Chapter 15 - Sicilian
Do you dream?
If Death is the Eternal Sleep, does that mean it comes with dreams?
Are we so hungry for self-awareness that we seek it even in the unconscious state of reality? That even in death, we fear for the fate of our immortal souls?
What is the soul? Is it Self? How does it manifest? From where has it come and to where does it go?
Is Death the answer to all questions, or is it the question to all answers?
~*~*~
Pain is the indicator that we're alive. It stings the senses, sending messages through one's nervous system, loudly proclaiming its existence to all and sundry. It signals a wound, possibly injury, to body or mind. It demands to be treated, lest we die. Or worse.
To the undead, what does Pain mean? For one who is no longer alive in the conventional sense, to what purpose does it serve? Could they die again? Yes, possibly, though not easily. What does death mean to one who has died before? Everything and nothing.
I am here, I exist. Do I live? Probably not.
Pain makes things real. It awakens the senses, exposes the raw nerves underneath. It connects one to reality. It grounds the individual to their awareness. It defines us.
More importantly, why the fuck am I thinking of all this shit and GOD DAMN IT HURTS...!
And then Tanaka Reina, vampire fledgling and all round cool cat, woke up to her predicament.
The first thing she noticed was that it was still night. For someone who could be hurt by the sun, the passage of time in a single day was of utmost importance to her continued well-being. Even if there was no difference between one day and the next anymore.
The second thing she noticed was the pain. Several kinds of it. Maybe it was because someone hit her head not too long ago, but she hadn't even thought of there being different kinds of pain. Always before, pain was just pain. It sucked. End of story.
Anyway, pain. Definitely disorientating her. First, there was this dull, throbbing pain in the back of her head. Do vampires even get migraines? She could not help but wonder, then remembered that it might just have been because someone hit her on the head earlier.
Second, her skin was prickling as if teeny little ants were attempting to chew through her skin in a bad, bad way. Her nostrils flared, her eyes narrowing to cat-like slits. The sick sense of corruption was doing a real bang up job of making her skin crawl. Literally.
And the chains? So not a fashion statement. Despite being possibly concussed and terribly confused, Reina still had her sense of wit. Or lack thereof. She wasn't really sure, what with the slightly icky feeling burning at the back of her throat. Was she nauseous? She couldn't be nauseous. That was such a human thing.
Right, focus. Reina shut her eyes and tried to process everything that was going on. She was chained, her head hurt like crap, she felt sick, and she desperately wanted to get out of here. Have a shower, and then maybe go bite someone. Or the other way round. Whatever works.
Oh, and apparently someone bonked her on the head earlier, which was why she was here. Good, she got everything worked out now. So now she could just stand up and get out of here and...
...wait, not good. Reina opened her eyes. Took in her surroundings with greater care. Some abandoned warehouse. Gee, is this a bad horror movie? Wait, I am a walking horror movie. She shook her head. Excessive talking to oneself meant she seriously needed to get out of here before she went insane. If she hadn't already.
Rusty chains, with funny symbols carved into them. Reina yanked on them experimentally, then with full force. Nothing. She tried again, her wrists chafing from the effort. No good.
Swearing under her breath, Reina looked around some more. She was in the middle of a cleared area, rotting stacks of cardboard being rendered down to mold and rat litter, piled high in the shadows. Well, was being turned into rat litter, if the chewed edges were any indication. However, there were no rats in the vicinity. Not even a roach.
Which could only mean one thing. Another vampire. Who was most definitely not her, since it takes a while for all the assorted vermin to vacate the premises and clear out of there. They didn't just disappear in a few hours.
And unless Reina had been out for days, that was just not possible. A mere concussion wouldn't put her out of commission for that long. Reina had learned that from experience, a couple years back. Personal encounter with an aluminum baseball bat at close range. Not an experience she was eager to relive.
The stink was really putting her off. It was all around her, heck, especially on the chains. Old blood, rotting at that. That was a good reason as any to be nauseous. And the stench of something not of this world mixed within it. A cold chill crawled up her spine. She didn't like the feeling at all.
"I see you are awake, little girl. You'll pardon the accomodations, I could only do so much under such limited conditions."
An obnoxious voice. Distinctly foreign, the syllables spoken with an air of superiority, yet the cadence was hypnotic in its own way. Reina didn't like the guy, judging by his voice alone.
