Burning

Chapter 8

Adam wasn't enjoying the day so far, first he wakes up with an unclear note from Valdis, then her brother came along and killed him, and now his hair was frozen in a spiky mess from showing back up in the Hudson River and walking through a blizzard to get back to Valdis' place to retrieve more clothes and the weapons that had originally killed him and Henry... useless now. Now that he had been the unwilling test subject to see if their original murder weapons would kill him and they failed he had no need for either one. He finally made it to the antique shop to drop off the pistol and get out of the snow when he saw everyone else gathered there minus Henry himself.

            "Adam, we were wondering when you'd show up." Vetis gave him a smug look as he glanced at the immortal.

            "What's happening?" He asked stiffly, not in the mood for the half-ling's arrogant remarks.

            "Valdis brought three more people back from the dead." Lucas nodded over towards Sean and Jo who were talking quietly. "The other two are upstairs helping Henry with Valdis."

            Adam set the gun down with the other supplies once Lucas had gone back to his conversation with Ingeras and Abe, who gave him a nod as he saw what he did. He walked over to the stairs and went up into the living quarters above the shop to find Henry and Abigail working over Valdis' unmoving form.

            "What happened?" He spoke quietly, aware that Abigail would recognize him and most likely hate him.

            They both turned their heads to look at him and just as he expected Abigail sent him a glare as she responded. "A fight."

            "A fight with snake demons." Another man said from where he sat in a chair dressed in old-fashioned armor. "To be specific..."

            "She's waking up." Henry announced as he pulled out another poisonous barb from the serpent's scales. "Adam, Slayer, hold her down."

            Adam walked over as Valdis blinked awake groggily, unseeingly, before flinching away from him and the others. Adam and the man Henry had called Slayer held her still as much as they could as Henry used tweezers to pull out the last barb in her side and allowing the wound to seal itself up. Valdis went still for a moment before letting out a shuddering breath as she tried to stop trembling.

            "That... no..." She shook her head and sat up slowly. "Never again."

            "The poison snake demons carry contains a hallucinogen, it causes the victim to see nightmarish visions of the victim's imagination, past, or sometimes even the future." Slayer explain, right before Valdis opened her eyes and lunged at his throat, taking both of them to the ground.

            "Why are you here Ingeras?" She growled as she looked down at her nephew, at the man who had tortured her. "Haven't you done enough damage?"

            "I'm the one who saved you." Ingeras II shoved her off and glared back. "There are worse monsters than you out there at the moment to slay... perhaps when this is over I can finish what I started... killing the underworld scum that you and grandfather were."

            "You failed last time."

            "I know all you kinds' tricks, I won't fail again."

            "Enough!" Abigail raised her voice causing everyone to jump at the unexpected sound. "No one is killing anyone until this is all explained... and in a civilized manner."

            Adam could tell that meant explaining why he showed up at the shop as if it were normal as well, and sent Henry a glance before looking at anything but the group in front of him. Abigail return really wasn't a surprise he liked, in his opinion it would only cause more problems in fighting Valac but considering it wasn't him and Henry's wife who had started fighting perhaps that meant she would ignore him.