:: Raining Blood ::



Bowing formally to the dais, Kyle slid back a few steps before turning around to leave the throne room.


Stepping out of the room into darkness, she spread out her wings and fixed her mind upon an image of a place that her lord had just bestowed upon her.


Faintly glowing blue hair waved in unseen wind, leaving an afterimage in the shadows after the slender form disappeared into the gloom.








They felt, more than heard, the angel of death laugh, a slender hand hiding the smiling face that was turned away anyway.


Flushing, Emile stomped his little feet. "How was I supposed to know that there was such a creature!?"


Pointed by a shaking finger, ' such a creature ' wordlessly folded his arms, resignedly waiting out the rare fit of laughter that assaulted his partner.


A pair of brilliant blue eyes looked towards them for an instant before turning away once more as if unable to contain the unstoppable laughter.


"I...never imagined..." gasping, Finn managed to utter three words before the laughter took away his voice.


"My mother never taught me that there could be any creature like....him!!" Emile protested in a tone that seemed to blame Fionna as well, his emerald eyes blazing back and forth between the laughing angel and the seemingly frozen statue of a beautiful woman.


"Emile..." Fionna finally opened his lips, and the husky voice could have been taken for either a woman or a man.


In blazing fury, the emerald eyes turned towards him, and Fionna gave a tiny sigh and started to speak when they all felt it.


Instantly on the alert, the three vampires turned to stare at a spot in the air where strange energy currents swirled tightly.


"Someone or something is teleporting in here," Finn stated as a warning for their newest companion.


Fionna had seen this before, but he was not sure that the young exorcist vampire had ever seen it.


Giving a slight nod, Emile carefully studied the eddying energy currents so that he would be able to tell if...when it happened again.


Keeping an eye on the spot, yet swiftly looking around to survey the area that would, in all probability soon turn into a battleground, Fionna wondered why the attack came now.


Well away from the gay city of Paris, they walked a lonely path through a forest, and the sun was shining too brightly right above their hooded heads.


Finn, too glanced up at the annoying enemy in the heaven, and adjusted the hood of his mantle so that his face was completely shadowed within.


His cool gaze also rested briefly on the innocently brilliant golden head shining in the bright sunlight.


When Emile knew that they were going to walk through the day, he had been horrified, protesting that they would all fry up and turn into ashes at the first lick of the sunlight, but Fionna, with brief but sincere words, finally persuaded him that the sun would do nothing less than weaken them.


At first, the boy had huddled deeply within his voluminous cape, but gradually, relaxed, going so far as to take off his hood, saying that it was too hot.


Although Finn had expected the sun to have no effect on the exorcist vampire, still, it was a trifle annoying that such a brat could withstand something that weakened him unconditionally.


"Finn!"


The young piping voice rang in his sensitive ears as he parried aside an attack, making him glare at the blond vampire shining all golden in the sunlight.


Did that boy think he would not be aware of the completion of the teleportation spell and that whatever that came from within, would attack him first?


Gliding backwards to dodge yet another attack, Finn smiled at his attacker, freezing him midstride.


A seemingly young boy slightly older than Emile in appearance stood stock still in the sunlight, his short white hair swaying in the wind.


Hmph. Too bad. He had no interest in boys.


"You do realize that that's a girl?" a snickering voice laughed right at his elbow, making him automatically swipe his arm at the boy, but Emile danced away, laughing.


"Ha! I knew it! You can't really tell genders apart unless they're grown ups," still laughing, the blond vampire leapt at the young girl, his hand reaching for the throat.


Almost unconsciously, the girl struck the hand away, a knee coming up in a blurring motion and barely missing Emile's stomach as he flew aside.


Changing target, the girl glided through the air on her midnight black wings, delivering a powerful kick that tumbled the young vampire into a nearby bush.


"Fionna," Finn called to his partner and smiled.


Walking towards him, Fionna gave a silent sigh.


