Chapter 12 - Crescendo
"Sayumin, are you alright? Still sick?"
Risa's voice was sympathetic over the phone, and Sayumi felt genuinely bad for not being able to tell the girl more about what was really going on. With a little sigh, she replied.
"I'm doing a little better now. Eririn comes to see me everyday so it's not so bad."
Shifting a little uncomfortably on her bed, Sayumi restlessly drew little circles on her sheets with one finger, debating whether or not to continue.
"Well, I'm glad that it's not too bad now..." Risa still sounded a bit distracted for some reason, and Sayumi decided she had better approach the subject as carefully as she could.
"So, uh, did you end up going out with Takahashi-san?" She said the name with a wince, clutching the cordless phone a bit more tightly than necessary in her hand. A girlish giggle sounded over the line, prompting a dual reaction of an eye roll and a quiet sigh from the younger girl.
"Yes, well, she's really nice...paid for everything even though I wanted to split the bill. Said that it was only right since she was older..." Another dreamy giggle, and Sayumi wondered if it were possible to chuck the phone at her senior's head from halfway across the town.
"That does sound very nice of her..." If not for the tension and gritted teeth, Sayumi would almost sound normal. Fortunately, Risa didn't seem to notice. Cautiously, the younger asked again.
"So, did anything special happen?" She changed 'weird' to 'special' at the last minute, correctly assuming that Risa would probably not appreciate the term she had wanted to use.
A weird squeak sounded on the other end of the line, and Sayumi would probably bet her month's allowance that Risa was blushing. Resisting the urge to snort, she cleared her throat and continued.
"She didn't do anything too strange, did she?" That was what Sayumi was really worried about. Surely someone like Takahashi would not be hanging around them for no reason. Besides, there was just no mistaking the fact that her hapless senior was practically infatuated with that mysterious woman. Within justifiable reason, Sayumi was concerned that Takahashi might have ulterior intentions towards her well-meaning friend.
"No...she just sent me home, that's all..." Risa trailed off in an embarrassed mumble, clearly reluctant to share something. An icy finger of worry trailed across her chest, and Sayu pressed forward even more.
"She did do something, didn't she?" Despite her best efforts to keep the panic out of her voice, Sayumi couldn't help but let some of that worry leak out in her tone.
Then again, she shouldn't even be worried that Risa would notice. In her present state, the older girl was far too focused on her own situation to detect any other irregularities around her.
Risa mumbled something on the line, and Sayumi had to strain to hear it. A moment of silence ensued after the halting confession. Risa was the first to break it, albeit nervously.
"Sayumin? You still there?"
The sound broke the younger out of her moment of shock. Pinching herself in the arm (and wincing at the jolt of pain that resulted), Sayumi confirmed to herself that she was indeed not dreaming, and that Takahashi had in fact done something.
"You let her kiss you?" Sayu blurted out inelegantly, mind running around in several different directions while trying to ascertain the identity of one Takahashi Ai. A dangerous being with uncanny focus? Could be human, maybe a practitioner of dark arts? No, her fear had been instinctive, primal even. Something other than human? Maybe a demon?
Well if she likes girls and is charming Gaki-san, maybe a succubus...?
Her chain of thoughts was broken by one half of the object of her musings. Risa seemed somewhere between hysterical and embarrassed, possibly with a dash of agitated excitement.
"No no! It wasn't like it was that serious, just a goodnight kiss on my temple, that's all! Really! It's nothing! Not like she tried to kiss me on the lips...oh no, not at all! Couldn't be..."
"Gaki-san, relax. Breathe. I didn't say anything." Sayumi coaxed over the phone. Really, that girl could be more excitable than a family of squirrels hyped up on a cocktail of steroids and amphetamines sometimes. Letting out another small sigh, Sayumi was about to continue when Risa asked her to hold for a moment, followed by the sound of a hand muffling the receiver on the other end and the sound of voices in the background.
It wasn't too difficult for someone like Sayu to make out what was being said though. Granted, her hearing was hardly as effective as certain other members of her family, but it was still a little better than average.
"...othing's wrong, Father. Are you going out?"
"Yes, I think I'll be back late tonight. Don't stay up too late."
"Yes Father. Have a safe trip."
