Gone wrong
Aug. 26th, 2012 12:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunbaked_bakerIt was only ever supposed to be a patrol. Not that they'd ever called what they did anything so official-sounding. Patrol. Reconnaissance. Infiltration-with-intent-to-interrupt-dinner. Sunshine and Constantine had left her apartment balcony an hour after sunset, in the moments when twilight imperceptibly shifted to true night.
Piscataweh was over seventy miles south of New Arcadia, and for some reason Rae didn't feel like losing another vehicle to vampires (some days, when the Wreck's oft-missing third gear was causing her particular grief, Rae remembered to resent the loss of her previous car). They had traveled one of Con's ways, reality flowing around them in an endlessly, dizzy-making stream, Rae holding hard to the vampire's hand.
Once they reached the city, though, they came out of whatever Other-space they had traveled through, back into regular reality. This was only a scouting mission, and neither of them were very familiar with the city - there was no need to alert the locals to their presence. They traveled the darkened city streets in silence, neither of them needing any light to guide their way.
Sunshine found she had forgotten how lucky New Arcadia had it. Milliways had ruined her perspective, letting her visit cities and worlds untouched by the devastation of the Voodoo Wars, until she viewed her shambling but still mostly-standing city with its poor but still mostly-sane population not against the other cities of its world, but against cities in other worlds.
Piscataweh reminded her. Large sections of the city had no working streetlights, and much of the pavement was crumbling and pot-holed, long left un-repaired by a city with no funds to fix them. Parks grew wild and untended, home to raccoons and small herds of mutant deer. The sleeping homeless in the doorways and alleys huddled together in groups as large as they could, taking what comfort they could from strength of numbers. Sunshine and Constantine passed them in the dark. It hurt Rae's heart to see them - her Dark Sight could see the unrelenting fear in the shadows that moved across their faces. She had never thought of New Arcadia as a sheltered place - especially not when there had been a Master Vampire and his gang out for her blood.
But now, seeing how it was here, she knew that New Arcadia had been lucky. It made her sick, remembering the haggard, desperate faces of her local SOFs, and now knowing it could be worse. And knowing even this isn't even the worst it could be.
Rae told herself she had to be strong. This was just a patrol.
But all that went out the window when they came across the gang of vampires.
In the first split-second after Con and Rae crossed into the mouth of the alley, seeing the gang of fifteen vampires surrounding a dazed and stumbling figure, many things happened at once.
Con sought Rae's hand to pull her away so that they might escape before they were noticed.
One of the vampires, laughing from something that had been said by one of its compatriots, noticed them.
And Sunshine, the darkness of the alley as clear to her as daylight, recognized the bleeding figure's khaki uniform as that of Special Other Forces.
~*~*~*~
Neither side had been expecting the other, but most certainly the gang were not expecting such a fight from one vampire and one human. But Sunshine was not a normal human, and Constantine was not a normal vampire. The sunlight-web in Rae's skin shimmered and glowed, her pocket-knife a tiny clement star in the night, burning golden, and her aim was good.
By the time she reached the wavering form of the bleeding SOF, Rae was half-covered with splashes of dark, used blood, her hair matted with it, her right arm soaked up past the elbow. Dozens of wounds marked the man's skin, still bleeding freely, but the SOF was still too far under the dark to react. Constantine was taking care of what was left of the gang nearer the alley entrance; the vampires who had been further in were now thickly coating the walls of the alley, dripping in bloody bits.
The heat of the fight flickered within Rae, replaced by the sudden desperate need to stop the SOF's bleeding. He couldn't move under his own strength, though Rae didn't know if that was from being under the dark, or from blood loss (Note to self, a thought floated through her wearied mind, look up healing spells in Encantus). Quickly, Rae tied strips of cloth from the man's shirt around the worst of the wounds she could see, trying to staunch the flow of blood.
