Viktor Thrice's Story

Valentina sighed and leaned against the wall beside Viktor, staring out at nothing in particular. She felt extremely alone and hated that she had been left behind by herself, though she understood why. Her fingers drew idly on the floor and it wasn’t long before she was once again up on her feet, pacing around the room before heading into the kitchen to tidy up even more. NomNom was still watching out the window, his head tilting to the side for a few minutes as he seemed to spot something with his fantastic eyesight before he was once again scanning the area, mewing softly.

“Anything out there, NomNom?” Valentina questioned softly, feeling uneasy at the whole situation. Her white kitty glanced back towards her before jumping down and heading over to her. Rubbing against her legs, he mewed again and purred when she started to pet him, the two trying to keep from being freaked out by any creaks in the Manor. After a few minutes, she stretched and stood back up, letting him remain beside her. Something was wrong… something that she couldn’t place a finger on. Sensing her distress, he morphed into his other form, becoming a large Siberian white tiger, though he was no longer cute since his flesh appeared to be rotting off. His fangs and claws elongated and he immediately began to salivate a poison as he moved through the room, his body almost as big as a SUV.

“Guard Viktor if anything that isn’t the people we know walks through that door, NomNom.” Valentina figured she was being overly paranoid, but she would rather be safe than sorry.

Minke's eyes were black with the same ink that she'd used to summon the snake scout, attaching her sight to the familiar's. Though its eyes, she saw the little girl, her loathsome creature, and the vampire who'd passed out. Whoever had gotten a shot on him had done a good job.

The Ink Mage raised a hand to signal for Aave, from her hand flitting an ink sparrow. It landed atop the roof, right where the occupied room lay, facing the same direction the little girl was. Like a mimic.

The banshee darted forward, her body melting through the walls of the house as she became incorporeal, like a faintly glowing mist. Something you'd expect from a ghost.

She would melt through the wall at the child's back, the only sound a slight breeze as the banshee energy propelled her forward. Aave reached out her hands: one to wrap around Valentina's mouth, the other to slither around her waist.

Valentina mused for a few minutes, wondering if Viktor had any good books to read. She was getting stir crazy from just sitting around and waiting and she had already cleaned as much as she could without throwing things away that might piss off Christian, though the idea of angering him was pretty tempting. Shaking her head, she sighed and glanced towards NomNom, figuring Viktor would not be pleased that her creature was walking around in his house, getting things dirty and gross. But, at that moment, she didn’t really care.

“Keep vigilant, NomNom…” She muttered softly, causing him to look over towards her. She smiled and started to say something else before she felt something wrapping around her mouth and waist. Squealing, the child Vampire struggled to get free, her lavender eyes as wide as saucers. She felt anger radiating from NomNom, but the creature did not move from in front of Viktor, knowing that was his task and he would guard the unconscious vampire even if it cost him his life. Valentina grabbed down for one of her silver throwing knives and after twirling it around, jabbed at whoever had grabbed her from behind.

Aave had no choice but to relinquish her grip on the child's mouth to try and catch her wrist so she wouldn't be stabbed. This meant the child could scream.

That meant people would come to help, because a child was screaming.

"Minke!" called the banshee, just loud enough for the Ink Slayer to hear. Minke raised her hands and grasped her fists, controlling the familiar to slither up Aave's leg and wrap around the little girl.

Valentina screamed the second her mouth was free and even though her wrist had been grabbed, she still fought to impale the knife into the figure’s body. She quickly moved her other hand towards another knife, but before she had a chance to do anything, something started to wrap around her body. Yelping, she struggled and tried to get free, realizing she was being squeezed by something that reminded her of a snake. She hated snakes with a fiery passion. Some point in time, the hand made its way back to her mouth, stopping her from screaming, which pissed her off, immensely.

NomNom hissed at the figure and despite being told to stay in front of Viktor, lunged at whoever was holding his owner against her will. His plan was to sink his poisoned fangs against the figure’s leg while he clawed the crap out of her. He growled and knew he had to work carefully to keep from hurting Valentina and to keep from anything else or anyone else from coming and grabbing or killing Viktor. This was not a safe place after all.

It was with great reflex as NomNom lunged did the banshee shift into her incorporeal form, casting the ability onto the girl to carry them both outside the house where Minke was hiding. She tossed the bound child toward the mage, and turned to race back inside for the other vampire.

The minute the two suddenly disappeared, NomNom snarled loudly and bounded back towards Viktor, remaining in front of him. If anyone came, they’d have to kill him first in order to get the other vampire. He wanted to go after Valentina, but knew that she would be pissed as hell if he left the position she had put him in. Growling, he all but sat on the male’s chest and kept his eyes peeled for anything dangerous. When noticing the form rushing back him, he growled again and bared his fangs at her.

"Duke, shift position so that you can pin the kitten if I somehow get into trouble," the banshee said in her speaker.

"Already movin'," he replied.

