***
Daniel sat in a cave high in the side of a cliff, pacing nervously and checking the sun’s position frequently. He’d brought all the supplies they’d need for killing the guardian and retrieving the Diamond. He had all the things he’d need. All the people. So why am I so nervous? He asked himself, over and over.
At last, he heard, faintly, a car pull up at the foot of the cliff. He inched closer and closer to the edge of the cave, but couldn’t see because the sun was still in the sky, though now it was slowly descending. The half circle of light at the cave’s opening was getting slimmer, but it was still there. He closed his eyes and made use of his other enhanced senses. A man was talking, though he couldn’t make out the words. He sounded angry one minute then the next he sounded as if he were comforting someone. Then back again and so forth for almost a half hour. Then he heard the flutter of wings and Mercy landed in his cave. He opened his eyes and smiled.
“You smell good. Like old leathery flesh and ripe sweet blood. A touch of perfume… old lady? You’re getting bolder. I thought you only ate old men. I’m so glad you came. I’ve been sitting in this rock all day. I tried exploring, but there are so many tunnels and they go so deep that even I can’t see without artificial light. So I sit, bored, while you get to suck the juices of old Gladys Jane.” He gave her a fake pouting face, which looked very bad on his experienced features. He blinked his jade green eyes in a pathetic manner, making her scowl despite herself.
She looked down at the man below and scowled further. “Daniel, I hope you don’t mind, but I think we might be having an addition to the party. I caught it while it was unaware and it’s in my captivity. I’m not letting it go until it pays its due so either we both come or neither. She may be of help, though.” At this he smiled.
“Anything for my dear little princess. But Victoria? There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” he said, approaching her, then stopping, “I’ll not say it in the presence of a snitch, however. Privacy, you see, dear, is incredibly hard to come by these days.” He frowned, gesturing at the cave opening. Mercy sniffed the air and jumped out of the cave just in time to catch a lizard transforming into a bird and flying from the rock face. She easily snatched it from the air without harming it and brought it inside the cave.
“Daniel, meet Cornelia. She’s the new addition. Tried to kill me, this one did.” Mercy threw bird-Cornelia gently towards Daniel and it shrieked, transforming into the form Will had recognized her in. she backed away from Daniel, hissing and making the sign of the cross quickly, and then she turned to Mercy, muttering, “You are a fool if you think you can trust this. If I am in captivity for you, I want you to make choices that keep me safe. And don’t you get Will hurt either. He’s nice to me.” She hissed once more at Daniel before becoming a hummingbird and flying out of the cave.
Daniel looked at Mercy and said, “You actually believed that she could kill you?” then at Mercy’s silence he said, “I suppose we have a lot to do then. Come at me. Mercy, come on, you have to know how to fight if you want to live. While we wait for Cindy, we have plenty of time for sparring. The council is going to come for you and you are going to die if you don’t know how to fight. And it’s all my fault that you are going to die.” He saw Mercy’s posture change, and he smiled.
“Good. Anger is good. No, keep your wings locked. The enemy is strong, and you want to keep your wings attached, right? No, like this, where they can’t see them. Good. Now, strategy. You’re small, so you have the advantage if the opponent is big. Stay low. Go for the legs and ankles, feet even. Be fast; make them think the air attacked them. You are the air— ow! Yeah, like tha—ouch! We aren’t sparring yet! Ow!”
They continued for hours, and when the sun was finally gone, they were both panting and sweaty. Mercy grinned.
“I haven’t fought like that since my two day birthday when you told me what I was. Remember? Yeah, you were so surprised. I was just like ‘wham’ and you were down. Then I started punching you and I totally kicked your ass.” She laughed, and Daniel smiled.
“Yes, you were certainly the tough one. You have to give me some credit, though; I was new at the whole sharing my powers thing. It took weeks before I was strong enough to change another one. You never met him, though. You ran off before I could teach you anything. That, and he died before the spell could settle in. I was so confused. So sad. Only one stayed with me for longer than you had. They all wanted to run, be free. Only one, and she only stayed for four days.” His gaze fell to the floor and sadness crumpled his features.
