I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 71 - Vampiric Medicine

Evangeline stared down in shock at the thin end of a dart bloomed out of her shoulder like a flower of feathery gray petals had just sprouted there.

A second later it started to hurt. "Son of a bitch!" she shouted. Thoughtlessly her hand went up to grab the dark, probably to pull it out, but Valerian stopped her. "What does your condition say?" he demanded, grabbing the bath sheet and throwing it over her back.

Evangeline's head felt woozy. "My condition? Are you asking what condition my condition is in?" She giggled, but she was the only one. Hagor caught her other arm and helped her to sit on the ground.

"Where did that come from?" Artmond asked, whirling in the direction the blade had to have come from, but there was no clear place in the rock someone could have been hiding. "Are they invisible or something?"

Hagor stood and clapped his hands, his eyes scanning the ceiling for some sign of their attacker. The room shifted as he cast his Sanctuary Special Ability. Their camp supplies appeared in the cave and the arch fitted itself nicely in the doorway they had entered. The room itself seemed to grow enough to allow for their bedrolls to appear in alcoves in the room. It also had the effect of revealing the invisible being. Or rather, their invisible magic shimmered as it struggled to reflect the new magic that was shifting the background they were trying to blend away into.

Perception Skill. Critical success.

"Th-there!" Evangeline said, pointing directly at the shifting blur.

Valerian moved vampirically fast, whipping around as he pulled his daggers from the belt he still wore at his waist. He looked feral with his glistening bare chest and barer fangs.

The blurring thing jumped down from the wall it had been clinging to, running toward the exit. Hagor grunted as he gestured again, trying to force his still forming sanctuary to lock down and trap the intruder inside. Vines stutter grew together, closing the door off, but before they had completely closed over the intruder slipped through. At the same moment, Valerian threw his daggers. One stuck into a vine branch, cutting it to hang from a few shreds of fiber. The other returned the wound Evangeline had received with a sharp cry of pain. Blood burst over the foliage in a macabre burst, as if the plants themselves had eaten the intruder in one juice crunch. Of course, they hadn't, verified when Valerian came up short before he slammed into the vine wall. With cat-scratching, frantic speed, the rogue, slapped his hands all over, trying to detect someone caught up in the vines, but all his questing fingers found was bark and leaves.

"Dammit!" Hagor barked, sweat bursting from his forehead, as he dropped to one knee from the effort. "I thought I got them!"

"Got who?" the Phoenix asked, having appeared along with their camp, now settled on one of the provided benches like they were on a holiday and were waiting for someone to arrive with palm fronds and a cool drink for them.

"Never mind!" Valerian barked, throwing down some of the leaves he had torn away in his frustration, then he took a deep, unvampiric breath to force himself to calm. "They're gone."

"Hey! Focus here!" Sigismund said, slapping Evangeline's other, unhurt shoulder to bring her attention back from the escape. She hadn't noticed the cleric had knelt down beside her, still wrapped up in the bathsheet, to examine the dart wound. "What does your condition screen say?" she said, repeating Valerian's question.

At last comprehending that she needed to do something, Evangeline gestured at the air, summoning up her menus and sliding through them until she got to the one that showed her conditions in more detail. "Nothing listed," she reported, feeling more wobbly.

"Okay, so at least you're not poisoned." Sigismund sighed. "I'm just out of spell slots for the day so I can't heal it right here. We'll have to ask the other clerics. Let's... let's get it wrapped for now." She looked around, examining the nearby towels for just such a purpose. Before Sigismund could push herself up in her tightly wrapped towel, Valerian knelt down on Evangeline's other side.

Despite the insistent ache in her shoulder, her body finally catching up that it had something it shouldn't in it, she smirked at the sight of him with his bare chest and feet, the damp of his hair curling around his face.

Then he started to grind in his throat, like he was preparing to hock a loogie. His jaw and lips worked as he did it, his gaze never leaving Evangeline's as they all stared at him with growing alarm that he was going to do something gross like spit his flem on her or something. Then to Evangeline's horror, he looked to Sigismund and pointed at her then to Evangeline, before miming her taking the dart how in a quick jerk up motion.

"Are you going to spit on me?" Evangeline cried, pulling back in alarm.

Valerian wavered a hand back and forth, his eyes pleading with her to trust him, all while working whatever was in his mouth, clearly very full now of... ew.

They all continued to stare at him, no one moving to do as he gestured until he made a harsh "hmmm" sound in his throat, with sharp little gestures to "just please do what I said and trust me!" implications.

"Okay, alright!" Sigismund agreed, exasperated, and went to seize the end of the dart firmly in her grip. "Ready?" she asked Evangeline, then immediately yanked the dart out before she could answer, catching her by surprise. Evangeline cried out, but immediately, Valerian leaned forward and spat a huge, viscous wade of something clear onto Evangeline's bleeding wound.

A little of her blood leaked out of the new hole, only to be arrested in place by the wade of spit that clung to her like petroleum jelly.

Evangeline's breath hissed in through her teeth as her wound burned a second, before abating just as quickly into an icy numbness. Evangeline panted a few times as the intensity of what just happened washed over her and she could breathe again.