The life of a vampire.
Disclaimer: I do not own final fantasy 7 or any of its characters other than my own.
Author's note: Warning, this chapter has some very gory bits. If you don't like it don't read it.
Chapter Three
Friends and enemies
I wake up the next morning feeling slightly confused. I look around the room, taking in my surroundings. Then my mind clicks and I remember what had happened that night and I look at the sleeping figure next to me.
Smiling, I kiss her forehead and slide out of bed. I put on my black kaki trousers and black button up shirt. I silently make my way over to where my boots had been thrown in the so called 'struggle' and quickly put them on, careful not to awaken the sleeping Tifa. I throw on my long leather jacket (I had decided to ditch the cape that day) and tip toe over to the door.
I successfully make my way out of her room without waking her and saunter down the corridor towards the stairs leading to the front room.
I quickly leap down them, landing softly on two feet. My coat swoops behind me and lands gracefully along my back. I steadily make my way threw the front room, looking around as if waiting for something to jump out and attack. Satisfied that it is safe, I slump down on the soft couch, immediately sinking into the pile of cushions scattered across it. The room is dimly lit, with only a few candles to give out any form of light. The fireplace at the centre of the wall opposite me lay unlit and desolate. I shudder, getting a sudden chill. I stand up and carefully walk over to the fireplace to light it, the flames now giving off a slight glow, making the room seem warmer.
The hours pass by as I sit there staring into the flames, thinking about nothing, just staring into the warm depth, mesmerized by the dancing flames.
Suddenly I sit upright as I here a noise coming from outside, the sound of feet landing on the hard cobbled path outside the mansion.
Curious to know who could be out there at this time, I stand and walk over to the front door; I unlock the many bolts lining the rim of the door and peer outside. The early morning darkness greets me, dimly lit lanterns hanging from decrepid, barely standing rusted metal poles emit only enough light to illuminate the path below them.
I scan the area, seeing nothing at first until I look over towards the area where the path to the reactor used to be. A small, slender figure, dresses in a long black hooded cape, darted across the street towards the direction of the reactor, their face shrouded in darkness.
I pry myself away from the safety of the doorway, closing it behind me. Like a stalker, I follow the path of the mysterious shadowy figure, imitating every footstep that they took until I find myself far out of town, in the forests in between the town and the reactor. I stop still, looking around warily; I had lost sight of the figure and did not know which way they had gone.
Suddenly, I hear the sound of twigs snapping behind me, I twirl around, finding nothing but darkness, "stupid fool," I mutter curses to myself as I continue to look around the forest, eyes searching every shadow for the strange cloaked figure.
Suddenly a loud crack is heard above me, like the sound of a branch snapping. I fall back, startled by the sudden noise.
The next thing I see is a shadowy figure coming down from the branches, black cape swirling around their lithe figure.
I jump back, just as they gracefully land in front of me, their back facing me.
I stutter a few curses, causing them to turn and face me. I could see their eyes glittering in the soft, hazy morning light, harsh, amber eyes.
The figure stares unmoving at me, though their hands seem to twitch as if getting ready to use a hidden weapon. All I can do is simply stare back, keeping a firm hand on the gun, Death Penalty, holstered to my belt.
The figure then moved their hands up towards their head, sliding the hood off gently to reveal the one person who I did not expect to see, "Tifa…" I manage to stutter as she walks closer, studying every feature on my face. I look back at her in confusion; she simply looks unfeeling at me, as if she doesn't even recognise me. That's when I realised; she was here for a feed. As I look at her face more closely I indeed see the fangs sticking out daintily from her small pale lips, now straightened into an unfeeling crease. Her dark ebony hair almost shone in the gloomy light, she seems to have an unearthly beauty about her now, with a pale faced and keen eyed expression plastered firmly to her pretty features.
She looks away from me, focusing her eyes on the path ahead of her. She brushes past me, her long hair flowing gently behind her in the soft wind, caressing my cold ivory skinned face. I turn and watch her walk a few steps ahead, then I call to her, "Tifa, please wait."
She stops, turning her head slightly to one side, "care to join me?" she asks in a cold, almost ethereal voice.
The question lingers in my ears for awhile before the meaning finally registers. I silently walk up to her and we start off again, walking side by side, neither speaking a word. My lips tremble slightly from the increasingly cold wind biting at my flesh mercilessly. She shudders slightly but otherwise remains calm.
Finally, I break the heavy silence, "so, what are you do…" she silences me with a single pale, slender finger across my lips, the cold contact of skin sending a chill running up and down my spine and forbidden areas start to throb.
She looks at me, gazing into my eyes; however, her expression is as hard as carved marble. She traces the outline on my mouth before pulling away and stepping ahead slightly, "we are not alone," she whispers, barely audible.
I nod, looking around warily.
Suddenly, the bushes behind Tifa rustle violently and a huge wolf charges out, fangs bared, snarling, white froth and drool covering its disgusting purple lips.
I leap to the side, gaining a grazed leg from an outstretched claw. I roll and flip back up onto my feet, ignoring the burning pain in my leg.
Tifa draws two handguns from a hidden belt beneath her cloak and begins firing at the giant creature. She misses a lot of them until finally she scores one in the leg before she runs out of bullets. This mistake results in her being slashed across her ribs, blood spraying out and splattering onto the floor. She falls behind a nearby fallen tree, gasping for breath, leaving me with the beast.
I grab my gun from its holster and charge towards the wounded wolf, it turns and growls dodging every bullet I fire, leaping from side to side with such agility that I lose track of its movement, that was until I feel its huge bulk slam into me and pin me to the ground, my back slamming painfully into hidden rocks and stones. My gun flew from my hand, landing a few feet from where Tifa had taken refuge.
