Scarlet Song

Chapter 17

"You really must be careful not to over-exhaust yourself, love. You may feel strong now but, your crash will hit you without warning. You're gonna learn your limits the hard way but, it's best not to spend it all in one fell swipe." I nod and stand swiftly and offer him my hand. "We shouldn't be wasting time when we're waging a war, my love." He chuckles and takes my hand to stand nose to nose with me, smirking. "After you, Moone." I smirk and walk to the ship with him close behnd and everyone else swarming either to check on me or because they knew the situation had hit a whole new level of urgency. When all of us had gathered, I looked over them and sighed. "Now, I know I'm fresh out of healing but, time is now our enemy when it comes to this situation. She's agitated because of the leeway we are making and she is making fury swipes to get ahead. First off, when I was fainting in and out, you all said there was another person dead, who was it?" Xoraya looks to Voltair and they both sigh. Arlemis beats them both to beating around it. "The other body outside of the manor was your sister, Zaira, Captain. She'd looked as if she was attacked from up close, based on her wounds." Xoraya looks at him and tilts her head curiously. "What gives you that sense? How could you know that?" Amsephone speaks up and smiles a little. "Certain wounds will show that the person may have been struck with say like a knife versus bigger, wider spread wounds for longer distance weapons like arrows, He throat was cut, meaning she trusted the person enough to get close enough to breathe her air." I nod and shurg. "Obviously going to say that Vera turned on her. Whether it was her speaking up or Vera thinning the herd, isn't for us to say but, it's one less piece caught up in this. She's swimming with Lila now. It only confirms how desperate we think she is. By no means am I assuming I have anything close to an upper hand on this fight. This is gonna mean any training for us is going to be vigorous which, also means hunting needs to be kept on top of. She got the upper hand on me beacuse I was starving. If we are on top of combat and food, she'll have to face us at our best. Now, what alliances are we currently standing with?" Voltair nods and answers. "We have the blessing of the Sea Council as well of the Vampire Council, combioned with our crew, Xoraya's crew and Amsephone's crew. In the way of personal connections, Xoraya has Marcus and we bring Moira and her people." I jolt up and smirk as I hear the last part. "Who's up for a trip to cold weather? We have one more alliance to call on." Moira nudges my arm and smiles. "Make that two. I have connections to call a favor on. The Ursa tribe owes me for favors." Arlemis nearly loses his drink over statement. "The Ursas, as in the fabled tribe of sentient bears with ungodly strength?" Moira and I nod. "Though I pray we don't need them. This battle will make me call on all favors and alliances. I can't fail here." My sisters look towards each other and nod and the rest of everyone fell into a roar of "aye"s. I couldn't help the hints of a smile that tugged at my lips as I watched everyone rally behind me. It made my stomach turn in a good way that despite everything I had to do in this life, just trying to survive and get by, there was still people who reminded me of my value. I knew that a lot more blood would be shed because of all this but, it all made it a little less heavy on my shoulders. After everyone started to disperse to their respective ships, Amsephone split off and Xoraya approached me with a smirk. "How about we test out your new abilities since you got Marcus back for me, Rue? Can't learn where you stand in this if you don't push yourself. What do you say, Volt, lemme break your wife in a little?" He hesitates at first but nods and chuckles. "Sure, I'm just not responsible for whatever damages that she causes." Xoraya giggles and shakes her head as I split off to change and meet back up with them on the beach. Sitting in the sand is Voltair, Arlemis, Marcus, and Moira as the sun starts to set and Xoraya is just rolling assorted sizes of fire balls around on her hands and arms. Her face was lit up from the raw light that her flames put off and the rays from the moon distorted through the water that I was carrying along the air to myself. Our sparring started off slow at first but, picked up quickly. The years that I fell behind in my combat, my new abilities were helping me make up for speed and agility, making it so that the naked eye was only seeing flurries of fires, sand and water. We didn't really slow until the point in which I'd downed her with a bo staff I cojured and I shielded myself with a wall of water when she dove at me. ""Very funny, Rue,you have to try harder than that to stop m--." Her ranting is stopeed when she collides with the wall of water and rolls in the sand. "V-very good, Rue. You struggled with solidifying your abilities before. Weapons do great but, shields can cause devastation and openings as well." I kneel next to her and try to stifle giggling as I could hear everyone else struggling with laughter, even Voltair. It was funny how my view of him felt