The Bride and Her Bloodlust

I woke with an awful stench of blood and grim filling my nose and strange sounds in my ears. Everything was so warped I couldn’t tell if they were voices or footsteps but my nose was certain there was someone in the room with me. Someone I knew. Someone that raised my heart with joy. A bag was still tied around my head, the ties pinching at my throat, and I felt the cold biting iron of shackles at my wrists but I was naked. My suit had been stripped from me. With my eyes still blind, all I could do was raise my head and call out.

“James?” Something sharp scratched at my head as the warped sounds went mad. Wincing , I hunkered down. “James, if that is you don’t talk. It hurts.”

The sound stopped instantly and I breathed a sigh of relief. I couldn’t do much more other than wait out whatever I had been poisoned with. I didn’t recall being stabbed with anything else but my body had been numbed so badly I didn’t feel a thing. I wouldn’t have noticed a poison being injected into me. I hoped the sensitivity would pass though. Everything sounded so alien to me.

I leaned my head against the wall as I waited it out. The sounds gradually became less grating, thudding and muffled, turning into clear echoes of voices, breathing and footsteps that rang outside the room. Most importantly I heard whimpering.

“James, I can hear now. Speak to me.”

I heard no words but crying instantly broke out. Tiny sobs echoed about the room and I could do was listen. I always did when James cried. Only when he stopped did I try to speak to him.

“James, I’ll figure out how to get us out of here, okay?” I promised firmly.

He snuffled and rubbed his face. I hated not being able to see him, to see how much damage they had done to him and what kind.

“Aunt, is mother okay?” James asked tiredly.

I knew this was something Al had to tell him but James already knew his mother was dead. Keeping it from him wasn’t going to help. “She passed on.” I replied with a tight voice.

James didn’t say anything but he sobbed again. As he mourned for his mother, I began to tug at the chains. They were tight and I couldn’t only raise my hands from the ground by a few inches, not nearly far enough to wrench the bag from my head. But I was curious that the chains seemed to be very sturdy. My Matter would be no match for them but they remained tight and in place.

My confusion was rapidly put aside when sharp footsteps stopped and a door was flung open. I didn’t flinch when it smashed against the wall, I remained quite still with my head cocked, listening to the newcomers, but James fell silent sharply.

I sat as defiantly as I could as someone approached me and grabbed the hood, ripping it from my head. The bright light blinded me for a moment, making me wince and duck my head as my eyes burned horribly.

“Good evening, Lowell.” A very familiar voice said calmly before me. It sent my blood boiling.

I didn’t say a word, just scowled up at her while trying to ignore the pains of my senses. I was surprised to see she wasn’t wearing her mask now and that she actually had a face. She was a homely woman, narrow jawed with small eyes but her hair was a glossy black that framed her face well. Behind her humans scuttled, breathing a brazier into life and bringing in metal buckets and an assortment of nasty looking utensils that made me a little worried about what was going to happen.

“Who are you?” I snarled.

“Miriam Allaway.” Miriam hunkered down beside me, lowering herself to my level. Her cool eyes observed me carefully, eyeing the dried blood on my face and healing cut. “You heal quickly, even for a Black Blood.”

My face stiffened. She wasn’t to know I was a Black blood. I had been careful not to use my claws or bare my teeth. No one knew.

Miriam smiled as she recognised my discomfort. “Once you live as long as I have, you tend to pick up the difference between a witch and a Black Blood witch. You are too instinctive in battle, too animalistic. It’s clear you’re not entirely human anymore.”

“And what of you? You are probably no older than forty yet you claim to have lived a long life enough life to be quite wise.”

Miriam’s smile grew as she pulled her lip back. Her small canine suddenly shot out of her mouth, revealing a long and dangerous looking fang. “You also learn to recognise your own kind after a few years.”

I just scowled at her revelation, now letting myself growl softly in warning to back off. I didn’t want anything to do with her. I wanted her gone. Or at least I wanted her to let me out of these shackles so I could rip her throat out.

