When Karolinna rolled into her room, Villahr was waiting there as expected. Through the window was a better alternative to the front door, but at least Villahr wasn’t staking it out down there. He had one of those looks on his face that made one want to curl up into themselves and disappear.
“Ardeidae toneh en solei flier ily Fae.” Karolinna said as she caught Villahr’s eye. “Oaa Elna. You know I can’t judge. If the five beautiful women who left here last week alone are anything to go by.”
When she stood up Karolinna brushed off the pieces of dust and gravel clinging to her flesh.Villahr raised a thick and determined brow.
For a second the blonde thought she might have seen the faintest of smiles, but it was gone before she could really get a good look.
“Karolinna…”
“Villahr,” the faelna answered mockingly, matching her companion’s stern and parental tone. He just continued to cast upon Karolinna a cold stare in silence. If they could form without melting on contact, icicles would be lining the tinted glasses that spent most of the day atop Karolinna’s head holding her hair in place.
Villahr leaned forward in the chair, in the same place before her vanity mirror. All her cosmetics had been neatly arranged on the desktop, which Karolinna to wonder how long he had been there.
“You do know you’re not my father, right?” Karolinna pushed by him, pulling her dress up over her head. Snagging on the dark specs which ended up coming off with the animalistic material, she tossed it to her dresser to deal with later.
“I may as well be, since I am pretty much speaking on his behalf,” Villahr answered plainly. He didn’t sound at all angry, nor did he look it, which was, in Karolinna’s experience, always a bad sign. Apart from the knot between his eyes and his lips pressed together tightly when they weren’t parted for words to brush past them, he looked a little irked at the most.
Karolinna made a face at his response.
Wearing a pair of white jeans and a loose but open ivory long-sleeve, Villahr looked especially handsome in the dim lighting. He must have changed since getting home because there was no way he would risk spilling Korebon or singeing such crop garments.
A candle burning on the desktop cast what little rays it put off onto the left side of Villahr’s face.
The immediate visage in her minds eye of Danah , whilst on the subject of male parental figures, made Karolinna shiver. Often she would fantasize of Villahr, despite the brotherly feelings that were buried somewhere underneath the lustful ones. The idea of attraction to her ‘father’ made her want to heave.
With her Doesono’s head refusing to dissipate, the word “Daddy” took n a whole new meaning, and she thought to the countless times she had used it in the past to make her male partners squirm. Right now it was making her squirm for a whole mess of different reasons.
Karolinna’s face scrunched unpleasantly.
“Oh sweet Divine,” she said, “Don’t ever reference yourself in that way ever again!” Karolinna mimed vomiting, her head down behind her dresser where she made obvious hacking noises over the garbage can.
Villahr laughed, his voice deep and only making Karolinna feel even more queazy when she looked up to see Danah’s head bobbing up and down like a buoy, in mid-air where it seemingly floated before Villahr. Eventually his features broke through, and giving her head a good shake Karolinna was able to separate the cloud of her father that hung between them by breaking the mental connection off at the root.
“What happened to coming right home, sisienta?”
Though the sky was dark, and the moon was pushing through the clouds, the sun still hung high, refusing to go without a fight — or, like a petulant child, at least not until it was good and ready to. Karolinna pointed out the window at it, a tooth brush hanging now from her mouth. An uncapped tube of polish was held in her other grip.
She took the obstruction of her words out just long enough to emphasize the fact that it was not technically night time yet and once loading the bristles with minty paste, popping it back in, moving it about viciously.
Villahr’s mouth fell open with a mixture of astonishment and amusement. Lifting his hand in front of his face he splayed out his fingers before thrusting them back into his silver locks, free from the usual hassle he held them with. He gripped the back of his neck briefly before pulling straight through.
“You are cutting so close right now you're almost nicking the scalp,” he said with a chuckle.
“Perhaps it’s about time you quite scrutinizing my beautician techniques and go find yourself an actual barber.” Karolinna pulled on a pair of boy-shirts dotted with minuscule little white spots.
“You know I could never do that.”
Karolinna’s nose wrinkled as she mimicked a sulking toddler about to have a tantrum.
