A Beautiful Clue

Draic fights the vampires that Sekani saw in his premonition, and afterward has an encounter with Cenn Cruaich. When the god tells him something he doesn't want to hear, he makes a quick exit, leaving behind a few things that Jacob then uses as clues to

 

 

The vampires looked up from their feeding as Draic entered. He took his time, looking around the room for décor ideas, not rushing at any of them. He could see that it made them nervous; the whole time, their eyes never left Draic. After some time, he finally addressed them. 

“I’d introduce myself, but I believe you already know who I am, and more importantly, why I am here.” As he said this, one of the vampires leapt towards the window in an attempt to escape. Within seconds, there was a pile of dust and a wooden steak where he had last stood.   Draic looked towards the last of the group as he lowered the arm he had thrown the stake with. There were three left; Sekani had included the lookout.

“You’re not all going to be that pathetic, are you?” He asked, looking them over. The first one had been the smallest, though a bit bigger than the one outside. He too had been new. The others looked more experienced, though not by much. They had been around at least a good thirty years. The one radiating the most power was a dark haired female. The other two were males, one had black hair and the other was a blond.

“Well,” he asked expectantly, “who’s next?”

The woman came at him in a blur of fangs and claws. He dodged her attack and punched her in the face while avoiding a second blow from the blond. He pulled out his dagger and spun around, jamming it into the throat of the third attacker, who had tried to come at him from behind. Draic left him spewing blood on the carpet and turned back to fight the others, just in time to catch a blow to the face from the girl. Her nails had narrowly missed his eye, slicing open his cheek and brow. 

He caught her next fist in his hand and slowly crushed it, breaking her fingers. The blood dripping into his eyes distracted him as the blond jumped onto his back and tried to rip out his throat using both teeth and claws. Draic flung him over his shoulder and snapped his neck. He then pulled out another stake and put it though his heart, ending him. He looked to the female a few feet away, who was now snarling at him and nursing her injured hand.

“Catch.” He ordered, tossing her a small object. Instinctively, she snatched it from the air, screaming in pain as her flesh was burned. She quickly dropped the cross, but the distraction had been more than enough; Draic was there in an instant with his trusty little stake.

He then walked over to the dark-haired vampire, who had succeeded in removing the dagger from his throat. He tried to snarl at Draic, but only succeeded in causing a coughing fit and spilling more blood on the already stained carpet. His own wounds, which had been much less severe, were already starting to heal. He picked up his dagger and wiped it off on the vampire’s shirt.

“Disgusting.” He said, pulling out his glaive. With a quick swipe, he sliced off the last vampire’s head, then walked over to the young girl they had been feeding off of. This had always been his least favorite part. The whole time he had been fighting, she had been crying hysterically. Now, she continued to do so, but was also begging him to spare her life.

“Please…please don’t hurt me. I won’t tell anyone, I swear, just please, please, don’t…” 

“Shut it!” Draic commanded, cutting off her pleas. She did as she was told, but continued to cry and whimper. “I am not going to kill you,” he continued, wiping her face as he spoke. He tilted her head up so that she was looking into his eyes.

“You are not going to remember any of this. You are going to go home straight home and go to sleep. You will not stop to speak with anyone. When you wake up, this will all have been a distant dream. You will not remember what I look like. Vampires do not exist; they are a myth. You will not walk around at night alone ever again if it is not necessary. Do you understand?” 

The girl nodded. His voice was mesmerizing. Her mind was becoming foggy. She did not remember where she was, or how she had gotten here. Her pain was slowly disappearing. There was a man near her, though try as she might, she could not keep an image of him in her mind. She only knew that she had to get home.

Draic stepped away from the girl and watched her walk out the front door. He knew that she would not stop until she was safe in bed. He looked up towards the sky.

“Are you recording that Cenn Cruaich?” He called out. “That’s another one of your precious humans that I didn’t have to rescue. I could have let her bleed to death.” He waited. For a few moments, there was no response. Then a strong wind whipped through the room, and the powerful god stood before him. If ever there was a being who could make Draic Cadogan feel small, it was Cenn Cruaich.

“What, shall I reward you Draic, for good behavior? Should I thank you for doing as you are commanded? The balance is not yet even. You have not completed the task assigned to you.” He replied in his deep, booming voice. It resonated through the house, making Draic feel even smaller, though he didn’t let it show.

