Chapter three. Aren't you lucky (wink)
Disclaimer: I still own nothing D: And yet Stephanie Meyers has a fortune… Quote Mark Twain: 'No wonder truth is stranger than fiction, fiction has to make sense'.
He felt some sort of change overcoming him.
His being…his essence, his mind…. He felt it shifting, twisting, morphing… What exactly it was, he couldn't quite say. However, when his eyes fluttered open, he noted right away that something was different. Aside from the fangs he had developed, his paling skin…any other physical traits, something else had become evident. He was completely calm. It was more than that, even, it wasn't that he was tired, no. It was that given the entire situation…he was calm. Apathetic, almost. Everything suddenly seemed…like no big deal. He sat up and shook his head a bit, rubbing his forehead. It wasn't…apathy, quite. It was more like…confidence? Yes, like some sort of extreme confidence; confidence that made everything seem…mundane. The thoughts that attacked him such as 'I'm a vampire', 'I'm working for a vampiress' or 'I have to bring Kratos here', which normally would have caused him to go into a panic, all of a sudden seemed so trivial. It was like he could be in a room full of raging dragons and be like 'So what?', it felt like nothing was a problem. Like everything that could try to face him was…inferior. It was a supreme confidence that felt…absolute.
"You're awake," his mistress whispered.
He turned his head, seeing her sitting on the dais edge with two of the bats beside her, curling their tails around her frail form protectively.
"Yes," he answered simply, nodding once.
"How do you feel?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.
"…Different," he stated in the same monotone, his brow furrowing slightly "I feel…."
"You feel as if you can do anything, don't you?" she finished, stroking one of the bat's snouts.
"…"
Yes. That was what it felt like. Like everything on this world- that this world- was all so…trivial. That all its fears and woes…what did it mean to him? Nothing could touch him. Though there was still another side, logic speaking, a sense telling him not to let his guard down, to be aware of his surroundings, to be vigilant.
"That's understandable," she said, "that's how everyone feels at first. You are not invincible, though, Lloyd… Use that confidence, but do not fall prey to it."
He looked at her a moment and then up at the sky, noting how the moon was still high in the dark abyss through the hole made by the clearing they sat in.
"How long have I been asleep?" he asked simply, his voice dull, emotionless.
"A day," she stated, looking up at the moon as well, "it's good that you woke up at night…the sun will harm you, as of now."
"…Who are you?" he whispered, his eyes flickering a bit as he frowned.
"To you? Mistress," she said, her eyes narrowed.
"Very well," he stated simply, glancing away from her.
He turned away and then stopped, realizing something else that had changed. He had come wearing his black undershirt and his slacks, with the red boots. What he wore now was, quite obviously, different. Crimson and ebon, an elegant, sophisticated fashion in cut and design. His shirt resembled that of a tux, long-sleeved, with a red ascot around his neck, hidden mostly by the high, simple, black collar. His slacks were less flashy, but by no means less elegant, and beneath them he wore two black-leathered boots, the same shade as the fingerless gloves that now donned his hands. The trailings as he had had on his old jacket were still there, but having been replaced with crimson velvet, and the belts that crossed his waist and held his swords were dark silver, as were the buttons and other adornments to his coat. Wait…he hadn't had his swords when he came in here. Or these sheathes; the same bleeding red color, smooth, almost dangerous looking themselves. He pulled out one sword, his eyes widening somewhat at what he found. Its hilt resembled that of a bat leg, the pommel that of its foot clutched around a sphere. The blade itself was not so much a blade as it appeared to be a single, large fang…
That certainly looked capable of slicing anything.
"You fight like that, yes?" she spoke up, watching him from the side. "I do hope they are to your liking…"
He looked them over and then glanced at his left hand, catching sight of his exsphere gleaming in the light of what was now a full moon. His mother's exsphere-
His eyes widened, a short gasp escaping from him.
"Are you well?" she asked softly.
"W…What…What did you…" he trailed, his body beginning to shake as he looked at the gem.
"Hm?" she tilted her head to the side.
"W- What did you do to me?!" he shouted, jumping to his feet. "I-! I don't-! I don't act like this! I don't think like this-! What did you do to me?! What-?!"
