Roleplay City
Administration => Infusco Archives => Archives => Old Roleplays => Topic started by: Saiketsu on February 13, 2008, 07:09:14 AM
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continued from In a Rush (http://www.roleplaycity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4613)
The night was mild with a palpable sense of urgency as Damien approached the lighthouse. He\'d noticed the time back in town, the giant clock in the middle of a plaza reading 10:06. It made him more irate than he would ever admit as time was luxury he didn\'t have. But then again, business was taken care of for one more night.
When he had left the Brazilian Quarter, possibly his favorite part of town, after his encounter with the children of the Dark Wolves, a plan rapidly developed in the forefront of his mind. Needless to say, he needed to see Pierre immediately and discuss what was on his mind.
As fast as Damien could go, he had found Pierre in his usual spot -- down in Stakes and Sticks, flirting with the prettiest donor there. But as much of a womanizer Pierre DuSang was, he dropped everything and conversed easily enough with the elder vampire. So as it was, the two vampires went back and forth under their breaths in the loud atmosphere, deciding on what was to happen.
Assemble the Genuine Ones, the useful ones. Meet down at Glitter Beach. Midnight. Not a moment later. The key was found. The plans were set into motion.
Pierre left the donor sitting at the bar as he went to gather the Genuine Vampires, the useful ones, with inhuman speed. Damien, however, was already late for his own rendez-vous with the key, herself. Heading Northwest, the elder vampire picked up his pace to a preternatural level, full-fledged anxiety taking over.
Ace had not forgotten the smell of Storm\'s blood mixed with that wolf\'s and he had not forgotten that she was still out there somewhere, wounded and angry. But even Damien knew enough not to underestimate Storm\'s strength and determination -- he had tasted it when she had offered the lifeblood to him when he was in great need of it. No, Damien wasn\'t worried about her all that much. But he did worry about her legs -- and their ability to run and try to escape. He had waited years, decades, centuries, to find Isabella\'s soul. What a pain it would be to have to find it again.
The lighthouse was within view, off some hundred yards in the thick grasses which have dried since his last encounter here, but where was Storm? Her aura still lingered here strongly, but the roar of the crashing waves far below was a little too loud and his mind a little too anxious for focusing on finding her.
Reaching out, sluggishly and almost clumsily, he brushed up against her subconcious gently. "Storm." He said firmly into her mind, but gentle enough not to perturb her. She was above him, perhaps in the far reaches of the lighthouse, but he could find her directly. Damien tried again, coming close to caressing her mind, luring her to him without words.
Tonight was the night.
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The Akari girl had drifted, that much she knew. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t the nightmare she had expected, given the occurrences of the past couple of days. The funny thing with dreams, though, is that you never really know that they\'re dreams. Each and every time the girl was trapped inside of her mind, she reacted the exact way she would as though she were actually experiencing the events.
Storm was in a tent, late at night. She had to be awake early the next morning for a strict training regimen set up for her specifically by the Zalmric captain. What was his name again? L-something? The fact that she couldn’t remember bothered her more then the fact that she was in his tent. It sickened her the way she was given special treatment and it sickened her even more the reasons why.
In her dream she was lying on her back on a soft mattress, completely naked with a numb sense of shame that she was forced to get used to. With wide eyes the Akari bore into the ceiling of the tent, waiting. God, she fucking hated waiting. She could feel him—his body, lying near her. He was awake, drawing out the moment, trailing his fingers… Wandering icy blue eyes, hands on her throat, her chest. The girl could feel him in her mind and she craved it—his touch. His hate.
“Storm,” in response to the touch of Damien’s mind, she rocketed back into the land of the living, completely and utterly disgusted with herself. Storm didn’t want him to know anything about her, and thus walled of any lingering feelings or memories associated with her dream. Somewhere in the back of her mind she felt it was futile, and somewhere in the back of her mind she wanted to be understood and longed to be comforted without having anyone know why she was hurting.
A dull pain thudded in her arm and she allowed herself to look down at the wound. It was repulsing and Storm forced herself to look away. Shakily standing, she walked to the edge of the lighthouse as she reached out with her mind to Damien. Her hair was a mess from tossing and turning but frankly she didn’t care. The Akari looked down, seeking his eyes, seeking something familiar and remotely friendly. And she hated how fucking needy she was when she was supposed to be angry with him.
The thought of the inconstancy of men sprang up in her mind, filling her eyes with black. Suddenly infuriated with a mixture of her past memories brought up by the dream and Damien’s failure to show up on time, she took an impulsive action. Storm vaulted off the roof, without much of a second thought, reaching out to bend shadows this time instead of the air itself in order to slow her fall. Lightly her feet touched the ground, mysterious and almost invisible silky threads of darkness swirling at her feet. As the energy dispersed and took some of hers as its own, she glared at the vampire in the face. Storm felt a strange and peculiar mixture of anger and longing for him. She spoke through her teeth.
“Where. Were. You?” she could feel fangs piercing her lips but she didn’t hold them back. Her eyes flickered between black, grey, brown, and red; sometimes blending the four into a strange hue without a name. There was so much the girl wanted to say, and all she could manage was a string of curses as she tried recounting for him what had happened in his absence. That stupid wolf. That stupid fucking wolf. She didn\'t even know if he caught anything at all, if he could understand a word of her story.
“Do you realize what a fucking terrible night I had, alone, infected with this fucking wolf spit?!” Storm was hardly making sense, she showed him her green tinged arm while she didn’t realize that her skin was growing purple. She balled her hair in her fists, the frustration from the dream she had to experience all over again and the fact that things never went the way she expected them to. The girl wanted to scream, and she managed to. In a quiet sort of way. She needed control, comfort, something. All she felt was cold and empty. A shell. She was a fucking shell and she felt herself losing it.
Cut it out, you’re so overdramatic. Storm felt herself bending shadows just for the hell of it. Even though that’s what he taught her. But she didn’t care right now.
((OOC: Sorry for the length. ^^; ))
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There wasn\'t much else he could do but stare at her as she bombarded him with her anger; he was more taken aback than anything else. This display was so pecular to him after so long, so exagerated but so typical at the same time. The spirit of Isabella was there, but it was the emotion of Storm, the leaking, overwhelming aura of her. Again he was faced with the indecision of trying to hold her like he was so accustomed to doing and the temptation to push her away so he could breathe easily again.
Without thinking about it first (as he would have never have done it after thinking), Damien put both hands on her shoulders, as if trying to control her in a simple manner. "Calm down, Storm!" He subconciously tapped into the forefront of her mind-- another thing he was once accustomed to doing-- and was greeted by a large wall of fustration protecting a number of flashing images that reeked of regret.
