It was late in the morning, it would soon be afternoon and her stomach was making a lot of sounds, making sure that the owner knew it was hungry. The curtains were closed, clothing were hang over the bright coloured curtains to try to contain more of the lights. To make sure the room was as dark as it was. The twenty tree year old woman was covered from head to toes by the blankets and her back towards the window. She could feel her pet brushing against her leg and she had to resist the urge to kick it. She had never wanted to kick Victoire. She had actually saved the pet on a mission with Odin when she found the polefox in the middle of the forest dripping in blood and unconcious.

Blood. It made her eyes flicker quickly from left to right, for they were open. She pushed her hand out underneath the blankets and pulled it back. Sunlight. She never hated it so much as now. She needed to get used to it. She softly nudges Victoire to get aside as she stepped out underneat the blankets. Naked. She shivered and it was not because she felt cold. Nastasya born around Myras was born in winter and raised in a climate that knew most of the time snow. The cold didn't bother her. It was the reason why she was naked. She dragged herself towards the bathroom and stared at the mirror that showed her whole body. Which was really awkward in her own opinion.

She had always been a pale person but since the accident, she had only turned more pale than before. It was almost freakisly crazy, thank god she was used to it. The rest didn't seem to change, there were two dots on the side of her neck on the left side. They were tiny, one would maybe think that they were either birthmarks or totally miss them. But they were so much more than that. Her eyes were red, not because of the fact that she was hungry but because of the reason that at first she had cried her eyes out when it happened. Now she was slowly getting used to the fact. Her pupils dialited quickly when the sun shone right into the bathroom in the minutes that she stood there, or it was victoire that jumped into the window seal. She almost hissed but shook it off and decided that it was time to take a shower right now. She was so hungry and wasn't sure if she could still eat normal food. She loved food.

When she was in the shower, where the water was softly dripping on her hair, shoulders and back she thought about what had happened, two nights ago. It felt already much longer ago but it wasn't. It was something that Victoire and Nastasya had to get used to and both didn't like it so much at the first encounter.

It had been two nights ago. The shadow that she had seen on her way to Oak and in the Church when she bumped into Odin, in a matter of speaking. It showed up again. She believed that it might have been her mother. The fact that she couldn't see Lilja anymore after she killed her father, didn't matter if she still had not found Lilja's killer. Even though Lilja had made a contract with a demon, which would have taken her life after fifteen years or so, maybe even more if she wasn't just killed from some sickness, from some sort of poison where she was fighting against in her already weak state.

It had to be a vampire. Even though Nastasya her memory always sucked in case of names and faces. She could remember her mother's dead body very well. Maybe also because she had seen the ghost of her mother walking next to her from the moment she died till the moment she killed her father, which was 7 years later. Now four years ago, she was on the hunt to find one of the monsters that might have killed her mother, but she wasn't sure. She was just following a shadow when she bumped into someone in a dark alley. It had been difficult to follow the shadow, since it was night time and the only way she saw it was when it passed the light of a streetlamp. However the shadow lead her to a shadow in the dark alley. It had to be her mother's shadow, her mother's old soul because when the guy in the alley turned, it was a vampire.

She had not seen a vampire before in her life, only guessed that they excisted. She had known but never seen, yet believed. She took a step back in shock, he was holding a dead body of some sorts. Blood dripping from his fangs. Her eyes turned from big and surprised to certain and stern. "Doesn't matter if it wasn't you. You will do." she muttered as she created her scythe out of shadows to make sure to hurt him. Unfortunately, this specific version of the vampire was too fast for little Nastasya. Before she knew it she felt a pain in the left side of her neck, he was pushing his fangs inside her body. She tried to twist and twirl but it didn't matter, his grip was deadly to her, probably as deadly as the poison. He seemed to get enough from her one sentence. "I didn't kill anybody, deary." He said when he let her go and simply let her fall to the ground, "Maybe a few victims but not the way you mean. You are lucky that I have just eaten." She first didn't understand what he meant. Her blood felt like it was boiling, as if her whole body was on fire, she tried to scream but he pushed his hand in front of her mouth. She tried to rip off his hand, rip of her clothing for everything was too warm but the strength in her whole body seemed to think differently. That's when she felt her heart stop but she was still alive. She stopped screaming, turned on her side and the vampire let her and she puked. Puked out her dinner, and everything that seemed to have been left in her stomach. Her eyes scanned the ground on which she was lying, where was Victoire?

