Angelique Eight Date: 12/8/01 1:08:54 PM Central Standard Time From: Aesgaard Angelique sat and watched the Bathory carefully during dinner. The auburn-haired countess was very cordial, regal and especially careful. She barely ate much of anything except a steak that was rare enough to have walked itself to the table and on the dance floor she mesmerized her partner away from the mirrors. She and Angelique kept a close look on each other every so often, obviously knowing already what each other was and scanning for weaknesses. When the immortal vampiress excused herself, Angelique stood up and followed her. "Now where'd she go ?" her wily opponent had vanished on her on the outside deck. As Angelique looked around, it dawned on her of the legend that Dracula himself had made the Countess what she was. Was he close behind ? Was he the massive brute watching her from afar ? She noticed him once more staring from over her head. Tall, blonde and massive as per some Nordic god, they locked eyes at once and studied each other. He smiled a moment and tilted his head to her before leaving her presence. There were two things Angelique knew she could do: inform the captain he had two vampires on board and allow herself to be restrained as a lunatic or handle it herself. Her dealings with Barnabus had made her a bit of a novice vampire killer, but how many of them could command the mystic arts. She went to her suite and tossed what she needed into a purse. As inconspicuously as possible, she headed to the bowels of the ship. Thinking as Bathory would, she would not attack first class members; they'd be too easily missed. Third class passengers, however, would not be missed and would be much closer to a coffin hidden in the cargo bay. For two days, she searched the ship without incident. The crewmen had pulled a body drained of blood from the ocean, but they blamed it on the sharks. Her blonde follower, however, was popping up even during daylight hours so maybe she had to rethink what he was. By the third night, Angelique realized she had scoured much of the hold. as she headed out, she noticed the steamed windows of a car. She noticed the handprint left in the watery glass and thought she had found a body. Lurching open the door, she found it empty. Retracing her steps, she headed back the way she had come. Turning around several packages of Egyptian artifacts being shipped to New York, her eyes glance briefly over the uncovered sarcophagus and then over the broken seals. Bathory could be wily enough to hide inside for the trip. She nervously rose the lid............ "You !" "Witch !" Bathory grabbed Angelique by the neck as the purse hit the floor. >From somewhere, the whole ship rumbled and trembled as if a great finger from above had stroked it. Briefly distracted, Bathory felt the witch's leg strike her in the chest. Dropped to the floor, Angelique held up the cross she stole from the ship's chapel. Bathory clutched at her eyes and dove into the sarcophagus. She felt her history as an unstaked vampire coming to an end as Angelique slammed the lid on her. Tossing the cross inside as well, Angelique had alternate plans than staking her. She clutched her bag and pushed down on the lid as she struggled to light a candle and then several more for an imprompt ritual. "I call upon the powers of Earth and all her children...." she heard Bathory cursing at her. "I'll kill you !!!" "I bind you to your grave !" Angelique melted wax on the unbroken seals as water ran under her feet. " By the powers of Gaea, Danu and Jord, may no man ever release you from your grave ! May you no longer walk ! No longer may you live by night ! You are bound !!!!" Bathory was still screaming at the top of her undead lungs as Angelique stepped back. The wax hopefully now had the resiliency of steel; no one should be able to break them. As she looked to the water, she heard voices. "I wonder what sort of damage the ice.......hear, what you doing here ?" His accent was British; the groaning from in the hold almost primordial. The witch and the five porters looked to the steel bulkhead and noticed where water was spraying through numerous tiny holes between the plates of steel. Angelique felt afraid as she braced to the floor. Without warning, everything exploded. Thrown between floating boxes, she was thrown hard to the bulkhead inside the ship. Her back felt the brunt of the impact as she fell into the cold freezing miasma of debris and ice and drifted into unconsciousness.
