Chapter III: 'Rest assured of my love'

Embrace, detail
Copyright © Stephanie Pui-Mun Law 2000.
Used with permission.

As they were on the way back home, speaking quite merrily - even Beth-Lynn was nice to Angelan - they noticed, a bit further, something like a flaming procession. Venetia stopped dead at once, her eyes opened wide, following the light of the torches.
"Only the priests of Chyraz do that," she said without thinking. "But it's when one of them is... is..."
The words didn't want to come out; her lips said them silently and then she uttered a long cry, realising what should have happened. She desperately broke into a wild run toward the torches, not caring that tears were invading her eyes. The others followed her instantly, but Gerkelan and Angelan remained behind. Venetia fell on her knees beside Duncan's body, stopping the whole procession. The three other priests of Chyraz looked at the girl with both commiseration and contempt.
"Duncan... Duncan..." repeated Venetia endlessly.
Beth-Lynn came to draw her back, but the dhampyr followed the procession, in the same way as if she had lost her soul. She dropped on her knees in front of the grave as soon as the priests closed it and she remained there, the eyes dry, staring at the ground, her heart bleeding in her chest.
In the morning, Venetia hadn't moved. Lucy, now awaken, had put her little hand on her sister's shoulder. Three days, Venetia knelt there, eating almost nothing, sleeping even less, and Lucy never left her side. At least, the third night after Duncan's death, her friends saw her moving: she stood up, keeping her strangely fixed gaze on the grave, pushing Lucy away. Another thing moved too and a man appeared suddenly where there was only Venetia just before.
"Viny darling, what a surprise!" grinned the strigoï through Duncan's lips.
Venetia knew it wasn't anymore her Duncan, but a strigoï thirsty of her blood.
"I love you, Duncan," she said softly.
At the same time, her arm released itself and, with a lightning gesture, she struck the strigoï in the chest with her stake. The creature disappeared immediately, but all had the impression to hear like a moan:
"Viny...!"
It was obvious, at Venetia's defeated look, that she had heard it too. Then, at least, her tears ran down her cheeks. She closed her eyes and faltered out through her tears:
"I'm sorry, Duncan, I'm so sorry..."
Lucy took her sister in her arms and struck up a song speaking of peace for a soul. Venetia added her own broken voice when singing:
"Rest in peace, rest assured of my love."
At the end of the song, Venetia remained silent and then, she said:
"I know who did that. I won't know any peace nor sleep till they know the eternal rest."
She lifted up her stake toward the sky as to seal her vow. Gerkelan shook sadly the head but held his tongue. Beth-Lynn agreed fiercely; Lucy and Angelan both sighed.
The hunt began almost instantly and Beth-Lynn moaned internally: during three days and three nights, they had taken turns to keep an eye on Venetia and they were all exhausted. Beth-Lynn wondered how Venetia did to be so willing despite the weariness. The dhampyr led the hunt and she already knew her prey: that strigoï she had already fought and who had escaped her; she remembered the shadows that had followed her that night. She accused herself of negligence for she should have known the strigoï would have met Duncan. Because of her now, the young priest was dead. She recalled his words when he had first met her, when he had said that her eyes were opened on his death. She fought back the tears invading her eyes and tightened her grip on her stake.
She hadn't to go very far. The strigoï appeared suddenly in front of her, arms folded on his chest, looking down at her with supreme contempt.
"Here is my young puppy!" he exclaimed. "So, dhampyr, where are we now?"
"That's simple," answered Venetia between clenched teeth. "You bad, me good; me kill you and you die."
"Nice idea," smiled the strigoï. "But I'm afraid you're in the wrong story. In the one you're right now, it's the bad one who kills the good one."
"You sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Well, I don't like your ending. No offence meant."
"What do you intend to do?" asked politely - and curiously - the strigoï.
"I intend to change it."
"How's that?" said the strigoï, now really intrigued by Venetia's uncanny calm.
