Terran Tales - C's Rescue

Bellatrix had never had the attention span for long lessons or terribly intellectual conversations for hours on end.  Luckily Tiberius understood this, even if he didn't care for the breaks she took from lessons when she got tired or irritated.

Either that or he knew better than to try to keep pushing a frustrated demigoddess when she's trying to do something out of her element.

It was during one of these breaks that she found the irate mob.  Had Tiberius not stayed behind for the break to do whatever he did when she wandered off, she probably would have gotten no closer than to recognize the gathering as a mob.  After all, the taciturn Masque knew his stuff:  for him it would have been as obvious as day that these people weren't just hanging around for their health and that it would be a very bad idea to let Bellatrix anywhere near them.

Of course, being the curious and troublesome critter that she is, Bellatrix wasted no time in pushing her way into the crowd.  She didn't mind the jostling or grumbled complaints; the average high school was much worse back home during the rush for lunch.  Squeezing her way to the front of the crowd – or, rather, the center; it seemed to ring a building that looked almost like a miniature cathedral - she squinted in the light reflected right into her eyes from the stained glass and looked at the man to her right.

"What's going on?" she asked.  "Some sort of church service?"

He looked at her like she'd grown an extra arm from her forehead.  "What are you, blind?" he asked incredulously.  At her sudden glare he continued with, "A vampire's living here.  A right nuisance and a danger, that's what she is!"  Bellatrix frowned and pushed forward, ignoring the man's startled exclamation at her sudden move.  When she finally made her way to the door, she blinked at the sight of several men in what looked like religious garb hovering around a coffin in the middle of the room.

"You should get out of here," one said curtly, his voice gruff but not unkind.  "We're cleansing this place."

"Cleansing?" she asked, looking around.  Something in the back of her mind whispered that this was far from right, that something was horribly, horribly out of place.  They all seemed so suspicious....

"Yes.  Cleansing – even if she's a Ma-"

"Carrol!" one interrupted.  "The stake, please."  Bellatrix's eyes narrowed further at that little exchange, the gears churning uneasily away in her head.  With an almost painful moment of clarity, she lunged forward and smacked the wooden spike out of the hand of one of the men.

"You'll not hurt her!" she ordered, shoving herself between the coffin and the religious figures.  Something deep in her gut relaxed as she did so and the near overwhelming relief from a tension she didn't realize she felt was her clue that she had chosen the right path.  "Take yourself away.  Leave now."

"You insolent wench-!" one cursed impotently, his face red and purple with rage as he started forward.  Bellatrix held out one hand at him, mist gathering at her fingertips from the vapor in the air around her.

"Insolent?  Perhaps," she allowed.  "But I'll not allow this.  Go.  Say you have accomplished your work.  They won't know any better out there."  Bellatrix jerked her head toward the closed door, her rebellious blonde curls bouncing with the motion.  "Don't make me use force.  I swear upon my father that I will."  At first she didn't think that they'd do it; they looked at one another and growled, their body language indicating that they were loathe to listen.  But after a long stand-off, one started backwards toward the door.  One after another, they trickled away.

Soon enough it was just Bellatrix in the echoingly empty room.  She sighed and let her hands drop to her sides, then let herself slide down a nearby wall to sit with her knees drawn up to her chest.  "Well, that nearly ended horribly," she said conversationally to the air.  Flicking a lock of hair out of her face, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

That was how the Masque found her, sleeping in the home of a Vampire who might never know how much she might owe the young demigoddess.