My Hero..?

[Farina (Fawn)]

The young gypsy kept quiet as she was yanked roughly into the manor. Every sensor in her brain was going off as she was suddenly assaulted with the aura of vampires. She tried to clear her head but found herself stumbling, not having had such contact with so many of the immortal beings for the last several decades. The vampire who dragged her forward held a blade in one hand, and grabbed her tightly in the other.
That's going to bruise... she couldn't help but think, as she frowned, My shoulders probably going to re-locate sometime soon, too, if he doesn't stop treating me like a rag doll.

The man dragged her down the hallway while his companions kept a look out, although Fawn didn't know why, they were acting like she was some foreign object that needed to be smuggled in. Finally after many twists and turns of side hallways that were dimly lit, they came to an empty room. The man opened the door and shoved her roughly inside, closing the door on her and locking it with a click.

She shouted out in pain as she smacked against the floor, breaking the skin on her knees and palms, before she pushed herself to her feet; her shawl loosely unraveling and drifting to the floor. The room had no light, Fawn couldn't see how big it was, what was in it, or whether or not she was alone. She cried out loudly, hoping to catch somebodies attention, although by the feel of the door she wouldn't be heard too easily. Slamming her closed fists against the door she continued to yell out in her helpless desperation.

[Aleth.]

Aleth didn't know who's idea it originally was between Maya and Capella, but the man was tired of the governess's cat form leaving dead birds at his door. It wasn't funny, but he pictured the two women cackling and snickering relentlessly about it. In fact, he thought it was rather too much work for Capella's slender cat form to jump in through a window in the manor with a dead bird in her maw and saunter around until she found his room. That was a lot of work just for a practical joke.

And it was gross, anyway.

So, on this particular perpetual evening, Aleth was on his way down the musty record hall where Maya usually lingered, where she would usually be going back and forth between the record halls, comparing her reapings to the recorded deaths, making sure that there was no reaper in Alatus Nox that she didn't know about. But... she wasn't there today. He sighed in irritation.

"Maya? Maya, are you around here somewhere?"

No response. Maybe she couldn't hear him, he thought. He went into the halls further, realizing that he had never actually ventured into that part of the manor. It was creepy, he noted. Creepier than usual for a place like Alatus Nox. Sconces with candles were placed further and further apart on the walls, making the walk down the hall seem like some sort of descent into darkness. There was a fork up ahead with a staircase going up and a stairplace going down that had been boarded up.

And then he heard it. It probably would have been much clearer, but it had been many weeks since his last feed. Someone was crying out. A girl.

"Who's down there?!"

[Farina (Fawn)]

Fawn was silent for a moment as she listened. Had that been a voice she heard? Pressing her ear against the door she realized that she could hear faint footsteps halting a ways away.
"Please! Somebody, Let me out! Is there anybody there?!" Fawn yelled out, banging her hands against the door again, ignoring the sting from her shallow cuts and the familiar tingling in her gut. Tears had begun to well in her eyes; she had never been able to handle small places, not since she 14 and she was locked in a closet for a day by one of the older kids back at the Coven.

When she had been found the other kids accused her of skipping out on the work and she was tied to a pole in the courtyard for three days with no food or water. If not for her blood charms she would have died; she couldn't even count the amount of times she had been drank from in that time.
"Please! Let me out!" She cried out, slamming her fists against the door again. She felt the skin break again, but she was so distraught that it didn't click that bleeding is bad in a building full of vampires.

She continued her assault on the door as she called out loudly, closing her eyes and trying to break the door down. It was impossible with her small frame and she simply collided with the door, falling down from the shock before she returned to her earlier assault; the handle wasn't budging at all. She wasn't getting out unless somebody helped her.

[Aleth.]

Aleth strained his ears. There were banging noises and then something that sounded a little bit like a crash.

"... What the hell is going on down there?" he mumbled. "Who is that? Where's Maya?" More questions came at him, but eventually he stopped asking himself, and came over to the boarded up basement stairwell and drove his foot through the planks of wood. Whoever was at fault for this, he thought, should be happy that it was him coming and not Capella. Then, he bent down and pried away the last few boards, and descended the staircase.

Saying it was dark was stupid, because 'dark' didn't really cover it. It was very dark, and it probably wouldn't have been so much of a problem if he fed more often. That's what vampires did, right? They drank blood. But Capella and Maya practiced a very strict routine of not drinking blood, but in a way Aleth had thought that was living a lie. It could be done in a non-gruesome manner, he was sure. There wasn't a lot that could be done in Alatus Nox, anyway, other than come to terms with what you were.

But he didn't like the scrutiny, and he did have a clearer conscience, abstaining from blood. The side effects would have just been really, really convenient.

