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Magical Mistress Sarai Vice Captain
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 Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:27 pm
Ok... so I joined a vampire guild and helped make it with some friends after the Great War for Gaia!! It's just a thing that I thought was fun. Anyhow... I have been writing this profile for that guild (now nearing the abilities of reaching a novel) and I thought that people here would like to read it... because, of course, I brought Nova into it. I've also been using it to practice my Virtra writing. (I personally thing I write Virtra better than Star did... ok, I joke! My Virtra is much more subdued and inhuman... whereas Star had the ability to make Virtra humanized, yet still scarily evil... ******** THAT!! scream ) Thus I submit to you all... my story... and there had better be comments!!!! stare Have a nice day! mrgreen whee Chapter 1 Our Story:Sarai...
The name is an enigma born from a plague that has swept across all of Gaia. Since the first sighting on Halloween, people have learned to fear the name and tremble at the sight of this horrifying spectacle. The images of her deeds are burned into the eyes off all who see them... either by their sheer gruesome nature, or the fact that Sarai used a red hot needle to do so. The deaths at her hands cannot be forgotten, especially those from the great battle at Halloween. The legion of her "puppets", once human corpses, marching down upon innocents and combatants alike. The dark visage carried with her a spool of ten gage wire, which she used to turn each new corpse into another of her warped toys. It's hard to believe that something so dark... so horrific could have, at one time, been human; however many years ago that may have been. But at one time... she was.
Born Verti Carcinos, first and only daughter of the famed Sarai Carcinos... leader of Nova Corp. Her mother ruled galaxies with an iron fist and wit sharper than any blade. Upon her birth it was realized that Verti would be a promising telekinetic and a bright child. As she grew, taught to lead and taught to fight, her mother constantly drilled her in tactics, logistics, economics, and everything else needed to run an empire... it was only a matter of time before she was placed at her mother's right hand. Verti was gifted, talented more so than most children... she could speak by the age of one. By the age of four she was able to calculate advanced equations and run small figures for intermediate companies... simple drills that her mother devised. By her eighteenth birthday Verti was an accomplished, self-made woman in control of vast holdings outside of Nova Corp, which only helped to increase her family's power. However, like most young girls... she fell in love.
Nova Corp, being the vast and every expanding company that it is, employed a variety of persons. The very elite and accomplished of these employees were known as the members of the hierarchies. They were the rulers, the creme de le creme of all denizens within the Novian empire. They were the brightest, the smartest, the most cunning and most powerful beings in existence. Verti's mother was the first hierarchy, the place where the buck stopped and all orders came from. Those whom Verti's mother trusted most, those people whom were her closest confidants... they were the second hierarchy and they carried out all orders to the infinitesimal degree of accuracy. Verti knew of only two such members... her father: Varc Coren, know as General Nova, and her mother's lawyer/ accountant Karin Sele. These were her mother's right and left hands... father controlled the Novian Mercenaries... and Karin made everything they did legal.
From the second hierarchy came the third through seventh. They took care off everything for designation from the higher-ups... to heading the janitorial commission. When Verti was six, her mother hired a vampire by the name of Corialis Grey... something that was rather unheard of, but Corialis was a special case. He was a rare vampiric strain known as vampiric angelicas... an angel that allowed themselves to be bitten by the lowest spawn of hell, in order to become a being of immense power. By the time Verti was sixteen, Corialis was a member of the fifth hierarchy and in command of one of Nova Corp's largest fleets. She didn't know how old he was... she didn’t care. The one thing she knew... was that she was totally and completely in love with him.
But it didn't matter what Verti thought, felt, or did... Corialis was completely engrossed with his work, rapidly becoming her mother's best pet. If someone was giving Nova Corp trouble... Corialis made them vanish. If a planet tried to forcibly remove Nova Corp's business holdings, Corialis and his soldiers repelled the closed minded fools. What he didn't do was pay attention to Verti, and that only made her become reckless. She was bound and determined to do anything and everything with her power, with was a rather large scale of options, to ensure that he knew how she felt.
The daughter Carcinos went so far as to have her mother place her in field duty as a deputy commander in Corialis's fleet. There she gained some recognition, but it wasn't the kind she was hoping for. The soldiers and their leader view her as nuisance. They thought she was the brat daughter of the company's esteemed leader, and that she had pitched a fit in order to receive some form of excitement in her boring... uneventful life. It irritated Verti at her core, filling her being with a white hot rage of indignation... but to a point they were right. Her life was dull and boring, she had pitched a fit and fought with her mother about this... but it was because he was here and she wasn't. If her mother knew the real reason she'd probably fire Corialis, or worse... kill him. No one touched Verti, but the caution was already thrown to the wind. Verti didn't care what her mother thought... only that she had to make this man see her as something other than his employer's "spoiled brat" daughter.
* * * * *
Balafaris... arboreal planet in the southern rim. A planet of ideal and government, of monarchs and politicians... rich and ripe for someone with vision, someone like her mother. Corialis's fleet had been sent to engage the BDF (the Balafarisian Defense Fleet) and rest control of the planetary Parliament, a takes easier said than actually achieved. While Nova Corp had superior technology, Balafaris had friends and lots of them. The Fifth fleet entered combat extremely out numbered and they where hard pressed to find a vantage point. Immediately people began to push Verti further and further from "harm" trying to save the precious and helpless child of the leader. Finally things came to a boil for Verti and she snapped. Anger and rage fueled her telepath abilities and she single handedly stormed the enemy flagship killing crew, officers, and the Balafaris monarch as well. With one extreme "tantrum" the battle was over and the daughter Carcinos was no longer viewed as a helpless child.
Especially not in the eyes of Corialis Grey. The Vampire had already entertained ideas of what would happened if he turned the girl... if she had half the power of her mother then she would be an extraordinary vampire. Now, with this display... she could be invincible to his cause. The cunning general became infatuated with the idea of making this girl his own, his private little warrior. He just wouldn't have dreamed it could have been so easy.
Upon their return to Gaia and the Novian headquarters, Sarai Carcinos hosted a vast party. The guest list was exclusive, the setting extravagant, and the stage set of honoring the true victor of the Balafaris campaign. With all manners of people watching, from the wealthy and powerful to the waiters and caterers... Verti Carcinos was hailed as her mother's daughter. Power, vision, inheritance... it was all humdrum and boring to the girl who kept sneaking glances towards a certain Vampire. Still nothing seemed to have changed. She never gleaned a thought from him, never caught him even taking notice of her... and when the time came for toasts, nothing shocked her more than to see Corialis stand to give the first.
"To Verti Carcinos," He had said, "A woman with a bright and dazzling future. May her talents and gifts be put to as great or grander use than those of her mother and may she be remembered throughout history as exquisite. I owe you my life... as do each and everyone of my men. Thank you..."
The wry smile, the curl of his lips, that sparkle in his eyes as they finally looked at her... Verti knew that he had noticed before and a fresh wave of confidence arose in her. She felt, at this point in time, very much like her mother. Tonight would be about taking what she wanted. She danced, she conversed... it was pure and utter ecstacy, and when she and Corialis snuck away from the party... the believed it to be without anyone's notice. However, the sharp and all encompassing gaze of Sarai Carcinos was a hard thing to escape. Especially for one who is her daughter.
* * * * *
The bite had been the easy part... the act leading up to it? That was pure bliss. The rush of warmth, the feather touches, the brilliant displays of light that soared through her mind and into her very being, that slight pick of pain and then the feeling of ecstacy as she felt the life being drawn from her body... the taste of blood and a sudden feeling of change in her very core; those were a few moments in heaven before she was cast like a fallen angel into hell. That was the calm before the storm... before the door opened to reveal the dark visage of her mother.
There had been rumors, stories, countless whispers about the power and might of the one known as Sarai Carcinos... Verti had always assumed they were hyped up, made out to be grander than life itself. But when she gazed into the fiery abyss that lay behind her mother's eyes, she knew all to well that the stories didn't do any justice to the fear she felt right then and there. She doubted that Corialis even had a chance to react, Verti hadn't even gotten a chance to scream. The vampire was dead in seconds. Sarai was across the room and her fist through his heart in less time than it would take for a hummingbird's wings to beat a single time. Before Verti could even blink... she was covered in dust. The horror hadn't even had time to register before her eyes were locked in the furious gaze that was her mother eyes.... fear and death should have encompassed her, there were never any stories of mercy, no one had ever been considered for it. Corialis had been killed without a chance for explanation and here she was... daughter to Sarai Carcinos and she had done something awful in her mother's eyes... betrayal. Death should have come before this... why hadn't it? It was then that Verti realized she had her eyes shut and she was trembling there on the floor. She opened them and tentatively looked up at her mother... only to see tears streaming down her face.
Sarai Carcinos swooped down on her daughter and hugged her, whispering in Verti's ear, "I don't hate you for this... while there is still a small bit of humanity left... I want you to know that I love you Verti. I will always love you. You will always be my daughter and the one mark in my long line of deeds.... but," she stood up, grabbed Verti by the arm and drug her from the room. With a cold and callous toss Verti was thrown at the feet of two Black Guards, her mother's personal henchmen. "... what you will become is not my daughter. She's dead as you now are to me. Get this filth out of my sight."
As her mother turned her back on her, something in Verti's mind broke.... something that was important and when it broke the rest of her mind shattered. She broke into a peal of hysterical screams and sobs, "NO!! Mother please!! Don't leave! Don't leave me, please!!! Do something!! I'm sorry! I'M SORRY!! PLEASE!!"
But Sarai Carcinos never turned back, never paused... not a hitch in her stride as she regally headed back to the party. Verti Carcinos was drug down the hall way and out a door at the back of the Nova Corp complex. She was pulled kicking, screaming and wailing to the forest at the edge of Durem... and she was then thrown face first to the ground and left. The snow began to fall, sheer winds blew... and even the moon hid its face from her presence. Verti Carcinos was alone... completely broken... and it was there that she died.
* * * * *
She moved into the forest around Durem and made it her home… changed her name. Verti Carcinos was dead and with her went all the insecurities that her prior life had contained. Something inside her head had snapped and she received what could no doubt be called an epiphany: she had no boundaries. Soon people began disappearing. Hikers, picnickers, travelers leaving to cities beyond… roads and activities that were normally safe became overshadowed with rumors and fear. With Verti dead and this new monster born… a new name was needed, a name to inscribe fear to the hearts of those who discovered it. And what better name than that of her mother? The woman was more of a monster than Verti could ever become… more feared than any creature of the night. Thus Sarai was born out of the ashes of another life and she became cursed.
It became all too soon aware to Sarai that the bite from an angelic vampire was more of a cure than that of ordinary vampires. She never slept because she had no need for sleep and daylight held no power over her flesh. She became what hunters would classify as a daylight walker… but her already abnormal human abilities were expounded and made greater. Her mind sharpened and her telekinetic abilities advanced far beyond what she even thought they could get to… high daylight walker it was whispered. Peopled dared not venture into her section of the forest. Tales of grim visages… mutilated corpses and dread visions awaited those that dare come across the high daylight walker’s path. She was approached one day by the leader of some vampire coven in the area… the Von Helsons they were called. Pathetic blights that envisioned themselves greater than what they really were. They had paltry sums of money compared to her past… but the meeting was memorable none the less. She remembered it like… it were yesterday…
* * * * *
Five well dressed individuals tentatively walked out of the tree line into an open glade. In the moon light it should have been serene, peaceful even. The moon hung high in the dark blue midnight, casting her shimmering gaze upon the freshly forming dew… and the ruby drops of freshly spilt blood. A tall man stood in the center flanked by two men on each his left and right. The man in the middle had on an elegant vest of black silk over a white pressed shirt. His floor length black and red interior cape hung down to his black leather Armani shoes which were partially hidden by the black Armani pants he wore. It was as if he wanted people to know he had money. Sarai could see him from her vantage point… he smelt of French cologne and arrogance.
Suddenly a figure jump from the outer lying brush, a simple man in peasant’s garb whom was soon followed by three other figures, men and women alike. The tall man with well too kept, white hair to the right hand of the man in the center made to draw his sword… but he was stopped. “Zhivago, don’t,” there leader said quietly, “These individuals are already dead.”
