Vampire Phantasm: Fiction Contest #6

Distinct Lines:
1
I had plenty of time to consider my stubbornness as I hung by the ankle. The snare was no doubt magical or I would have already broken it. That and I would have been able to detect and avoid a normal human device.  I wasn’t an idiot, but I was sure that would be Jack’s conclusion once he found me…if he found me and if he decided to cut me down.
I could already hear it.
“Why can’t you listen to me, Jill? I told you not to bother with a few strays!”
He would shout and rail his ‘I told you this’ and ‘I told you that’.  Then he would move to telling me what I should be doing and how I should be behaving, and finally what a horrible vampire I was because I wasn’t really trying.  Yeah, everything would be puppies and kittens if I just tried harder, until Orlock ripped their heads off…
He was the part of the deal that Jack failed to mention. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t have to.  Jack and I were on monosyllable terms.  It had been that way since Jack had made me kill a human to feed.  It was that or die by his hand.  My stubbornness had already gotten me a warning from Papa Orlock, so the issue was pressed and I hated Jack for it.  Jack and Orlock, they were one and the same to me now.  If I had known before, I would have whole-heartedly made a different decision the night Jack found me dying.  But he had neglected to mention the psycho overseeing his every thought and action.  
I was as polite as my temper allowed, only speaking when spoken to and keeping company with my housemates only when it was necessary.  Otherwise I kept myself occupied discovering my new inherited “talents” and their limits…as much as I could without Jack.  Any questions were submitted via Topaz until he got tired of playing go-between, then I decided to “wing-it” which annoyed Jack to no ends.  The fact that I’d rather learn by trial and error than speak to him drove him absolutely nuts.  It was juvenile, but I was entirely serious about my promise.  I would hate him as long as I existed and I was leaving as soon as I could survive on my own.  Independence was everything to me and, case in point; it tended to get me into trouble.
That brought me back to how I ended up upside down in a cave probably over territorial borders.  Jack was blissfully unaware that the few strays were really more like a few hundred.  I kept the real numbers to myself because I had discovered an underground rail road sort of thing going on right under Orlock’s nose.  Humans from towns inside Orlock’s territory had been using it to move their families out and escape to protected zones.  I had to hand it to them!  I was still finding alternate routes through the underground caverns even after four weeks.  But realistically, it was only a matter of time before someone else noticed.  
I had decided what Jack didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him…and Orlock could screw off.  It was as indirectly defiant as I could be without catching his eye again.  If I helped even one human being avoid being tortured and killed it was well worth it.  I just hoped Jack could see it that way…yet, somehow I doubted he would.   
I glance up at the translucent, web like cord around my ankle.  
Jack didn’t have an ability to spin webs, not that Jack couldn’t find the means to string a magic snare but it was not something I had seen him do before.  I briefly considered what orifice Jack would have to shoot said web and grimaced.  Eewwwww!  I hadn’t seen him naked.  Maybe he could shoot silk out his butt or maybe Orlock could?  
I shook my head.  
The blood must have been pooling in my brain too long.  If Orlock could spin webs, then I doubted he would bother with chains and shackles. It would certainly cut down on clutter in his play space.  The only conclusion was spider man, a really big creepy crawly, or another vampire.  
I didn’t like my odds.  
“Oi, you’re not a human, little lovely?” the voice was feminine and sounded like a regular gutter snipe.  
I kicked my free leg and jerked around.
The woman made me jealous to be female but she couldn’t possibly have been the one to speak.  She was pale and her hair golden blonde, reaching her waist.  Her eyes were large and a weird reddish brown.  She was wearing a black, full body suit that hugged her like a second skin.  As we studied one another she tipped her head upside down so we could see each other the right way, from my perspective.  
“Whatcha doin’ ear?” she asked.  
Her appearance and voice were so at odds that I nearly laughed.  “I was…well, I was trying to figure out exactly where this tunnel led,” I replied, grinning sheepishly.
She mimicked my expression revealing a mouthful of pointed teeth not just the fangs I expected.  
“Could you, please, let me down from here?” I asked.
She righted herself and muttered, “Hhhmmmm,” tapping her bottom lip.