Soon, the stairwell gave way to a circular room that Aleth could just barely see. It smelled musty and earthy, and he wondered how far underground he was. The room gave way to several other antechambers, and one long hallway that went forward and into the unknown. The cries were coming from one of the doors. Aleth put his ear up against the one he sensed was holding the mysterious woman.

"Are you okay?" he asked, feeling for weak spots on the door. He wanted to ask how the hell she got there and what was going on, but he figured it could wait.

[Farina (Fawn)]

Her voice was caught up in her throat as she heard a voice on the other side of the door. She could sense that he was a vampire, one of the many effects of being a blood-slave, and she immediately found herself shutting down.
What's happening here? she mentally shouted, as she fell back away from the door, whimpering slightly as she sliced her palm more deeply on a sharp stone on the ground.

She hissed silently as she pushed her uninjured hand against the injury. Although something so small would make no difference to her, she would rather subdue the smell of blood if she could, for her sake and the vampire's.

Feeling the need to respond she called out a startled reply, explaining that she was startled, and a little hurt, but otherwise fine.

[Aleth.]

"Okay, well... I'm going to try and... do something about this door."

There was probably a silver knife waiting for him on the other side, he thought, entertaining all of the what-ifs of the situation. A plot to kill Maya, perhaps, that he had walked in on and was going to get a taste of, instead. Or an assassin that was kidnapped by some other nightwalker in the manor and was being stored, but who was probably going to knife the hell out of him when freed...

Or it could not be any of those. But he knew he was most likely walking into a trap, sighed shakily, and prepared for what would hurt. A lot. One step, two step, three steps back. Aleth looked at the door again and took another step back. And then, wincing, he dove into it with his shoulder...

[Farina (Fawn)]

The door flew off it's rusty hinges with a loud tearing sound as it shot towards her. She screamed in surprise and ducked her head, holding it with her hands as she imagined being decapitated by the heavy thing. After a moment of silence she looked up, fear in her glimmering eyes as she stared, awed by the door which was impaled into the wall above her head, held only in place by the soft earth.

She scrambled away as the soft, clay like wall began to collapse, the door slowly sinking to the ground. Tripping over herself in her rush she did a face-plant, landing gracelessly at the vampire's feet in her startled fear. She scrambled past him, out into the hallway, where she pressed herself against the wall, her eyes filled with an almost childish fear; almost as though she had just come face-to-face with the monster from under the bed.

She was trembling and her shawl was pulled away from her face, which was pale with fear and smeared with blood and dirt. Quickly composing herself she got her breathing steady, although she narrowed her eyes towards the dark pit from which she had just emerged. She softly mumbled an apology, uncharacteristically caught off guard by the situation.

[Aleth.]

"Wait!"

The small frame fell before him and then zipped away, and the only thing at his senses anymore was the scent of blood. She was hurt, and the room was becoming less and less of a room the longer he lingered in the doorway. He followed the scent into the hallway.

"We should leave," he told her. "I don't know who you are, where you came from, or what you're doing here, so expect those questions later." He couldn't make out any of her features, except the gleam from her glassy eyes. Blood and fear. "But... I don't think it's safe for either one of us down here. Follow me upstairs, and be careful. The staircase is narrow."

Would she follow him? He didn't know, and wasn't sure if she should, either, not with the smell of her blood. It was different from others. Blood smelled a certain way for his kind and made them hungry, so he fed for sustenance. Hers smelled savory, almost. With a hint of sweetness. Blood for a gourmand. But he didn't feed for pleasure.

No. He didn't. He fed for sustenance. He fed when he needed it.

Yes. He did not feed for pleasure.

He paused for a second as he ascended the stairwell, wondering why he was thinking these things so feverishly. There was a wall sconce up ahead with the lambent light of three candles, and Aleth looked over his shoulder to see if the girl was following him.

[Farina (Fawn)]

Habit kicked in and Fawn curled in on herself, becoming quiet and obedient quickly. She removed the pressure in her injury and allowed her hand to hang loosely at her side, blood dripping from the wound down her fingertips and tapping on the floor, leaving a distracted trail behind her.

Her eyes, still welling with glossy tears, stared ahead at the vampire as she walked, remaining a slight distance behind him. It was a trick which had been beaten into her: walk behind the vampire to show your submission, but walk close enough that your scent was a constant tease. Her eyes dropped to the ground, ashamed with her own inability to escape her past, even though she had escaped the Coven.

She remained quiet, only mumbling a light 'yes sir' at his forewarning of interrogation. She could sense that the building was rather empty, compared to earlier, and that the vampires who had locked her in the room left; she was relatively safe for the time being.

[Aleth.]

She was like an abused dog, the way she stood behind him, her posture beaten with shame. Aleth furrowed his brow in confusion. He felt like there was something very simple that he should understand, and that if Maya and Capella were around, they would be snickering at him for not getting it.

"Uh... straighten out a bit. I'm not going to hurt you."