“You mean the task assigned to my great ancestors. I had nothing to do with it.” He returned with a scowl. “I wasn’t even born yet.”

“Are you pouting Draic? How unlike you.” The god seemed to be grinning in amusement. “Really now, you’re acting as if you don’t enjoy having your gifts. What’s brought about this change? After all, without your gift you would be human.”

Draic grimaced. He would hate to be human. And the god was of course right; he did enjoy his powers.

“You know,” commented the god. “You are quite good with humans sometimes. I don’t understand why you hate them with such passion. You get along well enough with your cousin.” Draic felt a pang of guilt at the thought of Sekani at home worrying.

“He shouldn’t be involved in this.” He said suddenly.

“Ah,” said the god with a smile. “Now we see what it is that has really been bothering you. You wish me to release him, is that it?”

Draic nodded.

The god heaved a sigh. “You have served me faithfully your whole life. I have come to like you Draic Cadogan, and because of this, I cannot give you what you ask. You have much to learn about yourself yet. Someday, in the near future, you will have need of Sekani’s gift. Taking it from him now would destroy you, I promise you that. I can tell you no more than that.

“I can however, give you a small bit of advice: Don’t ignore your emotions. You are too stubborn for your own good. You insist upon believing that you hate the world and therefore you refuse to let it in. You will never be happy if you continue to do so. I shall take my leave now Draic. If you have need of me, you know where I am.” With that said, the god disappeared in a rush of wind. 

Draic stood fuming after Cenn Cruaich had disappeared. What did he know about Draic’s happiness? The only thing he cared about was his cousin, and right now Sekani was stuck with a miserable relative, and Draic couldn’t send him away because he might lose him to demons. They would be able to sense that he was no ordinary human. In a sudden burst of rage, he roared and threw his dagger across the room, where the god had been standing a few moments earlier. 

Draic dropped onto the couch with his face buried in his palms. What could the god have been talking about? What could possibly ever be more important to him than Sekani’s freedom? For some reason, an image of the little vampire guard on the steps flashed through his mind. Draic couldn’t see him as tipping the balance towards evil. 

He told himself that he was too tired to take on another vampire. Secretly though, he knew the truth. Something in him just couldn’t bear to destroy the little guy. He couldn’t explain the feeling, so he ignored it. He also pushed away Cenn Cruaich’s warning. Don’t ignore your emotions.

Draic shook his head to clear it. He was loosing his mind. He’d never felt bad for a vampire before, why should he start now? Yet even so, he left the house through the window, avoiding the guard completely.

 

 

Jake felt as though he had been sitting on the steps for hours. Not long ago, the girl that the others had been feeding on had come out. But where was his hottie? He should have come out by now. The back door was completely blocked off by a whole lot of junk. The only way out was through the front door. Something wasn’t quite right, and he wasn’t about to let a hunk like that escape. As soon as he stepped in the house, he knew he was too late, but he searched the rooms anyway. 

After searching the house for his target, Jacob sat down on the bloody couch and pouted. He hadn’t even finished flirting yet and already the dude had run away from him. He could have sworn the guy had been going along with it. He must really be getting bad at this.

It was then that he spotted the dagger.

He walked over to the spot where it was embedded up to the hilt and pulled it from the wall. The knife was beautiful. Engraved in the blade was the Celtic Wheel of Being, or five-fold pattern. Jacob vaguely remembered reading something about it on the Internet. The hilt had a few other engravings and symbols that he didn’t recognize. He was sure that his new friend would be missing this. Jake grinned. He would just have to return it.

As he turned to leave, something shiny caught his eye. He walked back across the room and picked it up by the chain, then instinctively dropped it again with a hiss as he saw what it was. A cross. Bracing himself, he picked it up again, being sure to hold it at a distance, as if it were a venomous snake, rather than a necklace pendant.

Now that he was sure that he wouldn’t be burned, he examined it more closely. The center of the cross was encompassed by a circle, which Jake recognized as yet another Celtic symbol.   So, his boy was definitely Irish. He found himself grinning again. He’d always dreamed of marrying a Polish man, but he could certainly settle for Irish.

Jake looked around the room for anything else he might have missed and finally noticed the open window. So that’s how you did it you sneaky b*****d,he thought to himself. He lifted the hilt of the dagger to his nose and breathed the scent of his prey, then began following the trail he had left behind.