Checkmate | Reina x Nemopedia

Reina

The Dark Queen
Original poster
STAFF MEMBER
DONATING MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
  1. Looking for partners
Posting Speed
  1. One post per day
  2. Multiple posts per week
  3. 1-3 posts per week
  4. One post per week
  5. Slow As Molasses
Online Availability
In the mornings usually but only during the week. Weekends are devoted to the family.
Writing Levels
  1. Adept
  2. Advanced
  3. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
Genres
Modern, Magical, Romance, Medieval, Fantasy, Slice of Life
The glass shattered on the stone floor, pieces of various vials and instruments tossed about as if they were worthless and meant nothing. A loud groan filled the space as Sebastian gripped the edge of the now emptied wooden table before him, its contents thrown across the floor with its various liquids seeping into the stone. The veins on his forehead threatened to pop as he narrowed his gaze. “He what?!” the alchemist finally yelled to the foreman that stood a few feet from him. “He…escaped?!” His grip tightened even further, nails practically digging into the wood. “Tell me…” He said, lowering his voice in an attempt to stay calm though it wasn’t really working. “How does a bled out, weakened and unfed vampire manage to find a way off this table and somehow manage to escape this lab unnoticed?!”

The foreman, a stout man that had worked for the alchemist for years, trembled, voice shaking as he attempted to offer an explanation that he did not have. “I--I don’t know, sir. But we found Evan’s body not far from here. The new hire…The-the vampire must have somehow gotten a hold of him…fed on him enough to..”

“Silence!” Sebastian yelled out, not caring to listen to the rest of his explanation. This was his fault. He should not have underestimated the vampire’s will to survive. If he wanted something done right, he should always do it himself. He should not have trusted someone else with his most prized possession.

He removed the spectacles from his face and wiped the glass with a small handkerchief in his shirt pocket. He had to remain calm. “Your idiocy never ceases to baffle me,” he breathed out as he returned the glasses to his face and stepped over the shattered glass to move out of the laboratory. He had to right this wrong and immediately. He had plans and he would not let them be ruined by an escaped experiment. “Get me the hunter! NOW!” he yelled behind him before he slammed the door behind him, the vials on the wall rocking a bit as he did.

The foreman rattled in his boots, his entire body jerking at the sudden yells of his boss. He rushed out behind the man, attempting to ignore the bloodied knives and forceps he had to step over and went in search of the hunter. Whatever Sebastian Caddel wanted, he got. It didn’t matter what he had to do to get it. Being Sebastian's brother would only save him for so long before the man grew tired of him too. The foreman knew this and was quick to send word to the hunter before it was his blood on those same instruments.

—---

On the other side of the town, still within reach but far enough away not to be noticed, James stumbled to the floor. He was weak, his limbs, and frankly his entire body, hurt. His long nails grasped at the cobblestones as his body shook in its attempt to stay upright. He couldn’t stop, he had to keep going at all costs. He could not allow himself to be recaptured. It was sheer luck that he had managed to escape the madman’s lab. It was sheer luck that the young man, recently hired to clean, had gotten just a little too close to where he was held. He hadn’t fed enough however. He needed more blood if he was to regain enough strength to leave the city and truly escape from the madman that kept him prisoner.

The gaping wound in his chest, where the man kept his chest cracked open, had reopened slightly and he was slowing bleeding again. He had to find someone or something to feed on. He needed to stop himself from bleeding. He needed to heal. He needed his strength back. He grasped the side of the stone building and got back to his feet. His long black hair fell over his sunken face as yellowed eyes scanned the area until they landed on a stray dog feeding from the nearby trash. He didn’t have his speed but he managed to throw himself far enough to land on the dog and wrestle it beneath him and sink his teeth into its back. He didn’t care how he got the blood, so long as he did. The blood of animals would never be satiating to him but it was enough to at least stop his chest from continuing to bleed and just enough to at least keep him going until he found a more suitable alternative. He pushed the remains of the dog into the trash and struggled back to his feet again.

He would run, he would keep running. He had no other choice. His thoughts were still jumbled and it was hard for him to make sense of where he was. He hoped he was heading in the right direction at least. For now he kept to the shadows, for now he hid until he could find his next meal. He licked the bit of blood from his lips, wiping his mouth with the back of his arm. James tried not to look upon himself, to avoid his reflection at all costs. He had been drained of everything, kept from regenerating, kept from his only life force until he was barely a shell of his former self. He was unrecognizable, even to himself. He pushed himself forward, stumbling as he moved, holding on to whatever he could to remain upright. He was starving. He felt feral and he was sure he was at the cusp of losing his mind all together. He was being driven to madness. The man wanted him to be a vicious beast. He wouldn't give him the satisfaction. He just needed to feed....and now.
 