All of a sudden, he felt overwhelmed and guilty for leaving her hanging. So instead of reacting with his typical quick-temper, his facade fell for a moment, revealing a side of himself he typically didn\'t show to anyone -- a guilty, thoughtful side, with genuine care. "Storm, calm down." The sound of the name, of her name rolling off his lips shook him back into the shadows of the mask. His stony features settled in a panic. She is not her, you fool! A taste of his real anger flooded his eyes, no towards her, but directed towards himself. He was regretting it immediately.
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Storm glared at him, yet her eyes didn\'t seem to agree with the anger in her face. Her skin slowly faded to a pale, fleshy tone and her eyes became normal. As much as her body cried out to shake him off of her shoulders, she kept still and focused on his face. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. She was so childish sometimes and she hated it.
The second time he called her name Storm could feel the change in him more then she could see it, and gently pulled away, turning her back to him. She didn\'t want to look at an angry face.
"I\'m sorry. That wasn\'t about you. I had a rough night," the Akari sighed heavily as she clenched and unclenched her fists repeatedly in an effort to gain complete control of herself. "I didn\'t mean for you to see that outburst..." she added as an afterthought while at the same time she ran through each motion of her dream, each feeling. God, those fucking eyes. Icy blue. She hated that color more then anything.
Storm felt herself settle into place as she pushed her emotions back into their bottles. She assumed a business type attitude, trying to be realistic. There was a job to be done, she assumed, and of course she had a position to fill. Or rather, a position to try to fill. She could only try.
Making a small attempt to fix her ruffled hair, Storm turned to face the vampire again, awaiting some form of direction. A command. An order. She\'d been obeying in her dreams so why not carry on with the submission like she was supposed to?
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Damien sighed under his breath, adjusting back into his mask while biting into his lower lip hard enough to score a taste of undead blood-- not appetizing at all. He felt her submissiveness, the awkwardness between them. What the fuck, he thought with a sigh. It was never like this before.
And as a wind blew past the two of them standing there only yards from the edge of the cliffs, he remebered the kamikaze flight they both took and the wounds he still carried from the trip. But more than that, the wind carried a curious scent, one he couldn\'t put his finger on, until he looked over at Storm. It was Isabella. It was Storm.
Flashes of his Master\'s death occured in a chaotic patern, obscuring any ability to think he had left. Damien growled in his throat demonically, trying to ward off the images that brought him so much grief. They always took him by surprise with their varying intensities and inconvenient placement within the course of the night. He furrowed his brow and rubbed his hands over his face, trying to clear all thought from his mind without success. The vampire turned away slightly, trying his best to ignore how similar they both looked, even in hair style.
Breathing calmly, Damien removed his hands from his face and turned back to her, a less-than-genuine smile lining his tight lips. "I guess it\'s fair to say that neither one of us has had the best of nights. I\'ve heard about your encounter with the wolves, trust me. And I\'m sorry, but I was delayed in my journey from meeting you on time. Things and people just kept... popping up." Which, actually, isn\'t a complete lie.
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Really, Storm could have dealt with the wolves no problem. It was the sleeping that really got to her. And the dreams. Maybe if he had been there she would have been occupied to the point where she wouldn\'t have slept, but she knew that wasn\'t his responsibility. None the less, she spoke nothing of this. But the girl felt her mind consumed with the thought of that single memory, unable to tare herself from those icy blue eyes.
Storm shook her head, smiling a fake one right back at him. Her eyes betrayed her with a grey. "They were the least of my worries." And she left it at that. Reaching inside of her, she searched for some sort of strength from her spirit. Isabella. If maybe she could pretend, maybe if she could somehow act like this strong being that now resided within her, maybe then she could please him in some way. But deep down the girl knew she was just a disappointment. Helpful. She had to be helpful.
Drawing energy from the earth she worked on clearing her infection, something that took little to no concentration. The Akari was less then proud of herself for her accomplishments, this was more of a necessity anyway. She sighed, trying to figure out a way to change the subject. And all of a sudden she felt like a little kid again.
"I...I remembered how to do something...with energy. And shadows." she smiled sheepishly, twirling a bit of the dark matter between her fingers. It wasn\'t that she was trying to show off, and it was only after she said it that she realized it looked exactly like that. God, how much older was he?
"Look, can I ask you something?" her eyes searched his.
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He almost found her gaze threatening. Again, the unfamiliarity of the situation coaught him off guard. Damien tried his hardest not to build up a noticable wall from her. It was a simple question. He just hated being invaded, especially by someone he hadn\'t seen in a while.
Inside he laughed at himself, at his inability to recognize that Storm was different than Isabella on many planes. She gave him an odd feeling of recognition combined with the desire for walls separating him from her, her from Isabella. He couldn\'t even begin to explain, but he constantly found himself missing Isabella. Not that he would ever admit that to anyone.
"Go ahead, I guess." How much harm could it cause? Damien folded his arms across his chest in as casual a manner as he could muster.
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The Akari\'s eyes flickered in frustration. The awkwardness was suffocating and she hated it. Jesus Christ, couldn\'t they just get along? Then again, maybe it was like trying to mix oil and water, and the way things looked she was the one sinking.
"Is there something I\'m doing wrong? I mean, I know I\'ll never be what you wanted. But I don\'t know how to make this any less awkward. I\'m trying the best I can, honest. I just...I don\'t know what to do." She shook her head, muttering incoherently to herself and searching for words that made sence.
"I just want to try, okay? I\'m not giving up or anything. I\'m not going to run away," Christ, you sound like an idiot. Shut up while you still can. She was getting frustrated trying to explain what she meant.
"Give me something to go on for now, I\'ll catch on. I can learn." her eyes were hopefull, yet not directed at him. The girl stared into the dirt before her, still not even sure what exactly she was trying to say.
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Her abrupt shifting of manner caught him by surprise -- he had not expected this at all. The vampire could do nothing but stare blankly at her for a moment while he attempted to digest what she just said. Sure, it was a relief that she wasn\'t going to be flighty anymore-- why she wasn\'t, he honestly didn\'t want to ask in case indecision took her-- and, yeah, it was great that she was willing. But for whatever reason, Damien had the hardest time trying to take complete control over her. He had never taken complete control before; Isabella was always there by his side and she was the only one with total control.
The only response he could give her immediately was another sigh as he rubbed at his neck. His bad leg began to ache from all the exertions he had placed on it over the past couple of nights. The more it hurt, the better he was getting. He shifted his weight back and forth until he had some kind of response to her.
"I can only assume that from our last visit," his mouth began to run dry, "you know what the plan of action is. I can only assume that... she told you in some way." She probably has more of an idea of what I\'m going to do than I do... The thought that he and Storm shared the same exact memories from the same exact source was still a sensation he had to get accustomed to. It sent shivers down his spine. "A... congregation has already been set up down at the beach." He looked away from her at this point. "A few of my fledglings -- younger vampires -- will be waiting at midnight. We need to discuss the actions to be taken now that you\'re found." And the new alliances which may be considered for eventual domination. Storm\'s not gonna be happy about those. He cringed at the thought of her reaction.
