The Zombies of the Past (open)

[Katalina Black (DELETED 9968)]

The vampiress weighed out her options. It would have been smart to wait on the Walking Dead to keep the Raiders busy, but the hidden message in his words only made her malicious grin widen, revealing two unnaturally long incisors. Let's see what you've got. Oh, she loved a challenge, even if it was unintended. It was her turn to put a finger to her lips, fangs still gleaming as she turned away from him and silently crept for the side door. It was open, barely enough space to slide through, but she managed without causing the wood to creak. There was no need to give him a signal, though she probably should have warned him of what she was about to do. No matter, she wouldn’t give up his position. Perhaps it was an odd sense of trust, like she knew that he would step in when the moment arose. It was reckless and unproved, but in spite of his young physique, his aura felt older compared to her and that instilled some confidence.

As soon as her feet touched the grass, Katalina disappeared quite completely. The humans were too close to risk being seen. A few seconds were all she needed. With deadly stealth, the masked creature snuck into the middle of the fray, stepping just behind a selected target like a shadow. “We gonna find any keepers or we gonna stay out all night an’ drink?” The burly man spat sauntering towards her main objective. “Shut up, Frank. As if you didn’t just pull half a bottle.” The another grinned back waving a nozzle at him and sparking a hoot of laughter. “Speakin’ of which, why don’ you gimme me the other half?” The armored flamethrower turned his back to Frank, if only for a second and Katalina took it. A gunshot rang out so close it was practically deafening as blood sprayed all over the pavement. The body plummeted down, but the man was left unrecognisable, the side of his head gone in chunks splattered on the men around him. The mark of a hollow point bullet, straight to the head.

Using Frank as a human shield, she kept the blood from going all over her and giving them a clear bead on a painted billboard reading: culprit. But, she was running out of time. They were suddenly turning on each other, no one wanting to take the blame for the dead comrade on the ground. All eyes had turned to Frank as Katalina ducked behind a fallen tree. Her body faded back in unveiling her from the shadows. It wouldn’t be long before they found her, however, she was not sure she could do it again. The sight of all that gore sent a thrill coursing through her veins. The vampire’s eyes being swallowed by a mass darkness that took over the whole orb, snuffing out a light. She was losing control rapidly as more gunshots were fired and blood was spilt, causing the zombie scavengers to move in like flies. Trying to concentrate on something other than the bloodlust, she focused on the hungry dead. First one, then two, then the floor fell out from underneath her. A searing heat came from just beyond her hiding place as the screeching of a burning corpse filled the air. It knocked all the sense out of her. A roar split the night as the demon took hold, no doubt it took everyone’s attention but for the man holding the fire, it was too late. Shadows in the form of two blades sliced him from both directions, leaving him diced into three sections for his miscalculated actions. The vampiress was now taking on full gunfire and she couldn’t dodge the bullets forever. There were too many, not that the demon cared as her hand lashed out, snatching a human off it’s feet and sinking her fangs into it’s sweet, soft neck. The pistol leveled at her stomach let out a round, her gut clenched but she didn’t let go. She bit down harder turning the clean wound into a bloody mess a growl of pure joy escaping as she let the monster take over.

[Jack Diddly]

There was a delicious mischievousness in the vampiress’s dark grin. With those long fangs of hers bared and the devious gleam in her eyes, Jack was becoming a bit more confident in his calculation. His eyes followed her through the darkness and out the door. She moved with the grace of a ninja in the Japanese twilight, her footfalls nearly inaudible, her motions fluid and rhythmic. When she disappeared into the night, Jack kept his attention completely focused. He moved his gaze back out through the empty window frame, kneeling before it, towards the drunkards with their weapons. It wasn’t they he wanted to keep in mind though. Letting stillness take him, he closed his eyes and opened up the myriad of his other preternatural senses. Listening for slight disturbances in the breezy air, he tried to follow her stealthy movements. Turned out though that she made her first impression rather quickly.

It seemed to take only seconds. The gunshot thundered through the gloom, the beginning of chaos. Jack remained perfectly still, except for his eyes, which shot open at the sound. Gore and splattered brain matter was all that remained of one fellow’s head. The assassin had gotten her shot off flawlessly and vanishing into the darkness before an inebriated eye could catch sight of her. It was one way to confuse the hell out of a group of fools. And a great way to divide them. Accusatory curses and finger pointing ensued as soon as the shock of the point blank shot wore off. Jack blocked all that out and focused his senses, trying to hone in on the vampiress.

