It was several hours later that found Lash in one of the Silver Legion's spare officer's quarters, finally getting some rest after several days of frantic activity, heavy damage, and soul-destroying relentless pursuit by their enemies. After a shower to remove the final traces of his most recent dunk in a blood tank and donning a fresh Silver Legion uniform, he had asked to see the Ventru nestari currently ensconced in the guardhouse. Only to be politely but firmly refused.
Seeing few other options open to him, he then requested quarters to get some rest until the Conclave either summoned him before them once more. Or granted him and his nestari permission to leave and continue on to Brussels where a confrontation with the traitorous Anna van Tallert loomed. And he was immediately shown to the quarters he now occupied.
Resigned, for the moment at least, to his current trajectory, Lash meditated for nearly an hour to continue the process of centering his mind that Mimsy's blood meal began. That was followed by some light calisthenics and stretching. Then, after what felt like an eternity since he last was in a bed at the safehouse in Dublin, he climbed into the plain, but comfortable bed the quarters was equipped with and immediately went to sleep.
It wasn't hard; besides being physically worn and mentally exhausted, his service in the various military branches of the vampire nation had taught him to get sleep when and where he could, like a good soldier did. And that meant dropping off as soon as he was horizontal.
And, as a firm knock on the door had him instantly awake and fully alert, it had also taught him how to be awake and ready with the lightest of stimulation.
"Yes?" he called out, sitting up by swinging his legs around to put his feet on the floor. Lit by a single infrared light, much like the bedrooms at the safehouses were, he had plenty of illumination to see to the door, some fifteen feet distant from the bed and where it sat against the far wall.
Half expecting one of the legionnaires guarding his door to say he was being summoned back to Conclave, he was surprised when, instead:
"An old friend would like to see you," a familiar woman's voice replied.
Standing, Lash frowned as he tried to place the voice which, undoubtedly, sounded like someone he knew. But who? And why would they be here if they weren't Silver Legion? Because no lilith he knew sounded so powerless, for the lack of a better description. Rather, without the extra vibrancy and timber being a queen of the night seemed to bring to a vampiress's voice. Whoever it was, they were an ordinary vampiress, yet didn't belong to his group of Ventru nestari. Who wouldn't have identified themselves that way regardless.
With his patience finally running out at being unable to identify the speaker, he called out:
"Come."
The door immediately swung open and a vampiress in the uniform of the Silver Legion stepped in. Looking past her, Lash could see he now warranted four legionnaires as his guard, an increase over the two that warded his door after he was given the room to sleep in. Then he was refocusing on his visitor as she closed the door behind her.
"Couldn't figure out who I was, could you," she asked with a bright, excited smile as she stepped into the light cast by the infrared lamp.
"Not quite," he freely admitted with a frown.
"I'm hurt," she said, her smile never wavering. "Then again, it's been a decade and a half since we last spoke, so I almost don't blame you." She stopped a couple paces away. "After all, look what you've become: a giant filled with fire and vengeance!"
She then looked down at herself.
"And I'm a bit taller, my boobs are a bit bigger and my ass a little wider."
His frown deepening and his eyes narrowing, Lash peered more closely at his visitor's face since she didn't seem to be in a hurry to name herself. Yes, there was something definitely familiar about the shape of her face, the curve of her jawline, the arch of her eyebrows, those bright eyes ...
"No," he exclaimed, his eyes flying wide. "Naryan??"
The vampiress laughed with delight and stepped close to allow herself to be pulled into a massive hug.
"I knew you'd figure it out eventually," she said as she squeezed him tightly, an embrace he found himself returning enthusiastically. "Ingamon Lash, so very pretty, but not very smart!" A final squeeze then she was leaning back without letting go of him to look up into his face.
"You might have all the liliths convinced you're some sort of vampire god-hero but I know better. You're still that super self-conscious, skinny kid from Frankfurt getting homeschooled by your dad and wondering what the world was like beyond the borders of the Lash family estate!"
