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Chapter 5: The Bloodsucker

A Farmhouse, the Rift (About the Same time as The Wolves (chapter 4) left off)

"And may the Nine bless us all. And may we always be thankful for what we have-"

Hjandi coughed and whispered "Dad, can we eat yet?"

Erland sighed "And we praise them all. Yes, now you can eat."

As Hjandi dug into his venison, Erland looked at his wife, Signe. "I think-" he started, but he was interrupted by a noise from outside.

"What was that?" Signe asked.

Erland got up. "Stay here." Erland unsheathed his iron dagger.

"What's happening?" Hjandi asked. "Where's Daddy going?"

Signe hushed her son.

Erland approached the door, and slowly opened it. He pointed his dagger outside. "Show yourself!"

Erland heard a moan in the darkness, and saw a figure slowly dragging itself towards the door. "Stop right there!" Erland yelled at it. The figure kept crawling.

Erland tensed as the figure raised its head.

It was an Imperial female in ripped up necromancer robes. She had red eyes and fangs.

Erland immediately knew she was a vampire. "Get back you filthy bloodsucker!" Erland yelled at her.

She didn't look like most vampires that he had seen in this part of the Rift. In instead of fierce and evil, this vampire looked pathetic and tired.

"Please." She said "You've got to help me. I'm injured."

"Get back!" Erland shouted at her, trying to look as fearless as he could.

"I'm unarmed, and in no shape to attack you. Please." She insisted. "You have to help me! They could be here any minute."

"Who's-"

There was a noise coming from behind the vampire. She practically leapt into the farmhouse.

Erland saw that her leg was wounded, and she had strips of cloth from her robes covering other injuries.

"Please." She pleaded again.

A Few Moments Later

"I'm almost done, Carecia." Said Signe, binding the vampire's leg wound.

Erland stood nearby, his arms crossed. The vampire's name was Carecia, and was part of a clan living not very far away. She had promised not to attack any of his family members, but he still did not trust her.

"You still haven't told me why you are here." Erland prompted.

Carecia grunted and slowly leaned back in the chair.

"I'm not sure where to begin...as I told you, I was a member of a clan. About a day and a half ago, we saved a member of our clan; his name was Wyfall, from a group of Vigilants. He came back…sick. He had metal sticking out of his skin. His skin got pale…and he lost all his hair. He started attacking people-thralls, other clan members…they went pale, and the metal-oh, gods! It just sprouted out of their bodies. Assimilate. That's what they said. I barely escaped. We need to get out of here."

Erland looked at Signe. "What do you think?"

Before Signe could respond, Carecia hissed.

"We should go." Said Signe.

Erland looked Carecia warily.

"I don't trust her. This could all be a trap." Erland said, still tying to keep a calm demeanor.

"It's not a trap!" Carecia exclaimed. "I'm tying to save your family!"

Erland drew his dagger. "You are a vampire! You want nothing more than thralls and bloody-"

"Erland! That is enough!" Signe yelled at Erland.

There was a loud crashing noise outside of the farmhouse.

"Father!" Hjandi called from the loft. "There are people outside!"

"FRIENDS OF YOURS?!" Erland screamed at the vampire, who had closed her eyes and seemed to be praying.

Carecia got up. "Get away from the door!"

Erland raised his dagger…and then Signe leapt at him, shoving him away from the door. A metal fist broke through the door. But instead of striking Signe, the hand twisted and stuck Signe in the neck with metal needles.

Erland was about to rush forward and pull his wife from danger, when he saw what Carecia had said. Metal quickly sprouted from her face.

"Signe!" Erland yelled, as he felt cold arms pull him back.

He turned and saw that Carecia was weakly holding him back. "Leave her! Just go!"

"No! Signe!" Erland screamed as he tried to push Carecia off of him.

Signe had one final look of terror before a metal rod sprouted from her left eye. More metal came from her arms and torso, forming a sort of armor on her body.

"Signe?" Erland whispered in fear.

Signe's left eye glowed red. "Resistance is futile." It sounded as if more than one person was speaking. "Our link to the collective may be weak, but we shall adapt. We are Borg." When Signe stretched out her hand towards Erland, he felt as if he was frozen in place. How? How could his she be his loving, wonderful wife one moment, and one moment later be this metal monster?

