Chapter Text
Being a vampire sucked sometimes, pun not intended.
The irritation with sunlight, the constant Hunger, the urge to murder everything around you, you know how it is.
But sometimes, it was pretty cool, like with the fact that, since she technically didn’t need to sleep, Marinette and her maman could go on a Parisian tour through the entire night and still have her go to school without fuss. Didn’t mean the walking didn’t suck, though. She and Sabine had to drink two bags of blood when they got back to regain the energy they’d lost, listening to Tom’s recollection of the night.
“It just sniffed around for a bit and left,” he said, shrugging. “I don’t know what was so bad about it,” he continued, raising an eyebrow at Sabine along with Marinette. Her maman had been eerily quiet during their walk, making pointless small talk instead of acknowledging the elephant, or rather wolf, in the room. Sabine sighed, placing a hand on her forehead.
“Werewolves and vampires have been feuding for generations. Since our creation, we’ve been natural enemies.” She began, taking more sips of tea with shaking hands. “Alarm bells go off in our head when we’re even near one of them. In fact, vampires have historically been outers of werewolves, and vice versa, because we’re the only ones who can tell who the other is. We’re designed to fight with each other, to be suited for combat with each other. If you want to take down a werewolf, you get a vampire, and if you don’t want a vampire around, you get a werewolf.” She finished worriedly, worry lines creasing her face. “Our vendettas against each other are natural and equal, as well as our skills, but I wasn’t about to fight a werewolf in the middle of the street with my daughter around.” She finished, fire alight in her eyes. Marinette smiled sadly, squeezing her maman’s hand. She smiled and squeezed back. Her eyes drifted to the clock, and she perked up, making a noise of surprise. “You need to get to school,” she said, getting Marinette’s bag for her. She smiled gratefully, turning away from her mother and towards the stairs. She looked over her shoulder to see her parents hugging each other, the weight of being supernatural settling heavily on both of them. She frowned and descended, deciding to leave it for later.
When she arrived at the school, she was lost in her thoughts, fingering the two small pinpricks on her wrist. She frowned, thinking about the burden of being a vampire. Her dependence on blood was an obvious one, as well as her need to hide from humanity. But she had never considered that other mythical creatures might be around, out for blood. Frown deepening, she vowed to do as much research on werewolves as she could. She fidgeted, fiddling with her earrings and watching her glamour flicker slightly. Such a thin layer between her and a life-ruining secret. She sighed, picking herself up and looking up, walking and reminding herself to breathe. As she inhaled, she nearly gagged on the strong scent of decay and smoke.
Undead magic.
Her magic.
On-guard, she whipped around, enhanced senses scanning the courtyard for anything that could be exuding that much magic. Nothing visible. She inhaled again, checking the area once more. Whatever that had been, it was much fainter now, barely detectable under the wind. She shivered, feeling her instincts screaming at her to eliminate the threat she couldn’t perceive. She shook it off, turning away and forcing herself to keep walking.
The giant lion landed right next to her, forcing a startled scream from her mouth. She jumped back, feeling the undead magic, palpable in the air. She stared at the trio of heads on one body. She gaped, thinking only ‘Why me?’.
The thing looked like someone had spliced a lion and a ram together, and supersized the whole thing. The strong front paws of a lion dug into the soft earth, as the lion head snarled. Directly next to it on the beast’s other shoulder, a ram’s head baa’d aggressively, it’s cloven back hooves stepping nervously. The tail of the beast was a large, fanged snake which stared aggressively at Marinette, it’s tongue flicking out of its mouth.
Her heart would have been hammering if it still beat, but with the advantage of undeadness, Marinette was able to regard the situation with only a touch of panic.
‘OHMYGODWHATISTHATHOLYSHITIT’SGONNAKILLMEWHYWHATTHE-‘ she thought, pupils blown wide as she stared the beast down. Somewhere above her, glass shattered, and a flood of children landed in front of her, screaming. Taking advantage of the panic, Marinette bolted, ducking into a hallway to (metaphorically) catch her breath.
Okay, she thought, okayokayokay it’s fine it’s just a giant lion demon thing you’ll be fine.
That’s when she heard the screams.
Screams of panic, exertion, and terror.
Screams she recognized.
Screams of her classmates.
Of her friends.
“Oh, hell no,” she muttered to herself, eyes glowing red.
Her friends were screaming, scurrying, fleeing for survival out there, and there was nothing she could do about it! She clenched her fist, gritting her teeth as her fangs extended. She was tired of running! She just wanted to help! SHE was the wolf, and that THING was the sheep!
She growled, clenching her fists in front of her. She was going to knock that damn thing into next week.