Faster than she had anticipated she stood up and had to held herself on the wall. Her eyes couldn't find Victoire, whom must have been hidden but the blood on the dead woman's body was clearly visible, same as the drops on the vampire his chin. He was laughing at her, he probably thought that if he made her one, she would kill herself out of hatred. Well she liked to live a little too much. With fast action, and still not really grasping the point in which she was a vampire, she grabbed the man that turned her, "Yeah, you will do." she muttered as she let her fangs, the one that must have come in the minute she died and turned back to live thanks to the poison, slip through his skin as if they were tiny daggers and she drank much, too much, of his blood.

When the deed was done and the alley was now filled with two dead bodies, she dropped onto the ground and just sat on her legs for quite a while. The rush of what had happened finally came to her and tears fall on her cheeks, hands and knees. She couldn't stop crying. She was now.. a vampire.

Still standing underneath the shower, Nastasya shivered because of the flashback. The moment she had become a vampire. She tilted her head up to the ceiling, closing her eyes against the water. She opened her mouth and touched the fangs with her right index finger. It was still weird. It would probably be weird for a long time. She needed to check what powers came with being a vampire. Maybe there was something positive, maybe not and she would have to kill herself for the sake of her own vengeance. Yea that's what she planned to do.

She stepped away from underneath the shower after she made sure the shower was shut. She grabbed a towel and started to dry her hair quite rough because she was in a hurry. She grabbed another towel and started to dry her body after she wrapped her hair in the first towel. When she was dressed in a towel dress and her hair wrapped in another, she walked back into her room. Surprisingly hissed to the sunlight that was there. Apparently again Victoire had made her way into the window seat and made sure the curtain wasn't closed properly behind her. Pets.. were pests.. Nasty turned towards her wardrobe to get dressed. Her wardrobe was a bit empty. There were a few dresses, a few pencil skirts and other skirts and barely any jeans or simply trousers.

However she found one, it was one from when she was younger and less classy than she was right now. As if the poison of a vampire added that to her brain. She shook her head and took the jeans out of the closet and threw it on her bed. She grapped her underwear, a bra, socks and threw that also on the bed and started to look for a top that would fit. She grabbed a black one and turned towards the bed after she closed the wardrobe door. She simply dropped the towel that covered her body on the ground and put on the clothing one by one. When that was done, Nastasya moved to the bathroom to use the hairdryer for her long shiny purple hair.

When it was finally dry enough, the brush went through her long hair before she decided it was time to move out of the room. There was no need to clean up. It was a disaster anyway, she has been living here far too long. She had arrived her around the beginning of December. So that was quite some time ago. Almost two months, thank god she still had money and still some jobs to do. She didn't feel like stealing would be an option that she wanted to use.

She took her coat and headed down below with Victoire right in front of her. She didn't even know if pets were allowed, she never got any complains, so apparently she was fine. She walked slowly to the desk while Victoire ended up behind her, "Excuse me." she said and the person behind the desk almost jumped out of her skin. "I just wanted to ask when my appointment for the spa is?" she asked with a surprise, they always noticed her before or Victoire but it seemed as if her footsteps weren't heard. Now that she tried to recall it, she hadn't heard her own heels clicking either.. Was that one of the issues at hand? She tried not to smile too much when the woman looked up her appointment because that would simply be weird. However when she could leave the grin appeared. This was perfect.

With a happy look on her face, she made her way to the bridge and the ridge where she had trained her shadow spells with Black and Lucifer. It was quite a walk the first time but as soon as she started to carry Victoire she was there very fast and not even out of breath, this was interesting. She dropped Victoire on the ground, demanded from the fox to stay around but rather not to close as she was going to try and practice magic. However the shadows didn't come. The shadows didn't move as she she tried to tap with her foot on her own. This would normally let her shadow roam free around her, what was going on?

