Eyes the Color of Death

A faint beam of moonlight flares across the sleeper’s face for the briefest of moments before being swallowed by darkness.

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Acrid smoke chokes the air; Satine coughs and sputters as she attempts to breathe past it. She flails her hands, desperate to clear the space around her from the thick haze that is both suffocating and blinding her. She lashes out blindly, stumbling forward, dodging countless fires that litter the warehouse floor. A sudden gush of clean air blasts her, and she inhales gratefully, blinking several times to clear her vision. The nightmarish scene behind fades to an indistinguishable grey blob, but she pays that fact no mind.

A distant crack splits the silence asunder, and Satine jogs forward down the hallway in the direction of the commotion. Just as she reaches the T-intersection of the two hallways, a pale man with dark hair emerges to her right, sprinting impetuously forward with the desperation of one hunted. He grasps at his side tightly, but a dark stain spreads from between his fingers despite his best efforts to stem the flow. A moment later the two collide and collapse in a tangle; Satine reaches out to right both of them quickly. She struggles to pull both of them to their feet, but his race has run its course; she holds him tightly as they sink to the ground once more.

For several moments, she looks around, stretching her senses as far as she can to find whatever has been chasing him - but to no avail. She snaps her head back to look at him as he touches her cheek, moaning at the feel of the hot blood his fingertips leave behind. She stares at him critically, but try as she might, she cannot discern his features though an air of recognition hangs about him. He reaches up again, placing his palm over her mouth and nose, fingers spread across her forehead and temple as if in benediction, marking her with a bloodied handprint. A shudder of both elation and disgust run up her spine.

“Baptized in blood, both damned and saved…Does your misery really enjoy the company it keeps?” His eyes flash a startling emerald as he body takes its last shuddering breath. She caresses the hair back from his face as she feels his soul slip away in the waiting arms of death.

“Tsk, tsk, Satine, I told you not to drain them dry, you need to leave enough to let them walk…” She spins around, trying to find the source of the dry Italian voice, but no one is there…

“How can I ever trust you again?” This voice is cold, emotionless; she winces, closing her eyes tightly, but a single tear rolls down her face, cutting through the drying blood.

Several moments pass as she kneels there, clutching the man’s body tightly. She jumps as gentle finger tips brush back her bloodied locks; opening her eyes, she lets out a wail. A beautiful strawberry blonde is bent before her. “Ariel…” Satine murmurs, and the woman smiles beneficently.

“Poor Satine, has it really come to this? Hush child…There is no need to fear. The path before you is set, but still you must choose…” Ariel leans forward, brushing their lips together before giving her a soft, undemanding kiss. Satine sighs, sliding her eyes closed after a moment as she relishes the affection. “I forgive you, Satine. Forgive yourself, for redemption awaits…” And with that, Ariel fades to a ghostly, translucent white, walking through Satine without so much as a glance behind her.

The dhampir shivers softly, suppressing a heart-wrenching wail. “Oh, Ariel…what have I done?” Another tears cuts a path through the dried blood.

An eerie sense of familiarity settles over Satine again; she chances a look at the room, and stares in absolute horror. A golden man stands before her, staring in equal horror at her and the body still cradled in her arms. He takes a few steps back, muttering softly…and explodes into darkness. His eyes, having once comforted her so, become a glittering abyss of nightmare, boring through her, infecting her very soul. He laughs softly as she shrieks, casting a glance to the side as a bald man emerges from the right side of the hallway.

The man is wearing a suit of which the likes Satine has never seen before, but it is not that that catches her attention. His eyes…His eyes are as pale as death as he stares at her, a gratified smile on his face.

“Your only choice is death,” he tells her. “You are not fit for redemption.”

The golden nightmare man shrieks, and Satine responds in kind…

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A scream catches in her throat as Twist sits up abruptly, heart pounding in her chest. The man beside her does not stir as she sits there for several moments, taking in long, shuddering breaths to ease the fear.

