[sub]Collab with [@SillyGoy][/sub] [h1][center][color=f26522]Vespa Ruvina[/color] & [color=00aeef]Lorelai Von'Strauss[/color][/center][/h1] The moment her lover's billowing cloak left her view, she was filled with a sudden longing, a pang in her heart. Oh, Vespa knew fully well that Lorelai could handle things by herself, but the thought of leaving her to face danger alone became absolutely abhorrent to her as she gradually comprehended its gravitas. It simply wouldn't do. If Lorelai was going to shed blood, both the enemy's and hers, then it must be with Vespa present. There came the problem of Madame Bloodrose's request, however. Would the young Ruvina be really so impertinent as to request- "Go ahead," said Madame Bloodrose, smiling at the serious expression of the younger witch at the open doorway. [color=f26522]"But Lady Bloodrose-"[/color] "Go. I know it is foolish to tether a youth's free spirit in love. Go exact vengeance upon our enemy. I'm sure you will both repay this new blood debt and more." Vespa smiled and bowed deeply. [color=f26522]"Thank you, Mistress. I am truly grateful."[/color] Then she ran, intending to join her beloved. She found her quickly, in the main courtyard. Amongst the garden blooms whose colors were not apparent due to the nighttime, she was conversing with Alexina. It appeared that they were in a serious discussion. As Vespa approached, a smile came upon her lips the moment she saw her sister - a smile that ended abruptly at the sight of a man. [color=f26522]"Sister, Alexina,"[/color] she greeted. Elina bowed in kind. She leaned in then to give Lorelai's cheek a small kiss. [color=f26522]"I've decided to join you after all, love. But who is the boy?"[/color] Lorelai turned to Vespa, her stern frown immediately melting into a grin. [color=00aeef]"I'm elated dear."[/color] She turned to Taran. [color=00aeef]"As for him, he's fortunate enough to be a newblood, and not Alexina's plaything."[/color] Lorelai reached for Vespa's hand and led her to the stables, they had quite a lot of ground to cover tonight. Especially if what Alexina had reported rang true, and she had an unfortunate habit of not being wrong when speaking of ill omens. [color=00aeef]"Apparently there are werewolves about as well, and they're roaming in packs no less."[/color] She began saddling her horse, a towering stallion of unknown heritage Ardat-Lili had served her since she arrived. She'd named him after a nightmare demon, and it was most fitting. His hair was stark black and his eyes glinted a strange red in the moonlight, almost with malevolence. He'd never balked during battle or any other commotion. In fact he was almost as bloodthirsty as she had been when she arrived. Once she was astride his immense bulk she reached out to help Vespa up. [color=00aeef]"I can't describe how relieved I am to have your company my sweet."[/color] [color=f26522]"I know poor Genoveve is in a state,"[/color] Vespa said, [color=f26522]"but Madame Bloodrose is more than skilled enough to handle it. Besides, killing werewolves? This is going to be an amazing date, I can already tell!"[/color] She leaned in then, content to rest her head upon Lorelai's back. [color=f26522]"Let's avenge our friend, love. Careful not to ingest the blood, though."[/color] Lorelai let out a small giggle at Vespa's mention of this being a date. A date amongst the broken bodies of their enemies? That could work. Once Vespa was situated comfortably she urged Ardat through the black iron gates and across the bridge to the forest proper. They were headed to the Glow Wood, certainly a romantic destination. A few minutes of comfortable silence later they'd arrived. The Glow Wood was beautiful tonight, the trees cast everything in a vibrant teal, the bulbs glowing a deep sapphire, and fireflies danced in brilliant yellows. The stars were out in force tonight, glimmering over their heads. They seemed almost in reach. Lorelai slowed Ardat's pace. [color=00aeef]"It's gorgeous tonight."[/color] [color=f26522]"Isn't it?"[/color] Vespa slowly moved her hands from Lorelai's hips to join them at her stomach. She was embracing her now. Lorelai leaned back into Vespa's embrace, her hands moving from the reigns to rest over her lover's as she let Ardat follow the path. [color=00aeef]"A shame we're here on business."[/color] [color=f26522]"Just think of it as a different kind of date. I look forward to bathing with you after we're covered in werewolf blood. Not a bad thought, is it? Romantic, all the same,"[/color] Vespa said, giggling. [color=00aeef]"All my moments with you are romantic love, and I treasure them all equally."[/color] Lorelai let out a satisfied sigh. [color=00aeef]"But we'll have to come out here just to walk sometime soon. Ok?"[/color] [color=f26522]"Yes, we have to. This place really is wonderful. But until then, werewolves."[/color] Ardat came to a halt as he lowered his head to examine something on the forest floor. With a snort of derision he backed up several paces. Lorelai dismounted and approached whatever had halted Ardat. [color=00aeef]"Blood, perhaps from the wounded vampire?"