Crimson

-----

I wasn't at the coven's headquarters until eight in the evening. To be fair, I never really did get up until early afternoon, but I also tended to not bother hurrying whenever the Priestess wanted something from me. She needed me more than I needed her, though the money I got from the coven to live on was quite a generous amount.

The house was an old fashion looking mansion with interior to match the outside. As soon as I stepped inside, I walked towards the Priestess' office, assuming that she would be there.

Just as I got up the stairs, another witch stepped out from one of the rooms. She wore a purple long dress, had pale and freckled skin with matching red hair and brown eyes. Kendra, the Priestess' oldest daughter and the one meant to take over once the Priestess kicked the bucket.

"What's up?" I asked her and smiled. "Where's your mom?"

"The Priestess," Kendra said with narrowed eyes and emphasis on the word priestess, "is in her office and has been waiting for you for a long time."

"Thanks!" I answered and kept the smile up.

Kendra had never liked me and never been adapt at hiding that dislike. I knew, though, that jealousy was the cause of her aversion. We were about the same age and had as such trained magic together while growing up. I had never viewed it as a competition, but Kendra had and I had always been better than her. So really I didn't blame her for her dislike. I could imagine that she had often been compared to me, but it was getting rather old.

I walked past her and down the corridor to one of the rooms furthest in. I didn't knock before pushing the door open and without any regard, I took a seat on a couch in there and poured myself a glass of wine from the decanter that always stood there.

"You wanted to see me?" I said and first then turned to the Priestess.

She sat behind a very modern-looking desk. That room was quite the contrast to the rest of the house and looked as if it could belong inside any cooperate building.

"Yes, as soon as you woke up," she pointed out and clicked down whatever she had been doing on her computer.

"Sorry, was a long night," I answered and yawned pointedly.

"No matter," she shook her head. "What's important is that you're here now. I need your assistance in a matter."

I answered by taking another sip of the wine.

"We found a vampire on our grounds in the early hours of the morning. He had already started drinking from Megan. Thankfully, the sun rose and this particular vampire seemed extra sensitive to it. Megan managed to get away and call for us. We think that he belongs to the Midnight Refugees, but I would like for you to be with me when interrogating him."

My eyes had turned to slits. If the knowledge that a vampire had been there and drunk from one of us hadn't been enough to anger me to action, then what had followed had definitely done the trick.

The Midnight Refugees. The strongest vampire clan in the world that sadly enough was located close to us. What I wouldn't have done to be able to burn that whole place to the ground.

"Let's go then," I said and stood up. Without waiting for the Priestess to answer, I made my way out of the room and to our prison.

The prison was located behind the house. From the outside, it looked like quite an ordinary house, perhaps one where the maids and such would have lived once upon a time. It was a nice shell to hide the reality of its insides.

The Priestess had followed behind me and brought out a set of keys to open the door when we reached it.

The inside truly was awful. The windows had from the outside been bewitched so that it looked like a cozy home when looking in, but on the inside they were blackened so no light came through. It was also cold and damp and smelled of decay. Walking into it, always made me shudder, but for some lowlifes that was all they deserved.

There was a spell over the whole house that stopped magic from being performed inside of it. The coven had plenty of magical tools to use on prisoners inside of it, but that was a main reason for why the Priestess wanted my company on occasion when interrogating prisoners. If something happened, if a vampire got out, I was fast and strong enough to protect her even without the ability to use magic.

We walked to one of the cells furthest in. Inside of it, a young man, or boy was perhaps a better word, was chained with iron. He hung his head, but as we got closer, his head snapped up and stared at us with eyes that shone red. A sign of that his animalistic instincts that came with being a vampire was at the surface.

"Please!" he shouted and pulled at the chains. As soon as he had done that he hissed in pain, but continued his begging. "I'm so thirsty! Please. Just give me something to drink!"

I felt disgust. Thirst and something to drink... He begged us for blood. Though a small part of me also felt compassion. He wasn't more than a teenager by the looks of it. Was he born a vampire or had he been turned? If turned, then who had and why?

But as he pulled more furiously at the chain and exposed both his elongated canines and claws, that compassion got pushed aside. His eyes were fixated on me as he pulled and scraped to get closer, to get loose.

"You smell nice," he said to me in a voice that was almost a growl. "Come closer. You smell so nice."

"Be quiet!" the Priestess snarled at him. His eyes wandered over to the Priestess before he sniffed the air. His face turned to a grimace.

"You don't smell good," he said and then turned his red eyes back at me.

"You want me to come closer?" I asked and gave him one of my sweetest and fakest smiles.

"Yes!" he exclaimed and licked his lips.

"I will, if you answer our questions," I told him and he nodded, ecstasy emanating from him.

"Yes! I'll answer!"

I turned to look at the Priestess. Her nose was wrinkled up and her eyes filled with contempt.

"Why were you here?" she asked the vampire who's eyes didn't leave me as he answered.

"Thirsty. Lots of nice smells."

"Who sent you here?" the Priestess asked next, annoyance creeping into her voice.

"No one. Just thirsty."

"What clan do you belong to?"

"No clan. No clan. What's a clan?"

"Do you belong to the Midnight Refugees."

"Belong to no one. Pretty girl, can you come closer?"

I sighed and looked at the Priestess that seemed to be fuming mad.

"He's insane," I murmured to her. He really seemed to be that. His eyes stared wide at me and he kept on licking his lips. Most likely his desire for blood had driven out all else within him.

"I swear those vampires sent him here for that reason," she scoffed. "A perfect way to attack us without we being able to find evidence against them."

She whipped around and started to walk out.

"Do what you want with him," she told me without looking back.

"Pretty girl, nice smelling girl. It's just us now. Just us," the vampire hissed and pulled at the chains again. "I answered the questions. Come closer now."

I went back to the entrance where the keys to the cells hung and retrieved the one to his cell. All the while I felt his eyes following me intently. I opened the cell and stepped inside, but kept myself far enough away so he wouldn't be able to reach me.

"Any last wish?" I asked him, for even if it wasn't for the fact that he was a vampire, from the way he acted, death seemed to be a good option for him.

"I'm thirsty. I want a drink! I want to drink you!" He made even more desperate attempts to get free. Pulling and scratching on the chains. Worst of all was that the iron burned into his flesh, I could smell that it did, but that pain seemed to be secondary to him. His desire to drink my blood overpowered the pain.

"I'm sorry, but that's the one request I won't fulfil," I told him and lit my lighter. At that sight, he became still and then started pressing himself as far away from me as possible.

"Don't! Please! Turn it off! Turn it off!" he shrieked as he fell to his knees, pressed into the corner.

"It's for the best," I said and walked over, bent down, and lit him on fire.

I turned and walked out. His screams of pain followed me as I went.