My memory didn't fade, but my image of him began to lose it's reality. It has been two hundred years since Monif died and the villagers who move into the home where my pen is have never cared for me. I despise the local children for they come around in the middle of the night and throw miniature boulders at me. If one gets a luck hit and causes serious harm I run at them from inside my pen and rear, scaring them away so they don't see my wounds heal.
My present owners don't like me and I'm caked in dried mud, my mane and tail are a tangled muddy white mess, and my coat was struggling to glisten against my will. My mind was intact, but my spirit had long ago started to diminish and with each passing decade they plummeted further. I didn't care enough anymore to fight off the owners who hit me and none of them noticed when I they didn't feed me and I still lived. I was just an inconvenience to them.
Tonight was no different, the only nice thing was that my new owner (I didn't pay attention to their names anymore) seemed to forget about me again and didn't come out to whip me. My pen was falling apart and I felt sick every time I looked around, Monif had taken pride in this pen when he made it for me. Now it was in ruins, though at least when it fell apart finally I would be able to escape without leaving any clues behind.
That was my goal, to endure this treatment long enough to escape and make it look like I had wondered through a break in the enclosure.
For now, my head was low and my ears were hanging out from my head. My eyes were usually closed no a days and I watched as my Wraith slept in that alcove that I last saw him in. It had rained continuously for nine days but tonight was clear and quiet, and I stood here ever so slightly sinking into the mud.
I stood like that for four hours wondering if it would really be to obvious if the gate was open and I was gone next the owner came out. A part of me was marveling in the silence around me, no screaming brats or yelling idiots (young and old). No, just peace and quiet at last and I treasured it with every passing minute.
Tranquilly, I slipped into a dreamless sleep that I wished would last for days rather than hours. Through the silence, I hear a buzzing sound that sounds vaguely familiar but I'm to comfortable right now to care, a lot of things were vague now a days.
I continued to sleep for another fifteen minutes before I registered someone walking through the night, they made no noise and the only reason I knew they were there was because the dirt crunched under foot. My ears flattened against my head when the crunch started in my direction and didn't falter. I prepared for something hard to hit me and I turned my head in the opposite direction. A shiver ran down my spine as I heard the gate being pulled open, I flinched involuntarily as the crunch stopped a foot from me. I shivered and didn't stop this time as I felt the warmth of it's body after it took three steps closer. I waited for the pain but nothing happened, I recoiled when someone touched my left shoulder before I noticed that it was gentle and not cruel. I relaxed slightly as the hand stayed there and didn't make any painful motion.
" What have these humans done to you, vampire?" my eyes flew open and I raised my head faster than I had moved in one hundred and fifty years. I turn my head toward the voice and my heart stops. Those wonderfully alien eyes caught mine and slowly my heart started to beat again. My Wraith.
I shifted quickly into my long forgotten vampire form, I had lost all touch with my feminine side so I just formed the same outfit that I had worn last. It felt so odd having two legs and no tail but I was only thinking of that with a very small portion of my mind. " What are you doing here?"what was he doing here.
" Looking for you," if only he knew how my heart fluttered at those three words.
" When did you wake up?" he looked exactly as he did when he stepped into that alcove
.
" Eight days. When I found that you had left soon after hibernation had begun I started searching the planets that I had told you about. Why were you standing in such pour condition?" he was watching me carefully.
I shrugged, " I came here over a hundred years ago and after the only two people who really cared for me died, I didn't have anywhere else to go so I stayed. They left me alone except for the youngsters and a few of the owners, my owners. Please tell me we can go somewhere quiet and uninhabited?" I watched as his face contorted into anger as I talked about the young people and my owners.
" Yes, we may leave. I acquired a dart before setting out to find you, we may go where ever you wish that has a portal." he stepped to the side and held out his feeding hand, I placed my hand gratefully into his and smiled as he clasped my finders. My smile didn't lessen as we walked through the dark, quiet village. If only they knew what was walking so close to them. Then I could take my revenge on them, I laughed at my own sarcasm.
My Wraith led me up the path that I had journeyed down so long ago and before long we strolled into sight of the portal.
" Where is your dart?" I asked as I surveyed the surrounding area.
He let go of my hand and approached the dialing device. He dialed an address that I do not recognize.
" The dart is safe, hidden in a dense corpse of trees. If the humans find it before I can take it back we are no worse for wear." he said this distractedly as he was still dialing, but the words brought an image into mind that wished I could see. That would show those bastards what happens when you mistreat Wraith Jewel. I lowered my head at my antique my name, that had been the first time that I had been called anything. I would most likely become nameless now that I was about to rejoin the Wraith, a thought occurred to me.
" Are the others awake now, too?" I asked curiously.
" Yes, our entire hive is awake and awaiting us on this planet." just then the water-like stuff shot forward and then settled.
I walked forward and didn't look back, I relished the idea of getting off this planet. My Wraith was just an added benefit. I didn't hesitate as I walked through the puddle and I knew my Wraith would be behind me. The scene that greeted me on the other side wasn't really a surprise. There was another dart that had landed a couple yards away from the gate which suddenly came to life.
I look behind me to see my Wraith appear before the puddle disintegrates. The dart rises and heads in our direction as that bluish/white beam activates. Knowing what is about to greet me, I squeeze my eyes shut so as I don't notice that darkness as much. I actually succeeded in ignoring the effect this time but was still relieved when I could feel again.
