Bianca Valentine

The battle surged around Bianca; there was fire everywhere, her normally light brown
coat of fur was stained black with dirt, blood and smoke. The howls from her pack mates
grew louder as they were cut down by the swords. They were fighting a losing battle.
The sound of swords slashing through flesh was sickening.

Bianca looked around, gazing over her packmates; looking for a large black wolf.
She saw the sword coming down at her at the last second. Leaping backwards, she
let out a yelp of pain as the tip of the sword struck her face, inflicting a gash along the
left side from her forehead down to her left ear. Blood started seeping from the wound
and her vision blurred red with blood. She closed her eyes, trying to force the pain
away; letting the other senses take over.

Her attacker was taken by surprise as she leaped up at him, throwing him off balance.
Her claws extended into his chest, blood welled up around them. Her attacker knew
what was coming next; Bianca could sense the fear coming from him in waves. She
sank her teeth down into his neck; the blood started pouring out. She stabbed her
claws further into his chest, and then gripped the neck tighter in her jaws; below her,
her victim was struggling helplessly. She pulled back, ripping the neck to shreds.
Within moments, his already-dead body crumbled to nothing but a pile of dust.

Bianca stumbled back a few paces, shaking her head to clear the blood away.
The battle had slowed down; only seven wolves still stood, fighting against the
Wyrm. A large majority of the vampires stood back at the tree line, simply
watching while the pack is slaughtered, awaiting their orders from the Prince.

A loud bark came from somewhere nearby. Bianca recognized it and glanced
around again, this time she spotted her leader. The other wolves had already
thrown off their opponents and were making their way to him. Bianca couldn’t
find the energy to move yet, she looked back to the tree line, a tall, elegant
man, with short grey hair stepped away from the masses. He was wearing a
grey and white suit. He stopped and raised his left hand up to shoulder height.
The vampires who had been fighting backed off and were standing at attention,
awaiting orders.

Bianca blinked a few times, clearing her vision again. She glanced at the small
group of wolves who were standing around their leader. Letting out a sigh, she
slowly started limping towards them, her muscles sore from the fight. Her gaze
fell over each of the bodies as she passed them. So many of her pack mates, some
of whom she had grown up with were now dead, slaughtered by followers of the Wyrm.
She moved through the few standing wolves to stand besides her leader.

By now it was growing dark, the sun had sunk below the horizon, the tall pines
were casting long shadows across the ground. The few grass fires that had been
burning were now just smoke rising from the ashes; casting a horrid smell over
the clearing. In the dim light, Bianca watched as the man strode towards them.
He crossed the distance quickly and stopped a few meters short of them.

‘Well, well, well… There isn’t much left of your beloved pack now, is there Claude?’
he smirked for a moment, and then continued. ‘I warned you of this a week ago…
I warned you to keep your mutts under control.’ Claude straightened up; he raised
his head to look directly at the Prince. His jaw was clenched shut and his green eyes
were burning with rage as he stared at the man. When there was no spoken response
from Claude, He continued, speaking quietly, only just above a whisper. ‘I warned
you to keep them from causing more trouble. I warned you, and you ignored it. What
has happened here today is your fault, Claude.’

While he had been talking a few of the vampires had approached, and now stood
behind the prince. Most of them were each dressed nicely, wearing similar suits to
the Prince. The Prince stood still, smirking as more of his clan approached, forming
a circle around them. Claude turned his head to look at what was left of his pack;
they all knew what would happen next. Each of them nodded to him in agreement
and respect. His green eyes eventually came to meet Bianca’s gaze. The bleeding
from her head wound had slowed; her Amber eyes were glowing fiercely. She dipped
her head to him respectfully. They knew it would come to this; they had been over
her orders as they prepared for the fight. ‘You know what your orders are.’ He growled
quietly. ‘Don’t let me down.’

‘Oh come now, Claude. Don’t be so rude!’ he smirked towards the wolves. ‘There is
no need to keep things secret now.’ Claude looked back towards the Prince and let
out a snarl before leaping forwards. A large net was thrown at Claude from somewhere
to Bianca’s right, a large amount of dust was thrown up as Claude rolled across the
ground and tried to wrestle free of the ropes.

The smell of burning fur filled the air, Bianca looked around, trying to find where
the net came from. The ropes of the net were laced with silver. They had burned
through his fur, and were now starting to melt his flesh. Bianca heard a few whimpers
from behind her and glanced back to see a couple of the wolves cowering in fear.
Her attention was drawn back to Claude as the snarls turned into a howl of pain.
She knew that she would suffer the same fate if she tried to help him. Bianca
looked down at the grass in front of her while they waited, listening to the sounds.

