Adrien shifted nervously, feeling all eyes on him.
"I trust you can handle this on your own?" Gabriel Agreste's cold voice cut the room like a saber.
Adrien swallowed. "Yes, Father."
His Father's piercing pale glare seemed to run through him, and it was everything he had not to flinch. Adrien met Gabriel's gaze, but still his Father would not leave the large, clinical-looking laboratory.
He wants a demonstration.
Adrien blinked and spared a look at the frightened girl standing in the middle of the room. Oh... He felt his stomach churn painfully and took a step towards her.
"It may appear harmless, but it's still a vampire, Adrien. Don't let your guard down."
He nodded automatically, as it was second nature to just comply. He continued to approach the tiny dark-haired girl. Vampire, he reminded himself. She stared at him with large eyes, her form almost shaking as she clutched her arms to her chest. Scraps of reddish clothing, stained with dark splotches, hung off her slight frame. She's a monster.
Adrien stopped a couple feet away from her. "Will you please sit down?"
The girl's lips pulled back and she let out a soft hiss.
"Harder, Adrien," Gabriel cut in. "You don't ask."
The younger male winced, but his father couldn't see. His stomach turned again when he reached for the silver rod strapped to the back of his belt. This was cruel. He pointed the end of the rod at the girl's nose and watched her pupils blow wide with fear.
Without further prompting she dropped to the floor, sitting on the cold tiled ground like an animal.
Oh no. His heart clenched. Not like that. I just wanted you to sit cross legged.
But Gabriel appeared satisfied with the outcome. "Good. I'll leave you to your examination." His harsh winter gaze raked over the girl, seeing a dangerous animal rather than a person. "She's rather pathetic as far as vampires go, but I hope the guild can learn something from her." He strode towards the exit, passing his son, sweeping his harsh winter glare over Adrien as well before departing.
Adrien waited until his Father left the room and his footsteps faded into the distance.
Then, like the silver rod had burned him he shoved it back into the loop on the back of his belt.
"I'm so sorry. You don't have to sit anymore."
The small black-haired woman just narrowed the bluest eyes he'd ever seen at him. They weren't icy pale like his Father's blue eyes. No these were blue like an ocean after a storm, vibrant and full of spent rage.
She hissed at him.
He stepped back, giving her some space and pulling a notebook and pen off a nearby table.
"What's your name?"
He received a small hiss in response.
"How old are you?"
Another small hiss. She was being thorough.
He noted that she looked about twenty. Maybe a little younger than he was. But since she was a vampire he couldn't be sure. She could very well be hundreds of years older than him and he would never know.
Well this was going hissingly.
"Can you stand on this scale?" He gestured to a sizable scale against the wall, normally used for taking the weight of guild members during a routine physical.
This time an offended hiss.
She definitely wasn't going to make his job easy. As a scholar for his Father's hunters guild, it was his job to learn as much as he could about the supernatural monsters; then he briefed the hunters on what to expect and how best to slay the monsters before each mission.
"Will you stand up?"
This time she did rise up from the ground, but it was unnatural like a corpse being hoisted up by invisible tethers. There was a moment of silence between them as she took in his look of discomfort.
A small hiss.
Adrien shook off his queasiness, picked a small flashlight from his belt and approached her, "Can I look in your mouth?"
As expected she hissed at him again just as he flashed the light inside her mouth.
"Thank you."
She blinked a couple times while he noted that her fangs were gone.
They've defanged her. Where once her vampire canines would have been, there were bloody and bruised spaces in her gums. His hand trembled when he jotted down the reasons why. So she couldn't feed and couldn't bite. The guild would supply her with just enough blood to survive, but not enough to satisfy or give her strength.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered under his breath. This was why he was never allowed to be a hunter. He was too soft.
If she heard him there wasn't a reaction.
Adrien let out a sigh and attempted to move on with the examination.
"What kinds of powers do you have?"
He expected to receive a hiss and was ready to document her reaction when she began to fade before his eyes.
He had to do a double take to be sure he was seeing this right, but sure enough the little female vampire's body dissolved into a cloud of mist.
"That's a... a very interesting ability you have," he stuttered out. She can turn into mist. Wow. He was about to write that down when it suddenly occurred to him that she was nothing more than a cloud of water vapor now, and said vapor was making a break for the exit.
"Frack!" Adrien bolted towards the door as if his body could prevent a gaseous substance from leaving the room.
