Post by Sulfurlix on Jan 5, 2015 7:10:31 GMT
Four
Real name William Stephen Marks
Currently 746 years old
Looks around 21 years old.
Looks around 21 years old.
Born on March 13th, 1268
Species of a Fidelis Lamia
Species Info: - link -
Species Info: - link -
FAMILY RELATIONS
----
Father
Spencer Marks
Deceased - 53
Mother
Delilah Marks
Deceased - 48
Little Brother
Kyle Marks
Deceased - 14
Little Sister
Maribel Marks
Deceased - 12
OTHER RELATIONS
----
Bisexual
Ex's: Heather Simmons [deceased], Melody Smith [deceased], Nathan Rome [deceased], Bethany Riley [deceased]
Eyes for no one
Dating no one
Not Married
No children
Best friend: Oliver Baxter [deceased]
Friends: Harry Deming [deceased], Stephanie Pax [deceased]
Unsure of: Everyone
Hatred for: Everyone
Hatred for: Everyone
Mentor/Turned by: Kaiser Morteg [925 yrs old]
DESCRIPTION
----
Height: 6'4”
Hair: A shorter-medium length, naturally spikey
- Four's hair has always been solid black, but after a few hundred years and
he was able to, he started dying red streaks into his hair. -
- Four's hair has always been solid black, but after a few hundred years and
he was able to, he started dying red streaks into his hair. -
Build: Well muscled form - link -
Scent: Burnt pine and cigarette smoke with the faint hint of blood
Weapons: Shotgun strapped to back (- link -), two hunting knives on a belt (- link -), one pocket knife (- link -)
Piercings: Right eyebrow (- example -), lower lip (- example -), ears (- example -)
Typical Clothing: Combat boots (- link -), slightly worn jeans (- link -), casual shirts (- link -)
Scarring: Wrists and ankles have shackle scars; back of neck has the turning bite scar; back has deep whip marks;
chest has various scarring
Branding: Upper right of chest (- link -)
- The dragon was branded into his skin with hot iron as his mark of Ferrin -
Scent: Burnt pine and cigarette smoke with the faint hint of blood
Weapons: Shotgun strapped to back (- link -), two hunting knives on a belt (- link -), one pocket knife (- link -)
Piercings: Right eyebrow (- example -), lower lip (- example -), ears (- example -)
Typical Clothing: Combat boots (- link -), slightly worn jeans (- link -), casual shirts (- link -)
Scarring: Wrists and ankles have shackle scars; back of neck has the turning bite scar; back has deep whip marks;
chest has various scarring
Branding: Upper right of chest (- link -)
- The dragon was branded into his skin with hot iron as his mark of Ferrin -
PERSONALITY
----
Typically:
Rude
Cruel
Mean
Blunt
Cruel
Mean
Blunt
Sometimes:
Stubborn
Talents:
Climbing
Reading others
Acoustic Guitar
Climbing
Reading others
Acoustic Guitar
Flaws:
'Social skills'
Dealing with children
'Social skills'
Dealing with children
LIKES
----
Music
Solitude
Violence
A good fight
----
Violence
A good fight
----
DISLIKES
----
Being cornered
Losing control of himself
The Ferrin
His Mentor
The risk of becoming close to someone again
Losing control of himself
The Ferrin
His Mentor
The risk of becoming close to someone again
----
ABILITIES
----
Super Strength
Telekinesis
----
Telekinesis
----
Physical Stats
----
Strength: OOOOO
Stamina: OOOOO
Swimming: OOOOO
Reflexes/Balance: OOOOO
Immune System: OOOOO
----
Speech & Mental Stats
Speech & Mental Stats
----
Leadership: OOOOO
Intellect: OOOOO
Social Skills: OOOOO
Intimidation: OOOOO
Problem-Solving: OOOOO
Confidence: OOOOO
Stubbornness: OOOOO
Creativity: OOOOO
HISTORY (WIP)
----
“Mom! Where did the dogs go?” Young William jumped over the wooden fence as he ran to the old shack, a grin on his face.
Delilah lifted her gaze to watch her son, a warm smile on her face. “Have you checked the barn, Will?” She let her blue eyes glance in the direction of the barn before looking back to her son, who was still approaching quickly.
“Yeah! They’re not there,” he hopped onto the porch where his mother stood, the sixteen year old boy quickly going to help his mother fold the laundry she had hand washed; he was sure not to rip anymore holes into the cloth. They hardly had enough money to buy food, clothes were nowhere close to possible.
“I’m sure they’re somewhere on the farm, Will. Why don’t you go gather your brother and sister? Dinner is almost ready,” she lifted a hand to let her fingers gently ruffle her son’s jet black slightly shaggy hair.
“Yes, ma’am,” he grinned before turning on his heel and heading back to the fields.
“Kyle! Maribel!” William wandered towards the sound of his younger siblings’ giggling. “Dinner is almost ready, c’mon guys!” He laughed lightly in amusement.
“Boo!” Maribel jumped from behind a tree, making William jump back. “Got you!” She giggled.
“Oh shush, Mari!” He jumped forward, grabbing her in a big hug before tossing the twelve year old over his shoulder as she squealed in delight. “Now where’s Kyle?!” William started spinning in circles.
“I don’t know!” She laughed, gripping onto the boy’s shirt.
“Yes you do! I heard both of you!”
“No!”
“Let her go, fowl villain!” Kyle jumped down from a tree, tackling the two to the ground. Maribel yelped as she got pinned, making William jump up to push Kyle away.
“Smooth, Kyle!” William huffed, bending down to gently scoop his little sister up. “Fun is over, let’s get back. Mom is waiting.”
The younger boy bit his lip, hearing his sister’s soft whimpering. He hadn’t meant for her to get hurt! And now her arm was bleeding. Did she hit a rock? Looking up, Kyle quickly ran after William as he headed back to their small home.
William gently placed Maribel onto her feet once back to the shack, bending down to be at her level. “You’ll be okay, I promise,” he said gently, lifting a hand to brush away her tears.
“It hurts, Willy,” she whimpered, looking down to the gash on her arm.
“I know. But mommy will help, right?” He gently took her arm in his hand, pressing his lips to her knuckles. “Now, dear princess, hop along inside to the queen,” he mused gently, letting a smirk cross his features as his little sister let a small smile peek onto her lips.
“Okay,” she turned and scampered off inside to find their mother.
William stood back up with a small sigh before looking down to Kyle, who was sulking towards the door. “Hold on,” William grabbed his arm, looking at his little brother. “What’s wrong with you?”
Kyle jerked his arm away, averting his gaze. “It’s always my fault when she gets hurt! I never mean to, I just… Dad says we have to watch over one another, but I’m the one getting her hurt!” He seethed at himself.
William frowned slightly to his brother, lifting a hand to ruffle his hair, “look at me. Accidents happen, so what if you’re prone to them more than me?”
“That’s what I mean, Will! You’re the best big brother she could have, I’m just the one that’s just here; I screw up everything.” The boy dropped his back against the wall of the shack.
Shaking his head, Will followed the boy and jabbed his own back against the slightly rotten wood. “Remember when Maribel was born?”
“Yeah…”
“Both of us sat on that couch, and we made a promise. You remember that?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t matter now!”
