not right [sangsue]

[{ Sydonia]

behind my eyes
on the back of my mind

Sydonia had woke up a few hours ago in complete amnesia. She was hurting, she was tired, and she really just wanted to go home. So naturally, that's where she first headed. She had realized that she was in the forests next to the cliffs, somewhere near where she had been hunting the day and night before. It was only the second time she had been out since she had gotten back after the whole ordeal with the blood. Only the second fucking time. She was going to go back, and never come out of that palace again.

But something didn't feel right, immediately after she woke up. There was a sharp burning sensation in her shoulder, different than what a normal wound feels like. She had had many wounds before, and they never felt like that. Perhaps it was infected. That was the thought that her mind seemed to settle on. Yes, it was just infected. There was nothing wrong. As she limped across the field, she inspected herself for wounds. Her leg and ankle seemed messed up more than the rest of her limbs, though there were only minor cuts on it. However, it was swollen and seemed to be gaining a darker shade of redish purple every time she checked it. She couldn't really see where the wound was on her shoulder that burned in an odd way, but she supposed it was just an animal bite of some sort. Those fuckers always had some sort of bacteria in their saliva.

As she made her way back, slowly but surely, the burning sensation in her shoulder began to spread. It went all the way down her right arm, making her right hand virtually useless to her, as it was hard to move. She didn't know what the hell it was, but it seemed to be infecting her whole body. She noticed that she was hot, even though when she went to wipe sweat off her face, her skin was cold. Was she overheating? That seemed unlikely. It was the middle of the night, as the moon was in the center of the sky and didn't seem to be going anywhere fast. The closer she got to home, the harder it was to move. She couldn't seem to catch her breath, and she felt dizzy. She just needed to get there...

By the time Sydonia reached the city, some of her memory from that evening began to slowly come back to her, in bits and pieces. She recalled it getting dark, and her laying down under the moon. She remembered feeling peaceful looking at the moon, but feeling somewhat uneasy. She felt like she was being watched. She tried to remember further, but her memory was just black after that. Perhaps she would remember in time, but right now she had to be focused on her goal. Or else she wouldn't get home. Every step she took caused a sharp pain to shoot up her left leg from her ankle, and the burning sensation was now spread to where her heart was. She could feel her heart beat hard in her throat, hear it in her ears, and swell in her fingertips.

She couldn't tell now, but she was getting rather pale as blood drained from her skin to be pushed elsewhere. Her body was working hard to keep her moving, and her will was dwindling. But she was so close, she could almost smell it. Her wounds had long stopped bleeding by now, but she could feel that they were still painfully open and vulnerable. She couldn't see herself, but her pupils were dilated dangerously wide, taking in all light around her. She hissed and shied away from a street lamp when she turned a corner, and almost was downed by the sharp pounding in her head that thumped in time with her heartbeat. Fast and hard. And painful.

Sydonia's eyes widened with familiarity and longing at the sight of her palace, and she tried to go just a little bit faster than she was currently going. But that caused her just a little bit more pain than she was currently experiencing. The burning sensation had spread to her other arm now, and was creeping down her torso. She could feel it up her neck as well, but not at the same fast pace. She didn't notice, but her skin was icy and clammy to the touch. She approached the few steps to the doors of the palace. And these stairs were going to kill her. She carefully maneuvered up them, and just as she opened the large doors, she spilled onto the marble floors in a heap of blood and tears and sweat. Her breathing quickened, and she was starting to hyperventilate as the guards just inside rushed to her aid.

