AUTHOR'S POV
The morning arrived with another tender hope. As the warmth of the sunrise harshly kisses Diana's face in sharp unforgiving bands, wincing before her eyes even opened. She glared at its intolerance, turning away. Her body protested waking up. Her shoulders ached from Roman's crash course. Her palms were still tender where the stake had rubbed her skin raw. Struggling to bring her sore body up, she pulled herself at the edge of the bed. Today, the pack searches for Scott, and soon they will be reunited. A hopeful ease escaped her in a sigh. It found a place to sit beside her. Yet, it was fragile, thin as glass. Though still, it existed.
It was strangely quiet outside her bedroom.
Last night, before she put herself into slumber, she left the wolves in a slanging match. Roman simply enjoyed the verbal fight answering back, as if he was in such a great mood that no one could ever ruin it. On the verge of reaching his limit, Sebastian considered not asking the Black Creek Alpha to lead the search for Scott. Speaking with him was too exhausting. Hearing them go in circles without really having something to agree on wearied Diana, that she decided to leave the wolves howl at each other in the living room.
This morning, Diana's home doesn't carry even a softest whisper, or a lightest swish. No more wolves arguing, and no more boots crossing her hardwood floor. It was... quiet. Diana turned to her side, and sees a letter under the old stake and a canvass pouch by her bedside. Written in a poor handwriting, she reads:
I'll be back a little bit later.
Wait for me.
Ro
It meant as if Roman had chosen to lead the search for Scott after all. And, it meant no one really is looking for Kate... just what they talked about. A thought crossed her mind quietly, and refused to leave. The urge to face what she had to, even without any wolf by her side, scrambled her cool. Towards a friend dear to her, Diana ought to go on a perilous journey to save Kate on her own.
Old East Graveyard.
If Originals carry centuries like open wounds, Diana thought there will be no place else Claudia would go hiding other than Lestat's refuge. Ultimately, he's her home. And considerably, she expects to find her there. It wasn't a plan, and it couldn't be called an idea for how outrageous it is. It was desperation wearing the mantle of determination. Diana basked in the calmness of her home. There was no peace at all, as her heart is being restless. Her fear roused far more than the sun glaring in her windows, until it reached dusk. Time marched on with the stake in her hand, and the bag of marbles in the other. She swallowed hard.
Is it towards Kate she's walking into...
... or her own grave?
It isn't clear to her. Courage and stubbornness both shimmered in color red. Diana gathered her hair into a ponytail, before slipping the stake and the pouch into a crossbody bag. The strap settled across her shoulder like a promise she wasn't sure she could keep. Diana stepped outside. The hot air in the basement carried the scent of never coming back as soon as she hops inside her truck. Her pickup roared to life beneath her hands. She entered one destination into the navigation, and off she went to a new location.
The city lights became small behind her, as she drive past buildings and tower blocks towards viaducts and vast plains. Traffic vanished until she was sharing the road with nothing except abandoned farmhouses and crooked utility poles. The farther east she drove, the older and lonelier the world seemed. Soon, there were less lights at a sharp turn she went into. Her truck bounced on the uneven loose gravel and rocky road, and everything behind her slipped into blackness. Lesser people passes by. Not even the winds were brave enough to disturb the avenue of dark beech trees intertwined over the dark road. She was alone in a desolate far-off place.
An hour later, thick fog began to roll in, and Diana had no choice but to turn on the high beams of her truck and drive at a low speed. The fog lingered against the ground for a while. But within minutes, it thickened into pale curtains that drifted across the road, swallowing the edges of her headlights. The world shrank, until all that Diana could see was the narrow stretch of road directly ahead. Her fingers gripped the steering wheel tightly, as the silence outside was unsettling. Finally, through the mist, an old brick wall emerged. It stretched endlessly alongside of the road. Weathered red bricks darkened by age and moss. Cracks split through its surface, while tangled ivy crawled over the top like fingers. Her navigation chimed.
You have arrived at your destination.
Her eyes swept along the wall, searching for an entrance as she ease off the accelerator. "There has to be a gate", she mumbled. She drove a little farther, headlights gliding over rusted iron, broken stone pillars and sections where the wall threatened to collapse with age. Then, at last, the beams caught a pair of towering steel gates standing ajar, their rusted bars disappearing into the blanket of fog beyond.
