Episodes of Shade: The Mage From Cairo - 5. Fight

     Alarmed, Saeed and Barry stood. "What do we do, Gwenny?" Barry asked.
Gwenny turned to The Druid Culkin and asked, "How many are there? And where are they?"
Th Druid closed his eyes for a moment, "Three. There is one at the front of the house, he's your decoy. The other two are circling around each side of the house towards the back, searching for a weakness in your protective wards."
"Saeed, you best turn invisible, at your earliest chance get outside the house and teleport away from this place." Gwenny instructed.
"Not this time, with all respect, I'm not running again." he responded.
"I agree he should stay." Said Culkin. "He will be useful." Gwenny did not look convinced. The Druid added, "But do make yourself not visible." With this he too stood.
Gwenny turned to Barry, "Transmute yourself into something tough Barry." With this he began walking into the dinning room gesturing and chanting. Saeed cast his invisibility charm. Gwenny closed her eyes in concentration for a moment or two, upon opening them she said, "I think the wards on the house will hold. I don't think they're getting in here, and if they do..." she looked to Barry leaving the rest of the statement unsaid.
"Still," injected Culkin, "it is best we deal with them before they do. Saeed, can you teleport into the barn and free that Percheron? It's the big black one son."
"Don't lose that necklace I gave you." Gwenny added, "You won't be able to re-enter this house if you do, and whoever recovers it will."
"Okay." Saeed agreed and with a single word he bent the space around him everything going translucent as he stepped into a world more ethereal than his own. Willing himself forward he raced with lightning speed to the barn travelling through the opaque walls of the house then the barn. He materialized in the center of the structure between two rows of stalls. One one side there were two horses and on the other a single, very large black horse, 'Percheron', he thought to himself. He unlatched the animal's stall door and it gave him a short nod of appreciation before exiting. It sauntered over to the barn door and looked back at his stall where Saeed stood as if to say, "Hey invisible guy, with opposable thumbs, little help here?" Saeed complied and freed the very large animal. He then looked around for a vantage point, he would not be much good in a fight against these foes as he had not yet learned any offensive spells. He settled on the loft above the stalls.
     Things outside were getting a bit more interesting. The vampires stood in a triangle formation around the house. One at the front of the house and the other two at the opposite end on either side and far enough away from the structure that they could see each other. They're working on Gwenny's wards, he thought. Then from the house came the calm and strong voice of The Druid, his voice was somehow amplified, "Greetings from the Druid Culkin, you are not welcome here. I implore you to leave this place. Our wards will hold, but my patience may not. Remain here at your own peril."
     The vampires looked uncertainly at one another but after a moment continued to concentrate and chant faintly. Though Saeed could not see the third vampire well he could tell that all three were of European ancestry. Each wore black leather garments though not uniform between them. They kind of looked like members of one of those American biker gangs, the second one had a shaved head the other two had long light-brown or perhaps even lighter hair that was shoulder-length.
Saeed wondered if Gwenny and Culkin knew what the vampires were up to and considered teleporting back into the house, but movement in the shadows near the second vampire at the back left end of the house stole his attention. With the vampire's attention focused on the wards around the house he failed to notice the 1000kg Percheron backing quietly out of the shadows behind him. When the animal was close enough it kicked backwards striking the vampire directly in the back of the head.
The force of the blow crushed the vampire's skull, broke his neck and sent him into a forward somersault that ended with the vampire facing skyward motionless.
Saeed gasped at the violence of the attack, though he knew that the vampire would eventually recover it would be hours or perhaps even days before he could pose a threat again. Saeed quickly covered his mouth to stop the noise, it appeared that no one had noticed the gasp above the noise of the attack.

Saeed could see most clearly the first vampire at the front of the house, nearest him. The vampire stopped his focus and regarded the Percheron, whom cantered sideways a few yards towards the undead trespasser.
Culkin's voice again came amplified from the house, "One down. Can you last til dawn?"
The large horse trotted off into the darkness of night.
The third vampire came to the front of the house to join the first, looking silently at each other for a moment, then turning together they looked to Saeed's position in the barn loft.

