Fable - Ask The Blooding

[Harlowe]

"Are you okay?" Harlowe asked as she came to a stop beside the other newly-made monster. Her crimson eyes flickered to the healing cut and her jaw clenched a little. Thankfully, monsters blood was not as appealing as humans to a vampires senses. That wasn't to say she wouldn't not eat it if she was that hungry which she was approaching. She would have to feed soon after they were done here.

Nazara's orders came soon after and she glanced towards the door that the dead had been guarding.

"Alright," it was as good a plan as any. "I think I can smell him," well, she could smell human blood near and that was probably a good place to start. With another glance to make sure Felice was ok she pushed open the door and started off down the corridor.

As was to be expected the palace was regally furnished. Tapestries hung from the wall depicting scenes from the lands history no doubt. The flooring was polished marble that seemed to gleam in the torchlight and made their footsteps echo. There would be no surprise at their coming though no doubt the inhabitants had also heard the ruckus outside.

Like a bloodhound, Harlowe led them past doors to a small little cupboard that looked like it might be used by servants. She ripped it off and behind it cowered the man from the balcony clutched a crystal ball in his hands.

 

[Nazara]

Nazara stepped back from the wall, his black eyes peering at the fat man that had been pinned against the bright limestone with three heavy iron pokers that had been meant for tending a fire. A blubber of blood spouted from his lips as he tried to speak with what little life he had left, but Nazara didn't understand.

"Believe it or not I don't enjoy this sort of thing." He said calmly to the dying man, his lips thinning for a moment as he looked at the brutal display.

"But the Kha wanted to send a message." The shade said simply. "Whoever finds you, whichever of your little dogs that will take control after you pass will understand the threat now."

There was no need to explain the situation to the Shah, but whatever humanity remained within the Shade felt compelled to do so.

It was justification for his brutality perhaps. By inflicting such horrors on one man, he was saving thousands from enduring the slaughter of a true siege. It was better this way. "Your death will mean something. Now if you'll excuse me. I have Children to tend to."

Nazara said as he spun on his heal and headed to find Felice and Harlowe.

 

[Felice]

Did, did someone actually care that she was in pain? That was different.

"Well, it," she started in earnest. Felice had planned to say, 'it hurts like all hell.' Instead she finished her thought, quite awkwardly, by stating, "it's not so bad." Best to appear tough to her new family.

The notice that Harlowe could smell the Vizier they were after was welcome news. It also bolstered her opinion that vampires and shades were fucking cool. Initially she thought the two of them would need to split up, one covering an exit while the other stormed up to the second story. But the fact that Harlowe could smell these people meant she could just tag along.

They passed by a set of elaborate marble vases, some lovely tapestry, and what looked like original art from some hoity-toity guy out east. Felice took in every sight, assuming that the vampire would be prepared for whatever surprised might pop out at them.

When they arrived at their prey he looked absolutely terrified while clinging to his little orb of crystal. There was a part of Felice that hesitated. He reminded her of some of those occasions in Cerak or more frequently when she was older and running with the wrong crowd in Oban.

But, no, she wasn't that person anymore. She wasn't weak.

In as gruff of a voice she could manage she barked, "Give us the orb, now, and no one gets hurt." Truthfully, she couldn't promise the man's safety. Maybe it was Nazara's plan to kill him regardless.

"G-go away demoness," he called in a panic.

Felice sighed and a curl of her hair shot in his direction, encasing the orb and prying it from his hands. Only after the crystal sphere was safely in her possession did she notice that her accuracy hadn't been complete. The cowering man's right hand was lacerated deeply from the sharp edge of her scarlet hair, blood pooling out.

 

[Harlowe]

Harlowe's lips twitched and she fought back a smile at Felice's choice of words. It sounded like something out of a play that the thugs would say to the damsel in distress right before prince charming turned up to save her after giving said thugs a thorough beating. She couldn't smell anyone who might be a friend to this poor damsel though and supposed the curtain was about to fall on his act. No doubt that when whoever took over found out he had lost this orb they would not be best pleased and would likely take their anger out on him.

But all of that was forgotten when the scent of blood filled the tiny space they were in. It was even worse than on the wall. Not only had her limits been tested already with the guards along the way but the space meant there was nowhere to get away from it.

The black cracks that had already begun to appear webbing out from her eyes suddenly grew, darkened and seemed to pulse with her rising hunger. Harlowe, the woman who had sworn not to take that step, was a tiny insignificant voice in the storm of bloodlust now. Without a seconds hesitation she lunged forward and buried her fangs in the man's jugular.

 

[Nazara]

Nazara stepped down the last of the marble stairs just as he spotted Harlowe chomping down on the Vizier.

His eyebrow raised, head shaking. "They always change their mind so quickly."

