Coming of Age Ch. 05

"Wait so the silver thing is real, I thought that was a myth." Rachel said.

"It is real and I totally forgot to mention it earlier," Rayven said, "if you want to restrain a vampire silver is the only thing that will do it."

"Why?" Sky asked.

"Long story short, a Junior fed from an Angel..."

"S'ephalim," Serenity corrected.

"They probably understand the term Angel better than S'ephalim." Rayven explained. "So these Angels have silver laced blood, to keep their people safe the gods made Vampires allergic to silver."

"We don't know why vampires are allergic to sunlight though." Serenity slid in. "Now back to vampires, there are very few Masters, in fact of the fourteen, ten were turned by Vlha himself and so long ago that it was easier to get to Master status because there weren't so many vampires. The other four Masters were turned by the one of the other ten and survived to make it to Master status and only one is a Death Walker. Masters are... never to be messed with, they are faster, stronger and more deadly than any other vampire, they aren't so easily controlled by rage, they have learnt to take the long road, to plan and how to surround themselves with Juniors and Elders."

"My Maker is a prime example, Tamor, he was a Master before I became a Vampire, as a Human he had been a king, a bad one, his family was constantly plotting to over throw him, and it made him very paranoid. In a last ditch effort to retain his thrown he made a deal with Vlha not knowing it was futile, that it is written in the book of glass, no Vampire may rule over man." Rayven explained.

"Book of glass?" Sky asked.

"The divine rules of the cosmos as ordained by the gods, supposedly etched in a book made of glass," Serenity explained. "The actual rule is the dead my not rule over the living and since Vampires are living dead the rule applies to them and them alone."

"And you know this how?" Jasmine asked and the room went silent.

"Hard to explain," Crystal said after several long moments. "See, non-humans see the world very differently to the world humans see. Some believe that when Atlantis was lost humans lost the ability to see the world around them, denied the knowledge that accompanies that ability to see."

The three humans blinked in silence, unable to do anything else.

"Atlantis was lost because of humans, they did something to piss the gods off so the gods tried to wipe them out, however one god made the first Ancient and he was entrusted to save the world but to save the world he had let his home be lost. He is the only living Atlantian, a relic of an era that has been wiped from traceable history." Temperance explained. "The gods decided once Noah did what he had to do to let humans live but without the knowledge they once had and without the ability to see. The Non-human races retained it and the knowledge, it has been passed down, generation to generation, first verbally then in written format."

"For now the gods have forbidden this knowledge to humans." Crystal added.

"So we can know of it just not what it is." Sky asked, "that is stupid."

Rayven shrugged, "be that as it may. So back to Tamor, he was turned and only then did he learn that the dead cannot rule over the living. But his paranoia ran deep, to this day he surrounds himself with warriors."

"That's right the FBI said that you were the best," Rachel said.

"Second best," Rayven corrected.

"Okay then who is the first." Sky asked.

Rayven glanced to Crystal, "although she has never worked for the conclave or is even a Vampire, Crystal is considered the best Death Walker ever."

Crystal grunted, unimpressed with the title.

"Why is she the best?" Myth asked curious

"Because she has taken out at least a thousand rogues and six feral vampires in the last three millennia," Rayven answered. "Alone she has the highest kill record."

"What is your record?" Thais asked knowing the others would want to know.

"After I was freed and went to work for Destiny, five hundred and forty two rogue vampires and none were feral." Rayven answered.

"What's the difference?" Han asked.

"Rogue is the process of devolving into the beast, you can still reason with a Rogue. A Feral is when no one has stopped the devolving at the Rogue stage, no humanity, no reasoning, just a killing machine. There have only been seven Feral vampires, the last one was about a hundred years ago. Twenty Four of the best Death Walkers against one Feral, I wasn't included I was busy taking out a rogue pair who were getting close to Feral stage. Of the twenty four who went to take out the Feral, only two survived, barely, they reported the death of the Feral then together they turned and walked outside to witness the rising of the sun."

"Is it hard to take out a Feral?" Serenity asked Crystal.

"It isn't easy to take out a Feral, I am not surprised they chose to end their lives. If I had the luxury I would have killed myself after I took out that first Feral. They got a chance to look at the beast that lived within them, see it in all its gory glory, they probably felt a shift in what remained of their humanity and knew that they were destined to go that way. Better to end their life their way then to subject the curse of that knowledge on some other death walker."

"You didn't lose yourself," Sky stated.

"I am not a true Vampire and at the time, I hated what I thought I was, I took out my rage on those who couldn't live by the rules. Then I met Ghan and it became about keeping the world safe, because keeping the world safe meant keeping him safe." Crystal stood and left.

Rayven watched her go then turned to the others, "I like her."

