When playing a game of cat and mouse one would have to make very sure that the other played fair. Or at the least somewhat fair or someone very easily could wind up dead. Petra was never really one who played by rules, except for the convoluted rules she had made up. They were always very different when dealing with one's own kind. He didn't know her, for all he knew it was her intentions were to kill him. But she had decided against that long ago when curiosity outweighed her desire to execute a challenge in the terms of conquering. Truly, his ability to thwart her attacks were rather amusing and impressive. His quick thinking proved to aid the man.
Petra tests him, the best way she knows how with those illusions that are an extension of her as if it is the only heart within her that still beat with its own pulse. The woman she once was all but forgotten as it became rewritten by the sheer force of magic and monstrous tendencies that she was.
Yet she wonders. Wonders if she pushed him too far. He seemed scared, so scared like a rabbit from a predators gaping and snapping maw. Yet she can't seem to stop herself, wanting nothing more to see how he could get himself out mess after twisted mess that she constructs. But she is also surprised, which wasn't often as she allowed her illusions to grow so large and imposing it could take down buildings and tanks. It wasn't often she had to use such large and imposing things at her disposal. Often it was a slight trick of the mind. But this was wonderful, this she could stretch out her wings and finally fly. Yet what is more interesting is that this man can keep up.
What also surprises her and perhaps makes her take slight pause was with how damaging her illusions have actually become. It was ever since that encounter with that lone distressed vampire in the alley which tampered with her emotions, meddling about within her mind and reaching deep down into her blackened core and made her actually feel! Making her love. What strange emotion that was. Yet it unlocked something within her, even if the feelings were entirely falsified there still real in their own way. Yet somehow the humanity that leaked within her very dead veins was entirely real as if reborn in some way. It created a feeling that almost valued an undead life, this one in particular. But by no means is she pacified but lulled, not willing to go that extra distance that would cause irreversible damage. She finds herself curious and yet fascinated at the way he attempts to protect himself against her monstrous creature. It was clear this was a man that wanted to live, even with the curses life bestowed upon him. Perhaps they weren't curses at all.
For the short time, her illusions are created, she cares for them as much as this twisted illusion wielder could. But like all things she grows attached to they disappear like illusions were ought to. The figments that now could actually cause physical damage and feel just as real, were still not real even though she wanted them to be. It was sad really. This sad lonely existence she dwells within. A realm that was neither real or entirely fake and yet she knows no different.
She watched captivated at how he launches himself in the air in the attempts to escape her wicked creature. Its mere existence, if you could call it that. It defied the natural order of things, the physics, what was real and what was fantasy. It shattered the barrier at what was thought as tangible. She could see the other vampire gripping at the ledge of the crumbling building, wondering if he was going to fall. Surely he wouldn't die from that height but it would absolutely hurt, she took a step forward as if she was thinking about intervening and yet an idle thought flickered in her mind. Perhaps he was hoping for her to swoop in and rescue him so he could get close enough. Her eyes narrowed with sceptical wonder at what she was intending to do. Peta had never been at such odds with herself. Usually, she possessed an emotionless stature with a blatant disregard for life/undead or otherwise, as a whole it was all a complex game. Yet now, she felt the urgency to no allow him to fall. Much like she risked her own life to rescue that man that muddled her up. Like he rewired her in some sick little-demented game, of course, it probably wasn't so cruel but she couldn't help but wonder.
She used to enjoy this game of cat and mouse. Only the cat did not yearn to kill the mouse, simply catch it. How odd!
The massive snake captures her victim, its smooth body wrapping in on itself as it tightens its hold on the name dubbed James or whoever he truly was, she wasn't entirely sold. After all, she was the Master of Illusions, surely she could detect a lie. The snake squeezed around the man's body just enough to be deemed uncomfortable and hindering his movements. She can't have him gaining the upper hand, not now. She approaches the monstrous snake and the man, never once did she lose that connection with her illusions as she could feel it if he attempted to test his binds.
She asked him why she would alter the terms of their agreement when she, in fact, possessed the upper hand. At least when the vampire devourer responded he understood. She watched him with that peculiar expression on her features, those vibrant two-toned eyes unblinking, the snake peering down at him too with that eerie stare, its tongue slithered out close enough that it almost touched the man's face.
Oh, how Petra taunts him with the scent of her blood, drawing closer as if she were invincible and yet curious of her new capture. So close she lingers that he could almost touch her and yet just out of reach, it was almost cruel as she taunts her restrained spider. She could see the hunger that darkened his eyes, that look she was on the receiving end of. It was even more amusing as even though he is at her mercy he still had the audacity to still lose control. The thumb she previously nicked with her sharpened fang teased at his lips, leaving a crimson trail upon them. It amused her watching him lap it up like he was starving. Just like that, she plans to leave him hanging only allowing but a taste. Putting space between them was just to flaunt her control. The snakes head swayed to and fro as if hypnotised by his creator.
Yet she doesn't have that opportunity as his words escape the man and it caused her to frown quizzically at the black haired man. Just as she was about to demand answers from him. It was the strangest feeling teleporting, existing and then not existing in the capacity that you were before, like her illusions! Is this what it felt like? Like reality being swept away in a blur? Then there was just dirt and grass and a rough landing, the air she consumed in order to speak was knocked right out of her at the unpleasant landing, skittering across the ground like she was launched from a cannon. It was like the illusions were beat out of her too and the snake and all she had created was gone, save for the damage. It would appear that was permanent.
The man seemed to exclaim in joy before a laugh floods the air. It was infectious and even she had to laugh at it. She lifted her head up from the softness of the grass in attempts to prop herself up, shaking her head. "What in all the hells was that?" She almost sounded breathless before she realised that he had won. The man got to his feet offering a hand to the illusionist in which she took, easing herself off the ground with much more grace than she landed there.
Once upon her feet, she bats off the debris and dirt that clung to that fabric. She had half a mind to lunge at him, but she lost, fair and square. This was not an emotion she felt prepared for. She could barely make out the compliment and words the left his lips, his voice sounded excited as he chattered at her. She blinks at him with a rather blank expression. "Call it even?" Petra questioned. She had never contemplated this before. A tie was simply not in her vocabulary. "But you won, you bested me fairly." There was a hint of surprise in her voice, perhaps even unsure with what she was actually saying.
But the man reached out his hand for hers as if to shake on it. "Fine, you can feed." Before a smile cracked on her lips. "I can't believe I'm saying this but well played James or whatever you call yourself." A half laugh escapes her before she took his hand not exactly sure of what was the purpose of it. Suddenly, his other hand bopped her on the head. Her eyes widened as if surprised by the man's peculiar actions.
He asked her a question and she laughed, enough to make her nose wrinkle in a strange way it normally never did. "I sometimes wonder. I don't think so.." But reality and illusions tend to blur together with her. What was real and what wasn't was rather a grey area? "I'm as real as you are. Are you real?" She tips her head oddly as the strange question parted her lips, still holding his hand not entirely sure what it was still doing there.
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