An Interrogation (3)

Lifting up one of his arms, Teiran flexed his arm muscles causing the outlines to be visible even from within the sleeve of the coat he was wearing. Not only did he flex it, however, as it continued to grow and enlarge until it seemed that it was just moments away from bursting his very clothes wide open.

"I think this level of power will not kill you..." muttered Teiran.

With a kick forward he sped across the extremely small gap that was between himself and Bazel, so fast that by the time Bazel realized that his opponent had even moved the fist was directly in front of his face. Just the air that the punch generated caused his hair to sway back and forth like he had entered a small wind tunnel for a moment, a small but telling hint of what would have happened had the punch connected.

Yes, the attack never landed because of the phenomenon that everyone in the room was watching with wide eyes.

The shadow that Bazel was casting on the ground had risen up a single dark tendril that had wrapped around Tiernan's arm, completely stopping his assault. Even the apparent cause of this happening, Bazel, was surprised as he never knew he had such an ability. Yet now that he saw it with his own eyes he could feel a connection with the shadow, like he was peering slightly into the inner thoughts of another living being. He also felt small waves that felt like the strummings of emotion, so little in scope that he could not decipher exactly which emotions they were, as well as a presence of mind that reminded of him of a cat that he had taken in once when he was little.

"But, I am still in a tense situation" thought Bazel, who quickly recovered from the surprising sight and punched forward once again towards a now immobile Tiernan.

Guarding immediately with his other hand that quickly swelled to gross proportions just before the fist hit, Tiernan avoided any severe damage but was still knocked back slightly from the force of the blow.

Enthralled by his own newfound power, Bazel let go of the hand that was wrapped around Zaira's neck and began to throw punch after punch. He completely abandoned any idea of defense, for every time Tiernan managed to recover enough to land a counter blow there was always a tendril of shadow that was ready and waiting to completely stop any attempt at attacking.

The fight continued on for several minutes, with Tiernan slowly being pushed back due to the fact that he was taken by surprise and that even now one of his arms was completely useless due to it being wrapped in thick shadow that he could not for the life of him free his arm from.

Just as Tiernan's back hit the back of the wall, a low and ominous sounding voice rang out from behind everyone present.

"Well, well, well. I never would have thought to see such a powerful manipulator of darkness in someone who was not a member of my own house, let alone a rogue on top of that. This little trip to pick up a forgotten household member seems to be even more fruitful, being ordered to harass the mutts has turned out to be a blessing in disguise."

Everyone turned to the source of the newcomer, seeing the darkness in the corner of the room twist and turn until it the silhouette of a man slowly became visible. His skin was the color of paper, perhaps even paler than that, and his limbs long and thin. He had blood red eyes and pale lips, looking like a man drained of all blood. In stark contrast to the paleness and pallor of the rest of his body was the jet black hair and mustache the man was sporting.

"House Sanguis..." growled Tiernan, looking at the man who appeared with a look of hatred on his face.

The pale man simply smiled in response to such obvious hatred and dislike, turning one of his hands into an imitation of a sword, and saying, "Tut tut, even the highest of breed like you is still a mutt in the end. Unable to do something so basic as concealing their emotions, what an embarrassment for my own house. To think we actually are somehow regarded as equals, bah. Good thing that today your kennel will find themselves with one less heir for the future."

Then with one high-speed move the pale man seemed to glide along the floor with his sword hand aimed straight for the heart of Zaira, who looked on with wide eyes and an expression of fear.

"No!" screamed Tiernan, as he expanded in size almost twice over and dashed past Bazel, using his full speed to try to stop the inevitable.

Alas, he was too far to reach Zaira in time and the pale man's hand-sword pierced through flesh and drew blood.

Except what was pierced was not Zaira but instead a large hand in the form of a shadow that came out of a dark portal. Following the 'arm' of the shadow back to its root, one could see Bazel extending his arm into a pool of darkness that appeared in front of him.

Bazel moved his hand almost instinctively, freeing it from being impaled by the hand-sword and wrapping his grossly extended arm around Zaira's waist. With one tug he pulled her into the shadowy portal that was created on her end, and out she came the one on Bazel's end and into his embrace.

With blood dripping from his pierced hand, Bazel looked at the sudden intruder with uncaring eyes.

"No one steals my prey."

He then looked at Teirnan and said, "Deal with him."

Under the eyes of two people who were clearly not able to be explained with any kind of conventional explanation, Bazel led Zaire by the waist towards the door and out of the room.

Walking over to two seats that were in front of the one way window/mirror, Bazel placed a still shocked silly Zaire in one and he sat in the other. Looking at the two figures who were still in the room, who were facing off against one another, he asked a question.

"So, who is that sickly looking guy?"

Zaire was still recovering, and so an annoyed Bazel reached over and pinched her ear until she reacted.

"Ow, ow, ow. You Fi-" began Zaire, before cutting herself off as she realized the incredible feats the man in front of her just pulled, "Oh, ah...respectable rouge? Why ever might you be pinching my ear, which hurts a lot by the way."

Letting go Bazel repeated his question once more, "Who is the sickly looking guy, the one who put a hole in my hand with his own." Raising his own hand for clarity, which was still bleeding profusely, Zaira finally understood.

"Ahem" began Zaira with a clearing of her throat, trying to regain the regal and prideful tone she usually talked with, "He is a member of House Sanguis, our most hated of enemies. The rivalry between our two families goes way back to before recorded history, but just know that either side will not rest until the other has been defeated. For him to be able to escape my brother's powerful sense of smell, he must be an elder of one of their branch families."

Still watching the two unmoving figures in the room Bazel reached down into his shadow and rummaged around for a bit until he found that cat like entity from before, shaking his bleeding hand in front of it to see if it could do anything about it.

"An elder of a branch family? Why would he be that and not an elder of the main one?"

Zaira rolled her eyes and said in a tone that was reserved for replying to idiots, "Because an elder of the main family would have killed all of us by now, and that its near impossible for main family elders to move freely. Every elder is watched closely by every other noble family, so they only act defensively more often than not...obviously."

"How confusing" thought Bazel, who felt a cold sting of pain on his hand for a moment as the shadow wrapped around his wound tightly. When he was able to move his hand again he brought it close to his eyes and saw that the wound was stitched closed by small tendrils of shadow. "How convenient."

Turning his attention back to the confrontation between the two in the room, Teirnan finally acted and made the first move. Stomping forward onto the ground, leaving a foot sized imprint on it, he burst forward towards the House Sanguis member and shot a palm out towards his foe.

Now not on the receiving end of the blow, Bazel was able to fully appreciate the power and speed of Tiernan's attack. He could almost hear the sound of his palm crackling through the air, threatening to flatten anything or anyone it landed upon into a pancake or worse.

The House Sanguis member also clearly understood the fact, as right before the palm landed on his chest he broke apart into a swarm of bats that spread outwards to the shadows above. Even so, the force of Ternan's attack ended up turning several of the bats into a bloody mist and a follow up attack made several more bats have the same exact fate.

Yet the rest all escaped upwards, right into the grates of a vent that was almost completely hidden from sight.

"So that was how he got into the room in the first place" muttered Zaira as she watched the bats escape.