“Zombies?” the man asked, stepping in a defensive stance at the head of the group. The others shuddered and took a step backwards.
“No… something other…”
Sarai’s nostrils flared as she noticed that while they were unsettled… they weren’t leaving. These weren’t any good for eating and she didn’t feel like killing tonight. There were too many thoughts running about her head, too many voices.
Then the man spoke, “Vampire… come out and greet your brethren.”
“My brethren?” Sarai’s voice echoed through the glade. “Little bitty spawn running around from dusk to dawn… poor things. Sleep finds though, dark binds no?”
“Master… what is going on?” Zhivago asked the leader.
“Shh!” he ordered, “Vampire… I am Vladimir VonHelson, master of the vampire coven in this region. You may have been turned without the knowing of my kin. I’ve come to offer you a place to stay other than this forest. A home, a goal, something to live for…”
Sarai’s chattering laughter split the glade, “Had a home, had a life… nothing now but death, strife! No good! No goal! Not new! Been here! BEEN HERE!!” The animated corpses of peasant suddenly attacked the small group. She’d have to get rid of them if she was going to have any chance of fighting the voices tonight. She had to get some semblance of normality about herself if she was going to do anything but hunt. One of the party vampires was attacked, ripped apart to be more precise but then the big one, Zhivago he was called, destroyed her precious toys.
“Puppetry, Master.”
“Thank you, Zhivago, keep your eyes out for more… ” Vladimir said quietly, refocusing his attention once more, “Vampire what is your name?”
Sarai slowly stepped out of the tree line, at the far edge of the clearing, across from the VonHelson group. Upon Vladimir’s first look she was… beautiful. She wore a tattered, red evening gown that must be years old. It hung to her delicate frame like a red paint on a pristine canvas, a master painter having used some simplistic technique for creating an extravagant piece of splendor. Zhivago thought that if this beauty were to return to the Manor… he wouldn’t have much of an interest in Vladimir’s daughters any longer. But for all her beauty and mystique, there was something in her eyes that was different from other vampires and it caught Vladimir’s attention and caused him to hold up a hand to keep Zhivago in his place. Her eyes were not like that of others in their kind… not the brilliant blue of icy wisdom or the dull grey of a fledgling, her eyes were green, a fantastic emerald green that shown with flecks of violet when struck by the moonlight. This one was different indeed.
“I have had… many names,” Sarai said softly. Her head twitched slightly as she fought the voices, “Death! Chaos and ruins! I hear the whispers of the forest and they call me by different names… mother called me something long ago. I’ve been lover and loser… SCUM!! All of you are scum!! OUT OUT OUT!!!”
Her harsh scream caused the ground to shake as telekinetic tremors exploded from around her. Vladimir’s lower underlings hadn’t seen a vampire like this before and in all honest even Vladamir himself hadn’t encountered one of such abilities. Most of the higher vampire elders chose to live elsewhere than Durem or they were on other planets. There were stories and legends of Vampires with great abilities and each human that became a vampire had their innate characteristics enhanced… what a human she must have been to becomes something such as she is now. The VonHelson Patriarch turned to his companions and ordered them back to the Manor, “Zhivago, you stay with me here. Perhaps with fewer of us she will be disposed to calm down.”
“Maggots! You syphon power from others like paracites… cursed! CURSED!” Sarai yelled, “But still better off than I.”
Zhivago raised an eyebrow, “I don’t see how that’s possible. You and are the same.”
“No… no my dear,” Sarai said with crystal clarity, “Sleep finds you each and every morning. But I never sleep, I never dream… dreams are gone. One by one they fall away, off to another mind to play…” she softly began to sing under her voice.
“Master, this one’s messed up in the head and she’s obviously not going to help us so we might as well leave.”
“No!” Vladimir hissed, “She’s not insane… she’s been here for a very long time. There’s no telling what she knows or what she’s seen. She could have been the cause of those unexplained corpses in the G Corp zombie epidemic. She’d be an invaluable asset to us and our plans… and I’m not about to become impatient or allow your impatience to cost us, Zhivago.” The white haired vampire nodded and took a step away from Sarai.
* * * * *
Vlad however took a step closer to Sarai, entranced by the feral beauty that stood before him, swaying slightly in the dew heavy breeze. Her pale skin seemed to glow luminescent as her eyes stared into his soulless heart. “Why is it that you do not sleep my child?” he asked, bringing a hand up to brush against her cheek.
Sarai’s hand suddenly lashed out, cracking like thunder against Vladimir VonHelson’s face, knocking him backwards into the arms of his lack Zhivago. She stood there imperialistic and regal, her capacities returned for the moment, “Am of an order and breed far above you, Vladimir of the pathetic VonHelson name. You and yours… you sneak around in the dark and hide yourselves by day. You play games and plot plans for your dominion when you have nothing!” She spat viciously at his feet, baring her moon white fangs, “I was created by a Vampire with more nobility and honor than you shall ever possess… and you will never have my allegiance.”
“You dare to speak to him in such a manner,” Zhivago snarled, stepping in front of his lord and baring his fangs as well. “You are a pathetic animal hiding in the woods! Killing from day to day with naught but a cave to call your home and a tattered rag for a garment!”
“Fool!” Sarai said with icy loathing, “I am a high daylight walker… a vampire with more power in her finger than you have in your entire body!” With a dismissive wave, an invisible blast knocked Zhivago backwards into a tree, “Now… leave this place before I destroy you, giving you the final death before you ever have a chance to realize your… ambition.” Vladimir nodded and turned to leave, much to Zhivago’s protest… whom had to be drug along by his ear.
Sarai turned with a sigh, “Two dancing fools in a palace for a king… jest and joke and folly they bring. Insult and riot they did ‘tempt to insight, but gone was the king… away for the night.” She shook her head, trying to clear it again, to obtain that moment of clarity once more.
“Little butterflies flitting through my brain,” she mutter.
“No… Scum! Vermin! All should die! All should die!” She clutched her head, not a good night to have dealt with this.
“Touch here he did,” she muttered, clawing at her cheek where the VonHelson patriarch had touched her, peeling away flesh and flinging it to the ground. Blood barely had a chance to well up before her regenerative abilities healed each new laceration. “Filth! Cretin! Dared to touch me, he did! Dared to touch me!!”
Her head snapped to the side in a jerky spasm, and she straightened her posture… smoothing what was left of her gown’s front, “He’s a fool… he’ll meet a tragic end soon enough, I’ll just wait. Someone, or one’s to be more precise, will arise… soon I think.”
“Mischief! Trouble!” She said, slashing with claw-like fingers at nothing but air, “Devil’s playground this place is---- AHHHH!!!” Sarai fell to the ground clutching her head between her hands, “SHUT UP!! All of you!! SHUT UP!!!” The ear splitting screech broke down into sobs as she hobbled there back and forth on the dew wetted grass.
She didn’t notice or even register the appearance of a man behind her, a man with short, wavy black hair. He stood about six foot three, with a long and crisp, black leather, trench coat. His white shirt was partially unbuttoned, halfway down and it hung loosely over his black slacks. The stranger walked over to the cowered Sarai… his black military boots making an odd sound with every step on the grass. His skin, already tan for a normal human, was a vast kind of dark compared to the luminescence of Sarai’s fine body. He crouched beside her, a hand hovering over her shoulder as if he longed to comfort her, but he hesitated… and with the hesitation came withdrawal as he decided against it.
“Can’t make sense… can’t make sense… fog too thick,” Sarai murmured, “Soup too cold…”
The man shook his head and a deep sorrow came over his face, as if a weariness he couldn’t shake had assailed him. A single tear welled up in the corner of his emerald eyes and he wiped it away with back of his hand, “I am so sorry… so, so terribly sorry.”
Sarai stopped moving and her head turned, ever so slowly that it seemed ages for her eyes to lock upon the man’s face. Illumination and realization sparked behind her own green eyes… then a look of terror, mingled with sorrow over came her as she broke into hysterical sobs and she broke down into the mans arms. He looked completely taken aback… the only word that could be made out from her was, “father”.
* * * * *
Varc Coren looked down at the creature that used to be his daughter, and he was half tempted for a second to think that she was perfectly fine… but it was only wishful thinking. The erratic nature of her thoughts, the state in which she kept herself, and the corpses decaying around the glade lent evidence to an opposing case. It broke his heart to see her like this. He’d been away all this time, on mission for the Empire… he hadn’t learned of his daughter’s fate until three years after it had happened. Of course he understood why Sarai wouldn’t have told him, she herself couldn’t stand to live with the memory. Sarai was… a strong willed person with ideals, and she held very tightly to those ideals. Logic and emotion were separate with her and her mind told her that she couldn’t allow her heart to tear at her soul… so to her, Verti was dead. In away it was easier than seeing their daughter this way.
It was that same ideology that kept Sarai from marrying Varc as well… thousands of years they’d spent together, argued with one another… moved Nova Corp over vast areas of space… they might as well be married, but it was just another emotional attachment that made no logical sense to Sarai and thus it would never happen. Who was he to argue with the person in charge? They shared secrets that no other knew about one another… and they shared a daughter who died tragically, but Varc, unlike Sarai, was not willing to let his daughter -- or what was left of her, be an insane monster. If there was one thing he could do for her, anything that could somehow help her, it was set her mind to it’s proper place.
Verti was born to not one, but two powerful telekinetic masters… both with abilities to manipulate the mind as well as the world around them, Varc was not as accomplished as his mate, but he was still in a league all his own. Verti’s innate abilities were already enhanced by the vampirism… possibly even more so since Corialis was a Vampiric Angelicas, and that he had bit Verti not to make her a slave… but his equal. Varc figured that somewhere in the creature’s warped mind that he did care for Verti somewhat, but if it was his to do over again… he would have caused the vampire scum so much more pain, much more than he received. But the past was passed, nothing more to be done there… he had to focus on the present, help his daughter and see what happened after that.
“Shh…” Varc soothed, laying Verti’s head against his chest, holding her like he had when she was a child… and with the gentlest touch he could, he melded his mind into hers. The key to mending a broken mind was finding the person’s true voice amongst the wreckage of their thoughts… and Verti’s mind was more violent than a typhoon. Thousands upon thousands of voices screamed thousands of different thoughts and as he sifted through them, they became melded into a single tumultuous choir, yelling their cacophonic overture until it seemed as if the world itself might fall away… slipping slowly into madness!! Then he found her, Verti was tucked away in the back and farthest reaches of her subconscious… frightened and subdued. “Verti…” he thought, calling out to her.
The response was timid and quiet, but he heard it none the less, “She hates me…”
“Who hates you?” Varc asked softly.
“Mother…” Verti whispered softly, “Do you hate me?”
“No… no your mother doesn’t hate you… nor do I! She just… has very strong ideals and its difficult for her to accept things…”
“You didn’t see her eyes,” Verti wailed, however as she d id, the rest of the voices seemed to become quiet, “You didn’t betray her… you didn’t hurt her like I did… her heart was broken and it was the thing she most protected!!”
Varc frowned, “That is true… but your mother will always love you.”
“Yes… but I’m not me anymore, am I?”
He didn’t know how to answer her… it was true, she wasn’t the Verti he knew any longer, but that doesn’t mean that she wasn’t still Verti, “People change throughout the course of their lives… they become stronger for the change. You are still you, even with this change.”
“You’re wrong,” it was Verti’s voice but different all the same. This voice was harsh, cold… calloused, as if years of being in the darkness and cruelty of the world had offered some revelation. “The person of the past is no more. She has been replaced by something dark… something different. That’s the nature of the vampire bite… one who is adept can take away the soul of the person and create a vampire in their stead. You for all your talent do not posses the magic nor the ability required to change this.”
“There is no magic needed to bring back the mind,” Varc replied, he was not unaware of the fact that only three voices remained… his and the two Vertis, the two possible outcomes. One could bring his daughter back, changed but still his child… the other was some dark monstrosity that deserved to be locked away into a turmoil of confusion. Lending clarity to such a creature would be a sin. It would be like releasing a blight upon the world and that couldn’t be allowed.
