ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔱 𝔬𝔣 𝔊𝔬𝔩𝔡 (𝔡𝔦𝔤𝔦𝔱𝔞𝔩𝔰𝔦𝔯𝔢𝔫 𝔵 𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔢)

[Bunny]

Darkness had always been her friend. Born into darkness there had always been comfort to be found within its inky depths. Within that eternal darkness had been her mother and father and the reaching limbs of her family tree, dotted with other family members. None had been quite like Lyssa though. It wasn't being a vampire, no, most of her family was a creature of darkness, one who fed on the blood of others. There were some humans, but they were largely unknown to her and most knew nothing of her kind. No, what set Lyssa apart from her kin was unlike them, she'd not been bitten. Lyssa had been born. Being born a vampire was exceedingly rare. Most women were sterile, the gift that had been given by god robbed from them in their transition from a living breathing creature to a blood sucking monster. There were a few who could conceive, but that alone did not ensure a baby being born. Baby vampires were virulent parasites on their mothers. They often took more than the mother could afford, not understanding the perils such gluttony would wrought on their mothers. Most women died before childbirth and therefore so did the child. Those that could carry a baby to term were met with Vlad's Syndrome more often than not. The baby would be lost and if truly unlucky the mother as well. Lyssa and her mother had overcome so much to usher her into the world. The first vampire baby to be born in several centuries.

So she'd grown up beneath the moon's glow and the sparkle of stars. From babe, to toddler and so on. With so few of her kind being born, there had been questions and unsurety around how she'd grow. In time, it was clear to see that she grew as if she were human, the years of her youth idly passing. Each year she grew another year older and her features changed. A series of amniotic sea-changes occurred early on as if Lyssa couldn't decide how she wished to look; though no one suspected that the babe had any real control. Dark hair and blue eyes gave way to flaxen locks and eyes of honey. A pale, golden child. Like a cherub breathed to life. The delicate perfection of her limbs grew in graceful perfection and by the time she had reached sixteen she'd stopped changing. Lyssa's hair fell in pin straight lines down her back and past her supple rear. Elegant lines made up her face, carved in perfection as if from cool marble; high cheekbones, a full pouty mouth, a pixie-ish nose and large eyes framed by dark lashes. Unlike her family though, a rosiness was almost always found in her skin. In her cheeks, the tip of her nose and the curves of her body. It made her seem almost human.

It had been in her seventeenth year they everything changed.

-- ♡ -- ​

The acrid scent of smoke tickled her nose and Lyssa gave a small groan, shifting in her bed. It was midday and dreams held her pleasantly in their thrall. Swimming through water like starlight, the push and pull of her limbs causing her body to slip through the warm water like a knife through butter. Screams drifted through the tranquil darkness of her dream and suddenly a hand was on her shoulder, shaking her roughly. "Wake up Lyssa!" The voice was that of one of her elder cousins. Heavy lashes flickered and opened groggily and eyes of molten gold opened to take in her worried face. "Wha'sa'mattr?" The crystal like sweetness of her voice rough with sleep. One small hand rose and rubbed at her eyes. "Shhh!" Katelin hissed, a hand clamped over her mouth. "Hunters! They’ve attacked the castle, we need to hide! Hurry!!" The singular word ran through her body, along her nerves as if she'd thrown into an ice bath. The lull of sleep that had been threatening to pull her back under cast off with a surge of fear. Suddenly alert, she nodded, hand still over her mouth. It withdrew and Katelin motioned for Lyssa to follow her.

The castle in which her family lived was old, but well maintained. It housed no less twenty of her family at any given time, along with the servants who tended to them. Now, with sunlight beating against heavy drapes, there was the sound of screaming, begging and something else... It was nothing that Lyssa wanted to dwell on as she and her cousin dashed from room to room until she found herself standing in her parents room. Normally the room was pristine, everything in it's place. Not now though. At the vanity, her mother's chair was on it's side, the pretty array of bottles smashed. "Hurry," Katelin urged. "Where are my mother and father," Lyssa heard herself ask and with a shake of her head, Katelin walked back to Lyssa. A hand around her wrist, she pulled the younger, confused girl towards the bed. Pushing her down she pointed to the bed. "Get under the bed," her words rushed. Scared and unsure, Lyssa crawled beneath the bed and no sooner had her food disappeared and Katelin crossed the room the door banged open. "Found another one!" The voice was harsh and definitely male. From beneath the bed, Lyssa could see a pair of armored boots and the bare feet of Katelin. Bare feet backed up and Lyssa watched as the booted feet followed quickly, the panicked voice of Katelin. "Get away from me!" "Think you can hide in here whore?" Tears pricked at Lyssa's eyes as she heard Katelin scream in fear, the redness of her tears trailing down her face, hands over her own mouth to keep from making any sound. She couldn't see it, but she'd heard the hard impact of skin on skin and a sharp cry. The tussle lasted seconds, but it seemed an eternity, before Katelin was dragged from the room, still screaming and fighting.

