Levan, a Vampire count who gets a Half-Orc accidentally bonded to him

Levan watched as his own dark blood drips down to the stone floor. Emitting from that same place where his blood leaks, is an intense pain. The cause of the blood, and pain most likely would be the wooden stake, lodged currently in his chest.

“Oblivion take you foul beat!!” The man who put the stake there shouts, as he pushes the stake deeper into Levan’s chest.

“You first...” Levan says, as with a flick of his wrist he slices open the mans throat with his clawed hand.

The man gurgles, holding his neck as he lets go of the stake. He takes few steps back, stumbles, and falls to the ground as a bucket worth of blood spills from his throat. He shivers, and shakes, hand on his throat as he still tries to keep what’s left of his mangled neck together. It’s no use though as in few seconds he’s already lost to much blood. Slowly his hand slips from his throat, and just like it, he slips from this world the light leaving his eyes. With is oppent now dead, Levan grabs the stake in his chest, and yanks it out.

“Lucky...” He mumbles to him self as he looks at the bloody hole the stake left.

“Lucky, lucky, lucky...” Levan again mumbles to him self as he runs his finger over the wound which has stopped bleeding, as he has already begun healing.

He really is lucky though, that hunter had missed his heart by only a few inches. If not for the man’s bad aim he would be a dried up pile of dust by now. Looking around the church he goes over to one of the more clean looking bodies, and kicks it. It doesn’t move, seems all of the hunters here are dead. Looking at all the blood on the floor, reminds Levan of the blood which has sullied his outfit. He sighs, looking as the fluids from both him, and his enemies have stained his fine violet hunting coat. Even the pin which bore the chest of sect has, been turned flush with crimson, the silver symbol of crossed fangs in front of a dagger would most certainly have to be treated to clean the metal properly. Black leather arm he wore under the coat isn’t as big of a deal, same with his grey pants, and armored boots, and the armored shoulder pads he had. Still he hopes this coat doesn’t stain it’s been his favorite for over fifty years now, and tailor who made it is long dead so there is no way he could have replacement of the same quality made.

Taking a second to listen it seems that sound of fighting, and screaming has stopped as well. Levan walks out of the church, and sure enough is assassins seem to have secured the camp. Then the familiar cawing of a crow makes Levan turn to his left, and he sees a pair of jet black wings flapping towards him. Waiting for his old friend to finally touch down in front of him, Levan watches as the bird stands up, up, up, into his human form.

Now before him is man looking only in his later forties. Considering he is actually over a hundred years old only looking to be almost fifty is actually quite an an achievement. Though is youthful looks weren’t due to any skin care or healthy eating, oh no no no. Melith is Levan’s thrall. A thrall is some one who drinks the blood of vampire continuously, usually in exchange for serving the vampire, and doing their bidding. One of those powers include prolonged life. Hence why the only real sense of age on Melith is a few streaks of grey, in his slicked back black hair.

He stands a bit hunched over leaning a bit on the golden staff he clasps with both hands. Taking the bottom of the staff he scraps off some brain matter from the bottoms of his fur boots, The gold orientalist staff with the snake’s head is more significant due to the power it wields rather then the material it is made of. Because of this Melith would often use the glorious staff with little care for how much he would dirty it up, even though it was such a finely crafted scepter it would make a kind envy him.

Melith then shivers, pulling his cloak over him, the one with the crow feathers on the top, to warm himself a bit. The black leather, and cloth armor he wore really not suited for such a chilly night. The many arcane rings he wears of gold, and silver feel like they might freeze solid to his hands due to cold. Oh how he wished, he had the foresight to bring his fur gloves along.

“Is it done?” Levan asks the middle aged looking man that now stands before him in the place of the crow.

“Yes all of hunters and inquisitors have been put to the sword just as you commanded.” The man says with a small
bow.

“Good Melith, make sure though that the troops are through, let the throat cutters make sure all of them are confirmed dead even if it looks like a hunter is dead make sure they check twice before we move on, if even one of the order escape we will have to do this all over again.” Levan says wiping the blood from his hands with a handkerchief.

