Hansen

"I know you know where she is Graves, stop jerking me around and tell me!" I feel the anger pooling in my icy veins as I shove a finger into the portly bouncers chest.

If this is to end in a fight then so be it. I've been searching for answers for years, and tonight I will have them.

I must.

"You're drunk, Bane. Get out of here before I rip that pretty boy head from your shoulders." Graves grins with malice as he regards me, his fat fists balled up in true fighting fashion.

"Just tell me where I can find Lucinda!" I demand, the animalistic instincts taking over and the intoxication masking my better judgements.

"Hansen let's just get out of here." A feminine voice prods me, pulling on my shirt in an attempt to remove me from this situation.

I jerk myself out of her pitiful grasp and snarl, baring the pointed edges of my fangs in warning.

"You're nothing, Laura, now leave me alone!" I snap, her eyes screwing up in obvious hurt. As if I could ever care. I've only just met her, and if she thought this night was going to end in her bedroom then she's grossly mistaken.

Why are witches all so damn needy.

All I care about is finding Lucinda so that I can be reunited with her.

My love.

"Now are you going to help me or not?" I grumble, turning back to Graves who is now surrounded by other bouncers. Of course he doesn't think he could ever take me alone.

Coward.

"Lucinda doesn't want to be bothered, and you've over stayed your welcome. Get em boys." Graves orders everyone to swarm me so I crouch low, prepared to draw blood.

My eyes spawn to pure black, my body reacting instinctively to the threat before me. Suddenly I'm surrounded on all sides. I lunge towards Graves who bares his much smaller fangs in defense.

Laura shrieks, her outburst drawing far too much attention.

I plunge my sharp teeth in to Graves shoulder and he growls in distress, grabbing me by my thick hair and ripping my jaws from his flesh, throwing me to the ground at his feet.

I recover quickly, not to be outdone, when suddenly my senses are flooded with the smell of fresh blood.

Laura steps between Graves and I, her wrist oozing the delicious red drug.

I try to fight her attempt at a distraction, knowing all too well that it's no use. Witches blood is the most powerful narcotic to my kind, and I've come to find that I'm an addict.

"C'mon Hansen. You know you want it." Laura's voice is cold and calculated. If she had cared for me before all traces of those feelings are now gone.

I shake my head, trying to turn off my instincts. I have to find Lucinda.

Nothing can stop me from... from...

I stumble towards Laura who's awaiting me with a look of disgust. I grab her arm tightly in both of my hands and sink my fangs into her open wound.

She cries out from the sensation, her end of the bargain being almost just as demoralizing as mine.

Unfiltered pleasure.

Vampire venom has a way of causing a witches nerves to fire all at once, forcing their minds to go blank and their bodies to practically cripple under the fierce sensation.

Her blood floods my mouth and suddenly everything becomes dizzy. Soft whimpers fill my ears as Laura reacts to my venom, the exchange working in Graves favor.

My mind swims with the witches essence, turning my thoughts to mush and my limbs to rot.

"That's enough!" Graves yells, ripping me and Laura apart. My body goes flying against a jagged wall behind me, my hard presence splintering the wood.

Before I can recover myself, hands snatch me by my shirt and throw me out of bar, my face graciously breaking my fall. 

"You're a disgrace, Hansen. Don't show your face here again or you'll meet Lucinda alright, just as the Trinity is deciding your fate." Graves spits at me before retreating back into the club.

I stumble to my feet and use my sleeve to wipe the remnants of blood as they streak down my chin and neck.

I don't need help. I don't need anyone. I'll find Lucinda myself.

I wobble with one step forward, my motions seeming so slow as I will my body to carry me on down the crowded street. People of all types see me, but none seem to be too phased by my lack of cognitive function.

I stumble into an alleyway to sit down and let my mind clear itself for a moment when the smell of human blood and the subtle sounds of a commotion jerk my senses down deeper into the alley.

My eyes focus on a young girl with dirty blonde hair struggling against a man whose easily over powering her.

Suddenly my mind isn't quite so clouded. I lock onto the girls face and my limbs come to life with urgency.

Tanya?

I know that it's impossible, but my mind doesn't seem to want to see reason right now. This can't be Tanya, it just can't be. But she looks so much like her that I can't control myself.

I appear behind the man that's assaulting this girl with breakneck speed, ripping him off of her and slamming him into the side of the building, his feet dangling as I choke him with his own body weight.

