Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 18:07:55 +0100
From: Tim <shiningstar@oceanfree.net>
Subject: Powers That Be 12

Right then! Here's Chapter 12 for you. Now then, this hasn't come out
until now because I've been working on something else too, my
Website! That's right, I've finally got one up and I wanted it up before I
posted this chapter so that I could have something on the net to show
you. The Guys are going into this Vampire layer so I wanted to draw up
plans for it. You can find it all at the site - http://stories.i8.com, make
sure and sign the guest book while you're there.

	I want to thank all the normal people, Tim, Sher, Matt and
Shawn. I don't have time to go into details as to why they deserve my
thanks, but they do.

	I want you all to write to me when you've read the chapter to
let me know that you think. It's an interesting one so I want loads of
mail! shiningstar@oceanfree.net

	A story, that's all this is, a story which is in no way based in
fact. If I can let you in on a little secret here - I made this up! Shh! Not
so loud, they might hear you! While some of the characters are based on
real people, this is not a reflection of what they get up to in real life, so
there you are. If you're too young, then you're not supposed to be
reading this.

I rolled over and groaned, remembering all that had happened
the night before and missed Justin immediately. But did I love him? I
had spent hours last night wondering, but I was no closer to an answer.
Glancing at the clock beside the bed I saw that it wasn't even 5 in the
morning yet. But I couldn't sleep any more. I got out of bed and had a
shower, cold - the heating hadn't come on yet. When I'd finished that I
dried off and pulled on some clothes with out looking to see what they
were. Not hungry, I went straight down the library and started devouring
books instead. Thanks to JC the day before I knew the basic
pronunciation skills necessary. (He'd gotten so tired of listening to me
making mistakes and had simply dumped the knowledge into my mind.)
I was concentrating unusually well and had gotten through a couple of
the more advanced spell books before the door creaked open and Lance
came in, rubbing his eyes. He'd been crying too.

	"What's wrong?" I asked.

	"With me? Nothing." He replied. "But there is so much sadness
in the house that it's starting to rub off on the rest of us."

	"I'm sorry." I said, not knowing what else there was that I
could say.

	"Don't be. You can't blame yourself for your feelings. If it
helps, I understand."

	I looked at him in surprise. I'd expected him to side with Justin.

	"Don't be so surprised. You're not the only one who still
treasures the use of the word love you know. I do... and so does Justin.
Last night he decided that he truly loved you. He decided to share that
with you, and he now thinks that you don't feel the same way, maybe
that you're using him, just for sex, for fame, who knows."

	I spluttered in indignation. "You don't believe that do you?" I
asked.

	"Of course I don't, but I'm not in Justin's position. I don't feel
like I've lost the one person who I thought I had something with."

	"He hasn't lost me!" I exclaimed.

	"I know that, but at the moment that's the way he feels."
Explained Lance.

	"But do I love him?"

	"I may be a seer, but I can't tell you that Tom. None of this -
he swept his arm around to encompass the books - can. You're the only
one who can know. Love is a more powerful force then anything that we
mages can harness, it has terrifying depths that have yet to be measured,
and dizzying heights that may never be fully comprehended." He put his
hand on my shoulder. "But it's worth all the risk Tom, if you're sure."

Strangely, the talk had made me feel a little better. "Lance, can we go
out and fight? With all this sadness?"

	"Of course. In a fight, a telepath might try to attack you with a
stronger emotion then that, and then you'll have to keep on going if you
want to come out alive. It's all part of the process of learning, and
you've still got plenty of that to do!" He stood up and made his way to
the door. "I'm going to try to get some more sleep before slave master
Josh tries to wake us up. I'd hate to disappoint him by being up already."

	I grinned and Lance winked conspiratorially at me. "Lance?"

	"Yeah?" He said, he stopped and looked back at me.

	"Thank you." I said.

	Lance nodded and left the room.

	Suddenly I was feeling hungry again. I made my way down to
the kitchen where JC was already making himself breakfast. By the time
that he noticed my presence his mouth was already full of toast. He
gestured for me to join him and offered me the other slice that he'd just
buttered. I took it gratefully and ate the whole thing in less then three
bites. He cleared his mouth of food and then spoke.

