Roleplay City
Administration => Infusco Archives => Archives => Old Roleplays => Topic started by: Saiketsu on May 12, 2008, 02:31:42 AM
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continued from Adam and Eve (http://www.roleplaycity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4877) and
AINT (http://www.roleplaycity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5381)
"Oh, Jean-Luc, why should you have such impeccable timing?" The vampire breathed through the newly-lit cigarette with a strong undertone of irratation as he replaced the lighter in his back pocket. "I\'m fucking starving," Nikolai half-lied to the Frenchman.
The gorgeous blonde only looked at him, grinning. "You could have finished before we left," he responded off-handedly, looking out at the purring water with granite-colored eyes, which prompted Nikolai to smile and say without humor, "No, I couldn\'t\'ve."
He really didn\'t expect Pierre to understand completely how Nikolai meant the statement. Nikolai knew that Pierre Jean-Luc DuSang had no idea what he was doing in that backroom with the man that reeked of power, arrogance, and conceit. From the bite marks in Nikolai\'s neck, there was only one assumption that could be made. But what Pierre Jean-Luc DuSang didn\'t know would never hurt him.
Nikolai bit down on his tongue, effortlessly getting blood which was tinted so delicately with Adam\'s living warmth. His jaw went rigid in frustration. He had been so close, so fucking close! to getting laid after an entire night of disappointment. And then along comes Jean-Luc to interrupt all his fun with the proposition of business, acting as the biggest temptation of the entire night. His body had begun to ache with literal disappointment long ago. But of course Nikolai could forgive his precious Jean-Luc, even if he wouldn\'t submit.
He inhaled on the cigarette, feeling the empty smoke inhabit his lungs and do little else. Nikolai Armani looked past Pierre and past the younger vampire, Jack, who, heretofore remained quiet and unabsorbed in the conversation between the other two vampires. All three of the Genuine Ones looked out at the ocean where the black water reached the blackened sky. There was no end to either blackness, only a thin line where the two expanses touched contently. The beach was as clear as it could ever be, the water-strewn driftwood spotted the sands and rocks here and there. Nothing fantastic or magical about it.
"What is up with you?" Apparently Pierre had been watching him for a moment or so, for when Nick turned his head, the blonde vampire was looking at him. He had the faintest French accent, something Pierre was used to suppressing for the ladies and his enemies. It made Nikolai want to smile. "Stop being so pissy."
"Fucking bite me, alright? I\'m fucking aggravated."
"Well, that\'s your own fault." Pierre smiled easily, flustering Nikolai more.
"Is it now? Last I recall, I never interrupted you when you--"
"Well, that\'s your own fault." He smiled wider, causing a greater reaction inside of Nikolai. Pierre was flirting with him whether he realized it or not. Nikolai shut his mouth around his cigarette, eyeing the blonde cautiously, secretly enjoying the torture.
"So," Doxy spoke, changing topics faster than was nessecary, "where\'s this Ace character of yours? You\'ve spoken so well of him and now where is he?"
Both Pierre and Jack looked up. "Right there." Pierre grinned and pointed at two figures closing in on their perimeter, a male and a female, both reeking of thick walls and cold shields. Nikolai turned to see the two figures within twenty feet of them.
He was beginning to wonder why he hadn\'t noticed them, when he smelled a similar scent that turned his stomach. The girl. His senses sharpened out of anger when he saw the same girl who had recently torn out his throat, standing right next to the would-be leader of the vampires.
"No fucking way." He never forgot the promise he had made her. It was only Pierre\'s grip on his shoulder that held him back from attacking right then. "You fucking, little cunt," he seethed, Judas swirling within him faster than he could react.
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Storm exhaled slowly through her nose, feeling the swell of the ocean before she even bothered to lay her eyes on the waves. She couldn\'t do much about the nervous butterflies fluttering around in her stomach, but she tried to calm them nonetheless. The girl snuck a shy glance at Damien\'s face, as though for reassurance that really, she didn\'t think she would need. Not that she was expecting him to smile warmly at her. Yeah right.
With false confidence, she set foot onto the beach, eyes glancing warily over the group at the shoreline. The trio she was supposed to command, eventually anyway. And to be honest, she still didn\'t understand quite why it was to be her command. Damien seemed like a more fitting leader, it made no sense that he would come chasing after her. It wasn\'t like she was the perfect Isabella replacement.
As the Akari drew closer to the group, she immediately recognized the blond as Pierre. He was pointing at her, saying something to another vampire who had his back turned. And it wasn\'t until that instant that Storm realized just who the other was. Everyone else, including Damien, disappeared to her. The Akari\'s hackles rose and her eyes became shrouded in a familiar infuriated black.
"I\'m surprised you\'re still standing after what I did to you!" she proclaimed loudly with a voice she rarely used. She quickly closed the distance between her and this vampire--Nikolai, she now realized-- her fangs bared viscously and skin darkening dangerously. His face was the last thing she wanted to see.
"I should have torn you to pieces when I still had the chance," she boasted, powerful wings ripping through her back. Her massive wingspan was exaggerated, the leathery black extended further with shadows swirling angrily around her body. Unafraid she came close enough to smell him.
"You smell like shit, who\'ve you been fucking?" the Akari hissed. It was the Captain. It smelled just like that fucking Zalmric. She wasn\'t wrong, she was never wrong. Storm wouldn\'t ever mistake that scent, the aura. Her aura sparked dangerously, bending and distorting the air around her. She made little effort to control her quivering body.
Her mind screamed at her to tell Damien what she smelled. He should know now. The Zalmric could be near by. But her own warnings fell on deaf ears as she stood in front of a man she thought she wounded severely enough to keep him down for a significant amount of time. Then again, he was a vampire. But she was much stronger now and would not make the same mistake as she did back at the lighthouse.
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Things began happening faster than he could keep up. “Storm!” Damien grabbed for her arm as soon as the wings broke out, gripping onto her arm with a preternatural strength. He didn’t have any idea if he could even stop her. He threw a glance at Pierre, who had now held the only vampire he didn’t know – assumably Nikolai – back from Storm by the arms. He smelled Pierre’s blood as he noticed this new vampire was digging into him full force.
“What the fuck is going on here?!” Pierre had no clue either; he only tried to rein the vampire under control without using too much force. Nikolai on the other hand had lost all composure, his green eyes focused completely on the girl. An ear-splitting shriek erupted from Nikolai. The sound went straight down Damien’s spine, but he kept his grip on Storm’s arm.
“The same fucking man you’ve been fucking for how long now?” The younger vampire seethed. Damien\'s blood ran inexplicably hot at Nikolai\'s words, his grip on Storm\'s arm becomming more vicious. "Only I wasn\'t strapped down on my back, how \'bout you?" Nikolai snarled, smiling maliciously, and tried to surge forward, met with Pierre\'s age and strength.
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"Get off of me, Damien!" the Akari shrieked, struggling against the one who held her arm.
The vampire\'s grip should have been a minor annoyance, and she turned to him, hissing angrily. Without thinking, she combusted the oxygen that bordered her arm, hopefully making Damien want to release her. She would not be held back. The girl wanted to tear out more then Nikolai\'s throat.
"Shut your fucking mouth! You don\'t have a clue what you\'re talking about!" the girl felt heat rise to her cheeks and if not for the darkness of her skin, she would have been a healthy blush color. She made a move to walk forward and sink her angry flaming claws deep into the throat of the smart-mouthed vampire she hated with such a fire.
How dare he talk of what she did when he hadn\'t the slightest idea what she went through. It disgusted her beyond explanation. Things Storm never talked about, much less even thought about when she didn\'t have to. The Akari would wipe his entire face off if it was the very last thing she did.
Shadows pulsed forward like a heart beat; drawing energy from the girl they were burrowed into. Some eager tendrils shot forward towards Nikolai\'s body with invisible teeth thirsty for his flesh. They fed from Storm\'s hate, growing larger and more powerful the Darker she felt herself become.
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The vampire saw the leader make an attempt at pushing her over, or holding her away from him, but he also saw the fire explode on her arm, and watched as Damien\'s hand seared audibly.