The gargoyle no longer seemed to have interest in Finn and was harassing Emile as he leapt out of the bush, sputtering indignantly.


Grimacing a little in pain, the young boy looked about himself even as he hastily parried away a fragile looking hand.


Instead of capturing the silently attacking girl gargoyle within the emerald orbs, they instead caught sight of Finn and Fionna running full speed towards...


...the forest away from Emile and the gargoyle.


Fionna looked back once and gave him a nod, but Emile stared with his jaws hanging open, his mind not making sense of what his eyes were seeing.


Angrily striking aside yet another blow, he did not even notice the pain as his fist banged against the rockhard hand, for he was all ready to attack - not the gargoyle, but his fleeing companions.


As if sensing the half formulated idea behind him, the smiling vampire turned towards them and waved a hand.


"It's all yours, Emile!" the pleasant voice floated back to them along with the smile. "We'll be sure to jump in if you seem to be in trouble, so don't worry about us, and finish that thing off."


Running besides him, Fionna nearly sighed again.


Why couldn't his partner just say straight out that they couldn't fight?


Even though either Finn or Fionna alone could defeat Emile at night, during the day, the blond vampire was the strongest of them all, for the sunlight did not weaken him - however that worked.


"Your hand," Fionna murmured, and his partner glanced at him, then down at the hand that must be bruised beneath the silken black gloves.


Gliding to a graceful stop, the angel of death gave a shrug.


"We must hunt tonight in order to heal," he replied quietly, turning to survey the battle over a hundred of yards away.


Did we have to run this far? Fionna wondered inwardly but did not say anything.


In the end, he trusted his partner's instincts...


...although a nagging voice kept on demanding if even they could really get to Emile in time if the battle turned against him.


Even if Emile could read minds at a distance, he would not have had the time to read Fionna to realize that they were exactly thinking the same thing.


In the moment of hesitation as he stared in incredulous surprise at his supposed companions - who seemed to have abandoned him - steel hard nails dug into his shoulders, and he was momentarily lifted off the ground.


There was no time to think what happened, when he was slammed down onto the ground and sharp talons dug into his back with the full force of the gargoyle dropping from the air.


His breath running out in a whoosh! he saw a red haze blur his vision as blinding pain exploded in his back, telling him how deep the talons had dug into his back.


Gasping for breath, he quickly rolled with an outstretched hand, but his attacker had already launched into the air out of reach, a languid talon swiping at his hand and almost breaking it off.


Emerald eyes wide in a moment of trepidation, Emile concentrated on avoiding the next few attacks, watching and studying the pattern of attack and timing.


In the last century since he had become a vampire, he had never really fought.


He had only killed human mortals for food, and occasional Undead underlings that might unwittingly wander into his small territory.


Fionna had been his first true adversary, and he had won only because the other vampire had not been expecting him to use holy weapons.


Nor was this gargoyle expecting such, but...!


Raising an arm to ward off a rock hard punch aimed straight at his face, Emile backflipped away from the gargoyle, kicking away a greedy hand as he did so.


But even as his hand reached into the folds of his cloak, a blurring white hand slashed into his cheek, splattering blood into his eyes.


Not even blinking nor flinching, he merely finished his movement, pulling out a small glass vial and throwing it into the nearly expressionless face.


- she's like fionna... -


The thought flashed through his mind for an instant as the glass broke, and the holy water splashed onto the handsome face.


Gasping in surprise, Kyle drew back, wiping at her burning face, and crying out a little as the liquid burnt her sensitive palm.


She felt a slight force against her unguarded stomach, and automatically swiped down an arm but the slender arm had already been withdrawn.


Wanting to shake his smarting hand that felt as if all the tiny bones in them had been broken to millions of pieces, instead Emile pulled out most of the silver chains on his arms and flung them net-like around the gargoyle.


The chains were weighed on the ends, and he threw them onto various treebranches, momentarily trapping the blue haired girl in a net of silver.


