• Chapter 22 (I think) Vampires belonging to the Darkness

    She smiled, her eyes shifting from side to side as she saw, but was not seen. She looked relaxed as she rode on her horse through the seemingly endless desert, stroking her mares' mane.
    "We are almost there, MoonShine. Please, only a little longer." She asked with a soft voice. The tired and thirsty mare whinnied.
    Nothing was abnormal about the girl, from a quick glance, anyways. Her eyes were grey and glazed, with an animal's reflection. Her hair was a stunning white, flowing in graceful waves to her hips. She wore her cloak hood up, to hide her face from the scorching heat.
    She had beads running along her forehead, coming to meet in the center with a stunning blue gem at the center of her forehead. She was small and looked to be no older than fifteen.
    Her cloak was a pure elegant white that shimmered and seemed to move even as she stayed still. She wore a long dark green sleeveless tunic, which went off to her left side. She wore short white and gold shorts. At her ankles were tattoos running up to her knees, circling around her legs. A golden gem was embedded into - maybe her skin, maybe something else - and it was winged with green feathers going outwards. She was barefoot.
    She had a quiver full of sapphire-tipped arrows at her waist, and she held a long dark brown longbow casually on her thighs. She also had a Wolf Fang dagger tied by leather worn on her exposed left thigh.
    The most unique thing of all about the stranger was that she had a Wolf tail, though she hid it under her cloak.
    She turned her mare into the village that was at the edge of the desert, trotting along the worn-down path, looking around. She searched for an Inn.
    She dismounted her mare, tying her to a post and walking up the dark brown steps. She opened the door, casting a moments' glance behind her before walking inside.
    There were many conversations going on in the Inn, with musical instruments lined up against the wall, untouched. They seemed to be collecting dust.
    Not many people were cautious about the stranger walking in, but some stopped their conversations, and then stared at her. Flustered, she hurried along to the bar table.
    "Excuse me miss?" She asked softly, not needing to use her sharpened skills to know that people were watching her. "But may I lodge here for the night? I will pay."
    Maybe it was the fact that the young, not even initiated, girl was being so polite that it made everyone stop what they were doing and look. Or maybe it was because her voice was soft and alluring. Whichever case it was, people stared.
    The bar master turned, and a smile spread across her face.
    "Well, aren't you far from home?" She asked her lips in a frown now.
    "Yes ma'am." She said in a small voice.
    "Running away, are you?"
    "N--no ma'am! Not at all!" The girl looked up from the counter straight into her prying eyes, revealing her animalistic eyes and her white hair. "I was sent to journey, and I am returning home."
    "What strange eyes you have, child. What's your name?"
    "I--it's Kaida. Kaida -" She stopped herself short from saying her last name. "Kaida is my name." She said quickly.
    "I've heard that somewhere before." She said, not trusting the child anymore. Kaida bit her lip, looking down.
    "If it's too much of a bother, then I can leave. I am only a few days from my home, anyways. I am sorry for having disturbed you." She bowed, her arrows clinking together inside her quiver.
    "Sapphire-tipped arrows?" The woman mused aloud, her eyes trying to recognize the girl. Kaida, knowing she'd better leave, turned around and walked out the door in a hurried pace.
    "Go get her! She's that child!" The Inn master yelled. Customers in the area got to their feet, running to the door. They tripped over one another, causing black eyes, bruised ribs and many other injuries. A few glasses broke, but when they got out, all they saw was the retreating figure of the girl atop her mare.

    She tied MoonShine's harness to a nearby tree at the river, where the grass was a rich green nearby. The mare, grateful for the kindness, ate and drank to her pleasure.
    Sitting down hard beside the fire the child had built, she put her bow down beside her, picking up what looked like a violin, but was played with a chip. She placed it at her neck, holding it down with her chin on the chinrest. The sleek black instrument was a custom model, a kind of instrument only she could play. She took a deep breath, and started the opening of her self-made song.
    "One by one they fall down to the Earth,
    The thousands of prayers that we wish.
    Our only hope is a way to be saved,
    Even if we are unsavable for
    the rest of eternity.
    Our only wish is for the slaughter to stop,
    when our own strength isn't enough,
    so we wish to the goddess."
    She stopped her playing, her ear twitching to the side where the forest was dense and black. She rose to her feet silently, melting into the shadows opposite from where the noise came from. She held her bow, a hand near her quiver.
    Through the trees emerged a night hunter, or more precisely what seemed to be a Vampire. He had blond hair and ruby red eyes, though they also had a hint of blue in them. He did not smile, rather frowned.
    He wore a white olden-style shirt under an open black coat. The inside of the coat was red, and it was intricate with many designs on it. He wore pants with many zippers. His shoes were polished black boots.
    He was very simply dressed for a Vampire, making her scowl within the shadows. She watched.
    "Fresh camp." The Vampire said, frowning deeper. He glanced at the horse, of which the Hunting mare whinnied, stepping back a little. "Can't be far, then."
    She stood, frozen, for a reason she did not know. Her animal eyes were wide open, and she held her breath. Finally she jerked, biting her thumb and drawing up blood. She sighed, and took her defenses.
