Interlude: A Scarlet Mama

The Sunflower was made to remain rooted on earth... and yet now, it flew through the skies, as much as it despised it.

Daisy had never been on a plane, nor did she look forward to it when her tall, crimson form waltzed into the Gate of General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport.

Even as she sat in first class, with neatly dressed attendants fussing over her, trying to tempt her into buying a meal or a drink to steady her clearly nervous bones. The Dhampir had little desire for anything, save for the flight to be over.

Despite her love for all things high class, Daisy spent what little money she had saved on first-class not to enjoy its perks, but to avoid its passengers. Being stuck in a long tube, where the scent of sweat and blood tormented her was not a fate the blonde beauty wanted to meet and so she sat alone in a personal booth, asking only for beef jerky to chew on as she thought on what she was about to do, about what she had to do.

Daisy was raised in the way of the Loa, they showed her that **** was not the end, that life was not the only joy in the cosmos... and as powerful as the Vodouisants were, none could undo what Maime had done "None living." Daisy thought grimly.

There was only one that the sunny haired Dhampir knew who could break the curse of chastity, and finding her would be none too difficult.

It was 8 hours of silence on that plane before Daisy landed at Heathrow airport, and even as she walked, the famous rains of the UK drenching the wide brim of her crimson umbrella, darkness and fear made the towering Dhampir jumpy and devoid of thought.

As difficult as it was, trying to direct the Chauffeur with her head out of the window, Daisy's blonde mane waved in the wind, her nose stinging from sucking in too much air -- the method to finding the one she hunted.

The Scent was growing stronger and Daisy lent over the cabs border between passenger and driver. Curling her fingers over the old British man in a fine suit, his body became rigid as she renewed the symbol drawn on his temples with her lipstick. It burned red as the Blonde chanted a whisper "Obey, continue north-west, through Portsmouth."

His eyes, milky and glazed over, flickered softly, indicating smoothly into the junction towards Portsmouth. Everything about this made Daisy's skin crawl... the cold rain, the dark sky, how the British drove on the wrong side of the road, it all made her sick and dizzy.

And yet she had to press on, not just for herself, but for the man she loved.

Further, it took Daisy over an hour to finally reach her destination. In the shire county of Dorset stood the broken battlements and shattered walls looming over a sleeping town.

The scent was strong here and she felt her knucklebones ache... She was close by, very close by.

The chauffeur parked at the foot of the castle gates and the blonde reached over, smiling softly "Thank you, take this..." her fingers slipped two 100 dollar bills into his breast pocket "Forget me, forget this. Go home to your family -- a-and sorry I didn't convert the currency, Pounds confuse me."

Slipping out of the backseat and into the showering spittle that glazed the black sky. Daisy walked along the long path upwards, quickly at first... although her legs began to cramp, umbrella quaking in her shivering fingers as the thick wall of blood-red fear pressed into her.

The scent was so pungent, like corpses and infection, corruption flowed through the air in this place, that is how she knew that this was the right place. There was only one being so terrible, so dark and uncaring, so manic and dangerous... with a thumping heart, Ostara pushed on in spite of the horror that rattled her bones.

Corfe Castle was like its village, small, relatively empty, but as daisy's feet squelched on the grass, surrounded by the eroded, shattered structure, Daisy saw something more than out of the ordinary.

Hidden under the archway of one of the broken battlements, stood a single armchair. The sight of it made the blonde step back, it was the very same one that she'd seen as a child; a high armed winged chesterfield style chair, black as midnight and made of what looked like polished crocodile skin.

Her eyes looked up to that Chair when she was a girl, it was the throne that she sat on -- her Mama, Ms Adat. It is what she rued and admired, it was everything that she thought to be over with. But Daisy would go to any length to live a loving life, with Charlie and whatever future was to come at his side.

Before long, the rain above her head ceased to plip against her umbrella, the smell of dank, ruined cobblestone clouded her sharp nose. Daisy's fingers clutched the chair as if it were crawling with Leeches, as if every scale would leap out at her face, stealing her warm blood.

Seconds passed, then moments -- Nothing happened, if not for the rain whipping from the arch splashing against her cheek, Daisy would have remained frozen if not for that, marching away.

"You, are supposed to be dead, child."

Daisy cringed, the slimy unfeeling tone seeping down her neck like a slug. Her stomach churned, time hadn't dulled her fear as she hoped and expected, it is why she hesitated to turn but when she did Daisy saw the pale woman sat in that chair.

Smiling offputtingly, the woman curled a long leg over the other, brushing the river of red that only just touched her narrow shoulders, gazing on with eyes that gleamed with golden emeralds.

"Mama." The words slipped from her lips, more a birds chirp than a greeting.

