Vampiric Interdiction

[18] Something Different

Karolinna didn’t even have to look at Denaii to know he was watching her with a fiery stare. A flicker of light in one of the windows caught her attention. She knew it to be not far from where her quarters were located and it roused alarm in her chest. She turned away from the male reluctantly and without thought, remaining however, ever alert. He was a vampire after all. He could turn on her at any moment, fangs bared, brimming with appetite.

Since she was young the faelna had been taught to keep away from the mortal leeches, with the punishment of defiance to be quite severe. Karolinna had very few memories as a child of the night-walkers that didn't involve almost insurmountable horror, screams and blood-stained streets. Fortunately due to her parents high standing she observed from safety afar rather than being forcefully engaged within the chaos.

Although stricken with fear, the young blond recalled her obdurate curiousity. She would question the authority that instructed her, but after receiving very little honest feedback, and strong reprimanding, she learned to simply obey. 

Karolinna’s hatred towards the creatures developed both out of fright and her parents threatening dictation. How much of it was really veritable as opposed to a mere fabrication? How much was simply that of which the Vicio elders would like her to think?

As much as the fare female hated to admit it, Denaii wasn’t like the others from what she’d seen so far. Nothing like the thirsty savages she’d witnessed terrorizing humans in the streets, on television and upon the pages of countless history books she’d been forced to read before bed every night. Karolinna could picture right now where she kept the stack of hefty hardcovers from her youth, under several boxes of shoes she never wore in the depths of her closet. 

Whether the dangers of the vampiric race were true or counterfeit, Karolinna did not know for sure, but she was raised to hate them, and so she did instinctively. 

Resting her hand atop her pack, tracing the outline of one of the five prepared stakes she’d stocked it with, she looked back to Denaii. She was under his complete scrutiny, and found the feeling non too welcoming considering how close he was. 

The thought crossed her mind of staking him right then and there, like she should have done the first time they met. For the life of her she could not understand why she would need to though, and at that moment the comparison of a Nazi soldier striking down a defenceless Jewish man and his family popped into her head. It was blind hatred that drove him, simply because of difference, and it would be just that that pierced his heart with the smoothed fragment of wood she carried.

“Your up way past your curfew I take it,” said Denaii, giving Karolinna a smug little smirk as he took note of the grand structure off in the distance that had snatched away the vici’s attention. She said nothing as she turned back around, her marvellous purple peepers staring him down with irritation.

“You know, I never did catch your name.”

“That would be because I have no intention of giving it, you leech!” came Karolinna’s snarky reply as she jumped to her feet, a firm hold on her bag. The vampire raised his hands up as he stood, making a small ‘O’ shape with his mouth.

“Easy, luv! You don’t have to tell me,” he said calmly, “Although, what harm could I do with but a name?”

“Report me to my father for one,” Karolinna blurted it out without really meaning to. For someone with the mental functioning of a super computer, she was surprised at how often her filter did malfunction when she most needed it to be impervious. It namely happened around Villahr though, and so her absence of control over her remarks now was startling.

“I know you think vampires are filthy, repulsive, and absolute cretins, but you should really give us more credit than that,” said Denaii, shaking his dark black hair from his eyes, which look to of died down to more of an oxblood-maroon.