Can't shake this fever from my mind
It burns away all that has passed
And draws me to her side
"A direct hit" the cupid smiles...
Wounded, I fall into delirium
And I know... my heart's no longer mine
- Tiger Army

Red Dragon Inn

Tina, daughter of Artsblood, student of Domikai, was strange, even for an adolescent. But Viki was equally as odd, and though she was a few years older, perhaps she found some kindred spirit in the girl. So when she had stepped into the Inn that night, she found herself drawn to the bar, drawn to a set of eyes she liked, Tina's: the gray and full and beautiful.

Will you pluck them out like him? You are becoming more like him each passing day.

Tina was a familiar face and an unthreatening force in a sea of overpowering (though sometimes imagined, sometimes not) darkness. Tara was there, so she had Amthy on her mind, as always. Jodiah's secret still haunted her, but there was nothing she could do for him.

"Hi," said Viki, in a morose tone, as green fireflies fluttered by invisible, forcing their way into her eyes.

Tina was wrapped up in another drama altogether.

"See him," she gestured to Lusiphur Blood with her eyes. "Isn't he beautiful?"

"Long ears?" Viki whispered. "He is perhaps, but not my type." Viki rolled her shoulders into a shrug. She only had one on her mind these days, and he was a bit rough around the edges. Her concept of beauty was very different.

Tina nodded. "I kind of have a date with him I think."

"Do you?" The older girl leaned in, as if to join in a big conspiracy.

"Sort of, it was a loose arrangement, but I remembered everything the succubus taught me, and I think he is interested."

"Succubus?" Viki's strange eyes now poured into the younger girl at her side. She reached for her, as if she could feel the trappings of such a thing.

"They are of heat and lovely torment but beware." She waved her hand momentarily over Tina's head, then withdrew, and set it on the countertop.

Tina continued. "When I was lots younger I ran off with one to prentice, mother was mucha pissed!"

There was a shift to Viki's expression. Surprise? Little surprised her these days. "Art of blood and blood of art." She paused, and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Take care with such things."

But Tina didn't seem to hear her. "You have lovers, don't you, lots I bet."

"Love is.. weary." Viki pressed against the bar as if she were wise in such things. She was, in truth. A smile curled about those painted lips. "I have one now. I have abandoned all others."

The other girl smirked. "One at a time is best, I think, otherwise it is difficult to give the required attention." Tina spoke sense.

"I do naut like to give required attention.. but.." Viki blinked, and then, smirked too. It was so quick, it was hardly there at all.

"I would be very attentive, my lover would dream of my attentions when I was away, and would be tempted to pleasure himself at the memory... or herself?"

Perhaps it was the size of her, or the way she spoke, but that last comment from Tina almost had her doubled over. She swallowed that laughter. It was a difficult thing, but the adolescent psyche was fragile at best. "You have... big goals."

"Can you imagine having small goals in love, what a sickness that would be."

It was now time to distract the mind and move the limbs so that nothing, not even a giggle, would sound. She swung her bare legs and shifted her hair over the other shoulder, but in doing so revealed something she had forgotten was there: A small wound along the throat, crusted over, and healing quick.

"Yes. Well. Love is winding and wild and goals are sometimes trampled upon," Viki said.

But Tina's huge eyes caught everything. Her observant eyes could one day rival Domikai's. "Oh, I didn't know! You have a lover like....that?"

"Wolf attack." Viki nodded gravely, then bared her flat teeth and gave a mock growl.

Tina shook her head, not buying into it at all. "If that's what you want to say, it's ok, its not like we know each other all that well and stuff."

"Oh, do you mean .. vampiric?" That wound was a bit lower, or higher, and hidden by shadow and soft light, or perhaps it was on the other side, or perhaps the new wound replaced the old. Ha. Viki wasn't so sure the sandman would've done something like that.

She continued "Oh no. It really was a wolf attack." Viki grinned, and it was rather wicked.

"No such thing as vampires, it's all myths to frighten bad children. Mother says..."

"I suppose. Tara frightens bad children all the time," Viki pointed at her cousin.

Tina smirked, and perhaps, backtracked. "So you have so many lovers you simply cannot keep track! My future looks bright!"

"Oh yes. Some of them are rather invisible and unreal, by your logic." Viki winked.

"Oh I know about those, they visit me too on warm nights when sleep won't come and the mind makes a wrong turn. I hope they are not the best I ever have."

"My mind makes many turns. Who are these invaders?" She looked intrigued.

"Dreams, him in this room sometimes, they take control of my hand."

Teenagers.

"Dreams do have their danger.." Viki began, pausing to glance at the floor. Her cousin Tara suddenly departed, and quickly, and why? The air was charged. Something was wrong. Something was planned.

She dropped this thought and looked back at Tina.

"I dream a lot, I'm good at dreams."

Viki felt a small stir within, a returning warmth, and a flush to her face. She denied the feeling with every fiber of her being. It only meant one thing: Alma was present.

"Me too," she whispered to the younger girl. This fever was growing, raging.

Vampire Charm.

Quickly, she would take her mind off of it. She turned her attention back to Lusiphur. She would be cold, and casual.

"Do you really want him? I'm sure there is a potion or something.. But I think Tara would have my head."

But Alma was incorrigible. She would make herself known. She drew closer, and closer, until finally, she joined the pair of girls at the bar.

"Good evening little love.." She smiled at Viki.

"Hello, Lady." And what, not little grass girl? Her eyes said much, her lips little.

Tina's eyes were equally as loud. "You know her?" She held her hand to her mouth in wonder.

