Jay still rubbed his head, even though the pain and dizziness had disappeared.
“Who does she think she is, commanding me?” he thought, pretending to still be dizzy.
“I said, tell your skeletons to stand down.” she said in a more domineering tone.
“Hmm...” Jay had a thought... he stopped a cunning smile from appearing on his face.
“Stand down.” he said out loud to his skeletons - though he sent a thought-command to them too, to protect him in case anything happened.
As soon as the skeletons lowered their weapons she suddenly stood up, as if she levitated upwards from sitting down.
Jay wondered quietly, “She tried some mental attack and now thinks she can give me orders. This must be a type of mind control, or something similar. Fuck, I guess I wasn't paranoid enough... if that worked I would basically be a slave. She said she was my master now too, but it obviously failed somehow? Well, I'll just see what she does for now...”
Next, she tried to wriggle out of the chains on her legs, but they were too tight.
She pulled out a graceful sword - long, curved and slender. Its blade was silver, decorated with what looked like majestic wings of some heavenly creature using hue's of blue. The grip was black and wrapped tightly with a golden rope; the small cross guard also golden.
She brought the sword down swiftly onto the bone holding the chains together, but to her surprise it withstood the impact.
The second swing resulted in a ringing noise as her sword cut into the bone and reached the metal chain underneath.
Jay was glad to see that his shackles had mostly worked, but he was soon met with a dilemma...
“Remove this.” she glared at him.
Jay didn't want her to escape, and if he did this, there was a greater chance of it. He wondered if he should keep pretending to be controlled, though he reasoned that she wouldn't flee from him if she didn't know he was still free.
He approached her slowly and crouched down as the noxious necrotic mana flowed from his fingers like strings of glowing gas, and entered the bone seal, melting it away from the chains.
“That's better,” she smiled, “now, I need some blood.”
She glanced at the bloody cut of meat in Red's hand and shook her head, dismissing it with disdain.
“Actually, I prefer human. Don't worry. I won't need too much.”
“You said you don't kill people unless they deserved it.” Jay said, looking uneasy.
“Yes. So don't do anything to deserve it.” she shrugged, putting her sword away.
Jay sent a mental command to his skeletons: “If I pass out, protect me then capture her.”
As she drew nearer, her eyes turned from purple to being covered in black completely.
“Relax,” she grinned, two large pearly white fangs now pointing out of her top jaw, while the rest of her teeth somehow turned into sharp spines, “I won't kill my saviour.”
Jay tried to seem as relaxed as possible as he braced for any pain. He had been through worse, so a bite wouldn't be too bad.
She slowly approached, and despite Jay being in control of the situation, her black eyes seemed to send a primal fear into his heart, one he didn't understand.
“Hold out your arm.” Asra said.
He first held out the one with the parasites, causing her to frown a little in disgust.
“No, the other one.”
The other arm had the necrotic gauntlet, protecting it up halfway up the forearm.
Asra sighed and went for his bicep, sinking her teeth into it.
“Huh...” Jay was surprised as there was no pain; not much more than a wet sensation on his arm.
If anything, it felt pretty good.
As he was being drainer, Heavy returned with some firewood, dropping it down as it looked at its master being eaten.
It almost seemed like the small armor-clad skeleton was shocked and was about to rush to Jay's side, but Jay flashed a quick smile at it along with a quick thought, essentially telling it not to worry.
The skeleton seemed agitated for a moment, but after a few glances towards Jay and the fire, it added some wood to the flames, and went back to gathering more for the night ahead.
“Ah!” she released her jaws and smiled blissfully, “you do taste good - and you haven't passed out. You must have pretty high vitality for a level four.”
“Are you done now?” Jay asked.
“Yes. For now.” she licked her lips and lay down next to the fire, both hands now folded behind her head.
“Now its my turn to question. Where are you from, Bob?”
“Losla.”
Asra sighed, ”Listen, when I ask a question, I want more than just a single answer. Perhaps a description.”
“It's a low level farming and hunting village on the south side of Astrata.”
“So Astrata is your kingdom... And what are you running from?”
“...” Jay stared silently into the fire for a moment and she raised a brow as he didn't immediately answer as a compelled husk should - though she soon received one.
“... Everyone.”
Asra gave him a knowing look with a gentle smile, though it soon turned to sadness.
“We... you can't run forever, Bob.”
Jay stared into the blazing fire with a resoluteness that even Asra could feel and replied with a stern voice, “I won't.”
Asra made a thoughtful look, then slowly nodded in agreement.
A moment later and she let out a sigh, “Alright. I need the guidance back.”
Jay took it out, still pretending to be under her control. He gave it one last look and noted the direction it pointed in. A quick mental command and Heavy was sent in that direction, functioning as more of a marker from his current location in the event of him not getting the guidance back.
He wasn't even sure if he was going to go to Luna, but it was better to have the option.
“Huh, so you figured it out.” she mentioned, looking at the red line on it.
Not that it was hard to figure out anyway. It practically activated itself once it took his blood.
“Here's the plan. We're going to travel to Luna.” she said, handing the guidance back, “Tomorrow, when the sun rises, you will take us there. You can handle all the preparations and everything else.”
Jay was glad he got the guidance back, and it seemed she only wanted it to activate it. He stashed it away while stifling a cunning smile. Checking his arm where she sunk her teeth in, the wound was healed already.
Asra lay there and for the next five minutes proceeded to give him orders as if she were reading them from a list, and Jay mostly ignored them as they were along the lines of 'you shall not attack me, don't let me die, don't let me come to harm in any way, blah blah blah'.
In a way, he even pitied all these little orders and ways to tie up any loop holes, as he had to do no such thing when commanding his skeletons who would never plot against him.
Still, all these rules and clauses meant nothing if he wasn't compelled in the first place. Nevertheless, it contributed to a false sense of security for the young vampire, and it was one that Jay was happy to exploit.
Jay waited patiently for her to finish and continued asking questions back, attempting to sound both scared and innocent.
“What's to become of me at Luna? What will you do with me?”
“Hmm...” she stretched her body, “you taste good. Maybe I'll keep you at my side, serving me. We're not supposed to have servants around at Luna but I think they'll make an exception for me.”
“...and if they don't?”
“You'll probably be sent to Pantry or drained. Maybe someone will raise you as an undead.”
While Jay should have been shocked, the latter part of what she said only caused excitement.
“You can raise skeletons too?” Jay asked, trying not to sound too excited.