I followed the long spindly finger down to her thin elongated hands.  She held her forearms close together in front, wrists bent forward and fingers pointing down.  The joints were large and the nails tapered, curling back towards her palms.  She wiggled her fingers in a wavelike motion, curling and uncurling them as she pondered.  And I thought Orlock had creepy hands!  
“I need permission first,” she finally said.  
Oh, great…“Permission from whom?” I replied cheerfully.
She grinned again. “May keeps her eyes on things,” she pointed a finger at herself.  “I watch and catch little flies trying to fly the coop.  Katarina cuts interlopers to shreds.  That’s her job.”
I liked dealing with May so far, but I didn’t like the sound of this Katarina. “Can’t you just let me go this time, May?  I was only doing my job after all and this is just an honest mistake,” I reasoned.  
“Sorry Love,” she said, “that’s up to Kattie.”
I thought May was odd.  She talked about herself in third person and had wicked creepy hands, but when a second pair of arms emerged from her back and started poking around above, I got a really icky feeling about what happened to the humans she came across.
The hands above tugged and sorted more translucent strings.  I couldn’t see them normally but as her spindly fingers flicked and tapped one or another the light caught them just right.  I was willing to bet the things criss-crossed the entire tunnel.  
“Ah, there we are!” she exclaimed, happily clapping her lower hands.  She began tapping the line in a series like Morse code.  “Hope someone’s paying attention,” she muttered eyes on the hands above.  
Someone apparently was because no sooner had she released the giant thread, it started jumping again.  She lightly set her fingertips along it and cocked her head, lips pursed as she discerned the reply.
I hoped it wasn’t, Bon Appetite.  
She released the thread and her fingers did their little dance above her head. “Right then, I’m supposed to bring you to Kattie.  Now, you can come quiet like or I can bite and tote ya like a pack,” she said, cocking her head sideways, “up to you.”
“Thank you, I’ll walk, May,” I replied.  
May approached and steadied me with her praying mantis pair of hands while the other set crept above to sever the thread.  It was a matter of strumming the line lightly like a cord.  Her long nails cut through it without sending any vibration.  I hated to think what she could do to flesh, but my past experiences in Jack’s company had taught me to go there.  
I expected to land right on my head, but May had latched onto my ankle and other leg above while she supported and balanced my weight below.  She rolled me upright in a series of quick grabs then set me on my feet.   It was not unlike being passed through an assembly line.  
I wobbled and fell right on my ass as the blood rushed out of my head.   
“Oi, how long you been hangin’ around, Love?” May asked.  
Hopefully long enough for Jack to start looking. I wished just once I could get myself out of trouble.  I couldn’t keep depending on him if I intended to leave one day.     
I shrugged.  “Maybe hours…”
“Your noggin must be achin’ then,” May said, patting my head lightly.  
I glanced up from knee level searching for any other mutant appendages, but she had very normal looking feet attached to normal looking legs and torso.  Her second set of arms retracted and disappeared under her long locks.  Her lower half looked normal enough but she walked with an uneven gait, almost scuttling along the cavern floor.  She kept me in front which was fine.  I had no trouble with the darkness or terrain.  May’s eyes gave off an iridescent glow behind me and I shuddered at the similarities between her and another red-eyed fiend.  
May cocked her head and a hand from her back darted above.  It dipped down a second later with a small black squirming form clutched between her spindly fingers.  Her pale tongue flicked across her lips and her catch was half-way to her mouth before I realized what she had snagged.
“Betty!” I blurted, throwing a hand up.
May paused, her eyes darting to my face with Betty inches from doom.
Poor Betty the bat’s eyes were bulging as she chittered and shivered in May’s grasp.
“Please, don’t eat Betty, May,” I pleaded. “She’s naturally drawn to caves being a bat and all,” I lied smoothly.  
May snapped her mouth shut and peered closely at the little bat.  “Ain’t nuthin but skin an bones anyhow,” she announced.
Betty squeaked indignantly as May deposited her in my waiting hands.  I cupped them around her and peeked between my thumbs.  I could swear the little creature was giving me the evil eye, a bit ungrateful considering I just saved her from becoming a crunchy snack.  
May was watching me expectantly.  
“Th-thank you, May,” I said cheerfully and smiled.
