Pumpkin Pie

Karma sat on one of the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch, the sleeves of her leather jacket rolled up to her elbows. They'd given her ones with Flames on it. She had had to hold in a snort as it was given to her, but she was never one to go against a gift. She was dressed in all black again, a tank top and pants, with her boots. Uniform be damned. Her hair was short and spiky again, but it looked professionally unprofessional now. A smirk was playing across her lips.

Her right hand was on fire again.

Jack o lanturns. It was a splendid idea.

Using one hand to throw a dagger at a pumpkin in the distance, then summoning it back to her hand. Slowly, a face formed, but she wasn't really looking at it. She was more focused on her hand, which was still on fire. The red fingerless glove was still recognizable through the flame, and it amused her greatly.

Pushing herself up, she walked over to the pumpkin, eyeing the crooked-tooth carving with a grin. Her aim was getting better.

The pile of empty water bottles next to her knapsack was giving off the odd scent she'd began to associate with the potion from Nolan. Her scent was also off, her vampire nearly dormant. Kama had been shut up.

Kicking over the pumpkin, Karma gazed down as the insides began to slush out of the plant, her mind filling with the image of humans falling the same way, their insides - brains, guts, bones - slushing out like pumpkin pulp.

She laughed, slamming her hand into the pumpkin pulp that remained, grinning as the pulp itself caught fire. She pulled back, watching the smoke rise from the innards of the plant. Like so many humans, before long.

She laughed again, the sound excruciatingly happy.

"It smells like pumpkin pie!"

Arsen stood off in the distance watching her. He had his arms folded and was leant back against a tree just hidden inside the forest out of view. Karma, vampire Karma would have seen him but Karma was no longer herself recently and now she'd taken a liking to his fire which annoyed him more than he thought it would.

Finally he'd had enough. It was clear the fire was going to do no destruction on his part whilst she was wearing those stupid clothes. "Yeah it's hilarious." He scowled as he came over.

"What are you doing Karma? You smell like a frigging human!"

Karma's laughter cut off abruptly as he came into view, a grin tugging at her lips. "Hothead!" She said cheerily, waving her flame-covered hand. She glanced at the fire again, mesmerized by it for a few seconds before shaking her hand trying to put it out. It didn't work. "How are you?" She asked, her pout replaced by a smile as she looked at him again. The smile slipped sideways and then off her lips, and she frowned at him. "You don't look happy. Why aren't you happy, Hothead?"

She frowned at his words, cocking her head to the side. "Do I?" She asked, sniffing her arm. She shrugged. "I don't smell anything." She clenched her gloved hand into a fist briefly, and the fire went out, as easily as she'd designed. Her eyes caught on the red glove again, frowning at it, before snapping her fingers. The friction was enough to light the glove on fire again. She made a fist, it went out. She snapped her fingers. It blazed up again. She grinned, giggling as she did it again and again, all but forgetting the boy in front of her.

"Don't hothead me! What the hell is happening with you?" He asked walking the rest of the way over to her and pulling the gloves off her hands. ""Of course you can't smell. You're weak! Stop it! Stop trying to be me!" He growled turning his hands into the hottest fire he could conjure so the gloves wouldn't stand a chance.

"You want to play human?" He asked taking her by the neck and half carrying her half shoving her to the cabin. Once there he shoved her against the wall and pinned both her hands with one hand. "I can treat you like a human. Let's play shall we." He growled and exposed his fangs.

Karma watched him incomprehensibly, a grin tugging at her lips. "Why are you ang- HEY! I worked hard on those!" Her mouth fell into an elaborate pout as she watched the red leather crinkle and turn black, melting in on itself. "Of course I'm weak, Hothead. Isn't that the point?" She squirmed slightly in his hold, but ultimately didn't fight that hard. "Where are we going?"

She frowned at him for a moment, before giggles began to slip up through her throat as she was pinned against the wall. She wrapped her legs around his waist and cocked her head to the side at him, a grin tugging the corners of her lips up. "Kama would say- would say- to be scared right now." She said, glancing from side to side as if to look for her other half. Her legs tightened, and she shrugged slightly, wiggling her fingers to test to see if she could still feel them. Her eyes, wide, light brown, and trusting went back to Arsen, and she smiled again. "Are you going to hurt me now, Hothead?" She asked curiously, clearly not believing her own question. She squirmed lightly, rubbing herself against him as she eyed his fangs. "Hey! I have some of those!" She willed her fangs to appear, pouting when, of course, that didn't happen. "Or I did have some. Wonder where they went..."

"The point of what?!" He asked. "What the hell do you achieve by becoming human? You want to become one of them is that it? One of your pets?" He spat, if she wanted to be one of her pet then he'd treat her like one. Whilst she was human she was no better than them anyway so what difference did it make?

"Always knew Kama was the smart one. Now get off me!" He spat as he shoved her legs off with his spare hands. It was stupid how easy it was whilst she was human. She wasn't even a match to his strength in this state. "Yes." He said simply around his fangs, ignoring her words. She was annoying his now and without another thought he dropped her hands, yanked her head aside and bit into her neck to taste her life's blood.

Karma, for the first time, was effected by his words enough to snarl. "That's absurd!" She growled. "How is my vamp side supposed to get stronger if-" She was interrupted by an owl swooping through the window, settling above them with a note in its beak. It dropped it, the small square of paper fluttering down between the two of them, its simple words catching Karma's eye before it burst into spontaneous flame.

Karma changed.

Her eyes met Arsen's determined, and for the first time in a while... sane.