Whoosh! Erland's stupor was broken when he saw Signe's outstretched hand fall from her arm and land on the floor. Blood splattered. Erland felt another tug on his arm.

"Come on!" Carecia yelled right in his ear.

Erland saw that she had chopped off Signe's hand; Carecia was holding an axe.

Carecia pulled Erland up the wooden stairs and onto the loft. More metal people were entering the farmhouse. There were about six now. Carecia lifted the steel war axe and slammed it down onto the stairs. The weaken wood snapped, leaving the people down below, and Carecia, Hjandi, and Erland trapped upstairs.

Hjandi looked down below. "Mama?" he called below.

The metal monster that was once Signe looked up and reached out one grayish hand. Hjandi let out a small sob, and reached out his hand to touch Signe's.

"Get back!" Carecia yelled at Hjandi. Erland grabbed his son and pulled him back.

"Mama!" Hjandi yelled.

Carecia showed her fangs. "We need a way out!"

"Watch the opening!" Erland called back.

They were running out of time. The…things would climb up the break in the ceiling soon enough. Erland ran to the dusty chest in the corner, lifted the lid, and hoped there was a solution inside. He pushed aside potion bottles with suspicious looking liquids inside, until he found what was looking for.

"Erland!" Carecia yelled.

Erland unraveled the scroll he was holding.

"ERLAND!" Carecia yelled again.

This doesn't look too hard… Erland thought, staring at the scroll. Signe had once been interested in Conjuration magic to protect the farm from bandits and wolves. Signe was never able to get the spells quite right and Erland never liked the idea of using magic beasts from Oblivion to protect his farm. "Papa! Help!" screamed Hjandi.

Erland turned to find his son crouched on top of an end table sobbing, and Carecia whacking the things with her ax with one hand and blasting them with her evil vampire magic with the other.

Carecia buried the ax in a wood elf's head. "You deserved that, Wyfall!" she hissed at him as his metal body fell onto the floor below.

Erland held out the scroll proudly. "I've got something!"

"What?"

"A scroll of…conjure…Flame atronach! Is that good?"

"Under normal circumstances I would try to avoid fire…but, they seem to be…adapting to my magic. And they have a kind of spell protecting them from most of melee attacks. Give me the scroll." Carecia reached out to grab the scroll. Erland stepped back.

"What are you waiting for?" Carecia exclaimed "Give me the scroll!"

"No." said Hjandi firmly.

This was his house. His wife was gone. His son was in danger. He didn't care if this

vampire knew more about conjuration; Erland would defend his home and son.

As four metal things climbed into the loft, Erland unrolled the scroll. Hjandi hid behind his father. Carecia slammed her ax on to one of the beings, but it simply deflected her blow, bouncing the trio's only weapon down into the house below.

"Here goes nothing!" Erland yelled. He finished opening the scroll and let its magic enter the room. There was a moment of silence before there was a flash of black and dark purple. The room seemed to burst into flame as a strange feminine being covered in fire appeared. Erland hoped it was an atronach.

Carecia let out a muffled cry as the atronach sent a fireball swirling towards the metal being attacking her. The fire slammed into the being pushing it against the wooden wall. Erland gasped as he saw Carecia struggle on the floor. The fireball had come too late. Carecia had been stabbed by one of the beings and was slowly turning gray. Run. She mouthed to Erland as she pulled her partially-metal body over the break in the floor, and down into the house below.

The atronach sent more flaming fireballs of death at the metal things. For a half-second it looked like Erland would live.

That didn't last very long.

One of the metal beings with specks of fur and a tail (probably once a Kajiit), stabbed his needles into the atronach's back. A blast of fire threw the Kajiit away. Erland stared at the atronarch. The atronach let out a screech and seemed to fold inward into itself. Its red glowing fire turned a dark green. Then it disappeared.

The stunned Khajiit got up and walked towards Erland and Hjandi at an almost leisurely pace.

Hjandi whimpered.

Then the whole house exploded in fire. The atronarch's remains had imploded in a last attempt to destroy the metal enemies. The enemies ignored the fire and kept walking.

The flames immediately engulfed the straw roof. One the rafters fell crushing the Khajiit, and trapping Erland and Hjandi behind a wall of fire.

"Talos help us…"Hjandi murmured softly.

