"The stitches didn't hold,
My blood is running cold;
You're tearing into me,
You're happy as can be."
- "What You Do" by The Queenstons
It was getting darker and darker. Winter nights in Valoran had never been kind to the land's inhabitants; especially in nights like this, when the wind felt like blades cutting through the rags of the poor and spaces between windows of the rich. It didn't matter who they were; in front of nature, every being was equal.
But there was one who did not abide by the preset laws of nature, one who did not feel the icy touch of the gale as she embraced it; one who did not live in the day, but the night instead. Her eyes were cold and fierce - almost animalistic - but another look in those gleaming blue eyes you can tell the determination and the unrelenting flame that burned only in the heart of a justicar.
If one can only tell so much from her eyes, then her outfit and equipment certainly defined who she was: A hunter of the night. These silver bolts and arched crossbows would deal so much damage to those who had fallen to black magic that a mere touch could burn these damned creatures and leave a scar for days.
As she stared down at the silver and thought about it, a soft pain broke her out of her little reverie. She lifted her hand and saw a mark on the finger.
The arrow had burnt her.
She frowned at the mark and slid on her glove soon after, not letting it delay her nightly duty to Valoran.
In a moment, she had arrived at the familiar temple she was once invited in. Having to deal with past memories was never easy for her, they were like stubborn stains that withered away to become a part of her. After a short pause, she stepped into the opened door and shut it behind her as the wind rushed past her cloak, leaving her to the silence and blessed solitude.
Come on, Vladimir. You know I'm here.
A light crack came from one of the doors next to the altar at the center of the temple, emerging from it was the man she waited for.
"Shauna Vayne, I am flattered. You haven't come to me in a while." The Crimson Reaper looked her over with his crimson eyes before they widened as he came to a realization.
"Interesting… what are you now, my dear?"
"Does it matter?" Within the blink of an eye she shifted in front of him and glared at him, "I've come to end you."
She didn't give him the chance to defend himself as she pinned his limbs to the stone wall behind him. The hemomancer groaned in pain but returned her glare with a grin. "You are faster…and stronger." The admiration spoke through his husky voice, "You've became one of them."
His words flipped a switch in her as she bared her fangs calmly. Like an experienced surgeon handling with her gadgets for operation, Vayne grabbed a silver arrow and approached him slowly, eyes marking the imaginary X's on his body. In her mind she had planned out what she was going to do, and what she was going to do was not in Vladimir's favor at all.
"I'm known for delivering swift deaths, Vladimir, but for you…"
She almost failed to hide the grin when she felt him struggling as the arrow was plunged straight into his heart, momentarily disturbing his circulation. When she pulled away, Vladimir had lost the strength to hold up his body, but not quite dead yet. Vayne knew the capacities of a hemomancer; However, unlike how she dealt with the other hemomancers, she was going to take time to torture this man.
She had to, after all, for all the atrocities he had committed onto her.
"Enjoying this?" He lifted his head and smiled at her. She always hated that smile; it was the same smile that lured her into his lair many years ago.
"Absolutely." Came her cool reply before she fed another silver arrow to his body, this time into one of his lungs. Vladimir gasped and gritted his teeth. If the pain wasn't manifesting itself on his face, it sure was now. His nails were biting into his palms, but he looked up and kept vision on her. Vayne could not tell what he was thinking behind those eyes, but she knew that he wasn't afraid and that agitated her; she wanted him to go through the same helplessness and fear he had put her through.
"What," He coughed out a little bit of blood before he spoke again, "What else can you do, my dear?" When he heard no reply, Vladimir continued with a vicious laugh, "Does hurting me mend that little hole I left on your heart?"
She played tough, but his words had the effect on her as he wanted them to. The memory of that night came back to haunt her, when she was still human, and how his wickedness fooled her and how easily she let her guard down.
How he laid his lips on her skin. And raped her.
She should have seen it coming. She saw the warnings, the omens…but she did not heed them, nor did she seek revenge after the incident. For the longest time in her life, she became a coward, shivering at the memory and ashamed in front of the ghost of whom she had been. She was that little girl in the closet again, helpless and scared, but crying did not relieve her pain, praying did not soothe her soul; she was left alone to her thoughts with no one to turn to.
All of these fueled her hatred for him, until eventually she would have her revenge - today was the day. With the newfound curse and blessing, she felt stronger; if a dead heart did her any good, it would be allowing her to think more rationally and clearly than before. She would never forgive herself if she would not seize this chance and end it once and for all.
"It felt good that night, didn't it?" Though her voice was not, her body was shaking. She leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear, "You loved the pain you gave to me."
"And now I will do the same to you, but with a mercy that you will never understand, Vladimir." It wasn't that she pitied the man, it was something - a legacy from her living heart - that made her unable to downgrade herself to the level of his kind, even if she had became something she despised.
She opened her mouth and licked his neck gently, testing the location of the juiciest artery with the tip of her tongue before biting down on it with a satisfied moan. The fluid burst into her mouth as she gulped, drinking and recovering. The early burn on her finger began to disappear with each mouthful she took in until the skin returned to normal. She shifted her hands to a more intimate position, holding him by his neck as a lover would, since she found no resistance from the hemomancer.
"I see you… hold a grudge against me taking your blood before…" Vladimir's strength faded as did his voice, "I hope it pleases you." Soon he began to hyperventilate and feel the aftermath of blood loss. He couldn't see anymore, and his breath labored.
Finally, Vayne removed herself from his neck and stared at him with those strikingly blue eyes; they seemed to glow in the dim light. He did not protest when she pushed her lips onto his and kissed him hungrily, generously sharing a portion of his own blood. Vladimir wanted to linger in it, but she pushed him away and wiped her mouth with the back of her gloved hand. "Now you are nothing but a drained body."
She only left enough blood for him to think. "I will never forgive you, Vladimir. But I thank you… you taught me to never trust again, and it had been a valuable lesson since."
Quickly taking a tour to his inner chamber and back, she revealed a red gem in her hand to him.
"This is your ticket to immortality."
She then crushed the gem beneath her heels, and that was when Vladimir let out a long sigh and finally let his head hung. There was blood leaking out of the broken gem and evaporating.
He was dead at last. The thought brought sourness to her nose, but she held it in and left the damned place after setting it ablaze. Burning with it her weakness, doubts, and her past. She felt snow coming from the dark skies above; perhaps it will make a fine tomb for whatever remains.
A/N Hey guys! This was written for a friend on tumblr, she sent me a request for a drabble about her character murdering mine... and there ya go. It was a nice lil idea we've been discussing, so I decided to put it up here. If you guys liked it, I'll write more about Vamp!Vayne and Vlad in the future :) Thank you for reading and reviewing!