He failed to notice that Venetia's left hand was in her back, receiving something from Lucy's hands.
"Like that," answered Venetia, pointing at him a crossbow whose bolt was a stake.
She shot before finishing her sentence and the bolt pierced the strigoï's chest. He howled like a dying beast and collapsed on the ground. Venetia lowered the arm and smiled sadly to her sister.
"That was quick," said Beth-Lynn, impressed.
"You know, Angelan, if you want to sound sincere and at ease while apologising, think to something else you hold dear," said Venetia.
She took off all her friends, for there was nothing to do between what she had done and what she just said. Then Angelan smiled.
"That's what you did then?"
"No," she answered softly before leaving them so swiftly that they hadn't the time to react.

During quite a long time, Venetia was totally inaccessible; Beth-Lynn and Lucy remained quiet at night, since they knew Venetia usually watched them out. Without the young dhampyr, they lost all desire to do anything. Lucy spent her time sighing or fighting against her tears; Beth-Lynn suddenly found that, without Venetia, hunting the strigoïs was boring; Angelan kept his sadness to himself, quite used to do so and Gerkelan disappeared for good. He had been the closest strigoï to Venetia and his disappearance was almost like a consequence of Venetia's.
As the days went by, Lucy became more and more worried: Venetia's hadn't come back, neither during the day nor the night. Two weeks had passed since Duncan's death and nobody knew where Venetia was. Lucy used all the relations she had among the strigoïs, but they didn't know much. Angelan ended by going back toward an old friend of his, one of those strigoïs who weren't Lucy's acquaintance. He was humiliated, but he heard what he wanted to know: Venetia was still hunting, but not at all in the same places they usually hunted. When he told it to Lucy, she was so happy to hear from her sister that she threw herself at the neck of the handsome strigoï. It was only when hearing Beth-Lynn's choked cry of surprise that she realised what she was doing and she stepped back, blushing furiously. Angelan didn't say a word, but his eyes spoke for him: his surprise was boundless.
Two nights later, Venetia popped up at Angelan's. The young strigoï started when he saw her: if she had looked exhausted before, now, she looked like a dead. The shadows under her eyes were darker and huger than ever and her face was terribly drawn and pale. She brushed her brow with the back of her hand in a weary gesture and said lowly:
"Say to Lucy that I'm alright. She must not worry for me."
"It would be a lie, Viny," he answered softly.
She lowered the head, not caring to push away the hair which came to hide her face.
"I know," she said from behind the veil of her hair. "But it's for her own good. I'm strong, I can care for myself alone."
"When will you come back, Viny?"
"Perhaps next month. I don't know."
"Viny..."
"Good night, Angelan," she said hastily.
She turned on her heels and jumped over the window in the same movement. She hadn't lost anything of her swiftness and, with a sad smile, Angelan almost pitied the strigoïs she was hunting.
Lucy remained very calm when he carefully told her about his little conversation with Venetia.
"How did she look like?" she asked.
Angelan knew he couldn't lie to her.
"Awful," he admitted. "She probably doesn't sleep very much. I would say she feels pursued by remorse."
"She did nothing wrong!" protested Lucy.
"Duncan died because he wanted to protect her," reminded Beth-Lynn.
"That's stupid! Viny was protecting us. Would you have felt guilty if she had died while protecting you?"
"Yes, I would."
Lucy was wrong and she knew it, but she missed so much her sister she would have invented anything to see her back.
"She told me there was no need to worry," said Angelan, trying to be conciliating.
"You don't know Viny as I know her, Angelan! When she says that, it means she has big problems!"
She suddenly sat on the ground, feeling dejected, and took her head in her hands.
"Why can't I be a dhampyr like her? Why can't I be strong and hateful?" she moaned.
"Because Venetia did everything for you to be like you are now," answered flatly Beth-Lynn.
