Chapter Text
Thai thought, for the briefest second, that he was drowning.
He didn’t realize he had been slipping in and out of consciousness until he came to while partially undressed under a stream of running water. After all, showers were luxuries in this post apocalyptic landscape.
He would have jerked himself to his feet to assume some sort of defensive stance, but he was too disoriented to properly locate and use them. After a few more seconds, in which he was able to identity that he was, in fact, flat on his back on the shower floor, a strange face peered down at him through the doorway.
“Oh good, you're up.”
The busty female who looked down at him was dressed neatly in white, her blonde hair coming down in tight spirals. Thai noticed vaguely that his captor had unnecessarily sharp teeth.
“Hurry, we are running behind. Make yourself presentable.”
Thai wanted to protest. He wanted to demand answers. He wanted to fight this stranger, and command her to to set him free.
“Wha–” was all he managed to choke out. His tongue felt heavy and lazy in his dry mouth. He couldn't quite sit all the way up yet, though he had managed to slide himself back up against the shower wall. From this semi-upright position, he contorted himself into a sort of ball, resembling a cracked egg more than a fighter.
“Oh, there is no way I'm bathing you,” his captor snorted. “My orders were only to bring you back alive.” She gestured indifferently to several bottles on the floor. “The soap is next to you. Make it quick. There's a robe out here when you're done.”
She turned away, and Thai distantly heard, "I don’t know what he sees in that piece of livestock.”
Thai desperately tried to remember how he got into this scenario as him worked a lather into his hair. Last thing he remembered, he had been on a scouting mission, on the lookout for the Horsemen of John and the Vampires that were ruling over the region his group had gathered in. The group had made camp on one of the lower hills near the beach, a strategic location that was protected by the sea on one end, and rough terrain on the other. The only way in was a thin pass between the sharp rocks. He remembered perching himself on one of the taller rocks that granted him a good view of the land below, bathed in the beautiful pinks and golds of a sunset. As he watched the sun dip below the horizon, his peace was disturbed by the arrival of a helicopter in the distance. Interest piqued, he turned his vision to the craft. Was it the humans, or vampires? He could not tell, but he guessed it to be the latter. He was not alarmed in the slightest, knowing that their new camping grounds were far away from any major cities or towns, and hold no interest to any of these major groups. The helicopter would be making a turn soon, probably towards the main Okinawa city.
He was wrong though, as the helicopter made no move towards Okinawa, but continued straight towards the beach. It was getting rather close now, close enough for him to see that the helicopter was not of the large transport type favoured by JIDA to transport troops or provisions from place to place, but one of the smaller, sleeker craft that the vampire progenitors use for personal travel. Alarm bells ringing in his head, Thai scurried down the rock as fast as he could, but he had severely underestimated how close the chopper was. Before he could have hid himself, the helicopter was above him, the noise of the blades deafening. The only option left was to fight. As he threw down the rations pack he carried with him and readied his stance, a bright flood light shone down at him. The sun had already set, and the light was unnaturally bright for someone who had lived thus far by the light of candles and bonfires. Two figures clothed in white dropped from the doorway and landed quietly in front of him. The hoods of their uniform were pulled over their heads, masking their faces from view, but their blood red eyes glowed unnaturally like a cat’s in the darkness. There was no dispute that these were vampires standing before him.
Without a second’s delay, Thai lashed out, bringing his leg up in a deadly kick. It was a fight he knew he could not win, but his goal was no longer to win; no one could hope to go against a vampire and win. He had to stall for as much time as possible, so that the other leaders have time to evacuate the camp and get everyone to safety. One of the vampires, shorter than her companion, giggled merrily as she stepped out of the range of his attack. Thai was one of the fastest fighters in the group, but the way she moved made him look like a toddler who had just learnt how to walk. With a speed almost faster than what he could follow, she caught his leg, tossing it aside. His muscles screamed in protest at the unnatural movement. In the next beat, she stepped behind him, and smashed her palms at both sides of his head. The last thing he remembered was the world turning strangely horizontal.
