Seven Nation Army

Venice, Italy
June 1981

Amora slid from shadow to shadow, her eyes giddily taking in the happy Venice celebration. The paper lanterns cast plenty of shadows to hide in, and the humans in their costumes and masks looked even more delectible by the light.

She stepped out into the lamp light, the shadows seeping after her in way of her midnight black dress. She'd picked her favorite from her own time period to masquerade with the humans playing dress up, and her simple mask hid her eyes from sight.

She was glad that a bit of compulsion was all that was needed to have a celebration like this planned annually. It was her favorite night of the year.

Happy Birthday to me...

She had chosen a very tasty looking young morsel to lead into the shadows with her, and she planned to feast on him quite beautifully...

That is, until he was snatched away by another.

This newborn had no skill or pretense. It had simply seen them walking and gone for him, pouncing like an animal.

Amora growled, pushing the newborn off of him and hissing.

"This one's mine."

Movement.

Blurs of light and sound, engulfing her very being. It was a dance, swirling and playing around her with that torturous smell. She staggered back, someone mocking the "drunken" girl. Unable to take the temptation, she started to flee, fangs long and pointed.

Then she saw him. Something about him was so... delish. With strength she didn't know she had, she promptly pounced and ripped out his neck.

She was pulled off in the next instant, face a pale red. "I..." she shuddered, " am Hungry."

Amora snarled at the newblood. "I'm eating this one. Get your own." She drank her fill of the man, then shoved the boy at her. "There. Left overs. Just what scum like you needs."

She smoothed down her dress and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Who created you, anyway?"

Viola brighten at the "leftovers" and promptly bit into the man. She was often too timid or scared to hunt alone, so this was her first meal in... days, most likely.

"Dunno," she responded, gently placing the man at her feet and running a hand through her tangled hair. She didn't bther anymore. Why should she?

Amora growled low in the back of her throat. Though she would much rather leave the girl to die, she couldn't have a loose vampire around here. She loved this festival, and having Vampire Hunters around would not be fun. She'd just have to keep her around until the festival was over, or at least lead her away from Venice.

"Come on then, wench. We're going hunting."

"No," Viola backed up slightly, ready to flee. She was just heading out anyway. She didn't need blood where she was heading.

The sunrise would take care of any hunger.

A sadness reflected in her eyes as she murmured a thank you and began to head off, away from the city. A trickle of blood was still on her hands, so she wiped it on her filled pockets wordlessly.

Amora snarled and grabbed the creature's arm. "If you think I'm going to let a fleshblood wander around my country alone, you've got another thing coming." She yanked the girl back into the shadows of the alleyway as a giggling band of humans went by, holding a lantern. "You will hunt with me. And you will learn to control yourself, then I will let you go."

Viola flinched at her harsh voice, ducking her head in shame. She didn't need this. She didn't plan to make it to the next night anyway.

"I don't want to..." she trailed off. She could end that statement so many ways. Be a vampire. Hurt people. Continue this shell of a life. Frowing, she stepped into the street again, ready to disappear into the crowds.

"I won't hunt," she promised, "I'll... leave."

Amora snarled. "You will stay." She ordered. "You will learn, and you will not let that wench of a maker get the better of you! Just because you're alone does not make you weak!!"

She yanked the girl closer to her. "Prepare yourself. You're about to be taught to live my way. And you'll be amazing at it." She looked left and right, pulling the girl after her. "I will protect you, and you can have my leftovers. It will work."

Viola glanced up at the girl, then sighed. She gave up- hunting time, it was. She began to walk by the girl's side, not bothering to pull her arm out of the girl's grasp. "I am weak," she protested, "I don't even know... anything..."

She liked the idea of leftovers. No killing was a bonus. She'd let this vampire kill for her. "Who are you?"

Mora grinned. "The name's Amora." she said. "Amora Bene-..." She smirked and corrected herself. "Amora Kirke." She continued pulling the girl after her. "What about you, Freshblood? What's your name?"

Viola paused, seriously thinking about the question. Her name was... sacred. Her little secret from the new world. She wasn't the old girl anymore, she was someone new.

Glancing at a music store they passed, Viola immediately picked out the first word she saw, "Viola. Viola.. Seuss."

She gave a soft smile, then frowned again, preparing herself mentally for the night ahead. "Where are you going, Mary?" She slipped on the girl's name; remembering thing never really worked for her anyway.

Mora rolled her eyes. Well, no one was saying the girl couldn't change her name. She had, hadn't she?

"Well, Sweets, we're going hunting." She growled low in her throat. "And my name is Amora." She looked back at the girl with an obvious threat in her eyes. "You call me that again, you call me anything except Amora, or Mora, I'll rip your pretty little throat out." She was back to normal in a passing of another store.

"So let's go eat already. I'm starved."

Viola raised a brow, but didn't react in any other way. She padded faster, actually a bit eagar to hunt with someone. "You just ate," she pointed out, watching party-goers living it up at the end of the street. Her eyes started to fade to a hungry black at the mere thought of the hunt, but she resisted the urge to simply pounce on one.