“Wish you would,” she mumbled. “You have a lot of hair, and my hands are getting tired.”
Villahr grinned widely. He always loved their little metaphorical spats, and Karolinna’s ability to hold her own against him with each snappy come back, whether relevant or not.
“You mean I’m getting annoying?” he offered, bringing the conversation back to plain speak.
“Yes!” Karolinna threw her hands up in the air exasperated. “So fucking annoying!”
“Where did you go this time?”
“Drinks. That new place on Dicen.” She answered almost immediately, like she had planned her response word-for-word out in her head days beforehand before even knowing this conversation would take place. If Karolinna was not sure herself that that was were she had been she might have even begun to doubt it.
She had only ever been hammered enough to forget her name, birthday and even her residence, thrice — and that was after sneaking three whole two litre flasks of Chilla Loq'or.
Villahr twisted around in the chair to face Karolinna, but not before waving a hand over the dying flame of the candle weeping hot wax onto the surface it sat upon; it came back to life instantly.
“Who with?” he asked, starting with third degree.
“Alone! What? I can’t do that now?”
“Sure you can. In face you go there alone all the time. But you and I both know you certainly don’t come out that way. You go to throw your reel into the freshwater to see what you can hook.”
Villahr couldn't even begin to count off how many have followed Karolinna back here, falling as immediate prey to her baiting. Like lovesick puppies, though Karolinna had no need for a leash.
The elna was almost tempted to walk over to the window and check for whatever poor soul was out there waiting in the cold but dismissed the thought when he looked at Karolinna. She wasn’t standing there impatiently, foot-tapping as she usually did when she was expecting his immediate departure.
If there were someone out there he most certainly would have heard them, whether by their laboured breaths, dangerously irregular heart beats, to the distinctive smell of desperation.
Karolinna rolled her eyes dramatically, stuffed a pillow behind her back and leaned up against the headboard.
“Well, I was a good girl this time,” she gestured to the open closet door. “You don’t believe me, go ahead and look.”
The last poor soul who had been hidden there was almost forgotten completely in the deep darkness of one of the many secret compartments. The ‘missing’ posters that appeared a couple weeks after sure sparked her memory though. After wiping her memory, and a couple more weeks in the infirmary to improve her health, the woman was sent back to her unsuspecting family.
Karolinna appeared entirely too calm now to be harbouring late night entertainment, and even if she had someone planned she would have no reason to disguise this. Never did before - not from him at least.
“I believe you.” Villahr got out of the chair, closing the distance between them buy walking to the foot of the bed. Turning around, facing away from the faelna, he fell onto his back next to her. The smell of booze was even more apparent as he drew himself closer is of his elbow.
He resisted the urge to make a snide comment, instead finding it more fitting to pull up his nose with a look of revolt wave his hand in front. Karolinna got what he meant to convey right away and knocked him away with her own while stifling a laugh.
“So I had a few more than I originally intended. At least I managed to get home without wrapping my vehicle around a telephone pole.”
Villahr smiled.
“Considering the fact that you walked to work today, that would be a real feat.” His face broke further, poking divots in his cheeks as he started snickering.
“You know I’m not above grand theft auto.”
Villahr nodded his head. "Your not above most things." He folded his arms behind his head once he had scootched enough to be parallel Karolinna. Her skin felt warm against his elbow, which grazed his leg as he adjusted his position. This calmed him to know she at least kept herself covered up.
Enjoying the lack of screams and dirty looks, Karolinna almost didn't say what was articulating in her maw. Villahr was showing control, that he trusted her in a way, which was almost too good to be true.
She certainly did not wish to break the silence and risk provoking his wrath, but the words spilled out unstoppable like marbles. Karolinna probably could have held them on her palette a tad longer but release felt far better — not to mention it made conversation come easier minus the spherical blockage threatening to close up her throat.
“I met this really strange guy,” she said quickly, but not so much as to make it completely impossible to understand.
“Strange as in, three eyes and a tail, or ‘That shade of blue totally doesn’t match his complexion’ strange?”
Villahr closed his eyes for a brief moment and then smirked as both the former and the latter 'suggestions' sounded exactly like something his friend would classify as peculiar. Although, no one else would. Karolinna always did have a skewered sense of importance.