“Father!! Help me please!” Verti cried out.
“Be gone with you!” the dark voice shouted.
“Verti!! Listen to my voice! You’re stronger than this! You are your mother’s daughter! You can do this!!”
The laughter that came from this response was cruel, vicious to the point that it cut like sharpened blades, “Your mother’s daughter! The same mother that had you thrown out here to die! She forgot all about you long ago. She hasn’t even come to find you! Your dead to her so why not just make it a reality?”
“Verti, don’t listen to her!” Varc shouted. Suddenly he was blasted backwards, his back hit a tree with an impact so hard… it caused the truck to splinter and crack as his body crushed into it. The hit winded him and he landed in the moist grass, struggling to stay on his feet.
“Oh she listened all to well…” a voice like venom said through his blurred vision. He couldn’t quite make the form out, but it was walking closer towards him.
“Verti…” his voice croaked, coughing as he rushed air back into his lungs.
The cold laughter again, “No… she’s dead. I do have to thank you for clearing the voices out though… you’re quite talented. I tend to make full use of that talent.”
A cold hand wrapped itself around Varc’s throat and pulled his head back to an uncomfortable angle, frigid breath… no not breath, just air… the cold night air chilled the sweat upon his neck and he felt a sharp pain, a puncture in his neck. He felt blood rushing to the wound and it sparked all his senses back to alertness. A strong firm hand snapped up, grasping a hand full of hair and ripping it backwards. This action ripped the vampire from his neck, but also caused the small puncture wounds from her fangs to become a ragged gash. It would have to be dealt with later… right now this problem had to be dealt with, “Very well… if my daughter is truly dead then I have no problem with killing you.”
“Is that so?” the creature before him snarled. She was evil… vile but still just as beautiful, the very elegance of his daughter. Varc couldn’t stand to see her so corrupted and defiled.
“Yes,” Varc said with cold determination. A deft motion of his hand to the trees behind him, broke off several branches and their sharp, jagged ends were sent sailing towards the vampire before him.
Verti didn’t even move, the shafts of wood just impaling themselves into her flesh. She didn’t turn to dust either… she just stood there smiling that demented smile at him, a smile that said she had seen the darkest depths of hell itself… and she knew how to conjure up something far more horrific and gruesome. Then with a crisp snap of her fingers, the crude stakes were jerked out of her, exploding into a hailstorm of splinters between the two combatants. As Varc stood there, the wounds from his attack slowly began to heal… even the ones that had gone through her heart and her throat. They regenerated as such a rapid rate that it was astonishing to even him, “What… how?”
“Sorry, I don’t have a heart,” she laughed.
“Corialis was a god among vampires, his kind were god-like as it were, but he was something of legend you could say,” Verti… no, not Verti… this was a monster, the monster was speaking as if it were a history lecture. “The fact that Sarai Carcinos killed him in seconds is a testament to her power… but his bite was something not normally done in a conversion. The bite he conferred to me was meant to create an equal, a queen to his king, but he didn’t count on just what he was creating. He hoped for a monster… her created a divine being! Verti the daughter of the two most powerful people in Nova Corp, her abilities already substantial… possibly unlimited. The bite from a Vampire, even a normal one… would enhance the abilities of a human, a bite from a vampire such as Corialis… exponential enhancements, but he also shared his own blood… making this body, this creation… like him.”
“But… he died,” Varc said simplistically. “In all respects I could have defeated Corialis with as much ease as I just used upon you.”
“There is truth in your words,” the monster agreed, “But Corialis failed in his little plan… he did not make his creation like him… he made it better. He was greedy…”
“So all of Verti’s telekinetic abilities--”
“Much greater,” the vampire confirmed, “They can naturally help me regenerate, using them to work on a molecular level. All of her scientific knowledge, all of her lessons, I have it all and I can put it to my own uses. I also have access to the inherent abilities that Corialis himself possessed… and your blood, what little I tasted, gave me even more power.”
“That’s fine and good,” Varc growled, “Just gives me even more reason to kill you.”
“Please!” the vampire snarled in response, “It would be a waste of both your time and mine. Leave this place and do what her mother did. Accept the child as dead. I have no interest in Nova Corp… I have other plans for my talents.”
Varc frowned, realizing that it wouldn’t do to waste effort and energy on a fight such as this. There was always a chance that he could lose, against an unknown opponent that was entirely possible… there were too many possibilities that he couldn’t risk, not when his loyalty was to the company above all other things. Besides… his daughter was dead, and nothing could bring her back… could couldn’t let his vanity blind him to that fact any longer. Sarai was right in the beginning, and now it had taken a very harsh lesson for him to learn it as well. “Fine,” Varc agreed with a nod, “We will part ways here…”
“Wisest choice,” the vampire smiled and all the dark intent behind those eyes came out once more, “and tell my mother that I said hi.”
“Who do I tell her it’s from?”
“You can call me… Sarai.”
Varc blinked once, wondering why in the world the demon would choose that name of all things, but he no longer wished to speak with the abomination. There was a flash of blue, and he vanished. Sarai was left alone in the clearing with her thoughts… which were now crystalline clear. Taking one final look around the forest, now shaded in soft hues of red as the sun began to rise, she decided it was high time she visited the town and got some proper attire.
* * * * *
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Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:28 pm
Chapter 2
Durem was much more… active… than she remembered. It was odd, but she never remembered people to flock in the middle of the streets. Something odd was going on and she heard murmurs of a trial of some sorts. Apparently someone had burned down the Gambino Mansion, not that it hadn’t been destroyed many times in the past. It was almost a tradition it would seem… Christmas, Easter, Halloween… burn down the Gambino house, Thanksgiving…. A cycle the refused to excite her any longer. Durem didn’t excite her either… the architecture that once marveled her now just looked bland and out of date. “It would be some much better looking if it were on fire. The scorched marks along the walls… wood burnt to cinders, the elegant char paintings from flames licking and dancing upon the white stone walls…” she seethed with pleasure at the thought and vision passing through her mind, “It would be a masterpiece worthy of daVinci himself…”
Still, if Durem was preoccupied then that would mean her shopping trip would go… relatively uninhibited. She looked from shop to shop, walking down the empty streets… Edmund’s was closed, that’s where the dress she wore now had come from and it was a complete disaster. She had no desire to shop at the Durem Depot, no style there whatsoever. The entire street was turning out to be a disappointment until, finally at the very end she saw a little shop, the entrance flanked by two white marble pillars. The sign that hung from one of the pillars, writ in long hand, golden calligraphy, denoted the shop as “Marie St. Claire’s: Fine and Elegant Clothiers” A sly smile appeared on Sarai’s face, a serpentine quality about her as she walked up the steps.
The shop proprietor looked up as the door opened, the bell ringing to alert her of a customer, and she saw a woman… a very exotic woman who seemed to be gliding into the room, so elegant and graceful were her footsteps. Never mind that her clothing was tattered, ragged to the point that they should have fallen off of her long ago, but she was perfect. Nary a blemish was upon her skin, not a mar upon her face which seemed luminescent… angelic the shop owner would have said. She walked out from behind the counter, bowing to the woman, “Welcome! I’m Marie St. Claire… may I be of any service? Perhaps a new gown?”
Sarai looked down with the slightest bit of movement to take in the shop owner. The woman was short. There was nothing else to be said about her. Her looks didn’t matter, her congenial nature was unimportant… annoying even. But even as she looked down her nose, something still intriguing her came to the forefront of her mind, “The town seems… deserted in this area. It would seem… a rather dangerous predicament to be in.”
“No, no… not dangerous,” Marie said, absentmindedly brushing a stray curl of blond hair behind her ear and straightening her glasses. “The Barton shopkeeper, Ian I believe his name is, has been put on trial. It’s the whole to do, for some reason everyone is there. So many people are there that they’ve had to call all of the normal patrol officers to the courthouse to maintain order… I didn’t think anyone would come in today. You may very well save my sales if you purchase something.”
Sarai nodded, very content with the answer she had received, “I most certainly intend to… walk away from here with something.” Marie smiled… quite contented, and Sarai moved faster than sight. One of the vampiress’s hands whipped the girl’s head back, making her neck open and bare, and she buried her fangs into the shopkeepers neck. They didn’t stay there for long, just a brief second… a little taste. For Sarai, acquiring a meal was like drinking a fine wine… one had to sample before completely partaking of the delight, and even then it took a long time to drink the entire glass. Sarai withdrew and flung the stunned, frightened, and bleeding Marie to the ground like a doll. She walked over to a rack of fine hats; lacey, plumed, glittering… dozens of different hats from different designers, but all of them a work of art. Sarai plucked a small crimson hat with dark maroon lace around the trim and a single, jet black raven’s plume shooting over the back. It somewhat reminded her of a fedora, save for this hat was squared at the back and came to a sharp point… it was to her liking. The vampire placed it on her head and tilted it slightly to the side and admired herself in the mirror, “Yes, my dear Marie… I most certainly intend to walk out of here with a fashionable acceptable wardrobe. What do you think?”
Marie was crawling and crying across the floor, trying to get behind the counter where an alarm was, if she could only press it then this nightmare would end. She was bleeding, that woman… she’d turned completely evil! Marie still didn’t know what she had done, but something, a knife perhaps? She’d been stabbed in the neck and trying to scream had been impossible, fresh warm blood was leaking down her throat and each sob hurt, choking her. She crawled hoping that the woman wouldn’t pay attention to her anymore. Then something bright blue slammed into her peripheral vision and she was sent rolling across the floor until she slammed brutally into the white stone of the counter she was trying to seek refuge behind. Invisible hands suddenly lifted her up until she was sitting up, her back against the counter, looking directly into the image of the person trying to rob and murder her. She stood there… red, tattered lounge dress, one that was probably more expensive than ten of the hats she had now donned, looking like a mad fury. She should have seemed horrifying, but even in desolation this woman looked regal… and the hat sat upon her flaming red hair like a crown.
“Is there an alarm back there?” Sarai asked calmly. Tears were running down Marie’s face as freely as the blood from the wound on her neck. The vampire asked again, more severity this time, “Is there an alarm?!”
“Yes…” Marie whispered, the single word more of a sob than speech.
“Very well then,” Sarai raised her right hand a pointed it at the counter. A brilliant blue tendril of electricity jumped from her fingers and slammed into the counter, short circuiting all the electrical devices… the cash register drawer exploded out, slamming into the wall and showering the back area of the counter with coins and bills.
“There,” Sarai said with a smiled on her face as she walked over to Marie, “now we won’t have any interruptions… it’s that wonderful?” Marie merely let out a choked cry of anguish, totally lost into dispair as any hope of getting help was now gone. She threw herself with great force, trying to make it for the door… but she never hit the ground. The young shopkeeper turned her head to see the monstrous woman pointing a hand at her. Marie threw up a hand, half expecting a blast of lightning to destroy her like it had the counter… but nothing happened.
“Telekinesis, dear,” Sarai said, pulling the frightened Marie back to her spot before the counter. “To most it is just… the ability to use their minds for menial tasks. Move a cup, bend a spoon, levitate a person… so pathetic! The divine right of humanity is the ability to unlock so much more potential from their pathetic lives, that’s what my mother used to say. If one were to truly unlock their mind… the world would bend to their every thought. I don’t know how true that is, but I’ve learned that with my new condition,” she paused and looked herself up and down, chuckling, “in this condition… I could be a god!”
