Vivienne

Overcome by hunger and the feeling of half-burning desire, Brian drove his utensils into his meal.  Chewing frantically as his stomach rumbled and his head cleared, He took down the first bites and backed it with more peach tea. “No, I don’t think of things in terms of sins, Loved One.”  He shrugged, “I am a psychology major.  I am interested in how the mind works, but I don’t necessarily believe in heavenly bodies.”  He pointed the steak knife at Denise, “I didn’t believe in vampires until a few days ago either.”  The knife screeched on his plate as he basically tore off another hunk of thick meat, “I didn’t believe in magic either.”   

The Darla raised one of her devilishly curved eyebrows watching Brian eat heartily. “Your ability to maintain that calm demeanor that you possess will be of the utmost importance this evening.”  The Darla leaned forward on the table. “I have witnessed your..”  Her voice darkened, “Desperation.”  Moving a few errant strands of her curly hair from her hazel eyes, The Darla casually flicked her wrist and pulled up the image of Casey with two nondescript women licking and kissing her neck.  The sound of the young swimmer breathing deeply between her teeth echoed in the kitchen.  “Leave the marks…Soo good mmmm..”

Brian started shaking and balled the knife in his hand when the sinewy black and green lines pulled up the image of Casey nearly in orgasmic bliss with the twin vampires feeding from her neck.  Unable to look away, his anger grew as the two undead women ran their hands through Casey’s hair and gently caressed her cheeks. -If I can’t have her…-  Brian thought of burning the two vampires to dust and his rune flared to life sending blobs of molten rock, lava, throughout the kitchen attempting to set the entire room on fire.

Shifting her spell flawlessly, The Darla expertly wrapped tiny balls of water around the lava pulsing from Brian’s hand and the molten masses fell to the floor as harmless rocks.  “Yes, Brian.  You are getting faster.”  She pointed to the steaks. “Calm now.”  Her magic spun and gathered up the fist sized rocks and organized them in a pyramid on the floor. “I know there is a rational and calm man in there. Where is the skeptic and man that wanted to save her?”  The Darla produced the image of Casey sitting down in a chair, smiling and her eyes warm and gooey like chocolate. “You were ready to kill yourself and her just then. You don’t want her dead, now do you?”  The Darla started shaking her head and watched Brian do the same.  “Power can corrupt, Brian.  The goal.. tell me the goal.”

“To save Casey, My Loved One.”  Brian nearly chanted and kept eating.  “In death, Casey and I will be together.”

The Darla closed her runic hand and leaned back in her chair, “Yes, Brian.  Sometimes our love has to be tough love doesn’t it?”  She paused for a moment, “I would have you do me a favor as you calmly plan the way you and Casey will be together.”

-Tough love, that’s it. Calm now-  Brian reassured himself and polished off another bite of steak. “My Loved One, what is the favor?”

“First, plan a sequence of defenses for yourself.  No less than three ways to stop a vampire from charming, biting or controlling you.”  The Darla watched the big man shake his head, “You will see Casey this evening while the mission progresses, but you need a plan to deal with her that doesn’t compromise the mission.”

-Casey.-  Brian’s heart beat heavily in his chest and felt the loss of love like an ever growing hole of inky night that caused him to start crying. “Tough love..My Loved One…I…”

“There, there, Brian.  Drink your peach tea.”  The Darla hid her wiry smile behind a small vase of flowers on the table and she cleared her throat, “Brian, if you can keep your head clear you are going to be our linchpin this evening.”

The melancholy feeling erased as Brian drank his tea, closing the emotionally damaged hole in his chest. “Linchpin, My Loved One?”

Denise scooted back in her chair and picked up the vase of flowers and went to her faucet. “You know the colors of the lotus signify different things, Brian.  Denise pointed to the gray and lifeless flowers. “Every culture has the belief that the lotus is the flower of life.”  She turned and smiled and watched Brian take a hunk of baked potato down. “Use your magic and give them color.”  Holding up one finger, Denise added, “We will see if anything I said registered.”  She folded her arms over her chest. “Calmly and clearly, summon your magic to color the flowers, but don’t pick a color.”

Swallowing his food quickly, Brian took a final sip of his tea and outstretched his hand. -Calm.  Flower of life.-  His eyes happened to see a rune from blown snow on the window -Blue- he told himself and dismissed the thought. “Gaia is telling me blue, loved one.”  He dropped his hand and peered to Denise for instruction. “Do I listen to the rune, or follow your instructions?”

Denise turned to see the rune on the window just as it blew away, “Thank you for being honest with me, My novitiate.”  Once more she pointed to the gray flower, “Gaia sometimes tells the future in a simple rune.  It might not have anything to do with the color of the flower.”  Feeling the power pulsing in her own rune, Denise closed her hand so Brian couldn’t see the swampy looking colors emanating from her palm. “This is an exercise of your own control.  We need to be able to rely on you this evening.  The lotus is life.”