As Lucy didn't react, Beth-Lynn pursued:
"Venetia became what she is now because of you. She wanted - and she still wants it - to protect you from strigoïs, so she killed them. She killed them as long as she had to and then you became friend with some strigoïs. Perhaps it was a way to be safe from them, but Venetia was more than worried during this time. That's the reason why she was always watching you out and all the strigoïs knew it. Venetia sacrificed her own life so that you could be who you wanted to be. Now it's too late to go backwards!"
"I know, Beth-Lynn. I know better than you all she did for me. On the way from Vicsri to Gethsen, she carried me on her back all the way, through the snow, despite the hunger and the weariness. And when I was crying, she sang lullabies to me and to find us something to eat, she hunted strigoïs for other people."
Lucy's voice was low and quite dreamy.
"How old were you then?" asked softly Beth-Lynn.
"She was nine and I was six."
Beth-Lynn's and Angelan's surprise was boundless.
"So young!" said finally the strigoï.
"And so willing... already!" added Lucy bitterly.
"What do you mean?" asked Beth-Lynn perplexed.
"At nine, she had already only one aim: to protect me."
"And to kill strigoïs."
"That's the same for Venetia."
Lucy sighed and left Angelan's which had become their headquarters.

She was near home when four men surrounded her.
"Hello, baby," said the first. "Wanna go somewhere?"
"Not with you," retorted Lucy immediately, finding some of the bite belonging to Venetia.
The four mean came nearer and Lucy tried to hide her nervousness.
"Seems to me you're not very polite, baby," said the first man.
Lucy licked nervously her lips and looked quickly around her.
"Let me go," she said almost in spite of herself.
"You're still not polite, baby," continued the man, holding out his hand toward her.
She stepped back, collided with another man and started violently.
"Please," she whimpered.
"Please who?" said fiercely the man.
"Please, Sir, I guess," said an ironic voice full of bite behind him. "Now, laddie, let my sister go and take off your hands of her if you want to stay alive."
Venetia was there, like an avenging angel, firmly planted on her feet, leaning her weight on one hip, a mocking smile on her lips.
"Viny!" cried Lucy with relief.
"Calm down, Luce. Everything's alright now."
She came calmly toward the group and, without encountering any resistance, she freed her sister who sheltered immediately behind her back.
"Who the Hell are you?" said the first man, fining his tongue back.
"You're not very polite, laddie. People usually know me as Venetia; my friends call me Viny and my enemies the dhampyr. Which one do you prefer?"
"If you're very polite, perhaps can we start with the friendly term. What do you think of it, Viny?"
"Go home, Luce, and stay there till I call you. I think I'll need half an hour maximum," said calmly Venetia to her sister.
Lucy obeyed at once; when one of the men made a movement as to follow her, Venetia turned toward him her adamantine gaze.
"You, you stay here," she growled. "We have something to discuss together. Four to one, that's quite fair."
"Quite fair for us, girl."
"That's what I said. I prefer to give you a chance to win," smiled Venetia. "Come on, boys, you surely know me. Every creature lurking in the night knows me."
"Lurking?" repeated the first man, sounding offended.
"Oh yes, I remember," said another one. "You're the strigoï killer."
"Bingo! Now aren't you scared of me?"
The four men looked suddenly quite less at ease.
"I think I have something else to do. See you later, Aran," said hastily one of them.
"Err... My mother needs me, I have to go," added another one.
They fled together without waiting for their leader to say something.
"Such nice boys, loving so tenderly their mother," noticed Venetia with a light smile.
"You will not scare me like them, girl!" said the first man, the one they called Aran.
"Oh sure, sure! You're far more stupid than them, that's why."
"Be reasonable, girl. You're alone and we're two."
"You know, it reminds me of the story of the two cowards," commented Venetia.
And without waiting for an encouragement, she began her story, using a tone of conspiracy:
"Two cowards were walking in the night and they saw two men coming toward them, with quite a sinister look. One of the cowards, terrified, looked around them, saw only darkness and emptiness; nervously, he whispered to the other one: 'Come on, let's go elsewhere. They are two and we are alone.'"
