The Story of Sarai

by Magical Mistress Sarai

Original Story - In a world unlike any other, the daughter of a most powerful being makes a choice that will not only change her life for eternity but may change the face of universe. detailed summary inside Rated M for violence/language in later ch.

1. Our Story Begins

Welcome!

This is my original story... original characters, original places, original planets... ect ect ect. This is my writing and it uses characters from my book that I am writing. They all belong to me. I started writing this as a character bio for an RP and decided that it was better suited for a story once it got beyond 40 pages in Microsoft Word. I think I am up to 52 pages at the moment. I'll post each chapter I have according to the deadline... so about every two weeks, unless people demand for more (then I may be persuaded... I'm not immune to flattery or pleading).

Brief history here: this was an RP started on and it never really went anywhere. My characters jumped from my mind and to keep myself from getting bored I wrote this bio... which is now a story. You may see commonalities between a few minor characters in one flashback for this chapter... that would be unavoidable because I liked the character personalities so I keep one name (:DISCLAIMER: because it is a freaking awesome name: Zhivago. I give props to gaia for that. :DISCLAIMER:) Otherwise everything else is my creation. The rest of this history is just to tide you over until I explain more of it in the story. Nova Corp has existed for thousands of years. Nova Corp has existed for thousands of years. It is a company, it is an empire, it is a large part of the universe that coverse 5 galaxies. Nova Corp is a name spoken by people in admiration, fear, greed and a plethora of other emotions. Sarai Carcinos is the founder and creator of Nova Corp. She is a human of the Ere bloodline (true immortals) and she is over 9,000 years old. Varc Coren is her mate/second in command. He is of the Elloid Heritage, spirit beings who are connected to feline spirits that reflect their own inner desires, which places him in the category of (secondary immortals). Varc is over 4,500 years old. Verti Carcinos is Sarai and Varc's daughter... she is 43 at the time of her last human year... and when the flash back takes place she is 46. When Verti becomes a vampire she changes her name to better suit her monstrous being... she takes her mother's name: Sarai. This is where the story get's its name. It is sort of a double entendre, being it is the story of Sarai Carcinos and the story of Sarai the vampire, with that latter being the foremost object of telling the story. There is a confusing portion where Varc meets Verti after she has been changed to a vampire... just know then when people from Nova Corp meet the Vampire Sarai... they will remember her as Verti. This should help keep down confusion between the two Sarais (not thatI try to write them together much... I think this is pretty much the only scene where they are both corellated together... thus far

I want to ask everyone who reads to please review. I want to know what people think of the characters, my writing... ect ect ect. It is helpful for me as a writer to better myself. So if you enjoy my story... think of this as a way to pay me back. ;-) It only takes a few minutes of your time at the most. You didn't like my story? Well then feel free to let it out and let me have it. I take critcism just as valuable as complement. Thank you to all who read.

~Sarai~

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Chapter 1

Our Story:

Sarai...

The name is an enigma born from a plague that has swept across all of Gaia. Since the first sighting on Halloween, people have learned to fear the name and tremble at the sight of this horrifying spectacle. The images of her deeds are burned into the eyes off all who see them... either by their sheer gruesome nature, or the fact that Sarai used a red hot needle to do so. The deaths at her hands cannot be forgotten, especially those from the great battle at Halloween. The legion of her "puppets", once human corpses, marched down upon innocents and combatants alike. The dark visage carried with her a spool of ten gage wire, which she used to turn each new corpse into another of her warped toys. It's hard to believe that something so dark... so horrific could have, at one time, been human; however as many years ago that may have been--at one time... she was.

She was born Verti Carcinos, first and only daughter of the famed Sarai Carcinos leader of Nova Corp. Her mother ruled galaxies with an iron fist and a wit sharper than any blade. Upon her birth it was realized that Verti would be a promising telekinetic and a bright child. As she grew, taught to lead and taught to fight, her mother constantly drilled her in tactics, logistics, economics, and everything else needed to run an empire... it was only a matter of time before she was placed at her mother's right hand. Verti was gifted, talented more so than most children... she could speak by the age of one. By the age of four she was able to calculate advanced equations and run small figures for intermediate companies... simple drills that her mother devised. By her eighteenth birthday Verti was an accomplished, self-made woman in control of vast holdings outside of Nova Corp, which only helped to increase her family's power. However, like most young girls... she fell in love.

