'They grew up overnight, and were never so young anymore.'

October 31, 2006 - Downtown Manchester

Elizabeth laughed merrily inwardly as she walked along the downtown streets, watching the children rush by, bags filled with candy trailing behind them. They didn't see her of course. To them she was just a ghost, unseen, and unfelt on a night when ghosts and monsters abounded. But it was nice sometimes to get away, and watch life pass by around her, especially when there were children involved. Innocence was such a precious thing. She paused for a moment, sending her mind into that of a young boy chasing after the two friends who were running as quickly as they could away from him. Elizabeth ran quickly, her new body bright with innocence, and a particular love for chocolate, she saw...she caught up quickly, and just as the boys went down in a heap, she floated free, smiling softly before she turned to follow the faint silver cord that lead back to her body, which Nemesis was currently inhabiting...she thought...They'd never tried splitting their perceptions before...she didn't know if it had worked.

'We salt our lives with other people's sins.'

With a snap, she returned to her body, she hoped....it looked the same, but it felt, different...decidedly unnatural. /Nemesis? What in the world are you doing?/ Nemesis lifted her head as she heard the voice in her mind, rubbing the spot on her chest that had started burning just recently, /Allegra was restless./ She looked back down to the canvas, the tip of her tongue sticking out, and caught between her teeth as she added another brush stroke, about halfway through the painting that she was currently working on. Not that she knew how to paint, but it was nice to have the Toreador resident inside her psyche. Not a bad way to pick up new talents, she thought...just eat and go. /So where were you, Liz? Out helping an old woman across the street?/ /No, if I tried that, you might slip into the gutter and never return, and wouldn't that be a shame?/ /Bitch/ Nemesis sniffed and leaned back to inspect the Toreador's work. It was nicely done, the sheer horror of the moment of rebirth, and the first contact with the open air above the Sabbat made grave electrifying. She could feel the Toreador cringe as the old memories washed over her, and Nemesis could feel herself getting very angry...but that would have to wait...she was hungry.

'Where darkness prowled with unlit eyes.'

A half hour later found her walking down the cross street from the church, her skin pleasantly warm from the meal she'd just indulged in. It was nice to be fed, and to have the time to just feel human again. She wondered if Libros still possessed the ritual that allowed you be to mortal again for a night.../I wonder what would happen if I became pregnant that night? I mean...it would be independent, and not me.../ /And Rhys would never stand for it! He wouldn't endanger the life of a child that way. Just because he's never used the power God gave him against us, doesn't mean he won't. I don't feel like going up in flames anytime soon./ /Semantics....it's all semantics/ The conversation halted abruptly as an errant and wholly unacceptable sound echoed through the noew quiet streets. A whimper, low, painful, flecked with blood and the savage rending of reason from sanity. With a movement as quick as lightening, Nemesis took off in the direction of the scream, and just managed to get out a single thought before she turned her mind to the prupose of pursuit, /Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive!/ She came to a halt as she paused in the entryway of the alcove of an old dilapidated building. A man, aura pale with rage and swirling with a psychosis to match her own, was feeding from a young woman. Or perhaps feeding would be an appropriate word if he hadn't been occupied with using the tips of his claws to puncture opening in the young woman's flesh, from which he subsequently drank. Her aura was mage bright, but uncontrolled, and flickering weakly, yet the power of her mind was enough to draw Nemesis like a moth to a flame, every iota of pain searing the Elder Kindred's mind as she struggled to free herself. /Hey girlie...calm down...it can't get much worse.../ But it just might have. In a flash of memory only slightly crumpled at the edges and burned by the deep saffron of age and old pain, the Kindred's mind flashed with remembrance.

'The wind was seeded with Time.'

May 15th, 1022

Elizabeth managed to draw a breath through the gag Lord Montclaire had placed over her mouth and nose, the air causing her lungs to expand painfully within her chest. She dropped her head forward, her eyes closing against the sight of her skin that the glance brought. Livid red lashes, purpled at the edges covered her body, each one burning with the salt that had been placed into them, worked deep into the skin while the Lord had availed himself of her body. Tears flooded her eyes as she finally succumbed to the pain he had instilled. If he wanted it, he could have it...she didn't care anymore. It was easier to submit then to go through this...

The door slammed with a satisfying thud to the man who entered, and he approached the girl casually...she had proved very amusing indeed.

Elizabeth cowered, and rather effectively as he approached, pressing back against the wall, as if she thought sinking into it might be a remote possibility. As his hand reached out to touch her, she felt something just...break inside her and suddenly she wasn't along anymore, and she could rest.

'Where does the thunder go when it dies?'