"Be silent, Lloyden," her eyes narrowed dangerously, gleaming red, "or you shall be punished."
His voice died in his throat and his sudden panic vanished, leaving his entire being calm once more. Though his body calmed, his thoughts still raced. He…he wasn't like this. What had happened to his mind? Or maybe it wasn't his mind, it was…what was it…? He didn't know. All that he knew was that…he wasn't the same as he was….
"This is an exsphere, isn't it?"
She was before him, holding his left hand out toward her face. The female frowned deeply, her eyes narrowed intensely. He went to answer and she cut him off with a quick glare before inspecting the gem.
"…I suppose you may keep it," she stated, releasing his hand, "I see no reason why not…"
Lloyd opened his mouth a bit before his fangs lengthened suddenly, causing him to let out a cry and hold his teeth, running his fingertips along the sides. They were so smooth, so slick, and strong, considering the length. Once again he accidently pierced his own skin, wincing and going to take his finger from his mouth.
"No," she said softly, pushing his arm back, "Go ahead, taste it."
His hand began to shake violently as placed his cut on his tongue, closing his mouth over it. He sucked some of the fluid out, a satisfying, content emotion resulting. He let out a low moan of contentment, his eyes opening. The brown irises began to glow a vibrant, unearthly red, earning a small smile from the pale vampiress.
"It tastes good, doesn't it?" she purred softly. "I assure you, it's so much more delectable from a human…"
His eyes snapped back to brown, yanking his finger from his mouth.
"Oh? Did I say something wrong?" she smirked lightly, her eyes narrowed.
"What did you want me to do?" he snapped down at her suddenly.
"Hm?" she tilted her head to the side.
"You said I'd perform tasks, then you'd give me back my humanity," he snarled down at her, "What are the tasks?"
"That hasty to return to a weak creature like that?" she tsked, shaking her head. "Well… If it cannot be helped… I did tell you to find me an animal, did I not?"
"Ah, yes…" he frowned, remembering what she had said, "I shall. …Though…why did my…my teeth-?"
"Your fangs," she said curtly, "Why they elongated? Growing pains, you could say… In time you will be able to retract and sprout them at will; for now you must simply deal with it.
"Very well," he sighed, closing his eyes, "Before I go, however, might I ask you something…Mistress?"
She smirked at the title, her eyes beginning to bleed red.
"You may," she said simply.
"…Why is it you want Kratos?" he asked simply, opening his eyes again.
Her eyes shot to their full intensity of crimson, her soft, frail body seeming to tense and sharpen with a sudden, uncurbed emotion. Lloyd wondered if he should take it back when she answered him, her voice short, cold, and quick.
"He owes me," she spat.
"Ah," he said simply, looking away.
Though curious, he found that he was unwilling to pry. Some sense seemed to tell him quite clearly that to press it now would yield no desirable results. He would just have to wait until later, when she would be more likely to indulge him…
"Now then, I await your return," she stated, sitting on the edge of the dais, "bring me something warm-blooded, won't you? Alive. It's better alive…."
"How do you intend I catch it?" he asked, tilting his head to the side a bit.
"Incapacitate it and bring it back here," she huffed weakly, "and do hurry… Or I may make you my meal after all."
Lloyd twitched slightly, though the movement didn't reach his eyes; he merely continued to stare at her. With a reluctant sigh he turned his head toward the woods and began to leave-
"Lloyd? Are you forgetting something?" she whispered, her voice cracking.
He stopped. Forgetting? What had he forgotten? He had his swords, his mother's exsphere…he wanted to hurry and get this all over with. Get it over with so he could go back to his friends and explain, and beg their forgiveness. So he could….not feel like this. So he could be human again with human emotions, not this unnatural confidence, this inhuman sense of…strength. He unconsciously ran his tongue along his teeth again, trailing down his fangs. They actually felt rather….nice, to have. He couldn't explain it, but…just having them made him feel complete; at ease, content…. Oh, right, forgetting? What was he forgetting-? …That. He frowned a bit before turning back to her, withholding a sigh. He bowed to her with far more elegance than he thought he had, like a gentleman primed to do so since childhood.
"By your leave, my mistress," he said politely, fluidly.