"That's not funny," said sourly Aran.
"I never said it was meant to be funny," retorted Venetia.
"And who are the cowards?" asked the other one.
"Why, you, of course. Two big boys face to face with a little girl like me and you're almost shivering with fear. What do you think I'll do to you?"
"To kill us, perhaps," answered Aran sarcastically.
"That's a bit too much, no? After all, you just scared my sister. No harm done, huh?"
"So what will be our punishment? Just one or two mutilations?" said Aran, still with his sarcastic tone.
"Perhaps just a good fright will be enough, with a nice warning," suggested Venetia. "Like that."
She pounced on them, her stake appearing magically in her hand, threw the second man on the ground and put her stake on the throat of Aran.
"And now?" she asked quite playfully.
"I'm not a strigoï; a stake can't harm me."
"Believe me, a stake in the heart is as painful for you as for a strigoï."
In a quick movement, she sheathed her stake in the small of her back, only to replace it with a silver dagger. With the point of her dagger, she traced a thin line on Aran's throat. Blood flew. She stepped back, freeing him.
"Go away," she said, "and try to be home before the strigoïs find you."
"You'll pay for this, dhampyr, and dearly!" said Aran, mad with rage. "You won't remain the only dhampyr here, you know! And then, you won't be indispensable anymore!"
"I knew you would come to that name," said Venetia with a gentle smile. "And I don't care for other dhampyrs. Just remember this: you and your clique, stay away from my sister, for next time, it won't be a warning you'll get for this."
Aran and his friend fled in the night without waiting for more. Venetia stared at their back for a moment and then she breathed a deep, long sigh. She brushed her brow with her hand in a mechanical gesture and went home with heavy steps.
Lucy was waiting for her but, in spite of her joy, she didn't move when she saw Venetia for she was too shocked. Her older sister looked like a ghost, so pale in her black tight-fitting clothes.
"Don't look at me like this, Luce," Venetia scolded her. "Why are you so surprised to see me? Did you think that, because I was working in another place, I would let you be annoyed by young stupid fellows?"
"It's been a long time since I saw you for the last time."
"I know Angelan told you everything he knew. And two weeks are not so long a time."
"Two weeks away from you is more than I have been in all my life."
"I've never been very far. The only difference is that you didn't see me. Have a good night, Luce."
Before Lucy could say anything, Venetia left the house, as silently as the ghost she looked like.

Beth-Lynn was fighting against someone strange: thin, nimble, fierce and willing, so was the girl who was her adversary. She didn't look like a strigoï, but as she attacked Beth-Lynn, the later had to defend herself. Slowly came the certitude that all this was a terrible misunderstanding. She managed to step back and shouted:
"Stop! Break! Why did you attack me?"
"You're a strigoaïca and I vowed to kill all the strigoïs!" retorted the other, menacing to resume the fight.
"Wait, wait! I'm not a strigoaïca at all! I am a strigoï huntress!"
"You're the friend of a strigoï, I can smell his odour on you! If you were a strigoï huntress, the smell wouldn't be the same."
Beth-Lynn managed in not blushing as she thought of Angelan.
"True," she admitted, "I have some strigoï friends. But they are different! You are a dhampyr, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am. What do you know about dhampyrs? You aren't one of us, you can't know anything!"
"I think Viny will be interested in seeing you," continued Beth-Lynn as if she hadn't heard.
"Who is Viny?" asked the girl perplexed.
Beth-Lynn didn't answer.
"I'm Sane," said finally the girl.
Beth-Lynn looked at her, quite surprised.
"Yes, I'm sure you are. So am I, by the way."
"No, I mean... my name is Sane."
"Oh! I'm awfully sorry! I didn't understand... My name's Beth-Lynn."
"It's alright. You're not the first to make the mistake. Who is Viny?"
