Drusilla
Drusilla woke up afraid. The Fey had made her human again. She was still crazy, but innocent again, as she was the morning she took her final vows as a nun. She still remembered, however, everything she had done as a vampiress.
"Come here, my sweet child," the Mab said, in a motherly fashion. Dru crept over to Queen Mab and laid her head in the woman's lp/
"What do you wish, my daughter?" Mab asked, stroking Dru's long dark curls.
"I wish to be with my mate, and my children," she said, turning her tear-stained face up to the queen of the faeries.
"Then so shall it be."
Sabre
Sabre made his way through passways and gates to the particular node of space/time utilised by the Mab of this troop that had taken Drusilla.
He had an iron knfe in his belt, salt and bread in his pocket and rowan wood in a clasp for his hair. The children were similairly protected.
"Not far now," he soothed them.
Cassie and Orion
Cassie cocked her head and sniffed. "I can smell her, but she smells off. Papa, I think they did something to her."
Orion took a deep breath and gasped. "They made her HUMAN!"
Sabre
Sabre winced. Oh, this must not be good.
"She'll be alright..."
Worse come to worse, maybe he could ask Spike to re-vamp her...
"Who goes there?" A voice demanded out of the darkness.
"A traveller, with rowan, salt, iron and bread, so get ye back and let us pass!" Sabre demanded.
"Fie thee!" The voice snarled.
"Avaunt!"
A yelp and skitter of something like paws. Sabre rested his hand on Cassie's head for a moment.
"Let us go on."
Drusilla
Drusilla smiled as the Mab braided her hair in the style of a high priestess of Avalon.
"Is my family really coming to visit me?"
"Yes, my daughter, they are on their way now." The Mab grinned. She would let Sabre Shadowcat think he was being sneaky. The little kittens as well.
Sabre
Sabre whistled, the pure piping driving small wights from their path with yelps and squeals.
"See, you whistle and they flee," he told the kittens.
"Whistling, a cock's crow, the ringing of a bell...all such cause wightish beings to run."
He passed his hand over a door and pushed on it slowly. It creaked open and he ducked through.
"Keep close. Eat nothing. Drink nothing."
Drusilla's children
"Yes Papa," they all promised.
Sabre
Sabre smiled slightly and ran a hand through their hair.
"Come then. Enter Avalon."
"What ho, Sabre Shadowcat!" A voice laughed before Sabre was bowled over by a golden form.
"Have you come to play, lover mine?"
"Maybe later," Sabre promised, laughing as the golden haired Fey pouted and nuzzled at his throat.
"Awww..."
"I have business with the Mab."
"Oh, work, work, work. Is that all you think about? Come and lay under the trees with me."
"Later, prithee, later. Where be Keltie?"
"And what do you want with that horse, kittykittymiaw? I'm more fair then she!"
"Of course, of course," Sabre soothed, running his fingers through her golden veil of hair where they parted over two stubs of horn.
Deer's ears flickered and her brown eyes grew sad.
"You aren't the same!"
Wailing, she leapt up and fled, cloven hooves striking the earth rapidly. Sabre got to his feet and adjusted his clothing, sighing.
"Let us continue on. She will tell of our coming..."
Drusilla
One of the guards came into the royal chamber.
"Your Majesty, Sabre Shadowcat approaches, the dark one-- and he brings the smelly half-breeds with him."
Dru growled. "Those are my babies you're talking about!" she jumped up and faced him. Fingering the moonstone around her neck, she glared at him.
"I have been named a priestess of these lands. Disrespect my family again, and you will regret your birth." Queen Mab chuckled at Dru.
"You are coming into your role here well, my daughter," The Mab said, gesturing for her to return to her lap. Though it had only been a few days, Dru had been there over a year, and had been trained in the ways of Avalon. She was still not used to being human, however, but she took to her role quite well.
Sabre
Sabre stalked along silently.
He did love Avalon...but it wasn't a true place. A land of illusion and shifting fancy, that's what it was.
He frowned slightly. And what exactly had Dru done to be brought here? She wasn't their usual prey...
Drusilla
Dru tilted her head. "He's coming! I can feel the pull. Oh, Mother, may I go to him?"
"No, my child, stay here, he will find you in just a moment."
--
The kittens followed their father as quietly as they could.
