Private A Fever

[Jinn Lorso]

Undisclosed Location
Objective: Searching
Scherezade deWinter

"Where is she?" A cold voice moved through the area, as the hand of the Sith closed around the neck of the camper.

"I don't know, there was a woman that passed this way. It looked as though someone was after her or following her." The man was panicked, fear set in and it could do terrible things to a persons mind. Especially someone who wasn't trained against it. For years he had been searching for her. She either didn't want to be found, or didn't want to be found by him.

"Was it you, did you harm her?" Jinn tightened his grip around the throat of the camper as he raised him in the air. Faint words and such could be heard from him until he tossed him to the side. He was still alive, a frustrated look upon the face of the Sith. He looked to the individual.

"Leave this place now, if I pass by again and you remain. I will not be so kind. And you warn those along the way. If any harm comes to her I will respond in kind, not just to you but to everyone."

Jinn moved past them quickly walking by the edge of the deep forest. A small frustrated sigh escaped him, glancing around.

"Where are you?" He whispered and within a few moments he was gone. Disappearing into the foggy night, to continue to search to find her.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

The fog was thicker deeper in, curling like fingers around the gnarled roots and twisted branches. Scherezade moved through it barefoot, the chill of the damp soil grounding her. It wasn't stealth she relied on, not really. It was something older, something more primal. Instinct. Intuition. And the persistent hum of the Force in her bones, buzzing like a storm barely restrained beneath her skin.

She paused beneath a broken tree, one hand pressed against the jagged trunk. Her breathing was steady. Her heart was not.

He was close.

She hadn't seen him. Hadn't heard his voice in the air or his footsteps behind her. But she felt the ripple he left behind, like a blade dragged through a still lake. It was always the same with him and his. He didn't just search, he tore through the world, desperate and destructive in equal measure.

The beast in the fog answered.

Ancient, tusked, and warped by centuries of dark alchemy, the terentatek wasn't hers. Not truly. But it had tolerated her presence. Recognized something in her that didn't beg for mercy or flee at its scent. She didn't try to control it. She just let it be.

And now it moved, silent despite its size, threading through the trees like smoke made muscle and fang.

Scherezade moved swiftly, trying to use her motions to move the branches and leafs that had stuck in her hair during this chase. She had no weapons with her, which was a vast difference compared to her usual.

And there, just in the distance, she felt… What? Wait, that wasn't the terentatek!

"Jinn!" she shouted as she closed the distance between them, coming only to a halt when she was a mere foot away. "Terentatek!" she sighed the name of the beast, explaining what the situation was while motioning at herself. Her clothes were ripped, it was easy enough to notice the lack of weaponry, and, "angry," she added, "I may have pissed him … Personally!" she admitted.

They could do their whole reunion shtick later. Right now, they had to get away.

"Please tell me you've got a ship nearby!"


Jinn Lorso

 

[Jinn Lorso]

As the fog thickened, the blanket of darkness grew deeper. Something that he was familiar with, so it didn't disrupt his thoughts. The roar from within, that was another story entirely. If something had happened during the time that he first met her and the intervening time that she could let lose a roar such as the one he heard.

There was something else here. Perchance that was what scared the camper as much as it did. Perhaps he caught a glimpse of it, and was just to scared to speak of it.

"Jinn!"

"Terentatek!"

It was then he heard his name, ripping the through the foggy veil as Scherezade deWinter closed in on him. Based on her movements and tattered clothing, reunions and further explanations were best kept for later.

"angry,"

"I may have pissed him … Personally!"

"Come on!" He could hear the roar nearing them. "Northwest from here. Almost two hundred yards out once you reach the edge of the forest. Go, I'll buy you some time."

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

The roar tore through the forest again, closer now, no longer a warning, but a promise.

"Come on!" Jinn's voice cut through the chaos. "Northwest from here. Almost two hundred yards out once you reach the edge of the forest. Go, I'll buy you some time."

Buy her time?

She stared at him, the fog curling like a shroud around his silhouette, too familiar and too far. Her mouth opened, but no words came. Not at first. Just breath, just heat, just the Force beating wild in her veins.

