Blood Rider

Lee started with some spiced rum to mull things over with and that didn’t help one bit. So she moved right on to straight up vodka and felt the nice smooth burn of it down her throat. Once it did its job she turned to beer. Dulling the brain. Dulling the mind. For a bit, she tried not thinking about anything. With Charlie’s running commentary on who to support and why it was a futile effort. If she could forget her stupidity of falling into the Clans ploys and half bonded to a true born and the obvious conflict of interest this was, she still had no way of finding the wizard behind the Horde.

Despite the Council’s reluctance to move, these rogue feeders would stir animosity in the Quarters. It seemed like every decade trouble just exploded somewhere in the city and it seemed they were headed that way again. Then it would be open war again. All the hate, old wounds would spill open and into the streets. What had been made would be destroyed. No progress would be made. Then there was Wilhelm demanding she cease and desist as well as have no contact with the Clans except her low-end contacts. Or suffer the consequences. Forcing her to choose sides.

When she was feeling her alcohol consumption she spent at least an hour simply brooding. Why her? Why now? Why ever? Given she didn’t believe in a grand design and always waffled on the concept of a god at the best of times, she was forced to simply acknowledge the fact there was no cosmic reason behind anything and likely was just a matter of time anyway. It was hard for a vampire to get drunk in a human bar, even one that catered to wizards, but she tried hard.

She had a nice corner table, dramatically lit by candles, with her back to the wall and feet propped up on the chair across from her. So she had a good view of the witch when she entered. Lee had been expecting her. Or at least she had chosen this bar on the off chance she would be here. Justina used the place for business meetings and was close to her Coven house. The woman always showed up when Lee chose to come here hoping to catch her because Justina had instincts that were that good. She just knew Lee was looking for her.

Justina saw her immediately and walked over. She wore a leather smock dress, with a red and yellow beaded belt. Fur lined leather boots. Her nice brown toned skin, high cheekbones and sharp nose marked her as a native. After the wars, famines and then the plagues, the North American Indians often retreated to their reserves, became solid tribes again and made damn fine ranchers. Lee thought it was because when times got difficult they could depend on their tribe to band together. As such, the tribes had claimed land, held it and managed a fine profit giving the city born and bred what they needed to survive.

In the end, they occupied a great deal of the open land outside of the cities, which didn’t please the Colonies. Now it was dangerous indeed to travel outside of the city to one of the Colonies. The tribes wouldn’t bend to any rule again, certainly not the sort of rule the Council wanted. Lee rather thought it was cultural karma, that the tribes held such power. When you cultivated most of the food the city people needed, that was a whole lot of power.

Justina’s long ebony hair was braided and beaded on the sides but ran down her back freely. Lee would love to grow her hair like that, but long hair was a weakness in battle. Instead, her black locks were short enough not to be a problem and long enough to spike up in a messy, but styled way.

“Lee, nice to see you. You have a case you think I can help with?”

“No murder cases lately.” Lee smiled wryly. “Or at least not officially.”

She sat down and Lee offered a glass of wine which she declined. “I need witch help or perspective. Seriously need, without Council awareness, or I would’ve made an appointment. But I’ll pay your fee.” She rubbed her neck and grimaced. “Sorry I have a migraine so the pain is distracting me somewhat. Been a rough few days.”

Justina laughed. “You don’t have a migraine. I know migraines, my friend. I get them myself and use many different concoctions to be rid of them. And you don’t have one.”

Lee glared at her. “Hey, pain is subjective. My pain is not your pain. Unless I was screaming madly, you could not tell I have a migraine or not. Don’t deny my pain. It is so rude, witchy-girl.”

“Silly vampire. You can’t get migraines,” she replied and shook her head in mock disappointment.

“Oh? Then would the mojo goddess like to explain why I’m having one now?”

