Every good collection of fairy tales contains some basic key ingredients: supernatural creatures, tyrants, wicked step-parents, dark and foreboding woods, trickster spirits, vainglorious youths, forbidden love. We begin our collection here, dear reader, with the woeful tale of two orphans, left to fend for themselves in a cruel and unfamiliar world.
Once upon a time.....
Masha loved rock concerts. It wasn't the music really; she'd been to and thoroughly enjoyed plenty of shows where the musicians really should have been mowing lawns or serving coffee or working in Daddy's lumber business or whatever generally happened to kids like that when "the band thing" didn't pan out. It was the rush of the crowd, the heady scent of so many people pressed together as their skin flushed and their blood pumped in perfect rhythm with the beat of the music. She didn't understand why they didn't attract more of her kind. She hadn't intended to attend this concert, however.
With a window of time to fill before her meeting and nerves so on edge she had rubbed a raw spot on her finger fidgeting with her ring, Masha had found her way to the large outdoor festival by instinct as much as anything. It was packed. People were pressed together in small groups near the midway, browsing merchandise, drinking, eating, flirting. She pushed past them as she headed back to the area simply designated The Blue Stage where she could hear a band already well into their current set. They had a certain driving quality that she found appealing, so she found a free spot and stopped to enjoy the show. She surveyed the throng with a wary eye, watching as pretty girls in ripped jeans and band t-shirts screamed and swooned at the front of the stage. The lead vocalist, an attractive dark-haired man in heavy eyeliner and face paint, bounced in front of them as he sang. Masha tried to relax, to lose herself in the moment but the tension refused to leave her. Still, the music was really good, and when the chorus came around again she found herself singing along.
"Run away, run away, I'll attack
Run away, run away, go chase yourself
Run away, run away, now I'll attack"
She stayed as the songs progressed and changed, enjoying the passion the group performed with and the response of the audience This group really seemed to know how to work a crowd. As they neared the close of their set Masha began to make her way back towards the gate, noticing over her shoulder that the vocalist had begun climbing the scaffolding that surrounded the stage area. The crowd was cheering so loudly at that point that she was sure that no one else heard the terrible groan of metal as it started to tear. Quickly she turned toward the source, realizing too late for even her to stop anything that it was the scaffolding the singer was now perched at the very top of. Helplessly she watched as the erection gave way, sending metal fragments raining into the crowd and tumbling the scaling vocalist to the ground where he landed on his side with a sickening thud. Then the screaming started.
The next few minutes were utter chaos as people began to process what had happened. In addition to the now immobile musician, several people had been injured by falling debris. Panicked patrons were running away from the stage area as others rushed towards it to see to the casualties. Masha could smell not just the blood in the air but panic and confusion as well. It was a heady mix under any circumstances, but coming from as many people as were present here it was nearly overwhelming. She closed her eyes momentarily and tried to calm her senses enough to make it through the crowd but she kept being drawn back toward the injured singer. His injuries were profound, and she could feel how close to death he was. When she tried to reach out her awareness she realized his spine was severed. At least he wasn't in any pain. She doubted he was aware at all. She looked at the handsome man where he lay and thought what a tragic waste it was. He had seemed so vibrant and talented. Even after the short time she had been watching him Masha already found herself rather taken with him. She tried to ignore the thought forming at the back of her head. It was a bad idea. She made her way to the man anyway.
Security had begun surrounding the fallen vocalist. When he fell, Masha had observed the band's drummer, who had kept a watchful eye as his band mate had scaled the scaffolding, go practically flying over his kit as he rushed to the injured man's side. He stood there now, the color drained from his face as he took in the severity of the situation. "Jared you fucking asshole! Why do you have to keep climbing shit?!" he shouted at the still form, alternately reaching towards him, then stepping back, seemingly torn between wanting to help and being afraid of causing more damage. He shakily ran his fingers through his dark hair. Masha didn't need any special awareness to feel the grief and anguish coming from him. She watched as he fell to his knees on the hard ground, leaning in close to his dying companion. "Please little brother, please get up. Please don't do this."