Saeed's pulse quickened, They know someone let the big horse out, they know I can at least go undetected... Maybe they're just guessing?
The first vampire started moving towards the front of the barn and the third towards the rear of the barn. I'm not waiting to find out! Saeed prepared his spell but as he was about to speak, the air around him went silent, he found that he could not utter a sound. Air was moving past his larynx but no sound was coming out, there was no sound at all! He began to panic. He was still invisible but also thought that he read somewhere that vampires could sense body heat. He considered hiding behind something that would block the heat, but was afraid to move because of sound. But wait he thought, there is no sound! He looked around but there was nothing but hay and tack. THINK! he chastised himself. There were animals downstairs still, he decided to try and descend the ladder and quickly get near one of the remaining horses to mask his heat.
As he descended the ladder, a rung broke, and he lost his grip falling a few feet onto his back knocking the air out of his lungs.. and it made a noise. The silence was gone down here.
On either side of him about fifteen or twenty feet away were the two vampires standing as still as statues looking at the place where Saeed had landed, listening to him gasp for breath. He notices that each vampire wore a bronze armband, or was it a torc? Saeed needed to stand to teleport, he knew as soon as he moved the fast-moving vampires would be on him. Then he realized, I do have an offensive spell... for vampires!
"Ra'se tep!" Saeed cried, closing his eyes briefly as he uttered the last syllable. A blinding flash of light and heat, bright as the sun, filled the barn. It was quickly followed by the shrieks of seared vampires, this bought him time. He quickly stood and cast his teleportation spell willing himself towards the house, as he did he slammed into a barrier that prevented his movement about twenty feet from the porch ending his spell. He didn't understand, then he realized reaching toward his neck, he had lost the necklace that Gwenny gave him when he fell from the ladder. Her wards were preventing him from getting any closer! He was now visible and exposed outside of the ethereal reality of the teleportion spell.
Facing the house he drew a deep breath, you have to be smart Saeed he told himself. Drawing a small dagger from his belt under his shirt he slowly turned to face the barn and see what awaited him.

A vampire emerged from each end of the barn, still smoking a little. One of them laughed at the tiny knife Saeed held in his off-hand.
"Come here boy!" he said. "I'm going to use that little blade of yours to clean your flesh out from under my fingernails when we're done with you..."
"Be nice Charles." Said the other vampire, "He might taste as good as his pretty, little aunt. We might want to keep him around for a while."
Saeed again felt the anguish of loss, but it gave him focus. "Come on you crispy, burnt corpse! Do it!"
They came, and they were fast, but Saeed was split second faster, casting his telportation spell once again the world around him bent and he willed himself back into the barn. He ended the spell when he found the necklace, put it on quickly, re-initiated the spell and willed himself towards Gwenny's house.
Saeed reappeared in the living room next to the table that he had, not so long ago, served tea to a blind druid and Gwenny. He nearly collapsed from the exhaustion of magic use.
Outside the house the angry shrieks of vampires that had just been denied their quarry pierced the night.
Shay and Barry stood in the center of the room, Culkin was seated on the couch and Gwenny stood near the window next to the front door peering out from behind the curtain. Barry had changed, a lot. He was bigger, for one, tusks grew out his face and bull-like horns from his head. His think neck was covered in scales which gave way to coarse black fur down his torso. One of his hands had talons the other had changed into a lobster-like pincer. Something about his face was still Barry, but the rest was fairly unrecognizable.
"Woa" Saeed reacted.

The Druid Culkin turned to Saeed and nodded, "Well done my lad, they are leaving."
"Yep" confirmed Gwenny. "They took the other one with them too."
The room grew quiet. Saeed got the feeling that everyone was now in much more danger than they were just a few hours ago, except for maybe himself.
Shay was the first to break the silence, "We won't be safe here." She turned to regard Gwenny, "Not for much longer." She added.
"I think you are right my dear." confirmed Gwenny.
"Yep," Culkin said as he stood, "but what I cannot figure out..." turning to Saeed, "is why they are so persistent in getting to you young man?" After a moment he went on, "It is not like a vampire to pursue someone without either a vendetta against their quarry or something else to gain that is worthy of their efforts."
Saeed considered this, why me? Am I the reason my aunt is dead? Were they after me the whole time? Why!
"Rest now Saeed." said Gwenny, "we'll figure out our next steps and start those tomorrow morning."
Though they did not anticipate a return visit this night, they set watches. Saeed lay in a bed in a guest room up stairs, pondering these things. Wondering who he or his family had offended that would cause a vendetta, or, what other return these vampires could have that was worth the effort?