Sayumi hummed under her breath as she waited, looking out of the window. The sun seemed simultaneously piercing and dull at the same time, as if the rays could not fully penetrate through the protective shade of the house. All in all, the fact made Sayu feel just a little smug about the sun's failure to roast her living space.
"Sorry about that Sayumin. Are you still there?" The younger girl replied in the affirmative, before continuing their previous line of conversation as if nothing had interrupted it in the first place.
"...don't get too close to Takahashi, Gaki-san." The warning slipped out before she could moderate it in any way, and Sayu worried at her lip nervously, hoping that Risa wouldn't be too offended by the forwardness of the statement.
"Why not? She's such a nice person..." Risa sounded genuinely baffled that Sayumi would be saying such a thing, before another pause occurred.
"...Sayumin, do you like Ai-chan?"
If Risa hadn't sounded so serious, Sayu would have assumed that the older girl was joking. In any case, she broke out in a nervous fit of laughter, the tension draining out of her with the action.
"Are you serious? Me?" The sheer incredulity in her voice could not possibly be any greater.
"Trust me, Gaki-san, I have totally no interest in her that way. I'm just telling you to be careful, that's all." The younger was injecting every single ounce of sincerity she possessed into her voice, so that she could reassure her senior of her intentions.
"I'm glad you care, Sayumin. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Just concentrate on getting well."
A few more of the usual pleasantries, and the beep of the call ending prompted the little devil to lower the phone from her ear with a sigh. Standing, she was heading towards her bedroom door when a voice stopped her from behind.
"No interest in me? You have no idea what you're missing out on, kit."
The girl froze in her tracks, unable to move with the dread and terror climbing up her spine and spreading like a terminal disease through the rest of her body. The hairs on her neck were practically standing on end, as were those on her arms. Beyond her control, she was already shaking like a leaf in the wind.
"Don't be afraid, I won't eat you." Smooth, almost pleasant, like the relaxed purr of a feline predator licking at its paws after a meal...or before it. Naturally, that did not contribute to the general well-being of Sayumi's mind at all.
"You're a smart one. Just for that, I think I'll keep you around. Interesting things should always be preserved. Too hard to replace otherwise." There was still no sound, no presence of a living aura, but the overwhelming sense of pressure was palpable.
"W-what do you want with me?" Sayumi managed to squeak out after minutes of valiant effort. A soft chuckle, then a soft, pale hand cupped her cheek from behind almost tenderly, stroking the smooth skin there. It was all Sayumi could do not to scream.
"Why, nothing at all. Just that you stay out of my business, and I'll leave you alone." A cold breath on her neck, and unshed tears wobbled fearfully within Sayu's tightly shut eyelids.
"Just a little taste though, before I leave. I've never had occasion to try out one of your kind before, diluted or not." A cold sensation down the length of her neck, and Sayumi almost fell over, if not for the iron grip that had snaked around her waist in the meantime.
In retrospect, it did not hurt as much as it should have, and it was over almost before she was aware that it had begun. Her consciousness had seemed oddly detached from her physical self during the moment, a side effect of the charm, perhaps.
What had felt intensely, painfully real during that extended moment of disassociation though, was, disturbingly enough, a volatile combination of terror, submission and a sick kind of ecstasy that bordered on sheer perversion. She could not escape, could not refuse, could not summon any force of mind or will to offer even a token resistance against that dominant presence. It shook her, on more levels than one.
Case in point, long after the presence had departed, she was still crouched over the floor on her knees, shaking and sobbing and feeling sickened by the effects of that touch. Not so much what had been taken that disturbed her, but what had been given in the process.
When Eri found her and enfolded her in a comforting hug, Sayumi finally allowed herself to break down in choked sobs out loud, letting the healing presence of her best friend shed the last vestiges of that dreaded touch from her body. Eri soothed her as best as she could, but couldn't help but be baffled at the origins of such a state.
"Eririn, I'm sorry...sorry..." Sayu repeated herself in a whimpering tone, curled up in her best friend's embrace and trembling like a leaf. Eri felt her heart twist at the tortured expression of mingled shame and horror on Sayumi's face, holding the younger tighter in her arms. The gesture only served to make Sayumi cry even harder, clinging to the front of Eri's shirt and sobbing uncontrollably into it. She could not say it, found that she was unable to say it, and in any case, felt too ashamed to even think of it, much less speak of it aloud.
