Until It Bleeds Daylight: Part Two

They were now both on a rooftop overlooking City Walk East and Laurel Lane. Across the way, a huge manion dominated the block, with dark windows and an overgrown lawn. The entire place seemed shadowed and foreboding. Jierdan was beginning to feel very uneasy.

"Shh... just wait." Giovanni was somewhere behind Jierdan, who was crouched on the edge of the roof, looking over the side like a gargoyle fixture on the building.

"Giovanni... I think I see something moving..." It looked as if something was moving past the window in the upper right portion of the mansion.

There was no reply. And then...

Jierdan heard a cold laugh behind him, before he was grabbed roughly by the hair and hauled to his feet. He felt cold breath against his face, that smelled like the decayed corpse, back in the tomb...

"Jierdan..." The voice was as smooth as silk. "Death awaits you."

His body was paralyzed, he could not move at all, and his eyes shut tight as he felt two needles brush the skin of his neck...

"Master, wait." It was Giovanni's voice, but.... Master? What was going on....?

"What is it, Lucio?" A hiss of contempt. " You have done well, but my thirst goes unquenched."

"Perhaps there would be a better use for him..." Giovanni moved into Jierdan's sight. Jierdan glared, raging with hatred for the man. He wasn't sure if he'd known him long enough to call it a betrayal, but all the same...

Giovanni did not meet his eyes. His eyes were fixated on the creature behind him. There was a long pause, and then Jierdan was shoved forward. His body was still paralyzed, and he seemed to hang suspended in midair.

The creature Felix laughed again, and it sent a chill down Jierdan's spine.

"Very well, Giovanni, but I leave you responsible for catching my food... " There was a snap of fingers behind him, and a swish of a cloak. Two white figures appeared before him. They were a sorry sight indeed, their limbs twisted and gnarled. They must have been wraiths, because below their waists, their profiles faded into mist. Their clothing was ragged, and their faces vexed. When they appeared, they opened their mouths, their eyes cast skyward, as if praying for salvation, and let out a hellish wail that cut through the silent night like a knife. If Jierdan'd had the control over his body to scream, he would have, they frightened him so.

They stopped abruptly when Felix began to speak. "Take him to the cellar... come, Lucio." Giovanni moved past him. Foot steps behind him, and then only the rustling of the wind in the trees.

The wraiths glided towards him, and Jierdan's body unseized. He collapsed to the ground, and scrambled to get away, but they were already upon him... Their cold touch upon his skin chilled him to the bone, and his body convulsed, wanted desperately to be away from this horrible creatures.

They lifted him into the air, and into the night...

He awoke again sometime later in a cold, damp cell. It was completely empty, even of dirt or grime. He wrapped his fingers around the bars and tried to rattle them, but they were completely sturdy. He started to feel along the inside of his wrist sheath for his lockpit kit, but it was missing. He swore, and felt inside the other. Not in that one either...

He fell back against the wall, feeling defeated, his arms falling limply to either side of him. He sat like that for who knew how long, when he noticed a bit of something long and thin under his fingers. He brought it up before his face to look at it. It was a thing, relatively sturdy scrap of wire. He frowned, wondering how it got in here, and looked again at the lock, his hope renewed.

He jumped up, bending the wire into a suitable shape. He reached around, the wire in his hand, bear hugging the cell door, and strarted trying to pick it open.

The lock started to slide...

"Come on.... come on..." Jierdan coaxed softly. But just when it felt as if he had it, a strange mechanism went off inside the lock. Flames exploded out of either side, burning his face and his lockpicking hand. He dropped the wire and wrenched his arm back inside the cell, holding it to his chest, while his other held his burnt face, screaming in frustration and pain. It was trapped with a powerful fire spell. He was going nowhere. He sunk back against the wall, gritting his teeth, as he wripped material from his cloak, wrapping it around his burnt hand. He would not bandage his face... after all, he needed to be prepared, and for that to happen, he needed to see.

He scooted as far back into the cell as he could, in the deepest shadow, and waited, hissing in pain and indignation.