The two were brothers. An acute sorrow twisted in Masha as she fought to keep memories buried. The others gathered around were clearly upset but this man's heartbreak was, understandably, so much more profound. As much as she had worked to harden her heart in the past decades the drummer's grief was cutting through every wall she had built, and she knew exactly why. The memories wouldn't stay buried long if she didn't leave. Quickly she closed her eyes and started to back away to save herself from the flood of regret that was threatening to overpower her. She knew she shouldn't intervene, that was the beginning of the journey that had gone so wrong before. But this was so needless. A waste. She looked at the kneeling brother who had begun sobbing now, the reality of the situation becoming brutally clear to him. The younger brother, the one he had called Jared, had not so much as twitched since the fall. His head was at an awkward angle, a small trail of blood running from his ear. She realized even they must be aware of how dire the situation was. Masha could still hear his heartbeat but it was slow and very faint now. It would be over soon. She looked at the older brother again. His despair poured from him in waves as someone wrapped their arms around him, trying futilely to reassure him. She couldn't bear it, and she decided she wasn't going to. This time she was going to get it right.
She knew she had very little time. Not only was she almost certain at this point to be late to her meeting with Davrosh, but rescue personnel would be here soon, attempting, however futilely, to save the young man. When that happened she doubted she would be able to get anywhere near him, and there was no way he was going to hang on long enough to make it to the hospital. She needed a plan. And in this thick of a crowd, it was going to have to be a good one.
Searching the pandemonium, Masha spotted a jagged piece of what had once been the ill-fated structure. Scooping it up she surreptitiously cut a deep path along the length of her arm and was immediately rewarded with a generous rush of blood. She tore a length of her shirt loose and tied it around the wound before pushing her way through to the injured man.
"Let me through, I'm a doctor," she lied with a shout. "I was in the crowd." The protective knot around the dying man parted to give her access. She knelt down, making a pretense of examining him. This close up her preternatural senses started telling her more things, none of them good. She needed to get some blood down him now. "He's not getting enough air." she proclaimed. "We have to stabilize his airway."
Masha positioned herself to camouflage her movements. Working quickly she pulled the improvised bandage from her arm, letting as much blood flow into Jared's mouth as possible. She hoped that it would be sufficient, that it wasn't already too late. With a quick glance around to make sure the group hadn't noticed, she lowered herself to him as if to give him resuscitating breaths, pushing as much of the precious blood into his system as she could. It wouldn't be enough to save him completely or to turn him, but it should buy her enough time to do things properly. She leaned back and waited.
"Shouldn't you keep going? Isn't there something else you can do?" the brother asked.
"He's breathing, just faintly. He's stunned. We need to give him a minute," she improvised. Masha listened for the sounds of his heartbeat again but she could no longer make it out. She was beginning to think she had been too late, that it hadn't been enough, when Jared took a single rasping breath. His blue eyes opened and he stared straight overhead, unblinking, chest still. His brother took his hand, apparently unafraid of further injuring him now. His body was completely silent. Internally, Masha began to count. One... two... three... four... five... six...
With a hoarse cry Jared drew in a sharp breath of air. Then another. He seemed to be struggling to move. Masha could hear his heartbeat again but it was still very faint and erratic. His brother placed a strong palm on his chest to try to reassure him and keep him from moving.
"Hold still man. Something might be broken."
Too many things to catalog, Masha thought. This was not a remotely survivable accident. The supernatural blood had bought him a few more minutes but if she let the medical personnel take him away he would be gone before they could even reach a hospital. Still, there was nothing else she could do here with so many onlookers. Already the paramedics were swarming in, parting the panicked crowd like Moses crossing the Red Sea. They would have him packed up and transported to the nearest hospital in minutes. Masha realized the only thing she could do was get into that ambulance with him. She resumed her previous air of authority and began barking orders at the paramedics, thankful for the skills she had picked up in her time with the Whitehats. "Isolate the C-spine and get him on a back board. We need to transport NOW."
Miraculously they did as she asked without argument. Masha gave an internal sigh of relief. Using her abilities in a crowd like this was incredibly dangerous and she was glad she hadn't had to resort to Commanding them. As they loaded him into the vehicle she identified herself as a trauma specialist and insisted on accompanying them. The EMT simply nodded and boarded the front of the ambulance. Just as they were about to pull out the older brother flung open the bay doors and climbed into the back, ignoring the protests of the paramedic who was busy working on Jared. Time was running out and Masha realized she could use him. "Just go, just go!" she shouted. When the attending medic began to protest about regulations and liability she leveled her gaze and waited for him to catch her eye before repeating the command. Without another word of argument, he signaled for the driver to pull out.