The Shade really did wonder if that urging was so powerful. Many of the monsters within the Regiment were those who feasted upon flesh, it was the greatest reason why people abhorred working with them so much in the first place.

Werewolves were always the worst, more so than Vampires or...whatever Felice was.

Perhaps it was a primal sort of fear that made most being afraid of wolves, something deep down that made them feel even more hatred for them. Nazara didn't know, but he had always found it absolutely fascinating.

Slowly he stepped up behind the two girls.

"Enjoying a nice meal?" He asked, glancing down to Felice's hands for a moment to make sure she had the orb.

 

[Felice]

This was her fault.

Treebark-colored eyes widened at the sight before her. Prior to Nazara's arrival she'd considering stepping in, telling Harlowe she was sorry or that it was okay or something. But this was... primal. It reminded Felice of the first time she'd feasted upon flesh.

This would be the hardest time for Harlowe. That much was certain. After this it'd become easier, she'd grow apathetic or realize feasting wasn't so different from killing. However her brain rationalized it she'd become an addict, just as Felice had.

Red hair shimmered as the woman turned her gaze to Nazara and stared daggers into him though, for her part, she remained silent.

 

[Harlowe]

Harlowe gorged.

It felt like she had been starving for a week now she had tasted warm human blood straight from the vein. Oh it was wonderful. Nothing she had ever eaten before compared to the sweet song this blood played across her tongue. Human food brought no joy anymore though she had tried and Orin had told her a little wouldn't harm her, it just wouldn't do anything for her. But this... this... This contained spices, sweetness, a delicate splash of tang.

Yet none of it compared to how it made her feel.

Powerful.

She could tear this whole building down with her bare hands if she wanted to. She could hear where the other humans were inside, hiding from all the noise they could fear. She could taste their fear and she realised it was what she liked so much about this mans blood. She wanted more.

Harlowe dropped the drained body as blood ran down her chin and with a dark glare to the two monsters merely to identify their blood was not good enough, she was gone in a blur. It wasn't long before screams echoed in the palace.

 

[Nazara]

Nazara let out a sigh.

A hand came up to rub at his face. This was not what he had wanted to deal with today. They needed somebody to actually be in charge. Needed someone to call of the Siege. If Harlowe slaughtered everyone in the place it wasn't going to work.

"Give me the orb." He said as he extended a hand out towards Felice, not wanting the girl to break whatever the thing was.

"Then we'll stop her." If it was a different kind of situation he wouldn't have cared, but he couldn't let the whole Shah's court get wiped out in an evening, not if they wanted this plan to actually work. "She just needs a good slap."

He frowned for a moment. "Though maybe let me do the slapping when we find her."

 

[Felice]

Felice's first meal had been with a more senior member of the Regiment. It had been a lone traveler on the road. She understood why after the meal when she craved, no needed, more. Though the speed and intensity with which Harlowe moved caused her to realize that perhaps vampire cravings were a bit more intense than her own.

The orb passed from Felice's hands to Nazara's. "A slap?"

It wasn't a surprise that hunting down the vampire might not be too difficult. The screams would lead them to her easily enough. But if the rate she feasted upon the Vizier was anything to go off of then it might prove challenging for Felice to track her down.

Which was a pity, she was fairly certain she could've binded her in place with her hair. She'd never tried with someone as strong as Harlowe but maybe it would work. Would be a lot more pleasant than whatever a 'slap' delivered by the shade was.

"Just uh, be careful I guess," the redhead said as she started walking towards the screams. Assuming that Nazara would just do his vanishing act once more.

 

[Harlowe]

Destruction was all Harlowe left in her wake.

Bodies littered the ground and created a macabre breadcrumb trail for the other monsters to follow. Men, women, even children lay sprawled on the floor with their eyes wide open in horror and their throats torn.

Each body was worse.

The kills messier and more violent as the vampire passed from hunger into a bloodfrenzy. By the sixth corpse it was clear she was lost in the haze and a simple primal need to kill now even if it wasn't to fill.

 

[Nazara]

Nazara did indeed disappeared in that hazing black shadow.

The orb disappeared in his hand, rushing into the same smoke that his body disappeared into as he quickly surged through the halls.

Harlowe was feeding upon her seventh corpse by the time he found her, a wake of blood and corpses left behind her. The Shade snapped into existence directly behind her, a tsk clicking from his tongue as he reached out to grasp her.

His hand snapped to the back of her neck, and with a forceful wrench he tugged her away from the corpse. "HARLOWE!"

Her name echoed through the hall, his voice loud enough to shatter glass.

"Stop!" The command rung loudly, his hand wrenching her back as he prepared to throw her against the nearest wall if she struck out at him.

 

[Felice]

Footsteps tiptoed around blood and the occasional bone fragment while Felice admired the carnage her teammate had wrought.

