((Follow the Braid everyone)) The Arival pt 2

She laughed. "I have my moments beloved." She allowed him to give her arm a slight pull as she rose to her foot, not wanting to apply preasure to the left one. Some of her hair was flowing from the hood of her cloak on the right side, even longer than before. She had to be carefull to not step on it. It looked like waves of fire as it shone in the artificial light.

She held onto his arm with her right hand as she not-so-gracefully hopped out of the coffin. Her cloak seemed to float around her as she ballanced on one foot. Her hood was pulled down over her face to hide the scars. She truly did not want anyone to see what she looked like. "So I see that you have found us. I should have known better than to try and hide from you."

She turned her head to Manny still holding Kahn's arm. "Please, Manny, introduce me to your lovely young lady friend."

Mann stood up straight. "Lady Epiphany, may I introduce Venis Celestial Sanderson Crow Asgard Jordianthan, The Vampire Goddess of Fire and Protection, natural born witch, and one of the God's of Rhy'Din. Venis, this is my friend Epiphany. She works here at the Inn and has been quite helpfull to me since the moment we arived." He bowed to her, smiled and winked.

*Nods and supports her best he can without injuring her and chuckles*

"Well coming into the treasury and leaving the calling card. you honestly think I wouldn't research it? Had to investigate. Don't be mad at your people. I took the initiative. If you need anyone to be upset at for disturbing you before you were healed..blame me"

"You, mon amore, I will punish later." She winked at him, forgetting that he couldn't see her face. "At the moment, I would like to know what's been going on." She manuvered her arm around so she was hanging onto him for ballance but looked more natural doing it. "I'm sorry, I seem to be short handed at the moment. Could someone pour my husband and I a glass of bloodwine. I see Seleen has set it out. Thank you by the way, for bringing the goblets I made." Then it dawned on her that she couldn't hold onto him for support and drink at the same time. She'd figure something out.

"So, who can give me a status report? And, Lady Epiphany, you may call me Venis or V, which ever you prefer. When it comes to family and friends we do not stand on formalities." She leaned closer to her husband so that her elbow was in his and her lower arm could move more freely. She put the right side of her body against his left making her able to drink.

Jorge had alread walked over to close the lid on the coffin. So he walked over and popped the cork on the bloodwine as well. He poured it into the two diamond goblets. He placed the bottle back onto the table and picked up the glasses. He handed them each one while he admired the craftsmanship. "Perhaps, Venis, Seleen could tell you better than the rest of us could." He walked away then to go back to doing whatever.

Most everyone settled down for story time. Some of the employees were not in the room, but everyone who was was finding a place to sit and listen.

Manny smiled at her. "Do you need to go already?" He figured she did, she seemed a little on edge. "Could you do me a favor? If you see Andrew could you tell him to hurry down please?" He smiled again. He felt kind of sad that she couldn't stay longer, but he knew she probably had work to do and was probably getting quite tired as it was almost time for the sun to rise on the new day.

She had hoped that Lady Epiphany would offer. "I might just have to take you up on that Lady Epiphany. Perhaps you and I could talk in private at a later time?" She was already working on her backup plan to rid herself of those gut-wrenching scars.

She glanced around the room and saw an empty arm chair. "Kahn, love, perhaps we would both be more comfortable for this debreifing if you sat there in the chair. I could sit upon your leg and not touch the scars to anything. I know I would be better able to drink and wouldn't feel so wobbly."

She looked over to the sleeping furgirl. "Tasha, dear, Seleen is about to tell everyone everything. If you would like to hear it then you'll have to wake up."

((Ha, told ya'll she was the control freak.))

Tasha barely made a move. "Ok, I'm awake. Could someone get me a glass of milk though? And in my bag is a powder in a blue jar, it's to keep people awake. Could someone put a scoop into my milk. I don't want to fall back asleep while Seleen's talking. Thank you." She rolled over onto her back and started trying to push herself upright.

Joseph was closest to the door, he looked around the room and saw that everyone was there save for Andrew. "If you all will excuse me for a moment, I will retrieve Andrew."