Masha waited for the ambulance to clear the crowd before beginning her plan of action. She placed a hand on the back of the determined man who was now bent over his brother, watching the paramedic closely as he did his work. "What is your name?" she asked.
"Shannon," he answered without turning from his brother. She regarded him for a moment, a solid, muscular figure with an intense gaze that on any other day, in any other circumstance, people probably found intimidating. It was in sharp contrast to the love and concern for his little brother that was evident now. They clearly had a very strong bond. Masha felt she had made the right decision to intervene. She just hoped that they wouldn't balk at the cost.
"My name is Masha. Shannon, how badly do you want to save your brother?"
He didn't hesitate. "Anything. Do whatever you need to do."
She knew he couldn't possibly have in mind what was about to happen, but that would have to do. With a nod, Masha acknowledged him, then, with an unnatural swiftness, swept the paramedic into his chair. Pressing down on his throat, she had him unconscious in seconds. Shannon's eyes widened. "Listen to me carefully," she told him. "Your brother's injuries are too severe to be survivable. His spine is severed. There is multiple organ damage. He's bleeding out internally. We have minutes. Maybe not even that."
"How can you know...."
Masha ignored the question and continued on. "Move to the opening there so the driver can't see us." He hesitated, looking between her and Jared's rapidly failing form. "It's this or nothing. I'm sorry. Please understand I don't do this lightly." He hesitated for another moment and Masha briefly toyed with the idea of Commanding him but then he moved where she had indicated and gave her a nod of acquiescence.
As Masha turned to look down at the unconscious young man another wave of sorrow gripped her. Everything he was going to be was about to be potentially washed away. She wondered what his dreams had been, if he had wanted more than the life on stage that was all of him that she had seen so far. He would have to be so much more careful with his public exposure from here on out. Who knew what that would do to his career. How would he continue in the public eye when they started to realize he wasn't aging? As for his personal life, was there a girl somewhere waiting to fill their house with tiny feet? Did he already have children, children that he would now watch grow old before him? She reminded herself it didn't matter anymore. He was as good as dead without her intervention. She was taken nothing from him, all those things were already lost to him. She was only giving. This was the only way he would have any kind of future at all. It didn't stop the flood of sorrow as she used her teeth to open the vein at her wrist.
"What the fuck, are you crazy lady?" Shannon exclaimed as she let her blood flow into Jared's open mouth. Masha didn't respond, her attention on the task at hand. There was still a heartbeat there as he stubbornly clung to life. That stubbornness had kept him going long enough to give him this chance now, but she needed him to let go. She needed him to drink.
"Come on!" she exclaimed through gritted teeth. Any minute now the driver might become suspicious of what was going on here, or Shannon might panic and try to interfere. Frantically she slapped at the sides of his face. Maybe he was too far gone. Masha was about to place her hand under his neck to try a different position when saw the first swallow. It was an agonizingly long ten seconds before there was another, but another soon followed after that one and then the reaction started, animating Jared's limbs and causing him to grab for Masha's wrist as the hunger took over. It was a bittersweet victory as she listened to his heart still for good this time.
As Jared drank at her wrist she looked to Shannon still standing behind him. His smudged and ruined eyeliner stood in stark relief now that any remaining color had gone from his face. She waited for the question. It was easier if they at least started to get there on their own.
"Are you....?" She could see him warring with himself, unable to say the word that must sound completely ridiculous to him, but the connections had been made. "Is he going to be...?"
"A vampire. That's the word you're looking for. And yes, if we're putting it in the most simple of terms." There was so much to explain and Masha was painfully aware of how little time they had. It had been the best decision in the moment, but now reality was setting in quickly. She needed to do this fast. "I don't have much time so I need you to listen carefully. There is an entire supernatural world out there. Vampires are just one tiny part of it. Think of every fairy tale you've ever heard. Most of them have their seeds in reality. What I am, what your brother now is, is an undead creature called a Moroi. We're part of what the western vampire myths were based on."
Shannon stood frozen, looking at his brother drinking from the tall woman's wrist. "Undead," he finally said in a measured tone.