	"You're up early." He said.

	"I couldn't sleep." I offered as an answer.

	"You seem better then last night anyway, Lance's talks seem to
have that effect on people." He was grinning. "He's gonna have to get
up *very* early to pull the wool over my eyes."

	"He did." I laughed.

	"See? And it didn't get him anywhere." Said JC, joining in the
laughter. He calmed down. "Don't worry Tom, Justin will come 'round
soon. Lance'll have a talk with him too. And until then, Justin will still
watch your back in a fight, so don't worry about that."

	I frowned, the thought had flickered across my mind for a
second, but JC had said he couldn't read my thoughts anymore.

	"You've been letting your guard down. Protecting your mind
isn't simply a matter of a simple magic; you've got to continuously build
up your protection. Before we go today sit down for a couple of minutes
and do it. One of these vamps used to be a white telepath." Seeing the
worried look on my face he continued. "But don't worry too much." He
said softly. "If he'd been that good then he wouldn't have been turned in
one of them."

	I nodded and went to fill a bowl with cereal.

	"I'll leave you for a while, I'm going to get the others up." He
left the room and a couple of minutes later there were two very loud
bangs upstairs and a lot of shouting.

	I smiled softly to myself and sat down at the kitchen table to
eat. A moment later I was joined by Lance, who'd gotten dressed
shabbily and come down, I supposed that since these weren't the clothes
that we were going to be wearing it didn't really matter. (Justin had
shown me the clothes that the normally used for fighting last night,
before... well, y'know.)

	"He knew didn't he?" Said Lance.

	"Yeah."

	"I don't think he's ever done it that loud before." Lance was
rubbing his left ear.

	"Done what?" I asked, curious as to what JC had used to wake
them up.

	"A sonic boom. Guaranteed to wake up the deepest sleeper, if
it's within five bloody feet of his ear! Wish that bastard had never learnt
telekinesis." Grumbled Lance, still rubbing his ear as he went over to
pour himself some Cornflakes.

	Joey wasn't long behind Lance and he brought Justin with him.
He caught my eye before he dropped his head again and mumbled
something that could have been "Hi."

	JC brought up the rear, rubbing his hands together gleefully.
"Glad to see everyone one up so promptly. Once everyone's gotten
breakfast we'll talk about the attack." Once everyone had eaten breakfast
we did just that. JC revealed plans of the vampires building that he'd
gotten from the council.

	"As you can see, the only way to enter is through this door
here." He said, using a finger to indicate the entrance. "It goes without
saying that there are any number of spells on them, but they shouldn't be
too much of a problem, they weren't very powerful mages. Then, two
doors later and we'll be in the main entrance hall. From this there are 3
corridors leading to the vampires crypts and main rooms. That's where
we expect the main vamp resistance will be. They've only been in the
country for a couple of weeks but there has been an exponential increase
in the number of missing people in the area so we know they've been
'recruiting'. I doubt that the mage-vamps will get involved at this stage
but you never know. Once we're cleared that area we'll go up to the
second floor, by either of the stairs or by flying up onto this balcony here
which runs around the entire room. I'm guessing that if the mages do
make an appearance while we are still fighting down below they'll be
casting their spells from here. From there we'll make our way to the
inner chamber where we'll confront the mages and kill them. Then we
go back downstairs and make sure that the other rooms are cleared of
vamps. Then we burn the place to the ground. Any questions?"

	"Just one." Said Joey. "How many vamps do you think there
are?"

	"It's not a big nest. Remember, they've only had a couple of
weeks, We think about twenty, not including the mages, of which there
are three." JC looked around to see if anybody else had anything that
they wanted to ask. No one did. "Good. Well - he slapped his hands
together - let's get ready. We leave as soon as we're all ready."