  • Love
Reactions: Nemopedia
Anya Nosferatu

It was the perfect night for a story. A drizzle fell from the sky, the streets were quiet and dark, dimly lit by the weakened lights of the street lights, not all replaced yet by the wonders of electricity. A delectable find by humanity, making life so much easier and brighter. Though, evidently not approved yet by all, both human and vampires, if the papers were anything to go by. Nonetheless, it was the perfect night for a mystery, or a horror. Anya hadn’t quite determined which one yet, sniffing the air for the blood that mixed with petrichor, smelling the bloodlust that laced through it and sensing the desperation of a fellow vampire. It was a nice combination of both, the female decided for herself.

“Here,” she said, appearing suddenly, a bag of blood ready in hand as she crouched down to the man, taking in his features before tugging the hood of her cloak further over her face. If James were to look in, peer further into the darkness beyond the Nosferatu cloak, he would see one single glimmer of pale blue, but that was all he was allowed to catch. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to carry you, it will look quite silly,” Anya had continued, gesturing towards her own small frame, smaller even than her nature and genes could have allowed her to be. A side effect of her time with the Nosferatu that had stunted her and left her barely taller than a young teen. She didn’t mind however, seeming quite content with her own fate as she kept on staring at James, as if unbothered by the fact that she openly had handed him a bag of blood and that she looked quite suspicious in that dark cloak on an empty street void of audience.

“Still, hurry,” Anya urged nonetheless, but her voice carried no hurry or impatience at all, rather sounding like a broken record instead that was instructed to repeat the lines needed, but couldn’t interpret its emotion or true meaning other than memorising the words.

“Oh, and take this,” came the response to drop a ball of gauze in the lap of the vampire, as if only noticing and smelling the open wound now, “replenishing will be useless if you don’t cover that up first,” came the smart observation, though if one was to ask Anya if she had meant to joke she would neither confirm or deny.

Alvin van Helsing

Still at night another figure wasn’t thinking of a story. When a foreman knocked on his door, urging Alvin to quickly see the alchemist Sebastian, the man knew that something was finally about to start. What, he wasn’t sure, but it was something. Something bigger, something exciting, something that would finally prove that Alvin was a true van Helsing heir, and not the heir of tall tales and ridicule.

“It escaped,” the man was quick to determine as soon as he walked into the room to meet the alchemist. How often Alvin had thought of this, even warned for it, a tilt in the corner of his lips that was the beginning of a smug smile he tried to hide. He had warned for it, it was better to execute these creatures rather than bring them to sense through human means and laws. Yet, here they were, escaped like any beast would do by instinct. Had the creature been captured by Alvin the man would have made sure that the vampire wasn’t alive. Alas, there were many of them outside on the streets, those too soft in heart and hand, and those greedy for gold. Both things Alvin couldn’t relate to as he examined the room in disgust, the blood and the set-up carefully avoided even the slightest brush from Alvin who was dressed in all white. “Did it bite anyone?” was the next question Alvin posed, though he didn’t need supernatural abilities to be able to smell the blood permeating the air, the unfortunate victim sucked from their very life essence.

“Emptied or still surviving?” Alvin’s next question came, though he didn’t seem to particularly care whether that particular man would survive or not. It was unfortunate, of course, it always was to lose a life, but Alvin had warned Sebastian and now that warning had cost a life, perhaps, if not for certain changing a life.

“Doesn’t matter, the end is all the same,” he announced somewhat solemnly, a gloved hand brushing against the bitemarks of that accursed victim before he rose himself up.
 
The other vampire happened upon him unexpectedly. James was taken aback by her presence, unsure if she was friend or foe. At first, he pressed his back against the wall, ready to rush off if it came down to it. He would not be taken back to the lab of the alchemist. She was going to have to kill him before he allowed himself to be taken again. She didn’t appear to mean him harm however. She handed him a bag of blood and gauze for his wound. At first he simply stared at the items on his lap. If he took them, did it mean that he would owe her something? No one gave anything for free. There was always a price but what choice did he have in the matter. He was actively bleeding and very hungry.

Ultimately he decided he was far too hungry to turn down more blood and the gape in his chest wasn’t just going to stop bleeding. He looked up to get a closer look at her but she was shielded by the cloak she wore. At her instruction, he grabbed the gauze and bandages handed to him and wrapped the wound on his chest as best he could. Without much more thought after that, he ripped the top of the blood bag open with his sharp fangs and quickly began to down the crimson liquid. It wasn’t warm anymore but it was human and ten times better than feeding from a dog, even if that dog’s blood was warm. He squeezed the bag as much as he could, getting every last drop there was.

When he couldn’t get another drop from it, he tossed the bag to the side, licking the remnants of the contents on his lips, savoring the last of it while he still could. “Thank you,” he muttered softly. He was far from satiated but he was already feeling his strength returning to him. His skin wasn’t as leathery, his bones weren’t as visible. He was still emaciated but he was better and stronger and more capable of a good hunt. “A blood bag is not sufficient as I am sure you are aware,” he said to his ‘savior’, whomever she was. “I am sure these ‘gifts’ you have given to me are also not freely given. There is a price, isn't there?”