Isah had already put down a large bowl of water for the animals and was now busy feeding them. Steaks for the wolf, the tiger and the panther. Cat food for the cat.

Manny pulled up a chair next to Epiphany and got comfortable.

Keven and Derek helped Tasha sit upright in the bed and proped her pillows up behind her. Then they both sat down on the bed with her, but carefull not to touch her not wanting to cause her any pain.

Shamus made sure there were enough places for everone to sit before sitting down himself.

Jorge put the armchair closer to the table that had the wine on it for Venis and Kahn. Then he found a place to sit as well.

And Bo sound himself a place to sit. Andrew and Joseph came back downstairs and Andrew gave Kahn his two room keys. He held onto the other three. "If you ladies don't mind, we will take the three rooms upstairs for now, until you ladies are ready to move up there that is. We will rearange everyone then. Breakfast for all us who eat is on it's way. Lady Epiphany, we oredered you a plate as well. And Tasha, your milk has been ordered as well."

Everyone was pretty much ready.

((Whew. That was fun.))

She rose from her seat and walked over to Venis with her bottle of bloodwine. She also brought over another bottle and set it upon the table. She handed her open bottle to Venis for a second.

"Could you warm this for me please? I will start from the very begining so that I can debreif everyone all at once. I don't want to have to tell this all over again. I can also fill you in on what is going on upstairs if you wish. Andrew and Manny could help with that as they were the last two up there for anything."

She took her now warm bottle of bloodwine and returned to her seat to prepare to tell the whole story.

Venis took the bottle and warmed it for her then handed it back. "That will be fine. That's why I woke Tasha up. This way everyone hears everything. If anyone wants to add things thay can remember their mannors in front of our guest and ask to butt in and put their two cents worth into the conversation. Lady Epiphany. I do not mind you being here at all, but if you don't mind, somethings are not to leave this room please. There will be beings mentioned who we do not wish others to know the location of. Security reasons and such. I hope you understand."

She picked her diamond goblet back up and warmed it before placing it under the hood of her cloak to sip from it. "Whenever you are ready Seleen, you may begin."


((Admin,do you want this posted in the story so far as well? In case there is actualy one person who isn't reading this whole thing. ))

"Thank you." She smiled though no one could see it. Then rather loudly she spoke. "Come on down Angel, welcome us home properly, no lingering outside of doors, you know better." She laughed then. "Could someone get Angel a glass of bloodwine and a place to sit? I'm surprised we are still short one furball. Not like him to miss a good story. But eh, we'll catch him up later."

((Warning: It's a long read ya'll))

"Give me just a moment please." She grabbed up the clothes she had pulled from her garment bag and dissapeared behind some wine racks to change. She emerged wearing a flowing black dress with short sleves and a full skirt. Her boots having been exchanged for suede pumps. She sat back down and crossed her right leg over her left.

She took a long swallow from her wine glass and refilled it. Then she began. "To address all the questions I'm going to have to start from just before the abduction. Vlad had sent me and his granddaughter Szuszanna ((Yes, spelling correct)) out on patrol. We had been wandering for a couple of days when we were attacked. I was unable to protect her ... she perished. I took her ashes back to the castle, and Vlad lost his temper."

She set her glass down and rose from her seat. She pulled the dress down in the back to show the still healing scars from being whipped by a whip that had been soaked in holy water. Then she sat back down.

"It took him a few days to track you down Venis. None of us knew where you were. His intel for Rhy'Din was very limited. But he managed to track you down. That was when he sent those idiot men to abduct you. They were supposed to grab one of your loved ones too. It was to be whomever you were with. Luckily for us it wasn't you Kahn. He would have had a field day having a God of Death present to do his will.

When those idiots got back with Venis and Tasha Vlad emediately told Venis that he wanted her to go into heaven or hell and retrieve his granddaughters soul. He wanted her put back into the pile of ashes that had been her body. Venis of course refused, and was beaten for her efforts. You killed what, seven of his human servants that day? Either way, he ordered that the two of them be locked up.

