Ch. 2
“Deception”
"A bat?" He smirks while looking up at me with his hands in his tunic pockets. He moves closer to the tree I am in and his cape trails behind him as he walks. "A curious bat at that...How strange...You did not flee, but followed..." He pauses watching me, his eyebrows push closer together. "And your scent is different... almost bitter and..."
I remain silent. Watching him. Act natural. I feel my face grimace realizing the situation I have put myself in. Shit. I flutter my wings. You are the form; Mother would scream again.
"Interesting bat you are, and I do love bats…" he says, his eyes flicker with a craving. Like a predator to prey. I know that look too well. Something is racing through his mind. His lips twitch. He touches the base of the tree with his fingertips and runs them across, never breaking his gaze from me. Darkness slowly climbs over each branch, closer and closer. "They make for a nice bite... and you…with your smell…I bet you taste divine. " He smirks and I get a flash of his white fangs glimmering in the moonlight.
A vampire.
FUCK.
I have never come across one in person. I mean, it is kind of hard to come across anything interesting while being trapped in a castle, but vampires…I have overheard Mother during one of her council meetings that there is a clan in the endless forest, and I have heard of firsthand tales from the scouts, but not very good ones. There are few stories, extremely vague stories, about them in some books in the grand library, this is not what they described, what anyone described. He looks so human, so normal, so powerful, so fascinating, so watching ... Shit.
My curiosity has once again got the best of me. I feel every muscle in this form tense, my instinct to flee from danger held in every inch of this body, but I do not move. It is like I can’t. I see the darkness, the shadows mere inches from me. Another claw drags down my mental door. No. Remain.
We continued watching each other. He never breaks his gaze from me. I see the vampire tense for a second and the darkness grazes my wings. As if he just needed to touch the creature that is not running, but is observing, studying, like he is. Like he needs to understand while everything else runs in fear, but not this bat, or not bat truly. I have fought and hunted plenty of things, but not a creature that controls shadows and bends them to its will, a vampire that controls darkness, darkness is everywhere. Fuck.
"Don't touch the bat." I say flinching from the warmth of the dark shadow that touched me, the darkness is warm... What? Am I really that cold? My heart starts to pound against my chest. Claws now tapping along my mental doors. No. Shit. My face stays blank and sharp, cutting anything that gets near it, as the shadows dance around me now.
I watch as his face changes from confusion to fascination. "It speaks?" He says with a spark of thrill in his eyes. "Your heart is so loud...and you are so cold…" His head tilts to the side.
"I can do a lot of things." I say in a matter-of-fact tone. Why am I even talking? Shut up, but don’t. I need to remember to be fearless even though my insides are about to crawl out of me, out of my throat. Thank Nyx, I didn’t eat that stupid moth. I would have lost it down the tree which would have been ten times worse than eating that six-legged gross bug to begin with.
I have faced many creatures, but this one is different. I feel like every part of me is uncovered and open to tear into pieces. The moonlight is completely gone now. It is as if we are the only things that remain within the darkness that has consumed all, only leaving us, and me bare and vulnerable. Shit.
"Oh, really?" He says while shifting his weight between his feet. He is planning something.... before I could even finish the thought the darkness grabs me. Warmth that slowly starts closing in around me. I twitch a wing and a small burst of flames burns through the darkness around my body. My training is paying off. Glad to know that even though I feel like my power is changing I can still summon my fire, thank fucking Nyx.
I am falling now. The burst launches me forward past his shadows. My small body hits the ground, bouncing into some wet leaves. I feel my body surge. A feral pulse goes through it. NO. Not now. Claws again running down my mental door. Scratching down, ringing through my skull. No. I start trying to regulate myself. I need to gather my thoughts. Do not change now. Remain in control. This can’t be happening. I left the castle walls to try and figure out what was going on with me and here I am now about to release the thing inside of me. The exact thing I was trying to stop from occurring. Shit. I shoot upward, leaves flying everywhere as I push my wings against them. Before I can even get a few feet off the ground, he is over me. He moves so fast. Shit.
He grabs me with his hands this time, moving so quickly that the leaves continue to swirl in the air. Darkness moves across his hands onto me. I squirm in his callused hands while they gently hold me. I am not delicate, not breakable at all. Not my true form. I feel the claws in my mind pounding on my mental door. Shit.
"What a turn of events. I do enjoy this encounter more, but I still needed to talk to her.” He motions in the direction that Muma Padurii fled from. "She feared you, and disappeared back into the night... What are you if you scared the mother of the forest?" He grins and then quietly says. "Your heartbeat is so loud for...a bat...hmm..." Shit. Stop analyzing me. Stop it. “Why are you so cold?”
"Let me go." I say with a terrifyingly calm tone and even surprise myself. They’ve trained me well and I was a good student. Not like I had much else to do while being trapped behind walls.
