Path of the Vampire forum

Have you ever experienced a day in your life that was so bad, you were pretty sure there wasn't anything worse possible? That's what Al felt like as he curled up into a cold, stone floored corner of the Harper Rock Mausoleum, his vision becoming hazier by the second. First, he had awoken from yet another blackout in the sewers of all places, then he encountered a small pack of Hunters, was shot in the chest by one, and couldn't find a single rat to consume. Therefore, he was rapidly losing blood, alone, and had no way to call for help.

Despite his bad fortune, he had managed to slip a note under the door of his Bloodline's first generation, Keara Aithne, the woman who had held his devotion for some time now, and been both mother figure and secret crush for the past several months. He hoped she found his husk before anyone else did, as he laid back against the wall, hoping against all hope that she might find him and come to his aid.

So many things left unsaid... he couldn't help thinking to himself, so many times I neglected...to thank you Keara...I don't know if there is a God...but if there is, I pray he helps you see my blood on the floor and find me just before the end...

Then his thoughts were turned to his long lost adopted sister Octavia, and then Sara, and finally to his good friend and savior, Corin Diechi. He coughed another spout of blood, wondering if vampires were meant to die like this...

Corin was with Arron shopping when she had this feeling like someone she knew was in trouble. She closed her eyes and reached out to her family first seeing that each one was okay including her childe. She then focused on her mortal family and her grandfather and cousin where both okay so she ruled them out. Reaching out she touched her best friend in this city and felt nothing but pain and suffering. "Alanoth. Arron I want you to go back to the boat okay do not stop just go." She watched the boy disappear with one of the dogs and was gone. She then sent out a message to her grandsire for she knew that Alanoth was a friend of Liz. ~Grammy Alanoth is hurt I do not know where he is but I am going to look for him. I might need some help. He is in pain.~ With that the woman transformed into her red panda form and was off into the city to look for her friend. She knew in this form she would be able to find him faster.

There were those that took to the life of a vampire and those that didn't and then there were those like Alanoth that seemed to struggle to maintain what they already had. Keara knew that Alanoth suffered with depression but she wasn't sure if this was some left over trait from his human life or if he was perhaps something gifted him from his path. Necromancer did seem to be the darker path to be born too in some ways, but then Keara didn't put as much stock into a path's particular stereotypes as some others of her kind did.

She didn't like the message she'd received and began to wonder just how long that note had been there as she had been in and out of various raids the last week or so and so had not really been staying at home as often as perhaps she could have. It was also a miracle that the thing hadn't been chewed up and spat out by a certain rogue puppy that seemed to be doing its best to make sure that their cell had to be refurbished sometime soon.

Quickly she made her way to the Mausoleum to see if she were already too late. Too many of her line had been lost to that realm since she first emerged, most of which she deemed unworthy of the gift they'd been given, as it was the weak willed in her mind that slipped into that place never to return. Alanoth was not someone she saw in such a light. He fought daily to continue in this world and it saddened her to know that what some threw away so easily had to be worked at so hard by others. Finding his body, she gathered him into her arms and tried to see if there were any life left in him. Necromancers had their own way of decaying in that they seemed to take longer to turn to ash and so the fact that she found his physical form, gave her little comfort.

"Alanoth?" she willed him to reply with the hope that some life might still be left within him. "Alanoth please..."

Alanoth had almost slipped into unconsciousness when he felt a sort of feather brush against his mind, as if someone were gently seeking something in his brain. He opened his eyes and coughed blood again, the last that he had in his veins, before whispering out his best friend's name in a hoarse voice.

"...C-Corin....I'm...s-so sorry..."

He heard something of a shuffling, it reminded him of a frill dress but he was too weak to look in its direction. He felt gently, slender arms pick him up, which seemed odd with how tall he was. He shifted his eyes dully to the left, and stared into a face that seemed impossible, as the old fog on his mind lifted briefly, and he saw a face he had not seen since twenty years before he was turned into a vampire and sent down the path of the Necromancer.

"...M-Mother? I-is that you? How did you find me?..." The poor, dying young man said with barely a hint of good health left in him, unable to distinguish Keara's face from that of his mother's. He felt a sharp pain in his side and he let off a whimper, much like a child does. "It hurts...make it stop....please..."

Corin found herself at the Mausoleum and slipped past the guards since she was in her animal form. Once inside she changed back to her human form with jeans and t-shirt on but bare feet. She ran knowing the feeling of pain was getting stronger. As she turned a corner she saw a woman with Alanoth and wondered if the woman was realted to him. Walking up she soon knelt beside her friend and took his hand. She looked at him with kindness she always had for her best friend in the whole world. "I am here Alanoth. Is there anything we can do for him?" The last was aimed at the woman for the girl did not know what to do. She had known for sometime he did not want to live but she was stuborn and did not want him to die either. She knew the Shadow Realm where he would go was not the best of places to go because she had been there many times. The wraith in her head spoke to her about not giving up on the boy as well as letting him go. It was the first time that thing had said anything kind but she did not want to let her friend go. If he went she did not know what she would do.

She lovingly brushed the back of his cheek with the back of fingers, her hand lightly curled. He was calling her mother, which could mean one of two things, either he was delirious, or he truly did see her as his sire…though none of her childer ever called her mother. The former rather than the latter was most likely, as he was weak and seemed to be so close to death that he was perhaps beyond help. Regardless, she had to try and so she restored 1 pint of blood to him, waiting to see if it would ease him in any way or perhaps run from his body in the same manner as the rest of his reserves seemed to have.