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The moon light flares again, and the sleeper awakens, still caught in the terrible depths of her vision. She twists and turns, but the darkness holds her, silencing her screams. Her bright red hair fades to the darkest shade of midnight, clear blue eyes darkening to a frightful, stormy grey. A savage blood lust wracks her body as she struggles against her bonds, groaning at the feel of the many heartbeats around her. Several moments pass…

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Twist rubs at her face in her hand, trying to get her racing thoughts under control. She holds out her hand, and reaches for the darkness within her, but her hand explodes in a magnificent bright light. Mase stutters mid snore, and Twist closes her palm quickly, frowning. She pauses, then tries again, smiling softly as her hand fills with a thick dark cloud. She sighs contentedly, looking over at her lover…and her hand explodes once again into a bright light.

Tears leak out slowly from her eyes as she watches him sleep, a single thought repeating itself over and over in her mind.

Is who I am worth sacrificing for a man who hurts me?

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A beautiful, pale woman stares out the window at the setting moon, a soft sigh escaping her lips. She looks down from her perch, smiling gently at the man sleeping there. She reaches out a hand to brush the hair from his forehead…and shakes her head as her hand passes through his skull. The man stirs fitfully, murmuring “Ariel…” as he turns over, and she wrenches her gaze from him, staring at the moon again.

“Oh, Duncan…It has begun.”

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A last beam of moon light shines across her face, and the memory of the nightmare fades away…except for those eyes, those eyes the color of death…

The Dead Smell of Roses

WARNING! Piece deals with adult content. Reader discretion is advised.

need need it want it have to have it give it to us hot river of life need need it

A chime. Then another.

Ariel looks up from her inventory, bleary-eyed, and squints at the clock. She groans, having lost several hours in there somewhere if it was already two a.m. Soon the ferries would stop running, and she didn’t relish having to try and find a place to stay for the night here in the Isles. She stifles a yawn as she marks her place in the ledger, laying it softly on the counter. She spins around once, smiling at her newest acquisition. A magic shop would be harder to run than just a bookstore, but, Ariel tells herself, a business is still a business. And she knows business. She hums softly to herself, smiling at the remembered lyrics.

“I feel you on my fingertips…my tongue dances behind my lips…for you…”

Drunk wasn’t even in the same ball park with how she felt at the moment. It didn’t help that insanely beautiful woman who smelled of summer roses kept buying her drink after drink, encouraging her libations. The woman smiles down at her, bright sapphire eyes gleaming with a twinge of dark lust as she looks at her.

“You are so beautiful…Too beautiful to be wasted on the likes of men…” The woman leans in, kissing her softly, undemanding. But she yields under the kiss, parting her lips and slipping her tongue in the sapphire-eyed woman’s mouth. The woman inhales sharply, then pulls away put wraps her arms around her, urging her to the other side of the bar. “Let’s get out of here, yeah?” She nods slowly, grinning like a maniac.

How could someone so beautiful be interested in her?

Ariel laughs softly, clasping her hands together in soft, child-like glee. Everything was working out so wonderfully, it was almost like a fairy tale. She had her store back, with this nice little addition, thanks to Idy. Mr. Summers had been so apologetic that afternoon, telling her he had had no idea the place meant so much to her…and why’d she sell it in the first place? She gave him back his money, and he had given her the deeds to both places. He silenced her protests quickly.

“Someone younger than me needs to look after it. ’Sides it will make a good nest egg for the two of you love birds when you do tie the knot. That young beau of yours was most…forceful this morning. You obviously mean the world to him, and I can‘t say no to young love.” He smiled genuinely at Ariel, and she had took the deeds with promises that he wouldn’t be sorry, no sir.

now we stalk now we hunt the night is ours to feed on live on who will die to sate our lust

“Now then, should I even ask your name, lovely, or would you prefer the anonymity?”

She looks up at the sapphire-eyed woman, then speaks slowly. “My name is Satine.”

“Satine, huh? Pretty name for such an extraordinary girl, I’ll tell you. Mmhm, so beautiful…” The woman slips her hands under Satine’s shirt as she leans into to kiss Satine again, this time more forcibly, eliciting a soft moan from Satine. The perfume of roses seemingly intensifies around the two, and Satine can’t help but moan again, her own pale blue eyes starting to darken with lust and need.

“Do you want me?” The woman asks, nipping at Satine’s neck.

