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Post by Admin on Dec 29, 2012 16:03:59 GMT -5
"Ugh, sure I would.
"I can't guarantee that there won't be any side effects. You're the first vampire I've ever come across and I can't say I've ever heard of a person like me giving blood before."
Daniel let Ava take his wrist and bring it to her lips. He turned his head and closed his eyes so as not to have to watch her. He imagined it would be like a needle--if you didn't see the injection, the pain would be less. The moment her fangs pierced his flesh he still tensed up. It wasn't nearly as painful as he imagined it would be, but it still hurt.
It was a strange sensation feeling the blood being syphoned from his body. It wasn't like the last time she drank his blood when his body and mind felt nothing but pain and fear. He opened his eyes and chanced a glance at Ava. She's going to be alright, he thought to himself.
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DolorNoir
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Post by DolorNoir on Jan 26, 2013 18:00:40 GMT -5
"I took it last night and I've been okay..." I am barely able to mumble before my mouth is closed around his skin.
I try to bite gently but quickly. I swallow six times. Again the magic tingles as his blood screams careening through my stomach and straight to my veins. It makes me feel happy. I think the linings of my inner organs must have thinned to let the blood pass through with easy osmosis.
I pull my mouth back; I've taken enough to heal, and I don't want to kill him. My vision is clear now, although anything with a light colour is tinged reddish pink, including Daniel's skin. The pain isn't so hot to leave. The throbbing in my arm is a grinch, but bearable. My eyes are burning and tearing up. I lick the small drops seeping from the holes, and hazard a look up to Daniel's face.
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Post by Admin on Feb 20, 2013 3:40:22 GMT -5
Daniel was looking down at Ava. He felt her tongue flick across the small wounds she made with her fangs. He met her eyes and felt the colour rushing to his cheeks. It kind of felt like that awkward moment after having a first kiss with someone. Neither quiet sure what should be said or done in the following moment.
Cradling his wrist to his body, Daniel leaned away from Ava. He looked at the wound, sizing up the band aid that would be required. He tried to calm his mind and assess how he was really feeling. He realized he was a little bit lightheaded. Not enough to cause balance problems, but enough to cause a pressure in his skull. He felt heavier as well. An odd sensation considering he was now a pint lighter.
"Are you going to be OK now? Can I help you get up?"
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DolorNoir
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Post by DolorNoir on Mar 8, 2013 15:23:54 GMT -5
I stare straight up at Daniel as he blushes and looks away.
He asks me if I need help up, I respond "No, but you're funny when you blush." He's examining his wrist. He doesn't look too hot, though I doubt he'd tell me if he was sick. He's still blushing. It really is funny. The strange thing though is how the humour doesn't appear on my face. I can feel myself blanked out still on his blood and the twinges of my skin and retinas as they all knit back together. I move my lips to smile. Suddenly it feels natural. I am amused. Kinda makes my mouth all dry and happy.
I sit up with a bit of stretch and strain,and face Daniel. "I'm fine. Thank you. Do you need help up?"
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Post by Admin on Mar 21, 2013 6:18:40 GMT -5
"No thanks, I can manage." Daniel brought one knee up from beneath him, the joint making a loud snap as he put his weight on it to stand. His sneakers squeaked as he walked to the first aid kit and put a band aid over the small punctures on his wrists. Idly, he wondered if they would scar. What would he tell people if ever he was asked about their origins? The only explanation that came to mind was being stabbed by one of those two pronged BBQ forks. Convenient that it happened right over a vein. He didn't want to think anymore about the consequences of what had just happened. Instead he grabbed the roll of paper towel from the counter and knelt down on the floor again.
With quick motions he wiped up the spilled milk and cereal, collecting the shards of ceramic in a hammock of disposable cloth. The tossed it all in the trash and washed his hands. Ava was still standing in the kitchen with him, having watched him clean up the mess. Daniel leaned back against the countertop, crossing his ankles in front of himself. With nervous tension he brushed his hand through his white hair, making it stand on end everywhere his fingers brushed. "I have to go out for a few hours. Would you be ok staying here on your own for a while? I have basic cable, and some books to entertain yourself. If your not cool with that, I can hold off on my stuff."
He wasn't sure what he wanted more, for her to be ok on her own or for her to tell him to stay. He really wanted to head to the library and do some research. He also needed the payphone down the street to make some phone calls. The landline made the call quality much better than if he tried using his cell phone. He needed to call his father back before the man got too worried. He also needed to call his friend Ulous, likely the oldest Necromancer in the world. Daniel was hoping the guy would be able to tell him if there were going to be any lingering effects of donating blood to a vampire, and give him some tips on how best to raise the skeleton he visited last night.
A twinge of excitement raced up either side of his ribs at the thought of the Neanderthal. It would be fantastic to see one "alive" and up close. He tried to keep the enthusiasm off his face as he waited for Ava to answer him.
