Path of the Vampire forum

The redhead began to cry and claw at her burning flesh, at the feeling of ants crawling just beneath her skin. When she could no longer stand, Abby fell to her hands and knees on the cold concrete. Blood trailed from the open wounds, but the poison really mattered. The poison traveled closer and closer to Abby’s heart, where it would, inevitably, circulate throughout her body, destroying every organ it reached. Clover could almost see the light dying in Abby’s eyes, the light she’d been willing to salvage. Or would she have been able to stop feeding at all? By that point, Abby’s cries had grown quieter, her movements sluggish. Clo didn’t want to, but she turned her back on the dying woman. Abby didn’t deserve to die there, relatively alone, but Clo wasn’t the woman’s savior, despite her heart telling her that she could be, that she could take all of Abby’s pain away.

Jesse seemed far more interested in the newcomer than in their previous meal. Clo had given the stranger an opportunity to leave, but he obviously disagreed. Clo didn’t know if it was a leftover habit from the times of the masquerade or some indescribable need to control every outcome. She wanted him to let the girl go. She wanted to go home. She wanted to do anything else, to go anywhere else. He looked ready to pounce, ready to strike, ready to lash out at the woman daring enough to interrupt them while they fed, while Clover folded in on herself. “Please,” Abby cried, “don’t leave me.” She reached out her hand toward the unnamed woman, and that’s all it took for Clover to snap. Clo squeezed her eyes shut and fisted her dark locks, but she couldn’t stop seeing the image of Abby; Clo couldn’t undo the damage they’d caused. And someone else had walked into the foray, another woman primed for death. “Please,” Abby continued, blood dribbling from her nose and the corners of her mouth.

Poison.

Clo didn’t know why she chose that moment to round on the stranger, but she did. Abby could have had a long life, a better life, but someone had set her on a different path. Clover found the one person she could blame, other than herself, and she fixed her dark eyes on her. “By all means, help her,” Clo said, stepping further away from Abby. “Go on and help her. Don’t leave her,” Clover growled, growing angrier by the second. “You killed her the moment you spilled her blood in that club. You did this to her. Look at what you did!” And Clover actually believed her words. She lied to herself. She did what she had to do to keep from buckling under the pressure.

Clover hadn’t missed the hand that went to the woman’s side, the hand seemingly searching for a weapon. Finding none, the woman had a moment of clarity, a moment of understanding. Clo knew -- she understood, even though they’d only just met. “Now I know that look,” Clo sighed, slowly walking closer. “I know that look,” she repeated, a laugh following. “You just realized you’re fucked. You can fight, and I admire a fighter; you can beg, and I love when they beg; or you can run, and I do like a good chase. If you fight, I’ll make it a swift, but painful death. If you beg, I might go easy on you, but he probably won’t,” Clo stopped and motioned to her husband. “If you run, I’m going to torture you.” She smiled then, revealing that all of her teeth turned to fangs. The secret was that no matter what the woman decided, Clo intended to torture her. They had no alternative. Abby was going to die; therefore, the other woman was going to die. One died. The other died. It just made sense.

“I hope she chooses to run,” Clo stage whispered to Jesse.

Please?

She could barely hear the cries of the woman she once wanted to save. Blood roared in her ears until the shadow manifested next to her worst nightmare. Help her. Despite the eyes bearing down upon her, she couldn't help but look away down at the sight behind them. A woman, merely a girl begging, begging to not be alone. Your fault. In fear, in hate, in knowing, tears prickled in Katalina's eyes. It was not her fault and some part of her knew that. They would kill regardless yet she couldn't help the urge to walk past, right past the danger and straight into the fire. Maybe she would've had the female not stepped closer. That one little movement snapped back Katalina’s attention lightning fast and her body reacted even before the woman spoke. Backing away for every inch she came closer. She had read a long time ago that if you flee from a wild animal that it will track you down, pounce in seconds and go for the throat. These creatures were no different than those animals; only they were. Vampires had the minds of beings as well as beast and that made them more gruesome. The next words seemed to confirm that. Katalina would never beg. Never once in her life had she and to die like that? No, never. As the woman's jaw widened to a sawtooth grin, Katalina’s legs grew weak, wanting to collapse. They shook but sheer will outmind her body. Fight? Run? She wasn’t sure she could do either. The male seemed to have paused. It was a code she had used many times. They were out of time and that meant so was she. One shot, that’s all she had.

