Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 300

Kazao carried the revenant's corpse through the bowels of the Serpens Rex and tried to pass unnoticed. It was harder than it sounded, the Nest was on alert and many Chattels moved warily through the freezing corridors and deserted workshops. Kazao had no wish to explain what had happened to the corpse, the way its throat was torn out and the blood on his own chin. The mere thought of explaining this to Reddam or the others stirred a cold dread in his belly. Or maybe it was the memory of how he had felt when he drank blood.

Kazao's guts clenched as the memory replayed in his mind, the hot rush of vitality and the strength that came with it. He had never felt so alive as when his mouth filled with blood and the pulse of his enemy throbbed through his fangs. It had been vibrant, purest energy pouring into his veins, the stolen life of another adding to his anima. He should be sickened by the mere thought, but every time he remembered that moment his throat closed like a man dying of thirst in a desert. His guts felt so very cold and empty, crying out for another taste of that vital rush, just a sip. Every nerve in his body cried that he wanted more.

Kazao shook his head in denial, knowing his soul was in peril. The fight had been desperate, he told himself, he was shaken and out of sorts. To kill the enemy had been necessary, but to drink the blood had been an overstep. A careless slip, that was all this was, a mistake that could have happened to anyone. He didn't need to do it again, he didn't want to, he would put this from his mind and think of it no more. Even as he thought the words he knew he was lying.

Kazao heard boots ringing from ahead and diverted down a side corridor. Damn, that had been the route to the nearest airlock, his plan to flush the body into space wasn't going to work. Hastily he adjusted the corpse's weight across his shoulders and head down a rickety metal stair. He couldn't be seen, not with the body and not without his helmet. His aberration needed to remain concealed from all.

Kazao descended five levels and then took a random door. He stepped into darkness, with only the faintest bleed of light leaking from the stairwell. It was just enough for him to see by and he found himself in an abandoned artist's studio. Wide benches were crammed with inkwells and paint pots, their contents frozen to solid ice. Wooden stands bore mock-ups of power armour and brushes and lapping powders were arranged in ritual fashion around the bare frames. Sand trays were positioned to catch dripping paints and low trestles were arranged around the corners where students would be tutored in their duties. Not a chair was to be seen, even mortals would have to sit cross-legged at the tables as they studied their craft. Here the original Amber Vipers taught their servants the arts required to consecrate plate with glorious heraldry, a teaching room, one that hadn't been disturbed since the Serpens Rex was first abandoned.

Kazao couldn't think of anywhere better to hide the body and moved to conceal it behind the false armour. By the time anyone found it he would be long gone, given the size of the Nest and the few people inhabiting it then centuries could pass before anyone came this way again. Kazao knew he could well be wrong, but since he had no better ideas decided not to worry about it.

Evidence concealed Kazao returned to the door and began climbing the stairs. As he climbed the noise of people grew louder, and a warm smell of unwashed bodies wafted into his nostrils. Without his helmet he was amazed at how sharp his senses were, the smells so keen and his ears picking up the breath of their lungs and the beating of their hearts. So powerful, so enticing, the pulse of the living called to him, urging him to climb faster as his lips drew back over his fangs.

Kazao caught himself in shock as he realised he was moving to prey upon the Chattels. His hands had formed into claws and his fangs were exposed. No, he screamed silently, no I won't do it. His instincts argued stubbornly, urging him to race up the stairs and fall upon the mortals. To rip their throats out and drink deep of their blood, fill his guts with vital power and taste again that heady rush of life. Blood, his stomach snarled, must have blood.

"No!" Kazao hissed to himself, "I am a Space Marine, I am an Amber Viper. I will not give in to feral hunger, I refuse."

Forget the Chapter, something dark in his soul argued, take whatever you want.

"I am an Amber Viper," Kazao repeated as he screwed his eyes tight, "I serve the Golden Throne of Terra and my Masters."

What have they ever done for you, the dark thought arose, look down on you, scorned you, cursed you with aberrant gene-seed. They gave you nothing but pain, they do not deserve your fealty.

"I am Kazao, thus do I choose to live, thus do I choose to die. I will not become a rabid beast, preying on our own servants."

Just one, his treacherous thoughts swam, one mortal life, you deserve just one.

"No, not a single one," Kazao growled, "I will not prey on the Amber Viper's own!"

His voice was quiet, and yet not quiet enough. He heard a step above, a mere level over his head. Soft and muffled, barely perceptible, were Kazao's senses not on a razor's edge he would have never heard it, but he did. Instantly he slinked into a dark doorway, becoming one with the shadows as he stilled his breath. Whoever was coming was truly skilled in evasion, their tread so soft as to be a dream, but Kazao followed the slightest brush of foot on metal as a figure stalked past. It was not a Chattel.

A slim figure, moving in a voluminous dress. She had high-styled hair and a cane in hand, odd attire for one slinking through the freezing bowels of a derelict station. Her shape was bulky and yet she moved with precision, her steps the merest suggestion of noise. One glance told Kazao she was not of the Amber Vipers, it was that Inquisitor, the Herecticus envoy: Velpecula.

