Restless

[The Cedar Witch]

reserved for Saiketsu
continued from here

For a few short minutes he watched Nikolai suffer on his own, fighting for himself, losing even without the help of shadows. He was there when the blond, so near and dear, had crushed the whelp\'s heart. Or what was left of it. Pathetic, the Zalmric cackled, watching from afar as he bled dark blood into the mud. Even if he hadn\'t the blissful opportunity to crush him quite like the blond had, it was equally as enjoyable to watch. He had already taken what he wanted from the boy. He was nothing to him now, explored territory, damaged goods. Nothing but a detour that proved a hell of a lot more useful then just a Quick Fuck. And as far as fulfilling his end of the bargain, that would come later, perhaps. Perhaps not. It didn\'t matter at all what he chose to do, the damage had already been done.

He had resolved to deal with the Fagot later, taking wing to the sky shortly after the fight had ended. It was too good of an opportunity to miss, closing in on The Prey, finally. But the minutes he wasted watching the fight, and watching Nikolai bleed like a human on the ground, caused him to miss an extremely vital opportunity. The Whore and her Protector, King, Master, and Fuck, had fled the scene. Well, nearly. But the Captain was not to be outmaneuvered again. He watched silently, cloaking his existence as a crow, as the two drove off toward the East. To meet the rising sun? another cackle, the eerie cry of a crow.

It didn\'t matter how fast the little vampire drove, Laurent already knew where they were going. The little Bitch had been putting off sleep for weeks to avoid him, where else, but the forest, would her current Captor take her? The crow banked sharply to the left, settling comfortably into the bare canopy of the dead forest. He would watch and wait until the Whore let her guard down enough for him to move in and take her.

Or maybe he would draw out the game a little more.

The girl could feel every bump in the unevenly paved road, but uttered no complaint. She was hardly in the mood for pointless protest. There was something so much more important that needed to be attended to then her comfort. Besides, she had learned by now that the last thing she was going to die from was a car accident, especially when Damien was driving.

Honestly, she didn\'t need long in the forest. Last night she had taken what she needed to last her nearly a month. Even with the energy she expelled through the whole traumatic experience that had just occurred, the Akari could have lasted long enough until the next time. At least, that was what she tried explaining to Damien.

But truthfully, Storm was exhausted emotionally and physically. Sleep toyed playfully with her, and it was almost tempting to slip into the realm of the unconscious if it meant escaping the current situation. But it didn\'t. Not in the slightest bit. And the girl was well aware of that as the car came to a stop in the same place Pierre had parked his car last night.

There was still at least two inches of snow decorating the ground and the trees. And even though she had been so excited the previous night, so entranced by the sight of the forest even if it was bare, tonight was hardly the same. The wood looked and felt dismal and dead, as if housing something foreboding. Or at least it seemed that way to her.

Storm looked over at the vampire to her left with an expression that was begging for reassurance. After a few short seconds she hesitantly opened the passenger side door, taking a step outside of the safety of the car. She could see her hot breath in the air.

Nothing. The girl didn\'t feel anything coming from the wood. No threatening presence, no warm tide of reassuring comfort. It didn\'t feel like hers. Not tonight. Again she threw an uneasy glance back at Damien, as though wordlessly trying to convey her fear. She hoped that he had no intention of staying with the car, as Pierre had done.

[Saiketsu]

His concern had only deepened since they had left the apartment behind them, manifesting itself in his furrowed brow. The intense silver eyes didn\'t leave the road even when Storm\'s attention turned to him for a brief moment. The knuckles of his right hand turned translucent as his fingers gripped the wheel, the darkened blood beneath the flesh giving the appearance of bruises across the bones. He let his supernatural abilities take over, his gaze piercing the night as if it were day, Thirst scratching in his throat, talons overgrown. Damien Evans no longer looked like the adolescent that his body had been frozen as, but instead he looked like an Ancient with a stoney figure.

The pitch of the sky exclaimed to him that it was somewhere between seven PM and nine PM; the night was still so young yet Damien found himself wandering just what the fuck had happened with a grim trail of thoughts going through the forefront of his mind. He never even noticed his foot on the accelerator until he had reached seventy and the car began to shake. He let off, and didn\'t touch it again as they travelled east into Meadowcrest.

