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Bhodi and the Bhaalspawn 49 (dark, mature)


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#1 Arcalian

Posted 18 April 2006 - 11:14 PM

(the end of this chapter is very dark, but in a fun way. Mature themes all around. This is not a drill)

This is how it feels to be Marlowe, right now:

You gave away everything for twenty years of prosperity. Even at the time you knew it was a bad bargain; you were simply afraid to ask for more. But now, at the end, you have become the thing you yourself hate most, a debter. On the run from what you owe.

You hate yourself for throwing your wife and child in the path of the lich, but in the end you are too much of a coward to give up your own life. You simply cannot--must not--will not give up your soul.

You throw yourself upon the adventuring party for help, but your heart sinks as you realize they don't seem impressed.

----

"A lich, you say." Giovanni was indifferent, but thoughtful. He rubbed his chin. "I am something of a specialist in the area of undead."

"A grim Necromancer of great power, I have no doubt. Money I have! I will pay whatever price you name!"

Giovanni smiled. It was not a pleasant smile. "Careful how you say that. I might ask a higher price than you are prepared to pay."

Marlowe shivered, and there was some gleam of realization or remembrance in his eyes. "I am desperate. Will you help me?"

"The lich is in that cave, eh? I will parlay with it."

"Talk to it?? But...but--"

Giovanni thrust his face forward, eyes gleaming. "You asked for my help, and that was much presumption on your part. Do not further presume to question how I give it."

Marlowe shrank back. "F-forgive me..."

"There is much he is not telling us," said Bhodi. Marlowe practically fell over his own feet as he recognized Bhodi as a vampire.

"That much I could discern for myself," Giovanni nodded. "Imoen, would one of yours guard this fool?"

Anomen took the post without further discussion. The rest of the combined party went on.

-----

It was a concourse amongst the undead and the Necromantic. Bhodi, Giovanni, Xzar, and the Banshee took the lead.

"A truly great one of your kind," said the Lich, Vongoethe by name. He blowed to Giovanni. "You shall rule, and soon."

Giovanni inclined his head in turn. "Such is my hope and plan. But you tell me this fool Marlowe made a bargain in bad faith?"

"His daughter's soul is useless to me. I must have one freely given, and not stolen."

"I can practically hear my brother in my head, cursing the fool for merely asking for twenty years," sighed Bhodi.

"I would give you the soul, Great Necromancer, to do with as you please, if you bring Marlowe before me."

"I hope you plan to restore the girl, brother," Imoen said with a softly warning tone in her voice.

Giovanni shrugged. "I rather think there are other ways to restore her. Bhodi?"

"Only if she was willing. An unwilling vampire is a most unpleasant thing to see."

"Perhaps one of Vongoethe's followers would be willing to live in the flesh of another, as I do with Anishai?" the Banshee asked.

"I could bind them together," Giovanni nodded thoughtfully. "Can it be so?"

Vongoethe found a shade amongst his ranks willing enough to become the girl's new soul. "But Marlowe must be brought to me first."

"That will not be a problem," Giovanni assured.

-----

Anomen threw Marlowe into the chamber.

"Time to pay what you owe," Vongoethe snarled.

Marlowe fell to his knees, sobbing. "What of my daughter?"

"That is up to the Great Necromancer," Vongoethe answered.

"She will live," Giovanni said.

Marlowe hung his head. "I suppose I have no choice."

"There is always a choice," Vongoethe drifted closer. "You can choose to honor or bargain, or choose to run again."

Marlowe looked up. "Then I.....I submit."

Vongoethe gestured, and Marlowe was yanked into the filthy rags and bones of the lich.

Vongoethe seemed to grow, slightly, and cricked it's spine. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

From a great distance away, Marlowe's voice said thoughtfully, "It doesn't hurt...."

"No. Now you must only beg your wife for forgiveness."

----

The shade travelled with Giovanni's party, entering the hut where Malla, Marlowe's daughter, still slept. It drifted into the girl's sleeping form, and Giovanni and Xzar cast and spoke and muttered.

There was a flash, and the girl moaned in her sleep, and turned over.

"It is done," Giovanni said. Xzar nodded. Imoen sighed.

They left.

