It was a starless winter night; a frozen layer of snow covered the ground as the north wind blew in a fresh wave of chill. Two people were making their way up the hill towards the graveyard. They were each wrapped in thick black cloak, they were a young couple – since the summer before. “I’m not sure about this Lily! James stuttered as he spoke, he hoped the fear in his voice was masked by the cold. It wasn’t.

“If this works, we will have our own demon James! How is my dad going to keep us apart then?!” Lilly replied excitedly. Her mind was made up, there would be no changing it now. They arrived at the old graveyard and slid through the rust laden bars with ease, they were thirteen summers old after all. Lily worked quickly once they were inside, she had been preparing this ritual for a week. From under a bush she pulled out a basket she had stashed previously. James hung back, his arms crossed his chest and his breath silent as he listened to the dark night around him. Lily placed seven black candles on a headstone that once read ‘Bo of Kotland’. Once she had lit them, she placed a small cauldron on top of the grave and began to start brewing a potion. Hand me that root James, and stop being a cow-” Lily stopped mid-sentence. James clearly wasn’t happy, if she wasn’t quick, he might leave her here alone. Please just help me, it’s so cold up here. Read the incantation while I mix this potion please.”
She had nearly called him a coward again. His hands shook, but he passed her the root and opened the ancient tome to the page Lily had marked. “Vasuki! Lord of Snakes!” James began.

A few minutes later the pair had completed the ritual, hand in hand they stared down at the grave. Nothing had happened. Lily let go of James’ clammy hand. You read it wrong! James you are such an -”. They both screamed in unison, the sound was horrific and echoed into the city.

With no warning the pair were thrown to the ground, a tight invisible rope pulled them from every angle It was agonising, but neither could scream under the pressure exerted from every direction. “Who are you to disturb my slumber?!” The voice was coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. With each syllable spoken the rage in the voice amplified the pain the teenagers endured. Lily heard a series of gruesome pops as James joints were pulled apart simultaneously.

Vasuki was here now, a tall man slender in appearance. His skin was smooth and white like marble, but his eyes were black like pitch. A thin smile crossed his face as he stood over Lily, James had died a while back. “Oh well. I’m up now suppose I ought to enjoy myself. With a click of his fingers Lily’s head was snapped clean off.

The demon looked down at his grave covered in ritual items, he bent down and plucked up the black leather bound book from which he had been summoned, he couldn’t risk leaving that laying around next to the corpses of two local children. His emotionless black eyes looked down on the bodies before him. A grimace appeared on his face – there was barely enough meat on them both for a lesser demon.

Still, he was hungry.

With a savage roar, the demon slipped the dagger from James belt and drove it into his abdomen. Surely someone had heard those screams, he would have to be quick.

A set of screams echoed from the cemetery and Jinx knew that it was happening again. She told everyone she was young but in reality she was much older. In her life she had met this demon once before. The ebony curled red eyes vampire began to run and soon she leaned against a gravestone taller than she was and watched him eat "Hello again Vasuki"  She said her dark tanned skin blending with the shadows surrounding her.

The last time he had visited the cemetery it had started a friendship with a particular dragon. The treasure they had unearthed together was still housed in his temple, but there were less pleasant reasons for his visit that night. The shambling dead had been a growing issue, and like his previous visit, he still hadn’t been able to find the source as to why it was happening. He sighed, knowing that if he really wanted to get to the bottom of this then Dal would be the best person to go to: she was the mistress of Death after all.

No matter, he stood up from his knelt position and brushed the graveyard dirt from his fingers. These types of materials were no good to him since his overabundance of holiness canceled nearly all of it out. The amount of effort he put forth to work anything unholy wasn’t worth saving something as trivial as cemetery soil. Two shrill screams sliced through the cold air, and he quickly looked in the direction they’d come from. His breathing clouded in front of him as he walked briskly towards the screams, eventually picking up into a run which turned to teleporting in silent flashes of rainbow light.

By the time he made it a few meters away it was too late: fresh blood carved steaming paths through the otherwise pristine snow. Two children lay motionless, one with a stab wound and the other completely separated from their head. It all happened at once: seeing the pale man, the dark curls of the vampire calling out to said man, both of which caused Naota’s vision to border in red.

The white markings on his skin blazed in the darkness all the way up to his eyes as he pulled Torinasu from his hip. He wanted to kill them, wanted to make them no more, and there was no moral compass trying to steer him straight. One look from the gradually fading gaze of the girl’s decapitated head urged him on more.

“You,” he said, pointing one finger towards the pale man, “What have you done?!” For all he knew there was something else afoot, but right now he wasn’t thinking about the candles or the cauldron, he was only thinking about the death of two people so young at the hands of someone clearly of demonic descent. The fact that there was a vampire there didn’t help in the least since he used to hunt them exclusively.