"Oh excuse me, I don't believe I've introduced myself. Gabriel D'Orsay, at your service."
He emerged from the shadows like a ghost, bowing floridly at the bound Reina. The girl glared at his mocking display of courtliness, choosing not to dignify it with a response as she desperately struggled with her chains.
"Don't struggle so much, little lady. You'll hurt yourself. Can't have that happening before I'm done with you." He smiled, revealing even white teeth. And fangs, of course. Though they were somewhat shorter and less pronounced than her own. Reina couldn't wait until her hands were free so she could deck the guy. He was such a pain.
"Now now, you can't escape even if you tried. I know you were injured not too long ago. Did you really think that you will recover so quickly?"
Elaborately curled hair bounced around his aristocratic face as he paced around Reina at a certain distance. It was only then that Reina noticed the markings on the ground. It seemed to be some kind of a mystical symbol, and she was right in the middle of it. Kicking experimentally, she cursed aloud as something akin to an electric current sizzled her soles the moment her feet struck the edge of the barrier circle.
"Did you think that you could get out so easily? I always hedge my bets, mademoiselle. No one's coming to save you, and there are still other safeguards to make sure that you don't escape me before I'm finished."
Despite her stranded state, Reina still possessed enough presence of mind to flip a one-fingered salute at him, accompanied by a foul expletive that she made up on the spot. She could be creative when the situation called for it.
"Spunky one, aren't you?" He seemed amused, almost excited as he leaned in to look at her more closely, like one would look at a mouse in a cage. "So young, so much potential...all that strength and you don't even know how to use it."
Reina decided right there and then that this Gabriel guy was on a whole new level of annoying altogether. Forget cryptic millenia-old vampires and pesky stubborn hunters. This dandy of a vampire was tripping all the wrong wires with her.
"What the fuck do you want?" Reina demanded as she continued trying to pry the chains off her. She would worry about the barrier later. One thing at a time. One of the cuffs cracked, ever so slightly, but it gave Reina some hope. She could do this.
"Want, my dear? You, of course." One gloved hand, inscribed with odd symbols, entered the barrier with no noticeable backlash, stroking tauntingly at Reina's cheek. She turned her head and snapped at it, but he had already withdrawn the appendage.
He was smiling, but it was totally without mirth. His eyes were an ominous cocktail of red and black, impure to say the least. Reina shuddered and averted her eyes. To look too deep within was madness, for madness laid within. He laughed, and the voice that followed was hollow, hungry.
"I want your power, ma cherie." He skipped a little, light on his feet and his hands spreading out, as if to grasp something. If Reina had never fully understood the term 'cavort' before, well, it was right there in evidence, right now.
He stopped in mid-leap, turning on his heel. Like a mad jester, minus the war paint. Speckled red orbed around a solid black iris, the dark tendrils spiraling out like some sick infection in his eyes. His lips were drawn back in a hideously wide grin, fangs extended in some perverse parody.
"I want your blood."
~*~*~
"I don't want to go home."
Ai looked up from the ice cream she was poking tentatively with her spoon. It was already melting, the crushed ice dissolving into a red syrup. She dipped her spoon into the mixture, even as her eyes glanced briefly out of the glass windows of the small shop.
Risa appeared somewhat distraught, completely ignoring her parfait. Yet Ai could dimly perceive the lines of determination set into her face. Clearly, the younger girl had made her decision, whatever it was.
"I want to stay here. I want to finish school. No more transferring." Risa continued, and Ai put down her spoon to look fully into Risa's face.
It had been a mere half hour since they had left the docks. Since then, Ai had been amusing herself by counting the number of watchers following her. Sylphs were invisible to the human eye, but their auras were just faintly visible, enough for someone as perceptive as her to pick up on them. It was more economical to deploy expendable assets to watch someone like her. Besides, the Council couldn't get a vampire watcher within a 100 miles of her without her picking up on it before too long.
"Are your parents planning to leave? Will they let you stay?" Ai asked with some concern, although she smiled inwardly. Her father must not be much of a hunter if he was to turn tail after watching her in action. Then again, perhaps she should congratulate him for having good sense.
"Father wants to move, but I don't know why I should follow anymore. I deserve my own life!" Risa declared, straightening in her seat. Ai watched her, but said nothing.
Five. She counted. And one more on the roof of the opposite building. Ai would have to act fast to lose them later. She had already lost track of Reina's presence. Something was hiding her presence from the fledgling. It would have been easy to track the little one down if she were really Reina's master, but with things standing as they were now, she would have to do things the hard way.
