Fan Fiction ❯ The Vampire Hunter II: Bloodlines ❯ Chapter 19

Chapter XIX

Even before Gabrielle walked into the room, she could tell it was different. There were torches everywhere along the walls in reflecting metal sconces that lit the room incredibly well. But more than that, Gabrielle could smell a human nearby. She was starving and immediately headed for the scent.

As she limped around a large stone sarcophagus, Gabrielle stopped in shock. Clark was lying on the ground, unconscious. Her clothing was a mess and dried blood covered nearly every inch of cloth and flesh. Gabrielle quickly went to her knees, barely flinching at the stab of pain in her right leg, and checked for signs of life. Clark was still breathing, but she was very close to death from too many injuries and loss of blood.

If Gabrielle was right, this was supposed to be the reunion between Re and Osiris halfway through the twelve Gates, which would be a time of healing and rejuvenation for them both.

Gabrielle looked around the room for anything that might help Clark. Towards the other end of the chamber, Gabrielle could see a pool of water set in white stone blocks, which she hoped was supposed to be the primeval waters of Nun. There were stacks of folded white linens, what looked to be medical supplies, if the bright red cross meant anything, and dozens of opaque white plastic bags. Gabrielle also noticed a stack of weapons and other gear that she recognized as Clark's standard hunting attire.

Gabrielle used what strength she had left and lifted Clark into her arms. With a grunt to mark every step, Gabrielle carried the woman over to the water and prayed that it was clean and fresh. She gently set Clark back down on the ground and prayed again that she hadn't made things worse by moving her.

Gabrielle checked the water and sent out a silent thank you when she saw that it was crystal clear and smelled clean. She dipped one of the linens into the water and brought it over to Clark's mouth. She squeezed out a few drops to moisten the swollen and bloodied lips and then carefully swabbed it over the cuts and bruises that covered Clark's face.

Gabrielle dragged the cloth gently down Clark's neck and slowly uncovered two half-centimeter cuts about three centimeters apart, as she washed away the dried blood. She stared for a full minute as comprehension slowly dawned on her.

Those marks had come from the bite of a vampire.

Gabrielle closed her eyes as bloody tears of rage tried to escape. She'd never felt such absolute hatred towards another being before, but all she wanted to do was rip Cynthia apart until she begged for mercy. Even when she'd killed her father and the First and Second Orders, it had been fear rather than anger that drove her.

But she didn't have enough energy to sustain her fury for very long, and it was soon overshadowed by the ache of guilt and sorrow that consumed her heart. Though she'd sworn to protect Clark, she'd been unable to keep Cynthia away from her, and Gabrielle could just imagine the horror Clark had felt, as she'd been beaten and forced to endure a vampire's bite for the first time.

And that was what was truly eating at Gabrielle more than anything else. Clark had never been bitten before. Gabrielle had hoped to have that honor if and when they finally consummated their relationship. But a new thought entered Gabrielle's mind, as she realized that Clark was now inextricably linked to Cynthia, if she was indeed the one who had drunk from Clark. And Gabrielle was sure Cynthia wouldn't have allowed anyone else that pleasure.

However, Gabrielle could counteract the effect by drinking from Clark herself. A lesser vampire wouldn't have the strength to override a First Order vampire's pull on her servant. Which was what Gabrielle knew Cynthia intended for Clark to become. Or else she was trying to force Gabrielle into taking Clark as her servant.

Gabrielle shook her head. She would not feed on Clark without her consent. That would make her like Cynthia, taking what wasn't hers, and she wanted no part of such a heinous act. If she managed to get Clark through this, she'd ask her what she wanted to do, but until then...

As Gabrielle continued her ministrations to Clark, she did her best to push the thoughts of the future out of her mind in order to focus better on their current situation. They wouldn't make it to the future if Gabrielle couldn't figure out what to do now. It was quite possible that Clark was already too far gone, and without her full strength, Gabrielle couldn't heal her. She could still Gift Clark, but without Clark's prior permission, Gabrielle knew she wouldn't do that to the Hunter.

Gabrielle glanced at the timer and saw there were only fifty minutes left in the hour. As she turned her head to go back to cleaning up Clark's blood-covered face, the white plastic bags caught her attention out of the corner of her eye, and she wondered what was in them. She set the dirty cloth aside and reached for one of the bags. She could tell they were each filled with about a pint of some sort of liquid, and she used the tip of one of her claws to pierce the outer skin.

Thick red fluid immediately dripped from the hole, and the scent of fresh blood overpowered her senses. She didn't think twice, as she raised the bag to her lips and sucked it dry. If it was a trick and she'd assumed incorrectly about this oasis in hell, then she'd just join Clark in death.

But the blood was pure, and Gabrielle practically inhaled it. She went through another several dozen bags just as quickly. Her body was crying out for the nourishment, and she couldn't deny it. She simply kept drinking until she felt like she was going to explode.

Gabrielle turned back to Clark and immediately felt her way through the human's body to assess the most important injuries. Then she started healing them, even as her own body finished repairing itself.

Clark still wasn't awake when Gabrielle heard the door opening. She picked Clark up and walked into the next room. A single crocodile was waiting for them, and Gabrielle didn't even blink as she kicked the thing so hard that she ripped off its head. She looked around for other potential dangers, but there was nothing, so she light-walked back to the other room and gathered as many of the blood bags as she could carry. She deposited them in the new room and made another dozen trips before the passage closed.

Gabrielle made a quick inspection of the room, in which she only found another stagnant pool of water with body parts floating in it. Putting that together with the single crocodile, Gabrielle remembered the seventh hour from the Book of Amduat.