Nova Corp, being the vast and every expanding company that it is, employed a variety of persons. The very elite and accomplished of these employees were known as the members of the hierarchies. These were the rulers, the crème de l'crème of all denizens within the Novian empire. The Hierarchy members were the brightest, the smartest, most cunning and most powerful beings in existence. Verti's mother was the first hierarchy, the place where the buck stopped and all orders came from. Those whom Verti's mother trusted most, those people whom were her closest confidants... they were the second hierarchy and they carried out all orders to the infinitesimal degree of accuracy. Verti knew of only two such members... her father: Varc Coren, know as General Nova, and her mother's lawyer/ accountant Karin Sele. These were her mother's right and left hands... father controlled the Novian Mercenaries... and Karin made everything they did legal.

From the second hierarchy came the third through seventh. They took care off everything for designation from the higher-ups... to heading the janitorial commission. When Verti was six, her mother hired a vampire by the name of Corialis Grey... something that was rather unheard of, but Corialis was a special case. He was of a rare vampiric strain whispered to be vampiric angelicas: angels who allowed themselves to be bitten by the lowest spawn of hell, in order to become a being of immense power. By the time Verti was sixteen, Corialis was a member of the fifth hierarchy and in command of one of Nova Corp's largest fleets. She didn't know how old he was... she didn't care. The one thing she knew... was that she was totally and completely in love with him.

But it didn't matter what Verti thought, felt, or did... Corialis was completely engrossed with his work, rapidly becoming her mother's best pet. If someone gave Nova Corp trouble--Corialis made them vanish. If a planet tried to forcibly remove Nova Corp's business holdings, Corialis and his soldiers repelled the closed minded fools. What he didn't do was pay attention to Verti, and that only made her become reckless. She was bound and determined to do anything and everything with her power, which was a rather large scale of options, to ensure that he knew how she felt.

The daughter Carcinos went so far as to have her mother place her in field duty, a deputy commander in the Corialis fleet. There Verti gained some recognition, but it was not the kind she had been hoping for. The soldiers and their leader viewed her as nuisance. They thought she was the brat daughter of the company's esteemed leader. It was rumored Verti had pitched a fit in order to receive some form of excitement in her boring... uneventful life. It irritated the girl to her core, filling her body with a white hot rage of indignation, but she knew they were right. Her life was dull and boring. Verti had pitched a fit and fought with her mother about this, but the reason was because he was here and she wasn't. If Sarai Carcinos knew the real reason her daughter wanted to serve under the esteemed vampire… well Madam Carcinos would not hesitate to fire Corialis, or worse... kill him—with fire. No one touched Verti, but caution was already thrown to the wind. Verti didn't care what her mother thought... only that she had to make this man see her as something other than his employer's "spoiled brat" daughter.

* * * * *

Things came to a head at Balafaris, an arboreal planet in the southern rim galaxy. A planet of ideals and government, of monarchs and politicians... the take was rich and ripe, waiting for someone with vision, someone like Sarai Carcinos. Corialis's fleet had been sent to engage the BDF (the Balafarisian Defense Fleet) and rest control of the planetary Parliament, a task easier said than actually achieved. While Nova Corp had superior technology, Balafaris had friends… and lots of them. The Fifth fleet entered combat extremely out numbered and they where hard pressed to find a vantage point. Immediately people began to push Verti further and further from "harm" trying to save the precious and helpless child of the leader. Finally things came to a boil and Verti snapped. Anger and rage fueled her telepath abilities and she single handedly stormed the enemy flagship--killing crew, officers, and the Balafaris monarch as well. With one extreme "tantrum" the battle was over and the daughter Carcinos was no longer viewed as a helpless child, especially not in the eyes of Corialis Grey. The Vampire had already entertained ideas of what would happened if he turned the girl... if she had half the power of her mother then she would be an extraordinary vampire. Now, with this display... she could be invincible to his cause. The cunning general became infatuated with the idea of making this girl his own, his private little warrior. He just wouldn't have dreamed it could have been so easy.