My eyes swirl black and I expose my fangs. The man screams for help, but before his cries can be heard I bite with ravenous fury into his throat, ripping a chunk of flesh out and watching with twisted enjoyment as his body goes limp and the light dies from his eyes.

His blood coats my attire, and I growl as the foul scent of his insides sticks to me. I drop his lifeless carcass down on the concrete and almost gag as I take in the full scope of his putrid blood.

The more evil a person is the more disgusting their blood smells, and this guy is comparable to a public toilet.

Another scent lingers on the air. A beautifully sweet smell and the stark essence of fear.

I turn to face the girl behind me who's still huddled on the ground, tears streaming down her painfully familiar face.

I immediately retract my fangs and will my features to settle back into something more human and approachable, but the damage is already done.

"Don't hurt me!" She cries out, digging into her pockets and pulling out her wallet.

"Take it, just leave me alone." Her sobbing makes her almost illegible, but I still make out her cries for salvation.

She throws the bulging wallet at my feet and I scoop it up, my face etched with pain. "I don't want your money." I reply, leaning over to hand it back to her.

She jolts sideways out of my reach and stumbles to her feet, making a mad dash for the end of the alleyway. My mind begins racing over everything that's just happened and what I've done.

My face falls, and I realize I have failed myself. Years of searching has boiled down to this very moment, and my time has run out.

I begrudgingly watch as the girl keeps running, knowing that there's no way she will make it to the street without intervention.

In Ellenwood you can not hunt.

In Ellenwood you can not kill.

And we're both about to meet Lucinda.

Two dark figures appear just as the girl is about to break free on to the bustling sidewalk, as I had anticipated.

I feel bad for her, I truly do. This night has been nothing but torment for her, but soon she will have no memory of it. That's what the Ellenwood Trinity does.

They clean up the messes that are made by those that break their rules. Ellenwood in a town that's constantly bathed in moonlight. The town sits on an axis closer to the moon than any other in the world, and it grants night dwellers certain privileges.

The rules were put into place centuries ago by the trinity, ancient ones chosen to represent the three main factions, to keep our existence in Ellenwood a secret.

Trackers handle incidents beyond this town, but that's irrelevant now, collectors are what's in store for her and I.

The girl shrieks as the newcomers grab her and muffle her screams. She fights harder than I would have anticipated, earning herself a curse from one of the magica collectors that renders her body limp and throat mute.

I swear under my breath as I watch these events unfold.

I shouldn't have helped this girl. It wasn't my business to meddle with, and now I'm covered in enough evidence to kill me on the spot.

A firm hand suddenly grips my shoulder from behind and I shake it off, growling.

"I know what I've done." I hiss, turning to look at the bulky collector that's grabbed me. An obvious lycan, he smirks down at me with amber eyes glowing in the intensified moonlight.

"I expected the Solstice to bring about trouble, but this is almost too good to be true." The man sneers, grabbing my arm and squeezing until he's satisfied.

It would seem my reputation precedes me.

Another cloaked figure appears and grabs my other arm, causing me to scowl, fangs unsheathing slightly in disdain.

"I can walk myself." I growl, attempting to writhe free.

Deep laughter fills my ears as the collectors mock me. "As if we'd ever trust you, Bane." The lycan adds with dominance in his voice. I hate the way they speak. As if they always have something to prove.

"After what you've done to that townsman we'd loose our heads if we let you saunter into the trinity without restraint." The other collector states, and I grumble to myself, finally allowing them to walk me out of the alley and away from my freedom.

Wards are in place for this sort of thing, allowing collectors and their captives to move about the town unseen. No one so much as looks my way as I'm shuffled down street after street.

The girl is dangling in the arms of a collector in front of me, his jostled footsteps doing nothing to prevent further harm from coming to the human as her head bobs about aimlessly.

Eventually we turn down to the industrial district where all of the abandoned factories sit from a time long ago when Ellenwood was ripe with coal.

To any random passerby these facilities would look condemned and dangerous, but to someone who knows what they're looking for these buildings are actually a gateway.

I'm shuffled through a set of old metal double doors and pushed deeper into the old processing plant, the smell of soot still lingering in the air like a permanent plague.

There's one door in particular marred with the symbol of the trinity, a twisted and pointed sort of keltic knot that symbolizes the three factions.

Beyond this door is an archway that looks out of place, but completely harmless unless you say the activation words to ignite the portal, proving with undisputed certainty that witches are the superior race.

