the Luminary

I… I don't know! way to put me on the spot!

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GUTCHUCKER
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Re: the Luminary

Post by GUTCHUCKER »

I like this vampire guy. He seems nice.
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Re: the Luminary

Post by Apocalyptus »

Almost... too nice.
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Kimra
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Re: the Luminary

Post by Kimra »

Gwen didn’t have any idea where she was driving, only that she was driving and she would have to stop eventually. Her passanger had been quite for the ride, and the few glances she had managed to get of him had made her uncomfortably aware that he was staring at her.

She felt awkward in her shirt and top. Exposed and more vunerable than she normally felt when she encountered one of their kind. Usually she instigated contact, usually she was in control. Having come out of nowhere she wasn’t sure what to do with this one. Kill it, was the obvious answer.

“What’s your name?” He asked at last, and she was pleased to see he was no longer looking in her direction but outside the car at their surroundings. It was late night, the streets were empty and she had driven them out into suburbia of all places. A second longer and she realised she’d driven out towards her own home, automatic pilot was a bitch.

“What’s yours?” She snipped back, tense and ready to fight, but he did not return the energy she was ready to fight with, instead it was all mocking calm.

“You’re very rude, and it’s Daniel.”

“Daniel?” God, she’s known a Daniel once, he’d been in her primary school she’d beaten him up once when he’d pushed her friend over. She slowed the car down to let another person drive, watching it fixadly.

“So,” He broke the silence briskly, “you don’t have a name?”

“Izar.”

“Sure.” He huffed in disbelief.

“Jennifer.” She fired.

“This is the best you can do?”

She snapped her head to him and glared. “Do you really think I’m going to tell you my name?” Her fierce growling voice, the one that had rarely failed her in intimidating those who threatened her, merely made him roll his eyes. She turned away.

“Not really, but I was curious.” He shocked her by touching her elbow, and she did not turn to look, instead releasing the break and rolling the car back into motion. “Why not tell me you’re name, if one of us is going to kill the other?”

She kept driving. Trying to escape the man in her passanger seat without actually getting away from him. Her brain was stuck, her thoughts looping and she could not fathom what she was doing anymore. The silence stretched taught and all she could think about was how close he was sitting, and how he didn’t seem all that dangerous or vicious, or even evil. And how she knew you couldn’t judge that from just a few seconds, but for the first time in her life she was the centre of attention for a man who wasn’t trying to kill her.

“Gwen.” She admited involentarily, only knowing she had to break the silence that had settled between them.

He laughed properly, and the touch on her arm became a light carress before it pulled away. “That’s a nice name. Old.”

“Like you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” And he, she realised with a jolt, was teasing her. Her chest was racing with the surprise of the revelation, and the relisation that she enjoyed it made her feel light headed. For just a moment she didn’t think about the things they had told her, the things they had trained her to understand from the moment she was recruited, instead she stopped thinking.

She wet her lips, and admited; “I would.”

“Sixty-five.”

“That’s-“ Awakward? Strange? Really too young for a vampire, and only slightly younger than her grandfather? “-not that old.” She finished lamely.

“Does it bother you?” He was watching her again, half turned in his chair to face her and she felt warm under his intense scrutiny.

She considered her answer carefully. It shouldn’t bother her. They were monsters, they took what they wanted with no regard for others, she had spent the last year being told about the depraved things these monsters did and sitting her, thinking how strange it was that a sixty-five year old was… doing whatever he was doing. Not being sure of what he was doing disturbed her too, becaue a tiny voice in her head was jittery insisting that he was flirting, but the idea was so proposterous that she couldn’t logically process the posibility.

She pulled the car up on the side of the road. It was a road lining a railroad with no houses and little other traffic. Right now it was empty of any other life and that meant it was safe. She assured herself that her weapons were still in place, put the car in park and turned it off. The car thurmed into silence and darkness settled throughout. Gwen soaked it in, a slight reprieve for her to think in, and waited for her eyes to adjust to the world around her.

She heard the click of a seat belt and jumped when he touched her neck. She slapped the hand away on reflex, vampires and necks were not something she was going to mix right now.

“We’re just going to sit here?” He drawled, and he still sounded amused.

“Yeah.” She pipped.

When she didn’t add more he continued. “For how long?”

“Until I figure this- figure out what this is.” Her stare was fixed outside the car, straight away, but without the exucse of driving there was nothing to really hold her attention there. Still and silent she was aware of everything her body was doing. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever been this conflicted or nervous and if hse had she couldn’t remember it now.