"Papa," percy said. "She's right through that door, but she's. . . different."
Sabre
Sabre nodded slightly, and opened the door.
He walked across the room, ignoring Dru for the moment and knelt on the floor in front of the Mab.
"Milady, I have come to ask a favour."
Drusilla
The Mab smiled. "I know. I allowed you to come, because my daughter asked to be reunited with her family. You shall stay for as long as I like."
Meanwhile, Cassie, Draco, Percy and Orion rand ro Drusilla as fast as they could, anmd she knealt with her arms ouaststretched, and wrapped them around her babies. Cassie fingered her mother's moonstone.
"Mummy, what's this for?" she asked.
"It marks me as a priestess of Avalon."
Sabre
"You allowed me to come, aye?"
Sabre's eyebrow lifted slightly as he got to his feet.
"As you say, lady."
"Indeed I do say," the Mab said, smiling slightly.
"Then ye'll pardon me if I think I could have got in on my ownself."
"Of course, Sabre. Are you going to change names soon?"
"Yeah, I think so. I've had this one for most of a century. Getting bored with it."
Drusilla
Dru backed away from her babies for a moment. "Mummy must talk to Papa."
She approached him slowly. "I am so sorry we parted so badly, my darling. I hope you can forgive me for beig so cruel to you." Tears slowly dripped down her cheeks, and she moved to hug him, hoping he'd let her.
Sabre
Sabre twitched slightly.
Oh hell. He'd always been a sucker for crying women. His sisters had pulled that on him too many times for him to be immune.
"S'alright, lovey."
He hugged her gently.
Drusilla
Dru sighed. "She gave me back my soul. Made me remember doing all those nasty, horrible, awfulk things, but I don't understand I why I did them! Now my heart beats, and it hurts." she laid her head on Sabre's shoulder.
Sabre
Sabre coughed slightly.
"If ye canna cope...returning is always an option."
Drusilla
Dru smiled. "I want to leave. Milady, may I?" the Mab frowned.
"Why would you want to leave, my daughter? You have everything you could ever want here."
"That wasn't an answer," Cassie said, baring her teeth. "You're a mean lady!"
Sabre
Sabre chuckled slightly, drawing away from Dru and putting her behind him ever so faintly.
"Up to your old tricks, Mab?"
"Why, Sabre, how could you ever think that?"
"Because you're a right tricksey bitch when you put your mind to it. Kittens, here now."
Orion
They ran to their parents quickly. "Are we leaving, Papa?" Orion asked, hopefully.
Sabre
"I think we are...unless you really feel like having me go berserkers, Mab," Sabre said warningly.
"I don't like threats. I don't like being caged."
Drusilla
"Take me home, Sabre, please," Dru begged. "Back to Manhattan." She wanted to leave, and the moonstone around her neck glowed. She was being pulled back, held down by her jewel.
"I can't take it off, Sabby, it won't come off!" Behind them, the Mab was laughing.
"She's my daughter now. She, and her visions belong to me."
Sabre
"Psssh," Sabre said dismissingly.
"Did ye no learn your lesson last time, Mab? You might be Fey, but I'm the child of a goddess."
He laced his fingers around the necklace, and smeared some grains of alt along it. He gave it a hard tug and the chain broke.
Drusilla
"Take me home, Sabby, please," Dru sighed. "I don't want to be here anymore."
Behind her, the Mab growled. "No! She's mine!"
Sabre
"She's no ones," Sabre said firmly.
He threw the necklace in the Mab's face.
"And if ye'll be excusing us, we'll be going now. *All* of us."
Drusilla
This children all held hands as their father took them, and their mother home. Dru collapsed on the sofa of their NYC house. Her body was wracked with sobs of fear, grief, and relief. At the same time, the realization of every person she'd hurt in 200 years hit her like a ton of bricks.
"It's dark. The bugs go scritch-scratch!" Dru wailed. Finally, she just passed out.
"Papa?" Orion asked, "What's wrong with Mummy?"
Sabre
"She has a soul and it pains her," Sabre said.
"Such is the price of being human. To bed with ye. I'll watch her."
As written by Joy
They all headed off to bed, and left their parents alone.
Sabre
"S'alright, lovey," Sabre crooned, stroking her hair back from her forehead.
"S'alright."