Like sliver orbs the women walked forward. Set in a formation tight knit their procession was slow and paced. It was captivating in its grace and carried a calm tranquillity that soothed anyone in their path. With only their undergarments that had been pulled tighter in following the lead of Lily, they looked slightly wanton as they did unattainable. Perttu with Lily as his mate saw none of them as he did Lily. He saw their beauty but it was only his mate he felt himself drawn to. Glad the vampire charm was not touching he breathed deep and looked longingly in her eyes. Hers were star struck.
“Lily.” He began. He needed to explain it all to her but she held up her hand, her index finger in particular and she placed it at the side of his mouth – away from the disjointed jaw and fangs.
She closed her eyes as she felt his skin. Smooth, just as before. She had wondered if he would feel the same now he was in this form. Overjoyed with relief she merely shook her head. It was a minute before she could form the words.
“It no longer matters. You are hurt. Badly.” His shoulder was pouring with blood, his side also and she saw scorch marks on his body from where sparks had nicked him.
“I will be alright.”
“The moon is still out. It will be for a while.”
“It will be covered in minutes.”
“Then let us do what you can not. Let us as women spend these minutes keeping them in line and then when you are stronger you and your men can take over.”
He couldn’t understand why she wasn’t shouting at him. Why she stood there still and looked at him as if he were gold.
“I don’t want you in danger.”
“Look at us Perttu. I am in no danger. They won’t dare to attack their own dreams.”
His pause seemed to last hours as she waited for his permission. She could practically hear the heaving of his chest as he breathed hard and long trying to regain his breath and not let her captivating scent take it from him again.
“Don’t strike at them, the illusion will fade. Let them touch you, only when the clouds are covering the moon. When the spell is broken because you hurt them, then we will step in. Captivate them, get close to them. We will finish it off but you need to hold them still. Don’t fear them touching you, you’ll wound them grievously. Don’t touch your own skin; the blades hurt you as well as anyone else.”
“You trust me to help you? You willingly let the women help you men?”
“The danger is not as great as I thought it would be. You can do what we can’t.”
She looked up at and smiled. That glistening smile nearly undid him and he felt himself getting tense as he had to exercise upmost restraint.
“Perttu?” She got his attention again for it had wandered into looking at her body. His eyes snapped back to hers.
“Sorry. Yes?”
“This trust we have in this moment. This understanding that there are limits but there are ways to aid each other and the conversation we have just had – I want that to stay in our relationship. I want to be included.”
“I promise. I ‘m so sorry for lying. For not telling you.”
“Never mind, the hounds are getting restless. I have to go.”
He did hear the low growls that were rumbling lowly through the field. They had been captivated by the beauty but, as short as their conversation had been, it was too long to the hounds who were starting to think the pretty women were figments of their imagination and getting restless as the spell was wavering.
Lily turned her body, intent on walking away to gain the attention of the hounds and lull them into lustful manners so they trusted them. As she turned however Perttu grabbed her arm.
“Don’t fight them, you’re beautiful and covered in blades but you’re too weak for them. They are too strong for a woman. If they pounce you’ll go down in seconds.”
“I understand your role Perttu – as a soldier – now let me also show you I understand mine – as your partner in all things. We play to both our strengths; we fill in for the other’s weaknesses.”
Her slender arm slipped from his grasp and he watched her walk away. Her eyes trained on the hounds. She cocked her head ever so slightly to the left to display a little more neck with pearly skin and to show her flowing hair that hung loose and free. Her corset strings while pulled tight had been done in a rush, with no thought the appearance, only to pulling them. The strings and her hair gave her the appearance of being wild and untamed and it excited all unmated beings in her path. The sorcerers, one by one fell to their knees. “Enchantress!” They called to the vampiress’ that they watched. The hounds growl in approval at such beautiful women. That was what all women should be like they were thinking. Lily was sort of sickened to be amongst such creatures that had no control. At the same time she wasn’t so happy to be using her looks in a flirtatious and immoral way. But then, war didn’t show people at their best, it showed the primitive side. War was about doing the jobs that no else wanted to do. It was barbaric and brutal and the world would be a better place without it but nothing in the world was ever ideal. There was no utopia. There was no peace and as Lily walked the battlefield freezing the enemy that had struck first and declares war, she put shame aside and angled her body to its best advantage. She showed them her curves. She let her hair rustle in the wind. She parted her lips slightly to show off their plumpness and to let the tiny edge of her fangs be seen. She let her eyes water slightly to increase her look of vulnerable. She made herself an object of desire. She led the rest of the women along.
Taking her lead they followed. They walked amongst the hounds, amongst the sorcerers and let their undergarments trail along the floor as their dresses would have. As the bottom of the undergarment slid across the floor, they took the chance to let the material slither along the knees of those kneeling to them. All the better to entice.
To let his women parade around a battle field in her undergarments, with the most raw beauty he had ever seen on her on display to all, was taking a lot of restraint. He would have gotten angry and maybe lashed out at someone if not a hand had touched his arms and calmed him down. He jumped, startled at the hand and he looked down to see Niklas grinning.