October 31, 2006

Nemesis pulled herself out of the memory as she came back to the present. She never did enjoy reliving the moment of her birth, even if it was the best thing that had ever happened to her. She advanced on the scene, anger suffusing her skin until it nearly glowed with rage. There were times when she earned the name Nemesis, Divine Anger, and this was one of them. A sharp, low, predatory growl, issuing from her throat like rich silk alerted the man, and a shock that outwayed even her anger raced through her thoughts. /It was this one!/ Allegra's thoughts for the first time seemed as real as her own. /The one who made me! He...he did this to me!/

Rage clouded the Elder Kindred's gaze and she advanced on the man, who now stood before her glaring his defiance. His eyes widened with fear as she glared at him, fangs fully extended and almost pearlesque in the flickering moonlight. A strangled scream was torn from his throat as her words boomed into his thoughts, the words savage, clipped, and fully intended to cause injury. "You know....God really is a woman....and she doesn't take kindly to rank stupidity...did you know that, childe?" The young Kindred stumbled back, turning to run, the body he held falling from his arms, settling with a bone-jarring thud. Nemesis laughed, "Run...I will follow." The young Kindred sprinted away, and Nemesis gave him not even a glance more as she turned to the young woman who lay crumpled on the ground at her feet.

'Me? I'm the original sad man.'

Elizabeth sank to her knees beside the young woman, gathering the wreckage of her body into her arms, gently pushing aside the layers of pain to touch her thoughts. /Rest childe...I will see to your pain./ The Elder Kindred leaned down to kiss the woman's forehead, then slowly lifted her wrist to her own lips, ripping a line along her skin, and watching the blood ooze out of the wound, which she slowly lowered to the woman's lips. A gentle nudge and the woman began to drink, her mind carefully shielded from the reality of what she did, Elizabeth's control careful, but not demanding...The woman fed slowly, not knowing why she did so, and while she drank, Elizabeth wove a pattern of gossamer thoughts and veiled remembrances within her thoughts...washing away the memories as she gently instructed the woman's body to heal her wounds. When it was over, she gently encouraged the woman to seek her way home, and then turned to Unfinished Business.

'A shadow moved among shadows.'

Nemesis undressed quickly, her clothes falling into a pile as her body shifted with lightning speed to that of a sleek black wolf, and the creature loped off into the darkness, six senses scenting the air for the mark of its prey. A moment to pause and she had found it, the scent faint, but marked by the acrid odor of fear, and impotent rage. The wolf moved on swift silent feet, and the Kindred mind within allowed the sheer power of keen animal fury to power each stride, each mark of distance that brought her to her prey. Long, quick strides through city streets, the human mind sailing through the distance that seperated the prey from the predator, and she quickened her pace as she approached. After so many nights of keeping the Beast that lived within her to a low hum, it was almost a pleasure to release it. It struck her as terribly funny that the Sabbat thought of themselves as professionals in the game of dispensing pain. It took alot more than mindlessness and a streak of cruelty to do it right...Oh well, she'd have to see what she could do about persuading the masses.

He'd never seen anything like that. /Goddamn...what the hell was she? Like me, but I never saw anything so...evil./ He managed a strangled laugh. /And I thought the Sabbat were bad....doesn't matter...my ass is out of.../ His thoughts fragmented with the bone-crushing blow that sent him to the ground.

The wolf growled, low and course with rage as it sprang on it's prey, body shifting to that of the woman she had been just a moment before. But as the body returned, the animal rage remained and she grappled him as he fell, her teeth ripping into his throat, drinking quickly, ignoring the acrid taste of his blood as she sent him into torpor. Pulling back, she cloaked her appearance, hiding her nudity as she hefted the unconscious male onto her shoulder and headed for home.

May 18th, 1022

He had taught her incredible control by virtue of the things dhe had done to her, and it seemed only fair to put his teachings to good use. The student had to someday exceed the training of the master. It was only natural. Her thoughts snaked inward as she took a moment to comfort the little girl who was hiding behind her protector, her new self, and her thoughts were gentle as she tried to heal the hurt she had done to this one. /It's alright, Elizabeth. I promise. We're together now, and I won't let anyone hurt you ever again./ /Who? What's your name?/ /Nemesis. But it's your name now too....we're two parts of the same person./ /NO! I'm not like you, you're a monster! Look what you did to him...he doesn't...doesn't even look human anymore. Please...please kill him...I...please...no one deserves to be broken like that./ /I do only what was done to you, can't you see that?/ Elizabeth's thoughts spiralled into incoherency as her already tortured psyche hid from the reality of what she had become. Nemesis pulled her perceptions back to the world of flesh, looking down at the remains of the man who had once controlled her existence, the body quivering as nerves burned black by pain, tried feebly to draw themselves away from her. She picked up the dagger that even now was adorned with his initials, lifting it to his throat. A quick thrust and the meager breaths that wracked his frame ceased with an exhalation of crimson breath.

'He opened a door on darkness.'

