The Ides of March, 2008, Noon, The Kohler Farm

The two kindred slumbered in the dank basement under the Kohler house. A narrow path wound back through piles upon piles of boxes and other junk to a cleared place just large enough for the mattress that lay in it. Jason laid twined around Fursa as she lay in her Cameron suit, both totally oblivious to the world around them.

Treasures in the jars of clay
Let the light shine out of darkness

The fire itself began with a simple *poof* in the center portion of the house. The shrieking smoke detectors went unheeded as the first puff of firey gasses rattled the house with that first deadly puff of fire, not unlike a gust of wind so common in March. The gentle shake of the house knocked dust loose from the rafters to fall into places where it had since forever. Laid with the skill of an expert and the inspired talent of an artist, Vinnie's special cocktail burned hot and yellow before the heat combusted the nearby walls.

They slept on, Fursa so totally in the depths of day torpor that she actually looked dead. A new rumble shook the house, much like the sound of a passing truck, followed by another *whoosh*. Jason rustled slightly at the noise, his head again coming to rest on her shoulder. The basement itself was cool, deceptively so, and in the height of the sun's travel even a danger such as this wasn't enough to nudge the much younger Brujah out of his sleep.

Fallen down but not destroyed
It's just another trial by fire

The old wood of the building proved a perfect fuel. It caught and burned rapidly, a clear waste of the accelerants used. The fire sped through the upstairs, leaping in bounds up into the stairwell to the second floor, as well as through the balloon-framed outer walls. In a few short minutes, the entire second floor was burning out of control, rapacious flames and intense heat shattering windows. Being a drafty house, the change of pressure above created a stronger rush of wind through the tormented structure from below.

His sleep became disturbed enough for Jason to elicit a murmur, but he remained unaware of the doom above and fell silent again. He lay dreamless until an audible crash from the floors above. Then came a crack, followed by a louder whoosh from closer inside the house that brought him to a sort of wakefulness. One eye opened blearily, fighting the lead weight of day slumber, but the darkness and cool concealed the inferno that raged above. Quickly enough, the battle was lost and he succumbed again to sleep.

Fursa remained still beneath him, her slumber disturbed by neither Jason's movement nor the previous noise above them. Another loud crash came within minutes, followed by a distressed rattling of the whole structure that brought Jason to his first real wakefulness. Eyes bleary with sleep looked around as he tried to find what was so persistent in having him wake.

Directly overhead as parts of the internal structure of the house began to buckle. Another rush of air feed the flames, followed by a loud crash followed and shook the rafters above hard enough to vibrate some of the floorboards loose. Jason himself moved slowly--someone watching would almost expect to hear metal joints creaking with the sluggishness of his movements. He elbowed the woman beside him and murmurred, "Some...someone'sss breaking in..."

In my song I'll send a prayer
Do you know me, do you hear me

Fursa didn't move, and that would have bothered him a lot more if he'd been more awake. Jason swore under his breath and sat up in a rush, the sudden movement a mistake, the loss of balance sending him reeling. Desperate to concentrate, he weaved about as he sat, hands pressed tightly to his head.

A loud **POP** and then another crash came from above, this time sending one of the loosened boards to fall behind a stack of boxes a mere few feet from the mattress. In the darkness and clutter, the smoldering embers and char might have gone unnoticed, if not for the whisp of smoke curling up from the flammables they rested in. Then, in a far corner, something rattled and fell down, drawing attention toward the door upstairs.

Jason's eyes searched the room for the source of the new sounds. The smoke from near the bed set off his internal alarms. He sucked in a sharp, "Oh SHIT.", and scrambled over the sleeping vampire, slapping Fursa's arm, "Wake UP!" She remained otherwise still, groaning out something incoherent before falling still again. Jason scooted around his sleeping wife, stumbling in the sudden burst of movement as his body continued to betray him. Forcefully, he grabbed the woman by the shoulders, shaking her and saying loudly, "FURSA. WAKE UP!"

Something rumbled again overhead, sounding much like a delicate crackling thunder. It spelled out one thing in his foggy mind...serious trouble.

