Cold, it has been for the last month or so. Living on the streets wasn't getting any easier, not that it's been easy before, still you think over twenty years of this he would be use to these harsh winter nights. Shuddering, he could see his breath hang in the air as he puffed out another shaky breath. He really wished he had some wool to wear. Sitting down on the cold cobble step, he looked around for his next meal, he soon found it, a rat. Quickly he snatched the creature up, knowing it's fate, the rat let out squeaks of desperation, he could only sigh.
"If it's any consolation, I really don't want to eat you, I've gotten the black death three times already, but, I don't eat people. So you have to do. Don't worry. It won't hurt, it's like going to sleep." He told the small rodent, then opening his mouth, he bit down on the animal's neck and started to suck the blood out of it. The rat didn't struggle, it just slowly shut it's eyes until finally it was no more. Once he had his fill, he slowly put the animal down on the street and spat out several rat hairs. He shuddered once more, but not because of the cold, this time it was because of the aftertaste of rat blood, it always tasted horrible.
"A meal fit for a king..." A voice sounded from behind him. He stood and turned towards the voice, hissing darkly at the stranger standing in front of him. This stranger was a male couldn't be older than twenty, dirty blonde hair, tan skin, a long black cloak covering him keeping him warm in these harsh nights. The stranger paid no mind to the vampire in front of him as he took a step closer, peering at the vampire's 'home'. It was really just an alleyway that the vampire had claimed his own, keeping away from his human counterparts. Once again, he hissed at the stranger.
"Oh stop that, you pose no threat to me. You're a half blood, I can see it in your eyes." The stranger told him, earning a blink of confusion from him.
"How can you tell?" He asked, he was met with a chuckle.
"Everyone knows vampires have cat like pupils, only half bloods have normal pupils." The stranger answered. There was a silence between the two, the half blood didn't stand down, he just sized the stranger up, debating if he could take on a man of his age or not, after a moment, he soon realized just who he was looking at.
"Wait, you're the dragon rider!" He gasped out and backed up, many stories circled around the rider, how he had managed to befriend a dragon, how he taken on many other giant creatures and won. There was no way he could take on someone of his caliber.
"I see my reputation proceeds me. Oh would you please relax? I'm not going to take on someone who's only fourteen. Well, someone who looks fourteen anyway. Besides, I know from experience, half bloods are pretty weak." The rider said, he then sat down on the cobble stones and patted the ground next to him.
"Sit. I only wish to talk, look, I didn't even bring the dragon." He told him, hesitating a bit, the vampire slowly sat next to the man. Once seated, the rider wasted no time in talking. "I know of you, rather infamous for killing the local cats and dogs, but, you are the only vampire I know of that refuses to eat humans..." The rider started, crossing his legs, the vampire said nothing to this as the rider continued.
"Nonetheless, the king and queen still wish for your death, saying you a vampire and that you have no right here. I have told them I would follow you and see if you're worth killing."
The vampire held his breath, if he had any color in his face he would of turned pale as well, seeing this reaction, the rider leaned back and just shook his head.
"You aren't. You are, in all uses of the word, harmless. I've told them this, they weren't convinced, so, I've decided on something better." The rider told him, turning to face the vampire.
"...Exile?" The vampire asked and the rider something.
"Well, no, to prove my point to the king and queen...How would you like to travel with me? With the dragon of course."
That question was so sudden the vampire felt his head spin in confusion.
"I-I don't even know your name! Why would you want to travel with a vampire?!" The vampire asked, standing from the cold street, he fidgeted with his fingers, and was met with that familiar chuckle.
"I told you why I wish for you to travel with me, plus if it helps, I wouldn't mind having another companion, I love Kuriana's company, but some sort of human company would be preferred." He told the vampire, this earned a look of confusion from the half-blood.
"Kuriana?"
"The dragon. She named herself, oh, and my name is Zenith. You are?" He asked, bringing his out for the half-blood to shake, the half-blood paused before he took the riders hand in his own to shake.
"ATTICUS!"
Atticus snapped out of memory and turned to Twigleg, the homunculus had his seat belt on, he also had it twisted in his hands and was biting down on the fabric, clearly in fear.
"What?" Atticus asked, Twigleg didn't relax he just glared at the vampire.
"What?! WHAT?! YOU RAN THREE STOP SIGNS BACK THERE! WE ALMOST CRASHED TWICE! AND I WOULD LIKE TO BE IN ONE PEICE WHEN I FIND BEN!" Twigleg roared out, his squeaky voice making it rather amusing to the vampire.
"Sorry, I was lost in thought." Atticus shrugged.
Twigleg just huffed in response to that and turned his head away. After a couple minutes of silence between the two, Twigleg finally spoke without yelling.
"So, I take it Atticus is a cover name?"
Atticus just groaned out, back with the questions it seemed.
"How could you possibly know that?" Atticus asked.
"You said it yourself, you've been around for centuries now. I figured you changed your name at one point."
"...Yeah, I did, but I'm not telling you my real name, lets just drop it." Atticus told him simply.
"Fine, Fine...Why Atticus? Of all the names you chose Atticus, it's a rather rare name."
"...I changed my name in the sixties, there was some famous book that came out around them, changed my name to the character's name."
"Wait, you changed name to Atticus...Finch?"
"Oh you've read the book too? Anyways, no, I kept my same last name...Noel. I just felt that my first name needed to change." He told Twigleg, there was another silence between the two, Twigleg spoke again.
"Surely you're first name couldn't off been that bad."