She had not aged a single day, Ms Adat didn't have even a moment to show on her almost porcelain face, even as she captured her creation with a predatory smirk. "You have grown much since I saw you last." Adat said in her serpentine whisper.

Daisy gritted her teeth "Y-Yes... the meat helps. It's not blood but... It helps."

Adat scoffed "Feasting on dead flesh like an animal. All these years I wondered if you'd ever pull your lofty meat out of that disgusting little bog and stop feeling sorry for yourself, and yet here you are dressed up like a used tampon."

The Blonde averted her eyes and frowned "I didn't come here for your usual degrading, Mama-"

"Stop calling me that, Child, Your mother is long dead."

"...Adat--"

The crimson-haired Vampire sneered, the air grew colder "A false name, for that false tribe of petulant little magicians you shacked up with..." Fingers digging into the arms of the chair, Daisy's Mama arose to her feet, eyes burning so red that the Dhampir froze in place "You will address me properly, or you will be punished."

Daisy felt a sour taste in her mouth "...Valerica."

Valerica's red tongue lapped her top lip as she smiled "Be still."

As horrible as it was, Daisy was used to being **** to remain still, even as her muscles constricted rigidly. Mama moved closer, sniffing deeply her long taloned fingers touched Daisy's collar and shoulders, sending goosebumps flushing across every inch of the Dhampir. "You _Are _a woman now, look at you, such a pretty little failure. I always hated that about you, not only are you a Craven but a craven who leaves every part of her life unresolved."

Daisy's skin began to burn, her face twisting as Valerica smiled.

"There she is, there is the Warrior I raised, my rising Sun."

"I hate you." Daisy growled "You abused me, did worse than abandon me, You destroyed my life!" an angry tear dove down from her single scarlet orb, sizzling against her cheek.

"Pft, You think that pathetic excuse for existence was a Life? Those meagre little sorcerers in New Orleans were unworthy of my kin."

"You killed my parents, I have no family because of you, no friends, I didn't even know how to brush my teeth because you never taught me, You are a terrible Mother, but Marie... Marie loved me, You cannot love anything, because you're insane." Daisy spat, chest heaving, her breath smoking, her spit embers.

Valerica grasped Daisy's shoulder hard "What was done in the past was done for a reason, are you not infallible, aren't you the greatest survivor you know? I did what I did to make you strong. My Grandfathers flame runs in your veins, You are the second to ever possess the sunlight fire outside of my bloodline, and You speak to me of love?"

Daisy had no words to speak, no more heartache to give, she swore to leave all of this behind. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make a heartless thing love. So she wouldn't.

Mama looked puzzles and actually... withdrew from Daisy, her face was still twisted with that venomous joy, but her eyes softened "Be free."

Even being freed Daisy was tense, but it helped build the courage for what she wanted to ask.

"...When I was young, my father would find caves in the mountains filled with wildcats, bears, wolves, and to temper my strength, He'd make me battle with them for days. Many were starved, a few even had their cubs with them, and so He'd smother me in flesh and blood so that when they attacked they'd attack with more ferocity than any could imagine. I wasn't allowed to leave until every beast was tamed, exhausted or killed. Time and time again I begged him for a task more worthy of me... but he cared more for progress, said that with each beast I controlled, would bring me one step closer to controlling myself" She recalled it with a grim kind of smile "I despised every moment, I just wanted him to read me stories like he used to."

Daisy had never heard her mama speak of her Dad before, even trying to talk about her past ended up in Daisy being stuck in the basement for a week, but now as her mama looked out into the rain, she saw a sombre side, even if it was fleeting.

Sitting gracefully back down, Valerica looked up at her quivering foster daughter and rolled her eyes "Oh go on then, get on with it."

"What?"

"You want something. desperately, otherwise, I know that you'd have never shown that pretty little face of yours ever again. So spit it out."

Daisy stepped forward, a glimmer of hope in her eyes as she fiddled with her fingers "I've.... I've met somebody--"

The Upir snorted "A man?"

"The man, Mama. I-I love him and, I want to be with him but..."

Valerica's brows damn near flew from her forehead as she sniffed, exploding into a shrill kind of laughter as the revelation hit her "You allowed those weakling Voodoos hex you? stupid girl, did I not warn you enough times that Humanity was worth nothing but what it destroys? And..." She sniffed again, bitting hard into her lip as her body lent inward "Don't tell me..."

Daisy nodded grimly "A Curse of Chastity."

"You expect me to break this for you?" Valerica hissed.

Daisy slid down to her knees, leaning on the arm of her Mama's chair, begging, pleading "I had a man, My jakey. W-When he died, he was... we were." Daisy looked to her Mama "I never want to feel that again, not with the one I have now. He's too important, to me... to others" Daisy had mustered her courage and placed a shaking hand on her Mama's frozen knuckles.

