AN: So, I originally wrote this for the Carmilla Big Bang, but never posted it, since I never really got a date to do so. :/ Oh well. You guys just get it now, as a celebration for Season 3 being released! :D I would like to thank natblida and Danielle for betaing! I hope you all enjoy it! :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Carmilla. U by Kotex does.
For a Hunter, she really is oblivious. Carmilla mused as she stalked the girl along the trail, neither she nor her companion aware of her presence. Cute, but an idiot. And she's going to get herself killed.
But that was the plan, wasn't it? Draw out this child she had been stalking for the last few months, set up one last test, see whether or not she would survive? If she died, oh well. At least she would be safe from what Mother had planned for her, had planned for all of the youths she had sent them out to find. But if she lived… Well, Carmilla was just following orders. It wasn't her fault that the young woman was a target, a perfect match for the criteria Mother had given them. It wasn't on her that she would meet an unkind fate, one someone else would have met in her stead if it wasn't her.
And it wasn't Carmilla's fault that she was perfect for everything, for both Mother's plan and her own, and it wasn't Carmilla's fault that, unless she died in this fight, she was going to be dragged in.
It wasn't her fault. But as Carmilla stalked her down the road, keeping herself hidden in the bushes as she followed the girl and the man she was traveling with, she couldn't help but hope that she would die.
It wasn't her fault, had and never would be, but she still couldn't help the guilt that twisted her gut, even as she laid out her pawns to help her reach the end.
"Step carefully, child," the voice whispered into Laura's ear, the breath disappearing from her skin as she swung her sword, "or you might find yourself falling."
"Stop saying that," Laura growled, her eyes narrowed as she tried to see by the faint light coming in through the cracks in the wall. It had been the third time that the creature had uttered those words since she had hunted it down to the ruins, the falling apart castle it had been haunting unstable and crumbling. But their fight had begun on the first floor, far from any holes that might have threaten her being, making the ghost's whispers only a warning ramble.
The ramble that was beginning to annoy her.
Swiping her sword at the faint rusting, Laura jumped back and reached into her pouch, fingers fumbling through the supplies she had brought with her; bread, hard cheese, a packet of cookies Perry had sneaked in, for the cold metal she sought. Biting her tongue as the thing brushed past her and wincing at the taste of copper that filled her mouth, Laura smiled triumphantly as her hand closed around the flask, the top slipping off and the water-grass mixture dancing around her fingers as she pulled it free from the cloth.
"Step carefully, child," the ghost's voice said once again, this time a warning growl clear within its voice. Forcing herself still, Laura allowed her eyes to close, focusing on the words she knew were coming, fighting back a flinch as nails scraped the skin of her cheek. "Or you might fi-"
"Got yah," Laura laughed as she splashed water over her shoulder, catching the creature off guard, its words twisting into a shriek as it began to steam. Swinging her sword, she caught the ghost by its tip, drawing another wail as the blessed steel hit home. Faintly, she could begin to see the form, the purified water, grass of the winds, and steel forcing it to take a single shape; a young woman, twisted by the thousands of years she had been forced to walk this world after her time, but still beautiful nonetheless, despite everything.
Stepping forward, she pressed the tip of her sword to the creature's neck, ignoring the bared teeth and the silent hiss in favor of the features she had been told to look for as the form solidified, semi-transparent and mostly solid instead of the almost wind she had been fighting the moment before.
A vantoase, just like she had thought. Where the grass had stuck to it, its skin was burning, weakening it more and more by the moment. It would fall soon enough, the water running in streams from its form, but soon enough wouldn't come.
"You'll fall, child," the creature said softly, its voice conflicting with the scalding glare it kept leveled on her, refusing to keep quiet even as Laura pressed the sword closer to its skin, piercing a small cut that refused to bleed. "Step carefully, or you'll fall."
"That I doubt," Laura said a moment later with a sigh, jerking her weapon to the side, opening the creature's throat as she did so. She watched with a grim satisfaction as it crumpled. "Unlike you," she continued, knowing full well that the creature couldn't hear her, that whatever force had kept it alive had fled at the imitation of death she had bestowed upon it, "I actually know where I'm going."
She didn't know what awaited the creature now that it was banished, but she knew what awaited for her, a clean up to make sure the curse didn't linger and home.
It didn't take long for her cleanup to commence, a well done job even her Father would have struggled to find fault with. She cleaned her sword with what had remained of the purified water and the blessed cloth Perry had packed, lest any speck of the creature she had killed follow her from this place with her unaware. Even a single drop of uncontained essence was enough to bring back the creature to life in her sleep, enough to do the harm she had been trying to avoid. What she did remove from her sword was packed away, into the clear, locked glass container for further study. The form, growing less and less there as each moment passed, was doused with the oil LaFontaine had created, perfect for burning what wasn't there and leaving the living alive, set aflame by the incense sticks Danny had brought back from her last mission, and left within the ruins to smolder, the failing stone of the castle that had been the creature's home becoming its grave.
She barely even smelled like smoke by the time she left the grounds, greeting the man who had lead her there with a smile as he watched the ruins burn.
"You survived," the man said slowly, holding out the reigns for the horse he had been holding for her; a sweet mare, nameless like all the other horses their guild used, who nickered softly and nuzzled her when she was close enough. Father had made it clear that these creatures were for work, not for play, and more often died during a hunt than not. It made no sense to name them, to get attached, when that attachment could cloud the mind when faced with the creature that was their target.
"Were you expecting something else," Laura asked as she took the reigns, placing a quick kiss onto the horse's muzzle before climbing into the saddle, wincing as her muscles pulled, sore from the quick twists the fight had forced her to take. "This isn't my first rodeo, nor will it be my last."
"You're small, is all," he said with a shrug, turning his own steed back towards the path that would take them back to the town, glancing over his shoulder to watch the smoke slowly leak out from the ruins. "The last Hunter we hired to kill the beast was much larger than you, and he never returned."
"He didn't? But you said…" Pulling her horse up short, Laura looked over her shoulder at the castle, biting her lips as she stared at the ruins. This Hunter had been from a different guild, she knew that. None of her friends had been lost in a very long time, not since the Goblin Raid seven years ago, long before she herself was of age to join. But to leave another Hunter in such a place, without the proper rituals, was almost a crime in and of itself.
The seals placed upon them, that allowed them the ability to hold their own against the creatures they stalked, were of great use no matter the condition of their wearer, and if one of them were to be somehow turned?
A chill ran down her spine at the thought of the monstrosity such a creature would be.
"You said he'd been taken care of."
"By the creature," the man clarified. "But not by us."
"I didn't see a body," Laura said as she turned her horse around, "but it was dark, and the thing attacked quickly. I need to go look for him. If he's still in there, he could have been turned into a ghost like the one that killed him, or-"
She stopped when the man's hand fell on her shoulder.
"He didn't challenge it in the castle," the man hurriedly explained, pulling his hand away when Laura turned to glare at him. "He baited it into the woods, thinking that having it out on neutral territory would help him win."
"Idiot," Laura swore, shaking her head. "Any Hunter worth his gold knows that a creature is the weakest in its home, when it lets down its guard. What guild was he from?"
"A Zeta, Ma'am."
"Figures," Laura snorted, shaking her head. She knew a few Zetas, had even fought side by side with them on more than one occasion, and while some were good, most didn't know the proper way to hold a sword, much less how to actually kill the creatures they were called upon to destroy. "And you never retrieved his body?"
"No," the man confirmed with a shrug as he finally turned to continue back towards what he considered home, Laura reluctantly following a moment later. "We sent out men to find him, but they never did."
"And you told the Zetas…"
"The same thing we told you. That their man had been destroyed."
"Destroyed is very different from gone."
The beginnings of a headache were starting to appear the more the man talked, the exhaustion from the battle finally sneaking up on her now that she was safe in the saddle. A missing body didn't mean death, no more than the destruction of someone's mortal form did, not when a creature such as the one she had killed was involved. She had to get home, had to drop off her sample to LaFontaine, report to her Father, send a letter to the leader of the Zeta's, Kirsch, and tell him that their man wasn't dead and burned, like they probably thought, but actually gone. And probably a letter to the Summer Sisters as well. When one of them went missing, it was cause for alarm for all the guilds, not just the one mourning the loss.
These creatures had a knack of twisting those they stole, turning them against those they had once loved, until nothing remained. Until they would snap the neck of their partner before even giving them a second glance.
She had to bite her tongue to keep the swears in. Had she known, she could have started all of this days ago, when she had first arrived at the sleepy little town that had hired her services. She could have raised the alert the moment she heard the first Hunter had perished, instead of believing the villagers had actually followed their instructions for the dead.
She was a fool, thinking otherwise, but how could she have known?
The rest of their walk back to the town was completed in silence, the list of things Laura would have to do slowly growing longer the more she thought about the predicament she had found herself in. The forest would have to be researched, in case the body was still there, rotting in the sun and heat into an unintelligible mush, useless to them all. The best case scenario, by far. If it couldn't be found, the entire area would have to be burned. Better to destroy thousands of years of growth than to allow his body to fall into the wrong hands. Not something she would have to do herself, thankfully, for that job fell to the guild he had been part of, but if the Zetas were smart then they would get the villagers on their side first, tell them they could turn the ash into farming lands to feed themselves with the woods gone.
A hundred mile examination of every rock and tree would have to be completed. No ghost had ever been found that far away from their death spot, but better to be safe and release his spirit than sorry later, when his inability to move on had twisted him.
They didn't need anymore children slaughtered to sate the spectral hunger that the town which had hired them had been forced to experience, didn't need another creature a future Hunter would have to take care of.
By the time they finally reached the town a few hours later, Laura was desperate to get back home. She was barely even able to stand there and smile politely as the leader of the town- whether he was a mayor or lord, she didn't know and she didn't care, thanked her and counted out the price she was due. The gold and silver that made up the guild price easily fit into her side pouch, a weight she wanted to be gone with. It was a chore to stay as the townspeople thanked her, trying to ply her with gifts of foods and wines and weapons she could barely look at without wincing, each of their flaws and how easily breakable they would be in a real fight quite obvious to her.
And the whole time she had to smile, while she was trying to force her horse through the crowd without hurting one of the small children dancing around their feet, keeping that heroic grin until she could finally break free.
Without being asked her horse took off the moment they were outside the town, barely needing her to hold the reigns as it ran towards home.