“I could help-“

“Shut up.” She interupted with a snapp.

He laughed properly then, his hand withdrawing from her proximity and she had to look, because it boogled the mind that anything like real emotion could come out of their kind.

This shouldn’t have been happening. Sure she’d noticed he was good looking the night before, but they all had an allure she’d been facinated by since the beginning. It was part of what they were, and she’d done her best to ignore it. She’d killed some of them for it, knowing they’d do the same to her if they’d known she was one of the Kindred. But here was this one, Daniel, and he knew- had to know, and he wasn’t even armed.

“I should kill you.” She felt little pieces of her sanity tear away. She had a knife, she had solitude, she was meant to kill him. Adam had told her too.

Again his hand touched her neck, and she merely looked over to him, her expression lost against. He wasn’t laughing, he was meeting her eyes and the intensity she saw there made no sense. Nobody was supposed to look at her life that.

When he spoke it was a whisper of words, and she only heard him because he was half across the seat leaning into her. “I wont stop you.”


[WC 8,699]

Umm, so that happened. Was really annoyed at Daniel throughout the scene though, because I wanted to make him a smoker so he had something to do with his hands, but also didn't want him to fall into the 'cool smoking guy' cliche. Damn you conundrums. So mostly he just stares at nothing for the whole scene... how awkward is that? Anyone give me something he can do during the scene when I rewrite? Anything or I'm going to make him a smoker damn it.
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Re: the Luminary

Post by smiley_cow »

My cousin has a ring he weaves through his fingers with when he's bored. Playing with a lighter? Chewing gum? Sorry none of these are great. If I think of anything else though, I'll comment.
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Kimra
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Re: the Luminary

Post by Kimra »

Gwen swipped the bucket of ice-cream across the scanner and dropped it in the bag with shaking hands. The next item got the same treatment, identify, scan, drop. She was following a pattern, ‘how’s your day?’, ‘that’s nice’, and ‘cash or card?’, all of them said as quickly as she could, because she was afraid her voice would be shaking as much as her hands were. They hadn’t stopped since she woke up that morning, she didn’t think they would ever stop.

The customer said something, a pleasant smile on their face and Gwen blinked at them for a moment. “What?” She managed, but it didn’t sound polite and the customers smile retreated a little.

“I asked how your day’s been.”

Gwen laughed inspite of herself, just one breath of a laugh and then she had it under control. “Fine.” She said for the benefit of social politeness then turned her attention back to the items. They were her life line right now, powdered custard, scan, a carton of eggs, scan, a 2kg packet of sugar, scan. Distraction and focus where the only things she could rely on right now and she was not going to slip up, not until she was home, in her bed, and could break down without witnesses.

She’d been ontime, and her boss had still yelled at her. He paraded in front of her and told her about the employie of the week and how many shifts they’d covered when people called in sick. He’d told her all about how they were up for promotion next month and how that was the kind of employie he liked to see, not people who didn’t take their work seriously, not people who didn’t see a future in their job. Gwen had been tempted to demand he tell her what kind of future career he expected a checkout chick to have, but she’d let it all go, because while he was shouting at her she didn’t have to think.

When her shift ended she hung around talking to the three guys in the crew room. She’d never spoken to them before and they invited her to some frat party they were attending but she turned that down politely, and when they left for their shifts she couldn’t find anyone else in the staff rooms to distract her. Swollowing her rising panic she headed for her car.



She’d only pulled over once, and it had taken ten minutes to calm herself down before she’d made the drive the rest of the way home. Stuart had opened the door with a florish, expecting someone, and one look at her face had him pulling her inside into a hug and then shuffling her into the kitchen.

She was wondering how to retreat when he sat opposite her setting down two mugs of tea. She blinked wondering how he’d done that so fast.

“Bad day?” He tested.

The day was no worse than any of the others, if you ignored the start of it. She wouldn’t have minded a bad day. He just watched her, dark brown eyes questioning as he tried to figure out what to ask next. Usually he wasn’t this calm, he took his role as flamboyant seriously.

He set his cup down, “I’m cancelling my plans.” She caught his wrist before he could get away from her, and near the phone.

“Don’t.” She couldn’t even smile, but he moved back to the chair and settled down again, expecting an explenation for his submission. “I did something… bad last night.”

“Bad?” Stuart considered her and the word and pushed her tea a little bit closer. She took it up and sipped the scalding liquid even though she was not thirsty. “Did you kill someone?”

Well wasn’t that ironic? She couldn’t help the scoff that came out, “Not last night.”