He parked it and got out, acknowledging Storm only when they were outside the car. From the time he had learned of Nikolai\'s betrayal, she hadn\'t been out of his arms\' reach and Damien had every intention of keeping that way, even while they were in the forest. Hell, if she needed energy so badly, he\'d give it to her as long as he could keep an eye on her.

Damien could feel her concern in the cold January air and gave her a calm twist of his tight lips as she looked at him. "Relax," he said, and guided her into the forest. "Forget about everything that happened tonight and let\'s just do what we came to do. Nothing\'s going to happen."

[The Cedar Witch]

The naked, unfriendly trees loomed above them, waiting in a powerful silence. Nothing stirred, even though Nature had yet to sleep at this hour. It was as if the forest was completely void of life, or all creation held their breath in anticipation. No matter how far the two ventured in, Storm still had not found the strength to reach out and take. She would wait for the right opportunity, when she felt relaxed and at ease enough to do so.

Extracting energy from the wood wasn\'t one-sided. Walls had to come down, if only for a short while, leaving her open and vulnerable to anyone who was paying acute attention to her psych. Lowering walls was the last thing the Akari wanted to do, not when she could feel threats around every corner. He could be anywhere, anything, anyone. And by the time either she or Damien realized anything, he could seize the opportunity and take control. Take her.

Instead of relaxing, as the vampire had instructed, the girl found herself looking for threats hiding in branches and faces etched into trees. Every breath of the wood, every unexpected snap of a twig, and even her own footsteps crunching the snow, made her jump, looking around warily for any sign of life. But there still was nothing. Never before had the forest felt so...creepy. Foreign. Unnatural. Not even the close proximity she was to Damien was comfort enough for her to lower her guard. But she was beginning to get impatient, well aware that they would not leave until she had finished.

Slowly she stopped, casually running her fingers across the bark of a nearby tree. Just make it quick. Gate open, walls down, the girl extended her aura just-so, briefly flickering along the energy of the tree, before she sharply retracted and pulled her hand back to her side. There was something in this wood. You\'re just imagining it, your fear is making you jumpy. There isn\'t any way he could have gotten to you this quickly. Storm glanced quietly back at the vampire, as if to apologize for her hesitation. And whatever look he--with an army at his fingertips-- chose to give her, made the girl feel foolish for even fearing the emptiness that surrounded the wood to begin with.

Again she exposed herself, waiting quietly for some onslaught of attack, but was met with no such thing. The quietness in her mind, and even in the shadows, gave her enough confidence to continue. The Akari extended farther then simply the nearby tree, pushing her invisible aura through the forest as she began to walk again. Either by her own tension or the strangeness that inhabited the wood, she felt as if there was some sort of obstruction, as if the trees were holding back. Or she was still to tense.

Deep in the forest already and she had feared for nothing. No attack came, no sudden rush of darkness. The girl felt incredibly foolish, gaining enough confidence to extend out enough to encompass the entire forest. But then there was something. On the very edge, lurking, watching, waiting. So small that she nearly missed how familiar it felt. Storm stopped short and whirled around, retracting and rebuilding with urgency.

"Something\'s there." Two words, and the fear rekindled itself again.

[Saiketsu]

Without meaning to, Damien\'s eyes flicked around to the trees around them. He was only two steps from her and yet the need to be closer to her was strong. He couldn\'t feel it like she could, too unfamiliar with the auras of her species or their capabilities, but that only made him more anxious.

His supernatural appearance had not faded since walking into the forest, encouraged by Storm\'s cautious nature. He had felt her pulling energy and had given it over easily, knowing that he could always feed later. But once she stopped, Damien took a step in closer to her. There wasn\'t much he could do if that fuck decided to go after her mentally, but he\'d be damned if he wouldn\'t be there to face this prick who had penetrated his ranks like a virus.

"Close yourself up, then." He stared at her intently, anger rising to his features that had little to do with her. He was willing to wake up his own psychological abilities to wrap around her if he needed to, but from what he was understanding her connection to the Zalmric was something different than psychic abilities of penetration.