"You're home early."
"It was a simple kill," Laura said with a shrug as she closed the door to her father's office behind her, sliding shut the lock so they wouldn't be disturbed. She had only just returned, had handed off her poor horse to one of the stable children and come straight here. She knew for a fact once the word of her return had gotten out, others would be looking for her.
The Hunters were always swarmed, not given a moment's peace until after they had told and retold the tale of their latest hunt a hundred times, and that was something she wished to avoid. At least until after she could get the chain started.
"If it was," Sir Hollis said slowly, the amusement within his voice masking the concern and demand for answers. He didn't bother to look up from the papers he was sorting on his desk, one finger tapping the wood as he skimmed through their contents. "Then you would have still been gone for another week, my child. I know you, Laura, and I know your ways. Make a kill, spend a few nights with some young woman who's fallen for you, and then leisurely make your way back to us when you feel like it." Glancing up, he smiled and tapped his nose as she blushed. While her activities were well known amongst her friends, it was strange and more than a little mortifying to have her father make mention of them.
"Maybe there was no one I liked," Laura shot back, crossing her arms and half turning away, a little indignant huff forcing itself out. "Is it a crime to return from a mission early and see my Father?"
"No," Sir Hollis said, dropping the playful tone. "It's a cause for worry. Laura, what's wrong?"
"The kill was easy for me," Laura said, stepping forward so she could slide into the chair in front of her father's desk, running her hand through her hair as she did so. An action she quickly regretted as the oily locks tangled around her fingers. She had ridden her horse hard and herself harder, forgoing the more time consuming necessities, like bathing, to get here quicker. "But not for the Hunter who showed up before me. And who the villagers never found."
"Did you," Sir Hollis asked, fully straightening at his daughter's words, both his voice and face becoming harsh. He was an old man, almost in his fifties, and generally, while he no longer fought, he still carried about him the look of someone who could, someone who could lift a sword against one of the creatures they fought and come away victorious, much like he had all through his youth. But he had gone pale, the scars that littered his face popping out thick and almost terrifying. The scars she had grown up knowing, the ones he had tried to use as a reason for her not to join him within his guide. "When you killed the creature, did you find his body?"
"We fought in different places," Laura said with a shake of her head. "Me in its castle, him in the forest. The villagers searched, but nothing was found. I would have done so myself, but there are too many acres for one person. So I returned."
"Damn it," Sir Hollis swore, pushing himself to his feet and grabbing his cane, using it to steady himself as he walked. "Do you know what seals he had? Which guild he was from? How long ago was he hired? Could he-"
"I've already written out my report," Laura interrupted, reaching out to grab his arm as he tottered by, forcing him to a shaky halt. He was trembling, most likely his leg threatening to give out under him from the sudden movement. Even as he steadied himself his hands still shook, even though they were gripped tightly around his cane. Laura quickly pulled her report from her bag. She had spent the downtime writing it when the horse had been wheezing, demanding food and rest lest it keel over; she had gone over every detail she could remember instead of giving herself the same care, making a list of required actions the guilds would need to do. She had even drafted a rough letter to the Zetas and the Summer Sisters to call them to a meeting to discuss their options.
She had known her father would react like this, that he would panic at her news. Any of the guild leaders would. The idea of a Hunter's body left out there to be corrupted was terrifying. But she had to get him seated, off of his leg that was missing half its calf and back into his chair. He could no longer hunt, despite the urge she knew he felt, and the quicker she could get him back to the papers he was so good at, the better.
"Thank you, Laura," Sir Hollis said a few moments later, a heavy sigh leaving him as he limped back to his seat. Wincing as he lowered himself down, he quickly swept the other papers off to the side, leaving Laura's pile his sole focus. "Go get yourself cleaned up and fed. I believe the kitchens are working on a pie night, so if you're quick, you might just get a slice."
"Thank you, Dad," Laura said as she pushed herself to her feet, leaning over to give her father a kiss on the cheek. Turning away, she had almost made it to the door when he stopped her again, her muscles stiffening as he asked what she had hoped he would forget.
"Laura," he said softly, "I need to check your back. Come back, please, and lift up your shirt."
A part of her was reluctant, whispering that she should just go, go now and avoid the order she knew was going to come when he saw the healing wounds and half faded scars, more of them interrupted by the battle wounds than not. If she left, he wouldn't be able to catch her, they could avoid this conversation all together, and she wouldn't have to go visit Betty.
Another part reminded her that it was the scars keeping her alive, and she would have gone to see Betty anyway, just so she could get back out into the field. Might as well go now, without a fuss, rather than risking her father refusing her a hunt later.
It only took a minute for her to come back to stand before her father, facing away from him as she lifted the back of her shirt to her shoulders. She shivered as the chilled air touched her skin and Sir Hollis' fingers ghosted over the mess that was her back. His tongue clicked as he made his way down the line, half tracing the symbols that had been burned into her flesh; seals for strength, seals for speed, seals for better vision, better hearing, better aim, better everything so they could hunt down the creatures that fed on those who were hunted.
His hand stopped at the seal that sped up her healing, the one that knitted muscle and skin back together in just a few hours, that fought off the infections so often found in the teeth and nails of the creatures they fought. That kept her healthy and alive after receiving wounds that would have killed any other man. The one seal that hadn't been broken so far, that was actively working to destroy all the others and return her back to the smooth expanse it had been before she had joined the Silas Guild of Hunters.
"Wait until after pie night," Sir Hollis finally said, "and then go see Betty. For more than a conversation. Understand?"
"Yes, sir," Laura groaned, letting her shirt fall, the phantom sting from the last time she had had to get her seals recreated making her flinch. When she heard Sir Hollis open his mouth, she quickly shook off the remembered pain and darted for the door, waving over her shoulder as she spoke. "Gotta go, I love you, Dad, good luck with the paperwork!"
Leaving Sir Hollis in his office, chuckling as his daughter fumbled with the lock and let the door slam behind her in her haste to leave.
The lab, for once, was empty when she pulled open the door, the normally whirling machines and blazing fires that LaFontaine and J.P always kept going were for once turned off and cold, giving the room an almost sticky feeling that she couldn't quite shake off. With the locked box containing the remains of the vantoase in hand, Laura forced away the uneasy chills and stepped into the room, calling out their names as she moved.
"LaF? Jeep? I have som-"
"Shhhh," two voices hushed her as hands grabbed her legs, pulling them out from under her and forcing her under the table, a hand slapping itself over her mouth to cut off her surprised cry. Shifting so their face was right in front of her own, LaFontaine quickly shook their head and raised their own hand to their lips, signaling for silence.
"She's coming for us, Miss Laura," J.P. replied for them, the panic clear within his whispered voice. He was almost shaking, his eyes wide and terrified, hands clenched as he tried to keep them from trembling. "Dr. LaFontaine and I were just trying to help, with one of our newest inventions, and she's coming for us." His voice shaking, almost as if he was about to cry, J.P. shifted so he was curled into a ball, his hands behind his head as he muttered a prayer for the end.
"Wha-"
"I know you're in here," Perry's shrill screech cut Laura off as the door flung open, her fury almost physical as she stamped into the room. "I know the two of you are in here, and when I get my hands on you, I'm going to…" Her threats trailed off into general mumbling, almost worse for the fact they couldn't hear what she was saying as she stalked across the floor, passing their table without a second glance.
"What the hell did you two do," Laura asked, stunned, when she was sure Perry was far enough away to not overhear, her own stomach twisting at the wrath that wasn't even directed at her. It was rare for Lola Perry to be angry, just because she didn't have the time. Head cook, maid, financial advisor, medic, and basically everything else the guild needed to run- Perry just had no energy left for anger. Between the dozens of Hunters she had to keep fed, the dozens of rooms that needed weekly, if not daily, cleaning, and the thousands of wounds that needed to be sanitized, sewn up, and bandaged, it was rare for her to even have extra time to think about the weird little family she had become the den mother for. And she liked it that way. If you wanted to talk, more often than not, the said conversation took place over an oven or with a duster in your hands so you could be useful.
Perry wasn't cooking. Perry wasn't cleaning, or fixing someone, or doing any of the thing she normally did. Instead, she was hunting down LaFontaine and J.P., and if she was looking for them? Their lives were forfeit.
"Sorry, Miss Laura."
"Hey!" Was all she was able to get out as LaFontaine pushed her out and up, knocking her into Perry as the other woman passed by. Forcing them both to stumble back as LaF and Jeep slid out from under the table, racing towards the door and going opposite ways, gone before the others could separate themselves from each other.
"Laura," Perry said happily as she pulled herself to her feet, holding out a hand to help her up to her own and into a hug. "We weren't expecting you for another week! How was the hunt? You look thin. Did you run out of rations?" With her motherly worry temporarily overcoming her anger, Perry brushed some dirt from Laura's clothes and frowned, her brow furrowing as she gave the other woman a good look over. Without giving her time to answer her list of questions, Perry made the decision herself and took Laura by the hand, tugging on her to follow. "You're coming with me to the kitchen, right now, for a hot meal."
"That actually sounds great, Per," Laura said with a smile, dropping off the box on the top of the table as they left. LaF would know what to do with it when they got back later. And if they didn't, well, they deserved having a weak ghost haunting them during the few hours it would take for them to get rid of it. "What's going on between the three of you?"
"LaFontaine and J.P. decided," Perry said with a huff, a sliver of anger sliding back into her voice, making Laura regret ever asking, "that their own fireplaces weren't large enough to test a new, experimental type of firewood they made. So they decided to use one of mine.
Consequently, there's now a hole in my kitchen, which I can't use, more rats and cockroaches crawling over and ruining my food than the cats can take care of, and I have to try to feed the entire guild out of one of the side rooms. You can see why I might want their heads." Her tone was clipped as she spoke, her words heavy, but still it was all Laura could do to keep from laughing.
"I'm sorry, Perr," Laura said, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling as they reached the small side room Perry had to now work from. The stifling heat from the fire forced sweat to break out across her forehead even with the tiny window in the corner open. It was cramped, barely enough room for the five tables Perry was using to substitute the stone counters Sir Hollis had built into the walls of the kitchen, all of which were covered in meat and fruits and dough. Half a dozen pies were sitting on a rack in the fireplace, the sides almost touching and the pans themselves almost licked with fire, cooking over the flames Perry barely had control over.