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DolorNoir
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Post by DolorNoir on Mar 23, 2013 23:33:05 GMT -5
I close myself in the sunless bathroom and wait until I hear Daniel leave and the outside door shut and lock once more. Before he left I could feel this sort of nervous energy pooling off him in soft waves. He was anxious to go get something done, but din't want to tell me this. Didn't have to though.It's weird, I feel him in my veins now, even as he gets farther away from me by the second.
I walk back into the living room, and open a new internet tab on the laptop I asked him to leave open to me before he left. I search the news. The security guard has been reported missing. An echo breezes through my chest like something sinister drowned in a summer quarry. While I was all primal, all beast. Not different, just in a different mode. I'm surprised how easy it was to switch into house trained mode. Maybe that's what being a vampire means now, complete versatility. Well.... not quite complete. Just a beam streaming in the window did damage to this indestructable state.
I open a new tab.
I search delivery services. Bingo.
I sprawl out on the floor on my back, Stretch my arms above my head, swing one leg up and touch my toes to the floor above my fanned hair, then the other leg. I stand, bend over backwards slowly with my arms catching me as I fall into a bridge. I carry on, bending, stretching, feeling, testing. My human self would be breathing hard from doing this for such a length of time.
I unlock the front door, turn away, and stroll slowly into Daniel's bedroom. The place doesn't have junk in it. It looks barely lived in for the most part, this whole apartment. The bed is neatly made. I smell the pillows. Nobody else has been here, not for a long while anyway. I look in the closet. Everything in order.
A knock on the door. I call out "Come in."
A guy in his late twenties opens it hesitantly.
"Would you mind stepping in and closing it?" I call out. He does this.
"Um, delivery for Mrs. Bell?" he asks more than announces.
"Yes, that would be me."
"Okay, that'll be seventy-eight-" My fangs are in his neck before he can finish telling me the bill.
"No, it won't." I say. His eyes are brown, I stare into them. He nods.
"No," he repeats, "it won't." His lips suddenly mash against my mouth. I'm surprised I didn't see this coming. I allow it. I taste the toast with peanut butter he had for breakfast, the garlic seasoned steak he had for dinner last night, the frozen mac'n'cheese he had with it, the peppered peppers. The pizza before. The beer. None of this tastes bad except the meat, which to me now just tastes like rotting flesh, which it is. But the humans aren't sensitive enough to pick up on this. The garlic and pepper is a bit too zesty though. None of it tastes good, just stale neutral. I get nothing from kissing this creature, even as I allow myself to explore him. He feels so degradedly organic, so sullied by every substance he interacts with. Is kissing all humans like this? This is doing nothing for me.
I am in the bathroom once again, and I hear the door shut behind the guy as he leaves. I wipe a little smear of blood off my chin as I hear the footsteps ascending the basement entrance. I take the dye out of the box.
Within an hour I emerge into the living room with my hair platinum blond at the roots, leaking into various pale shades of pink at the ends that colour wouldn't abandon. My eyes are painted in black, my eyelashes are maximized in it. I'm wearing girl clothes, a black tank top with black skinny jeans. Without ever having known something was wrong, I feel better. Like I own my skin again.
I start walking around the apartment, looking for a book. The irony strikes me that I might have asked Daniel to pick some up had I any forethought. Then I remember the joys of the internet...
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Post by Admin on Mar 25, 2013 4:54:36 GMT -5
Daniel returned home just an hour before sunset. He wasn't in a great mood. His day had been a major bust. He had left in the morning to call Ulous about the situation he was in. Throughout the day he had tried to contact his friend and each time it went straight to voicemail. It wasn't too surprising. Ulous tended to be busy as far as Daniel knew. Hell, the guy might even be out of the country.
It had been much easier to contact Daniel's dad. The man had picked up the landline in his grandparents house on the second ring. The older Avliden's voice sounded strong and sure. The two talked for a while and Daniel told him about his trip out to the field to try and raise the Neanderthal. He left out a lot of the details and altered a few more so as not to cause alarm. He told his father that he had been interrupted and that he hoped to return and try again soon. The older Avliden made the appropriate encouraging sounds during the conversation but it was clearly one sided. After a time they hung up and Daniel headed to the library.
Any information there was a bust too. The normal world just didn't have hard facts about the supernatural world he was on the fringes of. there was a lot of information on Anne Rice vampires or old world folk stories. There was very little information on any necromancy and positively nothing on vampires and necromancy coming together. He couldn't say he expected any differently but still had to try.
He walked down the stairs to his apartment noting how the sun was at such an angle as to plunge the stairwell into near complete darkness. He walked into the apartment and hung his jacket up on the hook beside the door with his keys in the pocket.
Something felt different as he kicked off his shoes and walked into the space where he lived. He could feel it on a level he couldn't even describe to himself. He walked around the couch where Ava was sitting. She had her legs crossed in front of her and the laptop resting between her knees.
His eyes went wide and his eyebrows reached for his hairline. Cleaned up she looked like a whole new person. In the back of his mind he wondered where she had gotten makeup and new clothes. He wanted to ask her but all that came out of his mouth was "wow...".
