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Nocturnal Bloodlines Main page Nocturnal BloodlinesFEEDBACK - Oh Yes Please -You can email us docwho2000@hotmail.com author: docwho2100 and mightygupo Consensual relationship depicted between adult women in this story. If you have a problem with that or are under 18 please do not read.
Chapter 1 Hearing the horses making small sounds Buffy drew her eyes from the dark carriage window and looked across to the other occupant. Her mentor and "father", well father to any outsider not just a cover story but also as he had been like a father to her, sat looking out the opposite window. They had automatically taken up opposite sides due to habit and instinct each watching for possible attack. Buffy, had felt a wall of dread and oppression set in the last few miles, as they neared their destination; a small town that harbored many deep secrets. She had felt the carriage first slow and when the driver and horses realized they could not delay the inevitable, the speed had increased. An attitude of the faster they reached destination, the faster they could leave drove the team. Sighing Buffy looked back out to the dark, a place she knew all too well having worked to fight it for the last year. A place where on one hand she strove to destroy the denizens of the night and on the other she slowly was realizing she was as much a part of the darkness as those she fought. --------- Tara still hadn't shook off the cobwebs her brain harbored from her long sleep. A sleep that she had hoped she would never have to awaken from. But she knew deep in her soul that her father had reawakened to bring his curse upon the land. Her father, Dracula Vlad Tepes, the man she loved while hating what he had become. Her mother's death had affected him deeply. His rage and vengeance turning him into a mockery of what she had stood for, he became the monster that the villagers had said he was when they had slain her mother. She looked up at the moon, soon to be full, it's pale continence beginning to tinge a shade of red that would only grow more so, until it became as red as thick blood. She increased her pace, using her powers inherited from her father. The dampyr's blood that ran in her veins helped her move at speeds unreachable by humans. She broke through the thick woods coming to a gap in the mountains landscape and gauged her jump accordingly. She leaped off the edge, jumping from tree to tree until she reached the area below where a small dirt road cut through the mountains heart. She landed in front of a carriage, quickly pulling back into the woods and picking up speed once again heading for the village that lay in front of her. Buffy grabbed the carriage handle as the horses shied at something. She heard the driver curse and met Giles' eyes. The horses however settled back and continued on. Giles shrugged and looked out. Buffy turned to resume her watch and paused, feeling something...something that came from and was just as quickly swallowed up by the darkness. She tried to look into the dark woods but could see nothing. Sighing she laid back against the thinly cushioned seat and focused on the meditation exercises Giles had been teaching her. He told her she would need them for this next place. The foe here was not some newly risen vampire or stupid, doltish demon. This place was something that Buffy knew Giles feared they would not be returning from. And she had resolved herself that this could very well be where her grave would reside. Tara moved quickly through the trees, looking over her shoulder at the carriage, feeling... a harbinger of death was in that carriage, yet it didn't feel like the dark death that hung around her father's castle. But for now there was no time for that. She had something she had to do. Her mission on the earth had come once again, and the time to fight was now. She moved quickly, jumping over obstacles in her path. Finally she came out of the edge of the woods and saw the castle on top of the far mountain; the home that she had been raised in. She felt a pang of melancholy at the memories she had of her ancestral home, of the Castle Dracula. Her mother and father strolling through the garden dancing in the moonlight, while her and her brother watched on from the chapel window, flitted through her head. And the night that her mother had been pulled from the very same walls, fire breaking out, her father trapped behind a burning door. Tears sprang to her eyes remembering the pain of seeing her mother taken away and the sticks of the villagers beating her back and down, not stopping until the thought her dead. For a time she had been by her father's side, the anger at what they had taken from her, her mother and her twin brother, a deep wound on her psyche. That had carried her until she met a Belmont. Her mother's words came back to her about not destroying what you are because of fear and hate. That night she left her father’s castle, vowing only to return if and when he awakened. And she had returned when she was needed to once again put him into the deep sleep that she hoped someday would be eternal so then she too