I open my eyes to see another Wraith standing in front of me and I automatically smile as I sense the hundreds of minds surrounding me.
More than happy to be back aboard, I don't even care if I'm led back to the Queen and she tries to violate me again, I'm home. Instead, the Wraith bows his head slightly and turns around without saying a word. A little confused I look behind me to see my Wraith watching me.
" Was he just our welcoming committee?" I knew he wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about and I also knew that he would just go along with it.
" In a manner of speaking, he is leaving to tell the Queen that we are on board." I really missed his voiced, it just sounded so cool.
I nodded, " Does the bitch Queen have to know so soon?" I took great joy in calling her that.
He didn't like my calling her it but he also didn't say to not do it again, " Yes."
I nodded again with a small sigh, " Am I still stuck with the old living arrangements?" my answer was another 'yes'. Without another word, I turn around and head in that direction knowing full well that I'm being followed. Sure enough, I see him enter the room before that freaky door closes. Now what? I smile as I realize that this is not the first time I've asked that.
A faint burning in the back of my throat tells me that I'll need to feed soon but instead I just stand where I am as my Wraith approaches.
" Why didn't you come back?" the question caught me off guard.
" I didn't want to spend all my time waiting for you to wake up in the empty corridors of this hive. I need more than a few minds to make me feel comfortable." that was the best that I could do to explain it to him.
I saw a picture of me standing coated in dried mud, my head turned away and my mane and tail a noted dirty mess. I was shocked to see the emptiness in my own eyes. I flinched as I saw myself do the same when he touched my shoulder, how had I allowed that to happen to myself? I sensed the same question in his purpose behind the image and I just shook my head. 'I didn't realize that it was that bad. Can you believe that in that image I was thinking of my escape? I shook my head again as the image was shown to me again, no, he did not believe it.
Why did you stay? I felt him just trying to understand.
Well, in the beginning, Monif and his son Teric cared for me perfectly and with much wonder and love. They called me... Wraith Jewel because of my coat coloring. But as the years passed, Monif died and a few years after that Teric. Teric's family moved to a different village and gave the home away, in their grief they gave me away along with it.
The owners that followed never matched Monif, some even abused me. But what was I to do? Leave with the gate wide open and no one to say ' I did it'?
The image flashed across my mind again, How long?
Since you all went into hibernation.
Sudden anger blazed through his mind, anger at me for allowing myself to be treated that way, but mostly anger at that entire village. If those humans had only really known what was in their mists.
" Then they probably would have either chased me off or truly tried to kill me. Traders from other worlds gave me a wide birth as it was because of my strangeness, let alone my Wraith-like qualities."
Just let it go, I'm here now and that is all that matters. It seemed like sound logic to me, I just hoped that it did to him. Slowly, the anger dissolved from his mind, only to be replaced by something else. Hunger, he had not fed since he had seen me last.
Sighing, I think of my own thirst and just how similar they really are. Then another thought occurs to me, if he can feed from me why can't I feed from him as well? I grin at the visual image. Though apparently, I was only one. I hadn't realized that I had projected my train of thought to him until moved away from me.
Oh, come on. It's only fair! Besides, you'll heal without help from me and it is not like I'm going to take everything. Unlike some people I know.
I snicker at the still wanna be growl which just made him growl louder, my snicker grew to a full belly laugh.
" Very well!" sometimes I just love getting on peoples nerves.
Who gets to go first? Personally, I vote for me.
He didn't see anyway to fight the matter and I felt sweet victory at his defeat. I hurry up to him with a huge smile (maybe I did it for the fun of it but a showed off my fangs).
" Don't move or make any sudden movements."
I stop in front of him and my smile fades, I can't reach his neck because he is to darn tall. I think it over for a second until a much to vampire idea comes to mind. Take him down! My smile returns in full force as I crouch, ready to spring. Unease enters my mind, from his.
Do you doubt me? I growled in a playful manner.
" Of course not." I didn't believe him.
Fluidly, I uncoil from my crouch and clamp my hands on his shoulders while placing my entire weight on his chest. I made sure that he didn't damage himself from my sudden and rather clever scheme. I was careful to produce a special mix of numbing and pleasure venom. Take away the pain and make him want more, what better concoction could I have invented?
Opening my mouth, I lower my head and sink my fangs into his pale skin. An involuntary groan escapes me as his rich blood floods into my mouth and down my burning throat. I resist the instinct to take it all, which is surprisingly difficult. I release my bite and apply a drop of healing venom to each of the puncture marks for good measure.
I lift my head up and look at him, not at all amazed to find him rather dazed. I lick my lips as my fangs retract and jump off him (which sounds a little weird) and stand next to him as he regains his feet.
" Enjoy yourself?" he sounded a little weaker but that would soon change after he fed, he was just sucked by a vampire.
" Oh, yes. Greatly. Wraith have a very... unique taste." I grinned before saying unique.
He narrowed his outlandish eyes at me like he didn't believe me, or that he didn't know whether to take offense to it. I had truly meant it as a compliment.
" Ready for your turn?" I asked politely.
His right hand flexed and I took that for a yes. " Have at it," the next thing I know I'm swimming in pleasure-pain.
TBC