05-Mar-2001
Note: The arc is currently under a massive revision, and will be under revision for at least another four to six months, so there will be some discontinuities until I can get everything fixed.
Author: Dan
Genre: epic AU
Pairings: NA
Disclaimer: not mine, don't sue.
Warnings: AU, a positive plethra of OCS, high
supernatural and yech factor, angst
Further Note: terms from such literary gems as Laurel
K. Hamilton are used and then twisted beyond all
recognition.
I stared at my reflection for a long, long time. I simply stared into the mirror in what would have been horror if I could have gotten my mind to confront what I was seeing. I didn't want to believe it, so I did not allow myself to understand what I was seeing. Reaching out to touch the smooth glass, I started to shake. This could not be happening, not to me. If you had asked me a mere six months ago if I believed in vampires, lycanthropes, and necromancers I would have laughed in your face. Now I stood staring at my own bloodstained visage, and wanted very badly to run screaming.
I tightened my hands around the edge of the sink, and kept squeezing until the porcelain cracked and splintered in my hands. I watched the blood trickle from my wounded palms. I watched the blood rise up from the cuts and fill the lines of my palms, then spill over the side of my hands into the cracked basin. It did not cross my mind that perhaps I should bandage my hands; I merely watched my blood slowly coat the white of the porcelain.
The scent of my blood must have caught Aidan's attention, because as I sat watching that steady stream of blood, he burst through the door to snatch my hands away. Duo tried to peer around Aidan's broad back, and yelped when he saw my bloody palms and vacant stare.
"Relena! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He sounded more frightened than angry. I just blinked at him. It felt like I was watching things from a great distance.
"Where is she?" I knew that voice. I tried to smile at Dorothy when she pushed past Duo and Aidan to grab my hands. She murmured to me in a low, soothing voice as she ran her thumbs over my palms. It should have hurt, but it didn't. It felt warm with a little bit of a sting.
Aidan made a low rumbling sound from the back of his throat, but it didn't sound threatening. He sounded pleased. "Witch. You're the Geri's vargamour? Ahaoue said that the Geri would bring a new priestess with her."
Dorothy and Aidan stared at each other, taking each other's measure. I could feel their power pour over me as they tested each other. I'd felt Dorothy taste my power before. It had felt like she rolled in her hands and played with it. It had felt good. I rested my head on her shoulder, letting her wrap her arm around me. Duo looked faintly confused, suspicious, and very nervous.
"What's going on?" He put his hands on his hips and glowered at us all. He'd borrowed one of my old stretched t-shirts. It's hard to look intimidating when you're wearing a shirt with cute little penguins on it. "Being in the dark on everything that's happening makes me cranky, people."
I smiled a little bit at the veiled threat. Dorothy brushed a hand through my hair, and I let myself sag against her. I trusted her to explain it all away. "Duo, I imagine you know what Relena and Aidan are. I am a witch, a Wiccan."
"Dandy for you, but that doesn't explain why you're here." Duo had an expression I had never seen before. He looked protective. "And I would like that explanation. Now, please."
"I have a... connection with Relena." She smiled at me a little, and her eyes seemed sad and lonely. "I can feel it when she's hurting. I can feel her aura when she's in distress. It's hard to explain."
The last sentence was directed just to me. I gently kissed the hand resting on my shoulder. "That explains a lot, Cat."
"You can feel her in times of distress?" Those all too human eyes looked past me as he shifted through his thoughts. "Sort of like Quatre's empathic tendencies?"
"Sort of, but I only can sense those people that I love." I tightened my hand over hers. She rolled her eyes before making a little shooing motion with her free hand. "Out, all of you."
Both men arched their eyebrows and she glowered at them. "Do you see what a mess she is? She's going to take a shower and then we will all sit down and talk this out."
Aidan leered at us a little and I just shook my head. Duo gave Dorothy a long considering look before leaving my very cramped bathroom. My Skoll gave me a little salute with two fingers as he slid out the door and quietly closed it behind him.
Dorothy made a small purring sound in the back of her throat, but there was some emotion in her eyes that I had never seen before. "Well, he is delicious, isn't he? And interested in you."
I growled without thinking about it. "I'm definitely not interested in that vain, arrogant, brainless male!"
"I think the lady doth protest too much," She replied with her usual sardonic tone before tugging on my ruined blouse. "Off with it. You'll feel better once you're clean."
She pulled my blouse off of me, tugging roughly where blood and thicker things had dried it in a clingy mess. I tried not to think about the slow sucking sound it made when she pulled it off my back. Dorothy hissed a little, but didn't say anything. I was grateful for that. I let her tug my skirt off and then lead me to the shower.
It felt good to let her take care of me the way she had during the war when things got to be too much for me to handle. She turned the shower on and stepped in behind me. Which was probably a good thing; I was too out of it to do anything for myself. I let her scrub at the dried blood that had encrusted on my arms. The water poured over my head, down my shoulders, slid over my breasts and belly, and washed me clean. It felt wonderful.
Dorothy was completely focused on trying to scrub off one tenacious patch that clung to my left shoulder. I just watched her. The water turned that pale blonde hair into one thick golden cord that clung tightly to her body. I had never realized her hair was so long, as if she had never cut it once in her entire life. Tiny droplets of water clung to her skin, making it almost glow. She slowly raised her eyes to mine like she felt the weight of my gaze. I watched a slow blush spread across her cheeks and I wanted to ask her why, a hundred different questions of why. Instead of ruining the moment with talk, I just dipped my head a little and caught her lips with mine.
"Relena?" Dorothy blinked at me.
It amazed me that I had never seen it before. The way she looked at me, watched me when she didn't think I noticed, like she was torn between speaking and leaving. I had never thought to look at her this way. For the first time I saw her, and it floored me. I sighed and tilted my head back into the spray of water. So many changes, too many changes for me to be able to handle; I couldn't keep my balance.
"Cat... I... " I couldn't find the words. Me, the consummate politician and master rhetorician, couldn't find the words to tell her what I was feeling, because I didn't know what it was that I was feeling. Of all the times for words to fail me, this had got to be the worst. "Damn... "
She laughed a little and laid a finger over my lips. "Later... We have the boys to deal with, remember?"
I watched mutely as she stepped out of the shower and deftly wound that long cord of hair into a thick pile on top of her head. She turned to hold out a towel for me. "Come, Relena."
I let her wrap the thick towel around me. I watched her, and she never quite met my eyes. She didn't visibly avoid them, but she never really looked at me either. I wanted to slam my head against the wall. For some reason, I could never get the words out that really needed to be said. I say a lot but never really say anything. It was frustrating.
End Part 8
(:./dan/wolf8)
