FSE

Furry search engine

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The further I went down the hall the stronger the smell became. A bone deep cold sort of electricity accelerated my heart, pumping through whatever sluggish blood was left in my system. I threw open the door to the basement and hurried down the stairs, feet dancing in my flight before being stopped at the base of the stairs by the shock of cool bricks and liquid. The blood, mixed with tiny flecks of gold and herbs glinted darkly, pooled in the cracks between the brick. More of it flowed down the hallway in a torrent. The dripping noises were a horror to my ears, like life being wasted. I rushed forward to a small room adjacent from the cell I'd been home to the night before, feet splashing up the liquid to soak my white terry cloth robe. It was a wine cellar. Or it had been until someone shoved the bookshelf sized wine racks over. Everything was destroyed, splintered wood and glass everywhere, some bottles still clinging to half broken shelves for dear life. Riley stood in the doorway, a malovent gatekeeper.

This was the vampire I hadn't been able to properly see before, Nikki's maker. He twisted a golden cap off one of the last remaining whole bottles and held it out in offering. Slowly he arched an ash blonde eyebrow above ice blue-green eyes so bright they seemed to be backlit, "You want it, hmm?"

I couldn't answer him, nothing other than a screaming need for it ran through my brain. I reached out, lithe, shaking fingers just about to wrap around the neck of the bottle when he dropped it. The glass and blood exploding at our feet was shocking but not quite as shocking as the slap that came after. His clear colored, inch long, malicious looking nails tore across my cheek.

Heat streaked across his claw marks while my brain rattled around in my head like a sack of loose marbles. I swayed and dropped to one knee, holding my face in my hands to try to stop the rattling, pounding sensation he'd created in my skull.

"Where is she?" it seemed like his over polished black boots asked me, tone foreboding.

Cold, hard as steel hands viced around my wrists and yanked me to standing. Riley kept my balance for me, holding me still enough so he could crane his neck and catch my eyes, "Where has your bunny gone?"

So desperate was I for the scent that permeated the air, so pained from the shifting tectonic plates that were my head that I barked out a laugh, unable to help myself.

"Bunny went doooown the hooole."

He paused for a beat, perhaps wondering if there was a metaphor he missed, "..What?"

I yanked my wrists away from him, steadying myself on the door frame as I took slow steps to slide around it and into the room he'd been guarding. His heated gaze surely followed. I could almost feel his eyes trying to burn a hole in the back of my head.

"What did you say?"

"I said-pffftz.." I had to stop to push down a maniacal giggle, "I said you no push button." So close now I yanked an unbroken bottle free of the ruins and unscrewed the top. "I push da button."

His face. The look on his face. Even in my rattled state I knew enough to be afraid. I clutched the bottle to my chest and stared him down, willing him to leave. I won, see? I have the bottle. The room seemed to drop twenty degrees while as we stood eyeing each other off. He had lost his prize but I'd just found mine. I felt like a wolf hunkering over a deer carcass trying to snarl a larger wolf into submission. The growl of a large cat bubbled up from my throat. "I don't know where she is and you're not the only one who needs her!"

"It's not a game, I'm serious." His eyes sizzled into mine, the color of the ocean on a brightly lit day. I could almost see the sharks swimming behind them.

"You think because you changed her, now she belongs to you?" "It's not about that!" He took a violent step forward, stamping the ground heavily, the way you'd scare a small dog that was yapping away incessantly.

I flicked my eyes away, buckling under his gaze. A moment passed between us before he continued, before I could force myself to look back up. Riley ran his hands through messy blonde hair, repeating the same gesture he must have used all night and all morning. Before now I'd only taken notice that he was angry, but at the moment I could see that he was also highly disturbed, on edge. A chaotic panic seemed to radiate within him.

"She is new, like you, and now she's gone. Think about why you came down here, what did you want?" his voice came quiet, something barely contained underneath hushed tones.

"I heard the glass, I heard you-"

"No, that's not it," he cut me off, "not really. Think harder."

A frown pulled at my face, I couldn't stop my brow from furrowing at the thought. He knows why I came. I didn't need to tell him, he knows. The bottle cap bit deeply into my palm. "I could smell it.."

Riley took another step forward and grabbed my jaw the way you would when scolding a small child, my breath hitching in my throat.

"And where ever she is now she wants the same thing."

