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Chapter 11 continued...
The wind flapped at my coat and my hair whipped my face as I sat crouched upon the roof of The Sanctuary – the pinnacle of my home, the countless rooms concealed below the streets. The night was dry; neither a fleck of rain nor a droplet of moisture hung in the air. I raised my head to look at the sky and stars unveiled glittered radiantly back at me. The moon hung like a great white orb in the heavens and showered the land with its grey beams, the city of Asperia lit up as if it were day but for the colours that seemed to be erased by the black sky. Colours; their domain was with the sun. And now, in the night, they faded to give way to the encroaching shades of black and white and grey.
I did not mind. It had its own beauty. Neon lights here and there defied the darkness but they were too bold, too strong for my sensitive eyes. I kept them pointed towards the stars.
After the duel with Keenar I had rested, gaining my strength back over a book by the fire in my room. I had then entered the night to find a drunken man directly in the alley where the hidden door was concealed in The Sanctuary wall and received an ear-piercing scream when I had appeared. I quickly silenced him by bearing his neck and sinking my teeth into his skin, my mind being bombarded with a series of life images. He was a nobody; never did an honest thing in his life - beat his wife and son, sold drugs for a living…I dug my teeth in harder until he cried out. He died in bitterness and I had a feeling that no one would miss him.
I was not sorry for killing the useless underside of the city. They were nothing but dishonest greedy drunkards with no conscience. No souls. But they disgusted me – smelling of sour sweat, alcohol and piss. No Vampire or Werewolf in their right mind would hunt one for food. Just the thought of your mouth coming into contact with such vermin was sickening. But on the other hand no one would miss them. No one. And they only got what they deserved.
Unfortunately I had an attraction for…wealthier, high-bred blood. And the more handsome they were the better. Healthy, well brought up people tasted better, more nutrients. It was like drinking liquid gold. The ‘nobody’ I had just fed upon was like greasy tap water compared to some of my other victims. And although my parents had, on countless occasions, dissuaded me from doing it, I sometimes liked to ‘play with my food’. I was becoming to accept what I was and even beginning to have fun while looking for my sustenance every night.
Usually I would go to a club or bar and catch the eye of some young, wealthy man or woman. I would then turn on the charm and let them buy me drinks all night, pretending to be interested in what they had to say while all the while watching them get more and more intoxicated.
Seduction can be a dangerous weapon and, by the end of the night, it was usually my weapon of choice. I would lead them away to their homes, a hotel room, an alley; anything would do, and painlessly suck their lives from their veins. Unfortunately these people were usually good people; honest, hard working people just looking for a good time. And I paid for it every night by watching their dying memories slide past. So many memories I have inside my head and they are not mine. A Vampire can go insane with it all.
But that’s the way it was. Call me cruel and heartless. Call me merciful and compassionate. Either way I could not escape who I was. What I was. And some nights you were lucky and others you were not. Tonight, I was not. The man’s neck had tasted of stale sweat and was covered in dirty stubble. I was still disgusted as I stared up at the stars, still feeling the prickling on my lips. But at least my store of magic inside me had replenished and I no longer felt mentally weary.
A smile curled my lips as I now reached for that store, forming inside my head and on my lips my most treasured spell. Upon that quiet rooftop my concentration was complete and uninterrupted, my mind able to weave the chains of sorcery into intricate patterns that I laced around myself like a glowing cocoon. As the last link fell into place and the word left my tongue, the orb of glowing energy contracted and seemed to draw into me until all light had been sucked into my welcoming body, triggering a series of reactions that were not painful in a way but felt strange nonetheless.
A dull ache in my bones told me that they were going hollow and I immediately felt lighter, less bound to the earth on which I was standing. New bones were growing in my back and, with them, new networks of veins, arteries, nervous system relays and strong layers of muscle – all attaching themselves to the old ones. They grew out from my back and a loud ripping told me that my clothing had given way. Silently cursing, I mentally noted to remind myself to not wear the coat or to cut holes in it.
The bones and muscle extended outwards, on and on into the night and, as they did so, the largest feathers I had ever seen blossomed upon them until a formidable pair of wings were protruding from my back. The spell was complete. I regarded my handiwork with satisfaction as the colossal silken feathers ruffled in the wind, almost black but not quite, having the appearance of a dark violet sheen. Access to a whole new area of my brain gave me control of the muscles in my wings and I stretched them wide to their full span – a massive four metres from tip to tip. An image of Orias entered my mind and I smiled. Close enough but nothing could ever match the beauty the Angels possessed.
I stepped to the edge of the rooftop and peered down to the streets below. Tiny figures crawled along the earth’s surface, bound to it by the pull of the world. They seemed so heavy and clumsy as they plodded along and I knew that, without this spell, I was no different.
The wind blew my hair about my face and whistled through my feathers. It was calling to me and I smiled as I raised my face to the stars once more. I stretched out my arms and let myself fall off the rooftop, plummeting with ever increasing speed towards the ground. I opened my wings and felt the strain as cool air filled beneath them and I broke out of my dive, soaring effortlessly through the night. A few people raised their heads but my dark shape melted into the black sky and the demonic shadow that was me would be blamed on a figment of their imagination.
Beating my wings hard, I rose above the skyscrapers and the very tips of the city and found myself in oblivion. It was amazing, a wonder that could only be described! The feeling of being so weightless with nothing but air whistling around me was exhilarating! I closed my eyes and opened my arms wide as I arched and tumbled through the sky.
An hour of bliss and I was starting to feel the strain. The muscles in my back were beginning to cramp and I was breathing hard from the exertion, my heart beating fast. Calming down from my elated state, I searched for a suitable place to alight. That was when I saw the cloud.
It was moving at a swift pace and, on such a clear night, was out of place amongst the radiant stars. Alarm bells immediately sounded in my head and my instincts felt that something was very wrong. Hovering as best I could, ignoring the screaming pain of my muscles, I squinted at the whirling black mass.
Shadows. Shadows like black dust trailed from…an involuntary gasp left my lips…from a hundred skeletal forms. Their wings and lower bodies were insubstantial, disappearing into a whirling gloom of straggling black ash that seemed to be part of them nonetheless. Their skulls and ribcages had the appearance of charred stone and their sharp ripping teeth were ever locked in a skeletal grin, their eye sockets hideously vacant. Adding to my horror and unease, each creature held a wickedly keen and twisted sword made of bleached bone in each one of their fleshless hands. Fear gripped my heart. Hsaru fend! What are these creatures?
A memory of comfortable chairs and a warm fire flashed in my mind. I could hear Lorcan’s voice as he told me about the various creatures of Naberus. “Gargoyles. Our only safeguard against them is water; their bones will dissolve in it. But if you manage to get one on its own, a blade will do.”
My hand reached down to the handle of my katana, ever with me even in flight, but there were too many and closing fast. Desperately I reached for the sorcery within, my fingers already tracing patterns in the air. With a force that threw me back, my wings folding around me, a great ball of shimmering water left my hands and shattered in their midst. The Gargoyles that were hit dissolved into nothingness but it was not enough. My spell had taken out five, maybe six of the creatures. A hundred more pairs of blank sockets regarded me hungrily. In blind panic I turned and fled.
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Either that or my book is getting too darn long to read on the net.
Originally Posted by MiloDaePesdan
!!! Thank you thank you! Glad you found your password!
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