Another person not heeding the warnings of the Rhy'Din authorities about being out alone at night. She had noticed this lovely specimen moving through the streets a few blocks back and followed her from the rooftops. What a pretty girl she was, and she imagined she'd taste every bit as sweet as she emptied her veins for food. She even found it amusing how this one deliberately avoided the city watch patrols. A thief on the run then?

Dracina silently moved with alarming speed and grace, remaining as stealthy as a vampire on the hunt usually is. She licked at her ruby-red painted lips hungrily, savoring the scent of the pulsing blood she smelled from the girl. In her long, black sleeveless dress, she blended in well with the night thoroughly to never be seen by a soul until it was too late.

Eventually she saw the girl move into a narrow, twisting alley, and knowing it would be difficult for the girl to navigate through there well, Dracina moved to seize the opportunity. She sped across the nearby roofs in a dark blur, nearly invisible to the human eyes as she moved. A low chortle of mocking enjoyment manifested deep in her throat as she dropped onto the ground in front of her prey. Hungering fangs flashed in the dark from her sadistic smile.

"Sorry dear girl, this is a dead end," the psychotic bloodsucker said as her eyes roamed over Krysira's shivering form.

There was a funny look on Dracina's face. It looked as though she were dumbfounded or something... a very peculiar expression. Maybe she was actually terrified of such a concept? Anything that followed this train of thought was immediately dispelled when the vampire immediately erupted in a fit of laughter, her voice carrying eerily along the wind. She was far from intimidated by what seemed a hollow threat.

She made a movement and as Krysira reacted to run in a random direction, Dracina was no longer standing where she had been. Oh no, in fact she was standing right behind the girl and tightly gripping her arm to prevent her from even thinking of escaping. It wasn't teleportation, but it had seemed that way for just a second. Dracina was quite fast on her feet, having moved too quickly for Krysira's eye to see. It was unreal.

Dracina leaned in to purr in her captive's ear, enjoying teasing her meal like how a cat toys with a mouse before devouring it. "That may scare away the relatively young and inexperienced vampires that Rhy'Din has to offer at a dime a dozen, but I've been doing this a long time."

She chortled low in her throat and seized her by her shirt and lifted her up from her feet with alarming ease. Her blue eyes peered up at the raised girl's panicking expression. "Any last requests before you dance the rest of the night away with oblivion?"

A small smile spread over Dracina's lips, appearing furtherly amused. The girl she had caught mentioned the name of her new friend, "Nocent." What a small world it was after all. However, it also meant that she could not feast on this one, at least not yet. Immediately following her smile was a small frown of disappointment over this fact. Such a pity.

"It looks like your luck has improved, young one," she said, immediately dropping Krysira. The girl landed hard on her rear with a plop, and Dracina smiled again. "I've formed a manner of pact with our mutual friend Nocent. Both of us believe that we can bring plenty of interesting things to this city." She chortled low at this, her predatory leer only growing.

Dracina reached down and helped Krysira to her feet before continuing. "Me and her are kindred spirits of a sort, both thriving on the chaos and anarchy that we inspire. I've promised her to aid with her campaign against the Scathachians, and in return her god has bestowed me with a gift I've only dreamt of in years past." She cocked her head as she studied the girl. "You; however, seem such a strange choice for one of Nocent's playthings. But I should suspect such in her tastes."

The vampire turned her back to Krysira then. "Not very many of my nightly victims proved that they were more useful than being a meal. Do remember the night is dangerous, though. Your inability to heed the warnings of Rhy'Din's finest nearly had you listed as another missing persons case." With that, her form began to dissolve in the moonlight, falling away into a strange vaporous mist. The mist then floated down the alley and out of sight.

Dracina had left.

When Krysira finished descending the many, many stairs leading down to the sublevel of the Iron Helm Flats, it did not take her long to realize if anyone was awaiting her return. The young thief's hair was suddenly gripped by an unyielding gauntlet of crimson steel. She quickly found herself being lifted into the air by her blue-black locks..........the ungodly tension on her scalp was assuredly unbearable.

Nocent was then in her face....nose to nose........in the blink of an eye. There, in the very dim setting, the Priestess's facial expression was not the usual smooth, psychotic seductress who simply loved to butcher innocents and feast on their freshly spilt blood..........but rather it was one that was overwhelmingly twisted with fury. Indeed, a true metamorphosis had transpired.

