Lineage

Annerose actively kept pace ahead of me, trying to avoid the horrendous smell all the way back to the tower. We entered the ancient stone building to be see my father sitting on a chair outside the ground floor study with a book in his hands, looking up and smiling at Annerose before giving me a questioning glance. There was a moment of silence between the two of us, broken only by my father inhaling sharply to get a scent, before chuckling quietly.

“Moose bed?” he asked.

“You know it,” I grinned. “Second best thing next to a bed and breakfast.”

“How do you know what he slept in?” Annerose asked my father.

“It’s not a smell you forget once you’ve done it yourself,” he answered, folding the corner of the page he was reading and closing the book.

“You’ve both slept in mooses?” Annerose asked.

“I’ve done it as well,” said a stair-descending Luna as she came around the spiral. “The worst part is lying on the ribs. They’re good support for even weight distribution but they are not soft in any stretch of the imagination.”

“Amen to that,” my father and I said in unison.

“You people are fucked up,” Annerose said, hurrying up the stairs to presumably either wash or pray the disgust she felt away.

“She’ll learn in time,” Luna shrugged, cracking her knuckles before patting me on the back. “Right, you bloody bastard, you’ve actually got something to do today.”

“If it’s anything besides staring at a fucking wall, then sign me up,” I said with a grin.

“Then you’re in luck, dear child,” Luna grinned. “We need you and Annerose to do a little bit of arson.”

“Always a fun start to the day,” I nodded. “What do you want me to burn down?”

“We need you to torch one of McGraw’s arenas,” Luna said. “It’s not the biggest one, but it’s definitely gonna make a sizeable hole in his profits, and a sizeable hole at this point is essentially bankrupting him.”

“Great, can I get going now?” I asked.

“Hang on!” Annerose hollered from upstairs, thundering down the stone steps with her hair in a mess. “Somebody mention an arena? Is there a fight club nearby?”

“Yes, McGraw’s little-” Luna began before being cut off.

“I’m competing,” Annerose cut in. “I am winning the fuck out of that fight club.”

“You sure?” Luna asked. “We could just burn the place down and get the safe from the ashes before his goons go looking for it?”

“Nope. There’s no fun in that,” Annerose said with a grin that showed off her bloodlust. “And besides, if it’s McGraw’s guys fighting then we can take a good number of them out in the process.”

“The fights aren’t to the death, Annerose,” Luna said.

“I don’t care,” she smirked evilly. “Broken bones and ruptured organs don’t count as a death in the ring.”

“You’re fucking scary,” I said, looking at the young woman.

“I know. I fucking know.” she nodded. “So? Am I allowed to fight or what?”

“Richter?” Luna asked, turning to face me.

“Why are you asking me?” I asked in confusion. “I’m not her dad. She can do whatever she wants.”

“Very well,” Luna shrugged, turning back to Annerose. “Both of you get cleaned up, you especially, Richter, and head off to the fight club. It’s in the basement of a tailor’s place by the meadery in the Workers District. Should be easy to spot.”

“Right,” Annerose nodded. “Come on then, Richter. Wash up and let’s get gone.”

“Yes, Boss,” I nodded, heading up to my room to bathe and change clothes with Annerose doing the same. I leaped into the little hot spring of a bath and noticed Kalla and Advalia laying about in the water, lounging peacefully and looking rather relaxed.

“Morning, ladies,” I said as I dunked my head under the water, trying to rinse as much of the gore from my face and hair as possible. I broke the surface and noticed the very unhappy looks the two were giving me after I’d sullied the bath water with blood and chunks of moose innards.

“Thanks, dick,” Advalia growled, getting out of the water entirely and stepping under the shower that was in the corner. “My favourite kind of bath bomb.”

“Nothing wrong with a little moose broth, is there?” I asked with a smirk, scrubbing my under arms and junk with a brush I pulled off the side, cleaning all of my vital areas before going for a general body scrub. “A little extra protein’s always nice.”

“I’ve got enough meat in my diet as it is with you around, Horsedick,” Advalia said, rinsing herself off several times before grabbing a soft, cotton towel. “I don’t need your very sloppy seconds.”

I noticed Kalla get out of the bath as well, not bothering to towel herself dry, and instead beginning to rub herself up against Advalia, purring quietly.

“She’s gotten rather addicted to me in recent days,” Advalia smirked, petting the naked Neko affectionately. “She’s a fan of good dick, it seems.”

“Yeah, well keep her away from me,” I said, getting out of the bath and grabbing my own towel. “I’ve already filled up on my month’s share for guilt the first time I fucked her.”

