Zelgadis didn't remain shocked for long. It wasn't as if Kenji could stand against him in a normal circumstance. In his current apathetic state, Kenji didn't even try to stop Zelgadis from forcing him to the hospital. Zelgadis had been heading that way anyway.
"We can't find anything wrong with that young man you brought in," Zelgadis didn't think that they would, but he had to make the effort. He called up the image of the golden-eyed girl with the fiery hair drinking out of the boy's cartoid. Her eyes closed and an expression on her face more akin to a lover's caress than a beast's feeding.
"We'll keep him for observation," the doctor continued. "And then release him, you said he was bitten?"
"That is what I believe those marks on the neck are."
"Oh, but did you see what?" There was a gleeful light in the doctor's eye as he decided to pick at Zelgadis' profession. "It wasn't a vampire was it?" Zelgadis considered answering that seriously, but thought against it. He would end up in the asylum right next to Kenji.
"No, I'm afraid not," Zelgadis lied bitterly. The doctor seemed moderately amused.
"They're human teeth," the doctor told him. "And not very deep, I think the young man's date may have gotten a little frisky."
"That might be an accurate statement," Zelgadis said, annoyed. "And on the other business?"
"The medical history of Amelia Wil Tesla Sairuun?" the doctor said, standing up and turning to a file cabinet. "I don't understand your interest in her, and I doubt the orphanage would hire a spiritualist under any circumstance."
"The orphanage?" Zelgadis rose one violet eyebrow. "What would she be doing in an orphanage, her parents seem well off enough." The doctor stopped rifling through his files to stare at him for a moment.
"Her parents?" he repeated. "Yes, they were quite rich, and she stands to inherit quite an amount once she hits her majority."
"Were?" That something that had been bothering him earlier in the estate was now batting at his mind's door with great leathern-wings.
"They died, about a year ago," the doctor found the file and flipped it open. He scanned it briefly and then set the file down on his desk. Zelgadis narrowed his eyes, there were supernatural presences all over this case, and he'd only noticed the most obvious of them. He didn't like what this said of his skills and powers.
Don't assume yet, Zelgadis thought to himself. They might just be imposters. "How did they die?" Zelgadis asked.
"A car accident," the doctor told him. He sat down behind the desk and flipped through the file again. "The injuries to the parents were extensive, we couldn't do anything to save them. The girl's injuries were not quite as bad, but we needed to perform a blood transfusion."
"And what is the problem with that?" Zelgadis asked.
"There was something odd about the patient's blood," the doctor answered, Zelgadis almost sneered at the way he kept referring to her as "the patient" or "the girl."
"We almost killed her when she rejected the first transfusion," he continued.
"And how did she manage to survive?"
"The father survived long enough to order us to use his and his wife's blood for the procedure. It worked."
"Did she know of this?"
"I don't know for certain, but I heard, that she used to call herself a vampire at the orphanage. Another reason for my joke earlier."
"I see," Zelgadis stood up and started to leave. "Thank you, that is very interesting to know."
As Zelgadis stepped into the estate again he realized what had been bothering him. The estate was so large and well-maintained that there was no way that two people could keep it up. Despite this there were no servants of any kind, just Amelia's shadow-like "parents."
He paused as the pale figures walked towards him and took in the air. The tranquility he had glossed over before was an illusion. The place was waiting, silently rolling and shifting behind the veils of the physical world. He followed the parents in feeling the strain of the place. Everything was pushed to the point of snapping, he could feel it. The light was slipping below the horizon and Zelgadis found that he did not like the look of the place in the night a all.
Zelgadis sat down before Amelia and glanced at her parents.
"Ghosts are all I need," he muttered. Then Amelia's eyes snapped open, revealing bright violet orbs that contrasted sharply with the pale white skin surrounding them. Skin almost as white as the bulk of the girl's eyes.
"Xellos, he's getting away again!" Lina shouted, alternately running and flying in pursuit of the white cloaked thing. The purple cloaked figure vanished from sight and appeared in front of the creature, which dodged aside with a swift worm-like motion. It leaped over the small moat as Lina landed on the water glaring at it angrily.