Karolinna turned her head to give Villahr a look to show she was not impressed but his eyes were close when she did. As if the elna was surrounded by a huge deflective force-field, her snark bounced right back. Even if his eyes were open it was unlikely that her glower was all that convincing anyway, he wouldn't have taken it seriously. Frankly, in comparison between them, it was like a shitzu challenging a Rottweiler.
“Very funny,” she said softly. Dropping her hand to the bed beside her where a beautiful array of silver and white was spread out around her friend’s head, the blonde took a gentle fistful. Lifting it up in the air she released it again and repeated the action several more times. The simplest of actions though oddly intimate and it calmed her whenever Villahr permitted her to do it.
She has always been jealous of his silken locks, though Karolinna's own riveled that of all the women plastered over the front of the top fashion magazines tenfold and then some. Blonde is boring, she would always say. Silver is the colour she favoured most and as a child she had been caught many times at his bedside with scissors and paste.
“Care to elaborate on ‘strange?’” asked Villahr.
Now that she thought about it, Makhi wasn't really strange as he was wake awkward and uncomfortable, which was like basically every man Karolinna had ever encountered. Something about him however, left her with a feeling unlike with other mortals and it was most unsettling.
“Well…” she racked her brain for something. “He was Russian.”
Villahr snorted in amusement.
"This entire Region was literally built upon grounds littered with many of the like. I believe they called it Russia." He put great emphasis on both syllables, and they almost sounded like two separate words.
More teasing. Expected.
“I will smother you with that pillow. I know you don’t particularly need oxygen, but I’d love to see how long you can withstand the pressure building up in your head before you go mad.”
Villahr was looking up at her now, almost apologetic. Taunting often made Karolinna quite volatile if taken to the extreme, but with his powers of exemption he got away relatively unscathed.
“This ‘strange, Russian’ guy… was he …human?”
"Yes. Why?" Karolinna's gaze snapped up immediately and the playful smile melted right off her face. Part of her knew what he was getting at but the bigger part shrouded the latter; for the time being she was legitimately stumped.
Villahr turned over on his side, a small clutch of his hair falling from his friend’s suddenly loosened hold, and propped his head on his hand.
His nose and eyes crinkled just enough to announce mild distaste, but not so much that it contorted the rest of his features. It was one of those faces you would recognize as one genuinely trying to avoid insult, but often happened regardless without knowledge of its owner.
Villahr shifted closer. Karolinna instinctively moved back, as had become a habit whenever she suspected he had begun to piece the parts of her most current wrong-doing together. Every time she expected severe scolding and vicious rhetoric. When none came, the pale female knew she ought to brace herself for a much more violent storm down the road. One she wouldn't see coming.
“You smell …different.”
Karolinna’s back went immediately rigid, and when she made a move to swallow down her nerves, they caught half way in decent as if someone had shoved a golf ball down her throat.
Jumping up from the bed, knocking Villahr over in the process — where he was holding himself steady against her knee — Karolinna made a beeline for the bathroom.
Though she had nearly forgotten it was there, or perhaps had grown too well accustomed to it, Denaii's scent swamped her nostrils now; a smell she hasn't noticed was so strong before, which worried her. The blonde mentally slammed her head against the mirror, shattering glass everywhere, for ever thinking enough time had passed that her companion would not notice the aroma.
Not bothering to tie up her hair, Karolinna stripped off her clothes again like she were shucking an ear of corn. Leaving everything in a crumpled pile at her feet, she hopped into the water-closet and pulled shut the door behind her with so much force the glass panelling shook.
The slight frosting on the door did little to hide her form from anyone on the other side of it, but neither her bareness nor the cold water currently blasting down on her, had her currently shaking.
“I didn’t say it was that bad.”
Villahr’s voice wafted into the room cutting easily through the thick billow of steam rising around her. Karolinna's body heat had amplified within seconds along with her worry. As she grabbed the soap it began to fall to ruin in her mitt like butter left too long to soften in a high-powered microwave.
Gathering her thoughts, Karolinna slid the doughy remains along her body with intense moxie. Down her arms, one-by-one, her neck and shoulders, she ended at her abdomen. There the suds ceased and the water removed any remnants of wash from her hands.
