Luke grins up at the castle when he sees it. "Barrone, you little fucker, you really did it." He murmurs before pulling out a spare key that he had made for the castle and trying the door.
When he manages to open the door he listens carefully to hear something murmuring something. He rests his right hand on his faithful axe while he reaches for some of his throwing knives with his left hand. The sounds get louder as whatever is making the noises gets closer. Luke pulls out his axe in self defence as he gets pounced by a creature with human like features slightly distorted through mutilation and scars.
It doesn't let Luke swing his axe at it by grabbing his wrist and pinning it above his head. This makes Luke panic and try to draw one of his throwing knives but the creature snatches it out of his hand to pin it to his throat.
Shit! Luke thinks as the creature pinning him down licks his face.
He shuts his eyes in a mixture of fear and disgust as the creature grunts something incoherent.
"H-human..." It repeats clearer.
As soon as it comes to this realisation, it releases Luke from its grip and recoils, covering its ears as it murmurs the word over and over again.
Luke sits up and gives it a curious look, trying to take in everything he can about it to see if he knows anything about what kind of creature it is.
The most notable thing about it is the bright red hair which is overgrown and probably hasn't been groomed in years. At first, Luke thought that its eyes were red but looking closer at it he can see that they are actually a light brown colour, bordering on being hazel. His teeth look normal and his canines are pointed but not to the scale of a vampire's. The one thing which takes Luke's attention the most is the tattoo on this creature's neck. He's seen it in so many pictures and studied the lore of this castle for so long that there's no way that he wouldn't know who that tattoo belongs to.
"Kier Kemp." He murmurs.
The crazed warrior looks up at the sound of his name and bares his teeth with a hiss.
Luke doesn't let this scare him off. "That's your name, isn't it?" He checks.
His calming tone seems to help the other man relax slightly and it tries to speak. It all comes out as a mixture of sounds which don't make sense to be put together.
While Kier is trying to talk, Luke notices a scar underneath his ribs which hasn't been treated. Luke waits for Kier to give up trying to talk and nods gently to the wound.
"Do you want me to help you with that?" Luke asks.
Kier doesn't seem to understand and backs away slightly.
This makes Luke try to show him by trying to pull disinfectant and bandages out of his bag, unfortunately, this alarms Kier and he immediately pulls Luke's knife from earlier to his throat again. Luke stops to keep his throat from being sliced open, knowing that Kier is definitely capable of doing so.
"I'm not going to hurt you." Luke tries to calm Kier down by letting go of his bag. "Look through it yourself, the only weapons I have are over there." He explains.
Kier growls at him before rummaging through the bag, stopping when he reaches a can of food and tries biting into it.
This takes his attention away from Luke for a while so he takes out the things he needs, as well as another can of food for him and a can opener.
Kier glares at the can opener and snarls at it. Luke holds his hands up in surrender to calm Kier down before slowly opening one of the cans. Kier snatches the open can from him and pours its contents into his mouth. Luke watches for a moment with a faint smile before chuckling. "Here I was going to offer you a spoon."
Kier completely ignores him and goes back to trying to bite into the other can. Luke lets out a sigh and tries to take it from him so he can open it. Kier snarls at him defensively when he takes the food but watches him as he opens it with the can opener.
When Luke's opened it, he passes it back to Kier, who snatches it off him again. The sudden movement makes Luke's hand get cut by the can of food.
"Shit." Luke mutters, cradling the cut hand.
Kier reacts in an unusual way at the blood and just clutches the side of his head in an ear-piercing scream.
"No, it's fine, don't worry about it-" Luke tries but Kier's already fled deeper into the castle to avoid seeing the blood.
Luke looks in the direction that he went in with a slight frown before treating the cut on his hand.
*
Blue panics when he senses the Cardinal's presence is nearby, feeling completely helpless when the powerful vampire enters the room that he's in.
"So, you're hiding out here... what is it you mean to do here, exactly?" The vampire chuckles.
"I'm dead, there's nothing I can do." Blue shakily replies, still slightly fearful of the creature which had him killed in the first place.
"That's a lie and we both know it." The vampire growls, using his power to make Blue take form. "I've found two kids in one of my paintings... making a mess... I know you have a hand in that." He continues, standing over Blue to intimidate him even more.
"You can try to kill me again, I'm sure it's not going to work." Blue growls to defend his small territory.
The vampire smirks. "I wonder, did you hear all of your partner's screams while I had him tortured?"
Blue glares at the vampire in a mixture of hatred and regret.
The vampire doesn't need to hear him answer. "After I killed you, he completely lost his mind." He taunts. "I took it upon myself to torture him for three years, just until he would hardly even act human. Now, listen to him: he's out there, looking for you. It's so primal the way he searches for his beloved, dear, deceased partner."
Blue grinds his jaw angrily at the sound of this and tightens his hands into fists.
"Oh, that's cute." The Cardinal chuckles. "You know, seeing you like this, without all of those scars, makes me want to kill you all over again."
"None of your weapons can hurt me." Blue growls defiantly.
The vampire's smirk widens. "True." As he says this his hand lights up in a dark red colour. Blue's eyes widen at the sight and he does everything he can to disappear as the vampire reaches out to grab him with his glowing hand.
Blue cries out in pain as his scars slowly resurface under the vampire's touch. His semi-transparent figure shows all of his injuries: a deep scar across his throat; claw marks leaving slashes all over his torso and face; deep gashes on his arms; and severed hands.
The vampire stops and smiles at the sight. "You keep forgetting that my magic is superior to yours, I can't get rid of you but I can make sure you remember how you died."
Blue pants a little to catch his breath after all the screaming he did and glares at the vampire. "I don't need to be reminded, I remember clear enough." He mutters.
"I would've thought so, I did make sure to have fun killing you. It's a relief to know that even your screams sound the same." The Cardinal smirks. "It means, I haven't lost my touch."
Blue narrows his eyes at him. "What did you do... to the kids?" He checks after a while.
The vampire scratches his chin, faking being deep in thought. "I didn't do anything, they just crumbled under my power." He smirks.
Blue's eyes widen in fear. "Y-you didn't-" He checks.
"-No need." The vampire cuts in. "That poor sorcerer, I think I might've been a little hard on him." He chuckles, turning his back on Blue and leaving the room.
The sounds of Kier's screams echo loudly against the castle's walls, almost like he's wailing a name.
His real name... not the alias that he's given to the other two.
"Kier..." He murmurs sadly.
Blue shakes his head to try to shake off the sound, knowing fully well that if he tries to call out to Kier, it sends him into further insanity. Instead he tries to fix his appearance by getting rid of the scars and wounds. The more he tries the more he becomes transparent until he just gives up and disappears completely again while he waits for the others to return.