Crimson Claws & Fangs ch.11

On the terrace of the Moroii Goth club Mike topples over in pain as he transforms into his Toori-Ma form. With a wave of his hand Count Fontaine calls his people to carry Mike into a secluded back room where the guests of the club wont hear him. In the darker back room Mike shifts completely into the grotesque gargoyle like form of the Toori-ma. With a sniff of the air he looks at Fontaine and growls, “Wicked Blood” as he lunges at the vampire.

 

    Mike is stopped short and held in mid-air by Fontaine’s telekinetic hold. In a desperate attempt to struggle free Mike’s demonic wings erupt from his back, but it is to no avail. With hand outstretched Fontaine maintains the hold on Mike.

 

    “So the rumor is true,” says Fontaine, “The Toori-ma not only feed on the blood of sinful humans but also on that of vampires.” With a telepathic projection Fontaine reminds the bestial form of Mike of the deal they made only moments before. The demon form of Mike searches his memory and hisses, “I didn’t deal, wimpy human made deal with you.”

 

    “well then,” says Fontaine, “We shall make a new deal then. How about you work for me and I will work with you secretly while keeping your human side in the dark about our deal, it wouldn’t be that hard to prevent that side of you from remembering this conversation with my mental abilities. And of course the bonus of feeding on plenty of wicked vampires and human thralls as my enforcer. So do we have a deal?” The near mindless beast agrees quickly at the idea of never being human again and free food.

 

    “However,” states Fontaine as he releases Mike from his psychic hold, “You will need to be tested to see how effective you really are. I need you to follow an unknown vampire who has been frequenting the bar, and has left several times with girls I had claimed for myself, who have never returned after leaving with him.” Fontaine commands Mike to turn invisible so the patrons of the bar won’t see him as he points out the offending vampire in the bar. Below at the bar flirting with a rather drunk young lady who Fontaine had chosen himself once again is the young man with shoulder length black hair and dark blue eyes wearing a black leather jacket and jeans.

 

   Later that night the man in the leather jacket leaves the bar with the drunken Goth girl, who he knew was the girl the vampire Fontaine had wanted, as part of a game to annoy the vampire. In the alley Mike turns invisible and takes to the air following the man. The man takes the girl to a nearby park and sniffs the air, “strange” thinks the man, “that scent is familiar somehow, yet vampire like. This must be the test my father was talking about.”

 

   The man hears a thud behind him and sees the gargoyle like form of Mike become visible. Mike points at the man saying, “That girl is for Count Fontaine, little vampire like you should no your place.” The drunk girl blinks and stares through blurred eyes at the figure and starts to become fearful, the man quickly hypnotizes her and places her on a bench out of harms way. The man steps out on the path away from the bench as Mike walks sideways to follow him.

 

    The man looks at Mike with no fear and says, “You aren’t very careful about hiding yourself, I thought vampires were supposed to be shy about shit like that.” In this moment the scent of the vampire before him suddenly brings back a memory of long ago when he was younger, of the one time in his entire life thus far where he felt real pain.

 

    Mike begins talking about punishing vampires and being an enforcer for his Fontaine, as an odd mix of his human mind and demon mind meld in this moment and an instance of clarity effects is olfactory reception of the man before him. The scent, “not a vampire.” He thinks, “not wicked, not human”. Mike stands confused and the man hearing Mike’s thoughts says in an angry very bestial growling tone, “I met you before, that night. You used to be human. You are the guy who had that fucking sword and threw me down a rocky cliff!”

 

   Mike’s mind clearing its self inside his demon body thinks, “Impossible! It can’t be!” The man transforms in this instance to a giant four legged black fox like creature, albeit only half the size of the ones Mike had seen before. But either way the mystery was solved this one of the two offspring of Rhuen and Versa he had seen before.

 

  “you got it asshole!” screams the man, “I’m Rish, and you…are dead.”

 

 Mike lunges at Rish only to be smacked by the massive flexible tail and sent crashing into a nearby Gazebo. As Mike stand up the voice of Fontaine in his head stops him from trying to attack again. Appearing from the shadows like a crocodile emerging from water Fontaine appears clapping his hands.

 

   “It seems this isn’t the test I had intended for my new enforcer.” He says, “surely even a young Dire is more than a match for a Toori-ma, I will just need to test my new soldier in a different way.”

 

    Fontaine with a wave of his hand opens a blue portal and orders Mike to step through it, before he himself also steps through he turns to Rish and says, “Please excuse my manners & my soldier, I assure you I would like nothing more than to be on good terms with the likes of you.”

 

     Later on in the night after closing hours Fontaine is sitting in his penthouse on his love couch with two skimpy dressed Moroii babes. His butler announces a visitor, a tall pale woman with long jet black hair wearing a business suit who casually walks past Fontaine’s henchmen and stands arms crossed above the sitting Count, “So…tell me, how did the test go?”

 

    Fontaine removes his arms from around the shoulders of his girls and sits forward, “That man, my men pointed out to me was not a vampire. He was a young Dire, probably looking to make this city part of his territory.”

 

   The woman casually says, “That was Rish, the son of Rhuen.”

 

   Fontaine looks startled, and not simply because the woman already knew who and what the visitor was. His emotionally stated becomes one of fright in fact as the woman tells him that she knows that earlier that night Rhuen himself was in the bar.

 

   Fontaine thinks back to the end of WWII and how easily Rhuen tore him apart in his own castle, unfazed by Fontaine’s attacks and left him in pieces in small boxes sealed with magic.

 

    “Now now, poor little vampire count; I don’t believe Rhuen or his son will interfere with our plans. Rhuen is likely just training his new son. Things will proceed as scheduled so long as you or this new enforcer do not do anything stupid.” The woman turns and leaves with out another word, as she leaves one of the Moroii henchmen says to the other, “Why would the boss put up with such disrespect from that woman?”

 

   The other henchman looks at him with a curious look and says, “Because that was Litmet herself, the mother of all vampires.”