The mist rolled over him like a warm breath, and he couldn't stop the shudder that worked through him.
As it turned out, she wasn't strong enough to maintain the mist form for more than a minute and she did not travel very fast as a cloud of vapor. She had just passed through the door and into the hall when the mist haphazardly reformed, and vampire girl suddenly collapsed to the ground.
She refused to meet his eyes. Her muscles quavering as her arms struggled to hold herself up. Her skin looked dry and thin, stretched over her cheek bones as she panted from the exertion of her own magic.
That was when Adrien learned that the power to turn into mist was extremely taxing on a vampire and resulted in dehydration. The severity of the dehydration he could only presume depended on the length of the transformation.
He made a note of it in his journal.
Because she was only allowed a small amount of blood each day he couldn't offer her more. His father would kill him if he found out. But she looked so miserable there on the ground, he couldn't bring himself ignore her discomfort. She clearly needed something to drink, and becoming a vapor probably meant that part of the moisture in her body had evaporated.
Adrien reached a hand out to her, to help her off the floor.
She let out the weakest snarl yet, and made a pathetic attempt to slap at him, and missed.
"If you stay out here someone will come by, and then we'll both be in a lot of trouble," he explained patiently.
She seemed to consider that, casting a look about them. The hallway they were in was well lit, and clinical looking. There were a couple doors at one end, and a corner down the other that lead deeper into the compound. The din of humans at work could be heard quietly echoing through the building. The occasional murmur of voices seemed to penetrate the walls. It was the creak of a door opening somewhere that seemed to snap her back to reality. After a moment of hesitation she rose to her feet, trembling, looking as if a stiff breeze could knock her over. He didn't make an attempt to assist her again. But she managed to follow Adrien back to the exam room all the same.
Once back inside, he approached a small refrigerator that they used to keep medicines, but also where he stored some drinks. "Can you drink water? Milk? Orange juice?" He paused and added with a soft glance in her direction, "I'm sorry I cannot offer you blood."
She shot him a withering look.
As it turned out she had a sweet tooth for carbonated drinks. Adrien was quick to add that to his notes. Learning that vampires could drink any liquid substance to rehydrate, but only blood met their nutritional requirements.
This particular vampire, he noted in his journal, absolutely loved Fanta. He adjusted his glasses, sneaking glances at the small dark-haired girl as she warily moved around the room sipping orange soda through a straw.
She didn't try to escape again, and after awhile the dry quality of her skin began to fade.
But the color never returned.
00000
Adrien spent the next few nights working with the little vampire. The night would start with a couple of guild members escorting the vampire into his laboratory. Then came a brief examination of her physical status, which always concluded in pale, weak, and malnourished. Followed up by the arduous task of trying to coax conversation out of her.
And on night four, she still wasn't speaking to him.
Adrien had a journal filled with notes about the deteriorating physical state of a continuously starving vampire, a brief encounter with some mist powers, some documentation of her sassiness, but not much else.
If he turned this over to his father... Adrien shuddered at how the senior Agreste might react. Gabriel had a temper, and ran the guild with efficiency and cold detachment. A courtesy he extended to his son. Adrien couldn't remember a time when Gabriel had been warm, not even when his mother had been alive. Family or not, he was simply another pawn under Gabriel's thumb.
He needed to make progress with this vampire. He decided to start at square one again.
"May I ask your name?"
It had become customary for all his questions to be answered with a hiss, and today was no exception. She bared her unremarkable teeth at him, as well as the bruised gaps where her fangs had been, and hissed.
He sagged his head into his arms, leaning his full weight against the table. The vampire was sitting across from him, sipping on a sprite. If ever there was an exercise of futility this was it.
Adrien drew a tiny girl-shaped doodle in his journal. After a moment or two, he gave it pointed teeth. "If you don't provide me a name, I'll just have to come up with something," he tried in an offhand sort of way. "I don't really want to call you Research Specimen 367, or what-"
"So I am the three-hundred and sixty-seventh?"
Adrien started at the sudden question. Her voice wasn't far from what he'd imagined it sounded like. Soft and high, but with an edge of contempt. Lovely, but full of bitterness. Without the lace of negativity he imagined her voice might be sweet. As it were, he could only blink in astonishment.
"I-no. Not at all," he stuttered out. "The number was arbitrary." Heat crept into his cheeks and he felt the encroaching wave of shame. The realization at how heartless and hurtful his words might have been dawning on him. He'd accidentally implied that he'd had 366 previous research specimens. And with not a one in sight, it would be implied they'd all perished. "You're my first... uh... subject," he finished weakly, unable to meet her eyes.