Nocent's emerald green eyes looked almost obsidian........laced with unbound rage. Her ivory teeth clenched and were poised to tear into the startled Krysira with the impulsive force of an aggressive shark.

The strained scalp of the leggy criminal was assuredly screaming in pain under the pressured pull of Giminicka?s vice grip.

"Do you wish to ruin my Lord's magnificent magnum opus before it is complete?!", Nocent growled with an inhuman intensity. "Are you a clandestine Scathachian whore? SPEAK to me......do not waste any more of my valued time.....for your complete incompetence has possessed me even now to slice your stomach wide open and watch you die in squirming anguish!"

Nocent angrily tossed the lanky thief nearly seven feet by her strained hair and scalp......leaving a few of those afore mentioned locks behind in her gauntlet. She did not even wait until Krysira slammed against the stone wall before closing the distance between them..........a quick, discordant metal on metal sound echoed in the shadowy passage as the wrist-blade of the Anti-Scathachian warrior sprung forth and locked into position.

Giminicka roughly pulled Krysira up to her booted feet by her lapels. The dazed thief soon found the deadly tip of that cruel blade positioned right under her lifted chin.......with enough precise pressure applied to just bury the sharpened point into her young flesh. She could soon feel her own blood as it began oozing down her long neck......lapping so gently at the cleavage between those firm breasts.

Nocent?s whispered words were nearly spat forth into Krysira?s ear. ?You were followed Krysira. For all your knowledge of these winding streets and the very art of thievery.... you allowed yourself to be seen.......marked.....and followed. That self-satisfied little D?Mourir bastard was on your trail since you left the club......so what did you do? And do not say that you mischievously evaded him in the dark roads.....lead him astray.....for you did not make certain of that, did you? No.....instead you run back here to me without any means of assuring that you were not still being tailed by him......or worse, by his friends, those pretentious Scathachian whores. They are much better at stalking and tracking than you are at eluding, Krysira.?

The tip of the blade was buried a little deeper into her skin......easily biting with its finely honed point. Nocent?s eyes flashed with utter rage......and something much more inherently evil. Her enraged tone continued its assault on Krysira?s pierced ears, ?Are you deliberately trying to undermine me? Are you intentionally trying to ruin the climax of my Lord?s carefully laid plan........are you bitch? You must be.....for you sauntered right back here.......perhaps trailed by our wretched foes.

I......am.....not yet ready.......to let my hand in all of this be known........you stupid little bitch.?

The blood continued to trickle....thick and coating. Giminicka?s eyes narrowed like those of a serpent who was primed to strike. Her voice lowered, ?Perhaps.....you have it in your silly head again that you are going to try and flee RhyDin....flee from me. You sordid c**t.......there is no place on Earth you can run from me where I won?t find you. No place for you to run for ?sanctuary? where the wrath of my Lord Bhaal can not split you in half. This whimsical idea of taking flight and starting anew is a mere fantasy which you can not afford yourself the luxury of Krysira. It makes you oh so sloppy.........it makes you a great liability. As I told you quite sternly before, you impertinent idiot....................................you belong to me now.?

Giminicka?s voice now grew quite steady......controlled......her most dangerous, ?Give me one decent reason Krysira Clayborne of Guller?s Creek.....why I should not terminate our agreement and end your miserable life right now.............?

All at once she dropped Krysria to the ground......releasing her unyielding hold on the lanky thief. Giminicka towered above her, looking down upon her anxious form with an unreadable gaze.

Suddenly, the immense warrior turned her back on the visibly rattled Krysira, and took several steps away from her. Facing the dreary wall, Nocent spoke quite clearly....calmly in fact.....her eerie voice was
hollow sounding within the shadowy labyrinth beneath the desecrated IronHelm Flats.

"Krysira....I have been patient with you. Patient and trusting......why then do you cause me angst?"

Her gauntlet clenched, the iron in its composition created a grating metallic sound which lent to the unsettling atmosphere of this woeful place and its sadistic inhabitants. For surely even now, Krysira could hear the faint echoes of anguished, terror filled shrieking down here......somewhere...........somewhere.

Nocent continued slowly, "Krysira......perhaps I have asked too much of you..........too much without a tangible reward. I have given you numerous substantial responsibilities.........and you have, to your credit, helped my Lord accomplish a great many things here, thus far. Therefore.....instead of punishing you....instead of hurting you.....or simply murdering you where you lay..........I am going to.......reward you."