"But as for you, you\'re not doing anything wrong." His eyes searched for hers again, slipping out of the human facade he was so accustomed to keeping. It was time she got used to the monster; she\'d be walking into a group of them soon enough. His eyes deepened, his face became rigid with unnatural age. His jaw tensed slightly, his breathing slowed to almost a stop. "There\'s going to be a period of... adjustments between us. I\'ll assume it\'s normal." I don\'t hate you anymore, Storm.
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It was hard for the Akari to read him; even trying to understand what Damien was saying had become increasingly difficult due to the images flooding her mind. Almost as if Isabella was trying to help him explain what was going on, but Storm had a tendency to shut down when two people were talking to her at the same time. One thing she had noticed was the significant lift of tension, and for that, the girl was greatfull.
Storm sighed and turned away, filing the new information away appropriately to be dealt with at a later time. There were other things plaguing her mind presently, things she could not help but venture back to. Nodding vaguely in the vampire\'s direction in order to communicate the fact that she had heard and (somewhat) understood him, she turned her back toward him to seek some form of privacy as her expression instantly darkened.
Dreams were something the Akari should have been used to by now, regardless of how disturbing their nature. Yet this had been an unpleasantly personal one, something she wasn\'t typically accustomed to. Her nightmares usually had that vague sense of detachment from actual occurrences. The fact she had dreamt of a memory could only mean one thing--that he is closer then she would have intended. Black filled her vision. He could not interfere with her intentions of a new life. Not now. Not again.
Her only comfort was the fact that he was not close enough for her to get a proper reading from him. Despite this, Storm still felt so utterly weak and vulnerable. She ran her fingers through her hair and exhaled heavily.
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He felt her retreat immediately into herself and wondered if he had said something wrong... again. He shrugged it off, though he did wonder if he should say anything else, something to make it less awkward. Not that it would work anyway, based on past experiences.
"So..." he exhaled, looking out into the dark ocean. He grinned suddenly, remembering. "You up for another dive? We have an hour to kill..." And I\'d really love to taste your blood again... He found himself thinking sheepishly. Her scent, mixed with the cool breeze off the ocean, was nearly intoxicating. Too bad he had fed before...
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Storm noticeably shook her head, not in response to him but rather to clear her head. She turned to him again, face betraying her vague efforts to mask how she felt.
"I\'m not in the mood, really," she answered him quietly, smiling politely and studying his expression. An hour, huh? Even if she was in the mood to go jump off another cliff, she\'d need a hell of a lot more time to recover from it. And she wasn\'t about to show up at some meeting with a bunch of vampires and make herself look like a weakling from a bunch of injuries. "I wouldn\'t want to make a bad first impression" she added.
No matter how hard she tried, she could not shake her mind from that image. Those eyes. It was terribly frustrating and she found herself wanting to transform simply to leak out some of the built up hatred she was feeling. Involuntarily she let her mind sink into a familiar pattern. That spiral. She hid it as best she could, letting her fangs show to let off some of the pressure.
Storm turned from him again to control herself, shove whatever she was feeling down. It was a beautiful moon. A terribly, fucking gorgeous moon.
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He scowled faintly. "I didn\'t mean it anyway." There goes my sarcasm again, he mused. Her emotions, though obviously restricted by her somehow, were tastable on the air, flowing with her lovely scent. It made him feel as though he were getting into something very sticky, very contageous and he could feel his own mental walls go up to try to keep him out of it.
What to do, what to do. "Well, we have an hour left at least..." Damien had nothing else planned after that. He knew somehow that Storm didn\'t like to sleep, so he didn\'t suggest that again. No cliff-diving. No dangerous stuff. "Do you wanna go somewhere? Like for a walk or something?" He couldn\'t understand why his voice was quiet and why his cheeks burned faintly when he said it. After all, he hadn\'t been on a date in a very long time...
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She managed to seal the majority of her emotions away for the time being, not daring to touch them or examine them until they were much less violent. Clenching and unclenching her fists at intervals, she inhaled slowly to further calm herself.
Go for a walk? The girl tried not to laugh at him. Her eyes glistened with light blue and she turned around to face him again, finding his suggestion irresistibly cute. Stifling her childish reaction, she took a step toward him, swirls of Darkness scattering at her feet.
"Sure, why not," Maybe it\'ll help me clear my head a bit... She was practically begging for some distraction. "Any place in particular or you just want to wander in the forest for the next hour?" she smiled playfully, attempting to lighten the mood. Her efforts felt forced and she knew he\'d recognize them as being over exaggerated.
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He smiled awkwardly. "Well I had no place in particular in mind. I mean I\'ve been everywhere in the city, so nothing surprises me there. Why? Where would you like to go? Skipping around in the forest?" Though her emotions and whatever, the sticky feeling of her aura, were locked away, the sensation literally stuck and he didn\'t really want to be around that. Anything was better than getting dragged into some dark ooze.
"I figured I\'d let you lead the way. It\'s the least I could do after everything that\'s happened between us." The slightest of stinging sensations arose to his cheeks. When was the last time he had ever flirted with a girl for no other reason than to flirt? When he was human? When flirting was called "courting", and involved dancing with hands touching and staring into each others\' eyes? Was this even flirting? Damien found himself slightly confused, but tried not to show his hesitation.
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The fact that she could feel him blush more then she could see it, made her laugh lightly. She didn\'t press it though, didn\'t want to invade his privacy.
"Can I show you something then?" her eyes faded into an orange hue and Storm didn\'t wait for a response. The girl began to walk past him and grabbed his wrist as she brushed her shoulder against his. Gently she dragged him to the very edge of the forest, stopping victoriously at a small tree.
"You have to be quiet because they might be asleep..." the girl whispered, pulling aside a branch to reveal a tiny bird nest filled with three silently sleeping baby birds, the mother nestled contently in the middle of them.
"I found it a few nights ago," did Storm realize Damien probably wasn\'t as delighted with her find as she was? Yes. But it didn\'t matter. Birds made her forget things, even if robin’s eggs were blue. To be honest, she wanted to hold his attention for a moment. She wanted to be close to him and couldn\'t understand why.
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Her sudden barage of energy and excitement confused him even more, while her grip on his wrist left him nearly paralyzed. Was she aware that his wrist was extremely sensitive to pressure of any kind? Did she know what she was doing to him, forcing up a wall between them, yet forcing him at the same time to love the feeling of being gripped there? It wasn\'t the rough demonic strength of any one person. It was only the gentle, clearly-human grip of Storm. His instincts told him not to push her away.