The Old East Graveyard
Diana killed the engine. And instead of the fear she's already familiar with, she went agog in the dead silence of the graveyard. Her senses rushed in her like a sharp jolt of electricity as she hopped out from her truck, down to the knee high ground fog.. With one hand held flashlight, she lighted her way to the iron gate shut close with a thick silver chain. Diana climbed over, instead of bothering with the lock. Her boots landed on cracked concrete. Her flashlight swept over rows of headstones surrounded by thick mists, twisted trees and overgrown paths before finding a cluster of towering Gothic mausoleums deeper inside the graveyard. "Great", she muttered under her breath.
Roman never mentioned where exactly to find Lestat's grave. There were hundreds of them. Small family crypts, massive stone chapels and broken Greek statues. There are endless spots for a vampire to rest. Deeper between them, Diana slowly walked through the shadows of the trees along the mossy stone floor. Finally, the wind braved itself as it gush around making the leaves rustle, accompanying her in the dark graveyard. The cold hush made her more sensitive to the movements. And even the howl it brought couldn't fool her.
Just then...
A sudden shift moved on her side, a shadow that have been slipping between mausoleums for quite a while now. Diana spun... and nothing. The beam of her flashlight seemed to wake another shadow. She turned, still nothing. Diana slowed her breathing. Roman's voice echoed in her mind. Don't chase movement. Let it come to you. She kept walking, lowering her flashlight. Then another movement walk past her left. Too fast, too tall and seems a pair. Her pulse throbbed in her ear as Diana reach for the stake. Suddenly, a hand clamped over her shoulder. She seized the arm, bent forward, and tossed the figure down the floor. "Diana!! It's me!", Reina blurted.
"...Reina!?", Diana lowered the stake at once. "What are you doing here?"
Reina grimaced from the ground, rubbing her shoulder as she stared up at Diana in complete disbelief. "You actually threw me", she takes Diana's offered hand. She huffed a laugh, impressed of Diana's mental awareness and combat readiness. "I should be the one asking you that. What are you doing here?", she asked.
"I'm sorry. I.. uhh", Diana blinked, catching up to what happened. Smiling, relief seeing Reina made her loss at words.
Lucas emerged from between two mausoleums, one hand resting casually on the hilt of the knife at his belt. He glanced at Reina, then at Diana, before letting out a quiet chuckle. "Good thing she was the one who approached you", he looks at Reina with concealed amusement. "I wouldn't want my new shirt get dirty."
"Lucas?", Diana widened her eyes, looking him over. "I thought you'll be searching for Scott"
"I knew you'd be doing something crazy after Roman took his eyes off you.", he shrugged. "So, I'd say I was right"
"No", Reina rolled her eyes dramatically, folding her arms. "He just likes your blonde friend."
"That's quite hard to believe, Rei. I'm not anything romantic", he scoffed.
"You do."
"I don't."
"I caught him sneaking out", Reina narrowed her eyes.
".... details!", Lucas winced.
"So, congratulations. Whatever dangerous mission you planned, you've somehow collected the weirdest pair of companions imaginable.", Reina says. Diana couldn't help smiling. Wolves had always been this way, it's entertaining.
"Don't tell me you're jealous?", Lucas winked, knowing Reina moon over him since she turned of age.
Reina blinked, and stared at Lucas as though he'd grown another head. "What an idiot... I already found my mate."
"YOU WHAT!?", Lucas dropped his jaw.
"Mate?! Wow! I'm happy for you", Diana face lit up, despite the darkness surrounding all over them. "There are so much things happening right now, but I am happy for you, truly."
"Thanks, Luna", Reina smiled back.
"Who is it? When did you imprint? Tell us!", for a while, Reina has always been there for Diana. She could only be genuinely happy for Scott's younger sibling.
"Just.. yesterday", color rushed in Reina's cheeks. "It.. it just happened."
"It does sound like an imprint", Lucas smiled, brotherly. "You are no longer a kid, kid", his smile slowly vanished. "Hey...", his brows met in the middle. "You haven't been going out for a while. Is he... someone from the pack? That's disgusting", his expression worsened. "...or Roman's pack? Because that's even worse!", Lucas was ready to interrogate her for the next hour, when Reina lifted her hand on his face without any intention to endure such conversation.
"So! Luna", Reina turned sharply to Diana. "Old East, huh? You think Claudia would be here?"
Diana's smile vanished too, swallowing hard as they go back to reality. "Roman says he killed Lestat here. So maybe...", those words hung heavily in them.
"What an old school fart", Lucas uttered. "He could've lived in an underground speakeasy bar, a mansion in the west side coast, or in high rise condominium. Anywhere but a graveyard?! No class at all!"
