Desperately shaking her blue-pink curls, Daniel knew she was being selfish. “Jason, no. Neither of us is prepared to think about battling that beast-ghost up there and the bigger picture is to stop the pull.” She stopped her little speech to Jason and looked into Amber’s deep-set and dreamy teal eyes. “Amber, please don’t be upset. I don’t want him…” She looked guilty to them both, “...hurt…” she leaned over and kissed the top of Jason’s head. “...I don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t.” Amber affirmed. “Let’s get on the move. It’s reckless, simple and possibly stupid.” She ughed and as she walked out of the Mill, mentioned, “At least we can be sneaky like that cute raccoon.” Before Jason could respond, Amber shifted seamlessly into a mountain lion of almost pure white and bolted to the twisted car husk.
“I swear she’s a thousand years old, Jester.” Daniel marveled at how Amber did things naturally. “You are cute though.” Daniel added and shifted into a small brown-tan chipmunk and hopped off of Jason, wiggling her way directly to the grass.
“I am cool and handsome, not cute and cuddly. Sheesh.” Jason openly protested and then changed once more into his raccoon form and quickly followed Daniel into the weeds.
Scurrying their way along the various paths upward toward the portal, all three of the vampires stopped when they felt a rush of heat from their paws and an orange-yellow glow in front of them. Amber made a low growl and turned to Jester and Daniel. Sensing that the other two got the message, Amber padded her way a little further and poked her snowy white head out of the grass and witnessed the fmes as they engulfed Tatum’s form.
-Unreal. Burn baby burn.-
A few seconds ter, Amber couldn’t believe their fortune. “Find the Magic-Shell!” Amber heard Enas’ scream and then turn into a small white ball, and floated away screaming commands and threats into thin air.
Holding perfectly still, Amber felt the intense heat of the fmes close to her fur before she squatted back down and then made her way back to the couple. Scanning behind Jason and Daniel, Amber studied the area for any movement other than the slight bend of the grass. Not detecting anything especially dangerous, Amber seamlessly took on her normal shape and smiled. “You two are adorable.” She pointed at Daniel under Jason’s front legs looking up from her tiny chipmunk eyes. “We should be safe enough, Enas took off with her pack to chase down someone.”
Bouncing a few steps ahead of Daniel, Jason turned back into his normal form and waited until Daniel was safely behind him before pointing at the portal. “You can see them from here. Let’s get to work.”
“Not so fast, Jason.” Amber turned and looked in every direction before calling the others to her. “Look, these things are shadow-like and amorphous. One could still be around the portal or even the shape of a puddle of water, we just won’t know until it’s taken us.”
“Bloodstone?” Daniel offered sheepishly and looked at the parking lot. “How much do you think we need?”
So far the Shadewraiths had always been one step ahead of anything they’d try to do. Archaios Enas had a well-developed pn and Amber was convinced that they’d not seen the end of it. “This is too easy.” Amber announced and scanned the area looking for bright diamond shapes. “Why would she leave the portal unguarded when she knows we are going to destroy it? Doesn’t make sense.” Amber did another three-sixty turn and still didn’t see anything that she immediately spotted as a shadewraith. “You two start pulling those gadgets and I will be right back.” Without another word Amber darted into the unseen dark.
Never in her forty-five years of blood existence had Daniel seen so much action. Her nights had typically been low-key and quick feedings before going back into her dark home and working on some project that held her interest for a few weeks. All that time, there remained one constant that Daniel observed to the point of almost obsession. Adherence to The Veil. While she might have made fun of others in the past she still knew that its invention was something that needed on all levels to be maintained, regardless of one certain vampiress. “You know, it protects us all.” Daniel casually mentioned just before she yanked the first tiny tuning fork out. “Look at that.” She flexed her tiny arm and ughed.
“What do you mean?” Jason whispered and crouched to be about Daniel’s height. “I don’t think I can handle random speeches while I am standing over a portal to another world…pulling plugs. So you are going to make it simple.” Jester commented and yanked five free at one time then moved on to another finely crafted quartz.
“Jason, love.” Daniel plucked the other four of hers free as well, “I mean the veil. It protects us and humans.” Daniel knew beyond a doubt that in this pce the veil was completely shattered and for the most part exposed to the world that there might be a supernatural world that had been hidden in pin sight. “It needs to adapt. I think we need to bring humans into the fold. Not as wards, but more sympathetic … like Amber and Jessica types.”
It didn’t take any genius on Jester’s part to realize that Daniel was talking to occupy their time while completely exposed to what and whomever could approach. “They called them Blood Bunnies, I mean even Vera was one.” Jason raised his eyebrow, “You think we can find more? They seem rather rare. What would you have them do?” Jason plucked another quartz free of the tuners and counted. “That’s three. Just two more.”
“I am sure we could find plenty more.” Daniel looked up and saw Brienne and Krystal walking slowly up the hill. “Jason, we have company.”
Jason spun on his heels and immediately spotted the twin set of diamond eyes. “Not happy to see the both of you.” Jason extended his cws and took a few steps back to cover Daniel. “Look at their eyes.”
“You know that means they are both not-” Daniel stopped when she heard the hollow ughter from both of her former brethren.
Brienne swaggered closer to Jason and fshed a set of vampire long and metal-tipped vampire fangs. “No longer blood-shells like yourself?”
“They are scared, feed my friend.” Krystal implored her fellow shadewraith. “Did you really think Archaios Enas would foolishly leave this pool unguarded?” Krystal’s shadewraith wiped what looked to be slime from the body’s once-bck lips. “Ohh…What a triple rush.” It slowly approached Jason and tilted its head until the bones snapped and Krystal’s head fell completely to the side. “Fear from this shell and your twin fear.” A bck fog came from the many tears around Krystal’s neck in the show of force and reattached the vampire's gothic-looking visage. “It's more than fear now…”