"Don\'t I?" he responded, the smirk lingering on his face. "He explained everything clearly, you know. I think his exact words were \'something I keep around for a nice fuck\'." But as soon as the words came out, there was a severe amount of pressure on his back and shoulders, as Jean-Luc, his precious Jean-Luc, decidedly bent both shoulders back to an inhuman degree.
"Keep your mouth shut, Nikolai," both Pierre whispered in his ear. His green eyes flickered around to see Damien turned around with his hand near his chest, his own eyes searing and looking for blood. Judas snarled at Pierre, his eyes focused on the Akari. He had not forgotten the previous engagement between the Akari and himself. He knew what she was capable of and he would not get jammed up this time. The vampire felt the darkness before he ever saw it, a swelling of the air so familar to him.
Even with Pierre at his back (in a position he may have otherwise enjoyed, all things considered), it wasn\'t extremely difficult for both vampires to avoid the darkness, the tendrils. Pierre, probably twice as fast as Nikolai had easily dodged the tendrils once he saw them.
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The Zalmric cursed as he stumbled on a tree root. He hated forests. If he had a choice he\'d have them burned. The man made an effort to slow his breathing, the sound of waves caressing his ears as he came to the edge of the accursed wood. He shifted into a black panther, blending with the shadows nicely and giving him more of an ability to keep silent.
And the hunter spotted his prey, the pretty little boy he almost had on his knees. But there were four others at the water\'s edge and only one of them he recognized. His heart (and groin) surged as his eyes locked onto the precious body of the girl he had bedded countless glorious times. She was in the beloved shape, which of course meant she was inexplicably angry. And she\'d taken up shadow bending again; oh she must have missed him. The man grinned maliciously as best a panther could.
He watched with great interest, ears picking up an argument between the boy he almost screwed and the girl he loved to fuck. They were talking about him, how touching. Purring with delight, the Zalmric witnessed his precious girl set her arm alight to make the other man let go. His eyes lit up as he reminisced on times when Storm had done the very same thing to him. Too bad he loved the feel of pain.
The shadows were beautiful. The air was soaked with her intoxicating anger and Laurent hardened just thinking about it. Well, thinking about her naked and angry. But that was a minor detail. He would not move to capture her now. Too many people. Laurent was not so careless. Besides, he would want to drag out her torment a little longer, make her want him and pine for his body as he ached for hers.
She\'s become so much stronger... The Zalmric mused, watching the ocean behind the five flex with each wave. He\'d have to be a fool to not see her bending the water and manipulating it into a massive tsunami. Oh, he couldn\'t wait to see it crash down onto Nick with full force and soak the entire company. She was so beautiful when she was angry and even more so when she was wet.
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It was a bad idea to think that he could stop her with his hand; he was paying for that with every throbbing heartbeat. Fuck, his mind screamed at him. That was really stupid. What else could he do? Everything was rapidly falling apart and he didnt benefit in any way whatsoever from the burns he was accumulating. A group of blood-thirsty vampires already divided along unforseen cracks because of her. It angered him just as much as the new knowledge surfacing about Storm did.
Damien\'s face hardened into the stoney countenance of the luitenant he had been before he died. The elder vampire turned back towards the group with the air of complete control and authority, showing perfectly his age. "Pierre! Get control of him or I\'ll kill him myself! Jack, help Pierre! I\'ll not have a rogue vampire in my regiment.” He had the gun in his hand before he even knew he was pointing it at Nikolai. He pulled back the thumb, all manner of by-stander gone from him. “You have a choice: calm the fuck down or get out, or you\'ll get a new concern for the night. Pierre will tell you that I\'m not fucking around, either, won\'t you Pierre?"
"Of course, Ace," Pierre replied submissively as if taking some kind of an order.
"And as for you, Storm," the resemblance to Isabella he saw, even in her gestures took him by surprise. Never had he taken such control over Isabella herself and the situation was utterly new to him. "You have much to explain. You gave me your trust, now don\'t do anything else. Just fucking listen to me! Have your vengence later," he said under his breath to her.
"Now," he turned his attention to everyone on the beach, commanding respect, "I want to know exactly what the fuck is going on, children, before anyone gets shot or bled to death!"
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Storm released the ocean wave, letting it flow as it was before. This was not her giving up the fight. She was merely stepping back so the goddamned piece-of-shit vampire would let his guard down so she could tear him apart. With a final threatening hiss at Nikolai, she called the shadows back to her and they retreated reluctantly.
It would be accurate to say that Damien\'s voice had a calming effect on her, at least to a small degree. But the girl wouldn\'t ever admit that out loud. She inhaled the ocean air slowly, shadows moving over her body like concerned subjects to an omnipotent goddess. She glared at Nikolai as she absorbed what Damien was saying, trying to decide just how she wanted to exact her revenge.
"Damien," she sent mentally in a strong, commanding voice "there are things we need to discuss, alone. But right now I can\'t think."
The Akari folded her massive wings behind her back, still keeping a watchful eye on Nick. Her eyes were tinting green in her efforts to meditate herself into a calmer state of mind. Later, she told herself, Later we will kill him. When she came to the point where she could think clearly, something electrocuted the back of her mind and it took all she had not to snap her head back to the forest. She could feel him close by. Almost accidentally she reflexively reached out and embedded her claws into Damien\'s forearm.
"We need to be done with this quickly. There is a strong possibility that we are being watched. Don\'t make a move right now, don\'t let them know." There was slight desperation leaking through her mind and transmitting to him. She was petrified internally but desperately wanted to hide all of this from the vampire. She forced herself to relax.
"Obviously we\'ve met before," the girl gestured stiffly towards Nikolai, speaking with authority. "He has a mouth and I almost destroyed him." she glared, wings fluttering with agitation.
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The quick pain of claws flickered his attention back to her as she spoke in a voice only he could hear. His innards boiled with rage at her words and without meaning to, his eyes flicked around to the surrounding area, his defenses heightened regardless of her warnings. "What the fuck do you mean we may be being watched? By who?" But when she didn\'t say anything more about it, Damien tried to return to his former state of mind, returning his gaze to Nikolai under Pierre and Jack\'s arrest, his arms restrained with a spring-loaded blade from Jack\'s sleeve held up to his throat. Good man, Ace thought bitterly to himself. At least one thing can be counted on.
"Storm, I will get answers later, understood? No more secrets. Period."
"Bull-fucking-shit you could have destroyed me," the vampire with the slanted hair spat at her as, Damien noticed, he eyed the barrel of the gun pointed at his throat. As the potential leader of the crew, the last thing Damien wanted to do was kill or even injure another vampire, especially one of the clan. But if he kept shooting off his mouth, Storm might actually flee. Keep him quiet, keep her subdued. For now.
Nikolai, on the other hand seethed. Her comments, however small they might be, ran directly down his spine. "You could\'ve never destroyed me, you twat. You think a little blood\'ll end me?" He snorted with indignation.
"Do you want I should humiliate you in front of everyone here, or should I allow Ace to put a fucking cap in your head, you fucker?" The threats received from Pierre did more than sooth the rabid Nikolai: they made him remember how much Nikolai missed his voice, his power, even if the statement was less than what he really wanted Pierre to whisper in his mind.
"What-fucking-ever, man." Extremely reluctantly Nikolai took his own reins away from Judas, trusting the strength of Pierre\'s arms to keep Judas in his place -- if only for the time being. He could see the same look in Storm\'s eyes as he felt in his own.
"Now," he addressed the group again, straightening himself up to his full grandeur, "can anybody be civil enough to stop the fighting for a fucking minute? There are other things more important here than a fued between teenagers." His countenance turned cold as he looked from Nikolai to Storm and back again.
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"I\'ll tell you in time. I\'m getting very tired of this. If Pierre can\'t control his fledgling, I won\'t have enough patience to deal with this anymore." her mind\'s voice was wary and she cut off the telepathic connection between the two for the sake of saving her energy. Her arm fell to her side as she made a strong effort to appear normal and un-frazzeled.
Storm stared blankly at Nikolai, trying to take his blunt disrespect a different way other then offensive. Her eyes were the only thing on her face betraying how she truly felt, keeping a steady hateful black locked on Nikolai.
