He was barely aware of his surroundings when it was over, and he was unable to speak for several long moments. Rosa smiled at him and pulled him a little closer as though to protect him. "Alex is very talented, don't you think?"
He turned to her then, disbelief at her apparent lack of comprehension. Didn't she know what they'd just heard, what he'd just experienced? He saw, somewhere in the depths of her eyes that she did, only too well.
"Who are you?" he breathed, not pulling away, but becoming all too aware that he should have been paying more attention to her all along. How had he failed to see the oddness in the light of her eyes; how could he have thought it natural that anyone could sing and play an instrument casually with more ability and genius than any professional musician he'd ever known?
"I am Rosa," she said. "No more, no less. This mountain is a part of me, as is the music. I belong to the night, and Alex belongs to me. What more would you know?"
"He is your lover?" Klaus asked; fear slipped in to nudge him into a growing awareness of the danger he might be in.
Rosa laughed then, and a look that might have been purest hatred crossed Alex's eyes at the sound. "No," she assured him, "Alex and I are not lovers, not as you mean. We share the night. Alex does as he wishes, and he answers only to me. I answer to no one."
"What are you, then" Klaus asked, eyes wide. "I feel so strange when you are near, and I seem to be changing. What have you done to me?"
"Are you unhappy then, my love?" she asked seductively, running her hand down his cheek and back through the long locks of his hair. "Have I caused you some pain?"
"No." he answered, unable to ignore Alex's glaring eyes behind her, boring into his skull, "but I want to understand. I want to know what's happening."
"And you shall," she said. "Alex, would you be so kind?"
"He's not ready," the man snarled, ripping his eyes away. "I think it is foolish to trust him so soon."
"I don't recall asking what you thought, little brother," Rosa said, an icy chill suddenly filling her voice. "Now do as I say, or have you taken control of things yourself?"
With a shrug that could have meant almost anything, Alex vanished. Just like that, he was gone. There was a shimmer along the ground, like a fiery, glowing mist, but the man was nowhere to be seen.
"Wha…?" Klaus jumped to his feet, looking about himself wildly. "Where did he go? I…"
At the far side of the clearing, a great blonde wolf paced slowly into sight, eyes fixed on Klaus in a hungry glare. Then it was Alex again, smirking and crossing his arms before him. Klaus jerked backward, stumbled, and nearly fell.
"That will be enough, Alex," Rosa said softly. "Leave us now. I have much to explain, and my patience for your petty bickering is wearing thin."
Alex spun on his heel and dropped from sight. As he watched, Klaus saw the huge wolf bound out of the clearing and up the mountain with powerful, graceful leaps. He stared after the retreating form with unbelieving eyes, shaking his head to negate the impossibility of what he'd just seen.
"Klaus," Rosa began, moving to his side and reaching for his hands. He tried to pull them away, but her touch was electric; his hands betrayed him. "We are different, but there is no reason for you to fear. Have I caused you any harm?"
"I don't know," he answered honestly. "Just what have you done to me? I know I'm changing. Am I becoming like – him? He…" Words failed him and he just sat, numb with shock, staring at the point where Alex had disappeared into the darkness.
"Nothing I have done is permanent," she told him, pulling him closer so she could speak softly into his ear, pressing him back against the softness of her breasts where the scent of her rose to blur his thought. "I am offering you a gift beyond price," she told him. "You can be as I, a part of the night, a part of the music. You can be the lover that Alex has never been. I have been waiting a long time for you."
Klaus trembled in her embrace and fought to calm his screaming nerves and think clearly. Every ounce of his rational being screamed at him to leap to his feet and run, to leave this woman and this mountain behind and never look back. At the same time, the impossibility of this swept over him in a wave.
He had seen things no other man had seen. He had touched the perfection of music and sensation beyond any he would find in any other place. He would never be the same if he walked away. He would shrivel and die, and this woman knew it. She had trapped him, albeit willingly on his own part, as surely as if she'd chained him in iron, and the thought terrified him.
"But," he asked again, fearing the answer almost more than the possibility that he would not receive one, "what are you? What do you mean you've been waiting for me? How do you know me?"
"You know I am part of this mountain, Klaus," she began, still holding him easily. How had he missed her strength before? He was certain, suddenly, that if he tried to break free she would hold him there like a child. "I have mentioned my mother – in that I lied. It was I who resided on the mountain when your grandfather was young, and your father. It has been me, all along, that enticed your men and drew the hatred of your women."
Klaus wanted to laugh at the absurdity of her comments. He wanted to believe that they'd somehow hypnotized him, or slipped him a strange hallucinogenic drug that had warped his senses so he thought he saw things he could not have, but the laughter wouldn't come. Her words seemed to click into place, like the final piece in a gigantic, surrealistic puzzle. They fit too well to be lies, but how could they be truth.
"I am what your people would call Vampyr," she continued. "I died well over three centuries ago, in a day and age so far removed from this one that you wouldn't even recognize the names or the places that made it live."
Klaus pulled back slightly, his fear doubling. "You drink blood?"
