We Need to Talk

[Tabitha Louis]

WARNING: This thread will contain blood, violence, and mention of torture in gross detail.



It could be said that Tabby was in a bad mood, but to call her mood bad would be an understatement. Tabby was in a rage. A slow, smoldering rage that had been building up as each of her lovingly crafted plots had fallen apart or been taken from her, one after the bloody other. First that ugly Kain had chased her from April. Then the ugly Hunter had stolen her Simon. And then all those guild people had ruined her crucifiction of Connor, which had been truly the most beautiful thing Tabby had ever seen. And what was worse, the blame had never fallen on Kain as planned. Everyone had gotten away free as a bird, leaving Tabby friendless, homeless and Petless. This last was the worst of all. Now that she'd had a taste of torture, she wanted more, and no Pet to hurt!

Tonight's hunting had gone horribly due to her cheerless attitude, so she had an empty stomach to go with her bad mood. Really, she just wanted to tear something up right now! Shred it to pieces and stomp on its carcass.

Sighing, Tabby adjusted her skirt and stepped off the street to rest in an alley. Being a vampire was supposed to be so elegant and fun. Where had all that gone? She was too pretty to be huddled in a smelly alley. She should be sitting in the lap of luxury, sipping from some pretty boy's neck and admiring her jewel-covered fingers. This just wasn't her day.

[Connor Batten]

Connor wasn't aware of Tabby's presence as he walked past the alley, but he obviously hadn't learned his lesson when it came to wandering the streets alone at night.  He was well-armed, so perhaps that was an improvement, and he was sober, but he was still alone, and on a quiet street.  

It wasn't like he got attacked everyday, though.

He would always have the scars that vampire inflicted upon him, but that was something he was slowly coming to terms with.  He could deal with them, particularly the ones on his back because he didn't have to look at them everyday.  People didn't see them often, either, so they weren't all that bad.  In fact, it was only those he called lovers that would see and ask about any of them other than the ones on his wrists.  Since he hadn't exactly been doing a whole lot of sleeping around lately, that wasn't too big of a deal.  Just Jezebel, and she hadn't really reacted as badly as she could have.

[Tabitha Louis]

Tabby, as usual, was so wrapped up in her own plights that she nearly missed her old pet walking right by her. She reconized the smell, however, and it was the pull of that familiarity which pulled her head up and had her looking around the corner down the street. Sure enough, there went that familiar head of beautiful blonde hair; she could even recognize her own handiwork, despite how they had tried to put it all to rights. It made her angry to see that, actually. How dare they destroy her- her ART? How dare anyone mess with what was hers?

With that spark of indignant anger in mind, Tabitha left the alley and stalked after her Pet (because he was still hers, no matter where he went or how he messed with her mark) down the nearly empty street. Stupid of him, to be alone like this, but it served her purpose. Tabby recalled Malachi's lessons on Pet punishment, and it seemed a fitting idea for this situation. Pets couldn't be allowed to think they could get away with disobeying their Mistresses.

Slinking up behind Connor, Tabby put on her friendliest, most innocent girly smile. In one fluid movement, she wrapped both her arms around his left one and asked sweetly, "Hello, pretty. Missed me?"

[Connor Batten]

He reacted instantly to being grabbed, but just as quickly halted in the instinctual 'escape and fight' actions.  He frowned down at the woman, immediately recognizing her, but finding the way she grabbed him and her 'nickname' to be...unusual.  And how did she escape the vampires?  He hadn't heard her running, but he'd been distracted, so he could have missed that.

"How did you get away?  When I told you to run, they attacked too quickly, you couldn't have escaped."  He knew better.  How could she have done it?  Unless they just hadn't been interested in her?  Had they been stalking him from the start?  Maybe.  Too many maybes.

[Tabitha Louis]

Tabitha gave him a confused frown. Escaped? They? When had he told her to run? Then she realized he was talking to the persona she'd adopted at their initial meeting, and she could have cackled out loud. Oh sweet, ignorant little man. He had no idea who she was, that it was Tabitha he had to thank for the haircut and lovely designs drawn all over his back! Speaking of which...

