Coming Undone

[The Cedar Witch]

Storm shook her head. "No, of course not." She was silent for a moment, a soft smile gracing her mouth. It was a good thing he hadn\'t completely grasped the \'color code\' quite yet. The girl thought it should\'ve been rather obvious by then, but maybe Damien was slow to the uptake.

As the silence drew on a bit longer then she would\'ve liked, the Akari felt a slight change in the air between them. Like the presence of another wall without much of a reason that she could see. Did she say something wrong? Storm tracked the conversation a few minutes back, replaying the words in her head briefly and analyzing them perhaps a little too deeply. Maybe she was overreacting. She could\'ve been imagining it. But something in the back of her mind gently nudged her, reminding her not to get too comfortable.

Her eyes filling with a thoughtful gray color, the Akari stood, stretching her arms above her head and flexing her shoulder blades back. Sitting suddenly seemed a bit awkward to her. She took a few measured steps across the room to the old stove, gingerly running a finger across the rusted metal and examining the dust on her fingertip.

[Saiketsu]

Her movement took him out of his short reverie of swinging blonde locks and bloodied vampires. He smirked at her, one of those looks which foretold the sarcasm to come. "I hope you\'re not expecting it to be clean in here. I thought you would have suspected as much, Storm."

He gazed over at her from his spot on the floor, watching her with much curiousity. Yes, he could feel the slight awkwardness. No, he didn\'t actually believe she were checking for dust. He figured it was rather something to pass the awkward moments. Yeah, he felt awkward about making the moment turn sour, but what could he do, simply forget?

"Hey," the vampire stood, calling attention to himself. Damien adjusted his clothes, carefully shifting the handgun in his sweatshirt so it wouldn\'t fall out when he got up. Standing near the wall, Damien was a full few inches taller than her, something he was used to being. "Can I show you something?"

[The Cedar Witch]

Storm rolled her eyes at the vampire\'s sarcasm, realizing that it was probably something just to break the newly-forming ice. She sighed heavily, rolling the dust between her thumb and forefinger. If she ever had to sleep here for an entire night, she reflected, her sinuses would go crazy. Not that she slept really.

The girl inadvertently tensed up when Damien stood, caught slightly off guard by his movement. She relaxed quickly with the sound of his voice, and turned to face him. Her eyes were an interesting swirl of red and blue, her skin coloring slightly even though she couldn\'t really understand why.

"Of course," she replied softly, really unsure of what to expect at all.

[Saiketsu]

He smiled faintly at her tension, the corners of his mouth turning up to the slightest degree. "Oh would you relax?" It came out a bit more tense than he would have anticipated, not exactly cold, but firm enough to make him feel guilty for taking such a tone with her when she had done nothing wrong.

His smile softened to show her he wasn\'t actually angry. "Come on." He motioned towards the door he had exited through earlier in the night, the door which led to the light tower. "I\'ve got an idea you might like." And without wondering if she followed, Damien weaved his way past the toppled furniture into the back of the little cottage to the rusty steel door.

[The Cedar Witch]

The girl flinched at his responding tone, a slightly hurt expression on her face. This quickly faded, however, when the vampire continued with a softer voice, and she did \'relax\'. She was beginning to come to terms with the fact that this was perhaps something she should be getting used to. Storm even smiled a little, by accident of course. But she was having a lot of slip-ups that night when it came to smiling. And somehow she really didn\'t mind.

Storm willfully, maybe even eagerly, followed Damien out the door. She made a significant effort to steady her heartbeat, which really should have been normal in this situation. Honestly, she couldn\'t understand why she was getting so worked up. Watch. It\'s probably going to be something stupid. She smirked at the thought of him pushing her off the cliff just for kicks. Obviously it wasn\'t a serious thought, but it made her laugh internally anyway.

[Saiketsu]

Damien could very well hear her beating heart, no matter how much she tried to supress or hide it. He was naturally well-aware of such things due to his many years of stalking humans with preternatural ability. The emptiness of the tower\'s base only expanded the sound. The rhythm did nothing more than confuse Damien and entrap him in a rhythm of pace.