“You may feel bad about it, but you gotta admit it-” Advalia chuckled, kissing Kalla passionately for a long moment. “She’s one of the best fuck’s you ever had.”

“I’d like to disagree with you,” I sighed, drying my crotch. “But then I’d be a liar. She’s great in bed.”

“So why keep her away?” Advalia asked. “I barely ever take the fuzzy little sleeve off my cock long enough for it to go soft. I’d have thought you of all people would’ve been hogging her night and day.”

“No, I’ve already had this discussion with Luna,” I said, dismissing the entire debate immediately with a defiant shake of my head. “I’m gonna try and keep my moral fibre for as long as I can and I’m not whittling it away railing a girl that isn’t mentally old enough to know the scientific names for the different parts of the vagina.”

“But the nicknames just make her cute,” Advalia giggled.

“And that’s the problem. I don’t want cute. Little girls are cute. Grown women are sexy,” I said quickly.

“As eloquent as any statement a boy who just started puberty could give,” Advalia sniggered.

“Whatever, just keep Jailbait over there away from me,” I said, dashing out of the bathroom as I heard Annerose yell at me from outside the bedroom door to hurry up. I dressed quickly, abandoning the usual hooded coat and instead stuck to pants, shirt, and a tanned leather jacket lined with sheep’s wool. I ignored a sword this time around and stuck to the two hidden blades. A sword would draw attention and get eyes on me that I didn’t want while the blades weren’t visible. I headed down the stairs and spotted Annerose, having abandoned her uniform, dressed in a pair of leather pants and a roughspun tunic with long, tattered sleeves.

“Ready to head out, Fuckboy?” she asked with a cocked eyebrow, the excitement on her face plain as day.

“After you,” I said, spotting Luna holding her hand out with a small leather pouch clenched in it.

“Flint, striker, and a few oily rags,” she said as she tossed the pouch over to me. “Knowing any good gambling establishment, they’re gonna have alcohol, and knowing any good tailor’s, they’re gonna have cloth, be it in the shop or in the basement area where the fights go on. Use Annerose as a distraction, slip away, kill anyone that looks at you funny, and set something on fire that’ll burn the place down.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” I nodded, belting the pouch onto my waist and following after Annerose. I caught up to the raven-haired woman and made small talk, just to make the walk go past faster.

“You excited?” I asked her.

“Of course. It’s been too fucking long since I got to take part in one of these,” she said, still giggling in anticipation. “I always used to win them back home and I wanna see if these fuckers are worth my time.”

“Just don’t get too cocky,” I warned. “It usually doesn’t end well.”

“I know that, Richter,” she said, rolling her eyes. “And there’s a huge difference between cockiness and being self-assured. I’ve been beating the shit out of people twice my size since I was seven. I think I deserve to have a little confidence in myself.”

“Fine, but that little statement there gives me the right to laugh rather loudly at you if you get your teeth knocked out in the first round,” I shrugged.

“Ergh… don’t talk about that,” Annerose said with a shiver running through her body. “I’ve always been terrified of losing my teeth.”

“And yet you thoroughly enjoy fighting people?” I asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“Well… yeah,” she nodded.

“You’re a strange one, you know that?” I asked.

“I get that a lot,” she smirked, picking up her pace and making me trail behind a little.

“Hang on, the fight club’s not going anywhere,” I said, jogging slightly to close the gap again. “Not yet, at least.”

We continued chatting amongst ourselves, several minutes passing by as we made our way to the fight club, only as we continued down the path, I noticed something through nothing more than suspicion. There was a specific set of footsteps behind us that kept at a constant pace, following our every move as we walked, even as I lead Annerose and myself through different streets and gaps.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked in an annoyed tone.

I didn’t answer her, instead stopped, pivoted directly on my heel, and began to storm towards the man that had been following us. He knew he’d been spotted but made no attempt to flee, meaning he wasn’t afraid of me. He was a tall man, over six feet, with a broad frame, snow-white skin, and glowing red eyes. I recognised his kind immediately and from the cold-yet-still-there sun beaming down on the city, I knew what species he was.

A Higher Vampire was stalking the streets of Falketurm.

And that Higher Vampire was here for me.

I knew immediately I was at a disadvantage here and an even larger one than I would be if I’d faced off against a Higher Vampire with proper preparation. I lacked any kind of silver weapon, no sort of acid, and the sun wasn’t an item I could exploit here like I could with other blood-drinkers. His superhuman abilities would make this extremely difficult on its own, nevermind facing him without so much as a steel sword.