"What an honor~" she spat, and folded herself up on the stool. Her thin fingers clutching the shabby red fabric that clung to her body.
Not for the first time Adrien eyed the fabric with pity. It was the tattered clothing she'd been brought in wearing. The dark spotted stains were most probably blood. Nobody had washed the fabric—nobody had washed her—in days. It hurt to see something so alive, and aware, and conscious to be treated like a deranged animal. Even before she'd spoken he could see the intelligence shining in her eyes, reflected in all her complex expressions.
He didn't have clothing for girls, but he was rather slight for a man...
Resolve washed over him and Adrien stood from the table. The little vampire watched him with curious eyes and a guarded expression. He strode to a closet, opening it, and fumbled around with a chest of drawers inside. He often kept a few spare clothes in the laboratory just in case. His father always expected him to look sharp, and that wasn't easy to do when you dabbled in alchemy, engineering, and medicine.
He pulled out a red shirt and a pair of black slacks. In his mind red was her color. Even if that was probably really tactless. Vampire, red, blood. She'd been brought in wearing red and most probably blood. He almost returned the shirt to the chest, but the alternative was black and that felt just as bad. Red it is. He pulled out a white button down as well. It would add a bit of brightness, and maybe it would help keep her warm. She always felt so cold whenever he touched her.
He returned with the small bundle of clothes and held them out to her. "Here."
She stared at the clothes numbly.
"You deserve to wear something clean and warm," he attempted to clarify. "I can give you a belt if the pants are too large. They probably will be. We aren't really the same size." That was an understatement. He might not have been built, but he towered over her by at least a foot and a half.
Her eyes darted up to meet his. Today they were a piercing stormy blue, locking on his face, as if searching for some kind of treachery.
Adrien bravely held her gaze, swallowing nervously even so. Any moment he expected her to hiss at him. For this sliver of progress to revert to the previous status quo.
An eternity seemed to elapse before the tiny vampire held out her hands. Not to accept the clothes, but to turn her palms up and reveal the dirt staining her skin. The dirt filled every crease and line in her hands. Old blood caked in her broken fingernails, and for the first time Adrien noticed the smattering of burns and bruises, almost hidden by dirt, on her wrists and the inside of her arms. He followed the tiny damages up to her shoulders, and caught a glimpse of bruises just beneath the fringes of the tattered fabric.
Without thinking Adrien crouched before her, taking a closer look at the burns marring her wrists. "What have they done to you?"
She recoiled almost instantly, yanking both arms away from him, and clutching them to her chest once more. Her nose tucked down, greasy, filthy locks of hair falling like a curtain to conceal her face.
He was almost positive he'd never seen bruises like that on her just days ago. Sure her skin had been pale and dry, dirty, but not damaged. Minutely she curled into a tighter ball on the stool. Little bare toes clinging to the seat, so thin and gnarly they might have been talons. And it dawned on Adrien that after the first day or two she'd always curled herself into a ball, pulling the fabric to cover as much skin as she could manage. A gesture to protect herself, he'd assumed. She was so frightened. But also a gesture to hide the injuries...
But why did she hide it from him? She'd been trying to show him how dirty she was... but she didn't want him to see the wounds?
He knew she didn't trust him and he didn't hold that against her. After all, he'd brandished a silver rod against her on day one.
His thoughts wandered to how she'd even gotten the marks. He had a feeling the staff stationed to guard her daytime cell were the guilty culprits. Torturing a helpless creature when the sun was up, when she absolutely couldn't fight back. The burns had likely come from silver chains, or being prodded by a silver rod. The bruises... Adrien shuddered in anger.
This is my ward. That wasn't quite right. He wasn't in charge of managing her well being, she was merely a subject for him to study. But a fierce protectiveness settled over him like a cloak, and he wasn't about to shake it off. I'll be having a word with Father about this.
He thought about what he might say, what argument might appeal to his Father's pragmatic nature. 'How am I supposed to study something that's being busted up. She'll die before I learn anything useful.'
Adrien set the clothing on the table and started for the sink. He collected a soda from the fridge on his way, setting it on the counter and using the tab to pop it open. Maybe he should have been wary to turn his back on a vampire. But she was so pathetic she could hardly walk these days.