Upon their return to Cantado, the current base of operation and the Novian headquarters for the Southern Rim galaxy, Sarai Carcinos hosted a vast party. The guest list was exclusive, the setting extravagant, and the stage set for honoring the true victor of the Balafaris campaign. With all manners of people watching from the wealthy and powerful to the waiters and caterers, Verti Carcinos was hailed as her mother's daughter. Power, vision, inheritance... it was all humdrum and boring to the girl who kept sneaking glances towards a certain vampire. Still nothing seemed to have changed. She never gleaned a thought from him, never caught him even taking notice of her, and when the time came for toasts, nothing shocked her more than to see Corialis stand to give the first.

"To Verti Carcinos," He had said, "A woman with a bright and dazzling future. May her talents and gifts be put to as great or grander use than those of her mother and may she be remembered throughout history as exquisite. I owe you my life... as do each and every one of my men. Thank you..."

The wry smile, the curl of his lips, the sparkle in his eyes as they finally looked at her... Verti knew that he had noticed before and a fresh wave of confidence arose in her. She felt, at this point in time, very much like her mother. Tonight would be about taking what she wanted. She danced, she conversed... it was pure and utter ecstasy, and when she and Corialis snuck away from the party... they believed it to be without anyone's notice. However, the sharp and all encompassing gaze of Sarai Carcinos was a hard thing to escape--especially for one who is her daughter.

* * * * *

The bite had been the easy part... the act leading up to it? That was pure bliss. The rush of warmth, the feather touches, the brilliant displays of light that soared through her mind and into her very being, that slight pick of pain and then the feeling of rapture as she felt the life being drawn from her body... the taste of blood and a sudden feeling of change in her soul; those were a few moments in heaven before she was cast like a fallen angel into hell. Those few blissful moments were the calm before the storm... before the door opened to reveal the dark visage of her mother.

There had been rumors, stories, countless whispers about the power and might of the one known as Sarai Carcinos... Verti had always assumed they were hyped up, made out to be grander than life itself. But when she gazed into the fiery abyss that lay behind her mother's eyes, she knew all to well that the stories didn't do any justice to the fear she felt right then and there. She doubted that Corialis even had a chance to react; Verti hadn't even gotten a chance to scream. The vampire was dead in seconds. Sarai was across the room and her fist through his heart in less time than it would take for a hummingbird's wings to beat a single time. Before Verti could even blink... she was covered in dust. The horror hadn't even had time to register, before her eyes were locked in the furious gaze that was her mother eyes. Fear and death should have encompassed her, there were never any stories of mercy, no one had ever been considered for it. Corialis had been killed without a chance for explanation and here she was... daughter to Sarai Carcinos and she had done something awful in her mother's eyes... betrayal. Death should have come before this... why hadn't it? It was then that Verti realized she had her eyes shut and she was trembling there on the floor. She opened them and tentatively looked up at her mother... only to see tears streaming down her face.

Sarai Carcinos swooped down on her daughter and hugged her, whispering in Verti's ear, "I don't hate you for this... while there is still a small bit of humanity left... I want you to know that I love you Verti. I will always love you. You will always be my daughter and the one bright mark in my long line of marred deeds.... but," she stood up, grabbed Verti by the arm and drug her from the room. With a cold and callous toss Verti was thrown at the feet of two Black Guards, her mother's personal henchmen. "... what you will become is not my daughter. She's dead as you now are to me. Get this filth out of my sight."

As her mother turned her back on her, something in Verti's mind broke.... something that was important and when it broke the rest of her mind shattered. She broke into a peal of hysterical screams and sobs, "NO!! Mother please!! Don't leave! Don't leave me, please!!! Do something!! I'm sorry! I'M SORRY!! PLEASE!!"

