Vinyl and I exited the club together thanks to Fredric taking an unexpectedly, and fortunate, early leave. I will have to admit, I do prefer Vinyl's company over his, I mean, she isn't nearly as judging as him and actually knows how to have 'fun'. Street trash or not, she still seems like a good pony, I however, didn't much like the places where she chooses to have her fun. Right now we were walking down the side of very dark, and very intimidating, looking street, I am not afraid of the dark but I was afraid of what might be inside the dark.
"Vinyl, are you sure this is the right way?" I asked, a hint of fear on the edge of my voice.
"Huh?" I sighed.
"Do you even know where we are Vinyl?" I asked with a slightly pleading tone in my voice.
"Um,"
She took some time to look around and investigate the scenery, pretending as if it would help her considering everything looked the same around here.
"Not a clue." She said in an overly cheery tone considering the situation at hand. 'I find it quite amazing how this mare can remain happy in the seemingly worst situations' I thought to myself as I began taking a better look at our surroundings, trying to find a street sign or, if we're lucky, a cab. Soon, after about five minutes of looking, I found what I was looking for, but I couldn't make out the letters of, what I thought was, a street sign. I stared hard at the sign for a good while, but my eyes couldn't seem to focus well enough to make out the writing in the darkness of the night. 'Maybe Vinyl can see it...' I thought to myself, still attempting to make out the sign.
"Excuse me, Vinyl, but what does that sign over there say?" I said raising my hoof in the general direction of the sign.
"Huh?" She said, turning and following the direction of my hoof.
I remembered relatively quickly that Vinyl wore a pair of sunglasses over her eyes almost constantly, and not only that, but just the darkness of the night alone would give even the sharpest pair of eyes some trouble, I looked over to see Vinyl simply staring blankly at the sign, no emotion visible on her face.
"Oh, my mistake Vinyl, I forgot that you wear sung-"
"South Mane Street." I was slightly taken aback at her sudden interruption.
'Can she really read that?' I thought to myself, before I began to try and make out the sign again, but I couldn't. I tried thinking of something that might explain how she could read the sign, and then after a brief moment of thinking, I found my answer.
'Ah! Maybe, thanks to her being a vampony of sorts, she can see in the dark.' I thought while giving myself a mental pat on the back for coming to a logical conclusion so quickly.
"Oh, so you can see in the dark too?" I asked innocently.
"Nah." She said nonchalantly. 'Wha? But then how can she re-'
"B-but how can you-" I sputtered out.
"I can just read well in the dark." She said with a shrug. 'Well...at least I was somewhat right.' I shook off the event and remembered why I had asked in the first place.
"Oh yes, Vinyl, Do you know how to get back to the North District from here?" I asked, she raised a brow.
"Well, yeah but...how fast do you want to get there?" I didn't really understand her question, was there different routes or something?
"Um...well, I would like to get to bed soon, so I guess the fastest way then, but why do you ask?" I asked with a genuine tone of curiosity.
"Well you see," She inhaled slightly. "There are different ways to get back to the North side, how fast you get there obviously depends on the route you take, but, of course, there are different ways to get to the North Side. The reason I ask is because some routes are well, as you could have guessed, 'dangerous' for mares like you." I raised a brow.
"I think I can handle myself Vinyl." I stated, confident in my ability. "I have, after all, handled you twice." I added with a smirk, causing her to blush, and look down sheepishly.
"Yeah...sorry about that." She said relatively quickly. "Well...I guess you're right, maybe you can handle yourself. I am assuming you want to take the quick route then?" I nodded my head in response.
"Alright, follow me then, but stay close, things might get a bit...'weird'." I raised my brow at this, but decided not to question her and just follow advice for once and got close behind her as we began to walk.
"So how...'weird' will things get?" She didn't respond for the first few seconds, but eventually spoke up.
"Weird." The tone in her voice suggested it would be very weird, which as a result, had me subconsciously stepping a bit closer to Vinyl.
*~~~*~~~* ...Bigs... *~~~*~~~*
I scanned the street in front of me with focus, my haunches ached from my position on the roof I had been in for hours, but I ignored it, I had been told that both of my targets were on this side of town and I didn't plan on letting this opportunity slip past me. I had already upset the Master once and I didn't plan on doing it again, I had a plan to make him see how good of servant I was; I was going to bring him the one thing he wants most, Vinyl Scratch. He was practically obsessed with her, though I could never know why, the most I had got him to tell me was 'She is very powerful', the only thing that I was able to draw from previous surveillance missions was that she was a very childish, and a very clumsy, vampony.
"Hey Bigs, I think I see them over there." I turned from my position, shook from my train of thought, to face one of my lackeys, Rail Rider, who was looking down onto the street and pointing, and after following his hoof I saw it as well. There, on the street, were both my targets walking rather close to each other down South Mane. I also noticed that Miss Melody was looking around rather nervously.
'Good...now I need to know only a few more things before we act.' I thought with a smug smile.