Katalina kicked off the ground, hard. She swiveled around midair and took like a bullet. They wanted her to run? She flew. Hopefully towards a crowd, if she dare make it. It wouldn’t last her long, she knew that. A hand would no doubt snag her and when it did, she flipped on the vampire. A fist swung up for its face and a knee for its stomach or groin just in case she missed. Her breath was fast and heavy but there was no way she would go down easy.

Tick. Tock. The seconds turned into minutes, minutes they no longer possessed. Jesse had informed her of such. Even though she played with her food, she understood. The game could only go on for so long. She had to be serious. If things had been different, she might have extended the game and widened the field to the entire city. But she had Jesse. Jesse didn’t play those games. Jesse didn’t approve of those games. No witnesses. No possibility for identification. No future dangers. If only he knew the type of behavior she displayed when he wasn’t around, when she had the board game she called a city all to herself.

Though she’d wanted the girl to run, Clo still seemed slightly surprised. Perhaps she’d unknowingly pegged the girl as a coward, or perhaps she’d pegged the girl as a fighter. All thoughts flew from her mind the moment the woman took off. Catching her should have been easy. Clover grabbed at the woman’s hair, her fingers tangling in the dark locks, but a fist flew at her face. The blood came instantly. The woman had broken her nose. Frowning, Clo released her hold on the woman’s hair and reset the broken bone. The sickening noise that came from her rough first-aid maneuver made her angry, but she wasn’t distracted enough, she wasn’t furious enough, to allow the knee that followed to connect with her stomach or her groin.

Clo choked on her disgusting blood, but only for a few minutes. The blood flow ceased. The bone healed. And she’d missed the few steps required to snag the flighty bird of a woman. She’d managed to prolong a game Jesse had no interest in playing. She had a feeling he’d lost his patience. Time had run out. Without thinking, she said the first thing that came to mind. She marked a person, rather than territory. She did it with words, rather than with violence, rather than with blood. “I want her.” She spoke it quietly, all in the hopes that Jesse would hear and that the woman would not. He’d respect his wife’s words. She hoped so -- yes, she hoped so. No swift death, but no never-ending game. “Is she even worth it?” Clover questioned herself. Rather than asking Jesse, she just looked at him. Would he understand the silent communication? She didn’t know.

Crunch! She heard her fist connect with the women's nose but before she could take full advantage, a hand shoved down her knee as if it were nothing. A thick, dark ink flowed from the predator's nose and then suddenly evaporated like it never existed. She still felt in some state of shock but that seemed to vaporize when the vampire let her go. She took a step back to evade a quick snatch up but this time, Katalina didn't run. As the beast reset her nose, her prey coiled up with the gaze of a snake and a fist lined up with the weak spot right below the rib-cage. But it was easily dodged. God, she moved so fast. The human flipped to face her opponent before they could get a complete broadside shot.

Behind the vampiress, she caught a small glimpse of Abby. Katalina hadn't gotten far; only maybe ten feet. The girl lay on the pavement, slack, gone. That little distraction was dangerous but something in her changed. Her breathing slowed into a focused rhythm. She didn't see Abby. She saw her big brother laying there bloody and broken. This was a brawl she wouldn't win. Some part of her knew that but that piece spoke so soft now. All that existed was this creature and her. Where the man had gone? She wasn't thinking about that. As much as he scared her, he had disappeared and she didn't have the crucial seconds to locate him. Nor did she care, all she could picture was what she would do to the woman in front of her. The woman who killed Abby; the man that killed her brother, they were the same.