:: Fionna ::



"Good night, mother."


The small blond youth smiled at him and slipped out of the door.


Fionna's keen ears easily caught the tiny click of the keys falling into place, and he sighed inwardly.


' Mother '


That boy had kept on calling him that, and his mouth wasn't healed enough to set the boy straight.


When the holy water was splashed right into his face, Fionna had lost his consciousness. He had never, ever since he became a vampire known such pain as had assaulted him when the water touched his face.


The next thing he knew, he was tied and bound to a bedpost in some bedroom chamber, and the blond boy was standing out of arm's reach, smiling.


' I'm glad you're finally awake, mother. '


The boy's first words had robbed him of his even if he could have spoken.


Mother!?


' But really, it wouldn't have been necessary to hurt you if you didn't fight so much! '


What vampire wouldn't when met with an unknown vampire with such deadly intent obvious in the slitted eyes? Fionna had wanted to demand, but he could not speak and had to remain silent.


' The day is almost over, and I wanted to talk with you so much! But I have to sleep, and so do you, although you just woke up. '


The young vampire smiled, the wide emerald eyes gazing up worshipfully and the pale white cheeks slightly flushed in excitement.


' We can talk in the morning. I have so much to tell you, mother, since you left me! '


Staring at the innocent face for an instant, Fionna had looked around, trying to find a window, and instead, only found deep shadows greeting his eyes.


His body told him that it was morning, and that the night was ending... Yet this boy talked as if it were the other way around...


And the boy had left, peering at him from behind the almost closed door for a second.


Strangely enough, despite having holy water splashed on his face and bound by silver chains that burned him even now, Fionna could not really hate that boy.


"Am I a masochist that I do not wish to kill one who will kill me?" he murmured aloud, and turned his head slightly. "Or am I a sadist for not sympathizing with you?"


He asked the silent figures standing deathly still in the shadows of the bedroom chamber, but none of them answered him.


How could they, when they were all dead with their throats gashed open?


And every one of them had a broken silver chain about their necks, just like the one around his neck, still unbroken.


"What made him that way?" he continued to ask the dead women who must have been all beautiful and young once... "Why does he want a 'mother' whom he kills in the end?"


The deceptively innocent emerald eyes that had gazed up at him so adoringly had never for once strayed to the mutilated corpses even though they must have seen them. The slitted catlike eyes told him that however young and innocent he seemed, the young boy was a vampire, like himself, and they should have pierced into the heart of the shadows...


It was almost as if they did not exist for him.


Now that he had a new "mother," there was no more use for the previous "mothers".


Fionna gave a tiny laugh.


If it had been Finn in his situation, he would probably have made some sorrowful expression and go about planning the boy's death, but he wasn't Finn nor could he act so coldly as his partner.


His mind could not get rid of the adoring eyes that looked up at him, the genuine sorrow and fear as the boy vampire bid him "good night".


The apparent paradox between the youth's actions puzzled him.


Why kidnap so many women to be his mother and kill them so quickly?


For it was obvious that these women had never been turned into a vampire, and it would have made more sense to turn them into an immortal so they would be his "mother" forever. The fact that there had been no time to turn them into vampire suggested that perhaps they were lacking in something and the boy, in his frustration must have killed them.


Yet what could the boy be looking for that he would even go so far as to capture a vampire?


Independent vampires could never be brought under rule by force...or didn't the boy know that?


He had seemed young, not just in appearances but in age as well.


He could not have been a vampire that long since he seemed to think that the sun would kill him.


One big mistake.


"One that could mean your death, boy," Fionna muttered as he finally managed to work himself free from the silver chains binding him.


Flinging aside one last chain, he sank into the carpeted floor to rest.


Letting his head hang so that the long silver hair hid his face, Fionna willed himself to relax his entire body. There were burns all over where the chain had touched him and worst of all, his whole face was a jagged mess of burnt flesh thanks to the holy water.


For the most part, he managed to ignore the pain, but if he let his mind wander, the wounds would start eating at him mentally until he would start to wish death and oblivion, which was too dangerous.


All vampires gained superhuman willpower upon their birth, and with it, they could hypnotize lesser willed beings, yet at the same time, they could will themselves into death if they weren't careful enough.


But on the other hand, if he could manage to ignore the pain, he could will his flesh to heal themselves.


Although how long he could last without blood, he did not know.


If it were night, he would leave this eery place and go hunt, but not now, when the sun wasn't even at high noon yet. There was still several hours to go before he dared to leave.


Meanwhile, all he could do was tell his bats to keep a sharp look out for any signs of danger within and without the building, and send a spare one in search of Finn.





As the sun began to travel downward, Fionna snapped awake from the healing trance that he had fallen into.


The chamber was full of panic stricken bats, and all he got were confused images; Finn in a fight with some shadowy creature, Finn lying still on the ground, a stake in his heart, the shadow heading towards them...


Finn!


Despite himself, his immediate concern was for his partner, but Fionna immediately shook away the awful thought that came to him. This wasn't the time nor the place, not when he could sense the danger approaching!


Was it heading for him or for the boy vampire sleeping somewhere else in the building?


Did it matter?


Swiftly rising to his feet, Fionna looked around for the window through which his bats had broken into the room.


Finding it behind a thick drapery, he leapt out of the window...right into a graveyard.


Looking back the way he came, he saw that he had been kept within an old run down church.


For a moment, the irony of a vampire choosing a church as his hideout struck him as pitiful, but supposed that it were better than none.


Even as he turned away to take better stock of the surrounding, he sensed something rush at him.


