Chapter 24

Moonvale, Immediately Following

Moonvale Academy was burning. The fight between Max, Isabel, Michael, Tess and Kivar had sent waves of energy all over the place that ignited fires. They were being dealt with as fast as possible with people from the town running up to help. However, despite all that was happening, many of the students were stunned by the abduction of Max and Liz. The Fliers that had chased after them, and subsequently knocked to the ground, had been retrieved. They were out of it and taken to the makeshift medical facilities put up near the path to the school.

However, as the fires burned, it provided a glow that caused the Pride’s parents to stop dead in their tracks. They could hear something was wrong and picked up the pace to the school but back in the courtyard there were six very angry teenagers and one other person who they were menacing on.

“Please, you can’t,” David said.

“Why not?” Michael said.

“Kivar was bad enough but you had to join in,” Maria said as Zan and the other three came running out.

“What the hell happened?” Zan asked.

“Kivar attacked, Max and Liz got taken by the Vampires and this ... thing here didn’t help,” Isabel said.

Zan looked around and immediately saw a body lying to his side, “Is that ... is he dead?”

“We can only hope,” Tess said.

“Where were you guys?” Kyle asked.

“After the first blast the exits to our room got blocked. We couldn’t even get out of the windows,” Lonnie said.

Michael moved closer to Flanagan and grabbed his throat. He lifted him up, Michael’s cat eyes were gleaming in the moonlight. “You’re not worth it ... hell this god of yours even thinks your pathetic,” With that Michael threw him like a rag doll and he landed on the ground.

David coughed and spluttered as he gasped for breath but Michael’s words sank deep into his mind. “No ... Anu’bis is with me, always,” David said and jumped to his feet. As Michael walked away David’s intent was clear to the others. He dived through the air but each of the aliens raised their hands.

The energy they sent out mixed and impacted David at the same time. David was sent back so fast and with such force that the stone-wall he hit broke. He left a massive dent of crumbling debris against the wall. Flanagan fell forward, his eyes just looked so empty ... not much difference there but his back was clearly broken. If that wasn’t enough, a fairly sizable brick fell on his head.

“Ouch,” Maria said.

“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person,” Alex said.

“Two down. Three Vamps to go,” Michael said.

“Then we have to figure out how to deal with a god,” Isabel said.

“Ah ... very advanced alien. We just see them as gods. Gods are unbeatable, aliens ... that’s just hard,” Alex said

“Why thank you Alex,” Tess said.

“You know what I mean,” Alex said just as their parents all came running into the courtyard.

Diane hopped off her husband’s back and let him change back into his human form. She had become quite comfortable with the fact that he and their friends spent most of their time naked after they returned from their animal forms. Each of them were suddenly concerned as they looked around at the damage.

“What happened?” Philip asked.

“Where are Max and Liz?” Jeff asked.

The looks on their kid’s faces weren’t good.

Medical Tents, Outside of School, 21:00

The beds were filling up quickly. There were simply too many people caught in the crossfire and the medical-staff were quickly becoming overwhelmed. From a distance, Zan watched as each patient was wheeled in. At the sight of the twentieth odd student, one of the younger ones who couldn’t have been more than twelve years old who was covered with burns, Zan couldn’t stand by anymore, wiped his hand over his face, and marched straight in.

The doctors almost stopped him but he rested his hands on the girl and closed his eyes. Everyone had heard about Max’s healing talents and assumed that Zan had the same abilities but to see it in action as each inch of the seared flesh began to regenerate. He kept his eyes closed, doing what he could until the girl opened her eyes. Then he moved onto the next and then the next, he kept going.

“Zan, what are you doing?” Lonnie asked when she came in.

“What I can,” Zan said.

“Why?” Lonnie asked.

Zan looked to her as he moved around, “You know.”

“No, I don’t,” Lonnie said.

“Arghhhh ... last thing I want is to hear Max in my head,” Zan said.

Lonnie smiled, “He got to you huh?”

“Don’t start,” Zan said as he waved his hand over the forehead of a student who had a deep gash across her. “Where’s Rath?”

“Putting out fires,” Lonnie said. “Michael and the others are helping out where they can. Max and Liz’s parents ... they’re not doing so good.”

“No. Suppose not,” Zan said.