"Well, you're a quick one." Masha was a little impressed with the fact that he was speaking at all and not screaming for help in a blind panic. "Yes. Technically, he just died." Masha turned back to Jared who had dropped her wrist and stopped drinking from her but clearly was still in the throes of the transformation. His eyes were wide open and unblinking, his chest was still and he would have looked for all the world to be dead if it wasn't for the way his hands shook at his sides. Gently she traced her hand down the side of his face, already feeling the bond as it started to form. He was her responsibility now. And she was about to abandon him. "Look, it's going to take a while for his body to heal, the damage was pretty severe. By then I'll need to be gone. So you've got to remember all this so you can explain it to him."
Shannon's expression changed from shock to fury. "Gone? You can't just turn someone into an undead... whatever and then just skate!"
"Moroi. But vampire is fine. And really I have no choice, I was on my way somewhere and that appointment cannot be avoided. I shouldn't have stopped to change him, I don't really have the time to spare, but I couldn't bear to see the two of you like that." Shannon was breathing hard, his hands in his hair as he tried to process the situation. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry about all of this." She hated that it had to be done this way. She wanted to calm him, to reassure him that all of this could be dealt with, could be managed but it was more important to make him understand the reality of the situation they were in. "When I am done I will come back for you but that might be a few days."
Shannon took a few cautious steps towards his brother, watching him quietly as he struggled with whatever supernatural processes were keeping him there. "In a few days, we'll be in Virginia."
She somehow doubted that they wouldn't be canceling at least a few shows after this disaster but didn't have time to argue. "It doesn't matter. I can find him." Thankfully Shannon didn't insist on an explanation of that claim. "Listen. He will need to drink blood now to survive. Human blood. Don't bother buying animal blood at the butcher, everyone tries that, this isn't some sappy TV show, that won't work. But this isn't a monster movie either. No one has to end up dead, not as long as he feeds often, just taking in small amounts. Don't let him get too hungry, it will make it harder to maintain control. He's going to need a bunch of blood tonight, though, to finish the change and repair all this damage. I'll steal some from the hospital before we go." She looked to make sure Shannon was still listening. "Forget the other vampire myths. Sunlight can be problematic, but only because we blister and burn easily. Make sure he keeps as much skin as possible covered outside during the day and uses lots of strong sunscreen." She looked down at Jared who had stopped shaking and had begun to blink his eyes in a more normal resemblance of health. "He'll only forget once, trust me. That's not the biggest thing, however. There are a lot of sensory changes that come with this. He'll be able to sense emotions strongly, smell things he's never smelled before. Adrenaline. Fear. Hear hearts beating. There are new awarenesses. It will be overwhelming. He will most likely be confused and disoriented for the next few days. It may even leave him completely incapacitated. It's different for everyone. Try and help him through it." Masha looked up and saw that the hospital building was visible now in the ambulance window. "Do NOT let on what you are. I cannot stress that enough. There are rules and bodies that enforce them and the penalty for revealing ourselves is severe. Do not let them examine him at the hospital. Do whatever it takes to get away from there as quickly as possible."
"I want to be one too." Shannon brushed his hand through his little brother's hair. 'He shouldn't have to do this alone."
Masha barely stifled the urge to tell him off. "Yes, what a great idea. Let's compound the problem by making two brand new baby vampires and leaving them to fend for themselves while I run off to..." she stopped herself. No sense in scaring them any more than they already were. "Don't. Just don't. Please. Don't try it. His blood isn't strong enough, won't be for years. You'll only kill yourself. Then he truly will be alone. I'll be back for you as soon as I can. Take care of him until then." The ambulance drew to a stop in the emergency bay. "I'm going to go get that blood. There should be some confusion when they realize that he" she gestured towards the still limp paramedic in the seat "is unconscious. Make it sound like he was having a heart attack so they'll make a fuss over him. I'll be right back."
Sure enough, once the EMT came around and found his partner slumped in the back all hell broke loose. Since Jared had begun to move at that point they were able to deflect the attention fairly easily. In minutes Masha was back with a large duffel bag which she handed to Shannon.
"Take this. Make sure he drinks all of but the last four pouches. Save those to manage his hunger until I get back. Hole up somewhere. The quieter and more out of the way the better. Make whatever excuse you need to but he's going to need a few days away from everyone else to go through the change. Help him as much as you can. I'll find you and come back to you the soonest I am able. Good luck. Be careful." Then with a whirl of her white-blonde hair, she was gone.