"Ai-chan, are you listening to me?"
Ai blinked. "Yes, yes, of course. And you should talk to him." She added with a bright smile.
Now it was Risa's turn to stare. "You mean, now?"
"Why yes, of course now. If you hold on any longer, it'll be harder to say it, right? You should tell him what you think right now, before your determination deserts you." It all sounded very logical, if Ai could say so herself. Though the truth was really that Ai needed to go hunting for the missing fledgling. Her own fledgling was never this much of a pain. Troublesome, yes, but never to this extent.
"B-but, what if he throws me out? What if he disowns me? What will I do?!" Risa was already starting to panic, but Ai quickly put a stop to that by placing one hand on Risa's hand, meeting the other girl's eyes with a calming stare. Risa relaxed a little, though her body was still tense.
"Just talk to him. It'll work out, somehow." Ai smiled reassuringly at her. Risa smiled back tentatively, looking almost as if she believed..
"If you end up really needing help, just give me a call. I'll work something out for you." Ai promised. Risa gave her a strange sort of look.
"I can't possibly impose on you..."
Ai laughed. "Don't worry, I have more resources at my disposal than you think. If it turns out that you need a place to stay, you can come to my place. I live in a penthouse apartment and I own the top 2 floors of the same building. More than enough space."
Risa's jaw dropped at the statement. She stared at the deceptively unassuming young woman before her, trying to comprehend just how rich Ai actually was. The person in question grinned.
"So as you can see, it's not a problem." Before Risa could protest, Ai reached over and pressed a finger to the younger girl's lips, silencing her.
"Trust me." She lowered her hand, and smiled.
"Let's go, shall we?"
~*~*~
Reina was getting increasingly frustrated, but yet it seemed that the Gabriel guy did not seem to want to do anything to her immediately. Instead, he appeared to be working on something, just a few feet away from where Reina was held captive.
After the man had declared his intentions, all he had done after that was to sit down and do whatever it was he was doing. Well, Reina certainly wasn't going to waste the extra time given to her, spending it on trying to break the chains. The tiny crack she had made earlier remained defiant and unyielding, however.
"And there, done~" Reina growled as she flicked an irritated glance over. Gabriel was smiling at her, seeming almost friendly as he flipped the object he had been working on for her perusal.
Reina stared at it. It was a very good portrait of her, she had to admit. Despite it being drawn only in pencil, the lines and shading had combined to form a truly life-like image. It was not the most flattering image of her on some level though, since he had drawn her complete with chains.
"Just what the fuck are you up to?" Reina asked in exasperation. This man was trying her patience. He appeared to be touching up on the portrait some more.
"A little something to remember you by, little lady. Call it a hobby of mine."
He appeared to be in a calm mood again, the mania of his outburst from before gone entirely. Standing up, he wandered closer to Reina, who inched away from him as far as the barrier would allow. He appeared to be studying her for some reason.
"You have no idea how fortunate you are, with that blood of yours." He muttered, circling Reina like a hawk again. Reina kept one eye on him, while contemplating if gnawing through the chains would be a workable idea. 10 more minutes with him would be 10 minutes too much.
"Life doesn't give us many options, does it? We do not decide where we are born. It could be a palace, it could be a farm. And when we die, and are brought back like this..." He halted dramatically, making Reina raise an eyebrow at the theatrics.
"We cannot choose who sires us either." He was pacing again, more frenetic with each step as he gesticulated to himself.
"Noble or trash, that's all the difference! Aristocrats, purebloods, they're all the same!" He turned on his heel, walking in a counter-clockwise direction, still raging.
"I was the useless son in my human life, the spare, if you will. Then my poor, stupid brother died, and I became Count in his place." He sneered, face contorted in an expression of self-mockery.
"The bastard turned heir. What a scandal that had been. I'm sure Father was mortified."
Reina almost felt sorry for the man, but then remembered that he most likely wanted to eat her, and changed her mind. She seemed to be completely ignored now, and she took the opportunity to try and force open the crack in her chains. For her captor's part, he was still ranting.
"And then what happens? I met my sire; that poor, degenerate excuse of a vampire." He spat the words out as if they sickened him. "Eternal life, he said. I wouldn't have to die of the thrice-damned sickness. I could become strong. I believed him too."
