The Blood Painted Cage

I stood before the great oak doors of the court once again. It had been several hours since I had left the mansion and an hour since the harrowing moment of a small boy dying in my arms.

He had been strong for a while but he gave in eventually, letting his life slip away. Even after half an hour after making his body continue to function I knew it was too late. His spirit had left. His body was only continuing to breathe because I was forcing it to. The child was dead.

I was filled with sorrow when I let his battered gaunt body stop but I was also touched by anger and determination. I would not let the people who did this to a harmless little boy escape the Elder’s claws.

My head cocked sideways when I heard the recognisable clicking of sharp heels snapping against the floor echoed in the quite hall and I turned to greet Margot.

“Hello Margot.” I said with as much as a smile I could muster.

“Hello Lady.” She glanced about sharply, noting the lack of maids and Viorel. “Where are your guards? It is rare for you to be without at least one of them.”

“They are around.” I said vaguely.

Margot shrugged in acceptance and readjusted her glasses. “You seek the Elders?”

“I do.”

“Is someone addressing your request?”

“They are.”

“Good. Now tell me what you have been doing? Four years ago you suddenly decided to take a little step towards your duty. While you do not address the daily court, you do come in every month” She stated, looking down at me suspiciously. These thoughts had obviously been spinning about in her mind for a while and had been refraining from speaking while in the presence of my uptight maids and guard. “What happened to change your forty year tune?”

I paused in thought. “If you come with me you shall find out.”

Margot frowned and narrowed her eyes so she was actually squinting at me but was silent. She stood beside me, tall and elegant, as we waited for my summon. Not that I needed one. I could just walk in and demand for the Elders to come before me however I still felt uncomfortable about exercising my authority over the Elders. To me they were far more powerful even if everyone else says otherwise.

The doors swung open abruptly and an elderly man stood in front of them, bowing slightly and holding his hand out in indication that I was to enter. I did so quickly with Margot’s heels clicking sharply behind me and came face to face with the three Elders.

They stood in the centre of the arching tables with a single chair in front of them. Knowing I was to take it I made my way towards it and perched on the edge, keeping my chin held high as I held their stares. Margot stopped just behind me, bowing low and explaining her presence. As she said I was the one who invited her, the Elders did not send her away but neither did they acknowledge her.

“It is rare for you to call us, Lady.” Chrstiof started. “What do you need of us?”

“I need you to listen to me.” I said lightly but with a grim air then hesitated. “How is Blackburn?” I asked. While I knew about his mental state I did not know about his physical. Sometimes the wounds gained in the never ending nightmares prove too much for the prisoner’s body.

“He is still alive although I cannot speak for his mind.” He replied and folded his arms, giving me a hard look. “Now, please go on with the reason behind your summons.”

“Have you heard about the Lindstrom child?”

“Lindstrom? They have had no children in years.” Beriko stated.

“Wrong, Beriko. They had one child, a boy about seven years ago.” Huan corrected. “He went missing however. No one knows where.”

“Then what have you heard Lady?” Christof asked me.

“Not heard, found.” I said sadly. “Let me start from the beginning. Four years ago Blackburn lost his mind yet at the same time retained his sanity, killing witches, vampires and werewolves alike.”

“We know Lady. You ordered him to be put under the First Penalty until you say otherwise but what has he got to do with the Lindstrom boy.”

“Everything. I searched Vincent’s mind and found something wrong. His mind was plagued by a dark fog filled with a demonic essence, something that mimicked the parasite plague perfectly. It didn’t envelope him completely though, it more bordered on his mind, leaving some of his sanity intact.”

“How is this possible?” Christof interrupted. “Surely you must’ve been mistaken, Lady. Only created vampires are at risk of becoming a parasite.”

“I am not mistaken Christof,” I said firmly. “What I found in his mind, in his memories, was the truth. That man was poisoned by a drug that created a parasite within him.”

“A poison.” Huan echoed disbelievingly.