The creature paused a moment to face the apparition of the young girl standing like a ballarina on the top of the water, ripples extending outward from the single toe that touched the surface. It briefly considered fighting and thought better of it, after it finished it would have more power. Until then, the kyuuketsi was to be avoided. Then both parties were moving again.
"Amelia?" Zelgadis asked. The girl turned to him with a smile on her face, but otherwise it was as if she didn't even see Zelgadis. The girl reached out to try and embrace the surprised spiritualist in what seemed an affectionate hug. Zelgadis backed away from her, recent events teaching him to be suspicious. As he did so he noticed the non-responsive parents fade away into nothing.
Zelgadis had no idea what to do, and Amelia was standing up to walk toward him now. Then the double doors leading to the grounds slammed open, bathing the area in a brilliant light. Zelgadis saw a floating Lina descend towards his charge, and, by instinct, moved to intercept whatever was going to happen.
Lina didn't even bother to look up as her purple cloaked companion placed himself in Zelgadis's way. For the second time in the day, Zelgadis was forced to watch helpless as Lina bit into someone's neck. The girl, weakened already by a possession of unknown type, still reacted more to this than Kenji had.
"You fiend!!" Zelgadis yelled as Lina laid the fainted body of Amelia on the ground and wiped the blood from her mouth. "You'll kill anybody for a meal won't you!!"
Lina turned to him and shook her head laughing quietly.
"The true killer is about to show," she told him. Then something grew out of the blankets Amelia had been lying on. Zelgadis backpedalled as the bulk of the thing became obvious to him. It was a great worm like creature with a thin probiscus on what must have been its nose.
"This is the thing that was using Amelia's soul," Lina told him, letting it circle her calmly as if it were no real concern. Indeed, the actions of the monster seemed furitive and frantic compared to her cold-hearted confidence.
The creature was surrounded on all sides by eerie blue flames hanging in mid-air as if atop invisible candles. The creature writhed and bucked, roaring out into the night. The initial shock over, Zelgadis shook his head clear and moved forward. In his hand he brandished his small vajra wand. He began chanting and pressing forward, and the creature's struggles seemed to become faster.
Lina and Xelloss turned to face the human with a hint of curiousity and confusion. An arc of blue flame drew them out of the brief distraction. Lina watched as the flame arced toward her, laughing. It slowly died as it reached out toward her, and would have vanished completely into nothing. The impact of someone pushing her aside made it heard to concentrate fully on the defense.
Lina heard a cry of pain and looked to where the spiritualist had taken the weakened blast to save her.
"Idiot!" she shouted. She turned to the worm creature and slowly the blue flames around it vanished to be replaced by red. "Xellos!" The cloaked figure appeared behind her and held out his hand. Lina copied the motion and a small red flame burst into life inside her palm. She reached up and handed it to Xelloss. The purple cloaked figure took it silently, holding it just behind her.
Zelgadis, struggled to a sitting position and watched as black slates appeared surrounding the worm creature. Thin rays lanced out from the flame in Xellos hand, seeming like bloody lightning, and charred a name into the slates about the creature.
"Ra-en?" he said weakly.
"The name of this Shinma. It is known to your kind as Bakemono I think," Lina confirmed for him. "It dwells in dreams, in exchange for your soul it makes your dreams real."
"With this....thing's name discovered, it loses all its power, correct?" Zelgadis asked, still sore from the fire blast earlier.
"Yes, and all that remains is to seal it away," she turned to face him. "You should be dead." It was not stated with relief or obvious emotion of any kind. It was merely a statement of fact. The girl's golden eyes told a different story, there was a hunger there that was directed at him. A roar from the beast took the girl's mind off him.
"Seal him away!" she shouted, and Zelgadis watched as the slim, gloved hands of Xellos crushed the flame in his palm. The beast roared in final pain as it seemed to fold up into an impossibly small space. Above and below him hexagonal holes opened in the fabric of reality showing on the otherside serpentine black shadows and flickering blood-red skies.
