Scarlet Scale Ch. 008

A few hours later, we stood before the north-marked location of Shriekwind, by the road.

"So here we are." I said. "You know why I'm here, Lydia. But before I seek to turn to vampirism, I must be sure of whether you're ready to go inside with me. If you want to go back to Falkreath, I will allow you to, and-"

"No," she shook her head "you are my Thane, and my Love. Wherever you would go now, I will, if I can. I understand now, that you changed me somehow, something in your milk, you've manipulated me, but... now I WANT it. I NEED you. I NEED to encourage others to join us, to WANT you as well. I will follow you through all of Oblivion if I can."

Quite pleased with her answer, I decided we shouldn't waste any time in letting a vampire infect me. Argonians tended to be more resistant against disease or poison than other races, and although I made sure we were well stocked, we might need to face off against more than one vampire. Besides, since I was certain that this place WAS from my past, it might easily have some more secrets I deserved to know.

We opened the rusty outer gate, and oiled the hinges on the larger door inside the porch. It looked like it hadn't ever opened wide in a long time, but it clearly had been partly opened recently. Even with the oil it still gave a faint creaking noise. We were concerned for that of course. I quickly cast Muffle on myself, as for Lydia, she had so far only read the first page of that spare spellbook. Vampires have amplified hearing, but hopefully because it was still early afternoon, none would be awake.

There was a another large door directly ahead of us, and a smaller open room. Lydia wisely followed my lead this time, I think otherwise she might have tried the door first. I hadn't mastered as much of my Illusion magic as I'd have liked, and if I had, then I knew that I'd be able to cast any spell "quietly," even quieter than a vampire could notice, so Detect Dead was not happening for now.

I pointed to the side room, Lydia nodded, readying an ebony arrow with her new ebony bow. Lydia's arrow managed to find its mark in the vampire of the side room, she had turned from her book just in time for the black shaft to pierce her chest. Judging from the shot, I think Lydia was going for the head, not the undead's heart. Even though it missed that critical spot too, it punched into her lung, severely weakening her. She tried casting her Vampiric Drain Spell, but I put an end to that, chopping off the hand.

"DAMN YOU!!" She screamed, and fled, turning invisible. Thankfully nothing can escape a proper detection spell. I pointed, and Lydia's next arrow lodged next to the vampire's spine. She cried out in pain, collapsing on the steps.

Lydia was confused, and almost spoke aloud. But I shook my head, then cast my Detect Dead spell. Nothing but a few already fully dead draugr, and the vampire's body showed. Then I cast my Detect Life spell, sometimes, they used still quite living thralls. When nothing showed in range for either spell, then I spoke.

"It's okay for now."

"Thane?" Lydia asked. "I thought you wanted her to infect you."

"Only," I clarified, "after we've cleared more of the ruins. I will be badly weakened while infected, and doubtless there's more vampires here. We can't afford to be weakened here, because I will need to search this for more than contracting sanguinaire vampiris. In my previous life as a dragon, as the daughter of Alduin, I visited Lamae Beofalg here, in a bid to gain some way to convince the other dragons to turn away from grinding mortals under our claws. I sought the first vampire here, and she... she did something to me, but the answers still elude me."

Lydia simply stared at me for a minute then,

"I... I would never have thought that could happen... I don't know what to say."

"Let's just continue for the secrets this place hides."

"Ah, yes Scarlet, my Thane."

We continued creeping along, there were a few traps, and a puzzle with three handles to open one of two portcullises. While we had to do that, there were a few draugr that woke, but nothing we couldn't handle. At one point though, I found a scene that even I felt was... uncomfortable, though admittedly I would want to revisit later.

A still-living opponent was showing up with my Detect Life spell, and I thought about what I would need after turning. To feed. So naturally, I didn't want to kill the thrall yet, at least not if we could sneak by. I handed Lydia an invisibility potion, while also keeping one handy for myself, and the fur shoes we kept, which should help muffle her footsteps.

I told her to "sneak" around with the fur shoes, to see how well she had learned in minimizing her armor's noise. She satisfied me, but still needed more practice, but we could work on that later, especially in the variety of other ways that she could, and would, 'satisfy' me.

According to my spell, the next room had the thrall. I eased the door open slowly, peering through. I looked back at Lydia, and gestured, one finger, to the right. Then held my finger to my scaly lips. My housecarl nodded, and I used my invisibility potion, passing through the already opened door.