“And the source of which I have been hunting for the past four years and not yet found.”

“Wait a moment Lady. You mean to say you have been putting yourself at risk? And did not inform us about it?” Huan demanded hotly.

“I had no choice. It was the promise I made to Blackburn and the fact I could not bring any solid evidence of his story that kept my mouth shut.”

“We would have believed your words.” Beriko said.

“You would have doubted them though and not taken it to heart thus not try as hard to find the people behind it if you felt a real threat. To convince you there was a poison in circulation I needed to find something to prove it, to push the idea into the clan Heads that we are in danger.”

“And what proof do you have Lady?”

“A lab filled with the corpses of both humans and parasites and the body of the Lindstrom child nearly drained of blood and virtually starved.” I stated bluntly.

I looked at the shocked and disbelieving and sighed lightly. I knew this would happen. While the Elders were good at their job of keeping the clans from ripping each other’s throats out and defending them from outside threats, when it came to putting their faith in an accusation of an impossible threat they were understandably sceptical. And that is why I needed proof. To have their full support, not something half-hearted and acting only on my orders, I needed to show them that the threat was real.

I rummaged in the small bag I had brought in and pulled out the bloodied file.

“Here, take a look at this.” I said and handed it over to Christof. “In there are a small amount of the names of human and vampire test subjects. It seemed the humans were turned by the child and their blood harvested. The blood is changed by different chemicals and turned into different poisons and drugs. Those drugs are then tested on the vampires to see their reactions. Most die, some become sick, others remain unharmed, but it seems this project has been running for years but only recently been put into action.” I watched the dark faces of the Elders carefully as they read the file and listened, grimly pleased that they were becoming increasingly distressed. “Blackburn is the result of an outside test which succeeded.”

Huan turned on me sharply, her fangs bared and her eyes ablaze. “Who are these people? What do they plan to gain from creating parasites? And how the hell have we not found them before?” She demanded loudly.

“I don’t know Huan. I have been looking for them for years. I started at the Family who tried to help Blackburn which he slaughtered when madness claimed him. I found nothing there really apart from a few Witch weapons I salvaged; however I did find a note from the mother. She was looking into a Family which seemed to be turning against the Old Races, slaughtering them now instead of protecting both mortal and immortal races.”

“Did she name them?” Beriko asked darkly.

“No, Beriko, sadly she didn’t. A lot of the leads I found were by combing through newspapers, searching the minds of humans and keeping an eye out for anything that appeared wrong in both worlds. It was hard and all leads were dead ends. Information and people alike were destroyed in order to keep this group safe and in the dark. They did well until my witch caught scent of something wrong. She is the one who found the mansion filled with parasites, the dead humans and the destroyed lab.”

“Then you have a lead?”

“Again no. We found enough information to bring to you and warn you of this threat. We found the nature of the threat and how it is being made but we did not find who was behind it, why they were doing it and where they have gone. Though we have shed a small light on the people creating the parasites we are still very much in the dark.”

Christof shut the folder with a snap and glared at me. “Then we shall find them.”

“You will warn the Heads of this threat and even the leaders of the Packs, Prides and Families, Christof. Finding this group of humans will be difficult and something that I will be doing. If they can hide from myself so efficiently then they are strong and knowledgeable of our kind. They know how we work and how think. This is not a simple task and neither will it be dealt with quickly.”

“Then what do we do in the mean time? Just wait for them to attack us?” He snapped.

“We wait for them not to attack but to come out from hiding. Since Blackburn’s rampage they have gone to ground. They predicted to be sought after and probably on a far larger scale thus they cut all ties to both worlds, allowing them to fade from existence. Until they reappear, we can do nothing.”

The atmosphere grew heavy with anger, anxiety and shock. Humans had not been a threat since the middle ages and even then it was only to the witches. We lost many of our Families in those years but the werewolves, werecats and vampires had been relatively unharmed. However now there was a threat to all the Old Races. It seemed the age of science was proving to be a dangerous time for our ancient kind in the wake of human intelligence and intrigue.