I took the chance to take a glance at James when I heard him whimper again. He was filthy and terrified, with his hair mattered in blood. The shirt he worse was torn in several places and his left arm was clumsily bandaged and stained red. It just made me increasingly infuriated looking at him.

“Give James to me and let me go. If you are a vampire yourself, you should understand us and not side with this mad Family of yours.”

A cold look came over her features. “Yes I don’t particularly care for my Family or their aims, if anything their goals died with my mother and nothing is left but a hollow shell, but I am here for a different reason.”

She stood and turned to the brazier. Once she pulled on a glove, she grabbed the iron poker that had been placed in the fire and now turned red with heat. Without pausing or giving an word of warning, she stepped forward and shoved the poker into my bare shoulder.

I let out an agonised cry as my flesh burned around the iron. I could feel it boiling my blood and the stench of cooking flesh filled my nose as the skin turned black. I could just about hear James screaming for me but I couldn’t focus on his words. My whole body just cried in pain. The poker was suddenly twisted hard before it was wrenched out, tearing out flesh and blood along with it. I shuddered and clapped a hand over the bloody and burned wound as I tried not to throw up. Breathing hard, I scowled up at her with tears and hate in my eyes.

“I want you to become a parasite for me.” Miriam announced as she placed the poker back into the fire, turning it slowly to ensure it became evenly hot. “Can you do that?”

I spat and bared my fangs at her with a snarl. “Just kill me. With Lucius poisoned, I am dead anyway.”

Miriam frowned. “I know that you will soon starve but I am running out of time. I need your parasite now.” She glanced over at James. “I have numerous ways to force it from you.”

“If you dare touch James, I will be after you first!” I snapped savagely.

Miriam didn’t pay any attention to me though. She grabbed something from the tray of knives and hammers and strode over to my nephew. I began to writhe and wriggle, trying to wrench myself out of the chains and fling myself at the witch but I couldn’t get myself free.

“Leave him!” I roared. “The boy has nothing to do with this!”

“As he has Pluvia blood, he has everything to do with this.” Miriam said calmly. She grabbed James and, as she ignored his hisses and wriggling, she stabbed him with the syringe.

I flung myself away from the wall in attempt to wrench myself free but it only snapped against my bones painfully. But Mirima had done all she needed to and left James be as he scrabbled away and curled into a defensive ball.

“The boy will live if you do as you’re told. Let the parasite out and I will give him an antidote for the poison I’ve given him.” Miriam said calmly then indicated for the two men to leave. “I’ll come back later and see if you’ve thought on it. If you haven’t, I’ll just have to continue to convince you.”

She touched the burning poker and strode out of the room as I hurled abuse and snarls at her. The door swung shut, leaving me with my chest heaving, my shoulder burning and panic filling me.

“James, are you okay?” I demanded as I turned my attention on him.

James looked up at me with wide feaful eyes. He nodded slowly. “My arm itches a bit but I don’t feel any different.”

I knew that would change soon. I doubted Miriam would fake hurting him. She had harmed him already, taken a lot of blood from him and covered it on a doll to lure me to her. Whatever she had injected him with, it was only going to kill him.

“Aunt, what are you going to do?” James asked feebly in his corner.

“Get us out.” I growled.

But I didn’t know how. Whatever Miriam told me was a lie. I knew she wouldn’t save James. Like she said, he was of my Clan, a Clan she obviously wants destroyed. She won’t let the Core survive. I had to get us out before the poison killed James or Miriam forced my parasite from me. Whatever she intended to use me for, I couldn’t allow it. She had done a lot to get to me and chain me here. I couldn’t let her win and I couldn’t let James die.

I tugged at the chains again as I thought and pondered, wondering what reason Miriam wanted for slaying my Clan and how the hell I was going to get out of this torture room with James. I knew I had to, I just didn’t know how. I had to think of something quickly though. I was confident in my resilience to torture but James was another kettle of fish. He was small and young and that poison in him would kill him rapidly.

For him, I was going to have to work quickly and take on the whole Allaway Family.