Amora scoffed. "That was nowhere near as much as I need to be satisfied... usually, I'm never satisfied. Just want to take the edge off." She shrugged. "Being full means being comfortable, and being comfortable means being vulnerable, and being vulnerable means being weak." She met Viola's eyes squarely. "I am not weak."

She turned back to the party goers, pushing Vi into a new dark alleyway. "Stay here. I'll get one. Watch closely to how I do it, then you can try."

She glanced around before smoothing down her hair and putting on a bright, inviting smile. She swept into the party, her full skirts and bodice drawing many an eye. In no time at all she had a blond - she had a fondness for blonds that went all the way back to her human years - and led him back into the alley.

Then, without bothering with playing, she bit into the boy's neck, drinking up and practically glowing with the pleasure of the hunt.

She did so love playing with humans.

She retracted her fangs and moved her head away, her eyes searching the alleyway for her freshblood. "Come on, Vi..." she cooed. "Come have the rest..."

VIoa watched her play with her new treat, thinking back to an old book she read as a child. Something about India... Wait. That was it.

A full mongoose is a slow mongoose,

She was a mongoose now. Both predator and prey.

Pity filled her eyes as her fangs started to reappear. She didn't want to hurt people, she really didn't. It was something she became unwillingly. In a flash, Vi was at the man's throat, blood filling her mouth quicker than she could swallow. She sunk to her knees, lost in the pleasure of a meal.

He died in her arms as she took her final gulps, gasping for air. She broke away, happy to have had something to eat. Hoping it wasn't obvious that she was still hungry, the brunette stood and nodded thankfully.

Amora grinned at the girl as she picked up the body, looking back and forth on the walkway before dropping him in the Venician waters. Small tentacles wrapped around the body almost instantly, and dragged it beneath the surface.

She turned back to her freshblood, smiling widely at the people who walked by. "Would you like to take a turn, Vi, or do you want me to get another one?"

Viola looked up from her blood-stained hands, eyes a dark, deep brown which prgressed darker by the second. She had heard about this. Blood lust. That insatible feeling bubbling in her throat started to spill into the veins, making it almost impossible to resist hunting.

FIst clenched, Viola mangaed to squeak out, "You hunt," before claming her mouth shut again.

Amora was already gone, back in the party crowd, her smile as inviting as any.

This time she brought two, she met the eyes of one of them, backing him into the wall. Once he was properly compelled to stay there, she pounced on the other one, biting him and leaving him for Vi. She gestured to him as she returned to the one against the wall, her new favorite. The blond. She kissed him before she sunk her teeth into his jugular, drinking quickly and quietly. She did have a particular fondness for blonds, especially the ones with blue eyes.

Viola had a different feeding style than Amora. Instead of the salm, quiet drink her new friend took, Viola tore a chunk out of the man's neck to let the blood gush out, not even bothering to pick him up. His blood pooled quickly, but Viola didn't let much go to waste. She finished with him in less than a minute, her growling sounds finally stopped.

Watching her partner with now honey-colored eyes, she started to lick off her fingers. "Why do you kiss them?"

Amora finished with her drinking, the blond slumping, dead, to the ground of the alleyway. She licked her lips. "Force of habit." She said, picking up the blondes body. She motioned for vi to do the same before dashing across the small cobblestone walk and dropping the body inside. The tenticles dragged this one down to, as they would vi's.

"They're always much more willing after they've been kissed, so much more vulnerable. Its easier to drink from them when you don't have to worry about them screaming their heads off." She told this half-truth with a shrug. She didn't really know why she liked kissing the blond ones, it just seemed right... and wrong. She didn't dwell on it that much anymore. It had turned into a habit.

Viola, instead of picking up the body, kicked it across the path and into the water, feeling stronger than before. The tentacles were freaky, anyway. She didn't want to see that again.

"I don't want to kiss strangers. If I do it fast enough, they don't scream," she said softly, she too, lying. In truth, she was never really an affectionate person, and had only ever kissed before. She wouldn't waste something special on a stranger.

The clock struck three, the bells echoing across the town. "Morning in a few hours." she noted, "I need to find a place to stay,"

Mora yawned. She wasn't particularly tired or bored, but she wanted to go home. She eyed her freshblood before cocking her head toward the entrance of the alleyway. "I was about to head in anyway..." she walked to the edge of the alleyway before she looked back at the girl. "Well? Come on then."

She continued on her way after checking that Sweets was behind her, heading for one of the deeper underground safehouses she had in Venice.

Viola cocked her head, watching the girl for a second. A grand smile lit up her face and she darted after her, humming.

"Does this make you my master now?" she asked, hesitating before entering the underground city. If her heart was beating, it would have skipped a few beats, she thought. Finally, after a long year, she wasn't alone anymore. Amora. She'd take care of her. Or kill her before morning. Either or, Viola was happy.