* * * * *
Sarai was nearly finished with her shopping, several hours after entering she had put together five complete outfits and pulled together about four dozen accessories that ranged from hats and earrings to belts and shoes, not counting the new attire she had swapped for her old dress. True to her fancies she had kept the hat and with it she now wore a black silk dress shirt, a red cashmere scarf, a diamond and white gold bracelet on her right arm, a pair of onyx flare pants with a red leather belt encrusted with mother of pearl, and a pair of deep crimson stilettos. She was feeling much better now that she had clean clothes and a fresh new scent about her. It was a new perfume that the shop had stocked, appropriately labeled “Angelic”. Marie on the other hand… wasn’t feeling so good. She’d tried to run away twice during their little shopping spree, and each time Sarai had broken one of her legs, she wasn’t gentle either. The first time she caught the shopkeeper attempting to crawl for the door, Sarai had stamped her foot down on the girl’s ankle and then her thigh… completely rendering the left leg lame. The second time she had been trying on a pair of boots, which she didn’t like, and she put their heel right through the kneecap of Marie’s right leg. That had effectively kept her from trying to run again, and with the blood loss she had become weak and thus made less noise. It was quite apparent to Sarai, after the first few minutes, that the girl wouldn’t be a good conversation, nor did she have anything helpful to add either.
She had let it be known that they shop sold expensive leather luggage however, and so Sarai had claimed the set and used it to package all over the clothes and accessories she decided to keep. Now that she was placing the last pair of shoes into their own tote, she stood up and took one last look around the store. Nothing caught her eyes, so it was time to depart. She walked over to Marie and placed both hands on the side of her head so that their eyes were locked, “One last question… what had Nova Corp been up to recently?”
The girl looked at her with confusion before speaking, “They… left Durem about a year and a half ago… they have a small store in the corporate sector, but they are based solely out of Gambino Island now.”
The vampiress nodded and then snapped the girls neck with ease, “So they do have a place stationed here. Good… very good.” Sarai took her five piece lugged and used telekinesis to make it follow her as she left the shop, heading down the street and away from the crime scene that wouldn’t be detected for another hour at least. Twenty minutes later she had placed herself on the corner of Main Street and Gleeson Parkway, using a prepaid cell phone that she had purchased on the way here, and called a cab. The little red and silver hand back which was in her left hand had about five thousand dollars in it, it was all that Marie had in her little shop… but it would be enough to buy a hotel room for a few weeks while she made the rest of her plans. And did she have plans, already it was forming into her mind how she would set herself up to be at the forefronts of power for this world. Change was coming, that much was certain… and the people of Gaia were none that wiser that a new creature
* * * * *
“Good morning, Miss Sarai!” the valet smiled and waved as the newest resident came striding out of the glorious Hotel Dubois. She was a goddess dressed in a flowing red coat, a black lace bustier with little roses embroidered all over it, a pair of black leather pants with a red sash around her waist… of the same material as her coat. As she walked down the steps towards him, her red heels echoed across the stone floors with the methodical beat of a metronome.
“Good morning to you, Billy,” she replied with a soft nod and a friendly wave. From the moment she had arrived at the registration desk, this exotic beauty had charmed the staff and won their favor. Rightly so… she was exquisite, always dressed to perfection. It was without a doubt that she had style and grace. She worked from the penthouse of the hotel, sending off clothing designs and selling fashion ideas to all the great clothing lines and manufacturers. In some ways she had angered other designers in the business… but from what Billy could tell, she deserved to be able to do what she wanted.
“I had your car brought around already and it should be warm, just the way you like it!”
“Thank you, you’re too kind,” Sarai said, kissing the boy on the cheek. He was so innocent that she just adored him. Of course he’d been an appealing meal every now and then… but she’d refrained from doing so. It was hard to find a competent staff… and a free one was even more difficult to find. She’d turned the Hotel Dubois into her own personal mansion/ office building and they were willing. She was bringing in enough money to satisfy them, her bill, and her need for money with these fashions that she had stolen and modified from Marie’s vault… learning enough to create her own.
“Where are you headed today, ma’am?” the boy asked curiously.
“A business venture, Billy…” Sarai said as she slid elegantly into the driver’s set of the black Viper. She’d bought the car after only two weeks of her business ventures. It had paid off, having wealthy business folk for parents that is. “I plan on seeing if I can branch into Nanotech today.”
“Sounds like quite an adventure,” the valet said excitedly as he shut the door for her.
“Oh it will be,” Sarai said thoughtfully. “…I certain of it."
* * * * *
Getting into Nova Corp wasn’t easy… ok, well walking through the doors was simple, but getting to where she wanted to be had posed a problem. Nova Corp was built to be a large complex. Anyone could walk into the front doors and it would appear to be a normal store… as normal as a two story electronics and household necessities store could be. But that wasn’t Nova Corp. No, that was their front, their money, what they used to fool the populace into thinking that they were just another corporate giant out to make money and life better. Which was true… in a certain way, however Nova Corp was muscling in on the global economy. That’s what they did. Highest quality for lowest prices… and they could afford it, because below their outer façade, they had several underground levels: factory floors, science and engineering, vaults, armories, barracks… the true Nova Corp lay under the surface, and that was what Sarai was trying to gain access to.
She needed to get to level 10, the lowest floor with the highest security… it held all of the Novian inventions and prototypes that weren’t available to the public or any Nova Corp personnel below the sixth hierarchy, which was pretty much everyone. Normally to get into places like this, a telekinetic master would just teleport in and grab what they wanted. However, Nova Corp was founded by one… therefore all of the lower levels had a special matter-antimatter shielding that prevented anything from passing through it, one of many security precautions that Nova Corp had engineered. Countries would pay for such technology if they only knew it existed, but Nova Corp would never put such power in anyone’s hands but their own. So Sarai had been faced with finding a more ingenious means of entering.
She’d spent several minutes “browsing” the main atrium, watching all of the Nova Corp personnel moving about until she’d seen one access a restricted area. From there it had been easy to slip through the door, take the man’s mind and use him to get as far as level four, then he became useless. She’d thought about killing him, but that would only alert people to her presence. Sarai there for just knocked him out and left him somewhere to be found, incompetence and all. The process had been slow and cautious, but several hours later she’d made it to level nine and was standing before the elevator that would take her to her goal, but there was not a single hierarchy member in this building to be found. Only members of the working mass, which were so decently called hierarchy seven by the Novian overlords. Sarai muttered to herself and glared at the door with hatred.
“It takes a skilled person to get this far into Nova Corp without detection or violence,” a voice said from behind her. Sarai spun around to see a woman dressed in white and silver, immaculate and crisp… her entire personal was clean… icy even. Her short white hair hid one of her blue eyes from view, while the white business suit was spotless.
“A lawyer?” Sarai thought to herself… suddenly a memory that didn’t belong to her popped out of the recesses of her mind and the vampiress smiled, eerily not pleasant, “Why… Karin Sele, just the person I was hoping to run into.”
The lawyer’s eyebrow rose, ‘It would seem that you have me at a disadvantage… Miss?”
“Sarai…” the vampire replied.
“Really,” Sele said with a bemused look. “A strong name to be in possession of…”
“I’m more than worthy.”
“I’m sure,” the woman replied with a brusque hint of sarcasm. “So… what can I do for you?”
Sarai circled around the cold woman, who was a few inches shorter than her… thanks to the heels she was wearing. Much like a bird of prey circling it’s victim, but faster than Sarai’s eyes could even blink, the lawyer’s hand a shot out and was around her neck. The grip was as strong as diamond, and just as impossible to shatter. Karin Sele’s gaze turned to look Sarai directly in the eyes, and a suddenly sense of revelation came over those cold, blue orbs. Sarai snarled and kicked out, separating the pair and promising to be more careful in the future. Confidence was one thing, but underestimating the opponent was deadly. You didn’t live long if you did that too often.
“You did come here for a reason?” Karin asked again.
“Yes,” Sarai said quietly, “I came for nanite project 002.”
Karin nodded as if nothing was unexpected, “You do realize that it is impossible for that specific project to be used in a living host without dire consequences… changes to behavior, death as it eats through living cells, blood poisoning… it wasn’t created to be used for such a use. Not to mention most living hosts don’t have the ability to control the nanites.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not alive,” Sarai countered, “and that I have the ability to control them.”
Karin nodded again, “That is true… even though you’ve become something different, your eyes are still the same, Verti.” The use of that name caused the vampiress’s lip to curl up in a sneer, but Karin held up a pacifying hand, “Please… I was the first person other than your own mother to see you. I’d know you no matter how much you changed, that’s my job. I have two things that I have to do in the course of my existence: Nova Corp’s continued existence and protecting you. It’s a promise I made to your mother, and even though you are dead to her… here you stand before me.” The lawyer motioned a hand towards the elevator door and several thin, silver tendrils shot from her fingers and brushed against he metal. The doors opened with a silent hiss.
“Verti is dead,” Sarai said coldly, “She died when I took over.”
Karin walked into the elevator and motioned for Sarai to join her, “She may have… but if that’s so, then why do you have her eyes?”
“Why do you have the nanites?” Sarai snapped back.
Karin gave her a knowing smile, but let the subject drop, “nanite project 002 was created specifically for me.”
“But… you just said that living--”
“Who ever said that I was alive to begin with?” the lawyer asked smugly. “Now… here we are.” The elevator doors opened into a long white hallway lined with identical silver, vault doors each with a number painted on them in black. They had to walk all the way to the end of the hall way where there was a large door marked N001, their objective was the door to the immediate left… marked N002. With a slide of those same silver tendrils brushed the door and it opened, revealing a shelf of small vials with a mercury-like substance that was freely moving around their glass interiors. Karin picked up a single vial and placed it in Sarai’s hands, “Take this… use them however you see fit, but the next time you are found on Nova Corp property… I, or whoever else may be in charge, will be forced to carry out the orders your mother gave regarding you.”
“Which are?” Sarai asked as they moved back into the elevator.
“Death…”
* * * * *
Sarai walked out of the Nova Corp building and opened with car door with a slight more anger than she expected to feel. She should have been elated. The mere fact that she’d gotten what she came for was a miracle, but that small sense of accomplishment was dwarfed by the anger and rage she felt at being called by the name of her previous life. That was compounded by this nagging sense of fear in the back of her mind, the fear that if Karin were to actually follow up on her mother’s order… there would be very little she could do to prevent her own death. Even these nanites wouldn’t serve as much more than a distraction. That sense of helplessness wasn’t something she felt very keen about, and her new existence didn’t care too much for it. She would have to do something to fix this situation and she would have to do it sooner rather than later. “Roger,” she snapped irritably at her driver, “Take me home!”
The vampire was so caught up in her own thoughts that she hadn’t even bothered to scan the car mentally, but when the driver didn’t answer her eyes shot up and she snarled, “Roger! Move the bloody…” and sitting there in front of her was possibly the most frightening face she had ever looked into, “car…”
“Roger, take us for a drive,” the woman kneeling in front of Sarai whispered in an alluring tone. Roger responded to the words instantaneously and robot-like, and the intruder slipped into the seat next to the vampire. The woman looked like she had stepped off a Vogue runway and into the viper, with her ebony black hair that flowed down between her shoulder blades. Her skin was almost as pale as Sarai’s but it looked cold and hard, more so than the vampire’s. She was a beautiful, undeniably beautiful. But that wasn’t what made her frightening… not the black silk strips that she wore skin tight on her torso and flowed into the black leather pants, not the silver boots that easily added another three inches to the impressive six foot height that she commanded with authority… no the frightening thing about her were the eyes, those crimson eyes that froze the non-existent blood in Sarai’s veins. They had a darkness behind them, a hatred for light, life, and anything that could be wholesome. This woman was more frightening than death itself, and that one look into her eyes caused all previous thoughts to fade into the background.
The dark lips, painted with a shimmering brown, smiled menacingly at Sarai, “I would have expected the same defiance you gave to Karin… what happened?”
“I blame distraction,” Sarai snarled.
“That’s my girl…”
The vampire’s eyes thinned and she spoke through gritted teeth, “What do you want?”
“I came into Nova Corp’s employ about a week after your disappearance,” her unwanted companion said offhanded, “but do to… artistic disagreements, your mother bounced me from the third hierarchy down to the fifth. I now am sent on the illicit errands that Nova Corp keeps in the shadows.”
“Illicit?”
She nodded, “People that cross certain lines and require… negotiation… you could say that I am the negotiator.”
“So you do the executions,” Sarai simplified.
“Perceptive…”
“Not difficult to put those subtle hints together,” sarcasm was heavy on Sarai’s words, “What do you want with me? Did Madame Carcinos finally remember that she never killed me and sent you to do her job?”