[The Cedar Witch]

The Zalmric could have cursed for his carelessness, instead calling out angrily with the voice of a raven. So the Whore had discovered him. What difference would it make anyway? She would run even without the validity of his presence. Her fear was so palpable he could taste it, and that only served to excite him. How long had it been since he tasted her fear this strong? Another raven cackle echoed through the wood.

He listened intently to the conversation between the Whelp and the Whore, watching their distant movements with a calculating eye. And of course, like the obedient slut she was, she did indeed \'close up\'. He could feel the strength of her defense increasing, nearly sealing everything away. But not before the Crow could resist asserting his presence in her mind. Just a touch, a brush across that delicate cheek so flushed with the chill of January, "Princess, why are you hiding from me?" And he was answered with a violent defense, dark and angry.

The way she jumped, searching for the sight of him while clinging desperately to that boy, wasn\'t nearly as Delicious as it was Infuriating. And as long as the Shit had her in his possession, the fury would remain. Just as a warning, the bird pressed itself against the boy\'s mind for a fraction of a second, delighting in the angry reaction he received. The crow took to air just as the vampire began to usher her from the wood, keeping a careful eye on the movements of the two. Deliberate distance had been placed between the fleeing couple and the bird, so not to draw too much attention to his exact location.

"Go ahead and run, Princess. You always come back." The crow landed on an outer branch of the wood, a little ways from the car, still unnoticed. He would not follow, not now. Soon he would hear her scream again, but not tonight. She was much too strong to allow him to hear such music. Laurent was aching for a better opportunity to crush her, and the boy she clung so desperately to, in the same blow. Two birds with one stone? Another cackle of raven-laughter.

[Saiketsu]

He hissed through locked teeth. It was an unnerving feeling. It shot down his spine and through his nerves, causing a type of recoil that Damien had never liked. It was like a void, threatening to pull his attention away from Storm, something that he found surprisingly difficult to fight, but not invinsible. His eyes flashed around and a clearly-visable wall settled around his mind. Storm\'s did the same as she stepped closer to him as they walked. He was there alright.

He locked her door before he closed it and got into his side of the car, pulling it out of Park and into reverse and drive almost faster than the car could take. The transmission groaned at his speed, but he pushed the car anyway. There was no time to waste; he was speeding down a strip of road faster than he would have originally thought wise.

"Mother fucker." He saw an insignificant portion of the top of his hair in the rearview mirror. His expression was stone and his eyes were the only things that moved, flicking between the mirrors and the road. The panel in front of hm read 72 MPH and continued to climb. The car\'s steering wheel began to tremble significantly under his hands. 85... 93... 104... His foot eased off when he became aware of Storm\'s anxiety at the trembling car; it settled at a nice 81 MPH.

"Can you get rid of him? Get rid of the... the things that you have? The Black things?"

They couldn\'t go back to the apartment; they\'d both be sitting ducks for whatever that prick wanted. The situation was bad. Laurent had already caught up to them and the thought made Damien extremely angry. There would be no repentence for this sin of Nikolai\'s. He deserved whatever he got from Pierre. He had to lose Laurent somehow. They had to leave the city, get as far away as possible for right now.

He could drive until near sunrise, push eighty the entire way. Eighty miles per hour multiplied by how many hours? It was times like this that he wished he could exist during the day. Pull off at some hotel and rest....

And then what?

That didn\'t matter. He needed to get her away. He would call Pierre. Pierre would get their things. And then...

And then what?

[The Cedar Witch]

She did not say a single word to him as they reached the car. The girl hardly breathed, even when the vehicle sped from their previous location and she could feel his presence diminish as they pulled away. The speed scarcely caught her attention until the car began to tremble, causing her to throw an anxious glance at the driver. An expression that may have aroused a tinge of fear from the Akari was set on Damien\'s face. By now, she had become used to such a face, and the emotion that flowed so readily from him. But there was no comfort in such familiarity. Not tonight.

"He isn\'t following." Storm pushed through her teeth, eyes flickering from the speedometer to the scenery through the windshield. She didn\'t even notice her nails digging into the palms of her hands until they broke through her skin. Hardly any blood to cause much of her concern anyway. What the hell.... This was Nikolai\'s doing. Laurent finding her, the Shadows reawakening...

