They approached the home. It was dark. The lights were out. Katherine broke away from him heading towards the door. She knocked hoping to stir someone up inside, but Phillip wasn�t there. There was one other watcher she could turn to for assistance at this hour. Defeated she turned to face Thomas. He would want to escort her on ward. �I know someone else that maybe able to help.�

Move to blog three

Thomas was thrilled to be walking in the moonlight with his intended. Her lovely hair shimmered under the pale, wan light of the night orb, and he could smell a hint of perfume from her skin.  Katherine said she wanted to help the Pratt woman.  There was no help for her, no magical cure for consumption.  Not when it was advanced as it was in that old hag.  She should die and let others move on.  There is no place in this world for the sick, the weak, or the very old.  But he thought it quaint that Katherine wanted to help the woman.

Their footfalls echoed hollowly in the moist London air.  The monsters were there, unseen in the shadows, but they would not dare threaten Thomas Sullivan or anyone who accompanied him.  Not any that knew his reputation, that could see his power.  So they were safe for the time being. 

She asked about the tentacled demon.  �Something with tentacles?  The Louraxon demon.  A foul creature if there ever was one.  In actuality it propels itself not on tentacles but a form of interdimensional power that it draws upon using its innate abilities.  The result is a swarm of energy that resembles the limbs of an octopus or squid.  But they are not tentacles.�  He glanced sidelong at the girl, �The vampire said it was watching you?  Curious.�  Any information from the vampire was suspect.  Still, Thomas would investigate to determine if it was true.      

Katherine huffed exasperated. She really wanted to be alone. It was supposed to be a quiet walk to clear her mind. A project to help keep her pain at bay. A way of denying how much his rejection affected her. Still patiently awaiting a chance for his affections.

Standing before her now was Thomas, the ever hopeful nobleman. She didn�t want to share the details of her plans with this man. It would lead to another unwarranted discussion about her activities. A debate on the necessity of her actions. Simply put a waste of her time. This was beside the fact that she didn�t trust him.  Knowledge of her intentions would give him an opportunity to throw a wrench in things. He may try to stop her. Worse yet he may do something to sabotage them. In her heart it felt wrong to venture anywhere with a man other than William at this late hour. A betrayal of a nonexistent relationship.

At the same time there was no reasoning with Thomas. He was going to go with her one way or another. She denied him; he would follow behind her in the shadows. She would have no idea of his activities. It made her nervous. Things he could be doing at this hour behind her back. She glanced at the house in hopes William had risen. That he be there standing in the shadows asking Thomas to leave. There was nothing only the shadows cast by the trees in the moonlight. The realization magic existed had been hard on him. She did not have the heart to disturb him. Difficult to face him as he mooned over Cecily.

�Very well then,� she sighed in defeat. �I�m going to see a man down on Hillshire named Phillip Crane, a friend of my father. I know it is late, but I believe he may know a way to help Mrs. Pratt her condition is dire,� she tucked her hair omitting the thoughts about Giles. Thomas didn�t need to know about her suspicions. He wouldn�t understand her involvement. She began walking hands folded in front of her.

It was an awkward silent walk. She avoided all attempts at pleasant conversation, averting her gaze and limiting her speech. They had very different views. Thomas never listened. It was a waste of breath. She had been blunt with him. Upfront with her lack of interest and feelings. She found his personality and behavior typically repugnant. Even professed that her heart belonged to another. Still he held to these delusional beliefs.

But there was something that finally came to mind to discuss with him. �Do you know what the vampire was talking about?  Something watching me with tentacles?� 

She was resisting him, desperately trying to shake him off with a determination that, heretofore, he had not seen from her.  He was pushing too hard.  So Thomas let go of her and stepped back.  Sometimes he forgot that she did not know what he knew.  She could not foresee the future, and thus failed to see that they were destined to be together.  And not just for this lifetime, but for eons.  They would grow together over the decades and centuries, their destinies, powers, and appetites converging, becoming one. 

But that time was yet to come.  Thomas needed to show patience, give the girl some space.  She would come around in time, of that he was certain.  �Forgive me, Katarina.�  He bowed to her, almost imperceptibly.  �I saw a damsel in distress, and not just any damsel, I saw you, Katarina Eden, about to be ravaged, and perhaps killed by that foul beast.  I had no choice, I was compelled to save you.  The alternative was unacceptable.�  He glanced in the direction he�d tossed the vampire as if he�d flicked a fly off his lapel.  �But you must live your life as you will. I understand that.  If you wish for me to not intercede in these sorts of situations, I will respect your will.�  Which was a lie.  He could never allow her to die at the hands of a vampire or anyone or anything else.  Their linked destinies were of paramount importance to everything about him, it was his reason to exist.  His only hope for the future. 