"I don't want your time," she growled. And then she moved. Not away, but toward him.

And before he could protest, before he could make some noble speech and play the martyr, she grabbed him, fingers curling around his arm, strength coiling in her grip. The Force surged through her like wildfire.

"Move it," she growled.

A split-second passed.

And then she yanked.

Not just a tug, but a full Force-assisted leap, dragging both of them forward in a blur of motion as the terentatek roared behind them. Trees blurred past. The wind tore at her hair. Somewhere behind them, the ground shook with the creature's charge.

"If you want to fight something," she shouted over the wind, "fight with me."

Not instead of her. Not alone.

With her.

Where he belonged.

Jinn Lorso

 

[Jinn Lorso]

It was more command then anything, but as she spoke it resurfaced how she was in his mind again. Authoritative, but not with a sense of control. It was what she wanted, she knew what she wanted. And she voiced those opinions boldly and truthfully.

He moved in motion with her, as they sped away from the beast. Leaving it further behind, but then a roar could be heard and the creature charged. And it was then she made her declaration.

"If you want to fight something,"

"fight with me."

"Then let's do it together." Jinn voiced matching her own conviction with that of his own. He wanted answers, why she had left. But he was here with her now and that was all that mattered. Everything beyond them two was moot at this point.

"Don't leave me again." As they reached the edge of the forest and the creature was still charging them. Jinn readied himself as they stood at the edge. Once it hit the clearing they would be ready to begin.

Scherezade deWinter

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

The forest spat them out into the clearing like a secret it could no longer hold. Scherezade had been certain they'd crossed most of the aforementioned two hundred years, but suddenly she wasn't so certain.

The sky above was a bruised gray, too early for dawn, too late for night, and the mist clung to the grass like breath held too long. The world felt suspended. Waiting.

Scherezade skidded to a halt, her grip still tight on Jinn's arm. She turned toward the forest, toward the crashing branches, the thunder of the beast's steps.

And behind her, his words.

"Don't leave me again."

They struck harder than the roar that followed.

Emotions and chatter could wait. The terentatek was nearly upon them, and she didn't trust herself to fall apart and stand ready at the same time.

So she forced her hands open. Summoned the storm in her blood. Let it pour down her arms and pool in her palms, ready to strike.

"I need your blood," she said quietly, voice trembling beneath the steel as she waited for him. Waited for him to give her a few drops, so the blood hound could do something in a way it wasn't meant to do, "Think of speed when you produce it," she encouraged, bouncing on her feet.

The trees split.

The beast exploded into the clearing, fangs bared, eyes wild.

Scherezade's green gaze snapped up.

"NOW!"

Jinn Lorso

 

[Jinn Lorso]

"I need your blood,"

"Think of speed when you produce it,"

The beast thus broke through the clearing

The dagger cut across his arm, blood now seeped from the wound, and the pain was well off in the distance. It was something that didn't affect him. He looked over to Scherezade as he locked eyes with her for those moments that the blood would drip, at at a good and fast pace as she instructed. He could feel the storm within as she gathered the energy within her.

She was strong, as she always was.

The creature didn't shake his resolve, he had all that he needed and required here and now. The Dark energy emitting from him, slashing out like daggers towards the creature. As she would do what was necessary on her end.

There was no chance for this creature....

None at all.

Scherezade deWinter

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Jinn just gave her his blood willingly, without hesitation, without fear. That wasn't just trust. That went so far above and beyond it. The dagger flashed. Scherezade didn't flinch as the blood flowed.

She felt it before it touched her. The speed, the violence coiled beneath Jinn's skin, the Force humming in every crimson drop like the final note of a war chant. It wasn't just blood. It was intention. It was invitation.

She moved fast.

Faster than instinct, faster than hesitation. Two fingers glided into the stream along his arm, and dipped each finger in one of her eyes.

The world ignited.

The storm inside her roared to life, crashing through her bones, her muscles, her pulse. And it was different this time. Not just her own fury—his now, too. His will. His darkness. She'd borrowed essence before. But this?

This was fusion.