She did not answer his question, initially, choosing instead to gaze angrily at the windshield. Damien even mentioning the "black things", as if he had any idea of what he spoke of, made her bristle in defense. Could she rid herself of them? Maybe. The last time, she had been interrupted and the process had not been completed, though it did seem to cause them to retreat, if only for awhile. But it wasn\'t as if she had tried anything like that before, and Storm wasn\'t even sure if it would work the way she hoped it would.

After all, they were inside her mind as well.

"I can try," she said after a long pause, still refusing to look anywhere but at the speedometer and the windshield, out of anxiety and not for isolation from him. "It isn\'t something that can be done so simply. And I\'m not even sure if I can be thorough. He might make a move when I start, now that he knows where I am." The girl\'s voice was extremely quiet, though held no tremor.

[Saiketsu]

His foot lifted from the pedal and the little black car sighed gratefully. The engine descended to an even fifty miles per hour as Damien listened to what she wasn\'t saying. It wasn\'t like him to speed like that, especially not within the city limits, but the threat of another creature ruining what he had worked most of his life for... It was unbearable.

For her own sanity, Damien kept his hot silver eyes off of her and on the road. There was still no way to be completely comfortable with knowing that Laurent was so close to them, even if she had said he was behind them. Damien had every intention of keeping it that way.

"I need you to at least try. Tell me what you need to do hear and I\'ll do it. Do you need me to stop the car? Go somewhere? I mean, what do we do?" His voice was tight, words spoken between clenched jaws.

[The Cedar Witch]

"Do you remember," she began with the same, quiet voice, appreciating the deceleration, though she was still on edge. "A few months back, when I gave you and Pierre quite a scare?" there was a vague smile on her lips, something bitter and tainted with anger. Storm wasn\'t exactly jumping at the idea of explaining this to him, but what was the point in keeping it from him anymore? It wasn\'t like he was going to scold her for it or get anymore worried then he already was.

"I didn\'t know what I was doing. And I still don\'t. I just knew that I had to get them out of me. I\'m not even sure if it\'s a permanent fix..." The girl sighed deeply, slowly turning her head to look at Damien. "I could do it right now, but you\'re driving and I\'m going to bleed." nothing flickered across her face as she said this.

[Saiketsu]

His eyes remained focused. Of course he remembered; it was one of the bigger frights she had ever given them. His apartment had wreaked of her lifeblood, and it wasn\'t pleasant to walk into. The two vampires were stunned to learn that she had been bleeding herself right under their very noses but Damien had said nothing. She had been an enigma and still was.

But the thought of her bleeding herself again, so close to him while his anger and Thirst was steeping just below his skin. He didn\'t like it.

Self-control had always been an issue with him. While he was merely a fledgling he had never been starved. Lucretia allowed him to feed as long as he was Thirsty -- there were always dying humans somewhere nearby. But he had never gone a long time without blood before. As a result he had a low tolerance for starvation. He was able to last two days tops without blood. Several times it had gotten him into situations which created conflict and death, but he at least still continued.

Tonight was already night two. Thirst pulsed in his veins like a heartbeat: steady but ignorable. Storm\'s bloodshed would change that, he knew, but he had no idea how much.

There was an undeniable attraction that Damien had for Storm\'s blood. It smelled like the blessed sister of Lucretia herself pumping strong and hot through luscious, forbidden veins. There had been a point where he had tasted it, of course; no blood slaked his hunger quite as well as hers. But that was something they didn\'t speak of, a moment of weakness on his part. His hands had gripped her wrist in violent desire. It still made his skin crawl.

But he was leery about pulling the car over and letting her spill her blood out of his reach. What if Laurent did find them? What if didn\'t leave? What if...

"Don\'t worry about me," he murmured under his breath, preparing himself for the attack his immortal senses needed to bear. He didn\'t need to breathe, thankfully. His eyes could remain glued to the road. If he turned on the radio, there was a small chance that he wouldn\'t be able to hear the tender ripping of warm flesh. "Just do what you have to and I\'ll do what I have to." He could control himself. After nine hundred and forty-five years, he sure as hell better learn to.

[The Cedar Witch]

Storm watched him for a moment, knowing perfectly well how long he had gone without feeding and what that could have possibly meant for her. Had it been a few weeks prior, maybe she would have been leery about bleeding herself in front of him in such a condition. Trust, especially back then, wasn\'t anything common. Now, she still could feel that familiar hesitation pulling at her as she settled further into the barely-comfortable car seat. Inhale, she closed her eyes while the music came louder through the speakers around her. Exhale. There was no struggle as she passed into a relatively shallow level of alternate consciousness.

