A Hunter's Desperate Deal
"I want to make a deal with you!"
Marie Smith's words rang out across the empty dead-end street, echoing off the fronts of the abandoned and boarded-up homes. There were old, faded markings on them indicating where they had once been marked as homes of those struck with the plague thirteen years previously. This small hamlet had had all of its people die, their bodies burned and their homes sealed off.
And she knew that this was the current home of the vampire Ebio and her child Itztli.
At first she thought that they were not currently there as nothing answered her except for the wind and the slow creaking of still hanging wooden signs. Then, however, there was the distinct feeling of eyes upon her, the hair's on the back of her neck rising in a fear response. Marie took a deep breath to counter the fear, slowly releasing it out as her eyes watched around her.
One of the first lessons that she had been taught was to never run from a vampire. To run was to activate their hunting drive and they would run their prey down all too quickly.
"A deal?" an accented feminine voice called out suddenly, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. "What sort of deal would a hunter make with our kind that doesn't end with us dead by her blade?"
Marie tilted her chin up and replied, "I need expertise in faking a death and your kind are far better at it than anything else that walks this earth."
"Faking a death," purred a masculine voice in her ear, the low burr of his accent feeling like it clawed down her spine. She stiffened instinctively at suddenly having him behind her, looming over her, his body a cold space in the slightly warm spring air. "Why do you need to fake a death, little knife?"
"More importantly," came the female voice again but Ebio did not appear. "Whose?"
Marie lifted her chin, ignoring the vampire at her back and the fear in her heart, as she replied flatly, "Mine."
Silence answered her and then the vampire behind her stepped to the side, bending slightly to peer at her face. Marie glanced sideways at him and it was indeed Itztli, tall and broad-shouldered, with his dark skin, brown eyes so dark they appeared black, and wavy curls of black hair hanging in a long tail gathered at the base of his neck. He was dressed simply, in a flowing white shirt hanging open at the collar, dark trousers, and calf-high boots that were caked in the thick, dark mud that also stained Marie's now.
Other than the color of the shirt and that she had a heavy leather vest reinforced with plates of iron as well as a light cloak, Marie was dressed very similarly.
"You aren't lying," he said slowly, a frown curling his mouth downward.
Turning her head fully to face him, she replied softly, "No."
"And you come to us?"
Marie just stared at him for a long moment before saying, "She might be feared by my kind but word has it that Ebio is fair. I would rather treat with someone who will deal with me fairly than one who will betray me at the drop of a hat."
Itztli stared at her for a long moment with the distinct air of a predator before he threw back his head and laughed. "Come, Mother!" he then called out, grinning broadly to show his fangs. "I think you will like this one. She wears her fear like the suits of armor these English dogs prefer."
"Don't insult our guest, son of mine," said the feminine voice, suddenly immediately coming from in front of Marie. She snapped her head around and found Ebio there, the small Egyptian woman smiling brightly at her. Though her skin had once been darker according to the historical accounts of her, Ebio was now lighter skinned than her second child but still darker than Marie. Her brown eyes, however, were as fathomless as the sea had been one of the few times that Marie had sailed on it. Though she looked like a young woman - most hunter's estimated she had been perhaps of nineteen or twenty years when turned by the Elder Issuru - it was obvious that so much more lurked underneath.
Even to a mortal who didn't know, Ebio's mere presence would set them on edge. Nearly five thousand years of life carried a weight to it that was palpable even to the unaware. Itztli, in comparison, was barely over a hundred and not offputting in the same way.
No, Itztli's offputting demeanor came from the fact that he didn't bother to hide what he was, with none of the little tricks that so many vampires used to appear human. Not even breathing. If Marie had been tracking him for a hunt, that alone would have given her enough caution that she would have asked for help to take him. A vampire who didn't bother to pretend to be human at all was one that didn't fear hunters. Even Ebio made token gestures to appear like a young woman.
That was in full evidence as the favorite daughter of the Elder Issuru smiled at Marie like they were old friends and said, "First...tell me why you wish to disappear, Marie Smith, when you are one of the shining jewels of your clan. A huntress beyond par, they say."
"Being good at something does not make you love it," she replied, her tone clipped as Itztli continued to stare at her. As she canted her eyes towards him in annoyance, Ebio sighed.
"Go check on your young jewel," the older vampire abruptly said, annoyance also clear in her tone. When her child looked at her in surprise, Ebio arched an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. "Do you believe me without defenses, Itztli? That I should fear a little knife such as this that has come hunting for us not to kill but to make deals in the dark?"
He coughed and Marie watched his broad shoulders hunch slightly as he replied, "I...no, Mother, of course not."
Ebio nodded imperiously and waved a hand idly. "Then go. I do not need you to impose yourself between us."
To his credit, Itztli didn't ask to confirm even though it was clear on his face that he wanted to. Instead, he turned to glare at Marie - the fury of an animal denied its prey in his eyes - and stepped in close to her so their noses were almost touching. "Is this is a misdirection, little knife," he growled threateningly, "and you seek to harm her, I will hunt you down to the ends of this earth and tear your heart from your chest. I will let you watch as I squeeze the blood from it while you lay dying...and then I will hunt down your family to do the same to them. Do you understand?"
Like a hunter of her caliber and reputation, Marie swallowed the fear of having a vampire so close without a knife in her hand. She then smiled as if they were having a casual conversation not full of threats and calmly stated, "That will require that she wouldn't be the one to kill me before you ever had a chance."