A man in a red bandana shot a pistol straight into the hazy sky. It seemed an attempt to bring some order to the hubbub started by the assassin’s attack. It also seemed like a good enough queue as any to jump in. After all, the blood that had been spilled would bring a swarm of the undead, like moths to a flame. The vampire pulled the bandana off of his face and let it hang from his neck again. He didn’t want it getting in the way. As he stepped casually and carefully up and over the window sill, leaning his tall form awkwardly under the frame before hopping into the tangled overgrowth below, he found his target. She was just emerging from the shadows. No, emerging wasn’t the right word. Rather it was as if she had become one with the shadows, they seemed to lift her into the air, her arms blades of darkness, her eyes black as a moonless night. The flamethrower roared, lighting up the darkness and for one sickening moment Jack thought it had been aimed at her, that he hadn’t acted quickly enough, that his miscalculation had been left him a murderer. But no, it was merely the head of a pack of undead who’d been torched. An otherworldly roar filled the darkness as shots blared, but the torch had been snuffed out in one melodious motion.

The vampiress snatched another man it to the darkness, like a vicious spirit, as pieces of the fireman fell in a puddle of blood on the cracked pavement. What remained of the band was shooting blindly into the shadows, but most definitely in her direction. Jack put his fingers to his lips and unleashed a shrill whistle. It rose above the gunfire impossibly high, perhaps even ear shattering. “Evenin’ Gentlemen,” the vampire’s gruff, harmonic voice boomed as he walked towards them, “seems you got yourselves in a bit of a pickle.” At the sound of his voice they’d stopped shooting, but their guns were aimed in his direction. That was a good thing, he was still honed in on the vampiress, and it gave him the opportunity to shot her a little psychic pick me up. He walked with a collected confidence, but truly the scent of bloody was driving him madder than a zombie in a slaughterhouse. “But you’ve got your guns aimed in the wrong direction,” a zombie charged out of the darkness towards the gathering. Jack quick drew his golden gun and put three bullets into its ravenous face before it was no more. It lay twitching on the ground. “Apologies, but as I was sayin’, your target is right in front of you,” Jack pointed to the man in the red bandana, “he’s killed three of your friends, time for a little retribution, eh fellas?”

With a voice like Jack’s words could really kill. The mob was glamoured and as they turned their guns from Jack to the man in the red bandana, a firing squad formed. Bandana man protested of course, but his former comrades couldn’t hear his cries. Even as another zombie rushed from the shadows and knocked one of the bewitched men to the ground, beginning to feast, the sleeping mob could do nothing but fire at bandana man. There were two things the vampire knew, one was that these guys would wake up momentarily and two that he was nearly tapped out. As bullets ripped through the fellow in the red bandana, Jack wasn’t sure if he’d be able to convince them to turn on each other again. He slipped out of sight, behind a rather large evergreen bush. He had one more trick up his sleeve.

(Power: Mob Rule - Succeeded)

[Katalina Black (DELETED 9968)]

Thick, bittersweet blood filled her mouth. The ecstasy of a tainted god. Life slowly dwindled in her arms as the human's body grew weak and limp, but there was still nectar in his veins, and the monster gulped for more. A face flashed behind her closed eyes. Her mind recoiled unsure of what was happening but she couldn't pull back because she wasn't strong enough. The visions started to unfold. This is how it all began.

They were standing in a hospital. The usual white walls painted over with scenes of a rainforest. There were colorful birds hanging in canopy branches, monkeys suspended mid-jump seeming to be reaching out for a limb they would never grasp, and in the center prowled a Bengal tiger with yellow eyes that had the illusion of following the onlooker. Dragging his gaze from the painting, a woman with the purest white hair stepped out from the hallway. She was still young, not a stripe of grey to be seen. There was a warmness between them, her eyes lit with the happiest of smiles. He had not seen her like this in a very long time. His arms opened and she stepped into his embrace. The world ceased to exist with her touch. They only pulled back so as to turn their heads to peer into the glass. His hand moved up and down her shoulder as he saw their new baby girl. She was quietly sleeping unlike so many of the noisey cribs that scattered the room. This was to be his new life. A family. A home.