	I gulped in anticipation. This was really going to be something,
I thought, going up against a group of vampires. Everyone got up and
went to their rooms. When I got to mine I saw that Justin had already
taken his clothes out of the room, leaving mine on the bed. I took a good
look at it for the first time. It looked like it was made of heavy leather, a
full robe going down to ankle length, but I knew when I picked it up
how light it was, if I closed my eyes it seemed as if it was nothing more
then a light raincoat. On the front there was a large symbol, I thought for
a second that it was a rune but I could tell that it wasn't, and on closer
inspection, there were smaller ones all over the cloth, even within its
many folds, but these ones were runes. I couldn't tell exactly what they
were but a small voice inside me said they were various protection
spells. I slipped it over my head and looked down, all the runes, and the
symbol on the front shone brightly for a moment, and then they dulled
down to pinpricks of light running through the runes, a dull black
somehow shining through the rest of them. The robe adjusted to my
body shape and fitted snugly against me. I looked with pleasure into a
mirror and then left the room and went downstairs to the hall where the
others were waiting. They all had the same sort of robes on, with the
same large symbol on the front and a multitude of runes all over them.
Some the same as the ones on my robe, others were different, but they
were all glowing with their respective colours, I thought that Justin's red
looked the nicest.

JC stepped forwards and drew with a glowing finger a large rectangle,
about the size of a door, muttering words the entire time. When the
rectangle was complete it shone brightly and suddenly I couldn't see the
hall behind it, instead a dark building was visible. "Come on." He said,
stepping through. Justin was next and then Chris went through.

I could see them all looking back at us I took a deep breath and
stepped through. Joey quickly followed and then JC stepped towards the
doorway again and said a couple more words. It shone brightly again
and then faded into nothingness. We all turned to face the building but I
felt my eyes being pulled away from it. Just ignore it, it's nothing really,
just a building. Ignore it, said a voice. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I
blinked, breaking the spell.

	"Good trick, isn't it?" Said Lance. "No one without magical
powers will ever look at the building, they won't notice that it's there,
that's the first of their protection spells." Then he spoke to the group.
"We've already tripped a warning spell. They know that we're here. We
should hurry.

	"Hang on a sec." Said Justin. I looked over at him and saw him
put a hand on the ground. A minute later there was a deep rumbling
underground and he smiled with satisfaction. "Just collapsing their
escape tunnels, they're trapped."

	"Good work." Said JC. "Lance, the doors?"

	"Nothing serious. A couple of spells, mainly to keep them
physically closed, and one to make sure that they're not opened in
daylight."

	JC nodded and strode forwards. He put his hands outwards and
with fingers splayed and palms facing the door. The doors vibrated and
pulled outwards, straining the hinges. He said one word quietly, but you
could hear the power throbbing behind it. The doors snapped into pieces
smaller the matchsticks and I could see the second set behind them, even
though they were shrouded in darkness. "Lance?" He asked for the
second time.

	Lance scrutinised the door for a second. "It'll absorb any power
that you throw at it, but I think I can get it... he stepped forward, getting
closer to them. Suddenly the darkness lifted and Lance threw a powerful
fireball at the doors, which torched up quickly, leaving nothing but ashes
that we all stepped over to what must have been the last set of doors
before the outer chamber.

My stomach turned at the thought of what awaited us there, but
I tightened my resolve to continue.

	"There are 12 in there, waiting for us, and more running in."
Said Lance, looking through the doors.

	"What about this door?"

Lance looked puzzledly at the door. "I can't see any spells on it, I guess
they must have thought that the others would have done the trick. No -
wait." He said, as JC raised his hand to destroy them. "I was wrong, the
other side has a couple of runes on it, not activated yet. I think I know
the counter-spells that'll get rid of them." He traced a rune in the air
which, once complete, shot through the doors, which Lance then
pronounced safe to destroy.

	Everyone took up a fighting stance and JC blasted the doors
into oblivion. We rushed forward, the adrenaline coarsing through our
veins, with shields protecting us and fighting spells at the ready. Once
the smoke cleared I could see the others already tackling some of the
vampires. I saw what Chris had meant about their speed as one got from
the other side of the room to me a fraction of a second. Fortunately I
reacted almost as quickly and the vampire ran into a flaming fist. He
jumped backwards and I pursued him across the room. He stopped and
grinned evilly. Before he could try to jump me I slammed him into the
wall with my mind and pinned him there. He struggled against my hold
and broke free, racing away from me along the hall. I hurled fireballs
towards him but he dodged behind the pillars that were holding up the
balcony. Pursuing him I tried to keep up with him but found that I
couldn't match his speed. I stopped running and changed tactics.
Quickly he tried to attack me again. I narrowed my eyes, concentrated
and a wall of fire blossomed between us, which he ran straight into, all
his clothes burning around him. He shrieked and fell to the ground,
rolling to try to put out the flames. Using a needle thin sword of flame I
chopped off his head.

