Cassandra Pendragon

I gasped, blood loss and pain had made me dizzy but that wasn’t what had gotten to me. It was her transformation. Stained, yellowed fangs shed their patina, turning a sparkling white, wrinkled, blackened skin became flawless and pristine, the husk of a creature filled out with every second, a corpse becoming a beautiful girl in her early twenties.

Huge eyes, slanted and full of fire burned with red and golden flames amidst ethereal features. A small, pointy nose and full, luscious lips dominated an angular face with a mane of red hair. Her curvaceous body would have put Erya’s figure to shame and to top it off, her wings were sparkling brightly light the dawn, intricate lines of interchanging colours glittering in the silvery light that still filled the chamber. I swallowed dryly, a distant memory of my own words resurfacing: everything beautiful is dangerous. In case I had told Greta the truth, I was in for one hell of a ride.

Hot blood ran down my neck and started pooling at my feet, my heart beating wildly to push whatever I had left through my veins and keep me upright, even though it felt like I was fighting a losing battle. Sooner or later my magic wouldn’t be enough to compensate for what I had lost. I had minutes, maybe, and the realisation hit me hard. Without help, I feared I might not make it out of here. Ever since I had awakened my power, I had always believed that I’d be able to bounce back from any kind of injury but as it had turned out, that wasn’t the case. Maybe it was the spark of transcendent energy she had absorbed or something else entirely, whatever the reason, the wound she had inflicted on me didn’t close and I was running out of time.

Steeling myself, I allowed the truth to sink in. I didn’t have many options left. Maybe if Mephisto had been here, he might have told me what I was supposed to do to heal my body, but he wasn’t. As it stood, I could keep staring at her until I collapsed, which was hardly an option or I had a decision to make. If she was indeed as powerful as the late Captain Dawn had made her out to be, she might be able to help me, to save me. All I had to do was ask and hope for the best. Or I could use whatever I had left to try and kill her. Despite my sorry sate, I was still confident that I might manage to take her life but I knew one thing for certain: if I used my power to fight her, I might win, but I wasn’t going to walk out of here alive. I’d have to burn everything I had and afterwards, there would be nothing left to keep my heart beating.

It was a simple thought that hardened my resolve. I wasn’t alone. Ahri was somewhere up those stairs and I’d be damned before I allowed an ancient vampire to waltz past me and do whatever the hell she pleased. It had been my stupidity that had resurrected her and I was going to pay the price. No one else. Besides, the next time around, I might even manage more than seven years before everything went to shit. I decisively removed my hand from my neck, allowing the blood to squirt from my vein freely and crouched down, my wings and tails fanning out to block the access to the stairs, a sad smile on my face. “I’m sorry,” I whispered and took a step forward.

Her glowing eyes had followed my movements, surprise, pain and longing flickering in their depth. I readied myself, allowing most of my thoughts to drift away until all I saw was her. My wings hummed behind me, the energy that coursed through them elevated to new heights but before I could take another step, a warm, husky voice reached my ears: “help me, please.” And just like that, her eyes rolled up, her body relaxed and she crumpled to the floor, her wings vanishing in a shower of gold red sparks.

I was dumbfounded, unable to understand what had happened. I froze, indecision and fear turning my mind into a murky swamp of half realised thoughts until I saw a glow of silver slowly eat away at her, the freshly regenerated skin gradually flaking away above her heart. I had been right. My blood was poisonous to her. She was dying, even more quickly than I was. I groaned. Clasping my hand back to my neck while I reigned in my power, channeling most of it into my body to give me a little more time. The biggest part of me was clamouring to just ignore her, get back up the stairs and somehow heal myself. I could always return later with a broom and mop up what would be left of her. That would be the sensible thing to do, or better yet, I could make sure and stake her with my wings while she was helpless, put an end to this mess before it spiralled out of control even further. What had Xorlosh said? If you wanted to play hero, you’d better make damn sure you had the strength to back it up and in this case, I didn’t think I could.

Hesitantly, I took another step forward, flaring my wings, ready to plunge them into her chest and burn out her heart. But before I could act, my gaze slipped back to her face and I froze once again. Despite the silvery veins that radiated outwards from her chest, she seemed serene and peaceful, her eyes closed as if she was a sleep. My heart skipped a beat when the realisation hit me. The way she looked now, innocent and calm, she could have been Ahri’s sister, or rather, Aurora’s. I knew the curve of her lips and the form of her eyes, hidden beneath long lashes, better than anything else in the world. There were subtle differences, but while asleep, she resembled my love more than I cared to admit. Was this a result of the angelic blood she had consumed?

