Natalia

Chapter 3 - The First Task

THIRD PERSON POV

Arika walked back and forth while Ivy shakes her head at her wife.

"Just sit down Arika. I'm sure she's alright." Arika stopped walking and turned to her wife.

"I accidentally released my venom into her blood. And you know how deadly it is. She's just a newborn." 

Ivy stood up and rubbed her wife's back.

"Relax Arika. We have the best healer available. I'm sure she can cure her." Just after Ivy said that, the door that leads to Natalia’s room being opened and reveal a witch with an all-white attire. 

Arika and Ivy look up and instantly went to the witch.

"How she's doing?" Ivy asked. The witch looked at the princesses and sighed.

"Bad. Real bad..." Arika was about to go inside when the witch forbids her. 

"I'm not done yet, princess. BUT, I manage to extract the venom out of her veins. Next time, don't give her your venom. She's not like both of you. She's a newly born vampire. Her body was still adjusting to the new nature of being the undead." Arika released a long relief sigh.

"Can we meet her?" Ivy asked. The witch nods but before she let her hands off of the door, she made a money sign with her fingers.

"A little token would be nice after a very hard work saving a dead person from the realm of death." The witch gave the princesses a sly smirk. 

Arika rolled her eyes and placed 2 bags of gold on her palm.

"Get out." Arika sneered lowly and the witch let go of her hands.

"Pleasure making business with you both." She smiled and walked away.

"Remind me not to hire her again," Ivy said before walking into the chamber. 

Inside the cold and darkroom, laid a figure on the luxurious golden bed, motionless. Arika was the first to sat next to Natalia's side and caressed her forehead lovingly.

"Arika she's going to be okay. Look. Your mark had healed." Arika traced her fingers on her mark and sighed. 

"When the prophecy said other beings in our relationship I never thought it would be her. Why didn't you tell me when you and father met her." Arika asked her wife. Ivy smiled. "I want to be the first to mark her." Ivy chuckled. 

Arika shakes her head and looked at Natalia's body from head to toe.

"Do you think she capable of handling such a task? I remembered how you went through it. You were devastated when the prophecy listed your birth mother." Ivy's demeanor changes to gloomy.

"I never liked my mother before, remember? She sold me to the most disgusting old man ever. Just for money." Ivy took Natalia's hand to hers and kissed it.

"I'm glad I get to kill her, Arika. I could have my revenge. I could have the feeling to make her suffer like I do when that old man tortures me to death." 

Arika reached for her wife's cheek and caressed it.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up again." Ivy gave her wife a loving smile. "It's okay honey. It happened hundreds of years ago. I think the man who did stuff to Natalia here was much worse than what I went through. I didn't get my limbs cut off from my body." 

Arika leaned in to give her wife a tender kiss on the lips. 

"What shall we do to the people who did this to our poor little bride?" Ivy asked when they pulled away from the kiss.

"What do you suggest we do?" Arika asked the question back. Ivy was in deep thought when they heard the door was opened. 

It's videric. Videric went to observe how remarkably Natalia's body healed from her daughter's deadly venom.

"Hmm. That's a good sign. The new mark has no dark veins all over them. Are you sure you accidentally gave her your venom?" Arika nods and looked down. 

"Look up my child. She passed the first part of being a vampire. Which is surviving." Videric said and patted his daughter's head before walked out of the room. Arika smiled a little. She was glad that her father didn't punish her for her carelessness. 

Ivy suddenly screams a little. 

"I have a thought. Let's show the person who killed our bride with some vampiric power test. It's been ages since we last did it together. I need to practice myself." Arika laughed.

"You think you can beat me in the vampiric power test? Are you mental?" Ivy puffed up her cheeks before hitting Arika's chest hard. 

"Don't challenge me Arika." Arika chuckled and rubbed her chest.

"Ivy, I know you. You will let anger controlled your body and then you'll play dirty tricks against me. That's how you always and will do," Ivy shrugged her shoulder. 

"But I always win in the end. I'm one heck of a fighter babe. Don't forget that." Arika winks at her wife.

"Don't be so sure Arika. While you were away I've been training with the Sirens." That brought Arika to laugher.

"SIRENS?!" Arika laughed even harder, holding her stomach.

"What can they possibly taught you except luring men to their death?" Ivy finds that offensive.

"Excuse me." Arika realized what she had done and gave her wife a nervous laugh.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. Forgive me." Ivy waved it off.

"You've been away for so long. You haven't seen my combat skill, Arika. Besides, these guys will be perfect for our 'practice'." Arika rubs her chin before nodding her head. It's time for them to have a showdown.

"Okay. Count me in." Ivy offered her hand and Arika shook it. 

"Let's just hope they don't have any family who will miss them. But I doubt it. For them to rape a woman repeatedly like that, they probably have no social life." Ivy shakes her head.

"Let's have a fun night shall we, my princess?" Ivy nodded and gave her wife a toothy smile.

"And fun shall we have." They both turned to Natalia and promise to seek justice for the pain she suffered.

