Vivienne

Love. -You can taste it, Vivienne.-  A blanket of warmth spread through her body, and aided in her resistance to the shade now bearing down on her, intent to remove all traces of its prey. -Her name is Faye.-  Vivienne heard the lovely name echo and imprint itself back into her rapidly blank mind.  -Faye Park.-  Vivienne repeated her lover’s name non-stop in her head. -Faye Park.-  Pitch black nothingness gave way and Vivienne felt Faye’s enticing touch on her shoulder, followed by a light kiss from her silky rose like lips. “Mon amour.”  Vivienne felt the wintery touch fade away from her body as the specter lost control.

-You can do it.-  Vivienne heard Faye’s voice lovingly urge  from within her heart.

Jerking her arms free of the inky ghost like form, Vivienne had total control of her body and mind once more.  -Now to somehow destroy you.-  Devoid of a true light source other than the distant twinkling of stars barely gleaming through the breaks in the dank green cloud, Vivienne dismissed the idea that light would be of any use to her like it was for Faye.

-The cage.-  Vivienne nodded to herself and shifted into her own cloud ghostly darkness.  Vivienne’s vampiric cloud swirled and covered the specter like a blanket and closed tightly as though she were intent on smothering the shadow creature.  Always the huntress, Vivienne cleverly used her own cloud to imprint her will on the specter, forcing it to assume the likeness of a beast. -Have some company, demon.-  Vivienne told her dark beast as she felt the rest of her prey dissipate.

-A play thing other than yourself?  How exciting. Did it occur to you that you either made me stronger, or gave it the means to erase me in favor of another?- Her inner dark cackled.

Ignoring the taunts easily, Vivienne shifted back to herself to conserve what blood she had remaining.  Blue eyes scanned the small battlefield and she spotted her lover fluidly handling the zombie squads like she didn’t have a care in the world. “Faye.”

Faye answered in kind, “Vivienne.”

“Mon amour.” Vivienne allowed her light French accent to escape her lips.

“Indeed.”  Faye giggled and slashed another zombie apart. “Weren’t you the one that said we had all the time in the world?”  Faye plucked the eyeballs from another zombie, sending it stumbling away from her.

Darting out from the recesses of the barn, Casey reached the cornfield and stopped in her tracks. “Woah.”  Shivering as she spotted the green swirling clouds overhead, Casey called out to her mistress. “Okay, this is creepy as hell, Viv.”

“Ozone!”  Vivienne alerted the other two and began moving in random patterns in the attempt to close the distance with Denise.

Unlike the twin vampires, Casey took a second longer to process what she’d heard while digging around in the studio. “Oh!”  Casey exclaimed just as the spell flared from Denise in three different directions.

Having spread her fingers wide enough to aim at her three targets, Denise summoned an alternate version of the skull spell she’d used earlier.  Unlike before, the pitch was aflame with hellish blue and yellow flames that outlined the three obsidian skulls.

Convinced that her Marion would deftly outmaneuver the spell like before, Denise had aimed it with a slight anticipation of trying to use its concussive force to hamper the ability of the ancient vampire to reach her.  Blessed with good fortune, Denise silently clapped when the delay on the explosion worked exactly as she intended.  “As much as I am looking forward to your loving embrace again, I can’t have you claim your prize just yet.”  Denise waved at her other two opponents, “You sit right there and let me handle this.” 

Satisfied with the initial result, Denise focused on the second skull that was orbiting her body and sent it hurling with a mind numbing screech towards Casey.  Pleased when she watched the young ward start running in fear just ahead of the flames, Denise knew that she still had some control over the unfolding battle. “Stage one, now…”  She snapped her finger and the second ball of flame erupted and sent its flaming chunks into Casey. “..Stage two complete.  Sad to see you go, Casey.  You would have been useful.”  Music to her ears, Denise clapped once more as she witnessed Casey rolling on the ground as well as desperately trying to pull the shards from her body. “Pop goes the weasel!” Denise quoted another nursery rhyme then continued, “Sorry, Dear.  I had to remove your backup supply.  It pained me to do so.”

Laughing as she pulled the final skull and sent it hurling at Faye, Denise winked at Vivienne. “I have never failed a test, my darling.” Casually directing the flaming orb to her intended target, Denise hummed a few lines of another nursery rhyme. 

“...Ring-a-ring-a-roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down!”

Pursing her lips as she watched Faye springboard herself off the chest of a zombie, Denise sighed as the detonation of her flame spell consumed all but a handful of her minions.  Frustrated that she’d taken out her own troop set, Denise held up one finger. “You have a nasty way of escaping your bonds.” 

Happy that she no longer had to dodge claw-knife swipes from Denise’s zombies, Faye easily landed and bolted for Casey. “I’m coming Casey, I’m coming!”  

Having doused the fire that came with the spell, Casey laid flat on her back and began digging the crystal shards from her skin. “Fuck…ow…”  Casey muttered and tossed a few bloodied fragments to the ground. “Faye, I…will be..” Casey looked up from her wounds just in time to see Faye crouch. “Um…Faye?”  Feeling that her body was still dripping blood from the many tiny holes, Casey slowly managed to get to her feet and begin shuffling backwards. “Faye?”

Intending to help Casey start regenerating, Faye didn’t expect the sweet aromatic scent of Casey’s blood to make her mouth water.  Vaguely aware that she had started to stalk Casey, picked up the various crystal pieces and sucked the blood from them before tossing them uselessly to the ground. “Mmhhmm..fresh.”   

“Excuse me? Fresh…oh shit.”  Casey held up her hands, “It’s me..I am a ward remember?”  Still wincing from the splinters in her body, Casey kept trying to back away, “Come on Faye.  You’ve had my blood before and weren’t like this.”

Once she’d finished sniffing out and licking the splinters free of blood, Faye cleared her lips and with a fluid move pounced on Casey, pinning her back on the ground. “More.”  Faye plucked a fragment of obsidian from Casey’s shoulder and sucked it clean. “Tantalizing, Casey.”  Faye cooed and watched Casey’s blood flow down her arm.  Flicking her tongue to capture the crimson flow, Faye traced the little stream back to the hole where it originated. “Almost as chocolate as your eyes, Casey.”  Faye slurped and smacked her lips, ending with a little pop.

Casey dropped her hands and flopped on her back, ready to give up. “Faye.”  Casey stated factually and turned her neck to the young vampire. “I have been through too much tonight, just do it.”

Flashes of her feedings flashed through her mind rapidly.  Images of Drake being torn and eaten vein by vein, the family butchered without hesitation, the few at the little play. -Blood is Everything.- Driven by instinct Fay dropped to her knees and took a deep breath while she watched Casey’s blood pulse softly through her neck.  Captured by the sweet scent of iron that was still draining through Casey’s cuts, Faye leaned down and clamped onto Casey’s neck.  Four fangs shredded the thin membrane, then retracted to allow the precious platelets to flow right across Faye’s tongue before sliding down her throat.  Once the first gulp had settled in her stomach, Faye almost felt the evening of frustration and fight for life that Casey had endured.  Pain, suffering, helplessness.  -What am I doing?-  Faye swirled her tongue over the holes she’d punctured and pulled away from Casey.  Rolling to the side, Faye ended up flopping on her back and rubbed her face briefly. “What was I doing?”  She sighed.