The Zalt Household

"Family apparently, or something pretending to family," Luke responded with a hint of suppressed surprise. There went the accent again, though this wasn't the time to correct it. He could still hear the voices in his head and see the boy, and quite frankly the entire prospect has him ready to go running out of there if he didn't already have an obligation toward the protection of Alistair.

"Wha' do you mean family, Luke?" Alistair asked, angry this time and shaking with the effort of standing up. "Our family is fucking dead!"

"Dead, sure," came the voice of John, "but that doesn' mean we're no' still 'ere. You've 'eard of ghosts, right?"

"You should know by now sometimes dead people don't leave," Luke responded defensively, more angry about the fact an ectomancer wasn't willing to consider the possibility of ghosts than any sort of implication that he was crazy.

"It's a pack of lies," Alistair sputtered. "The 'ole field is."

"So you lied about that too. Figures, with the conning an' all. Voices said as much as well, so I suppose I can trust 'em over your word," Luke growled, doing his best to keep his temper in check. His hands clenched into tight fists. "If you're a fake, then what the 'ell are you doing 'ere? You think you can pull one over on necromancers, people who make their entire living crossing the line between life an' death?"

"You thin' I don' know my own bloody business?" Alistair grumbled. His knees gave out then and he collapsed to the floor, too worn down to stand any longer. "Ghosts don't exist. They're just figments of imagination in drafty houses."

Harry gave Alistair a concerned look. "'e doesn' look like 'e could stand up to a wind, let alone the lot that's 'aunting this 'ouse."

Luke paused with the collapse, his temper smothered by a blanket of worry. With a moment of hesitation, he headed to retrieve a chair, carrying to closer to Alistair. He ordered, "Sit down. You need rest. An' I'm beginning to this this place is actually haunted."

Alistair remained sitting on the floor a moment, trying to build up the will to get up and take the chair. "There is no such thing as ghosts," Alistair whispered, not wanting anyone but Luke to hear the comment.

Luke, not being one to wait around for people, moves to grab Alistair and pull him to his feet. Luke replied in a hushed tone, "I honestly don't think necromancers are the type to get spooked by a creaky basement. There 'as to be something to it."

"Well, even if there is, he can't expect me to be able to exorcise anything today. Anyone with eyes can see I am completely worn down," Alistair muttered as he flopped into the chair Luke had brought him.

Dmitri felt his gut wrench much like it had the first time he stood beside the mansion. He didn't know enough about necromancers to know exactly the source, but he figured it had something to do with Zalt. Unless the effects showed up later, however, Dmitri felt no different, and therefore thought whatever it was the necromancer had done was useless.

Even though the situation seemed to be going in his direction, Dmitri knew this was still dangerous, but wanted to see it through until he either absolutely had to flee or both of the necromancers were harmless, or dead. He wouldn't mind dead. Especially the Naughtsian one. Thinking of Morozov brought his attention back to him. The illusion would hold a little longer, and Dmitri used whatever time he had left to confuse the necromancer further still.

He would have his illusion self pin the necromancer to the wall, pinning the arm with the gun so that the weapon pointed harmlessly away. As the necromancer would be unable to move, Dmitri could make his killing move; probably breaking the other Naughtsian's neck. Whatever he could do at the moment would, Dmitri felt, not be enough pain to pay for what he did to Ivanna, but he would have to settle. As long as the other necromancer didn't try to retaliate, Dmitri felt he could accomplish his goal and get out relatively unscathed.

~~

Ivanna gasped as she felt the energy released by Zalt. She had been around necromancers enough to know this meant big trouble. She was getting flustered with trying to get Dmitri out of the house, and she knew he needed to leave. She was almost tempted to throw a brick at him, but she decided against it. Still, she wondered why the Naughtsian necromancer shot at the other necromancer, but didn't dwell too long on it. She tried pulling at Dmitri's sleeve. She couldn't interact with people well, but clothing were a good way to "touch" people. He seemed to jerk at the motion, but just shrugged it off, pulling his arm free from Ivanna. "Vy idiot...*(pronounced with a long o)" She picked up another brick, ready to throw it at one of the necromancers, should they seem about to harm him.