The faelna grabbed the loofa hanging off the back of the sliding door, and rubbed the somewhat scratchy material until the flesh had turned blue. She wasn't entirely convinced she had gotten it all but if she scrubbed any harder she would be removing far for than just vampire stench.
She wasn’t entirely convinced she had gotten it all but if she scrubbed any harder she may end up removing more than just vampire stench.
Closing her eyes tight, Karolinna stepped under the cooled spray. She was over-reacting, she must be. Or so she kept repeating to herself, though it didn’t seem to help.
Apart from the faint smell of burning corpses that used to waft in through the open windows of her room during the earlier vampire attacks; Villahr being there to comfort her as a child, his interaction with the bloodsuckers was minimal. Karolinna comforted herself with these thoughts as she switched off the water flow. It was a long time ago and despite her heightened senses after a century, even Vicio could lose familiarity.
The room had grown quiet and the atmosphere dark as the lights had dimmed from lack of movement. Wringing out her hair with both hands, Karolinna waited until the waterfall of liquid coming from the blonde cascade died down to a mere trickle before sliding the door open.
If she wasn’t fully expecting it, despite the silence, the faelna might have jumped sky-high with a start as she almost collided with lengthy limbs stretched over the toilet seat where he sat. He held out a towel in his hand whilst he avoiding drinking in the visual of Karolinna’s nude body.
“Thanks.”
The smell was gone from what she could tell, and apart from the heated blue hue spreading out mostly along her stomach, thighs, and upper arms, when she stepped before the mirror for inspection, all looked as it should.
The condensation was already starting to drip down the glass and fixtures. It left her with very little reflective spaces to see through clearly but the main thing was that the only reminder of the vampire by the pond were the memories floating about her head.
Karolinna pushed them aside, forcing a blank slate, as she noticed movement in the corner of her eye. She would be fine as long as Villahr didn’t get too close enough to touch. She worried that if he did, all those forbidden thoughts would come flooding back. Unlike the splotches from her vigorous cleaning, they wouldn’t be so easily removed.
She could feel his presence before she caught his blurry image in the frame in front of them. With a sudden smirk on her face, Karolinna ducked her head forth sightly and then flung it back again. The soggy strands just barely scraped the tip of Villahr’s nose, but sprayed water droplets hard against his face, trailing a line across the ceiling and flinging the rest to the opposite side of the room.
Villahr said nothing in regard, just shook his head. When the blonde had finished towelling her hair to catch excess wetness but still leaving it slightly damp, she slowly fixed the towel in place.
Lifting her hand in the air, Karolinna shut her eyes momentarily. Her fingers posed as if they were holding an imaginary cup and she muttered something softly. Villahr watched as a glass bottle that almost looked a little like a test tube, materialized stoppered and half full with a rosy-pink liquid.
Karolinna dabbed a tad on each wrist and down the long expanse of her throat with two fingers, as if applying war paint.
“Strawberry-vanilla. Good choice.” Villahr was at her back now.
“Someone told me I smell bad,” she answered calmly, although her insides were anything but. Villahr ran his hands down the blonde’s arms while she tried to keep level-headed. His fingers caught ever-so-slightly on the series of raised, stud-like bumps starting from the top outer curve of her shoulder and ending just above the elbow.
What with Karolinna’s fascination with body decor — tattoos, piercings and others of the like — the falena chose when she came of age to undergo the ceremonial process, Medlehho, which held responsibility for the raised points on her flesh.
When his hands reached the bottom of the pattern and began their ascension once more, he took to circling about each golden stud poking through.
He remembered creating the design himself, back when his shop was still in its beginning stages, and how the entire time Karolinna leant impatiently over his shoulder, as if that would speed up the process. It was the first time he had had to draw out anything of this sort, and that he didn’t have to cut from sheet metal afterwards. Since it was for Karolinna he gave it one-hundred percent. Well, ninety-eight. The other two were put to use swatting the blonde pest buzzing about his eardrums.