The room had a VERY bloody corner, with several cages, a low table, and a draugr's throne that the thrall sat in. I crept by, reached the far side of the room without incident. I turned to watch Lydia, or the "absence" of her. Soon she was next to me, about the time that the potions wore off, and the thrall was still oblivious of us. I smiled and left up the next stairwell. Eventually, there was another hall, and the bodies of four or five dead warriors. And...

I gestured to Lydia, pointed to a decorative stone panel on the floor, and shook my hand. She nodded, avoiding it.

Then a hall with steel bars in our way, and... a dozen metal spouts in the floor, walls, and ceiling. Either fire-jets, or dart shooters, I was sure. There was no sign of what would set them off, only the pull chain to the side. I figured it lower the bars, but if I didn't see any trigger from where they started, then I was suspicious that the chain would also activate them.

I tried Detect Life, and only Lydia and I showed. Then Detect Dead. The numerous dead bodies laying horizontal just past the traps, and one that was standing.

I crept to Lydia and whispered to her. "There's another vampire, perhaps the last one here, just at the end of this hall. I don't see any dead bodies in it, but many are just past it, and I smell burnt flesh, even if it's faint. Those are probably fire traps, and I'm sure that chain will activate them. So my plan is, after we pick our way through the activated fire jets, I'll go take on the vampire, fighting it while boosting my health with the potions, and let myself get infected. If it's not killed off by my fighting it, I'll draw him or her into the fire jets, vampires are particularly weak against fire. You use the last invisibility potion to get behind him or her to try your shots with the ebony arrows here, while it's attention is focused on me. If it's still 'alive' after that, I should be able to cut him or her down then, and survive with sanguinaire vampiris."

"I like the strategy, my Love."

"I know. We can focus on celebrating my efforts to become undead after this encounter. I should be able to feed on that thrall later."

I stayed over by the bars as Lydia pulled the chain. As I expected, the hall now seemed filled with jets of fire. It was difficult, but there was a way to avoid them, by going left, then right, then left again, although the heat must have bothered Lydia, she flinched a couple times.

The fire jets' activation caught the attention of the vampire, while Lydia stayed out of sight in the corner. I was feinting "desperate" slashes with my dagger, and already already I was feeling weaker. With my other arm, I grabbed a potion off from my hip's belt, keeping close to a gout of fire. The vampire kept his attention on me alright, and started trying a health drain with both hands.

'That's it.' I kept thinking. 'Keep that spell on me. Then Lydia can get you after I've... become infected.'

Then I saw one of his hands starting to spark, and I quickly downed a resist shock potion. My health regeneration was already boosted with the elixir. I began to taste my own blood in my mouth, and was sure I must have contracted his blood's disease by now. I drank another health recovery potion, and drew my blackglass sword.

Lydia saw me draw, and shot a black arrow into his head. Full of rage, the vampire screamed, and spun to race after Lydia. But I expected this, and lunged forward, slashing through the ancient undead. He tried to turn again to me, but I had grabbed his neck, and taunted him, holding him in a headlock.

"Bite me, blood-drinker. I don't want to be your thrall, and will not just let myself become a meal for you. I have my own intentions."

Then weak as he was becoming from his injuries, I was able to shove him into a fire jet. Just before that, he did manage to bite my arm, but it was too late for him, and I drove him into the fire. Instantly, he was ablaze, and I rolled off to the side. Lydia helped me to my feet, and I leaned on her shoulder. We watched the blazing inferno that was the vampire.

"He had some coffin or bed around somewhere I'm certain." I said. "It's going to take me three days for me to fully turn. In the meantime, we're going to need to rest here as I build up to my new strength. Let's go find his sleeping quarters now."

Lydia grinned, but said, "You should sleep, I want to share my cunt with you, but you need to rest, and we have been here nearly the whole day. I'm going to search his library for you, my Love, and Mistress, for any secrets of this place. When I later join you in undeath, I'll want to know as much as I can."

"Yes." I sighed, pleased to hear how Lydia had changed to such a quick turnaround.

We struggled through a doorway in behind the hall of fire, and she laid me to rest in the vampire's coffin, closing the lid. There, in its comforting darkness, my eyelids drooped, and I started to slumber.

