Crimson Starts - 10

Note - contains a brief sex scene, swearing, and some questions/issues about consent/morality. (Because vampires are horrid and that includes Nosu.)

X. Restless Hunter

Inferno System

Slinking back into the compound and locking it behind me, it was the scent of it that struck me. The brain of the house must have properly reanimated and had remembered the olfactory setting I’d chosen previously. One that reminded me of… something. I had never quite been sure, and suspected strongly it was linked to a mostly forgotten memory of when I had been alive.

Living memories were odd like that, abilities carried over, but the actual memories were so vague and foggy. The amnesia of death. I knew that certain humans, generally the more traitorous types, insisted that was because true memories were tied to the soul, which vampires lost with being turned. What they didn’t understand was that we didn’t care. We lasted long enough to not need an afterlife, assuming one existed at all.

But that didn’t change the fact that the soft whispers of living memories were still a touch unsettling. Like having someone else’s memories floating around in your head.

“Where were you?”

I jumped slightly, turning to see Se—no, Espada sitting on the floor watching the entry area. Her face was still ultimately softer, it merely held a stern expression.

“Stretching my legs,” I replied in a flat tone. “Grabbed a bite to eat.”

“You went on your own,” she said, her voice sounding pained. “Without me to help protect you.”

“I was merely going out for a meal,” I said simply. “It was nothing dangerous. I avoided major settlements… a second body would have merely complicated matters.”

Espada stood, rising to a full height that had roughly a head over me, however the worried sorrow in her eyes and the way she always held herself made her seem smaller. “We’re supposed to keep you safe…”

“You are supposed to obey me,” I replied, stepping towards her. I then placed my hand on her chin. “Klivanions exist to serve. Are you questioning your mistress?”

“I—I…” she stammered, a blush colouring her cheeks.

She was so very alive. Deliciously so. She was also ready to melt in my hands…

And, well, I’d had a rather horrible week. A little raw animalistic pleasure sounded very nice, especially while my body was still flush with the life force I had recently consumed.

Shifting my hands, I pulled the front of her undershirt, the only layer she was wearing on her upper body, and made her bend. To bring her face to the same height as mine. Surprise flashed in her eyes just before I kissed her. A kiss her lips were more than happy to return.

Her mind took a few moments longer to react, however. It was also rather less comfortable with returning the kiss, her strong muscles pulling back from me.

“My lady… I am not your equal. A klivanion is far below you,” she whispered. “You should spend time with one more of your station.”

“I am a traitor to my house, a wanted criminal, and hunted by my own sister. There are insects above me. You are more than worthy,” I replied, before pulling her in for another kiss.

This time she gave in. Hungry lips were rarely parted as we began to undress one another, her efforts far clumsier than my own. A reminder how fresh she was to adulthood, and how much I would have to lead. I did not mind that, however. Taking charge had always come naturally to me.

Removing her undergarments I did have a moment of surprise. I had known that the nanites of a klivanion could move fat and lightly nudge bones, but that restructuring of organs was beyond them, however…

“I—it’s,” Espada stammered, enough blood flushing her cheeks I was surprised she had enough to spare for elsewhere.

“Merely a small surprise. With two of you being women I had thought Falx the odd one out… it makes no difference to me, however,” I said softly, a hand gently upon her.

I then placed another kiss upon her lips. It was then simple enough to shift my plans, and to then embrace feeling her within me. Moving our bodies together, the low gravity of Dis allowed each movement to bounce us away from the couch. It always made the process feel more poetic than on larger worlds that left one heavier and tired sooner.

-

We had showered after the first round of sex, only to find ourselves engaging in another round in the warm flowing waters. At least it was easy to clean after that time.

I then remembered the house’s brain had fully awakened and asked it to order fresh groceries. A klivanion needed quite a lot of calories to remain functional, and it was generally best to let them build a reserve of fat whenever possible. Especially when on the run as we were at high risk of being. Because, yes, I did plan to stay in this safe house for a while, to wallow in misery and what hedonism I could afford from safely stored funds, but I was not so hubristic as to believe there was no risk that my sister might catch wind of my location.