"You are so childish." she stated simply, dismissing the restrained vampire for the remainder of the night. To be honest she had more important things to do then to pointlessly argue. She didn\'t have the patience tonight. Her eyes scanned the faces of the rest of the group, taking their auras into her mind for further reference.
The Akari sighed heavily; severely agitated with everything that\'d happened over the span of a few short hours. The fact that he was uncomfortably close by was not helping matters at all. All of the stress of the situation was making her extremely tired. One hour, the girl resolved, just one hour of sleep. That\'s all. Obviously Damien wanted her to talk, but she had no intention of going into detail. Tonight anyway.
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"It\'s not his fledgling, first of all." Damien made it clear that Nikolai was the only one in the group which was not personally fledged by his own fangs. His attention turned once again to Nikolai, whose face was a clear mockery of Storm\'s.
Slowly the leader put the gun back in his sweatshirt, speaking to Nikolai as he did so calmly. "Doxy. Nikolai. I was told of your superiorly cunning skills from Pierre here. He speaks quite highly of you and I have always respected his choices in character.
"However," Damien\'s voice shifted completely, into one that sounded much older than he looked. The voice, used on typically the youngest of fledgling, was something similar to a drill captain. Captain Obvious, Clear, and Understood, "that does not give you free rein to treat anyone as you please in my regime, understand? If you want to remain under my command, you will hold your temper and your tongue. She will do the same. I don\'t care about any form of malice either one of you have against the other. It will not exist here. And if it does," the gun was out of Damien\'s sweatshirt as fast as possible, allowing him to barely pause as his clicked the thumb back on the pistol and placed it roughly against Nikolai\'s chest, "I\'ll give you such a reminder of your place in this world that not even the humans will respect you."
Damien smiled without humor, taking the gun away from him and turning his back as Nikolai scoffed. "Now you, unlike anyone else here, are welcome to leave now if it so pleases you. Obey my orders, keep your mouth shut and everything will go fine for everyone."
As if reading Damien\'s mind, Pierre released Nikolai abruptly. Still filled with rage, Judas had half the mind to take a swing at the leader. The only thing stopping Nikolai was Damien\'s age -- Damien could have easily killed him and he knew that. Nikolai calmed himself, regaining his composure as if he had never lost his dignity to the situation. This was looking a lot less appetizing as the moment progressed. "What would you have me do, Caesar?" Judas mocked. His eyes barely flickered off of Storm.
Damien only smiled wryly, finding his humor less than humorous at the moment. "Now. Where do we begin? As you all should know, my name is Damien Evans to few, Ace to many. Out in the street, I\'m never to be refered to as Damien, Dame, or anything else besides Ace, by anyone. Is that clear?" Before waiting for a response, he signalled to Pierre. "This is Pierre Jean-Luc duSang. DuSang or Peter on the streets. Nothing else. Comprendez-vous? He is and always has been second in command. When I am not around, he is your commander, is that clear?"
"This is Jack. Only Jack unless he tells you differently. He is our inside man, the one hand inside the law which keeps us hidden and unnoticed. Don\'t underestimate him. Ever."
"Lastly, this is Storm. Her name is never to be used outside of this group. Never. She is to be referred to as \'The Key\' and nothing else. Her gender is not to be discussed, her boundries are never to be breached, her mind is never to be entered. She is the sole incarnation of Lady Isabella, the Mother of us all. Storm is to be treated with the same exact respect as I am. If she gives an order, follow it, no questions asked." He had been pacing the entire time. "Is this in any way unclear to anyone?"
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Laurent watched the violence dissipate almost as quickly as it came. His tail swished back and fourth in a casual manner as he took in the scene before him. The fact that it took two men to hold Nick--the scrawny little boy-- back from throttling Storm struck the man as rather humorous. If they knew any better they\'d be holding her back, he mused silently. His icy blue eyes studied the group before him, trying to pick out the weakest with a predator’s instinct.
The one that came with Storm seemed to be their leader. What could he possibly want with her? The whore is probably already fucking him. Laurent seethed at the thought of another man\'s hands touching his precious demon-flower. He couldn\'t help himself from growling deep in his throat and pawing at the ground impatiently. The leader was speaking softly, pointing a gun at Nick who didn\'t act as though he was very frightened at all. The Zalmric wondered where he got all of this strength all of a sudden, last time he checked; the boy was practically melting and begging for Laurent to fuck him.
The Captain only caught a few spare words, not enough to understand just what this meeting was all about. The only thing that was made clear was the fact that Storm was of some great importance to the leader, and Laurent didn\'t appreciate that at all. Surely, he scoffed, they haven\'t seen the extent of her power yet? At least, that is what the man hoped. It wasn\'t very convenient for the man to have others chasing his prey.
Laurent fixed his attention on the girl, studying her posture and reading her aura. She felt very tense to him. He grinned, sharp fanged teeth sparkling in the moonlight. Slowly he reached out to her with his mind, over the bridge created by her shadows. Just a push on her mind, nothing more. Yet anyway. He suppressed the urge to laugh when she tensed up almost immediately. It was all too obvious that she was already aware of his presence, even before he attempted to force himself into her mind. He knew how much she hated that. But the Zalmric knew even more how much stronger hate made her. And he grinned again.
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Again Damien couldn\'t prevent his eyes from scanning the beach, the nearby forests, even the ocean. He couldn\'t feel or sense anything over the strength of characters present. Whoever this guy is, he\'s good. Maybe this guy was something significant to concern himself over. She was so palpably tense and he hoped that the others would take this simply as tension between Nikolai and Storm, not that he ever expected to be that lucky.
Not allowing any time for any of the others to notice what Damien already had about Storm, the vampire moved quickly with the same drill captain voice; he was commander again, Commander and Chief. "I\'ll assume that everyone here knows our dear friend Nikolai Armani, named Judas for less-than-obvious reasons. He\'s basically here because he knows too much about us on his own accord. He\'s the best scavenger I have ever witnessed and he can bring in scores of money.
"Now that all introductions have been passed and the faces are put to names, I bid you all welcome to the regiment. You are the Genuine Ones, and without you and without Storm, there\'d be no hope for the growing race in a world of humans.
"Now," Damien said, commanding Nikolai and Pierre\'s attention back to matter at hand. Nikolai had thrown a smirk at Storm\'s tense position and Pierre had risen his hand to Nikolai\'s collarbone to keep him under control. "Is everyone ready to move forward?" He didn\'t pause for an answer. "I suppose what should be asked first is for the news from the outside world. How are we faring against the outside world? Is there anything new that anyone should bring to the table?" And then, as if to sooth Storm Damien added, "Strictly outside forces, s\'il vous plait."
"Whispers are on the rise, saying that the Brotherhood is becoming more and more powerful of late," Pierre cooed with a low voice. Ace nodded in response, understanding the severity of the situation.
"And what of the monetary situation?"
Jack responded. "We\'re not making as much as we need to. The technological advances we need aren\'t going to happen without hard, fast cash. If we could get in control of a powerful organization, if we could control a big business like Risk, or even get a member on the board, we could more than double our income."
Before Damien could respond, Nikolai had. "Push drugs. I make thousands in a few weeks. There\'s high demand and easy enough transportation. Sell at a resonable price and keep the people interested. I\'ve been trafficking since morphine was first invented and exploited."
Damien hated the idea of one more step of complication. "Fuck businesses --that\'d take months maybe," Nikolai continued with a cold countenance. "Maybe even longer than that. In the meantime there\'s money to be made elsewhere. Lots of it." Ace was surprised to see Nikolai retreive a moderately sized baggie of blow from his sweatshirt pocket. Stunned, actually.
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Storm couldn\'t help but let her mind drift. Whatever they were talking about really didn\'t interest her in the slightest. On any normal night she would\'ve tried to at least pay attention, but this was no normal night. She had much more to concern herself with then the details of this organization she was supposed to be a part of.
The Akari began to scan her surroundings with her mind, reaching out in a guarded manner and crawling forward slowly. If she could just pinpoint the location of the Zalmric, she would know what part of the wood they had to avoid. Briefly she brushed against Damien, keeping a small tendril of her mind attached to his as something of a safety net. She moved quietly between Nikolai and Pierre, reading them from a distance rather then contacting them directly. Jack was a mystery to her.