Suddenly the picture flickered, the emotions fulling Katalina fading as a swirl of colors opened to a fresh scene before her: A house set in flames. There was screams of the man’s wife and daughter. Coughing, he was struggling to breath. Then all faded to black as the man died in Katalina’s arms.

Being snapped back to reality by a high pitch, the young vampiress could only feel sick with remorse. The hunger still ebbed at her, making her feel worse as her fangs slid out of the drained husk. It was then she realized why. The vampire had come to save her. At first she couldn’t believe what she was seeing, still wrapped in the cloak of pleasurable madness. Here was this man stepping out into an array of deadly savanges, to risk speaking to them, merely to save her skin. He could have just as easily left her to rot. At first, she didn’t understand what he was thinking. Was he insane? Then, it hit her: he had glamour. They started going at each other again, but this time Katalina didn’t smile. The demon was shoved back into its hole and her eyes grew once again to their former sparkling blue. There was something else in her gaze. It was cold, yet soft, calculated but otherwise unreadable. Once the humans killed the man in the red bandanna, Katalina shifted forward and unsheathed a beautiful silver sword, the navy hilt intertwined with flecks of gold shimmered under the moon. Taking it in one hand, she strided across the lot as her savior took cover and grabbed an enchanted man by the back of his blonde hair, and cleanly took his head right off. They all snapped out of it about then, but, it didn’t matter. A blanket of darkness like fog rolled in to give the vampires the edge they needed. The vampiress’ face hardened. She couldn’t hold the shadows on all of them. It started to recede back, her eyes flickered to where the young vampire hid and she directed the shadows enough to swallow the raider closest to him. She was left unprotected but moving in the blink of an eye, she was cutting the zombies down. Her sword decapitating an undead head, while she spun,and kicked a female raider straight on her ***. Her blade leaving that woman’s body in two pieces. There was an inky blood slowly seeping and evaporating from her clothes but she could hardly feel the pain. She’d be damned if she let them live after what she had seen. The remaining few would have to reload and Katalina would take that opportunity very well.

(Power: Darkness Falls - Failed in large dose - succeeded against single enemy)

[Jack Diddly]

The beast leapt through the old evergreen bush, tearing it apart. Branches of the now uprooted plant were launched into the abyss as the creature jumped into the frey. If anyone had been paying close attention, they’d of noticed a neatly folded leather jacket and black bandana sitting next to the ruin of the bush. The beast pulled itself on all fours through the gloom, it’s elongated appendages giving it a sort of simian like appearance. Truly, though, with it's twisted features and distorted form it looked more like a Cronenberg nightmare than a monkey. A zombie charged it from the right side, but the creature was quicker, it’s long, black, knife-like claw reached out and shredded the zombie to ribbons in one quick swoop. Rot and gore poured down over the monster, dying the remains of what looked to once be a white t-shirt and it’s rippling veiny, stretched to thin, flesh, a dark crimson color. The massive beast unleashed a low, otherworldly, yet melodious howl.

There was still some semblance of consciousness inside the mind of the vampire, though the reek of blood was driving it away. It was important to hold on though, not let the beast take over. It had been a last ditch effort really and he’d been confident that he had the energy to hold this particular glamour, but even now in his mutated state, arcane power pouring through him, he was beginning to feel weak, sluggish. Something was wrong, he should have felt revitalized, faster, stronger, more adept than before even. It was as if his body had become his own worst enemy. A few bullets pounded into his shoulder, so the monster took the shoulder of the man who’d fired them. Jack’s massive jaw opened with an unearthly speed as rows of large, sharky teeth ripped the appendage straight off the man’s body. Warm blood stained the monster’s lips as the man fell back, crying out, then entering a shock like state. A zombie came by to finish the job, it made the monster envious.

The undead were swarming all around them now. Jack had lost sight of the vampiress after he had transformed, but towering over the chaos, he managed to find her again. It was the starlight in her eyes that caught the massive monster’s attention. She was wielding a sword now and he just happened to catch her cutting a woman into two pieces. ‘Good’ he thought as he let out another guttural, melodious howl. He was taking on a good deal of gunfire, their attention was aimed at the monster singing in their midst and not at the ghost dancing through the shadows. With one of his now massive arms he launched a few lunging zombies in the direction of the gunfire. He could hear the decaying bodies pop and plop as they were thrown backward against the blacktop. It seemed it was too little too late though. When what felt and sounded very much like the blast of a shotgun ripped through his stomach, the beast fell.

