AN: So as I promised a week later another chapter. I personally like this chapter so tell me what you think. I see all these authors get reviews by the hundreds. My goal is fifty. If you guys and girls can help out i'd love you guys forever. Enjoy.
Diclaimer: I dont own anyone but Victor, and any other character you cant identify as a card. which will probably be a lot but other than them, not mine.
She ran. She ran long and hard and in minutes the town was far behind her. She was terribly thirsty but she pushed the urge to lay the boy down and drink him dry, back. After all the trouble it was to capture him without tearing into his throat out of rage. She would not lose her cool now. She conveniently forgot that she could barely scratch the boy on her shoulders and he had almost killed her, if he hadn't exhausted himself first, well, that was the reason she forgot. She didn't want to think of what would have happened if he had held up just a little longer.
By this time the ground beneath her feet had become softer and gave a little beneath her light footsteps. She was traveling far faster than a horse, with more endurance too. The landscape was whipping past her too fast for even her superior eyesight to follow. But by the feel of the air she had a pretty good sense of where she was. She could the feel moisture in the air making everything it touched damp and cold. She could smell the air turning foul. The Swamp. Home sweet home. She picked up the pace and darted left and right to avoid roots, quicksand, half buried zombies, etc… The smell of her coven, her blood brothers and sisters, called out to her from the rapidly approaching mountain that stood in the center of the swamp. She jumped over a tar pit and weaved her way through the patch of tall swamp grass.
'Almost there. Man he's getting heavy. I need blood as soon as possible or I'm not gonna be able to haul his unconscious ass anywhere close to the coven.' She put on a burst of speed at this thought and made it a 4500 meter sprint. She just barely made it. She stopped just outside of her coven's cave and bent over to catch her breath. Dropping him on the ground she thought how hungry she was and how it was her fault that she was reduced to breathing for energy. Vampires didn't have to breathe unless they were really hungry.
'At least I got him here.' She thought. But as soon as this passed through her head a form melted from the shadows.
"Well, well, what do we have here? An exhausted vampire, a full sack of blood, and still breathing no less." The vampire said in an amused voice. It was a soft sing song voice. The vampire woman turned to the girl and said, "Look, Alsea, I can understand the urge to brag about dinner but there are two things wrong with this picture;" she held up two fingers to accentuate her point, "one, he's too scrawny to get you any recognition from anyone for this catch, and two, he's still breathing."
Alsea smiled. She explained to her friend what had happened and why she brought the human to their coven. Her friend grinned, a smile showing her unnaturally long canines. "Well then," she cackled with delight at the idea Alsea was proposing, "why didn't you say so?" She turned toward the cave and jerked her head at Victor. "Bring him in."
Victor woke up feeling like someone had drained the blood from his body and replaced it with molten lead. His limbs felt heavy and his mind was in a fog. Numbly looking around, he saw he was in a dark, damp cave with stalactites and stalagmites dripping water from some unknown source. Then Victor noticed that there were manacles on the wall and a soft glow coming from around a corner. Getting up (with much difficulty) he stumbled around the corner to come face to face with a metal grate of a door set into the stone wall of the cave. The soft glow came from a candle one the other side of the cell door. A low chuckle echoed from across the cave/cell. Twirling around, Victor could make out the figure of a person leaning into an indent in the stone wall. Victors mind still felt hazy. 'I know I should be wary, but I can't remember why.' He mused inside his head, 'better be careful anyways. Better safe, than sorry.' The figure laughed again.
"What's so funny? Hear any good jokes?" Victor asked dryly.
"Oh yes," the figure that Victor now realized was a man, said, "it's very funny. But somehow I doubt you'll find it as amusing as I." Victor arched one eyebrow. The man continued, "It's more of a riddle really. What's pale and fleshy, and about as bright as a rock?" Victor shrugged. The man leaned forward and smiled. His smile showed off freakishly long canine teeth.
"Dinner." He said as he continued grinning. Victor backed up into the cell door but felt it give under his weight. The door swung outward and Victor felt dainty girlish hands clamp down on his shoulders with an unnaturally strong grip. A hostile whisper hissed in his ear. "Move another muscle and I'll dig my fangs in so deep your head will roll on the floor!" she said, then finished sweetly, "got it?" Victor nodded dumbly. His mind finally started catching up with him and the fog lifted. Victor's knees gave out as images ran through his head. Running from a shadow, getting cornered by the vampire girl, using MAGIC!
'Iona's Judgement. That's what that last spell was supposed to be. Who's Iona and why is her judgement a spell.' Victor thought. His eyes widened as he realized that he also performed magic without a spell. That was supposed to practically impossible for anyone lower than master level. The figure seemed to notice his sudden realization. He motioned for the girl standing over Victor to not follow through with her threat and leave them. Turning to Victor he smiled again.
"I have a proposition for you Victor." he said using his natural glamour to hipnotize Victor. Victor looked up as the light started draining from his eyes. He was losing his grasp on his own mind to the vampiric intruder. The Vampire man felt the meak fight victor was putting up. He frowned. He needed Victor under his full controll for what he was gonna do.