-- ♡ --​

The sounds didn't seem to stop, hours whittled away and time and time again booted feet came into the room and left. None looked under the bed, where the golden child hid. Finally the fear and adrenaline left her and a tiredness unlike any Lyssa had ever known pulled at her. Laying on the cold stone floor in her dusty rose nightgown, Lyssa shivered. In time the castle grew quieter, though the golden child knew not. Sleep once more held her, though rather than the sweetness of her last dreams, she wandered the castle while it burned. Screaming echoed through the stone hallways and she could hear heavy footfalls behind her, chasing her. A baying of hours wormed into her nightmare and she gave a low whimper, curling tighter in her sleep. Bare feet fell against the stone loudly as she raced through the never ending corridors. Lyssa had never seen a hunter, she just knew of them and therefore her mind made them up, the way a child's might, though no longer a child herself. They had too many teeth and though she knew hunters were human, somehow her mind made them more pig-like. Horrendous and deformed the monstrous men soon were behind her.

It was lucky that the hunters had long since gone when this nightmare struck, because soon, the the darkness of the room, there was a soft crying mixed with whimpers of fear. "No...Please.. leave us alone.." whispered from beneath the bed. Tears trailed down her face in her sleep, leaving red tracks against her pale skin. The sounds of her fitful nightmare would lead from the room from the slightly ajar door. The fired had died out, but the smell of burning wood and... more hung in the air. The night that enveloped the castle pitch black, as if neither the moon or the stars could bring themselves to witness the horror that had unfolded. Bodies lay strewn throughout, human and vampire alike. Men butchered, women raped... The ordeal had been bloody and unprovoked and humans had shown no kindness.

This was the first night in her seventeen years that Lyssa would find no comfort waiting for her upon awakening.

 

[Staine]

Damn it, how had they gotten a lead on him like this?

The forest felt like it was rushing at him, trees growling larger as he sped along, felt the dirt shift beneath him as powerful limbs propelled him forwards far faster than any human could ever go. The low perspective made them seem all the more impressive in an already tall, imposing forest, the shield which hid the castle, his destination. For over a year he had heard rumours of a vampire nest hidden somewhere on this continent but nobody seemed to know just where they were, they were sneaky, quiet, it was hard to find any hint of a victim beyond the usual fresh turn and those didn't seem to know anything of the vampire nest that the hunter was seeking. He'd travelled most of the continent since he had arrived from overseas, moving further south and along the Eastern coastline, now he was travelling back up North along the Western coast. It was almost as though they weren't actually hunting humans themselves, if they actually existed, a ridiculous thought in and of itself: Of course they were hunting humans, killing them...it was what vampires did, parasitic monsters of inhuman strength, dead, evil creatures that fed on life itself. No, they were merely covering their tracks, if they existed at all, and as a hunter it was his duty to cleanse them, to rid the entire continent of those foul leeches. Finally he had gotten a lead, a vampire a local group of hunters had captured spoke of a nearby nest, though information seemed unusually hard to come by, so he'd had to take matters into his own hands rather than rely on hearsay. He'd found himself in the tavern, a known hangout for adventurers and hunters, found one of them, offered to buy him a drink...the rest had been easy, it often was when the mead flowed freely. The hunters had captured a vampire alright, though not a fresh turn like he had suspected. She'd been turned a few years prior, and under questioning spoke of a castle hidden by the forest, known to the locals for it's eccentric aristocrats who rarely ventured down, the vampire had sworn they were her own kind, they were tight knit, they shunned the outside world. She had also sworn they only fed on the willing, it was like a haven where they lived in peace, clearly a lie so who knew if she was telling the truth?