“Well, if you are, you wouldn’t be having that wine, or eating hordes of chocolate like you do. But never mind that, you don’t. Your spirit is severed and the pain is from the fracture. Symptoms wise, because of the friction between how you see the world and trying to meld with yourself, could be very similar. The pain itself I suspect is more cluster-like, which is painful indeed, but still, not a migraine. A metaphysical wound perhaps.”

Lee nodded, which made her wince from the pain and vision waver because of the booze. It made sense. Something she could never explain. Witches always saw the same phenomena in a different way. Either way, as broken as Lucien said. Damn broken and powerless to control her own fate. Destined to be ruled by one faction or another. Damn it, she was getting melancholy already.

“That is what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Ah,” she leaned back and smiled slowly.

“I remembered once that you said my spirit was divided. I thought you meant something else. But now I wonder. Please don’t repeat this to anyone else, any of it, it could cause troubles. As in imprisoned in the depths of the City in the sectors that never see the light of day troubles.”

“Because you are working for the Council, who just do not let people go, and marked by a vampire?”

She blinked and then said, “I don’t want to know how you know I was marked, but keep it all on the down low, sistuh.”

“I got your back.”

Lee drank her glass and then refilled it. “Good then. So the thing is I have amnesia, from my life before eighteen. Just blank. I thought it was the turning that did it, that I was turned without a Sire. I thought this for many reasons, but for one, because from my life after the amnesia, I was able to talk to my rider. Not sense it, or feel it, but talk to it.”

She tapped the table and then just mentally shrugged. Sometimes she had to pretend she trusted someone. Alcohol helped with that. “Turns out I’m a born vampire and so I shouldn’t be able to talk to my rider, because technically from what they say I’m the rider. That born vampires, as a race, are born with the soul of a rider. Never was human, don’t share their spirit. And so Charlie, my rider that is, is a puzzle. They think I was insane from whatever caused the trauma and amnesia. Or that my mind created Charlie to handle the stress, which is the nice way of saying crazy. But I feel that Charlie is more than that, much more. As does Charlie, of course.”

“You call your rider Charlie?” she asked, her lips twitching with amusement. She wasn’t stunned by Lee’s story, likely because it really didn’t concern her one way or the other how Charlie came about or Lee’s possible insanity. It was the unbiased rational interest that Lee needed. Besides, to witches, insanity was so very subjective.

“You have something better? Dracula?”

She chuckled and then leaned forward studying Lee silently for a moment. Picking up her vibes, Lee supposed. “I think you’re right. The fragmentation is on a spirit level, not a mental one. And that is a deeper wound by far. If you were crazy, well, I wouldn’t be the one to convince you out of your delusions. Not that you’re not crazy like a fox, but this separation is real. Give me your hand.”

She held out her hand and Justina inspected it like a roadmap. Normally she would think all the mojo stuff crap, but she was a strong witch and not one to mess with either. There was not a White Council of witches, maybe because to be a woman in their world meant you had to learn things and do things not necessarily good magic. Their magical methods and theories were a mishmash of mythologies and rituals. They all had their own ways and beliefs on how things were done. These were all just ways to tap their intuition or Sight or ghost guide. Witches were not like wizards, they had no blunt force magic, but they could do some serious damage.

“It is the lifeline that is disturbing here. This break here, early in your life, could be when this incident occurred, the lines fracture after that for a bit,” she said. And that part was crap. Just some showmanship while she felt her energy. “You remember nothing of this trauma?”

“No, but I need to know more about it. Quickly.”

“Such things do not come quickly. I can send to your house some techniques that might help with memory retrieval.” Lee rolled her eyes. As if she had time for meditation and yoga. “Any images at all?”

“I remember screaming. I remember the face of another vampire and I know I hate him. Nothing else so far. After that, I remember waking up in an asylum.”

“Well, I suggest you spend some time with this vampire, more contact with him, his face, might bring back more.”

“That’s not going to happen. It’s frowned upon for a Council mercenary. Besides, I believe I would kill him and not even know why. I wouldn’t regret killing him, but I would the not knowing why.”