Her vampire instincts screamed approval as she took her earrings out, flexing her muscles and watching them ripple under the pale skin, fangs fully extended. She snarled, dashing out into the courtyard with enhanced speed.
The monster was slowly advancing towards Max, one of her new friends, and her vision turned red. She screamed a battle cry, leaping and tackling the beast to the ground.
“GO!” She yelled, slamming her feet into the thing’s ribs and springboarding off of it as it yowled, an audible crack sounding. Max didn’t need to be told twice, and bolted as the creature got up, snarling at her. It’s eyes flashed purple, and it crouched as the sounds of snarls echoing through the courtyard. Marinette looked the thing over, assessing its assets, its combat abilities.
Its powerful muscles sprang, and it pounced.
She rolled to the left, bouncing to her feet and sending two quick jabs into its ribs, feeling the skin sink in slightly where she’d cracked them. She grimaced, scampering away as it roared, swiping at her with a paw. She had never had any formal fighting training; she was relying entirely on her instincts. She grit her teeth, waiting for an attack. It came in the form of the snake head, the fangs lunging for her extremely quickly. She ducked, barely dodging it, as she rolled away—
Straight into the goat hooves, which bucked, sending her flying into a concrete pillar. Darkness flooded her vision as she felt something snap, pain exploding like fire inside her. She stumbled to her feet, tasting blood in her mouth as she heard the beast running towards her. She managed to stumble out of the way as all three heads tried to snap at her, running as fast as she could to wait for her wounds to heal. She could hear the monster roar and chase after her, an animal in a blood frenzy. Marinette could feel her collarbone and ribs knitting themselves up, but healing was a slow process even when she wasn’t focused on escaping a monster. She was getting desperate, looking everywhere she could for a way to escape the beast.
WHAM.
The loud sound of a collision made her look back, and she witnessed the lion monster wrestling with a new beast, this one large and black. The two were snarling and roaring, their claws hacking away at each other.
Marinette bolted into a classroom, hating staying out of the fight but needing to heal, as she felt the Hunger grow stronger, her bones fitting back together.
She burst out of the classroom in time to see the black canine get thrown across the courtyard, skidding across the soft grass. The lion monster growled, picking itself up with numerous cuts and scrapes, keeping its weight off of its back left leg. The smell of blood was heavy in the air, infused with the heavy stench of animal, undead magic, and dust. Marinette zeroed in on the injured leg, sprinting towards it while the beast’s attention was still on the black dog. She slid down, grabbing the ankle in both hands and twisting.
The beast let out an inhuman shriek as the bone, muscles, and tendons snapped, Marinette’s momentum carrying her out of the way of the spasms the lion suffered. Its hoof was dangling, hanging limply as the beast collapsed, crushing the snake head under its own weight with an audible crunch, egging another loud scream. It shakily tried to right itself through the pain, with only three legs available. Marinette almost gagged at the sight of both the left hind ankle and flattened snake head hanging limply, the scent of blood flooding her nose, and the sight of it overwhelming her eyes. The beast turned to her, rage in its vision, and it roared, stumbling towards her. She raised her hands, prepared to fight.
The black beast slammed into it once again, shredding its eyes with sharp claws, the both of the beasts screaming. The lion fell again as the black beast stood above it, lacerating it with its claws. Eventually, the beast stopped struggling, and lay limp. The black beast was breathing heavily, blood dripping from its snout and paws as the lion beast disappeared in a puff of purple smoke, a small white butterfly sitting in its place. The butterfly fluttered away from the carnage.
“Bye-bye, little butterfly,” Marinette muttered deliriously, feeling the ache that came with healing while under strain. She watched the black beast as it looked up.
Their eyes met.
The world stopped.
Marinette remembered those eyes, remembered the danger they brought, remembered a night of running and fear and challenge, and her instincts kicked her into gear, fear blossoming inside of her as she ran, darting to an abandoned classroom and slumping against a wall. Wearily, she put her earrings back in, placing her head on her knees and feeling the light magic settle over her, a security blanket. The scent of blood was still heavy in her nose, the fluid even more relevant as the Hunger yelled, desperate for energy.
Marinette pushed her aching body up and limped home before she had time to process what she’d done.
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Far away, two figures stepped away from their telescope, etching words into their notebooks as they stepped back, glancing at each other worriedly.
“What does this mean?” The male asked, voice only betraying a hint of a tremble.
“I-I don’t k-know,” the woman stuttered out, nervously fidgeting with her long hair.
“Is he really that desperate?”
“Maybe…”
“How far is he willing to go?”
The female had no response. She worried her bottom lip and left.
The male sighed, snapping his fingers as the telescope disappeared, melting into shadow.
“I don’t like this.” He grumbled, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“Not one bit.”