The warmth of his hands against my cold body. Why am I so cold? What is happening? My body trembles slightly within his grasp, no, no. Do not change. Remain. Calm. Remember your form. My thoughts start to spin. Shit. Remain. The claws are ripping holes through my mental door, and I am pushing against it. Slamming my mental blocks down. Snarls echoing through. Remain. Not now, come back later. Or never, that would be preferred. I plead within my mind.
He looks at me, studying me fully. He touches my satchel. "Tell me, what is going on in that mind of yours, little bat?" Shit.
I squirm in his grasp, and he smiles. He holds me firm, but there is a softness with it still. I feel his eyes studying me again, watching my face, my breathing, my heart. He will not let go, as if he cannot, or refuses. My wings pinned against his hand. They do as much as a small flick. I feel a pulse. Purely animal. I slam against my mental door with everything I got. No, NO. Remain. I cannot reach the satchel that is hanging from me now as he has let it drop. It is caught on the edge of one of the joints on my wings. If I could only reach inside. Oh, Mother is going to be so pissed. Fucking good. Maybe, maybe not.
I look at him fiercely, "Let me go or you will regret it." I twist again.
Thinking about all my options. I could end this within seconds if I just shifted, or at least make this not easy, but it would be bloody and even deadly. I do not know if I could take that chance. The risk of shifting entirely, or even shifting into my beast form, in such an open area of the endless forest in front of a shadow wielding vampire may draw more unwanted attention to me. Fuck. There is also the risk of the thing within me taking full control. It is trying to break free, and it is close. That is why I fled the castle.
FUCK.
I have never faced a vampire either. Shit. Mother never allowed me to go with the scouts when they ventured to areas where vampires are known to roam, because not all of them came back and she never let me go anywhere outside the walls anyway. I do not really want to be consumed either, from a vampire no less. In the endless forest full of creatures from nightmares, and I get caught by a vampire, one of the creatures I don’t know shit about.
I do not really remember reading anything about vampires within the inadequate and horribly vague stories in the grand library, anything that would be useful in this moment other than they are blood thirsty powerful creatures, and he mentioned tasting you, like a snack because you are full of delicious blood. My brain is racing, my head starts to spin. A blood-craving being has you as a bat in his grasp, in his darkness that he controls, and mentioned eating you. Shit. REMAIN. The door is pounding against my blocks. CALM. I need to weigh all my options...it is starting to look like only one option. I cannot change. Not now, but I could use my other powers...Shit.
"Oh?" He holds me in his hand and raises me to his face. "Intriguing little bat you are." He pauses, "But I have a feeling you are not an ordinary bat...or a bat at all.” Shit. His face is sharp with edges. He has a scar that runs along his jawline. “Are you?" His cerulean eyes moving quickly over me, studying. His eyebrow forming a bunched line. His hickory dark brown hair moving slightly in the breeze. I still can’t see his ears. I can feel the heat of his hand battling whatever coldness that is raging inside of me.
"Let me go." I said with toxic fury on my lips that stings through the air cutting the edges of his darkness. I see for a brief second; he gives off the slightest wince and the shadows slightly retreat closer to him as my words flow by.
"Vicious little thing you are…” His cerulean eyes narrow. “Or what?” He says while looking into my eyes analyzing me as a scientist does with a new discovery.
Darkness surrounds me again, my wings, and warmth running down them, gently, looking at the thin membrane that expands from my shoulders. I found the creature that dared to challenge me. Shit, and I am a fucking tiny bat currently just spitting words out.
That is, it. I could change like I always have, but the pounding is so loud in my head, it would be hard to control the beast within, controlling the form I take. Pure animalistic and feral. Distress signals are coursing through my veins, shit, and it woke the beast even more so than it already was. So quickly, even after keeping it contain and regulated for so long. Something was changing already and then I met this vampire, who wields darkness as a pet and my beast within is raging to escape, to bust through. I cannot take that risk, alone in the endless forest too far from the castle. I need to use a different one of my powers. Hopefully it goes better than the times I have practiced within the walls of the castle. Mother is going to be so pissed. But so be it.
"Have it your way." I bite down onto his finger and look at his face. Like venom, I feel my power run through my core into his freshly punctured skin. This will be my first time doing this to anyone outside of our clan without the protection of the castle walls. If I can even call it that.
He drops me before flinching and looking at me like a bat with the madness, but then a smile moves across his teeth... his fangs shining bright in the darkness.
I flop to the ground after he lets me go. I feel every ache in my body with each passing breath. My life energy drained each time. I will never get used to that sensation. It needs time to come back, it needs to be replenished. My breath is shaky, and my heart is slowed and faint. I lick the slight trace of red liquid from my lips, "Who's the nice bite now?" I manage to breathe out in shaky rasps.