The ceremony was private. Only a few close friends. Villahr, Kayya and Danah. Such a small gathering was foreign to Karolinna. She always had to be the grand spectacle; she didn’t do low-key. This led Villahr to believe that Kayya had a hand in nixing half the guest list before the event. This could be partially why the faelna of honour looked so perturbed, apart from the obvious pain.
The elder who performed the ceremony was steady, as required, but particularly so that it wouldn’t have surprised anyone if she turned out to be one of the surgeons from the medical ward. Oddly enough for a vici, she looked her age. The years weighed heavily on her face and hands, and she looked as though she hadn’t come of age herself until well into her sixties.
Villahr was there, holding Karolinna’s hand tightly in his own. A fluid called Viteralin, similar in density and appearance to water — just with more of an aqua colouring, like diluted gargling solution — was applied. With a brush to each arm as well as to the blade, washing it of any impurities, it was slathered on thickly.
Without this the process would be impossible, even with a vici’s genetic nimbleness, control and resolve. This was unfortunate but she didn’t seem to care or at least long ago made peace with it.
Karolinna winced and groaned a few times, when the woman carving the design cut deeper and inserted a stud which immediately fused to the inside of the incision, but otherwise remained collected. Her eyes stayed locked to Villahr’s, as his were in reciprocation.
Where metal pieces weren’t used to close the wounds, which were unable to heal on their own accord due to the properties in the Viteralin temporarily paralyzing the healing process, silver twine-like thread sealed things off.
Staying by her side the rest of the night, copious amounts of Viteralin still in her system and leaving her dangerously susceptible, especially with her track record of being uncoordinated, Villahr helped to keep his friend’s wounds clean.
Following the thread on her arm, he traced out the intricacy of the floral patterning. There was no arguing the design was one of his greatest works, and Karolinna made a point to show it off whenever and wherever she could.
Karolinna focussed on things that would cause her mind to take a fork in the road, straying from the extremely detrimental destination it was currently headed. To her utter delight, the vision of Denaii at the foot of that road disappeared almost immediately when Villahr fingers worked their way up. Her body tried to repel these thoughts as well, thus keeping Villahr from having access to the visuals that would surely alter his current state of calm and order.
After applying more oil to just behind her ears, Karolinna maoevered her hands through bone dry hair to transfer any extra deposits of the fruity nectar adding lustre to her long locks. Villahr suddenly stopped his ministrations and reached around her middle. He grabbed hold of the bottle resting in an electric glass meant to keep the contents of the vial warm, then rubbed a good amount partially into his palms before stroking the rest onto the skin of his companion’s forearms where she had yet to apply some.
“This is my favourite,” he said, taking in a deep breath. The slight swirl of discomfort in Karolinna’s belly was enough to distract the faelna from worser thoughts but her guards were severely weakened around Villahr and at this moment she just really wished he would retreat to his own quarters, knowing she was safe and sound.
She knew he wouldn’t though; not until he had chained up the dog — which in this case was Karolinna. He acted as though he simply wanted to achieve comfort for her as if the little mutt had no idea, but unbeknownst to him, the ‘mutt’ was completely aware of his plans to shackle her up to a tree in his metaphorical yard.
It was quite awkward to manoeuvre with Villahr’s body pressing close to her back, not to mention distracting, but Karolinna managed to collect her hair into a scrunchie on the back of her head without once clocking the older male in the face. She had not realized the fabric temporarily cloaking her body had come loose until Villahr’s hands had travelled north to catch it.
Twisting one of the corners into a tight cord, while holding the other across Karolinna’s chest with a flattened palm, he tucked it under her arm again. Karolinna in took sharply through her nose.
“You just wanted to fondle me, did you?”
There was the makings of laughter in her voice, but Villahr’s was muffled as he tucked into the crook of her neck, close to the juncture where it met her shoulder.
“If I wanted to do that, I wouldn’t need an excuse or permission,” Villahr responded, looking up at her with his big blue eyes. Karolinna met his stare but said nothing as if the act had paralyzed her.
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
She often imagined situations where Villahr would do just as he said, but rather than be resigned to her breasts, his hands would often cover greater expanses.
Karolinna broke the connection in the mirror and corked the oil up again before depositing it back into the glass. The rim of it was blue again, indication of the cooled temperature from lack of use. She relished in the wave of refreshment that came over her as her knuckles brushed the exterior, drastically different from her own temperature.