She summoned her mana, pushed and pulled in whatever way she was able to normally do it. But instead of a shadow appearing on the walls or ground around her, a form of herself out of some sort of bloodmist appeared. Which made her take a step back and struggle on her heels and fall backwards on her bum. The bloodmist appearance remained standing and Nasty struggled upright again. What was going on? Why did her magic change shapes? She walked around the appearance for a while and looked at the ground while she made her conclusion. Not only did her turning into a vampire, changed her body but it also changed her magic. No longer would she be able to hide in the shadows, play with the field, she was using something completely different. And from the looks of it: it was Blood Magic.

She needed to come up with things and walked away from the bloodmist appearance and waved her hand as soon as she passed it. It disappeared. She leaned with her body onto one of the rocks and sighed. What would she need to do, what were the limits. There was a deep frown on her face and her eyes were cold and cool looking at her surroundings. She was always more of a physical make way of shadows. She made forms, she made weapons, knives, scissors, scythes.. she should try to be able and do something like that with Blood Magic. If only it was possible.

While she tried to think of something she figured out that the bloodmist appearance was not completely blood, she needed to get out of her system in some way and thus she bit a tiny wound in one of her fingers of her right hand. She tried to focus on getting the blood to her nails in one way or another and make them grow and become sharper. She had always been someone to hide from fighting, playing tricks instead of going full assault. Now she had to change and she had to ask someone to train her. Maybe Caius? Yumi? Someone random that she didn't know. She could kill that person if she had learned a lot. She shrugged and looked at her hand that had suddenly changed into a claw, "Wicked." She looked at her hand and made the slashing movement and tried to go for invisible enemies, which didn't have much effect but it was an idea.

That's how she took a long time trying to learn different spells, easy ones at first. She made little scytes from her blood drops. She made a whip which was a funny little thing. She copied her own Shadow Step spell by tapping her right foot on the ground, let the blood make her go faster and faster and there she went. She really had to find a way to become much faster. With the ability to become unheard while walking, being fast would be a great extra thing to have. Now only she had to learn how to handle it, because it would be a bit sad if she would bump into a lot of things or go too fast and skip the target in her hurry. That's what took her an hour before she thought she was getting the hang of it and being able to decide for herself how fast she really was going, she apparently didn't need to go on full speed.

There was one bad thing about her running around. She let herself drop on the ground and looked around. Everwhere there were blood drops. That had dripped out of her finger, from her claws, or any other wound that she had made to get some blood. She looked at it and wondered if it was still possible for her to control these blood particles even if they had left her body. After all it was still her blood. She looked around from her seat from the ground and decided that she would turn one of those blood drops into something else. Her purple eyes looked them all over and she picked one. "Make it bigger," she whispered "Make it shaper, make it hurt. Make it perfect."  

With that one of the red dots on the ground started to bubble and turn into a shard that was 1 meter high and 25 centimeters thick and ended in a sharp point. It could definitely hurt something, maybe pierce something but it took to long and she practiced a few times more while she was running out of breath or so she thought. Actually, she noticed that she didn't even needed to breath so much, it was full automatic that she still did it. After all her body was just dead.

She remembered how exhausted she was when training with Odin and Caius. How much magic she had used. She thought she wasn't even that behind, but it felt as if nothing even happened. Depending on the fact that she might have more magic power right now, wether that came by training or turning, she didn't know but it was a blessing. After sitting for a while, maybe even meditating on what other spells to make she decided that the easy ones were over and if she wanted to take a stand in this world and stand beside Odin, Yumi and Caius, she really needed to work on some better spells. Spells like her Scythe or something. She had to think of something, the first thing that popped into her mind was a sword.

She scratched Victoire behind her ear, as the fox had climbed on her lap. A sword made out of blood, that would be interesting. But it wouldn't be just enough, there needed to be more ideas. She could maybe change her blood drops again, use them as an ability to hit and hurt targets when she was bleeding herself. Make use of that. She nodded but again it was not something she was looking for. She waited a few more minutes before the idea popped into her head and she would have to try and make it. She pushed Victoire off, said she needed to play in the woods, not to wonder off to far and come straight back if something was chasing her. But make sure to come back from the east side. She would point her spell at the west side.

