Defining Loyalties

[The Cedar Witch]

Reserved for SAIKETSU

At least three bloodless weeks had passed, filled with solitude and seas of thought.  Sonya hadn’t moved since she first had set foot back in her own home, and this was the second night since her awakening.  The house was void of any signs of life, dust clinging to every surface that had been open to the air since the servants had vacated the property.  Even the piano had gone untouched, despite the lady’s recent arrival.  Everything in the piano room existed as she had left it, her robe hanging loosely over the side of the cushioned bench, yellowed pages of sheet music scattered about the floor; everything covered in dust.  Nothing had moved and a sense of abandonment still clung to the house as though trapped in dust.  Even now the Byzantine Queen was as still as she had been since returning to this room.  Only her eyes moved, to flicker over the darkness of the water.  

Three weeks ago the ancient had immersed herself in the ocean, beyond the touch of the sun.  Her own way of putting off the creeping of insanity into her mind, her own way of coping, was to go into the earth.  It was here that a revival would take place, a rebirth.   It was a cycle that her servants expected, though absolutely none of them knew of the reason.   All of them, though, could tell when it was coming and would leave when the signs began to emerge.  The lady would begin to lock herself in her room and paint for days without sleep, come down and smash dishes, pull haunting melodies from the piano, and wander around the property like a ghost.  None could even guess what happened beneath the earth during these periods, and none dared to ask.  She was the ocean: the unquestioned ebbing and flowing of the waves.  When she emerged from the sea, naked, thirsty, and dripping with bitter water, Sonya spoke to no one.

Tonight the thirst filled her with a feeling of dark power and need.  Soon she would go out, but the lady still did not move.  Despite her usual feeding habits, the woman could go a month without blood, sometimes more if necessary.  The longest she had gone without blood had recently been a month and a week.  When she emerged from that slumber, she was possessed by the burning anger of her fangs.  Entire cities were slaughtered to sedate her need, and then some.  The last time her rampage had touched the territory of the Oligarchy, the woman had been sharply reprimanded, and that was before the leadership of the group had changed hands.  Despite the insult, Sonya cooperated and instead began to go to the lesser-populated cities outside of this one, where the Oligarch would have no say.  The fact that such behaviors on her part were considered “illegal” was, in her opinion, ridiculous. But so long as the mimic demons served the Luminary like dogs, Sonya was powerless to lash out.

The Queen had a bitter dislike for politics and still claimed that she was neutral when it came to such things.  The only reason that she ever felt a need to get involved with much of anything was when it personally affected her, or prevented her from doing what she desired to do.  There were several occasions where the Oligarchy encroached on matters pertaining to her personal life, and she was given a slap on the wrist.  The system seemed to completely ignore the rights of hierarchy, the only rule the woman felt was completely necessary within immortal life.  The fact that Kerr Galvin, not even four hundred years of age, had the position as the Vampire Oligarch, was an insult.  Not only had the man lacked any sort of spine or mind for rule, she doubted that he hadn’t the political experience to govern.  The rules that this man stood for, he could scarcely abide by himself.  The Luminary, though in her opinion old enough, was a reckless fuck with little mind in how to govern.  She couldn’t understand how he even came to power, much less why considering he didn’t seem to give much of a fuck about anyone who dwelt within the city so long as he had fresh meat to fornicate.  Another fool who refused to obey the rules that he enforced; rules which Sonya felt as though should not apply to her.  If she could not feed where she wanted, she would feed how she wanted and however frequently.  

Tonight, perhaps, she would go out into the night and warm her skin with life.  Before the woman began to formulate more solid plans for her evening, her cell phone began to vibrate.  She stared at it for a moment, plugged into the wall and covered in dust atop the piano.  A call from Damien was the last thing she was expecting on this night.  At a human’s pace her arm moved forward and grasped the phone in her hand.  She flipped it open at the last ring and lightly held it to her ear.

Her greeting was short and dry, old French, with a strained voice that clearly lacked blood but not the cool queenly confidence.

[Saiketsu]

Odessa\'s greeting hadn\'t been exactly what he was expecting. Most certainly, there was her familiar accented use of his natural language in her greeting. There was the traditional queenly strength in her voice that over the centuries he had become accustomed to. But he could plainly hear the roughness of her voice, something he knew to be a sign of her Thirst. She hadn\'t been feeding as often as he knew she usually did and this alone made him frown, knowing that the news he carried would only propell her into another bad mood.

Purposefully Damien had kept the conversation short and vague, maintaining his sense of urgency to visit her that very night. This was something that he needed to explain to her himself, in person, because she deserved it so. He mentioned nothing about his purpose for driving over to her house, only that he had something that she should know. Damien needed to be the first one to tell her about the shift in power if he expected to get any plans moving.

