Arcane Apocalypse

28 – Vampire

“Thank you again,” the vampiress said, bowing her head to the group. Her eyes were puffy from crying, but she was back to her feet, with the only reminders of her ever having been injured being the large tears in her clothes and her overall blood-coated state. “I- uhm, I think I’ll go now. I’m sorry for attacking you, and for wasting your Elixir and, uhm, yes. Sorry. I’ll, uhm, get going.”

Mia closed her eyes, not that it helped, the pitiful expression the girl had on as she turned to leave was engraved into her mind. That hope, the guilt, the sadness, the longing, it all pulled at Mia’s heartstrings. 

Maybe this was because she looked younger than her, and so innocent and her dormant motherly instincts were flaring up like a wildfire for the first time? Or was it just her being stupid?

“Wait,” Mia said, then grimaced as she glanced at her group. They no doubt knew what she wanted to do just from the look in her eyes, and most of them gave her nods. Not Sam though, and even Lina’s looked somewhat forced and conflicted, but Mia decided that was good enough. Sam would have to suck it up, and Lina would probably come around if the girl proved to be as much of a sweetheart as she’d been so far, minus the trying to rip Mia’s throat out thing. As previously said, that didn’t count though. “Wait. Do you have anywhere to go?”

“Eh?” the girl turned back, her hopeful expression magnifying a thousandfold before crumbling like a castle of cards at Mia’s follow-up question. “No.”

“Want to … come with us?” Mia asked. “We are heading to the subur-”

“YES!” the girl exclaimed with a beatific smile, and Mia guessed whatever walls Lina had built up around her heart initially crumbled at the sight of it. “Please! I’ll be good, I’m … I’m strong. I think. Stronger than most of these goblins at least, I’m just … I just need blood to keep going.”

“I’m sure you’re plenty powerful,” said Mia with a slight smile, then glanced down at the butchered goblins around her on the floor. Yep, plenty fucking powerful indeed. One of those hobgoblins needed two of her Blasts to kneel over and both of the ones on the floor had limbs clearly ripped off, and one was even missing a head … which Mia found in a faraway corner. “And if you don’t need to drink blood … directly from the source, I think we’ll manage. Though, doesn’t monster blood work too?”

“Thanks,” the girl chirped, visibly debating whether to hop over to Mia and risk getting poked by Brent’s unsheathed sword or to just stay where she was. “And uhm, I don’t need it from the source, but lifeforce fades fast so I need it fresh and while monster blood works, it tastes horrid and I’d rather drink sewage water.”

“Alright, o-kay,” Mia said, eyes going distant as she thought. “We- uh, I can work with that. And uhm, I hope you guys don’t mind?”

“She seems like a nice enough girl,” said Brent, clearly having been waiting to give his two-cents. “One in a horrible situation I’m guessing, I wouldn’t mind having her around if she doesn’t have any more … outbursts. I’ll be watching you for now girl, so step carefully. The last thing we need is one of us getting killed in our sleep by a ravenous vampire.”

“I’m fine with her joining,” Mark said, giving a shrug. “But she’s only sucking your blood Mia.”

Instead of deflating like Mia expected her to at the rather harsh words, the vampiress perked up at Mark’s words and glanced at Mia. More specifically, at her exposed neck. Hey! Don’t look at me like that!

“If they think it’s fine,” Lina said, still sounding somewhat conflicted as she looked around the mangled goblin remains. “I … don’t mind.”

“Well I do,” said Sam, which robbed him of the last fragments of goodwill he had from Mia. Still, he was a part of the group so she didn’t turn to glare at him just yet, though her fists clenched until her nails dug into her palm. “She’s dangerous, she attacked Mia. Just because she looks young and innocent, it doesn’t mean she’s not dangerous. Did any of you see the rabbit monsters? Those things are cute and fluffy and slaughter goblins by the dozens, just like her. I … am not saying she’s a monster or something, but letting her come with us is asking for trouble.”

The girl wilted under the harsh glare of the cat-eared boy, and Mia found herself somewhat resonating with his logic. Somewhat. She could even agree with it, letting the girl join wasn’t the smart choice, it wasn’t the logical choice. 

But Mia wasn’t thinking logically, she was seeing a lonely teenager alone and hurt out in an empty city haunted by monsters. She felt like she could trust the girl. She felt no malice from her, not even when she tried to attack Mia. There was just fear and dread in her eyes back then. Just a lonely soul trying to survive in a world that got turned on its head, like Mia. Though, with the loneliness bit turned up to eleven. 

The final nail in the coffin though, that made her blood boil as she listened to Sam’s words, was how easily she could imagine those exact words coming out of Jeff’s mouth. That cold, heartless bastard. Fuck him, fuck Sam and fuck everyone who’d leave the poor girl to her fate.

“You got outvoted,” Mia said coldly.

Lina’s hand landed on Mia’s shoulder as the blonde pulled her in for a side hug while glancing at Sam. “What she wants to say is that we’ll keep your warnings in mind. I’m sure all of us agree with you on some level, but I for one don’t want my paranoia to stop me from helping an unfortunate girl. Even if I think I’ll be sleeping with one eye open for the next month.”