Immediately Perry pushed her down onto one of the two stools that took up the last little bit of space and set to work, moving the finished meat pies off to the side as she spoke.
"It's quite alright, dear," she replied with a sigh, rolling her eyes and shrugging. "I'll just kill the two of them later. What would you like to eat?"
"Is there any way I can get an early piece of fruit pie," Laura asked, hopeful. When Perry gave her signature glare, Laura quickly put on a pout, forcing her eyes to go wide as she shrugged and curled in on herself, shrinking her form. If she could make herself look pitiful enough… "I have to go see Betty tonight…"
"Oh, of course, then," Perry said quickly, her whole demeanor changing. "Just sit tight and I'll get one started right away, alright dear? And you better take a piece for Elizabeth as well, if she's going to be working on you tonight, otherwise she won't get any either." Talking to herself as Perry went to work, separating the filling she had made that morning that had survived the destruction of her kitchen into the dough-filled pans to cook, it only took the woman a few minutes to get them started and the room to fill with the scent of the cooking fruit.
Tonight was going to be hell, but if she got early pie out of it, Laura was okay with going through the trials the seals would demand of her.
At least, a few hours ago, in the safety of Perry's temporary kitchen, while telling the other woman about the hunt as she stuffed herself with the overly sweet, perfectly baked pastry, Laura had been fine with the idea of visiting Betty in her shop and getting her seals updated and fixed. Now…
Now, with Betty's piece of the pie trembling on the plate in her hands, Laura wanted nothing more than to run, to run away and find someplace else. Somewhere safe from the seals she knew that waited for her behind the door.
But she was a Hunter, and this was part of the life she had fought so hard to have.
"Come in," Betty's voice called out after Laura knocked, cheerful and almost perky. Slowly opening the door, once again Laura was taken aback by how normal the room and its inhabitant looked. Despite her many visits, whenever she had to come to renew her seals, it was always a torture chamber that entered her mind, with chains and whips and all sorts of nasty things filling the windowless dungeon her mind created. Instead, just as it had always been, the room was filled with books and flowers, the windows opened wide to fill the living area with light, the two person bed Betty slept in with her love blocked by a curtain. And instead of the masked torturer, there was Betty. Sweet, annoyingly tall Betty, sitting at her table as she flipped through a book, a cup of tea sitting steaming next to her.
It almost made everything worse. When it was the torture chamber her mind envisioned, Laura could almost prepare herself for the worse. But when it was Betty and her couch?
The setting made the pain worse, just by the fact it existed to mock her.
"Laura," Betty said in excitement, sliding a piece of paper between the pages she had been reading. She pushed herself to her feet to pull Laura into a one-armed hug, Laura's other hand held out to keep the pie from tumbling to the ground. As always, it almost felt like home; she and Betty had gone through training together, had even spent their days as trainees sharing a living space, and while Betty had decided to pursue the knowledge the guild needed instead of the physical arts, they had remained close.
Laura had been the one to introduce Betty to her wife, Danny, a Summer Sister she had managed to convince to join Silas. She had been there for their wedding, and everything else in between.
Their closeness didn't make the job Laura needed done any easier.
"I brought pie," Laura said after Betty ushered her into a seat at the table, pouring her a cup of tea and placing it before her with a clump of sugar. With a flick of her wrist, the sugar began to add itself grain by grain, spoon moving on its own, the seal Betty had imprinted onto her own wrist glowing slightly as it activated. Normally, Laura would have given Betty that look, the same one Betty gave her when she activated one of her extra seals outside of battle and she caught her; the one that reminded them that the seals, as they were often reminded, weren't toys. While most of their seals were constantly active and running in the background, keeping them safe and alive, the rest actively exhausted them when used. They drained their strength, posed a hazard to their health, and no matter how fun they were to play with, they knew they shouldn't.
Betty was only supposed to use hers when they helped her research the new seals she was trying to create or figure out what creature someone within their guild had been hired to kill, while the Laura's were to be used only in battle, not when she wanted to scale a wall or run extra quickly through the halls.
Part of Laura wanted to give Betty that look, but the weight of her visit kept her from doing so. So instead she just gratefully accepted the offered tea when the power ran out and the spoon fell still. Putting the pie she had been holding awkwardly onto the table and nudging it closer to her friend, she took the cup and sipped, swallowing thickly as she waited for Betty to speak.
"How many seals do you need redone?"
"All of them." Laura wasn't surprised Betty had so easily guessed the truth behind her visit. On pie night, even the strongest of friendships meant nothing. It was a fight to the almost death to get the pie you wanted, since Perry only baked so much of each kind, and no one showed mercy. The fact that Laura had brought her a piece, without a single bite missing, was kind of obvious.
"Ahh."
For a long while after that neither of them said anything, Betty just accepting the pie with a nod of thanks while Laura sipped at her tea, the knot in her stomach tightening with each bite Betty took. Part of her wanted this to continue forever, for them to never leave this table.
But the rest of her wanted to just get it over with, and when Betty finally sighed and pushed herself to her feet, a certain sense of relief washed over her.
"If we're going to do this, it's time. Take off your shirt, Laura, and lay down."
She had only done it a couple of times before, but the process was more than familiar. Laura had been forced to study everything becoming a hunter would entail, right down to the gritty details her father had tried to use to scare her off, and she had memorized them to throw in his face, to show that she wasn't scared. Slipping off her shirt and removing the cloth she kept tight around her chest to keep her breasts out of her way while fighting, she lay down on the couch and stretched out, resting her face on the throw pillow while she waited.
"You should have come to me weeks ago," Betty tutted as she ran her fingers over Laura's back, tracing the scars to see which were thick enough to keep and which needed to be renewed. "I have to do almost all of them now, when I could have done them in sets."
"One week in recovery is better than two sets of three days, Bets," Laura laughed off, shrugging as if she wasn't almost trembling for what was to come. "Besides, Danny will be back this week, right? If I had done it a couple of weeks ago, I wouldn't have been able to pout my way into making her give me piggy back rides everywhere."
Betty chuckled at that, lightly brushing her fingers over Laura's back to remove a few strands of loose hair before placing the metals, the smooth curls and swirls that made up the seals' designs cold enough to make her shiver. Cold enough to send up that red flare of panic, to almost make her force out the words that would make Betty stop, that would put this off for another hour, day, week, long enough for her to realize she didn't want what was coming, despite the fact she'd never hunt again. Laura opened her mouth-
And bit down on the leather Betty held before her mouth instead, to keep her from biting into her lip or tongue and causing major damage.
"Are you ready?" Even though she kept her voice light, there was a waver in Betty's tone. Even though she had known what she was getting into when she had decided to follow this path for the guild, this part of her job had often almost made her quit. She had joined to protect the world, to keep her loved ones safe, not to inflict this pain upon them every few months.
But it was needed, so she stayed. But still she asked, giving Laura that out she had wanted a few moments before.
Laura nodded, bit down as hard as she could, and buried her face into the pillow.
Her screams still echoed throughout the guild house as Betty spoke the words and the metal flared to life.
Three weeks.
It had never taken her that long to heal before, for the torn and blistered skin to repair itself, knitting back together into the thick scars that would last her another six months. But for some reason it had, had taken almost three weeks for her to be able to move without pain, for the scabs to stop cracking and bleeding through her bandages, ruining her clothes in the process. Three weeks for her to be able to walk without one of the others by her side to keep her from falling.
It had never taken that long before, not with the healing seal in full force, but for whatever reason three weeks it took. A time Laura was almost grateful for, now that her back was healed. Even though it was a mass of stiff scars she was slowly softening with the special lotion Betty had made for her. Because everyone else had taken the jobs that had popped up while she was healing, leaving her the only one here to take this one.
"Laura," Sir Hollis said, "I really don't think you're ready."
Laura didn't say a word. She just continued to stand there, the piece of paper in her hand held out, the job request fully visible to her father.
"It's a vampire, Laura," Sir Hollis said again, almost growling; he had been trying to change her mind about this job for the last half hour and had so far failed. "Vampires, the worst of the worst, and you're still not back to one-hundred percent. I can't let you go."
"Then don't let me," Laura said with a shrug, ignoring how stiff her movements were. She would loosen up along the way. The village was almost a week's ride away, giving her more than enough time to get back into shape, especially now that the medicines Perry had mixed together for her could be used. "I'm still going anyway."
"Which means I would have to call back half the guild from their hunt for that missing Zeta or the other hunts they took, which would end with innocent people dead, just to bring you back, wasting all of our time," Sir Hollis snapped, tapping his cane against the floor in frustration. He had been trying to get a book off of the upper shelf when Laura had barged in, still clad in her pajamas with the paper in hand, and he hadn't yet been able to seat himself. "Do you really want to be the reason our guild's reputation is ruined, and for us to become the laughing stock of them all?"
"Do you want to be the guild leader who refused to help someone?" Laura asked back quickly, though her voice was soft as she spoke, "Because you didn't want your daughter to be the hunter sent to help them?"
"They're vampires, Laura," Sir Hollis said in frustration, finally limping over and lowering himself into his seat. He was shaking, his anger almost tangible as he pulled the job request from her hand to skim over it. "Silas Guild takes on werewolves and ghosts and every other sort of creature out there, but we do not. Hunt. Vampires." He paused after every word, the piece of paper crinkling in his hands as he spoke. "We haven't hunted vampires for fifteen years, and I refuse to let us start now. Send this onto a Zeta, or a Summer Sister. We're not taking this case."
"The Zetas haven't taken a case since we told them what happened to their Brother," Laura said, fuming as she spoke. "Every single one of them has been on high alert, searching for him, and the Summer Sisters who aren't helping the Zetas got themselves involved in some sort of turf war four kingdoms over. Why do you think every other hunter we have is gone, Dad?" Laura waved her arm around, motioning to the rest of the guild house. Except for the few non-hunter guild members, no one except them was here. " We're the only guild taking jobs. We turn them down, they die."
"Better let them die than you. I won't let you go after them. Not after-"
"I'm not Mom."
The silence that fell between them was almost physical, Sir Hollis' mouth opening and closing like a fish as he tried to find something, anything, to say. Some kind of retort that would shut this discussion down, ending it before Laura could say something else that would break him.
"I'm not Mom, Dad," Laura said softly again, running her fingers through her hair as she spoke. His body fell as she did, showing for a single moment just how old he truly was. It was terrifying, almost to the point where she wanted to stop, to just give in and let him be, but she couldn't.