"Sorry...sorry..." Was all she could repeat, unable to utter the reason why.
It wasn't supposed to feel this good.
~*~*~
Risa had had some trouble keeping the faint blush off her face after that conversation with Sayumi, but she hid it well by busying herself around the house, doing chores while her parents were away. Her father was always busy, and her mother had decided to go grocery shopping, so it fell to Risa to do the laundry and clean house since she had a moment of free time.
It was quiet, but hardly an unpleasant silence. The hum of the washing machine, the distant noise of cars rumbling past on the street, coupled with the padding sound of her bare feet on the floor formed a kind of homey domesticity that one would expect straight out of an ordinary television drama. It embodied the kind of normalcy that would set an unsettled soul at ease with its pure simplicity, or bore one who knew nothing beyond such a world.
Risa fell somewhere in between the cracks of those two categories, at ease with her surroundings yet somehow feeling that niggling, restless stir for adventure, for something greater than herself, for some purpose into which she could invest her entire soul.
She was dusting a shelf when the ring of the doorbell diverted her attention. Putting down the duster, she wiped her hands off with a patched rag before veering over to answer the door. More than likely it would be a door-to-door salesman, or some such along those lines. Both her parents had the key, so they would not have bothered to ring the bell.
Unless, of course, her mother needed help with the groceries, in which case she would not have had a free hand in the first place. With that in mind, Risa opened the door.
"Hello cousin. I've been looking for you for a long time."
Risa stared at the unassuming young girl standing before her, a friendly twinkle in the stranger's eye. Her brain processed the information, and the only response she could summon was, if nothing, entirely true to herself.
"Eh? Ehhhhh?"
The girl smiled again.
"Hi, my name is Mitsui Aika, and I'm the younger daughter of your father's eldest cousin. So that makes us cousins too, don't you think?"
Risa was speechless. How did one expect to react to something like that? Caution edged her to some suspicion though, since it was simply not safe to take words from a stranger at face value.
"I know you aren't inclined to believe me, but look at this here."
With some care, Aika removed an old photograph from inside her bag, handing it to her stunned cousin. Risa took it, and saw that it was a picture out of a fairly large group of people, something akin to a family portrait but not quite, given the informality of the poses.
"There's my parents." Aika pointed out at a smiling couple off to one side.
"And there's your father." Her finger slid across the photo to a much younger version of Soujirou, who had his arms folded and was scowling at one of the younger kids hanging off him.
Risa stared. There was no mistaking her father in the photo. He was younger, and as yet without that scar near his left temple, but it was him. Turning the photo in her hands, she saw some words written in faded ink, at the bottom right of the picture.
Clan Gathering at Azuchi, 1983
"Now do you believe me?" Risa looked up at Aika, confusion still written all over the older's face. Aika smiled gently and held out her hand in a gesture of greeting.
"Pleased to meet you, cousin."
After a moment of hesitation, Risa took it, inviting the younger girl into her house and her life.
Pleased to meet you indeed.
~*~*~
A lone man staggered along in the fading light, casting long shadows in crazy directions. The sun had sunk low, but was still sitting in judgment, bestowing the rays in which the homeless took comfort in before the bitter chill of night set in.
Dark, straggling hair and heavyset eyebrows, complete with several days or even weeks worth of beard, lent a wild, shaggy appearance to this foreigner. Sunken cheeks and a ridged forehead gave him a peculiarly skeletal face, and his eyes had a hollow and distant cast to them, as if he were staring right through things instead of at them.
Shuddering, he twitched spasmodically and clutched at the nearest bench, leaning against it while heaving painfully. His fingers seemed peculiarly hooked and gnarled, joined to emaciated arms. The rags he wore were shabby and none too clean, but there appeared to have been some attempts to patch the garments at some point or another. Oddly, there was no stench that one would have expected from so rundown a creature, as if the man had, in fact, paid some attention to personal hygiene.
Taking a long, shaky breath, the man seemed seized by a sudden urge to retch, falling to his knees and crouching on the soft grass behind the bench. Here and there, other passerbys cutting through this quiet little park after work sent him dismissive and even loathing glances, or just ignored him altogether and moved on.
