Part II
Souls to reap
~
Cadence
~

Cadence Larren thought she would join her parents tonight and in the void of her disturbed mind, she was glad about it.

Until bellowing, tunnelling and unmeasured gunshots peeled through her ears and she was ripped out of the darkness wanting to take her.

Time had passed and through closed eyes, the huntress saw bright flashes and eclipses of light. Fading, but brightening.

She could still smell the blood. She felt her head growing heavier from it and her neck waned with a sensation she wasn't used to.

He bit me, Cadence realised. He touched me ... took from me — he will pay with blood and silver for what he did.

Sickly, cold and skeletal looking. The look of that boy — man would never leave Cadence.

The huntress arose from obscurity to have an individual staring down at her. She didn't believe in much, but any other time — times where she wished she believed, this girl was an angel from above.

Erisa sighed in relief and her black curls danced across Cadence's cheeks as she hovered so close.

"She's awake, Uncle."

Frankie Jaeger hobbled over and peered down at Cadence, scanning her eyes with piercing blue eyes. "I'm glad you're okay, kid. You gave us all a fright."

Cadence's fingers came to her neck, breathing heavily and felt a plaster over her skin.

"With vampires, they control the blood flow of how much they take from a human — if they want the human to die from blood loss they can let it happen. Tristan told me he shot him as soon as he bit you. Your older cousin saved you, Cadence." Frankie explained, all knowledge and wit.

Cadence's lip curled with fury and she sat up. She locked eyes on Tristan who was buried in the corner, long waves of hair curtaining his chiselled jaw and high cheekbones.

So similar to Accalia.

"Thanks, Tris."

Tristan waved her off and stalked over, moving her chin to inspect the mark. "I should have shot the fuckhead square in the head. But I got him good, got him in the shoulder. I scared him off,"

"What about Alexene?" Cadence croaked.

"I saw her take off with that—that monster after Tristan shot at him. They escaped." Erisa explained with an edge in her tone.

"You guys told Frankie everything?" Cadence drawled and noticed she was in the same clothes that were painted with blood and mud.

Cadence wondered how far in the day they were in, how many hours had wasted away every effort she had put in over the past month. She grounded her teeth together, Alexene and that monster would be hidden from the sun now and come nighttime, they would be back out.

"They did, but we don't want to rush you, Cadence. It can be a nasty journey healing from a bite wound." Frankie explained.

Cadence slid off the bed and stood, straightening her back. She didn't feign her strength and leant against the bed frame. She peered around, the band posters and gothic decor clouding the room. They put her in Erisa's room.

"You must be hungry, Cadence, let's make you some food and have a cup of tea," Frankie suggested and gestured they all leave.

Tristan and Frankie ambled out, all except Erisa.

Erisa offered her arm to Cadence. "You'll need help."

Cadence winced and gripped Erisa's arm, stepping away from the bed. "I'm not that weak."

"Want to put it to the test?"

Cadence snorted and gestured to her neck. "I survived this, I'm sure I'll live with you attempting to hurt me."

Erisa guided Cadence out of the room, creaking their way down the hall of the cabin.

Frankie made eggs on toast for Cadence with tomatoes, and bacon and topped it off with pepper and salt. Her stomach rumbled and she immediately dug in, devouring every portion of it.

The cup of tea with a splash of milk and sugar topped it off for her. Warming her stomach and sating her dry throat. She didn't anticipate how hungry she would be since everything, but then again, having her blood drain from her throat made her lose something she would never have again.

Cadence couldn't describe it, but she felt like a vessel for someone to use. A blood bag to feed from and to feast on.

Cadence swallowed and rubbed her jeans to wipe the sweat from her palms. "All this time it was a boy in the coffin. That's who Alexene wanted to free and Lycus didn't want that to happen."

Everyone at the dining table stopped eating.

"Did you see how tall he was?" Cadence forced a laugh and wagged her head. "Taller than Lycus and Gabriel and you, Tristan. He looked dead, Frankie, he'd been rotting in that coffin for years and years."

"He's immortal, he would have been starving and continuously desiccating for his body to die, but his abilities prevented that. It would've been absolute madness." Frankie pointed out and fixed the glasses that sat on his long nose.

"There's something else about him. He didn't have two fangs like a vampire and his eyes weren't just red ... they were also black." Cadence confessed to the hunters.

Erisa placed the back of her hand onto Cadence's forehead with a dramatic sigh. "Have you lost it completely?"

Cadence shrugged her off. "I'm being serious, he had more than two fangs and his eyes were black and red."

