Odorem Sanguis

Matthew belongs to a dear friend, but she allows me to use him.

Cherosh is my own creation.

I will indicate who the characters belong to when they make their first appearance, just to clarify things, and remind every tenth chapter who they belong to, so no misunderstandings will happen!

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It was the usual adrenaline kick as Matthew sneaked into the pathology. Where else to find good bodies but here? Besides, it had been horribly easy to snatch the ID away. This silly girl... The necromancer smirked at the memory. One kiss, and she had been pure wax in his hands, not even realizing what he had done. There were other ways, sure... but he preferred to do it without too much of a fuss. Better to keep it low...



The smell of disinfection and bodies hit his nose as he slipped into the room, smiling to himself still as he snatched a clipboard with the list of the bodies having brought here. The brief descriptions on the side where useful, too, as they gave him a first impression on how his future servant might be. He didn't want anyone shorter than him... females were out of question, too... but the 'tall, dark and handsome' type always was quite acceptable.



Matthew himself was a rather small male, with curly black hair and light grey, often mischievous eyes. As being a necromancer by birth, he had always been able to use the powers of the dead for his own good, and it often enough had come in quite handy. Just as now. He had gotten rid of his former servant (a rather annoying, brainless one - classical image of a zombie), and now was looking for a hopefully smarter one.



He stopped looking through the list as he had come to the newbies. One of the names was quite unusual... not only because of the strange sound. "Cherosh... no second name... Heh, sounds quite like the tall, dark and handsome one." Hopefully handsome, as he added in his thoughts. Pathologists didn't rate the appearance of a body. A pity, somehow. After all, it would have made a lot of things go easier.



Humming to himself, Matthew searched for a while until he found the little sign with "Cherosh" on it. Now, it would be decided... Pulling on the handle, the litter slowly came out - and wow, that definitely was someone worth being resurrected. Even though the skin was a little too scarred... and the gun wound definitely would leave another mark. Aside from that, Cherosh pretty much was his imagination of his future servant. Hopefully one of the smarter sort...



Pulling a long knife out of his sleeve, Matthew had focused his attention on the body before him. He would have to call the soul back from the afterlife and infuse the body with new life force - not without a little sacrifice. Taking a deep breath, Matthew cut open his palm, waited until the blood began to spread.



Closing his eyes and pressing the palm against the wound, Matthew felt how the soul already awaited to come back and melt with the body. Whispering lowly, barely audible, he focused completely on the moment. How the soul was pulled back... right through his own soul, mixing with it for a short time. He caught some glimpses on Cherosh's life, but they passed by much too fast for Matthew to be identified.



The body beneath Matthew's hand began to twitch as the soul bit by bit sank into its shell again, filling the corpse with new life. The bond between him and his new servant rapidly formed, bound them to each other inevitably. From now on, Cherosh would be his servant... Though, something was a little strange about the raising. Matthew had known before the bond would be weaker, as he didn't know Cherosh's full name, but even so, it was overly frail. Had he made a mistake?



But that thought subsided again immediately as Cherosh drew in a gasp, tensing up for a moment before his eyes locked with Matthew. The necromancer was a little taken aback by the color... Light grey, almost white, and filled with a shimmer promising an icy character. Almost like his own, yet completely differently. The long, slender fingers were the first to fully move again, and slowly, Cherosh sat up, his eyes still on Matthew. The necromancer somehow got the feeling this wasn't the first time Cherosh had been called back from the dead...



"Hello, handsome, welcome back to the world of the living." Matthew chuckled, handing Cherosh the bag he had brought along. Clothes and shoes; the usual things he had with him when reviving a servant. He couldn't just drag a naked person with him, could he? "Who are you?" Cherosh hissed, sounding pretty angered for someone just having been revived from the dead. For normal, the necromancer was looked at with fear, but in this case...



Matthew didn't reply right away, he was more occupied with seeing to the cut and giving Cherosh a closer look. Definitely his taste... though here and there something could have been a little different. But he hadn't come here to find Mister Perfect, but an acceptable servant. Though, as he felt he hadn't got the usual control over Cherosh, he began to doubt a little the other male would really be obedient.



"Let me guess. You were the one who called me back." Cherosh sounded pretty acidic, while he already was putting on the clothes Matthew had brought along. "You got a problem with that? I can send you back any time, you know..." The necromancer smirked inwardly as there was no reply. As it seemed, Cherosh at least at times knew when it was better to just shut up and not say anything.



Again, he took a close look at his undead servant. Not the usual undead, with the unhealthy skin color and the tendency to stagger around, craving for brains to eat. No, his skill allowed him to revive them this well (given the corpse was well preserved) they barely differed from truly living people. As in Cherosh's case, the other male may was a little pale, but certainly neither brainless nor stinking of decaying flesh.



