Well dear reader, here we are again. I have finished another chapter, and I hope it is up to par, quality wise. I really enjoy writing up Tira, since she's just like me, well except the crazy killing people part. I'm a touch crazy, just like her. Well, okay, she's like loop the loop crazy, but close enough. Now if I could only convince my wife to wear green lipstick my fantasy life could be complete………

Soon we'll return to sweet little Talim, and see how Mina and her are making out. Be sure to check back and catch all the action!

V. Bloody Streets

Two weeks had passed since Tira was taken in, and she had begun adjusting to a new version of life. She learned that the man was a minister, and one of high standing, no less. He had tried to clean her up, and introduce her to a proper life, but Tira still did not understand it.

She had even given up her standard clothes for something far less revealing. Tira left her ring blade behind as well, though she still continued to carry a small blade underneath her prim and proper petticoat. Though it made her feel nearly naked, she was forced to forget the green and purple makeup she so adored.

The minister was her new master now, and she would do everything she could to please him, as she did with her last master. She needed to have someone to pledge herself to. He would lead her, guide her, and shape her. She would follow him, learn from him, and emulate him until she learned everything, then she would kill him.

Her bloodlust still burned deep in her veins, but her new master had commanded her away from such things. Instead of defying her new master, she instead stalked the streets at night and limited her kills to stray animals.

The minister had caught her sneaking back into the house one evening. He was quite alarmed until Tira told him it was dog blood splayed across her dress, not human. He had lectured her on the virtues of his religion, though little of it made sense to Tira. She had been trained all her life to be an instrument of death, and yet this man told her that she should not be.

At the moment when the minister lectured her, Tira realized that she truly had no master. This man could not be her master if he was not willing to help her hone her skills and teach her to be more efficient at killing. She decided that she had to move on, though was reluctant to do so.

These people could not help her, or fulfill her, but they had saved her. No matter how much she needed blood, she could not just turn on these people. She did have a sense of loyalty, no matter how cruel she could be.

A few days after the bloody dress incident, Tira went to bed, her mind troubled with trying to find a way to part company from the family in a way that would satisfy her sense of honor. A little after midnight that night, the minister entered her room, and stood in the darkness.

The man reached over to the bedside table and lit the lamp there, bathing the room in a soft light. The shadows danced across Tira's large canopy bed, and provided a near romantic setting. Tira did not move, but instead just stared at the man with her deep, cold, calculating eyes.

The minister did not speak, but instead reached for the covers on the bed, and with one swift motion, jerked them away.

Tira lay on her bed, devoid of any coverings other than the full length white nightgown she was made to wear. Even in such a long flowing garment, Tira was still a sight to behold. She did not shy away from being exposed, for one since the nightgown had more fabric than she ever normally wore, and two because her former master trained her in the art of seduction.

Her master had taught her that she was extremely beautiful, and the object of many man's desire. She could use that to her advantage by luring a man in with the promise of romantic interludes, only to kill him instead. She was poison, like a rose with infected thorns. She could be seen, and draw others in, only to sting and kill them before they could deface her beauty.

Her mind was drawn of its consideration of past lessons by the minister jumping on her bed. He quickly threw himself on top of her, with malicious intent. Tira did not immediately react, thinking it was some sort of training ritual. She offered a bit of resistance, if only gauge the man's strength and discover the goal of the exercise.

It became immediately clear that this was not a training exercise at all. The man reached down and tore at Tira's nightgown, opening a large tear in it. With one hand, he attempted to hold Tira's arms down, and with the other, he pawed away the cloth of the garment and revealed her breast. The minister groped at her exposed flesh hungrily and with force, sending shots of pain through the young woman.

Tira struggled back, but was only able to wiggle one hand free. The man immediately released her breast and pinned her hand down beside the pillow. Tira realized what the man intended, and quickly crossed her legs, trying to lock her ankles together. The minister tried to force his knee between her legs, but Tira held him off.

The minister turned his entire focus on getting her legs apart, allowing Tira to move her arm ever so slightly. She wiggled her right hand close enough to her pillow to feel the hilt of the knife she always kept hidden under it.