“I- I wouldn’t attack you,” stuttered the vampiress, looking slightly offended. Still, she realised a moment later how bad that sounded with her having done just than mere minutes ago. “I won’t. I promise.”

Mark just shrugged, as if saying he stands by his previous statement while Brent just gazed at the redhead before giving a slight nod. Mia guessed the older man was most conflicted, he’d been the first inside trying to help the vampire, he’d been the one asking Mia to use her precious Elixir to heal the girl and he’d also been the one who’s lack of a quick reaction almost cost Mia her life. Guilt was undoubtedly wracking him from the inside, even as he kept his outwardly calm and collected look.

Would she have killed me? Mia wondered, not quite capable of seeing the teary-eyed vampiress going for the kill. A nibble, a bite maybe? Even sucking her till anemia made her pass out? Sure, but her instincts were telling her the girl would have been horrified by her actions and would have stopped after she got that first gulp of lifesaving blood on her tongue. I think. I hope. Please let me be right.

“Fine,” Sam barked, his ears flattening against his head and for a moment he looked like was about to march right out the store and leave the group then and there. Then he huffed and turned around, starting to snatch up some of the few remaining bags of snacks and such from the shelves before retreating to a corner with his back to everyone.

“He’ll come around. I’m sure.” Lina squeezed Mia’s shoulders, then let go and headed over to the shelves with her backpack already sliding off of her shoulder and getting zipped open.

“Good idea,” said Mark, hurrying after the blonde. “Let’s loot. Might as well, they’re just going to fatten up the monsters if we leave ‘em here.”

Brent also nodded, though he just retreated towards the front of the shop, probably taking up watch like he always did. Still, Mia noticed he never let the vampiress out of his line of sight and neither did he sheathe his blade. He won’t be underestimating anyone ever again, that’s for sure … and neither will I. A dead girl almost killed me, rabbits slaughter groups of goblins. Next thing I know, everything cute and harmless is trying to kill me.

“Okay,” Mia said, forcing some cheer into her voice as she turned back to the vampiress. Of course, she’s taller than me. I stopped growing at 14 and she’s at least 16. Still, damn. “Let’s … get you some fresh clothes and maybe a bit cleaned up? I have some spare clothes you could use and maybe you could use a shirt as a towel to get some of that gunk off of you?”

“Uh,” the girl blinked, looking down at herself with a grimace. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, I alway get dirty when I fight. I’d just be ruining your clothes.”

“I insist,” Mia said, giving the girl a once over. “Those aren’t clothes, just rags that are only sticking to your skin because of all the blood and dirt on you. You’re getting a fresh set.”

“Okay,” the girl said meekly. “Thanks.”

*****

“Carmilla?” Mia asked, raising an eyebrow at the vampiress. “Really?”

“A cosmic irony I guess,” the girl, or rather Carmilla, shrugged. “I always had blood-red hair, this is just a bit darker than my natural colour. My parents probably thought it’d be funny or something.”

“Well, they could have named you Scarlet too I guess, so there is that. It’s a pretty name though, and it fits.” Mia said, giving the girl a once over and nodding in satisfaction. She was far from anywhere close to ‘clean’, her hair was still a large clump of dry blood and her skin was still more brown than anything from the mud, but she didn’t look like a zombie anymore. Having Mia’s pair of jeans shorts and tank top on helped, even though she still looked like she just threw them on after rolling around in a mud pit. “Okay. You look halfway presentable. We could get some water from the river and give you a quick scrub down when we stop for the evening?”

Sadly, Mia couldn't do anything with the overall emancipated frame of the girl. Rather than a zombie, she resembled a skeleton now with barely any flesh on her limbs and her ribs showing through even the tanktop covering her torso.

“I’m fine, really,” said Carmilla, frowning at Mia. “I’ll just get dirty again. This is already too much.”

Mia just shrugged, her resolve to give the girl a proper bath solidifying into a vow. The bath was happening, even if she had to drag the redhead down to the river herself. 

The two came back out from the emptied storage area, seeing the rest of the group were already packed up and aching to head out. 

Mia quickly introduced Carmilla to the rest, and after the girl got all their names in return, Mark spoke up.

“Packed some snacks into your bag too,” the dwarf said, patting the backpack Mia left behind. “Let’s go. “

There were still hours until sundown and the buildings around were already growing smaller and smaller with more green space. Soon, they’d be in the suburbs.

Another change that came a half an hour after setting off with their new party member, were the sounds.

Mia’s ears twitched, catching distant voices, movements and shouts. Better yet, she felt herself relax, muscles she didn’t even know she was tensing going laxer for the first time in weeks as the wrongness that suffused the very air dimmed the further they travelled from the city centre.

“People,” Mia whispered, focusing on the voices with little success. They were still far away after all. “Actual, living people … Uh, no offence Carmilla.”

“No problem,” the girl chirped, her gaze focusing in the same direction Mia was staring. “I think I can hear them too. They are fighting over something? Shouting?”

“Any monsters around?” Brent asked.

“I can’t feel or hear any,” Mia said. “Though that doesn’t mean anything, we are still far away.”