He had made Venis' room special. There were so many holy relics in the room, and blessed crosses, no mere vampire could survive in there. Venis was simply getting drained of energy. There was no way she could escape from that room. Not even if she left her body. He limited her food intake to one glass of bloodwine a day.

Tasha's room had been prepared for her while they were being brought from Rhy'Din. The walls were lined with sterling silver spikes and just under the top layer of the floor was some sterling silver plates. It was like a sub-floor. It was intended to keep her from digging out.

Tasha was getting fed twice a day. He wasn't trying to weaken her, he wanted her strong in case he needed her. Once a week he brought Venis out of her room and gave her a bottles worth of bloodwine. Then he would ask her if she was going to retrieve his granddaugter yet. Venis kept saying that her soul was in Limbo and she couldn't go there to get it.

She blamed Vlad for the Limbo because she had been an innocent child when he violated her and then turned her into a vampire. So she had still been considered pure at her time of death. But since she had come back as a vampire she had commited so many attrocities, and even being a vampire was bad. So it had not been deceided if she was to go to heaven or hell.

Venis kept stalling and kept stalling. Each time she wouldn't get the soul she was punnished. The first was the getting locked away and not getting fed. Then there was the getting put into a walk in freezer. He left her in there for over three months. She hadn't enough energy to create fire to stay warm. Another punishment was getting sliced with the blade of a holy sword from a Paladin. But the worst punishment was the pouring of holy water down the entire left side of her body. She was severly scared from head to toe. Even her hair looks fried"

She looked up and saw Venis lower her head for a moment. "But she remained strong through it all. It was a little over a year before they started torturing Tasha. Vlad hoped that Venis would see her friend getting tortured and give in. He thought that if the sight and sound of it wasn't enough, that the getting sick from her being in pain would do it.

Tasha would never let Venis give in. They started torturing her with silver plated jewelry. They would pierce her ears or her belly button, other places. Then they moved to sterling silver, piercing her flesh with it. After a few more years of torture, they figured they had to up the stakes. They would put Tasha in a cage and poke at her with sticks until she shifted.

Once they had her in panther form they would use silver plated sticks to poke at her. Venis would litteraly throw up from the pain, she even passed out a few times. But they just wouldn't give in. They threw Tasha into a pit a couple of times with some very large werewolves. She always came out pretty banged up. When that still wasn't working they started getting her to shift and then having rather large beings, I'm not sure what they were, hold her and sqeeze her to halt her shifting. She would get half-shifted and get stuck that way for days.

They gave up for a while, wanting to let Tasha recouperate, because it wouldn't do to kill her. They stopped Venis' feedings all together. She slipped into a comatose like state. She was placed in a glass coffin and it was set afloat in a pool of holy water. She was fed through a very slow introvenious drip of pigs blood.

I started upping her doseage slowly whenever I had a chance. She was still being brought out and asked to retrieve the soul periodicly. She still refused, but was too weak to fight. After a while she was able to form a mantal link with Kahn. She visited him a few times that I know of. She would always look a little more pale afterwards.

So I kept upping her IV drip little bits at a time. I think she stopped contacting Kahn after a while, I guess to save up her strength. She would always pretend to be just as weak as before when she was brought out.

But one night, Vlad called for her, and they already had Tasha out as well. She was still weak herself. They forced her to shift again, and stopped her shift partialy through. But she struggled even harder to fully shift this time. It always caused her pain to get stuck in the middle.

That was when we heard her bones. They weren't just cracking and reforming, they were breaking. And the sound of her muscles tearing, it was so unbareable. It wasn't the normal sounds of a lycanthrope shifting, it was the sounds of someone getting crushed alive. That was when Venis lost it.

She burst into flames and began to throw streams of fire across the room. She burnt those who were crushing Tasha and when they let her go she ran at Vlad with all her might. Only to be met with the back of his hand knocking her across the room. Venis set the dinning table on fire that he had been sitting at. He jumped up rapidly and backed away. He appeared to be trying to find a way to flee the room.

Several vampires and other beasts and beings were trying to get into the room. They would either meet with an attack from Tasha or fire from Venis. I, of course, had to back up my sire. I carried two guns on me at the time. One with silver bullets and one with wood chips mixed with a radioactive material that absorbed UV rays. So I just started shooting.