“There is nothing we can do, Zan. We’ve told them where the Vamps are shacked up, that’s all we know and from what happened tonight there isn’t a whole lot we can do. We’re out,” Lonnie said. “And when are you gonna stop. It’s not like you can keep going. You’ve got a limit to how much you can heal.”

“I’ll stop when I can’t. You know you could help ... there are some bandages over there that need put on people. Or there is some rubble somewhere ... you know,” Zan said.

“Oh don’t you start the guilt trip with me,” Lonnie said as she looked over to the bandages. “Yeah. Kivar’s our problem, he came here ‘cause this is currently alien central ... yeah, yeah, yeah.” Lonnie moved over to one of the doctors who worked on another burn victim. “What can I do to help?”

The doctor looked up, “Hold this, here,” he said.

Lonnie pressed down and looked at the student as she winced in pain, “You okay?”

“No. You wanna get that boyfriend of yours to work some of his magic on me?”

“I think its best he keeps to the bad ones first,” Lonnie said and then thought a moment. “Here, look into my eyes,” she said.

Lonnie touched her skin while they stared into each other’s eyes. After a second Lonnie blinked at let go but kept her hand where the doctor told her to keep it.

“What? What was that?” the girl asked.

Lonnie smiled and pressed down hard ... very hard.

“Ou ... hey ... it doesn’t hurt,” she said.

“Actually it does, you’re just not registering it,” Lonnie said with a smile. “I’m not just limited to dreamwalks you know.” Lonnie looked back and saw Zan smiling at her. Then she lost her smile, “A couple of days here with them and I’m getting soft. This sucks.”

Vampire Temple, Beneath New York, 06:00 the Next Morning

Max woke up first. He was cold and wet, it only took seconds for him to realise that he was in inch-deep water but he couldn’t see a thing. It was pitch black; he couldn’t see his finger if it was up close to his eye but he knew he had changed back into his human body during his slumber. However Max needed to see what was around him so he quickly brought some light into the situation. He cupped his hands and created a small globe of light. He was in a cell, the bricks were large, thick and very securely put together. It took Max a while to find the exit, a metal grill at least two-stories right above him. There was no way for him to get out.

Meanwhile upstairs, Liz was waking up in quite different surroundings. She was naked, on a bed of red silk, plush cushions were placed under her head and dozens of candles lit the room around her. Like Max she had changed back into her human body. She sat up quickly and looked around, her vision was a little blurry but she immediately saw Andrei sitting nearby.

“Why did you bring me here?” Liz said, holding back her anger.

“You know why my love,” Andrei said.

“Don’t call me that. I’m in love with Max and he is my mate. There isn’t a thing you can do about it,” Liz said.

“Ah but there is, my dear. The physical effects of the links that form between mated lovers break down when one mate dies,” Andrei said.

“No, Max is still alive, I can still feel him,” Liz said.

“For now. But you will soon be a widow, my queen,” Andrei said. He had been sending the same waves of thought into Liz that he had been doing with his pets. She was resisting, her mind was strong but Andrei’s proximity was making it difficult.

“Max will rip your head off before you even try to kill him,” Liz said defiantly.

Andrei smiled, “Oh I won’t be the one to kill him. You will.”

“Like hell,” Liz said as she dived up, she changed into her Rakas animan form and stuck her hands out. She was intent on sticking her claws right through his throat but he caught her hand and threw her down on the bed.

“Sleep,” Andrei commanded.

In seconds she was out but Andrei moved around the bed, trailing his hand over her supple, naked body. Then he turned to Stacey and another couple of girls nearby. “Dress her,” he instructed them.

“Yes My Lord,” Stacey said.

“Hmm, the red dress I think. Prepare her for her new life ... with us,” Andrei said with a smile before he walked out of the room.

The pets moved over to the wardrobe and pulled out Andrei’s choice and promptly dressed Liz in it while she slept.

Throne Room of the Temple...

Andrei marched in and immediately sat on his throne. “Oh she is perfect. Her mind is strong, her will is even more potent,” he said.

“Will she turn to us?” Katrina asked.

Andrei ran his finger under her chin and brought her closer for a kiss, “She will, with a little help. It will take time to completely break down her mental defences but it will be worthwhile. As for her body, that will be a pleasure to turn. I would imagine that changing her body will go along way to bringing her to us.”