She laughed then, and the sound chilled him, magnified his fright. "I've drunk your blood, Klaus, twice now. Does that frighten you? Did I do so against your will?"
His mind reeled. He reached up to trace the small wounds on his neck, still tender from the previous night. No, he hadn't felt any anger at her, only surprise, and the pleasure had far out-weighed the pain.
"But," he said slowly, "You didn't kill me. The legends claim that such as you would steal a man's soul, leaving him to walk the earth undead."
"You sound so melodramatic," she smiled at him. "I didn't kill you because I have no need. Yes, I need to drink blood, though not as often as it is supposed, but I need kill no one to get it. Do you not remember your childhood? The men who came to me came willingly, of that you may be sure."
"So I am just another slave to come at your beck and call, like Alex?" Klaus asked, his eyes flashed momentarily with an anger of his own, forgetting the danger of his situation. "Is that what I'm meant for?"
"No, not that," she said, pulling him close and holding him easily with the strength of her eyes. "I have waited too long for you," she continued, "too many years of planning and watching. There is so much out there to see, Klaus, so much to do. I have lived over three hundred years, and I have only scratched the surface. I will share that with you, and only you."
"And Alex?" he asked, buying time as he tried desperately to sort out his feelings, "what of him? He doesn't seem all too pleased with me. Are there others?"
"There are two," she said, "that I know the whereabouts of. "There are many of us in the world, Klaus, though not so many as there once were. Not all are wise; not all have the heart or the strength to continue to live.
"There are those like Alex, hot-headed and violent, too sure of themselves. These usually meet the end they deserve. I have looked after him almost too long, I think. Perhaps we will give him the freedom he believes he wants. I would enjoy seeing how smug he would be if he were forced to look out for himself."
"He would kill," Klaus said with certainty. "Perhaps you don't need to kill, but you could do so very easily. That one has killed, hasn't he?"
"Do not mistake me, Klaus," she said, and he noticed an icy glaze t
o her eyes that had somehow eluded him before, "we have all killed. I said that I did not need to kill, not that I had never done so. I am as susceptible to anger as anyone."
"And you want me to allow you to change me, to make me as you are?" he asked, already sure of the answer. "You want me to give up my life and join you? To die?"
"You make it sound so horrible," she said, almost teasing him. She wrapped her arms around him then, her hands slowly massaging his back, and her tongue slid up his throat seductively. "Tell me honestly that this feels bad, that it seems wrong? Tell me that you want me to stop."
Reason had abandoned him. The draw on his flesh was stronger than even the night before, robbing him of control. Where their flesh met, a cold fire danced over the endings of his nerves. His heart pumped madly, as though trying to force his blood toward the erotically invading lips at his throat, and he felt himself melt against her, falling back to be engulfed as she slid across his prone form.
"I…" he said, frantically reaching for the words, the negation, that his mind screamed for deep inside, but he failed.
As the moon bathed their forms in its cool, uncaring light, she fed, leaving him adrift in a sea of wonder, leaving him screaming in an unending flood of night.
"The mountain will be ours," she breathed in his ear, flowing over him like liquid heat, bringing him to erection and climax without bothering to remove his clothes, controlling him with her touch alone, with the seductive husky tones of her voice. "You and I shall rule here - and everywhere. We will travel, and you will share what I have seen. We will hunt the cities of the world, and we shall make music like the world has never experienced."
Her words were soothing, anchoring him to the clearing, preventing his mind from taking the easy road into oblivion that it sought so frantically. He saw the others when they entered the clearing, heard their voices as if from miles away, echoing oddly and indecipherable through the pounding of his own blood. Pounding its way out of his body. Pounding the nails in the coffin of his life.
Both were black. The man, coppery skin glinting smoothly, watched him in fascination. The other, a woman, was even lighter skinned, but still not white. She was beautiful, not in Rosa's fiery manner, but in a subtle way that complimented the silver of the moonlight perfectly.
Klaus was aware when Rosa slid from his body, but he could not move. He saw and heard, but it was a rush of color, of crashing sound, and he could make no sense of it. He felt himself lifted and borne away, knew somehow that it was the man who carried him, but it was like watching a video. He couldn't correlate the bouncing, incandescent terrain that passed before his fading sight with reality. He never knew, later, at what point his mind had given up the ghost. The darkness that swallowed him was deeper than any he could remember.
~*~
"I tell you, this is foolish beyond belief!" The words crashed forth, splitting through Klaus' sluggish, half-conscious awareness. "He is going to be missed! This is not some little village boy, Rosa, he has friends, many friends. What in hell were you thinking?"
"Perhaps you'd better ask that question of yourself, little brother," Rosa's voice slapped back. "I was making decisions like this when you were a pathetic cringing sibling whining after your brother's inheritance, and you'd better never forget that. In any case, I won't be asking you to burden yourself with the risk. I'll be taking him to the mountain come the darkness, and you may do as you like."
"What do you mean?" Alex stuttered, caught off guard. "Won't we all be leaving? I mean…"
"You aren't frightened, are you, little Alex?" Rosa hissed. Klaus shuddered, though he couldn't move his arms or legs. "Surely you can handle the world on your own, such a powerful one as yourself."
