vampire

43
 

“What kind of place is this?” Vincent asked, sinking to his knees again and shaking his head in horror.
 

“A safe one,” Lucrecia answered quietly, crouching beside him and carefully undressing him from the ragged shrewds that were his cloths.
 

“They are many and they are strong. Hojo will not dare to go after us here.”
 

Vincent shook his head again, looking bitterly to the ground “I would rather go back and suffer than abiding to their customs.”
 

Sighing, she stroked over his head, leaning against him. “And would you leave me here, alone? I beg you, we only have to stay for so long until you feel better and we can fight off Hojo on our own. I promise we will leave as soon as you are strong enough.”
 

He didn´t say anything, but his arms wrapped around her waist, holding her tightly to his abused body.
 

Helping him up, she lead him to the tub after a while and he sank into the water, for the first time in his life experiencing a much needed bath. It wasn´t like he hadn´t occasionally swam in a river, but this was entirely different. It relaxed him and her fingers ghosting over his skin, cleaning it and washing away all the dirt made him drowsy and he dozed of, only noticing after a while that she had joined him.
 

He jumped back a little and pressed against the wood, averting his eyes and feeling quite awkward. It wasn´t that he had never seen a naked woman or that she wasn´t pleasing to the eye, on the contrary, she was gorgeous. Despite everything they had gone through together he could not bring himself to look at her form now.
 

She sensed his uneasyness and blushed a little, but then took his hand shyly and lead it to her breast, where her heartbeat should have pulsed against his.
 

An inviting smile followed, as she trailed his hand down her bossom and underwater.

Feeling even more awkward and quite a little flushed, the other vampire stared at her, not knowing what to do and said the only thing that came to mind. “We still can do this? We are dead…”
 

“Of course we can,” she smiled, glancing at the spot between his legs where it was obvious that certain things were still very alive and active and slid through the water into his arms, purring into his ear “It´s one of the many mysteries surrounding our existence.”
 

+
 

They left the bathroom about two hours later hand in hand and looking a lot cleaner and relaxed.
 

One of the vampires, a young man with spikey black hair and a mischievous grin waited for them, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. “Took you quite a while.”
 

He winked at them and stretched his hands towards them “I´m Zack, Zack Fair. But Zack´s enough, everyone here calls me that. I´m your watchdog and guardian until you have settled in. If you have any questions, just ask me, I´m always glad to help out. Really. Except for the times when I eat, sleep, chase after Scarlets skirt, kick Genesis ass,or Seph needs me for doing some of his stupid paperwork, you know he´s a little of a pedant, always needs to keep track of who is new and who hasn´t been hunting and stuff…Yeah, I think that sums it up pretty good. Otherwise I´m always on hand.”
 

He scratched his head, laughing and then ignored Vincent´s hand in favor to kiss the Lady´s delicate fingers first, earning himself a low, warning growl. He laughed again, this time taking Vincent´s hand and shaking it heartily, winking “Don´t worry man, I´m more for the blondes. No offence, though.” He threw Lucrecia an apologetic look and then started to lead them down the hallway.
 

“May I ask who you are?” he asked curiously, eyeing the dark haired, beautiful man and his partner, the latter instantly apologizing. “Of course, how rude of me. This is Vincent Valentine and I am Lucrecia Crescent. Pleased to meet you.”
 

“Same here,” Zack said easily and it looked like he really meant it. He just seemed like a man who was never alone, drawing everyone to his charismatic and friendly personality.
 

“Ah, and just about that ‘Seph’ thing- Don´t tell him, he´ll throw out my guts if he hears about that. You know, he´s also quite picky with his respect thingies and such.” He winked at them, Vincent blankly staring back at him, but Lucrecia smiled and gave an affirmative nod.
 

“Yeah, well… The meeting has been canceled and instead been sheduled for another night because she is gone for a while, so I´m to lead you a bit around and show you the most important places, you know.” He stopped again and scratched his head. “I guess you´ve already seen the bedroom, the storage, the bathroom… Oh, I know, how about a visite to the library then?”
 

They just nodded and he led them through a few hallways again, leaving Vincent to wonder if he would ever be able to find his way through that labyrinth of tunnels and hallways. Not that he had any intention on settling down here or stay long enough to need it.
 

Before another wooden door with metal emblems and a sign, Vincent could not read, Zack came to a halt, putting his finger on his lips to indicate that they had to keep silent and then leading them into a huge hall.
 

Vincent´s eyes widened remarkably as he came to see the huge shelves that were at least ten meters high and stacked to the ceilings with literature. There were scrolls, books, papyrus, loose papers, paintings and whatnot. Never before had he seen such a large amount of written paper and it went over his horizon as what could exist to scribble them all full. He himself had only owned one book- a bible he couldn´t even read.
 

“Impressive, eh?” Proudly, Zack lead them around a huge, thick stone pillar and through the rows of shelves. There were large ladders that reached under the ceiling, but some of the reading vampires were just hovering before the books higher up, idly swinging their wings once in a while to hinder them from crashing down.
 

While Vincent was amazed by the sheer insanity of it, Lucrecia´s eyes flickered with interest and she eagerly dragged her friend behind her, occasionally pulling out a book, reading its title and squealing a little, before running to the next shelves.
 

Vincent followed her dazedly, not comprehending her excitement, but not complaining anyway. After half a century of torment and pain, this all seemed so unreal, like right out of one of the strories she had read to him so often…
 

The library should soon become his favorite place, though, after Lucrecia had taught him reading and writing, as well as latin.
 