When the girl pushed her mind farther past the group, she had to force herself to concentrate more, eyes flickering purple in the effort. She began from the edge of the lighthouse and moved to the right, thoroughly scanning the area like a metal detector. The Akari moved slowly, as though afraid of what she would find in the wood, out of sight.
It was so sudden that Storm barely had the ability to keep her breathing normal. She found him. Reflexively she clung to Damien\'s mind, while at the same time willing herself to calm down so he wouldn\'t think that anything was wrong. The Zalmric was too close for comfort, really. He was looking at her, reading her. For all she knew, the man was perfectly aware that Storm was looking for him. And she pulled slowly away from the Zalmric\'s mind so not to cause attention to herself.
Breathing a heavy sigh, she realized how tired she really was.
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"It\'s an idea, Ace," Pierre reflected. "I mean you know as wel as anyone the money that can be made."
Damien frowned. "Yeah, but I also know the trouble it tends to bring, especially with the law. We get Elias mixed up in any of this and we can kiss our hand inside the police department good-bye."
"So we keep it away from the bigger hands. We never introduce Elias to Nikolai --"
"It\'s too risky. Affiliation would kill us."
"Bullshit," Nikolai chipped in finally. "I\'ve been pushing since I was sixteen and I\'ve never been even suspected."
"Granted. If any one person even smells something illegal inside of the law, say hello to a federal case. And as much money as trafficking would get us, the months wasted if a case were to be filed would kill us completely."
"Are you saying that you\'re going to limit my personal business?" there was a level of tension in Nikolai\'s voice.
"You know very well I\'m not going to be able to do that even if I wanted you to. Make your money. Just keep it away from my regiment while we\'re still relatively unknown."
And as the others conversed, Damien felt the abrupt pull at his conscience from the girl at his side. It were as if she were trying to hide behind him and the vampire fought with himself against the overwhelming urge to question her right then and there. "What the fuck is going on, Storm?"
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She was too vulnerable, this drained and exhausted. The girl had a feeling that he somehow knew this, and the fact that he wasn\'t making any sort of move yet frightened her. Storm clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palms. It was almost as though he was taunting her.
"Nothing to worry about right now. I\'m just tired."
The Akari knew he wouldn\'t believe her, especially since she would not mentally let go of him. But this wasn\'t any of her concern right now. Not when she was so close to panic.
Slowly she regained her composure, still clinging to Damien but hiding it well on the outside. She had to be strong. Funny, though, the very instant she regained herself she could feel the Zalmric roughly push against her, announcing himself and seeking a reaction from her. She was too god-damned tired to even think, let alone push back. Storm glanced back at the general area where she felt him, trying to gather her strength and trying to stay awake.
"Please..." It was more of a quiet whisper then anything really. But she could feel her mind remembering things she wasn\'t in the mood for remembering. Lust. Pain. Anger. Hate. Power. Greed. God, she needed to sleep.
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Without thinking about what he was doing Damien wrapped himself around Storm\'s mind, finding the urge to protect her too overpowering to ignore. He was used to the feeling of protecting her even before he did it. The action was something he had done so many years before Storm. The action made him feel so guilty as well. For betraying Isabella. But Storm\'s quiet pleading pulled on him somewhere deep inside his mind. The vampire had no other choice in the matter.
He followed her eyes quickly. His face ran cold when he realized that there was indeed someone looking back at the small group of vampires. And while Damien couldn\'t see him, the presense was minimal, yet noticable if one were to focus or know what exactly to look for. He only knew because of Storm.
The cold commanding face of Damien hardly flickered as the conversation of matters between the Genuine Ones continued weighing the pros and cons of each situation. Publicity versus money, power versus publicity. Damien couldn\'t help but grab onto Storm\'s mind harder. Was it worth it to tell everyone that they were being watched? How well would the stranger now know what was going on? There was no way of incorporating this man into the ranks -- Storm would obviously never go for that.
But if the others weren\'t alerted problems could possibly arise, problems which could end in even bigger problems. "I trust you, Storm. Just make sure you\'re not putting us all into a mess. Because I can gaurantee that you\'ll have a problem with more than Nikolai."
-
The girl relaxed immensely, feeling herself settling into the vampire\'s protective grasp. She found that if she focused only on that, the desire to panic was lessened. Not that Storm ever admit how comforting it was to have him around. Never. But in the back of her mind she was plagued with the thought that he was only guarding her because she was Isabella\'s incarnation. The girl tried as hard as she could not to be bothered by this, but found herself filled with a hidden jealousy. Just a tool, she had to remind herself, ignoring all other feelings she may or may not have been developing.
Her teal eyes flickered back and fourth on the faces of whomever was speaking, appearing as though she were listening when really, her mind was in a numb state. The conversation seemed to drag on and she didn\'t understand why she needed to be present to listen; the Akari was never that good with management. The only thing she really could do was fight. But she\'d done enough of that for one night.
"I\'ll tell you later, but please don\'t be upset with me." Storm gently transmitted. It wasn\'t as if it was her fault that the Zalmric was following her. She never really wanted that.
-
"Damien?" Nikolai glanced back at the leader as Pierre called for his attention. He watched as Damien flickered his attention between the surrounding border of the forest to the twat at his side, who had seemingly inched closer to him. There was definitely something going on between them, Nick could smell it in the air. The fact that the commander was paying little attention to his own problems and focused rather on the girl made Nikolai extraordinarily bitter.
"Are you even listening?" Nikolai growled angrily as he shifted his own eyes to see exactly what was so interesting in the forest.
"As of right now," Damien spoke with a low voice which was almost inaudible over the ocean waves, "the money is not my only concern. I trust that you and Jack are very well capable of obtaining the monetary needs. Do what needs to be done, but keep it legal--"
Stunned, Nikolai instantly turned offensive towards Damien\'s attempts of commanding him. "Are you trying to say that you think you can control my business operations?"
"No, I\'m saying that I don\'t want any dirty money. Clean it and keep it legal before it ever reaches Jack\'s hands. I don\'t want any affliation with anything dirty. Jack nor Elias are ever to be spoken of in your business expedentures, understood? In fact it may have been better if Jack hadn\'t met you either."
Judas growled lowly again in the back of his mind. He wasn\'t liking the things Damien was saying much, his comments bordering on insulting. What was so wrong with what he did? It brought them money, didn\'t it? And it wasn\'t as if anyone were forcing the money from Nikolai\'s hand...
"On another hand," he continued with the same hushed, guarded voice, "we have a tidious situation developing involving some alliances. We\'re in need of more. I encountered a group of wolves earlier in the night whose youth seemed promising. And with so few fledglings living in the city, it may be a consideration to have these Dark Wolves allied with us, if only for a short time."
Nikolai really didn\'t have much of a reaction to Damien\'s words, except for the rise of a crafted eyebrow and a folding of his arms across his chest. They were vampires, regardless of how few. Why would a vampire as old as Damien need the help of a lowly pack of rabid wolves in order to conquer one city?
-
Storm\'s attention returned to the group at the mention of the Dark Wolves. She said nothing aloud and made no outward hint that she knew who they were.
"What is with you and being affiliated with people I fight with?" there was humor in her tone as she sent the message with light laughter, and she tried not to let it get to her much. In her mind she began to formulate and gather exactly what she was willing to explain to Damien to save time later. Obviously, there would be no details, but he would need enough to chew on for awhile. She inhaled deeply, eyes wandering to the ocean and remembering a few nights earlier when a certain vampire saved her from drowning.
Laurent was getting rather bored with waiting around. Honestly, how long would they talk? He could feel Storm\'s exhaustion growing, leaving her extremely vulnerable. But he was tired of playing with her and needed something new to do.
That boy is too young for a leader, Laurent reflected silently, reading him from a distance. He probably hasn\'t even noticed that I\'m here yet. The Zalmric resisted the urge to giggle boyishly with delight. He was so good at hiding.
Feeling rather bold, he reached out with his mind, trying to brush against the boy\'s consciousness and get a reaction from him. I wonder, I wonder. He grinned through his fangs.