The world spun before it blinked out with a sickening thud. Blood and pavement were the last things he tasted, pain and his body shrinking, shifting back to its normal state in a flurry of pins and needles were the last things he felt. Jack was sitting on the swing in the sunlight. He was a boy again, pushing himself back and forth, trying to get higher and higher. He’d always wanted to fly and today was just another chance to try. The birds that inspired his endeavor chirped away merrily in the branches of the tree above. The heat of the afternoon kissed his cheek as he rode rope and wood through the soft breath of springtime. He could hear a familiar voice calling out to him. It filled him with a childish mirth and feeling a bit mischievous, he jumped from the swing to hide behind the trunk of the towering old oak. It was a series of muffled giggles that gave him away though and he felt himself being grabbed from behind, being lifted into the air.

(Power: Feral Mutation, to dispatch some zombies and humans - Failed)

[Katalina Black (DELETED 9968)]

The howls rising into the air brought the thrill of battle to life. A dead body had no adrline to pump through the veins, but somehow she had never felt more alive. Her moves were swift and precise unlike the beast’s tank-like tactics, though no less effective. Her nails digging in much like claws where the blade failed her. They were too easy to kill. The mortal bodies snapped like twigs, and her sight darted to the creature this vampire had become. If she were honest, the transformation terrified her as much as it did their enemies. A wolfish creature mixed with something you could barely call a man. It was like a werewolf but it came straight from hell. His form reminded her of a fadebeast she had shot the first night she accepted what she was. The only night she could directly remember after her Turning. He was as large as it, with the same extended claws and bloody maw, but that was where the similarities stopped. The image was enough to make her stare, but the cost of her falter was much greater than her own life. It all happened too fast. She heard the shotgun blast, her gaze shifted to the gun and the human holding it, aimed at the hoard of zombies but among them- “Oh no.”
Katalina didn’t think. Yanking her weapon from one undead, she took off like a bullet towards the danger. Going right through the grabbing hands of the dead, she rammed into the human’s arms shoving him hard. The gun went flying, the man’s arms twisted with a sickening crack! But, it was too late the damage had already been done. She heard a guttural whimper and the heavy sound of a body hitting pavement along with the screams of a broken man’s agony. The raider no longer mattered. Zombies were pouring in towards the fallen vampire and Katalina took her sword with two hands. She came around like a baseball player, and into a spin. The weapon fought against her. It was not made for this, but it sliced five undead clear past the bone. She deliberately stepped over her comrade and let out something between a growl and a hiss, daring anything to take a step closer. He had shifted back, his eyes closed, his body slack. Even trying to intimidate the creatures around her, her chest sank. This was her idea, her fault, and now he was either going into hibernation or he was going to die. The dead shifted, almost in unison to the human that was struggling to get back on his feet. It was easy pickings compared to a territorial vampire, but she knew she didn't have long. Sheathing her blade, Katalina lifted the motionless vampire, needing both arms to hold him. He needed blood. Anything to quicken the healing process before he was gone. With a snarl, her eyes focused on the human the zombies were ripping apart. Too late. Everything felt too late. The humans were dead, there was no one left other than the zombies and the vampires.

Katalina used the time she had been given to flee. A bloody man still in her arms, his jacket folded over him like a blanket. The bandana had been lost to the wind. She was scared. Not for herself, but for him. What she had done. Had she listened to him, they might both be still alive. Or in the closest sense of the word. They had traveled several blocks before she had thought to slow down, but she couldn’t. Time was running out. Hell, it probably already had but she wouldn’t give up. She stepped around the fallen in boards of a house, the reek of soiled blood letting any animal know exactly where they were. Going through a busted down door frame, the vampiress took inventory. It was a small, one floor house. They had came in through the back but it opened into a living room. A half-eaten, mold ridden sofa lay on the right and without much thought, Katalina gently put the vampire down. She didn’t dare look at him, no matter how peaceful he appeared. “I’m trying. Just don’t make me come after you.” She told the ‘sleeping’ man. If she had a heart, it would have been in her stomach. Suddenly, she heard something that made her go completely still. Coughing. She heard coughing coming from the next room. Easing from the door, she snuck across the lunulium into a wood-laiden hallway. The entire house seemed to have the same dark tree bark plastered walls around darker trim. Cracking the bedroom door, she saw a woman hacking into a tattered sheet. She might have had a sharp cold by the sound of it, but Katalina quickly noticed that the sickness wasn’t what was taking her. The woman’s left leg was ripped open down to the tendons, the dress she wore did nothing to hide it. Katalina made her decision and stepped inside. Before the woman could do so much as shout, the vampire had one hand over her mouth and the other on her throat, squeezing. It took a good long minute before the human’s eyelids closed, eyes rolled back. She wasn’t dead but definitely passed out. The vampiress brought the girl back to the couch before she bit hard into her wrist, spilling the blood out like a fountain. She slowly opened his jaws and let the blood pour over the male vampire’s open mouth, hoping it would stir him.