“No,” the woman shook her head, the black hair moving like dark water back-and-forth over her shoulders, “Sarai doesn’t view you worth any such attention.”
That simple comment sparked the earlier anger back to life and Sarai became irritated once again. This woman obviously wasn’t as strong as Karin, so the fear she’d felt now seemed unfounded. The vampire brought two sharp fingernails up under the throat of her annoyance and whispered in her ear, “Then tell me why I shouldn’t kill you?”
“Two words,” the toxic voice said just as softly, “Virtra Thrad.”
* * * * *
Sarai opened the door to her penthouse and led the way for her guest. She watched closely as Virtra’s eyes shot around the foyer, “You have exquisite tastes.”
Sarai nodded, tossing her coat and purse onto the marble and black oak table that sat to the right of the doorway, walking over to the old silver and ivory rotary phone that sat on another table across the way. This table looked like a tangle of briars, twisting up to hold the glass top. It sat in the center of a thin wall and on each side of the wall lay a hall way. The one on the left led to the common room and then to the kitchen. The hall to the right led to the three bedrooms and the balcony overlooking Durem plaza. As Sarai crossed the room, she looked down into the polished crimson tile and noticed from the reflection that Virtra hadn’t moved, but rather she was just watching with an amused expression.
“You have an affinity for red,” she alleged.
Sarai nodded, “silver and black as well… wait until you see the living room.” She picked up the phone and dialed a three digit number which brought up the hotel concierge.
“Which hall?” Virtra asked, pointing to each.
“Left…” Sarai muttered silently. The man on the other end of the line finally picked up, “Ah, Peter… it’s Sarai. Yes, I’d like you to send up some fresh scones… yes and have the chef do what he normally does. Thanks… you’re a dear.”
“You have no furniture!” Virtra exclaimed from down the hall.
Sarai shook her head in annoyance and walked to meet the person who had invaded her life with so much ease, “I’m a vampire… I don’t sleep, I don’t eat, I don‘t breathe… I don’t get tired. Why should I have furniture?”
Virtra smirked, “To keep up appearances for one.”
“People never come farther than the foyer,” she countered.
“And that’s not conspicuous…”
“Did you come here for a reason or are you just around to give décor tips,” Sara snarled in a soft whisper.
Virtra’s face hardened, but sooner than a second had passed and she was back to that evil sense of joy. She motioned to the black carpet of the large, empty room and dark shadow seeped up from the floor. The dark, snake-like tendrils that sprung up soon formed themselves into a pair of chairs, one of which Virtra took for herself. “I came here for tea… you do keep tea around don’t you?”
Sarai nodded and walked off to the kitchen. Like the rest of her dwelling, the kitchen was spotless and dust free. It was the only place that she hadn’t changed because she had liked it. The counters were red mahogany and everything else… stainless steel. She didn’t need to cook, but it would be the envy of anyone who did. In the cabinet closest to the kitchen door, Sarai kept everything she used in the kitchen: a tea set. It was a pair of black and silver embossed tea cups and a matching tea pot. The three items sat upon a thin silver tray, arranged in a triangle formation, centered around a small box. The box was simple and red but to anyone with a nose like Sarai’s… it smelled intoxicating.
She walked back into the common room, where Virtra was still waiting. As soon as the dark woman saw Sarai enter, a small tea table appeared very much like the chair had. Not bothering to ask about this seemingly unique ability, Sarai set the tea tray down and took her own seat. She wasn’t going to be the one to speak first this time. She and Virtra locked eyes, both with a feral smirk on their faces as Sarai went about the duty of preparing the tea. She took the top off of the tea pot and pointed a finger at it. Her telekinetic abilities pulled moister from the air, mixing oxygen and hydrogen easily, and water seemingly appeared out of nowhere into the small porcelain vessel. Then the vampire reached for the small box, pulling the top off with a flourish and revealing a silver tea bell and a small pile of crimson red tea leaves.
The revelation of this sight caused Virtra to divert her gaze from Sarai to the box, “I’ve never seen leave such as that… nor do I know of any species of plant that creates such a leaf.”
“That’s because the color comes not from the plant,” Sarai said smugly as she filled the tea bell and placed it into the pot. She then snapped her fingers and the temperature of the water in the pot heated substantially, causing steam to rise from the spout. She bobbed the bell up and down several times and then let it down into the water before replacing the lid onto the container and poured tea into both cup. The liquid that pour forth was a soft and rosy color, but at times as it swirled in the cups it became dark as blood. “The leaves are nothing more than simple jasmine… but it is my preparation that makes them… unique.”
“Unique,” Virtra said, toying with the word as she picked up one of the cups and smelled it, “Devine seems to be the more appropriate word.”
“That may be one interpretation…”
“And the other?” Virtra asked taking a sip.
Sarai grinned with pleasure as she too picked up her own cup, “Some would call it demonic, depraved… evil.”
“Everything they call me…”
“Precisely,” Sarai nodded, “Everyone has their own way of looking at things.”
“Why don’t you enlighten me as to what it is we are drinking?” Virtra said with a bit more insistence this time.
“I grow the jasmine myself… out on the balcony. When the time comes to prepare more, I hunt down a young child and kill it… drain a quart of it’s blood and soak the leave in it for a night before I dry them,” Sarai said with a hint of nostalgia piquing her senses as she remembered the last time, “These leaves are from my newest batch… barely a week old.”
“I thought I tasted blood,” Virtra said with a derogatory tone, “It’s the amateur way of doing what I do.”
“And just what is that?!” Sarai spat vehemently. She didn’t like her passions to be looked down upon by any, especially one such as this.
“Don’t take it the wrong way,” Virtra placated, “I merely meant drinking blood. You vampires do it to stay alive but in essence you are stealing the life from your victims. It’s the amateur way of doing it though. It’s traceable… noticeable and you really aren’t stealing the life from them at all. You merely… have a more delightful way of killing the mindless masses of cattle that roam the universe.”
“And how do you do it?”
Virtra let a truly demonic smile shine across her features, “I devour their souls… their life force… anything that makes them alive, whole, and unique… it feeds me and my power.”
“Then you definitely haven’t come after me to make yourself more powerful,” Sarai remarked.
“No, I haven’t… I can’t steal life from one who is already dead.”
“Then what?!”
Virtra placed her cup gently down upon the tray and crossed her legs as she looked at Sarai in a very business-like manner, “I have job coming up… several jobs to be precise. The world is about to come crashing down and it remains a necessity that Nova Corp is not involved. That’s where I come in.”
“You are speaking of the Von Helsons?”
“I am indeed,” Virtra’s disgust mirrored Sarai’s, “Their ambition far exceeds their worth… but for the time being they have the playing field. I’m merely to assure that anyone who knows about Nova Corp and its workings… disappears. I thought you might enjoy helping me.”
“And why would I do that?” Sarai laughed.
“Because I’d teach you to harness your vampiric strength in ways that you couldn’t possibly imagine. The darkness and all that are in it belong to me,” Virtra veiled, “There is much you can learn and much you can offer to my goals. Think what your mother would have to say about it....” Virtra's eyes glistened as if she knew she had said the right thing.
* * * * *
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Magical Mistress Sarai Vice Captain
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Magical Mistress Sarai Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:29 pm
Chapter 3
The offer had been tempting… too tempting to pass up. Sarai’s own personal goals required that she find her ways into the very intricate workings of the world, while remaining anonymous herself. There was no entity more intertwined with the secret workings of groups and races than Nova Corp, and if she could get in without difficulty… all the better. With Virtra supporting her, there would be few in Nova Corp willing to question or contest the vampire’s entrance to the grand scheme of thing. Her mother couldn’t say anything about it either, for fear of breaking everything she stood for… which if anything was clear, that is what Virtra was truly hoping for. It would cause chaos, in-fighting, blood shed and the total destruction of all that was peaceful and working. When all the powers of Nova Corp began fighting one another it would bring about such destruction… very little would survive. Virtra lived for such things, the goddess of chaos as she was aptly named. The woman was an enigma, something entirely evil if any such thing existed. The only person who knew the truth about Virtra Thrad was… well Virtra Thrad herself.
But one thing could be ascertained, and that was that Virtra’s ambition clearly mimicked her own, and Sarai was more than content with that. Lessons were learned from experience and experience she would gain. Virtra was on a very tight leash, but she still had clout because of the immense power she commanded. Very few tried to hold onto that leash other than Karin… or General Nova, and the only one capable of controlling the beast was Nova Corp’s leader, and if Madam Carcinos even looked harshly in Virtra’s direction, the dark woman immediately began to change her actions.
After the first week of working with Virtra all of this had become apparent, though it was all via communications. Apparently there was no need for more than one higher up to be located on any world at one time, and something that was truly amazing… was that Nova Corp hierarchy members were communicating across vast distances of space, intergalactic distances to be accurate. Virtra, with her affinity for predicting and controlling chaos in all forms and her self-proclaimed power over darkness, had been stationed to watch over things in Gaia… which meant that things were truly going to escalate soon.
All these thoughts swirled thought Sarai’s mind as she stood impatiently in the car pool waiting for Virtra to finish whatever meeting it was she had to preside over. “Late as always,” she muttered through gritted teeth.
“Mistress Virtra enjoys prolonging meetings with the hierarchy,” a technician said, obviously eavesdropping as he aimlessly pushed his broom around, “It gives her some of the former power she held…”
“Former power?” Sarai asked intrigued.
“Yes… she used to be in command of the third and fifth fleets, far away from this backwater planet as she calls it,” the old man rubbed the bristle on his chin as he pondered, obviously thinking of the past. He’d stopped sweeping now, rather using his broom as a prop to keep himself upright, “I reckon that was ‘bout… forty or fifty years ago… yeah I’d reckon fifty years ago. None of them higher ups ever age so it’s hard to tell, what with all them special abilities and sciences they have going for them. Sure we all could have it if we asked, but why would I want to live forever…”
“Old man!” Sarai snapped, “The point?”
He looked at her with age glazed eyes, “The point is that these things happened along time ago and I’m thinkin’ about exactly what happened, cause I ain’t all youthful anymore! Now iffin’ you’ll just be patient I’ll see what I can remember.”
“Fine!”
“Good, now no more speaking,” the old man barked, “she was a lot like you back then… still is in some ways, what with her temper an all… twas that temper that got her into trouble in the first place. Yes, she was one of the Novian Mercenaries greatest generals, it was whispered that she was trying to bump out ol’ Varc… but that don’t matter no more. She was on command in the eastern branch galaxy, a very important strategic galaxy that gave open to a lot more than I think I’d know, I was servin’ on her flag ship as a Captain at that time…”
“I find that doubtful,” Sarai said but she was quieted by a withering look from the storyteller.
“No one escaped what happened that day,” the janitor said quietly, “Those of use who didn’t die in Virtra’s slaughter… we were demoted to the lowest positions, and Virtra was placed as low in the hierarchy as one could go and still have a command, saved by past achievement I supposed.”
“You said slaughter?”
“Eh?” the man asked, “Oh yeah! I got addled there for a minute… we was above some planet, can’t remember what exactly, but it was somewhere far from here. Well… it happened that a simple fleet movement turned into a total disaster. Fleets from all across different galactic sectors ambushed us, you see… thousands and thousands of ships, they just kept on coming without stop. I say it was well planned. We were forced to make an unprecedented landing upon the planet… I’d say that we lost 90% of the fleet… and as soon as we landed an army appeared on the horizon. Apparently the people of this galaxy wanted Nova Corp to get a message… Mistress Virtra didn’t get it.”
The old man chuckled at the look on Sarai’s face. It was one of horror and incredulity, “Miss Virtra was never one to accept defeat, and she doesn’t like living under anyone’s thumb. Eh… that was a sight to behold. She told us to fix up them ships that were remaining… and she just walked off towards the army. No support. No weapon. The screams and explosions that came nearly a minute later… they sounded like what I might imagine hell would. She destroyed them… all of them. Thousands of people, some soldiers… but most of them were just people trying to defend their homes… it didn’t matter though. They all fell to Virtra’s magic. You never want to anger a Nelmkor, missy… not unless you know that you can kill it.”