-
He couldn\'t help but pull his focus towards the forest again as a feathery pulse flitted across his mind. Something and someone foreign to the vampire. He was unaccostomed to any other person but Storm, Pierre, and Isabella so near his mind. This guy was toying with him and he was in for it. No one invaded Damien\'s mind. No one threatened him or taunted him.
With the quickest of movements, Damien put himself physically between the one in the forest edge and Storm. Touching his mind was one thing, touching Storm\'s was another. And without making it extremely obvious, Damien gathered his fortress tighter around Storm and himself, forcing a stronger and opposing touch back to the stranger\'s mind, the equivilent of a waranted push. Nothing significant and more of an acknowldging defensive approach. Ace still knew nothing about this guy, catching the tiniest flavor of his dark aura. Feeling it made his skin crawl unnoticebly.
"What\'s with you being interjected into drama at the wrong possible moments?" He smiled nonetheless, trying to shrug off the stranger. "I\'ve been approached by two of the Dark Wolves clan members who are looking for an extra help. Something about throwing off their elder members. Now I\'m not completely excited about the idea of having young rebels in a regiment of vampires older than their ancestors. I am however significantly considering allying the regime with these youths and what remains of their clan after all is said and done on their side. Allies are nessecary for a regime to take power. No forces have ever met with success unless united and backed by an outside force.
"So first of all, what do you think?" He turned to Storm and asked for a different reason than what it would appear to be. She was what this guy was after and he needed her to stay with himself. She couldn\'t be swayed by this guy. No doubt if the stranger had brushed up against him, he was already in Storm\'s head. "You fought them. What do you think should happen?"
-
Storm inhaled sharply at Damien\'s sudden move. She peered curiously up at him, questioning his reasons. Something told her that the Zalmric must have done something to him mentally from a distance. She colored at the thought of all the possible things the Captain could have sent him. Hoping Damien hadn\'t seen anything too graphic, Storm returned her attention to the group, suddenly becoming serious.
"Personally, I think they\'re a bit uncontrolled. The Dark Wolves are a radical group, they have huge egos. They literally remind me of a pack of dogs." Her eyes flickered black momentarily, reflecting on the rashness of the one she met first.
"They\'re extremely childish. But at the same time they are very loyal. If you\'re not too concerned about having attention drawn to you, I\'d say go for it." She shrugged indifferently. Just as long as she didn\'t have to see them, the girl wouldn\'t complain.
-
"Personally, I don\'t think attention\'s what we need right now," Jack chipped in. Jean-Luc nodded in agreement, responding with "You\'ve made that clear enough tonight." Judas loved it when he felt as though Pierre were on his side, even if it wasn\'t the exact side he wanted Pierre to be on.
"Yeah, but I meant that simply with the law, with Elias especially. And you know that."
"And don\'t you think that if these wolves call attention to themselves, they\'ll call attention to us as well?" Nikolai noticed that his darling Jean-Luc was the only one of the group who was fully capable of referring to Damien with such a tone in his voice. It made Nikolai nearly jealous.
He, on the other hand, refused to give his opinion in such a situation. Judas felt it appropriate enough not to respond in any conversation that the girl were partaking in. He wouldn\'t lower himself that far. Instead he simply watched as the conversation rotated, admiring the different reactions of Jean-Luc, trying his hardest not to even acknowledge the bimbo at Damien\'s side. In fact, insults were still flowing through the back of his mind, asking what he could possibly call her next. Cunt. Bitch. Twat. Slut. Tool. Whatever. Oh, what was that word she had used? Ah yes. "Worthless."
Judas would have given anything to invade her mind at that exact moment, just to taunt her a little bit. Alas, it was because of her that he had lost his ability to hack into anyone\'s mind for the next couple of nights. He couldn\'t even tell if she were properly guarded without pushing himself over his limit.
"So what\'s the verdict here, Ace?" Doxy asked impatiently.
The leader then did something which made him roll his eyes. Ace turned to the bimbo at his side and asked her to make the decision for them. Some fucking key. She\'s done nothing this entire night but stand there.
-
"I don\'t think it would be wise to have them closely affiliated with us." Storm glanced briefly at Nikolai in a cool manner, hoping she would never really have to deal with him again.
"However, I don\'t see the harm in having an impersonal alliance with them, just as long as they know as little as possible about us." The girl hated making decisions. She was so new at being in charge. Back when she was a part of the Akari-Zalmric war, her opinion was never considered on either side. With exception to what happened with the Captain, she was largely ignored.
"It would be better to stay on their good side." Storm concluded, locking eyes with Damien as though trying to wordlessly communicate the fact that she was uncomfortable making decisions when she was this tired. She needed to clear her head.
Laurent was only mildly taken aback at the leader\'s rebuttal. Well this is unexpected... he mused, recognizing the boy as something a little more then a weakling. He would back off, for now. The man was more interested in the whore then this little boy.
He would wait until she was asleep, which shouldn\'t be too much longer. Surely the leader would leave her then? Storm hated the confinement of a watchful eye, Laurent was all to aware of that. As soon as she drifted off he would have a little fun. It had been too long. She needed to remember her place and learn never to run from him again.
Silently, Laurent turned his back on the ocean, drawing further into the forest to simply wait. Effortlessly he shifted into a crow, wings pushing the wind as he flew into a tree to become less noticeable. As soon as he had her alone... The thought of it made him caw in delight.
-
Of course Damien would never allow the decision to be made without his support. Storm was severely inexperienced in such decision making; he was not unaware of this when he through the question into her court. She would need the experience, nonetheless, and she had ended up passing anther one of his tests. She could pass good decisions with significant reasoning behind them. That was very good.
Damien nodded in agreement, secretly enjoying her usage of the word "us" in her statement. It was also good that she considered herself part of the picture. And even though there was a gleam of anger in her eyes, Damien couldn\'t help but beam with the slightest tingling of pride over Storm. "Good choice," he transmitted, trying not to let his enjoyment of the brief moment show, knowing full well that she absorbed everything around her.
"It\'s settled then. No one is allowed to discuss anything of importance to this regime. Not Storm, not me, not our plans, nothing. Only simple and extremely vague information is to be discussed. I only want them there as a back-up in case things ever run sour. These youths are nothing significant to me but they may be useful if things don\'t go as planned.
"A male and a female who seem to have some sort of intimate relationship. The male is Scorpid. The female is Writmo. The two of them are members of the so called Dark Wolves Clan. Both Storm and I had the unfortunate coincidence of running into them." He ignored Nikolai\'s scoff.
"I want it to be known that any and all information leaked to these wolf-children will be considered treasonous. Then you\'ll have to answer to me directly. Is that clear?" His voice held a hard edge with all intent. Murmurs rose from the group. "Good I\'m glad we understand each other.
"Now I would personally suggest exactly what Storm has said: don\'t get too close. You may find yourself the victim of a childish impulse." Damien\'s countenance turned up into a smirk as Pierre laughed quietly. "I want to make it clear that I am not here to tell you what you can and can not do as individuals. I am here to tell you what you can and can not do as intimate parts of this regime. If we want empire, we need unity. The terms I\'ve laid down are non-negotiable. Nothing spoken of here is to ever be spoken about in public to anyone, including another member. This information is not to leak down to the lesser ranks or the fledglings at any cost.
"I ask only your loyalty and confidentiality." He took out the throw-away cell phone from his back pocket. "It\'s now 1:30. The sun rises in almost four hours, so I suggest you all go out and commit your crimes and fufill your lusts of body and blood while the sun still lies in its black womb." Damien smiled at the memories of the farewell, used so many times before. "Good-bye my friends."
And as Nikolai and Pierre begin to turn away silently, Damien called the younger vampire to his side, strolling off towards the ocean, out of Storm\'s hearing range.
-
Storm\'s eyes flooded red as she felt the unfamiliar feeling of praise coming from Damien. "Good choice..." she scoffed in her mind, pulling a little away from him. Not out of anger, she was simply uncomfortable with any form of praise, no matter how little. Her eyes followed his face as he spoke to the rest of the group, not really taking in his words. The Akari studied the way his jaw moved as he spoke, how his eyes shifted. Simple curiosity. Nothing more.