The girl could already feel the shadows gathering, and given her current physical position, she forced them to gather at her arms exclusively. There was no protest, no suspicion, nothing from the man in black watching from behind the curtain. It was as if he had retreated for the night, to wait until she decided to pass into a slumber in order to attack. And in his arrogance, he surely would never see this coming and be caught off guard. For once, a path that he could not see or predict. At least, that was what Storm was counting on.

With a calm state of mind, the Akari pulled out the ashtray that sat just below the radio controls. There were hardly any remnants of cigarettes left inside, which was a pleasant sight for the girl. She hated cigarettes, for more reasons then simply because of the harm they could still cause her living body. More then she wanted to think about at this very second.

Inhale, Storm straightened her back, keeping as far away from Damien as she could, and extended the tendrils of black. They swayed gently, and almost quivered eagerly, begging for something violent to do at her bidding, as if it had been too long. Hesitation again looked at the vampire. She felt open and vulnerable, doing this kind of thing in front of him. Exhale. But the longer she could feel them squirming in her blood, the more keeping secret stopped mattering so much. Inhale.

Her nails extended the slightest bit, something that was barely noticeable. She was getting better with the half-transformations, better with controlling them and making herself appear a hell of a lot more human then before. Quicker then any of the black shadows could have anticipated, even if they had gone through this sort of threat before, the talons dug deeply into her arm, latching onto a single thread of black tar. She shuddered at the sudden pain, even though she had expected it to begin with, trembling still when she pulled it slowly from her flesh. But before Storm allowed the thing to writhe in her grasp, she ignited the air around it, guiding it purposefully into the ashtray to burn.

The girl watched it burn for a moment in morbid curiosity as her entire body plunged into chaos. But the shadows were at her command and could not disobey her. Again her talons dug deeply into her arm, through skin, flesh, and muscle, nearly to the bone where the tar-like creatures clung so earnestly to. But there was no hiding from her, not when she could feel their every move beneath her skin. It felt like extracting a leech that refused to leave, but it burned just like paper, contained to the ashtray and ceasing to burn when there was nothing left to them.

Storm could not feel the presence stir in the back of her mind, moving closer to the places where she could not reach. Her attention was focused on extracting and burning, trying to keep as much blood off of the car as she could manage, and contain any red life to her own clothing.

[Saiketsu]

It was torture, plain and simple. There was no way to stop his jaw from trembling, even as it locked with his skull, or his hands from further denting the steering wheel as his fingers gripped and knuckles turned translucent, or his brain from replaying the sound of the burrowing flesh in warm blood as she tore herself apart. His throat had closed up and the air was thick with that scent and taste of blood. It permeated his senses, lingering on the inside of his nostrils, as if daring him to lose control of himself. Damien\'s eyes threatened to flick over to her.

The car was going faster than he wanted, his extremities rigid and immovable. But at least they weren\'t locked around her and her blood. It was too close to him, nothing separating her from him at all, save for the pregnable wall of air that hung heavily with microscopic droplets of her life. It was sweet and egged him to lose control. Memories flashed before his eyes as he fought with himself.

They were at the beach again. She drained him of his energy. Lucretia. Her wrist in his mouth. That sweet pull that he could have gotten lost in. He could have killed her. He could have been with his wife again. Sweet life. Warmth flooding his face. Exotic.

The car swerved before he knew what was happening. Damien came back to himself just as the car was about to hit the forestline. He grappled with the steering wheel --which had been transformed into bent and broken plastic with razor sharp edges due to his grip -- and swerved back. The car slowed as something dug into his hand and the lead foot put pressure on the brake. It stopped and he got out, slamming the door behind him, leaving Storm in the car.

He couldn\'t do it anymore; the blood was too much. There was the tang of old blood in his mouth when he realized he had sawed a sore into the insides of his cheeks with his aching teeth. His jaw was trembling and his throat burned. His body was rigid, his hands, now bloodied with deep red blood from the jagged steering wheel he himself had broken, shook as if he were in a seizure. The talons were extended and his sight reached farther than usual until the night and its left-over snow literally hurt his eyes. The scent still clung to him, but the winter air helped rid him of it. Damien leaned against the hood, trying to focus on controlling himself.