She mimicked my expression again and pointed at the left passage.  “No worries, I’ve got a few snacks tucked back along the way,” she replied.
I turned my back before I grimaced and continued along the tunnel.  
***
It was difficult to gage the passage of time underground, but my body knew dawn was near.  I grew sluggish and heavy eyed.  
Betty squirmed and wriggled against my palms.  Her appearance meant Jack was either close or at least worried enough to be looking for me.  I wanted nothing more than to let her go, but I couldn’t be certain May would be as accommodating if she got her hands on Betty a second time.  I had to wait until May was distracted and that didn’t take long.  As we neared a bend in the tunnel, May scurried aside to rummage around a crevice muttering to herself.  
I eased a couple steps away and tossed Betty over my shoulder in a quick motion.  
May glanced back as I cupped my hands in front again.  
“Better be finding a place to curl up soon,” she said, booting a skull out of the way. “Wouldn’t put it past a little fly to go an drag one o’ us out in the open just for spite.”
With all four hands working, she excavated bones and rubble from a nice sized hole about seven feet up.  I had no desire to hang around May while I was helpless, but I didn’t really have a choice.  It was already getting very hard to keep my eyes open.  
“No one will be botherin’ us here while we pass the day,” she commented.  “Be stickier than day old snot,” she giggled.  “Come on then.  Up you go,” she waved me over with an upper arm.

2
I woke to May’s face obscenely close to mine, her eyes blazing and suspicious.  “Oi, where’s your bony little pet gotten off to?”
I glanced at the ceiling of the hidey-hole. “She’s not hanging around somewhere?” I managed to sound convincingly surprised, at least to my ears but May wasn’t buying.  
She grabbed a handful of hair and jerked.  “Nothin’ gets past my silk, so you must a let her go before we curled up for the day,” she hissed.  “Why would you be doing that?”   
There was no more need for pretenses, so I frowned.  
She didn’t wait for an answer. She sliced through the silk barrier and threw me out of the hiding place.  I twisted in the air so I landed and rolled up to my feet ready to fight.  I’d probably lose, but I was bent on trying.
“Because she’s not a completely hopeless idiot,” a familiar voice replied.
A red glow preceded Jack as he emerged from a dark swirling cloud, sword angled down at his side.
I experienced a simultaneous jolt of relief and annoyance before my feet left the ground.
“Back off Jack, or your little sireling will be a head shorter in stature,” May hissed.  She had clamped her bony fingers around my throat and plucked me up like a puppy.  
Gone was the gutter snipe accent. She had a very cultivated tone and inflection, which was unimportant seeing as she was choking me and her curved nails were drawing enough blood to make things exciting.  
I cut my eyes to glare at her and she smiled none too sweetly.  “What’s the matter?  Surprised I’m not as simple as you thought? You naïve little twit,” she quipped.
Jack snarled and May gave me a vicious shake.  
I wrung her wrist uselessly. It was like tearing at a beetle’s armored joints.  My hands came away cut and bloody.  She lifted one finger and I gasped a quick breath before she pressed it back in place.  
“Move, Darkness, now!” May ordered.  
Jack sank into a crouch as he slowly backed away.  I swear the red of his eyes intensified as they flicked between me and May.  I wondered if he was deciding who he wanted to cut into ribbons first.  
I spied Vallov out of the corner of my eye and tried not to turn my head, but May already sensed him and her many arms went to work.  She sorted and tugged in a flash and Vallov went shooting into the cave wall with a heavy thunk.  
Jack darted forward and May shoved me in his path as a shield while she whipped threads up from the ground.  They forced Jack back as she retreated down the tunnel.  He neatly dodged, leaping away from the translucent cords, slicing them to shreds as they winked into sight.  
I was getting light headed and dizzy from all the jerking around.    
Jack paused hanging upside down in a crouch from a stalactite. “Is this the best you have got?  I can do this all night, Morgana,” he goaded.  
May or rather Morgana snarled, “You arrogant upstart! How dare you address me by my true name!”
She whipped a thread over her head and shot it out to the right.  I heard a metal clank and Topaz yelp before he shot past me to the ceiling, hanging by the ankle.   
“Well, shit,” Topaz muttered.  