But as for the birds... Quiet was his nature. He didn\'t say a single word as the blood pulsed through his veins faster, or as the hand stretched out in an attempt to control his nature as a monster. He stayed quiet as he tried to keep his eyes on the birds and not on his wrist... or her hand... or her neck... Damien closed his eyes as a delicate breeze blew by, catching him downwind of her again. The blood pulsed faster in him, not uncomfortably or uncontrolably, but certainly maddeningly. He kept closing his eyes, trying to resort back to his "human" self without thinking about pressing her small frame against some nearby tree with all his strength and crushing that fragrant neck of hers beneath his teeth. God, he was a monster.
"You like birds?" He managed between clenched teeth.
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Storm kept her eyes locked with the tiny breathing creatures but her mind was far from there. Silently she released the branch, watching it bend back into place, hiding the family from unfriendly eyes. The girl smiled at his inquiry and kept her gentle grasp on his wrist.
"I guess you could say that," obviously she felt his aura swirling, she\'d have to be an idiot to miss it. The Akari was well aware of the not-so-subtle electricity of desire in his blood. Blood. It was about blood. Obviously that\'s all he\'d be interested in, and honestly she wasn\'t really bothered by that. And yet her expression darkened as she pulled him onto a path that led around the border of the edge of the wood.
"We have a lot in common," birds. She expected him to understand that was what she was talking about, yet it wasn\'t really what she was talking about at all. "We want the same things, we love the same things, we fear the same things, we hate the same things," The girl had a way of keeping completely silent in the forest; her feet rustled no leaves that littered the path before them. "In essence, we are the same thing." She stopped and ventured a look at him.
"Yet we are completely different." The Akari\'s wings rustled beneath her skin, restless and longing to stretch. Her eyes were a purple hue as she gathered shadows at her feet and gradually felt them travel and swirl all around her. The material was a translucent charcoal, not completely black yet not completely invisible. She released his hand and drew away from him, trying to control the energy around her. The majority seemed to meld into her as soon as it reached her solar plexus, as though using this ability caused it to consume her. Some stray threads darted around her ankles and she turned towards him again.
"Do you like birds?" her eyes fearlessly searched his. Wondering, waiting, watching.
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His wrist burned with the unaccustomed heat of human life which grasped it. It was hard enough to focus on controlling himself, so naturally he didn\'t hear her much until the pressure released. His body relaxed slightly but the blood lust was still thick in his veins, an echo of chaos forcing his body into stiffness, into control. Damien hated showing this weakness, but no doubt she had already knew about it... Or if she didn\'t, maybe it was time she did.
"Birds? Yeah, I suppose. They\'re a good meal every now and then when the human population isn\'t as plentiful." He tried to grin but felt to malicious doing so, his teeth feeling too dangerous outside his lips. Quickly he held back and tried to look Storm in the face, only proving to spurn the demon inside.
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Turning away from the vampire, she passed her hand over the bark of a nearby pine. Each groove in the texture of the tree made her feel so much older. She could feel the knowledge of the tree through its rough skin adding onto the ages of knowledge hidden inside of her soul.
"Birds harm none," she stated sternly with a hint of athourity, feeling shadows swirl casualy at her feet again. "Yet we are monsters and we harm too many. But is harm really harmful if the intent isn\'t malicious, but rather out of necessity?" Snapping her head towards him, she met his eyes.
"Or are we monsters no matter how the end is met?" The girl didn\'t expect him to make sense of anything she was saying. Honestly, she hardly knew herself. There were too many things she could have been talking about, none of them really being birds at all.
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"Monsters? What the hell are you talking about?" His voice was low, but Damien assumed he had missed something excrutiatingly important when his focus was elsewhere. The stern look in her eyes was something he couldn\'t read well enough to know what she was thinking at all.
"You\'re such a confusing person. Do you know that?"
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The Akari laughed musically, demonically. Something was in the air causing her soul to stir. Perhaps it had been the physical contact between the two, despite how small and innocent. Talking about nothing and everything without the vampire having the slightest idea gave her a feeling of power over him that she was beginning to enjoy.
"Confusing? You hardly know me." the girl flashed him a healthy pair of fangs and she felt her skin shifting again. She took a step toward him and leaned forward, putting her lips close to his ear. His aura this close was something she couldn\'t describe, something too dizzying to explain. The musky scent of his skin was so subtle it was intoxicating. Delicious. If she thought about it too long her skin would tint.
"It\'s simple, really, if you don\'t try so hard to find it." Storm whispered lightly, navigating around him to a short pine tree. She then began pulling long needles of the tree in a mindless fashion, one by one, and letting them drop to the ground.
"Really none of it matters," she called softly, wondering in the back of her mind how much time was left to kill.
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Faster than he could comprehend, memories of an older time flashed across his mind, images with no order, only persuasive feelings which caused his blood to swell, his jaw to ache. There she was in all her glory again, standing near him, taunting him, trying to get some kind of reaction out of him. It was her breath near his ear, her scent and her aura filling the air around him.
It made him angry. It made him love one and hate the other. A snarl built in the back of his throat as she turned away, another slippage of a not-so-carefully-placed facade of strength and age. His eyes closed again, an attempt not to lash out, not to catch her with his fangs digging deep, or his claws wanting more. Calm down. You can\'t be doing this everytime she gets near. They are the same. They are different. They know how to push buttons, especially yours. He exhaled smoothly, soundlessly. So push back.
"Oh?" He followed after her, staring at her with a newly-placed mask, one of cold stone. "Is that right? You\'re just omitting one small detail, my dear." He approached her silently, chosing to play her game by standing off her shoulder, barely touching her. Ace leaned in smoothly, whispering with the same coolness into the nook of her neck, "You see I do know you better than you think. Your blood isn\'t a good liar..." He grinned to himself as the desire behind the stoney eyes churned.
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The vampire\'s closeness made her shiver and make a fist. Her nails drew outward and she felt her eyes change, orange meeting silver and covering her eye entirely. In this state, the Akari did not appreciate control of the situation shifting so easily and out of her favor. His aura felt uncomfortable, penetrating, invasive. Yet at the same time he was overwhelmingly alluring, as though drawing her in. It took everything she had to resist the urge to spin around and latch onto his throat with her claws at this short proximity.
"Really then," Storm whirled around to look at him full in the face. "Then why haven\'t you figured me out yet?" The girl was well aware of how close the two were, and she was also well aware of the fact that she was most likely dealing with a Thirsty vampire. But flirting with danger was something she had a habit of liking. She wasn\'t about to back up either, and mentally she began to conjure up energy to make herself feel a bit more intimidating.
A challenge? Maybe. The Akari wasn\'t trying to get herself into another fight but when it came to a power-struggle she couldn\'t help herself. Isabella seemed content and the Akari could feel her almost encouraging her. She could feel her wings ripple beneath her skin again, but she managed to keep them hidden.