Of course he wasn't going to. That's not what he did. He didn't do things like that. Not even if she had been an enemy. Well, maybe if she had been an enemy. With the way her blood smelled... he shook his head a little, trying to get the thought out of his mind. The last thing he wanted to do was wonder how it tasted.

And of course, now he wondered how it tasted.

"This place is usually quiet," he said, in reference to the record halls they were now in. The light was still dim, but there was enough of it where when he looked over his shoulder at her, he could see her features more distinctly. She wore a shawl over her face, another icon of shame. "We should talk. Why are you here and who are you?"

[Farina (Fawn)]

Fawn tensed, not even sure what he meant by 'straighten out'. She, instead, flinched and curled in further on herself retaining her silence. Her eyes wandered across the floors and the walls, and she could only wish she didn't bleed so much; she was made that way, though, and she couldn't help it.

When they stopped she paused to inspect him more openly, watching his every movement with her eyes which darted periodically to his lips. She held back a shudder, she knew what hid behind the folds of flesh. Her eyes, only momentarily, darted up to his in a state of surprise when he questioned her name and her reason, which she honestly didn't know.

Fear fell back into her features as she realized she would have to either lie or admit that she didn't know, both would be an offense back at her Coven; one just below disobeying and not answering at all.
"I am Farina." she stated, her voice taking a low and alluring tone; another trained habit which she couldn't get out of. "I..." she paused, halting her speech as she looked down, biting down on her lip in a nervous habit. She clenched her hand, not noticing the pain as she pushed more blood from the wound and it pooled out from between her fingers, dripping onto her feet, which just poked out from under her dress.

[Aleth.]

Aleth's eyes darted to the blood freshly flowing from the girl's wounds, and he sighed heavily, bit his lip, and tried to hide a scowl. This would be happening to him. Of course. It would never happen to someone who actually had self control. The blood smelled delicious.

"That room," he started, closing his eyes. If he couldn't see it, maybe it would be easier to ignore... "how did you get there? Let's start with that, Farina." He lifted his lids just the slightest, and the blood excited his rust-red eyes.

No. No. He bit his lip and then ran a hand through his hair. Anything to distract him. What he was thinking of doing was not okay under any circumstances, and if he went through with it, it was likely Capella would kick him out of the Manor...

[Farina (Fawn)]

Fawn paused, opening her hand to look at the pooling blood as though it were something of interest. On her wrist was a flourishing bruise in the outline of a hand, the direct result of her earlier assault.
"There were vampires... they..." she stopped, her face ridden with temporary horror; was she really about to blame a vampire for her own misgivings? She shook her head 'no', too fearful to speak further, but just as afraid to voice her pain. She froze, noticing for the first time the blood running down her legs from being thrown, and the extent of the injuries on her hands.

She looked up at the vampire, meeting his copper eyes before she stepped slightly towards him.
"Why aren't you..?" she asked, letting her hand fall flat so that the blood spilled to the floor, "They always... so why..?" she asked more herself, this time, than him. She was unable to comprehend why a vampire wouldn't take advantage of a blood-slave, especially one in that state; even Fawn could tell that this particular one hadn't fed in quite a while. He should have been all over her.
Was I wrong..? Is he not a vampire? she questioned, as she stepped closer again, her eyes squinting slightly as she inspected him with curiosity; she had never experienced something like that before.

[Aleth.]

"Believe me," he said, his gums aching as he stared at the bleeding girl, "believe me, I want to, I want to so bad... I know what you must be thinking..."

Aleth clenched his fists. He had to fight this. He was sick and tired of disappointing the others and constantly being their scapegoat. But the girl... Farina... was tempting him. The scent of her blood, it was like a drug all in itself. Carefully, he inched closer to her.

"What are you? Your blood, it isn't like a human's. I've tasted enough, you can't possibly be human..."

His hand twitched with the desire to seize her, and he fought every fiber of his being not to do so. It smelled so good... what did it taste like? Was it as good as it seemed? He wasn't going to hurt her. He wasn't going to. He wouldn't.

Would she... give him permission? Of course not! No! He clenched his teeth.

[Farina (Fawn)]

"You don't recognize this?" she asked, extending her bleeding hand to show it's back, the tattoo a sharp contrast against her skin, "I was made to feed vampires." she explained, after a pause, half ashamed and half in pain because of her past, "I was trained and cursed to be perfect." she murmured softly, her hand still extended.

She had long since accepted what she was, although she had never enjoyed it, like many of the others did. It was a known fact that blood-slaves would actually be in pain if they didn't drain their blood every little while, much like a vampire who doesn't eat for a while, so they were the perfect meal ticket.
"Our blood was made to be the most amazing thing any vampire could want; we're the scapegoats for the rest of humanity, you could say." she mumbled, looking down with a light sigh. She realized her hand was still extended out, and she moved it only slightly closer to herself before flipping it palm side up to inspect the damage.