Giminicka slowly turned back to face the young, confused crook from Guller's Creek. Nocent's chiseled face was partially absconded by the jumping shadows which languidly slithered across the barren walls. There was no yield to her cold voice......even now.

"Tell me.......has anyone ever entrusted you with such crucial tasks as I have? Ever, in your entire unhappy life.....has anyone ever placed the faith in you which I and my cabal have done? Has anyone ever truly appreciated you or noticed you above the many others? Perhaps rewarded you for your talents? Praised you for your overlooked efforts? I know the answer Krysira. The response is plainly....no.

Today all of that changes. The great Red Wall has spoken its wise perceptions to me........the vacant voices and the rotting eyes have shown me the true way and more importantly......your destiny. Rise Krysira. Your day of respect is at long last here........you my dear, despite allowing that pestering bastard Alain D'Mourir to follow you this eve, have done well."

Giminicka closed the distance between her and the nervous pickpocket. She soothingly placed a crimson gauntlet upon Krysira's lean shoulder and gently pulled her closer to her own body as she whispered in her ear.

"No need to fear, my love. No need to run........all of those who have cheated you.........all those street rivals who seek to kill you.....all your foes......shall be painfully dealt with by me and mine. They will trouble you no more.................bloody screams and agonizing pain will haunt their recollection until they expire in a pool of their own spilt fluids. You have met my dear ally Dracina.......that undead queen of the night....and there are many others who have rallied to my calling, with frightening and devastating talents of their own. That, my love, is what having me as a friend and collaborator brings to you. Absolute peace of mind."

Peace and Nocent....who in their sane mind would even suppose that those two words would ever be uttered together?

Krysira was dropped to the ground, her hand immediately rubbed against her nearly pierced throat. The blood from Nocent's pricking knife became smeared against her long throat, though Krysira could have cared less. She was too busy listening to Nocent's strange voice and the words they carried.

Loyalty, devotion, dice, snake eyes...all droned on in the dizzy mind of the anxious thief. What Krysira's harried thoughts focused on was one striking word: protection. She had already witnessed the power of being associated with Nocent once tonight. Dracina, who by all accounts should have killed her in that back alleyway, promptly dropped her meal when she found that Krysira was working for Nocent.

A perk, most definitely.

But how many more were needed to make up for the impending and utter damnation?

Luck. Perhaps all Krysira needed was a little luck.

She slowly bent her long legs and stood by pushing back against the wall, her eyes locked on Nocent: "Do you care to defy Earthly providence......... and take the thief's chance of a lifetime?"

The thief's mouth opened, her tongue stud clicked once, but then faltered. Her voice failed her. She tried again, "I..." Good start, but more was needed. "I..." she was shaking, she couldn't control herself. It was as if something had a hold of her and was vying for her attention. Grandmother Clayborne? Nocent's God? Who could tell. "I..." she shut her eyes and drew what breath she could from her constricted lungs, trying to center herself. "I...do. I'll take that chance."

It was like a knife had split the shaking hold on her. Krysira now stood much taller, stronger, easier. Goodbye Grandmother Clayborne. Hello Hell.

The gruesome hand lay still on the grime covered floor. This ferocious canine had apparently stripped it of the majority of the overlying flesh.....in fact, one of the long fingers was gnawed off completely, leaving nothing but a pointed stub of fragmented bone jutting out from the ragged, fleshy base.

A pulsating spurt still leaked from the shredded arteries and veins which had once fed the appendage with its life-giving fluid. Chewed portions of the wrist still clung to the bloody hand despite the many puncture holes left behind in it by those destructive teeth.

Something else.
There was some unfamiliar article draped over this hand. Languidly lashed to the index finger of this severed limb was a crimson bag.......a small sack fashioned from finely woven silk. Even in the shadowy chambers beneath The IronHelm.........the silk was rich and vibrant.

The mammoth, black dog stared with demonically patient intent.

Giminicka whispered into Krysira?s ear once again, her tone both seductive and without waver, ?Go forth Krysira.....collect your priceless accolade.......and rise above the sordid weaknesses of your past. My Lord has seen your worth in this deck of many evils............and in that milieu, an ?Ace? you are suited to become.?

A long, smooth tongue lapped at Krysira?s pierced lobe.....?Welcome home my love.?