Tanya smiled as she sat on her mate’s lap, “Can I taste her first?” she asked like a little girl. “Can I get her ready for you?”

“Hmmm ... I don’t see why not,” Andrei said.

“Oh but I wanted her,” Katrina pouted.

“How about you both have a little fun with her? You can both taste her flesh, caress her skin and make her ready for mating with all of us. We all need to be in bed anyway,” Andrei said and both his women smiled.

Being able to keep his focus for this day was already beginning to waiver. His abilities had grown strong and potent but day after day of feeding corruptive thoughts into the heads of his pets wasn’t easy. Now add the resistant power of a young woman who was practically ordained by gods, who had the unknown potential of alien energy running through her veins, whose own heritage from her grandmother allowed her to have aspects of all tribes within her. It all took its toll and with the desire to turn Liz being paramount, something had to give. It did, in the form of dull headaches in the pets as they felt something trickle away from them.

Assembly Hall, Moonvale, 07:00

Everything was put under control during the night. As the sun rose higher and light flooded the mountainsides a full damage assessment could be done. There actually wasn’t that much destroyed and what was could be repaired within a fortnight. There were a few classrooms that were burnt out but nothing in them that couldn’t be replaced. Many of the townspeople were already up with hammers and nails, doing what they could.

Initially Zan couldn’t do anything, all the healing had drained him but Rath, Lonnie and Ava picked up the slack by making sure there wasn’t going to be any collapsing rooms any time soon. In the courtyard where the most damage had been done, Ava only left one thing unrepaired - the massive indentation that was caused when David was thrown into the wall. She liked it. The two bodies had been quietly moved away, no one cared where.

It left the Pride sitting with their parents in the hall and along with them were the Principal and the Tribal leaders and their children. Everyone had been told what had happened and none of them could believe that the Vampires would take such a move. Mind you none of them had ever heard of Vampires with the ability to put people to sleep just by telling them to.

“This is insane,” Nancy said.

“Isabel, you beat this guy before,” Michael said.

“Yeah, in the dream world. I knew more about that place than he did. Real world stuff is a whole different deal,” Isabel said.

“Well if you want my vote I say field trip to New York,” Scott said.

“I’m in,” Kelly said. “Fool on attack. He can’t get all of us. Besides, there are only three of these things, all our tribes working together wiped them out the last time. We can handle three.”

“You don’t know that,” Tess said. “You guys have power growing in you as well as whatever Liz is now. Losing control at the last minute would be bad and we have no idea what the limits of his powers are. For all we know he could tell us to drop dead and we’d do it.”

“How could this happen?” Jeff said. “She was supposed to be safe here.”

“And she would have been if some freak from the eighteenth century didn’t have a major crush on her. Or that we had an alien stalker or the ultimate pain in the ass couldn’t take no for an answer,” Maria said. “God I wish I could kill him again.”

Her mother looked at her.

“You know ... just saying. Because of all the grief. Really wanting to make him hurt more,” Maria said.

“Yes, well he’s gone and now we have to deal with this,” Amy said.

Philip looked down at the ground, “Screw it,” he said loudly as he stood up and walked to the middle of the room. “Ho’rus. Ho’rus please ... we need your help,” he called out.

At first nothing happened, more than a few were thinking he’d fallen over the edge but then a gust of wind blew open the doors and swirled constantly around the room until the image of the bird-headed god appeared. Everyone sat in awe before they suddenly bowed their heads.

“Ho’rus, please, my son and Liz...” Philip said.

“I know,” Ho’rus said.

“You have to bring them back to us,” Philip said.

“He cannot. We cannot,” Bas’tet said as she appeared.

That caused everyone to look up. Just as every one of their gods appear before them.

“It is the path that was foreseen by us on the day you all came into being,” Hatmehyt said.

“The trials have begun, although we did not foresee that you’d deal with the first two so easily,” Kherty said.

“You call that easy?” Michael asked.

“Depends on your perspective,” Bas’tet said.

“However, paths have been set on course. It is for Liz, Max and the rest of you do deal with. One of which is yours,” Wadjet said as she looked to Diego.

“Me?” Diego asked.