Lash laughed with delight.
"You always saw right to truth's very bones, Narya," he said with a grin. "Kahr's Ghost, what are you doing here?" He looked down at her uniform. "Silver Legion?? I thought you were going to become a member of the Nightbreeze Science Academy and explore the world!"
"Yeah, gotta admit becoming m'tada was the furthest thing from my mind when you and I last talked, what? Sixteen years ago??" Naryan said, her smile becoming wry. She let go of him long enough to motion with her head towards the bed.
After they sat on the room's only place to actually do so, Naryan pulled off her boots and moved to sit cross legged in the middle of the mattress while Lash stayed on the edge. It also afforded him the opportunity to get his first real good look at a childhood friend he had last seen when they were both in their teens.
Naryan Kingsguard was the daughter of one of House Lash's allied Houses, and a member of clan Ventru. With wavy brown hair, currently pulled into a neat bun, she was classically beautiful, her oval face blessed with big, green eyes, pale, flawless skin, and the strong jaw of her ancestors. A number of his father's closest advisors and lieutenants were from House Kingsguard, the culmination of a thousand years of mutual support and military alliance.
It was a relationship that often saw children from both Houses, along with a handful of other trusted and allied families, socially mixing with each other from a very young age. Lash had met Naryan when they were both ten years old, when her father had brought her over on an official visit to the estate to talk about an upcoming economic treaty between Ventru and Nosferatu.
The two young vampires, quickly tiring of the dry discussion surrounding gross revenue balancing against logistical options and support, excused themselves to go and play outside under the month's first full moon. And quickly found themselves becoming the best of friends.
It would grow into a relationship that lasted well into their teens, through fights between rivals on the playground, bad romances with others, growing social pressure to properly represent their Houses, and the demands put on High Born children to be leaders in their communities and clans. Through it all they helped each other stay sane and balanced, grounded and real while the complicated world spun in chaos all around them. It wouldn't have been a stretch to declare the two best friends.
Then, in the fall of his sixteenth year, his father announced Lash would spend the next few years at the Ventru military academy in Berlin, learning how to become a proper nestari from the best military minds the clan had to offer. It was a move that had angered and dismayed Naryan, who saw her best friend about to leave her. Pleas to her father, Lord Kingsguard, to send her with him to the academy fell on deaf ears. Her duty would be to her House, not to the Ventru military.
They had said goodbye then, in a teary day and night spent talking about a future where they could possibly meet up with each other again. And tenderly making love like only two friends that truly cared for, and loved each other, could. It was made that much easier by the fact they had always had sexual tension between them since puberty hit.
It had been a time Lash would never forget, treasured along with his fondest memories for the last sixteen years. Those memories were made all the more poignant by his fear he would never see her again. And here she was, sitting on his bed.
"It was Ingrid, you know," Naryan said casually, leaning back onto her hands.
"My sister??"
Naryan nodded.
"Like me, she didn't get to go to the academy in Berlin. But she so wanted to serve her people. So she found a lilith looking to bolster her guard and swore in as m'tada."
Lash frowned.
"You can become nestari without going to the academy, Narya," he pointed out. "I thought you knew that."
"Sure, if you want to become a grunt and die in some nameless action in the bush somewhere without making a difference," the vampiress retorted with a grimace. "I wanted to be an officer. Like you."
The big vampire sighed.
"Officers die in nameless actions in the bush too, you know," he said. "I lost count of the number of times I thought I would end up as a pile of ash in some stinking jungle hole." His expression became thoughtful. "Not to mention, some of the best soldiers I've fought beside recently, are grunt nestari, some of the finest warriors I've ever served with!"
Naryan made a dismissive gesture with your hand.
"Not the point, Lash," she said. "I mean, look at you. Rising to the very top of the vampiric military complex to become Qos Viran. Only officers do that." Then she abruptly made another dismissive gesture.