[/color] Vespa followed behind her. She crouched, and waved her hand over the blood splatter in a magically charged gesture. [color=f26522]"Seems to be,"[/color] she said. [color=f26522]"We must be on the right trail."[/color] Lorelai paused a moment. [color=00aeef]"You know, vampires claiming to be from an ancient family. Werewolves organizing in packs...I'm not sure I'm liking these coincedences."[/color] Lorelai unsheathed her ritual dagger and drew it across her palm. Smearing the blood in a small but carefully drawn circle she chanted in a guttural speech. The area inside the circle grew darker and darker, until finally it was pitch black. With a wiff of brimstone out of it stepped a twisted parody of a bloodhound. It's black fur was matted in places with what seemed like fresh blood, spikes protruded from it's shoulders and along it's spine. Lorelai dipped her finger in their quarry's blood and offered it to the hound. After sniffing the sample it loped off into the woods ahead of them. [color=00aeef]"There we go. The only question is do we continue on foot for stealth? Or Ardat here incase we need speed?"[/color] [color=f26522]"Taking Ardat appears to be the safer choice,"[/color] Vespa said. [color=f26522]"You know, it always bothers me when you injure yourself for rituals like that."[/color] [color=00aeef]"You of all people know that magic comes with a price love."[/color] Lorelai pressed her lips to Vespa's in a brief kiss. [color=00aeef]"Mine costs my blood, in one way or another."[/color] [color=00aeef]"Do you mind taking the reigns?"[/color] Lorelai turned to Ardat. [color=00aeef]"I should prepare some pacts."[/color] [color=f26522]"Wait,"[/color] Vespa said, grabbing Lorelai's elbow all of a sudden and turning her around. Lorelai then found herself in a liplock with Vespa again, this time longer, and much more passionate. The Ruvina even went so far as to embrace her tightly, and use lots of tongue. [color=f26522]"Sorry,"[/color] she said, after it had been broken, blushing deeply. [color=f26522]"You just kind of got me excited. Thrill of the hunt and whatnot, you know? And no, I don't mind."[/color] She went to mount Ardat then. [color=f26522]"I promise you a smooth ride."[/color] Lorelai shook of the daze of the sudden kiss. Her face flushed. [color=00aeef]"You never need to apologize for that my sweet."[/color] She quickly climbed behind Vespa and encircled her small waist with her arms. [color=00aeef]"And you know I like it rough don't you?"[/color] She let out a giggle. [color=f26522]"More than anyone else,"[/color] Vespa agreed. [color=f26522]"Now, we should probably catch up with that bloodhound you summoned."[/color] The smallest of kicks to his belly and Ardat developed a small trot. Lorelai prepared her summoning mentally while leaning comfortably against Vespa's back. She didn't need ritual circles to invoke pre-existing pacts, although the price was still exacted. A surge of pain tore up her spine as Lilith took up residence in her flesh. Lorelai took a moment to wonder why it was never as bad in Vespa's presence. Then again, a great many things became tolerable when she was with her love. For Vespa, Lorelai could probably endure anything, no, [i]could[/i] endure anything. She put such embarrassing thoughts from her mind as Ardat came to another halt several minutes later. They found themselves in the forest just before a clearing, and in the clearing gleamed a Blood Moonstone. [color=00aeef]"Well, that has to be a trap huh?"[/color] She leaned forward to whisper to Vespa [color=f26522]"Or maybe it's too obvious to be a trap,"[/color] Vespa opined. [color=f26522]"Actually, nevermind what I said, that was stupid. Say, what do you think would happen if we got down and picked that thing up?"[/color] Lorelai gestured to the ring of trees surrounding the clearing. [color=00aeef]"Well if memory serves that's when whoever laid this little ambush lets loose crossbow bolts, and if they have a moostone they probably have silver bolts. Likely laced in a poultice of lavender just to be sure."[/color] Lorelai dismounted and whispered again in that guttural tongue. Soon thereafter the bloodhound returned from the foliage. [color=00aeef]"Now if this little bastard grabbed it and blew their ambush that would give us an opportunity to spot their positions. Thoughts?"[/color] [color=f26522]"And when that happens,"[/color] Vespa said, [color=f26522]"we rush in and kill them."[/color] The witch already had a hand resting upon the hilt of her sword. She steadied her breathing and tapped into the energy of past sacrifices and Lorelai's intimacy. At that moment then, her eyes became keener, her reflexes sharper, and her feet quicker. If anything gave her reason to, she could have further expended what she had saved in her blood and become a whirlwind of flashing steel and death. [color=f26522]"I'm ready."