For his part, the man appeared heedless of the eyes of others on him, letting his fingers sink into the rocky soil that had not seen the gentle touch of rain in a while. Nature soothed his own pains, for was not nature the only constant?
Yet for all that it was a constant, for this man, there was yet another constant that was far more eternal, far more worthy of pursuit. For was not nature so easily destroyed by man and their buildings? The constant he sought was well nigh indestructible, and immortal.
The sun sank lower into the sky's bosom, grey skies looming overhead as color was leeched out of them by that vanishing source of light. Within himself, his consciousness also shrunk, his eyes reduced to pinpricks of darkness, having so far contracted in his growing mania that they seemed almost unreal.
One firm hand clasped down hard on his shoulder, and he turned with a snarl, near frothing at the mouth. In the next moment he found his skull smashed into the edge of the bench, skin tearing and giving way at the force of the impact. Yet almost as fast as the flesh had been wounded, it was sealing up, leaving only blood stains behind to mark any evidence.
"Why did you follow me here, wolf?"
The knock seemed to have retracted some of the madness away, if only temporarily. With eyes only marginally less fogged, the man looked up at his ambusher, a faint hint of recognition settling into dark eyes. When he spoke, it was with a grating edge, as if he were unused to speech.
"Not follow you...follow the hunt..." A trickle of drool oozed between wrinkled lips, teeth faintly visible behind them. His fingers had dug completely into the soil, and he looked peculiarly bestial being held down like that.
"What do you seek?" The man stared up at him.
"A demon." Their eyes met, a peculiar tingle of something beyond recognition, bordering on kinship even, passing between them.
"Brother...comrade...I must finish my hunt." The half-wild man seemed almost desperate, raising one gnarled hand to clutch at the leg of his trapper. A gnarled hand that had nails caked not only with soil, but with faint traces of crimson.
"I must kill that creature, else I cannot rest." Mania was creeping back into those dark eyes, the irises contracting again as his body spasmed involuntarily once more.
"You sold your soul for your prey. Is it worth it?" The other man, standing tall and upright, held a hint of pity in that unbending figure.
"Yes and yes, even if I may be damned for a thousand lifetimes, I. MUST. KILL. IT." The gurgling whisper degenerated into a slavering hiss, rage and madness mingling to form a toxic combination. His hand on the other man's leg now dug painfully into the thigh, but the other man merely shook him off as one would shake off a dog, leaving the wild man snarling and spitting at the ground, shuddering violently as another spasm overtook him.
"And when you are done, I will kill you." The pitiful creature looked up with mad eyes, but not so completely gone in insanity that there would be no hint of gratitude in them. The pair exchanged another mutual glance, the bargain sealed in that moment.
The sun set, heralding the start of another phase of the day. The man who was left behind in the park watched it go, preparing himself mentally for what was to come.
A life for the hunt...? He shook his head. How foolish.
Still he headed out, determined to keep his promise. Someone needed to clean up the mess, and to finish the job if that demon the creature had mentioned proved to be more than what that lost soul could handle. It was only right to aid a fellow hunter, fallen though he was.
That both of them were, though in different ways.
It seems we must fight again, partner.
At his side, the living fang pulsed in agreement, accelerating his system as he took off in that familiar rush of power, reluctant to take pleasure in it but unable to not do so at the same time.
The moon was not yet due to rise, and was in any case hidden behind the foggy layer of clouds laid thick across a velvet sky. The wind was still and waiting, as if holding its breath for what was to come.
It was going to be a long night.
~*~*~
Red eyes snapped open, still and cold on moldering crates. As usual, the area was completely devoid of life. She had seen to that before settling in for sleep.
Sitting up, Reina stretched and yawned despite having no real need for either action. It was mere habit, some leftover memory ingrained into her body, demanding no thought for it to be carried out, only that it should be done.
However, when something touched her fangs while her mouth was still half open, she reacted even more instinctively by biting down, ending up sinking her fangs into her own lower lip. The subsequent yelp of pain drew an amused chuckle from her watcher, and Reina glowered balefully at a smiling Ai who was seated on another crate next to her.
"You sleep like your Master did." Ai rested her chin on one raised palm, watching as Reina licked away the blood on her lips. The younger vampire stopped and stared.