The freshly resurrected male now stood up, giving Matthew a better impression on what exactly he had chosen there. Cherosh was about a head taller than him, had broader shoulders and seemed to have a slight tendency to be a little skinny. But as he had been able to see before, this impression wasn't quite right. It was more like the other male had pretty lean muscles, even without being melon-sized made to give the other male enough strength to get pretty nasty.



Shuddering inwardly, Matthew glanced outside on the corridor. They better got going, otherwise the guard he had knocked out with a nice sleeping spell would come to again. He may had a nice two hours window to get everything done, but he still didn't want to risk anything. He didn't know why exactly he was having that impression, but Cherosh somehow seemed to promise trouble. A lot of trouble.



"Come, we got to get out of here." Cherosh had to obey him, that much was sure. But again, Matthew had the impression it wasn't fully working. Wondering a little, he led his new servant through the corridors and outside. Their luck, the guard still was out cold. Smiling self-confidently, Matthew turned towards Cherosh, who seemed to enjoy the soft light of the moon quite some. Strange indeed...



"Let me guess. You, as my master, await that I obey each and every of your freaking commands no matter what. If you say I am to kill someone, I will kill, and so on and so forth. The usual expectations, eh?" For a short time, the necromancer's eyes narrowed. He may wasn't constantly commanding about, but if there was something he certainly couldn't allow to happen, then it was a servant talking back at him.



"Now listen, Cherosh..." Matthew had stepped close, placing one hand on the other male's chest and grasping the spark of life he had given the other, pulling on it and causing his servant to gasp. "If you chose to defy me, and you better believe me there, I will push you back to the deepest pits of Hell and make sure you will wish for your final demise. Got that, Cherosh?"



Matthew had chosen a soft, almost friendly tone, but Cherosh clearly could catch the razor sharp undertone coming with the other's announcement of what should happen if he ever was to defy his master. "Crystal clear." the other male hissed back, sounding almost like an aggressive cat there. Once more, Matthew subconsciously wondered about the other male. What was it that made Cherosh this hard to control?



Hopefully, it would subside anyway, as now he had to lead the other male through the city. He could have chosen to take the car, but that would have been risky at times. As Cherosh seemed to be something like a rather unwanted guest at the pathology (he had seen a faint Y-cut, which certainly hadn't been the result of a recent autopsy), he somehow was glad to not have taken the car.



Some steps behind, Cherosh growled inwardly, his eyes on the necromancer having brought him back. He was angry, and therefore would have loved to do something damn painful to the other. Not enough to kill, maybe, but enough to make a point about not wanting to be someone's servant. He had dealt with necromancers before, but surely never with a this powerful one.



Despite the fact the bond was a little instable, Cherosh could feel the other's power over him. It was unsettling as well as unnerving, and especially interesting. After all, it was the first time someone seemed to have brought him back without even having a clue what he was. Something making Cherosh grin. What on Earth had this necromancer been thinking when bringing him back? Certainly not much, maybe he had not even checked what kind of being he was...



Grinning inwardly, his eyes trailed along the other male's body. Not too bad, Matthew certainly had something about him he liked. He had seen the ID the other male had chosen (the name had been 'Kim', but Cherosh hadn't believed that for one second), yet hadn't bothered to ask for the real name. He was pretty sure he would find out soon enough.



"Are you even listening?" Cherosh glanced up from the delicious sight of the necromancer's swaying backside to the almost more pleasant sight of Matthew's face. He somehow liked seeing the other male angry, just as now. He hadn't even realized the other had been talking. Not that it would have interested him anyway. "Should I bother?"



According to the frosty glare... Yes, he should have bothered. But it already was too late for any (anyway dishonest) excuses. "If it is this important..." Inwardly, Cherosh cursed himself a little. He sometimes was too talkative, and getting himself in trouble with talking far too much was a common risk he never had learned to assess really. For it usually had resulted in death.



Matthew rolled his eyes at the counter, but didn't say anything. No need to discuss with his servant, however hard to control the other male seemed to be. "Watch your lid, or I'll be sure it will get sewed shut. And believe me, that won't be funny for you." According to the grumpy expression, Cherosh had decided to shut up. A wise decision indeed.



For the next minutes, it was silent, and Matthew now and then glanced back to be sure the other male still was following him. As expected, Cherosh obeyed - or rather as hoped? The feeling of the other being nothing but trouble stirred again, and it certainly wasn't the best feeling with a freshly risen corpse. Rather the most unsettling.