Odessa was his oldest friend outside of his bloodline. They had met in Paris while they were both at their weakest points in life, and despite all of her shortcomings and odd behaviors, they had created an Old-World bond which time hadn\'t touched. While Damien had never agreed with many of the ways in which she ran her life and governed herself, she was a connection to the old way of things even as the centuries progressed and that wasn\'t something he was willing to give up, despite all his discomforts with her behaviors. She was a valuable friend, one of the only ones who understood his plight, his true emotional state of being -- for she had been in the same exact state when they had met. They had both lost a lover, lost the old world where things were simple.

The gates of Awelfor Manor opened readily as he pulled the car in up the long driveway that was Odessa\'s property. The lawns were tended, the gardens stunning and not a crack in any of the cement landings, walkways or stones around. The place was immaculately taken care of on the outside, except for the long grass which seemed not to have been mowed in a few weeks. It was a strange thought, but Damien thought nothing of it and parked the car near the garage. By the time he was at the front step, the front door had been opened seemingly by itself. It was something that Damien was completely used to after all this time of visiting Odessa at her own home.

Allowing himself in with the grace of a gentleman in a lady\'s house, Damien could feel her deep aura echoing off of the walls of the building, almost causing him a mental headache. Something was wrong, he knew. The house smelled of dust, rain, and ocean water. She could feel her pressing mind from the foyer, nearly suffocating him until she felt him walk in. He knew full well where she was and carefully and unobtrusively made his way to her piano room.

She stood at the side of the piano as he walked in, staring at him with eyes that reminded him too much of a person he once knew. Damien didn\'t back down from her stare, knowing her enough to tell that it wasn\'t because of him that she looked at him in that manner. He studied her expression, her stance, her aura before he made any attempt to move forward towards her. She was nearly naked, no surprise for Damien -- he nearly expected it now -- wearing a black transluscent robe which framed her perfect body beautifully. Her hair was messy and she smelled of salt and dirt from the bottom of the ocean. Her skin was as pale as he had ever seen it, her eyes almost glassy in appearance as if she were thinking something while staring straight at him. Politely he smiled and made his way over to her unobtrusively as possible. The younger vampire took her hand in his and place a respectful kiss upon the back of it, the common polite greeting of his time and raising.

"Good evening, Odessa," he said curteously in a Latin, a mutual language between the two of them. "Perhaps I should have brought blood with me for you?"

[The Cedar Witch]

The phone closed softly and she returned it to its former place atop the piano, disturbing the layer of dust that had accumulated on its surface.  Other than this, the Queen still did not move.  A longer duration of time than usual had passed since her last contact with the man, and that was through letters.  She assumed, that after four months without any word of him, that Damien would have had something of extreme importance to tell her.  Otherwise, his visit would have occurred much sooner.  He was her last connection to her old life since she fell out of contact with Nadia, and his company and friendly intercourse had been missed.  As a fellow immortal, he was the only man that the Queen respected at this point in her undead life.  If anyone were fit to govern this city, Sonya would have little issue with Damien replacing either of the current fools in power.

Sonya could feel Damien approach her property before his car even came to her front gates.  During that time, she made an effort to cover herself with her black robe that had been draped over the side of the piano bench.  Other than this, the woman made no effort to be modest.  She was one who felt virtually no shame, and Damien had experienced that before, under similar circumstances.  The fact that she made any effort to provide for the comfort of anyone else besides herself, was a sign of her respect.  

She willed the door to open, only slightly due to her thirst, as always when a servant was not present to open the door to a visitor.  When Damien crossed the threshold of her home, she turned and faced him with an expressionless face.  

"I had planned to go out and feed later this evening," she replied slowly in Latin with a tight-lipped smile when the younger one spoke of blood.  Damien was always the first to show concern or worry.  

"It has been quite some time," the ancient continued, speaking with a level tone of voice, "What have you been busying yourself with as of late?"  Her question was not an accusation, but rather an empty effort at small talk.  The expression on her face still read as though she were thinking about many other things outside of this conversation.  Old things.

[Saiketsu]

He smiled again wryly before offering her his arm to take. "Enough, trust me. I have much to tell you." Her arm slipped over his forearm casually as was normal for the pair and Damien made his way through her house into the living room with the older vampire at his side, still distracted by her own thoughts.

"I appologize for the impromptu plans this evening but I have a bit of unfortunate news that I felt you needed to hear from me, before anyone else decided to give you a skewed story." Odessa\'s arm slipped off of his as she seated herself elegantly on the largest sofa in passing. Damien himself sat on the smaller loveseat nearly opposite of her and settled himself. He watched Odessa cross her legs with a grace that was uniquely attractive, his eyes lingering on her exposed skin with vague interest.