�At least let me accompany you to wherever you are headed on this dark night.  Katarina, these streets are not safe, as you just discovered.  And worse things than vampires are prowling the streets of London�  much worse.�  He knew of the Louraxon demon, but its intentions and purposes in this place and time were as yet a mystery to Thomas.                   

His hand was on her throat. Her body tensed. There was a look of confusion in her eyes.  �Who?� her brows knitted together gazing into his dark orbs for enlightenment. If he didn�t mean Sullivan than whom could it be?  In another few seconds the vampire may have replied. Or he would have made his move. She would have discovered a dormant power within her and would have burnt the vampire before he struck.  He would have learned to be more careful in his endeavors. He would have most likely seen it as a challenge.

In a flash the scene was ended. Thomas appeared flinging Angelus away from her. He wrapped his arms around her, but he wasn�t her hero.  She didn�t fall into his arms, sob into his shoulder full of gratuity thankful for his presence.  She despised this man. This didn�t change that. There was rage in his voice. It scared her, but his words angered her. �Stop! Don�t!� she began struggling attempting to get out of his grasp. Her cries were loud enough to wake the neighbors. It may have alerted the whole house. He was trying to drag her away. �NO!� she couldn�t go with him. Bryson, the gentleman from the council, she needed to talk to him. He couldn�t stop her. �You will not tolerate! Let me go! Thomas!� she wasn�t his. He had no right to make these demands.

Thomas was annoying, his advances unwarranted.  She had never felt compelled to use her powers on him. He had stepped over the line this time. She opened her mouth, but the words would not come out to utter a spell. The hold he had on her arms blocked any energy that might be expelled by her finger tips. Smoke rose from the point that he grasped her. There was a never ending look of defiance as they struggled for dominance. �Thomas,� her voice managed to plead for him to stop. There was pain. �I have to do this.�

Thomas was busy with his accounting ledgers.  He slept little of late, and had in fact grown beyond the need for it.  In his mind, he believed sleep to be a ridiculous waste of time.  Hence by the light of a single candle and deep into the morning hours Thomas was calculating the weekly profits from his many business endeavors, weighing the costs of materials and labor against the money made from sales.  He would need to adjust prices on some items to maintain a healthy profit margin, but those price hikes would have to be modest lest the customer turn to another store and another businessman.  Of course, Thomas was slowly buying out the competition, either that or corrupting them, which ultimately doomed their businesses in the long haul.

Whilst busy with finances, he also kept a constant watchful eye on his beloved Katherine Eden.  A very small sector of his remarkably powerful mind was focused like a laser beam on the girl, tracking her every movement, watching over her as she slept, monitoring each and every activity of her waking hours.  It was while he was erasing a mistake in his arithmetic that the alarm bells rung with an insistent immediacy in his head.  His Katherine was in mortal danger.

Thomas Sullivan had not quite perfected the art of teleportation and thus was hesitant to employ that means of travel, but in this case he had no choice.  He closed his eyes, focused on the alley where the girl was about to die at the hands of a vampire and moved, silently but blink-of-the-eye fast, across four blocks of London�s south side.  The vampire, the one known as Angelus, had his hands on Katherine�s delicate, silken throat. With a swipe of his hand, without touching the foul beast, Thomas swept it away from her.  Angelus sailed into the night sky and over the buildings as if swatted by the hand of Fate, herself.  The vampire would land roughly in the sewage outflow from a building inhabited by paupers and criminals. 

Laughing as he got back on his feet, Angelus straightened his jacket before getting in the witch�s face again.  This would be more of a challenge than he�d originally thought.  He�d have to make it quick, so she didn�t have time to act.  He knew from experience that if he snapped her neck she�d be dead in an instant, but her heart would continue to beat for two or three minutes, just enough to pump most of her blood from her severed carotid artery into his mouth.  He�d get a belly full yet. 

She said one day Willy and her would be together.  It would have to be in hell, or whatever afterlife the both of them were headed to. 