“Who was she?” Mercy asked, and Daniel looked up quickly, as if just remembering she was there. He bit his lip, then said, “No one of importance. Really, darling. You wouldn’t have known her anyway. I’m going to see where your Cindy is. You should check on the snack down below.” He flared his huge pitch colored wings and was gone.
Mercy walked to the mouth of the cliff. She closed her eyes and smiled at the coolness of the moonlight. It soothed her sore wings and filled her with energy. She jumped, then fell a long way before opening her wings. Then she glided in slow circles to the ground, still smiling. When she landed behind Will and tapped him on the shoulder, he spun around, punched her in the stomach, saw it was her and said ‘sorry’, then noticed he’d punched a vampire in the abs and winced with pain.
“I… I thought it was the other one, the… Daniel. Cornelia says he’s bad juju. I’m not sure if she’s right, but I’m not exactly getting good vibes from him either. He… made you, right? So that means you die if he doesn’t find his rock, right? What if he died before they had the chance to kill you? What if we killed him first?” The hope in his eyes told her he’d been thinking on this for a long time. She smiled.
“I’m sorry, Will, but it’s not exactly that easy. One, he would be incredibly hard to kill. He’s stronger than me and you and Cornelia put together. Two, I’m not sure what would happen to me if he died. The ties of our bond might be stronger than with his other spawn since I was the first. Three, we have to trust him, because if he is telling the truth, we have to do everything in our power to save my life, his life, and the lives of all his other changes. Later on we’ll talk about what we’re here for and what the plan is.” She smiled sadly, and then froze. She tilted her head and listened. Something was in the bushes. There was a good chance that it was a bunny or other animal, but… She closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose.
Then she had Will by the waist and was soaring towards the cave high in the mountain. She frantically set him down, told him to hide far from the entrance, then flew out again. She heard his faint ‘wait’ before she was out of range and tracking Daniel.
***
Cindy was sitting atop the roof of a small, abandoned store. Daniel had tracked her for less than five minutes before he found her fresh scent in the air. It smelled of cherries, blood. and lip gloss, with a hint of her unique scent that each person had. He’d followed that for another ten minutes before he found her. He landed next to her and stopped himself from moving any closer or saying anything.
She was covered in gore from head to toe. Her short blonde hair has tinted pink and crusted with small bits of flesh. Her face, hands, and arms were covered in half dry blood, and her clothes were still dripping. She had taken off her shoes and had them drying next to her, small puddles near the openings. There were streaks of skin color on her face where tears had run and washed the blood.
She looked up at him. Her eyes, a bright blue, contrasted the blood on her eyelids and lashes. “I lost control.” Was all she said, then looked down again. There were three and a half mutilated bodies down below, flesh and blood and clothes were scattered around them. Daniel couldn’t tell which ones were male or female. He slowly reached down and took Cindy’s hand in his. The blood on hers was sticky and cold. He said, “We all do. Come on, let’s get you cleaned off.” Then picked her up and flew away, and he felt her head lean on his shoulder. He knew well what it felt like to lose control, to kill more than you could eat. It was, in short, humiliating, depressing, and frustrating. If you lose control, any vampire nearby who isn’t an enemy will undoubtedly come to your comfort.
And it was extremely hard to clean up after as well, Daniel soon was reminded. They had found a lake and Daniel was using a torn piece of cloth to wipe Cindy clean. She was still in shock, sitting in the shallows of the icy water as he tried to get the dead flesh from her hair. He sang quietly to her, nursery rhymes about teapots, twinkling stars, and other childish things. When you are in the state that Cindy was, you like nothing more than simplicity and warmth. Though he couldn’t provide warmth, he could see she was relaxing.
Mercy dropped into the water nearby, took in what was and had happened, then rushed to Cindy, saying, “Baby, baby, oh, honey. You poor thing.” Then looking to Daniel, she asked, “How many?” he mouthed ‘about five’. This got a hug from Mercy, and she took off her jacket. Handing it to Daniel, she said, “Have this ready when we’re done. For now, go away.” He obeyed without question, and was called for a few minutes later to find Cindy, dressed in Mercy’s dry clothes, clean for the most part, and Mercy, shivering in Cindy’s wet ones, which had been thoroughly cleaned.