"Go get Styles, tell him to come over here." I responded curtly and Rail nodded and began trotting along, jumping from roof top to roof top, in search of Styles. I redirected my gaze towards the two walking down the street and smacked my lips. It had been about three nights since I last fed and vamponies eventually start getting desperate that time. I pulled a small vile of blood out of the satchel bag we had brought. Though the vile's were really only snack for us, but they did the job keeping us sated for about a day. I stared at the vile for a moment before hatching an idea, a genius idea, as I heard Styles land behind me.
"You called for me sir?" He asked quietly. I lifted off of my position, stretching and cracking my limbs as I rose, and turned to face him.
"Yes, I need you to do some...'dirty work' for me." He raised his brow and gave me a confused look.
"What do you mean sir?"
"Well if you look down there," I pointed over the edge own at the two. "It's clear that Miss Melody, the gray one, is scared of something, I'm not sure what though, but Vinyl seems to be taking the lead out of the two, so she must be leading Miss Melody somewhere. If my guess is right than it is most likely to her home on the North Side. Since we know Miss Melodies background we can assume that Miss Melody doesn't know the layout of this side of town." I explained quickly as we were losing ground on the targets.
"Your job is to take this," I tossed the vial over to him.
"I used them for snacks so I wouldn't get desperate around civilians, but I know Vinyl hasn't drawn and drained blood for at least the past few weeks now, I could practically smell how dry she was just before she fired me from the club." I explained.
When a vampony doesn't drink for weeks at a time they will actually get over a majority of the blood lust after getting past an extensive urge, but there is always some there, we call vamponies in this type of state 'Deprived'. However, the draw back of having an extremely reduced urge for blood is that the slightest amount of blood can send them back over the edge, even just a nose bleed can send them into a full blown frenzy. I was honestly surprised when Vinyl was able to hold herself back from the corpse in the alleyway back when she fired me, she must of had urges lasting for at least a few days after that.
The thing that makes being 'Deprived' so dangerous is how expendable and exploitable the pony themselves become. Since they haven't drained in weeks, maybe months, it would take a much larger feeding to satisfy their urge, meaning we could use this exploit on Vinyl multiple times if need be. Another thing was the suggestibility that came with it, that is, if you could manage to get them to listen, one of the main reasons we chose the term "Deprived" was from how desperate vamponies would become when the got a taste, or even a whiff, of blood. Another change is the pony's demeanor and attitude, some become lustful and attempt to seduce their pray to feed while others are aggressive and simply force the feeding. It's actually very similar to a drug addiction in a sense, if you can get them to accept an offer where you supply them blood, they would do almost anything for you; we call such agreements 'Blood Contracts'.
"You're going to take the vial of blood and empty it on her, send Vinyl into a frenzy in front Miss Melody in hopes that it will separate the two." I finished explaining with a devious smile.
He nodded in understanding before setting off to complete the task, the vile of blood in his mouth. As much of a desperate, and genius, plan it was, it was a plan nonetheless and I had a feeling I would want to see the results it produced. If Vinyl was attached enough to Miss Melody, or the other way around, we might be able to use that against her, maybe use one as bait for luring the other places, though we were really only after Vinyl
'The Master will forgive me if I bring him Vinyl alive...' I thought to myself, a wicked smile growing on my face as I complemented myself on my stroke of genius.
'I'll get her, I thought 'and then the Master will finally see how important I am...'
*~~~*~~~*...Octavia...*~~~*~~~*
"So what goes actually goes on around these parts anyways?" I asked Vinyl.
"Huh? Oh, well usually it's just ponies getting drugged or drug deals really, not much else." She said casually.
"So what about the murders?" Vinyl stopped abruptly and turned around, giving me a funny look and after a few moments she spoke up.
"Octavia, why would somepony murder another when they could just get buzzed instead?"
"Well, because..." Now that I honestly thought about Vinyl's statement, I couldn't think of any reasons, it actually made a lot of sense in way. Why would they kill somepony else when they could just use some ungodly narcotic to go fly with dragons in their own little demented world?
"I...I honestly don't know, I had just been told that those kinds of things happen down here" She brightened up at my answer.
"Being told and being shown something are two different things, but one is certainly more factual than the other, you however, decide which is which." I was never used to hearing this much sense and philosophy come out of her mouth, so I was slightly taken aback by the statement.
"That's...very true actually." I admitted, still trying to get over how much sense she made.
"Exactly! Now you know why the night life is so big around here." She said while waving her hoof around. "Ponies come down here to relieve there problems with a trip. I never really wanted to do those types of things, but the thought has come up." I wasn't really shocked at the revelation, I mean, everypony has their curiosities right? Thrills they want to satisfy.
"Hey, so would you-" Vinyl began before being hit on the head by an object that shattered, sounding similar to glass.
