as written by Tiko and KittyWolfSpirit
With unconsciousness came dreams... something Viktor didn't often experience these days. He didn't strictly need to sleep, not in the way humans do, and he couldn't recall when he had last dreamed. It was a dream of the night he had lost... no that wasn't right... the night he had surrendered his humanity.
He had been entangled among a trio of whores when he had heard her sirens call. He had risen, tossing coins to the confused women for services not yet performed and stumbled out into the night. He had a few drinks in him and his shirt hung open as he sought the source of the woman's voice crooning her lullaby within his mind.
He had seen her twice now... on the arm of her father as they passed the rundown brothel on the outskirts of Rockchapel, a small town in the Luxlands of Therrier-Paix. Each time he had seen her she had turned to look upon him standing within the window of one of the upper floors, and each time he had been enthralled by her.
Her pale skin, her raven hair... he knew her for what she was.
The wiser of the town had closed their shutters to the woman and her family, waiting for them to move along from Rockchapel... but Viktor was drawn to her like a moth to flame. She was new, exciting... dangerous even... a release from the drollness of a life of tedium that came with being a half-blooded bastard son. His days where filled with dead end jobs and grueling hours, and his nights were often filled with whoring and drinking.
He craved the release she offered.
She had sensed it too, in his eyes upon her, and on the third night she had called to him.
He had found her alone in a pasture not far from the town, and as he stood there watching her staring off into the distance he had wanted her. He had wanted her in the way a man often wants a woman, and he approached her with thoughts of moonlit passion on his mind. Part of him had always known it wouldn't come to pass though... that this woman was a predator.
His hands found her shoulders before he embraced her from behind. There was a faint whiff of decay on the evening air, but it paled next to the allure of her voice. She had stopped singing, but the hypnotic affect had already seeped deep into his mind.
He reached up and unclasped the silver cross that hung from his neck - a gift from his mother - before he transferred it to hers. She turned then and his finger traced the cross where it hung against her chest. He was a drowning man when his eyes met the hypnotic gaze of her own and he hardly felt the stab of fangs as her mouth found his throat.
He was only vaguely aware of the cool grass on his back as he lay there, dying. She had fed deeply, and with each struggling beat of his heart, crimson rivulets ran down his neck to stain the green grass. He couldn't recall when he had wound up on the ground, but soon the thoughts were replaced with the press of something cold and wet to his lips. It tasted vile and he turned and spat, but she had crooned softly and cradled his head in her lap.
"You must drink... or you will die..." she chided lightly.
This time when she pressed her wrist to his mouth once more, he had choked past his revulsion and accepted her blood into himself...
When he awoke she was curled up against his side with one arm resting upon his chest as they slumbered. His hand brushed against her cheek as he sought to rouse her, to ask her name...
The eyes that met him weren't Sanina's though... they were Talyra's. He sat up and looked around the pasture, keenly aware that he had been dreaming. Or rather, was dreaming he noted as he realized he was back in the Luxlands - a place he hadn't revisited since the night of his turning. They had caught a boat in the harbor of Granpaix, and sailed for Aslund that very night.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
____
She watched Christian and Valentina leave in silence as the IV pulled blood from her into Viktor. She sighed in frustration of the whole affair. She looked to Viktor, longing for him to just wake up and be alright. She cursed the ones responsible for putting him in this condition. Then the thought of the predicament he found himself in came to mind with a reminder that it may have been her fault he is like this.
“I swear Viktor, if this is my doing, I will owe you so much to make things right for what you are going through.” She whispered softly as she laid her hand on his a brief moment.
After a while, she could feel her strength waning. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and looked at the time. It was well passed the time she was told to remove the IV. She frowned, she would leave it in a little longer. She wasn’t ready to stop just yet.
Not long after her desire to continue, she felt weary and closed her eyes. Just a moment, then I’ll remove the IV. She thought to herself.
She found herself watching a drunk man that looked like Viktor fooling around with three women that she could tell were whores. She frowned in distaste, but knew she had no room to talk with as many partners as she had found herself having since the curse upon her and her tribe was inflicted. She continued to watch the ensemble unfold. Suddenly he seemed interested in something else, dropping coins and abandoning the women. She followed suit to watch a beautiful woman she knew immediately was a vampire by her own instincts. She watched him be turned. Then the next thing she knew, she heard him ask what she was doing there. She opened her eyes and noticed she was laying with Viktor. She leaned up, confused, looking about curiously for the woman. No way she could have slipped past her.
“I…I…I’m…not sure. Viktor? That you?” She asked, confusion thick in her voice.
____
You're not supposed to be here," he told her.
It was difficult to say what he meant by that. Did he mean here in his dream? Or just this place in particular?
He started to button his shirt which was still hanging open, and he seemed more himself. At least the him that Talyra was familiar with. Calm, collected, somewhat distant. The collar of his white shirt was still stained crimson with his own blood, but he hadn't another change of clothes on him. Did it matter anyways, he thought? If this was just a dream, then his state of appearance didn't matter much did it. There were no people to be alarmed by the blood, no one to care.
"Why am I dreaming about you?" he asked.
Would she answer? He couldn't be sure. It was strange to him. He had had this same dream before, but this was the first time it had varied so... it was the first time he had dreamed of another since Sanina had died.
____
She looked at him slightly offended by his commentary on her not belonging there. She shrugged it off, she caught a glimpse of his chest as close as she was but looked away quickly as he buttoned up.