Where the will to face this shame
It's just another trial by fire

His shaking roused her enough to make Fursa open her eyes. Nothing was in focus and she grunted out some slurred phrase that was recognizable as definitely impolite. Jason growled softly, somewhere between anger and fear, looking around in time to see the smoke rising from the box flare into flame. He lifted her body from the bed, throwing her roughly over his shoulder. He let out a grunt as her flailing arm connected hard with the back of his head. /Stairs. Find the stairs now./ his thoughts running on instinct. Taking a second for his eyes to adjust to the relative darkness, he focussed on the stairs and then then loped towards them.

Without thought, Jason leapt up the rickety stairs as fast as he could. At the top he collided with the door, it's weakened state caused the impact to splinter it into a firey shower of broken wood. The flames leapt after the new source of oxygen, engulfing him and his mate in a ghastly fireball. He heard Fursa groan out "whut?" as the backdraft rushed down on them.

Fursa came fully awake when the fire engulfed them. The smell of burning hair wafted past as she gasped out "Fire! Jason?!" Fire shot across her back, very nearly vaporizing the clothing covering her. Breathing in the hot gasses turned a cry of pain into a strangled choke. The flames roasted the flesh on her back, the damage was savage. Her Beast clawed at her to be free even as her head slammed into the lathe and plaster wall behind them. Showers of powdery rubble and broken wood crashed to the floor of the landing.

Jason screamed "Fire!" as the blast threw them back, slamming them both into the wall of the stairwell. He sagged to one knee in agony from the burns. Fursa fell from his shoulder and landed in a wounded heap in front of him. The Beast he usually kept well in check entwined its way up into his brain with long fingers of cold terror. The horror heightened a notch as the heat and flame blew toward him, catching the old wood just to his left. Flames licked toward him as he struggled to get up, stubbornly refusing his fear, only thinking to get them both out of this. In the smoke, fire, heat and burning rubble, he couldn't see. His only anchor to sanity was the firm grip he had of Fursa as he put her back over his shoulder again.

Eyes and face severely burned, frustrated, Beast clawing at him from the inside, he yelled out, "I can't SEE!...Fursa! goddamnit...wake up!" He spun around, desperate to see in the heat that blistered him further. "House is on fire. Outside! Can't see outside! My eyes.." he shrieked as the groaning frame of the house shuddered and brought a shower of burning coals down on them from above.

Clumsily, Fursa forced herself from Jason's shoulder, landing hard on her back against a burning wall. Another crash brought a beam toppling near her head, causing her to yelp in surprise. New flame on her back brought a terrified howl from her lips. Only a mental grip of iron prevented Rotschrek.

Hello Mr. Moon
Can I have some time with you?

Jason pawed at her arm, clumsily helping her back to her feet. He blinked at here vision clouded by a bleary haze, "Fire burned my face, my eyes. I can barely see you." He coughed painfully, "Hafta get outside!"

In a split second of consideration, Fursa lunged at Jason. The moment she had hold of him, she glanced around, seeing the still dark depths of the basement. She burned the Blood and said in a rush "No time...don't fight me." Seizing him with inhuman strength and speed, she shot through the ruined door, literally dragging him from his feet to thunder down the narrow steps.

Jason yelped in surprise as he was dragged away. He gasped to shout, then coughed as the superheated air burned his throat and vocal chords. Dragged down the steps like a sack of garbage, his feet thumped hard on the steps as the controlled fall carried him to the basement on her heels. The flames poured through the opening at the top of the steps, a timber from the ceiling above fell and bounced down the stairs at them. With a ragged, pained gasp he wheezed out, "How can we get out?"

Trouble keep me runnin'...
You can see it comin'...

The basement was full of smoke. Orange flames had claimed the exposed ceiling beams in an menacing display of raw destruction. Embers that had fallen into the musty crates and boxes now set them to flame. An ominous groan started above, as if something very large shifted its weight. At the sound, Fursa changed direction and dragged the backward stumbling Brujah behind her into an empty corner away from the center of the house.

