xp_logs | Stoker and Stalkers: When the Darkness Claims You

Vlad is getting impatient, but it turns out that pushing harder was the wrong choice...

It was cold, bitterly so, but his welling rage and hunger kept him warm. He'd have cursed but dark creatures of mystery did not curse. They lurked menacingly and gave off waves of disapproval that chilled all who came near. "Give me her you stupid fucking bastard!" Vlad kicked a tree and glared at the mansion. He could tell where she was now...finally away from that horrible demon girl but the scum who dared claim her away from him was there, demanding her attention when she could be coming to him! After an hour or so, he felt her subside into sleep, her mind opening to him. With a hiss of triumph, he grabbed at her roughly, pulling her with his hunger. "Come here, Kitty."

The mental tug was so strong that if she'd been awake she probably would have gasped. As it was it broke instantly through the sleep paralysis and she phased out of Jamie's arms, her mental answer to the call actually escaping out as a quiet "Coming," as she headed for the doorway.

Jamie raised his head blearily. "Huh? Kitty, where're you--" Sleepwalking again, his brain belatedly supplied. Only . . . she hadn't said anything those other times. And something about the way she was standing, the way she was walking . . . it was making his instincts clang in a way he didn't like. He kicked off the blankets and fished around for his pants.

And as an afterthought, on his way out of the bedroom, he grabbed his quarterstaff off its display stand. It was a totally paranoid impulse. Completely unsupported by, well, anything. He'd be laughing at himself about it later. Really, he would.

In theory, Lockheed was on patrol. Kitty patrol. He was a terrible patroler, And patroler as easily distracted by shiny objects as Lockheed was would be a bad patroler, but Lockheed was also prone to forgetting what he was about. For instance, he was considering going out to hunt when Kitty walked past the room he was in.

Watching the little dragon double take would probably have been very funny if anyone had been there to see it. As it was it took him a few moments before he thought to fly after her and darted out into the hallway. At which point he found out that he was not the only one on Kitty patrol.

Being nearly run into by a dragon was . . . actually, probably going to be pretty much characteristic for the night, Jamie thought. "Kitty's sleepwalking again," he explained in a low voice, "and this time she said she was 'coming,' like she was talking to someone. So I'm gonna follow her and find out if anything's going on." He gave Lockheed a wry smile. "If you wanna come along . . . there's something about this, I actually think I'd be glad for the help."

If The Boy was willing to ask for his help, something very serious must be happening. Lockheed nodded, looking worried, then settled onto The Boy's shoulder, a move he normally reserved for Kitty.

As the two of them talked, though, Kitty was drawing farther away. Her steps tonight had more surety, more purpose to them as she headed through the mansion towards the front door.

Jamie lengthened his stride, trying to keep Kitty in sight--this was definitely different than the other times he'd caught her sleepwalking. This time she looked like she knew where she was going, and wasn't wasting any time getting there. He just hoped she wouldn't think to phase through any inconvenient walls. Or the floor.

Kitty did, at least, stick to the hallways, but the few doors which had been closed were phased through without a moment's pause. It wasn't a big problem for Jamie, since opening most of the doors didn't take that long. Of course, the front door had security locks on it...

Jamie muttered impatiently; only his longer legs and what proved to be an accurate guess that she was headed for the front door had kept him from losing track of her in the hallways. Once outside, she could go anywhere, and if he lost her there he'd have to hope Lockheed had a damn good sense of smell. Now, as long as she hadn't fused the door closed by phasing through the lock . . . and she hadn't, it opened to his (rather abrupt) shove. Once outside, he picked up the trail again, but kept a greater distance between them--there was still the chance she'd decided to take a nature hike in her sleep, but if somebody was luring her outside somehow Jamie didn't want to spook them. Yet.

It was cold out, but Kitty didn't seem to notice it in the least as she headed down the front drive, not exactly hurrying but now there was nothing getting in her way as she answered the summons.

"Kitty, sweet Kitty." She ghosted through the gate and into the shadows to where he waited. Gathering her up, he shoved aside the fabric at her neck and sank his teeth in, drawing on her essence greedily even before the salty copper taste of blood hit his tongue. It had been too long, so very long since he'd last tasted her. Her life was strong as it flowed into him and he felt he knew why his kind lived forever.

Kitty gasped as he pulled her to him, then all but melted into his arms, not fighting in the least as the energy drained out of her.

Jamie slipped through the gate as soon as it opened wide enough, but he'd lost some time, and when he caught sight of Kitty again she was to all appearances happily necking with somebody who . . . looked vaguely familiar, but nothing he could put his finger on. He shook off the nagging familiarity, clamped down hard on the anger and fear, and unclipped his cell phone from his belt, thumbing the emergency call button.

"I need X-Men at the front gate now," he said quickly, not waiting for whoever was on the other end to acknowledge. "Got one intruder, possible mind control powers, and he--" The stranger lifted his head away from Kitty's neck, and Jamie's world narrowed to the trickle at the corner of his mouth, gleaming darkly in the dim light. Her blood. Kitty's blood. He was drinking--

Jamie dropped his phone, quarterstaff telescoping in his other hand as he twirled it slowly and strode forward. The low, dissonant double howl of the staff's wolf heads underscored his own raw snarl. "Get. Away. From. Her."

