Trial by Water
Contains brief discussions of torture and murder as well as a violent death scene via magic.
There was a rule amongst the Moffat witches to never pull water from a living being. To do so was a crime in the sect.
Jude Moffat was looking to survive, however.
Besides...this was a vampire. The consensus of most hunters was that they weren't living even though she knew it was far more complicated than that. Studying vampiric biology had been one of her interests when she had been a teenager and even more so as she became a bookish young adult. It was what had led her into her medical degree, even though it had been a hard slog through to be a doctor.
She had survived medical school, her training, and living with the evidence of very hippy parents who had named her Jude purely because of the damned Beatles song (it really was a good song but the teasing sucked). No bloodsucker was going to kill her because of a rule that might not even apply to him.
"Come out, come out, little mouse," crooned the vampire as he stalked about the area where she was crouched down behind some industrial supplies. Jude had fled into the new wing of her hospital that was still under construction after managing to run from him the first time. Of course, he had followed her into the space. "I can hear your heart beating ever so fast. Like a little hummingbird. I should like to cradle it in my palm and feel it beat in terror before I kill you."
Jude fought the streak of fear that stoked in her, pressing her lips shut to keep from making a sound. She unfortunately needed to get close to him in order to make her attack worthwhile. Experience of manipulating her own blood had allowed her to know that touch was a very strong requirement of manipulation of the water content in the human body.
And, despite being (potentially) little more than a corpse walking, vampires still very much had water content in their bodies.
She just had to have patience.
"We could just get this over with if you come out, little mouse!" the vampire called out again. "I'll even make it quick if you do." He waited a moment and when she didn't come out - when she didn't even dare breathe - he snarled, "Or I could spill your guts out onto this floor and play with them to my heart's content after I kill you. Maybe I'll do that anyway."
His voice then lowered to a dangerous rumble as he growled, "Maybe I'll do more. Wouldn't you like to know what I want to do to you, little mouse?"
At the same time, he stepped past her and Jude thrust her arm forward through the crates to grab his ankle where she could see a bare sliver of skin. Her eyes darted up, meeting his, and she shivered at the wide smile spreading over his face.
"Hello there, little mouse," he purred, starting to lean down towards her. "Do you want to play?"
Jude bared her teeth in a smile at him and sneered, "Yeah, asshole, I want to play." Then her magic - held tight and coiled, ready like a spring - lashed out. It surged down her arm and into his body, connecting her to him. She could feel every inch of him and every bit of it was hers to control. Water was her domain by the gift of her blood and, by God, she was going to use it.
Twitching the fingers of her free hand, the vampire suddenly jerked backwards, his body bowing so far over that she could hear - and feel - his spine crackle with the strain. "What the fuck?!" he yelled and Jude felt him try to move, his muscles flexing briefly around his bones.
But water was in muscle too and those were hers.
"You think you can kill a witch without consequences, asshole?" she snarled, fury rising up in her chest to push out the fear. "Who is the little mouse now?!"
"Please," he pleaded but Jude had no pity for him. She had heard plenty of stories of vampires who would let witch and hunter alike go so long as neither attacked the other but this one wasn't like that. He had deliberately come after her, fully intending to hunt and kill her. And, given his comment earlier, intended to do things to her that were unspeakable. "Please."
"No," Jude hissed in response before she lifted her free hand, slowly bringing her fingers together as she focused on the water inside of his body. And there was a lot more than she expected. Far more than she had sensed when dabbling in her own powers on herself.
Mortals were made up of sixty percent water.
Vampires who had recently eaten were apparently made of more than that.
Jude slowly began to pull her hand backwards, closing her fingers into a fist, and her magic began to literally pull the water from his body. The vampire began to scream and she could feel his muscles trying to writhe, his limbs trying to flail in agony, but her iron grip on her magic held him still. He was frozen, bent over almost entirely backwards, screaming to the sky, as red began to bead on his skin. Water, tinted red with blood, rising from his very pores to heed to her call.
Quickly it became streamers of red and she ground her teeth together, wishing that she had the concentration to silence him. It was taking all she had to hold him still and pull the water from his body, so she was going to take the chance of hopefully no one coming at the screaming.
It was Chicago.
"Please," he managed to cry out again but this time it was weaker and Jude still wasn't listening. Her focus was all tunnelled down to only her magic, pulling inch after inch of water from his body and adding it to the amorphous ball of red water gathering in the air above him. She pulled and pulled and pulled...until there was nothing left.
The last drop floated out of his skin that was now dry and dessicated like a mummy underneath her hand still gripping his ankle. And, with the water in his body gone, it collapsed. Now paper-thin skin and dried tissue crumpled, bones snapping like crisp autumn leaves.
Jude collapsed heavily onto the ground, her breathing ragged, and then she slowly lifted her head up. Above him, there was still the large, amorphous globe of red water that felt like it was the size of her dad's ratty old recliner. She could feel it still, her magic still holding it steady, and there was nothing else.
No surge of victory for her survival or fear for perhaps going against the rules of her sect. There was only deep, deep exhaustion down to her bones.
Flicking her fingers, Jude sent it swirling into a spiral that grew and grew until it exploded, sending droplets of red water spattering out across the construction site. Then she took a deep breath and stood up, hugging her arms around herself as she moved to look down at the dessicated corpse. After a moment, she heard footsteps nearby and looked up, too tired to run.
Had he had an accomplice?
"Don't be afraid," a feminine voice called out from behind her, "I'm a friend."
Jude frowned and turned in the direction of the voice, seeing what looked like a woman standing in the shadows nearby. She squinted and then called out, "I'm not in the mood for anymore games tonight."
"Oh, no, I can see that, pet."
The woman then stepped out of the shadows and Jude knew her. Of course, she knew her. This very woman was the core of why her sect existed.
Elisabeth Bongam, child to Gnaea Abella, smiled at her before she looked past towards the dessicated corpse. Then she said, "But it looks like you need some help. And I have never turned away the witches who helped my father try to find me."
It could be a trap...but Jude didn't think so.
Nodding wearily, she smiled and replied, "Yeah. Yeah, I think I could."
Timeframe: 1981
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Event: Jude Moffat is almost attacked by a vampire outside of her job and ends up being stalked by him. In order to survive, she goes against the prime rule of her sect to never draw their natural water magic from living things and kills the vampire hunting her.
Consquences: Jude Moffat accepts the help of Elisabeth Bongam, the vampire who caused the rise of the hunter clan her own sect is allied with, to hide what's left of the body.
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