I was remade anew. My dragon scales were red as blood, reflecting my desire, my LUST for blood. I had discussed with Lamae what I was now, and she said that I surely would have changed from the dragon I was, but that since she had only ever given her gift to mortals, she only knew of those new forms. I swore my eternal allegiance with her, provided that she would swear her eternal allegiance to me, and our new pact was forged. Seemingly, the moment I had fully turned to my new nature, I understood a new... 'meaning' in the dov.

My newest shout now was LUN DU KEST, or "Leech, Devour, Tempest," in the mortals' tongue. With only the first word, a target's blood and other fluids would flow up into a cloud to be drawn in by me. The second word would weaken the target by half. The third word, and they would be at only a sliver of their previous health. I would absorb by each amount accordingly.

The mortals should serve us, but can not survive as proper servants if they are dying for it, I knew now. I would rather they grow and prosper, because their strength would only add to ours. I also had felt a... a curious growth my fangs, they were longer, and... they felt hollow, as though... oh how I needed to FEED. There was... was something else, growing in my throat as well.

Currently I was flying in the darkness back to my territory, when my newly enhanced vision spotted a mammoth trundling over the meadow. I swept down, and instinctively opened my mouth. The strange new growth shot out from between my fangs, my tongue latching onto my prey's back. I had already alighted on it, and sunk my fangs into the beast's side. It groaned out its horror, but died quickly as I drained out the blood.

I feasted on the animal's large body. The flesh was a delightfully salty-sweet taste as I savored it. I roared my triumph, and went back to scouring it until almost all that remained was the bloody skeleton. I draped my tongue cleansing it as much as I could of any remaining morsels. Then I lifted back up into the night.

I landed at my temple near Bromjunaar, telling my elite guard to fetch my priestess. I had a NEW plan, and would FORCE my father to my will, one way, or another...

I awoke in the coffin, pushing it open. I hadn't turned yet, but set to looking for Lydia. I needed to find whatever she might have discovered, and we also needed to be sure that the thrall we snuck past, would still be there. I was going to need to feed after all, and the thrall was probably a captured bandit anyway.

My stomach felt queasy, but despite this, I felt terribly hungry. The smell of the fruit had a new, faint, sickly-sweet sensation to it. I felt repulsed by them, and then found the slab of venison we bought from Valga. I started tearing into it, relishing the feeling of cutting it with my saw-like argonian teeth. After eating the whole slab, I went looking for my housecarl, casting Detect Life.

I almost immediately saw her essence on another level above, in a sitting position. I made my way up the cobweb-strewn spiral staircase.

"Did you find anything?"

"Only a few things." Lydia said, holding up an ancient looking book. "This, and... I... I think there's a 'word wall' as well."

"Interesting." I said, rubbing my chin's scales. "I believe I've already found one before. The 'shouts' right?"

"Yes, did you want to see that first?"

"We can look at it later. What's in the book?"

"Apparently," Lydia said as she opened it, "a journal kept by the vampire we killed. It seemed he was trying to experiment with ways of mixing his vampiric blood with other forms, but was getting little success. The reason why he felt like he could, was a secret that he stumbled across, another book, written by a madwoman from the sound of it. He suspected that she was pursuing knowledge from Hermaeus Mora, but the vampire deciphered little of her ramblings."

"Interesting..." this place could be useful for a lair, though I would still prefer a regular house to maintain my illusion as ordinary mortal argonian. Besides it would harder to keep secure, being so big between Lydia and I. "The vampire must have kept that book somewhere hidden here. Is there anything suggesting what happened here just prior to the Dragon War?"

"Not that I've seen yet."

I picked up the old journal. There was indeed some notes about his old theories, and several pages of some curious recipes. On the last few pages there was some mention of something the Vigilants of Stendarr were transporting. Some kind of artifact they considered most particularly unholy, and about how a necromancer he "questioned," was supposed to be setting up an ambush on the road from Markarth, in several days from now. This sounded particularly interesting, and I decided I was going to check it out. It seemed the Vigil was going to try enlisting the help of the College at Winterhold in destroying whatever it was, and such a fate made me WANT it, as surely it was powerful in a way that frightened them.

"I'm going to need to read more about this later. Let's go see that Word Wall."

"Yes, my Thane." Lydia smiled wickedly.

She strutted proudly in front of me, leading the way to the word wall. I suspected the words were the same from my dream, but I needed to know how to utter them with my mortal argonian mouth.