He rose to his feet, feeling more stable than he was before. “I don’t need to be carried either. I can manage on my own two feet. Tell me the price of your generosity so that I may find a way to pay you. I need to move quickly. I cannot linger here.” He turned to look behind him. It was only a matter of time before the alchemist realized he was gone, if he didn’t already. “I don’t have much time.”

—-

Sebastian sat back in his leather armchair, one leg crossed over the other as he puffed smoke from his pipe. He stared at the hunter now, his white suit unfitting for his laboratory and quarters. He didn’t particularly like the man but he was a Van Helsing and he needed him at the moment. “It did,” Sebastian answered the man as he pointed out his subject’s escape. He remained stoic in his appearance, never giving away the anger and desperation he felt at the moment. He simply watched the man as he moved about the room. How he wanted to strap the bastard to the table for that smug smile of his but he kept his thoughts to himself, puffing on the pipe as the smoke bellowed from it.

“It did,” he answered again as he pointed to the body in the corner of the room. Poor Evan didn’t stand a chance at the hands of a very hungry vampire. “And emptied, I’m afraid. I don’t believe my subject had much choice in the matter. He was rather feral at the time of the attack. I don’t imagine it having the strength to leave a victim alive, let alone enough to turn him. He is completely drained of blood.” Sebastian uncrossed his legs and rose from his chair moving slowly towards the other man, stepping over Evan’s body as if he was nothing.

“I do believe my subject drank past the point of death as well which I imagined may have poisoned him a bit. He will be weak and seeking sustenance. I do believe it shouldn’t be too hard for you to locate him?” He stood before the hunter, unafraid and uncaring about who he was and what he was capable of doing. “Of course you will be rewarded handsomely as per usual.” The two had a nice agreement. Despite the hunter's many warnings, he always wanted the vampires to be brought back alive.

“I will need this one in particular to be brought back alive. I don’t care in what condition you bring him to me. I just want him alive. Are we clear?”
 
  • Spicy
Reactions: Nemopedia
Anya Nosferatu

“Wonderful!” The vampire expressed a cheer in her voice that broke the whole spiel of moody and gloomy setting and weather. “That makes the two of us! Now, if you follow me, answers can come later, we can’t be heard, do we?” Quick to take the lead the hooded figure bounced on the ball of her feet before twirling into a turn into the alley where she motioned for the vampire to follow.

“Don’t worry about that alchemist, he won’t catch you,” her voice sounded childish against the brick walls and darkened windows, the sparse light making the hooded figure seem like a dancing shadow instead. Yet, despite the light tone there was a confidence and an overall command “At least,” Anya continued to ponder, “if you trust me, that is. You can call me Nos by the way, names help, right?”

The tilt in the hood was all that indicated that she had cocked her head to the side, still waiting for the other to follow. The sound of a grate pulling up came next, where the lithe figure of the vampire swung her legs down the sewers, sitting on the street as she motioned for the other to follow her one last time.

Alvin van Helsing

Alive. Words that usually brought relief were much hated within the current context, his lips curling up into something like a snarl as Alvin turned towards the older man, a glare setting in his deep set eyes before a deep breath followed.

“Why?” he challenged, even if it wasn’t par for the course to question this request normally. Sebastian was an alchemist, the alchemist, even. The reason why was obvious, should be obvious and remain unquestioned. But Alvin didn’t work that way, he didn’t tick that way, and so he asked the dreaded question, challenging the disagreement to the notion clear in his voice.

He wasn’t here to make enemies, however. Alvin needed Sebastian as much as the old man needed him and so a deal had to be struck. Readjusting the cuff of his sleeve Alvin breathes in deeply once more, his eyes fluttering before setting himself on the piles of books and research that could be found within.

“I will require extra for ‘alive’, these are monsters we are talking about, and a starving one at that,” the male spoke slowly, examining the chains abandoned with what seemed apathy shielding away the actual anger within, “and whatever you poisoned him with, as well,” he added, not forgetting that part of the details mentioned, another frown settling on his face as he wondered what a poisoned beast starving would be like in the streets. Surely nothing good, with only a path of decay and death to trail after.

A sickening thought that made Alvin’s fist clench until nails dug deep into the flesh of his palm.

“My usual fee, and a new weapon that can kill them,” Alvin threw out as his first bid.
 
“Where are you taking me?” James demanded to know though the other vampire wasn’t forthcoming with her knowledge. She didn’t answer his question but only gestured gleefully for him to follow. Why was she so chipper anyway? There wasn’t anything to be happy about. Did she not realize the danger he was in? The danger she herself could be in if the alchemist found her as well? Clearly she did not or she would not be so nonchalant about everything. But she was right about one thing, it was best they weren’t overheard and it wasn’t as if James had a lot of choices. He didn’t even have a plan. All he knew was that he needed to get as far away from the alchemist as he could and quickly. Beyond that? He hadn’t a clue.