“No! It matters even more.” William looked down to him, lifting his hand with his pinkie outstretched. “No matter how much we both screw up in our lives; no matter what changes come, we’re just kids. So, we promise –without dad here—that we’re not knights in shining armor, and never will be. We promise that we’re just kids, and we’re going to fuck up.”
Kyle looked up, letting a small smile quirk on his lips as he hooked their pinkies together. “Especially me.”
“Yeah; especially you.” William smirked as his brother gave him a gentle shove before they finally went inside.
“Daddy! Daddy!” Maribel ran off the porch of the small shack when their father had finally returned, her arm from three nights ago patched up and healing.
“There’s my princess!” The man bent down, catching the girl in his arms and hugging her tight. “Where’s those two rascals?” He asked her, picking her up as he headed inside.
“Working on the farm, daddy!”
“Oh really? Have you and mommy been working them hard?” Spencer asked as he pushed the front door open.
“No,” the girl giggled, drawing out the ‘o’.
“Spencer!” Delilah chirped, going over to her husband to kiss him in greeting.
“Am I glad to see the two loves of my life,” he mused, pulling both into a hug before putting Maribel down to let her run off.
The couple resumed in conversation, Spencer telling her all about his business trip to sell the knives and saddles he had made, and Delilah telling him of all the foolish antics of their three children. Before the sun went down, and the boys had returned with Maribel, the family gathered in the living room to talk through the night.
Maribel soon wanted to go to bed, and Spencer happily took her down the hall to her room of the small shack that she shared with her brothers, tucking her into the old bed after singing her a horribly done lullaby. He returned to the living room, smiling at his family in the candlelit house.
“You should be heading to bed, too, Kyle,” Delilah said as she brushed his dirty black hair back to place a loving kiss on his forehead.
“But, mom! William gets to stay up longer!” Kyle protested.
“Ah-ah, listen to your mother young man,” Spencer said, arching a brow.
Kyle let out a small groan before bidding his family good night, and then heading off to sleep.
“Help us clean the kitchen, Will,” Delilah said as she stood from the wooden seat. She watched as her son nodded, standing up to follow the two into the kitchen.
The three were just about to head off to bed before hearing one of the cows moaning out in distress. Exchanging a few looks, Spencer went to the front door of the shack, opening it up.
“Get me the sword, William,” he said, a worried frown on his face as he picked up a candle from the side table.
“Is it a wolf?” William asked as he brought his father the sword.
“I hope so,” the man muttered, “you two stay here.”
He was gone in a flash, slipping out of the shack and towards the sound of the cow. The two stood in the doorway as the silence became eerie, looking out into the unpredictable darkness. William, feeling his mother’s worry, clutched her hand to bring them both some form of reassurance. “He’ll be okay,” the woman murmured to him, though it was more so for herself. They both knew what lurked in the night; they all kept it from Kyle and Maribel.
“Get inside! Lock the door!” Spencer screamed from nowhere, his vice seeming stained as he came running back after a solid ten minutes. From the faint glow of the house’s candlelight, William could see the blood that now dripped off his father.
“Spencer!” Delilah didn’t think twice, running out from the house to her husband’s aid.
William was froze in fear, big blue eyes staring in horror. Kyle came running from the room, both frozen in terror. Six humans walked from the shadows, laughing and jeering about the humans as Spencer fell into Delilah’s arms.
“One and two are here,” one woman cackled before walking forward, ripping Delilah from her husband and tossing her to the side. The woman cried out for her husband, but Spencer just laid on the ground, body limp against the grass in the dim, eerie lighting.
“I think one is dead; he couldn’t handle our games!” A man laughed.
“Let’s play with number two,” another woman jeered, walking to the woman.
“No! Leave her alone!” Kyle ran from the house, but one of the people intercepted and gripped the boy by the neck.
“Look! They have a three!”
“I think I see four by the door way,” a woman laughed.
William stared at her, feeling his skin drain in anger now, fingers slowly curling into fists. “Put him down!” He took a few cautious steps from the shack, debating what to do. He had nothing. No weapons, no knowledge against these monsters.
“Or what?” The man who was holding Kyle asked.
“I’ll… I’ll kill you.” William let his voice rise, glaring at the man.
“What about mommy?” A blonde haired man asked, red eyes gleaming as he dragged the woman just a foot before Will.
“Let her go!” William ran forward. He wasn’t fast enough.
The man sliced a blade through her neck, making the boy stumble back in horror as the red splashed him, almost wanting to throw up.
“What? Going to cry, son?” The blonde haired vampire laughed, shoving the dead body aside. Another vampire walked over, picking up Delilah’s body to suck the blood from her corpse. “Want to save your brother too, Four?”
William bit back tears, the look of horror still on his face as he watched the vampire suck the blood from his mother until her skin was a pasty white; a sickly white. “Yes,” he muttered, tearing his gaze from the corpse, unable to look before turning his gaze to the man again.
“Well, sorry to say this, pal, but you’re a kid. What can you do?” The man snapped his fingers, and a sickening crack sounded from Kyle’s neck.
“No!” William wailed out, tears now dripping from his eyes as he watched his brother’s body start to get hauled off to be eaten. “You monster!” William yelled, jumping up and charging the man, punching him square in the nose.
The blonde man stumble back, having not expected the boy to do such. “You little brat!” He snarled, grabbing the boy’s shirt to start crashing his fist against his face, busting the boy’s lip and eye up before throwing him into the open shack door.
William crashed into the house, hitting the floor with a groan. He looked up to the sniffling of Maribel, eyes widening. He looked over his shoulder, seeing the blonde haired man coming to finish him off. “RUN!” He yelled to the girl, stumbling to his feet as she scrambled from under the table, running to the back door.
“Oh, I think we have a five, guys!” The blonde man laughed as he stomped into the shack, watching the little girl run off. “Oliver, the back!” He yelled over his shoulder as the girl slipped out the back.
“Leave her alone!” William yelled, grabbing a broken piece of the table he landed on, running to the blonde man to smash it against him.
The man caught the broken board, ripping it from Will’s grasp and using it against him. The boy cried out in pain as the wood smashed into him multiple times faster than he could react to, soon falling to the ground with gashes on himself, vision blurry. As he looked up, he saw Oliver coming back with the crying girl, who soon screamed as the teeth ripped into her neck and killed her. William black out; the vampires left.
William clutched the corpse of his little sister, sobbing into her hair. His body was broken, beaten, and sore. But his heart felt like it shattered. “I’m so, so sorry,” he cried into her bloody hair, holding the pale corpse close. He should have helped her run instead of stay to try and fight that man. No matter what the odds were against him, but he should have tried. Her frail form was crushed against his chest as he tried to fathom what happened. Why’d they leave him ALIVE? They should have killed him too! Did they want him to suffer?!
Of course they did. William held her close, unable to bear the thought of being alone. His family just got slaughtered and all he could do was watch.
“I’m surprised you’re still alive,” the blonde haired man from the night mused, a smirk on his features.
Will looked up, “GO AWAY!” He screamed, throat dry.
“I don’t think so. I came to claim a nice apprentice. And since you survived this onslaught, you win, Four.” The man’s smirk grew from ear to ear, a twisted look in his eyes.
“I would never want to be your apprentice!” He yelled brutally, rocking his sister as tears streamed down his bloody cheeks.