The seer side and made several attempts to collect herself. She waved a hand between them. "Alma, Tina. Tina, Alma."

Alma's honey combed voice washed over her, the trappings of such sweetness. "And your friend, can this beauty be Artsblood's daughter? How you have bloomed, girl, it takes my breath away!"

Names and names. They were caught by small forces and shaken, and for a moment Viki stared, into the nothing, and lingered between the here and then.

"The lady and I know each other," whispered Tina. "She once asked my Mother to kill me. But I think she was not herself then....?"

Viki concurred in her trancelike state. "New blood spilt upon the floor.. stopped by a hand.." She felt heavy beneath the crushing weight of whispering things and placed a hand to her forehead.

"There. Will. Be. No. Killing. Of. Children. Under. The. Age. Of. Fifteen." Each word was precise and clipped. The Seer would be obeyed in this, the tone said, but it was almost laughable.

Alma's laughter. It was bells. "Tina is quite right, I was...possessed...at the time, and I have no thought of harming her. I never harm, do I?"

Viki felt a gloved hand upon her shoulder. "I hope you have been well, springtime girl, no fevers to disturb your sleep?"

Then, a small tremor down her spine with the shock of a touch, but her voice was cool, and lilting childlike again. It was her own. "He is warmer than two suns." She blinked. "Three."

"I was not harmed, Viki..." Tina piped up.

Viki's eyes were glued to the younger girl. "I do hope it remains so." She was almost afraid to meet the lady's eyes without the lover present, and the only evidence of this was a new fixation on Tina.

"Has this one fallen under your spell too, my springtime girl?" Alma continued her torment with each perfect word.

"I weave no spells," came the small reply.

"Do not deny your power to the bespelled, love." Alma's hands began to toy with her curling hair, curling and tangled from misadventures on the road, perhaps, and certain activities in the unhome. The desire to linger beneath this touch was strong. She felt something shy of half-sleep, but she slipped from the lady's touch, however slowly and made a circle around Tina.

"I bespell no one here."

Tina was staring at the pair with new wonder. "If I found out I was gay..."

Viki wrapped her arms around the younger girl, curling them around her shoulders to the base of her neck. It was a protective measure, surely. She leaned in.

"Tread careful. Your tutor would not be pleased with such a decision," she whispered.

"My tutor does not teach such subjects,' Tina replied, breathing her in.

Viki brushed her lips across the girl's earlobe as she spoke. She would have to be clear. She would have to be a distraction.

"Do. Not." She whispered. The sandman's scent was strong enough on her that she could've taken his place if Tina was without all other senses.

"Oh, that's a nice thing to feel..." Tina was completely focusing on the brush of lips rather than the words.

"Ah, you are become quite the seductress, grass girl, beware of you will distract her from the man she fancies." Alma beamed.

Or from you.

"You are young, Tina. You will know these things in time." There were eyes and eyes and eyes. Finally, she poured her own into Alma's, but did not withdraw from Tina. "Let this one decide when she is older."

"Perhaps I will help her to her decision, would that please my nemesis, or your creature lover? I just wonder, I do strive for efficiency..."

Blood of art.

And then, Alma was gone. Viki straightened, curling her hands over each of Tina's shoulders.

"Creature lover," she whispered to herself, perhaps furious.

But Tina was quick. "You were her lover," she said.

Viki shook her head, as if to dismiss the possible dark thoughts which dwelled there, and silence any vulgarities she might've thrown to the door. Then, she turned, circling Tina once more, and face to face now, settling back into the stool at her side.

"Yes. For a brief time."

Tina seemed enthralled. "Like mother, but pretty... and her eyes do not touch me as if I were a child."

"She is many things." Viki sighed wearily. "I do wish I had a mother, pretty or not."

But Tina's thoughts on the subject were incessant. "You would not be jealous and hate me, if, if.. if."

Viki blinked. "We were never.. exclusive." Then, quickly, she added, "Do not think this thing."

"You do not love her any more, or if you never did. You do not touch her like a lover now," said the realm's oldest thirteen year old.

"Yes. Want and love. Different sides of a coin." Viki slipped from the stool and her feet found the floor with ease. Her eyes lingered on Tina but a moment longer. Her smile was guarded. She liked her, yes, but would she heed these warnings that danced on air and hung on every word she spoke?

"I know whom you touch."

Viki's eyes widened at this revelation. "Perhaps you do."

"I learn as I go," Tina offered in explanation. "I would never make her forget you," she said of Alma.

"Nau." Viki stopped to consider this with a finger upon her chin. Forget. That would be a blessing, would it not? No. She would not give these quiet things sound or feed them to this girl.

"I do naut worry about such things. I worry only for your safety," she said.

"I fear very little, don't worry about my safety."

"Your innocence maybe." Viki lifted a finger to brush some stray hair from the girl's eyes. "Watch the Lady close. Do not go running into her, as gloved hands are sure to catch."

"Watching her close is a pleasure, is it not?"

"I must leave you now Tina. I walk with twinkling things to quieter places." She stepped out, slowly, from their proximity. "Pleasures are many, many things. Dangers too," she added with another sigh, and shake of her pretty head.

"Goodnight." Her feet were on the move again, soft and quiet things, and she slipped past the threshold with practiced grace and a growing anxiety she could not leave behind.

Tina called after her. "Biologists that drive birds to nests call it 'twinkling.' How many are twinkling me now?"

"Seven." Viki left her with a number and little more. But even she did not know what it meant.

And the air was charged, indeed, from different angles and different circles. There would be two wars. The Seer was sure of it.