A few minutes later, the girl woke, feeling slightly cold, and feeling as though she was not alone. She knew, somehow, that her father was dead. She had memories of a life not her own, as though she had lived another life before....

"Oh Gods, what have I become?" she asked softly.

A voice in her head suggested she had become a stronger girl than she had previously been, and that she would have long life. It wasn't something to regret, was it?

"I suppose not, but what do you get out of it?"

The voice suggested that it got to live again, to feel a warm body, to have living flesh. But it would not--could not--take control. But it would live in her. And she would have a longer, fuller life as a result.

Malla smiled.

"Um....you were a man, weren't you?"

The voice chuckled, and Malla found herself excited by his memories. She packed up her thing and her father's treasure, and prepared to leave Amkethran. There were so many places she could go now, and so many things she could do.

----

Imoen lay drowsing under the desert moon. The party could've gone to the inn, but they had elected to sleep outside.

A shadow loomed over her. The shadow had violet eyes. Beyond that it was black, a mere silhouette of female sensuality. But Imoen knew it was Bhodi.

"Did you miss me?" the shadow asked softly.

"I still don't want to be one of your children," Imoen said.

"I know you don't," the shadow chuckled. "But that isn't what I asked."

Imoen lay still, breathing. Viekang was asleep nearby, but she didn't wake him up. She wanted....wanted....

"Yes," she admitted. "I missed you."

The shadow drew close. Imoen turned her bedroll cover aside, and the shadow lay upon her. Bhodi's cool undead flesh pressed atop her own, and that familiar sour tang of vampirism filled Imoen's nose.

"I missed you very much," she said softly to the Shadow, and wrapped her arms and legs around it.

The shadow chuckled.

They simply lay together for a while. Imoen turned her head, and the Shadow sunk it's fangs into her neck, feeding. Imoen closed her eyes and smiled, holding the Shadow tight.

After Bhodi had fed a reasonable amount, more than she ever had taken from Imoen before but not too much, she lifted her head and licked the wound closed.

"I still love how that feels," Imoen said faintly.

"You are unhappy with us keeping the girl's soul, even though we restored her in another way," the Shadow said, conversationally.

Imoen shrugged. "What will Giovanni do with the soul, anyway?"

"He gave it to me to devour. But I discussed it with him, and it occured to me that I could use it to bond with you in the same way I am bound to your brother already."

Imoen turned her head, and looked, wide eyed. Bhodi held a small white crystal in her palm, it's pure, innocent light pushing back her shadow until the Vampiress herself could be seen. "You will never be one of my children, on that we agreed. But we could be more than that. We could be joined, as I am already joined to your brother. We could be one."

Imoen thought about it. The moon climbed higher in the sky. Bhodi waited. Malla's soulstone glowed brightly.

Imoen licked her lips.

Finally, she said, "You really want me, don't you?"

Bhodi frowned for a moment, unsure exactly what Imoen meant, then smiled. "Yes, sweet little Imoen. I want you to be with me. I want you to be part of me. I want you in my head, and I want to be in your soul. I want you to be mine."

Imoen held Bhodi tight. She closed her eyes, realizing that agreeing to this would be wrong.

Wrong.

Bad.

Evil, really.

"Yes," she whispered.

Bhodi hissed triumphantly, then kissed Imoen passionately. She raised herself up from Imoen ever so slightly, to put space between their bellies, and slipped the soulstone into the gap. Then she settled her weight down again, and the light was muffled by her shadow. The light of innocence fading.

"Hold me tight, break the stone," she purred into Imoen's ear.

The women embraced, and there was the delicate crack of the soulstone breaking open. The light of innocence went out, lost forever, gladly given up.

The shadow of Bhodi overwhelmed Imoen.

"Oh yes...." Imoen moaned as Bhodi's darkness flooded into her.

"So sweet...." Bhodi murmured as she drew Imoen's soul into herself.

Imoen gladly gave herself up. She was more than one of Bhodi's children, she was Bhodi.

And Bhodi was her.

"It feels so good...." Imoen said softly.

Bhodi began to feed on her again.
The road to the abyss may be paved with good intentions, but it is those with bad intentions that race down that road as fast as they can.

#2 Guest_Durandan_*

Posted 25 April 2006 - 08:58 AM

Oooh, evil Imoen! Can't wait to see how this turns out. :D




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