There had never really been a time when he had any sort of attraction to the Byzantine queen. His mind was always too distracted with thoughts of Lucretia, of the army, of something more pressing than any sort of physical desire he may have had. Certainly, Odessa was as attractive as his Sire, as elegant and powerful, but Damien had never wanted anything more than friendship with the immortal beauty who sat before him now. Perhaps it was the aching in his heart for something that was his. Or maybe it was the fact that Odessa was too vicious, too violent, too uncontrolled for Damien\'s own good. Their relationship, despite centuries of loneliness, had remained simply as friends.

When she didn\'t respond to his statement with much interest or even eye contact he frowned. "Odessa, is something the matter? You are very distracted tonight. You seem to be slightly less than when I saw you last." It was a statement carefully phrased out of concern rather than a bluntly stated fact. He was worried about her, knowing how easily she slipped in and out of madness, and how often. Damien wasn\'t willing to lose her to madness after so many centuries of maintaining contact with her.

[The Cedar Witch]

After a moment of wandering, the woman\'s eyes settled on Damien\'s and she was silent for a moment.  "I am merely waiting for you to tell me this important piece of information," a mask of cool interest settled over her features as she spoke, though her eyes silently communicated to him that there was something she preferred not to discuss.  She never spoke directly of what thoughts she happened to be dwelling on.  The occasions that he would dare to prompt her to elaborate, she would merely provide another dead-end comment that deflected the question as much as it hinted at an answer.  There were rare instances that she revealed a little more than usual to him, but always cryptically.

But now, she was more quiet than maddened by sorrow, anger, or otherwise.  A typical state of mind for her to emerge from the earth in.  That, and she had not expected any company on this night.

"Come now, tell me this news." The Queen, resting her elbow atop the arm of the couch, leaned casually on her palm.

[Saiketsu]

He took her prompting without further delay. She was private about everything and it was one of the things that he liked about her, though he did find himself often wishing that she would open up to him as he to her. There were instances, of course, where this happened, but which were never frequent enough for him. That was simply how she was. She, and every other woman in his life.

Damien sat leaning forward slightly with his hand on one knee. "I\'ll assume you haven\'t heard about the recent shift in the Oligarchy." She continued to stare with a mask of interest which he could see very plainly. He hesitated before continuing. "There\'s a new Oligarch for vampires. His name is Jacob McCloud. He\'s under three hundred years old and looks even younger than I do." The younger vampire looked to the elder for her reaction before continuing. "And Lazarus is no longer the Luminary. Kerr Galvin is." His face was set to set and unmoving, expecting her angry reaction.

[The Cedar Witch]

Every word that Damien spoke seemed to breathe animation into the Queen.  Anger slowly seeped into her dry veins, flashing through her eyes and creeping into her face.  Kerr, of all people, now the Luminary?  Much worse, an even younger yelp as the Oligarch?  She hissed with indignation, lips parting to expose her fangs.

"What?" she seethed, eyes narrow and bearing down on the deliverer of the development.  Her anger was for the Oligarchy only, not for her old friend, though she funneled it in his general direction.  It was almost as though the ancient were back to her usual self; royal fury and all.  Sonya let out a string of curses, varying from Ukrainian to French to Italian and anything else she could think of.  A few seconds passed as she ranted aloud to herself before she finally turned to Damien.

"Kerr Galvin.  Are you positive that imbecile is now leading this fucking city?" She returned to Latin, glaring down in his direction.  Giving him little time to respond, the queen continued.

"What of Lazarus?  Surely someone of his age would not step aside for some spineless whelp without experience?  I would have preferred Lazarus to that boy any night."  The woman hissed again, feeling another wave of anger seize her gut.

Kerr--that fucking child would surely enforce a new set of idiotic rules to attempt to control her life, feeding habits and anything else the Queen felt it her right to do.

[Saiketsu]

Her anger raked over him, though he knew it wasn\'t for him. He knew it very well. She was reacting very much how he thought she would have reacted to such news and he was glad to know that she was still there. Reflexively Damien raised up the defenses in his mind to block her thick aura\'s penetration as she venter her frustration through a string of cursing. He knew exactly how she felt.

"I\'m positive it\'s Kerr. Pierre told me a little while ago when I went to go visit him. The whole immortal city knows; it\'s printed in the papers too.

"What I\'m not sure of," Damien continued, "is why exactly Lazarus stepped down. It must mean that the mimic demons are now on Kerr\'s side. You know what that means." He looked at her seriously as she seethed with rage.

It meant that if the mimic demons were teamed with the Luminary, there\'d be no overthrowing him or seizing any sort of power without punishment. A rock and a hard place. It spelled out bad news for the both of them, Damien and Sonya, knowing that their fates were in the hands of two young vampires, neither of whom were half their age. And that wasn\'t comforting for either Damien or Odessa.

