000
Mein Herz will brennen
So heiß wie Glut
Fließt meines Herzens
Blut
(d’Artagnan “Hertzblut” ft. Melissa Bony)
001
“So you're the dragon.” Said Cordellina Wallenstein von Bluttenglitz zu Dunkelnacht, sitting on her living throne. “Did I see you somewhere? On the Internet maybe? Are you doing some home video stuff? Wait, no! I remember! You're a fitness and fashion blogger!
“‘10 best brands of clothes to train in’... Just so you know, dear, I prefer to train in the nude as the Ancient Greeks did.”
“Sweaty bearded barbarians,” Silver mumbled. She and Ruprecht were standing in front of the vampire in her luxurious apartments and the dragon felt uneasy being surrounded by such opulence and so many naked servants.
“That sweat was precious, dear!” Cordellina shook her head. “Or were those Romans who sold the gladiators’ sweat? Oh, whatever, ancient history… But some sports require you to be nude to participate.”
“I'm sure you don't have to be fully naked to participate in that kind of ‘sport’,” Silver smirked.
“Oh, so you can talk back? I like it!” Cordellina clasped her hands. “I'd love to challenge you… for a marathon, maybe? Nude or not, I'm sure I'll come out on top.”
“You'll need to start training for it right now to even stand a chance.”
“A nice idea! Would you join me, my dear dragon?” Cordellina gestured one of her servants to come closer and with a few moves of her hand made sure his manhood was erect enough. “Here's some training equipment for you too.”
“Thank you for the proposition,” Silver looked the vampire right in the eyes. “But I prefer some more… advanced equipment. And this one may be good for you but, for me, is somewhat lacking in measurements.”
“Oooh,” Cordellina smiled. “Bad, bad dragon…”
“Well, they…” Silver suddenly blushed. “They have some nice products.”
“I know, right? You should’ve seen my collection! Or you know what…”
Cordellina paused, looking at the dragon.
“I should show you someday. We can even do a collaboration video… The vampire and the dragon reviewing sex toys! Imagine the views we'll get!”
“All of the views!” Silver laughed. “All of them!”
“Can we stop with it already?” Ruprecht finally had enough of bickering. “Lady Wallenstein, we've fulfilled our end of the deal…”
“Not yet, my dear bear,” the vampire turned at him and stopped his words with a raised finger. “Not fully, anyway. You've just given me the information I needed, but the pesky mages aren't yet dealt with.”
“I'm sure you don't need our help to deal with some humans…” Ruprecht growled.
“I don't.” Cordellina nodded. “But I need someone to watch the exits so that nobody of them escapes.”
Silver noticed how the vampire's face changed: the excitement and joyful hunger left her, leaving in its place seriousness and concentration. She rose from her throne and made a step towards Silver and Ruprecht.
“I would also like to have some reserves,” Cordellina continued. “In case those humans happen to have some ace up their sleeve. Let's not underestimate them - the humankind can be surprisingly resourceful.”
002
“What took you so long?” Silver asked.
“Some of us need to actually fly all the way here while you’re teleporting around on this bike…” Cordellina answered. “I bet I could've fit with you two there… Possibly in front of the big guy, probably facing him.”
“I rather not have a third wheel on my bike…” Ruprecht grumbled.
“I'm not riding in the sidecar…” Cordellina started, then caught herself. “Oh. Oh, I see. Whatever you say, bear.”
“Anyway…” She continued. “Looks like the man you told me about lives here.”
She looked up at a tall apartment building, rising from the ground in all its boxy height.
“Hopefully he is who you say he is and knows what you say he should know. I'd hate all this flying to be for nothing.”
“I thought you liked exercising,” Silver smirked.
“Not like this!” The vampire declared. “I go in, you cover my behind, understood?”
“...”
“What? Won't anyone say it's a nice behind to cover? No? Let's go then.”
003
The room was lit only by the night lights of the city - the flares of the cars’ headlights, the glare of the street lamps down at the ground level, the neons of the never-sleeping human hive. All the various lights fought their way inside the room and made the objects there cast blurry dancing shadows. Shadows without definite borders, just the blobs of darkness slightly more dark than the night surrounding them.