She grimaced slightly. “I’ll add to the package something to take, only if you want to push some memories out. I don’t recommend it, but it is the fastest. We use it to dream walk, to have powerful dreams. I’m uncertain of the effects on a vampire, if any. Likely a double dose should stay in your higher metabolism enough to work if it works at all. Do vampires dream?”

“We don’t have the same sleep cycle as a human does, but we do and can dream near dawn waking as we become more alert.”

“Then it does have a chance of shaking something loose.”

“And so what is wrong with my spirit exactly? Where did Charlie come from?”

“In a way, you did create him.”

“Her.”

She gave me an amused smile. “Her, then. Something caused you to try and tear yourself apart. The part of you that is vampire and the part that is body. Impossible of course. You tried to deny yourself and you tore yourself up doing it. So what you did is segmented all you thought to be your vampire nature away from what you think is your human side. I can feel the boundary you created and it is deeper than the muti-fractured mind some humans experience from severe childhood trauma. Charlie is you and you are Charlie.”

“How can you tell?”

“When a witch uses the Sight, we can see the aura plane and the physical plane overlapping. A vampire has a presence in the Nevernever, because partly their demon lives there, while they are grounded here. Not so with a born vampire. A born vampire can walk through the Nevernever, like a witch can, because he is the same there as here, born of both. You pushed part of yourself into the Nevernever, Charlie, so that you exist on both planes, and sometimes Charlie is more here, more present within you. You split your soul and literally projected it away so that you no longer truly reside in either realm. That must have been some burst of willpower you had to do that.”

Lee sat stunned for a moment. Why would she do such a thing if she had known she was a born vampire? She would have known her soul was whole. What could cause such a complete denial of self? “No wonder I didn’t remember anything after doing that. I ripped my mind apart. How do I fix it?”

Justina snorted and shook her head. “I just told you, you have torn your very essence apart and you ask ’how do I fix it?”, like it is some easy solution. Pop a pill or slap on a band-aid and away you go? If it were easy you would have done it by now.”

Lee scowled. “Well, up till now, I would say I was trying my damnedest to shut Charlie up, but maybe if I had known this wound existed I would have fixed it by now. I have had plenty of time you know. Young people are so uppity these days. What would the oh-so-powerful uber witch recommend then?”

She pointed at Lee sternly. “First you must remember. You must confront the trauma that tore you up. And then, I will take you to the Nevernever and we will unite you with yourself.”

Lee pressed her lips together in discomfort. To be a witch meant to be connected to the Nevernever, or what most people would call the afterlife; a malleable reality separated from the physical plane by a barrier. A strong witch could tap that energy, use it, walk through it. A weak one tapped into life energy on the physical plane, or their own life energy, and thus the fragile link the spirit had to the Nevernever. Lee never thought much of it, but was considered better than heaven or hell, but was really both. Physically walking into it seemed plain stupid, although apparently, she was halfway there already. Living on two planes of reality did sound like it would induce migraines.

“So Charlie will cease to exist?”

Or would I?

“Charlie is part of you. Just the you, you denied. It weakens you to live like this. When you are whole you and Charlie will be the same. The thoughts will still be there, but you will not think they are coming from somewhere else.”

“Well,” she said slowly. “It must be done.”

“Lee, it needs to be done. You are reluctant to do so because you are afraid of what you cannot remember, but there comes a time when you need to remember. Only then can you be whole again. You’re a danger to yourself left like this. A vampire with impaired instincts, emotions and desires. Don’t laugh at that. It is true and you know it. You’re by far the calmest vampire I have met. You don’t feel the need to belong to a Clan. You don’t feel the need to secure territory or Sire more. You’re an oddity. Alternatively, do nothing, until it gets worse. And it will, until the two sides of you are battling for supremacy.”

“I do fine as I am,” Lee muttered.

-We would be stronger united.-

Please, you just want to suck me up whole. We don’t know if she is right or what would happen if I went into the Nevernever.