Ch. 2
“Deception”
"A bat?" He smirks while looking up at me with his hands in his tunic pockets. He moves closer to the tree I am in and his cape trails behind him as he walks. "A curious bat at that...How strange...You did not flee, but followed..." He pauses watching me, his eyebrows push closer together. "And your scent is different... almost bitter and..."
I remain silent. Watching him. Act natural. I feel my face grimace realizing the situation I have put myself in. Shit. I flutter my wings. You are the form; Mother would scream again.
"Interesting bat you are, and I do love bats…" he says, his eyes flicker with a craving. Like a predator to prey. I know that look too well. Something is racing through his mind. His lips twitch. He touches the base of the tree with his fingertips and runs them across, never breaking his gaze from me. Darkness slowly climbs over each branch, closer and closer. "They make for a nice bite... and you…with your smell…I bet you taste divine. " He smirks and I get a flash of his white fangs glimmering in the moonlight.
A vampire.
FUCK.
I have never come across one in person. I mean, it is kind of hard to come across anything interesting while being trapped in a castle, but vampires…I have overheard Mother during one of her council meetings that there is a clan in the endless forest, and I have heard of firsthand tales from the scouts, but not very good ones. There are few stories, extremely vague stories, about them in some books in the grand library, this is not what they described, what anyone described. He looks so human, so normal, so powerful, so fascinating, so watching ... Shit.
My curiosity has once again got the best of me. I feel every muscle in this form tense, my instinct to flee from danger held in every inch of this body, but I do not move. It is like I can’t. I see the darkness, the shadows mere inches from me. Another claw drags down my mental door. No. Remain.
We continued watching each other. He never breaks his gaze from me. I see the vampire tense for a second and the darkness grazes my wings. As if he just needed to touch the creature that is not running, but is observing, studying, like he is. Like he needs to understand while everything else runs in fear, but not this bat, or not bat truly. I have fought and hunted plenty of things, but not a creature that controls shadows and bends them to its will, a vampire that controls darkness, darkness is everywhere. Fuck.
"Don't touch the bat." I say flinching from the warmth of the dark shadow that touched me, the darkness is warm... What? Am I really that cold? My heart starts to pound against my chest. Claws now tapping along my mental doors. No. Shit. My face stays blank and sharp, cutting anything that gets near it, as the shadows dance around me now.
I watch as his face changes from confusion to fascination. "It speaks?" He says with a spark of thrill in his eyes. "Your heart is so loud...and you are so cold…" His head tilts to the side.
"I can do a lot of things." I say in a matter-of-fact tone. Why am I even talking? Shut up, but don’t. I need to remember to be fearless even though my insides are about to crawl out of me, out of my throat. Thank Nyx, I didn’t eat that stupid moth. I would have lost it down the tree which would have been ten times worse than eating that six-legged gross bug to begin with.
I have faced many creatures, but this one is different. I feel like every part of me is uncovered and open to tear into pieces. The moonlight is completely gone now. It is as if we are the only things that remain within the darkness that has consumed all, only leaving us, and me bare and vulnerable. Shit.
"Oh, really?" He says while shifting his weight between his feet. He is planning something.... before I could even finish the thought the darkness grabs me. Warmth that slowly starts closing in around me. I twitch a wing and a small burst of flames burns through the darkness around my body. My training is paying off. Glad to know that even though I feel like my power is changing I can still summon my fire, thank fucking Nyx.
I am falling now. The burst launches me forward past his shadows. My small body hits the ground, bouncing into some wet leaves. I feel my body surge. A feral pulse goes through it. NO. Not now. Claws again running down my mental door. Scratching down, ringing through my skull. No. I start trying to regulate myself. I need to gather my thoughts. Do not change now. Remain in control. This can’t be happening. I left the castle walls to try and figure out what was going on with me and here I am now about to release the thing inside of me. The exact thing I was trying to stop from occurring. Shit. I shoot upward, leaves flying everywhere as I push my wings against them. Before I can even get a few feet off the ground, he is over me. He moves so fast. Shit.
He grabs me with his hands this time, moving so quickly that the leaves continue to swirl in the air. Darkness moves across his hands onto me. I squirm in his callused hands while they gently hold me. I am not delicate, not breakable at all. Not my true form. I feel the claws in my mind pounding on my mental door. Shit.
"What a turn of events. I do enjoy this encounter more, but I still needed to talk to her.” He motions in the direction that Muma Padurii fled from. "She feared you, and disappeared back into the night... What are you if you scared the mother of the forest?" He grins and then quietly says. "Your heartbeat is so loud for...a bat...hmm..." Shit. Stop analyzing me. Stop it. “Why are you so cold?”
"Let me go." I say with a terrifyingly calm tone and even surprise myself. They’ve trained me well and I was a good student. Not like I had much else to do while being trapped behind walls.