“You noticed I stopped the earth moving?” He asked.
“Nope.”
“Well I did, now I need you to keep me from falling to my face. I would have said knees but I was already on them when the women came out.”
Perttu almost laughed out loud as his friend was desperately trying to keep his eyes away but was slowly letting them wander over to the women. His eyes glazed every now and then as if all his thoughts were too out of hand.
“At least you have good taste in women, my friend.” Perttu reached down and after letting one of his arms morph back to normal, grabbed Niklas under the arm and pulled him to his feet, steadying the man whilst Niklas worked his magic and let the stick take his weight.
“What’s your plan?” Niklas asked.
“When the moon is covered the women will stop glowing. They will still look beautiful but the magic hold they have over men will disappear. They are at their most vulnerable at that point because they’ll be close to the enemy who’ll have their enchantress taken away and replaced with vampires. In their eyes. The women are armed as much as we are but they have neither training not strength. When the moon is covered I’ll have just enough power back.”
“And you will do…?”
“What I did to the man who dared to take her. I’ll break them. I’ll make sure they can not stand to fight.”
A little sceptical Niklas looked to his friend.
“You are powerful but I have not heard a vampire strong enough to bring down an entire army.”
“The hounds are weakened in their lust and besides, my mate is in the midst of battle, my anger will feed my power.”
Niklas nodded. He stood by his friend to watch as the women took their stances infront of various hounds, locking their eyes with that of the enemy and starting to whisper sweet nothings into the night. The instinctual vampire voice now came in to play. The feline voice of the male was joined by the high pitch but softly spoken words of the females. It was a delicate sound akin to glass when polish to a crystal shine and tapped lightly with metal. That bell like sound was specifically made to be fitting to their forms.
Lily was about six metres from him, not far really but it felt like a village away. The clouds drifted slowly once more and Perttu felt his power returning drop by drop into his very veins. Like the drip of a tap it leaked into his pores, seeped through the thin layers of tissues into his blood. And blood was the make up of a vampire. It was who he was. And the power ran in his veins.
Now he was grateful for the lazy clouds. Now he nodded his head in their direction as a token of thanks to their job. They made the magic that was starting, once again to flow in his veins, a slow procession. One he was fully able to embrace. And use. Bit by bit. His fangs lengthened again. Even longer. His jaw clicked as it dislocated that little bit more. The hairs on his arms grew. His own blades grew longer. He felt the bones in his legs ache as they elongated. His spine popped, the cracking sound reassuring him he was getting taller. His eyes glazed over. Any second now he would have magic and he would use it. The moon was slowly being covered.
The hound directly in front of Lily was looking at her like meat. Its eye gleamed and looked up and down at her. Yes she captivated him like she was the incarnation of his best dreams come true but that didn’t mean he looked at her with reverence like some of the others were doing. He was looking at her like she was his favourite meal that he couldn’t wait to devour. It was like she meat on the bone he was going to rip off with his teeth rather than use cutlery and she felt slightly sick standing so close to him. Letting him smell her. Letting him look her body up and down. And up and down again just to linger on her breasts and drool at her hips. She had never wanted Perttu to be by her side more. She knew he would protect her but this was not meant to be easy to do. If war was so easy it would be on her doorstep every second of the day. So she allowed it. She let the hound look at her. She let him walk closer to her and she even tilted her head to lure him in even more as she stood her ground.
She was no defenceless woman. She had to bare that in mind. She needed to remember that when the disfigured beast walked up to and let his nose touch the flowing material of her undergarments. She half closed her eyes, as though in a trance. She pretended to be in a blissful state at the hounds attention and it encouraged him all the more. Just one touch of his knee that pressed to far to her skin and it would have a nose no longer.
It rose to its hind legs so the head that once came up to her chest when it was on all fours, now towered above her. Until it leaned down to rub its face against her. It all happened so quickly and even she wasn’t prepared for the instinctual behaviour to take over her completely: As it leaned down and let its face smooth across her jaw bone her hair sliced the hound’s head to bits. It roared with anger at her and went to bite but it’s head at been at the side of her head and with a tiny readjustment of her position she turned her head ever so slightly. Her fangs pierced it’s thin, almost non existent skin, they cut through his neck like scissors to a single piece of thread. Blood gushed into her mouth and she fed from its neck. Gulping back and swallowed the life giving substance. It tore his neck from hers but she wrapped her arms around it’s chest and back. Her arms were too small to link in a circle around him but that didn’t matter. It was the hairs that held him in place; it was the blades that dug into his skin and shredded it, pierced into his muscle and the more the hound moved the more it cut itself deeper until it was losing blood from body and neck. Lily cast a glance around to see that the spell had already started to break at the sight and sound of one of the hounds being killed. As quick as lightening the women lunged into action; each one wrapped their arms around the hounds that were still partially in their trances and unable to move away from such temptresses.