But Sarai Carcinos never turned back, never paused... not a hitch in her stride as she regally headed back to the party. Verti Carcinos was drug down the hall way and out a door at the back of the Nova Corp complex. She was pulled kicking, screaming and wailing to the forest at the edge of Calais, the capitol... and she was then thrown face first to the ground and left for dead. The snow began to fall, sheer winds blew, and even the moon hid its face from her presence. Verti Carcinos was alone... completely broken... and it was there that she died.

* * * * *

She moved into the forest around Calais and made it her home… changed her name. Verti Carcinos was dead and with her went all the insecurities that her prior life had contained. Something inside her head had snapped and she received what could no doubt be called an epiphany: she had no boundaries. Soon people began disappearing. Hikers, picnickers, travelers leaving to cities beyond… roads and activities that were normally safe became overshadowed with rumors and fear. With Verti dead and this new monster born… a new name was needed, a name to inscribe fear to the hearts of those who discovered it. And what name was better than that of her mother? The woman was more of a monster than Verti could ever become… more feared than any creature of the night. Thus Sarai was born out of the ashes of another life and she became cursed.

It became all too apparent that the bite from an angelic vampire was more of a curse than that the bite of ordinary vampires. She never slept because she had no need for sleep, and daylight held no power over her flesh. She became what hunters would classify as a daylight walker, but her already abnormal human abilities were expounded--made greater. Her mind sharpened and her telekinetic abilities advanced far beyond what she even thought they could get to… high daylight walker it was whispered. Peopled dared not venture into her section of the forest. Tales of grim visages… mutilated corpses and dread visions awaited those that dare come across the high daylight walker's path. She was approached one day by the leader of some vampire coven in the area… the VonCaroms they were called. Pathetic blights who envisioned themselves greater than what they really were. A rag-tag group of vampires who thought themselves rivals of Nova Corp. They had paltry sums of money compared to her past… but the meeting was memorable nonetheless. She remembered it like… it was yesterday…

* * * * *

Five well dressed individuals tentatively walked out of the tree line into an open glade. In the moon light it should have been serene, peaceful even. The moon hung high in the dark blue midnight, casting her shimmering gaze upon the freshly forming dew… and the ruby drops of freshly spilt blood. A tall man stood in the center flanked by two men on each his left and right. The man in the middle had on an elegant vest of black silk over a white pressed shirt. His floor length black and red interior cape hung down to his black leather Armani shoes which were partially hidden by the black Armani pants he wore. It was as if he wanted people to know he had money. Sarai could see him from her vantage point… he smelt of French cologne and arrogance.

Suddenly a figure jump from the outer lying brush, a simple man in peasant's garb whom was soon followed by three other figures, men and women alike. The tall man with well too kept, white hair to the right hand of the man in the center made to draw his sword… but he was stopped. "Zhivago, don't," the leader said quietly, "These individuals are already dead."

"Zombies?" the man asked, stepping in a defensive stance at the head of the group. The others shuddered and took a step backwards.

"No… something other…"

Sarai's nostrils flared as she noticed that while they were unsettled… they weren't leaving. These weren't any good for eating and she didn't feel like killing tonight. There were too many thoughts running about her head, too many voices.

Then the man spoke, "Vampire… come out and greet your brethren."

"My brethren?" Sarai's voice echoed through the glade. "Little bitty spawn running around from dusk to dawn… poor things. Sleep finds though, dark binds no?"

"Master… what is going on?" Zhivago asked the leader.

"Shh!" he ordered, "Vampire… I am Vladimir VonCarom, master of the vampire coven in this region. You may have been turned without the knowing of my kin. I've come to offer you a place to stay other than this forest. A home, a goal, something to live for…"

Sarai's chattering laughter split the glade, "Had a home, had a life… nothing now but death, strife! No good! No goal! Not new! Been here! BEEN HERE!!" The animated corpses of a peasant suddenly attacked the small group. She'd have to get rid of them if she was going to have any chance of fighting the voices tonight. She had to get some semblance of normality about herself if she was going to do anything but hunt. One of the party vampires was attacked, ripped apart to be more precise but then the big one, Zhivago he was called, destroyed her precious toys.

