Alpha Dog

Karma followed her nose.

It had become one of her favorite passtimes, following her nose that is, and it had led her to many a discovery, on of them being the entrance to certain tunnels in Azorat that she'd never heard of, or seen. Nightmare was actually with her, for once, and at her heels, vocalizing her displeasure at their location.

"What? You decide to come back after months of MIA and just expect me to listen to you? Are you insane?" The cat mrrowed in disbelief, but followed the young almost-sixteen year old deeper into the tunnels, sniffing the scent of Vampires and following it.

Karma was starting to get fed up with Humans, and she had no better place to go... might as well see how the other half lived.

Ethon was in a bit of a rush. He had managed to acquire some rather hard to come by information: Djinn had been banished from hell.

He had known, of course, when something had changed with Djinn. The brand on his shoulder and his brother's neck had suddenly faded to shiny white scar tissue several months back, and the demon was nowhere to be found. It was amazing how tight-lipped demons could be, and unsettling at how many of them showed fear, almost reverence, for the now earthbound First Demon. Satan would have stripped the creature of his power, though - how intimidating could he be?

Intent on relaying the information to Aurmerle, Ethon wasn't wholly paying attention to his surroundings. He had to sidestep another at the last minute as he belatedly took notice of their presence.

"My apolog -" Ethon began, only to break off in surprise. "Karma? What are you doing here?"

Karma cocked her head to the side slightly, slightly shifting out of the way as another person sped past her, only to stop and regard the person who stood before her. Ethon.

"Oh. Hey." She greeted. She glanced down at the cat, who was now licking her paw in a most disinterested fashion, before raising her eyes to his. She looked around her, as if just realizing where she was, before shrugging. "I dunno. I was just... wandering." She shrugged. "The place reeks of Vamps."

Nightmare, now content that her paw was clean, decided it was best to rub against Ethon's legs and purr. Karma's eyes returned to the familiar, and she raised an eyebrow. "I actually had something to ask you." She said, glancing back up at Ethon through her lashes. "If you aren't busy."

"That might be because it is a vampire coven," Ethon replied slowly, eying her speculatively. He looked down at the cat. Crouching down, he stroked along her spine, soothing the dark fur.

Standing again, he regarded her calmly. "I suppose I have a moment," he said. Somehow, his regard of her had shifted. Now, she seemed but a child again, just as she well and truly was. He blamed Djinn that he had ever confused his desire to protect her with anything else.

"This is not the safest of places, in any case," Ethon continued. "Ask your question, milady, and I shall answer it best I can. Then, I shall take you back to where you belong."

"What are you doing in a Vampire lair, then?" She asked curiously.

"Do you by any chance know how to Mark and unMark people?" She asked. She was just full of questions, wasn't she? But he was the only adult she knew well enough to ask, even if she didn't know him that well at all. "Or... Claim and unClaim them?"

She had to hold back a laugh. Where she belonged? "And where, pray tell, is that?"

Ethon gave a quiet laugh. "In a sense, this is where I belong," he responded, gazing moving along the walls of the tunnel. It was certainly where Aurmerle thought he belonged, and when Vi was here, even Ethon thought it might be his place.

His attention snapped back to her abruptly, his expression turning reproving. "And just who have you been Claiming?" the man demanded. "That isn't something you go about doing at a whim - it can have very serious repercussions, Karma Black.

"With Djinnson, I'd presume," Ethon said, with a quiet sigh. "Or at the school, perhaps. I suppose, maybe, I just envision you elsewhere. You're still young, milady, and this isn't exactly the friendliest locality."

Karma cocked her head to the side. "What ties do you have with this place?"

She blinked, then bristled. "Don't call me that." She snapped, before she was looking at the ground again. "I've just claimed people who don't want to be claimed anymore." She toed the ground with her shoe, her mind going down the list of all the people Kama had claimed... and all the people she still wanted to. "It's not like I knew what it was."

"Nowhere is friendly locality for a half-vampire." She said, her voice betraying a bitterness she felt more often then not. "I'll just disappear off until its time to go to school again, so people are sure I still exist."

"My brother is here," Ethon replied simply, which was only part of the reason.

"Then what shall I call you, then?" he demanded sharply, for once seeming far more a being of authority than a soft-spoken gentleman. "That is your name, after all, daughter of Black."

He pressed his fingers against his temples, rubbing several small circles before letting out a sigh. "It can be undone, and yes, I know how."

Ethon gazed at her a long moment. So much she ought to have known, but who did she have to instruct her? No one. And he was at least part to blame for that, at least, recently.

"Halflings will always seem an oddity," he said finally. "They don't smell right. They're not technically vampires, due to the fact they're actually living. And most of all, few realize they're even possible. I imagine, however, you may find greater acceptance among the blood-bound than the rest of mortal kind."

He drew in a deep breath, then froze, eyes settling on her intently. "Your scent is off."

"Oh." She said, her voice dropping. Family. Everyone had one of those, she supposed. Even Arsen.

She glared up at him. "Karma." She said. "My name is Karma."

She perked up noticeably. "How?" she asked. "Can you teach me?"

"So Vampires are more accepting then humans. That or they'll decide to kill me. Good to know." She nodded, and a slight smirk flashed across her face.