“A Nelmkor?” Sarai questioned. She hadn’t heard of such a race or species before.
“It’s not a surprise ye avn’t heard of them…” his pause here was so long, Sarai half expected to push him slightly and find that he’d fall over dead. He finally returned to reality and coughed, “they don’t exist no more… well save for Virtra. That’s how she got herself into Nova Corp you see… sold out her entire planet, killed all of ‘em. Power is the only thing that one’s after… and let me tell you… she’s got more than most.”
“That’s sweet, Farron,” Virtra’s voice said from behind Sarai. The sudden sound almost caused the vampire’s heart to start again. That sound, sickeningly sweet, like poisoned honey… it was cold and unnatural, sending shivers down the spine and chilling blood that had long grown cold. “What are we going to hear next? The time that Karin gave a strip tease at the company party? Or I really prefer to hear how General Nova himself helped you to mop the mess hall…”
“It really happened,” the senile old man muttered.
“I’m sure it did,” the dark woman sneered, “but we don’t have the time to hear it. Sarai, we have a meeting on the Isle de Gambino. The man’s name is Joad Barnes. He owns a small bar by the name of the Dancing Macaw. It’s a front for him information brokering and illegal gambling. He’s squelched on a deal with Nova Corp and we are to shut him up before anything gets out. It just happened a few minutes ago, so we’ll have plenty of time to get there and enjoy ourselves.”
“How are we traveling?”
Virtra smiled at Sarai with something akin to cold affection and it looked frightening on that evil face. “Always the curious one aren’t you?” she draped an arm over Sarai’s shoulders and steered her towards the doorway, “Watch and learn, my dear. Watch and learn…” As they left, the old janitor Farron fell to the floor clutching his chest. The ninety-one years he’d dedicated to Nova Corp… ended by a simple heart attack. Virtra’s vicious smile glinted in the darkness as she and Sarai vanished in a swirl of black haze.
* * * * *
“I never could stand Gambino Isle…” Virtra muttered, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the golden sun. They walked down a crowded street, hundreds of gaian citizens rushing about in their brightly colored clothing and happy smiles. “Everyone is always too happy and almost as bright as the damn sun!” The pair were a vast contradiction to the rest of the crowd, and they walked alone. It was as if the happy people around them could subconsciously pick up on the dark aura. Virtra and Sarai were given a wide berth wherever they strolled, their dark clothing flowed around them… loose, like blood and shadows.
“Technically I should be the one complaining about the sun,” Sarai muttered. “but it doesn’t affect me…” The vampire mimicked a yawn as she brought up a red sleeve to cover her mouth. The nails on her hand were painted dark blue today, and her outfit was a complement of navy blue pants and a matching corset, which she wore a deep crimson flight over. She’d traded in her red stilettos for a deep burgundy pair of leather boots, and now wore a little blue, silk hat with a thin red plume jetting out from the side like a bloody dagger.
Virtra frowned, “Which still perplexes me… how did you get around it?”
“I didn’t,” Sarai explained, “it was just one of the many attempt I used to try and kill myself. It didn’t work. Neither did the wood to the heart, crucifix, falling from great heights, holy water, garlic…”
“Ok, ok…” Virtra said throwing her arms up over her ears, “I get the fact that you tried thousands of ways to kill yourself. It’s not that easy to kill a normal vampire, but you definitely aren’t normal.”
“I have a theory on that as well,” Sarai grinned, delighted with the knowing that theories and long mindless dialogue annoyed the hell out of her companion.
Virtra cringed on cue, “You are your mother’s daughter…”
“I think that has something to do with it, but it also has something to do with who bit me.”
Virtra raised an eyebrow, “Come again?”
“Corialis Grey, remember him?”
Virtra nodded.
“Well he was the one who bit me--”
Sarai was interrupted then by a peal of laughter that errupted, very uncharacteristically, Virtra, “You mean the angel bit you!! God that is so priceless! No wonder you mother terminated his command! It was permanent!! I thought for sure I would get my fleet back after that one, but now I realize why I didn’t!”
It was Sarai’s turn to look confused, “I’m lost.”
“The commander of the fifth fleet is in charge of the advanced force,” Virtra explained, “before Corialis had command, I was the general in charge. Now your father takes control of it and the first fleet. It would only stand to reason that your mother would want to make an example of the person… pardon me… thing, that killed you.”
“Your saying she punished Corialis with more than just death?”
“That’s precisely what I’m saying,” Virtra frowned, “what better way to ruin someone… than to take their reputation and their life?”
“I can think of a few…” Sarai snarled. The memory of how easily her mother had destroyed Corialis still burned the dormant blood within her.
“Well seeing as how it was a vampiric angelicas that sired you… it would stand to reason you are the way you are.”
Sarai nodded, “Those were my thoughts exactly.”
“It would be interesting to see just what your human blood and that of your sire has created…” Virtra paused in pondering, before exclaiming, “but we don’t have time! Here we are!”
“The Dancing Macaw…” Sarai said with a deep furrow forming in her brow, “You didn’t say anything about a strip club.”
“Oh!” Virtra said innocently, “I did forget to mention that didn’t I? Never fear, just relax in the knowledge that you and I are better looking than any exotic dancer they have employed here.” Virtra glided gracefully through the door before Sarai could protest, thus the vampire could do nothing but follow behind her… with a scowl etched into the marble feature of her face.
* * * * *
The pair ignored the patrons and the employees of the Dancing Macaw for the most part, save for the brief words exchanged with the girl at reception. Sarai kept to herself, a few paces behind Virtra, not wanting to look anyone in the eyes. She expected her companion to head immediately for the back offices and out of public eye, but it would seem that was not to be the case. Virtra wound through the maze of platforms, tables, and dancing strippers until they came to a set of stairs. The red carpeted flight of steps led up to a private box that was mostly concealed from view of anyone on the ground floor, but Sarai could see a soft flickering light… a candle most likely.
As they reached the top of their rise, the stairs gave way to a large room, cut off from the main hub of entertainment. It looked as if it were large enough to accommodate twenty or so occupants, a business room for meetings perhaps? However, on this particular day… even with the club as busy as it was, this room was occupied solely by two individuals. The first was a man, dressed in a slim, form-fitting suit, charcoal black with white pinstripes. He wore a white silk shirt under his unbuttoned jacket, the first few buttons left unfastened so that the pale white skin of his chest was visible. It looked smooth as marble, and it was perfectly unblemished. The man appeared very regal, his wavy and unruly blonde hair hung around his face, adding a lustrous sheen to his already radiant features, a sharp and handsome face with a set of dazzling sapphire eyes that took the very breath out of Sarai’s lungs. He was gorgeous. He looked to be no more than twenty, which was odd because his companion, whom he was obviously flirting with on a very sexual level, looked to be no more than eleven.
The girl was dressed in a black corset and lace dress, knee high leather combat boots, and fingerless black lace gloves. She looked like a doll with her blonde hair that flowed down over the plush red velvet seat. If she were to stand up it would be down to her knees… and it seemed to have a life of its own, constantly moving but it was such a subtle movement that you had to concentrate to actually catch it, like she had her own soft breeze following her, wishing to praise its dark queen. Sarai would have said she was a mere child, not even old enough to be on her own, much less in a place like this, but her eyes and her expression said otherwise. The dark emerald eyes, so cold and dark despite their inner glow, where set into an evil glare… not one that spoke of anger and destruction, but a delicate, refined evil that radiated a cold chill at the base of the spine. Sarai knew the look well, she wore the same often… so did Virtra. This girl, as doll-like as she looked, so fragile and seemingly harmless, was deadly… and very much capably of playing the queen of darkness that she so portrayed.
“Ah! Val! Eva!” Virtra said with a delightful sound in her voice, “I thought I sensed the two of you here!” The dark lady slid into the booth that the two strangers occupied and slid in close to the man, whom Sarai could only assume was Val? Virtra’s posture was one of comfort and ease, obviously she knew these two… so Sarai nodded politely and pulled up a chair, not pulling up close to the table, but still apart of the meeting, even if her posture was stiff and stately.
“Your companion does not seem friendly,” the doll-like girl said. Her accent was surprisingly English, very old English Sarai noted, nearly Shakespearean. She turned her head, moving only at the neck and for the first time Sarai met eyes with someone in that club. Her violet eyes met the green orbs of the child-woman, and Sarai saw flashes of death and mayhem, cold inflicted terror and she had to divert her gaze to stifle that child that threatened to run up her spine yet again.
“Be nice…” Virtra spoke and her voice, though pleasant, had that unmistakable threat of power behind it. “Sarai… this is Evangeline McDowell…” she motioned to the dark doll, “And this is Valdis Lorien…” gesturing to the extremely attractive man. “The three of you have something very unique in common.”
“A daylight walker?” Evangeline muttered unimpressed, “There are so many these days…”
“Not precisely,” Virtra said, the icy edge of irritation coming over more dangerously this time.
“She has impeccable taste,” Valdis murmured, giving Sarai and appraising eye and obviously liking what he saw. What a coincidence, Sarai was quite taken with him as well. “She obviously didn’t get her fashion sense from you Virtra.”
“Virtra doesn’t have a fashion sense,” Sarai laughed lightly, “She wears darkness like a garment and evil as accessories… normal clothing has no place in her wardrobe.”
“Aw… what a sweet complement…”
“Anything for you teacher,” Sarai said with a formal bow, which from her posture in the chair was an impressive feat.
“So you’re teaching her?” Valdis remarked with apparent wonder. Still, his eyes sparkled with admiration at Sarai.
“That too has been done,” Evangeline said with distaste, turning her attention to the drink before her. For on so tiny, she moved with a fluidity and grace that was to be envied. “I’m still waiting to see what makes her so special.”
“Forgive Eva’s manners,” Valdis said, leaning across the table and offering his hand to Sarai, “She’s been around far too long to bother with pleasantries or good form, so she’s just a b***h.” There was a cough from Evangeline, and a detectable hint of irritation. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Sarai shook his hand but said nothing in response, rather her focus was entirely upon the girl.
“You could kill him right now and not have to move more than your little finger.”
Evangeline’s eyes shot up from the cup of tea she was holding with both hands, obviously shocked that Sarai had said anything. “How can you tell?”
Virtra was the one to answer, her evil laugh soft and near inaudible, “I should have been more specific, Eva… you and Sarai have two things in common. One is a resistance to the sunlight that plagues your species… and the other is an unnatural love for puppets.” Eva was obviously intrigued now, and her sour mood perking up as she regarded Sarai with a more scrutinizing look.
“Your thread is wrapped around his neck and looped around the pinky on your left hand,” Sarai explained for the confused look from Valdis, “While it looks like you are merely being a sophisticated British citizen… you’re actually able to manipulate five different strands with ease… all of which at attached to Valdis at this very moment. A flick of your little finger… and well, someone would be cleaning him off the walls.” Valdis obviously didn’t take to this very kindly, and he did something that both frightening and amazed Sarai. His entire body seemed to ignite with a brilliant diamond light, radiating heat and energy that she’d never encountered before. Whatever it was… the light incinerated the filaments instantly, rendering the threads to microscopic particles.
“You know I’d never do that,” Eva said, completely unphased by his display of anger. She obviously wasn’t prone to showing much emotion at all. Sarai had to say, that if she were in the same circumstance, she would have acted along the same lines Valdis had.
“And you know I can’t appear weak in front of a pair of gorgeous ladies,” he offered a killer smile, that was way to cold to be charming. It almost seemed to say, “Do that again and one of us will die…” While it was bold, Sarai had to think that Evangeline would be the victor if a fight were to start.
“Val and Eva have been working in these parts for the past few months,” Virtra said, taking the floor and everyone’s attention. It was obvious that she was still the most powerful being at the gathering of all too powerful beings. “Valdis is a Vampiric Angelicas… a former Seraph to be precise. He was bitten of his own volition…”
“All just to gain the free will that humans so take for granted,” he said with a grin.