“Nos,” he repeated. “I am James.” She wanted him to trust her but he wasn’t sure he could. He didn’t trust anyone or anything at the moment but she had at least fed him and at least was leading him away from his tormentor. Trust her? No, he did not but for now he would at least follow her. He watched as she opened the sewer grate and lowered herself down below. He shook his head but followed closely behind. The sewers definitely had to be safer than moving about the streets openly where he could easily be discovered and seen.

James followed behind, lowering himself down the sewer as well, closing the grate over where they had come to hide themselves. The sewer smelled terribly and the dirty water came up to his ankles, cold against his own frail skin. “Where are we going?” he asked once more. “No one can see or hear us here.” He wasn’t sure if she would tell him anything. He wasn’t sure if he should continue to follow but his options were quite limited. “I need to feed more. I am of no use to you in this current form.” James felt weak still, more so than just not having blood. “I need more.” His knees buckled slightly but he held himself up…for the moment. “I drank past the point of death…” he muttered to Nos. “I think…I’m poisoned.”


Sebastian cocked a brow as the hunter dared to question him. ‘Why?’ He dared to ask why?! It took everything for Sebastian not to react. He needed the hunter at the moment and burning bridges was not in his custom, unless he had to of course. Now was not that time. He chose simply to stare back at the man and not answer. There were many reasons why he needed live subjects and none of them concerned the hunter, or anyone for that matter.

He simply moved towards the painting hanging on the other side of the room. He pulled it until it revealed the safe behind it. He turned the dial one way then the other before he pulled at the metal lever, the safe giving way with a loud clunk. He pulled a small but heavy bag from inside and tossed it at the feet of the hunter. “That’s double what I normally pay. Your new weapon will have to wait. I’m working on something I think you’ll like but patience is what you will need for something like that.”

Sebastian closed the safe once again, turning the dial and hiding it behind the painting one more. He turned to face the man and stared at him. “I’m sure that is more than sufficient. Bring me back my subject and I will have your weapon. Not before. I can’t risk you killing him. I'm sure you understand. We have a nice agreement here, Alvin. I'm sure you wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardize that or your standing as a...Van Helsing.”

Sebastian knew men like Alvin well. He was a man of great pride and he needed that for his advantage. Besides, he needed Sebastian just as much and he knew the man wouldn't jeopardize their agreement.

"I'll ask again. Are we good here?"
 
  • Spicy
Reactions: Nemopedia
Anya Nosferatu

Naturally the vampire felt distrustful. With only one bag of blood and his boots full of manure there really wasn’t an upgrade in the situation. Anya couldn’t blame him, but neither was she willing to accommodate, her lite figure quick to land on the small paved path next to the stream of excess accumulated from the city and meant to leave.

“Indeed, but it stinks and it grows worse when I talk,” Anya had responded to James, though nothing in her behaviour or her voice signalled that she was actually bothered by the smell, her feet sure in their path as she waved for the other to follow after her within the darkness of the place none ever expected to visit enough to grow familiar with. “Keep your head low, though,” she managed to warn the man before the ceiling dipped. Nothing that would have bothered her, short in stature as she was, but she knew that the dip was there despite the darkness and she knew her companion was much taller.

“If we move quick and out of the water we can patch you up,” was the only promise the female could give the other, her tone only now turning stern before she turned and continued their road, hoping that James had enough strength to keep up for another while. Another half an hour, at least, before Anya wordlessly climbed up a stair, opening a lever from where a dim light flooded into the sewer, bright like the morning sun in the deep darkness they had been moving about, before she popped her head back down, for the first time revealing her face to the other as she stretched out a pale hand towards the weakened vampire.

The room where the entry was, was dim and damp, smelling of mould and other rot, like the gruesome angry scar that extended itself over the side of her face where a single eye was missing. “Quickly, Father doesn’t like to wait,” she spoke, a smile stretching over her face that pulled at the red flesh of the scar that only widened the empty socket.

Alvin van Helsing

Men like Sebastian and men like Alvin were loathsome figures. Unliked by the general populace and hard to get along with under any and all circumstances and especially during negotiations.

“If I fail, all will fail,” Alvin spoke with confidence, his back straightening as he kicked the bag of coins away from him. Money was of no concern to the Van Helsing, the fortune of his family still plenty and coursing through strongly. It was passion that kept them within the awry business of hunting, and none could tip to their ability.

Yet, there was no need for hostility, Alvin knew that, even if he wanted to quip back smartly, as he picked up a vial from the table, swirling its content while he pocketed some of the syringes on the table. “What’s the poison used?” the man questions, getting to the meat of the business before setting out on his mission. “Anything new, or something familiar?”

Questions he needed to know in order to understand in what state he was expected to find his prey.
 