Venis ran two lines of fire across the floor and up the wall on either side of Vlad. She intended to stop him from fleeing. Most of the beings who were attacking us fled the building. Everything that would burn was burning in nearly the entire castle at that point.

Venis got in Vlad's face and told him in no uncertain terms to leave her and her loved ones alone. I ran to my rooms and grabbed up all the clothes I could. I went into their rooms and grabbed up the diaries they had been keeping. Then we headed into the basement. Venis and I had a coffin each stored down there from when we were waging war on humanity. She and I grabbed them up and we fled the castle.

By the time we had gotten out into the garden, fire had overtaken the castle. I'm pretty sure Vlad survived the fire. But all the exertion of the fighting and then carrying the coffins out had taken it's tole. Tasha passed out and fell to the ground. Venis' fire extinguished and she too fell to the ground.

Venis told me where I could find a portal that would bring me here, to Rhy'Din. She told me to first go to her house and see if Kahn was still living there. If he was I was to go to her keep and see if it was inhabitable. If not, I was to find somewhere safe for them to heal and recouperate.

Well, I did as I was told. I went to the house, Kahn was obviously still living there. So I headed to the keep. I passed through New Haven on my way. When I got to the keep I saw that there were only some employees living there with their families. I sent the nine who are here with us back through the prortals to get Venis and Tasha. I packed them some bags with clothings and such to go with them on the coach. I threw in some other things that I thought would come in handy. Leviathan and Midnight were there as well, so I had them go on the coach too.

Meanwhile, I needed to find a place for us to stay that was a little better equiped to handle their recouperation. I remembered seeing the signs for this Inn when I had passed through New Haven. I thought it would work, but I needed money to take care of the tab.

Not knowing what type of currency I would need, or how much, I checked the treasury in the castle of the keep. I got some different currency's there. I didn't really pay attention to how much of each, I just grabbed up some. But there were other currencies I didn't find, so I returned to the house. The guards let me pass and enter into the house with not a word, probably because of the crest upon my cloak.

I went inside and the animals all seemed very happy to see me. I went into the vault and took some gold and some other moneys that I hadn't found at the keep. I left a parchment with Venis' crest upon it for Kahn to find so he wouldn't think he was robbed.

I returned here to New Haven and came to this Inn to get us some rooms. I requested the darkest possable rooms with an option to upgrade. Lady De'Ryanna had it set up for us to be put down here until you are both well enough to move about. Then we have three rooms on the top floor with Kahn's rooms.

When I got here there was a man also checking in. It took me a moment to realize who it was having never met him before. It was Lord Gawian. He and I sat down at the bar while I awaited the coach. We talked about his life and the parts of it that he had seemed to forget, until he fell asleep. Then he went to his room.

When the coach arived, Manny came in looking for me and met Lady Epiphany. She inspected the cargo in the coach and then was going to help him find me. But before they found me, Kahn and his party arived. So while Manny went back outside to deal with Kahn, Lady Epiphany came and found me.

When I got up to go outside I saw some of the men bringing in a cantaur named Lady Nephalei. She was accompanied by a human named Lady Vesta. While we were tending to Lady Nephalei, Vesta went outside to meet a woman who rode up on a unicorn.

Kahn has posted two guards at the front door, two at the back door, and two upon the roof. We finished helping Lady Nephale and then we got the coach unloaded. I offered to pay for a couple of nights stay for Lady Nephalei and Lady Vesta, they seemed a little out of sorts and I thought we should do what we could to help. I also picked up the tab for Lord Gawain."

She got the paper that Andrew had been writting things down on and read it over. "At current count we have the following beings accounted for within the Inn. Lady Epiphany, Lady De'Ryanna, Lady Madeline, Lord Elessar, and Lord Armandeus are the employees of the Inn. Lady Epiphany is here with us of course. Lady Madeline is upstairs tending bar and checking other guests in. Lady De'Ryanna is in Lord Gawains room. Lord Elessar is speaking with a guest. And Lord Armandeus is fixing breakfast.