Justina chuckled. “Do as you wish, vampire. I’m not the one talking to myself.”

“I’m not arguing, I’m complaining. Now setting this issue aside, I’ve another question for you.”

“I’m going to have to put you on the clock and you know how sad your wages are.”

“I thought I was on the clock the moment you sat down.”

She shrugged. “Answering a few existential questions about how messed up you are is for free. The solution to which, will not be.”

“Whatever, witchy woman. I would like to know if any of the local Coven Houses, are into the black mojo.”

Her eyes narrowed and her smile melted. “Life is shades of grey, my friend.”

“Hmm,” Lee said.

Justina was rightfully wary of her suggesting anything unlawful by the local witches. She ran a Coven House herself and ran a steady profit. It had taken her ten years to get a reputation as serious practitioners, but one that was not too shady as to scare off eager humans. Fact was Covens operated in a barely legal basis. While the Council didn’t outlaw them, they certainly discouraged them. Openly and strongly discouraged, so that only the largest and most cunning of Covens survived.

“So true. I know witches are capable of causing possession in themselves and others. There have been a number of such incidents. I don’t think any one witch would be capable of doing this, but a Coven House could. The reason I didn’t outright suspect a Coven was because witches don’t tend to be so blunt and in the open. It is not good for the trade. So it would have to be an entire Coven working to a goal that doesn’t have any immediate monetary gain and could ruin the fragile relationship witches have with the public.”

She spread her hands open. “So then, not a Coven. We survive by using our skills for money, unlike the White Council who contracts regularly with the Chosen and the greys solidly with the United Council.”

“Bitter much?” Lee asked, but the Coven’s got a raw deal. The United Council couldn’t eradicate them, which was against the policy, but they didn’t like the unpredictability of their power. Nor Lee suspected, women with power. “If you knew of such activities it would be in your best interests to say, so that it can be handled quickly, beneath public notice. And trust me; this will not be beneath public notice for long.”

“Do you think I can just pluck a spirit from the Nevernever and stuff it into a body? Assuming you could get it through the barrier it would be very difficult to possess another unless that person was already weakened in some way. There is a reason, in history, that certain sensitive people were more prone to possession. A spirit doesn’t ride in a body like a ghost in a machine. It’s embedded into every molecule. Do you think it is easy to override that? And more than one incident? No Coven could do that or hold the possession. It wouldn’t be worth the price we pay for our abilities.”

Justina often mentioned the price of witchcraft. Like using magic caused a backlash. The stronger the magic the stronger the bite back. Lee often asked Justina for help on jobs, but she didn’t understand what Justina did or how it worked. Wizards didn’t have any price to pay for tapping ley line energy and wizards were what Lee was more familiar with. It is why Lee was certain the Covens would be driven from the city soon. A far easier target than the Clan.

“So you’re saying people that are sensitive, but not skilled, are more suggestible?”

“Yes. Or the mentally unstable.”

“So then it would be easier if a witch targeted such a one.”

Justina sighed. “The point remains; there would be no benefit to it. And one is not many. Besides in addition to having a weakened host you would still have to pull a spirit from the Nevernever. The Veil is not so easy to breach. Even thinned as it is now.”

“You can walk through it. A ghost can manifest here. Seems thin enough.”

“I can walk through it because like you, I’m linked to it deeply. I close my eyes and I can see that reality overlapping this one. Feel the Veil shimmer around me. Even I would have trouble on this plane dragging a spirit through long enough to possess someone. A ghost has a deep connection to a certain place in this plane and an emotional link that tethers them here, making the Veil weaker around them. Some places the Veil is weaker simply because of the saturated emotions left over from hundreds of years.”

Lee drained her glass and motioned to the waitress, the circular gesture for another round. “Well, I had to ask. But you have provided me with some beneficial conditions. A weak host or a place where the Veil is thinned.”