Continuing to smile sweetly, Tabitha touched a hand to his hair, examining the growth of it since she'd ripped it from its roots. "You're certainly healing nicely," she said, slipping a hand down to his wrist to rub her thumb against his bare skin. "I'm sorry we had to be so rough, but there nothing else for it. But why did you cut your pretty hair?" She frowned. "I liked it."

[Connor Batten]

Alright, he'd been suspicious before, but willing to give her the benefit of the doubt because she might just be an innocent young woman.  Now, he knew better, and proved it by jerking out of her grip rather suddenly.  

He didn't have anything to say to her words, but then, what could he say?  Anything that sprang to mind sounded incredibly cliched, and that wasn't his style.  Besides, he didn't see the reason to talk.  Just killing her was fine with him.  He showed that by drawing his gun in the same movement as pulling away from her.  He fired as soon as the weapon had been raised.

[Tabitha Louis]

Tabby yelped when he jerked away, angered by his audacity. How dare he! Her anger quickly turned to alarm when the gun was turned on her, and she barely managed to twist out of the bullet's path. Barely; it grazed her stomach, leaving a bloody red line through her beautiful white skin and new black shirt. The wound stung. It infuriated her. She curled her lip, glaring at him maliciously. In retaliation she reached for his gun hand, grabbing his wrist with one hand and backhanding him across the face, intending to scratch him with her nails. "That wasn't nice, PET," she hissed. "I've had a bad week, and I'm in no mood for your sass."

[Connor Batten]

She moved so fast, something that he was of course prepared for, considering she was a vampire, but he couldn't match it.  There was a reason that he didn't take vampires on in such a close situation, and that was because as good as he was, he was still only human.  It was better to handle vampires from a distance.  That wasn't happening here, though.

He pulled the trigger instantly when she grabbed his wrist, his intent being to catch her wherever he could, and though he tried to jerk out of her way, he wasn't going anywhere.  Those nails of hers didn't cause as much damage to his face as she may have intended, though he felt the sudden, brutal pain of the blow through his entire head.  The nails themselves had a more...damaging target, if not intentional.  

Two of her nails slashed across his face in a surprisingly crisp line---directly over his eyes.  He was instantly bleeding from the bridge of his nose and near his temples, but it was his eyes that were the issue.  The agony exploded from them the moment her hand entered his vision, and he squeezed them shut in a belated effort to protect them as well as an instinctual action against the pain.  He fired off another shot with his gun, unable to see where he was aiming, and could only pray that it would find its mark.

God, please help...

[Tabitha Louis]

Tabby was pleased by the damage her hit had done. Seeing those lovely ribbons of blood running down his face made her want to pull him back to the alley and lick it up. The happy thought went away a second later when the gun went off again, catching her straight through the shoulder. She hissed, releasing him and stepping back; a mistake. The shot after that went into her gut.

Tabitha had never been so seriously injured before, not as a vampire or a human, and had had no idea how much it could hurt. It bled horribly and she looked at it with equal horror. She didn't know much about vampires, despite having been one for ten years, and had no idea she was in little danger of dying. She put a hand over the wound in her stomach and backed up again, biting her lip against whimpers of pain. "How dare you," she managed piteously. "That HURT. I'm going to make you pay so much..." As soon as she stopped bleeding.

[Connor Batten]

His entire world right then consisted of a hot wetness where his eyes were, the agony of the injury, and the sounds of her whimpering and pain.  That was what he had to hang onto, not the rest.  He could feel the hot blood, his blood running down his cheeks like bloodied tears, but that wasn't what he had to focus on.  Her pain was what was important, and making it more.  He had that favor to return, especially if he intended to live.

"Keep talking," he told her, hoping she'd take that as an order and start ranting at him about it.  He couldn't see her, so he had to go by her voice.  "Tell me how you're going to make me pay, leech."

He'd missed the chance to shoot at her with her last rant, mostly because he'd actually screamed with the pain of the injury she'd inflicted upon him, and then because he'd had to recover his bearings.  He had to keep himself from thinking about what she'd done.  He wasn't blind.  He couldn't think about that.  He needed to kill her or escape, preferably the first, and he had to keep himself from thinking about his eyes if he was going to do that.

[Tabitha Louis]

Tabitha played beautifullly into the provocation. Her lip curled, and she hugged her stomach (it was beginning to hurt less already, perhaps she was just going numb) while leaning over to hiss at him. "Don't call me names, Pet." She kicked his leg. "I'll sew your lips shut. After I eat out your eyes." A low, pained breath. "Or perhaps I'll make you eat them, after I pull them out and mash them in a bowl."

