We of the Undeserving

by badbard

See Part One for Disclaimers and Warnings if u wish to be scared away. If u wish to be scared anyway, read on...pay particular attention to the poem if you really are wanting to be scared. I believe it records one of my more lucid moments.

Gabrielle peeked over Xena's shoulder at the demons. They sat huddled together in the shadowy corner, the Vampyre curled protectively around the...beast. 'Vampae,' whispered the warrior's mind to hers. 'It's called a Vampae.' Soft blue-green eyes troubled, the bard gazed up into her warrior's oceans of blues to confirm that which she could not believe. But Xena had already turned from her to single out the Vampyre, taking her stance in front of Gabrielle. 'Even now, even though she's watched me hunt and feasted on my kills, she's still trying to protect me,' mused the bard. A warm feeling curled up in her chest. Once she would have been filled with the irrational rage of Youth, terribly aware of its youthfullness. No longer.

"You're not Rose," accused Xena, fixing her predatory stare on the Vampyre.

"No, I'm Jazmyn." The Vampyre's voice was weary. Uncoiling sinuously, she rose to her feet and held out a pianist's hand to the trembling red-head. Once they stood together she turned the full force of her strange grey eyes on Gabrielle. As the bard watched, entranced, they lightened to a silvery luminence that bespoke of the wonders of the age, tempted her with immortality and invited her to come forth and offer up herself to the Hunger. Then strong familiarly calloused hands were hiding her eyes and herself again, she heard Xena's voice, colder than a starving family in winter.

"None of your cursed tricks, Semperself. Was that Were your lackey? Your lap dog? Why did you lead me here, daughter of death? Is this a trap?" Even as she spoke, the warrior bacchae scanned the room, mentally recording exits. Gabrielle's watched from between Xena's fingers. She saw the Vampyre blink rapidly and seem to collect herself. The fact that she had tried to 'Contact' the bard had probably been an entirely unconscious gesture on her part. Now she simply stared at Xena balefully, a singularly aggrieved look in her cool grey eyes. That's the insult at work, decided Gabrielle. It made sense that Jazmyn would hate being called an 'Always for herself, or lover of self' as much as she herself detested some of the more cruel terms she had encountered over the years, when people had mistaken her and Xena for lovers. Now it was Gabrielle's turn to sigh mournfully as she eyed the warrior's gleaming body and finally gathered the presence of mind to demand via thought-speak why Xena was naked in the first place!

'One word for you, Gabrielle. Restrictive.' The bard rolled her expressive eyes at the warrior's characteristicly concise reply. Pulling away from her would-be proctector, she moved to stand face to face with the Vampyre.

"Look," she said in what Xena had come to think of as her 'let's be sensible' voice. "You're a Vampyre. We're bacchaes. We have a blood feud. Now, I, personally, was never for this feud in the first place. There's more than enough er..." the bard coughed while the warrior grinned on, "uh humans to go around. Afterall, this war was started over the ridiculous allegation of the Creation of a Vampae and everyone knows that Vampaes..." she trailed off, remembering Ashleigh Pain with some relunctance. Xena had cheerfully supplied the name into her mind.

"That Vampaes don't exist?" guessed Jazmyn dryly. The very absurdity of debating the fact with what was meant to be a souless bacchae was beginning to get to her.

"Excuse me," ventured Ashleigh nerveously, staring down at her twisted claws in fascinated horror, "what's a Vampae?"

"Hades only testicle!" groaned the warrior before she was punched reprovingly, if somewhat absently in the arm by a disbeliving bard.

"You are," pointed out Jazmyn. "I think. But then again, I don't believe in Vampaes."

"I am? Er, why do I have claws? Can somebody please pinch me! Geez, this is the worst day of my life..." Gabrielle smiled compassionately at the babbling girl. 'The young are incredibly resilient,' she thought. 'If I was her I would be having a nervous breakdown by now...' So thinking and incidentally, so broadcasting to both Xena and Jazmyn, she launced into the ancient lore of the First Vampyre and the Myth of Vampae Creation. There were stories to be told.