It just happened that, despite all his good intension they came to settle in well. He really loathed the meals, but they had agreed that Lucrecia would just chose for him and he would get over with it as fast as he could and without doing even so much as glancing at the cages and the blooddrinkers, playing their little games with the frightened humans.
 

He also restricted himself to only one victim per night, earning himself the mocking and teasing of his fellow blood suckers, but he just ignored it. He spent the rest of the nights with Lucrecia in the library, albeit she soon started to work for them, though he did not know what it was. As long as she remained by his side for most of the nights and no one bothered him, he was fine. Occasionally he was invited to go on the ‘hunt’ with some of the others, but he always politely refused and no one insisted that he should join. He had come to like his red cloak and the simple black cloths they were providing him with, so he did not desire for anything else really.
 

And so the years went by faster as he could count. On some rare occasions, especially when new members were introduced, they all gathered in a hugh meeting hall and had to present themselves to the entitey, everyone just called ‘mother’. In his first meeting he had to attend as a newby, he had to learn that she was valued like some kind of godess. After his name was called by Sephiroth, who seemed to be some kind of her right hand man, he had to step before her, kneel down and kiss the icy, ringed fingers she held out to him from behind her blindings.
 

They expected him to swear his loyality to her and that he would abide to her every will,which he found rather distressing, but Lucrecia had pleaded with him and said that it only would be for so long. But even if he couldn´t see her, her presence had sent cold shivers down his spine, and Vincent Valentine was no man to be intimidated easily. It was her cold eyes boring into him and piercing his very soul, that made him tremble with utter horror. Although he had already learned how to hide his thoughts by that time he felt like his most intimate secrets were just stripped down before her and he was glad to be allowed to go back to his place in the row.
 

Lucrecia had told him later that she had felt exactly the same and they had to learn upon careful inquiries that everyone felt like that. Actually no one had ever seen her face or was allowed within her quarters except for her son Sephiroth, though also no one knew if he was really her son. Everyone who had made another blooddrinker was called father and everyone was someones child.
 

There was only one mother however. Women were not allowed here to make ‘children’.
 

The criterias for chosing a potential child were very strict and had to be asked permission for first. Never was someone who once had become food allowed to join them and a potential candidate was investigated and tested first. It still happened that Sephiroth came to him at his usual place in the library and asked him if he had not thought about getting himself an offspring too. Vincent had politely declined, saying that he did not feel qualified enough and that, despite he really liked what he was (which had been a blatant lie), did not think he ever would. Sephiroth had looked at him strangely, taken his leave and never asked again. Still Vincent´s waryness of the man never ceased. It was just a gutfeeling but he did not like him. At all.
 

+
 

Sighing, Vincent closed the lit. It was time to go back to his coffin, the library had already emptied remarkably and even though he liked these hours the best he wanted to be there when Lucrecia arrived from her work. She had been rather busy the last nights and they hadn´t seen each other very often, but for her and his sake they endured it.
 

Pushing himself from his chair in the farthest corner of the hall, he put his literature back into the shelf, remembering the page and then made his way through the rows, when he heared a hissing sound next to his ear and stopped in wonder. But only until he was pulled into the shadows by a swift hand that pressed him against the shelf.
 

“What-”
 

“Pssssst!” came the exasperated reply and Zack held a hand over his mouth, looking through the alley of shelves if anyone had heard them and then withdrew it, looking relieved.
 

“May I inquire what is going on here?” the red cloaked vampire asked with a lifted eyebrow.
 

“Yeah, sorry about that man, just… could you keep your voice a bit lower, please?”
 

After a moment of thinking Vincent gave a short nod and the other sighed, whispering “Listen, we don´t have much tme, but what I have to tell you now is important, so listen well.”
 

The others eyes narrowed suspiciously, but he nodded again nonetheless.
 

“Okay, you know I like you, really you´re okay and I like your calm attitude and all… But you see some of the others got a little… weird, saying that you are strange because you never participate in the huntings and don´t have offsprings and are… quite a bit antisocial…”
 

“Who said so?”
 

“Doesn´t matter right now, listen, they went to Seph and he said to give you some time. Your girlfriend also knew and tried to work it of for the both of you, but recently the voices became louder again…”
 

“And? They shall come to me and tell me straight to the face, I have nothing to justify.”
 

Zack licked his lips, looking to the hallway nervously “That´s not the point here, they already decided that they will ask you to go on the hunt with them by tomorrow. If you refuse again I don´t know what happens, but it certainly will not be funny. It already reached mother´s ears.”
 

He shot the other a meaningful look, who crept deeper into his collar. “I see.”
 

“Yeah, so I just would advice you to endure it this time and maybe occasionally go on the hunt from time to time out of your own will, it´ll really spare you and your woman a lot of trouble.”
 

“Well then I shall take your advice and partake in that event for once. I thank you for your concern.”
 

“No problem, I´m still your guardian after all.” Zack flashed the man a grin, but before he could take his leave he grabbed him by the arm again murmuring “Be careful from now on, if mother or Sephiroth have cast an eye on you, it usuallly doesn´t mean anything good.”
 

The vampire just nodded again, looking somewhat grim as he vanished behind the book stacks, leaving a concerned Zack behind.
 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Xyleel: Naja, da die Vampire Menschen nur als ihr 'Futter' betrachten, haben sie da relativ wenige Skrupel... Das Kapitel war anders? Inwiefern denn? Aber schön, dass es dir gefallen hat!!! Vincent leidet an einer Art Stockholm Syndrom, er weiß es nur noch nicht! Ah, und sorry dass es so lange mit dem Ende für deine Renzoo story dauert, die Uni fängt grad an und ich bin etwas im Stress, aber ich hoffe dass ich dieses we damit fertig werde^^