Vampire Heart 19

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Scroll 20: Wild Magic
"You! You were awake the entire time?"
"Get away from my Mistress before I kill you!" Vicente snarled and bared his fangs at the intruder.
Vicente's snarl woke Naoko from dozing off to sleep. She stirred and froze when she saw the woman's hand right before her face and Vicente's hand clasping the woman's wrist. "Vicente..."
"I'm here, Naoko," Vicente assured her. His eyes were filled with rage when he stared at the intruder and affectionate when he glanced at Naoko.
"Oh, how sweet. Your Mistress knows your name," the woman sneered. "But, I will be your next Mistress..."
"You don't have the power to make me bow to you," Vicente assured her before he sprung and threw her to the ground in one smooth action.
"Oh, but I can kill her and simply claim the necklace," she replied.
Vicente wrapped his fingers around her throat and snarled, "You'll never get the chance..."
"Won't I?" she choked.
"You're too confident in yourself when you're losing," Vicente commented.
"Water!" she called. A splash of water cut against Vicente's chest and abdomen before disappearing. "See? I think I can get to her while you're recovering from your reopened wounds."
Vicente tightened his grip around her throat as she spoke. His wounds were tearing open instead of closing like they were earlier. He was determined to live, and make her die. "I'm a blood vampire."
"I'm quite aware of that," she growled and bared her fangs. "Lightning!" A bolt of lightning shot from her hand and coursed though Vicente's wet body. "I'm going to kill her and take her power over you."
"Vicente...she's going to kill me!" Naoko whimpered.
"Over my dead body!" Vicente embraced the lightning that was coursing through his veins and slammed her down to the floor, giving him a moment to recover.
"That just might be the case!" she launched a ball of energy at Vicente that threw him to the far end of the bedroom, and Naoko with him after considerable pain from the jolt that the necklaces caused.
"And now, you're going to die..." she stepped toward the powerless Naoko and the injured Vicente.
Naoko dug her face into Vicente's chest as he cradled her against his body. She gripped him as tight as she could without disturbing his re-opened wounds as he caressed her hair soothingly. "I'll never let you die." Vicente assured her with a kiss on her forehead.
A black mist entered the room behind the elementalist. Dameon raised the knife as he crept behind the elementalist.
"Vicente, how can you be so sure?" Naoko asked.
"I know that she gets over-confident," Vicente shrugged.
"It's not over-confidence if it works," she replied.
"What is your name?" Naoko asked.
"Kabell," she replied.
I wish Kabell was dead... Naoko wished in her mind.
Dameon slid the knife across the front of her neck and threw Kabell to the ground, her fresh wound seeping blood. "That was smart, asking her name," Dameon muttered as he sheathed the knife.
"Thanks," Naoko replied. "Aren't you going to call Vicente useless?"
"No, because he woke me with that banging noise and was thrown across the room as a distraction," Dameon replied.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Naoko demanded.
"I had to make the peril convincing," Vicente shrugged.
Kabell gasped, "I'm not going to die like this..."
"You've got no choice," Vicente snarled.
"I do have one..." she reached toward the sky, "I want the shadow vampires to share my body...to possess it..."
"What?" Dameon turned to Kabell who was shrouded in a blanket of shadows. "What is she doing?"
"Well, we know where the shadow claws came from," Vicente muttered.
"She's sacrificing her body for a chance to kill us..." Naoko whispered.
"Hey, you know that indignant quote?" Vicente asked Dameon.
Dameon nodded, "Yeah, why?"
"You should change it to 'humiliation after indignation is jealousy with horns'," Vicente replied.
"Just for her?" Dameon signaled to the newly modified Kabell.
Kabell's blonde hair was blood red as Dameon's eyes, and her brown eyes were as black as any night sky. Her ivory skin was a grey tint and her beauty was gone. She stood and cast tentacles of darkness from beneath their feet.
"Vicente!" Naoko reached for him, but was thrown against the wall. She watched her pet get thrown to the ground and held there by the slithering black attack.
"She can't kill Dameon..." Vicente choked.