The man was sleeping in his bed, naked as he was. His sleep was deep and sound, without either dreams or nightmares.
One of the darker patches of shadow danced its way across the room and into his bed. It drifted past his feet, then knees jumped ahead, and landed on his chest, gaining form and weight.
He woke up and was greeted by the pair of amber eyes on the pale face of the vampire, known as Cordellina Wallenstein von Bluttenglitz zu Dunkelnacht.
“You…” The man gasped. “How did you get here? I didn't invite you!”
“Do you believe in those fairy tales? Vampires that can't enter the home of their prey without invitation… ha!” Cordellina laughed.
“Begone, demon!”
“What? Aren't you excited to wake up to an unfamiliar sexy woman straddling your chest?”
“Shut your mouth, the daughter of Lilith!”
“Oh dear, don't bring that demon of the wet dreams into the conversation… or are you so excited to see me?” Cordellina leaned back to check. “No, it doesn't look like you are. And I was almost proud of myself for a hot second…”
“Do not try to seduce me, you filthy demonette!” the man talked courageously, but the effectiveness of his performance was severely hampered by Cordellina sitting literally on top of him with her knees under his armpits.
“My, my, my…” she said, placing her finger on his lips. “Such a dirty mouth you have for a supposedly holy man… something even tells me you don't like me very much. I wish I knew the reason for such a treatment.”
“You… you murdered my brothers-in-arms! Murdered the Grand Master!”
“And yet your little organization just kept going like nothing happened. One would think that disposing of the senior leadership and the most powerful mages of the secret cabal would lead to the said cabal’s collapse… but not this time.” Cordellina slid away from the man’s face and lifted her legs over man’s arms putting her feet on both sides of his head. “If the death of the Grand Master changes so little for your organization if his place is so easily filled by the next guy… Maybe the Grand Master wasn't so grand? Maybe he should be called the Not-so-grand Master? Grand-ish even?”
The man tried to use Cordellina's change in position to grab her legs and turn his whole body to the side, - probably hoping to roll over her. But the vampire didn't give him this pleasure. She simply put her hands on his wrists and squeezed them slightly, making the man grimace in pain.
“I didn't allow you to touch my legs. Or touch me in general. Keep your hands to yourself.”
“But then again…” She continued, dropping his arms. “This way the conversation goes nowhere. From how I see it, it could go two ways from here: either I give you intense pain, or…”
She slid even further from his face and wiggled her butt slightly, so he could feel the right kind of pressure in the right kind of place.
“Or I can give you an exquisitely intense pleasure.” The vampire said. “Either I suck your blood, or I suck your dick - the two kinds of vampires people these days know about.”
“What? What are you talking about, wench?” The man suddenly let out a laugh. “What would you even know about pleasure, you blood-sucking demon… Do you even know what happens, what heights of unbelievable delights are achieved, in the Circle’s summoning chambers? What can you give me that the organization can not?”
Cordellina looked at him curiously and slid even further down to his feet and put her own on his manhood, and propped it up with her toes.
“And yet I see you are reacting nicely to my touch…” She giggled. “I can give you a little massage… The only type of massage intended to make some muscles more tense.”
She started moving her feet up and down, sliding her soles up and down his erect member.
“How does that feel?” She asked.
“Miserable.” Man’s voice was hard as steel. Steel that was somewhat rusted by the badly hidden desires, but steel nonetheless. “Pathetic. Incomparable.”
“Oh well.” Cordellina took her feet back and kneeled on the bed between the man’s legs. “Pain it is then.”
The man said something incomprehensible to most humans. The words leaving his mouth belonged to the long-dead language of the nation that produced some of the brightest mages unknown to history.
A white-hot cross appeared above the man’s head and lit up the surroundings with the hard, unforgiving cleansing light. Every object in the room now cast a dark sharp shadow where everything wrong with this object dwelled. The light of the cross corraled everything unwanted into those shadows and slowly but surely wiped them out, reaching ever further beyond opaque surfaces.
Everything cast a shadow.
Everything has something wrong about it.
Nothing is perfect.
004
Cordellina smiled.