[~Sangsue~]

Sangsue folded a blanket around a little tube of striped brown fur, curled up in a ball. Mou had finally tired himself out and had resigned to sleep instead of running all over the room, which the vampire was thankful for. He had been driving her nuts all day while she had been trying to get paperwork done. This city didn’t run itself, not by a long shot. And with Sydonia’s recent incident, more responsibility than usual fell to her. It hadn’t really improved since the werewolf had returned home, and things were getting a little out of control. To top it all off, everyone and their mother seemed to have a complaint, or an issue they couldn’t fix by themselves, or for some reason just couldn’t keep themselves out of trouble, and felt the need to barge in to the palace to save their own skins. She had little care for their lives, because if they were stupid enough to get hurt, then that was their problem. But Sang wasn’t about to complain to her friend to split the workload again, because she knew that Sydonia was still very torn up about the events of that night. She wasn’t so overworked that she would trouble her friend now. Maybe a couple more weeks.

But speaking of Sydonia, Sang also now had time to worry about her. The werewolf had spent most of her time in the vampires company since coming home, but Sang had barely seen her all day. In fact, the vampire couldn’t recall seeing the other after breakfast. Perhaps she had gone out? That would be a good sign. A sign that she was healing, and returning to normal routines, abandoning the personality that basically rendered her a shell filled with sorrow. Even so, she shouldn’t have jumped so quickly from seclusion to all-day outings. That probably wasn’t a good idea. But even so, there was hardly anything the woman could do about it. Sydonia was pretty much untrackable, a fact which had been proven every day for a few weeks when she had run away. She would simply have to wait for Syd to come back. Hopefully, she would. So with resignation, Sangsue sat down at her mahogany desk, gathering the papers scattered by ferret feet in to a neat pile and grabbing a pen to try and make a dent in them.

Five minutes later, and sang had only gotten through half a page. She stared at each word blankly, taking a ridiculous amount of time just to read one sentence. Apparently, she was much more tired than she had realized. Which was odd. The woman rarely ever felt fatigued when the down was down. Maybe she was just getting hungry. She hadn’t been out to feed in a few nights, and had been up and about tending to things an unusual amount recently. She had to personally see to things that should have been taken care of by the appointed officials, but everyone seemed to be having problems lately. Just last week, six cows had gone missing from the ranch. They had been found halfway up the mountain, slaughtered and drained. Renegade vampires no doubt. But they hadn’t been stupid enough to enter the city, so chances were that they weren’t just passing through. And then for some reason, at least four of the humans in higher positions had just up and quit their jobs. It seemed as if the entire valley was just trying to make her life more difficult. None of them realize how much work it takes to keep an independent city alive in the middle of nowhere. And she didn’t trust anyone else to do it.

Fortunately, her train of thought was derailed, keeping her from descending in to a pool of self-pity in which to wallow. Unfortunately, it because of a huge commotion downstairs. ”Oh, what NOW? Sangsue said out loud to herself, getting up in a flurry with a huff. How many times a day did people feel the need to burst in through the front doors and add one more thing for her to fix? This wasn’t human resources, guys. Fix your own damn problems. But she couldn’t ignore it, because someone would come get her sooner or later, so the vampire didn’t waste time and just flitted down there herself, stopping before she reached the grand staircase to peek her head around the corner wearily. Thankfully, there wasn’t a huge dragoness rampaging through her halls, or a cat scurrying around for his life, or even a dying phantom. In fact, she couldn’t really see what it was. All Sang could see was a crowd of guards in a circle around something, and a doctor pushing his way through. Irritation played at the corner of her mouth, tugging her lips in to a frown of annoyance, but she descended anyway to see what it is, not even thinking that it might be someone she would actually care about.

The vampire reached the crowd, waving one of the guards aside to peer in the center at the body collapsed face down on the floor. She recognized the stocky figure and the shock of chocolaty brown hair spilled out across the marble surface. A bolt of panic shot through Sangsue, and she pushed away everyone within five feet of her person to rush to the aid of her best friend. The doctor was also in panic, fidgeting around because sang wouldn’t let him tend to his ruler, but respecting the vampire’s orders. Sydonia was not unconscious, which was a good sign. But the state she was in said that she might get there quickly, if for nothing more than improper breathing. Strangely, her wounds were covered in dry blood, but they streamed no fresh fluid. The fabric on her shoulder was ripped, but the wound was not easily visible. There were cuts on her leg, and it was very swollen and discolored. They must have been there for a while, then, but that would result in passing out from blood loss. Yet here she was. This was very strange, and the vampire finally let the uneasy physician rush to the werewolf’s aide to find out what exactly had happened. She knew a thing or two about injuries, but wouldn’t place her judgment over that of a professional. He too, seemed befuddled, though, and resigned to standing by because there wasn’t anything for him to do.

