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The darkness of midnight seeping into the woods was for one picturesque moment only broken up by the stars and the moonlight. This beautiful serene scene shattered as the doors of castle in the center of the woods where thrown clean off the hinges, flooding the forest with lantern light. No level of obstacle, no darkness, no tripping hazard, no monster, could stop the frantic pair that bolted from the doors.
Leading the frenzied chase was Candle, her long violet skirts held up in one hand as the other quickly hexed her hat to tie itself firmly to her head at the swish of her wand. She leapt over the fallen logs that crossed her treacherous path into her lair, baiting her pursuer onwards, having successfully provoked him out of his own lair. Just behind her followed Silver Spoon, his polished boots and iridescent black cloak doing him no favors as they caught at the brambles he was rushing through. Despite his difficulties, he kept pace with her just the same.
They'd made this chase a dozen times, always the same, every single night. First through his castle, then through her forest. Both fueled by mad obsession and desperation, both desperate to spill blood.
Sliver was forced to come to a full halt as he reached the clearing in the center of the woods and lost sight of Candle. He quickly picked a vial full of plain water out of the sheathe on his belt, prepared to unleash what he knew was stinging acid to Candle the moment she returned. He knew the witches game well enough, but still chased her onwards in hopes of that sweet taste of being the one to claim her blood. A witch as a vampire's thrall was a highly coveted mark of status along with a powerful slave.
Candle watched from the shadows, flicking her finely sharpened stake of a wand between her fingers and whispering sweet echoes of the words of the woods under her breath. She watched the moonlight catch his fair skin and pearlescent hair, the favored objects of his princely vanity. All this time of running from being his thrall only to turn to hunt him back, she finally knew what she wanted from him.
A branch cracked under Candle's shoes as she made her dash in. Silver whipped around at the sound and tried to attack, but she was too quick for him.
Much to quick. By means of a hastening spell.
Instinctively, Silver braced his cloak to parry an expected attack, but Candle nimbly dodged, sneaking past to be mere inches from his face. His hand found the dagger at his side but the plants on the ground grabbed his ankles as Candle's hands snaked over his shoulders, shifting to momentarily mess with his hair.
His two crimson eyes locked with her three fuchsia ones.
Candle dragged Silver in, her stained lips pressing into his and her wicked tongue tasting his fangs.
Silver tried to shove her back but ended up falling backwards onto the mossy earth. Candle sheathed her wand properly before dropping next to him.
"You can't tell me that you didn't like that." Candle whispered in the darkness. Her voice was rich and rippled with each word she spoke, like a heavy smog cloud that clung to her every thought. Silver scrambled to his feet, dagger at the ready.
He moved to strike her, but she was too quick and blocked with re-drawing her wand. The force of the colliding powers shattered both of their weapons into splinters of wood and metal.
"You foul scum of the earth!" Silver snapped, agitated voice impossibly shrill. Candle joined him, standing.
"How does it feel to get a mere taste of what you desire?" Candle taunted, laying on the mockery thicker than honey. Her hands laced with tattoos found his shoulders again. Silver didn't try to fight her off again, knowing she was right. He did want her. He wanted her more than anything. She consumed his every thought. He lived for these chases. He spent hours memorizing her every weakness.
It was tantalizing to know she felt the same.
Candle smirked, reading his face like her spellbook. Silver watched her carefully. She still displayed the acid scar on half her face from the last time he'd tried water on her as a mark of pride.
She was gorgeous and powerful and studious and everything he'd ever wished for. He saw it all in that moment.
It was Silver who dragged her into him this time, his hands settling on her hips. It was a sweet, pacifying indulgence to trace each element of her devious smile. He broke it again, desperate to draw breath in this feverish moment of bliss.
"You feed my desires with empty taunts." Silver whispered, drowning in the sudden passion.
"They don't have to be empty if you make me an equal." Candle replied, "I will give you the arcane for the immortality. You have to want more than my body and blood. You have to want more than power."
"You have opened my eyes. How long have you known yourself of this secret we hold?" Silver continued.
"Silver, your confession of my correctness holds true and yet you still do not see." Candle mused, "It is our being together that makes this chase worth it. I breathe for the night air close at your heels, baiting you onwards, as I know you do, but I live for them for you."
He couldn't help it and stole another sweet kiss. She let him.
"The chases are the moments of purpose." he said, realizing what she wanted him to pick up, "They are why I get up, to await your return, to plot your demise."
"Could you plot my benefit and gain just as I can plot yours?" she asked, hands tracing memorized patterns up his back. Silver let one of his hands drift up to her hair, running his fingers between the tiny intricately braided sections.
"I thought no one could ever love me so completely." Silver confessed, "But the world made you."
"It made you too." Candle said, "It made us first as beings together, before it was forced to tear us apart. We were born intertwined, we will die intertwined. The stars declared it. I have read it among them. Two with soul, lose their soul, find each other as their new soul."
"As so the story goes." Silver replied, "Tell me you will bless my life as you've done each night of this chase."
"I will for your heart, your mercy and trust." Candle replied. He could tell she meant it.
"That's all I needed to hear."