Last edited:
James followed behind the small woman, having little choice to do anything else. It was either to follow her to some semblance of safety or take his chances above ground where he was sure the scientist was after him again. The man should have noticed by now, should have noticed the assistant he drained of his blood, should have noticed that he was no longer his captive. James would do everything in his power never to be captured again. The last thing he wanted was to be in the hands of that sadistic man. Still…. thoughts of his revenge were already trickling in the back of his mind and if he wasn't careful they would surely consume him.

He dipped his head just in time not to slam his forehead into the stone and followed the impish woman. He pushed hard with what little strength he had. He wasn't well and stumbled often but he kept his feet even as his vision was beginning to become blurred. He only could hope that her promises to 'patch him up' were truthful. Either way, he was facing certain death. He either died from the poisoning or died at her hands, or died at the hands of the scientist. There were little options for him and he was running out of time to think of a way out of his current situation.

Finally they arrived at a ladder where the woman quickly climbed and extended her hand for James to follow. He was panting at that point, his energy completely spent and he was barely able to see straight anymore. 'Come on, James', he said to himself. 'Just a little farther. Almost there.' He grabbed tightly to the steel and hoisted himself up as far as he could. He wouldn't have been able to make it if not for Nos' assistance. He landed on the floor of the room and struggled to get back to his feet. His senses were barely registering anymore, the poison in his blood taking over. "I–I can't. I can't go any farther."

He tried to get up, rolling onto his stomach and trying to use his arms as leverage. They shook violently before giving way, James landing back on his face. "The poison— He poisoned the person I drank from…"


Sebastian straightened the spectacles on his face once more as the bag of coins hit his foot. He stared at the hunter for a moment before he bent down and retrieved the bag, setting it carefully back inside the safe. "What you must know about me, Van Helsing, is that I always have a back up plan. Everyone that works for me and near the vampire has taken a form of modified allicin. It is a powerful substance and a wonderful antibiotic against blood diseases…well…if you're human that is. That will not be the case for a vampire. My modified allicin is poison to a vampire. You didn't think I'd have humans working with a live vampire and not have a failsafe, did you?"

The alchemist couldn't help but chuckle slightly. "Our vampire is likely dying as we speak. He was already weakened. The poison should have made its way through his system by now. You just need to locate him and bring him to me before he is discovered by anyone else."

He turned the dial on the safe as he slammed the steel shut. "Remember…I want him alive. That is non-negotiable."
 
Anya Nosferatu

For the small size of this ‘Nos’ there was quite a strength hidden within, easily catching James before he could hit the floor as she hoisted him over her shoulder, his legs still draped over the cold stone floor that made up the hideout before she kicked the sewer entry shut.

“That’s alright, it’s alright,” she whispered to the man in comfort before starting to drag him up the small stairs into a warmer room. Her lack of height is even more pronounced at every thud of his feet against the bottom of the stairs which she climbed with ease before pushing the vampire onto a hard levelled surface.

“Anya,” a voice came from the shadows, and a willowy bent figure appeared in a wheeling chair. A figure that, despite all of its aged fragility, still inspired a tension in her shoulders borne from anxiety and deference. “That him?” the man asks to which ‘Nos’ nods before remembering to use her throat.

“Yes, Father,” she speaks, her voice unlike the cheery childlike way in which she had spoken to James until now, “poisoned as well, knowing him it is the same again, perhaps a bit modified,” she reported, turning around as she reached for the hand of the fellow-vampire, now damp and cold as in a fever sweat against her own palms, for once radiating a warmth.

“You know what to do,” Father says, turning in his wheelchair without another look and rolls back into the shadows again. To this Anya sets out to work, preparing substance and scalpel for what she is about to do to draw the poison out.

The first thing she does, however, is by dragging the blade of the scalpel down her own wrist, allowing for the blood coursing through her to drip down onto the lips of the vampire halfway through death’s door.

Alvin van Helsing

Already dying. The promise of it had Alvin momentarily wonder if he should drag on in purpose, to allow the vampire to die a painful death that it was already experiencing. He decided against it eventually, however, knowing that there is no pay to garner from that and no fun either. The thrill of the hunt, the ecstasy of hunting, Alvin lived for that as much as his forefathers did, even if his target was already halfway down the road to the other side.

“Should have considered that before leaving it half-dead,” Alvin leaves the man instead as he exits through the door.

Following a trail of blood wasn’t a hard feat, the sharpened senses of the van Helsing couldn’t ignore the blood in the air either, giving chase after the trail left behind before stopping in an alley, where his white shoes sludged through the mud and the slew of where the sewage was about to start, his choice in fashion a bad decision for today’s chase, before the smell of blood thickened above him, followed by the scream of a human calling for help.

Abandoning his trail Alvin gave chase to the new lead, disappearing into the depth of the night as a white shade.
 