A cold hush settled over the graveyard. Everyone stopped talking. "... did you feel that?", Diana asked, as her flashlight move towards the maze of crypts ahead. There was no sound, but a lingering presence that is somewhere in there. It was like invisible fingers brushing against the back of their necks. Every instinct that Roman awakened in her screamed.
Reina, who's neck extended out in the air, frowned. "Someone is here."
"I'm so not done with you. Wait til your brothers know about this", Lucas mouthed at Reina as they stare out in the darkness where the scrapes against stone began to be heard.
The three drifted apart. Not far enough to lose sight of one another, but enough to follow whatever instinct had stirred inside each of them. Diana kept her lights on, a beam of white light skimming over patches of fog that clung in the narrow path like restless spirits. The heavy presence never came from inside the somber mausoleums standing closely to each other despite the eerie feels it brought. It was... just there.
Reina and Lucas trusted their instincts. While Diana focuses on where the stone scrapes are heard, the two wolves listened to the whispers no human can hear. Their eyes watched it, shifting from one spot to another, guarding their space. Soon, the narrow path became three. Then, three became five. Later, they arrived at the same place from different directions.
Straight ahead stood a massive twisted tree, ancient enough that its bark had split into deep black fissures. A circular ring of old brick enclosed its roots, broken in places where thick roots had forced its way through. Someone beneath it waited, scraping a spade on the stone, back and forth, with his back turned.
Diana instinctively raised her flashlight, and her beam landed on an elderly man. He wore a faded dark green bucket hat, an old black denim shaket hung loosely from his shoulders with its sleeves rolled carelessly to his elbows, and a pair of mud-stained black rubber boots that disappeared beneath worn work pants. He turned slowly toward the light. His dark eyes gleamed as the beam struck him square in the face. The old man recoiled, with has over his eyes. "For heaven's sake!! Do ya mind taking that bloody light off me eyes!", he grumbled.
Diana immediately lowered the flashlight. "I'm sorry, sir", but her apology did nothing to soften him.
"That's what they always say", the old man who seemed drunk lit a cigar as he approach Diana in a silly manner. "What are ya'll doin here? The graveyard is closed to the public!", he jabbed a crooked finger toward the entrance they could no longer see. "You need permission to be here", his gaze lingered on each of them. "Looks to me like ya'll trespassin!"
"No, Sir! I mean, yes... We're actually looking for someone, and we hope you could help us.", Diana explained.
Reina leaned closer to Diana, speaking barely above a breath. "He's a feeder", Reina figured, seeing the tiny holes in the old man's neck, and arms.
Diana frowned. "A what?", she whispered, tilting her head without removing her gaze at the old man.
Reina subtly nodded toward the old man's neck. Now that Diana looked closely, she noticed them. Two punctures just beneath his jaw, old scars on his forearms, and a fresh one on his wrist. "A vampire's henchman. They keep him alive, then he serves with blood."
"At will?", Diana asked, lowly... staring at the old man muttering inaudible words.
"No, with hypnosis", Lucas says. "And looks like someone just got fed", Lucas never looked away from the darkness.
The old man huffed impatiently. "Come on then!", he turned and began walking, rather limping. "Don't make me drag you all!", he placed his cigar between his lips, puffing smoke.
The three followed the old man warily. "Sir, we're here, looking for someone. Can you help us?", Diana asked, following the old man with her light beaming forward.
However, the old man just went ahead, as if he heard nothing. One leg dragged slightly behind the other. He towed his spade, scraping against the mossy stone path. "Always climbing over closed gates!", he grumbled loudly enough for the entire cemetery to hear. "Acting like you own the place!"
"Hello, Sir?", Diana bothered.
"Young people these days have no sense!", the old man continued, limping another few steps. "Always poking around places they shouldn't", his head began turning, not toward the trespassers, but toward the darkness, toward the rows of mausoleums. "What possessed you to wander in here at this hour?", he laughed to himself. His voice wasn't simply loud. It echoed deliberately. Every complaint bounced between the stone crypts. Every word carried deeper into the graveyard.
Something in the old man felt wrong. His words that never answered Diana's questions. He mutters his random unsound banters ceaselessly out loud. Lucas then realized, the old man wasn't really complaining or minding them being there at all. "The feeder is announcing us", Lucas figured. The three exchanged silent glances.
Reina subtly slowed her pace. Her eyes searched ahead, then she frowned. Quietly, without moving her lips, she whispered, "And this isn't the way out."