But... and it has been said before that Sunshine really should learn to look up... that is when a heavy weight landed on Sunshine's back, accompanied by a sharp, tearing pain on her right shoulder. She hadn't thought about checking the rooftops. The sudden weight sent Sunshine falling against the limp SOF, who fell heavily backwards, Sunshine on top of him. She felt her lip split as her head impacted the pavement, and as stars exploded behind her eyelids, she blindly shoved the vampire on her back off of her with magic, as hard as she could. Through her dazed and disoriented state, Rae could hear the crunch of broken masonry as the vampire impacted the brick wall behind her. It took far too long for her to get to her feet - and then... her gaze fell upon the downed SOF.
Her Dark Sighted eyes, already stinging from blood that had gotten into them, could see his pulse weakening. Could see the bleeding slowing. Her eyes weren't stinging just from the blood, then.
Anger rose in her like a sickness, its heat keeping away the chill of failure - and Sunshine turned to go after the vampire who had bitten her. Being thrown through a brick wall wouldn't have killed it. Without a thought for Con - he could take care of himself - Rae tore across the bloodied alleyway and leaped into the uneven hole in the brickwork.
But... as she did so, the brickwork under her foot suddenly became a wooden sill, the hole in the wall became a doorway, and the dusty-dark of the abandoned building became the eye-searing brightness of a bar.
Rae's foot caught the lip of the doorway and sent her sprawling.
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Date: 2012-08-26 07:52 am (UTC)The latter might make him look up, make him alert.
The former has him already out of his chair, nostrils flared, lips parted. Letting the scents pool on his tongue.
Blood. Old, slow blood. And sharp, fresh, quick blood. Vampire and human.
He has been seated in a booth and so that one step takes him away from that and into the light, his eyes bright and intently focused on the figure on the floor.
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Date: 2012-08-26 08:04 am (UTC)She moves to get up with difficulty, hissing through her teeth at the sharp pain in her ankle. It joins the pain in her shoulder and her lip - there are sure to be bruises to match, later. Her knife shines golden in her hand, a hand-held sun despite the blood it has spilled. The sunlight-web in her skin gleams where she is not covered in blood, awake, pulling the light of the sun from the other side of the world.
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Date: 2012-08-26 08:09 am (UTC)She moves and he catches a glimpse of her freely bleeding lip - and the light on her skin.
His fangs drop, partly from lustful hunger, partly because that glittering web unnerves him.
"You should be more careful, young lady," he says, his voice light and somewhat sardonic.
"No sense in rubbing yourself against corpses, unless you want to smell like dinner."
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Date: 2012-08-26 08:18 am (UTC)Sunshine is still catching her breath - impacting the floor that hard will knock it out of you, for sure. Her baring of teeth half in disgust and half in anger may not have his impressive fangs, but it carries its own weight.
Her eyes, though they are the cool blue of a cloudless sky, burn as her gaze meets his.
"You fucking try it," she states, flat.
He won't get a better invitation.
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Date: 2012-08-26 08:27 am (UTC)He is only half-joking. If he could salivate, he would. He's tasted the blood of other vampires, back when times were rougher and feuds would end in kills, back when true death was not a stake but a feast.
And he would very much like to know if this vampire blood, the blood she is smeared in, taste as different from the vampire blood he knows, as it smells.
And bury his tongue in the wound on her shoulder, feel the fleshy and ragged lips of the wound press against it.
It's a very honest purr.
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Date: 2012-08-26 05:23 pm (UTC)And that's when Eric will find himself thrown into the wall behind him at extremely high speeds, and held there.
Don't worry about the wall - it'll be fine.
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Date: 2012-08-26 06:04 pm (UTC)He can smell it burn as he roars again, with pain and rage, struggling to move and not being able to.
"Helvetes jävla fann,din lilla slyna."
The words drown in another roar of pain, as his skin starts to bubble.
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Date: 2012-08-26 06:18 pm (UTC)Her right arm is already slicked and coated, bloodied up past the elbow many times over. The alleyway she just left, her own clothes and face and hair, are splashed and splattered with the blood of many spent lives. Human lives, spent to feed monsters.
She knows the fire doesn't last long - Sunshine is already tired - but it'll last long enough.