“You see, Four. You don’t have a choice. My name is Kaiser Morteg. You will leave your family behind, not that you have a choice, and become one of the Ferrin.”
“No,” Will clutched Maribel closer, dropping his face to cry into her hair. “No, no, no,” he muttered before he felt the rough hands grab his shirt.
“Come now,” Kaiser chuckled, ripping the boy from his sister’s corpse. He cried out, trying to grab for anything to hold onto as the man dragged him by the foot to purposely make the boy give up hope. He wouldn’t need hope where he was going.
Kaiser had his hand roughly on the boy’s neck, standing in front of the tribe as one of the sires screamed out among the jeering crowd that this boy would become one of them under the mentoring of Kaiser.
“Kaiser! Begin the transformation!” The man cackled.
A sick smirk ran along Kaiser’s features before grabbing the hair on the back of William’s head, shoving his head down to reveal the back of his neck, soon sinking his teeth in right around the spine. The venom that suddenly ripped through his body caused him to scream in pain. William tried pushing away, but Kaiser’s teeth anchored into his skin, injecting enough venom to change him into one of them. There was no way out. Soon he’d be the monster that killed his family. Soon he’d be like what he hated most; Kaiser.
Kaiser released him, allowing William to fall to the ground in excruciating pain as the venom tore down his spine and started to sink into his veins to start the ‘purging’ of the mortal liquid.
For the next few days were full of pure pain and throwing up blood. William’s body was changing, his veins having to toughen up to hold out against the venom that now pulsed through his veins. His jaw ached from the teeth that were forcing their way to grow and shape. The sixteen year olds life was destroyed, but Kaiser liked to say “shut the hell up, it’s kind of like a second chance. A bloodier second chance”, and then he’d leave the boy in his cage so William couldn’t run.
He didn’t feel like William. Whenever he thought of the name, he thought of the loving way he’d never hear it said again. He wasn’t William. He was Four; the survivor Kaiser decided to torture with immortality.
“Get up,” Kaiser let the hard cow hide of his boot crush into the young lad’s rips.
Four coughed, some of his last blood spluttering from his lips. “What?” His voice choked on the taste of his own blood, the crimson still dribbled on his lips.
“First day of training, Four.” A smirk slid onto his features as he watched the sixteen year old kid stumble to his feet, limbs aching with the sick burn of venom purging his system.
Four shifted to rub a few bruises on his arm after he was on his feet. He had no doubt how haggard he looked. His black hair was unruly, with dirt, blood, and small debris from the ground clinging to it. His shirt was tattered and still stained with his mother’s, sister’s, and his own blood. His raggedy pants were worse off as well, and at some point he had lost a shoe.
“Let’s go,” Kaiser turned on his heel and started walking away, bloody red eyes trying to avoid the smell of the blood radiating off the newly changed lad.
Sighing, Four kicked off his one shoe, but stood where he was. Why should he follow that man? He just slaughtered his family. He didn’t want anything to do with him.
At the lack of footfalls following, Kaiser stopped and looked over his shoulder. A dark, menacing scowl slowly etched onto his already haunting features. “If you don’t come, I will force you to.” His words sliced the air like a shard of ice, making Four flinch. But he didn’t move. Seething, Kaiser turned and walked back to the boy, slamming a fist across his face. Four collapsed back to the ground with a gasp of pain.
“A little rebellious, aren’t you?” Kaiser snarled, leaning down to pick up the boy by the bloody from of his shirt. “I’ll knock that right out of you. I am the only one that’s going to train you to control yourself.”
“Control?! You call what you did to my family control?!” Four yelled back, feeling the harp sting of the fist crashing against him again. A weird anger boiled in him, his blue eyes having no longer held their once gentle blue. They were red, blood red. And soon he’d need to eat, or he’d go mad.
“I call that a test, whether you do or not. If you don’t listen to me, I will slaughter you the same way we did onto your father. Slowly. Painfully. Am I understood?” Kaiser pulled the boy to be face to face with him, watching as the look of anger had slowly melted to one of fear. “Oh no, don’t you get all sappy on me, boy. Toughen up!” He threw Four down against the rock ground. “Now, let’s go.”
Four let himself stay fallen on the ground, muscles shaking with anger, fear, or pain he didn’t know. He did know one thing: he didn’t want to get punched again. His cheek bone felt like it’d break if another hard blow hit him.
The boy followed after, reluctantly at that, with his head bowed slightly. He knew what was coming.
Twenty one was finally here. Kaiser managed to beat Four down into a harder soul over the five years. Most of what drove Four was hatred; disgust for himself by allowing himself to live around these things that so viciously slaughtered his family. But there wasn’t time to think about that. It was time for his new hear, quite literally.
Confined to the stone table, shirtless and immobile, he glared up at the sky above. They had to rip out his human heart, so the other could grow in its place. So the venom that now ran through his veins wouldn’t destroy him from the inside out.
“Four, you have learned the ways of the Ferrin; are you prepared to become one?” The sire Dren asked, the sacred blade held in his hands.
“Yes,” only because if he said no, they’d do this anyways. Only because is he said no, he’d be beaten more. Only because if he said no, they’d make him suffer. He didn’t want to be one of them. He had no choice.
“Then let us take away your mortal heart!” He screamed out in agony as the blade’s serrated edge ripped through his flesh roughly. A smooth edged knife wouldn’t inflict the pain they wanted you to feel. Dren cut open Four’s chest until he could rip the man’s heart out, venom blood spluttering everywhere. The only reason they didn’t die: the mortal heart would keep beating until the new heart grew and since it wasn’t staked through, it was ‘safe’.
Four’s body jerked as the venom now poured into the open cavity of his chest, the burning against the open flesh felt like hell’s flames. And he was left, alone to suffer for the three weeks it’d take for this new heart to grow. Left to wither in agony as the acid like venom burned in his chest and almost made tears burn in his eyes (if he had any).
Three weeks couldn’t come fast enough. Even when the pain dulled, he couldn’t move. Even when Dren untied him from the stone table, all Four could do was roll to his side and grunt with the effort. The ability to heal faster than normal caused for the gaping hole in his chest to seal, but the jagged, lightening like scar still ripped over where his heart was. The slow, unnoticeable beat of this new heart made him cringe. He didn’t even have the heart his mother gave him anymore. What was next?
“Four,” Dren stated, helping to shove the young man up.
“What?” He snapped, using his hand to shove the older vampire away. Once sitting up, he lifted his hand to his chest, fingers pressing against the scar left. He could almost feel the memory of his real heart beating. But it was gone. He’d never feel that again.
“It’s time to be marked as a Ferrin,” the man said, red eyes glaring at the younger vampire.
“Great,” he stated, shifting off the edge of the table. When his feet touched the ground, the pain surged through his body again, making a strangled sound force its way from his lungs as he collapsed. Dren just watched, waiting impatiently for the young man to regain himself. He managed, hauling himself up by the edge of the stone table, taking a few deep breaths.
He was starving. His body was starting to shake from hunger, and both he and Dren knew he’d need to eat. But his first hunt as a ‘new fang’ would be soon; but only after he was branded.