"Aperta passagio." A voice bellows. The word springs to life the gate, filling the arch with a misty sort of viscous material that you're meant to walk through, but would rather not.

Aperta passagio directly translates to 'Open Passage', admittedly not the most creative thing I've ever heard, but perhaps now isn't the time to dwell on such things.

The girl and I are forced through the portal, her having no doubt already died from the sheer shock and horror of what she's seeing while she flops limply about like a fish on dry land.

"Are you trying to kill her?" I ask with annoyance to the collector carrying her. He smirks over at me but doesn't reply.

Venom bubbles in my mouth as the urge to kill him surfaces. I stare at the girl face for a moment, and suddenly the feeling subsides.

The rounded curves of her girlish cheeks, the fullness of her pink lips, and the angelic way her eyelashes decorate stormy eyes makes my mouth feel dry.

She's the spitting image of my Tanya, the only one who has ever been able to stave my anger when it creeps in.

We've crossed the portal now and my eyes move from the girl to the city scape that blossoms before me.

Tall pointed village styled houses spring into view as well as many flamboyant shops. Witches tend to apothecaries, frantically trying to sell their wares of potion ingredients and rare gems while the solstice is ripe, prompting buyers to be loose with their coin.

Lycans prowl the streets looking for mischief, their transformed selves much stronger under the intense glow of the moon. Fighting among ourselves is allowed in Ellenwood so long as no human is involved, which gives the wolves free reign to act like fools.

Vampires loiter the streets, flirting with witches and haggling them for their inventory. The bond between vampires and witches is a complicated one involving a millennia year old curse, and a mutual agreement to not be stingy with our venom.

The moon sits powerfully behind trinity tower, the place where the three thrones sit waiting to deliver judgement.

Ellenwood underground lingers as close to the moon as possible without disrupting the lunar balance, making it appear thrice as large in our sky as it does on the surface.

Eyes all stare as me and the girl as were escorted through the colorful streets, everyone stopping to watch as were delivered like prisoners who already have the noose tied around our necks.

I snarl with pride as some whisper and some point, not allowing myself to appear weak as I'm man handled through a town that once welcomed me.

I scan the crowed, a stern look on my face, until my gaze is snatched by a Lycan in the crowd, his golden eyes alight with concern as he stares not at me, but at the girl.

His throat quivers and his jaw locks as though he himself is fighting the urge to attack, not me.

Does he know her?

I wonder for a brief moment before I'm pushed too far past the wolf to keep looking.

I wipe all of their thoughts from my mind as the grandiose doors of Ellenwood tower swing open, revealing an elegant foyer of black marble.

This is it. I'm about to be dropped before the council that will decide wether I live or die, the likely hood leaning towards the latter.

When I said I wanted to meet Lucinda this isn't what I meant. I wanted to barter my death, not have it thrust upon me.

We're weaved through polished stone hallways and sharp steep staircases, the occasional worker or guard giving me a pointed look of judgement.

After what feels like an age of walking we finally arrive to a big black door with the trinity symbol scribed on the front like an ominous calling card.

The door slowly creaks open, the black stone disappearing into the wall like a cell door.

The throne room is a reflective black granite that seems to swallow you whole as you enter, no one usually emerging alive once they've seen it.

We're thrust on to the hard ground, the girls body landing with a painful thud as she's discarded harshly onto the cold floor, as if any of this is her fault.

The curse is suddenly lifted that binds her, and she lets out the most excruciating scream I've ever heard in my prolonged life.

It ricochets off of the walls and sticks to my eardrums, causing my fingers to dig in to my own thigh to endure the vibrato of a woman scorned.

Uncontrolled sobs spring from her eyes and seem to choke her as she stumbles to her knees, gripping her stomach and doubling over in fear.

"What is this place?" Her hoarse voice cries out, her face panning over to me, no doubt the only thing resembling something she recognizes.

"I'm so sorry."

I mouth silently to her, causing her sobs to suddenly cease and her eyes to scan my entire being as though she's noticing something she hadn't before.

"Hansen Bane. What have you to say about the Heinous actions you have committed tonight, of all nights, on the evening of our solstice?" A familiar voice demands.

I cringe in fear, my own faction leaders voice causing me to cower under his presence.

My head jerks away from the girl and angles to stare up at a trio of powerful beings that will decide my fate.

Loric, Lucinda, and Lysander.

The Ellenwood Trinity.

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