"Drop it. I don't want to talk about that, I don't want to talk about my past. Period. End of story. You bring it up again, I will bite you." Atticus warned, Twigleg saw him gripping the steering wheel tight, his knuckles turning white from it. Not liking the idea of being bit, Twigleg did as Atticus asked. They drove in silence, finally after what seemed like forever, the pool was in eyesight, however, Atticus didn't even get halfway there when he stopped the car on the side of the rode.
"What? Why did we stop?" Twigleg asked, Atticus undid his seatbelt and got out of the car, following the half blood's lead, Twigleg did the same, however he didn't walk to far from his door when he saw what Atticus was looking at. A familiar blue hoodie laying on the ground. Atticus picked it off the ground and sighed.
"We're too late, dammit..." Atticus growled holding the hoodie in his hands. Twigleg felt more than worry build up inside him, he felt anxious and sad as well. He tried to stop the sob swelling up, but he just couldn't. Putting his hands to his mouth, Twigleg slowly sat down on the damp grass and put his knees to his chest.
"What are we going to do now?" He asked Atticus, there was another silence, Atticus seemed to be thinking, till finally he could only say one thing.
"We...We go to the professor...That's the last thing I can think off." Atticus told him, nodding ever so silently, Twigleg could see him visibly swallow down his pride as he did so. Twigleg didn't want to move at first, truthfully, it was getting to the point that he just wanted to curl into a ball, however, his young master was in danger, now was not the time to give up. Shakily standing, Twigleg nodded and said,
"Then, let's not waste anytime."
"Why are you doing this?" Ben asked, breaking the silence between him and Celeste's assistant, he just got a sneer in response, followed by a harsh,
"I have my reasons."
"She's evil, and she treats you like you're dirt." Ben told him, he just got a scoff this time. Slowly leaning his body to look behind the assistant, he could see Celeste, back turned, working on some sort of potion...or Poison...
Ben suddenly cried out when his hair was harshly grabbed from the back and he was forced to look up at the assistant again.
"Hey dumbass! Don't you damage my vessel!" Celeste yelled out from her cauldron.
"Just looking, guy's a wimp anyway." He said letting go of Ben's hair.
"Wimp, huh? I'd rather be a wimp than a dumbass." Ben spat at him, it didn't even phase the assistant, he just sat down on a nearby table and looked at Ben.
"So, you're the dragon rider? I guess just anyone can be rider's these days." The assistant said, Ben felt a bit of anger flare up, he knew this guy was toying with him, but that didn't stop his anger any less.
"...Shove off." Ben growled, another scoff.
"So scary. What are you going to do next? Ask me to kindly go away?"
Ben let out a bitter snort, but didn't want to press any farther, he just wanted to get out of here. Struggling did nothing as the ropes did nothing more than dig into his arms and turn his skin raw.
"...It's done..." Celeste said finally, making everyone look at her. She walked up to Ben, a vial in her hand. Inside it was a dark purple liquid that honestly just looked like grape juice, but it smelt of sulfur. "Now, Dumbass, this is were you come in, open his mouth." Celeste demanded. Ben kept his mouth clamped shut and turned his head violently from side to side. No way in hell was he going to drink that.
"Hold still." Celeste growled darkly, Ben felt his head slowly down as her words twisted in his mind, but he quickly broke free of whatever it was and kept shaking his head vigorously. "Dumbass! I said help what the hell are you doing!?" Celeste yelled, Ben didn't stop to see what the assistant was doing, he didn't care if he got a whiplash by doing this, he just kept banging and shaking his head.
"I SAID HOLD STILL!" Celeste screamed at him, all at once he stopped in mid shake as he felt a powerful hold grab him and force him still. Celeste used this to her advantage and grabbed his jaw with her for finger and thumb and forced his mouth open.
"Now. Your body will be mine..." She said.
'Stop!' His mind screamed but he had no control over his body, it was as if he was a puppet to her now. She started to tip the vial, the liquid got closer and closer to entering his mouth, but, before she could pour it out, her body suddenly gave a jolt forward and she dropped the vial, spilling the liquid all over Ben. He didn't care if it was on him, just as long as he didn't have to drink it. He felt free from whatever held him and looked at her.
Her whole body was ridged, she seemed to be shaking horribly though, then, she slowly turned around and Ben got the shock of his life when he saw the knife sticking out of her back. Blood starting to pool around the wound. Looking just passed her, he saw her assistant standing there, clearly the one who did it.
"How dare you..." She squeak out.
"Go to hell." He snapped at her, before taking out a second knife and stabbing her right in the throat. Ben couldn't watch, he forced himself to turn away. He listened to her gurgle for a second before dropping down on the floor, he could only assume she shook there for a second, choking on her own blood and the knife before she went limp. Swallowing hard, Ben looked back the assistant, not daring to look down at the corpse now laying there.
"...Thank you..." was all Ben could say, the assistant just smirked, and then with no warning got right into Ben's face, only centimeters away from the boy. He then smiled at Ben, showing his yellow crooked teeth.
"Oh...I'm not done with you...not by a long shot...we're going to have a lot of fun, you and I."
Ben let out a sob of fear, and the assistant just kept that sick smile on his face.
"Cheer up, Dragon rider, because guess what. You're taking me to the rim of heaven..." The assistant then finally backed away and pulled out a cloth from his pocket, before Ben could even react, the cloth was shoved in his mouth and the assistant grabbed a nearby roll of duct tape, pulling at it, he smiled again and tapped Ben's mouth shut before finishing his sentence,
"Whether you want to or not."
End of story one.
So, I felt it would be best if I split the story up into two parts because after this part it really is just a completely different story. and no, I did not forget about Lola, she'll be in part two.