With the threat of immediate danger out of the way, Sangsue was able to let her breathing regulate itself and bark out a command. “Infirmiry.” She stated simply, but the one word was clear enough that everyone immediately stood up and started scrambling to get there quickly enough. The two closest guards made a move to pick up the wounded woman, but Sang hissed at them and swatted them away. Once they had bowed and scurried off, she turned her friend face up and slipped slender arms under the sturdy yet limp body, rising and walking briskly to the appropriate place. Upon reaching the crowded white room, the vampire laid Sydonia down gingerly on the nearest hospital bed. The woman was still awake, but appeared to be in a great deal of pain, and Sang guessed that she wouldn’t be very talkative until the pain was subdued and the wounds healed. The poor thing just couldn’t seem to stop running in to traumatizing situations.

Sangsue’s vision and voice were clouded with worry, and had eyes only for the mess laying in front of her. The doctor had started dressing the dried wounds, but she hardly noticed. ”Syd, honey, are you okay?” She asked gently, giving the woman’s hand a gentle squeeze.

[{ Sydonia]

behind my eyes
on the back of my mind

She had finally made it. She was on the floor and nearly unconscious, but Sydonia made it. She was home. And now everything would be okay. She just needed to recall what exactly had happened... She was feverish though, and could only make out a blur of guards and doctors around her, all the sound and commotion fading out behind the swift pumping of her heart. Her head hurt, and the light inside wasn't making it any better. All the noise was just too loud, and she just hurt too much, and the burning was just too intense. If she would have had the energy, she would have screamed by now. But instead, all she could muster was a short whimper.

But then, everything and everyone seemed to stop. Everyone seemed to grow quiet, and a single person split the crowd. Sydonia's acute sense of smell, even in her ill state, recognized exactly who it was. And even though no one could see, she smiled just the tiniest bit. She truly believed that she would be okay. She had made it all this way just for Sangsue. Just for her. So when the vampire that was so familiar to her turned her gently over to pick her up, Syd tried to explain, tried to give Sang the story of what happened; something that was just now coming back to her. Bits and pieces. Blurs and colors. She tried to put them together with words, but all that came out was a series of unintelligable mumbling.

The infirmary was even worse than the main lobby. Everything was white, reflecting the light harshly into Sydonia's dilated pupils. She hissed and squirmed when she entered the room, weakly trying to raise an arm over her eyes. But the doctors quickly tore her arm away to patch it up. And the dressings that they were putting on her ankle really stung. She noticed that Sangsue had taken her other hand, and Syd slowly shifted her gaze to the vampire's face. Syd, honey, are you okay? No, she was not okay. The burning was getting more intense. Her heart was so loud. Couldn't Sang feel how cold and clammy she was? Something was wrong! She wanted to scream this. It was not just an infection. There was something terribly wrong. "Burning..!" she whined, writhing slightly on the bed as the burning reached her injured ankle. The intensity of the pain was almost too much.

And suddenly, she remembered. It all came rushing back to her at a speed which shouldn't be possible. The teeth, the claws, the fur. They had ambushed her while she was laying underneath the moon. They had tried to murder her in the presence of her Mother... There were roughly six of them. She'd taken down two, but they ran away... She knew instantly what the burning sensation in her entire body was now, and among all of the things that were going on, for the first time that night, Sydonia started to weep. Small sobs racked her body as she squeezed Sangsue's hand, and tears ran down her unnaturally pale face. She looked up at the other leader with her tearstained dilated pupils. "Vampires..." she said softly, almost inaudible. "They bit me."