Phasing through the wall once more, one of Aave's hands brimmed with a white-hot energy, the other holding her sword to give the undead beast something to swallow. Though she faced him head on, she didn't seem to have any fear against the creature. She could maneuver around it easily.

She pursed her lips and smooched at it. "C'mere. Kitty kitty."

NomNom titled his head towards the female, still snarling. He knew better than to move closer to her, his blue eyes taking in her sword and her other hand. Something told him that being hit by either wouldn’t be a good situation, though he was a lot larger than her. Couldn’t he just pin her down? Shifting a little, so that he was still right in front of Viktor, the creature swiped his large paws at the woman, his claws aching to cut through flesh. He wanted to get this over with, so he could go make sure that Valentina was fine.

Growling, he thought about grabbing Viktor and trying to get away, but logic was something he was good at despite just being a cat and he knew that he was more likely to hurt the Vampire than to help him. Plus, it wasn’t like he could just stroll through the doorways or even the streets without being spotted. Growling again, he whipped a piece of nearby furniture towards the stranger.

Aave hopped back when the claws came out, missing them by a hair. Right as she set up to strike at the tiger, however, it tossed a table at her.

"Didn't your owners teach you not to claw at the furniture?" mocked Aave as she dropped to the floor on her chest in front of the cat, but below the tossed table, looking as though she were vulnerable.

"In position," said Duke.

NomNom just growled at her words, wondering if he should keep smacking things at the woman. However, when she suddenly dropped down onto his chest, he tilted his head, wondering if maybe he had actually hurt her. Deciding now was the time to finish it off so that he could go after Valentina, the Siberian Tiger first spread his legs out so that he wasn't tangled up in the medical equipment on the coffee table being he lunged towards her. He did have to crouch a little due to how close he was to the ceiling as he moved forward. Sometimes, being this large was a pain in the butt. Snarling, he went to sink his poisonous fangs into her body, deciding to bite her before mauling her with his sharp claws.

Aave's fingers curled as the cat came forward. Though she was ready to phase, she needed it quickly to get to the other vampire before the cops came. The little leech had screamed. Someone must have heard it. Not everyone turned a deaf ear.

Just as the tiger came close, there was a boom.

It wasn't extremely loud, but it was enough to alert a few neighbors. Even with the silencer, the noise of a shattering window was enough. It was worth it to try and pin the tiger down with a Pike round, and if that had worked, Aave would dart forward, make a dive for the unconscious vampire, and phase them both outside.

Normally, NomNom’s senses were pretty damn good, but he was so focused on protecting Viktor, worrying about Valentina, and mauling the female in front of him, that he didn’t realize something was afoot. When the glass shattered, he snapped his head towards it only to feel something slamming through his body. With half of his flesh having rotted off, it was fairly easy for the pike round to go through his body before it slammed into the ground. He growled loudly and felt the other clasping onto what flesh was remaining. Tugging in an attempt to get free, he snarled and tried to move, the floor cracking due to the force he was using. He knew that the female was probably going to grab for Viktor, but he was too big to do a lot of moving, though he tried to bring his legs around to smack at her. He had almost pulled the pike free and roared loudly, making it obvious that it would take more than that to keep him down.

The brief split second before she phased with Viktor, Aave's leg was caught by the tiger's claws. Though they got away, outside, free, the banshee found her leg heavily bleeding with a gouge in her calf. With her teeth grit, she dragged the vampire alongside Minke, who held the child.

Duke whizzed past them, quick on his feet. "We need to go," he growled. "We don't need the sick one! Kill it, discard it!"

With a rugged breath, the banshee slayer raised her blade and swipped it through the air, down on Victor's neck. The body fell to the ground in a heavy, dull whump. The head followed with a wetter splat.

Into the night the slayers ran, away from the crime scene, a captive in hand.

Valentina struggled to get free of the stranger, hissing as well as she could when the other woman brought out Viktor, who was still very much unconscious. NomNom hadn’t surfaced, which meant he was still in the house and hadn’t morphed back into his kitten form. She had saw the thing going through the window and although she had no idea what it did, something told her he had gotten hurt. She snapped her eyes towards a third individual, growling when he said to discard Viktor. When the female that had originally grabbed her suddenly sliced through the head of the only other person who meant something to her, she screamed out, though the sound was very much muffled. Tears immediately began to stream down her cheeks as his head dropped down to the ground beside his now very much dead body, she didn’t even have a chance to mourn before she was suddenly swept away, still held tightly, making it impossible for her to escape.

NomNom finally broke free, but by the time he lunged out of the window, taking out all of the frame and some of the wall with him, the aggressors were gone. Snarling, he realized that lights were coming on and people were beginning to stir, the creature returned to his white kitten form and paced around, trying to figure out how to find Valentina. He spotted Viktor’s headless body nearby and went over to him, meowing mournfully, sitting between the body and the head, completely lost.