Reflections in Blood

4. Throwing Thoughts

The party had become considerably more quiet since Viggo and Sean had left it. Hugo and Ian continued to survey the room. The vampire began to think out loud, albeit quietly. "It isn’t just the misery of the initial transformation that has Sean, is it? Sean . . . he doesn’t know what’s happening to him, does he, Ian?"

"I’ve had my suspicions," the older man replied, "and his leaving practically confirms it."

"I know little of the Beast-folk, except for the older vampires’ feelings that they’re lowlifes, and my own that they’re generally not. Still, I should think they teach their own. They don’t abandon them, surely?" Hugo questioned.

"Not usually, but I suspect that Sean was never meant to be a convert. He was meant to be prey."

"He fought off a werewolf ?! That takes more than some doing, even for a vampire. For a normal human to have done it . . ."

"Sean isn’t really a ‘normal human’. All of our charges are exceptional people."

"I’m not arguing with you, Ian. Still, I’m sure luck had a hand in saving him, " Hugo took another sip of blood wine. "Someone should talk to him about it."

"Someone has to. Viggo doesn’t know a thing about it, and if he stays too long . . ." Ian corrected.

"If he stays too long?"

"Sean hasn’t acknowledged the animal presence in him. Worse, he doesn’t even know about it. Usually, a shape-changer can stave off the animal by changing occasionally, willingly, except during the full moon, when they don’t have a choice. If a werewolf doesn’t embrace his or her other side, the beast vies for the human’s attention. Soon, it grows so crazed and so angry that-" Ian paused.

John Rhys-Davies suddenly entered their conversation. "The wolf takes over. It’s Sean, isn’t it? He’s never that twitchy. I thought I heard it in his voice, and I was really hoping that it was something much more mundane." John had been a member of a society that would know, long ago, before he becan acn actor. The Vigil were mortal humans, a few of which who were gifted with psychic abilities or magick, but most not, who walked between the mundane world and the darker underground. They were invisible protectors to the human and supernatural races both, eliminating anyone on either side who had become a serious threat to safety, or to secrecy. As it was a dangerous life, John had opted out of it in his early twenties. "I knew there was going to be trouble as soon as that Rickman walked in. Vigil should have had him put down long ago."

"’Long ago’, he hadn’t the decency he has now," Ian protested.

John raised an eyebrow, "Is that what you call it? Be careful around him."

"There’s more to his behavior than you guess. A little more than a year ago, his longtime human consort was murdered. If I can’t condone his relapse, I can at least understand the reason."

"Why didn’t you tell me this when he came in?" Hugo demanded; it practically explained everything.

"I won’t say that the moods he’s had since he came out of mourning have covered his grief well, but they have often covered it better than now. Something has agitated him."

"It’s self-destructive. He’s close to hunting humans in earnest," Hugo pointed out, and John nodded, recognizing the behavior as well. Vampires nowadays could not awa away with killing freely, and they had strict laws concerning the number and condition of prey. Each vampire had a quota of humans that he or she could get away with, and each one needed to be a merciful kill, generally among those of ter terminally ill, or of the very worst criminals. Some didn’t chance the moral implications of it all, but sipped here and there from mortals without killing, or, like Hugo, relied on animal blood, generally bottled, which was readily available. Those vampires who didn’t follow the dictates were dangerous to the secrecy of the vampiric community and to the mortals alike, and were destroyed by either the Vigil, or the vampire Lords they were subject to. "After this is over, you need to spend some time with him, Ian, talk to him."

"After what is over?"

"The Order of Starlight, according to Alan, is plotting something, probably concerning the Hobbits and Orli," Ian answered.

"They don’t exist." John snorted. "They're just some obscure piece of information you hunted down, Ian."

"Alan wouldn’t have sought me out to tell me a lie; he may play with people’s emotions, but not with information, unless it can protect his court."

"Well, if they want trouble with us, they're sure to find it," John shrugged, his voice light. Though he hadn't spent as much free time with the rest of them, he was as attached as the others to his castmates. "But do you really think any cult wants the trouble it'll get if even touches the Hobbits or the Elf? Just the trouble from them, with us completely notwithstanding?"

Ian was still perfectly serious. "We have to keep an eye on the boys."

"Two eyes," Hugo reminded gently. "But, priority one right now would seem to be getting to Sean and Viggo, explaining everything. Unfortunately, there’s no tactful way to do it. Do you even think we should involve Viggo?"

"He’s not going to settle for anything else than the truth; he’s very attached to Sean, perhaps more than he’ll acknowledge. Viggo, I’d trust to keep the secrets of the supernatural world. In fact, I’d trust him to believe far more easily than Bean will, despite the pain he’s in," Ian answered, carefully.