The boy. Vlad licked his lips, supporting Kitty with one arm, his other hand still buried in her hair. "Go away, little boy. She's not yours anymore." He hitched her closer, pulling her back with him further into the shadows, knowing the dark was his ally. He would not allow the lackwitted fool to take away his prize. She was so sweet, so willing... And her strength was his. If the boy wanted to fight he would learn that one did not trifle with a dark creature in his own time. "Take your little stick and go back inside."

Had to get Kitty away from him. Jamie stepped forward. "I'm not asking. Lockheed."

Lockheed needed no prompting. As unfond of The Boy as he was, this thing was even less an acceptable as a courtier for his Kitty. He launched himself off of The Boy's shoulder and up over the creature. Hurting Kitty was not an option, so attacking from behind, dishonorable as it was, was the way to go. And, as fond of the dark as this man seemed to be, it seemed like it was time to take it away from him.

It took only an instant's thought and then a small jet of fire shot towards Vlad's back, and the oh-so-impressive looking cape.

As soon as Vlad released Kitty, flinching away from Lockheed's flame, Jamie charged.

Jamie was the product of sporadic and inconsistent self-defense training, long-ago lessons from teachers as diverse as Logan and Scott Summers. But Pete Wisdom had been the first one to put a staff in his hands, and almost the first thing Pete had taught him was that there was no such thing as a fair fight.

Which was why his first shot, two-handed with his whole weight behind it, caught Vlad squarely in the groin. Jamie recovered his staff, took one step forward, and as Vlad doubled over in agony his descending nose met Jamie's rising knee with a satisfyingly wet crunch.

As Vlad staggered back upright, Jamie danced back a step, then lunged forward again, his fist careening into the other man's jaw. Vlad spun to the ground with another snap of breaking bone, and Jamie duped, ignoring the white fire along the back of his hand where his knuckles had raked across Vlad's sharpened teeth. One dupe landed heavily on top of Vlad, a knee in the small of his back; the other turned to Kitty.

"Are you all right?" he asked. "Kitty, can you hear me?" Behind him, the other Jamie leaned into Vlad, snarling into his ear. "If you've done anything permanent to her, I'm gonna start doing permanent things to you. Count on it."

To say that Vlad's concentration had been broken would be an understatement. With the first, extremely dirty blow his hold on Kitty's mind had snapped and she'd woken with a start. "What... What's going on?" she managed, feeling shaky and weak. Also cold. Was she outside? And then Jamie was beside her, looking flushed and angry. "Jamie...?"

There was a familiar bamfing noise and the smell of brimstone. "Jamie, back away," came Nathan's voice as he and Kurt came forward out of the shadows. The tip of his psimitar glowing softly, Nathan sized up the situation with a quick measuring look. "Kitty? Kurt, check her..."

"He bit her," Jamie panted, giving Vlad another shove as he got to his feet. "On the neck. And I'm pretty sure he had some kind of mental whammy going on." The other dupe tried to find a compromise between holding Kitty closer and not getting in the way of Kurt's examination, with mixed results. "It'll be okay," he murmured to her. "You're safe now."

Kitty all but sagged into his arms, not protesting in the least as Kurt looked her over. The mark on her neck looked more like a strange scratch then a normal bite, thanks to Vlad's fangs. "I... I don't remember. What happened? How did I get out here?" There was a touch of hysteria to her voice.

"The wound does not look bad", Kurt told Nathan, before returning his attention to Kitty. "It would seem this man is responsible for your sleepwalking."

"How can that be? I don't understand..." Kitty was shaking slightly and a pathetic little sniff escaped.

Nathan eyed her for a moment, then looked back at her crumpled attacker, his eyes narrowing. The tip of his psimitar glowed more brightly, his eyes seeming to take on a hint of the same light as he looked back at Kitty. #It's all right,# he reassured her, seeing the compulsion. Charles had drilled him often enough in what they looked like, and this one, all things considered, was simple enough. Unknot the pattern, gently, and it was gone.

Kitty's eyes widened as the insistence that she forget evaporated and her memories returned, and now she did collapse back into Jamie's arms. "Oh..." she said softly, fearful eyes turning to look at Vlad.

"He is not coming near you again," Jamie said flatly, holding Kitty as if to shield her from the world. "It'll be okay now."

"I'm tired," she said, so softly it was hard to hear her. "He did something... again." Because now she could remember the dark presence at the party which had called to her. "And I'm so tired..."

"Let's get you checked out by the doctors, then," Jamie replied, more gently. "And then we can go back to bed and sleep for a week, and no sleepwalking." He looked up at Nathan and Kurt. "That's okay, right? Or do you need us for something else?"

"I think we can let Kitty answer any questions when she has slept and recovered a little", Kurt agreed, glancing at Nathan for confirmation.

"Kurt, why don't you take her and Jamie right into the medlab, where Moira can look at her?" Nathan asked, even as he reached down his link with his wife and alerted her to the situation. "This," he said, glancing down at Vlad, "can wait for a few. I'll keep an eye on him."

The dark crumpled figure hissed at him then whimpered at the pain of doing so. He looked over, focusing on his Kitty and reached out forlornly, in too much pain to concentrate with his mind and having to resort to useless physical gestures. His mind roiled with rage over his loss and grief as they led her away. Mine! Give her back! Even in his mind the demand was more of a pathetic whimper of pain.

#Not yours, you deranged little shit,# was Nathan's cold response, accompanied by a telekinetic flare that pushed Vlad flat against the ground again. No point in taking chances.