Eventually Claude ran out of energy and stopped struggling against the ropes. Bianca
looked at him, she could hear him whining quietly, the sides of his body still rising
and falling. ‘Now, I have made a perfectly good example of your leader. This is what
will happen if anyone else tries to be a hero.’ His voice carried across the clearing.
The wolves looked at him with fear and hatred. ‘Now, I’m in a… Good mood... I have
a choice for each of you to make. You either try to be a hero and try to kill me, and
end up like your leader.’ He waved a hand towards Claude. ‘Or… you can walk away
right now, and have three days to leave. If any of you are still here after those three
days, then we will hunt you down.’

Behind the wolves, some of the vampires moved aside, forming a slim path for the
wolves to exit. Bianca stood up and looked around at the remaining wolves.
‘We’ve lost this battle, there is no point killing ourselves now when we can strike
back later…’ She growled. ‘Leave, split up, and regroup at the Ridge.’

The wolves stood up, and slowly started walking towards the gap in the crowd. Bianca
held herself back, and watched as her packmates walked out of the clearing. They
hadn’t even noticed that she wasn’t following behind them; they were more focused
on the vampires surrounding them. Bianca turned to where Claude was laying. She
could feel each of the vampires staring at her, each of them awaiting her next move.

She glanced over at the Prince; he was standing with his arms crossed neatly over his
chest. The clearing was dead-silent as they looked at her. After a few minutes, one of
the guys behind the Prince stepped forward. 'You have guts, choosing to stay here and
face us all alone.' he stated. He appeared to be in his late teens, he had shoulder-length
black hair and wore nothing except a pair of dark blue torn jeans. He was carrying a
simple hunting sword.

He nodded to the prince. Bianca watched as they spoke quietly between themselves
for a few minutes, she tilted her ears forward, straining to hear what they were saying
without it being too obvious, but they were too quiet. He bowed his head once more,
then stepped back to address the rest of the group. They each nodded in turn, then split
up. Bianca glanced towards Claude again, his sides were still rising and falling, the only
sign that he was still alive.

The masses around her suddenly started slitting up, following each of their leaders. Within
a couple of minutes, all that remained in the clearing was the Prince, the guy who spoke
out against her, and about twenty vampires.

The Prince looked directly at Bianca as he spoke. ‘Derek, Deal with that Mutt, would you?’
The man without a shirt nodded, and then started walking towards her with three guys
following him; each of them was carrying a long wooden stick, with a rope at the end.
Bianca glanced over them, wondering how they planned to use them.

They approached Bianca cautiously. Derek stood meter in front of Bianca, the other three
guys were around her, holding their ‘weapons’ ready. ‘Shift to your human form.’ His voice
was blunt, as if he was bored with not being able to fight with her. Bianca lowered her head;
her teeth were bared as she growled at him, daring him to come closer. Derek gave a slight
nod. The three guys slowly started moving around Bianca, the sticks extended towards her.
Within a few minutes, one of the ropes were around her neck, the other two guys quickly
took the opportunity to get their ropes around her front paws, which pulled her off balance.
Bianca let out a grunt as she fell sideways on the ground.

The three men kept the ropes pulled tight as a fourth man stepped forward, tying her up.
After withering around and struggling against them for a good ten minutes, she finally gave
in, resting her head against the ground as she looked at the vampires around her.
Derek stepped forward, crouching in front of here, barely a meter away. ‘You take your time
with calming down. Though, being tied up isn’t always a good thing~…’ He laughed. Bianca
stared at him, her face blank with defeat. ‘Shift back… It is quite a simple request. It is
obvious that this situation can’t get much worse for you right now.’ He continued, taunting
her with the truth. ‘I just wish to see your true form. To see the look on your face as your
precious blood is drained out of your body~…’

He continued like that for a few minutes, eventually Bianca gave in, letting out a sigh as
she began to shift back to her human form. Her skin started tingling as some of her fur
moved back under her skin, seeming to melt into nothing, while the remainder of it shifting
into her clothing. She gritted her teeth together, letting out a low growl while her bones,
muscles, and insides shifted around. She relaxed her jaw as her muzzle shifted back against
her face. Bianca had done this exact shift over a hundred times now. But the thought of her
insides moving around still managed to make her feel sick.

She closed her eyes, shutting out the scene before her. In her mind, something her father
had said during her training kept repeating over and over again in her mind. "Once you shift
back at their command. Its over, you've lost the fight." Bianca let out a quiet sob as she
heard a pair of footsteps moving towards her. She moved her hands which are still bound
by the ropes, up to her neck, grabbing hold of her necklace with one hand. Two hands
grabbed her arms and pulled her to her feet. With her eyes still close she focused on the
necklace in her hand. She could feel the energy moving through her body towards it. Finally
with enough energy built up she allowed it to flow into the necklace. A boom was heard, similar
to that of thunder. She heard a small grunt of surprise and the hands on her arms instantly
dropped away. Bianca lost her balance as soon as he let go. She fell sideways, landing on
the ground with a grunt. The breath was knocked out of her lungs.


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