I didn’t know but the longer I stared, the harder it became to look past the similarities. Damn it, that was going to be much more difficult than I had expected. Still, I wouldn’t risk it. Grasping for every straw of self control I had left, I moved my wings forward and…

“Cassandra Pendragon! Don’t you dare!” I whirled around and there, in the half opened door, stood the reason for my hesitation. Ahri’s hair was on fire and despite her pale complexion, the waves of anger that rolled off her made my fur stand on edge. Oh boy…

“How long…” I mumbled, caught somewhere between embarrassment, anger and a guilty conscience. I couldn’t finish though, the moment I had turned around Ahri had spotted the silvery blood that still welled from between my fingers and with a stroke of her wings, she was at my side. “By the gods, what happened to you,” she shrilled and pried away my hand.

“The… girl you so adamantly want to save used me as a chewing toy,” I slurred, my voice already going wonky. “Any ideas? I don’t think I can stand for much longer.” She bit her lip, her slender fingers roaming along my neck. “I’m sorry, my love, but this is going to hurt.” Before I had the time to question her intentions, fire sparked between her fingers and the smell of burned skin hit me at the same moment as the renewed wave of pain. With callous disregard for my squirming, Ahri wrapped her tails around me and held me in place while she pressed her searing hot hand against my skin. I screamed, her transcendent fires much more agonising than the original injury had been but while my flesh charred, and her power flooded through our tattoos, I felt the wound close and my blood stopped flowing. A moment later the pain receded until it wasn’t much worse than having a coal pressed to the side of my neck.

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“Ouch,” I muttered into her ear while I fought against the darkness that was threatening to rise from the edge of my vision. “That really hurt.” I breathed in her scent and the hint of pine trees underneath the smell of blood and sweat was enough to keep me upright for a while longer. Damn, I was truly hopeless, her presence alone was enough to keep me going.

“You’re not getting away from me that easily,” she growled into my ear. “You stopped bleeding. It might leave a scar but you should be fine. Can you stand on your own?” The worry in her voice was balm for my soul.

“I’ll manage, at least for a while. Thank you, I think you might have just saved my life.” Peeking over her shoulder I added: “where’s Layla?”

“Always. It’s what I’m here for.” She kissed me briefly, but the nauseating smell of cooking meat brought us back to reality faster than I would have liked. Flinching, Ahri stepped back and asked: “Layla’s in the tunnel, I told her to stay where she is. We can collect her on the way back. What about her,” she jerked her head towards the glowing body. “Can you help her? She’s literally burning. I don’t think she’s got much longer. Look, the flames are growing.”

Right… I was contemplating stalling until it didn’t matter anymore, but then, I’d have truly deserved a one way ticket to hell. “Even if I could, I don’t know if I should…” her tails tightened around my waist painfully and the worry in her eyes was immediately replaced with anger.

“You don’t mean that,” she hissed. “I heard her plea. Don’t tell me you’re really considering letting her die after that?” Well, I had been, but I wasn’t anymore. The second Ahri had told me to stop, the decision had been made.

“No… not really. Fine, but if this bites us in the tails later on, it’ll be on you.” She pecked my cheek, a tremulous smile tugging on the corners of her mouth. “Thanks,” she whispered and stepped back, even though her tails remained wrapped around my middle. “Don’t worry about anything else, I’ll get us out of here once you’re done.” Great, so I wasn’t the only one who expected me to keel over the very second I was finished with her. By the Great Fox, why was it always me? Great power, great responsibilities and even greater problems, I assumed. Hopefully I wasn’t on the verge of adding another pile to the growing heap we had already accumulated.

“I’ll need your help,” I said, my voice much steadier since I wasn’t bleeding anymore. “My magic reacts to your will, right? We have to get my power out of her without destroying anything important. We’ll start with her heart and go from there until the ceiling comes down.”

“We still have a few minutes. Any ideas what I’m supposed to do, precisely?”

“Not really, I’m making things up as I go. I think… I hope my energy will be attracted to either of us. Aside from giving it some place to go, I don’t really know what else we can do.”

“Fine. I’ll try to keep the fire from spreading and you focus on pulling your power back into your core. Even if I can direct it, it’ll still be much easier for you.”

