They came at her from all sides. Thoughts. Feelings. Thoughts and feelings of other people. They were floating around her like bubbles, and she dared not move or she might burst them. Some shined like jewels while others sucked in all light around them. Emotions that raged. Emotions that could burn or soothe.

There was the burning fury of the Bear Clan. They all wanted someone to take out their anger on and she was the perfect scapegoat. They imagined tearing into her. Ripping her apart. Eating her whole. Eating her alive.

And no one would help her.

She could feel the thoughts of the goblins. Their minds were wily rabbits that had spotted a wolf. They were all ready to abandon her to her fate whatever it might be.

How had father been able to withstand it? When his new powers had turned every mind around him into an open secret, how had he not collapsed under that weight? She could barely withstand it.

Barely…

She had one comfort. Mom’s mind was like a candle in an endless night she could lie next to for comfort. So, she rested her head on mom’s lap while her bony fingers stroked her feathers.

“… my precious baby.” Mom whispered to her: “… my little Ellie… I am so sorry.”

Elysa wanted to tell her this wasn’t her fault, but she didn’t know how to talk. Not when she had a beak instead of lips. This new body was a mystery to her. It had called to her. The shape of a giant owl had been the only way she could contain all the new power in her but now she didn’t know how to turn back. The thought of looking like this… forever… it was as paralyzing as the minds she could now read.

The goblins had warned mom not to get too close, but mom had been adamant that her daughter would not hurt her even as a vampire. Now the goblins and bears alike looked at mom like she was a holy woman who had left behind all earthly fears and worries.

“… you were always so bold. My little hero… I should have been brave like you. I… could have kept you safe then.” Mom said and looked at Nuncio: “Both of you.”

Nuncio had dared not get as close as mom, but he sat close enough. Just close enough to pull mom to safety if he needed to. Close enough for comfort.

“… Ellie… Nuncio… I am so sorry. I failed you both… can you ever forgive me? After… what I let him do to us.” Mom said.

Nuncio bit his lip and then stood up with all the courage of a dog that had been beaten but never broken. He walked over to mom and sat next to her… and Elysa. Elysa could see her reflection in Nuncio’s eyes and… the fear he felt. Nuncio had always been afraid… which made him the bravest man she knew. No matter how scared he was, he always acted despite of it.

“Mom, it wasn’t your fault.” Nuncio said and after some hesitation put his hand on Elysa’s beak: “We’ll fix this. I swear. We will take you home and find a way to fix this. Then we’ll start over.”

Fix this? How did you fix undeath? Her heart was no longer beating. Something else was making her limbs move and brain think.

It was then that she felt two other minds approaching. Cassio was coming for them and carried his advisor in his arms.

Cassio’s mind was as indomitable as a forest fire. An unstoppable force that would burn itself out before being pushed back or snuffed out. A flame like a roaring lion that knew no fear. Courage approaching madness.

The mind of his advisor was much different.

The Romani lord had a mind like a jungle. Brilliant, beautiful, mysterious and… dangerous. It was filled with flowers and colors she had no names for but all that hid under it a savage predator that would guard its territory with fangs and claws to the bitter end and then some.

And he was in agony.

Or he should have been. Elysa could feel the pain from his missing foot like holding her finger too close to a fire. But somehow the Romani had located the core of pain and imagined a fist squeezing it shut. The pain was still there but the Romani was in control.

But that wasn’t all…

There was a deeper pain… far worse than his lost leg. The pain of a broken heart. The kind that came when the center of your world was ripped away from you.

“Sal?” Nuncio said.

The Romani… Sal forced himself to smirk, but his smile looked more like a pained grimace.

“… yeah… it’s me… it’s still me… Cassio, put me down.”

Cassio laid him down next to her and mom wiped some sweat off Sal’s brow.

“… can you help her?” Mom asked.

“… I know… a thing or two… about… shapeshifting.” Sal said and smiled at her: “… hello… lady Capello. Sal Torrini… at your service and let me tell you… you might be the luckiest woman alive.”

Nuncio bit his lip.

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“Lucky? You call this lucky?” Nuncio said with tears in his eyes.