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Do it. Transform. I dare you. I could still be stronger than you. The aura didn\'t scare him much, never really did. Damien smiled. "Who says I haven\'t? Who says I don\'t know everything about you? Just because I\'m to... distracted to figure out your silly riddles doesn\'t mean a thing."
The was a sensation of being pulled, much like the one he had always known. Perhaps Isabella was coming out in her. Maybe if he pushed a few more buttons, he could see her, or a form of her, again. Or maybe she\'ll help Storm shred me to pieces. He liked the odds. "I know you inside and out, darling." A pearly smirk appeared on his face, the features still set cold and the vampire in him starting to push him forward.
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The Akari\'s eyes narrowed and snapped immediately to black. The vampire was obviously treading on her feet to get something out of her. She hated being toyed with so condescendingly; it made her feel like a child. The girl was very defensive over her way of speaking and didn\'t take too kindly to such passive dismissal. Shadows swirled excitedly around her legs, something that wouldn\'t have ever happened if she hadn\'t taken up that form of manipulation again.
"If you knew me so well," she replied coldly, "then you should know well enough when to back off." Something besides Isabella stirred within her, rising to Damien\'s challenge. The familiar spiraling feeling that complemented the shadows she drew about her so well. The Akari allowed her skin to change, grow into a deep purple a little quicker then it typically had.
He knows nothing about you, he couldn\'t possibly understand a single thing, something inside of her cooed gently, pushing at her to let loose her wings. Such a stupid boy. She could hate him if she really wanted to. Leathery wings released tiny droplets of blood onto the nearby trees and folded neatly behind her. Angrily she glared at him, her aura, shadows, and energy churning within her like a slowly awakening beast.
"You\'re chasing something you will never see." Push my buttons and I\'ll push back.
-
Damien smiled. "Then push me," he pronounced out loud, "because I\'m becomming very interested." He stood not inches from her, waiting at the stalemate like she was. Her aura was impressively darkening.
He was no fool. He knew, or understood rather, very little about what he had seen through her blood. He knew full well that there was something besides Isabella lurking there, but what it was he couldn\'t decifer. So he built up his mind, just in case she leaked--or let it out-- and tried not to turn offensive and strike first. He\'d pull when he needed to and not a second before.
And besides, he needed to size her up, didn\'t he? Make sure that everything could happen the way it was supposed to? After all she was about to walk into a coven of vampires. If she could survive him, she could survive them easily.
"I\'m curious. What exactly is it that you feel right now that\'s making you so defensive towards me? Am I stepping on some kind of line here?" And yeah, his own instincts chocked up some wall of defensiveness around the vampire as well, allowing the auras to clash with each other, being so close.
-
Wings fully extended, Storm glared at him, speaking through her fangs. "I can\'t stand it when people claim to know everything about me." She spat, shadows circling her and clinging to her skin, almost melding with her aura. The girl didn\'t appreciate being toyed with, she was no one\'s lab rat.
Her shadows toyed with the tips of her appendages as she almost surrounded the vampire in her massive wingspan. The silky energy seemed to move according to its own will, stretching from her body and daring to try to touch the vampire, caress his cheek, attach to his aura, draw out energy. Anything really, to try and provoke something.
"You don\'t know anything about me." Her eyes narrowed and she snarled at him, feeling herself sink deeper into a tar-like pit in her mind.
-
Damien broke, laughing faintly to himself with a whimsical grin lining his lips, the wall still stretching higher in his mind. He encountered something new everynight. He chortled.
"So," he breathed as his mood instantly settled and his own spears came to the forefront of his mind, "you think you can keep yourself against me? You dare try to stand up to me?" He hated doing this. But she was about to walk into a den of thirsty vampires, and he couldn\'t be her bodyguard.
It\'s for her own good. His arm shot at for her throat, fully expecting to hook on to the soft flesh of her throat. Damien grit his teeth and held his pride.
-
The Akari hissed at his words, his provocations. Her gaze did not flicker as he grabbed her neck, virtually immobilizing her. The shadows acted on their own, sending tendrils of black to surround the arm that gripped her throat. She did not breathe, there was little need to. Storm\'s mouth opened slowly in a hiss, fangs fully extended and eyes narrowed into a deep black glare. The shadows ached to nip at his skin, bore into his eyes and into his skull. The girl honestly wanted no such thing; she wanted to prove herself to this vampire hundreds of years her senior.
Her own claws extended outward, feeling the oxygen before her. The Akari spent no time trying to think of a plan as she catalyzed the oxygen around her fingertips into ten small individual combustions, like tiny lighters coming from the tips of each claw. If she could just get him to let go of her throat, she could sink her fiery claws into his skin. Storm could feel her own flesh searing from the sloppy elemental manipulation as a dull ache in the back of her mind. She was more concerned with moving shadows.
-
Reighning over his demons, Damien allowed his instincts to take over. The steely eyes dilated significantly and the claws dug deep into the soft flesh of Storm\'s neck barely breaking skin. His body tensed, blocking out the feeling of the darkness and taking her hissing personally. His fangs ached and an opposing hiss slipped out.
Control, he managed to think through the chaos of his mind, preventing himself from tearing the throat out, from seeing her blood. The vampire inched closer, avoiding the firey fingers. "Come on, then," he taunted. "Why back down now? When you\'re so close to giving me what I so deserve. When you\'re so close to lashing out finally, for everything I\'ve put you through..." He grinned, the eyes practically glowing with silver. "Show me," he whispered, approaching her without breathing room between her claws and his body; he could feel the heat radiating from them.
"Do it! Attack me! You\'re about to walk into a nest of vampires and you can\'t simply defend yourself against four of them!"
-
A demonic growl, more accurately described as a hushed shriek, pushed up her throat and into the air. The Akari, in this form, was in no place to think clearly. She could feel hate leaking into her blood and flowing through her body like adrenaline.
Storm began to work with her mind, pushing against his consciousness and searching for a way in. She had her entire soul working with her this time, the form giving her the perfect opportunity to test her mental strength coupled with that of Isabella\'s. The ancient vampiress was more like a new type of energy the girl had uncovered, melding it to her own in an almost seamless fashion. Virtually simultaneously she fortified her own mind--just in case.
As the last word escaped Damien\'s mouth, Storm let herself fill with a black rage, bending the space around her with only her aura. As quickly as she could manage, the girl reached with her right hand to the arm that held a firm grasp on her throat, aiming to sink her searing hot claws into his icy flesh.
Melt, she mentally urged, pumping more fire through her claws with the thought of it. Her wings curled around him, surrounded in the shadowy substance that was hesitantly making an attempt to steal energy from the vampire.
-
Her newfound strength satisfied him greatly and relieved a persistant nagging in the back of his mind: Her mind was strong, its continuing thrusts upon the rampart of his own mind wavered and shook the stoney walls. The closeness of her wings about them was threatening to him and the nails biting into his cool flesh weren\'t as numbed as he first thought. The pain racing through his wrist and arm was enough to push his blood around in his veins that much faster while his own defensiveness built up.