“I will make sure they do my lord, though I am happy to report that any documents that the order had on our location has been destroyed.” Melith smiles slightly, no doubt already anticipating the praise he is going to receive.

“Very good Melith, and tell me did you find anything of interest among the orders documents?” Levan asks as he starts to walk along the burning tents, and other wreckage of the camp.

“Just some notes on vampire activities, banking papers, and supplies manifestos, nothing of any real interest my lord.”Melith says as he walks besides Levan, at a bit slower pace his gimp leg causing him to lag behind a little.

“Disappointing I was hoping we would be able to find at least an inkling of how they were able to find us, ah no matter we must stil-“

“SHE’S MINE I FOUND HER!!”

A loud commotion suddenly interrupts Levan as he is speaking.

“What’s this?” Levan says inquisitively, as he starts walking over to the sound of the commotion.

“WHAT DO YOU EVEN NEED AN ORC FOR THEIR BLOOD TASTES TERRIBLE!!”

As the shouting continues Levan can see a few of his servants gathered, around a pole that seems to have some one tied to it. Two of his servants appear to be having a loud argument as a few others simply look on.

“IT’S NOT A FULL ORC YOU IDOT ITS A HALF ORC!!”

“YOUR A HALF ORC!!”

“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?!?”

“ENOUGH!!!” Thunders Levan, causing all the servants to jump, and the two arguing to go wide eyed.

“M-master we ummm we’re just...”

“We just found a-a orc which the order was holding captive.”

“Right and we just were discussing who should get to keep her.”

The two servants fumble their words, trying their best to play innocent.

Levan raises his eyebrow as he looks from one servant to the other. He can’t see their faces, the amount of robes, and dark wrappings around the two servants obscure most of their features. Though the little Levan can see which isn’t covered by their clothes make it clear that one is a vampire, judging by the pale skin, and the other one is either a thrall, or just plane old human. Honestly he excepts more of his servants then this petty bickering, after all they were trained assassin rather then just simple his servants. Those many blades they have strapped upon their clothing more then just for show.

“Twenty lashes both of you when we return , no excuses.” Levan says plainly looking from one servant to the other.

“B-but master please..”

One of the servants starts to protest, yet Levan gives him such a soul piercing glare he stops mid sentence.

“Am I clear?” Levan asks, his eyes flicking from one servant to the other again.

“Yes master...”
“Yes maser...”

The two speak almost in unison as they both give Levan an apologetic bow, and flinch as they think of the whipping that they will receive.

“Now then continue with your work you know what to do, search for anything useful and continue with the throat cutting.” Levan commands waving the two to be off on their way.

With the matter taken care of by Levan the small of other assassins go back to their business as well. While the twenty lashes might have seemed a bit of an overreaction for a simple argument, Levan expected discipline from his assassins above all else. They his sect has a reputation to keep to professionalism above all else, and squabbling like raiders is the complete opposite of that. As well, a distracted assassin is a dead assassin, something that those two knaves have clear forgotten. Lucky for them the lash is great way to reinforce, and help one remember what they already know.

“So then what do you plan to do with her my lord.” Melith asks, pointing to the tied up Orc with his staff, as he walks up beside Levan.

“First I‘ll find out how much she knows about the order, perhaps she might even be able to tell us something useful.” Levan says as we walks up to the Orc.

“Indeed sounds most wise my lord, mhmmmm why she is quite is quite unusual looking for an Orc.” Melith comments as he squints his eyes at the she Orc.