The groaning ceased as the second floor collapsed into the first, then both crashed into the far end of the room, right where the pair had been sleeping. Jason's eyes widned at the sight and he yelled out, "Is there another way out??"

Fursa looked up as something above creaked again, this time closer. Instead of stopping, it continued into a long whine. She shook her head to clear it, her mind still a jumble and said in a rush, "Yeah, but you are not going to like it." Then the sound above changed, her voice faltering as she coughed out, "It's coming down!"

I know who shines down on you

Jason froze, thinking that becoming part of the corner was a premium idea. His body tensed, the wracking pain reminding him of what happened in Chicago. Cold fear seized him tighter as he fought off the flashback, his body now tensing into one taut knot of undead muscle. He exhaled an, "Oh Christ..." as a round portion of the ceiling dropped, the refrigerator above it slamming to the ground in a shower of fire and embers.

Fireflies of burning wood clattered to the floor, setting off new fires much closer to them than Fursa liked. Sunna's fire was one thing to endure, the fire of a carefully tended hearth useful and aesthetic, but the fires of Muspelheim terrified her. The Sone of Surtr were a destructive menace to all things, and especially her kind. On impulse, she shielded Jason with her body, forcing herself to remember the floor plan of this, one of her many properties. Formulating a plan in her head, she glanced behind her, and rasped out, "Bite me."

Another malevolent shudder shook the remaining structure above them. Jason shook in spite of himself, keeping a tight grip on his emotions as he realized just how bad this was getting. He glanced at her burned face and said through clenched his teeth "If you got an idea, now would be a REALLY...good...time..."

Something inside her shuddered for a moment--now simply was not the time for him to be thickheaded. The grip on him tightened as she dragged him to the left a few feet. A swift, powerful mule kick sent an ancient wood door crashing in with a loud, hollow shower of boards. "Now, dammit!" she ordered with a cough, grabbing him by the scruff "BITE me, asshole!"

Hello Mr. Moon
I've come back to talk to you

Jason blinked at looked at her with a frown, "What??", then the message hit home as he remembered a previous event. He lunged at her, biting viciously into her shoulder and closed his eyes against the sight of what was going on around them.

A floorboards fell, orange flames licking up from the debris that fell with them. Fursa gasped at the painful bite, far too scattered for the Kiss to have any effect. Only great force of will to kept allowed her to keep a hold on herself as the sparks flew everywhere around them. His fangs were still deep in her flesh and the pain was quite intense. Summoning her herself once more, she spun him around and shoved them both through the ruined door.

The ceiling came down just behind her, burning wood scraping her already wounded backside and stumbling her. A new gout of flame and sparks showered around them. The ambient air temperature was almost enough to boil standing water and breathing it was the worst mistake anyone could make. "Oh..." she squeaked out shielding him from the fire, taking new burns. "Gotta....get...us...out!"

With a loud, terrifying snap, a steady roar issued from the basement directly behind them. The structure of the house whined and buckled, pitching down into the foundation, more flames flew through the hole at them. Jason inhaled just enough to cough in her ear, "GO, damn you!" The noise increased in volume and every single thing Jason could see was unrecognizable, wrapped in flames.

All my life I'm runnin'...
From the love that's comin'...
Saving grace please pull me through

She snatched at a piece of canvas tarp that lay just inside the building. It wasn't burning, though it was musty enough to be partially rotted. She pulled the old cloth around over Jason. There was only one way to go--outside--and the Covenant that she had with Sunna would not protect him. Time was of the essence, as was timing. Worse yet, if he lost to his battle against Rotschrek, she would lose him. Grimly, she kicked the burning wood away from her and back, spying the metal clad cellar door. The metal reinforced plywood was the only shelter from what lay outside...in the daylight.

She had the briefest reflection upon a wish that she made when much younger. It had been her fondest desire to again see the noonday sun. The irony of it all was bitter enough that she could taste it as she leaned up away from the fire a little more and began to mouth the old words. The prayer tumbled quickly from her cracked lips, ending with a humble dread. "Come on...."