“Okay.” He drawled and took another sip of his tea, eyeing her over and taking in all the details he could. The cup at his mouth stilled, his expression clouding over and the cup was set down purposefully. He took a breath, and she barely noticed, because she’d found her eyes caught by the wood knots on the table and the pattern they formed. “Do I have to kill someone?”

“What?” She met his cloudy expression puzzled.

“Chicha,” he began slowly, went to reach for her but aborted the attempt. Then he asked in the gentlest tone she’d ever heard from him, “did he force you?”

“What?” Horror that she was so transparent struck her. She wanted to know how he’d known she’d been with someone, how he could possibly have known that, but the question kept jolting through her brain and she realised it needed to be addressed before Stuart made up his own mind. “No.” She insisted. “God no.” If only it had been that easy. “I would have killed him.” And even if she hadn’t she would have given it her best attempt. There was no way she wouldn’t- but that wasn’t the point. “I would have slit his throat.” But she hadn’t, she’d gotten out of his bed, dressed in silence and left. Her weapons had all been about the room, they had amused him when he discovered each one, and they hadn’t been touched. She hadn’t stayed, hadn’t railed, she’d escaped before what she’d allowed to happen could catch up with her.

Stuart took another sip of his drink, muscles relaxed again. “Good. Nobody messes with my flatmates.” Which was noble considering they’d only been in the house for seven months.

“Yeah.” She was in awe of his loyalty, of the anger he had started to display. She imagined how her mother would have reacted to the thought and shuddered at the sheer horror that situation would have brought about.

“So what’s wrong?” He pushed, less tender now because the worst had been discredited. He was still kind though and she found she didn’t want to tell him, because it was nothing compared to what could have happened. Exasperated by her resistance he pushed. “Chicha, you look the same way my mum did when dad died.”

“It’s nothing.” She took a large sip of the hot drink and pushed it away from her. Ready to leave.

“Chicha.”

“I-“ She wanted to shout and defend herself, but he looked to kind, sitting there and only worried about her. She swollowed down the anger. “I just- It’s complecated Stu. And I don’t- It’s just complicated.” She slouched down against the table pressing her head against its hard surface. “I’m so messed up.”

Stuart petted her head reasuringly. “We all are, chicha. Don’t let it get to you.”

She listened as he continued to pet her head, listened as he took a sip of his drink and set it down but didn’t go anywhere. It was nice to know he wasn’t going anywhere, that he’d stay if she needed him to. Even when the doorbell rang and he answered it she knew he’d come back, and he did, date in hand and simply took back his seat.

“Chicha isn’t feeling well, so we’re going to stay in tonight.”

She thought about abusing the kidness, but couldn’t really do it. Stuart had been crowing about this work collegee for some weeks now, it wouldn’t be fair to interupt them just because she had decided to turn her life upsidedown on a one night stand.

“Go. I’m fine.”

“Gwen-“ Stuart sounded pained, but it was her name that did it. She sat up properly, her back straight and met his eyes.

“I’m just wollowing Stu, I shouldn’t have done it, and I did.” To take the sting out of her own words she gave him a faint, honest smile. “Go, have fun, dance around like an idiot-“

“I dance excellently”

“-and have a nice night. I just want to curl up under my blankets and go to sleep. Okay?”

“Yeah okay.” He had to assess her again, but apparently she passed, because he took his partners hand and led them out of the kitchen. She heard when the frontdoor clicked closed and set aside the pleasant smile she had conjured for him. Then she went to her room, tea in hand, and problems to mull over.


[WC 10,025]
I don't even know what this story is doing right now. Whatever. It's getting written, that's the main point right now. : )
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Kimra
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Re: the Luminary

Post by Kimra »

She dreamt about sand. A storm of sand that hailed past her but only slid across her skin, never marking, never harming. She dreamt about sand and then of nothing, just comforting darkness that cocooned and protected. It was a beautiful dream and Gwen did not want to wake up. She tucked her blankets closer in around her body and pretended she could fight the wakefullness that was invading pleasant thoughtless dreams.

Eventually she convinced her body, and tired red eyes closed against reality. Her dreams were less pleasant the second time round, buildings and fighting and betrayal that felt bitter but exciting. When she woke up the second time she stayed awake, because it wasn’t a dream worth repeating. Sand though, that was new.

She snuck past the stranger on the sofa hugging a cushion like a well loved pillow, and locked herself in the bathroom to ready for the day. Today was classes. Classes she wasn’t paid for, classes that weren’t recognised, but classes she had been trapped into none the less. She skipped them once, that’s when she’d realised the Guardians didn’t take no for an answer.