“Cute spell,” she said as the light from the cross reached her eyes and tried to cast a shadow off of her. “That's too bad…”
The light was utterly confused. There was no shadow to be cast. It couldn't cast a shadow out of a shadow. There was no wrong to be found in her wrongness.
“Vampires don't cast shadows, dear…” Cordellina said, looking at her hand. The nails extended, turning into claws and then talons of a great beast. “That's a basic knowledge.”
The talons of a vampire slashed at a shining cross, leaving dark strokes in its light. Soon, the light dimmed, and the shadows were free to move and dance again and expand to overtake the room. Soon it became as badly-lit as before.
“So…” Cordellina traced a middle line of the man’s chest with her sharp talon. “You've shown me what you can do. And it was terribly unimpressive. Now it is my turn.”
“You’ll learn nothing from me!” The man spat out the words. “I won't tell you anything, demon!”
005
“He told me everything,” said Cordellina to Ruprecht. “It took some persuasion, but he started talking… eventually.”
“I hope you didn't make too much of a mess,” Ruprecht growled. “We will be doing the clean up later.”
“Don't worry bear,” the vampire smiled. “There wouldn't be much to clean.”
Silver shrugged.
“So what's next?” She asked.
“Next we do the same as here, but on their headquarters. Hopefully this time I can eliminate enough of their leadership for others to realise that this whole ‘Circle’ thing wasn't a very good idea to begin with.” Cordellina looked at the sky. “Oh, and while I'll be doing this… I want you to do some small task for me.”
“What's that?” Ruprecht asked.
“I'll clear the entrance and go up to meet the leaders. You two will take the stairs down and check their ‘summoning chambers’. There may be several succubi bound there. Do you know the basics of exorcism?”
Silver and Ruprecht both shook their heads.
“Well, I guess it was dumb of me to expect any of you to know anything from the Inquisition’s arsenal… well then just let those poor demons loose. I'm sure after what was done to them, most will retreat back to their dimension anyway. And if some would be inclined to take revenge on their captors or the humanity in general… tell them there's a vampre already doing it in their name.”
“And if they would insist?” Ruprecht looked at her.
“Then use force. You have the whole dragon with you, you can handle a pair of severely drained demons…”
“Got it.”
“Good.” Cordellina nodded. “You go now. I'll catch up with you at the site… Considering how you'll inevitably get there first you can do some scouting before I arrive.”
“You can try to fit…” Silver started but the vampire interrupted her.
“You heard the bear. No third wheels.” The vampire waved her hand. “Go.”
006
Cordellina landed in the middle of the street, seemingly not caring about being seen by mortals or anything else a proper vampire should care about according to said mortals. She was too focused on her current task and too excited to care. She didn't have time for it.
“So what do we have here?” She asked Ruprecht, who was hiding in the dark spot on the other side of the street for the building that apparently was the Circle's headquarters.
“An old building, well-kept, two floors tall. Two entrances - one front, one back. I assume they guard both. Big windows, probably easily broken unless they're magically enhanced - though Silver hasn't felt any magic in the surroundings.”
“Nice report, Bear!” Cordellina smiled. “Speaking of… where's our dragon?”
“She's watching the back entrance.”
“Can we just block it? With something heavy, preferably.”
“There was a small bus right outside the back side of the building…” Ruprecht thought about it for a moment. “But I thought it'd be better to come in from both entrances at once…”
“And disperse our already low numbers even further?”
“We're much more powerful than those inside. Silver alone can crush the whole building easily.”
“But we don't need it crushed, do we?” Cordellina pointed a finger at him. “That's why we close off their way to retreat and go through the main door.”
“But the cornered enemy is the most dangerous and most ready to fight to the end…”
“But as you've said, we're much more powerful.” Cordellina looked back at the building. “We go in, we crush them, we go out. A simple plan for the simple times.”
007
The guards at the entrance of the Circle’s headquarters had surveillance cameras outside and noticed three suspicious individuals approaching the door of the building. They even readied themselves to what might be coming, but…
They weren't ready. Nobody can be ready for the heavy armored door disintegrating into scraps and splinters and two furious women and a very cranky burly man rushing inside.
“Front entrance, three supernaturals, attacking!” One of the guards managed to shout at the radio, before Cordellina's talons found his heart.