Though she had always been her own favourite topic of discussion, Karolinna couldn’t change the subject fast enough. Reaching down just below the slight lip of the sink, she slid her fingers over a small area on on the foremost part of the smooth surface. Sliding them horizontally back and forth a few times, tracing out a eight then tapping twice to the left and once on the right, Karolinna pulled her digits back in time for a secret compartment to slide out.
To anyone else that in itself would be a wonder as the sink hardly appeared able to hold much more than a few splashes of water, let alone extra trinkets within it’s minuscule underbelly.
On a lightweight chain with a triangle cut of addia in the centre, a pristine infradai was retrieved from the compartment.
Karolinna unclasped it and dropped the long twists of binded silver to the counter. The metal was fine, and normally Karolinna would have laid it out with great care to avoid tangling, but unlike her other jewellery it metal fell like satin and knotting was almost impossible.
The blade was shaped to make up the first letter of her name in traditional Vicio script and despite the fact that she had received it a hundred and twenty plus years ago, it still looked fresh out of the box new.
The base, resembling that of the English letter ‘V’, was longer on the left side and sharpened to a point. Starting half way down, another sliver of metal descended diagonally to close the opening of the shape leaving a triangular space that was plugged with Karolinna’s favourite gem.
It was one of Villahr’s very first creations, and one of the faelna’s absolute most prized possessions, though she would sooner stab herself in the face with a fork than admit that out loud to its creator.
Turning on a dime to face Villahr who had a slight smile on his face as his eyes fell to the infradai, either surprised at its condition or the fact that Karolinna had kept it so long. She gestured towards his garments with a lingering look.
“Lose the shirt,” she said roughly, turning him with one hand to face the mirror so their positions were flipped. “I’ll help you bleed.”
Villahr turned back to face Karolinna almost as abruptly as she had done him and snatched the intricate piece of metal from her fingers.
“You first,” he responded, and before Karolinna could protest she found herself braced against the sink, the elna’s weight against her back, digging the front of her hip-bones somewhat uncomfortably agains the tiny sink.
Without so much as a warning, Villahr had her by the hair at the back of her head, pushing lightly on the base of her neck to force her to angle downward. The blade was then in her flesh, and Karolinna let out a small groan of pain at the initial contact. However, it was the only sound she uttered as the cut was lengthened further down the long expanse of her spine.
Karolinna was careful not to move, as she knew the slightest jostle might temporarily paralyze her. Working so close to the spin always ran that risk, but it was the one place that most efficiently drained a significant amount of blood relatively quickly. Provided the one making the incision had stead hands and knew where to slice.
When Villahr reached the end, at the root of the spine where he had gradually been working down the towel as he cute, there was a stain of blood at the peak of the folds.
Karolinna could feel the streams running hot down her back, and though the skin felt a little aggravated underneath each fall of vitality surging over each knob of her spin, she felt no real pain. She was exposed again, and for several minutes more, while Villahr cleaned her up with a damn cloth before dragging the material that had been bunching around her waist up to cover her again.
“Don’t move,” he said, and he left the room before Karolinna could get a good look at the colour dying the white fibres of the rag. When he returned he had a fresh one, soaked in disinfectant by the smell of it/
It stung when he wiped her with it, but not for long, as the incision closed some point in the middle of cleaning. He only ever cleaned the wounds when it was really deep or near something vital that may get easily infected.
“All done!” Villahr was smiling when Karolinna turned around, but it looked rather forced compare to the way he usually looked when expressing genuine content.
“I’ll be out in a minute.”
Karolinna made no point to say anything further, just nodded and stalked off to the bedroom. Villahr could hear the television click on. He turned to the micro, his hands clenched into fists, knuckled pressed to the edge of the sink.
His eyes flipped up to the tap for a brief second and then back down again when the water started to run and the cold tap began to turn despite the fact that both his hands were still. When the water had filled the small bowl completely the elna un-balled his hands and thrust them into the clear liquid.
It took all of four-seconds before he couldn’t see his fingers, and the water was the colour of smoke.