Kazao should have asked what she was doing here, what she was doing alone in the dark, but he did not. One thought dominated his mind, she was not a part of his Chapter, not of the Amber Vipers. She was an outsider, slinking through his base. That made her a spy, thus an enemy. The Amber Vipers had no issue with killing mortals, collateral damage wasn't even a featherweight on their scales of victory, which meant Kazao could kill her without a qualm. And if he drank her blood, nobody would ever know.

Unbidden Kazao stepped onto the stairwell, following her tread. Questions of whether he should stop himself not even forming in his mind. His subconscious knew he shouldn't even be thinking what he was thinking, so did not let the dilemma enter his forebrain. A tiny part of himself screamed to wake up from this nightmare, but it was buried by an avalanche of need. His soul craved blood and his mind saw a guiltless opportunity to claim it. So he advanced.

Near the bottom of the stairwell he stopped hearing the noise of Velpecula's feet. He hastened his step, thinking she'd moved off, only to be tripped as a cane shot through the stairwell and caught his boots. Kazao let out a grunt of surprise and fell face-first to the floor. He twisted as he fell and hit shoulder first, instinctively turning his fall into a roll. He came about in a low crouch, facing backwards, seeing Velpecula step from the shadows.

In the dark pit of the stairwell she had cast off her heavy skirt, leaving her legs covered by a tight bodyglove that did not inhibit movement. She grasped the cane with both hands and pulled, sliding a thin blade from the interior that glimmered with a mono-molecular edge. She moved with lithe grace and sinuous power, totally unlike her haughty rigidity of before. Velpecula oozed threat, and it was hard to believe she was the same woman who had first stepped onto the Serpens Rex.

"Never try to stalk an Inquisitor!" Velpecula hissed.

"Kill you," Kazao growled surprised by his own feral tone.

"What are…" Velpecula gasped, "Mutant! A filthy mutant!"

Kazao seized the moment of shock to leap at her, arms outstretched. He expected to tackle her to the ground in a single bound and sink his fangs into her neck, only to be surprised. She twisted like a snake and her blade flashed, tearing a deep furrow over Kazao's side. Pain flared in his ribs and he knew if he were mortal his entrails would be painting the walls. His boots hit metal and he spun about, lashing out with his meaty paws but Velpecula leapt upwards. That was no human move, her leap cleared his head without effort, she was enhanced to post-human status, augmented by sciences forbidden to all save the Inquisition.

Kazao was shocked, but not half as surprised as when a dainty foot slammed into his temple with all the force of a wrecking ball. He was sent flying sideways, smashing his skull into the metal stairwell and staggering back. A soft thump behind was all the warning he had of Velpecula's landing and a desperate evasion to the side was all that saved him from being stabbed in the spine.

He flung himself away as Velpecula pointed her sword, "I knew the Amber Vipers were disgusting Heretics, but to think they hide debased mutants in their home. Their crimes are more grievous than even the Ordo's know!"

Kazao could not begin to explain what was going on, how could anyone explain this, so he snarled, "Raaaaaagh!"

His legs sent him flying towards Velpecula and his hands reached out to grapple her. Once more she bounded upwards but this time Kazao was ready. His hand caught her ankle and clenched hard. Velpecula's leap was arrested as a vice of steel closed around her ankle and flung her to the ground. She slammed down but writhed inhumanly, stabbing upwards with her sword. Kazao deflected the blow with his arm as he punched her hard in the face. Her skull should have imploded under Transhuman strength, but so augmented was she that the strike nearly stunned her. It was enough though, she flopped back and Kazao pounced, sinking his fangs into her neck.

Sharp incisors found the jugular and ripped it wide open. Blood fountained into Kazao's mouth and he drank deep, waiting for the vital rush of power but it didn't come. The taste in his mouth was disgusting, so thin and weak. Blood cells and plasma of merely human standard, lacking the hyper-concentrated adrenaline and reengineered haemoglobin of a Space Marine. There was no trace of vitality in this, no hint of glorious strength, it was like drinking a bucket of vinegar and Kazao fell back, spitting the vile stew from his tongue.

"Glaggg," Velpecula wheezed as her blood poured over the deck, "Gluaa…"

"Pah!" Kazao spat ignoring her death throes, "Klah! Phat!"

"Guuu," Velpecula wheezed one last time then fell still.

Kazao rocked back, wiping his tongue with the back of his fatigues. The taste of the blood was revolting and he could not get rid of it, yet clarity at last returned. Feral hunger retreated as the consequences of Kazao's deeds stole over him. He had killed an Inquisitor, for this there was no possible forgiveness. Understanding dawned, no one could know what had happened here, he had to hide the body fast. Frantically he grabbed the thin corpse and hoisted her up, intending to stash the body with the one he had already concealed. He had taken only a single step when another truth hit him hard. Her blood hadn't satisfied him and there was a reason, she was mortal, but his first kill had been a Space Marine, a debased and corrupted Astartes but still Transhuman.

Kazao froze in horror, "Mortal blood isn't enough, I need more, I need Space Marine blood. Oh Throne, I have damned myself."