The path towards the fire pit was cleared when both Dren and Four came walking through, the path being swallowed by the Fidelis once they made it to the fire pit. Four knew the drill. He let himself collapse to his knees, the rocks slicing through his pants to cut his knees. But that mediocre pain would be nothing in a few seconds. His red eyes lowed up from under his eyebrows, watching with undying hatred as the metal iron was held in the flames. The slightly rusted brown was heated to a bright yellow that faded to a hot orange to prove how hot it was. It was meant for branding after all.
Kaiser, holding the hot iron, walked over to where his apprentice was, a smirk on his features. “Now you’re one of us, like it or not,” he mused cruelly under his breath as their glares locked onto one another. He knew Four hated him, but he was amused by it, not threatened.
Four mentally braced himself, shifting to sit upright as his bare chest was still dealing with the pain of the new heart helping the venom flow through his body. Along with initiation, this was a test. A test of pain; endurance. How much did it take until you broke?
He couldn’t remember if he screamed when the iron was pushed against his right pectoral muscle on his chest. The scent of burnt flesh burned in his nose, even when Kaiser pulled the iron away and dumped it in the bucket of water. Seething in pain, Four clutched his hands in fists and looked down, gasping at the burnt open flesh that would scar in the shape of a dragon.
He was a Ferrin now. He was one of them. He was a monster.
The next few years of his life consisted of training. Brutal tasks, brutal beatings for any sign of emotion or a hint of blue in his eyes, brutal scolding for denying his orders. He couldn’t deny it anymore. They were breaking him. Only twenty five and he was breaking in every possible way. Until he met her.
Escaping on a calmer day of the tribe, Four found himself walking into the town he used to live in, the hood of his cloak drawn up over his face. The streets were still old, the buildings were still the same with their old wooden buildings. Nothing had changed, but it felt different. Maybe it was just him. His rough shoes took him along the road, watching the typical daily actions of the citizens. It made him almost sick to his stomach when he saw a group of kids running down the street. Nine years. He had been gone nine years. Nine years in hell.
Pushing his anger and bitterness aside, after looking around to make sure no Ferrin was around, Four shoved his hood back and let his now blue eyes shift over the people. He found a few familiar faces, which made his homesickness grow. Memories flickered through his mind, gentle blue eyes growing almost distant as he stopped in the middle of the road, slowly looking around.
“William?” He hardly noticed the voice. “WILL!” He swirled on his foot as the arms were suddenly thrown around his neck. “We thought you dead!” The woman said, clutching her childhood friend close.
Four’s eyes widened before hesitantly letting his own arms curl around the new attachment he found hooked to his chest. He had to bite back the urge to throw the woman off. Yet the way she said his name. A hug was something he hadn’t had in years… It felt nice.
“Where have you been? Everyone has been so worried after… After that raid, and you vanished. God, is it good to see you!” Heather beamed, pulling away slightly to look up at the more rough and handsome features of her old friend.
“Heather..?” Four stared wide eyed at her still, a smile just barely flickering at the edges of his lips.
The passing nights of training went by like a blur. Four would push through as fast as he could with his tribe so during the day he could sneak off to see Heather. It was the only time he could let his walls fall, let his old self come back. She made him feel human again, like maybe some part of him was still alive. He’d be scared to admit he had feelings for the woman he used to know when she was a girl and he a living boy. It hurt to know he was lying to her, but she never asked where he went those nine years.
He had a feeling she knew. But she wasn’t scared of him.
As night fell over the lands, Four sat on the rocky edge of a river. He wanted to tell her. She deserved to know, right? Of course she did… He quickly shook the thoughts from his head before standing from the river. Right now. Go right now, Four.
Taking a breath, he spun on his foot and headed towards the town. Before he even got there, five of the other tribe members caught up.
“Are you going to watch the witches burn, too?” One chuckled viciously.
“Yeah,” Four answered, letting his eyes turn red before they noticed, his scowl settling on his face. Oh well… He’d tell her tomorrow.
Following to the large rocky field where three stakes were put up, Four narrowed his eyes at the three women tied to the stakes. The scent of Heather wafted from somewhere around here, but where? Surly she wouldn’t attend one of these events. As the first witch was set on fire, he heard it. She was screaming for help.
Eyes widening, he started shoving through the crowd, raw strength throwing these puny mortals from his path as the other five chased after him. “Heather!” He screamed above the jeering of the crowd, throwing his hood back to run to the front where she had been set on fire, her shrill screams burning in his ears.
So close, twenty more feet and you can save her.
The five from the Ferrin barreled him down, making Four cry out for the woman. He could hear her scream his name. She needed help and they wouldn’t let him help! “Let go!” He snarled, voice choked by his throat constricting as he tried fighting the other five off.
The mortals stared in horror, even fled from the scene when they realized that vampires were fighting on their land. And when her cries died, Four felt like he died a second time, collapsing against the ground with his blue eyes locked on the flames and his body pinned harshly against the ground.
The mortals didn’t come back. Perhaps they were terrified. The five vampires left Four after the fire died and they scolded him for trying to save the mortal ‘witch’. She needed him, and he failed her like he failed his family.
Once again he found himself hugging a corpse to his chest, eyes squeezed shut as his chest tightened. “I’m sorry,” he muttered, tightening his now battered and beat form around her.
“I love you,” he murmured softly. He never even got the chance to tell her.
“Get over it, Four,” Kaiser’s voice came from behind him in a small growl.
“And if I don’t?” He returned the growl, solid red eyes glancing over his shoulder to the other man as he stood by the unmarked grave of Heather. ‘Witches’ didn’t get head stones, but he’d never forget where she was buried. He was the one to bury her after all.
“You will. Tonight. It’s been a day already, she’s in the past.” His cold words hit Four’s ears like ice, making the younger vampire quickly take his gaze away.
Emotions weren’t allowed. He was learning that the hard way. He had… He had to let her go. Two days ago he had her hand. Today, he had nothing again. Sucking in a deep breath, Four stepped back and followed Kaiser. Time for the hunt.
Reaching the age of a hundred and thirty one, Four had finally fallen to the ways of the Ferrin. Kaiser crushed emotions from him, helping to instil the fear into Four’s head of the emotions even Kaiser was scared of. It was no point in fighting it anymore. He had spent more days dead than he ever had alive. Even Heather had been beaten out of his mind.
Standing by two other vampires, Four watched over the town with a sick smirk on his feature. A smirk like Kaiser’s. He sickened himself with how much he had become like that slaughterer, but he couldn’t fight back anymore. He was broken in more ways than one.
“Is the town surrounded?” Trenton asked, crouched down slightly as he ran his tongue over his lips.
“I hope it will be soon,” Kelsea grumbled.
“If you keep complaining, I’ll make my dinner out of you two,” Four growled, shoving his hands in his pockets as he looked out to the town, waiting for the signal. He didn’t even spare them a side glance, but he could sense their sudden wariness of him.
Four had become what Kaiser wanted: a feared member of the tribe. Even as one of the youngest, his hatred for the others pushed himself to prove he could kill them just as easily as they killed his family. And one day, he hoped to hold Kaiser’s severed head over a cliff to drown it.
It was meeting day. The Ynoles and the Ferrin went to the mountain, where peace was to be held between the two. As tradition, they were to meet every hundred years to speak. Every meeting, the Ynoles would offer a peace treaty to combine their tribes. The Ferrin would laugh in their faces.