James' vision was clouded and he could barely register the happenings around him. Somehow the small imp of a woman leading him had hoisted him onto her shoulders and taken him the rest of the way. James tried to protest but the words just didn't come to him. He was coming in and out of consciousness now and he could sense death looming close by. Well... at least it was better dying like this than at the lab of the alchemist, the man that held him hostage. At least he knew that he died trying to get free, had actually gotten free and would not give the sick bastard the satisfaction of watching him die. The man has poisoned him but at least he wouldn't be able to see his work come to fruition.

Nos finally dropped him to a hard surface and James' glazed over eyes tried their best to scan over the room. He barely had a chance to ask questions in his mind before he saw the man in the wheelchair coming towards them. He could barely understand what they were saying though Nos' posture and her reference to the man as 'father' did register with him and he wasn't sure what to make of it. James had so many questions. He didn't have much time to think on it though before he tasted fresh blood on his lips again. He did his best to open his mouth as wide as he could to receive the life giving liquid. It wasn't human but it was helping at least.

That was until he felt the scalpel against his skin. He was far to weak to fight and yell out though everything inside him wanted to do just that. "No...no.." he managed to whisper. "Leave me...not....again..." He was done for now. There was no escaping what was to happen to him. He would surely die now, a scalpel once again held to him skin, bleeding him out once again. He thought she was helping him. He was wrong and there was nothing he could do about it. The poison was running its course. He couldn't help it...he passed out before he could register anything else.
 
Anya Nosferatu

The unique markers within the blood of Nosferatu was the poison that coursed through them, bitter and addictive, but not meant to kill nor to drug. It was meant to scar, to maintain the appearance by which all of Nosferatu were characterised by, half of their faces unable to face the world.

She cleaned James, wiping the blood away from the corners of his lips and bandaging the incision made. Next to him a clear bottle once empty was filled with a substance mixed of his own blood and the tar that had been put within his system. An arduous method that had left the female exhausted and paler than usual, but far from done as she bathed box of rats with the liquid acquired before throwing the box down the sewers, allowing the nature of rats to do the rest before pushing a chest over the utility hole through which they had entered the room.

Obeying James’ request the female sat down on the stone floor next to the vampire still on the table, her figure barely large enough for the top of her head to reach the top of the stone, though her arm reached over nonetheless, slipping a pale and cold hand into a warmer large one, one finger against his pulse as the wait began.

Alvin van Helsing

One, two, three… Alvin’s senses were counting too many for the single subject had escaped, smaller parts running around as if the vampire had managed to multiply himself into smaller independent parts that could run in a frenzy around him without alerting him. It was all he needed to know that he had been duped when he picked up a box, the stink of blood and poison strong in the seeped wood next to the stench of the sewers in general.

His white clothes weren’t the same pristine white he had donned earlier the evening, his mood entirely ruined at the dupe he had encountered as the night had been fruitlessly spent in the dregs of human excrements instead of pleasure itself.

But just as the sun was certain to rise Alvin knew that the vampire would show himself again, and a good hunter knew how to wait.
 
It was a few hours before James finally awoke from his comatose state. The blood of the Nosferatu did its job. The poison given to him by the alchemist was expelled from his body and the large, gaping wounds he made to experiment on James had healed themselves. James' eyes opened slowly. He blinked a few times before groaning a bit. He was attempting to make sense of where he was. Nothing around him looked familiar though he felt a presence near him. He turned his head and noticed the small woman beside him holding his hand. It took him a second but he finally recognized her. He recoiled from her touch and moved quickly away from her. His speed had return though he had not expected it to and he slammed himself into an opposite wall in his attempt to place distance between them.

He grunted at the sudden shot of pain but kept his back against the wall and eyes fixed on Nos. "What did you do to me? What did you do?!" He yelled to her. He felt immensely better. He was no longer weak. He wasn't dying. He felt more like himself than he had in the months before. He was no longer at the mercy of the alchemist but he was somewhere else entirely now and he wasn't sure if it was for his benefit or his detriment. James looked over his body and could see that he had filled in. He was no longer a sunken in version of himself. His body was full again and he was strong. He felt very strong actually and he wasn't used to the feeling. His vision was once again heightened, his senses on overdrive.

He lifted up his shirt and noticed he had completely healed though not the way he expected to have healed. He had scars all throughout. The wounds had healed but they left behind the evidence of what the alchemist had done to him. His hands moved up to his face and he felt scars there too. His eyes widened at the realization. What had happened to him? "Why have I scarred?! Our kind does not scar. We heal just as we were before. What was in the blood you gave me? Answer me! What have you done to me?!"

Questions of all kinds plagued James. "Who are you really? What are you?! Where am I?! What do you want with me?"
 
Anya Nosferatu
“I cured you,” Nos’s response was cut dry, still barely awake from the night of babysitting she had done for the rescued vampire. Even with her heightened endurance there was a limit to the vampire who raised her head, pulling the hood of her cloak off to reveal the scar covering half her face, angry and red with parts raised and thick, like veins popping from under her skin.

