The night scorched on. Seras's thoughts drifted out and merged with the hot air. The dust in the air, the scents that lingered, a hunt beginning. She moved unseen. The air caressed her skin. Claws of fire raked her eyes. It hurt. She wanted it to end. Thoughts of cold earth encasing her. No such reprieve on this summer night. She breathed, unneeded, but the heat had taken away what little conscious impulses she still had.
The vampire trudged onward. The only hope of this pain ending was the death of those already dead. Four horrors that killed and drank of the living stalked this forest. Footsteps crunched on brittle leaves. The embers of her thoughts drifted on the wind. The nights were not this bad in the past. Not when she was still alive.
Idly she tongued her fangs. Once her heart beat, once the sun was not the bane of her life. Once the summers were not this bad. Alucard, her master, was never affected by anything. He wouldn't tell her how he did this, that would mean not being a git for a short moment. Sweat ran down her back. She hated the feeling. More beads ran down her arms. Her sight blurred. Her uniform, a yellow blouse and miniskirt was completely ruined.
She quietly stumbled forward. The mission the last remaining impulse in her mind. Singed thoughts asserted themselves. The ragged edges hurt her. Seras leaned against a dying tree and breathed heavily. Her lungs burned. The agony wouldn't end until her mission did. And then it got worse.
"Bonjour Mignonette! How are you going?" Pip chimed over the radio. She could just see the mercenary's face and that little smirk. She was going to take his look of smug self-satisfaction away one day. They'd been hired after all the original guards had fallen. None of the hired soldiers treated her nicely. They cat-called and tired to slap her bum. Pip could be a decent person if he tried. When he was away from the rest of the pigs he could be so different. But he still loved aggravating her. She'd show him one day.
"I'm fine Captain." Normally she would put some force into her voice. The heat melted it away. "I'm still hunting." Pip continued on and Seras ignored him. The vampire grunted and snarled at him when she felt it appropriate. Instincts drifted in the air. When he finally left it was a moment before Seras realized she wasn't sweating anymore. Then the heat flooded back in.
She flinched, her pores stung as she began sweating again. She bit her lip. Focusing on not focusing was another miserable experience. The miasma of her sweat began to fill her nose again. The summer slowly turned her mind to ashes. Embers on the wind. Slowly she made her consciousness drift away. Without force her feet took the lead. The trail more visible now that she did not follow it.
Closer, closer the hunt quickened. The scent of blood in the air. Sins long past due. Red rage surged. Razor hate and black justice the feelings that lanced out. A clawed nightmare to seek the fanged horrors in the night. Rock and crag, forest and glade vanished. Her sight filled with the broken bodies of her prey. A surge of joy, she found them.
The hunt ended, her quarry in sight. Four nightmares huddled around an obscene stone relief. Something gibbered terribly. Memories threatened to break the thin layer between herself and the heat. Surges of instinct and need clamped it down. She would not suffer the heat again! She launched herself at the monsters. Two never had the time to turn around. Blood splattered her arms. Her muscles tensed, it hurt. Boiling hot it seared her nerves. A scream. Another died. It hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt It Hurt It Hurt It Hurt IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT IT HURT STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!