"Yes," he hissed between clamped teeth at her. Part of him wanted to be overtaken, to be shown that she could do what was required. Part of him wanted (and could) force her out of the way. The combination of the two part forced his hand closed, drawing blood down over her esophogus. "Do something!" he hissed again.
-
A strange noise came from her throat and the Akari tightened her grip on his arm. Without thinking she wrenched herself from his grasp, tearing at her throat in the process. Dark blood fell to the ground and shadows scurried to her neck, rushing to repair the damage as though they were servants being watched over by an abusive master. Like needles and thread the silky energy sewed her wounds haphazardly together to prevent bleeding but not pain. The girl would have to mend the pain herself, but not now. Now she was in the middle of something.
It was easy enough to conjure up the strongest imagery in her mind to press up against the vampire, to try and crush energy from him. Is this something? Her mind barred it\'s teeth, trying ceaselessly to gain access to his throat.
Storm pushed her lithe body back with her wings, hovering inches above the ground to do so. With adequate breathing distance put between the girl and the vampire, Storm churned the energy within her, gathering clouds overhead in a way that made her face darken even more so. Taking her long claws, she slashed at both insides of her wrist, permitting the largest amount of energy manipulation coverage she could manage.
Almost unconsciously she loosened the ground beneath the vampire just enough to create something of a shallow sink hole. Instead of running back toward him, Storm pushed her wings backward in order to propel herself forward, drawing her fire out into long whips. Here\'s a lovely necklace, and she lashed them forward toward his neck and limbs.
-
Attack her! something screamed, something looking for the blood dripping down her throat, looking to push back against her offenses and advances into his mind. She was stronger than Isabella was, that much was sure, and it made him inexplicably angry. The ground shifted quickly beneath his feet: but not quickly enough. He shifted along with it, stepping backwards and away from the Akari letting whatever size sink-hole she wanted appear where he was.
Damien tried to pull on the reins as he noticed a considerate amount of blood beneath his claws, tainting his fingers. His nature raged at the sight, controlling his arm to lift to his mouth, the fingers sto touch his cold lips, instantly heated by the vaguely familar taste of life. His sight became clearer as the flavor filled his mouth, his hearing sharper enough to allowing him to hear the movement of their hair. And the whips.
It was impossible to simply dodge. Taking a quick breath, Damien lifted his arms to defend his neck and face, successfully catching the whips on his arms and shoulders. A painful hiss erupted from inside his chest as the fire seared his flesh. And for the first time in a long time, he actually felt a pang of true fear as he began to realize the extent of her power. "There\'s gotta be more there than that! Stop leaving yourself with just enough breathing room! Try to kill me!" This\'ll be good.
-
Insanity engulfed her, sparking her aura purple as her desire to hold back and her desire to kill clashed. The pressure she was exerting with her aura caused her hair to raise as though under the influence of wind or static electricity. The Akari didn\'t expect the sinkhole to serve as anything more then a distraction; and the second her whips made contact with skin she fueled more into them, widening the flames and intensifying the heat.
Unconsciously the trees began to close in, as though moving on their own. The girl was creating something of a vortex with her aura and this anger that went largely uncontrolled. The looming trees bent inward and drew together, creating a tight arena-like circle. Storm drew energy from them in a parasitic fashion, causing a few to wither slightly.
Storm\'s mind changed tactics instantly, backing off from him and lurking behind the wall she\'d constructed. Very slowly she began to pull, attempting to draw his mind into her own, to lure him in. If she could just get him to let down his guard for a single second she could gain access.
Excited shadows pulled her closer to the vampire, struggling to bore into his skin like leeches and draw out blood, if not energy. Some leapt for his chest, others went for his arms, thirsty for his pain. The girl tried to circle her fire-whips around Damien, hoping to entrap him in her flames. She was going to be exhausted at the end of this night.
-
The small pang of fear throbbed as her tar-like aura stretched out at him and as the fires tried to consume him. His maker flashed in his mind again, followed by her screaming as the flames teased the undead flesh. Something churned blackly in him.
He had no idea how to stop her. While he wouldn\'t let her into his store of energy, his store of power, Damien couldn\'t simply out-maneuver her now; he was more or less trapped by the bending trees, the rising heat, and the shadows abound. Everything took bites out of him, the shadows and the damaging fires gnawing at his flesh and clothing, sending shockwaves up his arms and through his chest. It never broke his barrier though, never fully able to snatch the energy or the blood it seemed to want. His mind was too strong. His flesh, too thick.
Plan B. The vampire reached swiftly into his jacket and pulled forth a piece of machinery few ever knew about: his classy make and model he couldn\'t remember off the top of his head, something that never mattered much to him anyhow. As the arena tightened and Storm\'s energy began to overwhelm the vampire, Damien cocked the gun right for her head and looked her dead in the eye. "What now?"
-
Inhuman. The girl was a shadow. She could feel the slightest pang of fear skittering around in the vampire\'s aura, and the mere thought of this gave her power. She smiled demoniacally, fangs barred maliciously and aching to tear him apart.
But there was something she was not expecting. Something that mattered very little but always felt like a kind of cheating in a fight. She blinked slowly as Damien pulled the gun on her. Would he, really? Highly doubtful. Not that it could kill her, not while she was this awake, this strong. It was thrilling, really.
Storm retracted her flames, feeling them extinguish and dissipate before her aura returned to the blood in her wrists. She eyed him coolly, gaze flickering from the gun to his face. The demon was not so easily struck down, and this \'Great Equalizer\' was nothing more then an insult to her. Slowly she began to laugh.
"Really, now?" She gradually regained her composure, suddenly putting on a serious expression.
"Go ahead and shoot me. Do you honestly think that will stop me?" she had no doubt in her mind.
-
He seethed in anger. Of course he could do it if he needed to. If he needed to. After all, who was she to him? She was just a catalyst. Isabella had been dead for a significant amount of time and she couldn\'t return, even with the girl alive. So what was the point in keeping her again?
Her withdrawal from him brought Damien back to his senses and the moment at hand. No, he couldn\'t get rid of her yet and neither did he really want to. Regardless, he grinned maliciously, showing her without words thathe was capable of using the gun in his hand as he pulled back the trigger, allowing a single silver bullet to pierce the space between them in a loud bang. The bullet, released from the pistol in Damien\'s hand, found its home in the bark of a tree near Storm\'s right ear; he hardly ever noticed the kick anymore.
The vampire lowered the smoking pistol and released his pressure on the trigger as he spoke fluently. "Never underestimate us. We\'re not as primal as some of us seem. I could have very easily just killed you." He sighed, placing the gun back within his jacket while supressing the rise in his vampire nature; yeah, he wanted to tear her apart as well.