“Yes…” Virtra glared at him from the corner of her eyes, not happy at being interrupted. “Eva on the other hand… is a high daylight walker. She was the heiress to a very wealthy noble family in England… oh… what was it?”
“1497,” Eva said, not opening her eyes as she took a sip from her white china cup.
“So you see… she’s over five hundred years old… and looking very good for her age.”
Sarai had to blink a few times… hundred year old vampires were impressive, she was only just over a decade… but to last more than five centuries, that was beyond impressive. It also explained why nothing seemed to earn a large reaction from Evangeline. Having seen everything come to pass, lived through the changes of time, little would surprise someone of that age… even if it came as a surprise. “Who are they working for? Nova Corp as well?”
“No,” Eva said quietly, “We work for our individual gain… we have just a common goal at the moment, so cooperation is simple.”
“What are the--”
“Now now, Sarai,” Virtra said, holding up a hand to stop her line of questions, “It’s not yet time to get there… not just yet.”
She clenched her hands together in her lap to prevent them from becoming fists. It was so annoying to be overruled and silenced, especially in front of two blatantly powerful vampires. Though she was livid on the inside, her face was for the most part calm and collected.
“Well you’ve told her about us,” Valdis said with a charming grin, “Now what about our mysterious lady here?”
“Sarai…” Virtra said her name in a drawn out breath as if contemplating something far from understandable. “What is there to say about her?”
“You could start by telling us what she is?” Eva said, her crisp accent every demanding. “She smells different from other vampires… most smell of the earth, of rustic scents or loam, but she smells of…” a pause as Evangeline sniffed, searching for what it was she wanted to compare Sarai’s scent to.
“Lilacs,” Valdis supplied, “And you don’t smell like dirt, Eva… you actually smell of fresh mint and tea leaves.” Sarai paused and actually sniffed the air around her for the first time. Not needing to breath, she rarely used her scent of smell unless she was hunting, humans had such a delectable aroma about them… but around her own kind, when no appearances where necessary, she saw little need to “breathe”. Now that she smelled the air around her, she had to agree… Evangeline did smell of mint and tea… how appropriate. Valdis on the other hand smelled sweet, a musky tropical fragrance was about him, that made his already desirable features… well, more desirable. And Virtra? She smelled… like nothing, void. It was odd. Sure her perfume was there, but she had no scent. That was a confusing question that would have to be asked later.
“Well… Sarai was bitten by Corialis Grey. You know him, Val?”
The vampire nodded, “He was one of the assistants to St. Michael the Arch Angel… he was tainted they said, corrupted by the power that Nova Corp offered him… that he believed their leader to be more powerful than the Creator. He fell… and they turned him so that he would have the will to follow them.”
“Close enough,” Virtra said, shrugging off the details, “Anyhow… Sarai here was the daughter of the infamous Novian Head, bitten by a powerful vampire like yourself, Val… so she is something entirely new.”
Valdis’s intense gaze was upon her again, this time with such admiration and intrigue that Sarai had to turned her face away, thanking whatever powers that be that she could no longer blush like a school girl. When he spoke, his voice was so eloquent, soft and seductive that it washed over her flesh, each syllable igniting her body with electric jolts that soared through her nerves. “Just look at her… she sits there like one so normal, common and ordinary… a goddess amongst irrelevant chaff. Imagine what powers she must possess, what she can gain… what a sight it would be to behold her majesty.”
“Oh knock it off, Valdis,” Evangeline snarled, setting the teacup roughly on the table, the porcelain grating against it’s companion plate. “Your silver tongue isn’t required here. She’s a vampiress, show some decency!” Sarai was actually thank for to Evangeline, even if it were for different reasons than the one she mentioned. It would be so embarrassing if Valdis could understand the state that her mind was in…
“Well now that everyone is acquainted,” Virtra spoke, cutting off what would surely have become another argument between the two companions, “I’m looking for Joed…”
“Oh… dear…” Evangeline mutter, “He hasn’t paid?” Sarai looked from Eva to Virtra with confusion.
“Evangeline is remarkably intuitive,” Valdis explained, “A majority of the time it’s as if she were reading minds… you’ll learn to harness this ability with time.”
“No need,” Sarai muttered, “I can already read minds… some are just more protected than others and would require… well, more force than can be effortlessly summoned.”
“No, he hasn’t paid and Nova Corp is tying up loose ends.” Virtra’s voice was callous and unemotional, and everyone at the table knew what that meant.
Evangeline nodded solemnly, “He’ll be up shortly to calculate our tab… we’ve been up here since sun down yesterday, so we’ve a good thirty-two hours.”
“Don’t bother,” Virtra said coldly, “He won’t be needing it where he’s going.”
* * * * *
It was another hour before Joed appeared and in that waiting period Sarai became more and more agitated. Her fingers were now tapping out a steady rapport on the polished wooden finish of the table, her posture now much more relaxed than before, but her personality was less than cordial. Sarai had asked nearly half an hour earlier if Joed might have seen them coming, and thus was making an escape while they waited. Virtra responded with a smile, explaining that for one this booth had no surveillance and two that any an all surveillance in the building was being manipulated by her. “Joed will be here soon,” Evangeline said in that not-to-hurry calm, English accent. Sarai just bristled and went back to tapping her nails on the table.
“So why do Nova Corp have one of their most elegant personages collecting on a unpaid debt?” Valdis asked. Breaking the monotony of their mutually agreed silence. They were vampires… well most of them, and they not naturally inclined to long conversation.
“I was… transferred,” Virtra’s voice was sullen, but her eyes burned like twin furnaces. It was apparent that she was quite angry at losing her command.
“What she means dears,” Evangeline said with a twinkle in her eyes, “Is that she’s now nothing more than Nova Corp’s personal loan shark.”
“Who’s a loan shark?” a voice asked from the stairs, it was jovial and all four heads turned to see a balding man in a black tux as he reached the final step. Two things happened simultaneously: the first was that all the color immediately drained from Joed’s face as his eyes found Virtra; the second was that Virtra made a beckoning gesture with her index finger as Joed turned to flee… and black, serpentine tendrils of darkness sprung from the corners of the room, wrapping themselves around the fleeing man’s arms. With a vicious glint of pleasure in her eyes, Virtra drew her hand up to her head, the darkness dragging Joed across the floor kicking and shouting. If he had any sense of honor, or if he’d taken a moment to think, he’d no that escape was pointless.
Sarai had to slide her chair backwards in order to not be hit by the flailing man as he was pulled and forced into a kneeling position before the… Sarai was willing to start calling Virtra a demon, but that would possibly be insulting. The woman had no mercy in her eyes as she spoke, “Where’s the money, Joed?” The man was whimpering, shaking his head and muttering incoherent babble as if he could will his personal negligence away. Poor, stupid fool…
“Quit your whining, Joed,” Evangeline’s voice was harsh, and she regarded him as little more than a bug, looking down her nose at the helpless man. “If you can’t pay, be man enough to come out and say it. While one should never borrow money, if you do… at least make sure you can come through on your debts.”
“But… I…” Joed stammered.
“Enough,” Virtra rolled her eyes and suddenly Joed’s lips opened in a blood curdling scream, and from his mouth dozens of the snake-like tendrils of darkness poured. His body slumped to the floor and Virtra stood. In a motion that was almost too fast for all three vampires to catch, Virtra’s foot came crashing down on the back of Joed’s skull. The stiletto heel drove through bone and muscle with a sickening crunch, a pool of crimson blood forming on the black carpet, but soon all was rendered into the darkness that consumed it. The dark woman pulled her boot free and walked too sit back down, “The Dancing Macaw is now under--” she was interrupted as her cell phone chimed with a sharp series of beeps. As quickly as she’d managed to end Joed’s life, the cell phone appeared in her hand. Virtra pressed it to her ear and answered with a courteous greeting, “Yes… the Macaw is taken care of.”
All eyes were on Virtra because her face, rather than being full of radiating power and that arrogant aura of invincibility, was now tinged with something that almost appeared to be… fear?
“Yes, m’lady,” Virtra said with pacifying tones, “I’ll be there with haste.” The conversation ended and Virtra was exaggeratedly slow closing the phone. Her entire body seemed to be tired, as if she wanted to slump down into the comfort of the booth and never rise again. The voice that spoke was barely a whisper, a vague shadow of the woman they had been speaking to before, “The entire Hierarchy is being summoned… there’s been a Recall.”
Evangeline’s eyes widened with shock, displaying more emotion Sarai would have thought possible. The glimmering air about Valdis seemed to dim, his bravado deflating with Virtra’s revelation… while Sarai sat there perplexed.
“Why are you all so serious,” she stood up looking at them angrily, “So what? My mother was preparing for a Recall back when I was an infant!”
“Well that may be,” Eva’s cool accent reappearing out of the ether, “But this will be only the second time in Nova Corp’s history that the full Hierarchy has been summoned, am I not correct?”
Virtra nodded, “Half of the members at that last meeting were… given early retirement.”
“So you can see why this is such a monumental occasion,” Valdis offered, leaning back so as to appear comfortable. “Not only will Nova Corp possibly be reorganized… but with a recall, every power hungry vampire will be attempting to bring down a Guardian for their blood.”
“Hmph!” Sarai snorted. She’d never cared for the obsessing people did over these Guardians. They weren’t her concern and they never would be unless they came looking for her. Seeing as how that was very unlikely, at least at this point in her plans. Still, this was ridiculous. Three very powerful entities just sitting here and accepting that a simple announcement could change the world? Pure rubbish! She stood over the three of them, dark blue and fiery clothing creating an imposing vision as she glared at them. “As if any power hungry vampire would risk exposing themselves at this time…”
“But they would,” Eva said matter-of-factly, “In fact that’s why Valdis and I have been here.” This stopped Sarai’s tirade threatening to errupt and she sat down looking at them with confusion once more. Evangeline just sighed and looked at Virtra, refusing to explain. It was Valdis, however, that took the mantle this time.
“We’re here keeping the Vampires in their place… I guess you could say we are the sheriffs at the moment. Any outlandish activity from any vamp residing in Gaia… we deal with it swiftly and permanently,” the flash of lightning through his beautiful blue eyes made Sarai tremble with glee at the though of seeing these two vampires in action. “Being vampires ourselves… we can hardly afford to have the world knowing about us. It’s better that we remain a myth, and seeing as how we’re daylight walkers… all the easier to manage such at thing.”
“Being daylight walkers also makes the other Vampires very cautious about being flamboyant or flashy with their activities… seeing as how we have a full day that we can hunt them down, and they only have twelve hours in which to hide,” Evangeline’s face was emotionless, but frightening all the same, “So we’ve set ourselves up rather nicely here… even the VonHelson Vampires are hesitant to act for fear of our retaliation, but it won’t last. Their coven numbers are much larger than the two of us, and while we can deal with them… their numbers will continue to grow until they feel they can over power us. Even though it may be fool hardy to believe such, we cannot engage them. Two high daylight walkers against a coven of Vampires? If anything gave away our presence it would be that… and Vladimir VonHelson knows that above all we want to keep the existence of Vampires hidden.”
“So he knows that we will have no choice but to avoid that conflict… and then he’s going to act,” Valdis concluded. “Such knowledge is making the other vampires more bold.”
“You need more power,” Virtra said. It was the first time she’d spoken since the phone call, and she was now back to her normal, as close to normality as she could be, self. “I have to go to the meeting, which means all my time will be spent ascertaining that I will not be removed… I can’t keep Sarai around because not only will that anger Nova Corp’s leader, but it will be a distraction, no offense darling,” Virtra placed a gentle hand on Sarai’s shoulder and it seemed horrendously wrong to be coming from her, “Thus… I think it best if she stays with the two of you. Three daylight walkers will be more effective than two, and I’m sure the two of you can teach her a plethora of useful skills.”
“Not to mention that my presence will definitely deter Vladimir from acting,” Sarai said, remembering back to that night in Durem’s woods. However, it would appear that her companions had no idea what she was talking about. Therefore she had to explain, “He approached me about two years ago… trying to get me to join him and I called them all… well delightful names, but it was apparent that I thought them beneath me. If I were to join the two of you in your policing efforts, it would definitely make VonHelson think twice and that suits me just fine. He’s so slimy that I would enjoy seeing him sweat.”