The beast leers down at me, drool oozing down its gaping jaws, dripping all over my unprotected face. I squirm underneath it, resulting in its claws tightening their grip, sharp ends piercing the leather jacket, scratching at the flesh underneath. I let out a sharp grunt as one claw pierces the skin, blood oozing out the wound. It rips open the arm of my jacket and laps up the blood like a cat with cream. It growls before baring its teeth, getting ready to bite into the soft flesh…….a rustling noise is heard from behind the fallen tree. The wolf looks up, ears pricked, lips dripping with my fresh blood, that's when I see my chance. I rip my clawed mechanical arm from beneath its iron grip, ripping its arm out its socket. As the black blood gushes out from the wound, I toss the useless limb to one side. I draw my arm back and send it forward, pummelling into its chest, driving straight threw the flesh and out threw its hairy back, its heart held firmly in my hand, still pumping disgustingly. I rip my arm back out, twisting flesh and bone causing more sickly black blood to spray over my face and clothes. I heave the body off me, carefully standing up on shaky legs, the pumping organ still held between my metal claws. I hold it up into the air and with a sickly crunch, I crush the heart, closing my claws around it making it explode, blood gushing out and running down my arm. A manic, fanged grin spreads across my face as I lick at the hot liquid staining my claws. I toss the remains of the heart to one side and grasp the tops of both arms of my shredded jacket and with one strong tug, rip them off and thro them into the air, tattered leather and blood raining down around me, littering the blood stained floor.
I turn sharply when I here more shifting behind me. I get into my fighting stance, ready to go another round, but release it when I see Tifa stumble out from behind the fallen tree and stare at me in horror as she sees the blood all around me and dripping down my face and exposed arms. The white fangs poking out from beneath my blackened lips gleam evilly in the brightening daylight. My Ruby eyes stare at her with eerie concentration.
She breaks the silence, "is it…dead?" she whimpers, clutching her wounded side, blood flowing threw her fingers. Then she collapses, floating gracefully to the floor, like a fallen leaf, her cape swirling around her.
Breaking out of my bloodthirsty trance, I rush over to her, catching her just before her head connects with the solid earth. I place her down gently. I look her over, studying her features on her face. She appeared to be back to her usual self, fangs were gone and her cheeks had a slight pink tinge. I trace one single finger over her cheek and jaw line before I venture further to study the wound to her side. I rip away the tattered clothes covering it, being sure to keep her modesty covered. Deep, gory gashes leer out at me. I grimace as I proceed to wipe away the blood, cleaning the wounds. However, as I dab softly, something strange starts to happen. The wounds seem to close themselves up, the sinews fizzing and frothing out the excess blood trapped between the walls of flesh.
I stare at the scene before me in utter astonishment, and then a pain seizes my arm where the werewolf had bitten me. I fell to the floor, body writhing in pain as the wound burned as it proceeded with its slow, unmerciful task of healing. I clutch it with my claw, the cool metal soothing the pain temporarily. The pain slowly faded and the skin began to heal. I struggle to my knees, eyes shut tight, teeth clenched, muscles straining. I look over once more to where Tifa lay. The creeping sun rays played on her face, making it glow a honey hew. It sparkled over her ebony hair and rested on her eyes, as if beckoning her to awake. I watch her stir, my head feeling slightly lightened from dizziness. My breath becomes ragged as I attempt to stand up. Stiff legs support me eventually as I make my way over to her. She sits up, groggily rubbing her sleepy eyes. She turns and stares at me, half with wonder and curiosity. I stare back, not knowing what to say.
She shakily stands up, her feet fumbling around until she finds her balance and looks back at me. Her large amber eyes portray confusion so I proceed to tell her what had happened.
Hours later, back at the mansion.
The log fire burned, giving off a warm glow to the room. I sighed, "so, why were you out there Tifa?"
She casts her gaze to the flames burning rapidly threw the wood, "I just had to find out the truth, Vincent."
"The truth? About what?"
"Vampires."
"……."
"They have been sighted in the area of the reactor, I wanted to find out if it was true, and maybe talk to them if it was."
Still I remain silent, lost in silent thoughts.
"Vincent?" she looks at me with a worried expression, "Vincent, did you here what I said?"
"So you went to find out the reason behind you being a vampire, correct?"
She drowsily looks away, "yes, that, and many other things."
Her enigmatic words disturb me as I sit there in the glowing room. My heart was racing and my mouth had long since lost its moisture.
She stirs the thickening silence, "why did you come after me?"
Her sudden question catches me off guard. I close my eyes, unable to answer.
She sighs, rising off the sofa. She brushes a small hand over her tight, leather trousers, relieving them of creases and walks over to the stairs leading to the bedrooms, "things have changed, Vincent. Maybe its about time we found out some answers." And she was gone, her figure melted into the shadows, all that could be heard was the soft padding of her naked feet on the carpeted floor. Then the gentle closing of a door upstairs signified her entering her room.
I heave a great sigh and sit there, confusion trying its best to etch its way into my tired head. I stand up, almost reluctantly and walk over to the fire to put it out. The last embers die out as I make my way over to the stairs, fingers trembling by my side.
I walk steadily along the corridor towards my room. I pass by her door along the way. I stop there, the urge to go inside halting my intention to sleep. Memories of the other night flood my mind. I shake it off almost immediately and proceed with my wandering. Little did I know that someone was watching me from their room.
Author's note: a bit gory this time, sorry but I did warn you! Anyway, please read and review.