Heirot

Vlad's eyes turned to the two men. He looked absolutely sinister as he stepped toward them. He teleported into the hall, next to them, and took them each by the hair. He dragged them back into the kitchen, taking a good bit of hair from their flimsy human scalps as he did. Once they were inside, the heavy wooden door slammed shut behind them and the top men literally flew into the far wall, next to the grate. Bones audibly chipped as they whapped against the stone.

The Vampire grabbed the grates off the stove, twisted them into semicircles, and pinned the men to the wall by their necks. He handed a kitchen knife to the woman, made a small gesture toward the two men. The woman stared at him in shock, but stayed quiet. He hoped they didn't get free. He hoped the woman didn't need to kill them. He wanted to do it himself.

With an inhuman snarl, the vampire tore the grate off the floor and jumped in, finding his bearings in the dark. He could smell nothing in this nest of stench. "Which way?" he demanded of the woman staring down at him in dumfounded silence. She pointed. He ran.

Tenele heard a loud splash up a head and she skidded, as best she could in the muck at her feet, to a stop. Had it taken a quick route ahead?

She turned to go back the other way. The tall beat lumbered out, clicking at her. She twisted to dodge the swipe, and it grazed her side. She fell back into the wall and slid into the water, before scrambling to get away. This thing wanted fresh dinner.

Vlad heard something up ahead, a familiar sound he didn't like. He'd seen a man eaten alive by that creature the night before. He teleported short jumps ahead to speed his pace, though porting through water and in unfamiliar territory was difficult. He finally splashed to a halt as he came to an intersection of tunnels and spotted a large cavern to his right. It was pitch black, but it wasn't an issue for the vampire. He could hear it now, the frantic human heartbeat and the huge creature attacking. "Tenele!" he shouted, breaking into a sprint toward the commotion. Long black claws sliced loose from his fingertips, ready at his sides.

Tenele scrambled to get away as it sloshed behind her. It swatted, and she somehow managed to fall forward just in time with every lunge she took. She choked on the water she inhaled by accident, and was too consumed in blind terror to hear her name. But, the beast heard it It swatted a final time and the hit sent her into the side wall. The creature turned, its blood lust dampening enough to sense the presence of another beast.

The hideous creature sniffed the air and growled with a deep throaty click.

"Hey there, brother," Vlad said, slowing a little now that the creature's attention seemed to be on him. "You're a little cranky here. I can relate. But that one is mine."

The beast didn't seem sympathetic to the vampire's words. Instead, it judged him like one judged mushrooms he just found in the forest and wasn't sure he could eat. He seemed to decide it was worth the risk, and dove in on Vlad.

Vlad sidestepped the huge maw and rows of teeth, driving his talons hard into the side of the creature's skull. That would have been effective, but even with their length, his claws were like a scrape compared to the size of this thing. No big deal. He didn't mind a little whittling. He teleported above the creature's neck, or at least where the neck seemed to be, and went to work digging in with his claws, looking for its spine. He tried to steal a glance to the side, at least enough to see if Tenele was alright.

The thing roared, the first actual roar it had made other than the little clicks. It reached behind, swiping at Vlad with its huge claws. Tenele couldn't see what was going on. It was too dark. She could barely tell whose roar was whose. It was like listening to two over-sized demonic cats fight. The beast jumped back, slamming Vlad into the stone wall.

She wrapped her arms around her shivering body and slid along the wall to get some distance between herself and the fight, knowing that if it spilled over near her she wouldn't be able to know until it was on top of her. It made her worry not to be able to tell who was winning.

Vlad ducked close to the creature's skin, but still got a slash across his back from the unexpected claws. His senses whited out for a second as he crashed into the stone walls. He released his grip on the monster and fell roughly into the shallow water below. Well, what do you know. The damned thing was intelligent. He rose back to his feet, feeling his bones and flesh realigning as he smirked at his opponent. If the thing wanted him off, that meant he was on to something. He ran for the creature and scaled his thick skin to get back up behind his neck. He threw his hand in deeper this time, carving into the beast with his whole arm and fishing for a spine, for anything he could crush.

The sound sent gut wrenching sense of fear into Tenele. She wasn't sure what was making that sound, it was so different from anything she'd heard yet. She stepped forward involuntarily. "Vlad?" she asked, hoping he was okay.

The beast jumped back against the wall again, sliding to crush Vlad like an insect against the wall. It growled and clicked, making all sorts of noise as it swiped to pinch his head off.

Vlad started at the incoming wall. He had to throw both arms literally to the shoulder inside the creature's neck to find what he was looking for, and twist. It was a very strong spine. Vlad growled fiercely with the effort, his eyes glowing bright red. The vertebrae disconnected with a horrible, very loud crack. The flailing claws stopped dead in their attempts to behead the vampire, but the inertia of slamming toward the wall was difficult to do anything about. Black spinal fluid burst like a fountain from the creature's body as it crashed into the wall Vlad-first and collapsed to the floor.

Tenele panted in the silence, able to see two red eyes in the bleakness of the hall. Everything was still now...

Was it dead? She waited a moment longer and the only sound she heard was the water lapping at the walls as it started to settle. For Tenele it was up to her navel, and cold as the snow outside.

She edged closer, feeling her way along the wall. "Are you hurt?" she asked Vlad.

After a minute or so of scouting out all his body parts to ensure they were still attached, the vampire shoved himself loose from the weight of the creature he'd collapsed with and emerged from the carnage, looking for Tenele.

"Are you hurt?" he heard her voice echo.

"Of course not," Vlad scoffed, brushing black slime off his clothes unsuccessfully as he walked toward her. His body repaired itself as he moved. He tried to smell her through the cloud of gore and rot surrounding them, but it was hard to tell if she was injured. "Are you?"

"Just a few scratches," she told him as she felt at her side where the claws had grazed her. She then turned her hands out, feeling through the air for him. She could see his eyes, but it was hard to tell just how close he was. "How on earth did you know I was down here?" she asked him, and then remembered that the woman might have told someone... so it was probably a stupid question.

"There are more of them," Vlad said, cutting right to the chase as he reached her and took her hand securely in the dark. "They also wanted me outside the fortress. That means they're afraid of us. And, it means something outside isn't."

Tenele wrapped her fingers around his hand tightly. "Well, guess we will have to put off the wedding a little while longer..." It occurred to her then that she never had a chance to tell him the news. She stepped closer to him. "You stink... Or maybe we both do. It is really hard to tell at this point. How do we get out of here?"

Vlad didn't even consider that her mention of their wedding was anything more than timely sarcasm. "Come." His eyes glinted with lingering anger, but his grip on her hand was gentle as he led her back the way he'd come. Teleportation was of course an option, but he felt it might be wise to conserve power, just in case whatever was waiting for them to stroll out the gates was actually worth fighting. This creature was a real threat, but so far, he had no evidence that the people plotting against them actually controlled anything of similar power. He tried not to think about what would have happened to Tenele if he hadn't gotten lucky and stumbled across the shrieking woman.

A few moments later, Vlad lifted Tenele up so she could climb out of the grate easily, back into the kitchen. The two men were still pinned to the wall, and the woman still huddled with the knife Vlad had given her, waiting anxiously by the grate. She drew a deep breath, as if she'd been holding it all this time, when she saw Tenele emerge. "Oh, God. Oh, great mercy of Thar!" she murmured in relief as she saw Tenele. She reached out to try to help the maiden up, though Tenele probably didn't need it.