“Don’t ask and don’t answer,” a voice from behind spoke up, the sound of wheels rolling over the dusty stone floor entering from behind. The female stiffened at the sight of the man coming in, her hood pulled back over her head as they were joined by a third.

“Just know that you are safe, for now,” the words came ominously, like a thinly-veiled threat. “You shall be dealt with later,” was the more upfront warning as Nos lowered her head before producing a bottle with a liquid swirling within and handing it over.

“It is what was inside of him,” Nos spoke, her voice timid now compared to the confidence she held last night. It was the first sound of approval the older man made as a frail hand took the bottle, carting out of the stone room once more without another word.
 
Last edited:
James perked a brow and was about to ask more from Nos when a man entered the room. James watched the man curiously as he rolled in and straight to Nos. He couldn't help but notice the woman straighten and become more rigid. James had no idea who this man was and wasn't sure if he should thank him, revere him or fear him. His words rubbed him the wrong way though. "What's that supposed to mean?" James spoke boldly but he was completed ignored as the man approached Nos and took a vile from her with the poison that had apparently been pulled from him. 'How did they manage to do that?'

The man left without another word and James attempted to follow. "Wait! Who are you?!" But he was gone and it was just James and Nos again. He was angry now, on the defensive and slightly afraid. What did these people want with him and what did that man mean by he was 'safe for now'? He didn't know what else to do but he knew his best bet was just to leave.

"Fine. None of you want to give me answers then I will take my chances out there. Thank you for curing me." He moved about the room and attempted to find an exit. It shouldn't take him long. He didn't remember how he even arrived or even the way out but he wasn't about to stay. "I've already been captured once and I am not going to stay here with no answers and veiled threats against me. And I will not be dealt with later. Tell me how to get out of here. Tell me!" he yelled at her.

"You know what? Don't. I refuse to owe any of you anything more. I'll make my own way." He moved to the door that the man left from and attempted to open it. It was locked but it didn't matter. If he had to tear it off its hinge to get out, he would. He banged and pulled at the door and hoped that it would give way to him and he could find his way out. It didn't matter what was on the other side. He just needed out. He wasn't a caged animal and refused to be treated like one again.
 
Anya Nosferatu

The vampire, like vampires tend to be, ran himself into a fretful temper after Father left, leaving the other at the table at which James had been treated moments before, her demeanour now changed now that the older figure had left.

"The threat was for me, not you," the female answered, her tone flippant, contrasting the downcast attitude she showed before, "but if you want to get out the door is your worst option, so is your condition," Nos continued airily as she pressed the scarred half of her face against the cool stone, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment before prying open one to peek at the other. The statement had sounded like one as if she had tried to escape herself using the door and failed.

"I call him Father, you should as well, or think of another name that isn't an insult," Nos continued, still unfazed by the fiery temper of the vampire banging against the door. As if she had seen it all, even if it was a lie, for the dungeons hadn't seen life in a long while and now it had no idea what to do with the intruder. "Welcome to the Nosferatu," the vampire smiled, though the smile was the ghost of who she had been the night before, the dimness of the dungeon in which they found themselves making her features so much more sinister accompanied with her scar.
 
James looked over at Nos, pausing only for a moment from pounding his fists on the dungeon door. It seemed that every time that woman spoke she generated more questions in his mind than answers. He cocked a brow and snickered, "Father? Are you absolutely mad?" He turned back to the door and pounded on it some more though he was beginning to think his actions were futile. He finally stopped pounding, letting his nails rasp against the frame. He leaned his forehead against it, "My father died many years ago. I have no father and I don't even know who that is or what he wants. I will call him nothing."

He peered over to her again not sure what to make of her words or her smile. Was she being kind to him or was she sinister? Was she doing him a service or was he about to pay more dearly with them than he ever did with his first captor? He turned to face her now, "Nosferatu?" He vaguely heard of the term, something in the back of his mind told him it wasn't the first time he had heard the word but he couldn't place it. "Why am I here, Nos?" He tried to quell his anger and tried perhaps to reason with her. She obviously didn't respond to anything else he did or said. "Just explain to me. Why am I here and who the hell are the Nosfertu?"

He swallowed hard to still himself even more, "Please.. I have already been a captive and find myself captive again. You must understand how this appears and feels to me. Level with me...something. Give me something..."
 
Anya Nosferatu

A common misconception was that cats ate mice. A misconception that the Nosferatu saw unfold here.

“We maintain the archives of the history of vampires,” she answered the answer that those who knew know. The one that she could share without retribution. “I brought you here to hide from the Alchemist, and to heal,” the vampire continued, as if bored at repeating facts.

“He is still looking for you, using a vampire hunter,” she followed up, cheering up at the idea of a vampire hunter for that wasn’t a fact she had found use for, “a van Helsing,” the Nosferatur whispered in a hushed voice, the excitement brimming over at this new player on the stage of vampire history.