[The Cedar Witch]

Another string of cursing.  She knew exactly what it meant.  If it wasn\'t for the fucking mimic demons she would tear through the city at her own discretion and not have to hide like an outcast.  The Queen took a moment to compose herself, glaring thoughtfully at the floor between the two of them before speaking.

"What do you intend on doing?"  Her voice was tight with hidden concern that she would never admit to.  She knew that this new development meant that Damien\'s plans on establishing a new rule were going to be delayed a great deal more than he surely expected.  But even more was her concern of how this was going to interfere with her own life.

[Saiketsu]

Damien sighed and hung his head a bit. He was afraid that she\'d ask that question. He wanted to say that he\'d in ome manner of speaking protest the idea that Kerr should be given the position based on no better reason than because he was there. He wanted to say that he would convince someone to at least change something. He wanted to say that he would gather up his fledglings and lay upon the Oligarchy and take it by force. But his situation at the moment wouldn\'t let him honestly say anything of the sort.

"I can\'t do anything at the moment. I have to worry about several other things at the exact moment that have been plaguing me for months. Pierre\'s injured, Storm\'s with Jenella right now back at the house, and I have to deal with the fact that Kerr\'s becoming more powerful and the Oligarchy itself is becoming more insulting to those who actually know what it takes to govern. And have the experience," he said quickly, stumbling across three different languages as he did so, oblivious to the idea that Sonya knew next to nothing about what had happened over the past few months. The statement would have, no doubt, confused her greatly, he came to realize.

[The Cedar Witch]

The woman\'s eyes narrowed further as he spoke, allowing him to finish despite the fact that she wasn\'t following him.  Yes, the situation with Kerr and the Oligarchy was troubling, but apparently there was a great deal more that Damien had neglected to explain to her.  How much could have possibly happened in four months?  

"Damien," she smiled politely, "It has been too long since we last spoke.  What exactly has been going on?  Pierre is injured?"  Concern flashed across her face for a fleeting moment before she retained her guarded expression.

[Saiketsu]

Damien nodded slightly. "Yeah," he said in English before switching over to a strange mix of any language which came out first. "He was severely burned on his lower torso. He\'s doing better now. In fact I went to go visit him at his condominium and he was the one who told me that Kerr\'s in power.

"I suppose I should start at the beginning. I forget that it\'s been a while since we\'ve spoken last. Forgive me." And he proceeded as calmly as he could from the very beginning of the entire tale. How he found Storm and what he believed about her. Laurent\'s constant chasing. Nikolai\'s betrayal. Pierre\'s fight with Laurent and injury -- at which he felt her aura spike slightly. Moving with Storm out of the apartment. Buying the house. All the way to that exact night when he found out about Kerr and McCloud. All the while she remained relatively quiet, staring at him heatedly and interjecting a question now and then to better understand. By the time he finished with his tale, nearly a half hour had passed.

A moment or two passed between them with Sonya thinking over his words and Damien dwelling in the roughness of his own situation. "I can\'t do anything until this Laurent is eliminated. And I have no idea how to draw him out into the open, nor the time to do it. So the city, unfortunately has to wait. It can\'t be helped. I wish it were different but there\'s nothing I can do."

[The Cedar Witch]

After Damien finished his story, the woman sighed with irritation.  Her expression was still guarded as she mulled over the situation in her mind, lips pressed tightly together.  After a few moments she looked to him finally, a more serious expression on her face.

"No, there is nothing you can do.  It would be unwise to attempt anything against the Oligarchy--especially without Pierre,"  She said the name as a sigh, eyes flickering away from Damien\'s face as she thought quietly to herself again.  Not once did she offer to help him, in either the case of politics or the girl. "And as you know, I am neutral in this situation," she added coolly, as one states a well known fact.

"What of this girl?  Have you addressed the question of how to flush out this source of trouble?"  Her eyes held a thoughtful curiosity.  "Surely, if she knew the man, she must have some sort of an idea."  

To say that Sonya was deeply concerned for Damien\'s affairs would not be entirely correct.  Despite the fact that it would be a sorry thing to lose his friendship, the women would never go out of her way to assist anyone if it did not directly benefit her.  Not usually, anyway.  What the Queen was more fascinated by was figuring out puzzles and playing games.  It was another form of entertainment for her, or so she would claim.

[Saiketsu]

"The subject of this Laurent character is rather... touchy. Storm tends to limit her answers whenever the subject comes up in conversation, another source of frustration. He is only a mortal, sort of. Though he can conjure things, she assures me that he is nearly human. She calls him a Zalmric, a race of beings I know little about. She seems to understand them well enough. But he can die, if only I had the opportunity.

