Fic: Victorian Contention 2/?

[Carol.Clarke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Title: Victorian Contention
Chapter Two: Pale Shelter 
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.
Summary: In an alternative world, Cordelia Chase, vampire and lady lives or
unlives under the thumb or the watchers counsel. Curse forever with her
soul. 
Thanks: Cheryl Hill, Alex who rocked on the knowledge research stuff. And
Sammy the Koala who gave me the idea to play with. 
Warning: Smut, strangeness & lesbians all in a story. 
Note: This story came from an idea Sammy the Vampire Koala and I had. This
story was meant as a prequal to his story. And since Sammy is off being an
adult, I decided to finish up this part of the story.

Pale Shelter
8: 00 AM Saturday September 1, 1888

Shelia sat in the breakfast nook of their London apartment sipping her tea
and reading the paper. Her mother Mildred Zuimstein sat across form her
reading one, of what seemed an endless line, of ancient books from the
counsel library. 

"Mother what are we doing here again!" Shelia sighed in total frustration. 

"I thought you and Herbert were enjoying each others company?" Mildred
answered turning a page and not looking up from her book. 

"Herbert is fine, I enjoy his company. He is funny and basically a good man.
But he is still a watcher." Shelia replied then added, "and you still
haven't answered my question. Mother really why are we in the mouth of the
Lion?"

Mildred looked up from her book at her daughter and studied her before
answering the question. "Interesting metaphor, and accurate to a certain
point of view. We can never truly trust the counsel just as they can never
truly trust us. We are natural enemies, but oddly we work for the same
goal." 

"And that is all wonderful and very very deep but still why are we here?
It's a simple question mother." Shelia said angrily, her long red hair swing
back over her shoulder. 

"All right, I don't suppose it would hurt to tell you." Mildred replied
slowly leaning back in her chair and taking a sip of her tea. 

"The counsel is looking for a slayer. Slayers normally do not live very long
lives. Which is sad. Generally slayers are wonderful people, far better than
most of the counsel. And because they live such short lives the counsel's
seers try to keep a few steps ahead. They like to know where the next two or
three slayers are going to come from. The counsel's seers are good but
mostly they are witches and mortals. Which is where I come in, they know the
next slayer will rise in China. They are already training her. But the one
to follow her, well she is a mystery." Mildred said before drinking her tea.


"Mom you're not a seer. At least that I know of?" Shelia asked completely
confused.

"All vatchguise have some seer ability. We can see patterns in things before
humans can... but that is not why I am here. I am looking for a prophecy
concerning the next group of slayers. The counsel wishes me to locate in
their library anything to do with slayers for the next 100 years. Basically
up to the year 2010. Not really sure why they choose 2010 as a cut off, it
must be something to do with a prophecy. Something they don't want me to see
is my best guess." Mildred replied pouring another cup of tea. 

"Mother I can't believe the counsel really needs another research
assistant." Shelly said picking up the teapot and pouring herself another
cup of tea.

"It's not that simple, they need a research assistant that can see
vatchguise. Somewhere in all their books and artifacts, one of the ancients
wrote a prophecy in vatchguise blood in satrit tynar text. Only one of our
people can see it, and only one of the trained can read it. And that my dear
daughter is why the counsel has sent for me, and why they are trying to
treat us with a small amount of respect. They hate us, but they need us."
Mildred answered before draining her tea and standing to leave the table. 

"Ok, that is why they need us, why do we need them?" Shelia asked her mother
surprising the demon. 

"You really are growing up my daughter" Mildred said proudly looking at her
daughter. "We need to see this prophecy as well. There is a legend, it's
very old and yet the signs look to say it may come true. Some time in the
next one hundred years or so, the triad is to be formed, a zitkra witch, a
twice lived slayer, and the half vatchguise half human daughter of the house
of l'epinefluerhameau."

"We don't have a thorn flower ... hamlet? Or anything else in French!"
Shelia replied as she tried to figure out the meaning of the house name. She
had heard the triad story all her life; she always thought it more of a
legend her people told their children to keep them from marring humans, than
a real prophecy. 

"Yes well, I am hoping the counsels text has an answer to that as well."
Mildred answered with a smile as she turned to leave.

"You mean you haven't found anything yet!" Shelia almost screamed. Her
mother just smiled and counted to ten before she answered, vatchguise
teenagers were even less patient than human teenagers were. 

"No, which is why I am off to look in the counsel library. Have a good day
and don't get Herbert into too much trouble. He is a mortal. 


9: 00 AM Saturday September 1, 1888

Arthur Conan Doyle walked around a group of chatting police on Buck's Row as
he examined the possible murder site. It was hard to tell if the woman had
been killed in the alley or her body dropped there after the murder. It was
hard to tell mostly because the group of chatting policemen had spent the
better part of the morning washing away the evidence to the crime. 

Still there were little bits of information here and there. The bullet hole
in the brick wall of the Board School in the back of the alley on Buck's Row
was the first thing on his mind. No one had reported hearing gunshots, or if
they had the police didn't seem to have taken the report. Possibly because
the murder clearly did not use a gun, or for some other reason. He had no
way of knowing how many people the counsel had in the police department.
Even his own involvement with the counsel was dubious at best. 

