Black Catkin Part 10

Part 10

Hadrian looked at his watch for what seemed like the hundredth time.  "They've been in that place too long." he muttered, looking out the car window, "Maybe we should go in?" Ash looked from the hand held video game he was playing.  Both his feet where rested on the dash board and his seat was pushed far back to give him more room.  He looked every bit the big blonde cat. "Chill out, Dri-man" he said casually, his now moss green eyes looking calm, "Rashel and Quinn know what they're doing."

Suddenly several cars roared past them and a few men came running along the path beside them.  Taking charge, Ash rolled down the window and stuck his head out.  "Hey man!" he shouted to a guy with spiky blood red hair and brown eyes running past the car, "What's the rush?"

"There's a fire down at the cemetery" the guy said, gasping from all running he'd been doing, "The whole place and half the forest surrounding is alight."

Quickly, Hadrian rolled down the other window and stuck his head out, looking over the roof of the car.  "Hey," he said, trying not to let his worry show, "was there anyone in the cemetery when the fire started?"

"Someone said they saw a boy, seven girls including a little girl enter the grave yard a while ago" came the reply, "But that was some time ago, and no one saw them leave."

Slowly Hadrian looked at Ash.  Ash's face mirrored his own.  Fear.  Fear for Ash, because he would be letting Mary-Lynette down if he didn't save his friends from the fire, but he knew it could hurt him or easily kill him.  And fear for himself, because deep down inside he knew there was person in the cemetery, in the middle of the fire, that he would never be whole without, if they died.

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"Nine hundred and ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall, nine hundred and ninety nine bottles of..."

"Wait a minute, guys.  I think she's back."

"...wait a minute, guys, I think she's back on the wall.  Take one down, pass it... Hey! That’s not how it goes!"

Arizan laughed at the young dog shifter's remark and shook her head.  "No" she said, coughing back a stray laugh, "I meant, Pandie's coming around.  Y'know, back from Zombie Land.  Look."

All three girls stared at Pandie.  Up until then, she had been standing completely still, not moving a muscle.  But now her eyes were blinking and her nose was twitching.

"PANDIE!!!"

Both Pandie and Casey fell to the ground.  "Um, yeah Case," mumbled Pandie, bewilderment showing on her face as she got back on her feet and brushed herself down "it's great to see you too, but I haven't been away or anything, ya know."

Suddenly she looked around her.  "Wow," she said, waving her hand about, "Where'd all this come from?" Arizan walked over to part of the smoke wall.

"Oh, you mean this?" she said, pointing to the wall, "Apparently after you went all zombie on us, some idiots decided to set the whole place alight and attack us at the same time."

"What's with the smoky wall?"

"Ah, le smokey wall" came Arizan's reply, "That's been here since the fire got to its worst point.  Strangely enough, you're the only person it surrounded.  We all had to crawl through the smoke to get in here."

"The Traum Zauberin."

"Huh!"

"Nothing" said Pandie, shaking her head, "So how do we get out of here, then?"

As if to answer her question, the wall of smoke began to collapse.  Now she could see what Arizan meant.  The whole place was on fire.  Orangey red flames covered almost everything.

Just at that moment four guys dressed totally in black pounced on the unsuspecting girls.  At first everything went okay.  Casey shifted into her dog form right in front of the idiot who had dared to grab her and proceeded to bite his leg, hard.

"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!" he screamed, clutching his leg, "She just bit me!"

"Oof! Aaaaoooow!"

Arizan looked around and saw Liedryn glaring at a 'wolf cowering on the ground in front of her.  "I told you to keep your muddy paws off me." she hissed at him, kicking him in the stomach, "Do you realise how much it costs to clean cashmere?! It's already covered in soot, and now you want to make it worse by adding mud to it?! And for your information, I am not your Sweetcakes!?!"

Muttering under his breath, the 'wolf slowly began to get up.  Quickly, before he could get more than an inch off the ground, Arizan lashed out at the 'wolf with her witch power, using it to hold him down.

"Not so fast, Fido" she said, trying to put as much authority into her voice as possible, "You're staying there until you tell us who sent you."

"I don't think so."

Before she could react to the words spoken behind her, Arizan felt a strong hand cover her mouth and the tip of something sharp and metal dig into her back.

"I don't like getting hit with a shoe," hissed the vampire, who had obviously recovered from the little sleep he'd been sent into, "even if it has got a wooden sole.  Us vampires have our dignity, you know."

Oh, give me a break! Arizan thought to herself, Is there some Night World rule that I don't know about.  Vampires, if you find that you're about to be knocked out with wood, make sure whoever's about to knock you out uses a great big wooden club, or possibly a good thick tree branch, and not a brown leather wooden soled clog.  If they use the third item, everyone in the Night World is entitled to call you a wuss?!