“Then wait we shall.” Huan announced. “We will obey your words Lady Eva and wait for your signal to start the hunt. In the mean time we shall be wary and careful with the humans. Eyes and ears will be vigilant until this threat is gone.”

I smiled wanly. “Good and it may also help if you yourselves have a look in the house and see if you can find something we missed in our rush.”

In low voices they agreed but still I could feel the shock and anger and knew it was partially aimed at me. While they knew that with holding this information was in fact the correct approach they still did not like it.

Slowly and wearily I stood, taking Margot’s arm gratefully when she supported my arm.

“I will leave you for now, Elder’s. I am running out of time to return home. Keep the file, I have no use of it for now although I am sure you will.” I said trying my hardest to stifle a yawn.

“Why don’t you stay here Lady?” Christof asked me, his stern expression suddenly softening. “You don’t need to return to your home just yet.”

“I’d prefer to. I need to work and I can’t do that here.”

Hesitantly he nodded. “Very well. If anything comes up we shall tell you.”

“And do not worry about the child,” Beriko said, “We shall take care of him.”

I smiled weakly and handed him my phone. “In there is the number to contact my witch, Augusta. Ask her for directions to the house.” I waited for them to accept before I let Margot guide me from the house. “I will leave then. If I find something about these humans I will tell you.” I told them.

Silence was what greeted me before I left which I was partly thankful for. I did not want to stay there any longer than necessary, being stared at by firm hostile eyes. The Elder’s were not happy about what they had been told but they believed me. They felt a real threat from these humans which was what I was after. With them on my side I had a better chance of warning the Packs and Prides.

“So you have been hunting, Lady?” Margot asked me suddenly as we wandered unhurriedly towards my room to find Viorel and my maids. Hopefully they had some luck in searching for the names on the file. There might be some lead these humans forgot to sever and I was hopeful even if a little doubtful at the idea.

I nodded tiredly. “Not successfully though.”

She shrugged. “You managed to find that the threat is in fact real even if in hiding. I think that is successful enough.”

I grumbled in half disagreement. While I knew it was a partial win it did not feel like it as such. I still felt the pressing need to find something, to find answers to the questions bobbing around my head but I knew I wouldn’t. Nothing would be found until they reappeared.

And then there was the matter of the small boy. Dana had seen to him. She left as soon as we got here and took the child to one of the numerous underground chambers. There he lay, covered by the blanket of his clan, waiting for his parents to collect him with Dana beside him, watching the darkness like a hawk. Both under my orders and her own will, she would not leave the child until he was with his family once again. I am not sure how long Dana would be away from me for but I already noticed the lacking presence of the dominating woman.

“You have grown, Eva.” Margot said gently before she let go of my hand before the door of my extravagant bedroom. I smiled warmly. It was rare for Margot to compliment me. “You still have a while to go but you’re getting there.” She said sharply in retaliation to my glowing expression.

Without another word she turned.

"Call me if you need any help, Lady. I always I am willing to ordered about by you."

I thanked her lightly and entered my room alone witth a gentle happy sigh. Margot was as usual supportive of my actions and decisions which soothed me oddly. Having an older vampire who was not one of my guards help me was very useful for my self-esteem and she often encouraged me to exercise my authority which a rarely used. She was a good woman and I was glad to have her as my ally.

Once I entered my room I was welcomed by a semi-enthusiastic response, my guard’s thoughts half clouded by weariness and concentration. Rapidly I gathered that so far no progress had been made about the names as I pretty much expected but they would continue to work once we returned home. I was surprised at how positive they were about it all.

But investigating the names was something I was not working on. There was an antidote I was creating and it was not long before it was complete which lightened my heavy heart. Soon I could test it and, if it worked, Blackburn would finally be free from the nightmare I had thrown him in and by my side in this almost impossible search.