“Yes…”

“Then let me in…let all of me in, I promise you won’t regret it…” The woman croons in her ear, hand exploring the supple body beneath her.

“All...all right.” Satine relaxes completely, letting down the remaining remnants of her guard and loses herself in the woman‘s touch.

there there she’s a pretty morsel stalk her hunt her eat her make her yours

A nest egg, he had called it…a nest egg for their marriage…a marriage that would never happen. Ariel closes her eyes tightly against the impending tears, willing herself not to let them fall. Deep, deep down, she knew…even as much as he said he would, Duncan would never propose. All Ariel had ever wanted was to be his, and to show the world that they belonged together…

Despite her best attempts, tears roll down her cheeks in swift, silent waves.

The woman smiles again, her ruby lips teasingly running up and down Satine’s neck. “There, there, m’dear, doesn’t that feel better? All relaxed, all ready for me…”

Satine didn’t even have time to scream as a darkness blacker than midnight invaded her body, spreading outwards until it controlled her, wrapped securely around her mind. I’ll let you watch, the darkness whispered, But not interfere.

feel her heart beat feel it race soon her blood her life will be yours

Angrily she brushes the tears away, herself for letting her emotions get the better of her. Ariel brushes back her hair, sweeping it up out of her face and securing it behind her head. She grabs her coat and keys, flipping off the light switch as she heads out the back door.

Satine struggled against her invader, but it was to no avail; the woman had her consciousness bound back tightly, only allowing her to view the events unfolding. That did not stop her determination to shake the darkness. Idly, she noted that they were passing through the streets of Aeon City, but Satine had no idea why. What she did know, though, was that her dark, deep seated blood lust was running rampant in the night air, desperate to sate itself on the nearest beating heart.

may we have her eat her feed on her watch her die watch us kill her screams as sweet as the blood running across our tongue

The bolt slid home, but its soft click did not satisfy Ariel as she had thought it would. She sighs softly, breathing in the cool fragrant night air. A sudden chill runs up her spine, and Ariel instinctively pulls her coat closer, a small ball of flame resting in her hand. The alley, while perfectly innocent and pleasant in the day, was a bit too creepy for her this late at night. She sets off at a brisk pace down the alley towards the street, but a cold chill comes over her, accompanied by the smell of lilies…

The darkness seemed to chortle with laughter as they turned the corner into the alley, bloodlust screaming at the feel of a heart beat just down a little ways. A flash of strawberry blonde hair and a swish of a coat…Satine damn near groaned, the thirst torturing her body…

“Satine? What are you doing here?”

She flinched in horror, recognizing the voice. And you’re going to kill her, Satine… No, no! But it was no use, she was walking forward resolutely, and nothing she could do could stop herself.

Ariel watches as the dhampir approached her, smiling gently. “You sure did scare me, my friend. I’m glad that out of all the creeps that stalk alleys, it was you sneaking up on me, not someo-” Ariel grunts in surprise as she is scooped up in a hug, and she sighs gently, resting her head on the other woman’s shoulder. “Thank you,” she says softly.

feelthepulsefeeltheheattakehermakeheroursfeedandbefreed TAKE HER NOW

A shiver of elation and disgust runs through her as she feels her teeth slip soundlessly into Ariel’s neck, and the warm, rich flow of blood runs across her tongue.

Ariel whimpers softly as the pain rockets through her uncontrollably. Instinctively, she hits Satine with a hand full of flame in the abdomen, but it doesn’t seem to deter the woman from drinking deeply at her throat…Ariel sinks down, immobilized, wincing as a voice cuts through her mind.

“You were never worthy of the love he gave you; he sees that now, and will never marry you. You are worthless, disgusting…and not worth the scum on the bottom of his shoe.”

Ariel closes her eyes tightly, tears slipping out once again.

Satine winces, feeling Ariel’s spirit slipping away without a fight, going gently into the waiting arms of death…

Ariel can hardly breathe past the pain in her chest; her heart is racing at an extraordinary rate to circulate her barely there blood. She watches in horror as Satine pins a teleporter disk to her chest, then kisses her forehead just as she disappears in brilliant flash…