[Jack Diddly]

She’d picked him up in her loving arms and was gently swinging him through the springtime air. The boy was beside himself with glee, a large grin plastered on his face, eyes closed, and arms outstretched. He moved his fingers through the nothingness around him pretending that he was swimming through the breeze. The gentle voice of the woman who playfully swayed him above the ground echoed through his head. He knew that kind and loving voice. It was a voice that always seemed to sing to him, the voice of comfort and compassion, the voice of home.

The boy dared to open his eyes, to stare down at the world below. Of course he knew he must be at least one hundred feet in the air, diving through the clouds. It was a bold move to look down, usually it meant falling, at least that was how it happened when he was tucked away in his bed, dancing in his dreams. As the dark blue orbs shot open, the brightness around him faded. The sweet voice vanished in a fuzz of frightful sounds and the soft breeze seemed to grow thick, gelatinous. The fresh scent of spring had been replaced by something old and altogether unpleasant, something that had spoiled long ago. He was surrounded by a haze of ghastly shadows, reaching out trying to pull him down, down into the abyss. The boy didn’t fall though, not even when it felt as though he was choking, not even when his mouth was filled with blood.

It was the warmth that he felt first, nor even the high that the sweet, coopery elixir always seemed to elicit...No he felt a searing cold pain. It seemed to cover every inch of his flesh like a swarm of frozen centipedes biting and crawling every which way. His eyes began to open slowly as blood dripped over his lips, but when his body realized what it was taking in and his inner predator took over, those dark eyes shot open. A viciousness, a ravenousness hunger took hold of and twisted his features. Despite the intense pain, his arms reached up and grabbed hold of the mortal’s bleeding wrist, forcing it down to his mouth. The set of fangs that had advanced from his pearly whites immediately sunk into the soft, warm flesh, greedily sucking away at the life force within. The heart didn’t pound for long, its beating first speeding, then slowing, then skipping, before it conked out. A wave of emotion washed over him, but it was overshadowed by the intensity of the pain. He let the wrist drop, wincing and falling back onto the moldering sofa.

After blood, mold and decay were really the only things he could sense. The world was dark around him again. His body was patching itself up. He could feel skin closing and knitting itself together, he could feel chunks of metal in his back, in his legs, in his shoulders, bullets...oh and a hole in his stomach...maybe that was where that fetid stench was coming from. He’d just been a boy hadn’t he? No, that couldn’t have been right. And why was it so dark all of a sudden? The vampire suddenly realized his eyes were closed again. With some effort, he forced them open and there was a bit of starlight looking over him, no not the stars, but a girl, the vampire girl. Then the world came back into focus.

“Did we win?” He asked with a dreamy smile and a bit of effort in his scruffy voice. He moved to sit up, but he was still healing and grimaced at the effort, laying back again. He was feeling a bit dazed still and he could swear that the vampiress had a haze of spectral blue light around her. Something similar to how he experienced May, but a bit more vibrant. Something fell out of his shoulder, rolled off the sofa, and landed with a soft thud on the carpet. Trying to follow what it was he looked down to see the body of a woman on the ground beneath him. His fangs had entered her flesh, hadn’t they. Damn. He turned back to the vampiress and in the same dazed, gruff voice he said, “Might want to burn her.”

