Things Fall Apart

Sheela was pacing the room furiously, glass lain forgotten in a maroon puddle on the pale carpet. She rubbed at her eyes and swung her hand through the air at phantoms of her frustration. Linae watched, unnerved, feeling the tension building in the room. Laurel hadn't said a word since Sheela had gone off on her, and sat curled up in an armchair, trying to nail the other Ranger with an icy glare.
Sheela stopped abruptly. "So, let me get this straight...you've seen him several times, didn't kill him, and didn't even tell any of us about it, leaving us to wonder about your health and well being but feeling completely alright with putting each one of us in danger, letting that blood-sucking mongrel to roam without a thought?"
Linae thought she could see the frost forming around Laurel's words.
"He. Didn't. Kill. Me."
Sheela whirled on the vampire huntress. "So he has a fetish with you! As if he'd give a damn about the rest of us! We-can-die-too!"
Linae closed her eyes, trying to block out the scene before her. She could feel the very threads that had held them all together coming undone, a flimsy tapestry of trust...unravelling. She pushed the thought away and concentrated, letting her surroundings fade out as she sought the familiarity of her constant companion. She found a flicker; rage, fear; and almost pulled back her mind in shock. Grudgingly she clung on, forcing past the vibrant, pulsing emotions, and suddenly saw flashes of Orion's vision; a strange hallway, a shade, a room... Linae's curiosity melded with Orion's as the scene before him came sharply into focus.
She felt her own shock melting into realization. This was the other vampire Laurel had spoken of, a mirror image of Vrolok.
But which was which?
The unbound vampire was speaking.
"...knew it would work...capture the vampire huntress, and add your eternal weakness to the bait you already couldn't refuse..."
Then this was the foreign vampire...
"...actually have gone soft, haven't you? You can't kill her...I've watched you, and you just can't bring yourself to do it...can't bring yourself to sink your deadly fangs into her smooth, pale throat, forever destroying any chance of the humanity it's so obvious you desperately crave."
Humanity...?
Linae felt a sinking in the pit of her stomach. He was a vampire...but did he still cling to what he had lost? And he thought Laurel could somehow help him...but how?
A little voice in the back of her mind whispered that the huntress should never know what she had just seen, just heard. Even if Vrolok had resisted this long...
She felt the flicker of another mind, there and gone. She waited...an image appeared in her mind, Orion attacking the shade, freeing Vrolok...she felt the tumult of Orion's thoughts, then a single decision.
I don't fear death.
A sudden surge of immense power, rage, pushed back her mind. She gasped, the last image in her mind that of Orion lunging forward, pinning the dark creature before him. She sank to the floor. Her frantic thoughts flitted about; a vampire, the image of Vrolok, the shade...she realized she was afraid. Not just for Orion...the raw power, such unrestrained hatred...she had never felt that in him, before. Had never realized what he was truely capable of. And maybe she still didn't...
Get yourself together, Linae. You've known him forever, there's nothing to fear, he would never... The thought ended itself. How well did she know him? They had travelled together for so many years...but he had never shared his past. Vague answers, all of them, she realized. She had let them go, because he had been her comrade, faithful companion, through thick and thin. But isn't that what mattered? She had trusted these others; people she knew nothing about but their names and occupations; had practically trusted them with her life since she had arrived. She settled her thoughts. Orion was her friend; she knew him, who he was inside; and that was what mattered.
Tentatively, she reached out, seeking his mind. There was a bold flash of defiance, a surge of satisfaction, a glimpse of the shade fading away...something wasn't right.
He turned to look at the vampires, circling, calculating, but the vision she perceived seemed blurry around the edges, unfocused. It felt as if a weight were slowly pressing down...his mind began to slip from her before she realized what was happening.
Orion!
Blackness filled her mind's eye, cold blackness, his presence was gone.

"ORION!"