She probably knew where he was bringing her, but he didn\'t care. It was peaceful up here and it was a beautiful night outside. He was rather confident that she\'d like it, based on her previous reactions to nature and the like.

The two approached the craggy stairs of muttled wrought iron. It was very capable of breaking and killing the climber in a bloody aray of pikes and jutting poles. The thought of taking Storm up there caused Damien much discomfort. "Here," he said reaching back without looking, "take my hand. We\'re going up."

[The Cedar Witch]

Storm caught her breath for a moment, staring at Damien\'s outstretched hand like it was something foreign. Hesitantly she took his cool hand, feeling rather foolish for no particular reason at all. And in that instant she was quite grateful that the vampire wasn\'t paying much attention to her eyes, which surly gave away her flustered feeling even more so then her heartbeat.

Oh stop it, he\'s bringing you to the top of the lighthouse. That\'s all. Why, she didn\'t really know. But she needed to belittle it so she wouldn\'t look so goddamned stupid to him. She sighed heavily, looking warily at the unsteady looking stairs. But she trusted Damien in being careful with her, simply based off of the fact that it was made quite clear that she was more valuable alive then dead.

[Saiketsu]

The warmth of her skin on his palm was something new to him. He felt his face faintly flush with cool blood. Heat wasn\'t something he was used to feeling so close to his skin --to any vampire, warmth was for the blood, not for the skin. Not to mention that her hand slipped into his much like the way the queen\'s did once upon a time. Needless to say, Damien didn\'t look back at her, but began his ascend to the top.

He had asked for her hand because he was familiar with each of the crooked, cracked and rotting steps where he doubted very much that she was. He wanted to guide her and he knew that if either one of them took a wrong move, he would see it in time to counteract the laws of gravity. With a smooth pull at her hand, Damien stepped over the winding black stairs two at a time, avoiding the ones which were more or less scraps of metal waiting for a victim or two.

[The Cedar Witch]

Storm had quite a difficult time keeping up with the vampire\'s pace. Having him pulling on her hand didn\'t aid her balance much either. She sighed irritably, fixing her attention at the stairs before her, wondering just when they would collapse in under their weight.

"Could you slow down a little bit?" there was an edge to her voice that she didn\'t intend. Granted, Damien was being a tad inconsiderate for assuming she could match the pace of an immortal, but she wasn\'t trying to whine.

She looked up briefly to see how close they were to the top, and that was enough to make her loose her balance completely. She could feel herself falling backwards even before she had the chance to stammer a curse or two.

[Saiketsu]

As gravity struck, Damien struck faster, of course. Not that he was expecting a twist of gravity but he was certainly prepared for one, knowing how much capability this girl had to find trouble.

The girl slipped out of his hand, but not completely out of his grasp. It was easy enough for him to move faster than the force of gravity. He was glad he was such a demon as his arms stretch and his body shifted easily to an angle no human could possibly have done. Damien\'s clawed hand snatched Storm\'s wrist before she could even exhale a curse, the talons digging deep into the flesh and drawing the smallest amount of blood.

His nature reacted accordingly: his senses heightened and the nails lengthened, digging even farther into her skin. His eyes dialated as droplets of blood dribbled over his fingers and his jaw went rigid. With more strength than was nessecary, Damien pulled the girl back up to his level on the stairs, a space not suitable for two people to stand comfortably face-to-face, let alone a vampire and a possible blood donor.

[The Cedar Witch]

Storm gasped audibly as Damien\'s quick reaction and inhuman speed caught her off-guard. It was something she would have to get used to eventually, but for now it was still surprising. Falling down the stairs would\'ve sucked.

The claws in her wrist forced a whimper to escape from her mouth, something she didn\'t typically enjoy voicing. The familiarity of the whole situation struck her as rather ironic. Since when was she this clumsy? Balance was never something she had a knack for, considering she constantly had her head in the clouds. It was surprising that the girl even managed to fly without plummeting to her death.

Unexpected strength pulled the girl into the vampire, maybe a little closer then he had intended. Storm really didn\'t mind all that much, not that she would\'ve ever admitted it to anyone. Her body seemed to lock up in a sort of nervous panic, unable to move away or do much of anything but look up at his face now that she regained her balance.

