Blood of Legends and The Union of Damned

4

4

She left under the cover of night and returned the same way. Normally things like that weren’t possible when Valdette House was allocated to comb the desert in pairs, tracking any prey that they might stumble upon and returning it to the camp, but she had struck a deal with Cass. In exchange for one of her gold necklaces Cass would hunt by herself the next time she was assigned to team up with Valerie. Valerie had much difficulty parting with any of the jewelry in her collection and had been deliberating the decision for days before realizing that the trade was a necessity.

While Valdette House was setting up camp in preparation for the coming morning just a mile and a half east from their old headquarters when Valerie’s slender silhouette appeared on the horizon. The vampires ceased the reconstruction of their shacks almost in unison and instead stared in puzzlement as she advanced towards them. She was carrying something with her, something large; no, three somethings. She had one roughly the same size as herself draped over her shoulder and dragged two other items behind her as she approached. But what on earth was she doing out there all by herself?

All became clear as she closed the distance. Valerie had successfully stalked and killed three human beings. Although not necessarily a feast, this was more food then the house had seen all week.

When she arrived at the camp Valerie passed through the crowd of onlookers and walked directly to her brother, dropping all three bodies on the ground in front on him.

“Where did you find these, sister?” Sol asked in an irritated tone, crunching his nose up in disgust.

“There is a small village twenty miles southwest of here, brother. The place is tucked inside a ravine so it’s no wonder you walked right past it nearly a fortnight ago. I suppose those fools thought the natural walls would protect them from becoming prey because there was absolutely no sentries about during the night. Hell, it just might have worked if I didn’t have a nagging intuition it was there.”

Sol examined the carcasses. With the exception of a broken arm accompanied by a protruding bone all of the kills were very clean with the only existing wounds being a single bite mark on all three of their necks.

“Had a little trouble with that one.” Valerie explained, pointing at the exposed bone. “Tried to reach for a knife, he did. I don’t like knives.”

Sol scowled.

“Don’t feel bad though, brother, you’re getting older and your senses duller. These things happen, you know.” Valerie teased as she removed the amethyst earrings from one of her victims and stuck them in her shorts pocket.

Sol’s eyes gleamed for only a moment with the spark of a plot as if using Valerie’s slain prey as inspiration.

“You” Sol spoke slowly and carefully. “would bring us this poison!?”

“Are you referring to the first decent meal anyone in Valdette House has had under your command?”

Sol’s face grew a shade of furious red.

“This worthless, inedible food!?” Sol pointed to the corpses on the ground.

“What, you want more, your highness? There is plenty where that came from. Not only is the city packed full of meat bags but I took out these three in complete secrecy. They probably still don’t know they are missing!” Valerie laughed at her handiwork.

Presently all of Valdette House stopped what they were doing to devote their focus watching the scene unfold.

“Ostensibly,” Again Sol began slowly, addressing the other vampires. “My sister had good intentions in bringing us food.”

Looks of befuddlement passed through the camp accompanying hungry faces. Valerie rolled her eyes. She had a prediction of where this was heading and didn’t like it one bit. She got the mental image of a train wreck in motion.

“But you see, these three appetizing mortals my dear sister brought us are sick with the rot!” Sol revealed.

A series of gasps hung above the crowd as they inched backwards, distancing themselves from the corpses.

“That’s right! They completely match the description of the rot carrying humans that plagued the late Xihan! I don’t know what it is you plot, sister, or where you got these rot infested humans, but bringing them back to us as food is intolerable! Did you really expect us to believe to that you traveled twenty miles to a hidden city and back in less than a night? You must think us all for imbeciles.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me...” Valerie spoke in disbelief.

“Wouldn’t you wish, Valerie, my dear sister.” Sol said with a devilish grin on his face. “Now, I’ll take these contaminated mortals into my private chamber to study them and hopefully formulate a cure for the rot, since I developed immunity to the disease from spending so much time by Xihan’s side, I am the only one suited for the task.”

The clansmen conversed with one another and decided that this act was very brave indeed, though others were so starved that they didn’t mind risking the rot robbing them of their immortality in exchange for a filling meal.

“And you, Valerie, abandoning your post like you did.” Sol said, folding his arms in judgment. “After everything Valdette House has done for you not only do you abandon your duties and obligations to the clan, but you try to poison us? Simply unheard of!”

Anyone who knew Valerie considered her a hothead prone to fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. She was most renowned for her fits of violent anger and hair trigger, being especially proud of this fact. It meant that other vampires would leave her alone, which she enjoyed to no end. Still, she had the remarkable ability to keep a clear head under pressure.

In this scenario Valerie’s revulsion was so intense and pure that it completely overshot hatred and abhorrence and landed in the realm of complete apathy.

“Valerie, dear sister, although you have forsaken Valdette House and simultaneously put the entire clan in jeopardy, voluntarily or not, you are of my own flesh and blood, a bond on a whole different level than that of clansmen. Because you are a hazard to Valdette House we cannot tolerate your existence, but because you are my twin sister, I will not kill you. You are sentenced to a life in exile.”

In truth, she knew the day of her exile was imminent the moment her brother held authority over her. She did not say goodbye to anyone, having loathed every other vampire in Valdette House for as long as she could remember, including her former lover Cass and especially her twin brother, Sol. She did not go back for her once prized collection of trinkets. That part of her, while of utter important at one time, was her last connection of Valdette House. It signified every kill she had ever gotten, every time she had contributed to feeding the House, and now she regarded the precious gems and metals as worthless, though her magnetism for trinkets remained.

No one who had witnessed the conflict that had just transpired could have predicted what happened next. With all eyes on her, Valerie smiled a beautiful and pure smile then turned around and walked away, looking back only once so that Valdette House got a good last look at her face.