"Wait? Whose dream is this? And If it is a dream how do we both know it is and are able to interact?" She asked quietly looking at him.
Talrya stood up and felt disoriented as the world suddenly changed around them. Before them was a small village nestled in the midst of dense woods on a cool fall afternoon. The trees were changing hues in preparation to fall to greet the coming winter. The air smelt of soil, leaves, and a scent of honeysuckle. She was slightly younger. Her hair was a oaken hue and her eyes the color of clover. She looked about confused.
“I know that smell.” She whispered softly.
She turned to face away from Viktor. A tall man of about 6’3 stood before her with a slight golden hue to his ivory skin. Long straight dark tree bark brown fell to his waist around his physically fit physique. A pair of gold eyes with sapphire specks stared back at her. He wore a pair of brown leather pants, a white cloth tunic, a pair of brown leather traveling boots, a gold pendant of a wolf sitting in a lotus flower dangled at his chest. Pointed ears similar to an elf and a face to match a god’s beauty held a smile dancing on it.
“My Lord!” She whispered staring at the man startled.
“Lady Talrya, you look surprised to see me.”
“What are you….” She was cut off as the man cup her chin in his fingers and embraced her mouth with his own briefly.
“My sister knows Lady Talrya. She is furious. She has met with the fates. You and the village are…” He cut off and looked around. “It is not safe for you. I will come to you when it is safe. Remember Talrya. I love you and you have my protection always.”
The man disappeared and she stood the too stunned to move. The dream fast forwards to days later as she stands in the middle of the village. People around her some mutating, others dying horribly as their own body seems to turn against itself, others stand mortified as changes happen to themselves.
“Please, No…NOT AGAIN!!!” She cried, closing her eyes and hitting her knees. “I’m SORRY. It is all my fault!” She whined. “Wake up, please no more!”
Her hair changes to the hue Viktor knows it as and her eyes change colors. Her own mutations begin to become from a common human woman to what Viktor knows her to be now.
____
She didn't wake, but the village emptied of people until only she and Viktor remained. He had watched it all as an impassive observer until he offered a hand down to her, to draw her back to her feet if she should take it.
"What is this place?" he asked.
His eyes searched the village for some sign of familiarity, but nothing about it stood out in his memory. Strange he thought. Perhaps he had gleaned some of Talyra's memories from her when he had fed upon her. It wasn't uncommon, and it would explain her presence within his dream he thought. It hadn't yet occurred to him that she was in any way real. She was a curiosity and nothing more for the moment.
____
“Trinoric, its gone.” She whimpered almost inaudibly.
Seeing Viktor’s hand she took it. She looked to him, visibly shaken by the images that had unfolded. She stood up, and it took some effort to steady herself. She calmed herself after a few moments.
“This is Trinoric. Where I am from. This is…was home.” She answered him finally in a soft voice filled with anguish.
Viktor's expression softened at the weight of grief within her voice, and he drew her to himself. It was an awkward gesture for him, as he hadn't comforted a woman in many years, but he tried to offer her some measure of comfort by simply holding her.
His awareness that it was a dream was fast fading from his perception as his consciousness continued to meld with her own.
He wasn't sure how they had gotten here, but he could feel the anguish rolling off her that this place had caused.
"Come, we need not linger here..." he told her.
She let him hold her. She felt weak and was emotionally devastated by the visions. The world around them faded to a small spring in the midst of woods. She looked around.
“I know this place.” She looked up to him.
She could remember the last time she was here. She was with her Lord. The last time she saw him. She opened her eyes. She looked at the man before her. It was her lord.
“Why did you not come back for me? You swore to protect me…my village. You said you loved me.” She asked Viktor, though the man she saw before her was her lord, an illusion of the dream playing toll on her mind to portray Viktor as her Lord.
She leaned forward and closed her eyes and pressed her lips gently onto Viktor’s.
It had been ten years since he had known the touch of a woman's lips upon his own and he sighed softly at the soft sensation. It stirred desires that he hadn't known for a long time.
His mind could still remember the acts that his body could no longer perform, and within the realm of dreams anything was possible.
He pulled her closer to him, his lips returning to her own as he guided her down to lay upon the grass by the small spring. With deft hands he unbuttoned his shirt before he let his fingers trail up her ribs as he leaned in to kiss her once more...
Part of him recognized that she thought he was another as she responded in kind to his touch, but that part of him that had spent his human nights whoring about Rockchapel simply put it from his mind as the scent of her hair and skin filled his senses.
She felt him return the kiss and her senses went wild in anticipation. She missed her Lord’s touch. No man had ever made her feel as he had. But the truth was her lord was not a man, but a god. She shivered at Viktor’s exploring touch. She traced her hands down his chest lightly, taking in his form. She saw him lean in for another kiss and she responded without hesitation, passion driven into the kiss for all the years of wanting. She would gesture for him to come closer for more intimacy with a slight squeeze of her arms around him briefly before she would resume running her hands across his torso.
She smiled after the kiss released and she could instinctually feel the dream fading so she opened her eyes. It wasn't her lord who looked back at her though... it was Viktor's eyes that met her own, and his hands upon her skin. She looked at him in surprise.
“Viktor?” She whispered, looking him up and down, seeing the signs of what either was transpiring or had already transpired between them.
Her cheeks grew a pale hue of pink rose at her oddly misplaced modesty which she thought had disappeared ages ago. But before she could receive an answer or continue the circumstances at hand she felt herself at a distance being shaken and called to.