When Victoire took off to play or secretly observe her, Nastasya stood up and dusted of her blue jeans. She had already thrown her coat aside a long time ago and made sure it was not in her way as she turned her body to the west. The idea slowly formed in her mind, it was still not concrete but she would figure it out by the way of making it. She moved her hand after again a small bite in it. Two blood streams appeared, one in front of each of her hands. She closed her eyes and poured more magic into it. A few more, a bit more and in the end the ribbons of dark red blood danced in front of her hands, both about 4 meters long, it took quite some power to get it and let it stay into action. The ribbons swirled around each other creating a helix of flowing blood. She pictured a target in her mind and looked at that spot. With one step forward she drilled the ribbons to go with a good speed forward and it became seven meters long and the rock that had stood there was now broken through the middle. She let the blood disappear and clapped enthusiastic for herself. Even though it worked, it wasn't fast enough. Just like the Perfect shards, she started again. The wound was still ready to use the blood ribbons, and she made them 4 meters width immediately and with the movement of her body they again become seven meters long and destroyed the rock's leftovers immediately. She would try one more time before she would take another break.

Actually she felt rather thirsty but she didn't plan to drink something at this moment and she still didn't know if water would take the feeling away just as much as blood would. She ignored the idea that normal food was not necessary anymore, as long as it tasted fine she would eat. Maybe she should go and get something to drink before the feeling would get worse, she didn't dare. Her clothing had been drenched in blood the first time that she had drank some blood, the blood of the one that technically killed her. The clothing was burned the day after. That morning she had burned it down in the entrance of the catacombs, to make sure no one saw her. This time no slimes came, they were probably afraid of the fire and maybe even of her. But they should be more afraid of Odin or not anymore. Maybe her blood magic would work fine against them too. Not that she would try that out.

She yawned behind her right hand and saw a plump white tail from behind a rock at the east side and giggled, she expected this but didn't say anything. Victoire didn't like to be far away from her and actually Nasty didn't like it when the fox was away from her. But the problem was her changing, just as much as Vic wanted to be with her, Nasty could feel that she was afraid. She was a predator now and even though Victoire was, she was a bigger one now. She stood up again, took a deep breath and decided that it was no longer time to complain and think she was a sad little nobody. At this moment she was a vampire that needed to get control over her blood magic before it was too late.

Not that she exactly knew what was too late. She sighed as she came back to the idea of using a sword. She looked at the wounds in her fingers and made her blood obey and turn into a sword into her hand. It was in the form of a katana, 1 meter long and some centimeters thick, she didn't know. She wasn't an expert. She walked a few steps towards a tree at the east gate, she had seen where Victoire sat so she made sure not to get too close to her dear pet, even though she thought she was a pest this morning. She tried to be as agile and fast to make the tree her target which she hit a few times with the katana. She held the handle with both hands and trying to hit the tree with left and right handed moves. When she let one hand lose of the hilt, she lost the katana due to her strength and she decided that she would have to learn that for herself as well. Which again took quite some minutes at least 30 and after that she needed to figure out one more spell at the very least.

There was not much more to do, not for the amount of inspiration that she had. She needed to get better, needed to have more spells. She shivered, she actually missed being able to hide in the shadows. That would come later, she would figure out a way.

The katana that she had wanted, disappeared after she had cut down the tree, slice after slice. She needed to figure out another way to get her blood to work for her instead of being able to get wounded every time. But again that was a thing for later, she had just turned into a vampire, a lot of things were changing and happening and.. She looked again at the wounds, the drops on the ground. There must be a way to make use of that, not the way she did with the shards, something else. She thought and thought and had to come up with an idea, especially if she uses her own wounds and blood as advantage.

All her old spells and her new ones were passing through and she got an idea based on the scythe one she had made with the shadows and the scythe one from blood. If she could do that with her blood drops she would have a nice way to bleed yet use it in her advantage.