"My name is Hunter Markov," he said, "what's your name?" Victor shook his head dumbly. "You know my name." he said in a dead emotionless voice, "It's Victor." Hunters grin widened to cheshire width, " Oh that's right. Your an orphane and dont have a last name. How about Victor Stray?" Hunter felt the fight go out of Victor the moment he gave him that name. This boy was unwanted and unloved. Hunter had just given him an identity. In his hippnotized state, Victor forgot what Hunter was. Then a crash sounded through the room making Hunters head jerk up to see Alsea had tripped on the stairs while bringing down food for Victor. Victor barely made the connection between Alsea and the girl that chased and captured him. Hunter snarled. Blinded by rage he struck out at Alsea, thinking of everything wrong Alsea had done ever since he had sired her. That was his first mistake. While controlling Victor, he had to keep up a temporary empathy link. The flood of Hunter's memories added with the smack that echoed throught the cave from his hand crashing into her face shocked Victor back to reality. With the fog lifted and no hypnosis to keep him down Victor finally realized the full danger of his situation. He also got a huge headache. But with all those alien thoughts running through his head, Victor only understood one thing. She was hated here. He didnt care what she was because, she was like him. She was unloved and unwelcome. He made up his mind in that moment to take her and go far away from this place. Hunter turned around when he felt his control of Victor disapear. Fangs completely sliding from their sheaths, he lung for Victor's throat intent on turning him. Victor grit his teeth and rolled to the side. looking back for a second he saw Hunter had ended up sinking his teeth into a stalagmite. Hurrying, Victor managed to put the girl in piggy-back position and instantly took off out of the cell, slamming the door behind him. He had just stepped on the first stair when he heard a bloodcurdling scream.
"RAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWRRRRRR!" Looking back for just a second, he saw that Hunter had slammed himself into the cage and was now steaming as if his flesh had been set on fire. 'Huh. Silver cell bars. Brilliant.' Victor thought. He took off up the stairs as fast as he could. The coven was a hollowed ot mountain. A twisting, winding maze of caverns and sub-caverns. He kept going up and up. Passing openning after openning. He started hearing voices in the rooms that he passed. They heard him too. they were chasing after him up the steep inclining cavern.
'They're playing with me!' he realized, 'Vampires can run faster than any human can!' Victor kept climbing the ever increases slope. His legs screamed from fatigue. Faintly, he could see a light at the top of the crude stairway the cave had become. 'Almost! There! I'm gonna...' "make it." Victor muttered as his foot slipped on a step. He was so close to the top, if he reached out, he could've grabbed the top step. He heard the vampires growl their laughter at his pitiful attempts at escape. Despair filled Victor to the brim. So close. He had been so close and now both him and the vampire girl were gonna die. In the last moment of the empathy link, he had felt Hunters intention for her. He was tired of dealing with her feelings, he was gonna kill her. Victor was more sad for her. He heard her moan. Her eyes were moving beneath her eyelids. He remembered the despair of an unfufilled life he felt when he thought she was gonna drain him. The only thing that saved him before was that powerfull feeling of regret and the urge not to die. The despair he felt now was quickly replaced with rage. It filled his eyes and burned his soul. Why should he and this girl have to live this way. Why should they be forced to live like they had, just to be killed. NO! He refused to lie down and take it now. He refused to ignore the fact that he had fought tooth and nail. But most of all, he refused to DIE!
Victor stood up and faced the Vampires that were now walking up the stairs. Cocky from the sure kill they thought was gonna accept it's fate. They couldn't have been more rage was boiling over and like a fire, it was becoming pure energy to fuel Victor. His eyes white. He pushed his mind out to somewhere. Victor didn't know what he was looking for but after a moment he found it.
No Daichi. A long glowing blade appeared as if from nowhere. The vampires shrank back. 'Silver' Victor thought, 'briliant.'
He pushed the rage back inside of him and forced the power to fill his body and limbs. He didnt want to pass out this time. No, he was gonna be awake when he got the girl away. he pointed the sword at the vampires and started backing away. He grabbed the girls wrist and pulled her arm over his shoulder so he coudl grab her waist and she'd be semi-movable. moving backwards up the stairs, the vampires followed them step for step. staying just out of reach. When one of them got too close, in Victor energized state, he'd flick his sword hand and the daring vampire would be reduced to ash. They finally got out of the cave of stairs and out onto what looked like a cliff. Victor backed up till his feet touched the edge. He was desperate again. He could feel the stength inside start to leave him. he clamped down on it and reduced two more vampires to ash. A vampire kicked his sword hand on the end of a swing and sent No Daichi over the edge of the cliff. A vampire woman walked forward calmly and stood a good five feet away from Victor and the girl. She looked fondly at the girl, then turned to Victor with a look of extreme disgust mixed with mild respect.