"So... you're moving in." Thais said as he stood.

"Am I?" Rayven asked a little surprised as Serenity stood and went to follow Crystal.

Thais smiled and walked off.

Bastion chuckled, "let me show you a room, it is the spare room in the basement, I think you'll like it."

*

Serenity walked into Crystal's room and up to the woman who was staring absently out the window, she rested her head on Crystal's shoulder and hugged her from behind.

"How long have you known?" Crystal asked only just realising how Serenity's seemingly innocent question had opened up all the pain and hate.

"Since I met you, some emotions leave wounds when they are as strong as the ones you had. Some of your wounds have been slowly healing." Serenity explained.

"The first Feral I took out... we trained together..."

"You loved her," Serenity surmised as she could feel Crystal's pain, had felt it when Crystal had answered her question.

"Yes." Crystal said after several long minutes of silence. "I loved her and I killed her."

"What happened?"

Crystal looked up trying to keep her tears at bay. "Before my mother died I met her, her name was Jewel and she was turned just as I started my training." Crystal paused. "We learnt together, we laughed and played. Judas suspected that there was more going on than just friendship. He ordered her away before he released her, he didn't want me to find love, he wanted a weapon." She took a deep breath, "a week later he killed my mother."

"I tried to find her sooner, but she was young when Judas released her, the beast within her took over. I started hearing about a Feral a Vampire consumed with blood lust, I went to investigate. At first I couldn't believe it I had found her, but that joy turned to dread, she was the feral, she was the blood crazed vampire." Crystal took a deep breath as her eyes closed. "I tried to... reason with her," she continued quietly. "Tried to bring back her humanity... it didn't work. But I couldn't... I loved her."

"What changed?" Serenity prompted her arms tightening around Crystal.

It took several minutes before Crystal answered, Serenity didn't rush her, letting her talk when she was ready for which Crystal was grateful.

"I tried to contain her, to control her, I thought I was finally getting through to her, but one night she broke free, I got to her just as she started to slaughter a family." Crystal swallowed and took several deep breaths. "The father and older son tried to fight her off while the mother and the little girl tried to flee. Jewel took out the father and son quickly and started after the mother and daughter. Something snapped inside of me, as much as I loved her, I couldn't let her kill the mother and child." She panted as her emotions came further forward, tears welled in her eyes and started to run down her face.

"I hope... I hope that you never... have to kill someone you love." She said as more tears rolled down her face, the events of that night ran through her mind. Serenity gently probed Crystal's mind and was surprised that Crystal let her in. As the memories played through Crystal's mind Serenity saw them and felt them, she felt Crystal's pain as she ended the life of the woman she loved, having no other choice and conceding that the woman she had fallen in love with was gone. A daemon resided within her body, she may have looked like the woman she loved but this wasn't Jewel.

"She... as she died... she thanked me, the beast was gone and she was dead."

Serenity placed the side of her face against Crystal's and tightened her arms further, almost to the point of being painful, but to Crystal it felt as if Serenity were literally holding her together as the grief she had long suppressed came forward with a vengeance. Slowly Serenity felt another of the deep wounds on Crystal's soul began to heal.

"You did what you had to, and in a way you didn't kill the woman you love, you saved her, freed her to be reborn, to find you again or her true soul mate if you aren't that person. But you have to forgive yourself for that, and everything else you have been kicking yourself for. You are immortal, you need to let it go, accept what happen, it is done, the past, you can only live in the now." Serenity said, the last bit were the same words Ghost said to Cass when he was trying to draw her out of her grief.

Crystal closed her eyes and silently said goodbye to Jewel. Serenity smiled a small smile as the wound healed over completely, the two deepest wounds were healed, her mother's death and Jewel's, now all that was left was the multitude of small scratches on her soul.

Serenity slid out of Crystal's mind and rubbed her cheek against Crystal's. "For a long time I've wondered what had left such deep wounds on your soul and how to help you heal them. To help you like I knew you needed." She carefully released Crystal, "It wasn't until I was older and I listened to Nathanael tell Eric that his bite wounds needed to be aired so that they would heal better. That I thought the best way to help you heal is to air what had caused the wounds to begin with and that would mean getting you to talk about it."

Crystal chuckled a little, "let me guess, you've been looking for the right opening for years."

Serenity nodded. "But unlike my sister I have patience, eventually everyone tells me what troubles them, I don't know why, even as a child people would tell me things."

"Because you know when to just listen, you don't judge, you never judge anyone for what they tell you, you accept it and by accepting it you help them accept it." Crystal said.

Serenity turned and walked to the door, "I still think shooting lasers from my eyes would be a much more wicked ability than reading and controlling emotions."

Crystal snorted as Serenity quit the room, leaving Crystal to her thoughts.