Villahr stared wide-eyed at the round tapestry in the middle of the floor. He remembered vividly when Karolinna had purchased it, recalling he immediately characterized it as the most hideous rug he’d ever seen. She ignored him, insisting it had personality, and slid her money across the counter to the man running the run-down thrift shop, telling him to keep the change.
It looked quite similar to a colourful mess of vomit. Every hue and shade imaginable was jammed into the matting in no particular order, pattern or fashion. Demented, tear-dropped swirls were sporadically placed, each holding some sort of plant leaf in their hollowed centres, and wherever there was room for one, sat a spiked flower, edged in lime green and maroon. It really was a really was a sad and repulsive excuse for decoration.
Unlike most everything else, which seemed to have no real place in the room, Karolinna kept it in immaculate condition. What he could see of it looked just the same as it did hanging the on shop wall; but there was one thing upon it he knew he would have recalled seeing, before it had been rolled up and handed to her across the register.
Sprawled out in the middle, was a woman, and wrapped around her neck like a scarf were colourful purple markings. Villahr looked at Karolinna with enlarged pupils.
“What, did you do?”
Karolinna bit down on her generous bottom lip, leaving slight imprinting when she lifted her teeth from them again to speak.
“Well, I picked her up at that bar across the way. She was eyeing me, and I noticed…I knew I just had to have her so ...”
“These women are not fucking collectable dolls, Karolinna!” Villahr interrupted. His tone wasn't yet laced with anger, but it certainly was a higher decibel which indicated rage was there.
“I know that, Lahr! I wasn't trying to… just hear me out first okay?” she barked back, immediately regretting the bite she hadn’t meant to give him.
Frustration emblazoned her beautiful vilacious eyes, and perhaps a little bit of fear spiked them. Villahr may have been a deviant as a child, but it was true when it was said he had changed for the better. She wouldn't put it past him to give up on her one of these times and go straight to the parents. There is no law against Vicio people taking the life of a human, but it certainly wasn't advised, and her folks took conforming to society very seriously.
Kneeling down next to the body, his long coat draping onto the floor, Villahr shrugged his shoulders and pressed his mouth shut tight to stop himself from speaking. He angled his head to his long-time companion, eyes focussed in on her plush lips. Waiting for more words to flow, he hoped among them would be a suitable explanation, but did not hold his hopes too high.
Getting on her knees by the handsome Vici's side, Karolinna tucked her hair behind her ear, taking in pointless breath and continuing. “I went out last night. Yes, I did. I know I shouldn't have, but… don't worry, I'm fine. See?” Her long, thin fingers brushed along his smooth, hairless jaw, and their heat seeped into the skin of Villahr's cheek as they came to repose there.
“Okay. Let's pretend there's not a dead chick in the room for a second, and let me say that I do believe you when you say you were careful.” He knew she thought too much of herself to be that negligent of her actions. “Why you would even risk being out in the moonlight. It's dangerous, sisienta”
Karolinna couldn’t help but to groan, as the condescension stabbed it’s way into her patience. The blades went just as deep as when her parents clutched the knives. Despite the dissatisfaction he gave her, she smiled at Villahr’s endearing closing term. He’d been calling her that ever since she was a youngling, and it never failed to calm her.
“You sound just like my mother,” Karolinna grumbled, though the word still stuck in her head, and a small upward twist appeared at the corners of her heavily glossed lips.
“Well, when bishahllt like this keeps happening, it's obvious you still need reminding.”
Villahr looked back at the body. The woman’s dark hair fell in rivets down her exposed front, where evidently someone had loosened the buttons. Her eyes were wide open in a state of perma-shock, and the suspecting male was unsure as to what she wore on the bottom, as her legs were bare and there was no sign of the jettisoned clothing anywhere in the viscinity.
She didn’t look to be much older than the mortal age of twenty, and Villahr suspected he was right. With one glance at the identification card sticking out of the purse discarded not far from her outstretched arm, he noticed she looked absolutely nothing like the picture of thirty-two year old ‘Midgely Carter’.
Karolinna ran her pinkie down the undressed flesh and then along the lacy, pink frill of Midge’s brassiere. The girl was obviously human. Villahr could see the veins under her skin, a still darkened purple, as the body finally began to roll to a stop, brimming with scarlet. From the looks of things she had hardly been dead more than twenty-five minutes.
“She's beautiful isn't she?” piped in Karollina, as she proceeded to stroke her digits along the lifeless form, marvelling at how pale her hand was in comparison to the tanned skin it rested on. The look on her face showed admiration, but granted it also bore a touch of jealousy that her own complexion would never achieve such a gorgeous tawny tint.