[~Sangsue~]

Sangsue breathed a sigh of partial relief as Sydonia calmed her own breathing and retained consciousness. If she didn’t pass out, then things would most likely be alright. Most likely. But then again, anything that could do this to such a strong fighter could not bode well. Not well at all. Even if it had been a surprise attack, every human and inhuman in the valley knew the faces of the two sovereigns, and none would dare chance an assault on her. And no animal could cause this. Something foreign was definitely roaming around here, and it had to be dealt with. Next time, it could be much worse. Stuck in this train of thought, Sang had lost focus on the goings-on around her, but was snapped back harshly as Sydonia uttered a word, and squirmed in emphasis. But that didn’t make sense. Burning? The werewolf had no burns on her, and now that she thought about it, the vampire noticed that the hand she held was almost as cold as her own, something that she should have noticed right away, because everything was warmer than the vampire’s skin.

A renewed wave of panic and worry washed over the woman, and her gaze instantly became cold and calculating. Something was very, very odd here; these were not normal wounds. Concern still clouded her mind, but she pushed it to the back as she attempted to form a conclusion. But a few seconds later, one was handed right to her from the mouth of the woman on the table in front of her. ”Vampires. They bit me.” The words echoed in Sangsue’s mind as she froze in place, mouth hanging open in terror. That would cause the burning. Her skin, cold. Sydonia was changing rapidly, and already the vampire knew there wasn’t a thing that could be done for her now. Sure, she would try. But in the end, Syd was now doubly cursed as a hybrid. And would remain so for the rest of her life. Sang’s body had shut down out of pure shock, and if not for stiffened muscles she would have fainted right then and there. But Sydonia was in a great deal of pain, and the only thing the vampire could do was coax her through it.

But her calm suddenly broke, and she tore the doctor away from the wound he was dressing on the werewolf’s shoulder, ripping off the bandages that had already been put down as well as the fabric of her now ruined shirt. In the skin was the unmistakable bite mark, with extremely prevalent fang holes. The venom had been injected here. It would have been better if it had been her leg, or maybe even one of her arms. But there was a chance this shoulder might be permanently damaged now, and it traveled to the heart and through the body so much faster from this point. Sydonia had been doomed before she even made it home, maybe before she even woke back up. Sangsue was almost at her wits end, and screamed for everyone to leave. Now. The room emptied quickly, and she returned to her friend’s side. Now wasn’t the time to freak out, Sydonia would be doing enough of that for the both of them. But sangsue didn’t know what to say. There was no comfort she could provide, no treatment she could administer. Syd knew as well as she the fate that rushed at her now, and there was nothing to be said for it. So she drew up a chair and rested, holding the woman’s hand firmly in her own and maintaining eye contact with the woman. She couldn’t even offer painkillers. It wouldn’t work, not for this. It would be a long night from here.

[{ Sydonia]

behind my eyes
on the back of my mind

Sydonia knew as soon as the words had left her mouth. She had known before that. She dreaded the face that she was receiving from the other leader now, one of terror and shock. Syd didn't fight the tears when the clouded her vision. She just wanted the pain to stop. She didn't want to see her friend so devastated, so lost. If anyone should be more of those things than Sangsue it was Sydonia herself, but she was still in light shock of what she was remembering. The fact that she was changing as the burning spread through her entire body didn't really hit her as hard as it should have been hitting her. Not yet at least. But when Sangsue jumped up to rip a bandage off of her shoulder, that helped a little bit.

Sydonia didn't know what Sangsue saw there, but she could imagine what it looked like. It probably wasn't a glorious wound or anything, because she didn't feel it bleeding all that much when she woke a few hours ago. It was most likely just two simple fang holes. Two small puncture wounds that would doom Sydonia forever. When the vampire screamed for everyone to leave, the werewolf on the bed winced and sobbed audibly. The last thing she wanted was for her best friend to feel frustrated and pressured. She just needed her to stay calm so that she could get through this. Her ankle felt like it was literally being sawn off, and as the burning reached her toes, the sensation started to slowly creep up her neck.