He released his grip on me roughly, wiping his hand on faded jeans. "I'll find her myself."

His boots made nerve wracking sounds as he crunched over the glass and clicked away, my knotted stomach tightening at the idea of him turning around and coming back. But he didn't. He just stomped up the stairs, the heavy slamming of a door sounding in his wake. I sank down to the floor with my prize in hand, tossing away the bottle cap I'd been squeezing onto for dear life, unconcerned for the cuts it had made and the dark, thick blood that slowly oozed out of them. I need it, I want it. The tension unraveled from my body and was replaced with an animalistic desire. I took a deep, shuddering breath in, lifted the bottle to my lips and drank in deep pulls. The liquid hit my tongue with the heavy copper taste of blood and the oddly bitter taste of wine, the bite of strong alcohol stinging with each swallow. Warmth immediately spread from my chest, to fingertips and down to toes. The sick, pounding feeling Riley had created in my head abated. Every piece of me felt alive, every folicle vibrated in song. Small flecks of gold and bits of dark herbs floated down the bottle as I drank, looking like a kaleidoscope of life. I felt fixed. I felt new and more real, like I had been a ghost of a person before and now could be made whole again. I closed my eyes and relaxed against the wall, hugging the empty bottle to my chest and hanging my head over it.

"Ugh, Riley. Christ on a bike!"

My fingers twitched at the interruption, tiny cracks forming in the glass under them, "Jack?"

Footfalls crunched along a glassy path before Jack's much welcomed face peered around the corner. His bright deer like eyes were cautious, a bag of shopping still curled around his fingers. He must have just gotten back from somewhere, no way Riley's racket would have gone unnoticed from any corner of the house. "Sanka?" His eyes skittered over the still dripping shelves, another bottle losing it's fight with gravity to slide off it's perch and shatter to the floor. "Oh Riley, Jesus. The whole fucking stock of it, god.." Discarding the shopping Jack cupped his face with scarred hands and inhaled sharply, eyes clenched shut as if he could keep in the frustration of loss.

"Is it..is it that bad?" I set the empty bottle aside gently, as if shattering another would take all his nerves along with it.

"You have no idea. New borns run amuck and now this. I'll have to go see The Crypt Keeper again, way ahead of schedule, he will NOT be happy."

What the hell was a crypt keeper? I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from asking. Jack seemed stressed enough without me trying to open another barrel of monkeys so I sat silently and waited, now all too aware that I was sitting in glass and freezing liquid.

Jack fisted his hands and ran them up his face before splaying them to the air as if he'd just decided action. "Right, we go now. Too many vamps in this house to live without it for long. I need a redbull run for Ghost anyways. Up we go!" I took the hand he offered me and let him pull me up, wincing as bits of glass dug into my feet, my blood leaking more freely than the dark sludge it had been before I drank. He didn't notice, turning around and moving down the hall with purpose, his hand just on the banister of the stairs when I called for him, "Wait! Jack, wait!" I tried to waddle after him, quite ungraceful looking as I attempted to balance my way off of the glass, only enticing more cuts.

"Oh." He moved while I was looking down, trying to find a pathway. Jack bent to his knees and leaned over in front of me, motioning with his hand for me to hurry, "Come on then."

With a resignated sigh I mounted his back, gripping his hips with my legs and looping my arms around his neck to steady myself. "This is ridiculous.."

"T'ain't no cheaper way of travlin' ma'm, no ma'm," his reply was thick, almost southern, an accent you might expect from It's a Wonderful Life. I blinked for a second, cogs working at how original he sounded before he rose with a chuckle, my fingers that dangled on his chest vibrating with the sound. Jack snatched his shopping back up, letting it hang by one finger.

"Totally ridiculous.." But not to mention warm. Jack's back was a solid thing beneath me and I was all too aware of his grip on my legs keeping me from sliding off. A grip with scarred hands. I'd seen them before when he pulled me up and, now that I thought back, remembered that Riley had no visible scars. Maybe it was age? Jack must be the older of the two, maybe he'd been in alot of fights but..I rotated my hand to survey the damage from the bottle cap I'd been clinging to. Nothing. Not a god damn scratch, no bruise, no scars. Totally healthy, albeit a bit pale, skin. If vampires didn't scar then Jack's marks must be err, perimortem. And what the hell was up with Riley's claw nails? Mine looked completely normal, bitten down and mangled but..I squinted at them as Jack bustled up the stairs and down the hallway. They were clear at the cuticles. Just barely visible. Another change, like vampire puberty.