Shaking his head, he stalked back up to Reina, glaring at her.
"What a joke. Yeah, I didn't have to die. But strong?"
Whirling around, he struck out at a rusted metal rack. It collapsed, the metal twisting under the blow. Gabriel shook his fist negligently as he walked back.
"Strong for a human, yes. Strong for a vampire, not at all." He touched his extended fangs lightly, disgust coloring his face.
"I was a general!" He hit a stack of cardboard, the pile collapsing. Pacing, he continued. "I was strong!" Another pile went. The candle flickered briefly, but held steady. He reached out, grasping air. "But in this life, this form, I'm rock bottom!"
Mad eyes, crazed for power. "I couldn't take that. I refuse to take that." He clenched his fist.
"I will make my own destiny. I will become strong."
"You're crazy." Reina couldn't help but retort, even as she rolled back up to a sitting position. "Ugly too." She added, widening the crack in the metal. She was suddenly glad that she was so skinny. It wouldn't take much longer before she could get at least one hand free.
He snarled at her. "You don't even know how lucky you are. I saw it, you know. Your master is strong. You are strong. Or will be. Would have been, if you survived. But you're not going to."
"Master? Ai? She's not my Master." Reina grumbled. "And I can kick your ass anyway." Once I get out of here that is...
He ignored her. "Your blood will make me strong. It must. All those before, those were not enough. Not enough at all. A 10th generation, some 12th. Not good enough. I need a Noble, one of the purebloods."
"What the heck are you on about?" Reina tried to keep him talking, if only to distract him just that much longer. Her wrists hurt. She was really going to enjoy tearing him into little pieces later.
"Young, aren't you? Young and ignorant. But perfect for my purposes. I can take the young ones more easily." Gabriel paused.
"Do you know who your master is, then?"
"How the hell would I know? She left me after she made me. Goddamn it."
He laughed this time. "And so your Master abandons you to your fate. A renegade?" He thought to himself. "No, you're too strong to be the child of a mere renegade. One of the outcast Nobles then? They don't report their spawn to that high-handed Council."
"I don't understand." Reina was appropriately confused. Her education had not given her any insight to how vampire society worked at all.
"You really are a foolish child." He shook his head in amusement. "Not knowing anything, and you won't even have time to learn before you die."
"Well, you could at least tell me what a Noble is before you kill me." Reina said quickly. "And that Council too, or whatever it is." Just a bit more before her right wrist could squeeze through...
"How cute, you want to know." He sat down on a nearby crate, assuming a teacher-like superiority.
"Very well then, I suppose I can oblige you for a while."
~*~*~
Niigaki Soujirou was a patient man. Hunters who were too excitable didn't last very long. He had learned to approximate an exterior of calm even if he was panicking inside.
And he was panicking inside now, even as he paced inside the house waiting for his stray daughter to come home. His wife watched him wordlessly as she packed away some more of their belongings at his insistence.
"She should be back, she should have been, much earlier than this." If anything could make this tough man fret, it was probably his family. Particularly his daughter, since even his wife was adequately informed and at least somewhat trained to deal with problems of a supernatural nature. Risa, for better or worse, was just like every other normal, ignorant person.
"I called her friends. They saw her in school in the morning, but she left halfway, apparently." His wife eyed him critically. "If we had told her about who we really are, she wouldn't be out there right now."
"I wanted her to have a normal life, Emiko. I didn't want her to be raised like us. To fight, kill, then die in the shadows. I wanted her to have a life of her own. That's why we left. That's why she was able to live as a normal girl all these years."
Frustrated, Soujirou sat down on the couch, messing at the thinning hair on his head. Emiko settled down next to him, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I know. We wanted her to be happy." Emiko paused. "We could let her be happy, if she were away from us. Her blood is not awakened, and if she were separate from us, she should be safe from the trackers from the clan. And she is old enough now..."
"Not here, not in this city. That monster is still out there." Soujirou fought back the chill running down his spine at the mere recall of the memory. He had known, instinctively, that the vampire was too strong, far stronger than him, and he could not beat her. The fear boiling at the bottom of his throat when she had looked straight at him was evidence enough of that instinct.
"We could send an anonymous tip off to the clans. They can come do the clean up job while we disappear. It would be good for all of us."