In the ancient text, the crocodile had been helping to find the various parts of Osiris' body, which was a reference to the mythical battle between Osiris and his brother Seth, the god of chaos. After Seth had murdered Osiris, he had hacked up the body and thrown the pieces into the Nile and scattered them throughout Egypt. But Osiris' wife Isis had managed to gather all the parts together again, and she had magically revived her husband. The story gave Gabrielle hope that she could do the same for Clark.

She returned to Clark's side and drained another dozen bags of blood. Then she went back to healing Clark. It took a little while, but then the human stirred and opened her eyes.

"Uunngh?" Clark groaned in confusion.

"It's okay. You're going to be fine," Gabrielle soothed. "Just lie still while I finish healing your wounds. I'll explain what's going on later," she promised.

Clark looked at Gabrielle through slitted eyes. At first, she thought it was Cynthia, and her immediate instinct was to fight. But then she realized she was looking at Gabrielle, and she just barely nodded before closing her eyes again and returning to unconsciousness.

Gabrielle smiled in relief and focused again on just repairing the damage to Clark's body. It took longer than she'd imagined.

Most of Clark's ribs had been cracked, her face had been badly bruised, and several lacerations across her forehead and cheeks would have scarred horribly without Gabrielle's intervention. Both of Clark's legs had been broken, and her upper right arm and left wrist had been shattered. Gabrielle had been able to heal a great deal of the damage during their last respite, but there was still plenty left to do.

Finally though, the healing was completed, and Gabrielle helped Clark to a sitting position. The Hunter groaned.

"God damn, I'm too old for this shit," Clark mumbled, as she held her head.

Flashes from Cynthia's assault on her body went through Clark's mind in rapid succession, and she shook her head to clear the images away. When the time came, she was going to take great pleasure in staking that particular vampire.

"That makes two of us," Gabrielle agreed absently, as she glanced at the clock. "Come on. You need to get suited up. We don't have much time," she said with single-minded determination.

Gabrielle knew she was intentionally distancing herself from Clark. They needed to talk about what Cynthia had done, but she couldn't deal with that right now. The mere thought made Gabrielle want to cry, but they only had a few minutes before the next Gate was supposed to open, and they had to be ready to face the next challenge when it came.

So, Gabrielle walked over to the pile of weapons she'd brought with them from the other room and waited for Clark to join her. She handed over the woman's leather battle harness and then bent down to gather up the pile of stakes.

Clark took her harness and put it on without a word. Gabrielle had obviously been though several degrees of hell recently, judging by the mess her clothing was in and the half-crazed look in her eyes. Now was not the time to start badgering her with questions. Clark's curiosity could wait.

Clark finished buckling the straps of the upper half of her harness into place around her arms and waist, while she let Gabrielle begin adding a full compliment of stakes to the slots along her back.

The first set crisscrossed over her upper back, creating a staggered V-formation that would allow her to draw a stake with either hand from over her shoulders. Then the slots changed to an inverted V, and Gabrielle inserted the stakes with the points going up towards Clark's shoulder blades so that she could re-arm either hand by reaching behind her waist. The last set of stakes went horizontally across Clark's lower back, and Gabrielle set them up so that every other one pointed either to the right or the left, thereby enabling Clark to draw them with whichever hand was free.

Clark's long hunting knife slid into the sheath on her upper left arm, and the leather glove-gauntlet she pulled onto her left hand held three throwing knives around her wrist, though it had places for six.

Clark grinned when she saw Gabrielle holding her short sword along with the lower half of her harness. Though she didn't hunt with the sword very often because it didn't help her against a servant with a gun, it had saved her life on several occasions, and she was very glad to see it.

Clark pulled on the rest of her harness and buckled it around her waist and thighs, positioning it just below where the upper half of the harness left off. Then she took the sword and fastened the upper thong to the loops on her left hip. At the tip of the sheath, there was another leather thong, and she tied it off above her knee to hold the sword in place along her thigh.

The last thing Gabrielle handed to her was a small black pouch, and Clark opened it to see what was inside. It contained a single coagulant grenade, and Clark attached the mini-bag to her right hip where her gun would have normally been. She was also missing her flamethrower.

Clark shrugged her shoulders. What she had was a lot better than nothing, and she wasn't about to complain.

Clark jumped around a little to settle everything into place. She performed a few test draws of her stakes; one over each shoulder and two more times around both of her sides for the variously positioned stakes along her lower back.

Then she drew her short sword a few times. Since the sword ran up and down along her leg, she couldn't draw it using a standard fencing style; that would take an extra joint in her elbow that she didn't have. Instead, she had to draw it straight up in an overhand style, with her thumb up and her palm facing towards her body. Because of this, she'd learned to create a sweeping motion once the blade was free of the sheath in order to flip the blade in her hand so that it was pointing upwards, and she was usually slicing her way through opponents within moments.

Clark practiced a few complicated moves with the straightened katana-style blade. It was double-edged, and Clark constantly used that second cutting surface so that most of her moves were likely to cause damage one way or another. When she was satisfied, she replaced the weapon in its sheath.

With her equipment tested, Clark turned to face Gabrielle.

"I'm ready," she stated.

A second later, the ground vibrated, and Clark looked around for the source of the deep rumbling. She saw part of the wall rising to reveal a dark tunnel and glanced over at Gabrielle.

"I take it we have to go in there?"

Gabrielle nodded. She was just finishing the last of the blood bags, and she tossed the empty plastic container away.

"Kill anything that moves," Gabrielle advised.

"That was my plan," Clark confirmed.

They walked side by side into the passageway.