"So," Jack backed up and dumped me on his bed, "I got a few things, if you want to change before we go." He sat the shopping bag next to me, patting it for emphasis.

I scooted to the edge as to not smear the wet mess of my robe on his quilt, dangling my legs off the side of the bed. The sheets were plain black anyways. Blood never shows up on black. "Go where? I still don't even get where I am."

Jack nudged something on the floor with his foot, curiosity making me peek over the edge. Tiny shards of glass littered the carpet, clear against the deep red color of it. They reminded me of him again, those sharp talons of his. A little shiver ran up my spine. They were coming out of my feet, like my body had rejected them. I wiggled my toes and looked back to Jack.

"Nifty trick, huh? Maybe you'll grow into it." Reaching out he brushed my hair back over my ear, eyes lingering there for a moment before he repeated the motion on the other side and backed away.

"That's not what you said before." I hugged my arms around myself, fixing my gaze on the line of sun that crept across the floor.

"Well you aren't the usual sort of candidate, there's alot of thought that goes into creating one of us. Nikki was strong and independent, a force of nature, though..a bit too strong maybe, seeing as she's gone."

"Not my fault."

Jack canted his head as if the right angle would let him see what I was thinking. "I didn't say it was. Anyways, you were just..we didn't even know who you were. We hired Nikki in for the party and asked that they send a bartender along; you."

"I remember a little bit, just the edges sort of..like a photograph I saw years ago, faded. Didn't we leave anything? Cars, cell phones, shit maybe even purses?" I hugged myself tighter and pulled my legs onto the bed, folding them indian style.

"She took the car and her bag but yours is in my car, I didn't want anyone in the house going through it while I was gone." He gave a little shrug.

"You have my purse and you didn't even tell me?" I bristled and glared at him.

"A little preoccupied today, just a tad busy. Get changed and we'll go, they keep very specific hours." Without another word he left the room and softly closed the door, leaving me to my bag and my soaked miserable housecoat. I licked along my new teeth and sighed aloud with rolled eyes. Too many things to think about. I dunno what life before fangs was like but surely it wasn't like this. Like chaos on wheels. So Nikki is gone, there goes escape plan A. Now we're on a blood stuff and red bull run? Red stuff, red stuff run, need more of the red stuff for us and for Ghost. If there were vampires why couldn't there be ghosts? It's not much of a leap for me to believe. I leaned over the shopping bag to examine the new duds. "At least this had better be good.." Very plain, very basic, simple; very Jack chique. A pair of flared jeans, cheap pink flip flops and a long sleeve black shirt that scrawled "Hello darling, it's me again" with a little bat in the corner. Various underthings were also included, all in modest white. Good to know there was no double agenda going on there. I grabbed my little goodie bag and made way for the en suite, stripping the robe right off now that Jack was out of sight. "Ugh, definitely needs dry cleaning."

Jack's bathroom was a mirror to the one in my briefly occupied room, making me wonder if all the rooms in the house were clone to each other, like a vampire bed and breakfast. Same black and silver everything, it wasn't gothic looking but had more of a sleek modern look it. The Barbie sized shampoos and lotions were replaced with manly scented shampoos and aftershave, electric razor and shaving cream. I let the robe slid off my finger and into the laundry bin in the corner, wiping my hands off on my thighs, catching myself in the mirror. The reflection that met me looked wild. Brown hair that hung a smidge past my shoulders completely tousled from ignoring it the night before, smudges of pale red from where the robe had soaked through and those odd metallic eyes. I stepped closer to the mirror and tried to shake my hair into obedience. Nope. Still a train wreck. I yanked open the drawers under the sink until met with an assortment of brushes. Too many brushes really, for a man to have. Boar bristle, wide toothed combs, those cheap flip open ones and a well loved clear sparkley paddle brush. Extremely well loved, there were still strands of long blonde hair in it. So Jack had a woman around then, hmm? Not surprising. Vampires had to have something to do to pass the time right? I shrugged at the mirror and pulled on my newly acquired outfit, ripping off price tags as I met them and crumbling them into a pile next to the sink. Not wanting to use the preloved sparkle brush of wonder I opted for one of the flip opens and ran it through my hair. Nice, looking better. I shot myself a flirtatious smile in the mirror, freezing in place at the sharp little teeth that smiled back. As the song goes; fangs ruin any cute pout. I was surprised when the Beast didn't laugh along with me. My head had been a strangely empty place since I'd drank. Darn, and I was just starting to get used to the little fella.

