Show of Power
A/N: If you hit the video at the start of when Lori begins her song (denoted by the two ** & bold print), then you should be able to read in time to the lyrics (mostly). Thanks as always for reading and commenting! You guys are awesome!!
=c] wendy
Lori followed Des's lead down the dais. As they strode down the raised platform, Des directed several soldiers as they pushed a covered lump into the center of the dining hall.
“I don’t even want to guess what you have under that thing,” Lori whispered. The last time she followed him towards an unknown object she ended up in a different reality. This one would probably spit her out into the inside of a volcano on Mars.
“Relax, they don't have active volcanoes on Mars. Besides, you’re gonna love this,” he answered, looking a little too excited for comfort.
When they reached the center of the floor, Des reached up and pulled the covered sheet in one big jerk much like a magician would. Under the covering were several tall conga drums, though they didn’t look like any Lori had ever seen before.
Around the modified drums he’d arranged several odd looking cymbals. Walking around, Des grabbed a large candelabrum and set it up alongside his drum set. Lori watched as the candelabra flickered with the glow of several tapered candles, casting him in dramatic relief.
Des took position behind the tall drums, indicating where she should stand on the other side of the candelabra. When she was positioned exactly where he wanted her, Des began to pound out a beat with both hands.
Lori listened for a few seconds as he played and found herself feeling more than a little nervous. She knew this song, but wasn’t sure she could do it justice, though that wasn’t what filled her with trepidation.
“Are you sure?” she whispered to him.
“You got this,” he said sure.
“I don’t know if this is the right song for this group. It’s a little…intense.”
“This is the perfect song. Take a deep breath and listen for the cue,” he instructed.
Lori stood fighting back her nerves for a minute, still unsure about Des’s choice. For his part, Des only stared at her, the pupils in his eyes growing wide as the black all but consumed the grey. “Trust me. You can do this. You have to, so breathe and go on my mark.”
She nodded and filled her lungs with oxygen, feeling the expansion in her diaphragm and listened for her cue.
**When she began to sing, the sound came out slow and deep, “There’s a drumming noise inside my head and it starts when you’re around. I swear that you could hear it, it makes such an almighty sound…”
Lori closed her eyes, feeling the drumming music sweep over her as Des played. It was wild and exotic, and fitting for a hall full of wolves. She felt her body sway as she sang the words, feeling connected to the soulful music. The sound of Desmond’s drums echoed off the stone walls around them, sounding deeper and multiplying until it was as layered as the real song, “Louder than sirens. Louder than bells. Sweeter than heaven. And hotter than hell.”
Eyes closed, Lori gained a new appreciation for the Florence and the Machine song. The heavy beats enveloped her, filling her with a sense of something at once entirely foreign and utterly familiar. It was like herself only darker, more base in nature. She could feel it building inside her, the drums adding further to it. Whatever was happening, she knew Des was at the center of it. Whatever magic he was slowly unleashing was getting larger, growing not just inside her but also around the hall, moving through the room, touching everyone before coming back to her.
As she swayed faster, moving side to side, her arms raised to her face. She felt that power surround her, enveloping her in a hot embrace. It pulsed and pushed against her, like scalding water only denser, less liquid and more solid. What was that? Lori didn’t know but she pushed back, feeling whatever surrounded her body react to her touch. It tried to take her under but she fought against the current, swaying harder as she sang.
“As I move my feet towards your body, I can hear this beat. It fills my head…”
She felt Des begin to drum faster, harder. She matched his tempo, grabbing at the power that tried to overtake her with the darker power rising inside her body. Instead of fighting, she took it all in, changing it and making it her own along with the rest. It was instinctual; she didn’t know what she was doing only that she knew she did.
“I run to the river and dive straight in. I pray that the water will drown out the din…”
Des’s whisper filled her ear: That’s it, Lori.
"But as the water fills my mouth, it couldn’t wash the echoes out...”
Des’s voice urged her on: Don’t stop. Let it grow.
She tried, singing faster, “I swallow the sound and it swallows me whole ‘til there’s nothing left inside my soul. I’m empty as that beating drum, but the sound has just begun…”
Lori stayed on her feet, but just barely as the tempo built up inside her, cresting, growing until she could barely stand it and had to let it all out in one huge wave. All the candles in the room blew out save the ones by Des illuminating them.
Control it, Lori. It’s all yours. Direct it.
She tried but it was difficult. She didn’t know what she was doing; she was just going on instinct. As Lori opened her eyes she couldn’t see anything except for the glow of dozens of yellow eyes around the hall. Every wolf stood watching her, eyes casting their eerie glow in the darkened hall like their own light.
As one they pounded on the table with cups, plates, forks, clamoring. Some of them started to howl but Des only drummed harder, faster. Lori kept singing in the flicker of the candle flames to the sound of howling wolves and wildly beating drums.
Lori.