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DolorNoir
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Post by DolorNoir on Mar 25, 2013 22:01:07 GMT -5
I don't realize I've been listening until the sound of a car rounding a corner reaches my conscious ears. I look up, and wait. No, it wasn't listening, it was feeling. Daniel is coming home. I hear the car in the driveway and his boots on the stairs. The door opens, and I flinch in response to the sunlight that doesn't come in. I stare back down to the screen as he walks in. I resume reading the trashy vampire novel pdf I found a little while ago, "...the vibration under his skin grew tighter and stronger along with his roaring lust for her. He knew he should look away..."
And I know that I should look away from this particular scene right now, before I get awkward. I had forgotten how it could be to read sex scenes when there were other people in the same room. But then I glance back to the screen again. Is that what vampires are like? Is that what I am? A melodramatic warrior sex fiend? Makes sense.
I open a game of solitaire, click the Aces, red nine to black ten-
"Wow."
I actually look up, for real this time. Daniel looks surprised. A bit gobsmacked, even.
"Look, I'm a real girl." A real girl who knew you were coming home before even hearing your car...
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Post by Admin on Mar 27, 2013 2:20:32 GMT -5
Daniel's brow came down over his eyes showing his slight confusing at what she was saying. He never doubted she was a real girl. Maybe she was referring to the fact that she was wearing makeup and famine clothing. Neither really mattered to Daniel. He wasn't a very shallow person, liking women more for their minds and personality than their appearance. She is pretty though, he thought to himself.
He ran his hand through his hair in a nervous gesture, trying to distract himself from that course of thought. He wasn't very suave with women. He coughed lightly once to better get coherent words out of his mouth. "What...Ah, what did you get up to while I was gone?"
Coming home to someone was a very new experience for Daniel. he wasn't quiet sure what the proper etiquette for the situation was. What would one normally say to the vampire who attacked you the previous night, was then brought to your household for the day, and then you came home to find sitting on your couch? Somehow, he doubted that normal manners covered such a topic.
Daniel sat down beside Ava on the couch and rubbed his thighs with his suddenly sweaty palms. Maybe just coming home to someone was what was causing the strange feeling deep inside himself.
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DolorNoir
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Post by DolorNoir on Mar 27, 2013 16:19:34 GMT -5
I gloss over his question a moment to confront his perplexed look.
"You know? Real girl, as opposed to mud-covered beast who giggles as she rips out your throat?"
I pause a moment in my sarcasm as he sits on the couch and rubs his hands on his legs. I turn myself toward him, laptop balancing between my knee and hand as I face Daniel. He looks better than he did when he left this morning, but still a bit peaky from blood loss.
"I procured some things without spending money." I answer, before he gets nervous. Well, any more nervous. "And then, well... the rest is obvious. Plus I napped. How about you?"
My fingers start twitching, I can feel the sun lowering, it's power weakening. It's still up, and I would die if I went outside. But I can feel night coming.
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Post by Admin on Mar 30, 2013 2:04:28 GMT -5
Daniel and Ava continued to make small talk for a while. When the sun was finally set, Ava had popped up from the couch and put the computer aside. In a very matter of fact voice she had proclaimed that she needed to head into town. Daniel was happy to have something to do other than make small talk. It made him nervous to jabber about mundane things. Doing something was much better.
They had climbed into Daniels silver car and he had steered toward the heart of the city. It wasn't a very big city when compared to Retermositoa, but it had the same kind of stores, the same vagrants, the same--well, sameness. Ava hadn't really said what she wanted in the city so Daniel took her to the area he knew had the most diverse selection of shops. Here one could buy anything: designer clothes, designer knock-offs, drugs, women, electronics, food.
They both departed the car and strolled in the evening air. The nights were getting longer, so the shops were all still open as they passed. Daniel stopped to look at a window display of knives. When we turned back to the street to resume his stroll with Ava, she was no longer by his side. Fear struck him and caused his heart to race. Was she safe to be around other people? How would she know how to contact him if she were lost. Daniel wished these questions had occurred to him before he took her out of the apartment.
His eyes searched the thin but steady stream of people on the street. She wasn't to be seen. He quickened his step and came upon an alley about a block up from the shop. He took a few steps into the darkness that shrouded the space. "Ava? Ava!?" His eyes were unable to penetrate the darkness. He waited a moment for a response that never came. Turning back to the street Daniel felt his knee give out. Blinding pain assailed him and through the haze he felt the muzzle of a gun push into his back.
"Give me your wallet and your cell phone," that gun jabbed little against his spine to emphasize its words.
There were only two words that seemed to be able to force their way into Daniel's brain:
Oh. Sh!t.
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DolorNoir
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Post by DolorNoir on Apr 4, 2013 21:08:57 GMT -5
"Should I rip out your heart? Or... snap your other wrist...? Or maybe just take off your entire arm and do icky things with your hands..."