She took another step towards him, kicking him again and then grinding the heel of her shoe into his toes. Maybe she broke bones, maybe she didn't, but with vampire strength she was pushing enough that it ought to hurt. "You don't get it, do you? You're mine. MINE. You have to do what I tell you. None of this waving weapons around and calling me names. None of this running away." She pressed harder on his foot. "I should smash your toes and grind up your feet. Would you like that, Pet?"

[Connor Batten]

He didn't want to give her the chance to do anything much, but she kicked him and he hadn't expected it, so he actually hissed with pain and had to worry about righting himself.  He had to wonder if her threat about his eyes actually mattered at all, given the fact that they were already a mess, but he wasn't going to let it get that far.  The second kick wasn't expected either, but he was slightly more prepared for it, following the sound of her voice in his mind, locating her and where she'd be in all liklihood with each new moment.  

He hissed again when she started grinding her heel into his feet, and actually did the last thing anyone would have expected.  He reached out for her, grasping at her as though she were his only lifeline in the world.  Only with his free hand, of course.  The other remained down and out of sight.  She wasn't very smart as far as he knew, so he was hoping the 'out of sight, out of mind' thing would work.  

"No, I wouldn't like it, please don't!" he begged, laying it on thick.  "No more running away, I promise!"

He just needed her to stay close enough to him that he could get her in the heart.

[Tabitha Louis]

Tabitha flinched when he grabbed her, not having expected it. She was about to yank herself away (because ew, ew, EW, he was covered in blood and she didn't want it on her SHIRT) when he blurted out his apology. It didn't do away with all of her anger, but it turned the boil into a simmer. Well, at least he was learning something. Took him a while.

"There's a good Pet," Tabby smiled, crouching down to nearly eye-level. "I'd be sad if you left me. I've missed you so much while you were gone, you don't even know. You wouldn't want to make me sad, would you? After I made you so pretty."  His perfect hair had been shortened and redone all wrong, but she could fix it. She could fix everything, if he just accepted her as Mistress and gave her the chance. Tabitha could be a good Mistress, and Connor could be her perfect Pet. Malachi had mentioned a place called Midnight. Tabby had heard of it before, in passing, and upon the old vampire's elaboration she had found it to be the most heavenly place in existance. A place where vampires were worshiped by humans. Tabby could get used to such a place.

"We'll go to Midnight, have you heard of it? It sounds ever so nice. I'll take care of you there, and we'll always be together. Just wait and see." By now the pain in her stomach had faded completely, and if she had checked she would have noticed she was no longer bleeding. Her shoulder was fine, as well. It didn't twinge the slightest bit when she reached up and wiped some of the blood from his face and licked it off her finger.

[Connor Batten]

Oh, this one was cracked.  Absolutely off her rocker, and mentioning Midnight?  Really, she honestly thought she'd be able to take the Leader of the Crimson Hunters' Guild into Midnight as a pet?  Not happening.  He led her to believe it was, though that was a little easier thought than done, especially when he flinched as she touched his face to wipe some blood away, but he heard her lick her finger.  That was his target, all of a sudden.  That little action of hers had decided it for him.  That was the very last time she'd taste his blood.

His gun, which for whatever reason she hadn't taken from him, whipped up rather suddenly to impact under her chin, the muzzle striking her even as he pulled the trigger.  

[Tabitha Louis]

Tabby would have been offended to know that her Pet thought she had a few screws loose. But she wasn't a mind reader, and didn't pay much attention to subtle (or obvious) hints that didn't fit in with her reality. She was convinced that her Pet wanted to repent for how he'd spoken to her, how little appreciation he had shown for the attention she paid him. Already there were images in her head of the harem of golden-haired mortals she would accumulate when she finally reached Midnight, how she would finally live the life she deserved.

The Hunter's gun hitting her chin caught her by surprise. She had time enough for a gasp of suprise, a flicker of rage at having been betrayed again- and then she collapsed, the entrance and exit wounds on her head both bleeding darkly on the pavement.


((*removes hat, bows head* Here lies Tabby. She was off her rocker.))