"More than usual, you mean?" She asked, the corner of her mouth twitching. "Don't suppose you could tell me what I smell like, then?" She looked at him, actually looked at him, and rather than be alarmed, as she expected to be, she recessed, drastically, her eyes darkening and the grin turning hungry. Well, she couldn't stay locked up forever could she? She visably relaxed, rolling her head on her neck and sighing. She felt better already.

He gave a soft laugh at her continued insolence. It was... amusing. Those who knew who he was - who he really was - seldom treated him as an equal. Granted, there was good reason they did not.

"They will not harm you," Ethon intoned, certainty in his voice, as though he expected obedience in the matter.

"I would not remark on it were that not the case," he stated, a lip curling back slightly. "Your scent - the way that you smell - is off." Ethon narrowed his eyes on the girl. "Put your primary back in charge."

"Of course they won't, Ethon. When have you ever let me get hurt?" She cooed, obviously mocking him. There was the last time, for instance. When she'd had to heal the girl herself.

"Ooh, I'm smelling different." She lifted her forearm to her nose and sniffed. "Smell the same to me." She decided, dark eyes glinting.

"Now that's not fair. How do you know I'm not the primary, and she's the other one?" She yawned. "And who says she's ever really in charge?" She examined her nails, looking bored. "I need air time too, you know. I can't just be stuck inside healing all hours for months on end. People go crazy that way."

"I've neither omniscience nor omnipresence. I can control only that within my control. Of that, you are not doubt well aware."

Ethon gazed at her placidly, refusing to be baited by her. "It's simple," he replied. "Alternates exist to protect the primary. You can either put her back in charge, or leave."

Kama gazed at him, before shrugging, acting all the while as if leaving had been her intention anyway. "Eh. I have to heal her anyway. Can't have her running around draining half the town without a proper stomach."

With that, her eyes lightened, and she staggered slighly before shaking her head. Now she had a headache. Thanks for that, Kam.

She glanced back up at Ethon. "Did you ever say what I smelled like?" she asked warily. "Or was I supposed to just leave?" She rested against the wall and sank down to the floor, not caring about how clean the floor could be. She was exhausted. Switching back and forth was really taxing on her strength.

Ethon waited impassively until the other had receded again. Then, he immediately stepped forward, extending an arm for her to grab if needed.

"Are you quite alright, milady?" he asked.

Blue-grey eyes gazed back. "Vampires have a very distinct scent. The scent of each individual is unique to all others," he took a seat beside her, one knee bent. "You, being part-vampire and part-human, have a scent that is somewhere in-between - neither quite vampire, nor entirely human. It's... odd. Distinct." Ethon sat quietly for moment, gaze on the opposite wall of the tunnel.

"Karma," the man asked, turning to look at her once more, "what really happened to you, that day? There is something the matter, is there not?"

"I'm fine." She murmured. "Just tired. Healing takes a lot of energy." As did switching, which Kama should have recognized by now.

Karma bit her bottom lip, her eyes staying decidedly away from him. "So I smell different from the others..." she peiced it together slower than she usually would have, her exhaustion starting to affect her brain power. "...but now I don't even smell like myself?"

She sighed, the sound long, drawn out, and tired. "I was attacked." She was almost sick and tired of telling this story, getting the same reaction all three times. "They had these guns, special, smelled weird. Rapid fired it right through my front door and ..." Nightmare placed herself in Karma's lap, and she yawned as she scratched her cat's ears. Her arm had unconsciously wrapped around her stomach, but her eyes stayed down. Her voice was almost nonexistent when she murmured "Shot me."

"Happened to Arsen once." She yawned wider, and started to drift. "His eyes were blue again."

She slumped against the wall, almost completely asleep now. "Two in the stomach... couldn't digest... blood..." she gave a half-hearted shrug. "...No blood... No energy... no healing... No blood..." She murmured, behind another yawn. She curled her body toward his, seeking his body heat. "But nothing is the matter...I'm... fine..." her eyes slid closed and this time they did not reopen. "Five minutes." She suggested, but she heard no answer. She reached for him, and then she was gone, asleep, breathing softly.

"A person's scent doesn't usually change so much without reason," Ethon stated quietly.

He watched as she drifted, a faint frown pulling at his lips. The man sighed as she leaned against him, slumber overtaking her.

"Ah, child," he murmured, slipping easily into the old language. "This is precisely why mortals should not be so underestimated. Given enough time, nothing shall be beyond their ken."

Shifting, Ethon took her into his arms and stood. Walking further into the lair, he found an unoccupied room and laid her on the bed. And then, he went to find his brother.

Kama woke first.

Ususally, in a bond like theirs, if one woke, so did the other, but Karma was exhausted, and so Kama took over. She let her other half; what the Djinn-mask had called her Primary, sleep. She'd need the rest.

Kama slid off the bed, sniffing it. It smelled like Vampire. Someone else had used this bed, long ago by Karma's standards, but not that long ago by the rest of theirs.

Stepping out into the cool air of the tunnels once more, Kama grinned. She glanced down at her right hand, where the ring lay on her index finger. She didn't say a word.

Silent as a shadow, she moved further into the coven, determined to investigate.