He whimpers as my tongue flicks up his neck. "You don't fuck with my boy..." My whisper is so low, only he can hear it.
A mere moment before, I had been admiring a puffy dress in a window, across the street from where Daniel had been looking at some knives. I knew he was looking for me, but hadn't paid attention until I felt his panic. It was like a fire alarm going off in the hallways of an apartment building, except the building was my body, and the hallways were my veins. His blood called to me, screamed at me. I tracked him into this ally. I swiftly grabbed the guy assaulting Daniel by the neck, simultaneously breaking his wrist and sending his gun flying into a dumpster. All I could think at the time was: Not him. Not Daniel.
There is already a bloody wound on his left shoulder. Now my mouth moves across his right. His body is strong and his sweat masculine. The girl in me grins and her thighs twitch. I bet I can squeeze him so hard between them that his bones would break...
"Today is not the day, robbers should go away, little girls like to play, feel me rip my way, through your tattered veins..."
I bite into him mercilessly. I feel blood wet my face.
Suddenly a shock goes through me, and I realize Daniel is yelling.
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Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2013 22:48:07 GMT -5
It all changed so fast that Daniel couldn't track what was happening. One moment he had felt the muzzle of a gun pushed into his spine, and the next he was pitched forward onto his hands and the weight behind him was gone.
He staggered to his feet as fast as he could, even as pain screamed down his leg. He didn't think his knee was broken but it would take some time to be able to walk without a limp. Daniel turned around and was surprised at what he saw. Ava had the man in her hands, holding his body against her own. Daniel's brain didn't seem to be processing fast enough for what was happening. She was licking up one side of the man's neck. Daniel was worried about the gun. Where was the gun? He hadn't seen where it had fallen. Thankfully it didn't seem that the attacker still had it so it couldn't be used on Ava.
The ferocity with which she sank her fangs into the man's tender throat was a surprise. One heartbeat. Two. Daniel's brain finially seemed to turnover at what it was seeming. Ava was going to kill the man who had threatened him. "Ava, no!"
Fear permeated his words. At the same time his power rolled through him, that special power that gave him dominion over the dead. Its tendrils leapt from his outstretched hand toward Ava. Daniel took a staggering step forward, and felt his knee give out again. He felt his power connect with the vampire, batter her with his intent. There just wasn't enough of him within her to slave her to his will. She continued to feed.
Daniel felt his body slump to the side so he rested on his thigh and not his bad knee. There was nothing he could do to stop her. She was stronger than him physically, and there were no dead security guards around this time to haul her off her victim. With contempt she seemed to drop the body when she was done. Daniel could only stare. He knew that vampires were killers. That Ava had lethal potential. But to see her actually kill someone... It was a harsh reminder that she wasn't human. That although she looked like a sweet young thing, she could be ancient--could be calloused. She was no house cat.
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DolorNoir
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Post by DolorNoir on Apr 5, 2013 0:15:37 GMT -5
The shock goes through me and I glance up at Daniel. He falls to the ground, and I shudder as I feel his influence dissipate. The flesh between my teeth twitches, and a surge of protective thirst clamps my mouth harder.
The body drops to the ground. I am smiling as I watch the limbs arrange themselves to gravity's liking.
I feel my belly ripple and stretch my fingertips to the sky, giggling as I stand on tip toe and feel warmth sink through my form like decent whiskey into an alcohol virgin's gut. I lower my arms and look at Daniel.
He is staring at me as if I have grown three heads. His leg is injured and he is still sitting on the ground. I slowly approach him. I kneel in front of him, at his eye level.
"Hey. Are you alright?"
As the words leave my lips I smell the blood in my mouth all over again, realize the bottom half of my face must look like a cheetah's muzzle after the kill. I feel slow and heavy, almost drunk, and the blood is still tickling through my vessels. Itching it's course through my body. I start to realize how terrible I must look to him, and wonder if my cheeks are blushing as much as they feel like they are, or if that's just a residual notion from humanhood.
I feel my eyes widen and my lips part as I stare at him, waiting for his answer. Is Daniel going to be okay?
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Post by Admin on Apr 5, 2013 0:45:54 GMT -5
Daniel's eyes were locked on Ava as she moved. He tracked her every move as she came to kneel before him, his eyes wide from shock. So messy, he thought to himself. Blood covered the lower half of her face, obscuring her natural beauty.
"Hey. Are you alright?" Her words seemed to come from some distance. Daniel's eyes were locked on her mouth, still bright with blood, her fangs flashing as she spoke.
"I could feel you. I could feel my blood inside of you..." His words seemed like they were being spoken by someone else--that just happened to be fifty blocks away. Daniel shifted his eyes up to meet Ava's. "I don't think I'm alright at all." He was speaking about himself on the inside but the pain in his knee flared as if to remind him that he wasn't alright physically either.
