By the Pricking of My Thumbs

Lily, clearing her throat, tosses an iron cross to Liv. "I don't think they wanted us. More like scaly over there."

i shrug and say "he speaks the truth i can be rather annoying".

Glancing over distractedly, I hold out my hands on instinct. The touch on my skin is like a hot blade. I cry out, flinging it away, and clutch my hand where a reddend cross is burned into the skin. "Gods...gods damn...!" I hiss between my teeth, curling my body forward over my wound.

Startled, Lily's eyes widen at Liv's reaction. "What's wrong?" Skiz's tail twines around the cross and sweeps it into his pile.

I suck a breath between my teeth. "It's....it's nothing. Just...just a wound, is all. I'm-" I gasp as I try to bend my hand. Blood trickles from the wound. The pain is nauseating. "Somebody get in my bag." I mutter. "Third pocket in. I need...ointment."

"It cut you." She sighs and crouches next to Liv. "You got bandages in your bag?"

"No," I say slowly, fighting to keep my feet, watching the orange-bronze of iron poisoning spread over my skin, "Ointment first. Quickly."

I rummage in the bag, "it happens putian" i finally find the ointment "don't worry about it." coming over it hand it to Liv I lean close and murmur " you okay Liveantreach" the stuff smells odd

I smile weakly. "I will be...just need to get that on..." slowly, I hold out my shaking hand for ministration. "Stops it getting into the blood system." I say in explanation.

Lily stares at the red mark and the discoloring skin. "Your fay..." she mutters before she bends for the cross. Skiz hisses, but she shoots him a look and he cowers, returning to his treasure hunt,

I laugh weakly. "If I were proper fay I'd be on the ground retching by now. But yes, I've the blood. Surprise." I wince as the ointment sinks in. "I'm surprised the hands didn't give it away. Gods...ow!"

"Never payed that close attention to peoples hands unless they glitter." she says, digging in the bag for bandages.

Even in pain, I manage a weak laugh. "Twilight? Tell me that's not based on...ow!...anything real. It couldn't be. It was too idiotic."

"Na... Gems and rings though." She laughs. "I do know about a nightclub on the south end that has a reputation for vampires and pixie dust, if you really want to see that kind of thing..."

"I'll-ow!-give it a miss, thanks." I glance up at Lily, whose mind swirls with questions. "Half human, I am, and half Dratsie. Don't worry, Lily, I'm not anything to worry over." I take a breath, standing slowly. "Unlike this lot. I'm interested to see what these bastards are."

"Hey, Scales, have a look." Lily hands the cross to Ignacy. "Friends of your's?"

I stare at the cross in Ignacy's hands. I feel like I've seen something of the kind before...but when? In my head it's mixed with the image of men in suits, cravats at their throats and tall sleek hats on their heads...when was that? And where? It must have been in the 1800's... It was cold then....my brow furrows. This is another Kindred weakness. We live in NOW, whenever NOW is, and have no memory for when a thing happened, only that it happened. The way we move through time does not help the matter either. This memory feels old....at least thirty or so years ago.

i smile and say "i used to have one of these" i throw it a couple times up in the air "well at least i know whos been chasing me the last sixty years"

I glance over at Ignacy "sixty years? what did you desert and steal Hitlers genetic material thus stopping a successful cloning or something?" i ask trying to be funny

i shrug "i am a supersoldier i guess they wanted to dissect me and rediscover how to make more"

"they are funny" I remark "do they know how many hitlers come through the nightside in a year? my personal favorite was pope adolf the first"

ï shrug "i guess they do but hey they cant kill hitler".

"No," I say distastefully, "He did that for himself, didn't he?" Standing, I pull a bandage from my bag, and wrap the cloth tightly about my hand. "Now, who are these men? Germans? I feel I've seen these uniforms sometime in the past...sometime...."

i go over to one of the corpses and cut off an arm, i pick the arm up and show it to the others revealing a tattoo reading a+ i shrug "these guys are waffen ss this heres a blood group tattoo i used to have one but you know i loose body parts left and right".

I wrinkle my nose. "Thanks for that graphic object lesson." Glancing over the bodies, I cross my arms over my chest. "Nazis. Charming. Another group that only the Nightside would harbor." I glance at Ignacy. "So, how do we deal with this?"