A non-light radiated between the holes and shrunk as the area seemed to spin around. Zelgadis watched as the whole thing seemed to shrink into nothing. Then the world was still, and Zelgadis could see how truly rundown the estate was.
He struggled to his feet as Lina knelt down to Amelia's prone body.
"Wake up, little one," she said softly, brushing the girl's hair back away from the sweat dampened face.
"What did you do to her?" Zelgadis demanded. The purple figure moved to block his path to "Xellos's" apparent mistress. It didn't stop him from seeing Amelia stretch awake and bat golden eyes up at the fire-haired girl.
"Who are you?" Amelia demanded. "Where are my parents? What did you people do to my parents?"
"You made her..."
"Your parents are long dead child," Lina told the girl. She addressed Zelgadis without moving from trying to calm the girl. "It was the only thing I could do to save her, the shinma had almost used up her soul."
"Shinma?" Amelia repeated. Then she seemed to turn angry. "My parents are not dead, they were brought back!" Lina stood up and gestured for Amelia to do the same.
"Careful," she admonished. "You're likely still weak."
"What did you people do?"
"Those weren't your parents, Amelia they were illusions. You have to come with me now."
"You're not taking her any where she doesn't want to go," Zelgadis said firmly. He was holding the vajra out before him and had his other hand out in preparation to perform the chant again. Lina laughed sarcastically, but not unkindly.
"How can you teach her what she needs to survive?" Lina asked as the scared girl edged toward her protector. "How can you help her control herself so no one else dies?"
"What's she talking about?"
"I'm turning a girl over to a monster!" Lina shook her head, looking at the ground, and then she smiled. She turned to leave laughing quietly.
"That's funny you should say that," Lina said. "Well, perhaps you can teach her to be Kyuuketsi, if anybody other than me can. Anyway, I should be going now that my task is complete. Oh and don't worry about Kenji, he is beyond our world now." The girl gestured and Xellos vanished from sight, teleported away.
"He was in such pain and didn't want to bear this world any longer," Lina explained with a regretful laugh. Zelgadis didn't know whether she explaining things to him or to herself. "So I gave him is own little fantasy world to live in. It's true Zelgadis."
The girl closed the sliding doors and for a moment Zelgadis and Amelia could see her silhoutted by some unearthly white light.
"Bye-bye," the girl said, then her silhoutte vanished, swirling into a single, small point.
"What happened?" Amelia demanded of him. "Who are you?" Tears were streaming down her face.
"I'm not sure," Zelgadis answered.
Zelgadis walked down the street next to Amelia, the girl was still somewhat shell shocked from the night before. She had come to grips with her parents second "death," but she was still not comfortable knowing that her vampire game was no longer a game. Under the sunglasses and wide-brimmed hat, Amelia's eyes drifted to the figures of the beautiful people around her.
She had decided to remain with Zelgadis, he wasn't certain why, except that they both had reasons to learn more about this girl calling herself Lina. Something grabbed her attnetion and Amelia reached to get Mr. Zelgadis' attention. He was already looking that way.
"He's weird," one of the school girls in front of them said. "He just sits there all day doing nothing." Every one of them was a beauty in bloom and Amelia felt the new hunger rise in her throat.
"I know what his secret is," one of the students suggested. It was an older girl with conservatively maintained hair.
"Really?" somebody asked. "What is it?"
"He's perfectly happy," the red-head told them. Zelgadis looked out and saw Kenji sitting on his swing again staring into space. Amelia glanced out into the park as well and saw the boy. She instinctively licked her lips, and then sighed as she realized it.
"All we have to do is track down a shinma," Zelgadis said. "Where the shinma are, Lina will follow." The gaggle of school girls was leaving, unnoticed by Zelgadis. Amelia managed to suppress her desire and at least pretend to ignore their leaving.
"Hai she agreed," and the pair walked on down the street.
Part 4 | Fanfiction