Four, having just turned two hundred and eighty four, sat away from the others. He stayed near the edge of the tree line, perched on a rock. He glared from a distance, sensitive ears picking up on their almost senseless banter and the normal crude banter between the Ferrin. He used to wonder if their violent antics never end, but now it was regretfully starting to grow on him. It was starting to become a part of him.
“You seem like a stranger to your own tribe,” a silky smooth voice, one clearly not belonging to that of the Ferrin, said from behind him.
“Is it that obvious,” he grumbled, narrowing his eyes at the familiar faces of anger flying through his tribe.
“Yeah… Usually the Ferrin stick close together so they can argue,” she laughed, climbing onto the rock and sitting down by the man, holding out her hand to him. “I’m Melody Smith. Part of the Ynoles if you couldn’t tell.”
“If your scent didn’t give it off, your cheery ass personality does,” Four grumbled bitterly, looking to the woman. As a habit his father taught him, he didn’t hesitate to shake the woman’s hand. “I’m Four.”
“Four? Like the number? Were one through three taken?” She mused.
“No, one through three were killed.” He snarled, jerking his hand away quickly.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t… I guess I should have suspected that, huh?” She shifted to let her legs dangle off the edge of the stone like how Four had one leg. “Do they always fight so much?”
“It’s usually worse,” he stated blandly, sending a small side glance to the blonde haired, green eyed woman.
“Oh I bet. Do you participate in their ‘fun’?” She joked, letting a grin slide over her features, clearly enjoying antagonizing the Ferrin.
“All the damn time,” Four answered, raising a brow to the woman before sending his red eyes back to the tribes.
Melody took a deep breath, leaning back on her hands before looking up to the sky. “Want to ditch? I’m hungry.”
“Hungry? You Ynoles drink animals,” Four said with a hint of disgust. He was taught to drink humans, that animal blood was disgusting.
“Trust me, it’s not as bad as it seems. You should try it. C’mon, Four,” she jumped off the rock and started walking off, a hop in her step.
Four’s brows shoved together in confusion, eyes flickering with blue before he shook his head. He tried returning to watching the tribes until he realized he was bored. Dammit. Jumping from the rock, he started following after the woman who was a good bit in front of him while grumbling curses under his breath.
Melody laughed as she sat on the grass, watching as Four picked himself up after falling from the horse’s back. They had just got done with a hunt together, on the Ynoles territory. He knew it was against his tribe’s law to do this, but damn he couldn’t stay away from Melody after the ten times she snuck onto the Ferrin territory to bother him. She was… attractive in her own, adorably annoying way. For a vampire, she had remained so pure, so kind. He wished he could be that way, but he could only manage to do so around her. He could only get the red from his eyes when his walls broke down, and Melody managed to just tap on them and break the walls down. How, he didn’t know. But she did.
“Don’t laugh,” he huffed as he wiped off his jeans. It had been four years of knowing Melody, two of those years officially staking their ‘claim bite’ on one another. He was now two hundred and eighty eight.
“Oh, come on, that was funny and you know it,” She leaned back on her hands, tilting her head to the side.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what funny is,” he mused, blue eyes sparkling with amusement as he started walking over to her. “A Ferrin is never to know what fun is!” He mocked Kaiser’s voice as he slowly crouched down to crawl over Melody, placing a gentle kiss on her lips.
“But…” she had paused to let their lips connect. “A Ferrin that should become a Ynoles can learn what fun is,” she murmured against his lips, big green eyes staring up at him.
“…Me?” Four pulled back slightly to look at her as the sun beat down on their back. Him? Joining the Ynoles? He had never thought of doing such. He was branded as a Ferrin after all…
“Yes, you.” She smiled. “I love you, and you don’t belong there, Four. That’s not who you are,” she lifted a hand to let her fingers gently brush over his cheek. “You belong here, with me.”
His blue eyes grew from amusement to adoration, pressing his forehead to hers. “Then here is where I belong. But right now… I’m with you.” He murmured gently to her, sliding his arms around her before kissing her.
He didn’t know how, and he didn’t know when, but Kaiser found out about Melody. At first he had thought it was funny to watch the Ferrin toy with the Ynoles female. He didn’t realize Four was actually falling for the woman. It only infuriated him when he discovered the woman had become pregnant, and Four planned on leaving Ferrin for the Ynoles.
In a blur of rage, Kaiser captured Melody and trapped her in a metal cage. The poor woman was terrified as she tried curling up, clutching the small bulge on her stomach, pleading to be let go.
When Four caught wind of what happened, he ran over in his own blur of rage to get her back. “Kaiser,” he snarled.
“Oh, Four. It’s lovely for you to come finally!” He cackled. “I heard your little birdy was trying to get you to fly away, so I put her in a cage for you.”
Rushing forward, Four tackled the man to the ground, ripping out his dagger and trying to stab the man before two other jerked him away. He whirled on the two, smashing a fist into one’s face to break their nose with his strength. The other had tried kicking him in the side, but Four grabbed their leg, jerking them towards him so he could twist them around and break the leg up to where the back of the thigh touched their shoulder. The screech of pain told him he could let go.
When he turned around, Four felt Kaiser’s fist smash into his cheek bone like he did so long ago to the boy that was really getting sick of being punched around by this man. No, this monster. Muscles locking up like a caged animal, Four froze for a moment to allow Kaiser the second of ‘I think I got him’.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it, Four?” He mused, smirking as he took threatening steps towards Melody’s cage.
“Don’t you take a step closer,” he snarled, chest heaving with angered breaths.
“Or what?” Kaiser paused.
“I will tear your arms off.” He growled, eyes growing dark.
Kaiser smirked, taking that step. Four lunged forward, but the force of multiple bodies threw him back. He beat his way from the pile of bodies, not caring he was killing his own. He didn’t care. He never wanted to be one of them anyways. He needed to kill Kaiser. KILL him. Not just rips his arm off. KILL him. Anger was boiling in his veins as he used his teeth to rip apart one of the vampire’s necks until their head dropped from their shoulders.
When he turned around, his eyes turned blue instantly. Melody was using her hands to hold herself up, and a look of horror struck his face when he realized why. The wooden stake was shoed through her heart, and the venom that ran through her veins dripped from her mouth.
“Mel!” Four ran to her side, quickly clutching her in his arms.
She gave him a week smile, lifting a hand to place it against his cheek, where his venom ran down his cheeks as tears. “You’re my perfect disaster,” she whispered softly with a smile, “my ever after.” She choked out before her body started to shut down.
“Please, don’t leave me,” Four dropped his head to bury in her neck. “Please, stay, I need you,” his shoulders heaved with a sob as her body stilled. Anger once again burned through him. She was gone, alone with his unborn child. Gently placing her down, Four brushed away her hair as his eyes slowly turned red.
“What did I say about relations, Four?” Kaiser snarled, walking up behind him.
“What did you say?”
“Yes, that’s what I just asked boy.” Kaiser growled.
“I don’t give a damn. But I’ll tell you what I’m going to say about relations,” he was on his feet, stalking forward to the man with clenched fists. “It’s a nice little fucking story. It ends with the little boy killing the man that keeps stabbing him in the back!” His voice rose, cracking with anger, eyes glowing red with anger.
“And what will you have without me, Four? NOTHING.” Kaiser stepped forward as well, a mere few inches between them. “YOU are nothing without ME.”