[Saiketsu]

A moment of indecision passed over him as the scent of her blood and panic rose to his senses. She was but inches from him, on the same level, leaning into him. So what was stopping him. His jaw trembled as she looked into his eyes and his grip on her wrist never slackened. Her blood was pushing him closer to madness and he didn\'t know if she understood this or even realized what he had done.

Some part of him bit back, telling him to control himself because he needed her and because he really didn\'t need the blood. Feeding off friends never worked well in the end and he knew that. His iron jaw clenched as his dialated eyes tried their hardest to avoid her slender neck. Damien wavered only in his hard look, the eyes softening into what would seem to be a vaccuum. She needed to be farther away from him.

"Fix yourself when we get up there." The voice was extremely low and was neither commanding nor interogative. With the greatest of reluctance, Damien turned from her, continuing his ascend and taking it literally one step at a time, all the while supressing the desire to press against her and drain her while they stood at the top watching the sea.

[The Cedar Witch]

Storm was suddenly overwhelmed with a timidness completely alien to her. Her chest surged with disappointment when Damien turned away, but she knew full well why. What the hell was she thinking? Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, the girl cleared her throat.

"I can do it right now no problem." and with that said, sparks of green mixed with shadows flew to her wrist and closed up the wound without trouble at all. She didn\'t need massive amounts of concentration with the shadows, that was an upside to the dark power.

Quietly the girl followed after him, easily keeping up with the ridiculously slow pace he had set. The Akari didn\'t have the voice to tell him that he could move a little faster because she wasn\'t a cripple. But she thought better of it.

Storm found her thoughts wandering back to the few moments before, and the memory of being that close to Damien made her flush the slightest bit. Something deep inside of her voiced the \'tool\' argument again, but she didn\'t have the desire to listen. Not when she was enjoying herself, secretly enjoying herself anyway. At least she hoped he hadn\'t figured it out yet.

[Saiketsu]

The vampire was very accutely aware of how the girl\'s blood was reacting and he snarled at himself for it as if trying to slap himself on the wrists for acting so uncontrolled. Yet the pulse, wild blood beneath her skin in her wrist told him everything he was wondering and more. The thought of her reaction as they were that close together made the cold blood in his own veins race faster for a number of reasons, guilt being one of the more popular reasons.


Supressing his vampire instincts, Damien reached the top of the tower where he promptly released his grip on the girl, his grey eyes not fully returned to normal yet, the blackness within them extremely small, as if being swallowed by color. With these eyes he gazed at Storm half as prey and half as a friend. Friends and prey don\'t mix, you fool. "I don\'t really know if you\'ve ever been up here before," he whispered smoothly, controlling the aching in his jaw as he looked at her by keeping his canines behind his smile, "but I find the view to be pretty spectacular." The vampire pointed out at the dark ocean and the rail as the light of the tower passed over the couple.

[The Cedar Witch]

Storm studied his face closely in the short amount of time that she faced him, well aware of the look he gave her. There would be no blood for him tonight--at least not from her. He didn\'t need it, she could feel that. But for whatever reason a part of her still wanted to give, to be useful like the tool she was supposed to be. It almost confused her that he didn\'t take it, considering she was readily available. But these thoughts melted away as her eye followed his finger to the ocean.

The girl froze, captivated by the sight of the moon reflecting on the water. Yes, she had been here before, but that was when she was injured and sleeping, not once did she look out to the ocean. Storm walked briskly to the railing, blue eyes dancing with wonder and delight, and for a moment she forgot Damien.

"God," was all she could whisper as the current of the sea broke the image of the moon into pieces, distorting the reflection in a thousand tiny cuts. It was a clear night and the stars shone with brilliance enough to outdo the moon himself. The wind pushed her hair behind her, exposing her full face and neck, and she leaned over the balcony to get a better feel for the wind with her eyes closed.

"It\'s breathtaking," she said at last, after a long time, turning to face the vampire. The Akari couldn\'t help herself from smiling completely with a genuine appreciation that she could not mask from him no matter how hard she bothered to try. But with shimmering blue eyes, she really wasn\'t trying all that hard.