“And heightened emotions. For example, there are Covens who work themselves into a state of heightened emotions or a trance and allows a spirit to possess them for a time. Usually, those that are weaker and don’t quite grasp the Nevernever. Any kind of mass possession would likely be found in a cult. Unless there was a conduit to the Nevernever, as such, when a witch allows herself to be possessed, she is a conduit.”

Lee’s head swam, a little too drunk to absorb all the facts into any sort of direction. It came down to conditions. And such conditions would help any spell along. Strong emotions were too easily accomplished. A place where the Veil was thin would require some thought. People who were a little off center or sensitives being targeted could be a viable lead. She didn’t honestly think to accuse the witch community. Their magic was just not the same as wizards. A wizard could have a spell that endured because they could link it to an object and fuel it with ley line energy. A witch’s spell had duration, but it was of a limit, that of what they endowed into the spell. A Coven could do impressive magic when working together, but one wizard, with enough skill, could tap a ley line and get all the energy he needed and more. Which made this tactic, these blunt, chaotic occurrences, more like a wizard. A witch wouldn’t waste energy on random people.

When the waitress came and left, replenishing her pitcher Lee thanked Justina for her insight.

Before she left she said, “Follow the prescription I give you. Dig up those repressed memories and then we will talk more.” She reached into her medicine pouch and pulled out a few pills wrapped in cloth. “Try these and see if anything happens tonight, the rest I’ll send over.”

-We have to be careful, Lee. Until we do remember we cannot solidify an alliance. Wilhelm told us not to investigate. It would do us no good to be locked up in the City.-

“I agree, to a point. We have to keep our options open. He never said I couldn’t visit vampire inhabited areas, only the deep Quarter and Master classes. I want to catch this wizard who seems to think he can claim territory or stir up the vampires by using people like puppets. And this man has already infiltrated Town.” Lee suspected she spoke out loud to emphasize the separateness between Charlie and herself, but then it could be because she was not thinking.

-If you think to prevent an outbreak of violence, it is too late. This is a catalyst and if the Council is not behind it, then they will be fanning the flames. Too late to stop that. We have seen it time and time again. It is far better for us to consolidate our power.-

Lee snorted. The problem was she had no power. She could choose which side to be on. Which side she could serve. But she had no power of her own. No way of taking what she wanted and being free of others influences.

“And I’m a little pissed. Darwin knew I was coming to Town, obviously, he knows about all authorized visits. I expected him to send a guide. And this wizard knew I was searching for hints of his presence. Instead of just having Darwin sidetrack me, he ambushes me.”

-Yes, very rude really. A show of power to get us to back off.-

“And yet revealing his influence in Town. Is that because he needs that influence to prevent human resistance to his ends? Or because he is situated in Town and I got a tad close to home?”

-Or working for Town Dons, to start a war with vampires. Maybe with Council assistance. I think while we can be reasonably certain as to the person in control of this horde is a wizard, we cannot be certain of his motives. We are vampire and so we see it as a territorial threat when a horde like this begins openly feeding in our city. There could be different motives. Humans don’t think as we do. They don’t have the lifespan for it. Whatever this wizard wants to accomplish it is going to be fast and soon.-

“It is fast. The spawn are more in control. Did you see that chickie Darwin flaunted?”

-Sappy, sludge for blood.-

Lee grimaced and was prompted to drink more, just remembering the foulness to that blood. “There was that. But more the fact I couldn’t sense her as spawn at all. You couldn’t sense her as such. This possession was timed and controlled, like it was thin and then just bam full out. And being as they are human... or humanish, during the day, these things could pop out anywhere with a similar ambush. And really that seems like a push for territory to me. Maybe not in a vamp way of taking out a master, but in the way of refining and controlling a nice army to secure the area you take. Vampire demons just being the way he could, or chose, to design this army.” Then she paused. “Wait, he would have to know using spawn, so openly as thugs, feasting on humans like kids in a candy store would stir up the local vampires. The vampires would have to act. That seems dumb when you’re trying to consolidate power. But what other motives could there be?”