Morgana’s two other hands could have been directing an orchestra, and Jack was wrapped up in an aerial ballet of his own while Vallov struggled against sticky bonds.  I was completely useless, again…or was I?
For some reason, as I dangled going in and out of consciousness, the dream or semi-vision I had when I first became a vampire popped into my head.  I had seen Orlock and he had turned to look at me.  I had considered it many times with no solid conclusion, but anything was preferable to having my head sawed off slowly by Morgana’s sharp fingers.  
I closed my eyes and pictured the castle, seeing it in detail right down to the English ivy crawling up the stones.  I moved through the doors, up the stairs and shot into the throne room.  Sure enough, Orlock was seated in the macabre throne, hands bloody.  He looked like he was pondering something while he idly shook the blood from one of his hands.  His skin and hair seemed luminescent in the dark it was so white in contrast to his all black attire.  I felt cold and my skin crawled as a heaviness settled over me.  He straightened and glanced up, locking his glowing red eyes on mine.  
MorganaMorganaMorganaMorgana…I chanted in my head as loudly as I could.  
My concentration was shattered as Morgana shook me like a dead rat. “Don’t die yet, dear. Things are just getting started,” she sang.  
I roused to several hunched forms being drawn out of the shadows as one of Morgana’s hands manipulated five cords, one on each finger, like puppet strings.  Jack not only had the threads to contend with, Morgana hurled corpses at him.  As he dispatched one she snagged another from the shadows to replace it.  
To make matters worse, several pairs of glowing rusty eyes closed in on us.  I heard the sound of dragging feet and cracking joints as figures trudged into sight.  They were half rotted bodies with webbings covering massive wounds across their torsos and necks.  Some kind of black fungus-like crap was coming from their ears and had spread down their jaws on both sides.  
“Oh, shit!” Topaz shouted, drawing my eyes up.
Two twisted figures were creeping across the ceiling towards him.  
“Bloody, fucking hell!” Jack yelled.  
He flipped over and pushed off the cave wall, slicing a thread that caught his jacket while his other hand flashed and something red tinged shot towards Topaz.
Topaz made a little eeep noise as a red bladed dagger severed the web dangling him and skewered the closest creeper neatly through the head.  
Vallov was not so lucky.  One of the zombie creatures had chewed through one of his arms at the elbow, but it had given him enough maneuverability to rip his other side free.  He kicked through torsos and punched heads off with his remaining fist seemingly unshaken by his missing appendage as he trailed green blood.  The bodies broke apart with little black crawly things scattering from the wounds.  
Topaz recovered his axe and was cutting a path as he swung wildly left and right.  “What,” snick, “the hell,” snack, “are these things?” Topaz shouted.  
“She liquefies the insides,” Jack replied skidding in a semi-circle, “sucks out the good stuff,” he slashed through six or so, “and then lays her eggs in the empty shells.” He bounded to the ceiling again for a better view.  “That’s how she controls them.”
“Gross,” I croaked.
“Enough!” Morgana shouted.  She drew her hands down then jerked them up and the whole cavern seemed to roll in a wave.  
The corpses dropped where they stood.
Vallov flipped twice and stuck to the wall upside down.
Topaz tried to dive out of the way and was spun neatly into a cocoon with the axe sticking out above his head.  The bundle of silk expanded and contracted as he sighed.
Jack faired the best but failed to escape. He slashed in a flurry of red and black, cutting down the bulk of the wave as it crested on him, but one of the silk strands snagged the hilt of his sword and he wasn’t about to let it go.  He pushed off and let it carry him across the passage, landing lightly on his feet against the far wall and springing away to dangle one handed from his sword.  The thread coiled over his pale hand and continued to encase the red, glowing blade.  
Morgana’s hold on my neck loosened and I gurgled and wheezed as I clutched at her fingers again.  I could see her other hands above and below me.  She flexed her fingers and laughed quietly.  
“It’s not your bones I’d like to pick clean,” she mused.  “You are, after all, just the puppets, but what better message to send than the whole sale slaughter of his precious minions.”
“He’s not going to be very broken up…trust me,” Jack replied. “Maybe a little annoyed,” he continued drumming his bottom lip.  The sword started hissing as the blade began melting through the silk wrap.  
