[Count Agares]

He watched her, the anger growing inside her. Oh, those seven deadly sins. Which was hers? It wasn’t anger. Anyone could tell she wore it unnaturally, like a prostitute wearing a wedding dress on a street corner. No matter. He would find out soon enough. Was it as enjoyable to bring the undead into sin as much as a mortal? No. Though, he did sometimes revel in it. Mister? Mister. A smile. It was time to offer a deal, whether a soul or not, he would take. He always took. Though, as his lips began to move a strange taste washed over his tongue. Copper. Copper? A cleansing breath. No. There was no soapy input that could clean this momentary calamity. That perfectly sculpted unholy face crinkled up. It was blood. His mortal shell dropped to the ground, lifeless, as a curtain at the beginning of a play. Or, if one was so inclined, this was the end of the prelude. The hero enters.

The red was let away and replaced with black. Another smile. Did every villain smile? So many faces with so many pleasantries hiding so many vile acts. Bonded in tight leather, the vampire Agares stood before her. The small remnants, a hill, of the human possessed by a demon was all that stood between he and Talpa. The side of his blade held out toward her, coated in the residue of the demonic.

“Have you tasted Demon blood?” His green eyes flayed with the corpse like qualities of the undead. “The first time I tried it I was living with the Aghori in the crematory grounds of India. I’ve become quite the addict for it.”

[Count Agares]

He stood. Stood and looked at her. She was undead, so perfectly undead. A Vampire, no less. He always wondered what it must be like, these creatures who dance between the mortal realm and the divine. – The utter gall, the utter gall, to interrupt his game. It was his game, his dance, his play. His fingers pulled at his lower lip as he pondered it, pondered this situation, pondered the predicament he was in. It was his duty to seek out the weak and give them momentary heaven for an eternity of damnation, and it was this damned creature who stopped it. They weren’t meant to. A vampire with a heart? He wondered how it would taste. The lifeless and cold heart, alive but not, sitting within her chest. Focus.

“Do you know how much paperwork comes with taking one of your kind?” Biting his lip now, as he shook his head, so full of hunger and lust for that sweet soul that had just slipped from his grasp “You’re basically part of a union. If I take you I have to deal with the repercussions as your Master passes a complaint onto their Master onto their Master” his fingers played with the numbers, as if trying to justify it in his head” and on and on to their Lord who then meets with the council and then calls in the Dukes who have to go over the protocol.” His fingers rubbing his forehead at this point, as he lets out another chuckle. “Then I would have to go to Rome and meet with the representatives..” he began to trail off. Stop. Focus.

Focus.

“However.” He steps forward, directly forward. “I cannot let this intrusion go unpunished. Whether you believe, or don’t.. And must I say how humorous I find it. Each and every time.” The pacing again, this time encompassing her and only her, slowly inching closer “Each predator thinks that they stand on the top of the food chain. Each predator in disbelief that something could hunt them.” His eyes probing her, his sight clinging to her as a spiders web to a fly. He could feel every muscle tensing in her body. He could feel her uncertainty, but she was lacking fear. The fear he desired. “So…” he stops, standing mere inches from her. Eye to eye “What to do with you, as you let that plump bag of blood and flesh go scampering off after he had so wet my appetite? A deal? No. You have no soul to trade.” So what to do with her? It hadn’t come up before. What to do when one of the magical beings stepped in to save a human? All of these eons…

Why do good if there is no reward? He could feel it. He had saved her. She felt indebted. How glorious.. this would be a new game.

[Count Agares]

It was his favorite part, that moment when the quickling came to the realization that there were other things in this universe than the paltry mundane beings whose hearts beat. That monsters were real, and sure the pure golden sunshine existed too.. but who really ever wants to doubt that? The smile began to form, so many weaving narratives to contemplate in those few moments. Again, how fleeting. The words came through, almost brushing his perfect lips, “Oh, but that is exactly what I must do.”

When the story, he had danced through so many times before, was cut short. Another intruder, much ruder than the first, and with such indignation. It was as if he was the one interrupting her night.

Firmly, with purpose, he stepped one foot back. Another. It took such effort, but he had to make a point. His hands came up to his face, his lips weaved from a grin into a smile and into laughter. His eyes almost beating, he scanned the scene before him as a playwright with a cast member who decided to adlib their lines. What to do next?

Another cigarette, another combustion, inhalation. Letting out a small sigh, never losing his smile.

“There were always rules. I followed them. For thousands of years.”

He was finding his footing, he began to slowly pace around them, his leather shoes splashing through the small puddles that had formed.

“One day, the big light above went out. And do you know what happens to lava when it gets far enough away from the heat that had produced it?”

Dragging out the words, between the soft pull of the fire and smoke. His being seemed to lose itself and repair, tentacles of darkness pulling at the foundations of his material form, at times he didn’t seem to have legs at all. The sound of the splash – gone.

“Well, Lucifer turned to stone.” A pause, as if he half expected that giant hand to push through the surface and expunge him “Everyone down there?” He pointed at the black top full of potholes and divots. “They are all fighting for control. No one is watching. No one has been in quite some time.”

He stopped abruptly, the hand holding the cigarette made its way to his chin. His eyes suddenly looking past them. “So I ask myself, when the dance begins. Why bother? Give you an offer, you accept – every human has a price, you have your fun, and then I tear you to pieces.” His eyes jutting towards them. Flames almost overtaking what corporeal form his eyes still exist in. Oh how he enjoyed that part. When it was his turn to take.

Then the smile. Reforming into material right before them. “Why not just skip the steps?” The cigarette butt dropped from his fingers. “Feed you to my thralls and end the dance?”

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