Black Blood

Adrian and I both turned to the doorway, and then Adrian was gone in the blink of an eye. I hurried after him, though despite consuming a vampire's life force, I was nowhere near as fast as he was. Both Claude and Adrian were standing in the hall below as I descended the stairs.

The two vampires stood several feet apart; Adrian at the base of the stairs, Claude in the open doorway. The door lay in pieces scattered along the floor. Adrian was red with anger.

"Was breaking the door down really necessary?" Adrian yelled. Claude shrugged, his facial expression giving way that he was bored.

"Would you have let me in, if I had knocked?" Claude asked. He shoved his hands into his pockets. Adrian gave no answer, but it was obvious that he would have said no. "You see? Completely necessary. Now hand over the human you stole."

"She doesn't belong to anyone," Adrian said, taking a few steps forward. He raised his fists slightly. "She has no marks."

"She... has a condition, preventing me from marking her," Claude shrugged his shoulders again.

"She can speak for herself," I said, standing on the last step of the staircase now. "Would you two stop talking about me like I'm not here?"

They both looked over to me, and Adrian lowered his fists. Neither of them seemed ashamed though. They simply acknowledged me, and then went back to their argument. Adrian kept his hands balled into fists at his sides.

"I need her," Adrian insisted. "I absolutely cannot hand her over. She is vital to my plans."

"Oh?" Claude said. "Are these plans more important than the council's? More important than the king's plans?" Adrian stiffened at the counter. Slowly he raised his hand, pointing a finger a Claude.

"You- you're one of the king's dogs?" Adrian spat. Claude seemed to grow taller, brighter, as if being someone's dog were something to be proud of. I rolled my eyes.

"Enough, enough," I said. I stepped down and moved to stand between them, holding my arms out. "The both of you have the same goal in mind, I think. Do you?" I turned to Claude who raised an eyebrow.

"Well, what is your goal exactly, Adrian?" Claude asked. Adrian's arms fell back to his sides.

"To be rid of the plague to this realm known as Edward Blackblood," Adrian explained. "This lady has a unique... condition, as you put earlier. Her blood is like a poison. And there's... something else."

Adrian suddenly seemed wary of me, taking a few steps backward. Claude nodded his head.

"I can see that bit," Claude said. "Chloe, how did your eyes end up becoming like that? With the eerie green glow?"

"That's the thing," I said with a sheepish grin. "I don't really know what's going on, but I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I can suck the life force out of vampires- living or dead."

Claude raised his eyebrows at that. One glance at Adrian showed he had turned several shades paler than usual. Somehow that left me with an odd sense of pride; suddenly I was the one making vampires afraid of me. That in and of itself was a rush.

I kept my gaze on Adrian. That left me with a few questions.

"Bit of a weird question- but what tipped you off that I was around? If there isn't an already obvious answer," I said. I added, "Since my eyes were turning back to normal by the time you found me. It just makes me wonder how long I had been in a daze for."

"The smell of you, a human, at first," Adrian said with a shrug. "An unmarked human at that. And then something in the air shifted. Your scent changed. It really piqued my interest, so we spent an hour looking for you."

"An hour," I whispered. That was probably how long the heightened senses would last for. Unless I did it again... Could I do it again, so soon? I shivered with anticipation.

"That would explain the corpse that looked like a molded raisin," Claude said.

"There's one upstairs now, too," Adrian sighed. Claude quirked a brow and almost seemed to smile at that, to which Adrian shot a glare. "He was one of my better fighters."

"Well done, Chloe," Claude said. Adrian's glare darkened. "Moving along. My king, the council, and the rest of us dogs have been seeking a way to eliminate Edward Blackblood as well. He has been spawning more and more vampires, here in our realm and over there in the human realm, and disrupting the order of things.

"He's no longer revered as the god he once seemed to be, but now the stuff of nightmares. I suppose we could use any extra help offered. You're welcome to come with, but I am taking her back," Claude finished.

Adrian stiffened again, unsure of the offer. I looked back and forth between the two. I swiped my hand through the air a few times then.

"What are you doing?" Claude asked.

"Cutting the tension, it's pretty thick," I answered. Both of them rolled their eyes.

Finally Adrian said, "Alright. I'll join you."

"Very good," Claude said, back to grinning fully. It was the genuine smile from earlier, and I almost felt relieved to see it again. Claude pulled his hands from his pockets and rubbed them together. "Shall we go, then?"