The werewolf was just the slightest bit relieved when Sang returned to her and took her hand once again. Sydonia was whimpering every once in a while now, as it felt like her throat was restricting, and sound was the only way she could breathe. She squeezed her friends hand with every wave of pain that was sent through her. She really just wanted to scream, but she knew that would probably not help anything. Besides, she didn't exactly have the energy to. She just felt so hot, even though her body itself was growing icy. As Syd tried her hardest to maintain eye contact with the vampire at her side, her eyes started a gradual change from light grey to red.

This went on for a few more hours, and there were times when Sydonia just truly couldn't breathe, so she would wail loudly and shake, her body going into convulsions from the rapid changes her body was making. This was by far the worst pain she had ever felt. "I'm sorry..." she once mumbled to Sangsue. But about halfway into the few hours, the burning actually started to numb her body, so her whimpering was growing small, almost inaudible. When the burning had engulfed its way all the way around the werewolf's face and over the top of her head, it started to fade from there. The intensity of it didn't get any further after that. Sydonia's breathing slowly became steady, and she lost consciousness as she slipped into a finally painless sleep.

-----

Around an hour later, Sydonia awoke abruptly to a painful wrenching in her stomach. It was nothing like she'd ever felt before. It was somewhere between harsh pain and harsh desperation. She growled and sat up suddenly, startling the doctors around her. Seemed the other leader had allowed them to come in and bandage her up while she was sleeping. Syd caught one of them in the eye, and she instantly caught the smell of this person. Obviously not human, but still enough to make her... she didn't even know. But she didn't have time to think about it before she lunged off of the bed and latched onto his neck.

The doctors and assistants scattered around her and her victim, as the doctor struggled away with a severe wound to the neck. Sydonia lunged once again before the doctor could even assess himself, as the taste of blood was all she needed right now. She couldn't even think. She was just desperate.

[~Sangsue~]

Sangsue could see that her mini freakout had caused her friend stress, and that wouldn’t make this any easier for her. So with some effort, the vampire put on a calm facade, trying to look as supportive and comforting as possible. Her face became a mask of stone, but it was impossible not to conceal the worry burning in her eyes. Nevertheless, she kept eye contact with Sydonia, showing that she was there for everything. But swirling around her mind were thoughts filled with panic. What was Sydonia going to do? It was hard enough being a vampire or a werewolf alone, but a hybrid? She couldn’t imagine it. They were like, the two hardest races to live with. Both brought bloodlust, cravings, urges, and a temper. Sydonia would soon experience both of things in double, and Sangsue couldn’t even imagine how she would get through it. There was a great possibility that she would end up hurting someone early on, and if history was any indication, that would lead her to run away again. But that was the worst thing she could do. On her own, she would be driven mad trying to accustom herself to the new lifestyle, and would most likely spend her nights in slaughter. No, the best thing she could do would be to stay at the palace, where Sang could help her through it. Here, there would be a regular supply of blood. And the vampire could tell her how to control herself easier.

As she ran through all of this, she forced herself to keep half her mind focused on the woman on the bed. Syd spent hours whimpering, and the vampire imagined that the time must seem truly endless for her. She understood the pain. The changing. Sure, it hadn’t happened as fast, since she was natural, but it still came around every once in a while. In the beginning, she remembered random, intense waves of pain, which would make her break out in cold sweats, and she would double over and clutch her stomach, grinding her teeth together to keep from screaming. The entire process spread over a few years, with incidents usually few and far between. But for the entire process to burn through the body in less than twenty four hours? It could theoretically kill a person. And the woman had primarily seen it make someone wish for death. Some had even killed themselves before the process was over. She didn’t want that for Sydonia. She felt so bad.