Episodes of Shade: The Mage from Cairo - 4. Visitation

     The afternoon turned into evening, Saeed and Barry helped Gwenny with dinner while Shay apparently finished up, whatever she was doing, in the barn. When she finally came in she was not alone, there was an elderly man with her whom she was assisting through the threshold of the home. Saeed barely noticed the man, he was mesmerized by Shay. She was a bit fairer than Barry, but bore features that betrayed her common ancestry with her darker skinned cousin. She was about fifteen if Saeed could guess, about Saeed's height with a head of unkept, chaotic, black hair.
"Gwenny, B, we have a visitor." She called out as she kicked off her shoes and motioned for her companion to take a comfortable looking armchair.
Barry was drying a dish with a hand-towel and glanced in Shay's direction to see just who the cat had drug in. When he saw the man his hands stopped, "Gwenny, it's him. The Druid."
"Here?" she questioned. "Now?" she stated more to herself as she took off her apron. She looked at Saeed and Barry, "you two finish up in here, I'm going to see what has prompted this visit."

     The Druid was an old white man with a long beard and long somewhat un-kept hair, Saeed thought the name fit. It looked as though the man's eyes displayed the cloudy quality associated quite often with one of the various maladies that cause blindness. From the kitchen Saeed and Barry could observe him, as they watched the Druid turned his head towards the approaching Gwenny.
"Culkin!" she greeted warmly, "to what to we owe this visit?"
His rather forlorn face dissolved into a warm smile,"Ah Gwenny," he stood and embraced her, "we shall get to that in short order." He turned into the direction of the kitchen and spoke, "tea lads." he commanded. His voice was much younger than his appearance, and somewhat refined. His unaccented American was articulate, learned, and perhaps a bit old-fashioned sounding.
    Saeed finished up with the remaining dishes while Barry put on a pot of water for tea. Saeed glanced out of the kitchen and saw that The Druid, Culkin, had moved from the entry and sat down in the den with Gwenny in one of a few chairs situated around a small antique coffee table. Shay was not in sight.
     The tea was hot so Barry with Saeed in tow brought it to the pair of elders in the den and were invited to sit in the empty chairs. Culkin began, "The purpose of my visit, is to bring you all up to speed on the movements of your vampires." he finished resting his gaze on Saeed. " He paused look downward now at no one, "as you well know, the group that attacked you and your aunt, Saeed, had been expelled from the Reno Coven and for some reason opted to head south to Carson City before turning west towards San Francisco. I've been in contact with my agents as well as my contacts within the local police agencies and some of the criminal elements in the greater Sacramento area. Vampires are quite difficult to track, thus one needs many sources." He sipped his tea while everyone waited patiently, thus far he hadn't really revealed anything. "My agents found them," he continued, "upon entering the area. The police helped me narrow down which buses left Carson City under the cover of night and would arrive in Sacramento while still under the cover of night, I focused my agents on those buses. You would think that they would have left the Sacramento area weeks ago, I mean, why stay?"
"They're still here?" Gwenny interrupted.
"Yes." He replied incredulously. "At first I thought that they had somehow slipped past me, but then one surfaced. Then another. Sometimes just one of them sometimes a couple. I have not uncovered anything that would suggest that they intend to stay permanently so I played with other theories. Eliminating theories that did not fit, I settled on just a couple. Those theories prompted me to stop using the police, and then the criminal underground. At present I am relying only on my own agents. When I learned that Saeed had arrived I thought it best that I come warn you all before they could act."
Gwenny was alarmed. "Why didn't you just call? Culkin, what are you getting at?"
The Druid opened his mouth to reply, but he stopped, then tensed. Outside a horse neighed, in the same moment Gwenny stood, alarmed, "One of my wards was just triggered." She said, looking to Culkin for the answer.
He quietly and calmly said, "They are here."