Evangeline practically purred with delight at her revelation, “This girl is simply adorable! Not only does she share my sentiments about Vladimir… but she has such a way with words. Delightful!”
“I second that,” Valdis said turning toward Virtra with his beaming, debonair smile, “She’ll be a welcome addition.”
“Then it’s settled,” Virtra said, nodding as if convincing herself of all they had said, clearly her attentions were elsewhere, “Sarai, I’m sorry that our time together was so… shortened, but they will be good teachers. We’ll meet again, I assure you, but for now… this is the path we are all forced to follow.”
(still working on it from this point)
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Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:32 pm
Chapter 4
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Anyone observing the trio walking down the sunny street of Gambino Isle, they couldn’t help but gape. The little girl, garbed in a violet corset and black silk dress, her white leather knee high boots with black laces, and her flaxen blond hair pulled up in black lace ribbons so that it flowed behind her in a wild torrent… she looked like a miniature empress, and the two individuals flanking her only furthered this image. On the child’s right was a man, so handsome that he attracted the gaze of every female around him. It wasn’t just his sapphire eyes that illuminated along with his fair skin, but his unruly hair, bronze in the sunlight, seemed styled in such imperfection that it gave him the look of a prince, perhaps a hero. The dashing clothes he wore, though simple, where highlighted by his looks rather than distracting from them. He wore a simple red silk shirt and black leather pants, and a pair of red, blood colored leather Doc Martins. As a consideration, he smiled and nodded to each of the infatuated females… much to the irritation of the woman to the far left. If anyone appeared regal, it was undoubtedly here, and if anyone though her out of place… one look at the child’s eyes removed all doubt. Still… the tall woman was exquisite, if not regal in her own rights. She was dressed all in red, a form fitting leather top that showed an ample amount of cleavage, and over that she wore a burgundy trench coat. Her legs were covered with a long skirt, a slit up the right side offered fleeting glimpses of forbidden flesh… and the black stiletto heels were a staunch warning to any who dared look.
Sarai had been parading through Gambino Isle like this for the past four days, and each day they made sure that their presence was known to both human and non-human elements, day and night they were seen in the highest of heights and some times in the darkest of lows. Each night they made a pass through the large cemetery at the far northern shore, rounding around to come at the main throng entering and exiting the Gold Mountain Casino… Vampires feared them and humans lusted after them. Still, there was little excitement with all the posturing. However, last night there had been terrified whispers about murder and many of those whispers led Evangeline to think that Vampires, multiple of them, were involved. Which is why today, despite the outward posturing, they were hunting… not human prey, but under worldly prey. Sarai’s dark exterior was half irritation and half concentration, she was searching for sleeping minds, three at least. Such a number together, in the middle of the day, was unheard of on Gambino… and could only denote a coven of their kindred. Or several lazy teenagers, but that is why Valdis was there.
The Seraph could vanish and appear anywhere he could see and with Evangeline’s help, she could show his mind anything within those walls. They would find they soon, and then they would be dealt with, made an example of to deter other vampires from committing the same stupidities. They made an effective team, the three of them… and they’d covered most of Gambino Isle’s territory. If the suspects were not staying nearby, then they posed more of a threat to the surrounding territories than they would be to the city here, but seeing as how Durem was controlled by the VonHelson coven and Aekea was too far for them to travel in one night, it left only Barton Town as their next target, but Sarai believed them too hungry to have moved on. If one thing her telekinetic skills offered, it was the ability to glean certain truths from objects, living or not… and the images she’d gained from the crime scene had lead her to believe these certain vampires to be particularly lazy.
“Bingo…” she muttered, turning her gaze to a run down apartment building just on the outskirts of the bustling community. Valdis and Eva’s gaze followed her one and in a blink of soft white light, Valdis vanished and reappeared as if he had been caught in a rather bright beam of sunlight. That brought a smile to Sarai’s face. Valdis was a paradox. Vampires where creatures of darkness, even if they were day walkers, but Valdis had so many characteristics about himself that exuded that soft white glow… that she wondered if he truly was honest about only wanting “free will” when he took his bite. However, there was definitely a darkness behind the bright glow of his sapphire eyes. He hid it well, and she had no idea what it was… but it was something to be on the watch for.
“Four coffins,” Val muttered into Eva’s ear, but Sarai’s hearing was acute enough to pick it up as if they were all having a chat over coffee. “I’d say we found our boys.”
The dark child nodded, her thin lips twisting up in a smile, “Lets go and say hello shall we? It’s not polite for hosts to be asleep when their guests arrive.”
They were out of the sight of any prying eyes as Evangeline led the trio up the steps towards the boarded up doors, but they didn’t remain that way for long. While small in stature, Evangeline was anything but weak. One kick, something that would have appeared normal if she was trying to nudge a toy or a ball out of her way, splintered the doors inwards, ripping the hinges out of their solid supports. Two by four boards, nails, doors and chunks of wood cratered inward and hit a wall ten feet across the abandoned atrium. “Knock, knock darlings…” Sarai suppressed a shudder. Eva was terrifying without effort.
There was a shuffling sound, so loud in Sarai’s ears, but she knew that it was several floors up. “They’re awake now…”
“Thank you for stating the obvious, Val,” Evangeline ridiculed, walking into the old building ahead of the other two.
Now if there was anything that vampires had it common, there were at least two. The first being that they all drank blood. It sustained them and they hungered… no, lusted for it was the more appropriate way to put it. The second? Well they were fast. Vampires had reflexes and physical abilities far beyond anything a human could muster. Strength, reflexes, intellect… they were all greater than that of a human, but they had to be honed to be controlled. Speed on the other hand… well that was as natural to them as drinking blood. And these four were no exception.
No sooner had Eva stepped into the dark confines of the abandoned tenement then two of the vampires were upon her, nothing more than a blur. It looked as if they would tear the child-like Eva apart without effort, which is obviously what was going through their minds. A prime example of Vampires having to hone their intelligence… these obviously hadn’t world on that. Before either Sarai or Valdis could move to stop their attack, not that they couldn’t have, Evangeline’s right hand rose and it appeared as if an invisible hand grabbed both the attackers, halting their advance and pulling them backwards until they slammed into opposing walls. Sheetrock and wood shattered with their impacts, raining down dust upon their bodies as they fell. Evangeline’s hand then jerked out to extend its full length to the right, as if she were halting the movement of someone behind her, and the two idiots flew apart into pieces before exploding into ash seconds later.
Sarai and Valdis moved calmly to take point and flanks ahead of their leader, though seeing as how she’d reduced their numbers by half in less than fives seconds it was probably pointless. Still, by moving to her position Sarai was there to intercept the next Vampire… a black haired female. She was fast, but appeared horribly sluggish to the now bored telepath. Viewing anything with her vampiric sight made it simple enough, combining that with her telekinetic talents only made this child’s play. Planting her feet comfortably apart to give both balance and maneuverability, Sarai brought her hand swinging around. Her nails were elongated, and much tougher than steel, and they cleaved through the woman’s skull. Blood and brains spattered the floor before her feet, then the vampire’s body charred and turned to ash, the grey powder washing over her.
Not one to be vain, but undeniably thrifty, Sarai summoned a sphere of telekinesis about them and the ash never touched their clothing, rather it enveloped them and settled to the floor, “Saves on dry cleaning…” that was her reply to the inquiring look from Valdis.
The man raised and eyebrow and then shrugged, “Works for me.”
“But this doesn’t work for me…” another man’s voice said from across the atrium.
Automatically her gaze, along with Valdis and Eva’s, turned to look at the place where the doors had crashed only moments before. A ragged vampire male, dressed in dirty pants and a black shirt worn through in several places stood before the debris. His face was gaunt, his hair matted with filth… killing him would be both a kindness and favor.
“Why is it that you are killing your own kind?” he asked, obviously shocked by the carnage he’d seen. He was a fledgling, a newborn forced to tag along with these other renegades to survive, and it was obvious that he was doing that just barely.
“There are rules,” Eva said simply, “When you break the rules… you pay the price. Secrecy is our kind’s only hope of survival, so that we may maintain our uninhibited way of life. Acting like you and your friends did last night? Well you may as just well broadcast our existence to the world. Bite marks, corpses drained of blood… very sloppy.” Sarai felt partly sympathetic to the man’s plight. He really hadn’t been given a chance to learn the rules, not that it mattered. She’d learned them on her own simple enough… some people were just stupid.
“Don’t act so high and mighty, Evangeline McDowell,” The vampire sneered, “You only want to protect your lavish and unhindered life that you’re accustomed to… being a daylight walker and all.”
Scratch that part about sympathy… and about him being a fledging, scratch that as well. This man was the root of the problem, the leader of the small coven, and his tone totally made Sarai want to rip his throat out. The fact that Eva was wearing a delightful smile meant that she was thinking the same thing. A smile on those lips… bone chilling.
“You are the only one with unique abilities!”
“Your abilities are mere parlor tricks compared to the three of us, Zachary Doyle,” Evangeline’s voice seemed to slap the man with physical force, her soft words echoing with such power that it would be folly to disagree with her.
“You don’t have the right to look down on us!”
“I have every right!” Before the offensive vampire could even lung at her, Evangeline’s hand flashed out, glowing bright blue. Zachary was frozen solid in the blink of an eye, along with the foyer ten feet around him looking like a tundra. The floor was soon covered with a cool, wet mist rising off the icy vampire and his new crystallized sarcophagus. Eva smiled again, crossing her arms as she admired her handy work. “And that people…” she snapped her fingers, the ice shattered into a million glistening bits, “Is how we do that…”
* * * * *
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Magical Mistress Sarai Vice Captain
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Magical Mistress Sarai Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:33 pm
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Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:52 pm
Sarai's Notes
-When I started out making this story... I thought it would just be me grabbing a few Nova Corp tidbits and saying why I was a vampire. I never thought I'd be detailing history, creating a complete mythos, or twisting someone elses works into a work of my own. I've taken Gaia and Stephen's Nova Corp world and fused them together... and let me tell you: IT's BEEN HELL!! Fun, but hell!! mad I swear, I never have had to work this hard in my life. I get stuck! Writing this story makes me have to research and plan... which is a new thing for me. I normally just throw words on a piece of paper (or keyboard) and I'm happy. Check my poetry in my journal for instance... most of that only takes five minutes!! mrgreen I'm currently writing my own book that I've fallen in love with, but I never had to think about it (it's in first person so that might be why) but this has been work.
-The first thing I would like to point your attention to is the imagery... Sarai's outfits particularly. Her clothing style basically tells a story of its own. As she develops, she becomes more and more pronounced. Right now she hasn't differed too much, but you can see subtle changes in color that help me to portray the mood and basically the path she is choosing. Certain colors, like red for instance, mean that Sarai is going to come in contact with blood. Whether she is going to bite someone, kill a person, get a cup of tea... I normally put her in red for something like that. Black is a color that denotes a more sane state of mind. You'll see that as she spends more time around Virtra, that her color tones become darker... meaning that rather than being angry and malicious (not skillful and delicious... even though she is) she becomes thoughtful and collected... you'll see blacks, dark blues, burgundy, indigo. However when she departs back on her own personal goals... the color change will happen where she goes back to the vivid reds, but also different colors. I won't go into those yet because it will spoil the plot. You should also notice that style affects story telling for me as well. I'm a very visual writer and I need my characters to have things to work with. Sarai love hats (because I myself do... I have a different hat that I buy each year for derby day. I love hats... hats are gods!!) and with this love for hats comes many uses. I can hide her face, accent and outfit, give her different looks just by angle and design. Tight clothing means that Sarai needs to be able to move freely, where as loose clothing means she is plotting or stalking... jackets are not just for show... she hides things. It really is important for me to use imagery in my writings...
More to come!!
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Magical Mistress Sarai Vice Captain
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Magical Mistress Sarai Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:36 am
updated the story!!
also reserved for chapter 6!!
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Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:06 pm
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Magical Mistress Sarai Vice Captain
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