	I turned to see how the others were faring but just had enough
time to see Joey changing into a giant before another attacker grabbed
my attention. I jumped into the air and landed facing her. Without
thinking I blasted her with lightening and Lance chopped off her head
with green laser beams emanating from his eyes. I grinned at him and
turned towards another vampire with too much time on his hands.

	"Suas go tapa!" I heard shouted from above and I felt a
wrenching pain in my head. I saw who could only be one of the vampire
mages pulling Chris in to the air, Chris struggling against the spell as
best he could, but he'd been taken by surprise and so the vampires grip
was too strong.

	I leapt up onto the balcony and blasted fire at the mage who
looked like he was preparing to do something particularly nasty to Chris.
He looked at me and growled. Taking one hand away from the task of
pulling Chris up he shot what looked like black sludge at me. I dived out
of the way and flipped, landing on my feet again. I looked back at where
the sludge was eating through the floor and shuddered. I narrowed my
eyes and extended a hand. A jet of boiling water hit the other mage and
he shouted, dropping Chris who twisted in the air and landed on his feet.
"Like a cat." I muttered, before turning my full attention to the mage. I
focused on him and flung him backwards, he slumped to the ground but
it was only an act because when I went towards him he jumped back up
and jumped in to the air as fast as he could. The only problem with that
was that the roof was only a couple of feet above him and his skull
cracked open with a sickening crunch. I ripped up a piece of the
floorboards and staked him through the heart with it.

	Another vampire jumped up onto the balcony, ran over to the
mage and howled. He turned towards me and jumped. I extended a hand,
almost lazily, and the air in front of me thickened to about the same
constancy as tar. He twisted and turned but this time I was prepared. I
closed my fist and heard every bone in his body snap. I dropped him to
the ground and writhed in agony, trying to get away from me. I pulled
my palms apart and ripped his head off.

	I looked over the balcony and saw Justin fighting with a
particularly large vampire who was starting to over come him, I could
see he was becoming tired. I hurled bolts of lightening at the vampire,
who halted his attack on Justin for a split second. But that was all the
time that Justin needed to gather power to him. I could see it being
pulled into him. He seemed to gain another couple of inches in height
and one of the runes on his robe was glowed brightly, healing a cut
above his eye.

	"Leac Oighir!" Shouted Justin, and the huge vampire turned
into ice. With one well-aimed kick at the vampire he shattered the ice,
which quickly melted into a puddle of water. Justin glanced up at me for
one fleeting moment before dropping his eyes back down to deal with
another vampire who'd just burst out of one of the adjoining corridors.
But he was the last, and with 6 powerful mages attacking him he was
quickly disposed of.

	We quickly made our way up to the balcony and paused outside
the door to the inner chamber.
	"Everyone ready?" Asked JC, whose robe was glowing brightly
in a couple of places. The look of tiredness left his face and he said.
"Lance? How's the door?"

	Lance closed his eyes and probed with his magical senses. He
started muttering quietly. "Dochar c d at  deanta, baint an draocht seo!"
Power flowed from him into the doors and they split apart.

	JC looked to each of us and saw that we were all ready. He
ripped the doors off their hinges and flung backwards into the room.
Before they'd gotten far someone inside burned them to ashes. Justin
blew up a wind, which cleared the smoke out of the way, and we saw
two people in long dark robes standing on a raised dais.

	"Dochloˇteacht" Said JC, and promptly became invisible. Joey
melted into the floor and I could barely make out the difference between
him and the grey tiles on the floor. Justin stepped backwards and became
a wall of fire that slowly crept around the room as the vampire mages
just stood there, uncertain of what to do.

