Vampire Heart 17

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Scroll 18: Shadow Vampires
Dameon hummed an unfamiliar tune as Naoko brew some coffee and seemed to sway her hips to the tune. Vicente was still glaring at Dameon who was smiling wickedly in a mocking manner at Vicente. "You two are fire and ice, I swear it."
"You can force him to like me," Dameon suggested.
"I'd kill myself before that order could even be completed!" Vicente spat.
Naoko sighed, "Please, cut it out..."
"She's right. Jealousy isn't a pretty thing...even in a handsome vampire," Dameon replied before continuing to hum his tune. "Hating me isn't killing me in any lifetime," Dameon said in a sing-song voice.
Vicente's tone was indignant, "I'm sorry I don't love a rapist so pathetic that he has to take advantage of people in their dreams."
Dameon only smirked, "Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo."
"Why the hell do you keep insisting that I'm jealous of you?" Vicente stood up quickly and balled his hands into fists.
"Because I foiled your plans of staying here alone with the Mistress," Dameon let Vicente's secret slip like water through his fingers before he took to rocking back and forth on the chair he was occupying.
Vicente's ivory face was painted scarlet as he started for the front door. His heart fell to his feet when Dameon had finished speaking. The only thing that had kept him in place was knowing that he was nine feet away from Naoko and that a step more would have forced him to face her.
"Dameon," Naoko whispered. Dameon acknowledged her, "Dameon, knock it off, now. Vicente..." Vicente lifted his head from the distressed and shamed position that he held it in before she spoke. "Can we talk?"
Vicente nodded and turned to face her. Unlike all of the times before, Vicente didn't meet her eyes and he didn't smile. Naoko led him up to their claimed bedroom and waited for him to sit on the bed before closing the door.
"What's bothering you?" Naoko sat on the bed with him and rested her head on his shoulder.
"I-I he irks me. And the way he almost took advantage of you in your dream, and the way he suggests that I have something to be envious of from his list of characteristics and..." Vicente clenched his fist.
"Because he spilled your thought when he promised to not say anything since you didn't punch him?" Naoko asked.
Vicente looked thoughtful for a moment as they both sat in silence, save their breathing and beating hearts. Vicente couldn't answer her. He couldn't understand how that intricate of a thought could be brushed off her mind so easily when she knew that it was something that he wanted: alone time with her.
"Am I right?" Naoko asked. When Vicente still didn't answer her she moved her ear from his shoulder to his chest where his pounding heart was more obviously incriminating than he ever wanted her to be aware.
"No." Vicente lied.
"I'm so sure..." Naoko countered.
"I really just can't stand the thought of a rapist who wants you so badly living with us for nobody knows how long..."
"And you're going to quibble until I forget?" Naoko asked.
"Do I have to answer either of those questions?" Vicente guided her face with his fingers by coercing her chin to look up at him, "Do you need to listen to my pulse to know what I want and what I think?"
"Your pulse hasn't slowed down at all...no matter when you were lying or not..." Naoko whispered.
Hearing her observation, Vicente fought the urge to stand and leave the room to get some distance between the two of them. This was his opportunity to prove to her that the necklaces didn't have as much pull on their emotions as she initially thought. "Ask me any questions that you want."
"Okay," Naoko paused for a moment, "What do you think of me?"
"You're a wonderful person, a joy to be around, worth risking my life over and the most beautiful woman that I've ever seen," Vicente replied evenly.
"Alright," Naoko thought for a second, "Why were you looking forward to living here alone with me?"
"Naoko! Mistress!" Dameon's voice cut through the calming air with blades of fear and desperation.
"He sounds like he's in trouble," Naoko stood up quickly and with Vicente at her heels they darted down the stairs and found Dameon against the wall, seemingly being choked by the shadows.
"I thought you had to pray to God to have a wish come true," Vicente grinned as he watched Dameon squirm in misery. Naoko leered at Vicente without saying anything. Vicente glanced down at her, "What? You know I don't like rapist."
"Get him down!" Naoko pointed toward Dameon who was struggling against the shadows.
"How do you attack a shadow?" Vicente asked, coolly.
Dameon's struggling knocked a lamp toward the wall of antiques, mirrors and ornaments before it hit the ground and shined a light on one of the black shadowy tentacles, causing it to incinerate. "Like that," Naoko replied.
Naoko grabbed a flashlight and began shining it on the vines of shadow that lined the room around Dameon. Vicente shot around the room removing the lampshades from the lamps to increase the bright lighting of the room. "It's not going away..." Vicente muttered as he dodged a gripping hand of shadow.
"I'm curious of what this thing...is..." Naoko hissed as she shined a light on a slithering shadow.
"Clearly it's a dark shadow magic," Vicente replied. "I'm just not sure what exactly," Vicente pulled Naoko down to the ground to avoid a striking shadow that looked like a spear, intended to kill.
"It's everywhere..." Naoko shuddered at the serpent-like shadows that seemed to only make more and more copies of itself, no matter the watts of light that were glowing brightly.