With that in mind, I then took Espada down to the gymnasium of the compound. I hunted through the small armoury for a sabre of sufficient quality and then faced her. It was time to spar. My own training had fallen somewhat into neglect and, with her and her co-souls as my only klivanion, I would to improve their abilities.

“I will admit that I think I prefered the previous work out activity,” she said, but she drew her blade to cross mine all the same.

We had left safety sheaths in place, to avoid any serious wounds and to allow us to go all in. I was light on my feet, bouncing a bit from fresh energy, wanting to prove myself after my embarrassing loss to Szlachta. Though Espada was clearly not my younger sister’s equal, that dumb jock had had centuries to perfect her swordplay. Espada stayed on the defensive, eyes seeming almost hurt that I was able to push her so aggressively with sparring after what we’d done that morning.

It seemed clear that, despite her training, the young woman lacked a warrior’s heart. I was beginning to debate ending the session and shifting towards drills, when her face shifted. The features remained feminine, but were sharper. More determined.

And then Seax launched her assault, rage in her eyes. I was pushed onto the defensive, her reach and aggression getting the better of me after Espada had allowed me to fall into complacency.

“You’re a monster,” she hissed as she pushed me against the wall.

A knee to the gut, coinciding with her grabbing my blade, saw my defense broken and her sword pressed against my neck. I found myself very glad we’d kept the thin practice sheaths in place.

“Master Temnyi raised us to worship you. That you had given us long lives. ‘Nanite blessings’ he said. That your life is more important than ours…” she hissed, clearly not a fan of speaking so many words. “I knew it was lies. Especially—especially after how Temnyi treated me. That it was a long life as slaves. To creatures that see us as food… but Espada and Falx fell for it. And now you take advantage of it. You… you use every last corner of our body…”

“Espada was not forced to do anything she didn’t want to,” I replied flatly with a cutting stare. “She has you in her head whispering your ‘truth’ to her all her life, but has landed upon a different opinion. She is allowed to act upon that. She is an adult.”

“It’s wrong and you know it.”

“You’re only humans. Don’t reach above yourself,” I said, even as she pushed the sword harder, making it difficult to move enough air to speak.

A gutteral snarl emerged from her lips. “Whatever happens, I will not give in to you.”

“I don’t need you to,” I replied. “I merely need you to do your job as klivanion, which I feel safe to assume you shall. Your co-souls seem rather unlikely to grant you peace if you willingly fail me.”

As a reply she kneed me in the gut again, before breaking off to run her executioner’s sword through a few figure-eights. “Fine. Let’s spar some more. I have to make up—get back for how nice Espada was to you. M—Monster.”

I returned to a combat stance and gave a nod, ready for another round. Another burst of violence as Seax and I clashed, blade against blade and will against will. Her style, while sloppier than Szlachta’s, was a good enough approximation to prove a useful training comparison. In fact, it seemed surprisingly similar.

“You have studied Szlachta’s style,” I said, knowing it to be a fact.

Seax gave a small nod. “She is the best around with a sword. Won most tournaments for a hundred years. It would be dumb to only study the forms Temnyi gave us. Not—not when I could see a champion on… what little data-net access we were given.”

“Good,” I said, before dropping into a leg sweep that caught her off guard and sprawling onto the ground. Szlachta’s footwork had also always relied more on keeping the enemy away with a long blade than any stability. “I plan to kill her, and you will be a good sparring partner to help me accomplish that.”

“Know that I do not hate you, however,”I said. Then I offered a hand, ready to help her up.

“Fuck you,” she replied simply, before slamming her heel into my knee.

Stumbling, we were soon grappling on the ground. I was stronger, as old and freshly fed as I was, but she had leverage and a deep seated rage to draw upon. Knees, elbows, fists… it was a flurry of chaotic combat, a bizarre contrast to my interaction with that same body mere hours earlier. The low gravity of the icy moon had the same effect of amplifying each shift, superhuman muscles causing us to be tossed in the air at multiple points. A palm strike broke my nose, which then healed with a sickening crunching noise, though I felt the life force drained from myself to make that happen.

Wanting to end things before I burnt through all the reserves I’d gained, I bit into her neck. Seax froze and I could both smell and taste the fear upon her.

“Yield,” I said, though I knew it came out closer to ‘yeelb’ with her flesh between my teeth.