She grabbed the blade and extracted it from its resting spot. With one snap of her wrist, she turned the blade upwards and sliced into her attacker's arm. The minister's concentration was instantly broken, and he sat back some, lifting his arms up.

"You cut me, you little bitch!"

Something inside Tira snapped, before she was just annoyed, now she was furious.

She had only intended to kill the minister for trying to rape her, but now that wouldn't be enough. Now she would make his entire family pay. Any gratitude she felt burned away, and her bloodlust once again took over.

Now it was time to end this, and return to what she knew and love, death. Tira smiled wickedly, and then jammed the knife blade into the man's stomach. He gasped in surprise, and bent down, his face not far from Tira's. She gazed deep into his eyes, as he realized he was about to die. This sight invigorated and excited the young assassin, reminding her of how much she missed human kills in the past few weeks.

Tira reached up and grabbed the minister's hair, and pushed up as far as she could. She then extracted the blade from his stomach, and quickly swung it around and sliced through the man's throat. Blood showered down from the wound, and Tira basked in it. The minister tried to speak, but did nothing but release a few gurgles. After a few moments, the light of life fled from his eyes, much to Tira's dismay.

Finished with her prey, she kicked the man in the groin and lifted him off her, and landed him on the floor with a dull thud. Tira shook all over with the excitement of the kill, and the burning desire to kill even more. She could barely calm her fingers enough to put her clothes back on.

It felt very good for her to be wearing her old clothes again, instead of those stuffy, restrictive dresses they had forced her into. She strapped her knife to her left ankle, its normal resting place, and retrieved her ring blade from under the bed. She was going to enjoy finishing off the family, and would do so with her ring blade, as she preferred.

After taking a moment to admire her murderous appearance in the mirror, Tira moved quietly into the hall outside her room. She snuck quietly to little Tommy's room, and slipped inside, hidden by the darkness.

He was sleeping very peacefully, not aware of the deadly woman standing beside his bed. Tira realized that she would feel no joy in killing the boy, but he had to die. His father's actions had ensured that everyone in the house would taste death this night.

"The son will pay for the sins of the father" Tira whispered to the darkness.

Tira raised her ring blade, and turned it to where one of the spikes that shot from the outer edge of the blade was positioned just over the boy's heart. She wanted to kill the boy quickly, and with as little pain as possible. With one hard shove downward, the spike tore through the boy's flesh and bit deeply into his heart. Tommy's eyes shot open, and he tensed up all over. He didn't utter a sound, just a look of surprise twisting his features.

After a few moments, he went totally limp and breathed no more. Tira was highly annoyed since she found no thrill in killing children. Though her anger boiled deeply, she took the time to cover the boy's body completely, as a sign of respect.

She hated herself for doing what she just did, but also knew she had to. She was so totally obsessed with punishing the minister and his family that she could not leave anyone alive. It was times like this that drove Tira to near insanity. She hated having to do it, but hated not doing it even more. The confusion and pain in her soul served to do nothing more than to increase her volatility.

Tira left the boy's room and stormed up the stairs to where the minister's wife lay sleeping. No matter how angry she was, she did not allow herself to be detected. If she allowed her prey to discover her, the woman could call for help, or make enough of a ruckus to draw attention to the home. As Tira reached the top of the stairs, she slipped in the room with such silence that a ghost would have been jealous.

The bedroom was very large and ornately decorated. The minister and his wife slept in a large canopy bed, even bigger than the one in Tira's room. It appeared to be made of some exotic wood, and quite expensive. A full length double window sat to the left of the bed, open, with silk curtains blowing in the breeze.

The woman was sleeping in the bed, a look of peace spread across her features. Tira's mind boiled to nearly unbearable levels of frustration and confusion. She quickly decided she would vent on the woman in the bed before her.

Standing over the woman, Tira removed her knife from its scabbard, and inspected it closely. Satisfied it would do the job she needed, she then thrust the knife down into the woman's throat. She was careful to sever any arteries, only cut enough to keep the woman from screaming, and stun her from the pain.

When the blade touched, the woman was jerked awake from her sleeping state, only to find that any sound she made just escaped quietly through the new hole in her throat.

"Your husband tried to rape me, so I'm going to kill you" Tira said, her voice dripping with malice.