"You can rest assured," he said haughtily, with just a hint of uncertainty in his voice, "that I'll handle myself well enough, regardless of what happens. And what of these two? Surely you won't be burdening me with them?"
Rosa laughed then, long and hard, placing a hand to rest softly on Klaus' chest. "Alicia hardly needs any guidance you might offer, Alex. You might have noticed this, but somehow I'm certain your arrogance has prevented you. She has knowledge you'll never find, power you couldn't touch if you tried. Why do you think she doesn't fear you?
"No, if I fear for anyone upon my departure, it is you. I have spent long years leading up to this moment, and you have all played your parts. Now it is time for us to go our separate ways.
"This mountain calls to me as it has always called to me, and I will answer that call. It calls to him too. It's in his blood. There is a final act to be played out, and then I will move on to the next game. You will play no part in it."
The tension in the room was almost palpable. Klaus felt a terror he couldn't explain steal over him. Somehow his very existence was now combined with that of this woman, this creature, who played with the souls of others as if they were no more than toys. What if Alex decided it was time to challenge her? What if she was not as powerful as she thought? Where would that leave him, and for that matter, where had he already been left?
"Copper," Rosa said, breaking the icy silence, "go and bring me blood."
Alex was gone too, just like that. The very air of the room seemed to ease, to free itself of some vibrant, electrical energy. Whatever was going to happen, it was obvious that he had no choice in it. A burning sensation was growing in his gut that seeped slowly through the veins of his body, tearing at his senses. He fought to move his lips, to speak, but he could not. All he could do was to lay there, and to burn.
Walking over to stand at his side, Rosa smiled down at him. "Soon, my love," she said softly. "He will be back soon. We have much to talk about, you and I, and you have so much to see.
Then she left him, and he was alone. Waiting. Burning. The darkness loomed as empty and endless as a sealed grave.
Chapter Thirteen
Copper moved through the night in a haze, unsure how to take the unprecedented string of events that was catapulting them forward. He was glad for the chance to get out, to be away from Rosa and her odd machinations, and away from Alex and his haughty power-struggles. Even Alicia had stayed behind this time, seeming to realize he needed to sort things out for himself.
Only a few days before things had been so simple. There had been Rosa, the others, and himself, all playing set parts in a continuing cycle of events that was both predictable and comfortable. Despite the fact that this was what he had dreamed of from the first time he met her, he couldn't fathom what it was that Rosa was after this time.
Since he had been chosen over a decade past as her companion/man-servant, no outsider had been brought into their fold. As far as he knew, it had not even been considered. Now, within the space of a week, his own transformation was complete, another's as well, a complete stranger at that, and Rosa was talking about breaking up the "family" completely to go off on her own.
Copper was exultant. He and Alicia could do quite well, and it would be a wonder even beyond those he was now experiencing to be truly free, to make his own decisions and to have the entire world before him, with Alicia at his side.
But Alex? Alex would be dead within a year. That was the one thing that Copper was certain of. The man had absolutely no control nor any thought for a moment other than the present. His anger was unquenchable, and his mind had never grasped the reality of the power that he possessed. If the group were to part ways, Copper would want to be as far from wherever Alex ended up as possible.
He caught the scent of something living ahead, something small and moving fast. The blood called out to him and erased all other thought. As he sped across the rocky ground, he realized that this was going to be a test of his will power. He would catch the animal, a rabbit, he saw it just ahead, and he would kill it, but he would have to contain his hunger. The blood was not for him, though the thought of holding himself back from it was almost overwhelming.
He moved faster, more swiftly than he'd ever moved, and freer. The rabbit screamed. It was
a high-pitched, squealing sound that was so human in quality that it almost startled him. Then he was on it. He drove it to the ground with his weight, tumbled forward and latched his jaws onto its neck. He tossed it upward and snapped the creature's tiny bones easily. The rabbit spun through the air and landed in a crumpled heap. Copper wheeled, and stopped over its limp form with his jaws open wide, panting.
Some instinct brought him back to human form just as his control began to slip. He staggered, fell to his knees and cradled his head in his hands. It had been close. There might not have been time to find another had he fed on this one, and Rosa would have been swift and complete in reprimanding failure. Time was critical.
Alex had been right about one thing. The young singer, Klaus, would be missed. It was vital that they get him up and out of the Inn before anyone realized something was wrong. Without the blood from the rabbit he'd just killed, he knew only too well from recent experience that Klaus was going nowhere.
He grabbed his kill and headed swiftly back down the mountain, unaware of eyes that followed his movements. Alicia melted back to the form of the cream colored wolf and loped down the mountain. She'd followed to be certain he made no mistakes. She knew Rosa was testing him, and she had no intention of letting him fail. She left the rabbit she herself had killed in the forest. It was a waste, but there was no need to let him know she had doubted him.
Copper made slower progress on the return trip. Even with his newfound grace and stamina. The human body he'd been born with was no match for that of the wolf. He knew he'd probably be fine if he switched back now, and that he could be carrying the rabbit as easily in his jaws as in his hands, but somehow he preferred to be certain. Too much depended on his success.
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