There was a pause, long enough that I tightened my grip. She then released a defeated sigh. “Yield.”

I let go, shoving her off of me and standing up. “We were here to practice bladework. There is no need for grappling.”

“I will repeat—with… emphasis this time: fuck you,” Seax said, not bothering to stand up.

“You will find that Espada already did that,” I replied, unable to resist.

She glared but did nothing else as I walked out of the gymnasium.

-

The rest of the day was spent in cold silence. Seax fumed even as the groceries arrived. Once the delivery boy had left, she trudged out, gathering the small mycelia-constructed mesh bags and then stomped her way to the kitchen with them.

I did my best to ignore her juvenile antics, distracting myself by flipping between the news and brainless entertainment.

Listening to my sole klinavion angrily prepare herself a meal was distracting. I wasn’t sure if I was amused by her temper tantrum or annoyed at the way the noise carried, but I was definitely glad when she finished cooking. It meant she marched into the living room, sitting across the entertainment area from me to attempt to angrily eat her meaty stew and flat bread. Which was rather quieter and more pathetic a process.

After a minute or two she must have noticed the smirk on my face while I’d been watching her little display.

“Like you’re any better. Pouting in self pity here. And waiting for me to tap out to a co-soul. Hoping they’ll worship you and… and let you pretend your entire stupid life hasn’t fallen apart,” she said, still struggling a bit with more complex sentences and clearly annoyed with herself for it.

Despite the ineloquent manner in which it was stated, what she said made me twitch, the blow hitting hard. “Fine. So we’re both having temper tantrums.”

“You also say you want to kill the new empress, but… you’re not doing anything to make that happen,” she said, before eating a meatball.

“I am waiting. Vampires are capable of waiting a very long time… and there is little else for me to do without allies,” I said, staring at the shifting images of the news coverage.

Apparently I had been missing without news for long enough that they were starting to cover some other stories. Bored, but vaguely glad to be bored as it meant I was unlikely to die immediately, I changed the channel. It had been aimless boredom and channel surfing, but I found myself stumbling across a construction and engineering documentary covering the manufacturing of space elevators. They had common enough for centuries, Impetus had four of them while Haeresis had two, and that was only in the Inferno system. They were also, however, rather finicky to build and maintain. Which had led to a slow consolidation of their manufacturing and maintenance under a single household. The household that’s geometric fanged skull insignia was decorating nearly every surface shown in the programme.

House Tesák.

“Alastair…” I muttered, glaring at the projection before me.

Seax raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Still, I could tell she was curious and I felt like venting.

“A friend… a former friend. Home, he is still alive, yes?” I asked, tilting my head to ask the ceiling. Even if I knew it made no difference, there was still some deep seated (no doubt human) instinct that said I should turn when talking to it.

“Alastair Tesák is indeed still alive,” came its mechanical reply.

“I’m sure he congratulated my sister on capturing me too,” I muttered, only to have the house confirm my suspicions despite my having not been talking to it.

It had been rhetorical and I had not wanted the answer dug into my bruised ego. My oldest friend having happily sold me out. The others had all been spiders, but I’d had hopes Alastair would have at least taken longer to reply.

He’d always been a coward, though.

“I’m going to sleep,” I said, standing up, ready to storm down towards my casket. “Wake me if there is any change to our security situation.”

“I—yes. Of course,” Seax stammered, clearly thrown by my sudden shift in mood.

“Oh, and feel free to have Home order whatever groceries you would like delivered. As much as you may hate me, you remain my last loyal ally. Enjoy yourself… but do not show your face.”

With that, I marched off.

-

Willing oneself to enter a vampire’s death-sleep was easy enough. Staying in it when flush with energy and worry was another matter altogether, however. I found myself awakening frequently, plans bubbling in and out of my mind in those brief moments of consciousness. I would have vengeance for betrayal.

While I knew Alastair and the others would not come to my aid, that they were all cowards interested in only their own necks, Szlachta did not. I had merely to sow doubt in her mind. To visit my former allies and let her attack them for it. Maybe then some of the others would decide coming to my aid more appealing.

Or they’d just die. That would also work.

It would take a good deal of effort to get all the elements in place, however.