When asked about the tentacled demon, she only responded about Thomas Sullivan.  Angelus knew of Thomas from what Darla had told him.  He had little experience with the �man� himself.  The vampires in these parts avoided him because of his reputation.  Sullivan was a demon, or partly so.  He was also a sorcerer, and rumored to have skills in necromancy.  Bad news for vampires and others of the undead persuasion.  Sullivan was a predator, but not in the way of Angelus, Darla, and Drusilla.  His victims lived on, albeit deprived of everything that defined them � possessions, money, but also anything that made them special � talents and abilities.  No doubt Sullivan was after this girl for her innate magical skills.  Could tentacle boy and Sullivan be related somehow?  Was Sullivan using it to spy on the girl?  

Those living in the shadows knew Thomas Sullivan by another name � Hadrin.

The vampire�s words stung. He hit the nail on the head. She didn�t quite understand the extended statement about a dark lover. The remark crushed her pride. He knew about the rejection. It stirred her pain. It fueled her anger, �he belongs with me. One day we will be together. Sides it�s none of your business.� It�d be another life before they would be brought together. It was considerably longer than she imagined. She turned her face away from him in disgust as Angelus touched her lip.

He was too close. She raised her head slightly Angelus levitated. A few softly spoken words sent him back away from her three feet, but then he fell. She wasn�t use to using this type of sorcery. She couldn�t hold it. The threat that she could do damage would scare him. �I am not an animal you can hunt,� it didn�t work he stepped closer asking about the creature in the dark.

�Tentacle boy?� furthermore hunting grounds and territory, she didn�t mention that part. It disturbed her to think that she was connected to something dark. The only thing that came to mind was, �you mean Thomas. Thomas Sullivan� It was hard to imagine as evil as the nobleman could be that he could be a creature.  Things were never as they seemed. �My stalker. He�s the monster that has been lurking in the shadows is the beast? I assure you we have no connection. The only one that exists is in his sick fantasy. He has an unusual fascination with me,� this revelation disturbed her. She was more afraid of Thomas than Angelus.  �He is from one of the most prominent families in England," it was all she really knew about him other than the darkness of his character and evil she sense within him.

Angelus stepped out of the foggy gloom and quickly corralled the girl against the moss-covered brick wall, a hand placed flat on that wall on either side of her shoulders.  He kept his face in human guise for now, but his grin was evil, and the look in his eyes reflected the gnawing hunger in his gut.  He closed his eyes for a moment and sniffed at her hair, her throat.  �What�s a proper young lass like you doing out in the wee hours of the morning?  Shouldn�t you be all safe in your bed, wrapped in granny�s quilts and dreaming of sugarplums and kittens?�

The creature had past. Though the words William had used to describe Cecily had not, they lingered still. It was hard for her to image that he could feel that way about someone that had never even show him an ounce of kindness or admiration. The sentiments were familiar. It was the way she felt when she looked at him. She held back the tears brewing in her eyes. As she was far too proud to let them fall. �I..It�s late. I�m not feeling so well. I think I need to lie down,� she turned away from him dismissing herself. �Good night William,� she called softly over her shoulder as she headed out of the room.

Safe and sound in her room where no one could see she openly wept wiping the droplets with the back of her palm. The more she dwelled on the situation the more her heart broke. There was a book sticking out of the edge of her bag. It couldn�t be real. It had to be a spell causing him to see Cecily in this light. She grabbed the book from her bag thumbing through it. Page after page nothing, she decided it was a foolish and emotional endeavor. The spell book slipped from her hand tumbling to the floor landing with a small thud.

Over at the bed she took off her shoes. The curtains were cracked allowing a few beams of moonlight to pour down unto the comforter. She laid down on her side facing the window with her arms wrapped around a pillow. Trying to think of something else. The first thing that came to mind was Thomas. This only made her feel worse. He had feelings for her that she could not reciprocate. She didn�t want to be like him waiting for someone to love them. This was different. Thomas was a dark soul his feelings were not true. Inner turmoil was tearing her apart.

In need of a distraction she tried to get her mind on other matters than her own. There was something about Giles that was all wrong. It was like he didn�t belong here. It was more than his aura. It was something else she could sense. All the years her father had worked at the council she couldn�t remember him talking about Giles. There was a man former member of the council down on Hillshire that may have some insight on this type of matter. She could inquire about it without anyone finding out. He may even have an idea about a cure for Anna. Word was he was once a great mystical apocathary. She could go see him be back by morning.

Everyone appeared to be sleeping as she slipped through the house. It was quiet and dimly lit. At the door she hesitated then pressed forward. Outside in the dark a figure moved. It wasn�t a beast.