Chapter Twelve: The Vampire's Wrath
Paul entered the family home, growling terribly and looking for a certain redhead. Having found her, he delivered a punch so powerful that it sent the human flying out the window, while it was still closed. The vampire turned from the broken glass, not caring what the authorities would think about the woman's broken body. He was too angry to even think about all that good blood going to waste.
He hadn't been able to find Haru, and he blamed her mother for not keeping her under control. Who knew where the girl would be now?
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Haru blinked. Drat, she should have thought of this. The brunette knew better than to try traveling like she was still a mortal, for the way she was dressed if nothing else. She sat back down on the altar to think, Baron hopping up in order to sit next to her.
"But you're sure you're fine?"
The brunette had to smile at his concern.
"Even better than when I was mortal; don't worry."
Nefertia hopped onto the stone and glared at Muta.
"I bet the girl weighs the same as the fat cat. Maybe if we leave him here-"
"Oh, no you don't! I'm coming with, and that's final!"
Lilu shook her head as she trailed up Haru's arm; Toto struggling to stay focused away from the upcoming fight. Lilu rubbed her head against Haru's, immediately liking the girl.
But the brunette's mind was far from the temple. She was seeing the grassy plain, and the star her grandmother had made. But without the specific lines to make it a star, it looked more like a circle. Did Love do that on purpose?
"I wonder," she whispered, getting the Cat and Reptile Creations to stare at her. Haru started concentrating again, even harder than when she made the fireball; her eyes locked on Toto.
Muta raised his fist to try to hit Nefertia again, but stopped; staring at Haru. The dark dog turned to see what the problem was, and her jaw dropped.
The new Human Creation had started sprouting feathers, near the same color as her hair, and her limbs were shifting around to resemble a bird's as she shrunk a bit. After a few minutes, the transformation was complete, and a fairly big hawk was sitting in her place; Lilu now on her back. Haru blinked a few times.
"It worked?" She extended one wing to look at it. Toto was staring at her, wondering if she had always been that cute.
"Haru, how did you do that?!"
She gave a strange shrug.
"Grandma said to think outside the boundaries, and the way she explained the orders got me to thinking that we can lend strength to each other, and take on the forms of the other kingdoms. At least this makes one less person for you to carry."
Nefertia howled in frustration.
"You must be joking?! The newbie's the one that figures this out?!"
Baron already started shifting into a golden hawk similar to Haru.
"We don't have much time! Start shifting!" He pecked the girl hawk affectionately as Lilu became a peregrine falcon, and Nefertia a raven.
"This is quite an interesting discovery you've made. I'll be looking forward to playing with this ability." Being a bird, he couldn't tell if she was blushing, but Haru smiled happily, and pecked him back before Toto gave them a crash course (pardon the pun) on flying.
"Okay; people will notice if different races of birds fly together, so we need to be separate enough so that we don't draw attention, but we can still see each other. Birds can see farther, so this shouldn't be much of a problem."
"Where are we going?" Haru asked as the crow picked up Muta, being used to his weight.
"The Pacific Ocean. There's a special island waiting for us, where mortals can't get involved with what we're doing."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
It took all of Haru's willpower to keep her focus on Toto instead of how the wind rustled through her feathers. Baron was a bit closer to her than the original Bird Creation would have liked, but they looked fairly similar, and Toto knew better than to try to tell Baron to back off.
"Toto's been holding out!" the golden hawk called out to her. "Flying was plenty of fun when he did all the work, but it's far more enjoyable when you're the one with wings."
She laughed, agreeing with him as Toto started downward, to a specific island that was too small to be of any use to islanders. True, if they were ordinary birds, they would have passed out from exhaustion ages ago. But being Creations, all they had to do was shift into their original forms for a few hours of sleep while Muta went fishing.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Paul dropped the last of the family to the ground, licking his lips so as to not waste a single drop. The old family was useless to him, now that Haru was a Creation. He had felt her power and knew that she had to be with the other Creations by now. He would need all the nourishment he could get, in order to take down the other Creations and claim his bride. He opened up one closet and pulled out a worn doll. Pinned in the dark locks was a bit of Haru's hair, cut when she was a child, so he could find her in a hurry.
He picked up the doll, remembering with a wrench the day he had taken it. That time, Haru got her revenge by taking the flame of a candle and pressing it against his pale flesh; which left a decent burn for a month. The five-year-old said that the fire had told her that he was a very bad man, and that it was her duty to kill him.
That was a major component as to why he had expressly told Naoko to never allow her near an open flame again. Earning her trust was hard enough without squealers telling the girl things like that.
The hair dissolved into his hand, and started pulling him insistently in one direction. He jumped through a window while shifting, glad for the cover of night. His powers weren't as impressive under daylight, when he must always think about keeping the anti-sun spell working.
He traveled for twelve hours, without stopping, in order for the tugging to cease. He came to a small island, and could see the Creations lined up. But he was so weak, and the accursed sun had risen again… he had to feed, before claiming Haru. He swept down; grabbing a large fish and pulling it up with more strength than bats were usually seen displaying. He drained that fish of all its life fluids before tossing it aside to hunt for the second course, and to catch a few hours of shut-eye before sunset.