He picked up the pace first, hiding none of his power as he transformed into his True Vampire form, exploding in a mass of magic into an eight foot-tall, leather-winged monster. He screamed loudly, spit flying from the monstrous jaw of over eight rows of serrated teeth, dropping down into a quadrupedal fighting stance as he lashed his tail behind him.

The True Vampire was a creature of hulking muscle that threatened to tear through the porcelain skin above it. It could fight on either set of legs, was fast, was dangerous, and was extremely aggressive. But he’d made a mistake in transforming: he’d lost his magic, be it vampiric or not, and he’d lost his intelligence.

There was obvious panic at this point, people screaming and running away from the colossal beast as it continued to advance towards me, Annerose now seeing the danger and gritting her teeth, clearly resenting her lack of a weapon just as I did. We watched as a small group of terrified guards rushed the monster, the remnants of the Baron’s forces being torn to pieces, scattering meat, armour, and thankfully weapons everywhere. The two of us scooped up our choice, Annerose taking two swords while I stuck with the one.

“Any ideas on how to kill this thing?” she asked me.

“Yeah,” I nodded, ducking under a screaming guard as the vampire launched it at me. “None of them available to us right now.”

“So what do we do?” she asked, sliding next to me and taking up a fighting stance.

“Not die,” I shrugged.

“Well you’re a fucking help,” she growled, turning back to face the vampire as it cut through the rest of the guards.

“All we can hope is that Luna hears the commotion and comes running,” I shrugged. “These things usually can’t be killed with anything except silver, decapitation, and burning its heart. But Luna found a way past that?”

“Which was?”

“Incinerate it with an energy blast,” I answered.

“Damn. It. All,” Annerose snarled.

We were interrupted by the vampire as it used its last remnants of human intelligence to scream at me, the name it referred to me as giving away what it was here for:

“Traitor!” it bellowed. “Spiller of Sacred Blood! Murderer of the Holy Child!”

I was more than ready to come up with a witty retort for everyone’s enjoyment as I often did, but I was interrupted by a familiar voice speaking from what sounded like the rooftops.

“Now, now,” she said with a nonchalant chuckle. “Richter may be a traitorous bastard, but those other two achievements belong to me. And if it helps your rag-tag little rebellion feel any better about my worthless cunt of a sister… she was plenty more holey when I got done with her.”

“Richter…” Annerose muttered to me quietly as the black-clad ‘stranger’ leaped down, sauntering towards the space between us and the True Vampire with her wide hips swaying seductively.

“So make your choice, honey,” she said, pointing a red-nailed finger at the snarling beast. “Come along quietly and I promise to only brutally torture you for a little while… or resist and make sure that my Torturer’s knife finds its way through every sinew, joint, and nerve in your body to make sure you really regret what you’ve done.”

“W-Whore!” the vampire snarled, kicking up dust with its clawed feet and snarling viciously. “Slut! Cunt! Bitch!”

“Mhm… you’re starting to remind me of a lot of my former lovers,” the ‘stranger’ giggled. “Loud, obnoxious, insulting… and not worth the time I have to spend mopping up the mess you’ve made.”

With that, our leather-clad ‘friend’ was assailed by the True Vampire, its fangs bared and dripping with the need to kill in its eyes, only to be effortlessly slapped aside by a backhand from the superhuman woman standing before it. She then seemingly disappeared in a blur before reappearing where the vampire was due to land and brutally booting it up into the air, rocketing into the sky like a stone from a sling.

She then disappeared once more and reappeared directly underneath the now-plummeting vampire, pointing a red nail at him and closing an eye to help her aim before an enormous, red and black, beam of energy, crackling with power, launched into the sky and tore through the True Vampire, incinerating the creature in a matter of seconds, it’s screams of rage and pain fading away into the wind once it’s body was no more. Now done with her assault, the woman turned around and blew the smoke off her fingernail, giving me a fanged smile as she held her arms out in a welcoming motion.

“Richter, honey,” she beamed. “It’s been too long.”

“Verella,” I said with a smile as I walked over to the Vampire Queen, grabbing a handful of her thick ass and pulling her close to me. “I’ve missed you.”

“I should hope so,” she giggled, drumming her fingers on her chest as she licked her blood-red lips. “I know this isn’t the reunion I had planned, but since we’ve got the ball rolling… would you mind helping me snuff out the rebellion one more time? You can get me pregnant again, if you want that as a reward?”

“I’ll consider it,” I chuckled. “But first, tell me what we missed?”

“Martyrdom,” she shrugged in an annoyed fashion. “A large hole, but one that is easily plugged. But speaking of holes getting plugged, why don’t we take this back to your place and catch up a little?”