Chapter 4: Cat
Slaine entered his apartment and tossed his car keys onto the table that was right next to the door. “Dang it…and I was so close to turning her.” He flipped on a light switch to reveal that Dracula was sitting on his living room couch and his eyes were glowing red. “Dracula! Holy crap!” Slaine stumbled backwards a few steps.
“Good evening, Slaine.” Dracula’s deep voice rumbled. “Why is it that you don’t seem happy to see me, I wonder? Is there something you need to tell me?” His red eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Crap.” Slaine knew he had this guilty look on his face and he couldn’t get rid of it.
“You tried to turn someone without my permission again, didn’t you?” Dracula drawled nonchalantly. “Who was it this time?”
Slaine wisely kept his mouth shut. If Dracula found out he was trying to turn the reincarnation of Cinnia into a vampire…there’d be hell to pay. Dracula had had prophesizing dreams that a Druid Vampire Hunter would kill him one day and if Slaine’s suspicions about Becca were correct, chances were she possessed magic. Knowing Dracula and his paranoia he’d see Becca as an enemy and the last thing Dracula would want was to make a potential enemy stronger. “Not telling.” Slaine said in a snarky manner.
A muscle in Dracula’s jaw ticked in annoyance. Dracula stood up and waved his hand through the air and a black hole appeared. He reached into the pocket dimension and pulled out a strange looking whip that resembled a gigantic, red, five-foot-long, centipede. No, wait. Slaine looked at it more closely. It was a real live hell centipede! “You disappoint me, Slaine. You do realize you’ll have to be punished.”
Slaine gulped as he looked at the wriggling hell centipede whip, and nodded. “Yes, Master.” Slaine removed his jacket and tossed it aside. He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor next.
“Good boy. Hands on the wall, Slaine.” Dracula ordered in a chill tone.
Slaine did as he was told and placed his hands on the wall, ready to receive his punishment. Vampires were ‘undead’ but they could still feel pleasure…or in this case pain.
Dracula approached with a murderous aura flaring up around him. The ancient vampire raised the whip and brought it down on Slaine’s back.
Slaine flinched at the pain but did not cry out.
Dracula raised the whip and brought it down on Slaine’s back repeatedly until his red flesh burst and blood began to pour down Slaine’s back. Slaine gasped at the pain. It was much more painful once his skin had broken and the whip began to hit his open wounds.
“I will not tolerate your continued defiance much longer, Slaine. You need to remember your place. You would be nothing if not for me.” Dracula drawled conversationally.
Slaine nodded. “I know, Master.”
Dracula raised the whip and caused the head of the centipede to latch onto Slaine’s back and bite him. The creature began to inject Slaine with its poison. Slaine shuddered at the feeling, and then no longer able to remain silent, cried out as excruciating pain wracked his body. Slaine’s legs turned to jelly and he sunk to his knees. His body began to twitch and convulse and he fell over onto the floor.
“I hope you’ve learned your lesson, Slaine. Do not act without my permission again…” The threat there was obvious.
Slaine was in so much pain he couldn’t even respond. He vaguely heard Dracula leave his apartment and then he passed out.
Slaine awoke several hours later to find himself sprawled on the floor of his apartment. His back felt like someone had poured gasoline on it and lit a match. And then did it again. He was in so much pain he could barely move. Somehow he managed to fish out his cell phone and called one of the twins. Koko picked up on the second ring.
“Hello, Slaine? Is that you?” Came Koko’s voice.
“Koko…I need you and Yoko - now. I’m at my apartment…” Slaine explained in a weak voice.
“We’ll be right there, sensei.” Koko assured.
Slaine let out a relieved, shuddering breath. “G-Good.” He ended the call and waited for the twins to arrive.
Less than twenty minutes later, Slaine heard the sound of a key in his apartment door’s lock. He turned his head so he could watch the door open, and watch as the twins entered his apartment. The first to enter was Koko. Like her twin sister Yoko she was Japanese. Koko had long, black hair with red highlights that made her red eyes really pop. She was wearing a black kimono with red flowers on it, and a pair of knee boots. Koko had a samurai sword stuck into her obi sash belt.
Yoko entered the apartment after her sister. Yoko was the quieter, calmer, more levelheaded of the twins. Her long black hair had white highlights and she was wearing a black kimono with white flowers on it. She was also wearing a pair of knee boots like her sister and had two short swords stuck into her obi sash.
Back in Feudal Japan, when Slaine had been an Iga ninja he’d been on a mission to kill Koga ninja, and had come across two little girls who were ninjas in training. He should have killed them but found that he was unable to. Instead, he’d saved the girls and raised them as his own daughters. They’d been happy together for a time, and Slaine had considered them his family. However, several years later when Slaine’s daughters had become young women, Dracula had found out about Slaine’s secret. The ancient vampire then sent a group of vampires to kill the girls. Slaine had gone to their rescue when he’d discovered the plot, but had arrived too late.