Call her insane, a downright lunatic, but Cadence Larren knew exactly what she saw. That image of that creature would never leave her, it would taint her and nothing could ever come close to it besides the slaughtering of her parents.

"I've never heard of such a thing," Frankie commented and frowned, his bushy brows creasing together.

Cadence laced her fingers together and leant her chin on her knuckles. Lycus Fenris came to her mind. The Alpha of Alphas, the firstborn of the original lycan and the mate of Cadence's cousin, Accalia.

He would have the answers for this. This led back to him. The sole catalyst of everyone's vengeance. He took the boy in the coffin away from Alexene, burnt and slayed many vampires, sought wars from others that opposed him and never bent the knee to others.

He had to answer for this.

Cadence staggered to her feet. "I'm going to the Fenris pack. Lycus has a lot to answer for and then I'm going after the thing that bit me."

She didn't look at anyone for approval and turned away, heading straight to the cabinet that had every weapon a hunter needed.

"I'm surprised Lycus hasn't caught up to us yet, I thought he'd be more determined from what you said, Cadence," Erisa murmured.

Cadence wondered the same thing. By now, Lycus would have tracked her or Alexene down. Perhaps he found Alexene first and will make his way to Cadence soon enough.

Unhooking the cabinet and opening the doors, Cadence dabbled at what weapon would serve her purpose today. Loud and clambering boots came up behind her and the next thing she felt was a hand gripping her shoulder and twisting her around.

"Back off, Tristan," Cadence grumbled, ignoring the winces piercing into the side of her neck and she faced the weaponry once again. The sunlight hit a silver dagger and she picked it up, twisting it between her fingers.

"You're not going anywhere, you're too weak," Tristan stated, reaching over and closing the cabinet doors.

Cadence's nostrils flared and she beckoned back around, holding the dagger up to make sure Tristan saw it. "You see this? Good, now back off before I use it."

Tristan was used to this, such feral and untamed threats. They spoke like this since they were kids — Accalia was always the dotting one preaching to speak more sensibly.

"Please," Tristan cackled and his eyes twinkled. "Give it a go, I hope your fall on your ass while you're at it."

Cadence rolled her eyes and ducked under Tristan's arm. "You're not stopping me, Tristan, I'm going."

"It's like you said, Lycus wants you dead for what you did. I know you're dumb, but don't stoop lower." Tristan advised his cousin.

"I'll stoop lower." Cadence retorted brazenly.

"Like your mother."

Cadence stilled and in a swift motion she didn't realise she made, she whipped around and threw the dagger right toward Tristan's head.

At that point, family or not, blood or not, she didn't care if it hit him as long as it got the message across. No ounce of regard splintered into her soul the way it typically would. She didn't feel guilty about it.

In harrowing timing, Tristan ducked and fell to the floor, mouth wide. "You crazy bitch!"

"Look who's on their ass now," Cadence went toward him and tugged the dagger from the wooden door of the cabinet. "You remind me of William."

"That's enough you two!" Frankie bellowed.

It wasn't enough, not nearly enough. Tristan, in a fluid and quick movement, swept his leg across Cadence's ankles and she crumbled to the floor.

She didn't get back to her feet like she once would but collapsed in a heap, the pain keeping her there. Her neck was shocked with agony and tried her best not to cry out in pain.

Tristan stepped up to his cousin and sneered, "See? Didn't I tell you? You're weak right now. You were nearly drained dry hours ago and I don't want to see blood all over my cousin twice in one day. We will go to Lycus tomorrow morning. For now, you rest."

Cadence gripped the handle of the dagger and forcefully nodded, thinking something along the lines that her cousin possibly had a point.

~

Him
~

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, still tasting her. The branding and lasting taste lingered on his lips, staining his tongue and flowing down his throat. Her blood. Sweet, delectable and all-around maddening. 

He groaned, wanting more, just one more drop that would sate him till the end of days.

The towering individual exited the mouth of the forest and looked back at the dark beauty the forest held.

The first thing he felt was droplets of blood leaking into his mouth like the first breath of air after being submerged in water.

The first sound he heard was the bolts and locks unfastening in clacks and bangs. The coffin door creaked and his eyelids fluttered open, no longer seeing darkness but the rays of moonlight hitting the dirt from the entrance of a cave.

His cage had been unlocked. Someone unearthed the findings of the tomb and freed him.

The first thing he smelt was an earthy sweetness and it was enough to make him step forward like he was a baby learning to walk. He had collapsed to his knees in a heap.

But a ripeness of lavender and smokiness — an essence of a human filled his nostrils.