Perttu saw it all. The magic started in the pit of his stomach and as he took a breath he felt it rise up through his chest, to his throat and at the back of his throat he pushed it out – a sound of war. A call of victory. It was a deep bellied scream for action. The women were positioned, holding the enemy prisoners. The moon’s light, was dulled. Hidden behind the grey clouds in the rain that still fell and amidst the charred remains of what was once his garden Perttu stretched out his arms. The magic flowed through his arms to his fingertips which he curled inwards as he bellowed out one last time and let free his power… just as the women’s glow faded along with the last shine of the moon.
“Aargh!”
The sound of popping bones was loud. As loud as the trees had been and the kneeling wolves fell sideways crumpling to the floor. Some were lucky, stood too far away from Perttu they were immune from his power, but they were few and soon were backing away, surrendering. For the rest laying on the floor their spines started to brake and their flesh tore. Their animalistic forms twitched with the force of Perttu’s magic and all of them were whining. It was the only sound they could make through the pain he gave each and every one of them. Their muzzle pulled back and released continuously as they tried to growl out other sounds. They was too fall with a threat in their tone at the least - but they got nothing. The sorcerers looked to Niklas, hoping for deliverance but he stood by Perttu as his friend took down the army.
The vampire soldiers all looked to their leader. To the one who had led them into battle and provided safety for their women and they led him carry on with what he was doing. They let him single handily bring to their bellies the enemy where even those free from his magic cowered in the hopes of leniency. They allowed him to show the terrible power he could wield. Not all vampires could break bones with their magic despite having specialties in their own ways. They stood in formation, straight backed lines of ridged discipline and comradeship and watched as the hounds were fully defeated.
Joseph walked over to Niklas and held out a hand of friendship to which Niklas took with a bow of his head and a smile on his face.
“I am Perttu’s brother. I believe you are as well.”
“So I’m told is the honour.”
Lily stood on the battle field feeling her appearance fading back to normal. Her shine had gone and the undergarments were a little tighter than they had been. She noticed she had lost inches in height as well. Her womanly curves came back and she looked like a normal female once more. Then the horror of battle sank in.
Littered all along the floor were dead monstrous beast. Their bright red blood coloured the blackened ground. How had she not seen that before? Vampire’s in their primal form were laid on the floor at odd angles, their legs sticking out in ways that were unnatural in any animalistic form. The dead were cut up, laid in their own blood and not witness to the victory that belonged to the vampires. That was not all. Now she saw what her own mate was capable off. And yes, it scared her. It had the hairs on her back standing to attention even as they were going back to normal, becoming less like blades and thinner, more blunt.
What he was doing was born from weeks of anxiety and resignation. It came from his worry of her coming to a peak at finally seeing her in the very danger he had tried to hide from her. She knew why he was carrying on but it was wrong. This was a form of torture and she wouldn’t condone it. Not in the aftermath of devastation. He needed reigning in. He was her mate, her gentle mate who first saw her and tended to her bruised and welted arms. He was the man whose first thought on seeing her had been to get her breakfast and calm her down when she had a panic attack. She would not let him be a barbarian.
“Perttu.” She said.
Just his name. That’s all it took for his attention to divert to the voice that spoke it. The voice calmed him down and let him know she was alright. It took his name spoken again for him to realise that she wasn’t too pleased with him.
“Perttu! Stop it now. You have shown them. Now let them crawl back home knowing they can not challenge you anymore. By all means impose restrictions on them, sort out how to avoid a war in the future, but do not lose the humanity I learnt to love in you.”
“I am vampire! I have no humanity!” He screamed it at her. He made her know that she had to accept who he was. It frustrated him that after all this time she still spoke the word ‘human’ to him. He was a beast he knew it. He saw it and was shamed to stand in her presence looking like one. He had begged Joseph to never let her see and she dared stand there, looking at him, seeing him as his true beast like self and tell him to be human! It was impossible.
“Then why do you take the appearance of one in your every day life? Why do you strive to act like one?!”
“I do not!”
She laughed at his complete ignorance.
“Then why do you have human emotions? Why do you love like humans do? Why do you feel pain and compassion like humans do? Why is it an animal would take great pains to hide a group of women from fear, anxiety, danger? Why do you call those who are not related by genetics to you, brothers? Vampires and humans are not so very different. Your emotions as a vampire are just a little more extreme. Love is marriage to humans, its mate’s to vampires. You anger to a human would be a punch at the wall. To a vampire it’s this brutality.”
Why did what she said have to make so much sense. He couldn’t deny it. He didn’t want to. He would love to be known as human like instead of the animal. He felt the magic flowing through his veins calm down. He felt it slow and diminish a little. His fangs were slowly shrinking back to normal and he felt his jaw align itself again.
“You have won. Do not tarnish a victory with such damming, be a hero now, not a monster.”
She did not wait to see what he would do. She knew already in her heart that he would follow her. She turned away from him and walked back to the house. She needed to adjust her corset and felt the urge to regain modesty again and put a dress on. At the door she took a sneak look back. She saw that he had lowered his arms and was taking a deep breath. He released the hounds and sorcerers. The enemy fell into a relief, followed hastily by wide eyed surrender. Perttu had listened to her. The war was over and life would carry on… once the garden was cleared.