The terentatek lunged.

But Scherezade was already gone.

She blurred across the clearing, no longer flesh and blood but wrath and memory, kicking up earth and mist with every step. One hand snapped forward, glowing with charged kinetic power; the other curled into a claw, dripping wild energy.

She struck low, a slash at the beast's leg. She didn't want to kill it yet, just cripple. To drop it. To make it scream.

The terentatek bellowed.

Black blood spattered across the grass.

And still she moved.

Back to back with Jinn now, green eyes burning wild despite the blood that seemed to cover them.

And suddenly she stopped, thrusting her arms forth.

For a heartbeat, the world went still. Not even a wind dared breeze its way through the area. As time moved again, suddenly the terentatek began to scream and pounce in its place. Scherezade was too occupied, the Force not flowing out of her but coming out with all the rage of a tsunami.

But it wasn't the beast that she was fighting anymore. It was its very life that she demanded, as she called the blood from beneath its leathery skin, called it to the surface, called it to boil.

It looked at first as though nothing happened. The blood continued to pool beneath the surface of the beast's exterior, but it was too dark to see it happening. And then suddenly the blood sprayed out from its pores all over Scherezade and Jinn Lorso as the beast gave a final scream, at last dropping to the earth, utterly wasted.

Scherezade's chest heaved hard as she looked at it. She wasn't certain why she'd needed that power buff from Jinn to do it, but she knew she had. The beast wasn't like most people she could pull that trick on without a single bead of sweat.

With a wicked grin, she turned to her friend, the beast's blood still dripping fast from her body.

"Know any good burger joints in the area?" she asked. She had bathed in the blood. Now she was hungry.

 

[Jinn Lorso]

The power she had within, the obeyed her every command. The Sith Lord had witnessed power like this several times before from her. And to this day it was forever awe struck. Her ability to change and bend the force to her will and tap into that dark power within. Jinn considered himself strong in his own right, she was something else entirely. That was why he was so fascinated with her, that was why they become so close.

He'd follow her to the deepest parts of hell and back.

As the final act came and the blood flowed even more so, and thus the creature combusted from within. Blood spray and splattered all over the duo. A deep and almost chaotic laugh followed as he didn't wipe the blood off. He just laughed as he finally looked over to her as she spoke.

"Know any good burger joints in the area?"

"You a true gem, Scherezade." Jinn laughed again as he shook his head, a smile on his face the entire time. "I know a few places, even some that don't mind the blood." He walked over to her as he just looked up on her a a brief moment. "Shall we?"

Scherezade deWinter

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"We shall," she grinned.

Her fingers were still slick with blood; Jinn's, the creature's, maybe even her own. Not that it mattered. She flexed her hands, tried to shake some of it off, but it clung stubbornly, sinking into the creases of her skin like it had a claim. Someone had once asked her why she didn't lick the blood, like some kind of cartoonish predator. The truth was simpler than most wanted to hear.

Scherezade was a Blood Hound, not a vampire. Blood was a tool, a thread to pull, a memory to read. It gave her power, direction, purpose. But taste? No. That part never did it for her. She didn't even like the smell all that much. Even then, she preferred it outside her body, not in her mouth.

She flicked a clot off her palm, then grinned wider as she looked at Jinn.

"But if the meat's overcooked, I swear I'm starting another fight," she grinned cheekily. Jinn Lorso knew how she liked her meat; charred on the out, borderline raw on the in. Anything else was an insult.

 

[Jinn Lorso]

"We shall,"

"Good, I don't need you wandering off again. We work better together you know that." Jinn smirked as he gave her a small sly smirk. "Come on, there's a place nearby, we can take my ship and head that way.

"But if the meat's overcooked, I swear I'm starting another fight,"

"I would expect nothing less from you, old friend. If another fight does start, that wouldn't be so bad would it?" Jinn laughed as he lead them to his ship, another fighting would be something worth getting into. Food was always worthing fighitng for. And well if the two of them were together, he hoped that those working or cooking wouldn't be so foolish as to ruin their meal. Les they incur the wrath of the Scherezade deWinter

It was good to see her again.