Red Glass

13.

Snow begins to gently fall from the night sky, glowing against the moonlight in beautiful silence. Plummeting from the heavens a body crashes hard into the ground, splitting dry on impact. Looking up, a cloaked silhouette flutters in the gentle breeze. The cursed recognize her scent: one of the damned!

Wrapped in armour and cloaked in exotic fabrics, Carmilla was as beautiful as she was Stylish. Floating down and landing gracefully, she wipes the blood from her mouth.

"At last, it's just us."
Carmilla remarks in a condescending tone.

Heavy shields of black oak and steel are thrown to the ground, they stand shoulder to shoulder, snarling viciously against the amber gaze.
Carmilla flings her hands open with nails as thick and long as dagger blades, exposing her elongated fangs.
Adrenaline of their meals still powers through their veins fresh, under a hunters moon the children of Loki are ready for battle. Raged breathing of the wolves contrasts the vampire's stillness of death. Fenrir, Olcan and Brenn remain still, Agnaar's heavy paw moves forward..

The wolves pounce sprinting in for a quick kill, Carmilla fades into red mist instantly appearing behind the four.
Becoming solid, stretching out, a circle of glowing blood runes emit from her right hand conjuring a red flood, crystallising into a double edged sword in her right hand.
Under the Whirling Wheel ( the moon) the Hel hounds spread apart, positioning around her, creating a semi-circle of timeless hatred.

"My turn!"

Carmilla steams forward through Olcans left side solidifying on connection, cutting through the heart, gushing steaming blood on the light snow. Brenn mauls her shoulder with mighty strength for Agnaar to gut as Fenrir goes in to clamp her other side. Carmilla turns inwards, throwing Brenns nightmarish form on the ground to break the grip, it holds. Throwing her elbow behind, Fenrir's attack is countered while Brenn destroys Carmilla's shoulder, tearing her armour, clothing, flesh and bone. Carmilla screams in a pain not felt for multiple lifetimes.
Spinning the blood sword under hand she thrust downwards, Brenn dodges, letting go. Agnaar's great claws swing down towards the damned, she's gone!

Creating distance, Carmilla had momentarily forgotten how to deal with these cursed kind but she had never seen a black one before.
Left hand forward a rune emitting red light summons the blood of Olcan, absorbing into her like a spirit, her shoulder heals instantaneously from the inside out. Her amber stare brightens again stronger than ever. Excessive blood floats around her in a ring like rose branches, stretching longer, caging her in a glowing protective spell.
She runs in, faster than her prey ever could, striking and coding in a fray of fur, fangs and blood magic. Shifting side to side striking with her blood sword, cursed hot blood dyes the white snow. Fenrir reaches into the barbed spell roaring in pain as he catches torso deeply with his claws.

Carmilla loses grip of her sword, morphing it back liquified and her spell drops, splashing on the ground. The wolves pile on top of her, biting savagely as if a piece of meat. Under the weight of the giants she feels her flesh torn and bones crush. The glow of her eyes fades dull.
Carmilla lets out a scream of fury and pain. The fallen blood slithers towards her, magnetised towards the thirst. Kicking the leader far off her she grips the black one, throws it and sinks her teeth into the one that managed to strike her then hurls him aside. She stands, healing as fast as she was shredded, removing her destroyed breast plate. Closing her eyes, Carmila calms herself…

-

Faris, having prayed the prayer of sunset and finished his second meal, is surprised to notice Miya has not touched hers.

"You need to eat."

"I'm not hungry."
Miya's soft words petal.

Miya arms wrapped around her knees, eyes lowered and having barely moved since first sitting, Faris looks with concern.

"Axil, maybe he just went back, I'm sure he's ok. If he was out here, he would have known to follow the smoke. We really have nothing to worry about. The best thing we can do right now is take care of ourselves."

"It's not that."

"Oh. I'm sorry. Maybe I'm, I'm just trying to rest my own mind. We need to keep it together out here, in this weather it's easy to lose focus."
Faris says rubbing his hands together, looking at the blinding fog creep closer.

"We are both lonely, with nobody to ease the hurt. Could you sit closer, Just a little?"

Miya turns her head, looking at Faris in a way he finds uncomfortable.
As beautiful as Miya is, Faris has never forgotten for a single moment the love he has for his wife. If not for Tamara, Faris and Axil would never have ventured outside the walls so late in the first place.

Faris pulls out his picket watch and winds the crown a few times.

"I know you have just been through a lot and not had a chance to take it all in. We should get you back home before it's too dar... Did you hear that? I can hear Axils voice!"

Faris hears Axil calling his name, echoing through the white forest!

-

Agnaar snarls loudly, rising into a primal howl equally as loud as fierce. Howls from the forest close in summoned to assist their Alpha.
Carmilla is not impressed.

"Please."
She remarks with revulsion.

Red smoke wraps around Carmilla like bandages of ancestors. Her canines and nails grow rapidly into protracted points, wings emerge from the crimson ink as wide as carriages, as tall as the wolves and equally as physically imposing. Revealing her true form, her shape is larger, wider and more monstrous; an ancient vampire lord, hissing like a lioness protective of her pride.
The wolves of the forest band together, afraid to leave a gap. Carmilla holds her arms out, casting a spell of thick red fog all around, locking them all inside.
Olcans body lays still reverted back into human form. The wolves of the forest stand ready. The white eyes of Loki's children burn ever bright in fury. Carmilla folds her dark wings.

Leaping forward as high as a castle door stretching her glowing rune talons out against hounds, they leap into a red blast, splitting into gory chunks. Fenrir leaps through the air claws dug in, bringing her down. Snarling and growling they embrace each other's wrath. Carmilla's wings spread across the ground as Fenrir snaps at her face with long fingers around his throat. She squeezes tighter and tighter, silencing the beast, throwing it aside like scraps.
Carmilla flaps her wings, rising high in the air. Bats fill the sky around their master as she prepares to make her next move...