"But as it seems right now," he continued frustratedly, "the only way to flush him out is to use Storm as bait. And if she is what I believe she is, or if there is some connection between Storm and Lucretia, I\'m not about to just throw her to the wolves, despite her mortality. Not to mention I\'m not heartless. She\'s become a sort of companion over these past few months." She\'s actually nice company and it\'s nice to have someone to talk to during the night, he almost said but shut his mouth before he uttered it, feeling foolish nonetheless.

[The Cedar Witch]

Sonya raised her eyebrows in mild surprise.  A companion?  Now that was interesting.  She said nothing on the subject, though her slight and fleeting smirk could have been enough to reveal her surprise and curiosity on the topic.  The Queen did love gossip.

"Well," she began slowly, thinking very much like one who was locked in a game of chess, "theoretically speaking, you could use her to flush the man out, no?"  She paused enough to gauge is reaction, but not enough to offer him chance to respond.

"In a controlled environment, of course, using her as a sort of pawn while you remain within reach.  Surely a mortal cannot match your speed, hmm?"  Her eyes were questioning, watching his expression closely.

"It wouldn\'t necessarily be \'throwing her to the wolves\'."  Exactly like chess.

[Saiketsu]

For the first time in minutes Damien\'s eyes landed upon Odessa\'s with a sudden seriousness. Despite the fact that he respected Odessa dearly as an elder and a friend and despite the fact that her age and demeanor demanded respect, he had no problem establishing his own opinion in his own affairs. No. He would not be baiting Storm just so he could end Laurent once and for all. The idea was ridiculous. Certainly he had every availability to do so, to just let her roam the city as she pleased, to shadow her every move just as Laurent did in the hopes that he would pop out of some buch and try to attack. But there was the point that he had waited and worked this hard to develop Storm\'s trust -- to throw all of that away and still keep his original intentions was ludicrous. She would never trust him again if he used her in such a manner. He would be no better than Laurent, and Damien knew that. Not to mention that that would be what he was expecting.

"No," Damien said politely but sternly to his friend, "I will not do that to her. It would be just what that prick would be expecting. Besides that I\'m not sure even how to control such an enviornment such as that. She is the only thing that he wants, so I am told. And by the way that he hounds her I believe it. No, he\'d be expecting me to just put her out into the city monitered like that.

"And his speed is not the issue. It\'s his abilities. He can turn himself into smoke and mist or even fire as he did to Pierre. He learned with Pierre what can take us down. He may be mortal, but he\'s dangerous and, unfortunately, he\'s smart.

"I can\'t do anything without Pierre anyway. I can\'t risk having my son killed or injured anymore. Pierre needs to get back on his feet before I can do anything, regardless of what it is." Frustration was beginning to leak into his voice and expression as he leaned back on the loveseat.

[The Cedar Witch]

Sonya blinked and watched him react, face unmoving and eyes deeply interested.  Every so often she nodded slightly in agreement as she put together a clearer picture of what this Laurent was capable of.  Still, it seemed odd that the creature--a mortal-- could take down Pierre.  But the ancient did not argue the point further.  She could tell when Damien had made up his mind.

"But the creature is unaware of your current location, yes?"  she added, as if for encouragement--as much encouragement as one such as herself could give.  "So long as she remains inside your home you should have nothing to immediately fear of the creature."  The situation reminded her of war, and how foolish it would be for a single man to attempt to take over a castle.  As far as the ancient was concerned, the situation was simple.  Keep the girl indoors and alive, without any exceptions.  Wait for the trouble to show his face.  Or give up.

Besides, as things stood at the moment in terms of the success of his regime, there wasn\'t a real need for her to be anywhere but within the castle.  She was just a vassal.

[Saiketsu]

Damien shook his head at her comment. "It doesn\'t exactly work that way. He was able to penetrate her mind so for all I know he\'s able to tap into her thoughts and feelings. Storm told me that she got rid of all his tracers but I have my doubts, of course." He sighed again. "So he might have an idea as to where we actually are, yes.

"But that\'s not my concern either. Even if he did figure out where I lived, there\'s no way for him to get onto the property without being detected. Even if he could, I don\'t believe he\'d try. He\'s waiting for something, bidding his time or licking his wounds. Either way I can\'t find him. Storm has no way of telling where he is. Stalemate.

"And now with Lazarus out of the picture, my job has just gotten harder. As young as Galvin may be, he has been more fair in his decisions than Lazarus had ever been. As long as there\'s a common respect for Galvin among the immortals of the city, there\'s no way to get either him or McCloud out yet. So I have nowhere to go at this point besides after Laurent or bidding my own time."

[The Cedar Witch]

The conversation had come to a full circle.  There was nothing the Queen had to say regarding the Oligarchy situation, and it wasn\'t as though there was a point in getting any more infuriated on the situation.  Checkmate.