"If only it were that simple..." Soujirou broke off and stood up abruptly, suddenly feeling an urge to walk over to the window. Looking cautiously out of it, he froze as he caught sight of his daughter standing on the opposite street corner, practically half in the embrace of a very familiar outline. He suddenly felt faint, clutching the window sill as he turned deathly pale.
That thing must have felt him watching, since she promptly enfolded Risa into a tighter embrace, and Soujirou could have sworn that he was the only one who saw that smirk on her lips.
He had seen enough. Stepping away from the window, he strode purposefully towards the door with a steely look in his eye. There was no way he would give his daughter over to that creature.
Flinging the door open, Soujirou paused on the steps and stared when that monster of a vampire leaned in and kissed his daughter full on the lips, and he could swear that she had one eye on him as she did so. His legs felt weak, and he actually staggered, feeling ill all over.
All his mind could do was replay that scene over and over. The monster already had his daughter under her influence. How could they run sufficiently far enough from something like that? He staggered down the steps onto the pavement, at a loss for what to do in such a situation. In his confusion he didn't even notice them separate, the vampire vanishing into the night.
He must have acknowledged his daughter on some level, waving her inside even as he leaned against a nearby lamp post, trying to get a grip on himself.
So lost he was that he did not even notice footsteps approach him, until they were close enough for him to react on instinct, pulling the Fang that was his out to point at the person's throat. For their part, that person didn't even blink, standing there with an imperturbable expression.
"I think we need to talk, Niigaki Soujirou."
~*~*~
"So let me get this straight. Our bloodline gets weaker with every generation because it gets diluted, and Nobles are just those further up the line?"
Reina, despite her situation, had had her interest stirred up by the little introductory course on the vampire world that she was being given by her captor. Given how desperately she had sought instruction, the situation could not be more ironic.
"Crudely put, but yes. At the fount of every bloodline is a Source. They are the equivalent to a God that we vampires have, and it is their blood who started everything to begin with."
"Then why don't you go after one of these Sources? They are the strongest, aren't they?"
"They are, but I'm not crazy enough to go after something like that. I would be obliterated where I stand before I could even get close enough to do anything. I'm not that dumb."
"Pity." Reina muttered, trying to ease her chafed wrist from the bloody cuffs. It was difficult with the metal cutting into her skin, but she endured. To buy a bit more time, she decided to press for more information. The fact that she was actually learning something was just an added bonus.
"And the Council? Are they made up of these Source things or something?"
"Hardly. There are no longer any Sources around. No one really knows what happened to them. In any case, the Council is made up of the more powerful Nobles as well as representatives from the major clans within the covenant." His face changed then, to a sneering expression.
"Truth is, the Council is just a way for the Nobles to protect their position. It's not enough that they're strong, they make rules so that the rest of us remain weak!" He thumped his thigh with his fist, anger searing his face.
"Purebloods, aristocrats, they're all the same. Calling the rest of us trash, unworthy of their attention, oppressing us..." Reina resisted the urge to point out that Gabriel had, in fact, been part of the aristocracy himself when he was still human. She doubted that he would have appreciated the comparison.
"They don't get it, none of them do! Who cares how we are brought into this world?!" Then he calmed again, an eerie light in his speckled eyes. "Strength is the only thing that counts."
"Yeah, it is." Reina said blandly as her hand swung free of the cuff. Her left wrist was still cuffed, but that was alright. She only needed one hand to punch.
The sizzling contact of her fist against the barrier was shocking, the skin withering from the jolt. She slammed against it a few more times, futilely. All she had to show for it was charred skin and a perfectly intact barrier that kept her within that circle.
"Very resourceful of you, little one. It will make devouring you all the more pleasant." He was still smiling, but it was more malicious than anything else. Reina swore again, pounding against the unrelenting barrier until her fist was numb.
"Don't hurt yourself too badly, your blood is mine." He chided her, but she all but ignored him. Shaking his head, Gabriel chanted something in Latin, and the chains still attached to her other arm and legs glowed a sickly red, sending a wave of agony through the young vampire's body.
"You can't die until I say so, and you can't hurt yourself unless I'm the one doing it."
"I hate to disagree, but that's my line."
"What?" Gabriel turned around, but there was no one. Laughter echoed off the rafters.
"That was a very nice concealment spell you had going there, but you forgot something."
The voice was coming from a different direction than from before now, moving from place to place without form. Gabriel slid closer to the magic circle, eyes wary as he tried to figure out what was happening.
"This is my city." Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He swung wildly, but hit air.