“That’s just what you think. I don’t need you, I’m better off without you. YOU need ME. Isn’t it clear?!” Four grabbed the man’s shirt, hefting him up and throwing him against the cage, the clatter tumbling. A crowd of Ferrin had gathered. But violence was normal. Violence was okay.
Kaiser stumbled when he tried getting up, not getting much of a chance as a fist suddenly started pounding into his face, one of Four’s hands secured on his shirt to beat the man repeatedly before stopping. His eyes flickered blue for a moment as he stumbled back. He was becoming Kaiser, more so than he thought. The thought disgusted him.
Stumbling back to Melody’s body, he picked her up into his arms and fled to bury her in her favorite place; by the water fall, under the large oak.
“Get up,” Kaiser let the hard cow hide of his boot crush into the young lad’s rips.
Four coughed, some of his last blood spluttering from his lips. “What?” His voice choked on the taste of his own blood, the crimson still dribbled on his lips.
“First day of training, Four.” A smirk slid onto his features as he watched the sixteen year old kid stumble to his feet, limbs aching with the sick burn of venom purging his system.
Four shifted to rub a few bruises on his arm after he was on his feet. He had no doubt how haggard he looked. His black hair was unruly, with dirt, blood, and small debris from the ground clinging to it. His shirt was tattered and still stained with his mother’s, sister’s, and his own blood. His raggedy pants were worse off as well, and at some point he had lost a shoe.
“Let’s go,” Kaiser turned on his heel and started walking away, bloody red eyes trying to avoid the smell of the blood radiating off the newly changed lad.
Sighing, Four kicked off his one shoe, but stood where he was. Why should he follow that man? He just slaughtered his family. He didn’t want anything to do with him.
At the lack of footfalls following, Kaiser stopped and looked over his shoulder. A dark, menacing scowl slowly etched onto his already haunting features. “If you don’t come, I will force you to.” His words sliced the air like a shard of ice, making Four flinch. But he didn’t move. Seething, Kaiser turned and walked back to the boy, slamming a fist across his face. Four collapsed back to the ground with a gasp of pain.
“A little rebellious, aren’t you?” Kaiser snarled, leaning down to pick up the boy by the bloody from of his shirt. “I’ll knock that right out of you. I am the only one that’s going to train you to control yourself.”
“Control?! You call what you did to my family control?!” Four yelled back, feeling the harp sting of the fist crashing against him again. A weird anger boiled in him, his blue eyes having no longer held their once gentle blue. They were red, blood red. And soon he’d need to eat, or he’d go mad.
“I call that a test, whether you do or not. If you don’t listen to me, I will slaughter you the same way we did onto your father. Slowly. Painfully. Am I understood?” Kaiser pulled the boy to be face to face with him, watching as the look of anger had slowly melted to one of fear. “Oh no, don’t you get all sappy on me, boy. Toughen up!” He threw Four down against the rock ground. “Now, let’s go.”
Four let himself stay fallen on the ground, muscles shaking with anger, fear, or pain he didn’t know. He did know one thing: he didn’t want to get punched again. His cheek bone felt like it’d break if another hard blow hit him.
The boy followed after, reluctantly at that, with his head bowed slightly. He knew what was coming.
Twenty one was finally here. Kaiser managed to beat Four down into a harder soul over the five years. Most of what drove Four was hatred; disgust for himself by allowing himself to live around these things that so viciously slaughtered his family. But there wasn’t time to think about that. It was time for his new hear, quite literally.
Confined to the stone table, shirtless and immobile, he glared up at the sky above. They had to rip out his human heart, so the other could grow in its place. So the venom that now ran through his veins wouldn’t destroy him from the inside out.
“Four, you have learned the ways of the Ferrin; are you prepared to become one?” The sire Dren asked, the sacred blade held in his hands.
“Yes,” only because if he said no, they’d do this anyways. Only because is he said no, he’d be beaten more. Only because if he said no, they’d make him suffer. He didn’t want to be one of them. He had no choice.
“Then let us take away your mortal heart!” He screamed out in agony as the blade’s serrated edge ripped through his flesh roughly. A smooth edged knife wouldn’t inflict the pain they wanted you to feel. Dren cut open Four’s chest until he could rip the man’s heart out, venom blood spluttering everywhere. The only reason they didn’t die: the mortal heart would keep beating until the new heart grew and since it wasn’t staked through, it was ‘safe’.
Four’s body jerked as the venom now poured into the open cavity of his chest, the burning against the open flesh felt like hell’s flames. And he was left, alone to suffer for the three weeks it’d take for this new heart to grow. Left to wither in agony as the acid like venom burned in his chest and almost made tears burn in his eyes (if he had any).
Three weeks couldn’t come fast enough. Even when the pain dulled, he couldn’t move. Even when Dren untied him from the stone table, all Four could do was roll to his side and grunt with the effort. The ability to heal faster than normal caused for the gaping hole in his chest to seal, but the jagged, lightening like scar still ripped over where his heart was. The slow, unnoticeable beat of this new heart made him cringe. He didn’t even have the heart his mother gave him anymore. What was next?
“Four,” Dren stated, helping to shove the young man up.
“What?” He snapped, using his hand to shove the older vampire away. Once sitting up, he lifted his hand to his chest, fingers pressing against the scar left. He could almost feel the memory of his real heart beating. But it was gone. He’d never feel that again.
“It’s time to be marked as a Ferrin,” the man said, red eyes glaring at the younger vampire.
“Great,” he stated, shifting off the edge of the table. When his feet touched the ground, the pain surged through his body again, making a strangled sound force its way from his lungs as he collapsed. Dren just watched, waiting impatiently for the young man to regain himself. He managed, hauling himself up by the edge of the stone table, taking a few deep breaths.
He was starving. His body was starting to shake from hunger, and both he and Dren knew he’d need to eat. But his first hunt as a ‘new fang’ would be soon; but only after he was branded.
The path towards the fire pit was cleared when both Dren and Four came walking through, the path being swallowed by the Fidelis once they made it to the fire pit. Four knew the drill. He let himself collapse to his knees, the rocks slicing through his pants to cut his knees. But that mediocre pain would be nothing in a few seconds. His red eyes lowed up from under his eyebrows, watching with undying hatred as the metal iron was held in the flames. The slightly rusted brown was heated to a bright yellow that faded to a hot orange to prove how hot it was. It was meant for branding after all.
Kaiser, holding the hot iron, walked over to where his apprentice was, a smirk on his features. “Now you’re one of us, like it or not,” he mused cruelly under his breath as their glares locked onto one another. He knew Four hated him, but he was amused by it, not threatened.
Four mentally braced himself, shifting to sit upright as his bare chest was still dealing with the pain of the new heart helping the venom flow through his body. Along with initiation, this was a test. A test of pain; endurance. How much did it take until you broke?
He couldn’t remember if he screamed when the iron was pushed against his right pectoral muscle on his chest. The scent of burnt flesh burned in his nose, even when Kaiser pulled the iron away and dumped it in the bucket of water. Seething in pain, Four clutched his hands in fists and looked down, gasping at the burnt open flesh that would scar in the shape of a dragon.
He was a Ferrin now. He was one of them. He was a monster.
The next few years of his life consisted of training. Brutal tasks, brutal beatings for any sign of emotion or a hint of blue in his eyes, brutal scolding for denying his orders. He couldn’t deny it anymore. They were breaking him. Only twenty five and he was breaking in every possible way. Until he met her.
