Vivienne

Spain 1482.

Hot and humid nights of summer had passed into the breezy and golden evenings of autumn as the Raven pursued her quarry from Greece to Spain. -Six weeks.-  The little black-blue bird thought as she circled the tiny town of Cádiz.  Landing outside of the city walls on a darkened pier, the little bird careened its head for onlookers before seamlessly changing into the vampiress she truly was. “Hiding among the others isn’t going to stop me, Evangeline.”  The huntress quietly cleared her throat and took on a more Spanish accent. “Catalina…”  She said once and still noted her French accent. “Catalina of Salamanca.” She tried again.  “Humm.”  The Raven took an unnecessary breath, “Catalina of Salamanca.”  Satisfied that her voice sounded perfect, the raven haired beauty inspected her gear.  

Dark leather armor expertly crafted to hug her perfect form scaled from her neck to her soft booted feet.  A myriad of long and short black feathers were woven into the shoulder pads, in an effort to break the outline of her form and cause confusion if spotted.  “Mask or not to mask, Catalina?”  She looked up and noted the moon slightly above the horizon and knew the evening was early. “Mask.”  Digging from the small pack that she kept tightly against her, Catalina fitted the supple leather over her face, allowing her malevolent blue eyes to shine as the only warning to her prey.

Patting down the locations of her weapons The Raven took a quick inventory. “Twin iron tipped hand spears, crossbow, long spear.”  Catalina reached into the fold of her boot and pulled out a curved ruby encrusted dagger. “There you are my old friend.” Catalina spun the fancy weapon on her fingertip testing the balance and once more adjusted her voice, “Catalina…almost time to get going.”  Tucking the knife back in her boot, her fingers grazed over her latest invention.  Flipping the button to her small belt pouch open, Catalina retrieved five slender iron tubes no longer than her slender fingers.  Reaching into a second pouch she pulled five matching darts and plugged them into the metal tubing. “Mandrake and blood in a paste.  This should be fun, Evangeline.  Let’s see your vampire bodyguards deal with this.”  

Bolting off towards the wall, Catalina knew she could have simply vaulted over the tall structure but it would have caught the attention of the guards. -Come on..Catal…inaaaa.-  Her inner voice coaxed. -You know you want their blood, so cool…so intoxicating.-  The Raven smiled to herself and extended claws from her fingers. “You do entertain me.  Blood is appealing, I admit it.”  The Raven whispered to her the silent voice calling to her.  A small hop and her claws latched into the stone wall, allowing the vampiress to quickly scale and flip over the top and down to a dark alley without a sound. “..However my dark friend, vampire blood is on the menu this evening.  Let’s let the poor humans survive another night.”  Catalina lept to the closest rooftop and began scanning the small city. -Friend? I am winning then.-  The Raven heard the dark voice start cackling and she pushed it effortlessly to the far reaches of her mind. “Fun while it lasted.”  Sensing the dense pack of vampires, The Raven knew that her target was close.  Dancing from roof to roof, The Raven kept to the shadows and conserved her blood levels for what she was going to need in the next few minutes. “City center, clever.”  

The Raven looked and found a small squad of guards standing outside drinking beer.  Next she did a quick count of the people in the area. “Ten hearts.”  The Raven pulled out a wooden needle and with a quick flick of her curled claw, opened her wrist, coating the tiny stinger with her blood.  Once she’d licked her tiny wound closed, The Raven lightly tossed the dart into a well lit door. “Marked.”  Drawing out the five tubes, the ancient vampire blew the darts in quick succession into the guards.  All of them swatted at their necks one at a time as if swatting away flies.  Counting silently, Catalina reached ten and the guards started stumble-stepping like zombies over to the blood marked door. “Draw and break, my new friends.”  The guards drew their swords nearly at the same time and crashed in the door, causing the people that were milling about to run in panic.  A quick and silent tumble between the flicker flames of the olive scented torches, Catalina grabbed one fleeing human by the neck and quickly turned her to dust. Moaning and grunting came from the guards as they worked their way past the vampires that started to feed on them. “Yes…”  The Raven giggled to herself and slinked her way to the front door. “Evangeli-i–n-n-e..”  Her new Spanish accent whispered teasingly through the door.  The Raven clicked her claws on the frame itself.  -Tap-tap-Click-click-.

One by one the guard zombies hacked and slashed into the vampires, doing absolutely nothing to the undead they faced.  When the small pack of vampires latched onto the five guards and started drinking, The Raven stepped from her shadowed position, holding her twin iron barbed spears.  Only the clattering of armor remained of Catalina’s guards as the vampires turned the zombies into dust.  Grabbing their throats, the newborn vampires screeched the best they could and fell to the ground, paralyzed. “Worked like a charm.”  Turning quickly into black smoke and back to her vampire form, The Raven deftly dodged a flurry of wooden stakes that came from Evangeline. Hurling one of her hand spears, The Raven growled as the spear missed its mark because the other vampire had jumped through the house and into the roof, sending splintered wood and dust into the air.