[/color] Lorelai closed her eyes and let Lilith further into her essence. The Blade Mistress had earned her place in the pit on the piled corpses of her peers and superiors alike, her fury was volcanic, and her unholy strength nearly unmatched. She'd destroyed Hector Digard, and would serve now to destroy some lowly leeches. When her eyes opened again they burned with that rage, no longer a deep brown but rather a glowing red. [color=00aeef]"So am I love."[/color] She kicked the poor bloodhound. [color=00aeef]"You heard us, go get it boy."[/color] With a small yelp he bolted into the clearing after the gem, and that's when all hell broke loose. The bloodhound's body was immediately pincushioned by a dozen or more bolts, they glimmered silver in the moonlight. Almost as fast as the eye could see a tall pale haired man darted into the clearing, snatching the gem away before the demon could reach it. With a quick look around he spotted the two witches. "There! Kill them!" Vespa leapt almost immediately. There was nothing complex about her plan, just a frontal charge. Yet she did so with supernatural agility and elegance. Somersaulting through the air, the steel of her rapier flashed once under the moonlight, and flashed again in the next moment, covered from mid-point to tip in blood. When she had landed, a poor thrall had found his neck pierced and his spinal cord severed. His nearest comrade then swung his mace in retaliation, but this was neatly dodged by Vespa, and the poor man received a punctured heart for his troubles. Clawing at the wound, he fell down while gasping for air his limbs could no longer receive and his chest gouting generous amounts of blood. Vespa, in between two fresh corpses, faced the rest of the thralls then, who appeared unsure of how to proceed. She traced an elaborate pattern in the air and settled into a textbook fighting stance with her rapier pointed at the nearest vampiric slave. Her grin was determined as it was bloodthirsty. Already, she was drawing power from the leaking blood of the two men she had just killed, but without a proper ritual, the flow of magic was spotty at best. [color=f26522]"Show me your mettle, fools!"[/color] Lorelai was confident in her love's ability to handle multiple foes simultaneously. What Lilith lacked in grace and speed she made up for in raw strength. She singled out the vampire once Vespa had attracted the attention of his thralls. [color=00aeef]"We've a blood debt with you, foolish immortal. Prepare to pay in full."[/color] With that she launched across the clearing, her first strike easily parried by the vampire's longsword. Lorelai proceeded to unleashed a horrific torrent of blows. Demons did not have mercy, they did not tire, and they did not fear injury. Empowered by the Blade Mistress neither did she. The strikes continued to rain down in an unending deluge of black steel. The vampire kept up, at first. Soon openings began to show in his stance, and he was quickly tormented by nicks and cuts at his legs and arms. Several times his blade sliced through Lorelai's flesh, but found nothing but brimstone and smoke as reward. Lorelai smiled, soon the deathblow comes. Vespa was keeping the thralls busy while Lorelai focused on the vampire himself. Several times a few thralls tried to run past her blockade, and those who did quickly found twenty inches of steel slipping easily into the gaps between their ribs. They fell down twitching, helpless and dying. The rest, who thought themselves Vespa's equals, attempted to take her out, and their efforts also ended in failure. More bodies came crashing and gurgling into the ground. Two of them had the rare foresight not seen often in slaves to do a coordinated attack, but the one with the longsword kept himself open for too long as he wound up his strike, and was killed immediately by gleaming steel rushing into his eye socket. The one with the axe was simply too slow, and was wondering where Vespa had gone to when her rapier entered the base of his skull from behind. As the last of the thralls fell to Vespa's cyclone of steel and death Lorelai intensified her assault. The air echoed the rapid staccato rhythm of steel on steel as the vampire continued to be driven back by her unholy strength. With a resounding crack the vampire's blade shattered, and he only had a moment to contemplate this before Lorelai's scythe was in him again. With a spin she'd brought the previous blow full circle and as quickly as it entered her prey it exited, flinging his entrails and the majority of his spine in a spray across the clearing. With a smile, the vampire collapsed. Unmoving at last. [color=f26522]"Glory, Lorelai,"[/color] Vespa called out, her sword already sheathed. Her smile was as warm as her panting breath. [color=f26522]"None can stand against you!"[/color] Her dress appeared to be in ruins. None of the thralls got any hits in, but her clothing was streaked and splattered with their blood. Of an aristocratic bearing, the young witch found this to be, of course, entirely displeasing. [color=00aeef]"Not with you at my side love."[/color] Lorelai stooped down to clean her blade in the grass. She surveyed the wreckage. [color=00aeef]"Your talent with the blade raises it to high art my dear."