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DolorNoir
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Post by DolorNoir on Apr 5, 2013 1:02:40 GMT -5
I pull up the top hem of my tank top and drag the fabric over my mouth. The material reluctantly shifts up my chest, then settles back down rumpled, stretched, and a bit sticky wet. My face isn't picture perfect, but since the blood is so fresh, most of it wipes off.
I nod as he speaks. "I could feel you too. You almost made me stop, but then you couldn't and I....." I am unsure whether I couldn't or didn't. Maybe... "I didn't want to let him get away after being rude to you."
I balance on the balls of my feet and snake one of my arms under Daniel's, my hand on the back of his shoulder. I take his other arm's bicep in my other hand, and slowly get up, pulling him to a standing position. I easily let much of his weight lean on me without showing any strain. We stand there still for a moment, I want to make sure he is steady. "Maybe nobody is okay. But I think your blood wanted me to protect you, and that has never happened before."
Yes, the blood wanted to protect him.
"What's up with your knee?"
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Post by Admin on Apr 5, 2013 1:44:07 GMT -5
With his weight distributed between Ava and his good leg, Daniel would have felt emasculated if he didn't have so much else to focus on. It didn't make sense for his blood to want to protect him. Blood wasn't sentient. It could have been that his power was responsible. It was connected to every particle of his being and could be controlled by his subconscious. Maybe he couldn't stop Ava from killing because deep down--in the part of himself that he was afraid to explore--he didn't want her to stop. Ava had killed a man just for being rude to him. He felt flattered and a little repulsed.
With most of the blood wiped off her face it was easier to see her not as the killer that she obviously was, but as the girl he had spent the daylight hours with. He wasn't trying to delude himself about her, but people die, he reminded himself. He looked down at the crumpled heap of the attacker and quickly looked away. They needed to leave this place before someone came along and made a scene.
Daniel tried to put some pressure on his bad knee only to wince and feel tears prickle in his eyes. "I think I bruised the kneecap. I can't walk on it. But we need to get out of here."
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DolorNoir
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Post by DolorNoir on Apr 5, 2013 20:15:02 GMT -5
I gently assist and lean Daniel against the brick wall of one of the buildings that make this ally what it is. I walk over to the dead body, haul it up with both hands, and drop it into the same dumpster that the gun had went flying. Faster than a person can move I am at Daniel's side again.
I look into his face to gauge how he's doing. He is in pain but not really freaking out. Good. I prefer a no-panicking policy among cohorts.
I glance up both sides of the alley, scanning the brick walls, and locking in on the metal fire escape running up one side of a building, suspended about ten feet up. I glance to the mouth of the ally, the sidewalk still crowded with happy bright shoppers, the kind of people who just might notice a girl half carrying a guy with a serious limp out of a dark alley and up the sidewalk. I glance back up to the fire escape.
"So, do you want to do this the awkward way or the obvious way?"
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Post by Admin on Apr 14, 2013 6:06:57 GMT -5
"Gawd, I don't care which. Lets just get out of here."
Daniel felt like hell. His knee was shooting blinding pain all through his leg. His ego was starting to surface and feeling shafted that he was saved by a girl. That somehow he wasn't man enough to solve his own problems. In his mind he was able to stow the sexist crap, but his subconscious was having a harder time.
He didn't want to think anymore so he tried to shut down his brain. He tried to go to the place in his mind that made him a better Necromancer. He was able to connect to the empty body of his would-be mugger. It was a very familiar connection--as if something just 'clicked' and they were one. If Daniel wanted he could command that body to do his bidding. If he wanted, he could force a soul back into the dead flesh. It was a very comforting power to him.
Though he was trying to focus on the recently dead, Daniel could feel a second pull on his power. Almost like an echo, he could feel another. Focusing more heavily on it he realized that it was Ava. Like when he had tried to call her off with his power, he could still feel her. It wasn't a strong enough connection to be of significance and yet it was a revelation. He could feel her, could he control her like he did with others? He sent little pulses of power in her direction, probing--all the while he couldn't take his eyes off her.
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DolorNoir
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Post by DolorNoir on May 3, 2013 16:25:33 GMT -5
Ignoring the strange way Daniel is staring at me, as well as the tingling feeling in my brain that seems to come with it, I take his wrist and sling his arm over my shoulder from behind.
"Hold on." I tell him, "we're doing this the awkward way." With both his hands tightly wrapped around my neck and shoulders, I use the dumpster as a foot stool and with a small jump have hold of the bottom of the closest building's metal fire escape. I grunt with the strain of our weight as my hand searches and finds the next hold. As a vampire I can do things I never could manage as a human, but vertically carrying someone heavier than me totally with the upper body strength I didn't have before is still more challenging than a moon walk.
I reach the roof with Daniel still on my back. By now he has fully assumed the piggy back position and his thighs are around my hips. I get a running start and jump across several narrow alleys that separate these downtown business buildings. I hope Daniel is not scared of heights.
I feel his heart racing, pressing into my spine through the back of my shirt as I scale down the stories of the last building and land as softly as possible in the tiny lot where we left the car. Without stopping to let Daniel off my back, I march straight to the car and deposit him on the hood. Then quickly looking around I turn to face him, "Wait here."