“Sure, just one more thing. Why her? You’re normally not the one to go out on a limb and protect a stranger, especially after what she’s done to my neck. She’s dangerous, I can tell you that much for sure and I’m not really convinced she’s on our side. I won’t be much help to you if she wakes and decides to turn us into her next lunch. I have felt her strength… I fear she’s stronger than you and I don’t think I’ll be in any condition to help you out.”

“So are you and I’d trade my life in a heartbeat to keep you safe. I… she’s important, Cassy. She almost looks like us and her smell… I’ve met her before, I think. She won’t turn on us, I don’t know why, but I know she won’t. Please, if not for her, do it for me. Try to keep her alive.”

I sighed again. “Let’s hope your instincts are better than mine.”

I turned away from her and focused on the smouldering body in front of us. While we had been talking, silvery blue flames had broken through her skin, gradually consuming her. It was the worst just above her heart, where the skin was already gone, leaving behind nothing but charred flesh and small, crackling flames. Even I understood that her time was running out, fast. If her heart was entirely devoured, there wouldn’t be much for us to do anymore, she’d be dead.

“I really hate that I always have to guess and pray,” I grumbled and wrapped my wings around her chest. The world lit up in silver when I channeled my power to my eyes and tried to make heads or tails of what was happening to her. Much of what I saw was simply confusing, different currents of energy coursed through her, mingling and dispersing, a dance of shapes and shadows that was much too complex for me to understand. Luckily, I didn’t have to, not in its entirety, at least. There were two bright streams within her, much more powerful than anything else. One was a glaring silver interspersed with blue and the other was made of red and golden sparks, the same colour as her eyes and wings. Wherever the two collided, the energies frothed and squirmed, like two opposing forces mashed together. Gradually, the golden sparks disappeared, swallowed and converted by the silvery flood.

As soon as the original energy was consumed, her body began deteriorating, breaking apart around the changed areas. Surprisingly, it didn’t seem like my power was actively hurting her, it looked more like she needed the… other stuff to survive and as soon as it was gone, her tissue died, allowing the flames that were at work within her to spill forth. A hesitant smile formed on my face, this, I might be able to deal with.

The wing above my tails had allowed me to push my power into others, keeping them alive, and it wasn’t restricted by the normal rules of magic. As far as I knew, it didn’t matter if mana or something else was needed, I could provide whatever was lacking. While I didn’t believe for a second that I’d make anything better if I injected even more of my power into her, she might just vanish into a puff of silvery flames, I surely hoped that I’d also be able to do the opposite. I was definitely able to take whatever I wanted but that usually left behind a shrivelled up corpse, which wasn’t what I had in mind, but if I managed to use my wings to only extract my own energies, she should be fine. At least I hoped so. Probably still a homicidal, blood crazed maniac, but that was a problem Ahri had to deal with. I had washed my hands of it.

The biggest problem, I couldn’t transfer my intent to the energies that were coursing through her, in a way they were shielded by her own powers. To bridge the gap, I wanted to use my changed wing, accessing her reservoirs without consuming them. I fervently hoped that all I had to do was ask, once the connection was established. And if not… well, judging from the silvery sparks that already glowed behind her closed eyes I wouldn’t have time for a second try anyways.

What I was trying to do might have been difficult for a normal mage, but all I had ever done when it came to my magic was based on intuition and willpower alone, maybe aided by a command bolstered with transcendent energy, from time to time. That wasn’t going to change now. Sure, I would have loved to understand the intricacies of what I wanted to accomplish, but I hadn’t had the time to learn, yet. Maybe one day…

Sighing deeply, I plunged my wings directly into her chest, straight into the middle of the largest stream of silvery light. “Return,” I whispered, more to focus my thoughts than for an actual need to speak the words out loud. Still, for good measure, I added a layer of energy to my voice, the reverberating command thundering through the chamber. The effect was immediate.

Like a summoned beast, my energy heeded my call and returned through the channel I had created. Light flickered all along her body and for a second, the glare became bright enough that I had to avert my eyes. When I had blinked the tears away, the flames had vanished, leaving behind scorch marks all along her body, the largest in the middle of her chest. Grinning, I shot a glance in Ahri’s direction but her expression made me pause. Something was wrong.

The vampire was aging, her body gradually turned back into the hollowed husk she had been. Her hair lost its lustre, her skin became parchment like and waxen and her curves withered away, leaving behind folds of wrinkly, darkened leather. The edges of her burned wounds turned into ash while she slowly ceased to exist.

“Feed her,” I whispered. “I can’t. If you want her to live, you’ll have to feed her.”