November 1, 2006

Elizabeth shook with remembrance as her hands lifted the knife away from the Kindred's body, the bright silver of the blade lost in the red that had seeped from his flesh as she worked. A flash of...was it satisfaction at a job well done rippled through her psyche, and she could feel Nemesis, her thoughts sobbing out her sorrow at her failure to protect her charge, her other self, from what she had done. /Elizabeth, I'm sorry...I wasn't strong enough. To protect you, I only ever wanted to protect you. That was why I never let you remember what I did to him, or to the others, all of the others afterward. You were the last bastion of our Innocence. Don't you see that I had to hide it from you? I never wanted you...to become like me./ A pause. / I'm not like you, Nem, but we are too similar to stand apart for long, and we've been apart for almost 1000 years. It's our birthday, soon, you know...I thought we could have a party, maybe with Rhys...and we could invite Fursa...she's been so stressed out lately, and maybe Molotov could light the candles for me, and Catherine could help me open gifts. And Clayton if he's around.../ Elizabeth's thoughts, just for a moment, took on the brightness of joy and innocence as she talked, and she began to retreat from the reality of the torporous Kindred sprawled out on the table in front of her. But only for a moment. /But right now, I have an appointment to keep./ Nemesis sank back, knowing finally that this was what she had dreaded, the moment she knew she couldn't protect Elizabeth from.

Elizabeth set down the phone, a faint, almost winsome smile curling her lips, and in that moment, she was almost the Angel Rhys believed her to be. She had to hurry. The check point wasn't awfully close to home, and she knew Rhys would be awake soon, as he always was, just a few hours before dawn, to spend time with her before his duties drew him into the day. How she loved him. He must never see this. In the next moment, she hefted the length of silk onto her shoulder, laughing as she thought of all those old movies where the heroine is rescued by being wrapped in a carpet and secreted away. But there was no rescue here, except what would come in the eyes of the man who even now slept in a room on the floors above her.

The time passed quickly as she approached the checkpoint, settling the body on her shoulder as she waited. But she didn't have to wait long, and a flash of moonlight glinting on cufflinks assured her that Ramirez had come as she had requested. Of course he had brought guests, but he always brought guests, that much she had surmised from the thoughts of the Kindred she had...tutored...it was no matter. He was too smart to attack her now. And she planned to use that to her advantage.

"I came as you requested, Miss d'Marcio. You have something for me, I believe?" He studied her carefully, trying to winnow out the train of her thoughts. Quietly, insistently, her own thoughts invaded his mind, /Do you remember a child called Allegra, Ramirez?/ "I remember." /I had hoped you might. I have her soul you know...and blood always calls to blood./ "Your point being?"

Elizabeth lifted the body from her shoulder, the remains as light as the husk she had once sifted away from the grains her father grew in his fields. A poetic flick of her wrists and the silk unwound, spiralling the body down to the ground, white silk dyed crimson with the last of the blood that drained from the Kindred's body. A muttered curse from the audience as her Handiwork was revealed. It was Kindred, that was certain, and perhaps had once been human, before the careful use of blade and claw had rendered it little more than bone covered by muscle, there was no skin, and the audience didn't want to ask where it had gone too.

/A life for a life, Ramirez./

Elizabeth kneeled beside the body, her eyes lifted as she made contact with the man before her, her soul lifting from her skin to flicker towards his, to slide into the sanctuary of his body. And when their souls met, there was no contest, only conversation. /You know I will come for you./ / I know, Ramirez. I'm counting on it./ Her soul brightened as she pressed closer, and the brief kiss they shared was more intimate than any touch of the flesh could provide.

They withdrew slowly, savoring the feeling of this one, without attempting to reveal his thoughts or his secrets in the bargain. And for a moment, they were one again. Girl and Woman. Protector and Protected. Saint and Sinner. Angel and Harlot. Elizabeth and Nemesis.

A moment quickly past, as she returned to vision granted not by the eyes of her soul, but by the sapphire orbs that seemed almost enchanted.

/And so it begins./

He answered, "It begins."

That winsome smile resurfaced, and a moment later her body vanished from before the assembled audience. And only the man named Ramirez remembered she had ever been there. But the remembrance of that one was enough. It was time to go home.

Pre-Dawn, November 1, 2006

Elizabeth opened the door to the room, slipping in quietly, her eyes flickering towards the bed, but he had already risen. There would be no hiding this night. A sound beside her was the precursor to his greeting, and as she turned, her eyes met his own, unbidden, except by perhaps the bit of her soul that still wanted, still needed Forgiveness. His eyes studied her own, his thoughts winging there way across the Bond they shared, and gently, tenderly asked for admittance. He could have entered regardless of her desire, could have used her Love to force his way into her thoughts, knowing she couldn't deny him, not now that she had made him such a part of herself. But he loved her as well, and he chose to ask. And as her thoughts began to unfold around him, revealing the events of the night, she say with breathless clarity, that he was Disappointed in her. She had failed him.

A deep, crimson-stained fragment reared up within her, its body filled with the anger and the Rage she had hidden for so long, and her Beast screamed its truimph as the realization of her failure fragmented her already dying Humanity, and it moved one step closer to gaining control of her. But those last three steps, those were barred from him, held behind and within the body and mind of the man who stood before it. The one thing It feared, the one Thing that could destroy it, and bring the creature it lived within to Peace. And in that moment, it's thoughts met the thoughts of the man who held the Elder's existence in his grasp, and it acquiesed.

There would be no contest tonight. The Servant of God had humbled the Beast of Caine.

But there would be other nights.

[All the quotes used in the story are from Ray Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes.']