“You are James. The Nosferatu isn’t much interested in you, other than the poison in your system, but I do suggest you stay around for a bit. Just to hide. Afterwards I can knock you out again and drop you wherever you need. This is a secret location after all,” the whimsical response ended, not even verifying the identity of her fellow vampire.

“Nos is not my actual name, by the way, Father doesn’t appreciate us sharing names with strangers.”
 
James listened to Nos vaguely explain herself and the circumstances he was in. It sent chills down his spine to learn that the alchemist had enlisted a vampire hunter, and a Van Helsing no less, to try and trap him again. "He is still hunting me?" James asked though it wasn't much of a question and more of a statement actually. The mad man would not stop until he had James back in his grasps again and he could not imagine being subjected to such tortures again. He couldn't. He would not allow it but what other options did he truly have? A Van Helsing was a skilled hunter and if the hunter already had his scent...he would hunt him wherever he went. He was doomed the moment she let him go from this place.

Still, despite his fears, he couldn't help but scuff once she told him that Nos wasn't her name. "Of course Nos isn't your real name. Why would anyone actually say something of use to me? I am uninteresting after all." He tried not to pace around the room again though he had every desire to do so. He stood still, thinking. "What is so special about the poison you retrieved?" He asked though he almost immediately regretted asking knowing that Nos would not tell him the truth. "Nevermind, secret organization rules I take it?" He brushed a hand through his long hair and let out a breath he didn't actually need as he contemplated her words. He was trapped again and he wasn't sure what was the next best option, what road he should head down next.

"What if...what if I wished to stay?" The question came out faster than his mind could register its implications yet there was no taking them back. He knew where one road led, back to the alchemist and his table of tortures. The other road...well...perhaps he would take a leap of faith. "I am no match for a Van Helsing. I wonder if my chances of survival are better with a vampire secret organization than out on my own. How do I become interesting to the Nosferatu?"
 
Anya Nosferatu

“Don’t be offended, we don’t take interest in most vampires,” the vampire tried to soothe the other, “but we do recommend you to stick around, if only because we don’t want you to accidentally expose us to the van Helsing.” A legitimate fear, knowing that the van Helsing family was relentless in their pursuit to wipe out all vampires, indiscriminate in whom they caught.

The question to join the Nosferatu, however, earned a frown from the vampire’s deformed face, the bubbliness of earlier dimming again in the same manner as it had done in the presence of ‘Father’ as pale fingers thrummed the stone of the table on which James had laid not long before.

“You don’t. It isn’t by choice,” was the clipped answer that came, though she couldn’t tell what had turned her into a Nosferatu either, what choices and decisions had her ending up hiding out and tracking the every move of every other vampire and related above.

“Besides, everyone, even vampires, have something to return to, even if it is their vanity,” came the end of the discussion as fingers traced once more over the formation of keloid scars that stretched from her right eye and further to the side.

Alvin van Helsing

The days were short in winter and Alvin blessed that when he watched the lowering sun, creating long shadows and colouring the sky red. If the claim of the chemist was true the poison should have ended the vampire that escaped last night, but the van Helsing instinct begged him not to follow that logic, no matter how unlikely any other path could be. It was the same instinct that told Alvin that while the vampire had been alone when he escaped it wasn’t alone afterwards.

“I just need to see the basement,” the man had told the lady of the house, the commoner’s face flabbergasted and still unwilling to let the stranger in. It was a given, as Alvin didn’t look the part of any law enforcement, rather he looked more like a gentleman dandy. His white suit pristine once more and much too clean and expensive to allow into a damp and mouldy room that was the basement.

It was going to be a long night, which the winter luckily provided.
 
"Nos, please." He kept his tone stable, attempting not to show any desperation in his words though a part of him was in fact desperate. "There has to be something you can tell me." They couldn't just abandon him to the hunter, to the alchemist, they couldn't...could they? He knew the answer immediately, even before she uttered another word. He knew, he knew they would toss him on his ass the moment it was clear for them to do so. The Nosferatu got what they wanted from him. They extracted the poison and would use it for their purposes and he was no longer needed. He needed to make them want him around but how? It didn't appear that Nos herself knew what would make him interesting to them. That is...if she was telling the truth at all.

James stared once more at the closed door as he thought and thought. There had to be something. "My memories," he blurted out suddenly. He only hoped that the Nosferatu were somehow listening or at least that Nos could vouch for him in some way. "If your people are interested in the alchemist's poison then they must be interested in the alchemist himself. In exchange for continued shelter, I will share my memories. I will share all that I have seen, heard, all of it. What better way to learn about the alchemist than by someone who was in his laboratory for as long as I was. I have seen many things. I know what he looks like, who works for him, the bottles of his shelves...." He swallowed hard at the thoughts, the memories of the pain that would plague him for eternity.

"I am the key to the alchemist, Nos. I can tell you how I was captured, how he kept me for as long as he did. It has to be worth...something. All you have to do is tell them. Tell your...father or whomever. Someone has to find that information interesting."