"But none of that's important now. I didn't come here to argue career paths with you. Suffice to say that, after doing my time at Nightbreeze as a certified vanguard explorer, I changed careers to become m'tada. And rose fast enough through the ranks that the Silver Legion recruited me." She paused to level a green-eyed gaze at him.
"They recruited your sister too, you know. But she was Emma's captain of the guard by that point. Her loyalty didn't let her accept."
Lash frowned at that revelation. He hadn't even known Ingrid was m'tada until she rescued him from that ambush in Frankfurt a week or so ago. To learn that she had been recruited by the vaunted military company tasked with safekeeping the lilith Conclave at NightFire was yet another thing he didn't know about his sister, long a stranger.
Ingrid had been born to the Lash family via a breeder, just as he had. But Ingrid's mother had been a clan breeder under the protection of one of Ventru's allied liliths, not the high born breeder Lash's father had asked NightFire's special permission to use, in order to obtain an heir to his House. That had automatically put distance between the two siblings. A distance his father only deepened by his efforts to turn Lash into the proper high lord he would eventually become, where Ingrid was pretty much left to her own devices, raised and educated by the household servants.
"How long have you been Silver Legion?" he asked and Naryan frowned.
"Five years this October, I believe," she answered after going through the numbers in her head. "Puts me middle of the pack. In charge of a company of younger recruits, but not a senior officer."
"And stationed to NightFire just in time to see one of the most calamitous times our people have ever experienced," Lash said grimly.
"It's been something, I'll grant you that," the vampiress replied. "White Flames and radioactive sundog rounds? The Hand losing its ever living mind, and traitors on the Council targeting liliths? What's next? Crossbreeding with psionics??"
That tightened Lash's expression slightly. Didn't Mordecai in one of his visions of the future reveal that exact thing had happened?
Then Naryan was leaning forward with an excited smile, reaching out to capture Lash's hand.
"But it also got me here in time to see you, Lash," she said. "Against all hope, here we are again, in the same room."
Lash had to chuckle softly at her enthusiasm.
"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying yourself here, Narya. Me? Not so much," he admitted. Naryan's smile faded as her expression hardened.
"A curse on that Nord bitch," she hissed. "As soon as the Lord Commander brought you inside the walls, the Conclave knew she would stir up some trouble. They demanded she vow to keep silent and not stir trouble during your questioning before the senior sisters. And she broke every vow to storm the floor and take possession of you." Her free hand balled into a fist even as she squeezed Lash's hand hard.
"I was in the barracks at the time of the Conclave and nearly armed my entire company and sent them in after you after I heard what she did." She sucked in a quick breath. "At least the two legionnaires that pulled you out of there were mine."
"You'll have to thank them for me," Lash said, his expression grim. "They saved my life."
"What did that cannibal bitch do to you, Lash?" Naryan demanded to know. "My troopers said you were covered in your own blood, knife wounds everywhere." She leaned in. "They also said she bit your manhood off."
Lash nodded slowly in confirmation.
"I don't remember the details, thanks to the saturation Compulsion she had me under. But yeah, she was a tad ... abusive."
Naryan leaned forward and, before Lash could stop her, slid her hand along his inner thigh to take hold of his groin.
"Hey!" he exclaimed, dropping his hand onto hers to pull it away. But not before she gave his restored manhood a squeeze.
"Thank the Dark Father!" she exclaimed, her hard expression melting away as a playful smile returned. "All of female vampiredom would've wept if that beautiful thing had been removed permanently."
Lash couldn't help another chuckle.
"I'll have to take your word on that," he said.
"Says the vampire the entire Conclave has declared an alpha prime male!" Naryan teased before sobering. "It was a message."
"Removing my manhood?" Lash nodded, also sobering. "She meant for me to die under her fangs and be found with my manhood missing. An unmistakable message about the power of House Lash being stolen and destroyed by the Nord." He looked over at a frowning Naryan.
"She also gave me a message in a whisper so she wouldn't be heard by anyone else before I lost conscious control in the Conclave. She said that she would carry any child I put in her to term. Only to give birth to it and symbolically devour her own newborn to ensure no Nord would ever carry the blood of House Lash in their veins."