"Now, release Rick," the vampire continued, "or this iron knife is going straight through you and out the other side."

Reluctantly, Arizan withdrew the witch power holding down the 'wolf.  Slowly, the 'wolf got up again and this time took the chance to change.  But nothing happened.

"Ulrick!" the vampire said through clenched teeth, "Change, you moron!"

"I can't!" came the reply, "I've forgotten how!!"

"What do you mean you've forgotten how?!" said the vampire, anger rising in his voice, "Changing into your wolf form is all you 'wolves are good at! You can't just forget!"

If she wasn't stuck in a life or death at that moment, Arizan would've laughed.  Here where two loyal members of the Night World, dedicated to ridding the world of the vermin, known as humans, except for the ones they would keep for food and slavery.  But there they were, a vampire and a werewolf, arguing back and forth like humans.

"I don't know why I've forgotten how to change!" the wolf went on, "I've just forgotten!!"

Arizan looked at the others.  Liedryn was standing in a fighting stance, ready to pounce when given the chance.  Casey, still in her dog form, was crouching down on all fours, snarling at the witch she'd just bitten.  And another witch had managed to grab Pandie from behind and was holding her right arm, high up and close behind her back.  But when Arizan looked at Pandie's face, her new friend grinned back at her.

"OK mongrel!" the vampire snarled, "this is your doing again, isn't it?! I'm going to have to go into that worthless little mind of yours and make you stop your stupid tricks!"

Rizzo Pandie's voice called mentally to Arizan, remember how I said early that I'd teach you how to block your mind properly? Well, I'm going to teach how do that now.

"Hey," the vampire went on, this time smiling arrogantly, "maybe I'll get the location of Circle Daybreak while I'm at it.  The Dark One will definitely give me a big promotion for that."

Okay, while Fang Face blabs on, Pandie said mentally, while the vampire kept singing his own praises, imagine a big thick solid metal wall surrounding your mind.

Following Pandie's instructions, Arizan imagined a big thick solid metal wall surrounding her mind.  She made it extra thick and extra high so nothing could get through.

"But that's enough about how great I am." the vampire said, finally stopping going on about himself, "Now I'm going to rearrange that worthless little mind of yours, mongrel."

Um, Pandz Arizan spoke mentally to the dark honey blonde haired girl, standing near her, He's going to find out I'm blocking my mind and turn me into shish kebab when he does!!

Okay Pandie's mental voice said calmly, imagine the wall surrounding your mind has a powerful electric current running through it.

It was strange, but Arizan could almost feel the powerful electricity as she imagined it running through the wall surrounding her mind.  She could almost picture little bright blue white sparks jumping about over the wall's smooth surface.  Slowly she felt the vampire's mind poking around her mind, trying to get into its main part.  Fortunately the electric mind wall worked, because the vampire winced as though he was in pain.

Yes! Take that Fang Face! she thought triumphantly, then to Pandie, By the way Pandz, he's still poking around in my mind, ya know.  How do I get him out of my mind completely?

Just throw all the electricity in your mind wall at him next time he tries get through came Pandie's mischievous reply, He'll definitely find that mind shocking.

As soon as Pandie's last few words spoke in her head, Arizan felt the vampire once more poking and prodding her mind.  Instinctively knowing what to do, and how to do it, Arizan gathered all the electricity in her mind and threw it at the vampire. Instantly the vampire was thrown off her, landing three feet away from her, the long iron knife dropping out of his hand.  At the same time, Pandie yanked her arm free of the witch's tight grasp, twisting his arm as she did so, and then threw him to the ground, hard.

"You little bitch!" the vampire snarled at Arizan, grabbing his knife as he got up, "Armand! Gerard! Ulrick! Help me get rid of this worthless little mongrel!!!"

The last few words the vampire spoke were the last straw.  Somewhere inside Arizan's mind something snapped.  As soon as the four Night World thugs surrounded her, the strange words instantly came from her mouth.

"Codladh agus dearmad, calaois namhaids lán i fuathaigh!"

"Oooooh, I'm sooo scared" the vampire said sarcastically, "Trying to freak us out with big scary weird words."

"Do tórramh focal"

"She's clearly lost her mind with fear, Silas" laughed the witch who'd been holding Pandie, arrogantly ignoring the pain from his arm being twisted, "She's so scared, she's started gibbering her head off!"

"SÉALA DO CINNIÚINT!!!"

Arizan yelled the last few words louder than anyone could possibly manage.  Even Casey was grouching on the ground with her paws over her ears.  Suddenly the four Night World thugs dropped to the ground as if they all had passed out at once.

"Oookaay! That," said Pandie, her face full of bewilderment, "I didn't teach you."