If the other guilds had been available, she would have sent the job request to one of them and let them take care of it. Because like her father said, Silas didn't do vampires. But there wasn't anyone else who could do this. It had to be her.
"I'm not Mom, and you have to trust that I won't die like her."
"Maybe you aren't, and maybe I do," Sir Hollis finally said, one hand rubbing his eyes as his other flattened out the paper on his desk. Groping blindly for a quill, he signed the form that would get her the supplies she needed from the guild, officially putting her on the job. "But Laura," he said, pulling the paper away slightly as she reached out to take it, "don't make me bury you besides her."
"I won't." Walking around the desk, Laura placed a quick kiss onto his forehead, resting her cheek on top of his head as his arms wrapped around her. "Don't worry, Dad. I promise, I won't."
It had been an easy ride, a fact Laura was grateful for as she slid off her horse right outside of the town. Mostly flat plains, a few hills she needed to traverse, but nothing actually bad. With her back still stiff, the skin and muscles getting reused to mass of scars her job required, she was more than grateful.
"Are you the Hunter?"
Laura jumped slightly as the voice spoke out, automatically sliding into the defensive as she searched for the source: a window on the second floor of a house nearby, she quickly decided, especially as a little head poked over the side. Forcing herself to relax, Laura smiled, her grin quickly becoming genuine as the little girl's head fully appeared. "I am," she called up. "Is there someone I can speak to?"
The child nodded before she disappeared from view, the sound of her feet running across the floor quickly fading as she moved. Biting the inside of her cheek to keep from chuckling, Laura returned to her horse, unloading the saddlebags of her supplies. Her sword and stakes, the bottles of holy water Betty had prepared for her, the documents her father had sent with her; everything she needed to survive this fight.
All she needed was for someone to point her in the right direction and she could get started.
"Thank the Lord, you're here."
Laura nodded politely as the door to the house opened, an older woman stumbling over the threshold to get out and greet her. The child from before was hiding behind her skirts, staring up at her from around what Laura assumed was her mother. Laura quickly waved before turning back to the woman standing before her, taking the hands offered out to her, as if she was a lifeline that could save this drowning woman.
She felt like this a lot, whenever she came to the aid of those truly desperate.
"I'm here," Laura said softly, calmly, running her thumb over the back of the woman's hands as she started to shake, trying to cut off the tears she could see forming in her eyes. "It's okay, I'm here." It took her a few minutes to calm down, but soon enough the overwhelming relief faded, leaving the woman pulling away to wipe at her eyes.
"Please forgive me. You must think of me a fool."
"Of course not," Laura reassured her, patting her shoulder. "This must be tiring for you."
"We've been terrified for weeks, waiting for someone to come. We sent a request to everyone," the woman explained, beckoning for Laura to follow her as she spoke. "The Zetas, the Summer Sisters, the Alchemy Club, Silas, everyone. You were the only ones who responded." Reaching the house, the woman held the door open for Laura, quickly closing it and throwing the latch when the three of them were inside.
"Things have been insane lately," Laura said, carefully choosing her words. She didn't want to frighten the woman now she was calm. "Creatures have been particularly active, but it's nothing the guilds can't take care of." Moving to the table, Laura placed the pile of papers onto the surface before slipping off her gear, setting it next to her as she slid into a chair. "I have some things I need to go over with you before I begin the hunt."
"Of course," the woman said, adding another few pieces of wood to the fire before sitting down across from her. "Kira, go get a cup for milk for the lady."
The little girl nodded and raced out of the room, leaving them alone.
"How long has the vampire been here?" Laura asked, keeping her voice low and an eye on the doorway Kira had gone through. Her questions needed answers, but the details she wanted weren't necessarily what children needed to hear.
"Three weeks," the woman replied. "She showed up in town one night, looking for shelter. A family took her in. They were dead by morning. Since then, no one else has died, but there have been attacks."
"How were they killed, and what how were the others hurt?" When the woman hesitated, chewing on her lip as she tried to find the words, Laura reached over and patted her hand. "I need to know. You say it's a vampire, but if it's not, I need to make changes to my plan. I'm going to take care of everything," Laura promised, "but I need to know."
"The first family was torn apart," the woman said, her eyes slipping shut, her brow furrowing as she remembered. Her voice half strangled as she spoke. "There was enough left of each person to identify them, but not much more. And the attacks were all the same. Bite marks on the necks and chests of the young women she went after. All of them the same."
Laura nodded as she flipped through the papers, tugging one out of the stack. Flipping it around, she held it out towards the woman, watching as she flinched away from the picture.
It was a fearsome image, drawn long ago, of one of the creatures with their fangs extended, accompanied by what that bite mark might look like on the curve of some poor girl's neck.
"I myself haven't seen the beast," the woman said finally, swallowing thickly as she looked away, "but the bite marks are a match. Can you kill it?"
"It'll be hard," Laura admitted, "but doable. Do you know where it lives?"
"It took up residence in a cave, about three miles north, through the woods."
"Then I need to go," Laura said, pushing herself to her feet. That was a quick ride. She could be there shortly. And with the day waning quickly, it was better to leave now. No telling what the creature might do if she waited, giving it the night to find her. Pushing the pile of papers towards the woman, she tapped them with her thumb. "If I don't return within a few days, please send these back to my father at the Silas Guild house. He'll know what to do. And if I do, I'll come back to get them."
"Of course," the woman said quickly, gathering the papers up and holding them to her chest. "While I'll pray for your safe return, my lady, there's a runner a few towns over who will get these home for you in case you don't. That I can assure you."
Before Laura could speak again, Kira was standing by her side, a wooden cup of milk held up for her to drink. Smiling down at the girl in thanks, Laura took the cup and drank, gulping the sweet drink quickly. Which she quickly regret. For a moment the room spun as she placed the cup onto the table besides her, a cough tearing itself from her lungs as she steadied herself.
"My lady, are you okay?"
And with those words she was fine again, her throat quieting and the world settling into its usual stillness as she fought to breathe, only to find the breath flowing as smoothly as before.
"Yeah," Laura said slowly, shaking her head as she stood there to get rid of the linger sense of unease. "Yeah," she said again, "I'm okay. I just drank too quickly." Rubbing at her eyes, Laura forced a smile at the worried woman and Kira, leaning over to grab her things. "Three miles to the north?"
"Yes, my lady. Through the forest."
"Then I'll be back before nightfall if all goes well, tomorrow morning if they don't." Smiling confidently, Laura shrugged her bag over her shoulder, rewrapped her sword around her waist and tied the belt, and left the house.
Within moments she was on her horse and racing towards the cave, unaware of the smile that passed between the mother and daughter she left behind.
"Kira," the mother said softly, handing the pile of papers to her child as they watched Laura disappear from sight, "take care of these for Mommy, please. Then go pack your things. It's time we went back home to Daddy with our pay."
The child, without a word, took the papers and added them to the fire.
"How the hell is she not asleep yet?"
Carmilla shifted impatiently as she watched her mark stumble through the woods, barely able to stand but somehow still moving. Part of it, she knew, were the seals burned into her back. Even from this far away, she could see the seals glowing through the back of the hunter's shirt, some flickering while others burned brightly, almost bright enough to make out their actual shapes. But even then, the amount of drug she had paid those people to put into the girl's drink should have been enough to knock her out half an hour ago, when she had fallen from her horse.
But still somehow she was pushing on, half leading and half leaning against her mare as she struggled her way towards the non-existent cave she had been pointed to.
"You're a tough cupcake, aren't you," Carmilla muttered to herself as she moved, lightly jumping from tree to tree as she tracked her mark, careful to keep her distance as she moved. Even weakened as she was, the hunter was still a threat; her holy water and blessed steel would burn, her stakes posed an actual threat, and with her seals already on overdrive, she wasn't to be messed with.
But soon enough she would fall, and all she had to do was wait.
It took another half mile of tracking her through the trees for the hunter to fall, tripping over a tree root and being unable to push herself back up. Even when her horse nuzzled her, she couldn't rise more than inch or two, her body just too weak to try.
She waited until the seals faded, the darkness taking over and extinguishing that last little light, before climbing down.
"Shh, girl," Carmilla murmured soothingly to the horse, running her fingers down its side as she walked. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt your human." Stopping by its head, she placed a quick kiss onto its nose, nuzzling the horse until it calmed. "You know I'm not one, don't you?" She didn't need an answer. The mare's initial reaction to her had been enough of one; this was a guild horse, a hunter's horse, and even though she was sweet, she knew.
But a horse was a horse, and with a tender touch, anyone could be turned.
"I'm going to call you Llamrei," Carmilla decided after a few moments of thought, chuckling softly as the horse pressed its nose against her chest, as if in approval. "That's a good girl. Now, let's take care of yours."
Kneeling besides the fallen hunter, Carmilla carefully rolled her over, pushing her hair out of her face to, finally, take a good look. For the last six months she had been watching this girl from a distance, following her, assessing her abilities to see if she was good for this task. This was the closest she'd ever been, and to say she hadn't been curious would have been a lie.
She's cute.
Sighing, Carmilla stripped the girl of her bags and weapons before gently lifting her into her arms, cradling her head against her shoulder as she rose to her feet. Kicking the hunter's things off to the side, under a bush which she would remember later so she could come back for it then, Carmilla clicked her tongue and started to walk.
"Come along, Llamrei," Carmilla said over her shoulder. "It's time to get things started."
"Come on, Creampuff. I can't use you in this grand scheme of mine if you're sleeping, now can I?"
Laura gasped as water splashed over her face, sending a chill down her spine as it soaked through her shirt and into her skin. Flinching away, her movements were brought to a halt as something tugged at her wrists. Another, different kind of hard cold that chinked slightly every time she moved.
Chains. Shit.
"That's it, cupcake," the voice said again, a hand cupping her cheek and wiping away the water, "that's it. Come back to me. We don't have much time, and I need you to- hey!"
The hand jerked away as Laura snapped, her teeth missing skin by an inch. Pushing herself to her feet, kicking out incase whoever had taken her came close, she forced her eyes to adjust to the light, arms curling as close to herself as the chains would allow. She wouldn't be able to punch someone, but if they came close enough, she might just be able to wrap the slack around their necks. It wouldn't do much, just buy her time, but…
"Glad to see you're still with the living, sweetheart. We've got a lot of work to do."