[/color] She made her way over to Vespa's side, pausing to take in the sight of her sweet covered in blood knowing full and well that none of it was hers. [color=00aeef]"I'd almost forgotten how beautiful you look covered in blood. You're like a Goddess, resplendent in the offerings of your vassals."[/color] She sighed. [color=00aeef]"If only I had a talent for painting."[/color] Vespa blushed at the compliments. [color=f26522]"Oh, you. If I'm a goddess, then you must be my angel of death. You are amazing with that scythe, my love."[/color] Yet her blush grew in intensity. [color=f26522]"You know what? To the abyss with poetry! Just come here!"[/color] And then she leapt upon Lorelai, lips pressed against hers and arms already around her waist. Eyes deeply closed, she put her tongue inside of her lover's mouth, intent on releasing all the unused energy she had failed to utilize with the stunning weakness of her enemies. Blood magic invigored not only the heart but also its passions, and with how tightly she was holding Lorelai, it was clear she wasn't letting go for quite some time. Lorelai was quite content with that, and met her love's passion with her own. Vespa's love melted away her pain, and soon her mind went white with lust. Soon enough, their hands were racing across each other's' garments, feeling for straps and buttons with the intent of undoing them. [hr] [i]Several steamy hours later, still in the clearing.[/i] Who could ask for a more perfect evening? There Lorelai laid, Vespa's head on her shoulder. The stars bright over head and the beauty of the Glow Wood around them. Lorelai kissed the top of her sweet's head. [color=00aeef]"Do you think they're getting worried back at the castle?"[/color] [color=f26522]"Hm, you're right,"[/color] Vespa conceded. She rolled onto her side, and placed her leg over Lorelai's. It was one of her favorite things to do in the afterglow. She shared gazes with her lover and found only happiness within the other witch's eyes. [color=f26522]"But it's a little hard to just get up and leave, don't you think?"[/color] [color=00aeef]"A little hard? I'm finding it difficult to imagine, much less accomplish."[/color] Lorelai turned to face Vespa, bringing her face closer to her lover's. [color=00aeef]"I say we just stay here. We can leave for the castle when we wake. We've earned this time to ourselves wouldn't you say?"[/color] [color=f26522]"I don't know,"[/color] Vespa said, her smile coy. [color=f26522]"We've worked up quite a sweat, and the notion of sharing a bath with you is just way too tempting."[/color] Lorelai's eyes smoldered. She debated simply rolling on top of Vespa again, but decided against it. The allure of a soft bed and hot water was enticing. [color=00aeef]"I agree, let's see if we can salvage our clothes and then head back."[/color] As the two witches got dressed in the tattered and stained remains of their garments a gurgle could be heard from the remains of the vampire Lorelai had eviscerated. Lorelai, who'd just finished the clasp of her bloodied cloak turned. [color=00aeef]"By the snarling depths..."[/color] Vespa's sword flashed one moment, and was at the neck of the vampire in the next. [color=f26522]"Damn you,"[/color] she snarled. [color=f26522]"You dare to ruin my evening?"[/color] The ruined remains of the vampire's lungs sought air it couldn't quite reach, yet. New flesh was growing in place of the severed organs and muscle tissue. It smiled, as if laughing. Lorelai stooped down to examine the new growths. [color=00aeef]"Shouldn't a vampire this damaged just die?"[/color] [color=f26522]"Maybe we should just burn the accursed thing,"[/color] Vespa said. [color=f26522]"If blood loss isn't enough, incineration should cover it."[/color] [color=00aeef]"Perhaps..."[/color] Lorelai strode to Ardat, who'd been waiting patiently amongst the corpses of the fallen thralls to retrieve some oil and her flint. After dousing the vampire thoroughly she struck a spark onto its form. The oil immediately ignited, but to her growing dread once it had burned away the vampire still remained. [color=00aeef]"I defer to your expertise on all matters related to magic blood dear. I'm at a loss."[/color] Vespa closed her eyes and thought for a moment. [color=f26522]"A curse. A curse upon his blood. Something that would prevent him from regenerating by attacking the very foundations of that ability. Know any hexes?"[/color] Lorelai shook her head. [color=00aeef]"Not by rote no."[/color] She sighed. [color=00aeef]"I suppose this means we'll have to drag him back to the castle for research."[/color] A wild grin came upon the young Ruvina's face. [color=f26522]"We could tie his wrists to Ardat's saddle and gallop all the way to the Castle."[/color] Lorelai laughed. [color=00aeef]"Well I certainly wasn't planning on strapping him on comfortably."[/color] So the two witches returned to the castle posthaste, heralded by screams from the vampire's ruined windpipe, and a trail of his blood in their wake.