Silver ran past her towards another two guards and crashed into them with enough force to send them flying into the wall.
Cordellina laughed and turned into a swirling tornado of claws, teeth and bat wings, circling two more guards and stripping them first of their clothes then dignity then skin.
“Vampires, Dragons… And all I can do is hit naughty kids with a stick.” Ruprecht shook his head at the dead guard lying at his feet with a caved-in skull. “Should've stayed with Santa.”
“‘I need reserves’ she said… why did I let drag me into it?” He sighed and looked across the room where the inevitable reinforcements were arriving and the man in grey robes began chanting a spell.
“Get him!” Cordellina pointed at the mage.
“On it!” Silver nodded and rushed forward but then suddenly stopped, looking under her feet.
The magic seal on the floor of the room shone with the neon red light. Shimmering walls rose up from the intricate linework of the seal and filled the air with the faint glow, resembling an aurora.
Ruprecht tried to pass through such wall but found it to be close to impenetrable and his forehead quite hurt by the collision with the light.
“I can break it!” Yelled Silver, who saw Ruprecht’s unsuccessful attempt. The air around her filled with the boiling water vapor, swirling in circles.
“Oh, don't waste your power…” Cordellina said calmly and bent down to one of the dead bodies lying on the floor. She stuck a hand into his belly and pulled out a length of his guts, quickly making an improvised lasso out of them.
She spun and threw it at the chanting mage, the loop landed around his neck and the vampire pulled, throwing him off his feet and dragging him all the way to where she was standing. The quick stomp of her foot smashed the mage's head against the floor, ending his life and the binding spell. The walls of light flickered and dissipated, the seal flashed green and went out.
“I was sure they were able to pass through the barrier themselves.” Cordellina shrugged at the unasked question from Ruprecht and Silver. “And so were their body parts.”
008
“Go check the summoning chambers!” Cordellina ordered after the guards were dealt with. Ruprecht turned to the stairway down immediately, but Silver stayed back for a second.
“Do you think it's a good idea going up alone?” She asked. “It's still their best mages there…”
“Can’t say I'm too impressed with their performance,” Cordellina looked around the room full of dead bodies. “They fall like every other human throughout history.”
“Still… be careful there.”
“Thank you, dragon.” Cordellina smiled. “You be careful too.”
And she ran up the stairs to the second floor where the people in charge of the Circle were supposed to be.
She ran up…
…Right into the bright sunlight.
009
It burned. It burned so hot. It burned so fast, burnt skin was falling off of her as ashes and didn't have time to regenerate, so it was burning her to cinders.
The Sun. It was the Sun. Her only true enemy. Her only deadly weakness.
The Sun was turning Cordellina Wallenstein von Bluttenglitz zu Dunkelnacht to ashes.
But it was night. Just ten or fifteen minutes ago it definitely was dark outside.
The best human mages maybe could've play around with time and make it be a daytime in the middle of the night, but Cordellina was fighting against the organisation known as “the Circle”. And they weren't the best human mages. Far from the best. So far, in fact, that the only thing saving them from being the worst was the sheer amount of charlatans who had even less magical provess.
So where did the Sun came from?
It was an important question but very secondary at the moment. Because she was still trying to run, leaving the trail of ash on the floor while being on fire.
And being on fire can greatly increase the running speed but also greatly decrease your chances of reaching the intended destination.
She didn't say a word. It's hard to say anything when your throat is literally burning. She just did what she should've done back when she stepped inside this building.
Her clothes had already burned down but instead of them the new suit appeared. A suit of dark red armor, made out of narrow interlocking metal plates and covering her whole body with just a narrow slit on the helmet to let her have some sort of vision through the steel.
Oh and there were a pair of huge and extremely anatomically correct naked breasts on the armour’s breastplate.
“Astra radiatus exterminatus demonium!” Proclaimed a voice to her left. Without looking or stopping her run Cordellina reached with her iron-plated hand and drove a fist through someone's gut.
“That's not even a real Latin,” she hissed, shaking the blood and shreds of flesh from her gauntlet.
010
She covered the whole length of the narrow passage in seconds, taking down the human mages as she went. And in the end of this corridor of death she found the man she came here to confront.
