Blood Lineage

Uzumati had been snuggled under the blankets of her bed but when she closed her eyes she found that sleep refused to come. The moon had risen up mid-way in the night sky when her eyes snapped back open. The howls outside of the manner had intensified and brought her chills, but that was not what woke her up. From her brother’s room she could hear voices. Two male voices in conversation sounded through the walls.

My brother did not take home a mistress this night… and father would not speak with him at this hour… Uzumati thought to herself.

She slipped on a thick robe to keep her form hidden and her arms warm. She pushed her small feet into her slippers and opened the door to the hall. The howling of the wolves outside seemed to only escalate with each of her actions. She walked over to the adjacent room and pressed her ear to the door. Sure enough, there were two male voices in conversation. One was her brother’s voice and the other was a voice unknown to her. They seemed to be making small talk when suddenly the voices stopped. Her brother grew silent, and oddly enough so did the howling.

The silence was eerie, an unnatural lack of sound to the girl. Uzumati stood shivering feeling a cold wind come from behind the door when suddenly she caught the terrible scent that had been released into the air. The smell of blood pierced her nose. Without even thinking Uzumati shoved open the door and barged inside the room.

“Kazuhiko!” she hollered.

Though it was pitch black with the curtains drawn in his room her vision was perfect. She could see a white haired man leaning over her brother who was splayed out on the bed. The white haired man’s mouth was dripping with Kazuhiko’s blood. He gently licked his upper lip and then looked up at the young mistress.

“Ah, what a lovely darling. You’re brother spoke so fondly of you…I think…”

Uzumati’s eyes dashed to her brother. His eyes were now wide and glassy. Both starred up to the ceiling un-seeing.

“No…” she whispered.

Against all logic she rushed to the bed, to her brother. She shoved the strange man away from Kazuhiko in order to hold her big brother. Uzumati stared down in horror as she looked over his lifeless body. His neck had been pierced twice by something small and sharp and his blood drenched the sheets. He most likely had died while she listened at the door.

Uzumati felt riddled with guilt for not acting sooner… but what could she have done? A cold hand reached out of the darkness and touched her shoulder. She spun around wildly to look upon the person who took her brother. He was a young man, perhaps no older than 24 with eyes that glowed blue. He was as tall and fit as her brother, and if it had not been for the circumstances she might have even found the man charming.

“You’ll forgive me my dear… I found myself rather thirsty on this night… and your brother… well how could I resist such a treat?”

Uzumati glared at the man. His form was in perfect focus before her; she could see him as though the sun were shining in the room.

“You killed him…” Her words so full of venom she could hardly manage to speak them herself.

“Yes that I did. And you my dear are wearing my master’s pearls,” the stranger’s hand reached out and trailed across Uzumati’s neck, “Your idiot father and brother sought to steal from my queen you see, and I do not take kindly thieves.”

The stranger’s teeth were sharp and she could still smell her brother’s blood on his breathe.

She recoiled at the creature’s touch not sure what the thing before her was.

“What are you…” she whispered.

The strange man tilted his head and looked back at her, “I might ask you the same thing my dear, what are you?”

She took another step sympathetically, “Don’t play games with me. I’m the daughter of the Madame Shrue and Dubal.”

The creature laughed mockingly, “how does a dead-de-taunt have a child? They are sterilized. A witch cannot conceive, and you haven’t even the slightest trace of Dubal’s scent in your blood. Your brother did, though. No, your blood smells more, doggish?”

The stranger pushed past Uzumati throwing her back and away from Kazuhiko’s lifeless corpse.
The monster cut along his wrist with his index finger. A few drops of his own blood fell into her brother’s mouth. The smell of this blood was horrendous. Uzumati could sense the rot of the dead as each drop of blood dripped into her brother’s mouth.

Uzumati moved forward and shoved the strange man away from her brother again, “let the dead be!” she cried out in misery.

It was too late though, it seemed as though her brother’s corpse had absorbed the foul and terrible blood. Kazuhiko’s scent was already beginning to change; it was starting to smell like that of the white haired man.

The man carelessly pushed her back a second time, “it would be a waste to let such beauty go…” he muttered.

Uzumati could not explain her actions, instinct seemed to take over. She leapt up onto the bed and over her brother’s corpse. As the foreign man approached her she growled viciously at him. A low set growl that seemed almost foreign to her throat until the sound was emitted. The man pulled his hand back and eyed her cautiously. The girl barred her own sharp teeth at him.

“Interesting,” the vampire stated to himself.

The small child before him was far from being an ordinary child. Her eyes glowed a vivid yellow in the dark and it was obvious to him that she could see him just as perfectly in this darkness as he could see her. What really surprised the stranger were the girl’s teeth. Her mouth was a row of deadly fangs used to guard her now dead brother. Jamis could not feel proud of his queen’s tactics.

No doubt this is the reason she stocked the ship he was transporting with child sized goods. His queen would be happy that her bait had worked. Of the resources this house had to offer, the child might actually be the most valuable.

Two outlined tattoos seemed to materialize on her face as she stood above her brother, and her hair lifted itself and becoming more and more unmanageable.

“Again… I have to ask what are you my sweet little girl. You smell like a dog, but you’re not a dog entirely are you? There’s more to you if you have the ability to summon and remove the marks that make you a wolf,” The man tried to honey his voice, but Uzumati was raised on the sweet tone spells of the dead-de-taunt, “Who are you?”

He bent closer sniffing at the girl child surprised to recognized part of her scent.

“Get out.” Was her response, “GET OUT NOW!”

Her order was almost a bark. The strange man nodded glad he finally pieced together just who he had discovered, “as the little princess commands.”

He stepped back over to the window and in a moment vanished in a cloud of smoke. The mist faded and moved out the window. The second he left the howling outdoors resumed. The howls, so bitter and harsh as they cried out into the night. Uzumati had never felt so distressed. She leaned out the window let out a howl of her own joining the cacophony of sounds outdoors. The other wolves seemed to hear her cries and joined in her calls.