Mine, Bitten

Chapter Forty-One

   Varian

      The air hummed with antediluvian blood; blood far more ancient than his own, and far more powerful, a power that could render you utterly senseless like a shock wave that set every nerve-ending aflame.

            The elders were here? It stalled him where he stood.

            The elders never ventured from their lairs below the city and the very notion that they had come out of hiding meant only one thing entirely; death.

            If a mortal were to look upon an elder they would know instinctively that they were not of the modern world. Their very aurora bespoke of old age, when things were done eloquently so in a polished, refined manner, but beneath the pristine image harbored a deadly and unfathomable creature. They were unworldly, strikingly so with their dark sapient eyes and pale white skin.

            He felt their presence like a shattering in the air and caught their shadows swiveling amongst the room.

            And suddenly they were there, materializing in the center of the scattered bodies.

            Varian straightened, squaring his shoulders as he leveled a hardened gaze upon the ancient two.

            Alessandro and Pearly had dared exposure and their power radiated in the room like a shock of electricity, streaming the roughened walls and marbled floors.

            They stood erect and significantly sharp though Pearly was small in stature and strikingly pale in all aspects from the silken cloth she wore to the curls atop her head, where as Alessandro was in every sense of the word dark.

            Varian eyed Alessandro with simmering distaste. The two were not on likeable terms and had on frequent occasions, their disagreements brought to the brim.

            Talon and Blanch had straightened rigidly with Ruby standing at their backs, clearly puzzled but sensing the discernable power.

            The mutt had disappeared altogether Varian noticed keenly, probably having sensed their power before appearing, fled at first chance.

            Good. He thought. He certainly didn't need the elders realizing their somewhat correspondence with the wolves. It wouldn't set well with them.

            Alessandro eyed the number of bodies, his mouth twisting with displeasure, "What a disorderly mess of human-" he chided, "-Seve will not approve." He raised his sharpened eyes and they settled curiously on Ruby, "Who is the fledgling?"

            Ruby stiffened beneath that shrewd, black gaze.

            Marguerite stepped forward, "She is my protégé."

            Alessandro's gaze wavered as he arched a blackened brow at this, "You are not one to condone a dependent, Marguerite."

            "She knew too much." Marguerite explained, "I had to turn her."

            "Why not kill her?" Alessandro suggested with a twisted grin, "That notion is far more appealing especially for someone as cold as yourself, yes?" he met her gaze unflinchingly.

            Marguerite raised her chin, undaunted, "It is already done." She was startled to feel somewhat defensive and a sharp instinct to protect her protégé came into play.

            Alessandro sensed this but said nothing further.

            "There is another." Pearly interjected sweetly, placing a small hand in the crook of Alessandro's arm as she peered at nothing in particular, her senses tuning keenly to the presence of another newly made vampire.