At present, he had thus far managed to stand and tried to seek out an exit, to begin his escape. However, given that he had been stripped of most of his clothing besides his underwear and was now soaked through to his bones, he felt that escape would be difficult, and that was all before considering the surly jailer waiting for him impatiently just outside the refresher. Propping himself up with one arm against the wall, he had sought to make himself thoroughly clean, figuring that taking his time and indulging in a luxury like a warm shower might be his best chance for insubordination while him slowly regained his senses and found his bearings.
However, his captor’s patience ran out long before the hot water did, and Thai soon found himself getting dragged out of the shower, smothered in a towel, and stuffed into a white dressing robe. He tried to protest, to struggle, but another member of the crew had slapped some binders onto Thai’s wrists and helped him shove his heavy feet back into his boots before the tall woman paraded him down the corridors to lead him off the craft.
His imagination, usually viciously creative in the face of danger, seemed likewise mollified by his concussion, and he could only vaguely envision the terrors awaiting him when he left the dingy hallways of the chopper. If life had taught him anything, it was that a bad situation could always be worse, and more often than not, if it could get worse, it would.
Being kidnapped was another thing, however; he could only imagine the torture he would face at the hands of the vampires. Haruka, one of the leaders at the camp, would often regale him with stories of vampire nobles, the close calls he had in the short time he had been surviving alone. These stories served as both sordid entertainment and harsh warnings before he took off on his own missions.
“I don’t know who you are,” the slender woman said finally as him ushered Thai down the gangway. “But he wanted you taken alive and untouched. How interesting.”
“I’m no one of interest,” Thai mumbled, trying to come off as unassuming as possible, but failing rather spectacularly.
“I’m certain you are. But not tonight.” The woman dug her claw-like nails into Thai’s upper arm to propel him faster.
As Thai’s feet stepped onto the smooth surface for the first time, he felt something flood into his chest. It was a strange sort of wariness, but it was the most salient, definitive sensation he had uncovered since discovering the scalding water on his skin. He looked up in surprise at the feeling, expecting to find himself in an abandoned airport.
Instead, he gazed across a lavish city lit by the artificial glow of cavestones. The buildings stretched out on the cliffs below him glowed a pristine white. They cascaded downhill to a small sliver of a man-made beach around a large, sapphire-blue body of water. Bustling streets wound their way through the city, and Thai thought he could distantly hear chatter in Latin.
The kidnapper nudged him along, clearly pleased with her prisoner’s shock, and muttered a few unintelligible words to one of the vampire guards standing by the side. The landing pad Thai trudged across was not packed with other vampires or small children servants, but instead was clearly privately owned and attached to the large mansion nearby. The unease in his chest only grew.
His captor entered a code into the side door of the mansion, and as she forced Thai through the doorway, he became acutely aware of how out of place he was. The chamber he was in seemed to have been specifically designed to be unapologetically elegant, accented as it was by striking white and gold features, including a tall, golden door at the opposite end. The plush carpet beneath his clunky boots was a striking red, a color he was coming to loathe. The high ceiling, criss-crossed by supports and complicated but artistic lighting features, reminded him of a temple. The windows, dozens of them, stretched almost all the way to the high ceilings like elongated ovals. Through some of them, he could view other parts of the building, including other, likely identical hallways with equally marvelous windows.
Though the dressing robe he wore was perhaps considered nice, he knew he was far too underdressed for his current location. And he didn’t dare catch a glimpse of his hair and face in one of the pristine windows. Though he had rarely felt self-conscious, his life ever since had taught him the worst form of humility, and indeed the worst part of socialization: shame. He tried not to dwell on his appearance, but instead focused on calming his mind, as his teachers of past had taught him, pushing his pride far from his mind as he glanced around the splendor of the hall.
His heart was now beating rapidly. The worry that had curled in his chest now blossomed in a way that threatened to consume him.
Halfway down the hall, his captor paused, gripping his arm in a wordless command to stop.
“My lord, the boy.”
From out of a small nook in the hall stepped a cloaked figure. Thai’s stomach lurched as he processed why he had been so strangely anxious upon exiting the ship, why his chest had felt so constricted. Standing before him was Crowley Eusford, 13th Progenitor of the Vampire Council.