In the few seconds she had been away there were six dead. If this was what Felice had to match then she had a lot of hard work and training ahead of her. Although she wondered how much of this was really Harlowe versus how much of it was from the craving of her first meal.

When she arrived at the seventh victim the crimson-haired beast was greeted by the sight of Nazara holding the vampire by the scruff of her neck like a cat. "Hey buddy..." her words were soft towards Harlowe.

Felice had actually wanted to tell Nazara to be careful but as he was the guy in charge she assumed that he knew what he was doing.

Now that she had arrived on the scene she was glad the cap'n was here. She was almost positive she wouldn't have been able to restrain someone capable of the carnage that had just occurred here.

 

[Harlowe]

Harlowe was no untrained whelp.

As she was hurled off her feet by the nape of her neck she snarled like a wild beast, thrashing wildly as he shouted some command. Not that Harlowe really heard it. It was all so far away, so insignificant in comparison to the blood she could still smell and taste on her tongue like a beating drum. Calling her.

Yet despite losing herself the vampire still had her soldiers memories, still knew how to fight and what tactics might work. So instead of violently swiping towards him like the beast, the monster, wanted, she brought her legs up and threw herself up and over his arm. He would have to release her from that nape grip or twist his whole hand backwards, but would either of them be fast enough to grab her again as she hit the floor and made a run for it?

 

[Nazara]

The Baby Vampire slipped from his grasp, his lips thinning as she moved to dash away the instant her body hit the floor.

"Grab her legs!" He would not have this night undone because Harlowe couldn't control herself, because she'd tried to uphold some foolish notion of morality that no longer applied to her.

Had she fed before all of this none of it would have been a problem. Now he was forced to make her control herself. Perhaps it wasn't all bad. Perhaps a lesson would be learned


As the girl struck the ground something shifted within Nazara's palm.

A black abyss of nothing poured from his hand, forming into a solid length of seemingly black steel. It flickered for a moment, and then Nazara suddenly jerked his arm forward. The black spear shot forth in an instant, darting behind Harlowe and catching up with her faster than either Nazara or Felice could.

The spear arched, and then came down straight through the flesh of her thigh.

 

[Felice]

In a blur of motions Harlowe spun around and was free of Nazara's clutches. Perhaps if Felice had more experience in this new body, or more training in her old life, she would've reacted fast enough to help subdue the vampire.

Strings of red flew in the general direction of the pair but Harlowe proved to be too quick for her. Nazara proved to be even faster. In a blink she witnessed a spear shoot from the shade's palm and fly at the other young monster. Her mouth dropped in shock. Was Nazara trying to kill her?

No, vampires surely weren't that fragile.

Or at least, Felice hoped they weren't as the distraction and slow reaction time caused her hair to entangle Nazara's legs rather than the vampire she had been intending to inhibit. The grasp would only last a few seconds as she realized her mistake but who knew what an injured creature of the night was capable of in just a few seconds?

 

[Harlowe]

Pain exploded in her thigh as the shadow spear seared through skin, bone and muscle to pin her to the marble floor. A scream tore itself from her throat as she hit the deck but it quickly turned into a snarl of rage. Fuelled on the blood of eight humans now she was riding an adrenaline high that masked the true extent of her injuries. She would have gnawed off her own leg had she had to. Instead, she grasped the shadow spear and snapped it.

Her blood ran into the river of human blood as she, whimpering, tried to gently lift her thigh from the half still pinning her to the floor. If she had been in her right mind she would have taken more time but as it was she was a wild animal in a trap desperate to get away. So she tore more of herself as she got loose and rolled onto her one good foot.

Blood. Need.

She hobbled on making the whimpering noise of an injured wolf.

 

[Nazara]

Nazara felt his legs wrapped with the strange folical snake Felice sent his way.

Lips thinned, and he bellowed in anger. "Her! Grab her!"

The shade gestured towards the now hobbling Vampire. He obviously hadn't intended on killing her, and he knew Orin long enough to know that a simple flesh wound wouldn't have killed her.

Especially with the amount of blood she'd already had.

"Before the wound heals!" Any form of stealth was now entirely out of the bag. Nazara's voice carried so loudly through the palace that the whole city would be awake.

 

[Felice]

"Oh fu," she muttered under her breath as strands of crimson untangled themselves from Nazara's limbs. Her vision adjusted to the limping vampire whose snarl was loud enough to hear from three rooms over.

Felice wondered if she even could subdue the beast. The way she shrugged off that spear was giving her cause for concern. But, she was limping, she was hurt, so maybe there was a chance. At the very least she seemed slow enough to cling on to. "Don't worry boss, I've got this completely under control."

She absolutely didn't.