“Then why does it suddenly smell like mildew in here?”  Brian sniffed the air and grimaced just as he caught the light slithering up Denise’s arm, twisting its way to her hair.  “What the…”  He questioned as the streams turned to snakes and settled in her hair like a medusa, hissing and snapping.  He blinked and shook his head. “My Loved One, I…I…”  He hesitated and the hair rose on his neck in warning. “I will clear my head and focus on the flower now.”

“Gaia guides, she doesn’t make our decisions.”  Denise filled a small cup with water and poured it in the vase, “Whenever you are ready.  Calmly, focused.”

Brian once more outstretched his hand, summoning his magic.  The soft evergreen gripped the light petals in a small rock like grip and began pulsing with a swirl of colors.  Brian saw movement from the corner of his eye and without losing focus on the flowers, pulled a rock from the handmade fireplace and crushed the asp that was just about to deliver its lethal bite.  Satisfied that there were no other threats nearby, he finished his initial spell and saw the flower had turned blue.  Dropping his hand and taking a deep breath, Brian picked up his utensils and once more started eating. “My Loved One?”  He asked with a smile growing on his face. “How was that?”

“Excellent, Brian.”  Denise smiled, “Blue anyway.”  She left the vase on the counter and resumed her seat. “That color is one of emotion, wisdom and world aspirations.”  Denise lightly clapped. “The blue petals also cause hallucinations, if eaten.”

Emptying his plate, Brian sat back. “Did I pass your test, My Loved One?”  His stomach growled once more. 

“I gave you a few hints that something was coming, but overall you did well.”  She picked up the plate and refilled it. “So well that you have earned the second helping.”  Denise handed him the plate. “Excuse me for a couple seconds, while I get something from downstairs.  I will be right back.”

Every footstep down the old farmhouse steps creaked and cracked as The Darla made her way into the pitch black of her basement.  She waved her hand once and the door leading to the kitchen closed tightly with an eerie click, reinforcing the lock.  Slowly, Denise’s vision forced the blessed darkness back and outlined the cellar in a Halloween ochre.  Striding confidently to the piles of bones in a circle, The Darla  looked up and summoned her magic, a thin blue and green crablike shape clattered through a small hole and into her kitchen then returned seconds later with a pulsing brown aura from Brian weaved within.  “Into the pot with you.”  The creature howled once and clipped its way up and over the small cauldron in the middle of the bone piles.  Screeching in terror as the gooey orange water boiled the magical beast, The Darla walked around the pot, studying the skulls that surrounded the base. “You will do fine.”  The dark woman scratched a chunk of dirt from one of the eye sockets and tossed the skull into the foggy water. “Arise and do my bidding, Derek.”

The orange water churned and the skull started to make its way out of the grim soup, forming a dank and red claylike form.  The Darla watched as the clay took on the consistency of thick oatmeal and the skull began to howl in pain.  Calling her magic, the black tendrils encircled the former infiltrator. “You will speak, Derek, or you will not have the peace of death.”

Focusing its lidless black eyes and writhing in obvious pain, a hollowed and desperate voice came from the dead man. “The pain!”  It screeched and tried to twist from the dark magic that held it prisoner. “Anything, Just ask the question…Ahhhh….” it screamed as the black strands pierced the small cracks in his skull.

“Was it her?”  The Darla twisted her hand and watched her vile vines twist into the putty.

“You KNOW it was!”  He screeched as the boiling water washed once more over his dead skull. “Let me sleep in peace….”

Laughing and closing her fist to squeeze the goopy body, “You swore yourself to me, Derek.  I command you even in death.  You sleep when I allow you to.  Show me. The. Eyes.”

Unable to resist the command of the necromancer that held him in a spirit prison, the being called Derek opened his melty hand and the murky water parted for a few seconds to reveal a set of crystalline sapphire eyes of wondrous beauty. Forcing the watery echoed words to form, “This was..” Derek grimaced as the fist around him tightened. “..purely for sport.  Your goal is within reach, you mons…”

The Darla dropped the grip on the floating corpse. “Yes, it is close.  Heather misses you.”  She tossed a white lotus into the water where it went black instantly. “A token of my love for you and your…sacrifice, Derek.”

“We all die sometime, Crow.”  He screeched once more and slowly fell back into the pot, lifeless.

The Darla reached into the depths of the water and pulled the skull out, wiping it down with her apron. “No need to be bitter, Derek.”  Denise placed the skull back on its position around the pot and headed back upstairs to Brian.