"It's me," intervened a new voice. "I'm Venetia, the official dhampyr strigoï killer of Gethsen."
"How can you tell that in front of a non-dhampyr?" asked Sane horrified.
"Beth-Lynn knows it for quite a long time," shrugged Venetia.
"But it's forbidden!"
"Really? Well, nobody went to the trouble of telling me so. What's more, Beth-Lynn helps me so she better knows!"
"How can you be a dhampyr hating strigoïs? I never saw you to the meetings!"
"Which meetings?" asked Venetia, feeling unconcerned.
"The meetings for the dhampyrs who kill strigoïs! Every dhampyr from the whole world comes!"
"I had never been informed and, what's more, I can't go to those meetings."
"You're not a real dhampyr! I smell..."
"I know what you're smelling," Venetia cut her abruptly. "I wonder if they didn't choose the wrong name for you, after second thoughts."
Sane staggered under the blow.
"You have no right to pass judgement on me like that!"
"She's right, Viny. It was a punch below the belt."
"Then don't pass judgement on me," said Venetia to Sane and she added for Beth-Lynn: "She's a spoiled brat. She doesn't know what it is to be a dhampyr, a real one, fighting everyday! She doesn't know why I can't go to those silly meetings - and why I don't want to - but she doesn't try to know!"
"It's because of Lucy, isn't it?" asked softly Beth-Lynn.
"Of course it's because of Lucy!"
"Who is Lucy?"
"My sister."
"You mean, your half-sister? Born of both your human parents?"
"No, I mean my sister. My mother loved strigoïs and Lucy is a dhampyr too."
"It's impossible... incredible!"
"But true! Nobody taught me to hate strigoïs, for my mother loved them. I don't hate strigoïs, I hunt them for Lucy's sake. And I didn't teach Lucy to fear them - or hate them. Four kinds of dhampyrs exist: those who hate strigoïs - the majority - , those who hate humans - the other majority - , those who hate both humans and strigoïs and finally those who hate neither of them! Maybe I belong to the first category, but Lucy belongs definitively to the fourth!"
"I wonder if I don't belong to the third, when I meet humans like you!" retorted Sane sarcastically.
"I'm not entirely human," replied Venetia.
"No matter what you are, you should never have said to a non-dhampyr who you were. It's forbidden by all the rules on the dhampyrs."
"Oh! Because now there are rules for the dhampyrs? Listen to me, Sane, and carefully: your meetings, rules and such seem very nice, but they aren't for me. Nobody was here for me when I needed it, when I needed help to know how to use my powers. I owe nothing to the dhampyr community! And if ever a dhampyr annoyed me, I'd kill him like the half strigoï he is!"
"You can't do that! A dhampyr can only kill non-humans!"
"A dhampyr is not human. And I don't follow your rules!"
Sane looked utterly discountenanced. It was as if her world had shattered around her and Beth-Lynn pitied her.
"As she told you, she doesn't hate strigoïs. She hunts them for only one reason: to protect her sister."
"Stop that, Beth-Lynn!" half-yelled Venetia. "She just told you that we dhampyrs don't have the right to speak of what we are. So shut up with my motivations!"
"You're still as bad-tempered as before," noticed sourly Beth-Lynn.
"You didn't really expect me to change?" inquired Venetia, raising an eyebrow.
Despite herself, Beth-Lynn smiled while shaking the head. Sane remarked:
"You're a dhampyr, but you smell like a strigoï."
"I already told you: I don't hate strigoïs, so I have friends among them."
"I don't understand," said Sane.
Venetia sighed.
"Sometimes, I would like for Gerkelan to be still here. So she would understand."
"Where is he?" asked Beth-Lynn, surprised.
"How do you want me to know it?" retorted Venetia.
"Well, we all thought he was with you."
"I don't need anyone to revenge," said Venetia fiercely.
"You're already avenged, Viny," replied softly Beth-Lynn.
"That's what you think, but you don't know the whole story."
