Chapter Six -- Revelations From A Hidden Master
‘Throw off the Elder’s shackles of the mind, reach into thyself and see the truth revealed.’
Book Of Nod, The Chronicle of Shadows, The Words Of The Clan Chiefs: Brujah’s Commandments
Gabrielle followed Xena into the house. She went into the kitchen, snatching up a cloth and wetting it.
“Xena, you have to go to the hospital. You’ve been shot and the police need to fill out a report.” Gabrielle walked into the den. Xena sat down heavily on the chair. Her head hung limply as she carefully peeled the leather jacket from her body. Gabrielle winced and applied the wet cloth to the shoulder. “Your skin is cold. I think you’re going into shock.”
“I’m fine Gabrielle. I don’t need the hospital, I don’t need the police. I just need for you to sit down and promise to completely hear me out before you say anything or pass judgment.” She said, looking up at Gabrielle’s deep green eyes.
“Yes. Whatever you say, just -- this is scaring me Xena. We have to get you to a hospital. You’re paler than usual. If you don’t get some help, you could die.” Gabrielle’s eyes brimmed with tears.
“There will be no problem of that, my dear. Here’s why.” Xena stripped off the blouse she was wearing. The wound was raw and glistening in the dim light. A scent struck Gabrielle -- a rich, coppery redolence that made parts of her shudder in either hunger or want. She swallowed back a wad of her own saliva. Something in her soul whined to fulfill a need that couldn’t be defined.
“Gabrielle. I have been somewhat dishonest about myself.” Xena said in a practiced cadence.
The wound began to close under its own volition. The ragged hole crawled together as muscle, bone and veins latched onto their mates and seamlessly unified. Charred bits of skin reverted back to their white shades, while dried bits of blood flaked off like old paint. The last bit of scar tissue was drowned in the sea of healthy skin. In five minutes, Xena’s shoulder had gone from wounded to completely healed by itself, “I am not like other women you may have met.”
Gabrielle jumped from the chair. She took a pair of flailing steps back, “What the hell did you do?!”
“Gabrielle, sit down and I can explain everything to you.” Xena motioned to the chair.
“What are you?” She asked again, making her way to the andirons.
“Gabrielle, sit." Xena said flatly. Her voice carried a tone to it that was barely under the range of her hearing. The blonde sat down quickly, but her mind was trying everything in its power to get back to her feet.
“I am sorry I have to Dominate you for this, but in your state, you’d never hear anything I have to say.”, Xena picked at a fold in her jeans, “To answer your question -- I am one of the Kindred. You’d call me a vampire. As you saw with the wound, this is not a joke or a bad B-movie. I drink the blood of the living to survive. I have been doing this for over 500 years.”
Xena reached down to her wrist with a taloned finger. She drew a bright line down the length of her arm. Blood sluggishly trickled out, making a light patting sound as it dripped on the floor.
“Drink this and be mine -- the greatest of the Children Of Seth," Xena said in a husky voice and lacked the timbre of command. The scent of vitae filled the room like a rose bloom. Gabrielle, heedless of modesty, dropped to her knees and latched on the arm. Love, liquid and alive, flowed down her throat. Her belly quivered as ruddy power rolled from her center to her extremities. Parts of her body that had lay dormant for what seemed to be an eternity became greedy for attention. Never letting go of her leech-like hold on her love’s arm, Gabrielle shifted her legs from a kneeling position to sitting; her dress draping immodestly across her spread knees. The smell of blood mixed with her musk, serving to feed the fires that roared inside her.
After what seemed to be a gentle eternity, Gabrielle’s stomach begged to be released. Reluctantly, she let go of the arm. Her lips were red and open in a dreamy smile as she leaned back, as if basking in the pleasant afterglow. Her eyes were focusing reluctantly on the woman in the chair as she wiped her hand across her mouth, letting her tongue drag across the crimson back. She grinned, then rose to a kneeling position, laying her head on Xena’s cool lap.
“You are my ghoul, bound to me by chains of blood.”, Xena stood up slowly, sealing the cut with a pass of her own tongue, “You have powers that place you above normal people, but you do not share many of the invulnerabilities that we have. You can still die if you suffer a grievous enough wound. As long as you consume the blood of our kind, you will never age, however, you will come to a point where you have lived past your normal lifespan. When that happens, if that happens, you will need our blood to continue to live.
“The powers you have are considerable. You can heal certain wounds as we do. You are stronger than you were before I began the process. You don’t have superhuman strength as I do now, but you can surprise someone when the occasion calls for it. You can learn to unlock the same secrets in the blood that I have. You already have shown the ability to call upon Celerity -- the power to move faster than a human. Eventually, you can learn the powers of Presence to captivate and fascinate the crowd, as well as the strength of Potence. As you grow older, you may begin to find out other things in the blood.” Xena smiled as she sat down next to Gabrielle.
“Speaking of blood.”, Xena leaned forward. Her canines dipped into fangs. Brushing the softness of her neck with her teeth sent Gabrielle nearly over the edge, “Let me take you,” her voice was a hot whisper on Gabrielle’s ear. Fingers curled in her strawberry blonde hair with a barely contained fury.