“Okay it is Alanoth. Have you I do,” she whispered.

There was little time for her to say anything else as a stranger approached and knelt at his side. The woman appeared to know his name, and so while she was a stranger to her, she was obviously not one to Alanoth. Unfortunately there was little either of them could do what with his injuries and more than likely his melancholy mood. Keara believed that those that longed for death would find it eventually and in Alanoth’s case she was half wondering if perhaps helping him to the accursed realm might make things easier on him in the long run as he seemed to be struggling to communicate here and she could always follow him to the other side or work her way into his mind to get the answers she required.

“Know I do not, what done can be. His blood restored can be but know I do not if in his form it will stay.”

It was a waiting game and all she could do was wait to see if the small kindness she’d done him would take effect.

The face kept looking down at him with affection and compassion, but as he looked into the eyes of the woman he believed to be his mother, he was certain it wasn't hurt. Then she spoke, in that unmistakably unique way in which no one who knew her could possibly say belonged to anyone else. His eyes widened, and while he couldn't see through the delirium of near death, he knew that the first generation of the Vedarian Bloodline-who was the closest thing to an actual mother he could possibly remember-otherwise known as Keara Aithne, was here at last. She had indeed found his note, and he knew he was now the safest he could possibly be in her arms.

Before he could speak to tell her that he knew who it actually was, he felt a hand take his that was both slender and familiar, caring and comforting. He turned his head, and no delirium took his sight from him as he gazed into the face of his good friend, and his one time crush, otherwise known as Corin Diechi. She had saved his life once before, and she had always been there when she could be for him, so he knew once again that he was in good care. As if some measure of his life was returning to him, he suddenly felt the renewal of the pint of blood Keara had granted him, and took in a sharp breathe as he tried desperately to hold onto what life he had left.

"K-keara...C-corin....thank you so much....for finding me...but please, help me away from this place....I don't want him t-to return...and lay harm to either of you..."

"I am afraid, my old 'friend'...that your wishes and requests are in vain."

A voice echoed ominously across the room, the owner's voice echoing between the walls again and again in that empty place of death, where it seemed one more life would be ensnared by death's embrace. Footsteps followed the voice, along with the terrible sound of a rifle's bolt being released, which would inevitably prepare a deadly bullet into the chamber for it's heartless work.

A man with one whitened-out eye and a scowl of hatred, prejudice, and long-held pain approached the three vampires, but by the full complexion of his skin, the almost deafening sound of his heartbeat, and the look in his one good eye, this man was no child of the night. He was not out of doors now because it was when it was safe for him to do so, he was here now because he wanted to be. Because he needed to be to fulfill the task he had pledged to complete long before the vampire known as Alanoth lay dying on that floor.

"You see, Alanoth Arkvir Lirian, I'm going to make sure you watch them die as your last breaths leave you...Just as I thought I saw you die three years ago. I grieved for you, you were my best friend, and due to that grief I became a monster, a Blood Thief. Now," he raised the rifle to his shoulder and aimed it right at Corin's skull, "now you will know what it is like to have those you care for taken from you, even as I had to feel it...you disgusting abomination."

Corin heard the sounds and turned to see a rifle aimed at her head she had to many voices in it already to even believe someone would give her more. She had a honed skill and she gave the man a look as she linked her mind to his. She sent out one of her powers which was empathy that she had learned long ago she did have one wound on her which was a death wound so it would make his Intel go down if it worked. She also was quick and had a gun in her hand pointed at the man's groin. "You would kill two woman just for a thrill. Your sick you know that and God would never forgive you for doing that." After she spoke she looked at Alanoth and smiled before praying to god to help him heal and not go to the SR. One of the voices in her head was telling her just to pull the trigger and make it so the man would never be able to have kids. She acutally chuckled at that one out loud.

His words made little sense as she had assumed that he had done this to himself. Perhaps had she taken time to survey the wounds, she'd of known that thy were not self inflicted, but she was a little too distracted by what the wounds were doing to him to really pay them more attention that that. It was then that an unfamiliar voice echoed around the mausoleum and Keara quickly turned to face the male. He was the lowest of the low, a blood thief. She abhorred his kind and thankfully seldom crossed path with them. Their numbers still grew within the city but that was likely due to the number of vampires crammed into the singularly unique city. He took aim at the female kneeling by Alanoth's side but for some reason Keara doubted he would fire. It was suicide was it not to be firing at vampires in this part of town, as the mausoleum usually had at least half a dozen vampires within its walls.

The female replied to the male, almost daring him to fire at her. Keara was not so au fait with such practices and so instead she stayed quiet, her eyes trained on the assailant as he supposedly held them at gun point. Her silence was not that of one that would be challenged, but rather of one that was plotting the number of ways in which this scenario was likely to play out. Few of which ended well for the thief. When her thoughts settled she had decided that it was not the best idea to flee and leave the female to deal with the thief alone. Instead, it would be easier to surround the assailant in shadows, so that if he were to take a shot that he would likely miss. It was not the best of plans, this she knew, but teleporting Alanoth away also had it's drawbacks, as in the state he was in he would likely be unable to hide himself if her own departure were delayed. Within moments of her decision being made, the shadows seemingly crept up and around the armed male, shrouding him in darkness.