The one she had just tried was more for her idea of slicing through things.. She used it on the already dead tree that she had just destroyed more or less with her blood katana. There had to be a way to use the wounds in her own advantage. She started to hum when she remembered an idea that had passed her brain too grab the idea but she had an idea now.

With her Ruthless spell she dashed forward and let the blood from the wounds in her fingers come to the surface and drop onto the branch that was placed beneath her. It was by accident but it worked in her advantage now. She could command two of the blood drops to turn into very small scythe like forms and they slashed through the small branch. She stopped and walked back to see the result. The branch was cut through at two points, exactly like she wanted. She tried it several times more but the idea was there and it was a great idea. She looked at the blood on her jacket and muttered some curse words before she shook it off.

She had to try and work out a few more ways of fighting but the problem was that the sun was not doing her any good. She had to remind herself to get more outside even when she didn't like it. Simply to get used to the sun again. She would have to clean her room again and just live like a normal pale human. She had been pale before, since she never seemed to tan really but now, she would be pale forever. Every scar on her body was gone, it was as if she was a newborn. Only she wasn't a newborn human, she was a vampire.

Instead of sitting down again, trying to catch her breath, she just grabbed her jacket from the ground and called for Victoire. She had seen the plump tail of the fox but she acted as if it took her quite a while to get back. Which made Nastasya chuckle a little. She wanted to leave when she realized that she was trying to train Victoire before and that it might be nice to work on that more. So she shook off her coat again and talked to Victoire, coaching the little fox in their training together. Nastasya was actually surprised by the power that Victoire possesed and it was really interesting to see.

Victoire her magic power was obviously much smaller than Nastasya and she could see the fox pushing herself to perform another spell and she just lifted her up. "Let's get food." She wondered the taste, she hadn't eaten anything since the accident, she wondered if that would go fine. There was only one way to find out. So she and Victoire, in her arms, made their way back to the village by walking through the mountain path, down the bridge, through the forest and before she knew it she was back in Oak. Her pace was going faster again than she had expected and she grinned. This change was maybe not as bad as she at first anticipated.

She was looking around in Oak what she would eat. Normally she would do something extraordinary and she would love to try but she didn't dare so much. Although she didn't make the average decission when she was going for sushi. But maybe raw fish made it fine. At first they didn't allow Victoire inside but she just threw around her money and they were not complaining anymore. She ordered three different dishes and looked at it with the nauseous feeling in her stomach. It was a bit scary to start eating like this, she licked her lips and could feel her fangs again. She frowned and took the chopsticks and simply tried it. It tasted exactly the same to her relieve.

Nastasya quite enjoyed the sushi, maybe even more than normal because she could simply eat it like normal. She ordered some red wine for show because she wasn't thirsty at all and she couldn't help but giggle to herself with what it looked liked, she also ordered some sashimi to feed to Victoire. In the end she simply paid and instead of hanging out more in the town, she headed back into the hotel to get rid of all the blood on the inside of her clothing, this was the reason she hadn't taken her jacket off.

She had to take another shower this evening. Which she did by putting a knot of her long purple hair on the top of her head to make sure she didn't have to wash her hair again, she had done this morning. She thought about all her spells she had made and was the most proud of the Flawless spell. However she needed to find another way than to need to bite a wound in her own skin to use the spells or well to actually get to her blood. She had to find another way.

While she was wrapping herself up in a hotel towel and walking back into her room, she froze. The shadow that she had seen two days ago was there again. It was the first time that it showed up in her room. She almost let go of the towel that she was still holding, "Mother?" She asked but the shadow didn't react. It was obviously not possible to let it interact with her shadow anymore, damn blood magic. She looked at the shadow that was moving towards her window, "Don't go!" but it sort of jumped out and she ran towards the window but obviously it was not visible in the night when there were no lights around her window on the third floor. She cursed and tried to picture what she had seen. The building of the shadow wasn't that of a woman, it didn't show long hair for as far as she had been able to see. It couldn't be her mother.

So whose shadow was stalking her?