"How do you counter an enemy that isn't supposed to be able to harm you?" Vicente asked. He swatted at a shadow and waited for a response.
"I think this little bit of light in just this room isn't enough," Naoko replied. "It keeps coming back no matter how much light we shine on one part of it."
"So, let's find the source," Vicente replied as he pointed to the stairwell where shadowy roots seemed to wrap around the walls of the structure.
"Can you turn into mist form?" Naoko asked Dameon who shook his head in reply. "We'll get you down," she promised before she and Vicente were dodging the ghastly opponents' assault.
Vicente cradled Naoko between himself and a wall and took a slash at his back from the shadowy weapons before they were into the next room. "Don't even worry about me. Turn on the lights," Vicente insisted.
Naoko nodded and flipped all of the switches up and went around clicking all of the lamps on as Vicente climbed to the ceiling and removed the bowl that covered the main light source of the room. She quickly removed the light shades and dragged Vicente into the hall again where more shadows were readied for an attack. "We can't avoid this..."
"I can't avoid this, but you can..." Vicente forced Naoko back into the room they had just finished lighting and braced himself in the doorway.
"Your shirt is tattered..." Naoko whispered.
"It's just a damn shirt," Vicente replied.
"And you're bleeding..." Naoko caressed the skin near what appeared to be the remnants of claw marks on Vicente's back.
"Back away from me..." Vicente whispered.
Naoko obliged and stepped the allotted nine feet away from Vicente. She could see in front of him the shadows that were shaped like claws racing toward him. "Vicente..."
Vicente dug his fingernails into the wood that lined the door and was shot away from the door with enough force to knock him from his feet and send him flying backwards. He grunted as the shadowy claws made contact with his chest and again when he hit the wooden floor. He stood up again, as if nothing had happened to him, "Let's go. I've figured that it takes a few minutes to launch an attack."
Naoko nodded and took his hand as they fled into the next room on the ground floor. Vicente removed the bowl from the ceiling fan and flipped on the switch as Naoko was turning on all other sources of light in the room. "Your chest is bloody, too..."
"I'm fine," Vicente insisted. "I'm just a little shaken," Vicente admitted. "More or less the thing only managed to scratch me and knock me off balance."
"But, I'm worried about you," Naoko admitted.
"My only worry is protecting your life, not a few bruises for me," Vicente replied as he stroked her jaw line.
Naoko flashed back to the dream she had the night before and realized that it was a premonition. She blushed as Vicente held her tightly as she remembered wanting in the dream. She came to when they hit the ground, Vicente covering her from their assailant. "Vicente..."
"Are you alright?" Vicente was panting, and bleeding from his shoulder and upper arms as well as his chest and the middle of his back.
"With you protecting me, how could I not be?" Naoko asked. "Now, are you okay?"
"I've already told you to worry about you, not me..." Vicente grunted as he stood up, helping Naoko to her feet as well.
"Let's get to the second floor," Naoko muttered. "I have a better idea than just shining lights that aren't very effective."
"What's your idea?" Vicente asked as he led her around the shadow covered walls that seemed to crawl right behind them. The shadows all protruded from a room that her grandmother regarded as just a study and a yoga room. The room was named: Positivity.
"We have to use the positive energy room," Naoko replied as she pulled him into the threshold of the now eerie room. Naoko stood on the inside of the threshold and Vicente was on the outside of the threshold, just like in her dream.
"This is just like your dream..." Vicente remarked, "Excluding the shadowy claws, that is."
"They were there, too," Naoko assured him before she pressed her lips to his. Vicente pulled her closer to him and continued to kiss her as she tangled her hands in his hair. His hands caressed the small of her back gently, tickling her nerves.
"Wow..." Vicente blinked a few times before she stepped away from him. "That was very impulsive and..."
"Strategic," Dameon stepped into the study.
"I thought you were being choked," Vicente growled.
"As soon as she balanced the positive and negative energy, the house returned to normal," Dameon replied. "What made you think to do that?"
"The dream you were in was a premonition of this," Naoko replied.
"I see...that's why the house kept me away from you both. It reflected your dream of when you told me to stop," Dameon muttered.
"What did I miss in your dream, exactly?" Vicente asked.
"Nothing at all," Dameon assured him.
"Oh, I see. You'll spill my secrets, but you won't even hint at one of Naoko's..." Vicente pouted.
"Exactly. You're more amusing..." Dameon grinned before leaving Naoko and Vicente in the study.
"What secret would that be?" Naoko crossed her arms and stared at Vicente expectantly.
"Nothing at all," Vicente grinned sheepishly.
"You're still wounded," Naoko shook her head at him.
"I still don't want you to worry about me," Vicente said, turning toward the hallway.
"Why won't you let me at least examine your wounds and make sure they're not fatal?" Naoko asked.
"No," Vicente shook his head.
"That wasn't an answer to my question."

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Vampire Heart 19