Valerica fished in the violet pools in Daisy's eyes, long and hard, a good amount of silence passed before blood began to stain Her Mama's piercing eyes. Valerica slid down like a pale beautiful ghost, her hypnotizing gaze made daisy feel like that little blonde girl who dreamed of possessing the haunting beauty of her Scarlet Mama.

"I created you because your mother was a pathetic creature. Even after that Mortal male fucked her in one of his drunken stupors, I hunted her for days, I always enjoyed the taste of missionaries, nuns, holy women, they were always so ripe, like a pear. Sister Klara would strut down Bourbon Street, intoxicated beyond belief, spouting her religious nonsense. Ironic really... she got away with breaking her own faith every day, but when Your father took it upon himself to press on my prey, the Mortal God did not answer the call... I did.

Even after I tasted his blood before her eyes, she lost her mind the minute he squirted into her cunt. Every day she staked me like a little rabbit, just like you, expecting things from me. But her flavour was spoilt, she failed me."

Valerica's clawed fingers were hard and uncomfortable on Daisy, the icy burn of her skin and the lack of gentleness as she pinched the blonde's plump cheeks.

"She wanted to be undead, she wanted my power, followed me for months. She despised the thought of you growing inside of her."

Daisy's lips tightened "Why are you telling me this now? a-after all the times I asked. Why now?"

Valerica sneered darkly "Because I want to know the depth of your failure. When I turned your mother and she died, I had every reason to leave you to be killed by the Church, but I thought to myself, Hey, why not for once just show the smallest inch for mercy. And because of your growing idiocy, I have paid for it time and time again--"

Her mama tightened as Daisy pushed forward. This could be suicide, it could be the end, but she wrapped an arm around her Mama, pressing her face into Valerica's shoulder.... the fingers of her left hand, reached down, gently resting her hand on the space beneath her navel.

A power hitherto unmatched by any that Daisy had ever felt before, shook the air around them, the rains bending away in terror at Valerica's tense wrath. Daisy had never, ever embraced her Mama, but she did more than that, slowly she began to bask with warm, glowing with a soothing, crimson light; the light of the sun. "I know, Mama. I know you have good in you somewhere. Whatever happened to you in the past, whatever made you this way, it hasn't conquered you, not completely. Even at our worst, You always protected me. If your grandpa had this same fire inside, like I do, there somewhere deep inside, you must have one too... help me?"

As the October showers smashed into the body of the archway and the Black sky roared with thunder, a flash parting the angry crowds with a screaming bolt of blue.

Valerica said nothing, but she curled her powerful arms; five sharp talons strong and sharp enough to rend steel, made Daisy flinch. For a moment they hovered, shadowing over the blonde's spine, nape and finally, throat.

"Charlie, I-I'm sorry. I just... it was my only choice--"

Blood trickled down, seeping into the Dhampir's collar. Daisy had never seen her mother bleed before, it was dark, viscous blood that congealed in the air as she cut deep into the diamond skin of her palm.

Gently and carefully grasping Daisy's wrist, the claws were like fine razors, so sharp that she barely felt them slip under her skin. It had been a long time since Daisy had seen herself gouged or cut, it made her cringe as the power of the Loa failed to protect her... Voodoo magic was nothing in the face of the most dangerous woman to ever walk the earth.

As the two bled together, Her Mama tightly pressed both wounds together, mixing fire and blood, her mama's whisper echoing among cobblestone and wrathful rain "Dragons Blood: Unity."

"Ah msss!" Daisy hissed in pain as a slithering, tendril penetrated the skin, seeping into her blood as the space between them glowed an ominous red. Valerica pulled in her Fostered daughter, so tightly that Daisy could not breathe "This is no showing of love or kindness, and it does have a price. Life and **** are not meant to look one another in the eye, and so you will suffer, it will not be over quickly."

Daisy writhed in a silent cry, as a white-hot pain exploded in her boiling blood.

"When I take this curse from you, it will reside in me and be crushed by my will... but so will you. This is your first punishment."

"Aaaah, hmmf, It burns! Make it stop!" Daisy pleaded as Valerica pulled her foster daughter up so that she could whisper in her ear.

"Nothing ever stops, stupid girl. Not the world, not the pain and not the poison of weakness that my purity will exercise from you with **** prejudice. This will be the last gift that I give you, the last courtesy I extend when my blood reaches your heart; I never want to see your pathetic face again, If I see you, feel you, hear your voice, even if I smell you, then It will be as predator and prey, just like every other primitive worm. Am I understood?"

Clutching her burning navel with glowing hands, Daisy looked up to her Mama, eyes filled with joy, pain, relief, hatred... Love, and she nodded as her eyes grew heavy, the blood of royalty scorching her veins as Daisy fell into an abyssal sleep, the Image of her Scarlet Mama's cold, beautiful face; burned into her retinas as if staring into the sun.