Sighing, Catalina made her way outside and once more used the shadows to disguise herself.  Calmly taking in her surroundings, she heard the screams for help sounding from behind her.  Breathing deeply through her nose, she pushed the foul scents of the city and noted the direction that Evangeline was headed. “North.”  Scaling a wood beam effortlessly, Catalina shifted into her bird form and once more took flight chasing down her elusive prey.  Flapping her feathered wings, she quickly closed the gap and plunged down in a spiral switching in mid air into her vampiric form, talons exposed.

Plowing into Evangeline, The Raven latched onto her fellow vampire's head and bit into her neck.  Inertia and the force of gravity ground the two vampires through another house where they created a small crater on impact.  Gaining a few drops of blood, Catalina felt Evangeline disappear from her grasp, followed by a set of claws that ripped her back open. “Arrgh!”  The Raven howled and rolled away.  Feeling her thick blood oozing from her back, The Raven quickly devoted part of her reserve to close the wounds and spun to face Evangeline.

“The great Raven can be hurt.”  Evangeline crouched and started circling Catalina, licking the blood from her own claws. “I never did like French blood.”  She spat on the ground. “Too weak to be of any use.”

The Raven flicked a couple of her mandrake darts to distract her quarry.  Timing the motions of her enemy as the darts were either dodged or slapped away, Catalina swiftly slid her crossbow to her hands and fired. -Twang!-  The cold iron tipped bolt flew straight and true, piercing the chest through Evangeline’s heart.  Catalina slung the crossbow back to its position and walked over to the other motionless vampire. “You are the last of the elders, Evangeline. I expected more.”  Catalina knelt down and plunged her fangs into her enemy’s neck, drawing the thick and rich blood from her until the dust outline blew away into the night air.

“DEMON!!!!”  A woman screamed from Catalina’s left.  

Facing the woman, Catalina flashed her soft blue eyes at the woman and smiled. “It’s just a dre..”  She looked at the damage the two warring vampire’s had created and pounced on the helpless woman before she could screech again, turning her into dust as well.

“Blood Deeemmmooonnnn!!”  Another voice above Catalina rang out.

-This is getting out of hand- Catalina said to herself and left the house as the teenage boy yelped again.  Slipping back into the shadows, The Raven watched as a string of torches marched slowly down the street checking alleys.  Carefully sniffing the air once more, The Raven knew what she was smelling right away. -Frankincense and Myrrh.-  Catalina rubbed her chin slightly confused. “Clergy?  Why are they..”  She scooted from the chimney top that she was using for cover and crawled down a wall behind the small group.  Scaling sideways to follow the precession, Catalina made a clicking sound close to that of a rat chittering.  A nun turned to look behind her, waving her torch to try and find where the noise had come from.  Seconds later, Catalina joined the slow marching group dressed in the clothes she’d stolen from the nun she’d just terminated.

“Who are..”  Another nun turned and froze, looking helpless into a set of gleaming blue eyes.

Blowing a light and delightful breath of iron over the nun’s face, the vampire answered. “Catalina of Salamanca, surely you remember me.”

Blinking for a second, her fellow nun nodded and started walking again. “Catalina.  Stay close, screams of demons are in abundance this evening.”

“Keep me safe? Um…”  Catalina paused, “Yes, demons.  I heard the screams too..”

“Maria.”  The nun patted Catalina on the arm, “Worry no more, the Klerikos are cleansing the way.  We are making our way to the center now.”

Stopping at the scene of the first battle, Catalina watched the Klerikos stride confidently into the room with the paralyzed vampires.   One of the tall white and red clad men strode forward, outstretched his right hand and tendrils of bright white-yellow erupted as if the sun were shining in the house.  Speaking loudly for all of the onlookers, the Klerikos announced, “The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.”  Tendrils turned to beams and seared the vampires from the room within seconds, leaving nothing but radiating silver glow where the others had been.

“Cleansed by the finger of God!” proclaimed the Klerikos and he turned to face the others. “Can you feel his power?”  He walked to each of the followers and pressed his palm to the other men. “Behold the power of God brother.  Awaken to his divine grace.”

Catalina watched as the light seemed to jump man to man.  Making her way forward she fell to her knees and pulled on the first Klerikos hand. “Teach me, my lord.”

“Inquisitors are for brothers only.”  He slowly pulled his hand away from Catalina. “Stand sister..”

Carefully standing and looking longingly at the priest with her crystal blue eyes, the nun meekly offered, “Catalina of Salamanca.”

Reciting another passage of Revelations, the inquisitor softly spoke. “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.  Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

“Is there nothing I can do to defend myself from the demons, lord?”  Catalina clasped her hands in prayer to the bearded man before her and looked up at the stars.

“While I cannot teach you, Sister Catalina…” He paused and cupped her chin then pulled her close. “I can explain..the…ways…”  He purred and subtly grazed her breast with his glowing palm. “To be prepared.”