"I've been through worse." The vampire lady hissed as I knelt down near her face.
"I have not even laid a single finger on your vile skin. The mere idea of touching you repulses me," I said with disgust, "But I will enjoy every second you spend suffering."
The vampire lady stared back at me in defiance and laughed, "My master will gut you like the rotten, stinking fish you are!"
I raised a brow at the terrible insult. Surely a vampire such as her would have better curses to throw against me? Rotten and stinking were basically the same thing, and being called a fish was amusing, not insulting.
A predator toying with its prey, like a cat fiddling with a scared rat. That was how it felt as I looked down on the paralyzed vampire.
But was I really one for suffering?
I pondered for a while, allowing the vampire a brief pause from the fear she was beginning to feel. As I ran my fingers up my hair, I realized that the answer was simple and clear.
A vampire like her deserved it. No questions asked. As I had said to myself, she was to atone for all her crimes and evil.
With my resolve firm and secure, I summoned my magic. It was only a tiny surge, a small and insignificant ripple on an otherwise vast ocean of power.
As my finger hovered over her chest, the vampire was beginning to look more confused than afraid.
"The fuck you gonna do?" She asked, "Put a finger in my chest and then what? Blast a hole? I've got a hole down under if you're so disgusting. Bet you haven't even-"
My fingers cackled with lightning, grazing her skin with burns that melted her flesh. I lost my patience with her rotten tongue.
She screamed as a small patch of her skin burned and melted away. Glaring, she launched into a tirade of curses and vile insults, some of which even surprised me with how disgusting they were.
They were better left unmentioned, and more so forgotten.
"I may be masking my magic," I whispered as I leaned close to her ear, "But I am not powerless. You are a creature of the night, a demonic offshoot from the depths of the underworld. Holy magic not only burns you, but it brings you unimaginable suffering. The likes of which only your kind know."
If a vampire could feel the shivers that ran down one's spine when they realized that something was amiss, she would have been trembling already.
Her bulging eyes and shivering tongue would suffice. A clear reflection of a terrified monster.
"Y-you can't do shit," She said, hoping that I was bluffing with the threat I was alluding to, "Holy magic hurts yeah, but you ain't no priest or ordained mage. You don't even have the blessing of any of the Shards!"
The vampire chuckled nervously, trying desperately to convince herself that she was right about my threat. That I was bluffing.
Unfortunately for her, I was not.
A vampire could endure many physical and magical pains. But being related to demons, holy magic had always been their bane and weakness.
I was neither a priest or holy, but I could summon the same holy magic without worry nor limitation. It was, after all, both my blessing and curse.
Holy magic turned me immortal, and only holy magic could free me from my immortality.
And right now, it was my greatest tool. A bringer of pain unimaginable, of suffering without remorse or mercy.
I placed the tip of my finger on her chest, standing on the skin between her breasts , "Magic is a tedious thing. A complicated art that must be drawn with utmost care and precision, requiring skills only the willing and patient could learn and master."
I dug my fingernail into her skin, causing the vampire to grunt as it bled, "But I am no ordinary practitioner of this art. Your master, whoever they may be, is no equal of mine, nor am I someone beneath them."
My finger began to glow a faint blue hue as I funneled my magic within my fingertip. Bolts of magic sparked from the skin, raging and cackling within as it hungered to be unleashed.
"B-blasting a hole through my chest ain't doing shit!" The vampire said aloud. Panic stirred her voice. If I were to prove her right and vaporize her chest, then she would die without pain nor use.
Unfortunately for her, I wasn't about to do that.
"I have many questions," There was a certain coldness to my voice, a frosty tone that made the vampire silent. As silence reigned, I felt my eyes grow numb and lazy, "If you answer them to my satisfaction, then I will make sure your death will be quick and painless..."
My eyes began to glow as I readied to unleash my spell into her body, "But I know your kind. You will not budge. You will hiss and you will fight. You would rather die resisting than to face mercy against what you perceive as someone lesser."
I already knew she would refuse my offer of mercy. Hence why it was rhetorical from the beginning till the end. She would not be given mercy, but she would be offered a glimpse of what she could have had.
She spat on my hand as soon as I finished talking, confirming what I already knew. That she deserved what was coming.
"You may think yourself unbreakable, but even the thickest of mountains could be broken."
A growing wheeze rang out from my finger as it began to glow brighter.
"You talk too much, bitch. Come on, do your worst!"
And so I did.
Two spells were unleashed at the exact same time. One was meant to hurt, and one was meant to silence.
Her pained wails filled the dining room with a horrendous sound similar to that of a shrieking animal begging for respite.
Veins bulged and glowed as holy magic entered her heart, pumping the spell deeper into her body. Paralyzed as she may have been, her body still shook and trembled, convulsing against the rubble like a fish stolen from the sea.
And as she suffered from the holy magic that burned her from within, I merely stayed on my knees beside her and waited.
I waited as her eyes smoked and melted, leaving behind sunken holes of goo. I waited as her skin folded and crumpled like pieces of burning paper. I waited as her screams turned into a disgusting gurgle as flesh melted into her mouth.
My spell was far from the required potency to actually kill her, but surely now she would feel obliged to cooperate with me.
Because I could heal her with a healing spell, and do this all over again.
In fact, I could actually cure her of her vampirism, returning her to whatever race she was before she allowed herself to be turned.
Now that I had a good look of her features, she was most probably an elf before she embraced the darkness.
I could still be wrong though.
Regardless, her heightened abilities point to a grim picture. She had killed and drank her share of innocent blood.
How was I sure?
Blood is unique. Every creature, mundane or magical, had blood that was solely theirs and could be identified through the use of magic.
It only took me one glance to see the victims of her thirst. It was at the moment they entered the tavern. Using my enhanced senses, I peered into their bodies and scanned their blood.
The blood of entire families ran through their veins. Children stolen from the arms of their parents. Parents killed in front of their children. The old, the young, the powerless, I saw their blood within her, writhing as they're used to defile nature.
What irked me the most was the fact that her recent victim was...
Anger clouded my mind as my eyes narrowed and brightened. This creature deserved more, more than the pain she was experiencing, more than the suffering I had bestowed upon her selfish existence.
She deserved worse.
With one finger, I brought her pain, and with my other hand, I healed her wounds. I pushed my magic to the absolute limit of what my masking spell was able to handle, balancing the power I was exerting as to not break it and expose myself.
Her garbled moans turned into screams of pain and mercy. She begged as her tongue melted and healed, as her skin melted and reformed, as her organs burned and healed.
I lost myself. To anger and hate. To the feeling of vengeance I was enacting against this creature.
Whoever her victims were, wherever they were stolen from, whatever their lives were, they will know justice.
And if the world had abandoned them to the passage of time to be forgotten and robbed of justice, I was here.
If I couldn't avenge a little girl, how could I expect to protect the one I had?