It was a strange feeling, being held this high in importance. She couldn\'t help but flinch whenever her name was spoken, as though she couldn\'t understand why she was being brought into the conversation. As hard as she tried, she could not concentrate on what was being said. Sleep... she thought bitterly, is a necessary evil... Storm was relieved as she felt the conversation draw to a close and when Pierre and Nikolai began to turn away. She began to prepare herself for giving Damien an explanation, picking her words carefully in advance.
When the vampire summoned Nikolai and walked away from her, she panicked a little inside, instinctively clinging to his mind. Only because she was afraid of being left unprotected. Or at least that is what she told herself. Forcibly she relaxed, wings fluttering anxiously with the wind. Storm glanced awkwardly at Pierre, unsure if she should say something to him.
-
Nikolai bristled as he passed so near to the Akari girl, biting back the urge to either hiss or lash out at her. Had Damien not been four paces ahead of him, he may have done that; the air of defensiveness Ace had was borderline sickening. For the umpteenth time Judas couldn\'t suppress the glare he had to throw at her.
But as the two vampires walked aout towards the low tide, Nikolai\'s mind flickered onto other things. He knew he hadn\'t made a wonderful first impression on Damien, and perhaps that was what this rendez-vous was about. The ocean grew louder and the aura around the leader grew stronger, as if he were building himself up guardedly. Nikolai sighed inwardly.
Yet as Damien turned to face him, he looked distracted, as of something were going on in the back of his mind and this were only a show and that his real purpose for singling Nikolai out was an issue within himself. The leader no longer looked as though he had no age, but rather had the soft lines of a young man again, the sharp and lively eyes of a nineteen-year-old man. Nikolai admired the leader\'s ability to do that, to retreat back in age, but he was not so easily fooled. The leader\'s eyes flickered and reveiled his real age.
"I don\'t know what you know, Judas. And I\'m not asking you to tell me." The leader spoke with a young man\'s voice, a coolness and a detatchment Nikolai could have never managed. the younger vampire watched as the leader removed his crumpled pack of Marlborro\'s from his front pocket and light one up. "What I need to know is whether having you here is going to be a problem."
Nikolai scoffed at the comment, turning away from Ace with a casual gesture.
"No, I\'m serious though. You know as well as I do that Lady Storm is not leaving under any circumstances. If you stay, orders will eventually trickle down through the ranks or be directed at you specifically. And while I don\'t care much for the past relations you and the Lady have had, I\'m not so willing to give you the boot simply over a little arguement.
"Pierre has defended you well," he exhaled through smoke. "You should thank him the moment you can. It\'s because of him that I even looked at you as a possible allie.
"Now. I need an honest reply before I let you go anywhere. Are you going to do the loyal thing, or should I be worried about the safety of both you and Lady Storm?"
Pierre watched over the roar of the ocean as his maker and his best friend spoke in private. Jack had said his piece and had left moments ago, his footfalls drowned out by the crashing of low tide at Glitter Beach. Now that the action had settled, though he knew he\'d get it from Nikolai later about Pierre\'s lack of support for Nikolai\'s clause, a sense of peace washed over Pierre Jean-Luc. He had done well for the night and he knew that.
Not ten paces from him, the strange new girl stood gazing at Damien, her expression unreadable to him. And as Jean-Luc looked upon the face of Lady Isabella\'s incarnation, he knew well enough that they had finally found her, after how long? Jean-Luc smiled as he looked at her, sliding on the charm.
"Bienvenue, Mademoiselle Storm, à la régime."
-
In silence, the girl watched as Damien spoke quietly under the rush of the ocean to Nikolai. She caught herself subconsciously memorizing his gestures and posture. She blinked slowly, trying in vain to eavesdrop on the conversation. It must be about me, why else would he want to talk to Nikolai alone? What if the topic wasn’t about the fighting, but about the subjects that were brought up in the wake of the argument she shared with the younger vampire?
Storm paled at the thought of Damien drilling him for the details of what had been spoken. She hoped to the gods she never prayed to that Nikolai knew very little and that Damien would have more sense then to go to him for that information. In her anxiety, she gently pulled at him, trying to communicate her urgency. She still felt the Zalmric relatively nearby and she could feel her body begging for sleep.
Pierre’s silky words had a strange reaction on the girl, despite her lack of understanding. His tone made her flush, eyes swimming with blues and reds. The Akari turned to face him, trying to read his intentions. The vampire’s face seemed soft if not approachable, at least to her. Storm measured a few steps toward him, smiling gently and shifting the position of her wings.
“I’m not sure exactly what you meant…” she spoke with quiet authority in a way that carried no confrontation. Something about the way he spoke made her feel accepted, and for that she smiled appreciatively at him. Storm couldn’t help but like Pierre. His aura was pleasant, once you got past the part that he was friendly with someone she didn’t particularly like.
-
"Relax," he thought to her, trying to ease her mind somehow from distracting him. Her gentle pulling didn\'t go ignored, but he had to wrap things up correctly or there may be bigger problems down the road.
"What\'s it gonna be Nikolai?" Ace watched Nikolai inwardly debate himself, felt his restricted aura churn blackly with the decision. "I gotta know and your gotta decide." The leader took another drag, resting his eyes on the younger vampire.
Judas threw a glace over at the girl and smirked, stirring a touch of anger within Damien; the look wasn\'t unreadible to him. "Just keep her away from me for the time being. I wouldn\'t want to ruin all your plans by hurting your precious key." His arrogance severly irked Damien, but he said nothing, ignoring his rise in temper. As if he could, Ace thought childishly.
"Done. I\'ll keep in contact with Pierre. I trust he knows how to find you." With another smirk Nikolai was on his way back to Pierre\'s side, and Damien to Storm\'s.
Pierre smiled gently. "Pardon moi. I said \'Welcome to the Regime\'. I\'m so used to speaking French sometimes, I forget that other people don\'t understand it." He knew better than to expect a response to her. Damien had made it clear that she was a different person than Lady Isabella had been.
"I hope it\'s not too bold to say but it\'s a pleasure to meet you at last. For the past four hundred years, Monsieur Damien has spoken of little besides finding you. Let\'s just say it\'s a pleasure to finally get him to shut up." The last part he said under his breath as the other two vampires joined their sides.
"Écartez-vous des mensonges au sujet de moi, Jean-Luc?" A smile spread across his face as his heels dug into the soft white sand of the beach. He took his spot at Storm\'s side, watching Nikolai closely as he eyed Storm viciously. The anger and jealousy directed towards Storm explained all.
"Jamais, Mon seigneur!" The two vampires laughed easily, a brotherly bond evident between them as was the private joke. Their old French was something which was unable to be understood by the average person, and for that both vampires were pleased.
Damien spoke taking a last drag and blowing the smoke away from Storm; girls never seemed to like the smoke. "I assume that everything is settled, then?"
Pierre nodded. "All loose ends, I\'ve got."
"Good. So I presume that we\'ll be seeing each other again sooner or later. Au revoir, mes amis. And Nikolai. Remember what I said."
The youngest vampire threw a dissmissing wave over his shoulder. "My word is my blood, Caesar."
Ace watched both vampires leave together before turning to Storm completely, the expression on his face unreadible. "I think we have quite a bit to talk about, now, don\'t we?"
-
Storm smiled and laughed quietly at Pierre\'s last remark, trying to stifle it as Damien and Nikolai returned. Blatantly she ignored the youngest vampire\'s attempts to stare her down; she was done with childish games for the night. She listened to the tone and rhythm of the words spoken between the two vampires, enjoying the silky feel of the language.
The girl was very disappointed to see Pierre go, and did nothing to hide this from the vampire standing beside her. "I like Pierre." she stated simply, eyes a light and carefree blue as she looked into Damien\'s face. He spoke with an unreadable expression, causing her to drift back into reality.
The girl exhaled softly, watching the other vampires leave until they were well out of sight. Her wings painfully retracted into her back, skin fading to a fleshy tone leaving her looking small and vulnerable. With the vast majority of her energy consumed, she began to waver a bit where she was standing, feeling her footing slip slightly. Her hand shot out for Damien\'s support, wearily glancing back at the spot where she last felt the Zalmric.
"Someone from my past is trying to find me. Someone I have been running from for some time now." The Akari exhaled slowly, fighting to stay as awake as she could manage.