Erland kicked the window conveniently located behind him, shattering the glass.

"Hjandi. Run, go get help." He said to his son.

"What? Father, what do you mean?"

"Goodbye, son."

With a strong push to his son's back, Erland flung Hjandi out the window. His son tumbled onto haystack below. Erland prayed a silent prayer to the Nine that Hjandi would be able to find help.

The fire decimated the rafter that blocked the half-metal monsters from Erland.

"DAMN YOU ALL TO OBLIVION!" Erland screamed as loud as he could.

Erland raised a charred piece of wood over his head and charged the being. It stabbed Erland in the neck with its needles.

Erland stepped back. He looked at his hand and dropped his wood in shock. His hand was gray and the metal growing on it shone in the light of the fire. Then he heard voices. One of them was his wife's.

The Bee and the Barb

At the Same Time

Brynjolf entered the wooden door of the Bee and Barb tavern and inn. The inside was cheerful and friendly, or at least as cheerful and friendly as it could get in a city like Riften. I was fairly early, so the bar wasn't packed with all of its late night patrons yet.

"This is a place of sin!" yelled the priest standing in the center of the bar "Abandon your sinful ways, leave behind your earthly pleasures-"

"Oh, for the love of the divines, shut up!" called the wizard Marcurio from the other side of the tavern. "Let us drink in peace."

There was quite a bit of cheering from the other patrons.

The priest glared at the cheering drunks. "Very well, but mark my words! Your souls-"

One of the bar's Argonian workers went over to the priest, no doubt trying to convince him to leave.

Brynjolf looked around the tavern, searching for a familiar, friendly face to sit with, or a quiet traveler who looked in need of coin. He set his gaze upon the main bar, and Brynjolf was lucky enough to get both.

"Maul! Good to see you." Said Brynjolf as he sat down next to him at the bar.

Maul grunted, and turned to the woman next to him. "You going to drink that ale? You said you were thirsty…"

"No" the woman said. Her voice…was difficult to describe. It was precise, and had a sort of strength. She was obviously well-educated and certainly no mercenary. Brynjolf was intrigued.

"I'm going out for a dump." Said Maul as he left the bar.

That left Brynjolf alone with the woman.

Brynjolf grew more interested in her the more he looked at her. She was a Nord, but she wasn't like any Nordic woman he'd ever seen. She had strange metal formations on her face. Some her skin was a pale gray color. Brynjolf wondered why she had the metal. Were they charms of some kind? Symbols of a cult she belonged to? Brynjolf was very curious.

"Hello, lass…" he said, trying to grab her attention.

She turned to face Brynjolf. "Do you have the intention of initiating a conversation with me?"

At first Brynjolf wasn't certain how to respond to her odd statement. "I'm Brynjolf." He outstretched his arm.

She looked at his outstretched arm oddly, but eventually shook his hand. "My designation…is Seven."

Brynjolf scooted his chair closer to Seven. "Say, you seem to be running a little low on septims…I think I've got some work that can remedy that."

Typically people would become very interested the second that he mentioned septims, but she was obviously very different.

"So…" Brynjolf started again. "Are you interested in a little work?"

"I am not."

Brynjolf was dumbfounded. Almost every time Brynjolf approached some with a business 'proposition', the prospective 'client' would be thrilled to hear that they had been noticed as a possible asset for the guild. But, Seven…she was different. Brynjolf had met people from all parts of Tamriel. He liked to think that he was good at sizing up a person upon meeting them, but with her he had failed.

"I'll be open with you, lass. You're not from around here. A blind man could tell. But, lass…if you want to make it at all around here, you'll need to be a bit more…receptive." Brynjolf took a deep breath as he waited for her reply.

"I have no intention off 'making it at all'"

Brynjolf raised an eyebrow. She was getting stranger and stranger. "Then why are ya' here? And don't tell me that you're just passin' through."

"I seek the court wizard." Seven replied.

Byrnjolf laughed. If Seven expected to get any help from that crazy hag, she was in for quite a surprise.

Ok…yeah, I know that probably wasn't my best, but I hope you liked it. There will be more, and more often I hope. If there are any characters (from either Voyager or Skyrim) that you'd like to see mention them in the comments! Live long and prosper…and don't get assimilated by the Borg Vampires!