"Im not here to train you, Storm. You can do that well enough on your own. I\'m here to prepare you for tonight. They\'ll all be carrying something of danger to you." He realized that she probably wasn\'t exactly listening at this point, her dark side taking over. He continued nonetheless, "I\'ve no doubt that your blood will smell good to at least one of them." He knew of Pierre\'s ways with women and blood and thanked his good judgement that he picked Pierre as the loyal one of the group.
-
Storm\'s eyes widened momentarily and she flinched as the gunshot rang through the air. Her shadows immediately retracted to her body, ready to assess any damage. But there was none. The bullet merely whizzed by her head and into the flesh of a tree. Why didn\'t you shoot me! she thought, anger filling her even more than it had in the first place.
The girl glared at him, barely absorbing what he was saying. She couldn\'t concentrate. No, she hadn\'t proved herself to him and this greatly disappointed her. The Akari needed to be recognized as a threat, she didn\'t want to be simply brushed aside as a harmless girl again. She was so sick and tired of that.
As Damien put away the gun, she recognized that this was over. A strong part of her didn\'t want to stop the fight until one of them was dead. Well, destroyed anyway. The fact that she did not win sickened her with hatred, but she could do nothing but glare at him. The trees around the two began to settle eerily back into their places as Storm retracted the majority of her energy back into herself.
You\'re so weak, a darker voice inside of her criticized. Storm almost nodded in agreement; yes, she should be able to do better. But why? What was the purpose of her remaining with this vampire, anyway? What was her purpose in general? She was a speak of dust in comparison to the vastness of the universe, and it\'s not like she had anybody. What was stopping her from taking off and finding a new place at the bottom of the ocean? And as these thoughts simmered in her mind, she grew attached to the familiar tar-pit of her soul, that emptiness in the bottom of her stomach.
Wings pushed into her flesh and Storm painfully winced as they rearranged themselves inside of her back. Her skin slowly faded as she reverted into her human form, shadows sewing her wounds sloppily as if pressed for time. Dark bruises began to form across her throat and the insides of her wrists; things she would have to fix later. For now, she was exhausted. And a tad Thirstier then she would have preferred, which prevented her fangs from dulling into her teeth.
"So did I pass the test?" the comment, although humerus in its intention, had no emotion whatsoever. Storm\'s eyes were a dark gray, unable to decide between black and the lighter shade. She refused to meet his eye, rubbing painfully at her throat.
-
Damien sighed through his teeth, an action which enabled the sound to resemble too closely that of a hiss. "For now, I suppose." He folded his arms over his chest, a protective move, and watched her with steely eyes; he had to grab onto himself again before he completely lost control. Inside he fumed and thrashed around with controlling the malicious Thirst drying his throat. Damien\'s forefinger traced the outline of the weapon beneath his clothing.
The vampire was out of control, but he was no fool. They could have destroyed each other if they had continued. The burned flesh and clothing seared with each pulse of hot fluid beneath his veins. As for the marks, he couldn\'t pretend as if he weren\'t aggitated with the outcome. He was scarred now; the burn marks wouldn\'t fade for a few weeks at the very least. Two on one arm, three on the other, ripping open his sweatshirt and the hard flesh below.
But Storm hadn\'t completely passed his test. If he were anyone else, like Nikolai or Jack or Elias, he would have shot her, he wouldn\'t have stopped with just a warning shot. The Younger Ones can\'t control themselves as well as Damien could. Again the vampire sighed. "I think you might need to fix yourself a little bit more than that before we move on."
-
Storm\'s hard eyes glared at him. For now. She made a noise of contempt and significantly relaxed her tense shoulders. If she really wanted to she could have done more. Hadn\'t she caused significant damage to another vampire not too long before? Damien was different, the Akari wasn\'t an idiot. But Storm wasn\'t at her peak yet. After all, it\'s been so long since she had shadows between her fingers. It\'s not as if she hadn\'t been a source of destruction before. If he was here, he would have pushed her to the breaking point to get that power out of her.
The thought suddenly gripped her; the Zalmric would be looking and he would be looking thoroughly. And if anyone could sniff out her shadow manipulation it was him. Her eyes flickered between colors for a moment, the only sign that gave away her newly-realized concern. The more time that passed, the closer, surely, he came.
"I think you might need to fix yourself a little bit more than that before we move on."
Storm glared at Damien, resenting being told what to do. Who was he to decide if she needed to fix herself or not? The pain was minor. She could take it. Well, the marks across her wrists and her throat would look a little strange. Didn\'t want to make a bad first impression.
Although she began to work at fading her bruises on her wrists, her mind was still on the possibility of being recaptured by the Zalmric. He would be furious for what she did back in her homeland. She was the cause of unforgivable trouble and surely she would not go without being punished. Numbly, she touched her throat, barely able to fade it to a lighter shade of black and blue. The Akari didn\'t want to use too much energy. The girl needed to keep on guard just in case. Not that she thought that would be much of a problem.
-
Through her glare, Damien saw the flickering colors of her eyes. He felt the air around her quiver for a split second, then relax suddenly. He knew enough about her,--through her own blood-- to know that there was a worry about her.
The vampire, with his cold, restraining nature, couldn\'t care much about her personal concerns at the exact moment. Time was ticking away and maybe she should be nervous.
"Look. If you get into a problem with them, you can\'t hold back, ok? You were still holding back with me. Anyone else would have killed you." She\'s got potential, that much is for sure. Damien knew she could have killed him, that she wanted to kill him. She just wasn\'t trying hard enough. Maybe I should have shot her. Indecision clouded his features for a moment; Was it better to have her potentially strong, or was it better to have her riddled with silver bullets and very much alive, but bleeding? Damien fingered the outline of the gun again.
"We\'ll have to be leaving soon. Would you be ready?"
-
Storm listened to him with restrain. There was no need for her to lash out now, the fight was over. Relax, breathe. You need to calm down, she commanded internally. She needed a level head and her pride was doing nothing beneficial.
Hold back? Why would she hold back? The only reason why she held back earlier was because she didn\'t really want to kill him--initially anyway. Storm blinked slowly, eyes settling on a strange swirl of lavender and green. Her throat was as fixed as she was planning on making it. The Akari needed to conserve, not waste. A bruise was just a bruise, nothing that would slow her down.
"I\'m fine," she responded mechanically, looking Damien over briefly. "Do you need anything from me? You look kind of banged up yourself." Normally she wouldn\'t have been so up-front about offering energy (or blood), but she could feel time in the air slipping away.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she toyed with the idea of bringing the Zalmric Capitan up in discussion. The girl felt as though Damien deserved to know that she was being pursued and had a strong possibility of capture. But she was almost positive that he would want to know why, and Storm wasn\'t prepared to explain such things to him.