“Oh, really?” she replied and hefted me higher. “What about this tender little morsel?”
Jack tensed and his eyes narrowed.
“So innocent and naïve…he must be spending at the thought of breaking her. I’m surprised he hasn’t done it yet,” she continued nastily. “Or is he waiting to savor the experience when it suits his fancy?”
I would have gagged if my throat wasn’t so damaged.
Jack snarled eyes burning as he shifted for an attack.
Morgana flicked the hand below me and several threads winked into view heading straight for him.  
He gave her a frightening grin before twisting the sword and dropping into a swirling black cloud, disappearing as the cords converged.  
We scuttled back as Morgana feverishly worked the translucent strands.  I searched for Jack’s reappearance, twisting my head around in time to see him emerge behind Morgana.  She read my eyes and both upper arms jerked straight down as she pivoted in time to have her head cleaved from her shoulders.
I expected to be released and her to drop, maybe start twitching or something.  I didn’t expect her head to get passed along the ceiling like she was crowd surfing.  Morgana grinned as her hair fanned out and suspended her head far above the cavern like a pale spider.  Her headless body staggered away, one hand feeling along the ground as another took hold of my ankle and hefted me over it like a shield again.    
“She can do that, too,” Jack commented, eyes focused above.  
Her hands repositioned, one grabbing my right wrist and another taking my other ankle.  I got a really horrible feeling as she started pulling using my neck as a pivot point.
“Make a wish, Jack, and we’ll see if it comes true,” Morgana cackled.  
My joints and tendons screamed as I did and I twisted my head aside.  I grabbed her wrist and yanked hard enough to force my chin down.  My teeth sank into the skin webbed between her thumb and index finger.  
Morgana shouted something obscene and I was suddenly sailing across the cavern.  
I squeezed my eyes tight waiting to hit the wall or some craggy outcropping but the impact never came.  It seemed I halted in mid-air, got turned around, and then my cheek was pressed against someone’s chest.  I felt a forearm diagonally across my back and a hand against my shoulder.  My feet were not touching the ground.  I hooked my arm around Jack’s neck and gave a relieved sigh…but, Jack was unusually tall, cold, and he smelled all wrong.  Not that I went around sniffing everyone I happened to know, but it was definitely a different aroma.  
I got a queasy feeling as hair tickled my arm, the arm hanging by my side and I tensed.  Jack’s hair was not that long. Cold fingers plucked the bloody hair from my neck and I felt a tongue slip across the cuts along my throat.  Jack would definitely not take that sort of liberty or greet me in that manner.  
My eyes shot open and I shuddered as I drew away.
Orlock dropped me like he was discarding a coat at the door and I scurried back so fast I lost my footing and fell gracefully on my ass.  

3
“Morgana,” Orlock said as he glided into the open.
Morgana’s body perked up and quickened its retreat using all four hands to feel its way up the threaded cavern wall towards her head.  
Her laugh made me clench my jaw. “Speak of the devil and he appears,” she mused.
Jack slid into the shadows and began picking his way towards me.  
While Jack hacked and slashed Orlock didn’t have to bother.  What didn’t retreat from his path in time dissolved with a faint hissing noise.  He clasped his hands behind him, head tipped back like he was out for a pleasant stroll gazing at the stars.  
“Still two appendages short of a full eight I see,” Orlock mused with a wry grin.  
Morgana’s shorter arms seized her head and smushed it back onto her shoulders.  She twisted her neck with several crackling noises before locking her eyes on Orlock again.  
“And you’ll pay for that loss with interest you blood-lusting prick!” she replied.  She made a raspy noise and plucked a thin white thread from her lips.  It stretched longer and longer as she gathered and spread it between her upper hands.  
This terrible pressure built a sort of charged sensation like a thickening of the air before lightening strikes.  It made my hairs stand on end and skin crawl.  I thought it was just Orlock being present making me nervous, but something was not right.  
Jack began leaping over the webbing in his path.  Something was definitely up if Jack was in a hurry to get out.  
I wanted to get up and run screaming or at least meet him half-way, but my body refused to respond.  It was like being in a choke hold all over again.  Some unseen noose tightened and my consciousness was shoved aside, paralyzed.  I could still feel my body, and see in a sort of rust-tinged tunnel vision, but I had absolutely no control of my facilities.  