Jack was waiting on the bed when I exited the bathroom, tossing a set of keys back and forth between his hands. "Ready?"

"Mhm, off to see the wizard." I followed him down the hall. More rooms, all of the doors were wide open and had little gold number plates on them. I counted five guest rooms all together, all mostly identical to Jack's. At the end of the hall were smaller rooms marked 'Pantry' and 'storage.'

"More like off to see the necromancer." Jack mumbled, still deftly tossing his keys as he went along.

"Necro what? Like D&D bullshit?" I stared incredulously at the back of his perfectly groomed, close cut head of hair.

"No bull. And don't mention the D&D thing. They get all touchy, really."

The hall opened up into a large entry way, little love seats and bookshelves artfully positioned. Further down the hall I could see more identical rooms and opposite the wooden double door I could see a huge kitchen and coffee/lounge room.

"Vampire bed and breakfast, really?" I pulled a face at him.

"Even I have to pay the bills somehow." Jack made his way out the front door onto a wrap around porch with swings and assorted patio tables and chairs. To the left of us was a giant old barn that faced the house with a more modern, large carport next to it, like the kind that was usually put behind apartment buildings. There were chickens grazing and kicking about on the lawn which, upon closer inspection, appeared to have no feathers around there necks.

"Ehm..What are those?" I'd frozen on the porch, weary of the intense sunlight, Jack had already descended the few steps and was waiting for me with arms crossed.

"Transylvanian naked necks."

"Is that some kind of sick joke?" I frowned down at him.

"Easy eating, a vamps favorite bird. Now come on." Jack came back up and grabbed my hand as you would a shy child, pulling me into the sunlight after him and towards the carport.

"I'm surprised I'm not, you know, all hisssss, sizzle, ahh!" I tossed up my other hand, pretending to protect myself from evil sunbeams.

With an incredulous look, heavy on the eyebrows, Jack unlocked the passenger door of a black Chevy cruz hatchback the old fashioned way (with a key) and waited for me to get in. I flopped onto the cushy leather seat and strapped my seat belt on out of habit. Not like I needed it anymore, I guess. I dunno though, just because I can prance over a bit of glass doesn't mean I can survive going through some at high speed. Better safe than sorry.

I twisted around to check the backseat and was met by a little red leather purse, looking much too innocent to be able to change my life so drastically. I snapped it up and sat it on my lap as Jack closed the door beside me, strapping his own seatbelt in but not turning on the car. Instead he waited, those cool deer eyes fixed on me.

The sound of the zipper on the purse seamed deafening, like a rip in reality. Tubes of lipstick, old tickets from carnivals and movies, a hairbrush, tons of loose change and a wallet. I stared at the matching red wallet in my hands, turning it over and snapping and unsnapping the clasp a few times. "It doesn't matter, does it..? Maybe it's best if I don't?" I looked over to Jack for guidance.

He was quiet for a moment, maybe measuring things in his head before he said them. "It will always be here for you, if you ever want to look. There's no rush, Sanka."

"Could you keep it for me? Somewhere safe?" I tucked the wallet back into the bag, slowly zipping it back up. Who I was before doesn't matter. Wouldn't help me. The memories that had been ripped away seemed a little bit clearer than they had been, like wiping snow off a window and trying to peak in to someone else's life. But that's exactly what it felt like. Someone else's. Those memories all seemed sad and empty, nothing really going on. There was music, I could remember all the music, the tempo and life of it, but the life itself had been empty.

Jack took the purse from me, the things that belonged my past life, and tucked it underneath his seat. Hiding it away just as, in reality, he had taken my old life away, made me this. "Just for now, I'll put it in my trunk when we get home."

Home. This place. With him. It seemed like Stockholm but I didn't care. Being here with Jack seemed so natural. Maybe the Beast was right when it said to stick with my maker. It didn't bother me that I'd become something different. Like he'd said before it was a second chance but a second chance at what, exactly?

The car started, the engine coming to life beneath me. I rolled down the electric window and stuck my fingers out to the sun. "Where to, Jack?"

"To the flower shop."