"And I know it better than you do." Several tons of force rocketed into his chest, sending him flying into another stack of moldy cardboard boxes.
Ai landed lightly on her feet, just outside the magic circle where Reina was writhing in pain. She clucked her tongue briefly as she eyed the bound fledgling.
"You really are a handful, aren't you?"
Reina muttered something uncomplimentary under her breath, shoving her face off the floor to glare up at Ai. The older vampire smirked, reaching out with one hand to touch the barrier...
...and was flung back. She skidded a few feet, then came to a halt.
"Well now, that's a mean barrier." Ai commented drily, dusting off her hands. Gabriel had already taken the time to pick himself up, escaping to hide next to the barrier. He was staring at Ai, as if unable to comprehend her presence.
"You're not supposed to be here! You're wounded!"
"An Almadel circle...haven't seen that in a few hundred years." Ai seemed to be completely ignoring the situation as she eyed the markings on the floor. "My compliments on reviving it, though you really shouldn't have used an inverted triquetra to ground it."
"Don't ignore me!" Uncertainty clouded his voice, lending it a slightly shrill quality. Then his eyes hardened, as if in comprehension.
"Ah I see, you're just trying to make me unnerved. I saw how that werewolf tore you up, there's no way you can recover from that so quickly." He seemed to regain his composure quickly, sneering at Ai, who was currently directing her attention at the trapped Reina.
"Reina, if you can break out of there, I'll give you a reward." Reina stared disbelievingly at her. Ai grinned, the tips of her fangs hidden coyly behind her lips.
"If you can't even free yourself, you're not worth my time, and your Master won't be bothered with you either." Ai pointed casually over at Gabriel, who seemed miffed at being overlooked.
"As for you..." Gabriel glared at her, already chanting something under his breath. Ai simply vanished from sight when blood red spears thrust themselves from the ground beneath her, reappearing just behind a stunned Gabriel.
"You have transgressed, and you shall be judged." Ai finished, her tone icy calm. Gabriel hissed as he backhanded her, but found himself in the air as Ai intercepted the blow and tossed him over her shoulder with just one hand.
"Just work on the chains, kitten. That should be enough. We'll work on the barrier later." Ai smiled as Reina made a rude gesture at her, then blurred away as more magical bolts pierced her lingering afterimage.
"Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel, you poor boy. Is this what you call blood magic? Even the Draconists would be ashamed of such petty parlor tricks." Ai chided gently as she sat on the crate that Gabriel had used earlier.
"Shut up!" Sketching a quick magic circle on the ground, the rogue vampire muttered an incantation as a haze swirled around the air above the formation, solidifying into a red serpent that hissed and flickered in the dim light.
"Is that supposed to be a summon?" Ai chuckled, completely ignoring the fact that the specter had bulked up in size to become a full fledged dragon coiled up to attack her.
"Not even an 8th generation could withstand this." Gabriel declared, eyeing Ai cautiously. "I don't know who or what you are, but I'm not going to take any chances with you."
"That must have been a disgrace of an 8th." Ai murmured, resting her chin on her palm. "Then again, you keep preying on newborns, so I guess it can't be helped."
The dragon screeched and swooped down, seeming all too solid in the dancing shadows of the warehouse. Reina paused in her struggles to free herself and gaped at the dripping maw of the beast, stretched wide enough to devour the pint-sized Ai whole.
Ai didn't even bother to dodge, only standing up and stepping forward lightly. The dragon howled and dove straight at her, and Ai smiled as it vanished right into her. Reina's jaw dropped as the last of the enormous form completely dissolved out of sight.
Gabriel waited. Ai continued smiling. Nothing happened.
"W-what?" He couldn't believe it. Ai chuckled.
"What you called was simply a phantom, an illusion that kills the mind. Only those weak of heart and mind would fall for such a childish trick." Ai coughed delicately. "Not that I even want to absorb something as corrupted as this. It's really disgusting, you know?"
"How, how did you..." Gabriel seemed to be at a loss for words. He had never been one to resort to pure martial force to deal with his targets, preferring to bait and trap. Subterfuge had always been his best ally.
"Child's play, my dear boy." Ai shook her head regretfully. "You could have lived peacefully. You would have thrived. But you chose the road not taken, and now there is no way back."
"Are you with the Council?" Gabriel subtly inched closer to where Reina was held, eyes fixed on Ai. "Only those stinking purebloods would want to keep all those rules. You're just afraid that we'll overthrow you!"