“Yessssss. . . ." She sighed, letting her dull nails etch a pattern across Xena’s back. Cool fingers lightly unbuttoned her blouse and let it slide off her shoulders. Another gentle pass and her breasts were exposed to the chill air. Hands caressed them gently, working the hapless woman’s lust to a keenly edged frenzy. Chilled kisses worked down her neck and followed the edge of her shoulder. Gabrielle’s dress was pushed up past her hips carefully as Xena’s mouth worked from her collarbone to the tender beginning of her breast.
Gabrielle grabbed a handful of dark hair, desperate to steer the attention to a place that needed it more. The points of Xena’s teeth began to dig into the aching softness around the areola. A careful rubbing started at the crotch of her panties. Gabrielle sighed and curled over her lover’s body. This is love, she thought, This is my love, now and forever. Until dea--
Pain twisted into her breast, forcing her face into a grimace of short-lived agony. A tiny screech of startled, burning torment. As quickly as it came, the hurt drown itself in an ocean of bliss. She moaned quietly as something wriggled into her center, touching her in a way that only a few people could. Her heart would race shallowly, lacing the feeling of euphoria with panicky dizziness. One tiny phrase echoed in her mind, keeping a perfect time with her slowing heart -- la petite morte, the little death. Muscles began to tremble in anticipation for the final release. Gabrielle’s arms fluttered as they threatened to give out.
Xena’s head slid up into Gabrielle’s half-lidded view. She lunged forward, pressing her lips to the dazed thrall. She tasted the salty bite of her own blood on her lover’s tongue. It smeared across their face and necks. The only sound in the room was Gabrielle’s gasping. The gasping turned into a low whimper.
“Be mine.” Xena whispered.
“I-I-I am." Gabrielle groaned as she clawed at Xena’s head.
“Say it: I am yours.” She hissed every last word.
Gabrielle felt the light in the center of her soul beginning to swell like a supernova. Muscles in her hips and back bucked powerfully. “Ahhh. . . I. . . God. . .Oh, god!. . . I-I. . . am. . .” The light exploded, burning everything within her. Her cries echoed joyously from the walls. “YOURS!” Gabrielle quaked, lifting her body off the floor. All of her muscles gave out under the ecstatic strain. The last thing she saw was Xena’s beaming face.
“You are mine," she whispered, “Greatest of the Children of Seth”
X&G
Xena picked up the slight woman delicately. Cradling her head like a baby, she wandered into the guest bedroom.
Lowering Gabrielle, Xena drank in the sight of her lover’s peaceful face. Lines of mortal worry were brushed smooth by the hand of Morpheus. Reddish gold hair in a confused mop that she parted away from her stained lips. The sweet perfume of skin and desire made Xena’s eyes flutter. It was a scent -- and the sensations that followed it doggedly -- that she thought she could never experience after that fateful night centuries ago. A pair of dark eyes blazed in her mind’s eye. She had to remember why she was doing this.
He ordered, she obeyed.
Staring down at Gabrielle’s curled body, she envisioned that radiant pink skin turning as pale and as cold as clay. The red in her hair would come out, leeching away the blonde. She wouldn’t know the warmth of life -- her skin would as cold as marble. Her beauty would be frozen for all time, held in a sterile perfection. The years would have only a spectral grasp on her.
But, it would be no life she deserved. No more could she see the sun without fear, nor face a warming fire without screaming in panic. She would see her mortal friends wither and die in an eye blink. Her family would go their graves expecting to see her at the gates of Heaven, only to find out that she had been consigned to Hell by a curse that was started by a man who was a legend among the undying. She would never know mortal love. The desires carnal would be replaced by desires sanguine. Sex would go from a grand union of souls to a coin to gain the greater pleasure. No children -- her womb would be as barren as the fields of Carthage after the Roman salt seeding. She would never know the simple and complete joy of a child’s hug. No grandchildren either, unless she took on the habit of ‘adopting’ a family, but that was a weak Toreadorish compensation; not for the violent rebellious Brujah.
She would die, then die again every waking moment. Her soul crushed and ground under the heel of eternity.
Reaching down, Xena finished undressing her, taking her clothes and folding them carefully on the foot of the bed. Behind her, she closed the door with a silent sweep.
“I don’t love her. I’m only using her as a servant and part of the herd. Nothing more.”, she whispered to herself. Throwing her self down on the chair, an invisible cloud of musk raked itself across her nose. Her blood pulsed through her body in a way that she hadn’t felt in an age.
She stood up and walked to her library. She picked out a tome, with care she flipped it open to take out a letter. The stain of blood tears threatened to seep out companions as she read the lines she wrote ninety years ago. Melody hadn’t listened -- she was still heady under the powers of the Embrace. She felt invincible, as all the young did.
Xena read in the news that Melody’s village had been overrun early in the morning. The accounts of the fire chilled her already cold blood. She closed her eyes and focused on Melody’s bright smile, eyes the color of ripe corn.
Instead, she heard the screams of death and the sickly smell of burning flesh.
Her eyes flooded with blood tears again.
The price for disobedience was too high, but even her darker heart couldn’t swallow the cost of Ares’ plots.
She made the plans.