For a long moment, Laura stood there, confused, her guard almost lowering as she stared at the woman before her. Human in form and touch, for that hand against her cheek had been warm, almost burning, it seemed she was everything Laura fought to protect, so why the chains? Laura opened her mouth to ask, almost sure her thoughts were leftover from whatever drug had been used to get her here.
And the woman before her smiled, showing elongated fangs, sharp enough to pierce through skin to sink into the blood that ran underneath.
"You're the vampire," Laura said stiffly, her muscles clenching as she spoke. She was chained to a wall without her sword or stakes or holy water, the only reassuring fact being she was still alive and breathing, her heart thumping hard in her chest, as if to confirm her continued humanity. "The one I was sent to kill."
"Of course," the woman said, shrugging as she took a few steps back, giving Laura the chance to glance around the room. Metal chains that had been hooked into the floor caught her eye next, set in sets of two around the outside of the room, keeping her hostage unless she could somehow break through the oaken flooring. Wooden walls with the windows open, unfiltered light streaming through the empty room. Light that the vampire walked through without flinching; Laura had heard of that talent, held by only a few of the creatures, but to see it for herself was almost terrifying.
If not even the sun could defeat them, how could she even hope to have a chance?
"Where's my horse?"
"Llamrei is waiting outside," the vampire said, turning her back on Laura to walk over to one of the windowsills. Leaning over it, she grunted as she lifted up a bag, one Laura quickly realized as her own. Untying the top, she started to paw through her supplies, grinning over her shoulder at Laura as she pulled out her things and dropped them to the floor, stakes bouncing off each other while holy water opened and spilt.
"You named my horse?" For some reason, she was more annoyed at the fact that her horse, the mare she had wanted to name since she had been given her but had been refused the pleasure, had been named by this creature instead.
"Everything needs a name. And mine is Carmilla, cutie."
"Carmilla," Laura said slowly, trying out how it felt on her tongue. Strange, but if for some reason the creature wanted to talk before it killed her, she was willing to get used to it and go along. "Laura. Laura Hollis."
"I know," was all she got back, sending a shiver down her spine. When Carmilla turned back to her, holding an apple in one hand and her now empty bag in the other, it was with a shrug and a grin that she spoke again, rubbing the fruit against the cloth of her shirt to clean it. "You're a great hunter, Laura, but you never once knew you were being hunted yourself."
"And why have you been doing that?"
"Because I need you." It wasn't the answer Laura had been expecting, but it did give her a little thrill of hope. If the vampire, Carmilla, needed her, then her death seemed a little further off. Waiting as Carmilla bit into the apple, wiping juice off her chin with the sleeve of her shirt, Laura forced herself to relax. Not enough to be vulnerable, but enough to look like it. "You see," Carmilla continued when her mouth was clear, "my Mother, the head of our clan, sent me out to find a pretty girl to take home. Most likely to die," she added as an afterthought, "though we're never really sure what happens to the girls when we're done. I was to find her, seduce her, make her fall in love with me, and then betray her to the darkness we serve."
"Sounds pretty standard for someone like yourself." Part of Laura should have been terrified, should have been screaming at herself to find some way out and to kill the girl, but it wasn't. Whether this was good or bad, she was sure she'd find out soon.
"For every twenty years, yes," Carmilla confirmed. "But I've grown tired of Maman's games," she admitted. "For three hundred years I've been playing them, and enough has finally become enough. Which leads me to you."
"What? Do you want me to kill your mother for you?" Said initially as a joke, the silence that fell between them only confirmed Carmilla's goal, forcing Laura's eyes to widen as she realized just how serious the woman was.
"I'm glad we're on the same page, cupcake," Carmilla said, throwing the partly eaten apple over her shoulder to roll on the floor. "I thought I was going to have to threaten you to get you to agree."
"Whoa whoa whoa," Laura said quickly, holding up her hands and stepping back so her back was pressed against the wall behind her as Carmilla walked towards her. "I never agreed to anything. Why do you want me to kill your mom?"
"Personal stories are for later, cutie," Carmilla said, stopping just out of reach. "All you need to know is that if you agree, you'll be killing off the head of the largest coven in the country. My mother's minions will be weakened without their leader, giving you the chance to easily hunt them down and get rid of them for good. And I'll slip into the darkness and move on, finally free."
"Why do you even need me? You're a centuries old monster, why not just do it yourself?"
"Bonds of the Maker," Carmilla said with a shrug, as if she didn't truly care that she was spilling her secrets. "It makes turning against Mommy Dearest hard at best, if not impossible. But if I got someone on the inside, and they took her out for me, well, those bonds are broken."
"You're not lying, are you?" Laura asked, though the question was unnecessary; a single look at the vampire's face confirmed she was telling the truth. Or, if she was lying, well, then Laura deserved whatever fate she had in store for her for not being able to catch on. "Not just saying this so I go along with you quietly for your mother's sacrifice?"
"And watch her ruin that pretty face of yours?" Carmilla's smirk was almost enough to make her blush, though she quickly reigned it in. "I'll pass. You'll help me kill her, and then I'll be the night," Carmilla promised, "slip away like the dawn, leaving you unharmed and the best vampire hunter in the world. If you help me."
"And if I don't?"
Carmilla glanced down at the chains keeping Laura still before glancing up and smirking. "I don't see a key, sweetheart. I'll just leave, and what do you think will happen then?"
What other choice did she really have? Holding out her arms, Laura winced as Carmilla stepped forward and broke the cuffs keeping her chained, the body-warmed metal falling to the ground between them. "I'll help you kill your mother, I'll kill everyone else in your coven, and I'll kill you last."
"Glad we've got a deal, sweetheart," Carmilla said, smiling wide enough to show her fangs, "and only if I don't kill you first when you come for me."
"I didn't realize this plan would involve so many chains," Laura hissed under her breath as Carmilla closed the manacles around her wrist, glaring as the vampire smirked at her. "I figured some stabbing, maybe a bit of burning, but not chains."
"I already explained, Creampuff," Carmilla said in a normal voice, using the short leash that had been attached to the chain between her wrists to tug her closer, her hand falling on Laura's hip, "all you need to do is do what I said and everything's going to be fine." Leaning down to nuzzle Laura's neck, she pressed a gentle kiss against her pulse point and whispered against her skin. "The others will get suspicious if I let you wander. Even the most in love human gets antsy around dozens of vamps."
Forcing her eyes to glaze over and that stupid, vapid smile she had been practicing for days to appear on her lips, Laura raised her hand to run it through Carmilla's hair, making sure she didn't look at the others watching them for more than a moment.
Anything more might have blown their cover.
Carmilla had spent their last few days explaining herself while they traveled, laying out her plan so that, when they arrived at the castle, everything would work. Sketching the layout of the castle into the dirt by the fire while Laura cooked the food Carmilla had caught for her to supplement her swiftly fading rations. Naming the rooms and what they would most likely find in them while gnawing on rabbit bones for the marrow, all while chattering on about the vampires close enough to Maman to be there when they arrived. Pointing out the secret entrances and hiding places where, when everything began, Laura would find her things, all while lying in the grass and staring up at the stars that shined above.
And while they rode, Llamrei quietly carrying them wherever Carmilla directed (because she wasn't giving Laura the reigns, not when she was exhausted and guiding them half by instinct and when the possibility of Laura taking control and returning them to her guild was high), Carmilla gave her instructions on how to act, how to live, how she had to be in order for this to all come together.
"Like you're in love with me," Carmilla had explained, forcing back a yawn. "Like the sun and moon and stars shine only because I bid them to, and you want nothing more than to join me in the dark. As if nothing but me matters. All the girls will be acting like this, and to act any different would give us away. So you better get practicing, Cupcake," Carmilla teased, looking over her shoulder to grin at her, her fangs gone but always threatening to reappear.
"Just guide the horse, my love," Laura grumbled, face twisted into a half pout and half grimace as she forced out the words. It was bad enough, trying to get used to not killing the vampire the second she looked away, but to pretend she was in love with her? That she wanted to be with her outside of this opportunity to take down the Leader of a coven?
It almost made her sick, but still she practiced until the words came without too much revulsion when she spoke them.
"We're going to get there late, so when we do, you'll only spend one day by my side before you're taken to the dungeon, where you'll spend the last night waiting for the ceremony to begin. This will give you the time you need in order to figure out how many girls are down there with you and how many you want to save. I'll come down to visit you, under the guise of me being fond of you, and that's when I'll break the chains. Then the rest is up to you."
'The rest.' The rest being finding her things, hidden throughout the castle in the hiding places Carmilla had described, sneaking into the Leader's room, catching her off guard, and driving the silver tipped, dipped in holy water, purified with salt stake Carmilla had helped her fashion. And then freeing the girls, getting herself and all of them free from the castle, and finding her way back to her guild, where she could start up the hunt for the vampires left leaderless by her moves.
Piece of cake.
Piece of cake, if she could survive the first few minutes.
"Kitten," a man's voice spoke out as Carmilla continued to nuzzle her neck, lightly brushing her lips up and down the skin, "you're making the rest of us sick."
"Good to see you too, William," Carmilla said as she straightened out, one hand flicking off the male vampire leaning against the wall across from them as the other wrapped around Laura's waist, tucking her into her side with the leash hanging easily from her hand. "Now go screw yourself before I have to find a minion to do it for you."
"If you're offering someone up, the little thing you have there would do." Pushing himself to his feet, Will stalked over, his eyes roaming over Laura, a wicked smirk allowing the tip of his fang to peak through. When Carmilla didn't do anything, just stood there with one arm around her waist, her attention more on her fingernails instead of the two of them, it was almost as if he took it as permission to touch. His hand closed around her chin, forcing Laura to look up at him for a single moment before forcing it higher, her eyes resting on the unused light fixture above her. Swallowing thickly, Laura forced down a shudder as his breath washed over her neck, dangerous and disgusting and altogether so unlike Carmilla's before. She hadn't been comfortable with her, but at least she hadn't had to fight down the bile that rose at his touch.
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Carmilla said with a shrug, stepping away and dropping the leash. "The pet I chose this time is very…full of surprises."