He meshed his hands into the dirty sand and felt his skin touch something other than metal.

He didn't know if he had it in himself, but he placed a foot in front of the other and walked. It was a mind-numbing sensation, his legs thawing from the stiffness of bones being tied down for so long.

Too long it had been.

His long legs carried him out of the cave and he didn't look back, he wanted that tomb to burn.

Every source of sound chimed into his ears in a beckoning and loud muse that grew louder and louder. Music to his ears: the tree brushing against the crisp wind, his bare feet crunching against the earth's soil and ... the voices of people.

Human beings.

A hunger arose within him. So long without the vessel of blood, without food or water — he only needed blood. A bellowing roar tore from his throat and it was the first noise he made since crying and screaming for help in confinement.

He ignored the dead weight dragging him down, his skin heavy and decomposed.

Someone helped him and freed him and the lasting scent was attached to a human girl.

He thought he heard someone nearby, someone calling his name and cooing for him. A familiar tune. But he couldn't disfigure the source, the knotting in his stomach tightened and a pull took the boy further into the woods, everything around him blurring.

"Stop waiting around and leave!"

That voice! I know that tone, the boy from the coffin managed to propel through his thought process. Alexene.

"I don't know if I'll be able to control this. Too strong after too many years of restraint. I thought you'd be gone by now."

Alexene's red eyes sighted onto him and he would never let himself forget it. My dearest friend.

Then blood, so much blood, the need to drown in redness and marvel in it.

Her skin, slender neck and appetising scent. The first smell he had inhaled in years. He couldn't control himself as his fangs latched onto her skin and refused to let go.

He drank and drank the slick as honey, like nectar crimson blood into his mouth.

Until a fierce metal bullet slammed into his shoulder, dragging him away and off her.

The boy from the coffin didn't stick around and disappeared back into the woods, the pain in his shoulder unfamiliar but burning.

After drowning in his unsatisfied hunger, on a high he never wanted to come back from, the walking corpse hunched forward, ramming two fingers into the punctured hole in his shoulder. Gasping, he ripped one metal object out and tossed it to the floor. His shoulder immediately healed.

And now, he ascended from the woods to stand before a towering cathedral that seemed to reach the highest of points of the skies, to the heavens.

The male walked forward and looked down at his hands. His slender fingers slightly trembled but his skin was no longer desiccating, but showing a pale colour. 

Would I burn once I step inside? He questioned. Something like me deserves to burn. But the holiness held no bounds to a creature like him. Crosses had no effect, as did holy water and the words of Christ. Fabricated lies built over years to ensure humans with a sense of security against vampires.

He stood with no direction on where to go next. Alexene had fled away from the day and he trampled through the woods aimlessly with a bullet wound in his shoulder.

Then I shall burn.

He staggered forward, wiping away at the dry blood and staring at the huge stained glass windows. He could already depict the imagery framed into the glass and that's what led him toward the doors of the church.

Familiarity spun around him like a halo with the ample doors being open wide for everyone and anyone.

Maybe even, something like him ...

Bowing his head ever so slightly, he crept inside and felt a surge of air leave him, taking his breath away.

The vaulted ceilings, ornate decorations and gothic interior almost made him want to pray.

But pray to who?

He did not know, the God he once prayed to grew fainter and fader after being locked in darkness for so long. The beings he used to pray for abandoned him in a tomb and left him to rot.

Until he was released by the girl that he fed on.

Pretty, he would describe her with those dark eyes and skin that was carved in scars and marks. Her straggly hair swept out of her face to show those sharp features.

He wanted to see her again, inhale her scent and breathe her in. She had the strength of a warrior, someone who weeps for being weak and being in the strife of war.

I'll pray to her.

"My dear boy, what are you doing here in these strange hours?" A voice crooned.

The boy from the tomb turned his head and found a robed, elderly man by a row of seats.

He thought that hunger would provoke him, but it didn't, it remained steady and even.

The priest wobbled forward, the rays of light gleaming through the stained windows and perceiving him as a holy man, illuminating him.

The priest's beady eyes never left the boy and he came to his shoulder, hunching slightly forward.

Will he not fall? The boy thought, sensing his shallow breathing and slow heart rate.

The priest offered him a gentle smile and did a quick scan of him, face paling as he noticed the blood and grimness on him. "What's your name, boy?"

"Rexton. Rexton Fenris."

~

Tried to edit as best as I could. Boring chapter, but it's getting everything started.

How did you like the introduction of ... Rexton?

— Caranyx.