Jinx glanced at the new comer "those two tried to summon a demon they got what they deserved" she told him and stepped close enough to have her own head chopped off "put your sword away it doesn't have any use in this situation" Jinx shook her head sending her ebony ringlets swaying. She put her fingure on the blade and pushed it down toward the ground. She was cocky and confident and knew she could get out of the way before he could lift the sword to swing it. Once the tip rested on the ground she strode to the candles and picked them up and dropped them into the cauldron which she then picked up and threw into the trees. "There no evidence. Now get out of here stranger before my fangs find their mark in your neck" she threatened him.

It took him less than thirty seconds to get through the liver. Next Vasuki bit into the boy’s heart and let out a deep moan. It had been so long since he had tasted flesh. Each morsel gave him strength, he felt the energy flowing like electric in his fingertips. Vasuki had reigned for three hundred years the last time he had clawed out of the after world. With blood dripping from his chin the demon’s porcelain mouth snaked into a dark smile.

A moment later and there was a vampire before him. Vasuki didn’t turn to face Jinx, a strange light in the distance had just caught his attention. “That is Dark Lord Vasuki to you, half-breed.” His tone was cold and unforgiving. Normally he would have hurt the vampire for such a slight. Jinx had met Vasuki before; Vasuki was no minor demon, he was the thing demons were scared of.

Another flash of strange light signalled the entrance of something much more annoying than the vampire. Vasuki turned his blood stained grin towards the sorcerer as he started shouting and pointing his silly little fingers. How long had he been gone? It hadn’t been his followers that had summoned him – it had been two stupid children. This wasn’t right. The white markings on Naota’s skin lit up as he pulled out his sword. Vasuki’s black eyes narrowed as he watched the altercation between the man and the vampire.

“That stranger is a god!” Vasuki shouted. The blood soaked dagger shone with an unholy purple light as Vasuki pointed it at the god. His nose wrinkled as he took a loud sniff. “He is horrifically holy; can’t you smell his stink? That sword will run you through more permanently than any other you’ve faced.” The demon had placed himself carefully behind the vampire. Vasuki wasn’t exactly pleased about the half-breed being the first to greet him – but he wasn’t powerful enough to take on alone god yet.
Hopefully Jinx would provide enough cover and buy Vasuki enough time to come up with an escape plan.

"Come now vasuki. You one that by now I am much fast than even this… wait god?" Jinx replied slightly startled but recovered herself and stepped out of the demons path "oh whoops. Was I in might lots vasukis way." She laughed and began to walk away. Her dark tan skin shining in the moon light. Her ebony curls bounced as she walked away and sat on a gravestone. The vampire crossed her legs and put her hands on her knees and closed her eyes as she began to meditate.

(( OOC Note: Naota’s sword was not touched or brought down. ))

A shaky exhale escaped him from how simply she spoke about the children that had died. It took everything in him not to hack of her head, especially when she dared to get so close to him. He had hunted vampires for centuries, it would mean nothing to him to dispose of this one. Then he remembered himself, remembered that he was no longer a hunter, and more than that she had technically committed no crime as far as he was aware. Should he take her down then it would bring him down to a murderer’s level. All she had to do was give him a reason though, that was all. Until then, and only until then, she wouldn’t meet his blade.

He slowly arched an eyebrow as a disbelieving smirk curled up the corner of his lips. She was bold, so bold that he was actually taken aback. At the same time, he couldn’t tell if she was purposefully goading him to have him make the first attack. Thankfully he wasn’t so easily egged and instead watched her as she strode over to the candles and cauldron. A low and quiet laugh started from his chest at how easily she threatened him, but he was actually amused. This woman clearly had no idea who he was. And while there were many that didn’t know him as a deity, it was ironic that she also didn’t recognize the family he came from. A family that made legacies specifically for hunting down her kind.

Before he could even say anything, the pale demon spoke to her. Dark Lord Vasuki. The name danced around his mind tauntingly as if he should know this person, but his mind came back fuzzy. What made such a title sound so familiar? Perhaps it was his own demonic blood that sang so in tune with his. Well, his once demonic blood. Since his ascension he had been completely purified and was left as deity only. His eyes took in his face, his height, the way he spoke, the coldness of his eyes. There was something there, but there’d be time to sort that out later. For now, this man was a threat and that was what was most important.

“Your introduction is appreciated,” Naota spoke calmly to Vasuki as the woman carefully strode away. “But there’s still the matter of that,” his head tilted ever so slightly in the direction of the dead children. His jaw locked and he took a single step towards him, “The candles. The cauldron. What were they for?!”

Jinx listened to the god speak and didn't reply for he was not speaking to her. She slipped into a dreamlike trance and sighed as she remembered the sun warming her darkened skin. The wind in her hair and the sound of birds chirping on a clear sunny day. She would no longer have such things for she was now a creature of night and even the wind felt different.