“Yes,” Villahr finally replied to his friend’s question, bending closer to the lifeless form in between them, and putting his ear to her to her lip-stick smeared kisser. He listened, pressing two fingers to the side of her neck. He made a dissatisfied face when he found no pulse, but in all honesty, he never presumed their would be.
“She was.”
The pallid looking male threw another disappointed stare at Karolinna, lasting all of a few seconds, and then directed his attention to Midge’s departed figure. She was lying on her back, legs and arms spread when he arrived, and that’s the way she remained up until this point, her face pointed at the ceiling. It was as thought she was staring right through him.
As much as he despised the humans sometimes, this woman didn’t deserve this, and surely she wasn’t expecting it when she dressed herself up for a night on the town. Villahr honestly couldn’t let her enter the afterlife looking so debauched and almost violated.
“Okay, before I do anything, I want you to do two things for me,” he said, not turning away from the diseased female before him. “First, find her pants.”
Karolinna’s cheeks turned blue, confirming that the pink blush he saw on there earlier was indeed makeup as the entire area she’d applied it to turned a pale violet. The ice-silver blood welled up beneath the surface of her skin, announcing to Villahr her temporary mortification. She tried hard to remember where exactly she had hurled them when they entered the room in the wee hours that morning.
“Ehd Ovi!” Villahr rocked his head rocked his head from side to side in his amusement at the younger Vici’s licentiousness.
“Found them!” Karolinna finally announced. Squatting down low to the floor, she bounded up high into the air to snatch them from where they were hanging haphazardly off the crystal chandelier.
With some struggle, the pair were able to hike the the skin-fitted trousers up her spindly legs and back to their rightful place on her hips. Karolinna made sure they were zipped again, and received a disapproving glower from the male Vici when she went to fasten the button and discovered it had been torn off in the kerfuffle.
“Sorry,” she said, closing her mouth and trying her very hardest not to smile. She cracked immediately, grinning like a cheshire cat, as soon as she spotted the smirk upon Villahr’s lips.
“You really can’t go twenty minutes without nailing someone, can you?”
“I can so!” Karolinna rebutted, lifting her arm and looking down at the time flashing in green against her wrist, upon it’s circular, glass face. When she’d read it, she look up at him and answered smugly, “We’ve been here at least thirty!”
Not forgetting his purpose for being here, Villahr rolled up the sleeves on his work shirt. He wasn’t sure why he did because it couldn’t possibly get any dirtier, so maybe it was just a force of habit. Or perhaps his repulsion for humans extended further than he initially thought.
“Should I expect to be defiled?” he asked.
Villahr’s eyes like diamonds, were quick to draw Karolinna’s attention and for a moment she forget where she was, lost in the sparkle. She forced herself to snap out of it quickly before it turned into an uncomfortable stare and flicked him on the side of the neck, making sure her talons remained retracted so as not to cut him.
“Don’t tempt me,” she said calmly, rerouting her study to Midge again. “Okay. Go for it.”
When it came to the practice of magic, most Vici were naturals, but Villahr was in a class all his own. Karolinna vividly remembered their lessons together as children and how much she envied his ability to soar to the top with his exemplary test scores, and undeniable determination. His stubbornness and absolute refusal to quit, no matter how difficult a spell may be to register, became most annoying in her adolescence and Karolinna was certain that was why she tried so hard to knock him off track many a time.
She’d grown since then — albeit not much, as Villahr would say — and she knew now that he would always be the better enchanter. She came to him for everything.
Karolinna watched vigilantly as Villahr’s eyes fluttered shut and he let his thoughts consume him. Although the spells did not require him to do so, blocking the outside world from view made them stronger. It took a great deal of mental composure to do the incredible feats he did.
When Villahr had aligned the correct spell in the forefront of his mind, he lifted his hand and held it just above Midge’s face. The process was too complicated for Karolinna to master, and to this day she desired the power her friend controlled, still stumbling and failing magnificently every time she tried.
It was like setting up a row of Dominos. A pattern is chosen and laid out just so to create something spectacular. Then standing back, the last piece in the formation is pushed, sending all of the ones preceding it toppling over and revealing the motif to all.
Karolinna’s magical capabilities were clumsy, and the parts crashed together before she could even finish the design. Villahr’s hands were steady, his cognitive blueprints complete and one-hundred percent accurate down to the very last measure. When the time came to let it all go, everything seemed to fall perfectly into place, and the outcome — spectacular! She learned it was probably best to do as he did, and began to study Villahr’s every move. But it didn’t help either, because her end results were still nothing short of disaster.
Careful not to say a word and accidentally disturb his concentration, Karolinna sat by his side with total stillness. Villahr’s hand had moved closer to the body and was now suspended just over the brunette’s forehead. He extended his index finger and pressed it firmly to the middle, waiting for a short while before removing it, opening his eyes, and sitting back on the heels of his feet.