-
He smiled coldly. "No. I\'m perfectly fine, thanks."
Damien would have loved the blood, the energy or whatever she could offer. But he would have also loved to drain her dry at the same time, and that, ladies and gentlemen, simply would not do. And besides, it would have been unacceptable if anyone found out that the Prince were taking from the Princess.
It wouldn\'t be all that terrible if she looked better than he did. She was the key, and maybe it would keep the Younger Ones in line if he were more damaged than she was. "Are you about ready? I\'ve got some things to go over with you on the way, which has to be out of earshot of the others."
-
Storm nodded, flexing her back to relieve some of the tension she was feeling. Again the urge to talk pressed against her mind, her eyes flickered in a distracted manner as she walked closer to Damien.
Tell or not tell. Tell or not tell. She was completely torn between the two. If she didn\'t tell him, she ran the risk of being caught unprepared in an encounter with the Captain which would mean she would have to explain things anyway. But if she did tell him now, then she would have to go through the pains of explaining things now. Either way, she still would have to explain eventually. But the Akari seemed to have a habit of procrastinating.
"I\'ve been ready." she stated simply, waiting for him to either talk or lead the way. Or both.
-
With a blank face and a more-controlled aura, Damien tilted his head in the direction of the beach. "Come on, then. There\'s some things I think you have to know before anyone else." Damien began in the general direction, out of the fringes of the forest and down towards the beach.
It was only when they left the forest did the words come easier to Damien and the facade built up. "I don\'t expect Isabella to know anything about what I\'m going to tell you, so listen closely, ok?" Not that it\'s that hard for you. "More happened after her death than before. Only I can prepare you for what\'s going to come now." The vampire paused for a second. "I need you to trust me the best of your ability. I need you to attach yourself to me as much as possible. Do you understand?"
-
The girl had half the mind to violently protest. And it took everything she had not to outburst angrily. She glowered at him, trying to tidy up her mind and put away things that he didn\'t need to see. Like bottles with icy blue eyes. This was the last thing she wanted to do, especially after what had happened between them not moments before. Sighing angrily, she unwillingly gave in, working to let down the walls she had so precariously constructed.
"I hope you realize how hard this is for me, I\'m only going to make this exception once." she stated sternly. Storm didn\'t like this--at all. But she assumed that whatever Damien had to say was extremely important and sometimes she had to make sacrifices. Not like she had much of a choice at this point.
Hesitantly she reached out mentally, mirroring this action by moving to lightly touch Damien\'s wrist. Physical contact would make things go smoother and she hoped that he would recognize and not have a negative reaction to her move.
-
He sighed in relief. Yes, he knew how hard it was for her, but the times called for it. It was her Introduction and things had to go as smoothly as possible. "I\'m sorry. But things must work this way. If any of them sense that you are nothing to us, they\'ll try to kill you. And you don\'t want that." He reached tentatively --more so than he intended-- out to her mentally, hoping not to be completely rejected.
Thier minds touched gingerly at first. Damien still wasn\'t as used to her as he probably should have been, but he had no way of stopping that. He could feel her desire for some kind of physical connection; he pressed his hand against hers faintly before curling his fingers onto hers, holding her hand as he had often seen humans do. It was a confusing thing for him to do, really. He blocked out all other things, walling up himself and Storm against his true nature and desires.
After a few long moments,the vampire broke the silence again. "I continued our work after she had died, assembling what was left of the Brigade. They were all newcommers, the newest one being a young Frenchman. Pierre Jean-Luc, DuSang to anyone who didn\'t know any better. You\'ll meet him first.
"He is extremely loyal to me; I made him personally. He could be the most dangerous one of the group, nonetheless. He\'s cunning, much more so than I am and he loves women. At any given time he has more weapons on him than a military unit does. He\'s my commander, the one directly under me." Damien paused thoughtfully. There was no better time to bring it up. "You and I are at the head of this regime. The Younger Ones, the other vampires, will listen only if you gain their respect."
-
Storm exhaled slowly as he held her hand. She tried to ignore the electric-like shock running through her body at his touch, but could do little about the rate her heart was beating. Inwardly she scolded herself for such foolish reactions to a simple thing, she needed to toughen up and become cold to her heart. She had to be ice.
The girl could feel her pulse pounding in her hand and focused on what Damien was telling her. When he spoke of Pierre, a strong image of a good looking man snuck its way into her mind, and she put his name to the face. She nodded, eyes flickering purple as she absorbed the information. She wasn\'t afraid of him, really. It wasn\'t the first time someone wanted her dead. Which reminded her.
And she couldn\'t help herself, the memory of his face flew into her mind unrestrained. The quicker she tried to quiet it, his face flowed into a flicker of a memory. Her time with him. His time with her. It barely was a second long and she violently put it away, resisting the urge to let go of Damien\'s hand.
"So how can I gain their respect? What should I do?" she effortlessly sent to him. She didn\'t trust her voice.
-
"Trust me. In everything that happens tonight, in every decision which is made. Don\'t let them believe that there is any form of disconnection between us." Damien paused again, unprepared to say what he was about to say. Maybe... no. "Be strong. Trust me. And Isabella inside of you. Whatever happens tonight, listen to us, and they\'ll listen to you."
He had to change the topic quickly. The beach was approaching faster than he\'d like it to. "There should be a handful of us that you meet tonight, the Genuine Ones. Nikolai; he\'s our researcher, our resource officer, so to speak. He\'s uncontrollable in the wrong mood. Elias: the financial supporter and the youngest one of all. He\'s barely fifty. Jack: the one inside the law. He gets us our liscences, or legal documents, anything legal that we may need.
"Other than that, there shouldn\'t be anyone else there. I only asked for these few, the commanders under Pierre. They need to know who you are. Everything else, well, you\'ll learn tonight."
The two were approaching the beach now, the waves becomming louder and the salt stinging his eyes more. From the distance, Damien could see three distinct shapes, one less than what he was hoping for.
-
Storm squeezed his hand lightly, a sign that she understood. She could barely concentrate on the flickering faces in her mind and didn\'t focus on paying attention to who they were. There was a brief flutter of nervousness in her stomach but she recovered from it almost instantly. The Akari could feel a coldness settling in on her, something that usually came hand in hand with strength.
The girl could feel herself subconsciously cling to him, even after releasing his hand. Mentally she sent a feeling to him, trying to assure him that she really wasn\'t intimidated. That she was a big girl and he didn\'t have to worry at all. Not that she really thought he was worrying about her. As far as she was concerned, he didn\'t care much for her. And that only slightly bothered her.
But she was a tool. A tool that was supposed to be in charge of the one wielding it. Storm had a mold to fit and expectations to live up to, and only with much bitterness did she finally accept this. At least she had a purpose.
continued here (http://www.roleplaycity.com/forums/showthread.php?p=63414&posted=1#post63414)