Jason inhaled again, blinking his vision back into focus. The force of her prayers struck him hard, forcing a new push for control against his barely restrained Beast. He realized as he stood there, shaking like a leaf, that there was a rarely heard pleading in her voice. There was no time to think about it now, maybe later, if there was one. As she finished the utterances, he hissed to her, "I'm with you...go...!" He growled softly, steeling himself and ducked his head beneath the tarp. Fire was not his strong suit...not in a million years. Worse yet, he knew that the sun would be far worse.

In my doubt I can't believe
Like a wave tossed where the wind blows

Pulling him close, she made sure that he was covered by the tarp. One backward glance at the room, then another head to the cellar door and she gasped from her burned lungs "Full sun...hang on...." She called. The Blood of Caine answered her. She took hold of the most precious thing in the world to her, then charged up the steps at ramming speed.

Blinding daylight poured down on both of them as the cellar door flew outward and away from the house from the force of her impact with it. She took two giant strides up with Jason in her arms clearing the opening and hurtling to the right with a jerk, crying out "Suuuuuuuunnnnnnnaaaaaaa!"

Tears of faith temper my soul

The remainder of the house was wreathed in flames. The east wall fell toward the center and landed on the first floor with a resounding crash. What little structure that remained continued to fall inward, until it all crumbled into the basement. The old pine tree which shaded the front of the house for almost one hundred years blazed in the daylight. Flying ash and thick black smoke drifted skyward and then settled in a haze all around. A battle raged across the street to keep the flying embers from setting the wood shingle roof of the neighboring house on fire. Sirens wailed in the distance and indicated the approach of the fire company.

From under the tarp, Jason's voice shaken voiced urged, "The bike! Make it to the shed!" She stumbled through the backyard, nearly thrown to the ground when her foot landed in a hole and again as she collided with the old well head--somehow, both remained upright. Her eyesight blurred and dimmed, the bright sunlight being burned her eyes, though nothing else, and caused a great pain to spread through her head. Half blinded, distracted by her own pain and the pressing need to get Jason to safety, she slammed headlong into the concrete blocks of the outbuilding where the bike was stored.

Landing in a heap with her, Jason felt himself being dragged up again. Only a tank like Fursa could have hit that wall with that much force and gotten up that fast. He screamed at her mentally, /Almost there! Just open the door and close it behind you!/, not knowing that they were still 15 feet from the goal or that she didn't hear him.

Fumbling along with one hand on the wall, Fursa felt along for the door, finding nothing. Her eyesight had become unreliable and the pain in her head grew tenfold. She cried out with a hoarse rasp, "I can't see it!" In the distance, she heard the fire engines start up the driveway. Flying white ashes drifted all around in the smoke haze from the ruined house. Gouts of smoke and flame from the house stained the sky black enough that even her ruined vision saw it. Stopping to concentrate, she called to her blood again and it answered.

She had stopped running. The cold fear gripped him tightly at the portent. He clawed the tarp away from his face, opened his good eye. Sunlight struck his exposed skin and he growled out "Around to the right. Hurry!" A creepy feeling overcame him that he was unable to place, causing him a momentary flutter. All Jason McClintoch wanted was the safety of the shed door closed and locked behind him.

Fursa made the shift, pulling him as close as possible to her. Half order, half pleading, she said to him in a loud and strangled whisper "Just...don't...let...go...of...me...." She could only guess what might happen if he actually did.

"Just go. I'm holding on..." Clenching his teeth, remembering the last time she did this, he dug his fingers into her sides as the creepy power she was using started its effect. The subtle change amazed him, being almost like being underwater, dragged into a deep rippling pool. So entwined with her, for a moment, he could see and feel...something, everything.

Just another trial by fire
Just another trial by fire

She threw her head back as her mastery of Protean carried them downward, feeling Jason struggle less as first their essences melded together and then with the earth. The last thing she saw as her eyesight failed was the golden image of Sunna in the noonday sky, smiling down on them in a sort of benediction.

((LYRICS: Trial by Fire, Journey, Album: Trial by Fire))