His jacket was draped over him. Thank God for small miracles. He shuffled through the pockets in a strained sort of motion, before pulling out a flask. His arm was a bit shaky, but he worked to hand it up to the petite vampiress. “A little fuel to get her goin’,” he coughed and a bit of blood spewed from his lips, “apologies…”

[Katalina Black (DELETED 9968)]

His eyes came open, his arms reached forward, and Katalina took a large step back. The hunger was ravenous, but she held no judgement after what he had just been through. He could tear this woman apart and for the first time, she didn’t feel awful about it. A life for a life. As the woman’s heartbeat slowed, Katalina slowly shuffled closer to inspect his wounds. The stained lead was popping out of his back and shoulders, but the major hole in his stomach would take so much longer to heal. She didn’t want to think about the pain of prying the bullets out of her own shoulders and side, much less his gut. He was writhing in pain as it was. Eventually, he fell back into the cushions and it was only then that she moved back to her original place at his side. Call it what you want, she’d witnessed feral vampires tear bones off eachother. A blood starved, dying vampire had very little difference when something came between them and their food.

A concerned expression coated her face until his eyes opened again. Finally, he spoke and the worry swept away from her eyes, if only for a moment. “At first, I wasn’t sure. But, yeah, yeah we won.” The sigh of relief in her words became apparent as she answered slowly. Her gaze shifting to the victim as he spoke. She wasn’t about to ask him why because she remembered instantly. Some vampires couldn’t kill without Turning the victim. She felt tinge of sadness towards this, simply because she refused to sire and wouldn’t know what to do if she were in his shoes. It was one thing to be a vampire, it was another to force others into it. Her eyes made their way back to him as he pulled the flask from his pocket. She sorely wished she had noticed it when she took the jacket, otherwise he might have been awake sooner. She gingerly took it from him, promising herself that she’d refill it. “Thank-” She started cut off by a deep cough. She reached forward on impulse, putting a hand on his back to steady him. The blood ended up on her shirt along with his mouth, but she really didn’t care after all the mess that had already coated it. “No, no, it’s fine. If anyone should be apologising, it's me. I should have had your back better out there. It was my stupid antics that nearly got you killed.” There was a frustration in her tone, but it wasn’t directed at him considering the line of softness underneath it. In all truth, she didn’t know what she’d have done if he didn't wake. She did not even know this stranger, yet somehow, it bothered her a great deal. Maybe, it was the fact that she had already killed so many people that the thought of killing one of her own sent chills down her spine. Or, maybe it was that decent vampires were hard to come by. She slowly took her hand off of him, realizing that in her thought she had left it there. She inwardly chastised herself again before opening her mouth “You didn’t have to come after me, you know.” She tited her head pack as if she were actually taking a shot, and took a good chug from the bottle.

[Storyteller]

==========AUTOMATED RANDOM EVENTS SYSTEM==========

For one brief moment, Katalina Black could swear that everything appeared to be a shadowy and ruined version of itself.

[Jack Diddly]

A smile that lingered halfway between relief and exhaustion graced the vampire’s features upon hearing that they were indeed successful. Well, if you could measure success by the size of the hole in your gut. At any rate though, they weren’t dead, not completely, and the marauders were. Jack supposed, if their story was one that was ever told, that they’d be talked of as going down in a blaze of gunfire and glory, overrun by a hoard of zombies and much deadlier beasts that lurked the shadows. Never would it be said that their crew was wrecked by two ragtag vampires. Besides, who was even left to fill in that detail?

The vampire felt a cold touch on his aching back as he hacked up some of the contents of his most recent meal. Despite the fact that he could feel the cells of his body winding themselves back together, he felt as though he had aged two decades as a result of his wounds. Fragments of shattered bone knifed through his insides as they moved back into place, while strings of sinewy muscle weaved this way and that, stretching painfully taut before new skin began to glaze over any exposed internals. “Bah!” He managed between another raspy cough, “What’s the point in living forever if you don’t take a risk or two? Besides, seems I may have gotten in your way out there…” The vampiress had been handling herself well slipping through the shadows like a phantom. There was a dark beauty to it, a vicious grace unlike the young vampire had ever seen. Jack had underestimated her abilities and perhaps overestimated his own. Truth was the vampiress probably could have dispatched the whole lot of them, zombies and all, while Jack watched from behind the window. It was a good show really and, despite his current daze, he tucked what he learned away in the back of his mind. It was a great example to measure ratios with. And an even better lesson on how not to screw up by overextending one’s self. “You’re quite the dancer,” he finished, as the vampiress sort of cradled him there on the rotting upholstery. His head was still swimming a bit and it was apparent both in his voice and his eyes. His vision was still hazy and a bit doubled, but it was evening out, albeit not as quickly as he would have liked.