"Fuck." He would not step foot in that car until she was done and had aired it out. She was just too much of a temptation.

[The Cedar Witch]

There was a sudden strong pull followed by searing pain, fire, and blackness. It wasn\'t anything the crow was expecting mid-flight. He could feel doors suddenly sliding shut, the window narrowing and opportunity slipping. Bitch, he would have seethed had he been anything with a tongue to do so. But the crow was just a bird, and did nothing but flap its wings in an agitated manner. Something had to be done. He could no longer passively wait for her to walk into his trap. More traps could always be set.

If you let them go now, you are going to lose her again. In that very instant, unbeknownst to the Akari-slut, there had been a change of plans. Five of his pets had already been destroyed, diminishing the connection to something less than what the Captain would have liked. Originally Laurent had no intention of following them, lest his presence be discovered. He didn\'t quite want that to happen yet. Not this early in the game. But now that The Whore had the gall to pull another stunt like that on him again, he had no choice.

The crow veered sharply to the left, off its original course and back to where the shitty black car had taken off. If he knew that the car had actually stopped, the Zalmric may have taken his time. But, stil under the impression that he was chasing something moving eighty miles an hour, he did nothing of the sort. As far as he was concerned no time could be wasted.

Every so often his flight pattern would be interrupted by a new shot of pain: more of his aura burning in unnatural flame. And at the eighth pull, Laurent took a single shadow and urged it higher until it curled around the base of her skull, nestling deeply in a place that had gone unnoticed. And in that short amount of time, the crow had drawn close enough to feel that the car had indeed stopped. Had it continued to move, The Slut may have the slightest chance to escape, if only for a short while. Maybe.

The crow came to the top of the hill and stopped, noting the speck of black that lay at least a mile away. She was barely out of reach, he could feel that even without seeing her. The vampire-shit, on the other hand, was closer. Close enough for communication.

The crow became a man again, still donned in black, reaching for a cigarette on the inside of his coat pocket. Perhaps it was too bold of a thing to do, but perhaps not. The girl was now preoccupied with closing holes in her arms she herself had inflicted, too busy with herself to even feel the Captain approach. His feather-like touch would have yielded no reaction, and he made no move to make himself known to her. The vampire felt entirely consumed with the Hunger that the Captain could easily mistake for strong, sexual lust. It was a thought that made him rage inside.

The man took a long drag before establishing contact with the boy. "Delicious, isn\'t she? I\'d fuck her while you still have the chance. She comes so much sweeter when she\'s bleeding." He let his laugh fade into the boy\'s mind, sharply closing the connection before there could be a counter-attack.

[The Cedar Witch]

delete this post.

[Saiketsu]

He had almost controlled himself again. He had almost stopped the trembling of his jaw, calmed his senses down, had almost washed the scent of her blood away with the cool winter breeze. And then that flicker. And he lost it.

Damien got off the car and turned, facing the man straight on without knowing it. His face was hot with anger and that animalistic trait returned to his body. Immortal. Now it was personal. An inhuman snarl developed in the back of his throat as disgust washed over him. There was no ability to attack. His talons ached to tear apart flesh. It was personal. It was more personal than he could have ever thought.

Anger swelled in his chest. He couldn\'t respond to it, the psychological pathways walled off. There was no curse severe enough, no emotion strong enough. Damien seethed with putrid hate. This was what he had to contend with if he were to keep Storm.

Just who the fuck did he think he was? Damien didn\'t care if he was her keeper. He didn\'t care if she had his mark in her leg. If she had laid on him in the dead of night or vise versa. This was his fucking regime. This was his city. And now some upstart with Mommy-issues deemed it necessary to invade his city, his fortress? To degrade his wife? His empire? His Storm?

Absolutely fucking not.

"You son of a bitch." There was no fear in his voice. "Come out here and face me like a man. You talk, but you\'d better have a the balls to back it up." He was tired of this. This wasn\'t how things should have been. "Or do you get your kicks getting fucked by vampires who only pretend to be girls, faggot."