The orc is indeed quite unusual for her kind, instead of that famous muscular physique that orcs usually has, this one looks almost kind of dainty. Which is plain to see as her captors seem to have tied up the Orc with no clothing. She’s few inches smaller, then both Levan, and Melith, and oddity as most Orcs were actually taller then the average human. As well her body is thin, and petite in size, though her above average boobs, butt, and thighs sort of balance out her frame, yet Levan wouldn’t be surprised if the girl was malnourished. Still though she is attractive in almost all the right places makes Levan think the orc is perhaps a pleasure , yet why hunters would have a pleasures he isn’t sure. Yes the hunters can be hypocrites, yet this seems like a little to much for those who came to be form the order to facilitate. How Levan then notices there is something most striking about the she-Orc, it’s her face. It’s fair, thin, maiden like to a point that one would think the orc might have royal blood in her veins. Though her face has a layer of dirt, scraps, a soot all over it, Levan still finds the girl quite fetching. Even her hair which is, black, and parted to the side and reaches just above her neck, seems very clean. This sort of make Levan wonder how exactly the orc ended up like this, she seems a bit too taken care of in the appearance area to be a hunter’s work ... Did she do something wrong, and this was perhaps her punishment? Or maybe the over zealous hunters think her some sort creature of the night. It isn’t exactly the first time the order had gotten things mixed up, and Levan is sure to won’t be the last. One thing that did stump him though is the strange tattoo on the Orc’s right shoulder, it doesn’t look like a tat, yet it also doesn’t look Orcish. The tattoo in question, is a spiral flame, which bright yellow color actually looks very pleasing to the eye against the orc’a greens skin.

“She half human most likely sniff sniff yes I can smell it in her blood she is a human’s spawn as well as an Orc’s.” Levan says his vampire senses, and years or knowledge letting him identify the half orc by the just the smell of her blood.

“Not enough of a human to avoid slavery it seems though.” Melith says lookings at the binds that keep the half orc bond in place.

“Indeed and they call us monsters.” Levan smirks a bit at his old friend, who smirks back at him.

Levan always found himself a bit of sympathy of the “lesser races.” Despite him being a vampire, he isn’t one for enslavement. subjugation, and conquest yes, enslavement no. While he is content to strip, titles, property, time, and wealth, from others especially fools who aren’t worth of it, or those who used it for evil. Something about enslavement never set right with him. It is one thing to take for, a man and punish him, it’s another to deny him personhood, and treat him as property.

Unfortunately, this is a mentally that many other vampire counts share. In fact, enslaving the lesser races is rather popular with vampires. Mainly because the other races make excellent sources of blood without risk of them turning into vampires. As vampirism is an affliction that can only be spread to humans, and even though some vampires still used human slaves to feed, non-humans were a lot easier, and safer to feed off of. As to prevent a human from becoming a vampire, a vampire must hold themselves, back to prevent themselves from transferring the disease. With the feeding process for vampires being a very emotional, and intense process for the bloodsucker as well as the one being sucked this, can make the process not as fun or satisfying. Sort of like holding back during sex. Yet with a non-human this isn’t a problem, a vampire can be as passionate as they want with a non-human and not have to risk turning their favorite source of blood into a vampire themselves. As well, non human’s blood also tastes different then humans, with fae blood said to taste so good vampire can become addicted to it.

“Anyways let’s find out who we are dealing with.”

Levan then steps forward first removing the blind fold, that hide the half-orc’s eyes, and blocks her vision. Levan is just about to go for the gag which is secured behind the girls small tusks, when suddenly the half orc’s eyes shine bright like torch light. Quickly he jumps back his claws extending as he watches the Orc’s, eyes and the tattoo on her shoulder illuminate. Then as quick as it came it vanishes, and the half-orc slumps down in her bonds seemingly .

“What was that, a trap?” Levan looks over to Melith, worried that light may have been some sort of hex, or trap spell left by the order.

“Let me see...

Melith taps his staff to the ground and closes his eyes. Then a few black arcane circles, and symbols form in the air, rotating around his body before fading away as he opens his eyes again.

“No my lord it seems you are weren’t effected by that spell, however...” Melith trails of as he walks over to the side of the half Orc.

“Yet she has been.”Melith says examining the girl, more specifically the strange marking on her shoulder.

“What do you mean?” Levan asks walking over to Melith’s side to look at the tattoo as well.

“I think yes... she has been bonded to you my lord.” Melith concludes as he waves his hand, and a few more black symbols form from his hand briefly.

“Bound how, explain already would you please Melith.” Levan taps his foot on the ground impatiently.

“It seems that when you removed her blindfold and she saw you, you activated some sort of ritual spell that bonded her to you, this spell is sort of comparable to the spells royals use to keep control of their most prized slaves a spell like this is very hard to do and, extremely expensive hence why binding a isn’t widely practice among humans, though the spell has also had some modifications...” Melith says getting his face so close to the half orc’s tattoos his nose is almost touching it.