-
With unnatural speed Damien\'s arm shot out and grasped her wrist, ensuring that she could remain steady. The motion was forward for him, too personal, because wrists drove him wild with Thirst on most nights. He didn\'t like grabbing onto the same wrist she had offered him only nights before in order to heal from his own stupidity.
"But why is he back right now? What does he want?" His face was hard out of necessity. This problem could potentially ruin his plans. "Do you need to sit down?"
-
Storm nodded appreciatively at his suggestion of sitting. She lowered herself slowly to the soft sand, flexing her shoulders back to relieve tension. She inhaled deeply, trying to measure her words carefully and not give Damien too much information. With a sad smile she looked up at him, trying to make light of this serious matter.
"Don\'t be upset with me," she began, speaking softer to save her energy.
"I was important to him and I messed up everything for him big time." flashes of gore and battle, fires and shadows danced in her vision, taunting her tiring mind. She continued in a grave voice.
"I ran off and he\'s trying to reclaim me. He is a hunter and has probably been tracking me from where I came from." She looked to Damien for some sort of reassurance.
"I\'m so tired," her voice sounded weak, vulnerable. "I can\'t think right now." She yawned, and then added, "If we can out-maneuver him maybe he\'ll give up." The last part was a lie, and the Akari hoped that he wouldn\'t catch on. She was stepping on eggshells to please him and would be quite angry with herself if she upset him when things finally appeared to be going smoothly.
-
"Don\'t be upset with me." The vampire scoffed and sat himself down next to her in the sand. He was quite done with being commander, at least for the time being. Damien could offer her no leinancy, not this far into the game. He needed everything. He needed everything before this night. Beggars can\'t be choosers, I suppose, he reflected bitterly. He was starting to hate that phrase.
She spoke faster than he would have liked her to, too bland, too general. She was feeling way too much for Damien not to take notice. Even more so, she was rushing through everything too quickly, and he\'d be damned if he let her get away with such a move. "Bullshit, out-maneuver. You don\'t believe that anymore than I do. And before anything else occurs between us, Lady Storm," he mocked lightly, "you\'re gonna tell me what the hell happened out there tonight, along with what went wrong before I met you and why it\'s affecting you now. I can feel him, whoever he is, watching us. I felt him not ten minutes ago, too, and I\'m not crazy about being brushed against by someone I don\'t know. I want to know what the hell is happening. Now." His voice was emotionless, trying not to get angry and trying to be sympathetic. Her reluctance for telling the truth was rapidly becomming inconvenient.
-
Storm glared at him as he spoke, eyes flickering black. She didn\'t appreciate being ordered around but she hadn\'t the strength to retaliate. The intensity in her eyes drilled into him, not for intimidation but to cause him to have some level of understanding.
"Look, I know I haven\'t been completely honest and open with you from the get-go, but did you honestly expect me to be?" it was a rhetorical question, and she played with a loose string on the end of her long-sleeve shirt, trying to word her story precisely. The Akari continued very quietly.
"This is a step for me. I haven\'t thought about or spoken of this for quite some time, so bear with me." she glanced up at the vampire, aching to have his face soften, just barely, so he wouldn\'t be so goddamned intimidating. Her eyes swam between gray and black.
"There was a war back from where I came. People like me against his people, the Zalmric. One wanted to obliterate the other for mostly religious reasons, or so they say..." the girl really hated repeating this story. It felt like a history lesson to her, which was perhaps her least favorite subject back in school.
"I was supposed to fight for the Akari, and I did for awhile." There was a bottled memory she forced herself to forget, so even if she wanted to, the girl couldn\'t go into detail.
"For a number of reasons, I found myself fighting for his side instead," she didn\'t want to go into details. Why did they matter so much? She sighed deeply, fixing her gaze at the spot in the trees where he was most likely hiding.
"He...took me in...as something of a pet. Taught me things I would\'ve rather not known," she paused, reflecting on the double meaning and wishing Damien wouldn\'t catch on to it. "The shadows are his," she twirled a bit of it around her fingers for effect, "and he taught me to be strong." Storm looked up into Damien\'s face, "Stronger then I really wanted to be."
"Something happened and I lost control of myself. There was a major battle," she swallowed hard, "I messed things up. For both sides. And I never looked back." There was silence.
"Now, I know this may not justify his obsession with me, but you don\'t know him." The Akari didn\'t want to go into detail about that either. Not yet anyway. "Tracking excites him. It is in his blood. He does it for fun. And when he feels like he deserves something, he will go to whatever lengths to attain it." She exhaled, finished with her explanation. The girl could feel a twinge of nausea build in her stomach and she fought the urge to gag. Lack of sleep and Darkness were never a good combination.
-
As her voice and the ocean filled the air in unison, Damien allowed his guard to drop, his face to lose it\'s edge. He knew that color in her eyes already. He found himself not only listening, but watching her as if there were something he could catch that she wasn\'t going to tell him, something he could find only subliminally.
"He...took me in...as something of a pet." His face instantly softened and Damien found himself falling into a flickering memory of his own past. Now he saw what was going on, more or less, or at least that\'s what he thought. After all, Storm had given him bigger surprises than just this. Yet by the end of her story, Damien found himself angrier than he would ever show her. He sat on the sand for countless moments thinking about everything, driving himself crazy with the thoughts.
"Something happened and I lost control of myself. There was a major battle. I messed things up. For both sides." How the fuck should I deal with this one? There\'s no possible way I can keep track of her. There\'s no fucking way! Is this what you wanted, Isabella? Knowing my luck, she probably has every ability to kill hundreds of vampires in one huge boom. What the fuck. Damien exhaled out loud. Maybe that\'s what she actually wants. Maybe that\'s why Storm is the key.
However, there was something bigger plaguing him, something he couldn\'t (or wouldn\'t) grasp. "Well, what about what Nikolai was saying. You said yourself that he had met up with Nikolai. Is there any truth to what Nikolai was saying?"
-
Storm sighed deeply, trying to force herself to meet his eye. They were filled with a fire that she could only vaguely feel. How could she answer that? How could she even possibly begin to answer that? Memories pulled at her like thousands of strings with hooks on the end, embedded to the quickly beating flesh of her heart.
Should she answer him honestly? If he really wanted to know, wouldn\'t her blood reveal enough? If she even tried to lie, he would spot it instantly. The girl couldn\'t stop the gray in her eyes from deepening, meeting the black in a violent combination that would have made her change if not for her exhaustion.
"Do I really need to tell you that much?" she asked, voice cracking at the end and stubborn tears pushing from the black of her eyes. She felt so fucking pathetic sometimes. No one had ever known anything about her, not since the Captain and that wasn\'t her choice. The girl needed to sleep before she plunged herself deeper into a Darkness and before tears became uncontrolable. It was exceedingly difficult for her to hold back crying when she was this tired.
The Akari turned her face from him, hiding it behind her shaking hand as a few sobs escaped past her defenses. It took her a moment to control herself, and when she had stopped shaking she turned to him; a cold mask in place with her gray eyes betraying the emotion that lurked beneath the surface.
-
Any coldness which was lingering in him thawed as he saw her evident display of pain upon her recollection. He wasn\'t as cold-hearted as he would have had her believe.
If he had to be completely honest to himself, Damien was slightly disappointed with the answer she gave. It made him cringe on the inside. It made him unhappy to know that she had been touched. But what right did he have to pass judgement on her? To feel disappointed over her situation? No, he would never admit it to himself that the response was more disappointing than he had expected.
The vampire sighed, looking out at the ocean. "No. I don\'t need details," he resigned. "I need answers. I need an understanding of exactly what I\'m dealing with, or rather, what I may have to deal with. I\'m not looking for your deepest secrets, Storm. I\'m looking to see why he\'s after you. Maybe a way to avoid a confrontation."
He adjusted his hair -- a nervous habit -- by ruffing it up and moving it out of his eyes. The wind blowing off the ocean helped. This was harder than he thought. His eyes scanned the ocean, while his mind scanned the trees of the forest, searching for this character, not knowing what to look for anymore. When his hair lost the excitement and became uninteresting again, Damien paused for a seemingly-endless moment. "What do I do?" He couldn\'t tell where he was directing the statement, to her, to Isabella, or to himself.