"Puppetry, Master."

"Thank you, Zhivago, keep your eyes out for others… " Vladimir said quietly, refocusing his attention once more, "Vampire what is your name?"

Sarai slowly stepped out of the tree line, at the far edge of the clearing, across from the VonCarom group. Upon Vladimir's first look she was… beautiful. She wore a tattered, red evening gown that must be several years old. It hung to her delicate frame like a red paint on a pristine canvas, a master painter having used some simplistic technique for creating an extravagant piece of splendor. Zhivago thought that if this beauty were to return to the Manor… he wouldn't have much of an interest in Vladimir's daughters any longer. But for all her beauty and mystique, there was something in her eyes that was different from other vampires and it caught Vladimir's attention and caused him to hold up a hand to keep Zhivago in his place. Her eyes were not like that of others in their kind… not the brilliant blue of icy wisdom or the dull grey of a fledgling, her eyes were green, a fantastic emerald green that shown with flecks of violet when struck by the moonlight. This one was different indeed.

"I have had… many names," Sarai said softly. Her head twitched slightly as she fought the voices, "Death! Chaos and ruins! I hear the whispers of the forest and they call me by different names… mother called me something long ago. I've been lover and loser… SCUM!! All of you are scum!! OUT OUT OUT!!!"

Her harsh scream caused the ground to shake as telekinetic tremors exploded from around her. Vladimir's lower underlings hadn't seen a vampire like this before and in all honest even Vladamir himself hadn't encountered one of such abilities. Most of the higher vampire elders chose to live elsewhere than Calais or they were on other planets, staying far from Nova Corp's notice. There were stories and legends of Vampires with great abilities, and each human that became a vampire had their innate characteristics enhanced… what a human she must have been to become something such as she is now. The VonCarom Patriarch turned to his companions and ordered them back to the Manor, "Zhivago, you stay with me here. Perhaps with fewer of us she will be disposed to calm down."

"Maggots! You siphon power from others like parasites… cursed! CURSED!" Sarai yelled, "But still better off than I."

Zhivago raised an eyebrow, "I don't see how that's possible. You and I are the same."

"No… no my dear," Sarai said with crystal clarity, "Sleep finds you each and every morning. But I never sleep; I never dream… dreams are gone. One by one they fall away, off to another mind to play…" she softly began to sing under her voice.

"Master, this one's messed up in the head and she's obviously not going to help us so we might as well leave."

"No!" Vladimir hissed, "She's not insane… she's been here for a very long time. There's no telling what she knows or what she's seen. She could have been the cause of those unexplained corpses in the zombie epidemic. She'd be an invaluable asset to us and our plans… and I'm not about to become impatient, or allow your impatience to cost us, Zhivago." The white haired vampire nodded and took a step away from Sarai.

* * * * *

Vlad however took a step closer to Sarai, entranced by the feral beauty that stood before him, swaying slightly in the dew heavy breeze. Her pale skin seemed to glow luminescent as her eyes stared into his soulless heart. "Why is it that you do not sleep my child?" he asked, bringing a hand up to brush against her cheek.

Sarai's hand suddenly lashed out, cracking like thunder against Vladimir VonCarom's face, knocking him backwards into the arms of his lack Zhivago. She stood there imperialistic and regal, her capacities returned for the moment, "I am of an order and breed far above you, Vladimir of the pathetic VonCarom name. You and yours… you sneak around in the dark and hide yourselves by day. You play games and plot plans for your dominion when you have nothing!" She spat viciously at his feet, baring her moon white fangs, "I was created by a Vampire with more nobility and honor than you shall ever possess… and you will never have my allegiance."

"You dare to speak to him in such a manner," Zhivago snarled, stepping in front of his lord and baring his fangs as well. "You are a pathetic animal hiding in the woods! Killing from day to day with naught but a cave to call your home and a tattered rag for a garment!"