"Release her. Human." She said in a soft, sing song voice. Though she spat the word human at him like it was poison on her tongue. She looked like she was maybe 5'8" or 5'9" with the ivory skin and red eyes of a vampire. she also wore next to nothing (seems most of the girl vampires dressed this way.) She glared at him.
"Why?" asked Victor, "So you can kill her?" The older vampiress was taken aback and glared at Victor even more.
"And why, may I ask, would you ask me that?" She hissed at Victor. He could tell she had dropped her glamour. He was momentarily surprised that it didn't affect him when she had it on, or that he could even tell the difference.
Victor frowned. Then he felt the girls arm muscles tense slightly. Perfect, she was awake. He grabbed her knife off her belt momentarily remembering that it had once drawn his own blood and how he had beat her unarmed while she had it. He moved her in front of him and brought the knife up to her throat. She gasped as the cold blade touched her ivory throat.
"Bring me Hunter! He's locked behind the silver cell door in the dungeon." Victor said loud enough for all the vampires to hear. This was a gamble though. As a ripple of laghter rolled throught the undead crowd suspicion filled the vampire woman's eyes. she called forward a vampire that appeared to be a ten year old boy with no shoes.
"Go check the dungeon." she whispered to the boy. He ran off to check. Victor was cheering on the inside. He had seen that the woman was fond of the girl and had guessed she was in a position of authority by the way she carried herself. Like she was used to people doing what she said. He saw a potential ally in the woman if he could prove Hunter's intentions. Bending down to the girl's ear and started whispering almost imperceptibly so only she could hear him.
"Calm yourself." he whispered to her, "My name is Victor and I swear on my life I will do anything to make sure you live through this. I'm just trying to prove something. I have no intention of harming you in any way. I promise." She didn't say anything but she nodded just slightly. After a few minutes of Victor and the vampire woman glaring at each other. Hunter came up the stairs into the moonlight cursing as aome last few patches of his skin repaired themselves with steam coming off of it.
"Victor, glad to see you've found your way up here to the open air. It was so stuffy in that damp little cell." Hunter said through his glamour. Victor could see the contempt in his eyes. The slight twitch of his smile as he fought to keep it up. The glamour, once again for some reason, didn't affect him. Victor glared at Hunter.
"Hunter," Victor shouted so all the crowd could hear clearly, "I want you to let me go!"
Hunter laughed. "And why would I do that dear boy? What will you do if I dont?" Hunter was mocking him.
"I'll kill her!" Victor snarled, channeling the rage at Hunter for being so cruel into every word. Hunter threw his head back and laughed harder.
"You'll be doing me a favor Victor. Then I won't have to do it myself. Come on, finish up here and come back downstairs. I promise your life will be better as a vampire." He smiled his fake toothy smile. Victor smiled grimly.
"So you would farsake your own kin? Thats right Hunter I kniw she's a Markov too and that you sired her!" Victor had no idea how he knew this, it had just spilled out. Chalking it up to overflow info from the empathy link he had had with Hunter. Hunter was smiling.
"She was hungry." he said to the crowd, "She stole you out and brainwashed you with her glamour. She made you believe that we were out to get you." His logic was so sound that Victor, in his near glamour proof state for reasons still unknown to him, almost believed him. But then he saw the hurt in the womans eyes. Hunter had called the girl a traitor. She gasped again. All eyes turned hateful toward them and a slow chant started.
"Kill the traitor. Kill the traitor. Kill the traitor." She turned to Victor and dug here head into his chest. Momentarily stunned, Victor barely heard her say, "Nice to meet you Victor. I'm Alsea." She started to cry. Her tears soaked the front of his shirt. He grit his teeth.
"Time to go Alsea." She looked up, confused. He stared daggers and every other sharp object you can think of, at Hunter. "Sorry to disapoint Hunter," he said, not masking the contempt in his voice and letting it drip from every syllable, "But I really must be going." Hunter's eyes widened as he saw Victor had dicreetly slipped his arms out of the sleeves of his trenchcoat. Wrapping his arms around Alsea, Victor tipped back and dived off the edge of the cliff. Hunter shouted. Alsea screamed in his ear. But Victor stayed calm. Eyes closed and concentrating. He searched every inch of his conscience mind for his power...
And found nothing. His eyes snapped open. He saw the ground rushing up to meet him. That primal fear gripped him again. the same fear he felt when the vampire, no, when Alsea cornered him in the alley. The same fear he had felt in the stairway when he summoned No Daichi. The same power flooded through him. But not the same. He felt like the power was pulling him. With a tug in his gut he felt as if his body were passing through some gate. He hugged a screaming Alsea even tighter to his chest and passed through the gate. Hunter watched with awe from the edge far above. The only thing that hit the ground was Victor's tailwind.
AN: So I like it but remember. I want to hear your thoughts. that button is your friend and mine. Not very many cards this chapter.
Card list:
No Daichi: equipped creature gets +2 +0 (i know plainswalkers aren't creatures but if he's a person, why wouldn't he be able to use a weapon so i dont wanna hear about it.)