Dameon was safe in a black mist, floating over toward Naoko. Dameon's voice came from the fog, "She's still technically dead. I can't do anymore..."
"I don't know what to do..." Naoko struggled against the black serpent-like power that wiggled around her wrists and ankles. "I feel like I'm going to die here..."
Vicente's blue eyes glew the deep green to match Naoko's eyes. He bared his fangs and went berserk with protective rage for his mistress. His elongated nails cut through the black tentacles like a hot knife through butter. Vicente slashed away at the claws that formed from the darkness and cut his way over to Naoko. He released her from her binds and shielded her between himself and the wall. The blood vampire snarled before diving toward the next assailant, Kabell's undead corpse. He slashed at her and threw her to the ground a wounded shadow vampire again.
"There's no way..." Kabell's voice cried. "Nobody should be able to fight my darkness..."
"There are things on this earth that go deeper than the surface," Vicente snarled, his eyes still emeralds.
"Vicente..." Naoko whispered.
"I'll steal your body and become the Mistress..." Kabell dove at Naoko, but Vicente caught her by her hair and threw her down to the ground again. "Let me go you filthy..."
"You will never be my Mistress," Vicente hissed before she stood broke free of his grasp. She readied an energy ball and aimed it at Vicente who deflected it with no consequence. "Are you finished yet?" Vicente asked, clearly bored.
"You're going to be my pet," Kabell insisted.
Vicente snarled and threw her into the hallway with a single punch. Naoko stood up and followed Vicente out to the hallway where Vicente slashed out her throat. Several shadows flew from her throat and shrieked as they bounced from wall to wall before taking the form of humanoid vampires. "What the hell?"
"She's just full of surprises..." Dameon muttered as he stepped between Vicente, Naoko and the shadow vampires.
"What do you five want?" Vicente sighed as he eyed the shadow vampires.
The five identical vampires with short black hair and dark black eyes said nothing, but stared at Naoko expectantly. "They're creeping me out, Vicente..." Naoko whispered.
"They're the ones that possessed Kabell's body as she was about to reach the brink of death," Dameon muttered.
"I didn't think anybody could cast spells from beyond the grave," Vicente whispered,
"They're not dead. They're just cursed," Naoko muttered. "They can't be in any light, even with the sunstone silk on their flesh," Naoko stepped toward the shadow vampires.
Vicente seized her arm, "What are you doing?"
"They're my subjects, just like every other vampire there is," Naoko whispered.
"But, what if they kill you?" Vicente asked.
"You won't let them..." Naoko replied as she shook off his concerned hand with hardly any exerted effort.
Dameon stared at her in disbelief, his jaw dropped, "How did you do that?"
"He let me go," Naoko replied before she held her hand out to the shadow vampires. "I'm here for you."
"She isn't going to touch them, is she?" Vicente asked, almost shuddering in disgust.
"She's our Mistress and you doubt her powers?" Dameon asked.
"No, I just..." Vicente blushed.
"You're worried about her..." Dameon muttered. He looked at her guardian’s expression and smiled, “I am too.”
Vicente nodded, "I love her. I can't go without worrying for her."
Daemon nodded in understanding, “I can’t experience such a thing, but I have to say…it is beautiful.”
Naoko touched the first shadow vampire and caused a bright light to shine, its source being Naoko's hand. She touched hands with each of the remaining shadow vampires who stood in silence as she worked. Their black hair elongated instantly and faded back to its original color and their eyes faded to different colors: none of them being black. "You're not cursed any longer," Naoko assured them.
"Thank you..." the chorused before disappearing in a flash of light.
"Why did they attack us if they just wanted freed?" Vicente asked.
"They wanted to die, not be free," Dameon replied. "Naoko just lifted their curse so they wouldn't go to hell."
"You can do that?" Vicente asked.
"I can heal wounds and souls," Naoko replied confidently.
"You're amazing..." Vicente admitted, staring shyly at the ground.
"So, can we ever sleep?" Dameon asked with a yawn.
"We should reverse our schedule and go to sleep now so we can deal with the vampires who can only walk at night," Naoko suggested as she started into the room.

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Vampire Heart 21