"Fool!" Sarai said with icy loathing, "I am a high daylight walker… a vampire with more power in her finger than you have in your entire body!" With a dismissive wave, an invisible blast knocked Zhivago backwards into a tree, "Now… leave this place before I destroy you, giving you the final death before you ever have a chance to realize you had… ambitions." Vladimir nodded and turned to leave, much to Zhivago's protest… whom had to be drug along by his ear.

Sarai turned with a sigh, "Two dancing fools in a palace for a king… jest and joke and folly they bring. Insult and riot they did 'tempt to insight, but gone was the king… away for the night." She shook her head, trying to clear it again, to obtain that moment of clarity once more.

"Little butterflies flitting through my brain," she muttered.

"No… Scum! Vermin! All should die! All should die!" She clutched her head, not a good night to have dealt with this. "Touch here he did," she muttered, clawing at her cheek where the VonCarom patriarch had touched her, peeling away flesh and flinging it to the ground. Blood barely had a chance to well up before her regenerative abilities healed each new laceration. "Filth! Cretin! Dared to touch me, he did! Dared to touch me!!"

Her head snapped to the side in a jerky spasm, and she straightened her posture… smoothing what was left of her gown's front, "He's a fool… he'll meet a tragic end soon enough, I'll just wait. Someone, or one's to be more precise, will arise… soon I think." "Mischief! Trouble!" She said, slashing with claw-like fingers at nothing but air, "Devil's playground this place is---- AHHHH!!!" Sarai fell to the ground clutching her head between her hands, "SHUT UP!! All of you!! SHUT UP!!!" The ear splitting screech broke down into sobs as she hobbled there back and forth on the dew wetted grass.

She did not notice or even register the appearance of a man behind her, a man with short, wavy black hair. He stood about six foot three, with a long and crisp, black leather, trench coat. His white shirt was partially unbuttoned, halfway down and it hung loosely over his black slacks. The stranger walked over to the cowered Sarai… his black military boots making an odd sound with every step on the grass. His skin, already tan for a normal human, was a vast kind of dark compared to the luminescence of Sarai's fine body. He crouched beside her, a hand hovering over her shoulder as if he longed to comfort her, but he hesitated… and with the hesitation came withdrawal as he decided against it.

"Can't make sense… can't make sense… fog too thick," Sarai murmured, "Soup too cold…"

The man shook his head and a deep sorrow came over his face, as if a weariness he couldn't shake had assailed him. A single tear welled up in the corner of his emerald eyes and he wiped it away with back of his hand, "I am so sorry… so, so terribly sorry." Sarai stopped moving and her head turned, ever so slowly that it seemed ages for her eyes to lock upon the man's face. Illumination and realization sparked behind her own green eyes… then a look of terror, mingled with sorrow over came her as she broke into hysterical sobs and she broke down into the mans arms. He looked completely taken aback… the only word that could be made out from her was, "Father?"

* * * * *

Varc Coren looked down at the creature that used to be his daughter and he was half tempted for a second to think that she was perfectly fine… but it was only wishful thinking. The erratic nature of her thoughts, the state in which she kept herself, and the corpses decaying around the glade lent evidence to an opposing case. It broke his heart to see her like this. He'd been away all this time; on mission for the Empire… he hadn't learned of his daughter's fate until three years after it had happened. Of course he understood why Sarai wouldn't have told him; the Novian leader couldn't stand to live with the memory. Sarai was… a strong willed person with ideals, and she held very tightly to those ideals. Logic and emotion were separate with her, and her mind told her that she couldn't allow her heart to tear at her soul… so to her--Verti was dead. In away it was easier than seeing their daughter this way.

It was that same ideology that kept Sarai from marrying Varc as well… thousands of years they'd spent together, argued with one another… moved Nova Corp over vast areas of space… they might as well be married, but it was just another emotional attachment that made no logical sense to Sarai, and thus it would never happen. Who was he to argue with the person in charge? They shared secrets that no one else knew about one another… and they shared a daughter who had died tragically, but Varc, unlike Sarai, was not willing to let his daughter -- or what was left of her, be an insane monster. If there was one thing he could do for her, anything that could somehow help her, it was to set her mind in its proper place.