“Put the jacket on her so she can warm up. Then I’ll go ahead and start a fire in the cave. Don’t land on the ground, there are wolves. I don’t know if it could even be the hunt, but just in case, don’t, okay? You carry her, and be careful.” Then she flew off, beating her wings hard.
***
Will sighed and sat down. Then he stood again and resumed his pacing. Mercy’s hurried departure had worried him. Daniel being mysteriously gone also worried him. Cornelia’s absence worried him. The fact that if Mercy didn’t come back, he’d be trapped in this cave for the rest of his life worried him. It was cold, and he had no food, water, blankets, or even wood for a fire. Then he scolded himself for thinking that; he had no knowledge on how to start a fire anyway. So he chose to wait patiently until Mercy retrieved him. A wolf howled in the distance.
Mercy swooped in, dropping an armful of wood of the stone floor before arranging it with inhuman speed. Then she ran to the far back of the cave, picked something up, and ran back to the pile of wood. Will watched with interest as she struck a match, then set flame to a pile of smaller twigs inside her pile of thick wood. The flame went out, and she tried again. It went out twice more before it finally caught flame. Then she looked at Will.
“Daniel is bringing my friend with him. Her name is Cindy. Do not look her in the eye and do not make yourself known. Stay as far back in the cave as possible and don’t move. She is dangerous at the moment and it would be best if no one else got hurt.” She looked around. “Where’s Cornelia?” then, without waiting for an answer, flew out of the cave. She was back in less than thirty seconds with another armful of wood. Then she sat next to the fire and closed her eyes. Will noticed she was dripping wet, and was about to ask her about it when Daniel dropped into the cave, carrying a blonde girl of her early twenties, like Mercy. She was pretty, and wearing clothes slightly too small for her. Will backed up until he was in the shadows cast by the fire.
Mercy took the girl, who was most likely Cindy, and sat down again next to the fire. Cindy looked afraid, and she was sweating a lot. She shivered once and a while, which made Mercy gently hug her again. Daniel was leaning against the wall, looking slightly worried and resentful.
“She should be feeling better in a few hours, but if…” his eyes showed something that may have been fear, but it was gone in a moment. “She’ll feel better in a while.” Daniel smiled.
Will shifted his weight, and a small voice in his ear whispered ‘shh’. He looked, and a tiny girl was sitting on his shoulder. She had pink insect wings coming off her back, and was dressed in a flower-like pink dress. She stood and brushed off her dress, faint sparkles falling onto his dark t-shirt, before it changed to a ferret and curled around the back of his neck. He smiled slightly and wondered briefly if she’d made that up, or if fairies really existed.
As the sun rose, Cindy fell asleep and the rest of the party breathed a sigh of relief. Will had dozed for a while, but had been woken by ferret-Cornelia’s cold nose in his face when Cindy was out. He stood, stretching, and looked around the cave. Daniel was whittling a piece of wood a few feet away and well away from the increasing half circle of sunlight on the floor. Mercy had covered Cindy in a blanket and was sitting in the shade with one hand under the sun’s rays. It was turning pink, and looked painful. It turned a deeper shade and Will started to worry.
“Mercy? Stop that, you’re hurting yourself.” He walked to her and pulled her hand inside farther so it was out of the light. It was hot and covered in burns. “Why…” he looked at her face, which was studying her hand curiously.
“I haven’t ever been burnt like this before. It means I’m stronger.” She looked up at Will and smiled faintly. “I like it.” She pulled her hand from Will’s and studied it. He reached up to pet ferret-Cornelia behind her small yellow ears. She purred with delight. Mercy looked up at her and smiled more broadly. “I didn’t know ferrets could purr.”
“I don’t think they can. Apparently, though, shape shifters can. Come on, and let’s treat that burn.” Will said, and was relieved when Mercy stood and followed him to where Daniel had put their bags after retrieving them the previous night.
***
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