In honor of B.B.1 relaunch, I am posting the first chapter of B.B.2:The Rising!
Enjoy!!
KR
Chapter 1: Atrocious Acts
She needed blood. She needed ancient blood, a kind of blood that would really put her over the edge.
Arcon’s blood power had worn off only a few minutes after she had finished drinking from him. His body was now a pile of scattered ashes, as his body had ignited after she had beheaded him. It didn’t surprise her, although she hadn’t anticipated the intense flu-like feeling that came over her. She had made it to her bed, had pulled herself up to its impressive height with the last of her strength. Now she was nestled deep within a cocoon of charcoal gray pillows and blankets.
Kaellina’s energy was on its last reserves, and she was nauseous. The bedroom, with its dark gray and black interior, swam around her.
She was defenseless right now. In a very short period of time, she had killed her own Master- Erazem, who had been a 600 year old Vampyre- and Arcon, her sister Calissa’s Master and Kraynu’s Second in Command. Not a bad night of hunting and rearranging the Bloodline hierarchy.
Killing Erazem himself had been surprisingly quick. But the rest of his coven...that had taken time and a lot of energy. His coven had been fiercely loyal to their Master and had fought hard against her. But once she had taken control of the Jen-Yu, it was much easier to clean up the place.
Kaellina coughed hard, a wracking cough that left her holding her sides in pain. When it passed, she took several deep breaths and looked at her Echo. Bella, a black panther, was curled up in a miserable ball at the foot of the bed.
“Bella, we can beat this. You know we can. I know we can.” Bella opened one of her iridescent yellow eyes and stared at Kaellina.
Still, there was the matter of the inconvenient way that Erazem had passed-right before she had destroyed him, he had swallowed one of Calissa’s hairs. Such an odd, maddening thing- how did he even get ahold of one them? One strand of hair that would act as the transport for his soul to take residence inside of Calissa’s head.
And while it was hilarious to think of him bugging the shit out of her sister, it was not good for war tactics. Erazem had fed on Kaellina, thus tying them intricately together, in such a way that Erazem would always have a bead on her, a personal GPS on her location and activities. Hell, she was pretty sure he was powerful enough to tap into her visual and auditory capabilities, so he could see out of her eyes, and hear what she was hearing.
Unless Callisa hadn’t survived her Master being killed...The next instant, Kaellina threw out that idea. Kaellina was still alive- if she had survived (so far) Calissa had as well. She wondered how Calissa was feeling; she had killed her sister’s Master, Arcon, about six hours ago. She sincerely hoped that Calissa felt ten times worse than she did.
She picked up her head to look out at the mammalian bodies that were spread out all around her bedroom. She had taken over Erazem’s 150-member Jen-Yu pack, immortal silver jaguars that were blood bound to a Master. It had been easier than she had thought, and once Erazem’s own pack turned on him…..
An idea popped into Kaellina’s head. But she didn’t know if it would work. It was a dangerous, formidable idea. Seeing it through would violate one of the most sacred rules of the True. But if it did work…..
“Ken-yalla” She spoke the ancient name, and the biggest of the giant cats got slowly to his feet. He threaded his way among the bodies over to the bed, where he jumped up next to Kaellina.
She instructed him to lay down on his side next to her, facing away. She lined their bodies up, and the smell of his blood reached her nostrils. It smelled like paradise- rich, meaty. She could feel his heart beating- which even weakened by the power loss of the last couple of days still beat with incredible energy- energy that Kaellina desperately needed at the moment.
With her two hands holding down his head and upper body, she threw a leg over the rest of his body. Ken-yalla started to raise his head at this strange procedure but she shoved it back down. Then she bared her fangs, letting them drop to their full length, and stabbed into the muscular neck.
Ken-yalla jumped and squirmed underneath her, alarmed at this unprecedented behavior. Kaellina tightened her hold as the the delicious fluid burst into her mouth. She tightened her grip on his head and flexed the muscles in her leg, letting the concentrated weight help keep his body still. She felt tendons snap under her teeth and it only made her nestle deeper into the jaguar’s neck. Ken-yalla let out a shriek of pain, followed by another. He thrashed underneath her, but her desperation for what was in his veins helped her overpower the beast.
Oh! Ken-yalla’s ancient blood sprayed into her mouth, and it was delicious. She had never tasted blood this delicious, this layered. Her eyes closed in ecstasy.
She felt her powers returning, the insurmountable energy returning. Her limbs were waking up, her muscles plumping up.
Finally, she pulled out of Ken-yalla, and tilted her head back to crow triumphantly at the ceiling. Dark gold dripped from her fangs, and she pushed Ken-yalla’s limp body off the bed.
Kaellina sat up in bed, and reveled in the power rush she was experiencing.
Bella was looking better already- she was sitting alert on the bed, her ebony coat shiny once again. The rest of the Jen-yu had gotten to their feet as well, regarding Kaellina who had just killed their pack master.
Without taking her eyes off of the one-hundred and forty-nine Jen-Yu that were staring at her, Kaellina slid out of bed and stood before them.
“Bow before your new Master!” she barked at them. There was a moment before anything moved, then one by one, all the Jen-yu stretched out their front limbs before Kaellina.
“Let’s go take care of Nashel. We’ll raze that town to the fucking ground.”