Leaping aside and kicking at his attacker to give him more momentum, Fionna carefully studied the thing that immediately followed him.


Lightly touching the ground with his foot, he changed direction and passing beneath the bear claw that lunged at him, grabbed the human arm that held a wooden stake.


This creature must have been what Finn had been fighting...


With a sharp twist, Fionna easily wrenched away the human arm from the chimera and leapt aside as the bear claw came at him.


The thing seemed to feel no pain, and although ungainly with only one arm now, it came at him again, this time faster as if the thing hadn't been fighting at its full strength before.


Barely managing to avoid his head from getting knocked away, Fionna threw away the arm that was starting to rot in his hand.


Too bad the chimera wasn't rotting away like its detached arm.


Dodging aside yet another attack, he tried to think of a way to dispatch this particular enemy.


If he had known that the chimera could move faster, he would not have attacked the arm but tried for the head itself so that he could kill it with one strike, but he hadn't known, and even if he had, he wasn't sure he could have taken the head.


The leopard's head did not look that easy to take off without hurting himself.


So that meant what?


Slightly furrowing his brows, Fionna lightly struck away the bear claw and stretched out a hardened hand to aim a blow at the neck, only to be thrown back by a powerful kick.


Giving an undignified squawk of protest, the vampire flipped in the air to land on his feet, but could not dodge the bear claw this time.


Flung into a headstone, Fionna leapt aside blindly to avoid the next attack.


He was gasping for air as he dodged one endless attack another, and he cursed himself for not having taken a little risk to feed himself when the sun was still high.


The battle wouldn't have been so desperate if only he could have fed instead of healing by himself without blood.


I could rip open your snout in mere seconds if only I weren't so badly wounded!


Glaring at the thing that relentlessly and mindlessly attacked him, Fionna was ready to grind his fangs in frustration.


At his current strength, it was all he could do to dodge the attacks and stay out of range, yet he could not do so forever while the chimera seemed never to tire.


He needed to somehow create an opening...


Then suddenly, the air was full of screeching bats swooping right into the creature's face, distracting it for an instant.


Mentally apologizing to his familiars for such rough usage, Fionna lept above the creature, grabbing it by its head and with a deft twist, slamming the thing down onto the ground.


In the next instant, however, he had to tumble away as the bear claw swiped his legs from under him.


Cursing silently, Fionna rolled to his feet.


When he had thrown the chimera, he had been so certain that he had broken its neck as well...!


Then he was gaping for a precious second as the creature advanced on him.


The neck was bent at an impossible ange that hurt just looking at it, and if he weren't mistaken, the skin and bone were broken so that the head was just barely connected to the body...


It was grotesque, even for him, so that he could not react fast enough as the creature slammed its powerful arm down on his head.


Stunned from the impact, Fionna could only stare up as the creature reached hungrily for his neck...


"Mother!!!!"


The enraged scream had no impact on the chimera, but silver streaked in the night, binding its various limbs, as well as wrapping around the barely attached neck.


The instant the silver touched it, the chimera howled in astonished pain, struggling wildly to get rid of the chains.


Scrambling away, Fionna followed the chains to their owner: the young vampire struggling to keep his ground.


For all the superhuman strength in that small body, he wouldn't be able to hold down the chimera, and even as Fionna watched, the boy was getting dragged closer and closer towards the creature's reach...


"Let it go!"


At the shout, the blond boy stared at Fionna, giving the creature time to prepare himself for one strong pull.


It hadn't been Fionna who had shouted, but he had started moving the instant he heard it, grabbing the small body to himself and slapping away the boy's hands away from the silver chains.


Pulling against empty chains, the chimera lost its balance, tumbling backwards into numerous embraces.


For a moment, Fionna forgot all about the boy in his arms and just stared -


- stared at the incredibly horrifying sight, even to him.


The chimera was now caught by hands of the dead women that had been in the room Fionna had been locked into.


However powerful the chimera might be, it could not shake off a dozens of undead women who methodically tore him apart into hundreds of thousands of fleshly bits...


"Mother..."


About to turn away from the grotesque scene, he was reminded of the young vampire who had caught him and brought him into all this in the first place.


"Mother!"


The boy was struggling against his hold, crying out at the group of undead women tearing apart the already bloody heap.


Gritting his teeth against his rising gorge, Fionna held the boy back with some trouble and quickly looked around for his partner. Only Finn could do something like this, raise the undead...


"Let me go! Let me go to my mother!!!" the young vampire was biting and clawing at him now, unheeding of everything but the wish to go to his mother.


As if finally hearing him, one of the dead women raised a blood splattered face.


Slowly, as if uncertain of her footing, the corpse of a young woman took several steps towards them before falling to the ground.


' E...mi...le.... '


The black lips shaped the name and smiled, the dead green eyes unfocused yet looking at them.


"Mother!!!"


Finally slipping free, the boy ran to the prone figure on the ground, but even as Fionna watched helplessly, the body rotted away before the small shaking hands could reach her.


"...Mother...?"


All the other corpses had rotted too, as if their stopped time had suddenly flowed back to the present, leaving only a pile of bones and tattered rags.


"...Mother..."


Sensing a presence besides him, Fionna slightly turned so that a slender form came into his field of vision.


"Why...?"


The smiling angel seemed to float above the ground, so smoothly did he move over to where the small figure huddled besides a pearly white skull.


The anguished scream tore into the night again and again as the young vampire ineffectually beat on the ground with small round fists, watched over by a sorrowfully smiling angel.