"Ow!" She yelped as she stuttered back, causing me to back away and let her thump onto the ground. After I calmed myself from the initial scare of the sudden sound of breaking glass, I closed the distance between us, to try and get a better look, and to see if she was okay.
"Vinyl, are you okay?" I asked with concern for both my friend and my escort. She didn't respond, in fact, she didn't even move for the longest while, and when she finally did move, it was only an ear flick at first and then the raising of her hoof to her head. She seemed to scrape it along her mane repeatedly and then move it back down about chest height, but continued to hold it up, I saw her head tilt slightly towards her hoof, as if she were looking at it. I was beginning to grow worried over her lack of reaction and movement so I decided to give her a small tap.
"Vinyl? Is something wrong?" I asked, concern heavy in my voice.
She didn't respond but I could feel her body tense up when I tapped her. She lifted her hoof up slowly, I still couldn't see what was on it, if something was on it, but I could see that she was now sniffing it closely. She was acting strange, and it was starting to scare me now, maybe if I asked nicely.
"Vinyl? Say something...please?" I moved my hoof up to her once more, with the intention of tapping her again. As I moved in to make contact my hoof stopped abruptly, I looked down to see it caught by a haze of a deep blue aura. I pulled back from the aura, to my surprise the aura's hold was relatively weak so my hoof escaped with ease. I looked up to find Vinyl moving onto her haunches with small glistens of sweat being reflected by the dull street lamp behind us.
"V-Vinyl?" I stuttered.
"...Octavia?" Her tone sounded unsure, and somewhat wanting, as if she hoped it was me.
My eyes went wide as it finally clicked in my head and I started backing away from Vinyl. I backed away slowly but surely, that is, until I felt my front hoof touched something cold that began to roll but crunched halfway through a single rotation, causing me to fall down. I looked down to see that I had inevitably tripped on a glass bottle that shattered under the weight of my front hoof. Though the majority the glass shards didn't cut me, one shard however, did manage to draw blood from my front hoof. I got up, with some effort, but kept my injured front hoof hovering off the ground, I tried placing it down but found that it hurt to much to really make any long distances without having to take a break from the pain. I decided, with my better judgment, to just keep it off the ground, even thought it limited my mobility quite a bit.
I heard rustling in front of me and looked up to see that Vinyl was starting to pick herself off the ground, with a dull expression on her face. I turned away from her and began to limp away, keeping my head turned slightly over my shoulder to keep an eye on her. She was making no move to follow me so I deemed it safe to face forwards, as I turned my head in front of me I found a bone chilling sight, specifically I found Vinyl in front of me, just a few feet away from me. Whether it was from the surprise and fear from seeing Vinyl now in front of me or just from seeing that something was blocking my path, I stopped. As soon as I halted my movement, Vinyl began hers, closing in slowly but already only a couple of feet away. I started steeping away but tripped over my own legs like a foal, landing on my rump with a yelp.
"Octavia..." She said with a smile growing on her face.
"V-Vinyl...p-please...s-stop?" I asked quietly, a tear starting to swell in my eye for a reason unknown to me.
I could still hear her steps growing closer until they stopped, I peeked open an eye to find her staring at me, an expressionless look on her face. She lifted one of her front hoofs up and clenched my eyes shut tight once again, expecting pain. To my surprise, only a little pain came, and it was from Vinyl lifting my hoof up closer to herself, I reopened my eyes to find her sniffing my injured hoof intently, like a dog sniffing a bush.
"I think I can help...now that you're playing right." She said in the same lustful voice she used in our last encounters when she wanted to suck my blood.
She lit her horn up and I felt an intense pain come from my hoof, causing me to scream out. Though the pain, and screaming, only lasted a few seconds, the relief that came soon after felt wonderful. I saw that Miss Scratch had removed the shard of glass lodged in my hoof and gave it a thorough lick before discarding it to the side, however, there was now a larger, more fluent, stream of blood coming from my hoof.
"Oh...you really do taste wonderful Octi. She cooed before giving my hoof a long, through lick, sending shivers down my spine.
"V-vinyl....please... sto-" My protest was cut short by a hoof pressing lightly over my lips, soon after, Vinyl was now face to face with me.
"Shhh...Not this time Octi..." She held her seductive tone, but but a sternness on the back of it, I started to use my free hoof, in an attempt to remove her hoof from my face, but it was soon strapped back down with a blue aura.
"No tricks this time Octi." She teased before removing her hoof from my mouth.
"Vinyl...this....this isn't yo-" She cut my protest short with her own lips, sending my eyes wide. At first I struggled, but deemed it useless and eventually just gave up. I couldn't believe it, my first kiss was not only from a mare, not only from a vampony, but it was from Vinyl and it felt...good, I think. Her lips were so soft as they grazed my own for the brief kiss she gave me. I most certainly am not a fillyfooler but something about her kiss was, well, good. She lifted her glasses off her face, revealing her hypnotizing, lust filled scarlet eyes that seemed to stare straight through me.
"Are you ready, Octi?"