The woman just shook her head vigorously, and brought her hands up in an attempt to plead for her life. Tira ignored the woman's pleadings, and sheathed her knife in favor of her ring blade.

With one graceful arc, the ring blade came around and removed the woman's hands from her arms. The lady's attention immediately turned from Tira to her newly gained stumps. Tira took advantage of the situation, and quickly snaked her blade forward again, cutting a deep trench right through the woman's stomach.

Tira then jumped up on the bed with a fanciful and acrobatic jump, intended more for show than for utility, and straddled the woman. The feel of her blood oozing out of her stomach wound and soaking into Tira's pants excited her to no end. Tira wrapped herself in this veil of death, savoring every sensation she felt as the woman's life fled her.

With the blood loss from the three different wounds, the woman no longer had the strength to struggle at all. She just gave up, and stared with pleading eyes at the young woman in green above her.

Tira couldn't contain herself, and quickly bent down and kissed the woman hard on the lips. It was not a sexual kiss in any manner, but the only thing Tira could think to do with herself in the intensity of the moment.

"Die for me!" Tira commanded.

The woman complied, and life finally fled her newly disfigured body. Tira sighed in disappointment and climbed down from her ghastly perch. She was now glad that she had taken the time to kill silently, for it allowed her the time to do her ritual bathing.

Tira bathed and washed her clothes in the master bathroom, not more than a handful of feet from her final victim that night. After her cleansing, she wandered back into the bedroom, feeling the crash coming over her. After a job she always crashed, and fell hard. She never knew how to deal with it properly, but her old master would always find a way to keep her from falling too far into depression. But she had no master to spar with now, or to help her in any way.

As Tira mulled about, fighting the emotional crash and looking for a way to make one last blow against the man who dared to try to violate her, an idea struck her. She would take all the money she could find, and use it for her own ends.

She knew what money was, and all about it, but had never even touched any in her life, nor had she ever been concerned with it before. Her master took care of such things, providing everything she needed and wanted for her. She was not allowed outside except for at night in the stretches between jobs. And only then long enough to satisfy her bloodlust with a streetwalker or a homeless person.

Tira gathered all the money she could find in the home, all told it ended up being a sizeable sum. She then waited quietly until morning, finding a whetstone in the kitchen and using it to sharpen her blade.

In the morning, Tira wandered about the city, looking for where she might find something suitable for her to blow the family's money on. Wandering about the market square, she came across a vendor selling chocolates from far off lands. The vendor offered her a sample, and she was entranced. She bought a large sack full of the delicious dark confections, and strode away munching on her newfound treasure.

She also wasted a great deal of money on a necklace featuring a silver chain and a single gold raven charm. She did not know why, but for some reason the necklace called out to her. She also bough the matching bracelet, a murder of ravens linked together to form the piece. Even after her splurging, she still had ample funds available. She left the market square in an unbelievably good mood.

Her good mood quickly faded as she rounded a corner and came face to face with a city guard. The guard began to grunt at her to move along, only to stop short when he noticed her appearance.

"Hey! Look Captain! There's a girl in green, carrying a circle weapon! That's the one we've been looking for, the one spotted leaving the burning mansion!" a guard called out.

"Freeze right there! You're under arrest!" the Captain ordered Tira.

Tira panicked and ran for her life, darting through the twists and turns of the city streets. Her pursuers were quick, but she was much faster. With her cat like grace, she easily avoided them, and sprinted out of the city.

She knew that she could not return there, for the authorities were on to her. Besides, there was nothing left for her there anyway, no master, no home, nothing at all. Tira kept going, driven on by the thrill of the pursuit, and unable to shake the exhilaration.

Even after two straight days of running through the rolling countryside, she still continued running, moving as fast as she could. She did not know when she would stop running, but only when the flurry of thoughts in her head stopped would she be safe.

And when she was safe, she would find a new master, a strong master. One that would teach her, and show her the way she should exist. He would be as ruthless as she was, and he would be her everything.

Her mind wandered over this dream of a new master, giving her strength to continue her flight. She dreamed of this dread lord that she would give herself to completely. She would learn from him, and he would complete her.

Tira ran on into the night, obsessively dreaming of her perfect dark master, praying that she would meet him soon.