-
She was more at ease when the vampire softened. It was a comfort to her to be with something that bore little to no resemblance to her previous \'comrades\'. Storm might admit that it was comforting even, that there was a significant lessening of harshness in his aura.
The girl digested his words disdainfully, eyes focusing on nothing in particular. Memories ripped at her heart again, trying to tear her apart and leave her naked and alone for the world to see. But she fought it violently, feeling bile trying to travel up her throat. She coughed sickeningly, trying to shake herself of the feeling but not doing much to help herself.
"I\'m exhausted," she forced through her mouth, vocal chords not working quite the way she planned. The Akari knew she didn\'t have the strength to move from the sand on the beach, but she didn\'t want to sleep in the open air. And there was no way in hell she\'d ask Damien to carry her off somewhere safer. She gave herself ample opportunity to make her look like a weakling.
"I only need an hour of sleep, maybe less. I just need to..." she trailed off vaguely, making a circular hand motion that was supposed to mean something that the girl didn\'t even herself understand. Storm\'s mind began to blur, her psychic sensitivity dwindling with her concentration.
-
He looked at her with guarded and unreadible eyes. He would never tell her this, but he assumed that he was the lucky one. He ended up being with his maker, ended up basically marrying her and was made her equal. He assumed Storm wasn\'t that lucky by the way she was acting towards this guy.
A thought began to occur to him as he sat there in the sand. Damien was most likely a threat to this man who had claimed Storm. And the plans for domination with Storm at the center probably wouldn\'t set well if this guy chose to interfere. Worse yet, Nikolai had ties to him somehow, even if he were just messing around with him. And then the question again came down to losing Nikolai or losing Storm. The lines were becomming surprisingly blurred for him to determine.
"Where are you going to sleep? It\'s open out here. And I\'m sure that man\'s over in the edge of the forest still." Damien looked her over softly, noting somewhere deep inside how similar she looked to his Isabella. "You don\'t look like you could keep up if push came to shove. What do you want to do?"
-
Storm looked at him blankly, wondering how he was taking all of this. She honestly wasn\'t in the mood for talking anymore. The girl needed to relax, even though she knew that was near impossible for her to do, especially now. Peering innocently at him, she tried not to pass into sleep out of sheer exhaustion. The Akari sighed deeply through her teeth.
"I can\'t stay here. I need a roof over my head." She knew she probably wouldn\'t be able to walk, but she wasn\'t ready to admit that to him. With great effort she tried to stand, putting on a brave face and trying to convince herself that she could make it somewhere that wasn\'t out in the open.
The second she reached her feet, she felt herself slipping, unable to guide herself into a steady balanced position. She groaned and stumbled around a bit, trying to walk it off but failing miserably. I can\'t look weak in front of him. I can\'t. I look like a fucking drunk. I need to stand. Come on. Walk. Walk! Her mind screamed at her body, giving it hundreds of reasons to work but her body didn\'t seem to respond correctly as she fell toward the ground in a rediculous manner.
-
Faster than he knew what he was doing, Damien was on his feet, with Storm\'s waist in his hands, steadying her as they both stood. It was a natural reaction for him, really, something he was oddly accustomed to already. And even though the faintest hints of blood filled his face, his mind automatically put up the wall. They had to leave didn\'t they?
Regardless, Damien felt something other than awkwardness fill him as he steadied her, moving up to her shoulders instead. Something more comfortable for both of them. Something he found himself reluctant to do. He was afraid she might fall over.
"If he is what you say he is," he quickly changed the matter away from her shoulders, hips, and falling, "then I\'ll assume he\'s gonna follow you wherever you go." It was a statement rather than a question. He took a minute to think.
She can\'t simply be left alone. But where to go? The Brazillian Quarter was a few miles away, as was his "home". Not that he could ever bring her back to his place... The closest thing to them with a roof was the Lighthouse upon the cliff. And as soon as he thought of it, Damien inwardly yelled at himself for having made Pierre and everyone go down to the beech. Well, up we go again. "How about the Lighthouse?"
-
Storm held her breath as the vampire steadied her. Her heart fluttered for a moment before she silenced it, and the girl forced herself to retain a mask of indifference. Even though hands were moved to less effected areas, Storm still had to struggle to keep the mask on straight.
What Damien said of the Captain was one hundred percent true, and she didn\'t feel it necessary to verify the truth of his assumption either. There was no doubt in her mind that the Zalmric could very easily find her, but actually taking her was another matter entirely. From what she felt of his aura, he didn\'t seem all that angry (well, she\'d seen him angrier before) and anxious to reclaim her immediately. Since he was going to take his time, he\'d most likely make it as unpleasant as possible for her. God, she really wasn\'t looking forward to that at all.
"The lighthouse sounds fine," she managed, glancing at him for a moment and attempting to read him purely out of habit. Exhaling slowly, she pulled away from him and faced toward the newly decided destination. Setting her face like stone, Storm tried again to walk stiffly on her own, finding that her legs weren\'t as strong as she planned. When was the last time she\'d eaten? The girl couldn\'t remember. Probably not the healthiest thing in the world, she mused.
-
Again, his arms moved without thinking first, successfully catching her body before she even had much of a chance to sway. His arms wrapped around her reflexively, one arm grabbing the girl\'s upper arm while the other grabbing onto her ribs. He felt the familiar rush of awkwardness in his body. But she needed to be steadied. And they had to leave, didn\'t they?
Damien\'s face hardened defensively as he removed his hand from the side of her rib cage. He couldn\'t seem to pull his hand off of the black fabric of her shirt which happened to be radiating with her life aura. If she swayed again, this hand would already be there to steady her. After all, he didn\'t have to move it, did he?
"Look at you," he sighed under his breath out of something other than annoyance. "You can\'t even walk, let alone stand." He frowned faintly, shaking his head, measuring the distance between the Lighthouse and the beach, estimating it to be about a quarter of a mile.
But as he did so, a thought occurred to him that gave him a mixed reaction. He threw a side-long smirk at her before saying, "Do you trust me?" It was less of a question and more of a survey of how much she was willing to cooperate. She said he had been given her trust. Now he needed it again if anything were to occur.
-
Storm cursed silently in her mind. Couldn\'t she just walk to the fucking lighthouse without falling? It wasn\'t that far, was it? She wasn\'t injured for god\'s sake, and yet she found herself continuously making a fool of herself in front of the vampire. Yet again he had to steady her. Get it together, damnit! She sighed, eyes blackening with frustration. As much as she wanted to move on her own, her body refused with the same ferocity.
And that familiar feeling bubbled up in her stomach again, with his hands on her again, and she had to push the feeling and thought violently away. The girl inhaled deeply, trying to absorb the ocean air into her system enough so that maybe she could try again... But then again, who was she kidding?
"Do you trust me?" she locked eyes with him, feeling unaccountably flustered in doing so. Lack of sleep. And that was that. Exhale. Inhale.
"Yes, of course I do." Was that too much? Should she have just said yes? Just nodded? Stop blushing. Storm sighed again, forcibly placing the indifferent-mask in front of her face.
-
With a relieved nod, Damien responded with, "Good. Now climb on."
He knew she would probably reject the idea of being so close to him, but Damien didn\'t care. He was in no mood to argue; there had been enough of that tonight. He pulled her arm around his back and pulled her up onto his back. "Hold on, then." The vampire forced her arms to clamp around his neck.
As for Damien, he didn\'t want to stay there a moment later than he had to. Yes, the ocean roar was pleasant. Yes, the stars were nice. Yes, the breeze was deliciously fishy. But he had no doubt that that man, Storm\'s former keeper, was still out in the forest lurking somewhere, probably watching them. The thought made the rage in Damien stir, but he could repress it for now. Right now she was more important than his anger, and she needed to sleep in order for his anger to come out.
"Ready?" And before waiting for the reply, the vampire lept off the ground at a great and most likely dizzying pace. He figured she wasn\'t used to this, but it was the fastest way. And she didn\'t really have much of a choice. With lightning speed, Damien aimed for the cliff faces near the Lighthouse.