“Your path is now your own. Your father is dead and as such you now lead the serpents, as decreed by myself. Bring them out of darkness your family put them in,” Wadjet said.

“Forget that. I want Max and Liz back right now,” Isabel said.

“Of course you do,” Ho’rus said.

“We need more to fight him,” Michael said. “I don’t think even Zan and the others could help put it in our favour ... or even if all of these guys knew how to use the powers.”

“Look to my children,” Wadjet said before vanishing, each of the others followed suit.

“Well that helped,” Alex said.

“What did she mean?” Isabel asked Diego.

“No idea,” Diego said.

“Uh ... I think I know,” Kali said.

“What?” Diego asked.

“My dad’s the Shaman remember? I know things not very many others know, especially about our section of the prophecy,” Kali said.

“What about the prophecy?” Michael asked, everyone’s attention were on her.

Throne Room, Vampire Temple, 10:00

Andrei carried Liz into the room. She was still unconscious as he lay her down on an altar of white stone. It was simply a flat platform held up by two vampire statues on either end of it. As instructed, the pets had dressed Liz in the blood red silk dress that was thin enough to be transparent. The Vampire ran his hand over her body, feeling what would soon be his. As he gazed at her sleeping form as all eight of the pets knelt in a circle around them and his two wives stood on the other side of the altar. Then he pulled out a very sharp knife and held it up high.

“Great god, Anu’bis. Today we fulfil your great plan and we thank you for giving life to our tribe once more. We ask that our will be done and that with the anointment of our blood this woman be remade from cat to bat,” Andrei said as a prayer before he brought the knife down and cut a straight line down the cleavage of the dress, between her breasts.

Then he sliced open his hand and slammed it down over her wound. Andrei felt his blood draining out of him as if it was being sucked into Liz’s body. After a few minutes he started feeling woozy and Tanya held her wrist up to his mouth. Andrei sank his fangs into her and started to feed. Tanya pressed her full body against his, quickly becoming aroused.

“Yes ... uhhhhhhh...” Tanya gasped as Andrei released his bite. He had enough from her and Tanya went to get a blood pack from the fridge while Katrina took her place.

After half an hour, Andrei pulled his hand away and everyone watched as the wound on Liz’s chest healed without leaving so much as a faint scar. They were all surprised; they healed fast but not that fast. Andrei held out his hand and Will came forward with a cloth to bandage it. Liz didn’t move, she was still out but she was breathing. Just then her eyes shot open and the Vampires saw that they were like their own. They smiled as her eyes closed again.

“Great Anu’bis, our children will come forth and feed on this world. My third bride is reborn,” Andrei said as he turned to the pets, “Take her to our bedchamber. Stay with her and attend to her needs when she has them.”

“Yes my lord,” Stacey said. She led the girls into the bedroom as Will and the other young man in the group carried Liz from the altar to the bedroom.

“It is almost time. Come my ladies, we will enjoy ourselves until Elizabeth joins us,” Andrei said.

Katrina and Tanya smiled as they moved closer to him and pulled off the shoulder straps of their dresses. They fell from their bodies and promptly started to undress Andrei.

Mountain Caves, 5 Minutes Outside Moonvale

Kelly led the pride up the mountain pathways, lone tracks that hadn’t been walked by Lycanthrope or human in years. However they had been traversed by something else. With every step Kelly was mentally chastising herself being stupid enough to volunteer to bring them up here but someone had to. Soon they found an entrance to some caves. The outside was marked with a series of lycanthropic letters that basically said, “Don’t go any further.”

Without even thinking about it, Michael led the way and everyone walked in. The cave entrance itself was in a shaded location which cut away the sunlight, but the light never went into the cave very far. Soon it was like walking at midnight in a really dark alley. Everyone turned on the flashlights that they brought with them and aimed them down the passage. They didn’t see much.

“This is a really bad idea,” Kelly said.

“You wanna go back?” Kyle asked.

“Yes, I’d love to,” Kelly said. “But ... oh gods. I’m going to have nightmares for a month. Let’s go.”

They went forward into the caves, around winding corridors and the further they stepped into the network of caverns they started to hear noises. It was like soft whispers mixed with a clunking sound of something hitting the rock ground.

“Really bad idea,” Kelly said as she looked around and saw red eyes, lots of them looking down. “Your cue, Starboy.”