    "What brings you here?" She asked, keeping to the shadows. The Vampires' head snapped up.
    "I was just on a hunt and heard a lovely singer." He said nonchalantly. He took a step forward.
    "Don't move! I can shoot you through and skewer you to a tree with these arrows in an instant. Oh, and you won't survive.” She notched an arrow onto her drawstring, knowing all too well he'd be able to hear the noise. "It only takes me an instant - more like three seconds - to shoot one arrow. I am being kind by giving you a warning."
    He sniffed the air.
    "Were you the singer?" He asked.
    "That's none of your business! Who are you?!" She asked.
    "Pierrot." He sniffed the air again, closing his eyes and leaning instinctively closer to her as he did so. When he opened his eyes they were blood red. "Your blood smells divine."
    "Don't you dare!" She said in a dark voice. All traits of the previous Kaida were gone.
    "Too late." He sang, and lunged to where she was perched, his fangs extended.
    She never had time to loosen her arrow.
    He got to her fast, in less than three milliseconds. He was very skilled at the art of moving at top speed, the primary skill all Vampires in the DarkNite world had.
    He clasped his hands on her shoulders, and just as quickly he moved aside her cloak to have access to her neck. He bit into her neck.
    Oh crap, no... I'm not going to be murdered by this... this... thing, am I?! Oh, Goddess, please, no! She thought, struggling as he drank her blood. It only drew more blood. Her blood was a bright red, laced in with gold.
    "Stop!" She yelled.
    And, shockingly, he stepped back, releasing her. His arms shook with convulsions as if he was being held by some force.
    "Now, go sit by that tree! I'm going to go wrap this up and after I want answers!"
    To her surprise, he walked off to the very tree she pointed out. She kept an arrow on the drawstring, aiming it at him as she walked to the medical kit in her bag. She only put a square of white cotton, and let it be. Vampire bites healed much slower than any other injury.
    "Now, why did you come here?" She asked, an arrow still aimed at him.
    "I was hunting, as I'd said before." He said, his lips in a frown. "I heard a singing voice that appealed to me, and followed it - why am I telling you this?"
    "Wipe the blood from your mouth, you filthy Vampire." She ordered. Grumbling, he obeyed.
    He sniffed the blood on his fingers he'd wiped from his mouth, smiled, and licked the drops. She looked at him in disgust.
    "This is a problem." He sighed.
    "What is?"
    "I can only drink from one person, you know." He rolled his eyes. "Everyone else's blood will make me sick."
    "That's your own fault."
    "I was waiting for one that I wouldn't kill, so you're the first one I've drunk from. Was it nice?" He asked, with a sarcastic grin. She shot an arrow above his head.
    "The next one is your heart."
    He flinched away from the arrow.
    "But something's wrong with your blood." He mused aloud. "It shouldn't have any gold in it."
    “So, you’re saying that my blood is bad?” She asked, kind of insulted. After all, it’s what kept her alive.
    “No, but it has a strange property to it.”
    “Who cares? Get lost!” She yelled. In a flash he was beside her. He took her hand, smelling her wrist.
    “Now that’s just rude. Kaida Keiko, you have better manners than this.” His tooth nicked the skin at her wrist, of which she pulled away.
    “Get lost!”
    “You know, that wound on your neck will only bleed more and more. Can I at least bandage it?”
    “No!”
    “No catch, I swear. I just want to make sure you’re okay.” He said. He put his hand on her arrow, pushing it down until she dropped it. He smiled.
    “I’ll make it heal.”
    “How?” She asked skeptically. He grinned.
    He removed the bandage, and licked the wound twice. She jumped back, holding her hand to her neck. Her cloak was in a pile on the floor, so she quickly picked it up, hiding her neck with it.
    “Get away from me!” She yelled. He stepped back, but grinned.
    “Is it bleeding?” He asked, grinning widely. When Vampires weren’t on a blood rampage, they had no fangs.
    She removed her hand and placed her cloak on a branch.
    “No…” She said, unbelieving.
    “Our spit closes and heals a wound.”
    “That’s sick.” She shivered. She sat down, keeping her distance from the Vampire. He sat down on the opposite side of the fire pit.
    “Could you play another song on your instrument? I’ve never seen anything like this thing.”
    “It’s called a Sora, since I thought it sounded like the sky. It has seven strings.”
    “I can see that.”
    She frowned.
    “Why am I even talking to you? You attacked me!”
    “Sorry about that.” He smiled his apology. “I can usually control myself, but I hadn’t hunted an animal in so long and your blood smelled so nice…”
    “That’s enough.” The last thing she wanted was for this sort-of tamed Vampire to reminisce and attack her again. She held the Sora under her chin.
    “Not the song you heard earlier, right?”
    He nodded, all ears. She held back a giggle. Her white Wolf tail wagging, she started a melody.
    “We even loose sight of everything that is important to us,
    So we drown in the sea of remembrance,
    Forever to reminisce, but why?
    Why is it that we’re too afraid?
    To hold someone we used to love so close?
    When we loose the courage to hold them close,
    We don’t have the courage to go on, we yell out why?
    Why is it that we never knew all along?”