so deprived until now. Maybe it was the way the moonlight caught one verything or how much more keen my senses were but, his eyes had a glow to them. Perhaps I felt like I had less to worry about now but, then again, it would take me a w hile to adjust to the color of my own eyes now. When the laughter died down, we locked eyes and I suppose everyone caught on to the energy as they waved him over and giggled. "Go on, Volt. Take your wife back to the ship. We'll set sail in the morning. You two need it, to be alone after all that has gone down. You have her here in your arms, for eternity now, V." Xoraya nudged him as Marcus wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her off. Voltair's arms sweep under me without any hesitation and I giggle as he carries me off and I watch Arlemis and Moir disappear into the distance. As he walked aboard the ship, I let my head relax against his shoulder and he sets me down gently inside our quarters. Once the doors shut, he pulls me in and kisses tenderly down down my neck until my blous falls off my shoulder and reveals the scar on my chest a little. He looks over it and traces his fingers along it. "I-I really thought I lost you this time. I almost did something I would regret until we all heard Marcus hit the water. Vera was sloppy but, she almost tore us all apart" He gently took my hand kissed along it up to my wrist where he playfully raked his teeth along my wrist and smirked. "But, that's all behind us and I just don't know what to do with you now that you're like me." I giggle and wraps my arms around him, kissing him deeply. "You, Sir, are going to help teach me about my new--appetites." He chuckles and pulls me closer as he simply whispers into my ear. "Gladly." Needless to say, lost time was made up for and there wasn't much sleep to be had. I spent the remainder of my morning flipping through any books he had on vampirism. When he wandered over, he kissed my cheek and smirked. "Looking for a cure already?" I giggle and shake my head as he hands me the flask of blood he'd been working on. "No, just light reading about us, love. I want to be on the same page as you about us. I know not everying is know about vampirism, yet but, it's worth knowing everything there is to be know. I know it is safe to say that I will also be filling more of these notebooks now that I am a first of my kind." He nods and lifts his arm next to my should as he started to notice my head lulling. "Though sleep is a lot less required, it still happens for us. You've been through Hell and back. Get some rest and I will deal with raising anchor." He lays me down in the bed and kisses along my cheek and neck before he leaves and lets me slip into an oddly peaceful sleep. Once I wake, it's well into the day and the sun is just starting to set as I check over everything and search for Voltair. I was unsure where he was until I heard the jostling in the bird's nest. I look over my path to it and bite my lip. If I climb, he can hear me and the element of surprise will be gone. I carefully and quietly shake myself off, extending my wings rom my full form out and lightly lifting off the ground enough to lift myself up to him and let them disappear. "Care for some company?" He smiles warmly and nods, making space for me to sit next to him. He seemed distant and pained as he held me. "What brought you up here?" He sighed as he looked up at the sky. "Sometimes, I just like to get away rom it all and watch the stars, I used to do it before I was changed. Hell, I've done it for centureis still. I just find myself thinking of my family. They would have loved you and I can't help but, feel angry for you over the fact that your sister is doing this." I nod and shrug. "I have to have known anything else to be really hurt by any of it. When I met you in that tavern, I attatched to no one and nothing. Everything died and crumbled around me and all I was good for was destruction. You and the Captain showed me otherwise. You two showed me that I could be something else beyond what I was. While duty still beckons me now, I can go to it more peacefully because I get to know what a real family is like and hopefully get to live my life that way. I may wake up knowing that I have the weight of Xoraya's life, Moira's, Amspehone's, even yours wrapped up and put on my shoulders but, if that's the price to pay to know this foreign thing called loved and support, it's a small price to pay. We wtill have a long way to go but, we will win this, I promise." With that, I drop back down to the deck and wait for Voltair to join me. The next few days unfolded and plenty of practicing went into all of our abilities until Xoraya was needed. Some of the temperatures started to make it hard for some of the other crew and Xoraya went to work on keeping them warm. Moira otherwise helped supply all of us with proper garbs and I wandered to end of the bow and sat there with my legs dangling for a while. I actually found the colder air refereshing even with my lack of actual breathing. Voltair was still teaching me how to pass off certain human functions to blend in better but, it was still a work in progress compared to everything else that needed to be learned.