"Nice to know you think that, Arsen. Means a lot." Her hands found his shoulders as he dropped them, and she made to push him away, a bit of her strength returning, but then he was biting her.

She nearly fainted.

The pleasure blindsided her, she wasn't used to it. She'd only been bitten a handful of times, and always the same reaction... always... but never this strongly. She made a small noise of appreciation in the back of her throat, wrapping her arms around his shoulders to keep herself upright. Something was yelling for her to stop him, to push him away, but she didn't see why... she could barely hear the voice anyway.

For whatever reason, she still held onto the belief that Arsen would never hurt her.

"If what? You cut it off? You build up your human side? Are you stupid Karma? You never struck me as the stupid kind!" He spat. He couldn't understand how she thought cutting off her vampire side was going to make it stronger. In his eyes cutting it off was only going to make it weaker, or anger it and kill her.

Arsen growled and pulled back, pushing himself out of her grip. "Funny thing demons. We can taste things in your blood. Gives us an idea about who we're messing with. Just how many pets have you got Karma?" He asked.

"Do you not comprehend that it's my half that's dying?" Karma snapped, sagging to the floor as he released her. She caught herself - barely - and held her hand against his bite mark, feeling it heal under her touch. "You'd think you'd want me to live a little longer." She licked her own blood off her fingers, noting with chagrin that Kama was back again - and she was commenting on everything Arsen said. "Its a good thing Kama's the smart one, seeing as she's the one who survives."

Well. That was distracting.

Her fangs lengthened as she tasted her own blood, and she sighed in experation. "And now I'm hungry." She muttered, moving so she was more comfortable on the floor. She looked up at him, her light brown eyes darkening the slightest bit, and cocked her head to the side. "I'm sorry that cutting off my vampire side is the only way to make my human side stronger. I'm sorry I want to live, if that's what's so upsetting to you. Turns out, if you don't eat human food, your human half kinda weakens to the point where it starves to death, faster than your vampire half can heal. Its annoying." She wrinkled her nose, thinking of the blood shed coughed up in the library. "Oh. And I have to learn to deal with the madness too, Carde insisted when I killed Co-" she stopped talking abruptly, tilting her head to the side and listening to Kama. A small smile played across her lips, and she stayed absolutely silent.

"Pets? Officially? As in bitten?" She hummed. "Only four. Well... three and a half, but four, mostly." She shrugged. "Unofficial wannabes? Like... Fifty or so. Plus the Seventh Years. And half the sixth years. And Puppet." She shrugged a shoulder. "I have to eat something, you know."

"Don't you think i know that? We're both dying Karma! Or have you too self absorbed to noticed that im actually getting weaker?" He asked, if she didn't spend all day with her 'pets' then maybe she'd notice that he wasn't always in control now. But he wasn't going to say that aloud. "And how is cutting Kama of allowing you to live longer?" He asked.

"Then eat! I manage it so im pretty sure you can. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get on with your life." He was getting annoyed now. Why was nothing ever simple? He really didn't need to be thinking about her right now, not when he had to watch his own back with his family on his back.

He frowned, he knew Carde was behind all this. Humans were always to blame. "I might have known a human was to blame, yet again. You know what i can't deal with this anymore." He said turning his back on her. "Wanna see how sad and pathetic humans really are?" He asked as he began to head back up to the castle. The Ravenclaw would pay, he was nothing to him but it was clear she felt something for him.

Karma, on her part, stayed absolutely silent, trying and failing to hear the boy through Kama's unceasing, incorrigible commentary. Her head fell forward, short hair hiding her face from him as she tried and failed to push everything-

"FINE!" She was standing, her hands clenched into fists, her eyes filled with so many emotions it was hard to keep track of what she was feeling. "I'm weaker than you, is that what you want to hear?" The words from the owl flashed back through her mind, and she went still, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. On her exhale, everything seemed to leave her, her anger, her frustration, everything was just... gone. She'd never liked arguing with him anyway, and it was obvious it was pointless.

Relaxed now, she shoved her hands into her pockets, leaning back against the wall and watching him. Her eyes were calculating and affectionate, nothing more. "Alright, Hothead." She agreed softly. "Show me."

It wasn't until he was halfway to the castle that she said it - what she'd known and felt all along. What she needed to change.

"Our half is the human half, though."

Arsen had already heard enough, so much so that he was now ignoring her. He was now set on finding his victim. Aragorn had to be around here somewhere, all he had to do was find his scent. Then he was set. He just had to make sure Karma didn't get in his way, that would complicate things slightly.

"Don't you think i know that?" He spat, harsher than was necessary. But if anyone knew that then he did. He was constantly battling Pyro for control, it was stupid for her to point it out like he wouldn't know and he wasn't in the best of moods.

"Of course you know." She murmured softly, taking a small step towards him. She wanted to... to wrap her arms around him, to apologize, to make him feel better. She reached out to brush his hair back with her fingers, the movement slow enough that he could pull away if he wished. "I didn't mean to upset you." She said gently, ducking her head. "I don't want to make you angry..."

"Arsen..." She whispered, before stepping back and looking down at the floor, her hair throwing her face into shadow. She clasped her hands behind her back and kept her silence this time, shoulders hunched; her entire posture submissive. Fine then. He could go be... angry at her or humans or everything if he wanted. There wasn't really anything she could do about it, was there?

He closed his eyes she she ran her fingers through his hair. "Stop it!" He growled and pulled away. He needed to show her what she needed to see and he couldn't do that with her distracting him. So without waiting for further distractions he headed off towards the castle and didn't look back.