***

Arika unmounts her bike after Ivy got off the back seat. She placed her helmet on the oil tank of the bike and looks around the abandoned factory.

"Are you sure this is it?" Arika asked her wife. Ivy nods and turns to the familiar desert.

"That's where father and I found Nat's body." Arika turns to the direction Ivy was looking at and looks back at the factory.

"Well. Let's knock on the front door," Arika said before reaching for her sword that was strapped on her back. 

Ivy nods and walked towards the unlocked door. She slowly turns the knob and entered the smelly factory. The familiar smell of dried blood was all over the abandoned factory. As they saunter even further in, they heard a soft wailing sound coming from the stacks of the wooden barrel near them. 

Arika grabs on her wife's wrist, telling her to stay put. Ivy can't believe what she witnessed but when Arika pointed at a figure sitting at the very corner of the factory, Ivy didn't budge at all. Arika was looking at the surrounding, making sure that there's nobody around the figure. 

But that's when a group of guys waltzes in. One of them carried a heavy-looking sack over his shoulder and threw it on the floor. It was at that moment Arika noticed that there's a human being inside the sack. Arika holds her wife's wrist tighter, telling her to control her anger. 

Arika placed a finger on her mouth telling her to stay where she is while she went to the guys even closer. 

"I'm curious. Where did that b***h's body go to? I was looking forward to seeing her rotten corpse in that ditch." A man said before giggling. 

"Probably the hyena's carried it somewhere and eat the body. Boy, I love how she screamed at us to stop raping her. That was good s*x," Arika grip on her sword handle getting tighter as they talked trash about the woman they kidnapped and killed. 

"Do you feel happy doing such things?" Arika asked while hiding in the shadows. The guys were on their feet instantly, aiming their guns in every direction.

"WHO'S THERE!" Arika laughed followed by Ivy’s.

"I'm just some creature you'll find amusing." Arika made herself known. One of the guys let down his gun and laughs. 

"What are you doing here, little lady?" He asked. He didn't know who he's talking to. Yet. Arika played with her sword, showing how easily it can slice a wood into two.

"I'm looking for my bride's killer." Arika smiled. 

"Don't play with sharp things, little lady. I don't want you to get hurt." The same man said.

"Don't mind her. She's quite a swordsman." Ivy made herself known and placed her hands on her waist.

"Two beautiful girls grace us with their beauty. Now that's something you don't see every day." The man turned to his partners.

"Boys. Let's show them how we start the party," The guys laugh but before they could touch Arika, their hands were cut off from their body.

"Tsk tsk tsk. Don't touch me with your filthy hands. I am a princess," Arika said venomously. 

Their scream echoes in the abandoned factory followed by their wails.

"Let your blood squirts everywhere as you slumped to the floor, bleeding to death. What? Hate to feel what you always did to all those girls?" Ivy mocked.

"Ivy, honey, show them your new trick." Ivy walked towards the remaining guys and winks. 

She started singing a melodious tune she learned from the Sirens. Immediately, the guys lose conscious of their own free will and they seem to follow the melody of Ivy's singing. When Ivy stopped singing, she instructed them to kneel on command. Arika was impressed.

"Let's start with you, smart mouth." Ivy grabbed the man who first spoke to them earlier by the collar. Ivy slammed his back on the walls, whispering in his ears before making ways inside of his shirts. He was having fun when Ivy jabbed both hands inside his torso. She guides her ways to his lungs, grabbing it hard and pulled it out with force. 

The man's eyes widen shocked by the sudden move. He looks at Ivy's hands that had his lungs and letting out little breath he had before his body slumped on the floor.

"Honey!! He died before I get to his heart!" Ivy told her wife. Arika shakes her head.

"Get his heart." Ivy obliged and jabbed inside his chest, grabbing the heart out. Now, the remaining guys that were kneeling on the floor, watched this with horror. They know, it will be their time soon. They began to apologize and it annoys Arika.

"There is no amount of apology could save you now! You should consider that the things you did to those ladies could happen to you as well!" Arika screamed.

"Don't even think about escaping because I won't let you walk out as a free man anymore!" Arika spat with venom. 

"Humans sickens me," Arika said before decapitated all of them at once. Ivy went to the sack and untied the knot. Inside, she found a young teen, scared for his life.

"It's okay. You're safe now," Ivy offered her hand and helped the boy out of the sack. 

The boy was shocked when he saw Arika stacking the lifeless body like a brick.

"Shhhh..." Ivy hugged the boy and lead him away from all the gore. Arika was leaving a note for the police when Ivy came back, telling her she asked the boy to get help. 

"He will lose his memory of us." Arika nods and looks at her artwork.

"Don't even think about drinking their blood. Nat will know. Instantly." Arika warned. Ivy looks at how Arika stack the body on top of each other.

"Why?" Ivy asked while motioning at her wife’s work 

"Easier for me to do this," Arika said before gracefully sliced the bodies to two even pieces followed by her sinister laughter. Looking at her bloody sword, she cleaned it up using the guy's clothes and put it back to the scabbard on her back. 

"At least we don't have to use much of our energy," Arika said.