"The Council has no hold over me." Ai said chillingly, and the temperature in the warehouse seemed to drop significantly with every step she took forward.
"I don't even care how many of our brethren you have preyed on. You were right when you said that strength is what allows us to thrive, and that those who fell to you have simply failed the test of time." Ai stopped a few yards away from Gabriel, who had frozen in his tracks.
"But you have committed the one crime that I laid down the rules for, and for that, you shall be judged." Ai finished coldly.
Gabriel found that he could not move, try as he might. His legs were shaking, pinned to the spot by that deadly gaze aimed at him. All his instincts were shrieking in pure, unadulterated terror. Fear immobilized him, that overpowering presence of something so vast, so intense that he could not even budge as Death stalked closer.
"W-who are you...?"
Ai smiled mirthlessly. "I am not obliged to tell you, sire-killer. One who murders their own Master is not worthy of knowing my name."
"You...how did you know?" Gabriel stuttered, shrinking into himself with sheer panic. Ai no longer smiled, and though her face and form were still beautiful, there was no mistaking the demonic aura that surrounded her. She looked like some demon, or perhaps a fallen angel, lovely in appearance but no less chaotic.
"Your blood stinks of it." Ai tapped her nose. "And the Council will not doubt me, for my word is final." Ai halted by Gabriel's side, leaning in to whisper into the terrified renegade's ear.
"Did you really think that I let you catch the fledgling for nothing? I knew you would come for her if we were weakened and separated after that fight. All I had to do was wait."
Gabriel shuddered inwardly at the meaning implicit in the statement. He was not above using others for his schemes, but the extent to which this monstrously powerful vampire would and could go frightened him. Only someone who had complete assurance in their own capabilities could pull off a plan like that. He had underestimated her.
"Be glad though. You get to be a stepping stone for the little one over there. She still has a long way to go, and she will continue to grow into her powers." Ai smiled grimly.
"Didn't know that you caught a 4th generation Noble, did you?"
Surprise, shock, regret. These emotions ran through him. To have had his quest for power so rudely interrupted, just when the end was in sight...it was more than he could bear. He wanted, needed to do something. It could not end like this. With a howl of rage, he broke out of the mind control, rushing towards the spell circle where Reina was still confined within.
Ai let him go, expression bored. Lifting one hand, she mimed lifting a chess piece, setting it down on some imaginary board with a click she made with her tongue.
"Checkmate."
Reina had been fighting the rest of her bindings while Ai had been taunting Gabriel. She had one hand free, but the rest of the chains were still coiled around her, and she squirmed around like a fresh-caught fish while trying to wriggle free. The accursed things seemed to be almost glued to her.
Break it, I gotta break it. Reina thought to herself, remembering how she had gotten her hand free in the first place. It was easier said than done though. In a fit of petulant anger, Reina started thrashing around even harder, yanking and clawing and even biting blindly.
Oddly, that seemed to work a bit better than just pulling. Reina wasn't really thinking about the consequences of using her fangs to widen the hairline crack in the other cuff, but since she was desperate (and probably lucky), it worked.
With both her hands free, it was easier to pull the rest of the strangling chains away from her. Some of it seemed to be suctioned onto her skin, but Reina ruthlessly tore them off, skin and all, her eyes already a frenzied red. She was bleeding from several places, and everything hurt, but the rush of power from her rage allowed her to ignore those niggling concerns.
The last bindings were those on her feet, locked to the ground. Driven completely by instinct, Reina casually bashed at them with her bare fists, heedless of how her hands were already a raw red.
Her irises glowed even brighter as the tips of her fingers sizzled, the iron of the chains glowing a cherry red from the contact. It burned her as well, but she barely felt it as she ripped off the warped metal with disconcerting ease.
It was at this point when she sensed an incoming force; saw, no, felt hungry hands reaching into the barrier that still kept her within, clawing desperately for her.
She felt like she was moving in slow motion as she twisted around, feeling her dirty fangs of her captor attempt to sink into her neck, growling in response. Her hands sought, and found, his neck instead, broken nails digging into cold flesh with an animal satisfaction. The crack of bone as she exerted her not inconsiderable strength was like music to her ears, and Reina snarled as she met his wild eyes with her own.