"Perhaps time will reveal a more profitable path," she reflected in reference to the Oligarchy, though she made no effort to clarify.  "And we certainly have plenty of that."  The ancient smirked, making polite eye contact with the other.  For now, there was little else but time.  She abruptly changed the subject.

"How have you faired, then?  Setting the obvious aside."  She leaned back into the couch, as if settling upon her throne of normalcy once again.  Sonya\'s expression remained relatively blank.  She saw it unnecessary to continue the discussion further, unless Damien had additional concerns. Her personal anger toward Kerr could be dealt with in other ways.

[Saiketsu]

Too accustomed to her abrupt dodging and shifting of subjects after so many years of keeping in contact with the ancient, Damien smirked wearily. "Besides the obvious? Well, besides being unable to control anything within the past few months, I\'ve been alright. I finally have a house, you\'ll have to see it some time. It\'s large, though not as large as this," he added politely, signalling to her house. "It\'s out on Alcott Road, about seven miles outside of the city. Nice little private piece of land. Two floors, full basement, tempered windows. It sits on about ten acres of land.

"That\'s about the best thing that\'s happened since we last spoke. Everything else had been virtually downhill."

He as well sat back into the loveseat, realizing how comfortable it was for the first time during the evening as he looked at her. Her position had allowed the transluscent garment loosen and expose a large section of her chest and partially her breasts, along with her upper thighs which still remained crossed. Had she been anyone else, he would have insisted on continuing the conversation only after she had clothed herself. But Odessa was no ordinary woman and would most likely either dodge his suggestion or give him a very dry, stern response. Her exposed skin hardly made him concerned anymore; he was so accustomed to her bouts with insanity that seeing her nude was no longer any large shock to him -- not after he had seen beautiful gowns torn to shreds as she wandered around the dwelling at high noon like a ghost.

A few moments passed without either immortal speaking before Damien made an inquiry for her. "I realize that this may be a foolish question to ask, my dear lady, but how have you been fairing? Have you made any contact with Nadia yet?" He was hopeful that, as a friend, she would at least tell him that much. They had always been able to share part of themselves with each other, at least to some degree. He had always been hoping that as the years progresssed so would the amount of information shared from the ancient.

[The Cedar Witch]

It pleased the Queen to know that at the very least things were alright with Damien, as much as could be expected given the circumstances.  No matter how he said that things were going downhill, she knew enough to see that it wasn\'t anything that could not eventually be figured out and appropriately dealt with.  The both of them had suffered worse, surely.  

Mention of Nadia changed the feeling in the air.  Her expression froze for a moment, as though she were caught off guard about the subject, and the woman was silent.  Nadia, her first fledgling, she had left back in Europe at least a century ago.  The girl was beautiful, intelligent, and a dear friend.  The last time she had reached out to contact the girl was through a letter correspondence to inform her that she was leaving Europe and further instructions to look after a certain thing.  Running from memories.  For a change of scenery.  She of course wrote Damien a similar letter, and then many afterward.  As for Nadia, she had fallen out of contact with her.

"No," she said quietly, "I haven\'t heard anything from her." Not that she had made any large effort to seek her daughter out.  For all Sonya knew, she was still in Europe.  She most certainly was still very well alive, that much the ancient was sure of.

As for her own well being, the Queen was not so enthusiastic to reveal to him, close friend or not.  The passing of time had gradually pushed her into a darker and darker state of mind, and even though the transition was relatively smooth, it would be notable to Damien at the very least.  For now, she neglected to elaborate on her own personal matters and continued the discussion of Nadia.  

"I\'m sure she is occupied with something-or-other, searching as we all are,” her eyes at that moment were very old, reflecting without caring to realize that she had hinted at something larger.

[Saiketsu]

Damien nodded, knowing the feeling. "Separation is good, though. Centuries of living with the same person can really make you hate them." There was a bitter smirk on his lips as he spoke, knowing full well that Odessa knew of what he spoke. "Pierre and I were separated for more than fifty years not too long ago, you know. He came over from Spain and I met him by chance one night while feeding. Nadia will come around. A large city of immortals like this, if she\'s in America, she might even come here. Then it\'ll be like Paris all over again."

It was a humorous, wishful thought, one that he highly doubted would happen. He could tell that Odessa missed her fledgling, like any parent would miss a child. Nadia was one of Odessa\'s only children, one of her only blood connections to the world and Damien knew well enough what it felt like to rely on one other person for an anchor to the real world.

He was worried about Odessa. She claims never to have anyone living with her since she left Europe. How many years had she spent not knowing anyone in the city, he had no idea. And he knew her better than she would have ever given him credit for -- he knew that her solitude wasn\'t as peaceful as she tried to make him believe. He could still smell the sea salt and dirt in her hair and on her skin. And while he didn\'t know exactly what she had been doing out in the ocean or for how long she was out there, he had his ideas and opinions. And they were of no comfort to Damien.