	Lance started to trace a rune in the air, and at that action the
mages sprung into life, one turning into water to deal with Justin and the
other grew to twice his normal size and advanced on Lance, who was
completely absorbed in the complex rune he was drawing.

	Using all my telekinetic force I pushed the giant backwards,
away from Lance, but he struggled against me and was breaking free. It
was taking all that I had just to hold him there so I couldn't concentrate
on another spells. Suddenly the floor ripped open underneath him and he
fell, but only by a couple of feet because he enacted a levitation spell.
Justin closed his tear in the ground and the vampire was stuck up to his
knees. I took my pressure of him, but a second later he reduced himself
down to his normal size and clambered out of the gap.

	"Solas!" I shouted. The vampire paused his attack as he
grovelled in the sunlight, but he quickly realised that it wasn't sunlight.
He turned back to fight me but I'd already moved, I'd lunged towards
him, electricity coursing all over my body, and knocked him several feet
backwards onto the ground. I flipped over and landed on my feet, I
turned to face him but he was already up and starting to run for Lance,
who was standing there, a look of shock on his suddenly pale and drawn
face. He looked at me in desperation.

	"Enough of this." Said a deep voice, calm and amused
sounding. The roof pulled away, exposing the vampires to sunlight.
They both died instantly. The owner of the voice drifted downwards. It
was Drayn. He gracefully landed on the dais and looked us over, the
amused tone in his voice carrying over onto his face. He looked at me
and said. "So, you choose to fight with the white?" He laughed at his
own pun. "I stood there, numb, seeing the amount of power that flowed
through him and around him, realising that if he wanted to do anything
to us - he could.

	With more presence of mind then I could muster JC and the
others started pulling backwards, towards the door.

	Drayn shook his head. "No Josh, I really don't think so." He
flicked his wrists and the doors slammed shut behind us with a bang of
finality.

	"What do you want?" I asked, my voice quivering. "I'll never
come over to Dark magic. You should know that."

	He sighed. "I know that. I knew that since the first day that I
saw you."

	"Then what do you want?" Said Justin from behind me.

	"It's really quite simple." Drayn smiled evilly. "I want you all
to die."

	He pointed a hand at me and I felt completely frozen, I then
really couldn't move. "There's no point fighting against it Tom. I'm
more powerful then you could ever have been." He lifted up his other
hand and started chanting in a low voice. He looked back up at me. "Of
course, that's not to say that you couldn't have been powerful. I'm
impressed with you. Too bad." A bolt of green energy shot out of his
hand.

	"No!" Cried Justin. And before I even realised what was going
on Justin had thrown himself in front of me and took the full impact of
the blast.

	I fought against Drayn's grip and managed to pull myself out of
it. I rushed to Justin's side and took his hand. Every single rune on his
robe, those that had survived the blast, was shining brilliantly but I knew
that it wouldn't do any good. Justin was dying.

	"Tom." He whispered coarsely, struggling for breath.

	"Justin." I whispered back.

	"I love you Tom."

	"I know Justin... I... I love you too." Tears fell from my eyes
onto Justin's chest. And then he died. I sobbed into my hands. "I... wish
I'd told you... you sooner Justin. I love you." I couldn't hear anything
else but the sound of my cries until finally one thing penetrated through
the cloud of my grief - Drayn's laughter. I wiped the tears from my eyes
and looked up at him.

	"That's priceless! You only realised you loved him now!" He
kept on laughing.

	I stood up to face him, the sadness and sorrow in my heart
rapidly being replaced by anger, a loathsome burning anger. "How
*dare* you laugh. How dare you...?" I shouted, the anger burning
through me. For the first time since I'd ever seen him I saw a look of
doubt on Drayn's face. I raised a hand, and all the anger poured out
through it in the form of pure, unfashioned, twisting power. It struck
Drayn in the chest and hurled him backward into a wall. It keep on
rushing at him until all there was left was a stain on the stones. I fell to
my knees and the tears flowed again.

------------------------------------------

	Don't worry! This is not the end. I don't want to give anything
away but sufficed to say it's not the end of anyone. Let me know what
you think. Make sure and write, or I might just finish it here. (Snigger
Snigger)

	shiningstar@oceanfree.net

		Tim.