"Die." The voice that came from her throat was guttural, barely recognizable as her own. She tasted his fear and found it good, even as she shattered his collarbone, then clawed his eyes out with a flourish, licking her fingers daintily afterwards.
Don't eat him. He won't taste good. The warning came a split second after she had tasted her prey's blood, and she gagged involuntarily at the foul aftertaste, spitting the rest of it out in disgust.
Ai strolled up to the edge of the circle, expertly avoiding the spray of blood that came her way as Reina crushed the man's neck. Unfortunately for him, it was still not quite fatal enough. Ai almost pitied him. Almost. Actually, she was already starting to get bored by the whole thing.
"You can stop playing now. We'll need some time to go feed you properly before sunrise."
Reina brightened up noticeably at the mention of food, dragging the badly mutilated and barely recognizable Gabriel by the scruff of his neck to the edge of the barrier, then shoving him into it.
As Ai had expected, the caster was the key. The flesh on his back sizzled at the prolonged contact, but he no longer possessed the vocal chords to scream. Ai coughed diffidently to get Reina's attention, tapping at the space over her heart.
Reina got the point immediately. Holding him up with one hand, she used her other hand and thrust it into the stricken vampire's chest, her fingers closing around the heart and tearing it out.
Then she squeezed. Ai stepped out of the way as yet another spray of blood spurted past her. The rest of the splatter had shimmered against the barrier, the magic flickering and dying. Reina dropped both heart and body, stomping on the now fully dead vampire. The corpse shriveled, taking on a dessicated appearance, before flaking into dusty parts.
"Good girl. You did well." Ai praised almost fondly as she cupped Reina's bloodstained cheek with her hand, the younger vampire purring like a kitten at the gesture. When she next opened her eyes, it was no longer a solid red, but normal again, almost child-like as she looked pitifully at the older vampire.
"Something you want to tell me?" Reina nodded miserably, looking like she was about to cry. Ai waited, continuing to stroke Reina's cheek with her thumb.
"I broke my fangs..." Reina whimpered, bloody tears springing from her eyes. As if to prove her point, she opened her mouth and bared them. One was chipped in the side, while the other had had the tip broken off entirely.
A moment of silence, then Ai chuckled. "Silly girl, don't cry. I'll fix it for you."
"You will?" Reina asked almost hopefully. Ai nodded, holding Reina's mouth open as she examined the broken fangs. Then before Reina could even blink, she yanked both out in one swift motion.
"Aaaaagh!!!" Reina exploded in a whole tirade of incoherent expletives as she covered her mouth with both hands. Ai ignored her, looking at the fangs she had extracted, before handing them back to a hysterical Reina.
"Don't be a baby, they'll grow back." Ai scolded. Reina glared balefully at the older, one hand still covering her mouth.
"I'll getch 'choo faur tchat." Reina muttered. Ai smiled amiably.
"You can try, but I won't advise getting on my bad side for now. Who else will feed you while you have no fangs?" Reina's eyes widened as she realized her own predicament. Having no fangs would make feeding incredibly messy. Ai only laughed at her.
"Come on, let's get you fed first." Ai's eyes were glowing in anticipation. "I haven't hunted in a while, so this will be fun." Reina shivered a little at the wild look in those eyes, terror or anticipation, she could not be certain. Ai smirked dangerously, glancing around.
"Hold on to me, we'll take the shortcut out of here."
Obediently, Reina clung to Ai, wrapping her arms around the older. Ai casually kicked over the single light source in the warehouse, greedy flames licking first over the discarded pages of an open book, the conflagration expanding to consume all in its path.
The fire would cover their tracks for now. Ai closed her eyes and faded into shadow, taking Reina with her. Finding the Dark Path with ease, she glided on pathways unseen, through a darkness not even her vastly superior night vision could penetrate.
They would go, and she would feed again. This whole sham of a confrontation had only served to bring her bloodlust back, and she hungered for so much more.
The moon was in full flower, hanging luminous overhead. The sky was dark, cloudless. The distant stars were no more than mere pinpricks on velvet, shimmering like tiny diamonds. It was a beautiful night, and it was hers.
The night was still young. The hunt would begin. By the time the sun would rise to claim its place, the sky bathed crimson in its wake would but be only a poor imitation of the blood she would shed tonight.
Time to paint the town red.
==========================================
I'm crashing. Comment freely.
Topic: Gegenschein [Ch.18: Open] - 16/5 (Read 80291 times)