("You idiot".)

The Naughtsian necromancer stumbled against the wall, taken by surprise by "Dmitri's" actions. He had managed to keep a good hold on the gun, though was quickly incapacitated by the maneuver. "You want the woman? Take her. Woman, attack," He demanded with a side long glance to Ivanna's corpse. With no thought, no hesitation to her actions, the woman began to approach Dmitri. Her pace remained slow and mechanical, though her hands raised in preparation to scratch at him.

Zalt kept his hand on his bleeding side, his energy moving through the house, down for the basement. A summoning to one of his undead thralls.

---

With more irritation in his voice, Luke said, "You could 'ave asked for a chair earlier. Before you feel." His agitation was continuing to rise with the prospects of going mad and the feeling the house itself gave him. At that moment, his mind and body combined just wanted to leave. To get back to the ship and make the voices stop.

"I didn't need it then," Alistair grumbled.

"Stubborn 'e is," the teen said conversationally. Never will hadmit to a faul'."

Luke gave Alistair a disbelieving look. Not a sort of look that held anger, but the sort of exasperated look one gave to a coworker when they were perpetually late. He then took a deep breath and then, with a well practiced speed, moved to smack his brother upside the head.

"You're being stupid. Next time you need to sit down because you jus' got out of the hospital, jus' ask. I ain't going to poison your chain, an' I ain't going to beat you with it, unless you keep pulling stupid crap."

Alistair flinched in surprise, then glared at Luke. "I'm not bloody stupid. I just don't see any reason not to stand as long as I can. Our host will see plainly that I spoke the truth."

Dmitri backed away from "Ivanna's" attack, shocked. It took him a moment to remember that this wasn't the woman he knew and love, but he still found it difficult to protect himself from her. He couldn't bring himself to try and stop her attack, lest he might "hurt" her. He backed away farther still, not knowing what to do. His confusion grew when the body seemed to stop, and stood still a moment.

~~

Ivanna didn't know she would be able to do it, but she had possessed her old body, in hopes of being able to stop it from attacking. The energies that kept the body moving were rejecting her, and so the body kept trying to obey its masters orders, but Ivanna was able to at least stop its movement toward Dmitri. In an attempt to get him away, Ivanna tried speaking. "Dmitri!" The words came out forced at first, as much disuse of the organs that allowed speech as getting full control of her old body. "Get away! Run!" She hoped that he would heed her warnings, but he merely stood there, stunned. 'What are you waiting for,' she thought, 'run!'

From the sidelines of Ivanna's body, eternally just out of the corner of the eye, a small crowd cheered on Ivanna's actions.

The necromancer from Naushtsha stared in confusion, a bit thrown off by his puppet's disobedience twice in a row. First attacking the wrong target, now speaking? The undead actively living again was hardly something he had much experience with. "Woman, I command you to attack again," He demanded, though some fear shone through his voice.

Zalt remained where he was, concentrating, remotely commanding something big. Something that couldn't be handled by words and will alone.

The entire house shook as something big landed on the roof. There was silence for a few moments before the sound of claws ripping into wood flooded the hallway. With a beam of light shining down the empty hallway, a dragon's head poked its head through the crack, its undead eyes hollow.

---

Lucas jumped in surprise when he felt the entire house shake, his electric blue eyes stopping on Alistair. "You are there ain't no such thing as ghosts? 'Cause I'm seeing a lot of evidence that that's bullshit."

Ivanna tried to keep her body from attacking, although every fiber of its being wanted to obey its master. She lost focus on keeping her body from attacking when she felt the floor shake beneath her. Her body's poor movements caused her to fall to the floor, but it still wanted to attack Dmitri. The body feebly tried clawing at Dmitri, and Ivanna was only just able to keep it from getting closer to him.