[The Cedar Witch]

"Perhaps."  Her expression dulled, lips tightening into a half-headed smirk. Her years in Paris had been more enjoyable than settling in this city.  The ancient behaved as she pleased, feeding wherever and however she wanted.  As dangerous as it was to do so, the woman did not regret a single choice she made.  Nadia and she were quite the pair, both at parties and terrorizing the streets; and the idea of reuniting Nadia and Pierre was an amusing thought, but it lasted only briefly.  But she hadn\'t heard anything from the girl in some time.  A very long time.

"Though I cannot say that it could be exactly like Paris, given the change in power."  Sonya directed the subject back to talk of the Oligarchy.  In Paris, she was unrestricted.  Her feeding behavior was something she knew that Damien would neither approve of or agree with, but it wasn\'t any of his business to insist upon otherwise.  Within the boundaries of the city, she was forced to modify her own behavior to cater to the needs of others.  Something that she most certainly was not accustomed to doing.

"This Oligarchy has no right to interfere with my business..." she trailed off darkly, the anger churning--though subdued--blackly within her.

[Saiketsu]

Upon the subject, Damien said nothing. Most certainly, and he believed that they both knew it, he did not in any way care for her wreckless feeding and murdering. In fact he would not stand it even if he had control of the city -- she would most likely drain the human population of the city and help to drive off their only food source. Not to mention that the last thing that Damien wanted was the human population to fear his race more than they had to. It was an opinion that Damien had expressed to her implicitly on many occassions and it was one of the only points that he stood with the Oligarchy on. It was one of the points that Damien had understood that was completely impassable in conversation.

"Well there\'s nothing that anyone can do now with the Oligarchy," he treaded carefully, picking his way as professionally as possible through his words around her. "Especially not me. Yet I hope that when the time comes I don\'t find myself standing alone." He smirked slightly at her.

[The Cedar Witch]

In terms of the Oligarchy, Sonya preferred not to make herself any more known than she already had.  Between her feeding habits and behavior in general, she had given them enough trouble.  In order to avoid the embarrassment of being escorted by mimic demons to the Oligarch, Sonya was forced to take her \'behaviors\' outside of the city.  Though her feeding habits as of late did not come close to the brutality of her earlier undead years, the ancient knew that she would draw the Oligarchy\'s eye. One day, she was going to move to avoid all of the trouble of traveling outside of the city to feed.  But that wouldn\'t come any time soon.  For now, she would do no more to personally take an active part in interfering with the business of the government.

As far as Damien, however, the Queen was less neutral than she claimed.  If anything happened, it was obvious that she would not merely stand on the side-lines and say \'well that\'s too bad.\'  Even the Queen had her loyalties.

"You know that I consider myself to be neutral," she began slowly, flirting between French and Latin, "but I would never abandon a friend."  She looked at him with a knowing expression, though she would never out-right admit to being anything but neutral when it came to affairs pertaining to Damien.  

[Saiketsu]

Damien nodded. That was all he needed to hear from her because that, in Sonya\'s way was as good as any promise from anyone else. "Good to know."

The younger immortal sat back on the couch in thought. Having Odessa\'s support on his side was something that gave him the smallest bit of happiness in his torential world of modern immortalty. With all the problems that now looked him in the face -- Storm, Laurent, The Oligarchy -- it was nice to know that at least Odessa would help him in her own way when the time came.

If the time came.

"After years of planning this," he started slowly, "I\'m almost ashamed to say that I have little idea how I can maneuver now. I\'ve told Pierre to keep his ears and eyes open for news as to why anything happened and what will happen next." Damien leaned his head backwards onto the sofa and shut his eyes for a brief few moments. "All I can do now is just concentrate on keeping Storm safe from him. We haven\'t sensed any movement on Laurent\'s end and it\'s making us nervous."

[The Cedar Witch]

Sonya studied him as he spoke, resting her jaw on her hand as she listened.  Her expression was simultaneously blank and thoughtful.  

"What of the girl?"  the ancient wondered aloud, "Does she cooperate with your intentions?"  Her gaze was steady, if not curious.  Sonya wondered, if given the chance, the girl would flee from Damien as she had this previous captor.

[Saiketsu]

"Er... enough so, I suppose. She plays no active role at the moment. I have yet to find her actual purpose in my plans -- that much, as you know, has not been made clear to me."

Storm, he was happy to say, was becoming less and less of a dilemna as time went on. Sure she still had her secrets and her moments of privateness, but Damien had no intention of taking any of that away from her. She was beginning to open up, be friendly and talk to him regularly instead of avoiding eye contact and keeping her thoughts to herself. They could laugh and joke every now and then -- when the humor fit -- and they could discuss most of what needed to be discussed. She was no longer just some piece of a puzzle that he had found. She was almost a friend -- one by force, but a friend nonetheless.

