Hollow Immortal

The Blood of the Innocent

Vlad rushed Caine from the bushes and would've slammed into him had Caine not stepped aside. Caine grabbed his arm as the boy stumbled past him and spun him around to look in his eyes.

The moonlight reflected in the warm, dark orbs that were Vlad's eyes and there was a sheepish grin plastered on his face.

"Vladimir! " Caine hissed, "What are you doing up? You have an important day ahead of you tomorrow."

"I wanted to practise my fighting skills," Vlad answered, "and I wanted to scare you."

"Ha!" Caine retorted, "I could smell you metres away."

"Well can we go for a walk then?" Vlad asked, "I can't sleep."

Caine rolled his eyes, "Only place I'm walking with you is back to your chambers where you will get into bed and go to sleep."

Vlad smiled, "Okay."

He began walking and Caine frowned at his back, he was up to something but Caine couldn't figure out what. He shrugged and joined the boy at his side.

"Why can't you sleep?" he asked, "Are you having nightmares again?"

"No, not nightmares," Vlad answered, "I'm excited for tomorrow. Its my birthday."

"Yes, it is," Caine replied, "and you must rest because you have a long day ahead of you."

"I agree," Vlad said, "don't stand in that."

At Vlad's instruction, he awkwardly stepped to the side of where he was originally going to place his foot and, just as he was about to look down to inspect whatever it was he'd been about to stand in, something tightened around his ankle and he found himself being whisked into the air and then he was dangling upside down by one leg. He straightened the other in the hopes of looking less silly but that was impossible, even for him. Vlad was doubled over laughing and eventually fell, heavily, on his backside with tears in his eyes.

"Was that strictly necessary?" Caine asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"I..." Vlad chuckled and the rest of the sentence was interspersed with fits of laughter, "I... wanted... wanted to... to see... you... hanging upside down."

"You know that's all nonsense, right?" he asked, feeling blood rushing to his head, "the only vampires that hang upside down are bats. Do I look like a bat, Vladimir?"

Vlad shook his head, "No, but that doesn't make this any less satisfying. Shall I cut you down?"

"No thank you," Caine replied.

He placed each palm flat on his shoulders and used his abdominal muscles to swing himself into a position which allowed for him to grab onto the rope. He used the dagger he carried at his belt to cut it and, while still holding onto the rope, performed an uncomfortable feat of aerial acrobatics to get down.

"I trapped you," Vlad said proudly, puffing out his relatively small pre-adolescent chest.

Caine slapped him upside the head, "If you ever try that again, I'll have more innocent blood on my hands."

"You'd never do that to me," Vlad said, rubbing his head, "you like me too much."

"Is that right?" Caine retorted with a tiny smile tugging at his lips.

"I'll get you one of these days," Vlad warned, "just you wait."

***