“What kind of modifications?” Levan asks not liking the sound of that.

“Well while normal spells like this usually allow one to be more inclined to listen to the one they are bonded to, as well as produce painful shocks when a gets to far from their master, or when they disobey mostly to prevent them from escaping, yet this one has been modified so that the half orc is inflicted with holy fire instead of just a normal shock.” Melith says rubbing the small bit of stubble on his chin.

Levan’s eyebrows rise up a bit, what were the order doing to have such a ritual set up, and why to an half orc such as this. And holy fire? Something as painful as that is way to much for something like a deterrent for a even by the most cruelest masters. Holy fire can only damage undead or other creatures of the night, yet while a any other creatures will be unharmed by the fire they will feel pain so intense they wish for .

“Can you get rid of the binding?” Levan asks, this starting to become a predicament.

“Hmmmmm eventually, yet it will take time to study, like everything the order does this spell is going to be a headache to fix it’s done in such a complex manner it could take me months to undo it.”

“Months?!?” Now Levan was now really concerned he can’t have this half-orc bound to him for months on end.

“Surely there has to be some alternatives?” Levan asks hoping his old friend had some trick up his sleeve to get him out of this.

Melith sadly shakes his head.

“The only alternative would involve the half-Orcs .” Melith says knowing that wouldn’t be an option Levan would like to take.

Despite being the leader of a vampire sect renowned for their assassins, Levan did his best to avoid killing innocent people. Much to the dismay of some of his peers he, had a very strict policy on who he would allow his assassin to kill. They weren’t to be in plots to kill innocent house wives, or people like that. Though that usually isn’t what his clients had in mind anyway when they came to his sect. Usual his assassin were hired out to kill powerful vampires for their rivals, or wipe out hunter’s, and inquisitors that harassed or became to much of a threat to weaker sects.

Mostly any time his servants were sent out, they almost never spilled a drop of innocent blood. Of course complications did happen, yet Levan tried his best to keep some semblance of righteousness in his sect. In his 150 years of ruling over the dagger, and fang sect it did cause him a lot of trouble with the more brutal, vampire sects. Some times this resulted with him even going to war with them. As well it did leave him with a lot of attempts on his life by his own minions. Occasionally their would be the odd few who would see his way of operating as weakness. Every time it happens though he would quickly put down the rebellion ruthless, which usually kept his followers in line for at least a decade. So really despite his stature as a lord Vampire assassin, he really didn’t want to kill this orc.

“My lord what do you wish to do?” Melith asks, pretty sure he already knows his masters answer.

“sigh cut her down then I suppose I’ll have to take her with us, but just what we’re the order trying to do with this girl anyways that she would be left like this?” Levan grumbles trying to find some logical reason why he is now stuck in this situation.

“My guess is perhaps the order is thinking of using slaves as new front line soldiers, after all making them catch holy fire if they disobey or get to far, is a good way to keep a warrior form fleeing a battle.” Melith says cutting the half orc lose, and swinging her over his shoulder.

Levan nods as that make sense feeling, holy fire would make on want to die in battle rather then feel it’s burn a second time.

“If so why use a girl such as this rather then a proper warrior.” Levan asks, again taking a look at just how maiden like the half orc’s face was.

“More then likely she is just part of an early test, those with warrior spirits are a lot harder to bind, so it would make sense that they would use non-combative slaves to try the spell out first, just to see if it works.” Melith says.

“I see... here let me take her you look like your struggling a bit their.” Levan says taking the half orc form Melith.

“Pah I was fine, but it’s just as well your her new master now so if probably best you familiarize yourselves with each other, I think it’s best if I fly ahead home, and prepare things there for your arrival.” Melith says.

“Very well then I will meet you there.” Levan motions for Melith to get going as he holds the half elf bridal style in his arms.

With that, his most trustworthy council shifts into a crow, and begins to fly off into the night. Alone Levan turns, and exits the burning camp, as the whole thing starts to collapse around him.