Escaping on a calmer day of the tribe, Four found himself walking into the town he used to live in, the hood of his cloak drawn up over his face. The streets were still old, the buildings were still the same with their old wooden buildings. Nothing had changed, but it felt different. Maybe it was just him. His rough shoes took him along the road, watching the typical daily actions of the citizens. It made him almost sick to his stomach when he saw a group of kids running down the street. Nine years. He had been gone nine years. Nine years in hell.
Pushing his anger and bitterness aside, after looking around to make sure no Ferrin was around, Four shoved his hood back and let his now blue eyes shift over the people. He found a few familiar faces, which made his homesickness grow. Memories flickered through his mind, gentle blue eyes growing almost distant as he stopped in the middle of the road, slowly looking around.
“William?” He hardly noticed the voice. “WILL!” He swirled on his foot as the arms were suddenly thrown around his neck. “We thought you dead!” The woman said, clutching her childhood friend close.
Four’s eyes widened before hesitantly letting his own arms curl around the new attachment he found hooked to his chest. He had to bite back the urge to throw the woman off. Yet the way she said his name. A hug was something he hadn’t had in years… It felt nice.
“Where have you been? Everyone has been so worried after… After that raid, and you vanished. God, is it good to see you!” Heather beamed, pulling away slightly to look up at the more rough and handsome features of her old friend.
“Heather..?” Four stared wide eyed at her still, a smile just barely flickering at the edges of his lips.
The passing nights of training went by like a blur. Four would push through as fast as he could with his tribe so during the day he could sneak off to see Heather. It was the only time he could let his walls fall, let his old self come back. She made him feel human again, like maybe some part of him was still alive. He’d be scared to admit he had feelings for the woman he used to know when she was a girl and he a living boy. It hurt to know he was lying to her, but she never asked where he went those nine years.
He had a feeling she knew. But she wasn’t scared of him.
As night fell over the lands, Four sat on the rocky edge of a river. He wanted to tell her. She deserved to know, right? Of course she did… He quickly shook the thoughts from his head before standing from the river. Right now. Go right now, Four.
Taking a breath, he spun on his foot and headed towards the town. Before he even got there, five of the other tribe members caught up.
“Are you going to watch the witches burn, too?” One chuckled viciously.
“Yeah,” Four answered, letting his eyes turn red before they noticed, his scowl settling on his face. Oh well… He’d tell her tomorrow.
Following to the large rocky field where three stakes were put up, Four narrowed his eyes at the three women tied to the stakes. The scent of Heather wafted from somewhere around here, but where? Surly she wouldn’t attend one of these events. As the first witch was set on fire, he heard it. She was screaming for help.
Eyes widening, he started shoving through the crowd, raw strength throwing these puny mortals from his path as the other five chased after him. “Heather!” He screamed above the jeering of the crowd, throwing his hood back to run to the front where she had been set on fire, her shrill screams burning in his ears.
So close, twenty more feet and you can save her.
The five from the Ferrin barreled him down, making Four cry out for the woman. He could hear her scream his name. She needed help and they wouldn’t let him help! “Let go!” He snarled, voice choked by his throat constricting as he tried fighting the other five off.
The mortals stared in horror, even fled from the scene when they realized that vampires were fighting on their land. And when her cries died, Four felt like he died a second time, collapsing against the ground with his blue eyes locked on the flames and his body pinned harshly against the ground.
The mortals didn’t come back. Perhaps they were terrified. The five vampires left Four after the fire died and they scolded him for trying to save the mortal ‘witch’. She needed him, and he failed her like he failed his family.
Once again he found himself hugging a corpse to his chest, eyes squeezed shut as his chest tightened. “I’m sorry,” he muttered, tightening his now battered and beat form around her.
“I love you,” he murmured softly. He never even got the chance to tell her.
“Get over it, Four,” Kaiser’s voice came from behind him in a small growl.
“And if I don’t?” He returned the growl, solid red eyes glancing over his shoulder to the other man as he stood by the unmarked grave of Heather. ‘Witches’ didn’t get head stones, but he’d never forget where she was buried. He was the one to bury her after all.
“You will. Tonight. It’s been a day already, she’s in the past.” His cold words hit Four’s ears like ice, making the younger vampire quickly take his gaze away.
Emotions weren’t allowed. He was learning that the hard way. He had… He had to let her go. Two days ago he had her hand. Today, he had nothing again. Sucking in a deep breath, Four stepped back and followed Kaiser. Time for the hunt.
Reaching the age of a hundred and thirty one, Four had finally fallen to the ways of the Ferrin. Kaiser crushed emotions from him, helping to instil the fear into Four’s head of the emotions even Kaiser was scared of. It was no point in fighting it anymore. He had spent more days dead than he ever had alive. Even Heather had been beaten out of his mind.
Standing by two other vampires, Four watched over the town with a sick smirk on his feature. A smirk like Kaiser’s. He sickened himself with how much he had become like that slaughterer, but he couldn’t fight back anymore. He was broken in more ways than one.
“Is the town surrounded?” Trenton asked, crouched down slightly as he ran his tongue over his lips.
“I hope it will be soon,” Kelsea grumbled.
“If you keep complaining, I’ll make my dinner out of you two,” Four growled, shoving his hands in his pockets as he looked out to the town, waiting for the signal. He didn’t even spare them a side glance, but he could sense their sudden wariness of him.
Four had become what Kaiser wanted: a feared member of the tribe. Even as one of the youngest, his hatred for the others pushed himself to prove he could kill them just as easily as they killed his family. And one day, he hoped to hold Kaiser’s severed head over a cliff to drown it.
It was meeting day. The Ynoles and the Ferrin went to the mountain, where peace was to be held between the two. As tradition, they were to meet every hundred years to speak. Every meeting, the Ynoles would offer a peace treaty to combine their tribes. The Ferrin would laugh in their faces.
Four, having just turned two hundred and eighty four, sat away from the others. He stayed near the edge of the tree line, perched on a rock. He glared from a distance, sensitive ears picking up on their almost senseless banter and the normal crude banter between the Ferrin. He used to wonder if their violent antics never end, but now it was regretfully starting to grow on him. It was starting to become a part of him.
“You seem like a stranger to your own tribe,” a silky smooth voice, one clearly not belonging to that of the Ferrin, said from behind him.
“Is it that obvious,” he grumbled, narrowing his eyes at the familiar faces of anger flying through his tribe.
“Yeah… Usually the Ferrin stick close together so they can argue,” she laughed, climbing onto the rock and sitting down by the man, holding out her hand to him. “I’m Melody Smith. Part of the Ynoles if you couldn’t tell.”
“If your scent didn’t give it off, your cheery ass personality does,” Four grumbled bitterly, looking to the woman. As a habit his father taught him, he didn’t hesitate to shake the woman’s hand. “I’m Four.”
“Four? Like the number? Were one through three taken?” She mused.
“No, one through three were killed.” He snarled, jerking his hand away quickly.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t… I guess I should have suspected that, huh?” She shifted to let her legs dangle off the edge of the stone like how Four had one leg. “Do they always fight so much?”
“It’s usually worse,” he stated blandly, sending a small side glance to the blonde haired, green eyed woman.