"He has read a fair amount on mythology; it’s like having our own Indiana Jones, with the places he’s lived, and you know how well I'd know," John agreed. "I would have picked him for the Vigil before I picked myself."<

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"Besides, Sean’s going to need someone to help him through this, and I don’t think it best that it be a member of his blood family."

"We can't just walk into Sean's hotel and say, 'oh, by the way, there's a wild animal inside you that you have to appease before you'll start feeling or acting normal again. You have to become the wolf willingly to quiet it, then everything will be fine. You have to fiiiind your baaaalance'," Hugo gave them both a sharp look, and the sarcasm was unmistakable.

"If it becomes necessary, I can force a transformation," Ian replied, and the other twoked ked horrified. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that. First we'll have to convince him that despite what other members of the Underground and what horror movies might have him believe, that this isn't a curse. At least, it doesn't have to be one. Sean has the kind of strength that's needed to turn it into a blessing. He'll never need to harm a human being if he controls himself, and the strength, the senses he'll acquire from it will be nothing but enriching to his life, if he doesn't try to fight the wolf in him off. Werewolves aren't really animals, you know; in any form, they're more human than anything else, except their instincts are sharper and the fact that they tend, like wolves, to mate for life."

"You almost have me convinced that I got the short end of the stick, having eternity." Hugo smiled softly. "Fine, we should go talk to them."

"Would you like me to come?" John asked.

"Thank you, no," Ian replied. "I highly doubt Seabecobecome dangerous yet, and I doubt, even then, that he would willingly harm Viggo. I know where Sean’s staying, and his room number. We can get to them easily," Ian nodded at Hugo. "Hugo will back me up, but I want him out of the way if anything should go wrong. Werewolves can be . . . rather aggressive toward vampires."

"And vice-versa," Hugo countered, recalling Alan.

"You already know what hotel they're in . . . For God’s sake, wizard, give some of us a little privacy," John shot him a dirty look.

"It’s not the job Hugo and I have taken upon ourselves, John, and you know it. We offered you a place, and the offer still stands.&qs."

"I have no desire to get involved in business the Vigil should be taking care of. I have retired, and I intend to stay that way. But . . . if any of us is attacked directly, by your cult or anyone else, I can’t say I’ll stay neutral," he smiled, and his eyes glittered with something not completely unlike Gimli’s enthusiasm for battle.

"Thank you, John, for what it’s worth, that actually means quite a bit," Hugo bowed his head.

Across the room, four chairs clustered about a table, and the four Hobbit actors appeared to be having a staring contest. Elijah seemed to have opted out of it, spinning an empty beer bottle on the tabletop. What not even Hugo and Ian were able to guess was that they were actually having a conversation. What had happened amongst them was really more common than was thought; they could actually throw their thoughts back and forth within their small group.

The reason for it was the time that they’d all spent together. It wasn’t long into the shoot when they didn’t have to speak at all; and then they actually started hearing thoughts from each other. Nothing supernatural about it, really, just another form of knowing. The four of them couldn’t get into each other’s minds; it took an effort, though a slight, to, to throw a thought, which is what Billy and Dom had dubbed it. One of the odder things about the whole experience was the fact that Orli, who spent nearly as much time with the rest of them, wasn’t able to do it. It wasn’t the strongest of telepathy, but it bonded the four of them beyond anything they could have hoped for otherwise.

There’s definitely something going on, and I’m itching to know what, Billy threw his thought to the other three.

Thus speaks, ah, I mean THINKS Pippin, Dom teased.

I don’t think we should pry into it, Billy, Sean Astin took a sip of his beer. Of all of them, the link was most uncomfortable for him, and he was the one who was most glad they couldn’t actually read each other’s minds. It had crossed his mind that he’d been the one to start it, that the mindlink had been his "fault", since he’d had one with a friend before, a very long time ago. He’d been devastated when it had been recently broken, and though the mindspeech wasn’t comfortable, he’d be damned if he’d lose this. Beany is hurting pretty bad, obviously, and he doesn’t want to talk about it. In fact, I’m not exactly sure he can.

Look, Ian and Hugo are going, while most of them had a tendency to be curious, Billy was the extremely observant one of the group, and sometimes the others teased him about being nosy.

The party’s winding down anyway. That isn’t so unusual, Lij sent.

Well, then, the plot thickens, Dominic’s smile indicated that the wheels in his head were in full rotation.

"Sblomie, this is no time to be perverse," Sean mumbled out loud.

Oh, come on, let’s be perverse, Billy grinned, though he was really trying to lighten the tension. Truth be told, he was really having flashes of impending disaster from this whole situation.

I don’t like it. Not the fact that Hugo and Ian are leaving or that Beany and Viggo left, it’s not knowing the reason for it. I feel like we’re on our way to seeing some kind of blowup, Lij sent.

No, it’s going to be worse, Billy sent, but his thought was so quiet, he wasn’t sure the others had heard it.