“That’s Spaceboy,” Maria corrected.

“Girls. Shhh,” Michael said as he stepped forward. “I’M HEAR TO SPEAK TO YOU,” he called out.

Nothing.

“Say that line of the prophecy that Kali said. Let them know we’re supposed to be here,” Isabel said.

“Okay,” Michael said. “The Serpent Tribe. They have a section of their prophecy that the goddess Wadjet told their shaman to keep secret.”

Just by saying that caused the noises to stop and Michael kept quiet. Then as small bits of rubble fell from upper levels of the cavern, a large black horse walked forward. They had all seen the Night-mares from a distance but up close was a whole different story.

“I did tell you guys that they eat meat, like fresh meat, didn’t I?” Kelly asked.

Everyone looked at her, “No,” they all said.

“My bad,” Kelly said. “But Michael ... talk quickly.”

“Right ... right. Uh ... okay. When two who will lead are taken by corrupted blood, the Star Pride shall travel to darkness. There, will help will be sought from the tribe that is no more. Strength will be found from that which they guard and the children of the punished god will be made whole once more,” Michael said. “God, I can’t believe I just said that.”

However, the horse moved closer as more of the Night-mares stepped in.

“We were kinda guessing that this cave is the darkness, you guys are the children and Chiron was supposed to be punished from helping you,” Michael said. “Yeah, that’s about it. You were supposed to be a tribe once ... I’m hoping you can understand me.”

“If not, we don’t taste very good ... you know ... just saying,” Alex said.

“What do we do if these aren’t where we’re supposed to go?” Tess asked.

“Get ready to run,” Isabel said.

The lead Night-mare suddenly jumped up onto her back legs and started kicked with the front ones while neighing loudly. Michael suddenly brought his hand up and it glowed brightly, creating a shield. That seemed to calm the dark horse and it dropped down to the ground.

“I thought Max made shields?” Kelly asked.

“Well we’ve all screwed him enough times, I guess I can do it now too. We probably all can,” Michael said.

“COME.”

Everyone looked forward.

“Did that horse just speak?” Kyle asked as the Night-mare turned around and walked down a smaller tunnel.

“I didn’t see any lips move,” Isabel said. “It was more like...”

“It was in our heads,” Tess said.

“COME,” they heard again.

The group started following down the hall. They walked carefully, staying a safe distance behind the horse. “This is definitely new,” Kelly said.

Soon they arrived at the end of the passage. The reflective glimmer of their flashlights shining against gemstones drew their attention and they moved closer to see a statue standing before them. It was a large bat with a human face and two blood red rubies as eyes.

“What the hell?” Kelly asked. “That’s a Nosferatu design ... from before they became Vampires. What it is doing here?”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked.

Kelly turned to them, “We weren’t always here in Moonvale. We set up the town, the school and we brought the Night-mares with us. This thing being here is either the biggest coincidence on Earth...”

“Or it was put here by people who knew the horses would be here to protect it,” Isabel said.

Michael moved forward and looked over the statue. He couldn’t see anything until he touched its surface and a bright yellow handprint rippled onto the chest of the statue. It may not have been silver like the Antarian handprints his people left but he could easily guess its purpose. Michael pressed his hand to it and the statue started to move. Its arms lowered and the head looked down as if it was bowing to them before it looked up and opened its mouth. As its tongue extended outward, everyone could see a small vial resting on it. He took it and held it up to his torchlight.

“Is this what I think it is?” Michael asked.

“Blood,” Alex said.

“Why is it here?” Michael asked.

“Think about it. You are a people who have the ability to see the future. You know tribes are about to be wiped out, you know the result of the actions of one of your race will result in what’s left of his people being here and you know one race is going to be devastated by a disease that corrupts them. What would you do?” Isabel asked.

“Put a sample of that tribe uncontaminated DNA in a safe place where no one is going to go. This is Nosferatu blood,” Alex said. “The Nosferatu god, Camazotz, he knew what was going to happen to his tribe.”

“And he probably knew of a way to sort the problem. Liz and Max can’t use this. They’re kidnapped. The gods knew that this would happen,” Isabel said.

“You’re saying this is for us?” Kyle asked.