His time as an officer in India had effected him strongly and when he
returned to London he and his wife had begun looking into the occult. Mostly
seeing different mediums. Somehow that led to the counsel contacting him.
They needed his services as a doctor. Not many modern (Victorian) doctors
knew much about female anatomy. Mostly because it was against the law for
interns to study naked woman. One of the less helpful laws on the books and
one many medical schools broke on the sly. And even if a doctor had some
experience with taking care of woman, that normally didn't include combat
wounds. As a veteran he had seen more than his share of combat wounds. It
made him the perfect doctor for the slayer. 

Arthur moved slowly toward the school to study the bullet hole. He guessed
it was from the shot David McKinley took at Walter's stake. The rest of the
bullets were still in the Lady Cordelia and never left her body. Arthur had
been driven back to the scene by David and questioned him carefully about
what he saw. Walter had been too drunk and far too into torturing the Lady
Cordelia to be bothered with facts. This had not pleased the well-known
magazine writer of Sherlock Holmes Mysteries one bit. He would have much
preferred to take the bullets out of Cordelia, only Travers had sent him on
a fact-finding mission instead while he questioned the girl. 

Arthur bent down and picked up the bullet and then followed its path to the
wood splinters that must have been the stake. Turning he looked over the
area making a note of where the body of Mary Ann Nichols or Polly had been
several hours earlier. The events from the body had been washed, stomped and
generally removed from the area. The blood all but washed away. Arthur paced
around trying to find clues amongst the dozens of police and onlooker's
footprints. He walked up the road a short distance and then back down to get
an idea of what the carriage driver must have seen in the dark as he came up
the road to pick the Lady Cordelia up. He was trying to judge the darkness
of the area and distances a human could see in the darkened area. And then
he made a note to himself about how far a non-human could see or smell in
the dark. Had the question presented itself in another form he would have
asked the counsel to allow him time to question the Lady Cordelia on the
subject. He had written many secret articles for the counsel on such
questions and had spoken to the young vampire on this very subject at
length. The counsel was new to scientific methods but there were still
members interested in it. 

Arthur made one last scan of the area and then returned to the carriage with
the royal seal. "David I will want to see the body now, take us straight to
the morgue." 

"Yes Sir." David replied in his all-too-clear American accent. 

Arthur got into the carriage and looked at the man inside the carriage
already. Michael Rupert Giles was a second-generation watcher. He was also
busily going over dozens of notes he had already gathered for Arthur.
Michael, physically, could have been the model for Watson in his Sherlock
Holmes stories, but Arthur knew the man had a keen mind and actuary more
befitting Sherlock himself. 

"So can you give me a summery now?" Arthur asked Michael quietly, as the
carriage began to pull away. 

"Yes sir, but it's just a preliminary summary." Michael replied making
Arthur smile. 

"The woman was Mary Ann Nichols, also know as Polly. Age 42. Mother of 5.
Husband ran off with another woman about 10 years ago. Most believe that is
when she started drinking and working as a prostitute. She was a known
alcoholic. Mostly she worked on Flower and Dean. Officially she was found by
John Neill. But we know David and Walter Stephan found her earlier, god
knows who else came across her. Her throat was cut twice." Michael said
slowly picking up his note pad. 

"And you talked to the slayer?" Arthur asked. He had send Michael off to
speak to the slayer while he was looking over the scene of the crime.

"She wasn't happy about being woken up this early, but yes I spoke to her."
Michael said rubbing his neck. The girl had been down right grouchy about
being woken up by a member of the counsel; he was lucky to only have a
bruise or two. 

"The slayer said she met with Lady Cordelia at the agreed upon time. She
said that Cordelia was in good spirits, nothing out of the ordinary. She
also said that the route Cordelia was assigned ended in Buck's Row. Funny,
Walter left that part out." Michael stated.

"David didn't." Arthur replied before waving his hand to go on. 

"Mostly the slayer said demon-wise she didn't know of anything unusual,
quiet night I believe were her words. When I suggested the Lady may have
killed someone, she asked if it was Walter and added something about wanting
to do it herself. When I explained that it was a lady of the evening she...
well sir she accused me of lying. She said that Cordelia might be a vampire,
or even a killer but that she had better taste?"

"Yes well there is more than a few things wrong with this case." Arthur said
quietly. He needed to look at the body, but he was already sure the Lady
Cordelia didn't have anything to do with the woman's death. Then he guessed
Travers must have known that already. What really bothered him was that
Travers was allowing the charade to continue. Why send for him, why Michael?
If she were guilty why not just stake her. The girl was suicidal at times at
best, how could a creature like her not be. She stayed alive because she was
useful, not because the counsel cared for the girl. Soul or no soul, once
Cordelia lost her usefulness to the counsel she was dead. He just hoped the
body gave him a better clue.






Trust No One, Deny Everything, because All Lies Lead to the Truth.