The Fallen Vampire

Red eyes peered ominously behind them as if they were curious and slightly apprehensive.

Taira took a deep breath before coming to an immediate decision.

It should be well known by now that he does not do well with others, especially strangers.

But, no one goes through 50 years of marriage with the most compassionate women in this world without having it rubbed off on them just a bit.

Taira quickly forgot about his own comfort as he ran his hands though his hair and tried to be as kind as possible.

"...Speak."

"..!"

The woman immediately flinched and stepped back; Taira\'s tone coming off much too authoritative and demanding.

\'..Shit!\'

"I mean... Can you speak?"

Calming down just a bit, the woman shook her head then gestured to her neck and made a splicing gesture.

\'They cut her vocal cords...\' Taira felt another icy surge of anger overtake him and he quickly stuffed it all down.

There would be a time and a place for all of this later.

His eyes swiveled across the room and he looked towards the water basin where he had been given a bath.

He poured the dirty water out of the window, before he refilled it with clean, hot water from his palm.

He tapped on it with his finger a single time as he gestured for the woman to get in.

She looked slightly insulted as if he\'d hurt her feelings, and he realized that this may have been a bit misleading.

"..I am not saying that you smell, nor am I attempting to call you dirty. I simply thought it might be nice for you, and would give us a sufficient way to pass the time. Unless you prefer to sit in an awkward silence?"

"..." The woman seemed to think about it for a moment before pulling off her burlap sack and sitting inside of the wooden basin.

Taira respectfully avoided looking in any areas that might have insulted her, as did he avoid touching her in any way.

He handed her a bar of soap without looking at her, and when she did not take it he had no choice but to look back.

"It\'s soap. Go on, take it."

"..."

"...You should have more sense of self preservation. Even if I am another fallen, I am still a stranger. How can you expect me to bathe you?"

"..."

"...Fine, close your eyes.... And don\'t tell my wives."

Gently, Taira scooped up handfuls of water into his hands before letting it run across her face and down her body.

Perhaps because he was avoiding the most troublesome areas, he washed her hair first.

What was revealed was a head of dark gray dreadlocks that were remarkably well maintained despite the missing years required for upkeep.

As more of the dirt caked on her skin started to fall away, Taira could finally tell what she was.

She had lots of tattoos along her shoulders, chest, arms, and legs; all in the shape of spiderwebs and other various demonic markings.

She had beautiful ashen brown skin that was still remarkably soft despite the numerous patchworks of scars across it.

Her nails were black, long, and jagged, as if they had been repeatedly broken over and over, yet had only grown back.

On the opposing sides of her back, there were small protrusions that were barely cresting an inch from her body, but he knew full well that they could become exaggeratedly sharp weapons.

"An arachne... You\'re... very rare, aren\'t you?"

"..." The girl said nothing as she stared up at her caretaker as if she didn\'t know what to say to that.

The number of spider demons has been declining in the world since around the time before Taira went into his slumber.

They were hunted for the profound beauty that the women possessed, as well as the men\'s overwhelming lethality.

In addition, the silk that the women make can be sold for hundreds if not thousands of gold for a single pound.

Even now, there was only one spider demon bloodline left, and they just so happened to be very influential in fallen society.

"Tell me... Do you by any chance have a relation to Kyoen Jiraigumo?"

"!"

"Right... Well, at least you seem to be more pleasant than he."

"?"

-

An hour later, Taira finally felt the compound become noticeably more still, and decided it was time to act.

It took a while for him to convince the spider woman in the room, as she clearly did not want to be left alone for any reason.

Left with no choice, he sent a small wisp of blue flame into her forehead and put her to sleep in the bedroom after knocking away the dead body.

Slipping out into the hallway, he smiled in the darkness when he realized that the entire place was asleep.

He could feel it.

After cultivating his dream art, sleep in itself was no different from fire to him now.

He could control it.

Manipulate it.

Abuse it.

The only reason he had not done it sooner was because putting to sleep such a drastic amount of enemies at once wold have drawn the attention of the one person in the base who it wouldn\'t work on.

But now that they were asleep naturally, he could use significantly less energy expenditure.

His tails started to glow with a hazy violet light as they swayed from side to side hypnotically, and he held out his arms like a priest welcoming a congregation.

When his eyes shifted to the same dull violet as his tails, he could literally see the hundreds of dreams of everyone in this base as if they were playing in front of him.

And frankly... they were far too happy for his liking.

"Dream Devouring Art : Feast of the Black Beasts."

-

Lieutenant Joseph Ripley was having another of his beloved dreams that the wouldn\'t tell anyone in his brigade about.

He was in a blissful field of flowers in a faraway meadow, about to woo the woman of his dreams and have her be his for all of eternity.

His grandmother!

No one respect\'s a man\'s love for older women these days, but Joseph wasn\'t like that!

In here, he was free to dream about whatever he wanted to and indulge in his darkest fetishes shamelessly.

As he dropped to one knee in his gleaming silver armor, it was something like a picture out of a storybook.

Ring in hand, he looked up at the old woman in a tavern dress and he prepared to utter the long held words from his lips.

"Gam-Gam... Will you ma-"

"Grrrr..."

The longer he looked at the face of his sweet grandmother, the more he realized that it didn\'t quite seem like her anymore.

No... it couldn\'t be her.

Her face was a hideous monstrosity, like that of a rabid demonic looking dog with an entirely black body.

Dark violet eyes permitted every visible corner of it\'s figure, along with various mouths full of gleaming yellow teeth.

"Gam-"

"RAAAHHH!!!"

"AGGGHHH!!!"

The beast leapt on top of Joseph and started to maul him terribly.

However, this was different from a normal attack.

The beast specifically avoided harming vital spots along the body of it\'s prey and instead focused only on attacking the parts of him that would cause the most pain and anguish.

He screamed until his throat went numb, and then the beast bit down on his neck and cut his life short.

-

Joseph woke up with a start, unable to scream, and unable to control his internal energy.

The wounds he suffered within the dream started to appear across his body in the real world, with second after passing second filling him with more grief and agony.

With his last breath, he choked miserably and spit out a horrible mouthful of black goo and it spilled out onto the floor.

Soon, the goo became the same beast that had attacked him within his dream, only possessing a physical form.

The beast started to eat the fresh corpse lying in front of it, when suddenly a very familiar and authoritative voice appeared within his mind.

\'Don\'t be greedy. You\'ve already eaten, now get to work first then you can finish later.\'

*Depressed whimpering*

\'It doesn\'t work when my loves do it, it won\'t work when you do it either.\'

*Disbelieving grunt*

\'...Shut up and get to work.\'

-

Taira opened his eyes as the doors to the rooms opened quietly and several beasts started to walk out of the bedrooms into the hallway.

Some had abused fallen night companions on their backs, being both male and female.

They carried them downstairs and outside while a few stood around Taira in a circle like they were waiting for further orders.

\'There are stables downstairs in the northern corridor, the rest of our people are there. Get them to the girls in the forest and help them transport them safely... And fix your appearances.\'

The hounds tilted their heads and made confused faces.

\'Make yourselves... cuter. Do not terrify the people we are trying to save.\'

The hounds made sad noises as they drooped their heads, almost as if to say; \'Are we not cute?\'

And as always, Taira was as blunt as ever.

\'No. You are not.\'

Temporarily, the kitsune changed into a black Tibetan mastiff, and allowed all of the hounds to get a good look.

\'Something like this. Fluffy, but sturdy. Go.\'

The hounds nodded in understanding and changed their bodies before running off into the night towards the stables.

Once the place was cleared out, Taira glanced over his shoulder at the last door on the hallway, the one he had specifically left untouched.