Cassio tried to silence Nuncio with a look, but he had underestimated her brother and for a moment the lion and the wolverine glared at each other.

“… what do you mean lucky?” Mom said.

“… she did not… become a ghoul… or a normal vampire… she went… straight to the top of the totem pole. Probably… because her father is a master vampire… the change is more potent… between family members.” Sal said before having a coughing fit.

Cassio took a flagon of water and helped his friend drink. When he could speak again, Sal looked at her.

“… listen to me… Elysa Capello… you’re like me now… a denizen of The Wyrding… a fae… and our bodies… are the stuff that dreams are made of… you must have had nights like this… when you sleep… and know you’re dreaming… and can do anything.”

When sweat drops were about to roll into Sal’s eyes, mom cleaned his brow again.

“… remember… what that feels like… take that feeling… and shape your body…” Sal said.

This was the first time her mind reading powers didn’t cripple her. She could control it. Aim it. If she concentrated on a single point, the errant thoughts of others became just rain falling against the roof. Something she could ignore. Reding Sal’s mind she understood his struggles to put something he knew by instinct into words. But she could understand it all the same.

She could see it.

A black fox… turning into a man. A man turning into a black fox. It all seemed so simple. All she had to do was follow his lead.

She closed her mind and imagined her body as clay and her imagination as the sculptor’s hands. The only limit to what she could do was her own skill. So, she began molding herself. Like an artist, she tried to capture what she saw in her mind onto a canvas.

… wings becoming hands…

… beak becoming a mouth…

… feathers becoming skin…

She imagined all that and then realized that the canvas was a mirror. She was looking at herself and saw a human shape. She had thought the change would be painful but… it all happened so smoothly. Without her even noticing.

Mom let out a wet sob and stroked her hair.

“… Ellie… my Ellie…” Mom whispered and kissed her forehead: “… you’re so cold.”

Elysa sat up and realized she could talk again. She looked at her hands. Her bone white hands and fingers that had become black talons. Her fangs felt so sharp against her tongue. When she looked at mom… she could see it. How every breath and heartbeat took her closer to the grave. It was strange. She had felt herself dying every day but hadn’t noticed until that feeling was gone. All her life she had been trapped in a burning house and not realizing it until she was free.

“It’s okay, mom. It’s okay now. I don’t even feel the cold.” Elysa said.

When she stood up, she was shocked how strong her feet felt. Like she could jump over trees without trying but that was not all. The wound in her neck was gone like it had never even been there. Such… power… such freedom… she had been dying all her life… and now that was feeling was gone.

Her eyes fell on Cassio.

She had been trapped all her life. Used as a pawn by her father… sold to this man who had almost beaten her to death when he had lost his temper. Now that feeling was gone too. The fear she had lived with all her life and never known was there… until it was gone.

Her eyes lowered at Sal, and she bowed her head to him out of respect.

“Thank you.” Elysa said.

Sal could only give her the thumbs up before passing out. Cassio picked up his friend and began carrying him towards a tent but then he hesitated and looked at Elysa over his shoulder.

“El… lady Capello?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you… for being there when I was lost and… I am sorry. For not… acting like a gentleman.” Cassio said.

Not acting like a gentleman? That was one way to put it that he had almost fed Elysa her own teeth. She could have returned the favor. She had the strength for it now but… it all seemed so meaningless now. What was the point of revenge when she was so powerful? Revenge was for the weak and she… She was untouchable.

“The least I could do.” Elysa said.

Cassio nodded and carried Sal away.

“Elysa?” Nuncio said.

Elysa dreaded the moment Nuncio got a good luck at her new face. Her new undead body in all its horrific beauty. When she looked at him, a shiver ran down both of their backs.

“Hi, bro.” Elysa said.

Nuncio raised his hand to touch her but at the last moment, his courage failed him.

“… how… how are you feeling? How… does it feel?”

Elysa could see all of Nuncio’s hopes and fears. Thanks to Sal, she had figured out how to control her mind reading powers and she knew what he wanted her to say. That she hated it. That she would give anything to turn back but… she didn’t.

“It feels…” Elysa said.