Amungst the guests we have the following. There is your nine employees, and six Rangers. Then there is the four of us. There's Lady Angel, female vampire here with us. Lady Vesta is a human female, and she's bouncing around upstairs talking to everyone possable. Lady Nephalei is at the bar, she is a centaur. Lord Tarinilis is a half-elf male, he's at the bar. Lord Leo is also at the bar, he's human we think. Lord Aiden alsoappears to be human, he's checking in. Lady Amaya is at the bar, she has just checked in, she also appears to be human. Lady Azline has checked in and is headed to her room after a stop at the bar, we think she's human. Lord Cadmon Lennan Dewayne is a human male who has checked in and gone to his room after ordering breakfast. Of course we have Lord Cauthon amungst us, he is in his room right now. Lord Daviticus Jeckel is a Demon Slayer, he's at the bar. We might want to keep an eye on him, he might be trouble, or he might come in handy should trouble find out you two are here. Lord Elisha is a lycanthrope, not sure what kind yet, and he's with Lord Elessar. We have Lady Inion, we arn't sure what she is yet, she appears to be in her room already. And lastly we have Lord Steffan, he's also checking in and appears to be human. We think that's everyone.

As far as we have gathered there are no signs that the Lych or the Drider have found out you are back in Rhy'Din. There has been no word of Lady Gypzee as of yet, and we have seen no signs of the Paladin's family either. The others on the list are still being located as well. But so far, no leads. Someone thought they had seen Lord Chop, but it was a case of mistaken identity. No word on Terren, Alexander, Dreconis, or your daughter Krystal either, I'm sorry Venis. We just havn't found them yet. Does anyone else have anything to add?"

She took another long drink from her glass of bloodwine and remained silent. Waiting for anyone to add anything or ask any unanswered questions.

((And yes, I am writting a book, three in fact, so anyone who doesn't want their charries mentioned by name speak now or hope for royalties if I get the books published and they sell. LOL ))

Andrew spoke up first. "Sorry to get off subject, but I did order breakfast and it's not here yet. Perhaps someone could go see if Lord Armandeus needs any help in the kitchen?"

"Yes, that is a good idea Andrew. Bo, Derek, you two are my best cooks, you should see what you can do to help. The rest of you should try to get some rest, you relieve Kahn's Rangers in a few hours. Using the rooms upstairs will be fine. Go now, leave me to my loved ones. Manny, I would like you to remain here please."

She sipped from her goblet again while her employees scrambled to their destinations.


((I swear, the Bo Derek thing was not intentional, I just drew two names from the hat.))

Venis smiled. Now that Seleen was done and the employees were off she had time with everyone else. "Welcome Angel. Miss us? You know you cannot breathe a word of us being here to anyone, please dear. I would hug you but the scars I have hidden under my cloak make it difficult for me to be touched." She smiled, but knew that her old friend couldn't see it.

She looked to Lady Epiphany. "No sweety, holy beings do not bring me harm. Well, unless your sweat glands emit holy water. Same with Kahn, right love? He's a God and yet a vampire as well. It is safe for you to touch us. But I'm not quite up to hugs right now." She chuckled. "But other holy objects, they carry a sort of magic for lack of a better term. They can make us ill and leave us with scars."

She was starting to feel so much better. She loved feeling her husband with her again, and with all these friends around, old and new, how could someone not feel loved. Combine that with the bloodwine and she was feeling downright warm. It wasn't the effect of the alcohol in the wine, just the blood and the love.

((AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH, smush, ya'll made me put smush in here and it wasn't even a love scene yet. LOL))

"My furball is missing." That one sentance explained the answer. "Come child, let us get reaquainted. For today we drink and be merry. Sound good to you my love?"

Tasha caughed again. "Hi Angel. Good to see you. Venis, if you all don't mind, can I go back to sleep?" More caughing. "And if possable, can we see if we can't at least fix these ribs tonight?" She tried to move and lay down better. "Manny, Lady Epiphany, could you guys help me get laid back down please?" She caughed some more and was barely keeping her eyes open.