Several tendrils of curled hair leapt forward. They moved towards Harlowe's limbs as Felice tried to ignore the sad sound of whimpers coming from her prey. Four specific tresses aimed for the wrists and ankles with a fifth and sixth lock of her hair aiming for her torso. If she connected, and if she could cling on, she'd try to hold the vampire in a gentle submission above the marbled flooring.

Unless, of course, the silver haired woman was stronger than she anticipated. In that case, it was likely that Felice would end up becoming a human anchor.

 

[Harlowe]

Tendrils of red lashed towards her. With her heightened senses she could hear the whisper of them through the air in enough time to let her turn just as the first wrapped around her wrist. She snarled in fury but was quick enough to avoid the others. Desperately she tugged at the hair that wound tight about her and she she found it fruitless simply began to try and move, dragging the weight behind her.

She was strong and more she was full of blood.

And nothing. Nothing was going to keep her from more.

 

[Felice]

Felice's head whipped forward, her chin colliding with the extravagant flooring the Shah had custom built into his palace. She was being dragged by the vampire as hair clung firmly to as many appendages as she could manage. It turned out that, no, Felice was not strong enough to subdue a vampire that was high off human blood.

Good lesson to know for the future.

Limbs flailed about, her stomach bumped on hard flooring, and if she were still mortal she'd likely have a broken neck by now as her head twitched every which way that the vampire could smell fresh blood.

However, the redhaired creature was determined. She wasn't going to fail her new family on the first mission. Wherever Harlowe went, she would go. Even if that meant being dragged through every corner of the palace. It wasn't the most dignified position she had ever been in but also wasn't the least. At a minimum, she assumed Nazara couldn't really scold her, she'd done exactly as he asked.

 

[Nazara]

"Fucking Vampires." Nazara lamented as he shook his head and let out a loud sigh as Felice went flying directly after the wayward Harlowe.

A hand came up to rub at his unfeeling face for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes and let out a loud sigh. It was a strangely human gesture, though there was something off about it. As though he were playing a role.

After a moment, his body once again snapped into that strange abyssal fog.

With a rush of air the smoke flowed along the ceiling of the room. It quickly rushed after Harlowe and Felice, pulling ahead of them until the Shade suddenly snapped back into his humanoid form directly in front of the rampaging Vampire.

The moment he took physical form Nazara lashed out.

With Felice still holding her Harlowe would at least be a bit slowed down, and thus he struck out like a vampire. Intending to at least bring the girl back to her senses, if not knocking her unconscious.

 

[Harlowe]

"Let. Go," Harlowe snarled at the hair as she desperately clawed at the tendrils around her wrist. Her nails grazed off it and tore at her own flesh until it was a mess of blood. She was too focused on that and the smell of humans in the next room that she wasn't paying attention to the shade.

His fist was the last thing she saw.

Harlowe crumpled to the ground like a piece of paper and fell into the dark of unconsciousness.

 

[Felice]

Suddenly everything came to a halt. One second she'd been getting dragged across the ground and the next the entire world seemed to stop.

Felice rose to her feet and blinked several times while still clinging to Harlowe. Her visage met Nazara's before glazing over the unconscious form of the monster on the ground. The vampire's thigh still looked rough though the wound was closing up quickly. A new mix of red blood and orangish red hair intermingled along her wrists where the creature had tried to free herself.

"Is she ok?" Felice's words were equal parts concern and trepidation. She didn't know how long the vampire would be out or if she could hold the other girl down when she woke. A small finger tap at the scab on Felice's chin, it'd heal quick enough too.

 

[Nazara]

Nazara squatted down besides Harlowe with an exaggerated sight. "She's fine."

That wasn't just an assumption.

Telling if a Vampire was alive or dead took quite a bit of learning, but Nazara knew from simple experience that it took a lot more to kill one of their kind than a few lashing whips and a fist to the face. She would be out cold for a little while, and her lust would be done.

At least for now.

"She'll thank us in the morning." Lips thinned. "Well, she might thank you."

He reached down, picking Harlowe up off the floor and slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Come on, lets get out of here."

The Shade was certain an army was on its way.

 

[Harlowe]

"Please don't hurt my children."

A man stood between Harlowe and a cowering group; a woman and two children. It was the woman who was begging in her finery in between sobs. The man was iron will as he held his blade between them. She wanted to laugh at their pathetic uselessness but she was so hungry it came out as a snarl.

Two steps and the guard was down, his sweet blood running over her tongue. But she couldn't let them escape so she left him in the throws of death to lunge for the others. Their fear made the blood so much sweeter...

Harlowe awoke to a headache from hell. She found herself by a small fire and as she sat up her vision swam, the here and now nelding with the images from...

She was on her feet and over to one of the trees in a second, hurling her guts up.