could rest. Tara knew that while her father still might find some semblance of love for his wayward daughter, that those denizens that dwelt in his castle would bear her no such love. Her job was to put an end to that castle; their job was to either persuade her to once again join their side in this war with humanity, or to kill her before she got to her father. Shaking her head to clear it of happier and sadder memories both, she slowed down making for the village. She needed to regain her strength with food and spirits before going to fight. A hundred years without sustenance took a toll on the body, and she was so weakened that even a trek through the woods left her breathless and straining for energy. The carriage ground to a halt in the dismal village. The pale moonlight barely lit the way as Buffy and then Giles dismounted. They had their two bags thrown down and then before they could tip the driver he was off leaving them alone on the street. Shrugging Giles motioned at the Tavern and picking up their bags lead the way. Entering, the couple quietly surveyed the inn taking a seat in the far corner. Tara watched the carriage ride into the town then just as quickly turn tail and ride back the way it had come. She could see the two an older man and a small blonde walk into the tavern. She watched the two wondering why in the heavens and hells they chose to come to this place. Then she caught a sense of why as she sensed that feeling of death and that it hung around... the petite blonde? Tara moved forward heading into the tavern, deciding it was none of her business. Her business lay at the top of the mountain. She walked in, and took a seat in the far corner. When the serving wench came to her, "Meat, rare, and ale." She said propping her back against the wall. "Right away miss." She said nervously moving away. A man looked at the woman in the corner, her hair almost luminescent in the dim lantern light. "You look like..." Tara turned and shot him a look. "Who do I look like?" She asked the older man harshly. "Sorry... nobody." He said looking back down to his own food. Buffy took her seat and waited as Giles placed their order. She scanned the tavern and felt a number of energy signatures jump at her. The strongest belonging to a blonde sitting across the room. She started watching the blonde wondering why she set her senses off. Tara kept to herself, but could feel the blonde staring at her. Even so she didn't let on like she could feel the stare. When her food came she was happy to see that it was in large quantities. She began to dig into the food. As she ate she felt her eyes begin betraying her, as she would find herself taking quick glances at the blonde. Short, blonde, moves like a fighter, good with her hands. Her mind worked on this enigma, giving her information. Soon the food was gone and she stood up throwing gold on the table. She turned and walked over to the door, then with a sigh moved over to the table where the blonde and her... father sat. "Do yourself a favor travelers. Eat your food and find someone to take you from this place. You have come to a bad place at a bad time for a visit." She said turning back to the door and walking away. "Which is exactly why we have come." Buffy replied boldly. "And no one or thing will tell us what we should do." Buffy added her senses having tingled when the blonde approached. "Then you will die." Tara said softly. Outside of the tavern she looked up at the moon sitting in behind the castle and shivered slightly. ~Why do you care?~ Tara chastised herself, turning down an alleyway walking towards the castle. "Yes I might," she looked at Giles who nodded. He would stay and find out what he could. She turned her collar up and stepped out into the night, her dagger and stake at the ready. She looked around hoping to find the blonde. Tara wanted to get a better vantage point so she could see the trail ahead, knowing that her father's most basic foot soldiers would line the path to hamper the way, and to kill the weak. She jumped up, to the highest point, then kicking down with her foot to jump again and landing on the roof of a house. Down below she saw the blonde. "What business have you here?" She asked wondering once again why she should care, and what it was about this girl. Did she fear her? No, of course not, that was foolish. She didn't fear her father or his denizens, why should she fear this little slip of a girl? Drawing her dagger and stake, Buffy moved to track the blonde having seen her actions and confirming her senses. "I am here to kill the like of you." Buffy looked for a way to follow the blonde. "Then you will have to wait for me to be done with what I have vowed to do. Wait here and I will be back upon the morrow and you can have my head if you can take it. I would rather not fight you, however." Confused Buffy paused, this one did not act like a normal vampire, nor did she feel like one, yet... "Coward, I will not let your kind torture these citizens any longer." She threw the stake at the creature as she drew another from the folds of her dress.
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