She looked across the room hearing Eric’s call. She stared into his eyes as they shone across the hall watching her, not the eerie yellow of the wolves, but a shiny gold like a beacon guiding her home.
And she knew then whatever power she’d released inside the room was searching for someone…no not someone…him: Eric. She focused, pushing all that power towards where he sat gripping the table as he stared at her. It followed her easily now, going where she directed as it found exactly the person it was looking for.
Eric jerked as everything she’d released slammed into him at once, filling him until he felt like there was nothing left of himself except that raw power. She knew because she felt it, felt it in his mind like they were one. She felt the power surge under his skin, lightning and electricity running through his very blood as the power bonded with him on a cellular level. For that brief moment in time Lori understood what it meant to truly be immortal, to have such ferocious power at a molecular level. It was a heady and intoxicating feeling – like falling at maximum velocity through space.
Des pounded harder, she sang the last refrain of the song with every breath in her body until there was nothing left inside. She felt Des slam his fists down on the drums at the end before sweeping his arm behind her and catching her. Together he lowered them in a bow, supporting all her weight. When they straightened, he held her close, using the strength in his arms to help her stand.
“Perfect,” he whispered right before everything went nuts inside the dining hall.
* * *
“Forgive me, lass, but you canna stay in your room this night. Viktor will escort you to Eric’s private study, and you are not to leave that room until his return. Do you understand?” Aiden asked her.
Lori nodded. They stood outside the great hall, away from where the wolves were still howling and pounding on the table. Des had rushed them out as the wolves started to get out of hand, Aiden close on his heels. She could hear Eric inside roaring to get the wolves under control. It didn’t take long for the racket to quiet down so it no longer filtered down the hall to where they stood.
“Yes, I understand, but…” she started to say.
“No buts Lori. You are in danger so long as Randor and his men are still here.” He looked at her, a look very close to awe in his eyes, “That was some performance, lass.”
She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t have any idea what just happened in there. She looked at Des who watched her, a secret smile playing on his perfect lips. “Outstanding,” he agreed.
Aiden gave some final instructions before heading back into the dining hall. Viktor nodded to her and led the way. As she turned to follow him, Desmond walked beside her.
“What was that?” she whispered, though she needn’t have bothered. Viktor’s hearing was as good as any wolf’s. She might as well have shouted, it would have been all the same.
“That my little sister was a show of power,” Des replied gleefully.
“Whose?” she asked, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice.
“Why, yours and Eric's of course,” he said like she was being simple again.
“I don’t have any power,” she hissed. If it was one thing she didn’t have, it was that; the ability to get into trouble in the most innocuous of places, yes…actual power that filled a room and blasted out the lights, not so much.
Des just smiled wider, “You may not have power like the others around this place, but you have something infinitely better.”
“Which is?”
“The ability to control it and give it to someone else – that mojo you felt when you were singing came from the wolves and you just gave it all back with interest to Eric.”
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“It means that those wolves are going to go back and tell Oren whatever the hell Eric wants them to.”
“Wait, that wasn’t your power I felt, then?”
He gave her one of his trademark looks, the kind that could mean anything and nothing at all, “No love, you would burn to a pretty crisp had that been my power you touched. It was the wolves…I just siphoned off a little and spread the wealth around.”
They reached the study door. After Viktor led them inside, he nodded and told her he’d stand guard until Eric returned. There was also a glint of something new in his eyes as he looked at her. What had she done now?
As the door closed behind him, Des turned and let her know he was going to return to the hall and help calm everyone down.
“Yeah, how do you plan on doing that?” she asked worried and curious at the same time. Why she was worried about Des she couldn’t begin to guess. If she had to though, it was probably because he’d sort of grown on her. Like mold.
“Why, dear sister, by regaling them with a tale for the ages. A heroic tale of good versus evil, of war and bloodshed, strife and family secrets brought to light.”
“Oh yeah? Did you find your copy of Beowulf then?” she asked, her eyebrows going up.
“No, my copy of Star Wars,” he said, giving her a cheeky wink. “They’re gonna love it!”
Des turned and left her there in the study to wait for Eric. She looked around and saw the immortal king’s hand everywhere inside the room. There was a large wooden desk, with a chair big enough to seat two by the only window. Across from the desk was a large fireplace, with two comfortable looking chairs set up on either side of a games table. A chessboard was set up in the middle of play. She walked over and took a quick look – it looked exactly like the chessboards she was used to back home except for one small details: instead of white and black pieces they were red and black. She picked up the small red queen and was impressed at the perfect detail. She even had small chips of precious stones set in the eyes. Lori wasn’t surprised to see they were amethyst.
Feeling too tired to stay on her feet she plopped down in one of the large leather chairs. Bringing her legs up underneath her, Lori curled up in the big chair and watched the flames burn down low in the hearth.
Closing her eyes, she fell asleep still holding the red queen and dreamt of a large moon with two wolves chasing it across the night sky.