"Very good," she smiled, clapping her fragile hands together twice, "you may leave."
He wasted no time in doing so, walking into the dark woods. Strange….they did not seem to disturb him as they did before. The dark, twisted, decayed vegetation, the cries of the undead monsters, the sense of utter despair that overrode the darkness… He noted all of it, yes, but none of it seemed to matter anymore. It all seemed simply…there, and that was that. He found himself beginning to fidget with his somewhat retracted fangs, his tongue repeatedly running against them, nudging them, prodding them, as if trying to convince himself they were there. They felt funny… It was rather like when one had a loose tooth as a child, how something different in his own body fascinated him.
Snap.
This had happened not long ago, the same place, the same way walking through the woods, but this time it didn't scare him, it…intrigued him. He almost fluidly moved toward the source of the sound, his eyes narrowed and his senses focused. Before, he had the sense he was being hunted….now he was the hunter, and anything around him was his prey. That was how it felt, anyway; it felt as if everything was merely an opportunity. Not a threat, never a threat. What he found upon inspection was a large, wild boar, rooting around the undergrowth of the dismal forest. It was a huge animal, perhaps the size of Noishe. Still, boars of this size were relatively common in Tethe'alla, according to what they had learned from their Tethe'allan natives. All right, he could bring this back to 'Maetala', his 'mistress'. Now, how to get it there…
He caught its scent in his nostrils, tensing suddenly. The smell….it was tempting, the smell of something warm with a heartbeat… His mouth unconsciously opened and his fangs ached, sliding forward from his gums. It would be great, wonderful, sublime, if he could just tear it apart, feel the warm life-blood of that creature sliding into his throat-
He flinched.
"N- No! No!" he shouted, slamming himself in the face.
The pig heard him. Lloyd cursed loudly as it bashed its way through the foliage to bear down on the young vampire, letting out a feral squeal as it lowered its tusks and charged. Lloyd dodged nimbly, momentarily shocking himself at how easily, how fluidly he moved. His prey barreled on a few meters before skidding to a halt, turning its bulky body back to face him. It took a few seconds for it to do so, as large as it was….and that was all Lloyd needed.
"Hyah!"
The boar let out a squeal of pain as its weight buckled, its back legs having been hacked off in one fell swipe. Lloyd's eyes widened again as the blood splayed in the air, almost in slow motion, the red liquid rising and then falling to the ground with a splash. His attention was drawn back at the creature's shrieks of pain, momentarily forgetting the blood. It couldn't walk like this, all right, that was good then…but how he was supposed to get it back? He couldn't lift that much…
He heard flapping and a loud creak as something landed on the tree beside him. One of the bats had followed him, perching itself in the tree. Lloyd's eyes narrowed and he looked up at it.
"…Well, now that you're here, why don't you help me move this?" he huffed.
Honestly, if they were able to get around like this, why didn't she just have them bring her prey?
It looked at him a moment before swooping down on the pig, grabbing its neck with its claws. The bat's tail wrapped around the front legs securely, tying it together before snapping its neck. Lloyd flinched slightly as the beast fell limp, though it was obviously still alive, based on its breathing. Once this was accomplished the bat jumped off the boar, its tail still tied around the legs. It flew a bit, dragging the animal a few feet across the ground. Lloyd stared a moment before walking up to the bat and hesitantly grabbing the length of tail between the bat and the boar, looking up hesitantly at the black monster before it looked back at him and then attempted to move forward. Seeing no reason why not, he proceeded to attempt to drag the pig along with the help of the statue-creature, finding that it was….surprisingly easy. What wasn't easy was the smell…it took everything in him to keep looking ahead, to ignore it. It was so…so intoxicating, so…oh, he just couldn't stop inhaling the scent, it was like some kind of drug. He couldn't get enough of it. His fangs lengthened to the fullest they could, causing him to have to keep his mouth open so he didn't cut himself, but this only served to allow him to taste the scent on the air, of free-flowing blood…
A soft giggle met his ears.