“Now we wait,” he said with a glimmer of weariness. Magic is taxing.
“That’s it?” Karolinna had watched him do this many times before; with relatives, a few of the elders, and the odd human body, but it never ceased to amaze her at how swift he was.
“That’s it,” he replied. With a single touch the process of decay had accelerated and the woman’s expired form began to decompose.
Karolinna’s face contorted into what one might look like after discovering a degrading bird in the gutter, as Midge’s face, neck and shoulders began to turn a sickly green before her very eyes.
“Tawn aah inst tay,” she complained, positively repulsed. It made Villahr start to snicker. He’d seen many dead bodies in his lifetime, and by now the corpulent revulsion had almost completely worn off. Being the high-class snob that she was, Karolinna had seen far less, and had not yet grown accustomed.
“You never did answer my question. What exactly happened here?” asked Villahr, getting to his feet and rubbing his hands on his dirtied trousers. Karolinna followed him to the bed that reached towards them from the far wall, and sat down beside him at the foot. He was watching the deterioration, but Karolinna couldn’t bare to look.
“Well, it originated over there,” started Karolinna, pointing at the door. There were clear, deep grooves in the wood that he hadn’t noticed before. “She pushed me up against it the minute the door shut. I pushed her back. We kissed a little … okay, a lot! She was fantastic! I mean, let me tell you…”
“Kar, Kar…” Villahr interrupted, “I don’t need all the dirty details. I meant, how is it that she ended up black and blue on your floor, rather than face-down here, and tied to your headboard?” The gorgeous Vici poked his finger into the bedding they were sitting on, observing the barely touched sheets.
“Okay, Long story short. Have you ever heard of ‘breath play’?”
“Ehd Ovi! You are kidding me right?!” Villahr all but screamed, taking Karolinna a little aback. “Please tell me this wasn’t your idea.”
She shook her head, looking down. The thought had never even occurred to her, it was Midge who suggested it. It was Midge who explained to her how it worked.
“I didn’t! I swear! I didn’t even know what it was until today. That girl was seriously twisted!” responded Karolinna, her nostrils starting to twitch as said girl began to fill the entire room with the scent of putrid flesh. She spared a quick glance, catching the body in it’s final stage of decomposition, now black and viridescent all over, and wished she hadn’t.
“And you indulged in her request, why?” Villahr was having a hard time understanding. “The fact that your more than a hundred times stronger, and could flatten her lungs simply engaging in sexual acts with this human, didn’t occur to you? At all? You never thought for a second that even the slightest twist of your hands on her throat might rupture her trachea?”
Karolinna never was much for looking before she leapt. Act first, think about the consequences later; that was her philosophy. It got her into trouble more times than Villahr could count, and one would think after at least two-hundred years that she would learn her lesson. Apparently not.
“No! I… I w- I wasn’t thinking! Okay” Karolinna stuttered.
“Hah! No shit!” Villahr gestured again to the carpeting.
Karolinna locked eyes with her friend as she lifted her head, and held the contact for as long as she could stand it before she had to look elsewhere. The judgment in his eyes was all too familiar and it tore viciously at her insides each time it was directed her way.
She’d made many mistakes in her life, and this one surely took the cake. Villahr was always there to bail her out, to keep it from everyone, to make it their little secret. She worried that some day soon he would no longer be there to dig her out of the ditch, and she’d have to find her own shovel.
Karolinna unclasped her hands which she held nervously in her lap and rested one of them tentatively on Villahr’s forearm. She could still feel his cerulean eyes fixed on her, mapping out the features as if they’d never perceived them before.
Rounded cheeks and a softened jaw; a thin, triangular nose, and full, luscious lips. She truly was a vision. Everyone said how attractive a couple they would make, and how breath-taking their offspring were sure to be. But they were friends, nothing more.
Her beauty brought her a lot of attention, and although Villahr caught himself frequently staring at her, there was no yearning in his gaze. He felt very protective of Karolinna, that was for sure, but there was never any jealousy. She was more like a little sister to him. One whom he’d keep safe at any cost.
“I am sorry, Lahr,” Karolinna spoke softly. She afraid that if she raised her voice any louder it might encourage his anger to resurface, and for the time being he had fallen silent.
“I keep involving you in my bishahllt and it’s not fair to you. One of these days I’m going to get you in real trouble. I’ll never be able to forgive myself if something happens to you.” Her eyes were starting to tear, but she wasn’t sure whether it was due to her emotions or the horrible stench that kept slamming her senses like a brick to the face.
Villahr smiled again for the first time in a while, and it reassured Karolinna to see his glistening pearly whites.
“You know I’d do anything for you, sisienta. Anything!”
The snowy-skinned female returned the expression and gave his arm a loving pinch as she nodded her head in agreement. Where did that doubt even come from? She knew better.