After a little while, Sang saw the first physical change. Eye color. Syd probably couldn’t notice, but instead of the warm grey they normally were, her eyes had faded to a deep, rich red. Sure, once she got some blood in her, they would return to their natural color. But that would take a lot for the first meal. And even so, her eyes might remain that horrific color for a few days, or maybe even until she became stabilized. Since it wasn’t sudden, sangsue’s eyes hadn’t gotten that bad right away. But she knew that it signaled the onslaught of every urge in a vampire’s nature. And from there, it could only get worse. And it did.

Shortly after that began wails and convulsions at intervals with growing frequency. But there was nothing Sangsue could do. And this made her start to cry as well, just a silent stream of tears flowing endlessly down her face. Somehow she felt that this as all been her fault. She should have kept a better eye on Sydonia. At least shouldn’t have let her go out alone. Maybe this all could have been prevented. Maybe if she had just done something differently, the two could be spending a quiet evening together, instead of Syd changing in to something which would do nothing but doom her further. And yet, even as she was feeling all this guilt, she heard an almost inaudible apology from her friend. The vampire looked up in shock at this, not understanding at all what she could possibly be sorry for. It wasn’t her fault at all. She hadn’t been wrong in going out, and if vampires had been able to overpower such a powerful person, there must have been a group of them. She wouldn’t just sit back and let herself be attacked. This made Sang cry harder, which she didn’t want, because she knew Sydonia would just feel worse for it. But by this time, she probably wouldn’t even notice.

A little while later, and the noises had more or less subsided, signaling that it either had stopped hurting, or it was just so much that she couldn’t even feel it anymore. Either way, sangsue was glad she could get a moment of reprieve. And thankfully, that moment turned in to more, because she was able to finally rest. By now, it was almost time for the sun to come up, and she would feel better for having slept during the day. It was lucky she fell asleep when she did.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. Sang hadn’t been able to sleep a wink, and had spent the entire time pacing across the room. But a small time after the sun had risen, the nosy doctors just had to come and check on things, didn’t they? Couldn’t leave things to her like they did for everything else. But the main physician had insisted on coming in and bandaging up her wounds, to prevent infection. That was the least of her worries now, but Sangsue allowed it, as long as they did it gently enough not to wake her. They all also insisted on staying until she woke up, so that they could perform a full analysis. Because of course they thought it was all over by now. That’s totally what sleep meant, right? Wrong. Sangsue knew the last burst was yet to come, but for all her power and knowledge of the topic, they refused to leave. So she pushed them in to a corner with frustration and continued to watch over her friend.

Not long after that, it began anew, wrenching the poor woman from her somehow peaceful sleep. Sangsue was once again at her side in a flash, abandoning her relentless pacing, and gave her gentle pats and pets, knowing that it wouldn’t do much, but feeling the need to do something. The doctors also couldn’t contain themselves, and just had to rush to her aide. Sangsue tried to tell them to back away, but they didn’t listen to her in time. In the blink of an eye, Sydonia was no longer under her gentle hands, but was latched on to the neck of the nearest doctor. Sang screamed in terror, though wasn’t actually all that shocked. He had managed to stave her off for a minute, but the vampire knew that there was no way in hell she would give up for anything, least of all a pathetic attempt like that. And if this wasn’t taken care of immediately, she would likely lose almost all the others in the room.

So she took quick action, lunging for her as she lunged for her victim, and intercepting the hybrid in the middle of her path. The two crashed to the ground some ten feet away, Sydonia face down on the floor and Sangsue keeping a firm hold on her arms. “Get the hell out of here!” She screamed at the others in the room, to which the quickly scurried away and slammed the door. Sangsue then let her friend go, backing away quickly and assuming a defensive position. She was basically feral now, and sang knew that. But she had to do something. ”Syd. It’s me. Calm down, honey.” She spoke softly, in a reassuring tone. If nothing else, there were probably some bags of blood around here somewhere, for blood transfusions. Not the tastiest, but they would have to do.