“You’re damn right I didn’t, you were running circles around those jerks. But some wiseguy once said, that if we don’t hang together, then we’ll surely hang separately,” Jack responded as he felt the vampiress’s hand leave his back. He winced a bit, tightening his eyelids shut, as he eased himself up on the couch and she took the flask. He heard the flask open and quickly opened her eyes. “Wait, don’t…” but it was too late and for a moment the vampire watched aghast as she drank from the flask. Seeing that the lass took it like a trooper, a wave of pained, yet melodious laughter came over Jack. It was the type of chuckles that probably made his current delirium rather obvious, but the young vampire just couldn’t help himself. He’d passed her the wrong flask! Truly it was his own fault, it was what you got for carrying twin vials around with you. It was fortunate though, that he’d passed her the one with the spare blood from his last kill...well the kill before entering the QZ this evening. Had he given her its sister she would have been in for some surprise. Something in his back snapped into place and he groaned, killing his gruff giggles. He’d forgotten why he even passed her his silver swiggy in the first place.

“Jack, by the way,” the vampire said after composing himself. It was a means of introduction, as he realized he’d never given the lass a proper greeting. Though he supposed that theirs had been as good as any. He tried to shoot her a charming smile, but he was sure it contorted with a bit of discomfort. Who knew that healing would be such a *****? He caught glimpse of May, she was floating just behind the vampiress, the spectral blue haze that was her typical shroud was quite vivid. It was a signal that his eyesight was pretty much restored. Hell, he was feeling better by the minute. He’d be fit as a fiddle in no time. Positive thinking, even when it was a bit of a fib, was half the battle. At first he thought that his banshee baby was shaking her head at him. A kind of amused pity, but it became apparent that she was signaling towards the carpet. Not wanting to seem obvious to the vampiress, he gave his ghostly girl a questioning look.

Meanwhile, the corpse at the base of the couch began to twitch.

[Katalina Black (DELETED 9968)]

Clotted, cold. The blood was more like maple syrup than the warm drink the vampire craved. She almost wanted to push it away and bark for something more...alive. But, the nasty concoction was slowly healing the bullet holes that raged her sides and shoulders. And, for that she drank. Not that she wore any of her own blood, it seemed to dissipate into thin air before it could seep further than her skin. A shadow creature, that's what she had become. Inky patches of floating void mashing together with invisible strings, warping, twisting, changing into a solid form of what appeared to be skin. Through the torn fabric, the red, bruised skin shown bright compared to her pale complexion. Most of the metal shells had already been forced from her body on the track to the house, but she had blocked out the pain and awareness in the pursuit for another. What was left could be heard clanging to the floor as she stifled a groan herself, and forced the drink away from her lips. In her endeavor to heal, she had relived most of the bottle of its contents. It was his laugh that seemed to pull her out of the swarming ache. Only for it to abruptly end by a sicking crack. "What? Never seen a girl that could hold her own liquor?" They shared a pained smile. Quite the dancer. Katalina reflected on these words as she spoke. She was never one to know how to take a complement other than a bland thank you. She would love to set him straight on one thing: she really couldn't have done it without him. Not this time. Had she not lost herself to the hunger and anger, then maybe, yes. Maybe she could have done it without him, but he did not see that and it was too late on the subject to really argue.

"Katalina Black." She answered in a tone a little more chipper than the look on her face. The warm colored flesh slowly retained its unlit white around her collarbone as her gaze followed his watchful one, only to see...nothing. No, not nothing. Something was wrong. The color of the hardwood seemed to grow darker, the dead body seemed too bright against it. Then, the corpse moved and it was like the floor between fiction and reality fell out from underneath her. The loss in color bleed into the world from the ground up, eating the yellowed sofa into a light grey and taking over the long extinguished lamp, the walls- cracking them further than they were already. Katalina's face twisted into something of fear. What was going on? She had been to the fade once before. It was a pure accident at a time when she was testing her power. Had she lost control of it? Everything had been fine a moment before. The darkness did not withhold from the person she was sitting next to either, rather than whisking him away though, it seemed to washout the shades of his clothing, edging towards his face. "No!" Trembling tears slid down her cheeks as she reached out to stop it. The shade grabbed at Jack's features, twisting his eyes to orbs of pure black, ripping skin at his cheeks, revealing the bone and fangs underneath. "No, no, no, no..." She repeated over and over, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as if the will of her touch could stop it. Had she truly gone insane?