"Who won then?" Ivy asked.

"It's a draw?" Arika shrugged her shoulder. 

***

When Natalia woke up, she heard uneven snoring sound. She was weirded out. This is not her room at all. She doesn't remember having roommates nor a golden bed like this. When she turned to the left side, she saw a golden hair figure, sleeping facing her back to her. 

When she turned to the right, she saw a woman with brunette hair. She could make out her face. It's Ivy. Then she turned back to the left.

"Arika?" She breathes out. Arika moved a little and turned to face Natalia.

"Oh. Hey.." Natalia's eyes widen and she abruptly got up to a sitting position 

"Ow.." Natalia holds her head from the sudden headache. She laid back on the bed and closed her eyes.

"You need to take it easy," Arika said while she wakes Ivy up. Ivy jolted up and turned to Natalia.

"Hey. You're awake." Ivy got up and went to a table. She carried a tray with a glass of fresh blood on them.

"Here. You will feel better when you consume some of this." Natalia obliged and took a sip. She instantly feels better.

"You've been asleep for a few days. And your body needs blood," Arika smiled while wiped the smear on the corner of Natalia's mouth. 

"Better get yourself ready Nat... Tomorrow, you’ll be going to the human world for your first task," Arika said while pulled her wife for a kiss. 

Jac nods.

THE NEXT DAY

"The State Capital." Natalia read the sign on the huge building. Arika and Ivy look around while putting on their sunglasses on. Arika explained to Natalia how she wouldn't get burned to death when the sun hits her flesh. At first, it did burn her skin a little. 

But then she manages to put the pain aside. To the city, Natalia can't wait to meet her old ex-crush, Liana Johnson. Natalia sighed when someone hit her side. The person didn't even turn and apologize. Arika saw this and immediately Ivy shakes her head no. 

"Let's get inside," Ivy said before walking up the stairs towards the capital city hall. Natalia waited for the two vampires to walk and follow them in. She noticed how humans would stop in the middle of what they are doing just to stare at these two gorgeous women. 

Natalia had to admit, they both do look like a model walking down the runway. With their attire that seems to be daring in a building filled with protocol and rules, Natalia finds it exciting.

"Remember, we're just visiting. And we want to meet the secretary. That's Liana." Natalia nods. 

That's when Natalia bumped into someone. It sends that person on the floor with force. The woman was trying to grab the papers that she was carrying on the floor when Natalia kneel and helped the woman. Arika dragged her wife away from the scene and observed from afar. 

"I'm sorry. I should watch where I was going." The woman apologizes before looking up to Natalia. Both Natalia and the woman surprised to see each other.

"Natalia?! I thought you were.... the whole town talking about how you were... what?! This is..." Liana doesn’t know what to say. Natalia chuckled.

"Hey Liana," Natalia handed the remaining papers to her. Liana could feel the shivers through her spine while she took the papers from Natalia.

"Relax. I'm not a ghost." Natalia said and smiled. That's when Liana saw something different about her old friend. 

"Your eyes..." she breathed out.

"Contact lenses. It's a trend nowadays." Natalia stood up and offered her hand to Liana. Natalia excuse herself and try to find Arika and Ivy. She was walking passed the janitor's closet when Ivy grabbed her shoulder and dragged her inside. 

"Nice move. Don't show yourself more often. We haunt at night. Remember that. We will attack while she was alone. Don't leave any trace back to you." Natalia nods.

"Yes, my princess." Ivy clears her throat. 

"Ahem! We're in a very small janitor’s closet. Can we please book a very expensive hotel and just relax." Ivy whined. 

***

Natalia was standing on top of the hotel's rooftop when Videric appeared in front of her. With the usual smirk plastered on his face, he stood beside Natalia and admired the scenery.

"Nice view eh," Videric said.

"How's your progress?" He asked. Natalia began to explain about her encounter with Liana and how Arika suggested staying hidden for a while. Videric tip-toe further to the edge of the building.

"Do you remember how Liana hurt your feelings?" Natalia was taken aback by the question.

"Yes. I do your highness." Videric turned to Natalia.

"Good. You need those memories when you finally take her life. Let that hatred consume your dead heart and mind. Let rage speak for your action." Videric used his finger to lifted Natalia's chin and smile.

"I can't wait to see your hands and face smear with the blood of your victims. I can't wait to see how artsy your work is when you present her head to me. I'm looking forward to it." 

"Father?" Videric tilted his head and smiles at his daughter.

"You look like someone who just had s*x," Videric sniffed the air around him. Arika turned away from letting everyone saw how red her cheek was.

"Hmmm. Arousal is in the air. Be good to your wife little girl." 

"Can we stop talking about my marriage life?" Arika said before looking down at Liana's apartment.

"So a person that's so innocent like her is lusting for money and power?" Arika asked.

"Look at her surroundings. What street she lives in, the luxurious apartment, the imported car she drives, everything she owns showed how perfect she is for the lust," 

"But Dad, she's innocent." Videric laughs.

"Just wait and see, little girl. Just wait and see."