"Which means this will be that much more fun," Will said with a grin before leaning forward again, his lips grazing her skin, mouth opening to let his fangs graze against her-
He howled as Laura's fist connected with his stomach, unable to hold herself still as panic overwhelmed the training and practice Carmilla had been helping her with the entire time they'd been traveling. Stepping forward as he stumbled backwards, she followed up with a strike to the throat, her leg kicking out to knock him to the ground as he gasped for breathe. Leaning forward, she dug her knee into his chest and bared her teeth at him, wishing more than anything else that she had something, anything, in her clenched hands to hurt him with.
She knew her back was glowing, the seals lighting up the room behind her, but at that moment she really couldn't care. She might have blown her cover, but the fear in his eyes was more than worth it.
"You see," Carmilla said, the laughter in her voice barely contained, "full of surprises. Now come on, sweetheart, let him up." Wrapping her hand around Laura's arm, Carmilla hauled her back to her feet, once again tucking Laura into her side and pressing a quick kiss against her cheek, her body practically shaking. "The look on his face was priceless, cupcake," she whispered, "and if we hadn't already had our deal, I would actually consider keeping you. Now back in character."
Immediately Laura let herself sink into Carmilla's hold, her gaze going unfocused as she fell back into the role of love-struck fool.
"You brought a fucking Hunter here," Will asked as a friend pulled him to his feet, his hand rubbing his neck. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that Maman will enjoy sending one of these annoying Hunters into the Light," Carmilla said with a shrug, her free hand running through Laura's hair. "And like you have any room to talk. You were the one who wanted to try and take that Hunter who showed up to the test you helped me set up. The one you ended up killing after the vantoase left him in the woods. Don't be jealous that I can actually do something right."
"I only killed him because Mattie said no," Will growled, his hand curling into a fist. "Just like she will when she sees yours."
"And if she does I'll kill her then," Carmilla said flippantly. "But until then, I'm tired, I stink like a horse, and I want to take my toy to bed. So move." Without waiting for him to answer she pushed past him, knocking him to the side as she pulled Laura down the hall by the leash on her chains.
"A friend of yours," Laura asked warily when they were out of earshot, closing the few steps between them so they were almost side by side.
"Worse," Carmilla replied. "My brother. Come on, I was serious about the two of us stinking. We need a bath and to change our plans. Now."
After the warm bath and a change of clothes, Laura almost could have convinced herself that things were okay. Carmilla was just another cute girl she'd met along her way who had invited her home. There were no vampires waiting outside to kill her. She hadn't been away from home for almost two weeks without anyway to send word that she was okay, and her father most certainly didn't think she was dead.
After taking her bath and changing into clean clothes, Laura could have almost believed it.
If Carmilla hadn't been finishing a mug of blood when Laura returned to the bedroom, wiping away her blood mustache with her thumb and licking it clean.
"You said we needed to change our plans," Laura said as she flopped down on the bed next to Carmilla, her wet hair fanning out around her. "Why?"
"Because your little stunt with Will exposed us, Creampuff." Running her finger around the inside of the metal mug to capture the last of the blood, Carmilla sucked her finger clean before continuing, leaning over to set the mug on the floor besides them. "I was hoping to keep you being a Hunter under wraps, at least until you were taken to the dungeons, but since you took your anger out on William- not that I'm complaining, he's deserved it for decades- my older sister Mattie is going to be looking into things. To make sure Maman's ceremony goes over without a hitch. Which means you'll probably have to stay with me, meaning we have to rethink how you're going to free the others and-"
"Kitten? Are you in here?"
Before Laura could think, Carmilla's lips were on hers, her full weight pressing her into the mattress as she straddled her hips. One hand grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head as the other moved freely beneath her shirt, nails leaving burning lines on her stomach as Carmilla set to work on loosening Laura's bindings.
The door to their room opened, an irritable sound greeting them.
"I hate to interrupt your fun, Kitten, but we need to talk."
"Can't it wait?" Carmilla huffed as she pulled away, the hand from under Laura's shirt moving to the bed to push her upright. "I was in the middle of something. It was just starting to get good."
"No. Your pet's been causing trouble, and I need to see if you can keep control over her or if she needs to be disposed of."
Sighing, Carmilla rolled off of Laura, leaving the Hunter scrambling to fix her cloths. When she had returned to being descent, she turned her attention to the woman standing in their doorway, leaning to the side and staring at her like she was a dessert.
The curl of her stomach, different from Will and much more terrifying because of it, left her almost unable to speak. A blessing, if she thought about it.
"She only caused trouble because Will was being a dick," Carmilla said with a shrug, reaching out to pull Laura back into her side, smiling and nodding down at her when she automatically rested her head on Carmilla's chest and cuddled close. "She's harmless if you don't try to eat her."
"Which is what I'm worried about." Stepping into the room, Mattie let the door swing shut behind her, sliding the latch the two of them had forgotten about before as she did so. Closing the space between them, she gently ran her fingers across Laura's cheek, forcing her look her in her eyes.
She was terrifying, and if she was only Carmilla's big sister, then the thought of their mother was even more so.
"She doesn't seem spellcasted," Mattie said after a few moments, her hold on Laura forcing her chin to rise to check her neck. "And you haven't bitten her yet. How come, and why hasn't she gone on a rampage to destroy us yet?"
"Because she loves me." Just from her tone, Carmilla couldn't have cared less about what she was saying, but even as she spoke her arms tightened around Laura, almost protective in their grip. "You don't need magic when it's real. Isn't that right, Laura?"
"Yes." Mattie seemed taken aback when Laura spoke, her voice calm and clear, without the hazy overtones Carmilla had been trying to teach her.
"You know what we are, little Hunter? And yet still you're here?"
"Yes," Laura said again. She already knew what was going to be asked, her mind racing with how to say the words Mattie would want to hear.
"Why?"
"Because I love her."
"And I love her back." The room fell silent as Carmilla stepped back into the conversation, her hand rubbing smooth, calming circles onto Laura's side. When Mattie turned her gaze to her sister, Carmilla just shrugged and shook her head, as if words were failing her. "What can I say, Mats. I was going to give her up as a sacrifice, but I fell in love with her instead."
"Mother will be angry. You know that, right?"
"Mother's always angry with me," Carmilla said with a smirk, meeting her sister's searching stare without flinching. "There's maids and servants who tend to us we can use in place of her. After the ceremony, I'll ask Mother to change her, and that will be it. And with a former Hunter in our clan…"
"We'd be unstoppable," Mattie provided the words for her, a hungry gleam lighting up in her eyes. "But you should know, Kitten, if Mother doesn't approve of her-"
"Then she'll be killed and I'll be punished." Carmilla's voice was unusually flat, devoid of the normal snark that was her base state, but she quickly shrugged it off. "Which is why Mother will love Laura just as much as I do. Now, is there anything else I can help you with, Mattie, or can I get back to having my fun?" She ran her hand down Laura's side, stopping when her hand fell to Laura's thigh, her challenging look just begging for Mattie to say something.
"It was only Will," Mattie finally said when she stood back to her full height. "And honestly? I'm just upset I wasn't there to see that little brat get what he had coming. Keep your Hunter, Kitten," Mattie said with a genuine smile. "If you get around to placing a claiming bite, please do so, but since you're hoping to change her into one of us, there's no need. Just keep her out of the way until after the ceremony. We don't need her causing any trouble."
"Will do, Matts," Carmilla said, mock saluting Mattie with her free hand as Mattie returned to the door and unlocked it, pausing for a moment to glance back over her shoulder.
"And Kitten?"
"Yeah?"
"Have fun." With a wink and a chuckle Mattie disappeared, the door slamming shut behind her but not covering the sound of her laughter.
"Perfect," Carmilla said, for once not sarcastic in her delivery as she pushed herself off the bed. For a single moment Laura missed her warmth, the cool air of the castle hitting her hard, but she quickly shook it off when Carmilla held out her hand towards her, smiling a small, real smile.
"What is?" She took Carmilla's hand, letting the vampire pull her to her feet.
"Mattie just gave us the in we needed," Carmilla replied, reaching up to smooth the collar of Laura's shirt so it sat properly. "Mother's going to want to see you before the ceremony starts," she explained, letting her hand fall to Laura's shoulder and rest there. "To see if you're worthy of joining our clan, or if you'll be used. When you're in there…"
"I can kill your mother," Laura said slowly, Carmilla's excitement catching hold and infesting her as well. It would be perfect. The Leader of the Clan most likely alone, under the impression that she was too in love with Carmilla to do anything, unaware of what they were planning on doing?
So much better than hoping she could sneak up from the dungeon and attack her without being caught, and the opportunity had been laid at her feet.
"This might actually work," Laura said, a wide smile growing across her lips. "I mean, I know the first plan was going to work, for the most part, but there's always that concern that it'll fail and you'll end up dead on the side of the road with your horse stolen and your seals intact. But this? This might actually work."
"That it might, Cupcake, if we keep up the act," Carmilla said, talking over her shoulder as she stepped away and walked to the door. "If we can convince Mother that you're really in love with me and I'm in love with you, this might actually work. I just need to go get the bags and then we can get you suited up to kill Mom."
This was a terrible idea, the worst idea she had ever had, and to ever even begin to believe it would be so easy?
She had signed her own death warrant the moment she agreed to join Carmilla, and now the reaper had come to collect.
"You're scared, child," the woman sitting before her said softly, her lips curling into a smile as Laura stood before her. Even in the half-light she was radiant, too beautiful to be real but too real to be anything else. She breathed power, as if her very glance could turn her to stone; this was a power, a force, something beyond everything Laura had ever experienced.
She was going to be her death, and Laura couldn't do anything about it but nod.
"Good," Maman, as Carmilla had addressed her when they had entered the room, said. Her smile splitting to show her teeth, her fangs elongated and waiting. Waiting to sink through flesh and muscle to reach the thrumming blood Laura could hear in her ears. "You should be. I should kill you for what you are, for having the nerve to come before me, especially with your bag of toys."
Someone had found her things among the bushes they had hidden everything in the night before, where Carmilla would have been able to grab them once, according to their original plan, once Laura had been taken to the dungeon with the other girls and chained. But instead of being hidden throughout the castle, where she could gather them on her way up to fight Maman, when they had walked into the room, they had been sitting on her desk, laid out so Laura could see her failure.
Glancing down, Laura swallowed thickly as she stared at the supplies scattered on Maman's desk: her stake shattered, her holy water poured out to soak into the expensive rug under her feet, her silver crushed into dust with only a single wince from the vampire to show her discomfort. Only her sword remained intact, the steel 'too beautiful to destroy,' as she had stated, though Maman had run the blade along her arm, chuckling as the cut healed within seconds.