I dash away to the left, quickly circling a bunch of large SUVs. I wait about twenty seconds. The man at the other end of the parking lot, the only one who saw me scale down the side of the building, begins to walk to Daniel, to ask if he's alright.
I am quickly in front of him. I bite him. My veins are still ticklish from the mugger in the alley, and the delivery boy before that. I am really spoiling myself today! The heartbeat song fills my head and I only take a few mouthfuls before I have what I need; a small fissure opening in his consciousness. I slip in and tell him he is on drugs, the things he saw and felt aren't real; I am not real. I leave him staring at an opposite wall. Smiling, I walk back to Daniel.
"Let's go."
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Post by Admin on May 5, 2013 2:42:54 GMT -5
Daniel just sat on the hood of his car, likely leaving a dent, as Ava walked off. He was taking stock of his body. That little adventure across the roofs had practically given him heart palpitations. He didn't know before today that he had a fear of heights. More precisely--falling from them. All too soon Ava had returned. "Let's go." The car keys were still in his pocket so he fished them out as he limped to the driver side door. It was his left knee that was all muddled so in theory he could still drive. He knew he probably shouldn't as his mind was kind of in a blender. Pain was giving everything a fuzzy edge. Adrenaline was still pumping hard through his body, first from the mugging, and then an espresso shot as they did their jackrabbitting across roofs and alleys. Sitting next to Ava in the cramped space of his car didn't help calm him down. 'The awkward way' as she had called it helped to emphasize what she proved in the first alley. She wasn't human. As much as she looked like a girl, talked like a girl, smelt like a girl, and made him feel a stirring below his belt like a girl could cause, she wasn't one. She was closer to a pet tiger. Pretty to look at, would be nice to you, but could turn at any moment. Daniel needed to be more careful with himself around her. He started the engine and eased the car out of the parking space. He was overly cautious as he did so, his eyes darting across everything as if the parked cars around him would suddenly start to move just to spite him. He headed the car back toward his home. Neither of them spoke as he drove. Being in traffic took the edge off, but Daniel still felt amped up. As they drove past a cemetery with a short black iron gate surrounding the land, Daniel heavily pressed the breaks and turned the wheel. The tires squealed in protest but Daniel was pulling into the cemetery. He slowed down even more as he shot down the narrow road that led into the heart of the city of the dead. He took the winding roads with care, not wanting to hit a headstone close to the path. Finally he stopped, shut off the engine and got out of the car without a word. He hobbled over to a headstone that was a few plots away from the road. The heavy granite was black and even in the dim light he could see it was polished to a highly reflective shine. The earth before the rock was slightly crested, the dirt beneath the grass not having fully settled after having been disturbed. With stiffness he eased himself down to the grass and lay down on his back as if he was mimicking the person in the coffin below. If Ava was talking to him, he didn't notice. He just needed these moments to himself. Daniel closed his eyes and awakened his power. Like a low-laying fog he sent it across the plains of the cemetery. At each plot it dipped down into the earth and connected with the dead that lay beneath. Daniel wasnt trying to raise an army of zombies--he just wanted to feel connected to something he understood. Death magick he knew. It was better than coming home to him. Laying in the cold grass he let his power overwhelm him.
He could feel them all, the hundreds of dead people who resided here. The animals who had fallen prey and were now decomposing around the boundaries. And something like a whisper in his mind: Ava, just out of reach.
He let his power continue to wander. It was a comforting gesture, kind of like petting a cat. Meanwhile his mind started to form comprehensive thoughts again. What was he going to do with Ava? Was she going to be sticking around? Was she going to continue on her way? Was he going to have to find a way to muzzle her if they had to go out in public again? Did he even want a pet 'tiger'? He knew the answer to that last one was, not really. But he couldn't help but feel like he and Ava could help each other. To get answers to his other questions he was just going to have to ask her.
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DolorNoir
Archfiend
4am knows all my secrets
Posts: 1,560
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Post by DolorNoir on Jun 4, 2013 15:25:16 GMT -5
I sit in an oak tree and watch Daniel play dead. He's spooked, and ironically he talks to ghosts to calm down.
I lick the bark. It's like rough dirt against the skin of my tongue. The blood in my mouth has stopped singing, and I have a sudden craving for wine.
I drop out of the tree and leave the cemetery. The necromancer will be quite alright by himself. If anyone pisses him off he'll zombie attack them.
I run a hand through my hair. still super pale blond with pink streaks leftover. I may be dead, but at least I'm still pretty.
Night sings anthems for lovers to get drunk by. I see a pair fucking behind a tombstone as I turn a corner and am completely away from Daniel. A thought runs through my mind, I wonder if he's ever had sex in a cemetery. Probably not, since he knows all the dead are watching him.