-Too many to count really. Maybe Town politics? This man using Darwin to suggest he can offer protection against the Clan, by having his own vampires he could control? Or hate. He hates vampires and wants to use them to kill them, as some sort of ironical vengeance. Or a threat to other humans, that he has power and will use it against them if they do not do as he pleases. It is a human; he could have a multitude of motives. What he plans to do with this horde is what we must wonder. Acting before he does do something would be better.-

“And since I’m restricted now, I’ll continue to hunt the wizard myself. Obviously, Richard will back off like he was told. Leave the spawn killing to the vamps and the tracking with Tia and Richard. Make a map of the spawn movements and see if there is a pattern. Maybe chat up some wizard associates of mine and see if they give me a tracker amulet.”

“Talking to yourself?” Jak asked from her left, causing her to yelp and almost fall off her chair, but his hand snaked out and grabbed her shoulder to steady her. She hadn’t even seen him trace in, or walk in for that matter, too intent on talking to Charlie.

“In a way,” she replied.

He pulled a chair over and sat down facing her. His eyes were very purple-black, which was likely a bad thing. He leaned forward and bit out, “Where the hell have you been?”

“I shouldn’t be talking to you,” she proclaimed.

He gripped the back of her neck and yanked her forward and growled out, “Where. Have. You. Been. You went to Town and when you didn’t return we found humans who had been swamped and I had no idea of anything that had happened. You have been gone a night, damn it all to hell. What happened and why did you not return after?”

He was so damn hot when he was angry. Caused a shiver up her spine from his barely constrained anger and violence. She could have made a point by saying, ‘where I go is my business’, but that would have been counterproductive since he was helping them with the spawn issue. And would likely seriously piss him off. “There was an incident in Town,” she said. “Some interesting developments really.”

He stared at her for a moment and then pulled her close and kissed her. His hands pulling at her short hair to pull her head back. His lips so soft and yet entirely demanding. Her arousal was instant, fiery and consuming. With a groan she sank into the embrace, her hands moving to his shoulder and grabbing them. He tugged her closer until she was straddling his lap, his arousal straining against his breeches. He nipped her lip and then tugged at it, sucking on the small wound.

He pulled back and said, “We are going.”

Lee placed a hand on his chest. “Wait.” Her head swam from the raw desire and her skin felt hot, tender and sensitive. “I can’t go into the Vampire Quarter with you.”

“But you will,” he said, gripping her hips and thrusting up enough to make her want to arch her back, give into anything he wanted and so enjoy the ride.

-Oh, yes.-

You contrary bitch.

He took her chin in his hand and stared deeply into her eyes. “I cannot read you sometimes. There is this buzzing sound.”

“It is rude to do so anyway.”

“It is human of you to think so.”

It was very much so. It rather creeped her out when vampires just sat, silent and still, staring at each other. Thinking at each other. She rather thought they should use their words like normal people.

“You can’t hear Charlie, my rider, or other half or whatever she is. Just static,” she said, blurted really, since she didn’t want to talk to him about that.

“We will have to fix that,” he said. He frowned and gave her a look of worried appraisal. She didn’t need to skim his thoughts to know he speculated about her mental stability. Poor man thought he chose a loony for his mate.

“It is none of your concern and besides I have a handle on it. Never mind Charlie or what she wants me to do to you right now. I can’t go with you because my Handler, my Council job assigner person, demands I don’t. He is in a snit and you’re to blame for it. And before you flippantly disagree and trace me away, keep in mind he is an uber strong wizard who will send a very large retrieval team to get me.”

“Then to your place.”

“No. Tia can understand my need to have you, but Richard will not. And they both work for the Council. In order to keep on this case, I need to be on the down low.”

He stood up and let her slide down his body, where she remained pressed up against him, reluctant to break free. “You’re so difficult for a mate. Come. We need to speak in private and other things.”

“Other things?”

“Other important things.”