She was impossible to kill, and now Laura was going to die.
"However," Maman said as she pushed herself to her feet, stretching lazing as she rose, "my daughter's taken a liking to you. Why my glittering girl set her eyes upon a cockroach like you, I shall never understand, but for some reason she has. At least, she says she has. And even though you pose as a threat to the sacrifice, I wouldn't want to make her unhappy now, would I?" Walking over to where Carmilla was standing, off to the side of the desk, she gently cupped Carmilla's face between her hands, forcing her to look up and meet her gaze. For a long while they stood there, their gazes never wavering, until Maman finally sighed and leaned forward to place a kiss upon Carmilla's brow.
The moment she had let go and turned away Carmilla flinched back, rubbing at her skin as if it burned.
"At least, I wouldn't want to make her unhappy again, not like last time. Such a messy, tragic affair. But you, child, you at least have some worth." When Maman closed the distance between them, it was all Laura could do to keep herself from fleeing like a mouse caught in the gaze of a snake, every instinct screamed for her to flee, but the ability as gone.
But Maman broke her stare as she stepped behind Laura, lifting up the back of her shirt and pressing on Laura's shoulder, forcing her to bend forward so she could better see the scars.
"These are fresh," Maman said, tracing one of them slowly with her nail. A moment later she hissed and pulled away, a small stream of smoke coiling from the keratin as the seal flared to life, Laura's panic at being touched accidentally activating it. Instead of being angry, though, all Maman did was step away and let the shirt fall, watching the glow slowly fade through the fabric as Laura's forced herself to calm. "And once I make you mine, they'll remain that way. Carmilla, darling," Maman said, turning back to her child, "take the newest member of our family to a room. We'll turn her after the ceremony. And when she's one of ours…" For the first time her pleasant tone fell, the ice thrusting into her heart, almost causing them both to falter.
"You and I have some things to discuss. You are dismissed."
"Yes, Mother," Carmilla replied in a dead voice, turning on her toes and leading the way out of the room. Letting the door close behind them, she took the leash that hung between the chains Mattie had put back onto her when she had come to take them to Maman and tugged, turning down a different corridor than the one they had come from.
She couldn't be sure in the flickering light of the oddly placed torches, but Laura could had sworn Carmilla was crying.
"You have to kill me. Now."
The moment the door had closed behind them, Laura was at her side, lifting up one of her hands and wrapping it around her neck. Instinctively, Carmilla's hand tightened, only ever so slightly, but enough that Laura stiffened. When Carmilla didn't continue, only kept her hand loosely wrapped around her throat, Laura frowned and tapped her hand, blinking heavily to keep back the tears. "Carmilla, please. We can't let your mother change me. Once she does… things will be bad. Really, really bad. So please. Just do it."
"No, Laura." Carmilla instead slide her hand to Laura's shoulder, pulling the girl into a hug. She was scared, they both were, but it was going to be okay. "I have a plan. We can still get out of this alive. Just trust me, okay?"
For a long moment Laura just stood there, stiff in Carmilla's embrace, before wrapping her arms around her waist and burying her face into the crook of Carmilla's neck.
"Okay," she said softly, nodding slowly, her breath tickling her skin. "I trust you."
Part of Carmilla knew she shouldn't, that all of this was going to go so horribly wrong, but all she did was nod again and pull Laura closer.
"Carmilla, it's time."
It was Mattie at the door, leaning against the frame, biting her lip as she watched her little sister push herself off the bed. For a moment it looked as if she was going to make a comment about Carmilla's state, hair unbrushed, clothes crumpled from lying down, nowhere near as cleaned up as Mattie, but she quickly shook her head and turned towards the pacing Hunter instead. Stepping forward, Mattie pushed a pile of cloth into Laura's hands, blocking her route before she could take another step.
"Mother expects that you're cleaned up and wearing this when we come back to get you."
The look Laura gave her was almost murder, but Mattie just shrugged it off, turned back towards her sister. Closing the distance between them, Mattie ran her fingers through Carmilla's hair, flattening lumps and straightening out the tangles that were running wild, trying almost in vain to groom her. It didn't do much, but it was as much as she could do without a real brush, at least making her semi-presentable.
She chuckled as Carmilla stepped back and ran her own hand through her hair, ruffling the locks back into her normal disarray.
"Come on, Kitten," Mattie said, almost gently, resting her hand on Carmilla's shoulder and gently pushing her towards the door. "You know what Mother will be like if we're late."
"Like it matters," Carmilla said softly, shrugging off Mattie's touch. "I'm already grounded; say good bye now, sis. It's going to be another hundred years before you see me again."
For a long moment Mattie just stood there, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she watched Carmilla leave the room, thoughts racing through her head as she tried to find a way out. Glancing over at Laura, it was with a sigh that Mattie made her decision, shaking her head and almost cursing as she moved.
"Hunter."
"Yes," Laura almost squeaked, jumping as Mattie drew her attention away from the frilly, neck exposing dress Mattie had handed her.
"The last time my sister made a bad decision, Mother made sure she would never do it again," Mattie said slowly, stepping forward and closing the distance between them. "At least, she tried to. But then Carmilla met you. Carmilla started thinking, she met you, and now Mother is, without a doubt, going to make sure she never does it again." Hooking her finger under Laura's chin, Mattie forced Laura to look up at her, to meet her gaze. "I hold no love for Mother," Mattie said, leaning in so their noses were almost touching, Laura flinching at the smell of blood on her breath, "and I would prefer not to have Kitten chained up again for another hundred years. Which is why you're going to help me."
"Why should I," Laura spat out, jerking her head away and taking a step back, reclaiming her space. "Carmilla practically forced me to come here, everyone's done nothing besides threaten to turn me since I have; why don't I refuse and just have you kill me now? If you have no love for your mother, kill me, take away a sealed vampire from her, and save Carmilla yourself. Or let me go. Either way, your Mother's pissed and I don't care."
"I could," Mattie said with a shrug. "I could easily snap your neck, drain you dry, and destroy your skin so you're useless to Mother. Or I could leave this door open and just watch you walk away. Either one would be good with me, string bean. But I saw the way you looked at my sister. You don't hate her like you hate me, do you?" When Laura didn't respond, Mattie turned away and walked back towards the door, opening it so she could leave. Glancing over her shoulder, where Laura was still standing, hesitantly, Mattie swallowed the little bit of pride she had left- pride at the fact that she needed that little human to help her- and finished.
"Even if you go get help, by the time you've come back, Carmilla will be gone. Can you really live with that? If you can, then you know where the door is. If not? Well, we might just have some time."
Mattie let the door swing shut behind her, leaving the lock unturned, hoping that the stupid little human she was leaving behind would make the choice she needed.
"Stupid vampire older sister with her stupid concern and stupid guilt tripping over her stupid younger sister and just stupid making me care. I hate them all. And again, with the chains, what is it with these chains?"
Laura fell silent as Mattie turned and glared at her, yanking on the chain wrapped around her wrists so Laura stumbled forward, almost enough to make her fall. When Laura glared back Mattie just chuckled, rolling her eyes as she turned back towards the other vampires accompanying them.
"Humans," she said, saying the word as if it left a particularly nasty taste on her tongue. "Pathetic, pitiful little creatures. At least this batch won't have to suffer much longer."
"It's too bad," one of the men said, his eyes roaming the line of chained women. "It's almost a shame we can't play with them first."
Laura forced down a shudder at his words, biting her tongue to keep her remark in. Shifting her wrists as she walked, a brief sense of relief rolled over her as the chain loosened, the lock dangling half open from the link. It would be a quick matter to slide them off, slip behind the rest of the group, make her way back out of the castle and find her horse.
A quick matter, a reassuring fact, but an urge she resisted.
How could she leave the girls she walked with, Carmilla, to their fate?
"Are you sure, Ms. Belmonde?"
"I'm sure," Mattie said smugly, waving the others ahead of her, the chain held loosely by her side. "Go ahead and get yourselves settled for the show, darlings. Get yourselves a snack. I'll take care of the entertainment." Wagging her fingers as they left, for a long while Mattie just stood there, listening, her smiling sliding from her lips the moment they were gone. Dropping the chain, she crossed her arms and turned to face Laura, murder on her face. "You're going to get us killed."
"Only if you don't first," Laura growled, sliding her hands free of the chains, rubbing the chafed skin. "What the hell's with jerking me around like that?"
"I only had to yank your chains because you can't keep your mouth shut," Mattie snapped back. Reaching out, she grabbed Laura by the shoulder and twisted her around, pointing at the four other girls trailing behind her. "They," she hissed, "aren't talking. They aren't playing around with their chains. They aren't doing anything but walking when you walk, and when we get to the ceremony, they're not going to do anything besides walk into the Light and die. If you don't act exactly like them when we get to the pit, you won't have the time to pull your little stunt. Mother will break your neck and push you into the hole before you die, making all of this a waste of my time. So pull your act together, or I'll kill you myself."
"Fine," Laura said, shrugging Mattie off. Glancing at the other girls, Laura couldn't help but wince. None of them had said a word in the dungeon when Mattie had escorted her down there, instead they were just standing where their vampires had left them. They had the perfect the vapid stare and stupid grin Carmilla had been trying to teach her, literal sheep led by the chains hooked to their hands.
They creeped her out, more than anything. But Mattie was right. She had to.
"Fine," Laura said again, picking her chain back up and wrapping it back around her arms, holding up the end so Mattie could hook the lock through the links. "Let's go."
"Waiting on you, cupcake."
It was like the sun coming up underground, blinding and beautiful. No matter how hard she tried, Laura couldn't force herself to look away, couldn't even bring herself to blink, lest she miss a moment of the light. It was only when Mattie stepped in front of her, blocking the source, that she could turn her head, staring instead at her shoes.
"Keep your eyes down."
When Mattie shifted back over, leaving Laura fully exposed, she didn't look up, keeping her eyes fixed on the ground before her. When the other girls pushed at her back, trying to get closer, she leaned against them, subtly trying to keep them back from the edge that was drawing them.
"My children. It's time."