A cute girl and her boyfriend are walking the opposite way as me, towards me, on the sidewalk. I stop walking. The girl smiles. Her boy stops and actually looks at me. He's cute too. She reaches out and runs her fingertips along the edge of my face, and when her thumb grazes my mouth I open my lips. Her digit curves above my bottom lip into wet tongue softness. I make eye contact with the boy, and kiss the girl, gently pulling her thumb out of my mouth.
The boy turns me around, and softly kisses my neck, once, and looks at me.
Wordlessly, they each take one of my hands, and they lead me away. To their home.
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Post by Admin on Jul 5, 2013 0:56:27 GMT -5
Daniel felt when Ava left the cemetery. It was as if the second she stepped beyond the iron fence she disappeared from his radar. He had a momentary flight of panic that she would be off into the world alone again. She could hurt more people. He reminded himself that she was not his responsibility, and whether she was with him or not, he had no control over her or the actions she took. This internal rhetoric eased his mind back into the ambivalence that caused him to lay in a cemetery to begin with.
His power was still swirling in ethereal eddies when he was approached by a spirit. It was just a lonely spirit, the kind that natters at people when they visit the cemetery, but normal people couldn't hear or see her. She talked on, and on, about positively nothing. She didn't need Daniel to be a part of the conversation and he was happy to just pretend to listen to what she was saying. Sometimes, that's all he could do for the dead.
When she took a hiccup of a breath, ready to start in on a whole new diatribe, Daniel excused himself and stiffly got to his feet. He brushed off the back of his legs and his ass. There was nothing clinging to the fabric of his pants, but damp had seeped into the weave of the material causing dark patches.
He limped back to the car and started the engine. He drove away slowly, his headlights bouncing off headstones and the conversational spirit watched him go with sad eyes.
There was hardly any traffic as Daniel let his internal autopilot guide him home. He walked in the door and kicked off his shoes. His first stop was the fridge. A beer was suddenly mission critical. He opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle from the door. He was twisting off the cap when he got a look at the clock on his microwave. Good lord, it was late! Exhaustion started to dog at him. He drank heavily from the bottle and finished it while leaning against the counter. He undressed as he walked to his bed, dropping his clothes as he went. His tidy habits forgone for the moment for a quicker decent into sleep. He crawled gingerly into the mattress, careful of his injuries and asleep the moment his cheek touched down.
Nightmares were something Daniel was well familiar with, but most of the time he was still awake when they happened. His dreamscape seldom descended into the horror movie spectrum. He was looking around what appeared to be a cross between Frankenstein's workshop and an ancient temple. There was a man at an alter with his back to Daniel. He could tell there were a lot of important artefacts and symbols on the alter that the man prayed before. Yet, since this was a dream, Daniel couldn't read them, even though, awake, he could read the language of the dead. There was a vicious hissing, and as he looked to the sound, more of the room was revealed. Strapped down to a table was a primitive looking vampire with fangs bared and snapping at the priest that Daniel knew to be a Necromancer. The priest made one more prayer to the gods and approached the vampire...
Holy-shit! Was the only thought when Daniel was jarred awake. His entire body was tingling. Was it possible? Could he just have had an educational dream? His Necromancer friend had always told him it was possible to tap into the past and gain a better comprehension of his craft. But that was one hell of a lesson, and it left Daniel more curious than ever.
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DolorNoir
Archfiend
4am knows all my secrets
Posts: 1,560
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Post by DolorNoir on Aug 21, 2013 11:32:24 GMT -5
I sit on the roof top next door to Daniel's house. It is forty minutes after sunset. The lips brushing my collarbones from last night are gone, my skin cold and untouched again. I watch the door, and hope Daniel comes out. He is used to dead things, and even if he isn't actually comfortable with vampires just yet, there is a certain comfort in that initial spark of deeper knowledge. I want to see him again.
The boy from last night painted my toe nails, blackest night, naturally. The girl painted my fingers a pastel shade somewhere between aqua and mint green. He did a better job of keeping it inside the lines though. My platinum blond hair now has turquoise in the back. My eyes are freshly lined in black. My white skinny jeans are freshly stolen and still crisp pristine. But considering my diet, that might not last long.
The building is only one and a half stories, a bungalow with a big roof. I haven't been here for more than ten minutes, but I tire already of waiting, despite the fact that my body could physically sit here for hours without complaint.
My hand has turned black from planting it on the roof beside my boot. These pants don't stand a chance.
I jump down to the pavement, and gravitate to his door. I slowly knock three times, not loudly, but firmly. I wonder what he'll think of me coming to visit him...
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Post by Admin on Aug 25, 2013 8:06:55 GMT -5
It had been an eventful day for Daniel. His knee was slowing him down, but he did his best to hobble around. He was looking for more information about the dream he had. Was it possible to slave a vampire like he saw? He had called his father but the man was very unhelpful. His mind still a little addled from the Miasma that he had recently gone through. He also kept repeating that Daniel needed to stay far away from vampires, that such creatures were evil, untrustworthy, and just bad business. Daniel could hear Bob Dignity in the background shouting support for his fathers words.