As the girls had lain there dying in pools of their own blood…the only way Slaine could save them was by turning them into vampires. And so he did. Dracula had punished him for this severely…but Slaine didn’t regret it.
Because he’d saved their lives the twins were completely loyal to Slaine. And they were also in love with him. A fact that Slaine purposefully ignored. He saw the girls as his daughters while they saw him as their guardian, but also their protector and savior.
After he’d turned the twins into vampires, he began to only feed from them and stopped feeding from humans. Although to keep face in front of Dracula he had to kill the occasional human. Dracula was unaware of Slaine’s new aversion to feeding from and killing humans, and if Dracula discovered it Slaine knew that his days would be numbered. Even Derek would be surprised to discover Slaine no longer fed from humans. But the twins had changed him.
As soon as Koko saw Slaine on the floor she rushed to his side. She was the louder, more aggressive of the twins. “Slaine-sensei!” She crouched by his side and stared at his back in horror. “What happened? Who did this?” Her red eyes glowed with hatred, and her fangs lengthened. “I’ll kill them! No, I’ll dismember them first…slowly.”
Slaine smiled up at Koko. His brave Koko. “That would be impossible, my dear. This is Dracula’s punishment.”
Yoko crouched by Slaine’s side next. “What did you do, sensei? Did you try to turn someone again without his permission?” Her tone was calm, but held a dark edge to it.
“You always see through me, Yoko. You’re right. I did.” Slaine admitted.
“Who?” Koko snapped. “Why would you need to turn someone when you already have us!” She demanded.
This is what Slaine had been afraid of…the twins’ jealousy. It could put Becca in danger. “That is none of your concern, Koko.”
Koko glared down at Slaine heatedly for a moment before she let out a defeated sigh. “Yoko, let’s get this stubborn guy to the bedroom.”
“Alright.” Yoko agreed.
Together the two girls lifted Slaine up and put his arms around their shoulders before heading towards Slaine’s bedroom. They entered Slaine’s bedroom and the girls deposited him on the bed on his stomach. Koko went to the bathroom to fetch a first-aid kit. She flipped on the light switch and headed over to the sink. She noticed a second toothbrush in the cup on the sink and her heart stopped.
Koko looked around the bathroom and noticed extra towels, a pink kimono robe hanging on the back of the door, and a
woman’s hairbrush with red hairs in it. Koko snatched up the brush and sniffed it, inhaling the woman’s scent. “She’s a human.” Koko muttered darkly to herself.
Koko looked around the bathroom and realized that for the last month Slaine had been entertaining a human female in his apartment. And he’d obviously tried to turn her, but something had happened and things hadn’t gone as Slaine had planned. Koko gripped the hairbrush until she accidentally snapped it in half. She tossed the pieces across the bathroom angrily. “Who is she? I’ll kill her. Slaine belongs to Yoko and I! How dare she lay her filthy hands on Slaine!”
Koko had to take deep breaths to calm herself down before she opened the cabinet and pulled out the first-aid kit. She returned to the bedroom, approached the bed and stared down at the mess that was Slaine’s back. If he weren’t already looking so pathetic she would have kicked the crap out of him.
With Yoko’s help, Koko cleaned and sterilized Slaine’s wounds, and then dressed them by wrapping white bandages around his torso. She’d seen the purple poison in his wounds. “You were poisoned…was it centipede venom?”
“Dracula had one of those hell centipedes stored in a pocket dimension.” Slaine groused.
“You won’t be able to move for a day or two.” Koko said. “And the pain-”
“I can handle the pain.” Slaine interrupted her. “Pain and I are well acquainted. But what I need now is…you girls.” Slaine’s red eyes glowed with hunger and bloodlust.
“Of course, and you shall have us.” Koko purred before crawling onto the bed on Slaine’s right side while Yoko crawled onto the bed on Slaine’s left side.
Koko scooted over closer to Slaine, turned on her side, and moved her hair out of the way before offering her neck to Slaine. “Here. Drink, sensei.”
Slaine’s fangs punched out of his mouth and he somehow found the strength to move closer enough to Koko so that he could sink his fangs into the side of her neck.
Koko gasped out in pleasure. “Slaine.” She moaned, as her cheeks flushed and her blood felt like it was setting on fire.
Slaine removed his fangs and turned to face Yoko next.
“Drink.” Yoko said as she moved her hair aside.
Slaine sunk his fangs into Yoko’s neck and she gasped softly. Slaine savored the taste of Yoko’s blood. He could already feel the wounds on his back closing. Pity it wouldn’t help with the centipede venom, but that’s why Dracula had used the centipede whip to punish vampires who defied him, in the first place. After Slaine had had enough he lay on his stomach and the twins snuggled up closer to his sides. They were his girls, his precious ones. Heaven help anyone who tried to harm them, even though divine protection wouldn’t be enough to save them from Slaine.