The Deepest Truths

Laurel felt the numb buzz; the only thing clouding her increasingly frantic thoughts; beginning to fade. Her throat was tight; she couldn't find her voice. Vaguely she was aware of Sheela and Linae at her side, words unintelligible and voices soft but fringed with impatience...panic.
She felt cold.
She tucked her legs up against her, huddled with her arms wrapped tightly about her legs, shivering feverishly. A soft whimper escaped her lips, and her eyes were clouded as the scene played itself out agian in her mind's eye...
Vrolok, bent over her, ready bleed her dry...a black shadow, lunging at her love, tearing at him, her voice breaking into an awful shriek...something bright, fierce, tearing at the shade...sudden freedom of her wrists, ankles, a blur of movement...the room, now. It had all seemed to happen in slow motion, then, but now it played itself over and over in frightening speed and repetition. A whirl of questions filled her head, threating to tear her apart. Why had Vrolok wanted to kill her? Why had she screamed?
But she knew the answer to the second question. She loved him. The shock of admitting this to herself, after denying it for so long...and suddenly she knew she had been wrong. He hadn't wanted to kill her. At that moment, when he had looked into her eyes, she had been panicked, and that other had looked just like him...
The other.
"Laurel! What's wrong with you!" Sheela's voice snapped into her thoughts.
"Sheela, calm down, I'm worried too, but she's in shock..."
"There's two."
Sheela and Linae were silent, staring with surprise at the vampire huntress. Linae recovered herself first. "Two? Two what, Laurel?" She tried to keep her voice steady. "Tell us what happened back there."
Laurel's voice was soft. "There's two of them, two vampires."
She heard one of them make a hiccuping sound, and when she turned to gaze at them, there eyes were wide, dumbstruck. Her own filled with conviction. "There are two vampires. Vrolok and another. He knows Vrolok, he kidnapped me and used me as bait. He looked just like Vrolok, but I don't know if it was just an illusion." Her voice tremored. "And Vrolok didn't try to kill me."
She watched warring emotions flicker accross the Ranger's faces, watched them shoot questioning looks to each other. Finally Linae gave a long sigh, weariness starting to show in her fair features. "We knew there were two vampires, or we thought we did. Vrolok told us; we weren't sure if we could believe him, but Orion confirmed it, so we trusted him...then suddenly he was hovering over you, and we all thought he was going to kill you. Then that shade creature attacked," Linae caught the flicker of pain in Laurel's eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it had come, "and Orion went after it. He's still out there."
Laurel weighed her words carefully, sensing something coming. "You knew there were two vampires...but you saw Vrolok, and thought you had been betrayed."
Linae nodded. "I didn't have time to think. But all the way through the halls, I kept thinking it just didn't make sense. Why would he lead us to you? Then when you said there were two, I remembered and I was in shock because we had only just found out..."
Laurel smiled softly. There it was. Subtle, she applauded the Ranger for that.
Linae caught the smile. The huntress knew. "You said the other looked like Vrolok. When did you get a good look at his face?"
There was a bitter laugh behind them. They turned to see Sheela, hunched on the bed with a large glass goblet of red wine in her hand. It looked half empty.
"Stop beating around the bush, Linae. You and I both know she knows what we're getting at. See? She's smiling again."
Indeed the huntress had a grin of amusement on her face.
Sheela leaned forward, staring seriously at her. "How long have you known?"
"Not much longer than you have."
The huntress caught the flicker of warning in the Ranger's eyes. "Laurel..."
She looked away. "Since he kidnapped me."
She could feel the Ranger's eyes burning into her. "How did you know?"
Laurel felt her breath catch. That was the trap. Nicely done, Ranger...
"Laurel?"
She tried desperately to think of some excuse, something other than the truth...
"Laurel, how did you know it wasn't him." Blatant. It wasn't a question anymore.
She felt her stomach churn.
"His voice."