The warmth of his hands against my cold body. Why am I so cold? What is happening? My body trembles slightly within his grasp, no, no. Do not change. Remain. Calm. Remember your form. My thoughts start to spin. Shit. Remain. The claws are ripping holes through my mental door, and I am pushing against it. Slamming my mental blocks down. Snarls echoing through. Remain. Not now, come back later. Or never, that would be preferred. I plead within my mind.
He looks at me, studying me fully. He touches my satchel. "Tell me, what is going on in that mind of yours, little bat?" Shit.
I squirm in his grasp, and he smiles. He holds me firm, but there is a softness with it still. I feel his eyes studying me again, watching my face, my breathing, my heart. He will not let go, as if he cannot, or refuses. My wings pinned against his hand. They do as much as a small flick. I feel a pulse. Purely animal. I slam against my mental door with everything I got. No, NO. Remain. I cannot reach the satchel that is hanging from me now as he has let it drop. It is caught on the edge of one of the joints on my wings. If I could only reach inside. Oh, Mother is going to be so pissed. Fucking good. Maybe, maybe not.
I look at him fiercely, "Let me go or you will regret it." I twist again.
Thinking about all my options. I could end this within seconds if I just shifted, or at least make this not easy, but it would be bloody and even deadly. I do not know if I could take that chance. The risk of shifting entirely, or even shifting into my beast form, in such an open area of the endless forest in front of a shadow wielding vampire may draw more unwanted attention to me. Fuck. There is also the risk of the thing within me taking full control. It is trying to break free, and it is close. That is why I fled the castle.
FUCK.
I have never faced a vampire either. Shit. Mother never allowed me to go with the scouts when they ventured to areas where vampires are known to roam, because not all of them came back and she never let me go anywhere outside the walls anyway. I do not really want to be consumed either, from a vampire no less. In the endless forest full of creatures from nightmares, and I get caught by a vampire, one of the creatures I don’t know shit about.
I do not really remember reading anything about vampires within the inadequate and horribly vague stories in the grand library, anything that would be useful in this moment other than they are blood thirsty powerful creatures, and he mentioned tasting you, like a snack because you are full of delicious blood. My brain is racing, my head starts to spin. A blood-craving being has you as a bat in his grasp, in his darkness that he controls, and mentioned eating you. Shit. REMAIN. The door is pounding against my blocks. CALM. I need to weigh all my options...it is starting to look like only one option. I cannot change. Not now, but I could use my other powers...Shit.
"Oh?" He holds me in his hand and raises me to his face. "Intriguing little bat you are." He pauses, "But I have a feeling you are not an ordinary bat...or a bat at all.” Shit. His face is sharp with edges. He has a scar that runs along his jawline. “Are you?" His cerulean eyes moving quickly over me, studying. His eyebrow forming a bunched line. His hickory dark brown hair moving slightly in the breeze. I still can’t see his ears. I can feel the heat of his hand battling whatever coldness that is raging inside of me.
"Let me go." I said with toxic fury on my lips that stings through the air cutting the edges of his darkness. I see for a brief second; he gives off the slightest wince and the shadows slightly retreat closer to him as my words flow by.
"Vicious little thing you are…” His cerulean eyes narrow. “Or what?” He says while looking into my eyes analyzing me as a scientist does with a new discovery.
Darkness surrounds me again, my wings, and warmth running down them, gently, looking at the thin membrane that expands from my shoulders. I found the creature that dared to challenge me. Shit, and I am a fucking tiny bat currently just spitting words out.
That is, it. I could change like I always have, but the pounding is so loud in my head, it would be hard to control the beast within, controlling the form I take. Pure animalistic and feral. Distress signals are coursing through my veins, shit, and it woke the beast even more so than it already was. So quickly, even after keeping it contain and regulated for so long. Something was changing already and then I met this vampire, who wields darkness as a pet and my beast within is raging to escape, to bust through. I cannot take that risk, alone in the endless forest too far from the castle. I need to use a different one of my powers. Hopefully it goes better than the times I have practiced within the walls of the castle. Mother is going to be so pissed. But so be it.
"Have it your way." I bite down onto his finger and look at his face. Like venom, I feel my power run through my core into his freshly punctured skin. This will be my first time doing this to anyone outside of our clan without the protection of the castle walls. If I can even call it that.
He drops me before flinching and looking at me like a bat with the madness, but then a smile moves across his teeth... his fangs shining bright in the darkness.
I flop to the ground after he lets me go. I feel every ache in my body with each passing breath. My life energy drained each time. I will never get used to that sensation. It needs time to come back, it needs to be replenished. My breath is shaky, and my heart is slowed and faint. I lick the slight trace of red liquid from my lips, "Who's the nice bite now?" I manage to breathe out in shaky rasps.