Daniel understood what they were saying, and he had seen first hand that Ava didn't have the same morals that he did. That she was a dangerous woman, fully capable of taking care of herself, and others. She was death. Plain and simple. Maybe that was what fascinated Daniel about her.
He had called the other Necromancers he was familiar with, posted online and waited for responses that never came. He had even taken a nap in the hopes that he would dream again and understand more. At the edge of twilight, he was still left ignorant.
He was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of his sofa, talking board laying dormant in front of him, when he heard the knock. It was firm, and the first time he had heard his door knock. Since he had moved in, he hadn't had a single visitor. He didn't even order food for delivery. His legs and back were stiff as he uncurled himself and got up to answer the door. The interruption was welcome, yet he still ran his hand through his hair as if annoyed. The short strands stood to attention.
The door swung open and he was beyond surprised to see Ava standing there. He hadn't realized until that moment that he had feared not seeing her again. She was looking different. More human. Her nails painted, makeup, and hair changed yet again.
"Come on in," he said, his voice fairly even with a hint of awe. The sight of her triggered the memory of the dream he had. Would she be open to helping him expand his powers? He didn't want to own her, but he did want to understand the potential power that was available to him.
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DolorNoir
Archfiend
4am knows all my secrets
Posts: 1,560
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Post by DolorNoir on Aug 26, 2013 13:40:32 GMT -5
Daniel holds open the door, a little pale still, but looking pleasantly alive all the same. He almost seems startled that I'm here, but not actually bothered.
"Thank you." I say, walking past him and flopping down on his sofa.
I look at him and sigh as if tired. "How's the knee?"
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Post by Admin on Sept 7, 2013 20:14:06 GMT -5
He wasn't surprised with the ease in which she made herself comfortable in his home. She had spent quite a bit of time alone in it already.
He closed the door after she entered, and leaned against it with his hands behind his back, touching the smooth expanse of tough plastic. "Its still a little sore. Can't put much pressure on it, but I've been managing."
Daniel took some shuffling steps towards the sofa. "I wasn't sure I would see you again."
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DolorNoir
Archfiend
4am knows all my secrets
Posts: 1,560
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Post by DolorNoir on Sept 12, 2013 7:25:26 GMT -5
I nod as Daniel explains his condition. I don't miss that part of being alive. Actually, I certainly haven't missed any part of it so far.
I look at the funny board game on the floor.
"Well you're the only one I've met so far who seems cool about me being dead and all." I pause and consider. "Or at least... I'm pretty sure I'm dead."
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Post by Admin on Sept 15, 2013 6:53:11 GMT -5
"I'm pretty sure you're dead too. I can feel you in a way that allows me to raise corpses. It's not as strong, but its there. The connection was stronger when you had my blood in you--like a near tangible connection. And being a Necromancer makes me pretty ok with the dead."
Daniel came around to sit on the sofa and took a moment to consider how best to phrase his inquiry. "Would you be open to helping me understand this connection? To experiment, and see what comes of it?" Daniel really didn't want her to deny him. His desire to learn more made him ramble on when silence would likely have helped his cause more. "You're the only vampire I've ever met, and likely the only one I will ever meet. Everyone I've talked to says that vampires and Necromancers should stay away from each other.
"Ulous--another Necromancer--says that I could be a great Necromancer if I just practiced and tried harder. I really think that I couldn't help more spirits if we did this. And that's really what I aim to do in life. Otherwise there really isn't a use for this power anymore. It's not like ancient times when we needed to ask our ancestors for history lessons. Nowadays we have Google for that."
Waiting for Ava's response made Daniel's insides feel like worms and spiders fighting over territory. He fiddled with a wrinkle in his pants to avoid eye contact and hoped that he hadn't put too much pressure on Ava. He wasn't one hundred percent sure that experimenting with her was safe or practical but he wanted to with the same insistent desire that he had felt for his first sexual encounter.
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DolorNoir
Archfiend
4am knows all my secrets
Posts: 1,560
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Post by DolorNoir on Nov 4, 2013 19:39:22 GMT -5
I absorb Daniel's words, the news that I am, for all evidence, dead. I stare at the funky board game on the floor some more. Funny, I always thought this would be so ethereal and lovely, not this bloody sexy vulgar business my mind and body have been consumed by with a magnificent sense of detachment which my former self would find scary. Would I hear the voices in the talking board? Probably not. Super body powers with no ageing is enough.
I look at Daniel. He's even more twitchy than usual. He won't look at me. I keep staring. I'm pretty sure he's not lying about this, but I was suspicious as a human.
"If you can help me carve out a niche for myself other than killer forest hag, I can probably help you with this-well, so long as you don't hurt me..." I consider. "...or do any weird kinky shit. I'm in a vulnerable place you know, what with just realizing I'm dead and all."
The left corner of my mouth cranks up in the sarcastic smile found in half my social networking photos. The eyebrow does likewise. I wait for Daniel to get it.
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