Verti was born to not one, but two powerful telekinetic masters… both with abilities to manipulate the mind as well as the world around them, Varc was not as accomplished as his mate, but he was still in a league all his own. Verti's innate abilities were already enhanced by the vampirism… possibly even more so since Corialis was a Vampiric Angelicas, and that he had bit Verti not to make her a slave… but his equal. Varc figured that somewhere in the creature's warped mind that Corialis did care for Verti somewhat, but if it was Varc's job to do over again… he would have caused the vampire scum so much more pain, much more than he received, but the past was passed, nothing more to be done… Varc had to focus on the present, help his daughter and see what happened after that.

"Shh…" Varc soothed, laying Verti's head against his chest, holding her like he had when she was a child… and with the gentlest touch he could, he melded his mind into hers. The key to mending a broken mind was finding the person's true voice amongst the wreckage of their thoughts… and Verti's mind was more violent than a typhoon. Thousands upon thousands of voices screamed thousands of different thoughts and as he sifted through them, they became melded into a single tumultuous choir, yelling their cacophonic overture until it seemed as if the world itself might fall away… slipping slowly into madness!! Then he found her, Verti was tucked away in the back and farthest reaches of her subconscious… frightened and subdued. "Verti…" he thought, calling out to her.

The response was timid and quiet, but he heard it none the less, "She hates me…"

"Who hates you?" Varc asked softly.

"Mother…" Verti whispered softly, "Do you hate me?"

"No… no your mother doesn't hate you… nor do I! She just… has very strong ideals and it is difficult for her to accept things…"

"You didn't see her eyes," Verti wailed, however as she d id, the rest of the voices seemed to become quiet, "You didn't betray her… you didn't hurt her like I did… her heart was broken, and I was the thing she most protected!!"

Varc frowned, "That is true… but your mother will always love you."

"Yes… but I'm not me anymore, am I?"

He didn't know how to answer her… it was true, she wasn't the Verti he knew any longer, but that doesn't mean that she wasn't still Verti, "People change throughout the course of their lives… they become stronger for the change. You are still you, even with this change."

"You're wrong," it was Verti's voice but different all the same. This voice was harsh, cold… calloused, as if years of being in the darkness and cruelty of the world had offered some revelation. "The person of the past is no more. She has been replaced by something dark… something different. That's the nature of the vampire bite… one who is adept can take away the soul of the person and create a vampire in their stead. You for all your talent do not posses the magic nor the ability required to change this."

"There is no magic needed to bring back the mind," Varc replied, he was not unaware of the fact that only three voices remained… his and the two Vertis, the two possible outcomes. One could bring his daughter back, changed but still his child… the other was some dark monstrosity that deserved to be locked away into turmoil and seclusion. Lending clarity to such a creature would be a sin. It would be like releasing a horrible blight upon the world, and such a possibility couldn't be allowed.

"Father!! Help me please!" Verti cried out.

"Be gone with you!" the dark voice shouted.

"Verti!! Listen to my voice! You're stronger than this! You are your mother's daughter! You can do this!!" The laughter that came from this response was cruel, vicious to the point that it cut like sharpened blades,

"Your mother's daughter! The same mother that had you thrown out here to die! She forgot all about you long ago. She hasn't even come to find you! Your dead to her so why not just make it a reality?"

"Verti, don't listen to her!" Varc shouted. Suddenly he was blasted backwards, his back hit a tree with an impact so hard… it caused the trunk to splinter and crack as his body crushed into it. The force of the hit winded him, and he landed in the moist grass, struggling to stay on his feet.

"Oh she listened all to well…" a voice like venom said through his blurred vision. He couldn't quite make the form out, but the blurred shadow was walking closer towards him.

"Verti…" his voice croaked, coughing as he rushed air back into his lungs.

The cold laughter again, "No… she's dead. I do have to thank you for clearing the voices out though… you're quite talented. I tend to make full use of that talent."

