section7mfu | The Seven Days of Hallowe'en - Day 7

The battle between Amarande and Illya was over as quickly as it began. Despite having broken through her power slightly, her strength was still superior, both physically and mentally. Illya’s will drained away and Amarande let him drop to the floor. He landed heaving on the wooden coffee table, which broke under him.

“On your knees,” she instructed, disdainfully.

Illya obeyed immediately and, crawling over the splintered wood, he got into position at her side. He hung his head submissively. Amarande stroked his hair as though he were a dog, and smiled at Napoleon. The pride in her victory was clear for all to see.

“You see,” she said. “I own him.”

“Illya,” Napoleon pleaded.

He had taken note of how his partner had almost broken through whatever was holding his mind, and he hoped he could get through to him again. At first there was no reaction but, after call out to him again, Napoleon saw something which made his heart soar. Illya looked up at him and gave a very slight wink. He didn’t know what it was, but Solo knew that his partner was planning something.

“You won’t win,” Napoleon told Amarande. “We’ve defeated more powerful people than you.”

“And what exactly do you propose to do?” she sneered.

Giving her no warning whatsoever, Illya grabbed a piece of splintered table from the floor, and swung it up to pierce her chest.

With a look of shock and disbelief, Amarande staggered back and clutched at the object piercing her heart. She couldn’t understand what had happened. The blond runt had totally been in her control. There should have been nothing which could have freed him from his mental prison. A scream began to form in her throat, but it never came to fruition. She slowly began to drop to the floor, her whole body turning black, as though burning, before turning to ash and disappearing.

As soon as she was gone, Illya felt the force which had been controlling him vanish from his mind. He smiled in relief, then passed out.

*****

He awoke in the familiar surroundings of medical.

“Did all that really happen?” he asked Napoleon, who was sitting at his bedside.

“Something happened, but don’t ask me to explain it,” Solo replied. “Can you not tell me what it was?”

“I am reluctant to admit what I believe it to be,” Illya answered. “I refuse to accept that the woman was a vampire, and that she was making me into the same.”

He explained what had happened in the park, and everything that had occurred since.

“We need to come up with something to put in a report,” Napoleon told him.

“Do we need to tell anyone at all?”

“If I hadn’t brought you here after you passed out, we could have kept things between us. Unfortunately, attendance here has to be explained.

The two agents discussed the problem for almost an hour. In the end they decided to keep the part about Illya being attacked in the park, but would out it down to Thrush. No mention would be made of the events of the previous few hours, and Napoleon would state he had found Illya unconscious. The doctors would do tests in search of some insidious drug, and when nothing it was found it would be chalked up as one more mystery.

The following day, as he was preparing to leave medical, Illya examined his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He couldn’t be entirely certain, but his canine teeth still looked longer and sharper than they had been.

“Are you ready?” called Napoleon from the other room. “Where do you want to go for lunch?”
“The new vegetarian place around the corner.”