Weiila is on PMS, and her characters will feeeeel it snarls
It took Jagan quite a while to make himself heard well enough to demand an explanation. And the reason he finally made it through was simply because Rakadra eventually exhausted himself to a near-death status and collapsed on the blood-stained ground, panting for air. The skin on his fingers had in large areas been torn to pieces and black liquid seeped from the deep, ragged cuts on his throat.
“What happened? Answer me!” Jagan snarled from the shadow.
Groaning, the half-breed obeyed the words of his dead master, crawling up to the flowing form rising from the depth. A shaking hand that had seen better days floated up and disappeared into the dusk, sending ripples through the shadow.
There was a pause as Jagan read his disciple’s last memories. Then the shade violently trembled as the vampire roared with laighter.
With an enraged snarl Rakadra pulled back, too angry to even bothering to notice the fact that all the blood on his hand had “mysteriously” disappeared during the exchange. He was busy KNOWING who was behind the prank this time.
Pushing himself up he cast a spell of darkness upon himself to heal, fueled by his anger. He threw himself into the air before the wounds had even fully closed, eyes blazing.
And Jagan kept laughing. Suddenly limbo had become a lot more endureable.
“<b>SCIEL</b>!!”
“Oh my…” the vampiress mumbled, trying to feign calm while she threw up all mental and physical shields she could manage on such a short notice.
Had she been half a second slower, Rakadra’s claws would have been cleaving her guts. As it was, he just ended up punching an invisible wall a few inches from her chest. Grey sparkles flew from the connection and Sciel grimaced uncomfortably.
Rakadra was hardly calmed by this distraction and his fist opened, fingers spreading out against the protective spell. Black lightning bolts shot out from his fingertips, crawling over the whole transparent bubble.
Sciel’s bowl fell out of her hand, hit the armrest and tumbled onto the ground, its spilled contents oozing and bubbling angrily upon all surfaces it touched. The carmilla had no time to think of that, busy clutching her head in agony as she struggled to maintain her defenses.
Arachne and Tricla watched the spectacle with great interest, but made no moves to aid Sciel, or even raise from their chairs.
Through the intense flares tearing through her mind, the vampiress vaguely noted that there was something peculiar about Rakadra’s assault.
“Hold… hold up, Rakky!” she managed to screech, pressing the words through her tightly clamped teeth.
The attack subsided momentarily, only to return in one last, stronger blow that despite the walls knocked Sciel backwards into the backrest of her throne. Somehow she managed to keep her shields raised even as she tried to regain her composure.
Forcing one eye open she glared up at the half-blood and his one outstreched hand, where black needles still jumped between the claws.
… One hand?
The left one was clenched, up by the point below his throat where Rakadra’s collarbones almost met. A thin, silvery chain encircled his neck, flowing out from the white-knuckled fist in two small streams.
Sciel wanted to ask, but first thing first.
“What was that for?!” she pouted.
She got both the mysteries solved at the same time as Rakadra replied.
“<I>This</I>!” he snarled, eyes glowing red with rage as he opened his fist and unveiled the source of his fury.
Sciel momentarily noted the remaining stains of black blood on his neck, before her sight was drawn to the item that weighed down the chain. Mainly because since the color of it frankly screamed against the rest of Rakadra’s colorscheme.
She blinked.
She coughed.
She threw her head back and laughed.
Arachne curiously bent forwards to get into the right angle to see, while Tricla stretched her neck over the table and around the half-demon’s shoulder.
Both of them reacted just like two vampires already had done. At least the scorpio managed to keep calm until she had properly retracted her neck before she dissolved in hysterics.
Rakadra meanwhile, understandably, fumed. Literally. The last remains of blood were burnt away from his skin. Had Sciel not kept her shields active, he would have grabbed her by the neck and done uncomfortable things with her spine. But as he wasn’t allowed to do that, he slammed both hands against the bubble and let loose another burst of lightning. But even that only momentarily stopped her insane gigglng.
“Get this thing off me, leech!” he finally roared.
“It’s… not… <I>wahaha</I>… mine!” Sciel croaked between a few gasps for air* and uncontrollable busts of laughter.
She clutched her stomach now, trying to get a little control back while Rakadra snarled raw obscenities at her. Finally she managed to calm down enough to dry her gleeful tears away well enough to peer up at him again.
“It looks kinda cute on you though!” she squeaked, which only sent her and her friends back into the pit of giggles.
Rakadra himself hardly helped pulling them back to sanity.
“It’s a heart! It’s PINK!!” he roared.
“How sweet!” Arachne squealed, then quickly threw up her net to block a dark blast.
Eventually though, Tricla managed to bring a little peace into the picture. Sorta.
“It’s from one of my girls!” she screeched, far hoarser than usual, “it seems she was smitten by you killing her sister!”
Rakadra apparently had troubles sorting out what to do first as he opened and closed his mouth in sync with his twitching fingers a few times.
“How many ARE there!?” he finally settled for.
“Many, dear!”
And she went down in snickers again.
“Don’t worry, Rakky!” Sciel giggled, “it’s no fun to send several of the same kind after you. We’ll think of something else next time.”
Deliberatedly slow the half-blood turned back to the carmilla, speaking in a very low, dark voice.
“Sci-i-iel…”
“Aww, come on Rakky!”
He had been berserking for quite a while now, and it was starting to wear even him out. The last explosion of lightning was definitely weaker than the other ones.
He took in a deep breath to bring a little order to his burning nerves and sent one last deathglare at the carmilla.
“I’ll find that worm first, and then you better watch your back, Sciel,” he growled.
She was still giggling. Snarling, he turned back to Tricla, who had calmed down almost completely and now just worked on her breathing. Meeting the male demon’s glare, she smirked.
“Her name is Slither, dear,” she replied without the question.
Without a word Rakadra reached up to the cute little pendant and lifted it between two claws, as if it was too hot to touch properly.
“Just be prepared,” Tricla added, a few more teeth showing as the smirk grew, “she may still surprise you.”
“Don’t bother to warn me,” Rakadra snapped and took off again with a few powerful flaps of his wings.
“It wasn’t a warning…” Tricla murmured.
“What was it then?” Sciel wondered while stretching, a teasing giggle still fresh on her lips.
“She has a speciality…”
Tricla paused and took a new drink from the table. It was quite a sight as her claws were far bigger than her own head.
“… It might interest him,” she then thoughtfully continued, “provided she survives long enough to use it, of course.”
“What would that be?”
Sciel’s neck made popping sounds as she pushed her head from side to side, but she didn’t let that get in the way of her query.
“That… is a secret.”
Tricla sipped her drink with a huge grin. The carmilla was about to protest when Arachne got in between.
“Mm, what power! I didn’t know that he was that strong!” she grinned, “the force in his attack… aw, Sciel, I’m so jealous!”
The vampiress sighed in content, nabbing another snack before she leant back.
“Such is our Rakadra…” she agreed, basking in the pain’s afterglow.
Yes gentle readers, they do indeed scare me too.
*Old habits die hard?
(And just in case you’re wondering… I’m referring to the “click”…