A newly appointed Grand Master of the Circle.
A big title for a little man. A little man who, nonetheless, was holding a shining star in his little hands.
“You should've burned, vampire.” He said, moving his hands around the star in circular motions.
“Oh, you know what they say,” Cordellina laughed at him from behind the armour. “The Sun is hot, but I'm hotter.”
“No…” The man didn't react to her attempt at humor. “You really should've burned.”
And he released the star, sending the superheated ball of magic forward with the light push. Cordellina, so sure that her armor would protect her, disregarded that as the minor distraction and stepped forward to deal with the annoying man.
The small handheld version of the sun caught her. The magical energy crackled around the metal armor, unable to penetrate it. But it wasn't meant for penetration.
Energy equals mass.
In magic as in science.
And suddenly the vampire found the whole newborn star placed on her shoulders. She didn't fall through the floor or collapse into the black hole, - it still was magic after all, so the nature’s laws were been bended and broken in all the possible ways, - but moving under such pressure was neigh impossible.
“You see, vampire.” The Grand Master said. “It's the hubris that gets you. It's the hubris of taking on the foe you can't defeat and believing that you are stronger than them. It was true for the Grand Inquisitor Cutter. It was true for the previous Grand Master. And it is true for you, Cordellina Wallenstein.”
“Wrong.” The lone word dropped from Cordellina's lips and rang down the star’s gravitational well.
“Am I?” The Grand Master looked at her with a shred of pity. “I really can't see where am I wrong, vampire.”
“It's not… it's not hubris that gets you…” Cordellina said with a smile that went unnoticed because of the closed helm kf her armour. “It's strategically placed dragon.”
011
The floor exploded under the Grand Master's feet, as an upwards jet of water, carrying Silver, Ruprecht and an unfamiliar demoness rushed into the room. It picked up the Grand Master and hit him against the ceiling, hard enough to shatter most of his bones. Then it rained down, with its, so to say, passengers jumping out of it and landing around the newly formed hole in the floor.
“I told you I knew where he stays all the time!” The demoness shouted, standing up. Then she noticed the armoured figure on the floor, surrounded by the rapidly dissipating magical energy.
“Lady Wallenstein!” She took a knee near the vampire. “Can you hear me?”
“You must be a succubus…” Cordellina said lifting her head up and removing the helmet.
“I am! And a fan. A big fan! Especially of the living furniture. That's so amazing!”
“Oh, great,” still disorganised Ruprecht canted his head and let the water out of his ear. “We have a true fangirl among us.”
“Don't be jealous!” Cordellina pouted.
“I'm not jealous!” Ruprecht shook the water out of his other ear. “She was pretty useful as the source of information.”
“I was!” The succubus looked at the vampire with pride.
“But I think we're done here…” Ruprecht looked at Silver, who was checking the body of the Grand Master. The dragon nodded. “And you still have your end of the deal to uphold.”
“Yes, yes…” Cordellina yawned. “The summoning. We should go back to my castle.”
012
Cordellina's servants dimmed the lights and disappeared from the view as much as they could, so their mistress and her guests, - Ruprecht and Silver, - could do what they had to do undisturbed.
The vampire lit up the candles and unfurled the crimson and black war banner.
And then she called. And then she talked.
She spoke of valor and courage. She spoke of glory and treasure. She spoke and her every word lifted the spirits and charged everyone who listened with the conviction to take up arms and follow.
Her voice reached far and wide, across space and time, calling to every single soul that ever even thought of taking part in battle. Warriors, fighters, soldiers - they all fell silent for a second when her words reached them.
They all heard her.
She spoke to all of them.
But she needed only one this time. Only a single one was selected and let to join her troop. And everyone was jealous and happy - for that single one was about to know what the real glory was.
The words found him. The sound of her voice led him. The scarlet gloss on her lips and the sharpness of her fangs startled him.
But he wasn't about to complain.
Out of shadows and candlelight the figure stepled. A man in his thirties or forties, with unkempt hair and beard, dressed in a worn-out military uniform with the multicam pattern camouflage.
He looked at Cordellina with his steel eyes.
“Traveller reporting in, commander.” He said, then looked at Ruprecht and Silver. “And who are they?”
