“Adelissssaaaa” Béatrix hissed the name, giving it a bit of her signature French flourish. The rogue vampire’s blood coursed through her veins, coloring her thoughts and vision with things best left… well, up to your imagination.

[i]Madness.[/i]

That’s what drinking vampire blood did to most vampires. It could make you feel higher than the tallest mountain and lower than the deepest trench, all at the same time. Emotions were heightened, feelings intensified. I guess it could be what humans would describe as an adrenaline rush, but it completely surpassed that in every way. Adelisa’s words grated on Trixy’s patience, the nerve of this one. small. girl.

[i]Madness.[/i]

That was the only thing evident in Trixy’s eyes as they bore into Adelisa. With Alistair’s approval, there was nothing holding her back. Come to think of it, could anything ever [i]really[/i] hold her back? Béatrix used her special ability to push into Adelisa’s mind, fishing for things like her age, her strength. Young, oh so young. Naïve as well. In moments, Trixy was upon the girl, shoving her against the wooden siding of the shore’s snack hut. Her thumb pressed into Adelisa’s right cheek as she gripped her throat with the rest of her fingers.

“I know what’s out there girl. I know more of horror than you could ever imagine. Hell, oftentimes I [i]am[/i] the horror. And I have spent more years fighting for myself than you have yet to grace this world with.” Trixy took in a steady breath, trying to reign in her emotions. Loneliness, all those years fighting and bleeding, all alone. There was a darkness in her soul that was born and raised in those years. She pressed her eyes closed for the briefest of moments, driving out the emotions. The blood, it was just the vampire blood fucking with her mind.

“You think we hide? Blackmoores don’t hide. We take, we fight, and we keep what is ours.” Trixy said with force, who was she trying to convince? The girl, or herself? Her face softened when she thought of how Alistair came to check on her moments ago, how he offered her an arm in comfort. “That includes each other. That’s what makes us stronger than you rogues. We choose to live for more than just ourselves.” Trixy loosened her grip on the girls jaw and she looked down at the realization of her own words. Were her words even true? Where did that come from? The blood, yes, of course. Just the vampire blood.

[i]Madness.[/i]

Never far, always in the corners of her mind. Trixy gave Adelisa a eerily bright smile. “Tell you what, [i]darling rogue[/i].” She said, purposefully not saying the girls name in order to earn her ire. “I’m feeling a bit sprightly, I’ve decided to give you a head start.” The dead coldness returned to her pale blue eyes as she hissed low through bared fangs.

“Run.”