"Oh, Lloyden, you did so very well…"
When had he gotten here? Was he really so preoccupied he hadn't noticed how far he had walked? Regardless, he released the bat's tail and it in turn released the boar, flying off to perch on the empty pedestal. His mistress smiled softly at him, walking straight for the boar's side. She stroked its neck, her mouth opening as her fangs slid out.
"So long…" she croaked, placing her teeth above its neck.
She bit in harshly, the sound most akin to that of one taking a bite out of an apple. Lloyd flinched as she began to feed, the sound coming in loud gulps that seemed almost loud enough to vibrate through his own body. Not that it wasn't already, but in another sense. With every swallow she took, he winced, his eyes widening slightly each time. It was taunting him; that she was feeding and he wasn't…it made him…mad…
He shook his head violently, closing his eyes.
He didn't like blood. That was sick. He was human. He didn't like blood. That was sick. He was human….
"Oh, where are my manners?" her voiced asked softly.
Lloyd turned to look at her as she stepped away from the now dead animal, wiping her stained mouth with the back of her hand. Her eyes gleamed red as she looked up at him, a smirk on her face.
"Cut it open," she stated, pointing at its side.
Lloyd went to ask why, but saw her look and stepped forward. He drew one sword and eyed the carcass warily, doing everything in his power not to look at the bleeding stumps of its back-legs, not to notice that wasted, precious fluid-
"Grr… Hah!" he shouted violently, slicing the corpse.
In a few swipes, its side fell open, revealing the organs, muscles, bones….all blood-soaked. The scent hit him like running into a brick-wall, he began to see stars from the intensity of the odor that was overriding his brain.
"It's dead, but it still has some blood," she smiled from beside him, "You are young, you need some to develop properly."
He almost went to snap at her, fury spiking inside him at the remark. Develop? He didn't want to develop! He didn't even want to be this far as it was! However, that anger disappeared in less than a second. His fangs sank into the exposed muscle tissue, blood trickling into his mouth. With rapid, powerful gulps he found himself sucking the corpse dry, the blood still warm. It was addictive, like nothing he'd ever experienced. As much as he relished every drop, every part of him screamed to take in more. More! Suck it dry so nothing was left, till it was a dried-out husk. Soon, it was. It was completely dehydrated, like jerky, stiff and devoid of any liquid. He didn't stop, though. The flavor still lingered in the veins, the arteries, the heart…
"Go ahead, keep going…" her voice trailed, "I'm fine for now…"
So he did. He ate through its blood vessels, chomping into the heart like an apple, slurping up the capillaries and any other parts that contained even a lick of blood. That was pretty much all of it. At the ends, the skeletons, fur, and some organs remained, but the rest was hallowed out. Lloyd held his hands out on the ribcage to support himself, panting violently as he stared into the hallowed out corpse. Blood stained his face and dripped from his chin, his tongue subconsciously sliding across it to recapture the precious droplets. It was all gone? Already? But…but he wasn't done yet! He- he-!
Crack.
His eyes jolted to the side, where his mistress had just cracked one of the ribs in two. She smiled softly at him and held out the broken bone, showing him the inside.
"Bone marrow," she stated simply.
He snatched it from her and began to suck out the marrow, drying out the flavor in seconds. So he broke another, and another, until he found himself sitting on the ground ravenously slurping up the marrow of the last bone. When he stopped, when he had taken ever last bit of flavor he could, he dropped the bone, staring at it as he continued to pant, air only now seeming to be a problem.
Then he froze.
His eyes widened and his body began to shake violently, staring at the boar's remains and the broken bones littered around him. He hadn't had a single thought the whole time; not a thought except the shouting instinct that demanded more. He could still taste the blood in his mouth and he could feel the satisfaction in his stomach, in his being. Then there was the most horrifying thought of all…that he had enjoyed every second of it.
His eyes watered and he closed his eyes, holding his head in his hands as he began to cry, sobs wracking his body while his fingers dug into his scalp. The male began to wail like a child, his cries echoing through the air as the vampiress sat on the dais edge, watching him with a satisfied smirk. Because she knew that even while he was crying, his was licking up the blood still stained to his teeth…
….Did I cross the line from 'creepy' to 'horror' here? If not, I might have to change the category. That took all I had…n.n'
…Wow. I feel really, really twisted right now….O.o'
Review?