Killkillkillkillkillkillkill…repeated in a velvet female whisper inside my head, and I rethought the sensibility of passing the day in May/Morgana’s company…not that I’d had much of a choice.  
My eyes focused on Orlock as my shoulders hitched.  
Morgana finished her task and dangled a large luminescent web from her fingertips.  She let it dip and touch the cavern wall.  The solid rock hissed and melted to mush.  
“I’ve learned a few new tricks, love.  Care to test my limits?” she cooed.  
I knew attacking him was tandem amount to suicide, but Morgana didn’t care what happened to me.  I could feel that, too, and see in her perspective like a twisted sort of split screen.  A crude, rusted machete was lying a few feet in front of me.
I couldn’t help it, I argued, “It’s not even charmed, even if I get close enough it won’t injure-“
DO IT!
I shot stiffly to my feet and snatched up the weapon in passing as I charged.
“Jill!” Jack shouted.  He had paused perched sideways on an outcropping in the cavern wall.  
An unfamiliar grin twisted my lips as I closed the distance between us.
Orlock glanced over his shoulder, lifting an eyebrow with a bored expression. His red glare had no effect on me.  I was smothered by Morgana’s influence.  I wondered how close I’d get before I was melted like the strands of silk.  
“Jack?” Orlock muttered with a tone that said, ‘why is your sire-ling running at me with a knife?’  
I passed the outer ring of melted tendrils unscathed and a bloodcurdling cackle issued from my lips. Not that his death would be a tragedy, but I knew he wasn’t the one about to expire.  Orlock was right in front of me and then suddenly he was on my right, six feet away.  
His hair settled as he turned slightly to face me like he’d finished a short sprint.  
Jack shot into my path, eyes wide and frightened for the first time.  He held up his free hand as though he’d ward me off with a simple, reasonable gesture.  
You hate him…I know you do.  Let nothing stop you, kill him!
I performed an acrobatic maneuver I’d never have been able to do otherwise.  All I know is I flipped and spun before kicking him right in the face.  I landed lightly and crouched, setting my eyes on the target again.  
Orlock gave me an amused grin.  
Jack staggered but kept his feet, darting back in front of me. “Jill, you have to stop!” he pleaded.  
Morgana pounced, whipping the net towards Orlock as she dropped from gossamer strands.
Again, Orlock seemed to be elsewhere when the net landed where he was a moment before.  It started smoldering and hissing as it dissolved the rocks and debris.  Giving up on weaving, Morgana spat a wad of the noxious stuff into her hand and threw it.  The material stretched long and seemed to harden into a lance like missile as it sailed towards its target.  
Orlock turned slightly and the silk weapon zipped just over his shoulder.  It embedded in a boulder and started smoking and bubbling like wax.  
I dodged around Jack.  
“Either you do something, or I will,” Orlock said pleasantly.
Inside I was screaming, but Morgana merely giggled.  Rip his leg off with your teeth if you must.
Getting close to Orlock was the last thing I normally wanted to do, with a weapon or otherwise.  My hand flipped the rusted blade, holding it like a dagger as I took another swipe at him.  But once again he was suddenly not where I was attacking.  
Orlock sighed in a resigned manner and slowly raised one arm to shoulder height.  His fingers seemed to lengthen menacingly.  
I shifted for another go and Jack tackled me around the middle.  We tumbled and rolled in a tangle of arms, legs, and his coat.  
As I scrambled to my feet ready to continue with her command, Morgana tugged hard on my noose.  She was poised half-way down the wall hefting three handfuls of goo.  “Leave him to me.  You deal with Darkness,” she instructed.  
The split screen effect faded after she gave me the order.  I did a stiff about face as my high-jacked radar focused on Jack.  
His expression was torn.  He hesitated before bringing his guard up and I charged, hacking and slashing the rusted weapon with sloppy strokes.  To his credit, Jack didn’t want to hurt me and only blocked and parried as he fell back.  I knew he was drawing me away from the main confrontation which faded to a dull hum in my single minded fury.  
“Jill,” he said forcefully, “Jill, stop this now!”