"I do?" Ai nodded and reached out with one finger to flick at a spot of blood that Reina had missed, licking it off almost absently.
"Like the dead. Very unsafe if you can't sense danger in your sleep though." Reina crawled closer to Ai, wondering how close she could get without being rebuffed or worse.
"What are we doing tonight?" Red eyes stared up eagerly while pondering if attempting a sneak attack was a good idea. She had yet to lay a hand on Ai without Ai's explicit permission, and would like to try it for once. Reina was stubborn like that.
"Absolutely nothing. At least, you are going to do absolutely nothing. Stay put."
Reina stared at Ai, wondering if the elder vampire was joking. Ai was not, however. Reina growled unhappily, baring her fangs again, this time fully aware that it was rude to do so but doing it anyway.
"Why? Is Reina not good enough? Why must I stay here?"
Ai prodded at Reina's fangs again, making the younger vampire pull away with a frown, closing her mouth and glaring mutinously. She even shrugged off Ai's hand on her shoulder, sulking as she stalked a few steps away.
"I just want you to stay out of harm's way for a while." As usual, Ai offered no explanations, and Reina stopped, turning to shoot an irritated glance at the elder.
"Reina can help! Don't treat Reina like a child!" She jumped back to crouch in front of Ai, but was held back from pouncing with a single finger. Ai shook her head.
"You're barely more than a baby to me, kitten. Be good and stay put. I don't have time to rescue you on top of my little problem." As if to emphasize the difference in their strengths, Ai pushed forward lightly with her hand, but Reina was suddenly airborne as if she were hit by a truck, destined to crash into the opposite wall...
...only to be caught in a snug embrace by Ai speeding forward in a flash, moving so fast that even Reina, with a vampire's enhanced senses, could not pick up the motion at all.
"See now? You shouldn't get into fights you can't handle. You won't last very long if you do that." Ai landed gently on her feet, still holding Reina in that gentle embrace. Reina sulked in that position, but did not move away.
"Why do you care?" Ai chuckled and smoothed Reina's wayward fringe from her face, leaning forward to nuzzle at the young vampire's cheek.
"Because I feel a sense of responsibility towards a fledgling of an old friend." Reina seemed a bit of disappointed by this answer, but her pout was erased by Ai's lips capturing her own, and any protest was similarly muffled.
"And, because I like you." Ai smirked as she released Reina's lips, leaning up to kiss at the younger's temple affectionately. Reina purred at the contact, snuggling back against Ai...
...only to slam painfully against the wall for lack of a person to snuggle backwards into.
"Ow, what the fuck?" Reina cradled her head with a wince, glaring around for someone to blame. As she had half expected, Ai had gone.
Damn that woman... Reina growled again, kicking at the unoffending wall.
Be a good girl and stay put now. Ai's amused mental voice echoed in Reina's mind, making Reina punch the wall again in frustration before flipping off a finger at the assumed direction of the elder vampire.
Hmph, if you think that'll make Reina stay put, you've got something coming!
The little vampire kicked at another crate as she left her hidden cellar.
Somewhere above ground, Ai smiled to herself as she watched the fledgling emerge from her hiding place. Of course the little one would disobey her. Everything was going according to her calculations.
Now was the time to proceed, and proceed she would.
With one final smirk, she faded back into the shadows, unseen.
~*~*~
Now where did she go...?
Reina wandered around aimlessly, not quite sure where and how to locate her elusive target. The meager taste of Ai's blood that day had given her a better sense of Ai's presence though. It was no more than a vague pull, but it was all Reina had to work with.
The night itself seemed peculiarly hushed, as if people knew better than to be out on the streets at this time of the night. Then again, with all the recent disappearances, part of them Reina's fault, that much she would admit, people were just more cautious about staying out late and alone.
Darkness was no barrier to a vampire, and this night in particular was full of it, more so than usual. The moon was hidden from view by the gathering clouds, holding the promise of impending rain. Yet the sheer silence of the city seemed unnatural, as evidenced by the odd echo of her step on the pavement leading to the city outskirts.
Instinct made her wary; this was a night for a hunt, but would she be the hunter or the hunted? There was a looming threat in the air, without the fun and games of the playful rounds she had held with Ai before. How had she not sensed it before? Was this what Ai was warning her against?