Strung up like some butterfly on a spider's net, Kyle widened her eyes in surpise as the chains burned into her stone hard flesh.


Feeling the tiny pinpricks of pain all over her limbs and wings, she struggled to free herself, wasting precious moments as she disentagled herself, when the blond boy rushed straight by her as if the chains were not there.


A flash of heat exploded on her arm, and she stared down in shock at the red droplets oozing out of her ripped flesh.


"I can smell it..." an angry voice brushed her ears as the vampire passed on the other side and gashed open yet another wound, making her flinch.


Since the time of her creation, she had never seen her own blood.


Nothing could break her skin, although strong force might damage her within...


What was happening...!?


"Do you know how you were created?" the young voice whispered behind her, and pain ripped through her wings.


Involuntarily crying out, Kyle whirled around to strike at her attacker, but he was nowhere in sight, only the silver greeting her confused eyes.


Were there that many silver chains before?


What was this world of silver that greeted her eyes?


Why couldn't she even sense where that boy was!?


"All the blood within you..."


A whisper, creating new pain in her leg, nearly crippling her, but she ignored the pain, trying to catch him.


Her hand only struck silver chains, now spotted in crimson... her own blood.


The pure silver world was gradually turning pink, the red stains everywhere...


"I wonder how many babies it took to create you?"


A mocking laughter that slid through the edge of her awareness but would not strike directly at her...


The world turned deep crimson, the silver no longer visible, and Kyle fell to her knees, unable to support herself anymore.


"Giving up already?"


A mockingly sorrowful voice, stinging her into movement, but her hand barely hung onto a silver chain nearby.


"But there is more blood in you. This is barely the amount of one baby!"


Just one baby?


The tiny thing that she fed herself on.


Just one baby had enough blood to turn the world crimson...?


"By the desecrated blood upon thy holiness, awaken!"


Sharp voice that directly cut through her haze of confusion and pain, enabling her finally to see the small figure raise a bloodied knife and strike it deep into the dirt packed ground.


"Earth razor!"


Then her crimson world was full of darkness, slamming into her, through her, and her blood was flying everywhere, turning the world a deeper black.


Breathing heavily, Emile leaned on the blade struck into the earth, letting the raining blood replenish his exhausted energy.


The diamond hard earth slabs sharpened into blades had gashed open the gargoyle in an instant, turning her into a grisly mess of raw flesh, but she would be alive.


Inhaling deeply, the exorcist vampire tried to bring his breathing under control as he withdrew the wicked looking knife from the wound in the earth.


The blood still sprayed out like rain, but he ignored it, unhesitatingly walking through the shower to stand above the barely conscious gargoyle.


Wordlessly, he started to reach with the dagger in his hand, when a hand suddenly fell upon his shoulder, freezing his movement.


"Enough, Emile."


Looking back suspiciously at his two companions who must have come running back at full speed, Emile frowned at Fionna.


"What do you mean, enough? The thing is still alive, and she will recover, given time."


"Let her," Finn's amused voice grated on his nerves, and Emile glared daggers at the vampire smiling down at the bloody heap on the ground. Then the sapphire eyes turned towards him. "Even if she recovers enough to try anything, your blood-upon-silver warding will hold her mesmerized, will it not?"


Emile's jaws dropped open and even Fionna looked faintly surprised, making him smile even more widely.


"What, surprised that I know the Farouche warding spell?" Finn smiled serenely down at the blond and emerald eyed vampire. He must have taken after the mother, lucky for him, the Death Master thought musingly, remembering a pair of brilliant emerald eyes blazing in warring passion and hatred. "I have fought many exorcists, including ones from your family."


Reminded of his family, the boy grimaced a little, turning away from him.


Fionna looked questioningly at him, but Finn ignored the gaze, turning his attention back on their most recent attacker.


"Now, shall we see what we can hear of Lachlan from his latest minion?"