Ebio laughed at that, a full-throated laugh with her head tilted back nearly to her shoulders. Itztli's expression cracked into a feral smile and he growled, "Oh, if only we dared turn you, little knife. You would be a terror of a vampire." He then stepped back from her, bowing mockingly in the English fashion, and then he was gone. Marie felt the air from his passing and saw the blur of his movements with her keen eyes though, tracking him as he left before turning her attention back to his sire.
"Forgive my son," the other vampire said politely, as if they were having a lovely discussion over tea. "He can be...overzealous...at times."
"As any good son should be," Marie noted. Her own brother could be the same sometimes where their family was concerned. She then sighed and said, "You ask why I want to disappear? I am a good hunter but that is all I have been allowed to be. I want freedom from that and the only way my clan may accept that is for me to die."
Ebio tilted her head at that and asked, "Would your clan believe you fool enough to come for me?"
"No. But they might believe that I was fool enough to take a strike at your son. Especially if he were, perhaps, vulnerable with his child." Marie smiled thinly and added, "It is well known that he dotes upon her. Perhaps I used her as leverage."
The vampire inclined her head slightly - respectfully - and said, "Such a story could pass." She then moved forward, looking up at Marie's features, staring at them for a long time before she reached up to slowly pull a long strand of her hair free of the loose braid that fell down her back. The fact that she kept herself from flinching was a point in her favor with the vampire, she knew, from the look in those fathomless eyes.
Then Ebio stepped back a few steps, her movement just slightly fast than a mortal, and folded her arms with a hum. "We could find a poor mortal child to pretend is you," she noted. "Dress them in your garb and cause harm enough that any incorrect features are hidden." The vampire then paused and narrowed her eyes.
"Your clan. They align with the Hancóc witches. Is there one that could identify you if we dumped your false corpse on the steps of your family home?"
Marie's spine threatened to stiffen at the casual mention of murdering a poor, innocent woman in place of her but she resisted the pull. Shaking her head, she replied, "We don't have that close of a relationship." It was partially a lie. The clan and the sect weren't close enough to keep a member within each clan but they had regular meetings. And she knew enough members of the sect that if she could reach Ireland...she could perhaps barter with them for protection as well from her own clan.
"There is a meeting between representatives of the clan and the sect every few months. So long as my body turns up in enough time away from one of those, there will be no way to preserve the corpse for one of them to look at it." When Ebio looked at her, she supplied, "The next one is within three weeks. After that, within three months."
"Then we have time. Now...another matter."
Ebio smiled broadly, her fangs showing, and Marie felt fear ripple up her spine.
"Now, Marie Smith," the vampire purred, "What do I receive for helping you?"
What could a vampire want? What would be prize enough that it would tempt Ebio to help her escape the suffocating grip of her own clan? A promise? An oath? Marie could not offer safety, not when she was leaving her clan behind.
She could...oh God, she could offer...perhaps the greatest thing a hunter could offer to a vampire.
Her lips were suddenly dry as she swallowed and replied quietly, "I offer you, Ebio, my firstborn child." The child of a hunter was a precious thing, especially the firstborn. All of the major inheritance of a hunter usually came through in their firstborn, essentially the heir to whatever ability their hunter parent or parents possessed. After that, subsequent children tended to gain less than their eldest sibling.
"You toy with me, little knife."
"No," Marie insisted, even though she was trying to think of a way out. If she could make it to the Hancóc's, she could maybe get safety from her clan and Ebio. It would break the deal she was making right now...but what was a broken promise made to a creature that was built on lies? "My firstborn, yours to take when they have reached sometime past adulthood. Twenties, at least."
The vampire looked at her almost hungrily for a moment before the expression was gone, leaving Ebio smiling at her. "Very well then," she said before extending her hand. "Then we do as some of your English do. We shake to seal our deal."
Marie felt proud that she took the slightly clammy hand extended towards her without shaking and looked Ebio in the eye.
"Deal," she lied with a smile on her face.
Timeframe: 1638
Location: England
Event: Desperate to escape from her life in the Smith clan, Marie Smith goes looking for Ebio and her child Itztli in order to make a deal with them. She buys her freedom with the life of an innocent woman and the promise of her firstborn...but also plans to try and get out of the deal.
Consquences: Marie Smith is declared dead by her clan when what appears to be her body is found on the steps of her family home. While the clan mourns, the real Marie boards a ship heading to Ireland, where she intends to make a deal with the allied Hancóc sect. A decision that not only leads to the division amongst the sect but not one or two but all three of her children with Uilliam Ó Conaill becoming victims of the vampires she once hunted.
Marie Ó Conaill was the kind wife of farmer Uilliam Ó Conaill, known as little more than an English woman who separated the man from his family when he married her. Before coming to Ireland in 1638, however, she was Marie Smith of the Smith Clan and made a bargain with the vampire Ebio to escape from her life. She sacrificed herself to save her sons Darragh and Daman in 1653 when vampire Cael Ward found her...but also doomed her unborn daughter, Niamh, to a half-cursed life.
The favorite of the Elder Issuru's children, it is known that she was born in Egypt and that she and her sister, Abana, were turned at the same time. In her life, she has garnered a brutal reputation that makes hunters usually whisper her name and has sired three children, loving them as if they were her own by birth.
Once a proud warrior amongst his people, Itztli was dying in the streets of Tenochtitlan when Ebio came upon him. There he became her second child and intensely loyal to her when she helped him slaughter the Spaniards that had ruined his people. For centuries, he and his child Yen Xiang Jun remained at his sire's side until she told them to go live their lives.
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