Naryan gasped, her eyes flying wide in shock.
"She said what?? She demanded reponere infanti to make sure she got pregnant by you, then vowed to eat the baby??"
Lash grimly nodded in confirmation.
"I'm pretty sure she thought the Conclave would never discover the plan, because I would be too dead to tell them," he said. "And she almost got away with it. Only a trauma tank filled with werewolf blood kept me from dying."
"And I'm pretty sure that when I tell the Lord Commander what you just told me, they will execute her on the spot and liberate the embryo from her corpse before giving it to the creche mistresses to rear, " Naryan said tautly. "Only a monster like that could put aside our most sacred values so casually. And to cannibalistically eat her own young?? The Nordstrom deserve extinction!"
"The last Nord I killed spat in my face even as he was ashing out for being a spy in my company for the enemy," Lash darkly noted. "That was just over a week ago. Their ancient hatred has become even more bitter in their continuing isolation." He looked over at a furious Naryan.
"Which begs the question: the Nordstrom are not in danger from the Hand and the traitor on the Council. What is Anka even doing here? She didn't need refuge."
Naryan's rage gave way slightly to thoughtfulness.
"I'm starting to wonder that myself," she admitted. "She certainly wasn't questioned when she appeared in the Night Market four nights ago."
"Shortly after we managed to reach Dublin and the Ventru fortress safehouse there," Lash indicated. "A day or so after I staked out her traitorous countryman."
"Was he transmitting his location?"
Lash nodded.
"It was how we found him," he revealed. "We were ambushed right after groundfall, which told us our flight plan was given away to the enemy. So we started ..."
"A spy hunt." Naryan nodded. "Logical. But now I wonder if he was transmitting not only to the Hand, but to the Nordstrom as well!"
"They've been looking for an opportunity to take a shot at Ventru for centuries," Lash said with a thoughtful look of his own. "The spy may have tipped Anka off to an operation against Ventru. All she needed to discover after that, was what was happening to see if she could take advantage of it."
"Like your rescue of Mistress Faidh on the Galway to Dublin train," Naryan pointed out, "along with the loss of her m'tada, Magnar's death throwing Clan Magnar into disarray and Clan O'Broin unable to provide proper protection. That leveraged you into ..." She put a hand on her forehead.
"Dark Father's pointy beard, that leveraged you and your team into bringing her here personally! Where your reputation and deeds would inspire the Conclave into bringing you inside so they could question you."
Lash grimly nodded.
"Then all she had to do was time her arrival and smuggle in her weapons and she would have an opportunity to have her vengeance against House Lash," he darkly finished. "If the Nordstrom are working with the Hand, she may have even pushed the Hand into making the attack on the train, and on Faidh's compound in Dublin to eliminate all of her Blood Guard, forcing our hand."
"Gah!" Naryan exclaimed, throwing up her hands and looking up at the ceiling. "The twists and turns alone hurt my head!" Then she looked back at Lash. "Yeah, she's going to lose her head over this one."
The big vampire nodded slowly once more.
"A punishment earned," he said. Naryan nodded in agreement.
"It just leaves one question still unanswered," she said. Lash looked over at her and found his childhood friend undoing the fasteners on her uniform top.
"Uh, what's that?" he asked as she pulled her top open to reveal a rather delicate bra and lots of bare skin.
"If that regrown beast you have there, works properly," she replied, her playful smile returning. The top she tossed onto the floor before beginning to work on her pants.
"I say we give it a test run."
"You do, do you?" Lash said, brow raised. Naryan went up on her knees to start pulling off her pants.
"Yup. Look at it this way, pretty boy. At least there isn't Compulsion involved. You'll be able to feel everything, taste everything, and remember everything."
Lash considered that for a moment as her pants followed her top onto the floor. Then he was nodding and reaching for his own buttons.
It was a damn fine point.
****