the body of his ex-companion.
"I believe " said Gangra staring down at the Knights bloody remains "That this is mine" He looked at the crucifix he was holding in his gloved hands.
Ventria grabbed the Mage by his scruff and dragged him out the room.
"Shame about Seth" shrugged Toriah looking at his scarred remains
"Toriah, you could be a little more sensitive"
"Well, it doesn't matter" said Malkove "we should be able to save Vampire-kind without him"
They all strolled out the smaller section of the cave and towards the Altar in the larger cave. The four Vampires lined up next to the Altar as Gangra placed the Cross on the Altar, Ventria tossed the Mage across the floor towards the wolf who was standing a fair distance from the Altar. The wolf took hold of him by the head and grinned down at him and then looked towards the four Vampires. The wolf was quite liking this, he saw it all as a little adventure. He knew it was unlikely he'd survive any of this but in any case he'd enjoy it. This over-excited and optomistic attitude was something most Lycanthropes had and something most Vampires found irriritating, but even now the Vampires seemed quite pleased at the Wolf's enjoyment.
"Now." Gangra snapped at the Mage "You're going to do us a favour"
"Never" The mage snapped
The wolf kicked him square in the spine and then grabbed him again
"You will. Or else our friend here will rip your head off."
The mage turned and looked at the wolf's devilish smile.
"what do you want?" The mage stuttered
"An entrapment spell, you're going to lock our spirits and souls into this Cross"
"I'm not sure I ca.." the Mage couldnt finish before the wolf placed another kick into his spine "Ok... I'll do it!"
The wolf grabbed him and picked him up to his feet.
"Ok. you know what you're doing i presume?"
"Yes...I've..err..done this before.." The mage murmered
"That's not going to get you any brownie points... anyway carry on" Gangra said then stood waiting
"You all need to stand behind the cross, it has to be between you and me" The mage spoke reluctantly "you do realise...."
"Just do it!" Ventria interupted, taking his place behind the cross with the others
"o..o..ok"
The Mage looked into the cross as his eyes glowed a faint yellow. He said something in an ancient Language none of them understood and held his hands in the air. There was a beautiful glow of golden-yellow suddenly spotlighting the cross. The mage turned and pointed a finger at Malkove, who was first in the line. A blue light circled around Malkove's legs and a strange wind picked up in the room, Malkove was raised around a foot in the air, he suddenly went limp and a small Blue ball of energy flew out his chest circled the room once and entered the Cross, suddenly Malkoves body aged in seconds, in an instanmt he was an old man, and in the next he was nothing but bones.
The Wolf looked startled a little and was about to kick the Mage in the head but Gangra signalled him not to. The three remaining Vampires could still feel Malkoves presence and, knowing Malkove had not been killed, knew the Spell was underway. The mage then pointed at Toriah, similarly she was raised in the air, followed by a wind and a blue glow.
"See you on the other side" she turned to Gangra before her body went limp and the blue energy from her circled into the Cross. again her body aged and her skeleton was left in a bundle on the floor.
The Mage turned, still silent, to Ventria as the events repeated themselves.
"Bye" he said and nodded at the wolf then Gangra in turn before his body aged and his spirit was encased in the Cross with the other two.
The Mage turned to Gangra.
"well so long....." Gangra smiled at the wolf. "...wait, what IS your name?"
"Luna" The Wolf smiled at him "so long"
"Thanks... for everything" said Gangra as his body too was lifted and his spirit made his way to join his Kindred and his bones joined theirs on the floor.
The Light stopped and the wind settled leaving only the Mage and the Wolf standing in the room.
"Ok.. so, I can go now?" The Mage cowered
"Who said i'd let you leave afterwards?" Luna grinned
Luna's body bagan to stretch and hair grew from his face at first before his knees doubled back on themselves. Slowly but surely Luna was becoming a fully fledged werewolf. The Mage backed off and quickly tried to think of some kind of spell that he could use to save him.
The Mage, as with all Magi, found it easier to use the same spell twice in a row rather than trying to find energy to make a lightning bolt thwart his enemy or some such spell. The Mage's eyes glowed yellow and a light shon down upon the wolf, now fully formed. The Mage looked around. It was impossibel to Entrap a wolf in The Cross Of Caine. The Mage thought quickly, the only thing that could be done was an ENtrapment within the rock of the cave. He pointed both hands at the wolf and chanted some more jibberish ancient language and watched as the Large Snarling beast was engulfed from the feet up in solid Rock. Leaving a large Statue-like beast standing frozen, snarling up at the ceiling in the pain of becoming 'one' with the rock
He regained his breath and stared at the blank creature, now looking like nothing more than a statue. He smiled. Brushed the dust off his robes and left the silent room. He got to the entrance, clapped his hands together stood back, waved his hands and watched as the cave entrance collapsed on itself leaving no trace of the cave or anything inside it.
"Sweet dreams" he grinned, as he strolled past the burning mansion and towards Radom.
"Most interestingly was a cavern in the area. Many believe that it was used as a church by the Inquisition or that it is a cave spoke of in legend, that the Inquisition trapped several victims in and then sealed shut. It is possible, several human remains were also found within the cave with no sign of any battle. However no solid proof lies in what the cave was used for, however so it remains speculation."
