twissy au where 12 is a vampire hunter and missy is the worlds most dangerous vampire but....
the scottish forest and marsh area was no place for the average wanderer, especially not at night, which is why john smith, the tall messy grey haired man in the long tattered coat, didn't travel alone. with him came his two apprentices. one of them, bill, wore a green velvet cloak that covered her hair and trailed behind her, creating a regal, defined silhouette. she wore a white blouse and a belt carrying her tools, which were only what john smith had allowed her to carry - a beginner's arsenal of a stake, water, salt, and grains. nardole, the other apprentice, was disguising himself as a monk at the time, and wore the typical attire of a monk, carrying a book (which wasn't a bible - something much stranger) and a sack with provisions, and of course, his wits. as for john smith, he never revealed the contents of his coat.
they passed by many stones engraved with old runes. it was the time in scottish history where there was a wide variety of combinations of christian and pagan practices, especially when it came to dealing with "entities." the official authority was run by the church and so through nardole's employment, john smith and bill were able to sell themselves as a vampire hunter and his ward, while john smith taught his expert skills to the two under his guidance. the guarantee was that they would catch and destroy the vampire who had been terrorizing these woods. she was well known, a terrifying figure indeed, who could not just be buried overnight and kept down in a grave - no matter what peril she was subject to, she would always dutifully return, as if searching for something beyond the dead, that she could never find.
to john smith, her tells were easy to pick up on. the two of them had been playing a game of cat and mouse for longer than the recorded history of vampires, fae, or any beast was present in the human consciousness. when he found her, she was simply peeling the petals off of little flowers, roses and lilies, that she found by the side of a very deep lake. she was wearing a slightly tattered and decidedly steampunk dress, with a tight laced corset, and leather boots. her hair was undone, atypical for her - that would need to change. if her hair remained down, she could fly away.
before john smith could introduce his band of travelers to her, she spoke first. "oh, hello, lunch!" she flitted her gaze past nardole and bill, and onto john smith. "oh my! you!" she clutched her chest and looked like she would faint, unmoving.
bill looked at john smith curiously. "so, should i uh, stake her now?"
john smith smiled at her. "that would probably be the appropriate course of action." he held out his palm. "here, give me that." she handed the stake to him, watching trepidatiously, nardole holding her arm like a concerned parent. john smith winked at them. "now watch this!"
he pointed the stake right to her hearts, about to stab her, and she raised her arms to her sides, making direct eye contact with him, as if challenging him to plunge it into her chest. they stood like that for a moment, the two onlookers gazing, confused, a bit concerned that john smith had fallen under some kind of spell. then, he opened up his coat and pulled out a pair of silver cuffs attached to a handle. he kept the stake pointed towards her heart, but turned around so that his left arm was pointing the stake and his right arm was quickly putting the cuffs on her securely. the chain was only a few feet long, so she could not go more than two paces on her own. the silver singed her wrists through her long sleeves, but she bit her tongue. once she was successfully captured, john smith put the stake back into his coat, never returning it to bill.
"not much i can do now," the vampire lady said, her scottish accent just as thick as john smith's, with a bit of something else in it too - maybe mediterranean. she was ancient, no one really knew where she originated from. certainly not this realm. she looked at john smith, fearfully, going on as if to distract him. "good job, you did there, bringing those two idiots as bait!"
"hey, i'm no idiot!" bill said. she pulled out her remaining weapon, blessed water, and corked it open slightly, tossing a bit at the lady's shoes.
nardole grumbled, "i'm not bait either."
"watch yourself," john smith said. "i'm demonstrating." he did something truly odd then, he yanked the cuffs back, catching her ear against his lips so only she would hear what he whispered. "the silver doesn't burn your skin, does it? i made sure it was forged not to destroy your dress sleeves, miss." she quietly shook her head. she still felt their energy and it hurt enough to make her wince, but they didn't actually touch her skin. he was right. she quickly glanced back to make sure the other two didn't pick up on their communication, but before she could tell, he picked her up, lifting her over the patch of water bill had tossed. to bill and nardole, it looked as if he was completing the capture, ready to take her back, but she knew it was something more.
he was hiding his true nature from his apprentices.
"nardole," john smith declared. "get the carriage."
"yes, sir," nardole said.
a few minutes later, he came back from the main path, with the horse drawn mechanism, a box suited for only the three of them. on the back, there was a cage fixed with a soft feathered mattress and a completely dark tarp to be put over the cage during the day, so that their captive vampire wouldn't perish in the sunlight. it was a pretty nice arrangement, especially for the time and in comparison to the hunters she had dealt with in the past, who would either try to kill her on the spot or would pay no mind to her conditions while imprisoned.
"get in now," nardole said, opening the cage door.
john smith picked her up again, helping her to climb into the back. he didn't take the cuffs off but instead fixed the handle to one of the bars, in a place where she could still move around and lie down to sleep if she wanted. since it was still a few hours before dawn, he didn't put the tarp over. bill and nardole climbed into the front seat, and john smith into the back, where he could observe and talk to the vampire mistress.
she did nothing to resist, but her eyes sparked a mix of defiance and desperation. she hissed, baring her fangs, when the horses started moving. it was the first time john smith got to see her fangs in their full extension. they were so beautiful, sharp, and slightly jagged. hypnotic. the hypnosis had no way to work on him, so for him to find them so, testified only to his own enchantment with this specific lady. his coy mistress, he supposed. had they but world enough and time.. oh, but she had done so many crimes.
"i suppose we are going back to the kingdom now?" bill asked. "to turn her in and collect our reward?"
"that would be the most prudent thing to do," nardole said, rolling his eyes.
"yes!" john smith said. "that is undoubtably what we are doing. but i might request a small detour so that we can get our bearings and i can teach you both a few things about vampires, since we now have one at our mercy, isn't that right?" he turned to the lady, she shrunk.
"i guess so," bill said. "you know i've trained well. i could've just killed her!"
"well, you aren't the leader of this expedition, are you?" john smith proudly said. "you are my apprentice, bill. and you will listen to me. training is nothing compared to a real vampire. these creatures are extremely dangerous, and she could have caught you off guard and killed you in an instant. you need to listen to my instructions, because it will probably save your life in the future."
"okay," she said. "whatever you say, boss. but does the town we're stopping in have a tavern? or somewhere to relax at least? my feet hurt from wading so much."
"nardole," john smith said. "you heard her! somewhere with a tavern."
he let the two of them work it out. meanwhile, he turned back to missy.
"what are you going to do?" she said. "they have a price on my head here. and you can't keep me like this forever."
"i just want to make sure you're comfortable," he said to her, softly, under his breath. "are you sure you can sleep alright?"
"no one has ever asked me that before."
"no, i suppose they haven't," he said. "i'll tell you this. if you can prove to me, and i can prove to them, that you aren't a threat anymore - then they will let me keep you as a live specimen. which means, you won't die. and i will make sure not to harm you, as best i can, and not to let anyone else harm you. you just have to stay under my care."
she sighed. "how do i know i can trust you?"
john smith smiled. "that you don't know. but dawn is almost here. let me help you." he pulled the tarp over her, and she lay down to sleep (even though vampires didn't need sleep, it was just for fun). the mattress was soft and nice, much nicer than what she thought it would be. she hummed to herself gently. john smith almost reached his hand into the cage to hold her shoulder, but stopped himself. then he tossed in a hair tie.
"please, missy, tie up your hair, so you don't fly away in your sleep!"