"She\'s relatively cooperative. There are certain things which I have to pull out of her, but for the most part since we have both gotten used to how the other works, things run much smoother. We no longer fight nearly as much."

[The Cedar Witch]

A smirk flitted across her face briefly before vanishing.  "She trusts you then,"  the woman almost interjected, just as he finished speaking.

[Saiketsu]

Her smirk was too quick for his eyes to catch as his head lay on the top of the loveseat\'s back. Her question hadn\'t made him move in the least.

"Yes," he responded evenly, as if she had asked him a question about the weather. "I suppose so. I mean that was my intention. I need her to trust me more than she ever trusted Laurent if any of this is going to work. I mean if I don\'t have to force her hand into her part in this take over, than I won\'t and I\'ll simply remain as a guiding force for her into her place -- whatever that may be.

"But I want her to trust me and my fledglings. It will make her transition smoother."

[The Cedar Witch]

Sonya nodded thoughtfully, allowing things to drift into a brief period of silence before speaking again.

"I cannot imagine her taking so well, going from one captor to another of sorts, so to speak." She spoke slowly, as though still mid thought.

"What will you do with her, after this creature is put down?" Sonya continued abruptly.

[Saiketsu]

For whatever reason the way she phrased her statement hit the younger vampire the completely wrong way. Though admittedly he was, he didn\'t like to think of himself as her captor. He wasn\'t being rough with her, telling her what to think or do. His excuse for telling her to do anything was for her own safety against Laurent now. There was nothing that he was doing out of selfish intention at that exact moment in time. He was protecting her, keeping her away from anything and anyone that would harm her, regardless of the reasoning behind it.

But Odessa had changed the topic too quickly. Again. "That depends upon everything else that is happening at that exact moment. At this point in time I have no intentions for her. All I know is that she is another piece of the puzzle of how to conquer this city that I have on my side. And, for now, that\'s good enough for me.

"Hell," he said dancing between Latin and Italian, finally shifting himself into a more comfortable position on the loveseat, "if I find out later that I was wrong or that she is of no use to me, I can always simply let her go and enjoy life. We\'re helping each other out right now..."

[The Cedar Witch]

"Does she appear to be of any use to you now?"  The ancient tilted her head slightly to the side, as though in thought.  

"If she is causing you more trouble than she is worth, you could just let her go now, no?"  She smirked. "It isn\'t as if this Laurent character is any of your business anyway."

[Saiketsu]

"I don\'t have any intensions of throwing her out yet," Damien said quickly. "It has taken me nearly five hundred years to find this one person who could possibly be the answer to everything I\'ve been asking. If she is Lucretia\'s alternate form, I\'d be a fool to get rid of her.

"Besides that, I\'m finding things out about both women that Lucretia herself had never told me," he admitted rather forwardly without meaning to, regretting it as soon as he muttered the first words. If Storm truly was her reincarnation, then whatever was happening to Storm was something of a clue into how Lucretia truly was once upon a time. He knew so little about his Sire and it had always bothered him. But if Storm was a mirror to what Lucretia may have been like or what her life was like, then why wouldn\'t he want to know more about Storm\'s situation.

But Damien hadn\'t wanted to admit that to his good friend. He knew she wouldn\'t understand that much. After all how can you love someone and know virtually nothing about them? The thought itself was ridiculous even to Damien. He felt no need to explain this to Odessa, only feeling more frustrated than her questions were making him.

"She\'s useful, yes." Damien said quickly. "I mean she has abilities that I\'ve only heard of in immortals. She can telepathically communicate through images, and she can heal wounds nearly as fast as blood can with simple energy. She\'s not defenseless, just vulnerable.

"I mean she\'d make one impressive vampire. If it came down to that," he finished, more uncomfortable than when he had started.

[The Cedar Witch]

She eyed him slowly.  Damien\'s comment about the girl hinting to things unknown about his sire was intriguing, if not confusing to the ancient.  Something about what he said did not sit right with her.  She assumed that he was trying to express that this \'reincarnation\' was the shadow of the former woman, or something to that extent.  But beyond that, Sonya was lost.  Despite how she desired for him to clarify, Sonya remained silent on the topic and allowed him to continue.  

The girls abilities were fascinating, though the immortal showed no sign indicating her interest in the subject beyond a small widening of her eyes.  "Indeed," was all she said, averting her eyes from him to absorb what he was saying.    

"Do you intend on claiming her in the future, then?" she returned her steady gaze to his face.

[Saiketsu]

Damien sighed again. "Only if it needs to be done. The irony of that situation. As of right now I prefer to keep her in the same state as I found her. Knowing my luck, she\'d be an unruly fledgling and I\'d get into some kind of trouble with the Oligarchy." He gave a low chuckle.