It was another few more rooms, where the Wall was, and... a freshly killed draugr deathlord, with 3 ebony arrows in its rotting skull.

"Very good, Lydia." I didn't bother hiding my impressed attitude, as we looked down at it.

"It was my PLEASURE, my Thane." I was sure from her tone, that she was rather turned on by my admiration of her defeat of the formerly animated corpse.

I walked forward towards it. Indeed, it looked exactly like the same from Bleakfalls, and I felt "pulled" towards it. But this one, it had glowing magical essence coming from THREE words, not one. It WAS my shout, the same I had carved with my very claws, so many thousands of years ago. MY power, it was FLOWING, COURSING back into me, and I relearned my words anew, for my mortal flesh. My soon to be undead flesh...

"YESSSSSSSS!!!!" I cried with an orgasming wave of pleasure.

My essence was MINE again!! As I was in my past, so I would be again!! I spun immediately back to my lover and Housecarl, feeling a new, raw, WILD emotion of LUST.

"Take it ALL off!!!!" I commanded.

"Oh YESSSS my Thane!!!!" Lydia was already stripping, before I had even finished turning to her.

Not waiting, we rushed forward, tasting each other's mouths as we started fumbling with our armor, and running our hands rapidly over each other. In only a minute or two, we were both naked, and thrusting our hips hard against each other, with all of our strength. We came, nearly instantly, but neither of us were pausing, if anything, it sped us faster and faster. We NEEDED the cum, to taste each other, to feel each other's fury in our love and passion. We NEEDED to FUCK!!!!

To unite ourselves, our souls, to blend our hearts into ONE. I pushed, I pulled, I ground, I grabbed, I groaned, and Lydia was doing all the same, as if our flesh actually WAS fusing together. Our hips bucked as we fucked. As time slowed, and we started to experience every minute detail of our exquisite pleasure, I could FEEL something changing, growing, in my mouth, and in my mind. I drew back my mouth, and Lydia paused only to stare! , then her eyes widened.

"Ohhhh my Thane!!!!" She cried out excitedly. "It's already happened!! Ohhh yes!!!! I'm SO fucking turned on!! Ohhhh... ah, ah, ah, ohh Th-thane! I don't know how, but... ohhh... you've turned! You're a vampire now!!"

"What?!" I was sure I still had two more days to go.

"Yes!" She was still thrusting, but reached up to touch my mouth, I felt her fingertip on a... a fang?

I reached up, and... ohhh yes!! I did have fangs! Four in fact! A pair of longer fangs on the flanking a pair of shorter ones closer to the middle, I WAS an argonian vampire now!

"I... I don't understand... ohhh... how," I gasped, thrilled beyond measure, "but ohhh... yes!! Oh Lydia, ahhhh... I love you!!!!"

I began to feel a need to bite her, to claim her as MY thrall, but I refrained. She already was MINE, having given herself over to me, before we even got here. The fact that I was a vampire now only seemed to spur her further on to even more horniness. Why would I need to control that?

"I... ohhh my Thaaaaaane!!!! I'm cuuuummmmiiinnnnggggg!!!!" She was bucking faster than I would have ever thought possible!

"Yeeesssss!!!! Ohhhh fuck!!!! Fuck yessss!!!!" I groaned happily, gushing all over her hips.

We fucked and fucked... losing all sense of time... floating with each other on an endless sea of pleasure... We woke, still having been suckling contentedly on each other's sweet nipples in our sleep.

I was starting to feel a kind of thirst... and I wanted to practice my new abilities in hunting the previous vampire's thrall. If the way I understood this was correct, then when that vampire commanded the thrall to stay and guard that position, the thrall would do just that. Or until he or she would've used up all their food or water, then the thrall would get some from wherever they kept it for thralls. After that, it's right back to guarding, or whatever task it would be. Why the hell would I want to make Lydia less of a follower by forcing that on her?

I remembered some of the abilities that vampires, and now by extension, I had. Enhanced night-vision, faster reflexes, stronger muscles, and trance-inducing seduction to start. Ohhh, how I looked forward to seducing, but probably only if the subject and I were alone, or if I had already gotten to whoever else is there.

I cast my Detect Life spell, keeping it going until the thrall started to show on the edge of my range. As I expected, it didn't take long, and already I felt my thirst starting. I had an idea now that I wanted to play around with.