I forgot the fluffy last time...

Dracula: Yes... you did. Foolish girl.

Hadasah: I'm not a girl you idiot. I have many years under my belt...

Dracula: Under your belt you say?

Hadasah: -slides chair under desk and folds arms over stomach- Don't even..

Dracula: -holds belt up- Looking for this?

Hadasah:I hate vampires... I hate vampires.. -head to desk-

Dracula: Let me change your mind -evil grin, pulls Hadasah out of chair against hard... body-

Hadasah: -leaps for doorway-

Dracula: -slams door, grabs wrist- You, my dear, are going to sit down and write.. and then I'm going to show you just how agreeable a vampire can be.

help?

Enjoy.

--

Chapter 28: The Feast

Fierce orange ringed eyes scanned the blackness of the sky as the creature sniffed the entrance to the cave. It reached out with its tongue- tasting the air within the earthen mound.

Blood. Plenty of it. The creature's mottled lips parted in a sadistic grin as it crouched to enter the den, six legs bending unnaturally as it crawled into the darkness.

Two corpses lay inside; one female with the stench of young on her. It snarled and turned its tongue from her. Younglings. Disgusting phlegm coughers. They made the creature sick for days if it consumed anything with the essence of them. Its pupils slitted against the darkness as it examined the second corpse; a tall male, organs pleasantly strewn about him. His neck was open for feasting as well.

Clucking its tongue along well sharpened, goring, jaw tusks; the creature dipped its head and began to eat.

--

Terra's heart was dead. Numbed with the horror she told herself was not true. But the child told the truth. His parents were dead. And so was his twin sister likely.

The chill wind whipped through her loose hair and shivers rippled over her back and wings. Are we almost there?

Yes. Land now. Watch your wings idiot- you'll lose them.

Terra scowled as she pulled her wing away from the branch she had clipped in landing and quickly dropped into her humanoid form. Ati stood, unimpressed, a few feet away across the wooded plateau.

"Where-" Ati's sharp motion cut her words off and she glared venomously at the she-bitch.

We're not alone. Look.

Terra looked. The ground before the cave was deeply scored with claw marks, the trees surrounding bared of bark. Whatever creature had come by was still nearby. Its stink was unbearable.

Where is it?

Inside.

Inside? I will kill it for touching death ground, Terra pulled out of Ati's grip and sent a wave of energy into the cave.

A raucous growl came back to them; and a horrible clutching, scraping sound followed it. A huge, hulking beast came from inside; six legs ending in either eagle's talons or wolf paws, its twelve foot back covered with mangy hair, its long neck stretching forward a horned and tusked head, orange eyes glowing fiercely.

"A beast of hell. Others know you are here. They have come for what you carry Terra. It is a hunter. Sent to kill you." Ati's gaze never left the beast, and as she spoke a long, green, pulsing and forked tongue snapped into the air, wiggling around to face them.

The hell beast's face was contorted.. in a grin. To both their surprises, it opened a too long mouth and uttered in a phlegm heavy voice, "Too late wing vermin. Your kin taste so much like you do. But then; you don't stink of baby-vermin either."

"Bastard!" Terra was upon him before Ati could hold her back; then Ati was there at Terra's side, cutting the creature's legs out from beneath it. She sank fangs into his back to find her jaw vibrating with intense pain- his back had armor plates in the flesh. "I will taste your blood", she whispered to its ear slits, raking her claws over his face and neck. Ati made use of her hands, Terra could not see their motion, but each time she moved- the creature gurgled out another cry of pain and another hideous leg bent under its body.

"Terra! Move!" Terra jumped from the creature's back, forgetting its tusks. Swinging through the air, the beast saw her, by chance- and buried one tusk in her back, coming out through her chest.

She screamed her fury- not at the pain, but at the blood that dripped from the other tusk, blood that smelled of children. Sita. Cale.

Agony crept over her, but her anger lent her strength as she snapped the creature's tusk from its jaw, shattering it. She fell, rolling and cursing as the tusk rattled inside her. She pulled it out and stormed back to the creature's side, drawing a neat line over its heart and organs.

Foul smells and undigested flesh tumbled out onto the forest floor. Terra leapt back and watched the creature buck its terror.

She took flight, searching for a weak point in his back armor. Her sanity was gone now. Blood rang in her veins as surely as the beast still stood alive.

As Terra flew over the creature, the soft cooings of Cale's son whispered across her ears. Screaming treachery to her heart. "No more! Stop!" The creature babbled furiously at them.

For all its massive size- it was clumsy. Ati had taken its legs from beneath it, and now its sheer weight was crushing its own body. "Bitch! My kin will find you. My memory will share among the clan- you won't live long. We will destroy all wing vermin! We will-" The creature's last protest was cut off as Ati, suddenly wearing a pelt and fangs as a wolf, drew her jaws across his pulse.

Grey blood spurted from him and Ati pulled back, whimpering and snarling. Her mind shrieked with pain against Terra's consciousness, and Terra knew the blood was acidic.

"Kill..." The creature sank into the earth, its many limbs crumpled beneath it as its eyes closed.

Ati rushed to Terra, pelt rushing into her skin as her fangs protruded from her lip. The white hair flashed in the night as she picked up her friend.

The tusk had left behind more than blood- there was silver in its tusks.

Terra was dying.

Again.

"The count is going to kill me," Ati smiled, shifted her bundle, then the forest blurred and she found herself looking in the black eyes of a very, very displeased Dracula.

--

Bahahaha. Short chapter.

Just to torture you all.