A new wave of anger rolled over him.
Adrien threw open a drawer and pulled a knife. It was just a small one, something you'd use to slice fruit, peel and orange, or open a letter. He looked his fingers over and frowned, before finally drawing the blade over the side of his palm. It was a small cut, but deep enough to bleed. He held his hand over the soda can, letting the blood drip inside.
*drip drip drip*
After a minute or two the flow began to slow, and he made a fist to put pressure on the small cut, forcing more out. It wasn't a lot of blood by any means. Probably not even an appetizer to a vampire. But Adrien knew she wouldn't heal from any of those wounds unless she got human blood. Besides, nobody had to know about this.
He reached into another drawer, this one full of medical supplies. He extracted a couple bandages and applied them to the cut; wrapping his hand with gauze and adhesives strips in and attempt to dress the wound as carefully as possible. He'd been warned about approaching vampires with an open wound. Fangless or not, he had no reason to trust this one.
Once finished, he scooped up the soda and marched back to the girl still perched on the stool.
Her eyes were wide as saucers, following his every move. She'd obviously smelled the blood, because there was a look of desperation and longing etching her features. Her nostrils were flaring, her face no longer tucked against her chest.
"Here." He placed the can in front of her, careful to use his good hand. The bandaged hand was tucked in his pocket.
Bone-thin fingers reached for the fizzy beverage, curling around it eagerly and pulling it close. She didn't even hesitate, didn't even bother to use the straw as she had with all the sodas before. She tipped back the can and started chugging the blood-laced drink with all the enthusiasm of a starving man. Adrien could see her throat muscles shift with every gulp.
He moved back to the the other side of the table and began jotting down his observations. He'd never seen a vampire consuming blood before. In fact, to his knowledge her daily blood ration had always been administered by the staff managing her daytime cell. He wasn't sure if they gave her human blood or animal blood, and he wrote himself a note to find out.
She was finished with the drink in record time. A sigh, a couple burps from the carbonation, and the clink of the can against the table alerted Adrien that she'd consumed it all.
"How do you feel?"
Those stormy blues leveled him with a look of skepticism. She didn't look any better physically, but there was a subtle brightness to her irises that hadn't been there previously.
The silence that hung in the air was uncomfortable, albeit not out of the ordinary. He was used to this.
Adrien tried a different question, "How much blood do you need before your wounds start to heal?" He already knew he wasn't going to receive an answer. Still, he was mildly pleased when she didn't hiss at him. She didn't even bare her teeth.
He released a sigh and stood up from the table again. "I'll have to weigh you again today, but that can wait until you've had a shower."
To this the vampire blinked at him. Her head tilted the tiniest bit to the side. He thought she looked like a confused puppy.
With a motion of his hands he directed her towards the laboratory's private bathroom. "There's a shower in there, soap, and towels. No window, but there is a vent." He gave her a sharp look. "I can't stop you if you try to escape, but I also can't protect you if you get caught." The vents were a maze, and he had the inkling she wasn't healthy enough to hold the mist form long enough to traverse them.
She appeared to understand his meaning and hesitantly scooped the clothing off the table. He watched her hug it to her chest like a teddy bear. It was the softest thing she'd gotten to touch in the very clinical room, and he doubted her daytime cell was anymore comforting.
He stepped back when she approached the bathroom, giving her space, aware that she was constantly wary of him and his intentions.
"I'll wait out here," he informed her. "Take as long as you need." Part of him thought that was a very idiotic thing to say. You'll be waiting all night and into the day, because she'll take all the time she needs to escape into vents. Poof! Adrien smooshed down that cynicism. She deserved a shower, whether she tried to escape of not. He could only hope she wasn't that foolish. Otherwise they'd both be in trouble, and the consequences for her would be more final than him.
The vampire paused at the door, placing her hand against the wood.
Adrien turned his back as a show of privacy and started for the table where he'd left his journal. He had some observations to mull over.
"Marinette."
He stopped in his tracks.
"That's my name," her soft voice told him. The contempt and bitterness from before was absent.
Adrien turned his head just as she disappeared into the bathroom. The door shut behind her. Mar-i-nette, he mouthed the name to himself and smiled. He'd been right that her voice would be sweet.
I've wanted to write a vampire AU for a long while. My intention is to explore some vampiric powers that writers and media often overlook. That being form of mist and form of wolf. If you're interested in this AU please leave a comment with your thoughts and feelings about the fic.