Some time later, he heard a door open somewhere above him. Approaching footsteps echoed in the hollow cellar. He pushed himself against the wall with more pressure, though it would do no good.

Giovanni's face appeared before the cell bars. "Think you can hide?" His laugh was empty, mocking.

Jierdan's pain left him in a fit of anger. He jumped up, his arms shooting through the bars, wrapping around Giovanni's neck.

"You betrayed me, you slimy, good-for nothing..." but his voice cut off, and Giovanni's eyes glowed a strange blue. His hands recoiled, compelled by a strange force.

"Silence," Giovanni hissed, " I will not be accused of something I never did. Shut your mouth, and listen to me.

"You never would have been able to kill Felix head on, which is why this arrangement is necessary. He has plans for you... a ritual of ascension, which will make you his eternal servant if my plan does not work...

"It will be outside, late at night, in the city Square. His children will make sure no one will 'wander' in."

"Children...?" Jierdan asked, dread in his voice.

"Yes, other Vampires. His childer. And some of his ghouls..." Jierdan did not have time to ask what a ghoul was, because Giovanni continued on, hurriedly. "But, I think you can beat him. With this..." Giovanni pulled Jierdan's old drow dagger from his waistband. Jierdan took it eagerly, relishing the feel of the cold metal in his hands... metal that could kill...

"Now listen carefully, because there will be no room for mistakes. Conceal it on you, someplace where you can reach it quickly. Felix will come to you to drain you of your blood... almost all of it. When he has his fangs at your throat, that is when you must strike. You know how to kill a vampire, don't you?" Giovanni gave Jierdan a sharp look. Jierdan, feeling patronized, nodded. "Through the heart..."

"Exactly," Giovanni continued, "It should kill him. I will be there in case something goes awry, but you have been warned, I am bound to him, and if he wills it, there is very little I can do, and I cannot kill him outright. Do you understand what you must do?"

Jierdan nodded, but his instincts told him there was something Giovanni was not telling him. Suspicion inherent in his voice, he asked, " Why are you doing this for me? What do you get out of his death?"

Giovanni sighed, resting his forehead against the bars of the cell, showing weakness for the first time. "Jierdan,... I have a confession to make. It was I who sent to missive to Jadrele..."

Jierdan frowned. "I don't understand. Why?"

A pained look crossed over Giovanni's face. "Felix killed my family... a long time ago. My wife, three daughters, and two sons. Every last one... I tried to kill him myself, but I failed... as punishment, he... bound me to him. I was once a great Sorcerer of some renown... but what good is that, when my power is at the disposal of an undead?" He sighed softly.

Jierdan wanted to say something, anything, to comfort him, an attitude so strange in a drow, but before he had the opportunity, the door above slammed shut. Moments later, Jierdan had his first glimpse of the vampire, Felix.

He was much taller than Jierdan, and surprisingly thin. His skin had a very ancient quality to it, a thin and papery gray. Colorless hair was brushed back, and went to his bony shoulders. A large amulet hung around his neck, glittering with a thousand tiny gems that formed a large F.

Giovanni straightened. "Retreiving the prisoner, Master..."

Felix nodded. "Of course..."

Giovanni unlocked the door with a silver key, and as he swung the door open, Jierdan slid the drow dagger into his wrist sheath.

Webs extended from Giovanni's fingertips, binding Jierdan from head to toe. He turned and dragged him from the cell, and none too gently, Jierdan thought as his head banged into each step on the staircase to the first floor. He caught brief glimpses of darkened rooms, covered with spider webs and dust before they were outside. Jierdan was grateful for two things. One, that it had not rained, and the ground was reasonably dry, and two, that it was nighttime, and few were awake to see him dragged along in such a humiliating manner.

They soon reached Moorgate Square, and Jierdan was unsurprised to find a tall, thick wooden pole had been erected in the center. Giovanni moved towards it, and pulled Jierdan upright. The webs dissolved, and Jierdan's back was forced against the pole, by two younger vampires. In life, they had been twins, blond hair identical to the last curl. Giovanni moved behind, and tied his hands together behind the pole.

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