Darkness plagued her for days, flowing her in and out of consciousness, taking her to the outside world of reality only giving her glimpses, and then cruelly pulling her back. She saw the angel many times, he always seemed to be just above the darkness. Voices streamed in and out sometimes, different voices, but the one she never seemed to fail hearing was his. A sweet baritone that crawled over her like a caress from the wind, a velvet voice. She longed to open her eyes, longed to see a sprinkle of light, longed to be able to touch and taste just to know that she was still alive. Was this hell? Was she dead?
No. She could feel the numbness going over her body like a thick blanket, can you feel if you're dead? Light's eyes desperately tried to open, tried to climb out of the suffocating darkness, trying to escape the imaginary hands clasping and reaching for her. Then her eyelids slowly came up. It was better in the darkness.
*****
It was two days after he brought the woman into his mansion that the fledglings came home. Dante had been caring for the young woman tediously, and worried most of the time like a mother hen, her condition didn't seem to be recovering. She had frequent spells of consciousness, only coming in and out of them for short periods of time. Each time, she simply drank some of the blood he had in his pantry (meaning animals, which weren't as satisfying as human blood) or cried, she didn't seem to take in her surroundings. It was as if she were in her own little world. Her lovely hazel eyes were vacant, and they didn't seem to focus.
After Dante had gotten the woman settled in and her condition stabilized, he sniffed his way back to her car, hoping to find something to tell him who she was. A purse perhaps? He hadn't found anything and he supposed the punk who had stabbed her took off with her purse. Dante had been continuously scouting Pampa looking for the blue-haired man, hoping he could find and kill him. He felt a strange blazing rage towards the boy and didn't even stop to ask himself why. It was simply his nature to hold grudges.
So all the time she had stayed in his home, nothing had really been accomplished and it would be harder from here on, since his adopted protégées' had come home. Dante tended to take very troublesome vampires, because he loved to have a challenge and see them come out as successful, modern vampires.
They had been on a trip to Italy to speak with one of The Judgment leaders, Jamie McLeish about the out-of-control younger vampires, it was one of the projects he had set out for them. They had been excited about it. He, himself, had discussed it many times (being an elder), and was tired of running off to Italy every couple of months.
The four fledglings were quite young in vampire years, he supposed considered babies. The oldest was Chaos, a twenty-three boy who had been turned only six months ago, and who was his favorite student. The prospect of adventure and a noble title excited all them: Abel, Chaos, Lucrestia, and Alice. He had been like them at a time in his life, well non-life. Dante had been changed prior to the 19th Century, so after a couple of thousand years, you kind of just got tired.
He looked just as he had at the age of twenty-five, the age he was turned. Vampires tended to not change very much after their transformation, their features and talents were simply intensified. So, if nothing else about him was to change, at least his preferences could.
The young woman he had turned hadn't yet taken in the vampiric features, she still had human blood in her system, but in about two days, she would become pale and extremely thirsty. However, she looked beautiful now, so he really couldn't imagine it would really change the intensity so much.
Dante forced his mind off of his musings and watched as the black limo in which his little protégées' had taken drive up the vast and long tree-shrouded drive-way and watched as they all jumped out.