She glanced quickly toward Sane.
"Alright, since you found her, you're responsible for her. I don't want to see her where I am. And it's valid for you too!"
"Viny!" Beth-Lynn called her back. "When will you come back?"
"When those I hold dear won't be in danger anymore because of me."
"It can take you a lifetime, Viny."
"Then it will take me a lifetime."
"Lucy misses you."
"I miss her too," said Venetia with a strained voice.
She disappeared without adding another word. Beth-Lynn sighed and left in the other direction with Sane.

Venetia disappeared for two other weeks without giving any news. Lucy, dying of worry, spent most of her time at Angelan's, training endlessly, as if the exhaustion could make her forget her sister's absence. During this time, Beth-Lynn and Sane hunted some strigoïs, just to keep the hand, and Beth-Lynn was keeping an eye on the dhampyr, so that she wouldn't attack Lucy's friends. Angelan was worried too for, in spite of Venetia's convictions about his own race, he liked her very much and he would have been devastated if something had happened to her. He tried his best to make Lucy forget a bit of her sorrow, but it was hard and the pain in Lucy's soft eyes gained in depth with each night passing by. Gerkelan was still absent too and nobody knew where he was.
Then Venetia reappeared. She was still wearing her black tight-fitting clothes, but she wore a large black cloak on her shoulders and her hands were entirely hidden under it.
"Hello Angelan," she said as if she had seen him the day before.
"Hello, Viny," he retorted calmly. "Lucy just left. She would have been happy to see you again."
"I know, but I don't have much time. What do you know about the glove of Herrikhan?"
"It's very dangerous, Viny," said Angelan, troubled. "With it, you can release the worse powers of the dark side. As those less dangerous, but it's more difficult to control them than the others."
"Yes, I know. He's looking for it everywhere."
"Who's he?" asked Angelan, worried.
"He is the one who killed Duncan."
"But you killed him!"
"Not so. But it's a story for another time. What do you know about the glove of Herrikhan?" repeated Venetia.
"Once you've put the glove on your hand - the left or the right, it doesn't matter, quite strangely - you can never take it away, unless you cut your own arm - or someone kills you."
"That's a nice touch."
"Don't laugh with that, Viny, it's a terrible thing."
"I know. That's why he wants it."
"I don't like this, Viny. I don't want to see you with this glove."
"I'll use it as a lure for him. When he'll see I have it, he will react and then, he will be mine!"
"Do you have already the glove, Viny?"
"Maybe, Angelan, maybe," smiled Venetia with the smile of a predator seeing its prey.
She prepared to leave and, just before closing the door behind her, she turned toward Angelan; he saw the difference immediately: she wasn't Venetia the dhampyr anymore, but Venetia, Lucy's sister, more fragile than a little girl.
"You will care for Lucy while I'm not here, won't you?" she asked with a small voice.
"Of course, I will, Viny. As long as she will be in this house, she will have nothing to fear."
"Thanks, Angelan. Oh, by the way, two weeks ago, I met another dhampyr. Did Beth-Lynn present her to you?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Then be careful. Her name's Sane, but I think she's a bit crazy. She spends her time speaking of rules about dhampyrs, meetings, secret and such, and she obviously hates strigoïs. Much more than I do."
"Do you care for me, Viny?" asked Angelan, smiling mischievously.
"Oh no," replied Venetia without missing a beat. "I just want to give more fun to Sane. So long, Angelan."
"See you later, Viny, and be careful too."
"Sure, laddie, sure."
Angelan repeated almost the whole conversation - about Herrikhan's glove - to Beth-Lynn, who told him about Venetia's desire to revenge. They both agreed on hiding it to Lucy, who would only have worried a bit more.

Text © Azrael 2000 - 2001.
Embrace, detail. Copyright © Stephanie Pui-Mun Law 2000. Used with permission.
Set Gothiquesque, from Moyra/Mystic PC 1998.