“We should check it out,” said Brent. “This is the first group of survivors we’ve met since leaving. Maybe they can get us some directions, maybe even a heads up about what’s happening out here.”

*****

Life had never been kind to Carmilla, it has really been a slew of bad news and catastrophes one after the other. Starting the day her mother died back when she was only five.

Still, she fought on, growing up even as her sickly constitution barely allowed her to attend school and kept her from ever making more than some superficial social connections.

She thought maybe with time, her immune system would get stronger. It really should have. She was the last of a long line of pureblood vampires after all. She had their knowledge, memories from ancestors that died back when the Roman empire still ruled the mediterranean and from every consecutive one ever since were at her perusal. 

They all told stories of power, of domination, of unbreaking resilience. Whispering of immortality.

How they all must have been laughing, rolling in their graves as the last member of their once mighty bloodline withered away from cancer of all things.

Blood cancer. Oh, the irony.

Five years she fought it, even as the disease kept kicking her back down time and again and robbed her of all her strength. She did her best. 

Alas, it wasn’t enough. The power her treacherous inherited memories promised never manifested and one day, her eyes closed for the last time.

But then she woke up again. In a simple wooden casket. Buried under six feet of dirt and starving. All the power she was promised flooded her body with interest. The System, something only the earliest of her inherited memories even touched upon greeted her when she opened her eyes.

She tore her way back to the surface, finding herself in a dark cemetery with shambling living dead moving around in the twilight. Unlike how she imagined it, her life didn’t get miraculously fixed the moment her powers awakened. No, quite the opposite.

She was starving, her stomach practically devouring itself as she went on a rampage. The dead didn’t have blood she could drink, nor did the critters, nor the wolves, the rats or the little green men. Not nearly enough anyway, they barely had any lifeforce in them. All the humans were gone, and Carmilla spiralled into an abyss of panic and terror as her second chance at life slowly slipped further and further out of her grasp.

Her powers waned with every minute she spent without feeding until finally a group of the little green men managed to overwhelm her after only god knows how many days spent fighting.

Carmilla greeted death for the second time with even greater regret than the first, believing it to be the final one. She fumbled her second chance, messed it all up and was going to die alone as punishment. Again.

“What do you think?” Mia asked, staring into the distance and Carmilla let herself indulge by taking a glance at the girl.

Her blood was boiling just standing next to her, all of her vampiric instincts screaming at her to rip into her slender neck and to drain the delicious pink haired morsel dry.

Just tasting her mana in that strange pink cat had satisfied her thirst like nothing else. Carmilla got shivers just thinking about tasting even a single drop of her blood.

She’d have to ask again, maybe later when night came. She was still weakened from never having fed on lifeforce.

“Uhh, what was the question again?” Milla asked, scratching her cheek in embarrassment as those azure eyes stared at her with an alarming lack of wariness.

She doesn’t know how close I got to accidentally killing her. The vampiress thought, a torrent of guilt flooding her being and almost making her grimace. She really should have left the group to put the tempting girl and her blood as far away from her as possible. 

Her ancestors might have been heartless savages, but she was not. If she came to herself only after having drained Mia dry, she might have just staked herself through the heart on the spot. Thank the gods for that cat. The girl saved my life, was going to save my life even before I attacked her like some lunatic. She still did so afterwards.

The pink-haired girl was an angel, and would have Carmilla’s eternal gratitude for what she’d done. People just didn’t do that. They didn’t give up their precious Elixirs and risked their life for someone that tried to kill them. She’s … special. In more ways than one.

Though her blood was by far the most special thing about her, no blood that had ever graced her nostril came even close. The rest of her group might as well have been bland gravy, with only the blond girl rising above mediocrity. Just a tiny bit.

“What do you think?” Mia reiterated, waving her hands in the direction of the distant shouts.

“Fewer monsters here,” said Milla, sniffing the air. It took some getting used to her enhanced senses, but her bloodline memories certainly helped. “The sewers are clean here too, no rats. Nor do I smell the goblin’s musk spread around the area.”

“I mean about why they are arguing?” Mia asked, her lips curling in amusement. “I can’t make out what they are saying.”

“I think it's … about food?” Milla said, sending some of her precious essence into her ears to enhance her hearing. “Yeah. They are running out of preserved food and no one wants to go into the city to raid grocery stores.”

“Damn, and I thought I had good hearing,” the girl said, pulling a lock of pink hair behind a triangular ear. “I guess we might be able to help them. There were quite a bit of leftovers in that store we found you in. It was kinda close by, so raiding it should be pretty safe. They should be able to get by on that for a few more days, right?”

Carmilla just stared at the girl, not really understanding how such a person could exist. Total strangers she hasn’t even met yet, and she is trying to help them already. How didn’t someone rob this girl blind with a mentality like that?

Kindness was something Milla stopped expecting from others long ago, somewhere along the time when her adoptive ‘family’ stopped visiting her in the hospital in her second year spent there. 

To her, Mia looked like a glowing gem in a field of grey pebbles. Might as well use my strength for something good if she let me stay with her. She must be protected.