Laura tensed as the voice spoke up, Maman's gaze an almost physical feeling as she scanned the room. Curling in on herself, Laura let the others surge forward, hiding behind the sacrifices clambering for death, trying to find some sort of cover from her and the Light. Slipping off her chains, Laura quickly backed away, half-covering her face so she could see without the overwhelming desire to join the girls dancing towards the edge.
Maman was standing there, Laura's sword on her hip, her smile wide as she beckoned the others towards her. Carmilla was by her side, looking up at the ceiling, refusing to watch while Will laughed nearby, reveling in the death to come.
And Mattie was standing there, looking at her, waiting for her to do something, anything, to end this.
Part of Laura hated herself, part of herself was almost annoyed at how anti-climactic this was going to be, but the third part of her could only hope that her Father would forgive her.
Even if he didn't have a body to bury.
Sneaking up to rejoin the rest of the group, Laura forced a smile on her face, forced her feet to follow the movements the others were making, forcing a laugh from her lips as she danced, almost real enough to convince herself that this wasn't real, that she wasn't dancing to her death. But then Carmilla looked down, took the one glance at the victims she was allowing herself, and the horror that crossed her features as their gazes met reminded her everything was real.
And she was going to die. But she was going to take Maman with her.
Pushing through the crowd of dancing sacrifices, Laura threw herself forward, knocking the other girls off their feet as she closed the distance between herself the Maman. Grabbing the hilt of her sword, with a single yank Laura pulled the weapon free from its sheath, jumping away as the woman turned to grab her. She could feel her seals blazing, their golden light almost enough to overwhelm the one coming from the pit through her shirt, growing only stronger as the panic set in. Maman had turned to face her, turned to smile that terrifying grin, and everything in Laura knew that there was no fighting her. She had gone for the sword because that was what she knew, because every bit of her training had screamed at her to get some kind of weapon in her hands to protect herself, to kill what she faced against, but it would do nothing. It was a toothpick against a zombie, and there was no way to win with it.
"Little one," Maman almost purred, reaching out for Laura, her hand closing around the tip of the sword. Even over the laughter from the girls and the other vampires, a hoard of which Laura was only just now becoming aware of, she could hear the metal crunch, blood dripping from her hand as she smiled. "Little one," Maman said again, using the sword to pull Laura closer to her. Leaning down so she could whisper in her ear, Laura shuddered as Maman's breath washed over her, the overwhelming smell of blood flooding her.
"You've lost."
"And you're dead, bitch."
Throwing herself forward, both Maman and Laura shrieked as they fell over the edge of the pit, hurtling towards the Light that called. Pushing herself away from Maman, Laura closed her eyes, waiting for the end to come.
Step carefully, child, or you might find yourself falling.
And in that moment Laura started to laugh, because those were the last words she wanted to remember, the last of all the last things she could have on her mind, stupid words from a creature she had killed weeks ago. But she couldn't stop laughing, for they had come true, in only the way the words of a creature could.
So Laura laughed and held on tighter to the sword, the same sword she had killed that creature with, as she waited to die.
And she almost lost hold of the sword in her grasp as she was yanked to a stop, her eyes flying open at the Carmilla's pained cry.
"Carmilla!"
"Hold on, Cupcake," Carmilla gritted out, one hand dug into the stone wall of the pit and the other wrapped around the tip of the sword, blood dripping down the metal. Rubbing her feet against each other, Carmilla kicked off her shoes, her feet scrabbling for purchase against the rock. Finding a foot hole, Carmilla forced them up an inch, her teeth gritted as she moved. "You just keep holding on, and I'll get us out of here."
"Carm, your hand. You can't-"
"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Laura," Carmilla growled, pulling them up again. "I'm not going to let you die."
Slowly Carmilla pulled them up, her free hand and feet scrambling for holds as she tried to scale the almost vertical pit. Every movement seemed to cause her pain, her knuckles white around the sword, standing out even more against the red painting her skin as the metal cut deeper and deeper into her palm. But each time Laura asked her to let go, to let her fall, Carmilla just snarled and dragged them up another foot, cursing out her morals and mortality and her self-sacrificing idiocy.
Reaching the top, Carmilla rolled over the lip of the pit and pulled, Laura scrambling up after her, her arms shaking from holding on and the rest of her from adrenaline. Forcing herself to her knees, the half-remembered image of the cavern before she had fallen driving her to act, Laura scanned the area, ready. Ready for what, she had no clue. She had no weapons, none that were usable, anyway. Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Carmilla peeled the metal from her hand, her stomach rolling at the almost cream color she caught a glimpse of between the red, leaving the sword, its top half crumpled like paper, useless on the ground. If anyone was there to attack them, there was nothing she could do.
But no one was there. No one, neither human nor vampire, was present.
They were alone.
Turning back towards Carmilla, Laura gently took her good arm and pulled her to her feet, wrapping her arm around her waist to steady her. When Carmilla wavered, her gaze glazed from the pain, Laura just pulled her closer and walked, keeping her upright as they moved.
"Come on, Carm," Laura said, half stumbling herself as the ground began to shudder under their feet, an almost scream rising from the pit behind them. "Let's go home."
They were almost out of sight when the castle finally fell, the implosion a simple distant roar in their ears that forced them to stop and watch as the almost invisible form fell. Llamrei nickered softly under them. Already freaked out from the hoard of vampires that had raced out of the castle, she wanted nothing more to do than move, to run, to leave behind the nightmare. Carmilla's blood wasn't helping. They hadn't had time to do more than wrap a quick bandage around her hand, trying and failing to get the blood to stop flowing from the cuts.
With the walls shaking and the ground churning, they hadn't even had time to realize they were still truly alive, hadn't even had time to breathe properly since they had had to run. But with the ground finally calming, Laura slid to the ground and helped Carmilla down after her, settling the paler-then-before vampire in a sitting position so she could work.
Her bandage had been white when Laura had torn the fabric from her shirt, but the now black fabric stuck to her skin, refusing to move and forcing out a hiss when she tried.
"Carmilla, you need blood." Everything Laura had ever read told her this, told her about the need for blood that could consume vampires. How it was their drink and sustenance and medicine that could heal anything wrong with them.
"Unless you've got a sheep I can drain, cupcake," Carmilla said softly, her voice almost too quiet to hear, her tone pained as she cradled her hand against her chest, "not sure where you're going to get it."
"From here." Rolling up her sleeve, Laura pressed her wrist against Carmilla's lips. Forcing a smile when Carmilla looked at her out of the corner of her eye, Laura nodded and shrugged. "You saved me from some primordial Light monster that your mother wanted to feed me to. I trust you not to kill me after going through all that."
All Carmilla could do was nod and sink her teeth into Laura's wrist, her lips closing around the wounds and beginning to suck.
It was dark by the time they had both recovered enough to continue, the world no longer spinning for either of them when they tried to move. Carmilla had been able to stop, had been able to pull away when Laura had gone pale, but only just. She had lost too much. She would have had to have drained Laura in order to replace everything that had bled from her hand, and the hunger had almost forced her to continue.
But she had pulled away, the blood she had taken from Laura enough to get the wound started on closing, but she had still been weak. And Laura had tried to play it off, that she had been more than fine enough to have them keep going, but when she had tried to push herself to her feet, the world had gone back to spinning. Leaving them both lying against each other, Llamrei their only form of defense if anything came after them, alternating between laughing at the fact that somehow, someway, against all odds, they were still alive and sleeping as they recovered.
But now in the dark, even though they were still weak, they rose. They stood on their own two feet and faced each other, quiet, still, as they tried to figure out how their end would go.
It was Carmilla who finally broke the silence, her smirk unseen but heard, forcing a chuckle out of Laura as she spoke.
"Thanks for the snack, Sundance, but I should probably get going. Most of my siblings actually liked Mom, and if they find me before I get a real meal in me or before I catch up with Mattie, then I might actually find myself in a bit of trouble."
"Do you know where you're going?" Laura asked, reaching out to brush her hand against Carmilla's. When Carmilla responded, her hand taking Laura's and intertwining their fingers, Laura squeezed. "And do you know if I'm going to see you again? As much as I have to hate you because you're a vampire," Laura quickly added, "we did make a good team."
"Who knows, Creampuff?" Carmilla said, pulling away, her form melting into the darkness. "Maybe in another life, when you've been reborn into a meddling school girl who knows nothing about the world, we'll share a home. Or maybe next week," she added with a smile Laura could only just see in the darkness. "With Maman dead, the vampire world is going to be insane. We'll just have to see."
"We'll just have to see," Laura repeated. Letting go, she watched as the form she had been following disappeared, leaving her alone.
It took three weeks for her to get home. Three weeks of Llamrei picking her way through woods Laura had never seen, villages Laura had never heard of, that didn't show up on any maps that she had ever known, which Laura added to the pieces of paper she had been able to pick up along her way. Three weeks of scavenging for food as she tried to survive her trip home.
By the time those three weeks passed and she was home, word of what she had done had spread, making her the most well-known Hunter in the world.
Between LaFontaine and J.P. trying to get her to become their lab experiment, being that she was only Hunter to have been bitten by a vampire and lived, Danny and Betty constantly plying her for details of the fight, and Perry and her Father fighting over who had more of a claim on killing her for her reckless stupidity, she couldn't be sure if that was a good thing or not.
But it left her with a good story for the scars on her wrist, scars even her healing seal hadn't been able to smooth over yet.
Scars that part of her was hoping would stay.
It had taken another two weeks for her to get cleaned up and healed, two weeks for her father to even begin to consider sending her back out into the field, despite the dozens of personal requests that specifically asked for her to take care of their problem. Two weeks for Laura to shake off the tons of new to be Hunters that had clambered to join Silas, all begging for her to be their mentor.
Two weeks for the letter to show up on her pillow, inside her locked room while she was gone, her name written on the outside of the envelope in a flowing script she had never seen before. A letter with a map and a messy 'X' placed over a random mountain range that surrounded a town a kingdom over, with an unpronounceable name that she had never seen before but that still brought a smile to her face when she saw it.
I found where William was hiding with a couple of my other brothers. Want to kill him with me? You have a week to get here before I start. – C
Laura was on Llamrei the next morning and gone before the others were even awake, heading straight towards the town Carmilla had marked, her own note left behind on her Father's desk so he would know.
Know to worry, know to be mad, and know that she would be back when she could.
I have to go kill an ass. I'll be back when I'm done, and hopefully without some more scars. But no promises. Love you, Dad. - L