Sunshine reaches out a flame-wreathed hand towards the base of Eric's ribcage, ignoring the pain in her right shoulder as she moves. "But when you get right down to it, you are so... fragile."
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Date: 2012-08-26 06:23 pm (UTC)Not aimed at either of them -- just separating them.
"You shall not do this here," Teja says, to both of them.
He has been watching them from Sunshine's sudden entrance, grabbed his axe and jumped up as soon as he saw this was turning ugly. It all happened very fast.
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Date: 2012-08-26 06:41 pm (UTC)Sunshine steps back in surprise, her concentration broken, as well as her eye-contact with the vampire.
"Teja," she breathes, the flames surrounding her flickering.
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Date: 2012-08-26 06:45 pm (UTC)He is beyond furious now, and the pain from his scorched face isn't helping any. The skin is peeling off in places and the smell is nauseating.
He could't care less about axes and warnings. He was attacked, she got the better of him. She dies.
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Date: 2012-08-26 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-26 07:03 pm (UTC)But there's no way she's letting go of the vampire held against the wall.
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Date: 2012-08-26 07:09 pm (UTC)But now that that blasted light is gone, he can think a little more clearly. See a little more clearly.
And that makes him curb his rage enough to be able to retract his fangs.
He was attacked. He is trapped.
She will be in trouble.
He looks at Teja. "Make her release me," he says, managing to almost avoid it turning into yet a growl. His lip splits as he speaks and blood oozes down his chin.
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Date: 2012-08-26 07:13 pm (UTC)Pause.
"Nor either fully, intentionally guilty. One would reckon you did, in this instance, need saving from yourselves."
Because their very natures had propelled them into deadly conflict within seconds, without thinking.
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Date: 2012-08-26 07:22 pm (UTC)She'd been able to mostly ignore the feeling of being covered in blood during the fight - now the sensation has come back, and she hates it. It makes her feel sick. Contaminated.
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Date: 2012-08-26 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-26 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-26 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-26 08:43 pm (UTC)They seem like the sort of favourite enemies that can argue for hours and secretly enjoy themselves.
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Date: 2012-08-26 08:47 pm (UTC)"Any chance of getting a shower and some bandages beforehand?"
She knows, at least, that she broke the rules. She may not be sorry for it, but she won't resist.
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Date: 2012-08-26 08:49 pm (UTC)It's not a plea.
Everything is hurting but at least his shoulder will be quick to set aright. The face is worse. He will need blood for the wounds to heal with any speed. But he will not give her the satisfaction of asking anything of Teja, while she listens.
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Date: 2012-08-26 08:52 pm (UTC)He nods at Rae: - he would not punish her too hard, nor Eric the vampire, either.
"You shall have food, and reading material, for the night, both of you, also. It is tradition."
There goes Eric's answer, unwittingly.
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Date: 2012-08-26 08:57 pm (UTC)Rae doesn't want to think of it, but exactly what she thinks of it shows pretty clearly on her face, as she lets go of her hold on the vampire, none too gently.
Her shields go up at the same time. She's not stupid.
"I'd also ask that the cells be soundproofed. I don't want to hear him."
And she doesn't want him hearing her, when the nightmares come to her in her sleep.
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Date: 2012-08-26 08:59 pm (UTC)He manages to get to his knees and then reaches back to get his shoulder back in place. He's successful, but the sound in sickening.
His face is bleeding freely now.
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Date: 2012-08-26 09:02 pm (UTC)He turns his axe around and gestures at Eric with the pointy end, so he will see.
"One would assumed that you shall heal, as vampires do, when you had some blood?"
Blood for Eric. A shower for Rae. Simple.
"But I would leave the sound open; you seem to speak much, so maybe you should go on speaking until you run out of subjects?"
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Date: 2012-08-26 09:06 pm (UTC)And much more she'd rather not have him hear.
"But I'll follow.
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Date: 2012-08-26 09:09 pm (UTC)It chafes him not to be able to retaliate.
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Date: 2012-08-26 09:10 pm (UTC)