Reina had to find out. She never did like being kept in the dark. She owned it. That is, the dark should belong to her, be in her mastery, not the other way round.
There it was again, that sense of menace, that looming threat that set her hackles to rising. A fleeting whiff of a peculiar smell, mixed in with the rusted metal and motor oil of the scrapyard just ahead.
Wet dog. And then it was gone again. Reina looked around nervously, eyes darting around to scan her surroundings. Nothing.
Yet she was sure that there had to be something out there. There just had to be. Her senses were screaming at her, but she could not pinpoint its exact location.
Shink. It was pure instinct that saved Reina, forcing her to leap back even as her peripheral vision detected a hint of motion. A blade whirred at high speed across where her head had been, even as the young vampire rolled into a crouching position, fangs bared and ready.
The stink of rune magic made her eyes flare even redder at a painful memory; she had almost lost an arm to another hunter wielding runic magic. Senses all at high alert, she opened her mind in the way that Ai had indirectly taught her, seeking and finding her target.
Not a moment too soon, since the blade came flying in from another direction, intent on cutting her down. Darting to one side, Reina just barely avoided the blade, the flare of the magic searing at the ends of her hair as she swung out wildly at her attacker.
The wild punch made no contact, even as the lithe figure slid out of the way with uncanny speed, so fast that Reina could barely follow the motion. It was similar to how Ai had evaded her, yet different. Here, she could sort of see the blur, whereas in Ai's case the elder vampire might as well have just teleported, that was how fast she had been.
The next flurry of swings nearly decapitated her, and Reina was forced to backstep quickly, unable to touch the blade due to the enchantments on it. She was not so experienced in hand-to-hand combat with a seasoned hunter that she could effectively fight them, but she was hardly going to give up so soon. Gritting her teeth, she ricocheted off the nearest wall and somersaulted over the unidentified hunter, hoping to get a lucky strike at his unprotected back.
No such luck. She had underestimated his speed, and hissed as her fist made contact with the enchanted blade that he reversed in one fluid half-turn. Kicking upwards with one foot desperately, Reina arched backwards to avoid the straight thrust that emerged from that defensive block, this time somersaulting backwards and nearly clipping the hunter with the tip of her boot.
"Not bad, small fry." The words were harsh, grating, almost inhuman. Reina skittered to a stop on the far end of the alley, ready to try and make a run for it. This was not a character she wished to tangle with, not at this point in her unlife. The instinct towards self-preservation was at the forefront here, her innermost beast not wishing to fight against someone who so obviously outclassed her.
Now that she had a moment to actually look at her attacker, she was stunned by how unkempt he was, looking more like a vagrant than anything else. Dressed in rags, hair wild and teeth yellow, with mad eyes tinted a peculiar shade of gold. He looked more animal than human, half crouched and snarling at her.
"Die, abomination." He dashed at her, zigzagging rapidly as his feet barely touched the ground, or so it seemed. Reina did not stand around waiting for him. She ran.
The nearest place to try and throw off her pursuer was the scrapyard, with its towering heaps of scrap metal and rusted car parts, old tires caked with grime strewn about carelessly like a child's abandoned toys. It was into this metal maze she darted into, leaping over a fence effortlessly and running like her life depended on it to try and evade her dogged pursuer.
She knew he was coming for her, felt that gaze, as if he had locked onto her somehow, and that odd stench of runic magic emanating from the blade he wielded made her feel physically ill. Her fist was still burning after coming into contact with it, the skin blistered as if burned.
As she ran, her mind worked on erasing the sense of her presence the way her nightly games with Ai had taught her, while her body navigated each twist and turn around the heaps of metal on its own. She did not have a particular destination in mind, only that she had to lose him, or at least be able to shake him off long enough to make a clear escape.
That unthinking focus cost her dearly when he suddenly appeared in front of her, slamming into her full force with his shoulder and knocking her straight backwards into a pile of scrap metal. The impact was shocking, but what made her gasp was not so much the force of the impact as it was the number of sharp edges that cut into her body as a result. It was as if she were nailed there, except from behind and with rusty metal edges. And damn did it hurt like a bitch.