“Oh I bet. Do you participate in their ‘fun’?” She joked, letting a grin slide over her features, clearly enjoying antagonizing the Ferrin.
“All the damn time,” Four answered, raising a brow to the woman before sending his red eyes back to the tribes.
Melody took a deep breath, leaning back on her hands before looking up to the sky. “Want to ditch? I’m hungry.”
“Hungry? You Ynoles drink animals,” Four said with a hint of disgust. He was taught to drink humans, that animal blood was disgusting.
“Trust me, it’s not as bad as it seems. You should try it. C’mon, Four,” she jumped off the rock and started walking off, a hop in her step.
Four’s brows shoved together in confusion, eyes flickering with blue before he shook his head. He tried returning to watching the tribes until he realized he was bored. Dammit. Jumping from the rock, he started following after the woman who was a good bit in front of him while grumbling curses under his breath.
Melody laughed as she sat on the grass, watching as Four picked himself up after falling from the horse’s back. They had just got done with a hunt together, on the Ynoles territory. He knew it was against his tribe’s law to do this, but damn he couldn’t stay away from Melody after the ten times she snuck onto the Ferrin territory to bother him. She was… attractive in her own, adorably annoying way. For a vampire, she had remained so pure, so kind. He wished he could be that way, but he could only manage to do so around her. He could only get the red from his eyes when his walls broke down, and Melody managed to just tap on them and break the walls down. How, he didn’t know. But she did.
“Don’t laugh,” he huffed as he wiped off his jeans. It had been four years of knowing Melody, two of those years officially staking their ‘claim bite’ on one another. He was now two hundred and eighty eight.
“Oh, come on, that was funny and you know it,” She leaned back on her hands, tilting her head to the side.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what funny is,” he mused, blue eyes sparkling with amusement as he started walking over to her. “A Ferrin is never to know what fun is!” He mocked Kaiser’s voice as he slowly crouched down to crawl over Melody, placing a gentle kiss on her lips.
“But…” she had paused to let their lips connect. “A Ferrin that should become a Ynoles can learn what fun is,” she murmured against his lips, big green eyes staring up at him.
“…Me?” Four pulled back slightly to look at her as the sun beat down on their back. Him? Joining the Ynoles? He had never thought of doing such. He was branded as a Ferrin after all…
“Yes, you.” She smiled. “I love you, and you don’t belong there, Four. That’s not who you are,” she lifted a hand to let her fingers gently brush over his cheek. “You belong here, with me.”
His blue eyes grew from amusement to adoration, pressing his forehead to hers. “Then here is where I belong. But right now… I’m with you.” He murmured gently to her, sliding his arms around her before kissing her.
He didn’t know how, and he didn’t know when, but Kaiser found out about Melody. At first he had thought it was funny to watch the Ferrin toy with the Ynoles female. He didn’t realize Four was actually falling for the woman. It only infuriated him when he discovered the woman had become pregnant, and Four planned on leaving Ferrin for the Ynoles.
In a blur of rage, Kaiser captured Melody and trapped her in a metal cage. The poor woman was terrified as she tried curling up, clutching the small bulge on her stomach, pleading to be let go.
When Four caught wind of what happened, he ran over in his own blur of rage to get her back. “Kaiser,” he snarled.
“Oh, Four. It’s lovely for you to come finally!” He cackled. “I heard your little birdy was trying to get you to fly away, so I put her in a cage for you.”
Rushing forward, Four tackled the man to the ground, ripping out his dagger and trying to stab the man before two other jerked him away. He whirled on the two, smashing a fist into one’s face to break their nose with his strength. The other had tried kicking him in the side, but Four grabbed their leg, jerking them towards him so he could twist them around and break the leg up to where the back of the thigh touched their shoulder. The screech of pain told him he could let go.
When he turned around, Four felt Kaiser’s fist smash into his cheek bone like he did so long ago to the boy that was really getting sick of being punched around by this man. No, this monster. Muscles locking up like a caged animal, Four froze for a moment to allow Kaiser the second of ‘I think I got him’.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it, Four?” He mused, smirking as he took threatening steps towards Melody’s cage.
“Don’t you take a step closer,” he snarled, chest heaving with angered breaths.
“Or what?” Kaiser paused.
“I will tear your arms off.” He growled, eyes growing dark.
Kaiser smirked, taking that step. Four lunged forward, but the force of multiple bodies threw him back. He beat his way from the pile of bodies, not caring he was killing his own. He didn’t care. He never wanted to be one of them anyways. He needed to kill Kaiser. KILL him. Not just rips his arm off. KILL him. Anger was boiling in his veins as he used his teeth to rip apart one of the vampire’s necks until their head dropped from their shoulders.
When he turned around, his eyes turned blue instantly. Melody was using her hands to hold herself up, and a look of horror struck his face when he realized why. The wooden stake was shoed through her heart, and the venom that ran through her veins dripped from her mouth.
“Mel!” Four ran to her side, quickly clutching her in his arms.
She gave him a week smile, lifting a hand to place it against his cheek, where his venom ran down his cheeks as tears. “You’re my perfect disaster,” she whispered softly with a smile, “my ever after.” She choked out before her body started to shut down.
“Please, don’t leave me,” Four dropped his head to bury in her neck. “Please, stay, I need you,” his shoulders heaved with a sob as her body stilled. Anger once again burned through him. She was gone, alone with his unborn child. Gently placing her down, Four brushed away her hair as his eyes slowly turned red.
“What did I say about relations, Four?” Kaiser snarled, walking up behind him.
“What did you say?”
“Yes, that’s what I just asked boy.” Kaiser growled.
“I don’t give a damn. But I’ll tell you what I’m going to say about relations,” he was on his feet, stalking forward to the man with clenched fists. “It’s a nice little fucking story. It ends with the little boy killing the man that keeps stabbing him in the back!” His voice rose, cracking with anger, eyes glowing red with anger.
“And what will you have without me, Four? NOTHING.” Kaiser stepped forward as well, a mere few inches between them. “YOU are nothing without ME.”
“That’s just what you think. I don’t need you, I’m better off without you. YOU need ME. Isn’t it clear?!” Four grabbed the man’s shirt, hefting him up and throwing him against the cage, the clatter tumbling. A crowd of Ferrin had gathered. But violence was normal. Violence was okay.
Kaiser stumbled when he tried getting up, not getting much of a chance as a fist suddenly started pounding into his face, one of Four’s hands secured on his shirt to beat the man repeatedly before stopping. His eyes flickered blue for a moment as he stumbled back. He was becoming Kaiser, more so than he thought. The thought disgusted him.
Stumbling back to Melody’s body, he picked her up into his arms and fled to bury her in her favorite place; by the water fall, under the large oak.
THEME SONGS
----
1. Ever After by Marianas Trench
2. Machines by Crown the Empire
3. Your Guardian Angel by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
4. The Reason by Hoobastank
5. Lost in the Echo by Linkin Park
6. 21 Guns by Green Day
7. Alibi by 30 Seconds to Mars
----
1. Ever After by Marianas Trench
2. Machines by Crown the Empire
3. Your Guardian Angel by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
4. The Reason by Hoobastank
5. Lost in the Echo by Linkin Park
6. 21 Guns by Green Day
7. Alibi by 30 Seconds to Mars