A cold hand wrapped itself around Varc's throat and pulled his head back to an uncomfortable angle, frigid breath… no not breath, just air… the cold night air chilled the sweat upon his neck, and he felt a sharp pain, a puncture in his neck. He felt blood rushing to the wound, and terror sparked all his senses back to alertness. A strong firm hand snapped up, grasping a hand full of auburn hair, ripping it backwards. This action ripped the vampire from his neck, but also caused the small puncture wounds from her fangs to become a ragged gash. The wound would have to be dealt with later… right now this problem was more pressing, "Very well… if my daughter is truly dead then I have no problem with killing you."

"Is that so?" the creature before him snarled. She was evil… vile, but still just as beautiful, the very elegance of his daughter. Varc couldn't stand to see her so corrupted and defiled.

"Yes," Varc said with cold determination. A deft motion of his hand to the trees behind him broke off several branches, and their sharp jagged ends went sent sailing towards the vampire before him.

Verti didn't even move, the shafts of wood just impaling themselves into her flesh. She didn't turn to dust either… she just stood there smiling that demented smile at him, a smile which said she had seen the darkest depths of hell itself, and she knew how to conjure up something far more horrific and gruesome. Then with a crisp snap of her fingers, the crude stakes were jerked out of her, exploding into a hailstorm of splinters between the two combatants. As Varc stood there, the wounds from his attack slowly began to heal… even the ones that had gone through her heart and her throat. They regenerated at such a rapid rate that it was astonishing to even him, "What… how?"

"Sorry, I don't have a heart," she laughed.

"Corialis was a god among vampires, his kind were god-like as it were, but he was something of legend you could say," Verti… no, not Verti… this was a monster, the monster was speaking as if it were a history lecture. "The fact that Sarai Carcinos killed him in seconds is a testament to her power… but his bite was something not normally done in a conversion. The bite he conferred to me was meant to create an equal, a queen to his king, but he didn't count on… just what he was creating. He hoped for a monster… he created a divine being! Verti, the daughter of the two most powerful people in Nova Corp, her abilities were already substantial… possibly unlimited. The bite from a Vampire, even a normal one… would enhance the abilities, of a human such as her, to incredible degrees. A bite from a vampire such as Corialis…you see exponential enhancements, but he also shared his own blood… making this body, this creation… like him."

"But… he died," Varc said simplistically. "In all respects I could have defeated Corialis with as much ease as I just used upon you."

"There is truth in your words," the monster agreed, "But Corialis failed in his little plan… he did not make his creation like him… he made it better. He was greedy…"

"So all of Verti's telekinetic abilities--"

"Much greater," the vampire confirmed, "They can naturally help me regenerate, using them to work on a molecular level. All of her scientific knowledge, all of her lessons, I have it all, and I can put it to my own uses. I also have access to the inherent abilities that Corialis himself possessed… and your blood, what little I tasted, gave me even more power."

"That's fine and good," Varc growled, "Just gives me even more reason to kill you."

"Please!" the vampire snarled in response, "It would be a waste of both your time and mine. Leave this place and do what her mother did. Accept the child as dead. I have no interest in Nova Corp… I have other plans for my talents."

Varc frowned, realizing that it wouldn't do to waste effort and energy on a fight such as this. There was always a chance that he could lose, against an unknown opponent that was entirely possible… there were too many variables, most of them unknown, that he couldn't risk a potential failure--not when his loyalty was to the company above all other things. Besides… his daughter was dead, and nothing could bring her back. Varc could not let his vanity blind him to that fact any longer. Sarai was right in the beginning, and now it had taken a very harsh lesson for him to learn it as well. "Fine," the man agreed with a nod, "We will part ways here…"

"Wisest choice," the vampire smiled and all the dark intent behind those eyes came out once more, "and tell my mother that I said.. hi."

"Who do I tell her it's from?"

"You can call me… Sarai."

Varc blinked once, wondering why in the world the demon would choose that name of all things, but he no longer wished to speak with the abomination. There was a flash of blue, and he vanished. Sarai was left alone in the clearing with her thoughts… which were now crystalline clear. Taking one final look around the forest, now shaded in soft hues of red as the sun began to rise, she decided it was high time she visited the town and got some proper attire.

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