Nevertheless, he'd teased the information slowly from his new drinking companion, and planned to visit the castle later in the night, planning to get there by morning to see if he had finally found his quarry, only to learn that the man wasn't actually a hunter, he was the brother of one, boasting as though he did the deed himself, and worse, the real hunters had already set off to attack the castle. A band of no less than thirty of them armed to the teeth...it seemed that was how they did things here. When skill wasn't obtainable, sheer numbers would do the trick alright...And they had set off hours ago, the previous night, planning to surprise the vampires by attacking in the midday sun, no doubt they had made it there already. He'd made his leave and now he was going as fast as possible, he would be at the castle in minutes if the directions were correct, he'd been running for at least two hours at an absurd pace. Panting, he cleared the treeline, panting as he looked up. He could definitely see how the castle would look imposing in the night, it was already starting to turn dark...why the locals would stay away from this place and rarely mention it and he cursed himself mentally. Growling, sprinted towards the castle, his keen sense of smell already picking up the iron in the air, the scent of blood as clear as the night, the sky eerily devoid of the moon or the stars.

As he reached the door, he pushed it aside in a much more familiar form, the heavy oak giving way easily, no longer barred and splintered at the hinges, half hanging off them, burnt and shattered in places and reeking of sulphur. Gunpowder, no doubt, a popular tool in the past decade it had already been utilized in many weapons in the current boom of technology mixed with magic. He used it himself on occasion, he travelled with a small pouch of it though his nomadic lifestyle meant he couldn't often carry too many weapons. Armed with his crossbow, his silver bladed broadsword and dagger, a few wooden stakes, holy water and his wrist-mounted surprise he already had enough to carry without a selection of alchemical nonsense that was as likely to kill him as injure a vampire. Stepping into the castle, the smell of blood was much stronger even if his sense of smell had diminished greatly. He grabbed his crossbow from it's holster and slowly walked through the castle, checking room by room and leaving no stone unturned. He wasn't some amateur, he was a professional, he was meticulous. It only took one surviving leech to rebuild a nest and he very much doubted the rabble that had invaded here had searched effectively. On the floor he found his first bodies, a man with his throat torn out and two women with wooden stakes protruding from their chests, clothes torn, legs spread. To think they called themselves hunters and they had raped them...not only were they no better than corpses but even they deserved at least some mercy. When he killed, he did it quickly, he tortured only out of necessity to get the information he needed. These hunters were no better than animals, he felt sick, checking the room quickly and moving on.

It seemed the humans had gotten the better of them, of course they had in the daylight, but their methods left a lot to be desired. There were almost as many of them dead as the vampires themselves, headless corpses and staked ones by those with their throats torn out. There was no refinement to this, no effort at stealth, it was all pure brutality. He didn't feel sorry for the vampires, that would be absurd, but he definitely would have done it differently. Dressed in a red shirt beneath his brown overcoat to hide his weapons, brown pants and thick leather boots Nika was more stealthy than he appeared, cunning, he'd done this for over a decade now ever since his own parents had been killed by a vampire in their home. It was the way most hunters started, death of loved ones. His mother had been the target, her unique lineage was a delicacy from what he had discovered much later, his bloodline had often found themselves as prey. Well he wasn't prey, not anymore, no matter how much they wanted his blood. It wasn't like they ever got to bite him anyway.

He combed through several more rooms before he got to the sleeping quarters, stepping over the body of a vampire woman to enter, already hearing soft sounds, whimpers, coming from underneath the bed. He shook his head in disdain, sighing to himself. This was what he was afraid of, all it took was one and they hadn't even checked under the bed? Aiming his crossbow with one hand, he lifted the heavy mattress, throwing it aside, pointing it at the girl he saw laying there, curled up in the midst of a nightmare.

"Wake up." His tone was firm, deep, his hand steady in case she lunged at him. He couldn't quite tell if she was a vampire or a thrall, a human hypnotised by their dark abilities to obey, to follow their every whim and feed them without alerting the locals. It would make sense if she were one of them, she had more colour in her than most vampires, certainly than the corpses he had passed by and he reached out, taking hold of her wrist. Warm...it was the first test he used when he was within range to touch, the easiest way to detect a vampire. Corpses weren't warm. "Wake up, you're having a nightmare." It made sense, he hadn't even known vampires dreamed, he always suspected they didn't, dead things that they were, but it wasn't like he'd ever asked, this was the first he had seen having a nightmare though...it made sense that she would be human. "The castle was attacked, they are all dead, you're safe now." He'd freed a few thralls before in his lifetime, they were often confused and terrified once the one who had hypnotised them had been slain, brought out of a trance many years later...though this girl had to be a fresh one, she looked like she was in her late teens at best. "Come with me, I can keep you safe, they can't hurt you anymore."