Vampiric Interdiction

[18] Something Different

Karolinna gave him a describable look, and he smiled briefly. 

“Okay, alright, most of us are idiots. But at least give me some more credit.”

Before she could stop her brain from sending out the impulses, Karolinna’s lips curved upwards at the corners and to her utter dismay Denaii was looking right at her when the slip up happened.

“Ah hah!” he exclaimed loudly, his mouth gleaming as he gave the faenla a toothy grin. “That’s a smile! That was a smile!”

Karolinna hung her head and the fabric of her veil fell down over her face. She wished she had thought to do it a few seconds sooner to avoid this moment of confirmation. 

She hated what he was with every filament of her being — as a vici pretty much had to — but she would be lying if she tried to tell herself that her loathing extended to Denaii. Of course, though it would be better if he wasn’t a mortal enemy of both her and her entire species, he actually wasn’t that bad. Certainly nothing like what Karolinna expected.

Gathering herself again, trying to ignore the dark one’s still very apparent chuckling and unmissable undertone of gratification, Karolinna slung her pack over her shoulder. 

The sun wouldn’t be arising for a good while, but for the first time in ages, the extroverted female felt the need to flee from attention. Normally she craved it, and when she didn’t get enough she would certainly let everyone know it and make sure the issue was rectified.

Without so much as a goodbye or a nod in the dark one’s direction, Karolinna turned back towards her house and began to stalk away, her face pointed towards the dirt. Although she longed to glance up at the moon one last time before making her departure, she could bring herself to risk it and then instead accidentally meet eyes with those red pools of liquid magma that she was trying so desperately to avoid — although she wasn’t quite sure why.

She barely made it a few steps, before she felt a strong grip on her wrist and the temperature change was so immediate that she couldn’t help but look down at the touch. It felt as though someone had stuck her hard and in multiple places all at once along the the back of her hand with little needles. When the bleached-blonde looked up she saw the vampire eyeing here. His eyes were a vibrant red again, declaring either his ravenous appetite or a somewhat unwelcome desire of a baser nature. 

Karolinna shook the latter idea from mind as she continued to eye the place where Denaii grabbed her. Just as sticking a freshly used pot beneath a cold stream  — or in the case of a vici and their extreme body heat, stepping beneath the cool spray of the shower nozzle — the flesh of the faelna’s small wrist began to crystallize upon swift contact with the vampire’s frosty clutch. Karolinna pulled away quickly before the tingling sensation began to climb her arm, which would chill her blood dangerously low and render the appendage completely immobile.

Under his empty breath, the slightly alarmed female could make out cursing in vampiric. If she were a human it would have sounded like nothing more than mumbo-jumbo, but considering the language of her people as well as that of the night-crawlers was so similar, she was able to understand even if she had missed his somewhat irritated tone.

The blood-sucker clearly did not think about the effects his touch would have upon her until after he’d already reached out. Having not been in the immediate presence of any member of the forbidden species, only ever seeing them from a distance, Karolinna couldn’t exactly blame him because she couldn’t say she would have thought about it either.

“Nikc fushiit!” he repeated again, “I’m sorry.” 

It would be a complete falsity if Karolinna were to say that she wasn’t surprised by his apology. It was of her knowledge — her very limited and apparently not completely accurate knowledge — that told her vampires were not at all remorseful for their actions. Going by the amount of times she’d been an onlooker to such acts that very easily proved her mother right, Denaii’s expression of regret was most unexpected to say the least.