Reina had little time to ponder her situation though, a fact painfully proven when a strong arm actually pushed her further into her metal rack. It was like being impaled in a dozen places all at once. The sadistic leer on her tormentor's face was not helping, even as he held her neck with crushing force beyond what any ordinary human could summon. To add insult to injury, he wasn't even resorting to his blade, which had found its way back up his ragged sleeve.
"Filthy undead maggot." His eyes were alight with a fanatical fervor as he punched Reina in the stomach, the blow making the vampire cry out, struggling to get free of the death grip.
"Heretical trash." His next blow landed in between Reina's eyes, an audible crack of breaking bone as her head smashed backward into an old headlight, the splinters driving into the back of her skull.
"Burn in hell, bitch." His long knife slid back into his hand, and Reina screamed as the burning blade dug deep into her belly, her tormentor deliberately gouging the area where a metal edge had pierced her. The runes flared on the blade, searing her flesh with a flame unlike any other. She clawed impotently at her attacker, but was barely able to even make a dent on the madman. Pain could be debilitating, even for the undead.
The knife slashed downwards, a sick ripping sound of cloth and flesh accompanying the motion. Reina howled as the cruel knife sliced into her leg tendons, fancying the severed ends slithering back into bleeding muscle, white-hot pain shooting up her thigh to match the wounds above.
Her screams were cut short as the knife plunged into her throat between his fingers, severing the chords and spraying her blood all over the crazed hunter's face. It was perhaps fortunate that she no longer needed to breathe, but nevertheless she still choked on her own blood, the pain so great that the nerves reporting it to her brain were practically overloaded.
The dim realization that he was not only merely aiming to kill her, but also to inflict the greatest amount of pain possible, was at first slow in coming, but was driven in more painfully with every brutal action. Terror set in with the onset of helplessness; like an animal caught in a trap, roasted over a slow fire. No escape nor reprieve seemed open to her.
He raised the bloody blade once more, this time undoubtedly aiming for her eyes. Reina could barely see it however, her vision was fogged by her own blood, and she was too dazed by the pain to even react, much less respond. Her fangs were still bared though, out of some residual defiance, as if it could somehow help her.
The blurred image of the blade falling was the last thing she saw, before a whirlwind of motion erased everything from sight, leaving behind a fuzzy, splintered image of red and black reflected by fractured eyeballs. Her chin fell forward, no longer impeded by the grip on her neck, though her hair was still a bloody mess tangled with the metal behind her. Her blood continued oozing with cold certainty, and her body slumped weakly, sliding off with blood-slickness off the metal to crumple into a pool of her own blood.
As she lay there, barely conscious of herself or her surroundings, she was dimly aware a pair of booted heels right before her eyes. Her head lolled to one side, cheek mushing into a mix of blood and mud, her sight spiralling in and out like an off-focus camera.
Help me... No voice to speak with, only weak fingers to brush feebly at that boot, in some faint hope for salvation, or even just a release from her pain.
What she received was far beyond her wildest expectations.
Several drops of blood; ancient, powerful, familiar. Beyond any conscious control, her tongue stretched out for more, cleaning every last speck that had fallen to her. Instinct took over, and she started lapping like a crazed animal at her own blood on the ground, heedless of how she may look in that instant.
Dimly, beyond the animal consciousness, Reina was aware of an exchange of words, but she could not muster any energy to pay attention. What she could not fail to notice though, was the unmistakable sound of a howling wolf, its keening cry shattering the thick night air.
Struggling to look up, her mouth full of blood and dirt, Reina could just make out the form of one Takahashi Ai standing some distance ahead, one hand outstretched towards her opponent, finger crooking inwards in a gesture of invitation. Inexplicably, the elder vampire seemed to notice her broken stare, since a sidelong glance was shot her way, and for some reason unknown to her, Reina could very clearly see the ghost of a smile curving the older vampire's lips.
This won't take long. She seemed to hear or see, Reina could not be sure which. Exhausted, her face fell forward, too spent to even pay attention to what was going on.
Only one thing remained, a sure certainty that sprung to life within her without any prompting. The fact that Ai would win, and she would survive.
With that, Reina closed her eyes, allowing the darkness to swallow her whole.
===========================================================================
Loooooooooooooooooooooooong chapter.
I take no responsibility for people feeling sick after this. :3
*prances away*
Topic: Gegenschein [Ch.18: Open] - 16/5 (Read 80482 times)