“The strengths of the Nosfertu bottled and kept where we can get it. Our bodies adapt DNA, it has with every other tribe we’ve had sex with,” Tess said.

“And if it’s in you, you have sex with the rest of us so that can take it in. More power means more edge,” Kelly said.

“I like that but what about this guy’s powers?” Kyle asked.

“The Nosferatu were very strong willed. They way their brains worked ... there was a story about a Nosferatu that was once captured in Babylon, he knew the location of a great treasure or something. He was tortured. The story goes that it went on for months and the Nosfertu never gave in. He came out of it stronger and the human who held him went mad,” Kelly said.

“That’s just a story,” Michael said.

“Sometime stories have basis in fact,” Alex said.

“Oh yeah, what about sunlight? We might have that in us after this?” Michael said.

“No, the disease that caused the Vampires caused the allergy to daylight. If this is Nosferatu, then no allergy,” Kelly said.

“Okay. Who goes first?” Michael asked. Everyone looked at him, “What?” he asked.

Lonnie’s Bedroom, New York Four’s Pride Room, Noon

“Lonnie?” Isabel called out.

“In here,” Isabel replied and Isabel came in.

“I hear you found something?” Lonnie said.

“Yeah. We think it might actually help us,” Isabel said.

“Good. So why are you still here?” Lonnie asked. “I figured you’d be at New York the second you were ready.”

“Yes but...” Isabel started to say.

“No.” Lonnie said, interrupting. “No way. We’ve thought about it and it’s the answer is no.”

“You will be coming Lonnie, all of you. New York is your hometown and you’re more alien than us. That could give you a lot more of an edge than we have,” Isabel said.

“Listen, we came here ‘cause we got word of something bad. We decided to be nice and let you know. If it was Kivar, or the Skins, no sweat but these Vampires ... hell no. Not after what we’ve seen and not after they kicked your butts the other night,” Lonnie said.

“Well Kivar isn’t an issue. We took take of him,” Isabel said.

“So, what? You want to consider this as balancing it out?” Lonnie asked.

“Whatever,” Isabel said. “You know I don’t get it, you guys obviously do want to help. You did come here instead of staying in your hole. You could have even left after you told us or come to me in a dreamwalk.”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time. Besides the only thing we care about is staying alive and this place was as good as any ... and way comfy,” Lonnie said.

“Yes. So glad we could accommodate you,” Isabel said.

“Hey, don’t say it like that. Listen ... how about you convince me to convince Zan to stick around and help with the big bad bat?” Lonnie said.

“I thought that’s what I was doing?” Isabel said.

Lonnie smiled while she inched her way closer, “No. I mean convince me,” Lonnie said seductively as she started trailing her fingers over Isabel’s arm.

“Are you nuts? We’re practically...” Isabel started but Lonnie kissed her.

Their lips pressed together as Lonnie held Isabel’s cheek. As stunned as Isabel was, she was left gasping and was aroused. Her skin was flushed and she wanted more. “We’re not practically anything. They say everyone has a double out there ... well, I want to fuck mine and I know you want to be with me,” she said.

“So what if I do? I’m just supposed to sell myself to you to get help. That’s prostitution,” Isabel said.

Lonnie kissed her again, this time pressing her body up against her Roswellian double. “Call it what you want, I just want you. If you need a reason to join me in that bed then use that or come up with one, if not then make love with me because you want it.”

Isabel looked into her double’s eyes and saw nothing but the same desire and lust she was feeling. There was no way she was able to resist, and having a spike wasn’t helping right now. The only thing she could do was to grab Lonnie and kiss her passionately.

“Oh my!” Lonnie gasped when Isabel let her up for air, not expecting the force of Isabel’s desires. “You really are hot for me aren’t you?”

Isabel suddenly backed up and undid her robe before forcefully pulling it off her body, leaving herself completely naked. Lonnie smiled as she looked at her double’s tits. Isabel’s need was so great that her nipples were already delectably hard and enticing. Isabel barely gave Lonnie a moment to recover before pouncing on her again. Isabel couldn’t deny her yearnings and she was positively wild with wanting her Dupe. Her mouth and hands were seemingly everywhere on Lonnie’s body; it was as if she didn’t know what she wanted to do first. All she knew was that she had to touch Lonnie and have her touch her.