I hissed menacingly.
His eyes narrowed and he struck at my weapon, shattering it with barely a tap of his red blade.  
It didn’t stop me.  I came at him bare handed and he dodged aside.
“Jill!”
I grabbed up a translucent scrap of silk and flicked it like a whip.  
It struck his wrist and his weapon dropped from limp fingers.  I barely believed what I was doing as my hand caught up the leather wrapped hilt and I brought the sharp tip to bear on him.  
Jack was back-peddling as fast as he could, but it wasn’t going to be fast enough.  I could see it in his eyes as I closed the distance between us.  
Kill him!
I dug my proverbial and literal heels in. “NO!”
Killing Orlock was one thing…he was evil and like nothing better than hurting others.  I had no doubt he intended to torture me like Morgana had said…but, Jack….Jack was another matter.  He had protected me on more than one occasion.  Sure he was overbearing and short with me, but he did generally wanted to keep me safe.  
My feet skidded to a halt and my upper half jerked forward at the waist.  I stared at my feet, top half hanging limply and both hands clutching the sword hilt.  My shoulders trembled and I breathed in uneven gasps as the mental bonds tightened painfully.  I’d fended off a dark influence before, but there’s a big difference between being conscious and resisting and being unconscious and taken advantage of.  
Her dark laughter echoed around my head.  Are you actually fighting me, little one?
I summoned every ounce of indignant anger and rage I could.  Every frusterated, unfair, and uncontrollable thing that had ever been forced on me floated to the front of my mind.  I glanced briefly via split screen consciousness at the fight going on behind as I gathered everything I was.   
No, I’m kicking your ass out!  I replied as the biggest mental bitch slap in history exploded in my head.  
Morgana staggered, mentally and physically, and it was just enough for Orlock to strike.  I felt the remnants of her screams inside my head before they faded and I heard them echoing off the cavern walls.
I curled upright and then dropped to my knees with a relieved exhale.  Jack’s sword was still clutched in both my hands.  
He drifted closer eyeing me cautiously.  
I tittered a bit drunkenly.
He sank down on one knee, placing a hand on my shoulder as he slipped the sword from my limp fingers.      
I started to say something but a squirmy sick feeling choked me up.  It felt like being bloated or just too full.  Next thing I know, Jack’s holding on to me as I hacked and spewed little black crawly things.  They just kept coming and coming, from my mouth, nose and I swear, ears.  It was the most disgusting thing, and I had never felt so violated in my whole life.
I don’t know which came first, the shaking or the sobbing, and then I was gathered up in his arms.  As Jack held me close I burrowed into his neck.  He stroked my hair and spoke in a soothing voice.
“The worst is over now. It’s ok, Jill,” he said quietly.
I felt like quite an idiot indeed.  All the things I had been keeping from him seemed pretty moot, especially the people since they had more than likely been preyed on by Morgana.  I wondered just how long she had been residing in the catacombs.  
Jack tensed and I was compelled to look up.
Morgana’s head was clutched in Orlock’s hand right on my level about four feet away.  The long blonde strands were stained a very dark red.  Her eyes were closed and mouth relaxed, she seemed pretty peaceful for someone who’d been torn to pieces.  
“Thank you for a most entertaining night, Jiliana,” Orlock purred.  He was rather chipper and had a disturbing intensity that made me want to run screaming. “Come by the castle once you are recovered and I’ll be certain to return the favor.”  
Jack shoved my face back against his chest before I said or did something foolish. “We will all give a report as soon as we are able,” he said evenly but his arms tightened.
“See that you do,” Orlock muttered absently. “Meanwhile, I have some redecorating to tend to.”
He must have drifted away or disappeared because Jack resumed petting my hair.   I thought I was going to shiver out of my skin and I jumped when I heard Topaz ask, “Where did all these people come from?”
The webbing must have released him once Morgana was taken out.  
I squeezed my eyes tight because I knew.  Anyone who had been to the human settlements even once would know.  Every community had a distinct manner of dress.
Jack’s hand slowed, hesitated, and then it dropped from my hair completely. “Bloody hell, Jill,” he muttered in a familiar tone.

THE END… for now.

Vampire Phantasm © Sarah Nelson.