Almost absent-mindedly, the old man muttered, "People always end up near the Fallen Angel...", he clicked his tongue. "...where death likes to wait, and see if it's true", he froze for a second, before going in another turn.
Diana caught that single detail that might served a clue. She wouldn't travel so far, and enter the graveyard at this time just to be kicked out. Diana rushed, and faced the old man. "Sir, please help us. I need to find my friend."
The old man waved his hand in the air. "Get out of my graveyard before I call the police!", he fumed, dropping his cigar on the ground. "Yer lucky I didn't smack you dead with my shovel! You betta leave, you won't like it when they see ya here", picking it up and putting it back in his mouth, he then walked out of the alley, laid his spade against a vertical column with climbing vines. "You darn kids like to play! Ya'll play outta here!! Not in my graveyard! You--", he called out again. Lucas closed the distance in two silent strides. Then, with one hit in the back of the old man's head, the man collapsed before he could attack Diana with another word. Lucas caught him before his body hit the ground too loudly, easing him against the broken column nearby,
"Lucas!! That was so unnecessary!", Diana helped Lucas lay the old man down. Diana checked his pulse. She sighed with relief feeling a throb on his wrist with her fingertips.
"Oh it is", Reina uttered. "He was ringing the dinner bell, so... he got what he deserve. Did everyone caught the fallen angel?", her gaze settled on the two. "Then, we should get going."
The three disappeared deeper into the heart of the graveyard, where the fog grew thick enough to swallow the light. The cold have grown, but it wasn't the kind that sends shivers. It seeped in slowly, through their sleeves and collars, settling against skin until every breath carried the damp taste of stone and moss. No one spoke, not just yet. Their eyes frequented the dark corners, making sure the one that flew was an owl, and another shadow that moved was just the leaves. Then, the graveyard opened to another clearing that surprised the three even more.
"This can't be good", exasperated Diana as she sigh heavily. Headstones and smaller mausoleums were guarded with broken angels. Stone wings chipped away by time. Faces worn smooth by decades of sun and rain. Some had lost their heads entirely. Others knelt in eternal grief, hands folded in prayer. Some were veiled, collapsed sideways on the ground. "There are dozens of them. How do we know which one?"
Mist drifted between the graves and fallen angels in slow currents, never quite lifting, never quite thick enough to hide what lay ahead. Diana's flashlight sliced through it in narrow ribbons, only for the fog to stitch itself back together the moment the beam passed. "So much for narrowing it down.", Lucas uttered. " Vampires are protective of their domains. That's where they are vulnerable. Find the one that doesn't stand out", he said before they split apart again.
"Be careful. There maybe vamps out there", Reina warned.
One monument became the next. Not one clue gave something away. Every few yards, another fallen angel waited. Some leaned against crumbling tombs. Others lay face-first in the earth, half swallowed by roots and wild grass. Minutes stretched and still nothing. They circled once more, and even met each other on their way around. Suddenly, Reina caught something she thought why she never noticed before. A veiled angel leaning back on the earth without any tomb to guard. Collapsed sideways lying broken across the ground, its face veiled with softened marble looking up the moon and the stars, and finger pointing at the heavens. A smear of somewhat reddish brown stained the stone beneath it. Small, but there. "Here!", Reina called, hoping this is the fallen angel they have been looking for.
Diana and Lucas hurried over from opposite directions. They found Reina leaning down, with her fingers hovering under the fallen angel.
Lucas pushed
"It leads underneath", Diana pointed her light down the
"Great", Reina
"Has anyone known that I've started to hate basements?"
"Good, because whatever's down there hates visitors even more",
A scream
"That's our call", Reina
A hiss
"I've got them, you go",
===========
"Kate!" Diana shouted as she rush to her friend. She tapped her shoulders, then on her face to wake her up. "Kate!! Kate!!", Diana repetitively called her name until her voice was heard in Kate's dreams.
Kate winced and eventually opened her eyes slowly. "Diana? Is that you?", she weakly asked. "Is this a dream?", Kate said as she try to get up.
"She's bitten", Reina figured.
"It's okay, I'm here now", Diana said as she sniffled. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?", she said as she help Kate sit up. Diana noticed some bleeding from Kate's shirt. Her operative wound must have opened up, she thought.
"Diana, stay back", Reina
"...you shouldn't have come", Kate whimpered. "She bit.."
"Welcome", Claudia greeted, while sitting on one of the chest tombs. "I am impressed
Diana put Kate behind her as she face Claudia. "I don't work with the Nagual. So, please let us go", Diana plead, as Kate squeezes her hand.