Holier Than Thou

[Emora Deen]

Talon eyed the wrist of his master, unable to disobey even if he felt ashamed from being so weak as to take blood from the dead. He took Vlad's hand gingerly between his fingers and then leaned down towards his wrist. He didn't hesitate. He couldn't. Talon's teeth sank slowly into Vlad. There was little desire in the bite, as Vlad's blood while nourishing, did not hold the same flavor or allure of a frightened human. But, as soon as the blood entered his mouth, as soon as his body registered it as a what it was, he drew long deep pulls of it into his mouth. He held Vlad's arm tighter, his red eyes looking up at his master with a mixture of gratitude and humiliation.

He felt the least he could do to make it up to the vampire was show him what he'd been practising with the girl he'd killed... and maybe he'd understand why he'd lost so much control.

Talon focused his power, what little he knew of it, into the bite, meaning to bring him comfort, even pleasure if he could muster the stomach or the strength for it. He remembered that hotel room on his fifth night as a new monster, and the potency of Vlad's bite. Then, he suspected Vlad was merely toying with him to show him what could be done, what the lighter side of being a demon meant. Talon wanted to show Vlad that he'd been trying to teach himself those things.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad calmly allowed the man to drink from him. He wasn't expecting the tingle of power that stretched along their blood link. At first he wasn't sure, but he quickly realized the man was sending off the power deliberately. It pulled through Vlad's muscles like a sedative, trying to make him relax. It wasn't near enough power to seduce someone like him, but he imagined it would be calming to a victim. Calming enough to stop them from resisting. "Well done," he murmured to his blood. "You are learning control." It would be more difficult with a live target, but he wanted to be sure Talon was encouraged for the effort. "Too soon to try to give me a hard-on, though," he smirked. His hand opened and cupped over the side of his face lightly, a quiet signal that he'd taken enough.

[Emora Deen]

Talon drew up, blood spilling over his lips. He licked it away, falling back against the wall with a comforting sigh. He tilted his head back, shut his eyes, and let the fire in his chest die. It felt good to not have the drums pounding in his head, and the ache of hunger to be gone. He wasn't by any means full, but he wasn't dangerous either. "Do I get a a medal or certificate of completion if I graduate to giving my master hard-ons?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad grinned wickedly at his brother in law. "I'm a generous master. If you achieve your goal of giving me a hard-on, you can do anything with it you like," he scoffed, clearly not expecting Talon to reach that level in his lifetime.

[Emora Deen]

Talon laughed, it was the first time he'd laughed in a while, and it felt good to have it rumble through his chest. "I would not make such promises, I'm apt to make you regret them," he advised Vlad, pushing off the wall. "Are we still going to the dungeon?"

[Soran Nightblade]

"Yes," Vlad said. "Feel you can travel the halls without eating the help?"

[Emora Deen]

Talon nodded. "I can," he admitted, opening the door and stepping out into the hall far more confident than he'd been earlier. As he got further from his room with Vlad, and passed more people, he began to feel more like himself than he'd been in days. By the time they reached the dungeon doors, where the air was damp even for a desert realm, and it was pleasantly dark, he was maybe too confident in his restraint.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad observed his bloodling's increasing calm with satisfaction. They reached the bottom of the stairs and into a large sandstone chamber. A guard was standing watch at a large iron gate. Vlad signaled to him, and the guard let them both past. He cast a watchful look toward Talon as he passed through, but not a fearful one. Vlad had exaggerated the young vampire's control slightly, so the man wasn't afraid.

"Now," Vlad said as they entered a corridor lined with cells, mostly occupied. "We're going to get some practice. You have no reason to care about these men. No one else does either. If you can drink without killing them, it goes without saying that you can control yourself with someone you give a damn about. Your mission is to take enough, and then stop. I'm cutting off all social interaction except with me until you're done. If you succeed, you can move on to the next barrack, where the female prisoners are kept. If you succeed there, maybe I'll let someone change your linens and refresh your hearth."

[Emora Deen]

Talon looked at the men in their cells, these murders, rapists, and thieves. They seemed interested in them, growing closer to the bars to observe, each one not suspecting he was about to feast on them. "Drink and not kill..." Vlad and Tenele were the only live meals he'd taken that he hadn't killed. Tenele would have died if he hadn't managed to remember who he was to her, and who she was to him. So, this was going to be a big test for his restraint. Whether it was his own confidence, or Vlad's blood running through him, he felt pretty good about the odds. "Give me one," he told Vlad, his lips tugging into a smirk.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad smirked and waved the guard in toward them. "This one," he gestured toward a cell with a large bearded man. In moments, the guard complied and unlocked the cell. The man wandered out skeptically, looking between the three of them.

"Am I gettin' pardoned?" he demanded. "I told them already I was drunk. That bitch had it coming."

Vlad took the man by the shoulder with an unnaturally strong grip and led him before Talon. "Give it your best shot. Ten seconds, Talon. That tends to be the limit. The others will be afraid as well. Be ready."

[Emora Deen]

Talon glowered at the beast of a man as Vlad led him forward. He wondered if he had to keep this one alive, after what he said he had the urge to slip. But, he couldn't slip. This was a goal. He had to be better. He had to not kill. He'd feel the fear of the prisoners around him when they realized what he was doing. He had to overcome this.

Talon reached out and fisted a hand in the man's dirty hair, feeling a wave of repulsion float through him. Talon, an aristicrat, wasn't exactly used to dealing with scuzzy grotesquely dirty criminals. He jerked the man's head back.

"What?! What are you doing?!"

Talon offered his answer in the form of a harsh bite to the man's throat. He sank his fangs in, and tasted the fear like ecstasy. He crushed his teeth down harder, listening to the prison erupt with screeching, screaming, gasps. Their fear flooded him, fed him, made him alive.

Talon drew back for a second, taking a deep breath. The blood drained down his chin and neck. His hooded gaze fell on his prey. He glanced to Vlad, and then dove back in. The man screamed, and Talon ripped into his jugular. The messy wound sprayed blood across the room, since the already frightened men ballistic. Talon drew back, took dying man's head in his grasp, and snapped his neck.

As the body crumpled to the floor Talon looked down at him and chuckled. "That bitch had it coming." His gaze fell on the prison guard. With a blood smile he shrugged. "What?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad swallowed a chuckle at the man's reaction. If he weren't so sure that normal Talon would find this Talon so upsetting, he might have just let himself laugh. "Well, that could have gone better," he advised, taking his blood by the shoulders and herding him away from the rather unsettled guard. The prisoners were no longer at the front of their cells. Most had pinned themselves to the back walls, as far as they could get from this seemingly remorseless killer.

"Alright," Vlad muttered, stepping in front of Talon and resting his hands on both the man's shoulders to make him focus on him. "How did that feel?"

[Emora Deen]

Talon licked his lips. "Fantastic," he admitted, trying not to smile. This wasn't funny. He'd just killed someone. Snapped there neck. Bled them dry. Why did this seem amusing to him? "I enjoy killing..." He swallowed as the realization started to settle in.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Better," Vlad observed flatly. "That man is dead. You knew very little about him. Now how do you feel?"

[Emora Deen]

Talon shrugged. "I don't feel anything about him. I don't care about him. He was a dirty criminal that hurt a woman and felt nothing for it. I don't feel bad about killing him. I feel bad that I enjoyed it, that I want to do it again."