Great. It felt great. This was the greatest feeling of her life. With all this power, she would never again have to be afraid of anyone or anything. Never be ruled by another. She would never have to surrender herself again. She would never have to feel her body rotting around her. And… she knew she would never give this up.

“… I don’t know.” Elysa lied.

Mom looked at her… and saw right through her lie.

“I’m not sure. I feel…” Elysa continued but then a need began growing inside her.

Thirst. She was so thirsty. Thirstier than she had ever been. A need that would not be denied. She could feel it. The living blood flowing all around her. Every heartbeat around her was calling her name and she was dying to answer.

“I have to go.” Elysa said.

Nuncio took her hand and shivered when he felt how cold she was.

“… why?” Nuncio said.

“I’ll be back but… I am hungry.” Elysa said.

Nuncio recoiled away from her like her skin had seared his hand. He looked at her… and she could feel his heart break. They had come to this world together. Mom had always told them the story of how she had been holding on to his ankle when the doctor had delivered them. They had come to this world together in a bond forged from blood, pain, and love. That connection had kept them alive when father had come home. It was a bond both had thought could survive anything.

They had both been wrong.

“I will be back soon.” Elysa said.

Everyone in camp gave her way. Bears and goblins alike. Parents shielded their children from her, and the Bear Clan dared not meet her eyes. She walked into The Wyrding forest alone, guided by the heartbeats and rushing blood of the living.

The forest…

The Wyrding…

She could never have even dreamed that The Wyrding could be so beautiful at night. When you saw the world through the eyes of a vampire, you spotted miracles everywhere. She had stepped into an unseen world. A place that had been calling to her all her life.

Calling…

Blood was calling to her.

She could tell where a rabbit had made its nest and how many children it had. It would have been simple enough to dig them out and suck them all dry but… their hearts had so few ticks. She wanted something stronger. Something more potent. Something that had countless days and nights before it.

Days and nights she could add to her own.

Close… her prey was close.

Elysa laughed and then… she flew.

The moon greeted her when she rose above the treetops, and she let out a screech of triumph. She had lost much. The bond with Nuncio. The sun. The beating of her own heart. They were great losses… but what she had gained in return was also great. She had paid a great deal for the key that had opened her a door to a whole new world.

A world that was now hers.

She flew over the forest until she came across a pack of boars. Even while asleep, they were on guard but that did not save them when she swooped down and grabbed one of them with her talons before flying away.

The boar struggled to the end, but its strength was nothing to her and she ended the struggling with a single strike from her beak.

Blood filled her mouth.

No meal had tasted better. Before she had felt hot blood coursing down her throat, she had never truly eaten. Just staved off starvation.

She sucked her prey dry and once sated, she returned to the camp.

She landed nearby the goblins… and was surprised to find someone waiting for her. A young goblin armed with a lantern and a spear. The same one who had snuck into the mansion to save Cassio.

“It’s you. You were…” Elysa said.

“Little Ant.” The goblin said.

“Yeah. Where’s your mentor? Old Badger?”

Little Ant looked away and her pain felt like a cannonball in the chest.

“Oh…” Elysa said: “I… I am sorry.”

“Yeah. So am I.” Little Ant said and looked at her in the lantern light: “You seem to take this well.”

Elysa looked at her talons and smiled.

“This feels… amazing. It is amazing.”

Little Ant just nodded.

“You… don’t seem to be afraid of me.” Elysa said.

“My grandmother… she taught me to judge others by what is on the inside and even then… to judge slowly.” Little Ant said and looked at her: “Will you lend that power to us?”

Elysa bit her lip at the thought of facing her father.

“You have a plan?”

“The fox prince does, and we need your help.”

Nuncio had always been the bravest man she knew but a little sister had to learn how to take care of herself eventually.

Elysa smiled.

“You can have it. I owe you all too much to say no.”

“Then… can you locate your father? You should. He is your blood. In… every sense of the word.” Little Ant said.

“Locate him?”

“With all that power, you should tell where another master vampire is.”

She could? Elysa looked around her… listened around her… then she opened her mind… and could feel being pulled towards something. A tower. A tower on a sea of grass. Casting a twisted shadow in the moonlight.

She opened and her eyes and looked at Little Ant.

“I know where he is.” Elysa said.