Dmitri stared in horror at the dragon, cursing in his native tongue. He looked back at Ivanna's form, but knew he had to leave. He turned and ran down the hall, looking for a way out. He found stairs down, and decided that they would be better than nothing. Hardly slowing, he turned and ran down the stairs, wincing as the wound in his side twisted. When he reached the bottom, he saw Alistair and the man from the ship. Dmitri slowed to a walk, stopping by the two. "I could care less, but the two of you might want to leave." He pointed behind him, towards the upper floor. "There's a dragon up there."

Alistair jumped in surprise as the house shook. "It is nothing," he answered, though his voice wavered slightly.

Then something utterly expected happened. The vampire ran downstairs and said something about a dragon. "Wha' th' bloo'y 'ell are YOU doing 'ere?!" Alistair burst out.

Luke stared in surprise when Dmitri came running down the stairs, slowly shifting to put himself between the vampire and his brother. "What's this about a dragon?" He asked.

Meanwhile on the second floor, more of the roof was peeled away like an orange, leaving room for the dragon to slip into the hallway. Its bulk stretched from wall to wall, leaving no room for it to open its massive wings. With a growl, Zalt did his best to get to his feet again, using his cane for support. "Don't just stand around, move. Unless you want to be run over," He said to the Naughtsian necromancer.

Dmitri looked at Alistair with an amused expression. "I could very well ask you two the same thing." He glanced back at the hallway, pausing further still to answer the other man's question. "Simple. The necromancers have an undead dragon under their control," He shrugged, continuing nonchalantly, "And I, for the life of me," He smirked at his unintended pun. "Can't understand why they would be mad enough at me to send a dragon in." His smirk turned into a smug smile. "Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the two of you could handle a dragon. And, since I apparently owe this man for something I must have done to him," He gestured toward Alistair. "I figured I should warn the two of you."

--

Ivanna was glad to see that Dmitri had run, and reluctantly relinquished her power over her body. When she was just her normal ghost self, though, Ivanna felt strange. She hardly had the strength to stay upright, and crumpled to the floor. It must have taken more strength to possess her body than to simply move objects around or pass through walls. She wanted to follow Dmitri, but at this point, she could hardly lift her head.

Alistair glared at the vampire with intense dislike. "I see. You still have yet to answer my question," he said stiffly, getting to his feet with immense effort, though he tried his best to seem unaffected by weakness. "What the bloody hell are you doing here?" The con man glanced toward Luke's pipe, hoping to give his brother the correct cue.

A man in his mid-twenties knelt next to Ivanna. He wore workmen's clothes and seemed almost shy when he addressed her, taking his hat off like a gentleman despite the soot on his incorporeal clothes. "Miss? Are you alrigh', Miss?" His eyes were light gray, though might have been blue in the correct light. Despite the soot on him, it was easy to tell from his handlebar mustache and only slightly unruly hair that he was a blonde.

Luke glanced back toward the door again, looking back to the other two. With his hand firmly around his pipe, he bounced it in his hand and he growled, "We can find out who's borrowing who's knickers later. Lets get back to the dragon. Stop being coy an' tell us why there's a fucking dragon up there."

Dmitri displayed a faint annoyance at Alistair and Luke. "I don't recall having ever to answer to you, but if you must know, I came to make sure something was returned to where it belongs. The necromancers didn't like the thought of that, and decided to send their pet after me in form of an answer. Happy?" He began walking toward the doors,waving a hand nonchalantly in the air. "Now, I don't know about you two gents, but I'm leaving..." He didn't like the thought of leaving Ivanna's body to those... monsters, especially since she still seemed to be the old her, but he had no choice. He put his hand into his pocket, continuing on to the door, flinching when his hand touched the ring box.

--

Ivanna was nearly laying down, her hand on her head. She heard someone talking to her, but in her dizziness, it took a while before she could comprehend what he was saying. She tried looking at him, his figure swimming before her eyes. Her voice came out in a whisper, not having enough strength to even speak loudly. "I... I feel... so weak..." She closed her eyes, her vision causing her to be even dizzier. She realized that she felt odd, and opened her eyes again, seeing her hand. It didn't look normal, and in fact looked more transparent and wispy. She gasped in surprise. "Wh-what's going on?!"