A knock on the door broke her from her revive and Gwen pulled her head out from below the water.

“What?” She called, annoyed at the interuption.

“I need the loo.” It sounded a bit like Matt, which meant he’d keep pestering. She stuck her head back under the water to rinse out the shampoo annoyed. Of the three flatmates, Matt was the most annoying.

He pounded on the door again.

“Go to McDonalds!” She shouted throught the water.

“That’s ten minutes away! I’m not walking to McDonalds.”

She moved quicker despite her resistance to compromise, and the conditioner was in and out in record time. He kept pounding on the door, and the good start to her day was lost in the irritation of a shared bathroom with people who had no good manners to speak of.

As she dried herself off the banging on the door stopped, and she wondered if he had gone to McDonalds. It was the last resort, but it was something they had been forced to do with four people in a house made for two. One bathroom was not enough for that sort of arrangement.

Because he wasn’t demanding she took her time, and considered drying her hair out properly to show how stubborn she could be if she wanted to. But she could do it as easily in her own room, so she pulled on her clean clothes for the day, a black pair of jeans and a tshirt to match, the shirt had a hole in it, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that and it was minimal. Then barefoot Gwen walked back to her room, silently treading past the house guest who had clearly been too drunk to go home the night before.

She pulled her socks and shoes on, lacing them tight and grabbed her training bag before sneaking out into the lounge room. Matt, the idiot, who clearly hadn’t needed the bathroom in any desperation was coming down the stairwell looking cross.

“Where are you going?”

She didn’t like the feeling of interogation and didn’t feel inclinde to handle his surly mood swings. “Work.”

“You’re always going to work.”

“Funny that, wanting to get paid.” She shifted the strap of her bag over her shoulder and stared him down. “Didn’t you need the bathroom?” Because that had ruined her morning and she’d be damned if he got away with it. Apparently she was damned, because he ignored her and squinted at her bag.

“What’s that for?”

“The gym. I go to the gym you know.” That was it, her social obligations where outweighed by her desire to leave, so she did something her mother would have scolded her for, she walked away.

Matt tried to follow but she pulled the door shut between them and continued onwards pleased to get out of the house until she remembered exactly where she as going.



The Guardians were a unique sort of group that had recruited her when they knocked on her door one day. It hadn’t made sense at first, what they wanted and she’d tried to get rid of them by telling them she didn’t have any money. When they’d started talking about meetings she’d tried to tell them she had to go, religion wasn’t her strong suit. In the end their perseverence coupled with her unwillingness to be openly hostile to strangers when they weren’t be hostile had her listening to them for longer than she should have. It had been worth her time.

They’d offered her a paid position in their ‘company’, they had told her that there was a course she had to complete but she ahd been selected to do it for free. They’d told her almost anything to get her into the first meeting.

She would never forget that first meeting, she doubted any of the Kindred would.

“Hey.” Elliot sat next to her he usually sat with Shana.

“Where’s Shana?” She glanced to be sure, but the amazonian woman was nowhere to be seen. He shruged and unpacked his books. Gwen wondered what all the books were for, she had a pad of paper and a pen, and even those she used fleetingly. She liked to scrible while being lectured though, it kept her sane.

“What about Ruby?” He was looking over the group as well, and Gwen noticed that there was someone else missing, a boy, but she hadn’t even had a chance to talk to him so the name didn’t come. Usually she remembered the other recruits names, probably because she liked them all. “Maybe the vamps found them.”

“How would they? We’re still recruits.” They kept their voices down as the Guardian set up his board and books, mumbling to himself as he did so. Neither of them wanted to get called out for anything.

“But we’re Kindred right? They might know that.”

“How?” Because really she hadn’t actually figured out what the Kindred were, only that the Guardians called them that.

Class started before Eliot could answer, but Gwen could see he wasn’t entierly sure of what his answer was going to be. Apparently she wasn’t the only one who had no idea.

“Alright,” the guardian began, shuffling his robes into order, “today we’ll start with domovoy. Who knows what they are?”



Gwen was enjoying an nap before dinner, because frankly the instructors had exhauhsted all her energy and there was no way she could pick up her fork, yet alone eat. It was no longer a new or novel experience so Gwen was only to happy to fall into her nap knowing she would feel well enough to handle life only after she’d slept for an hour or two.

The knocking on her door, therefore, was against the grain and quite possibly the biggest travisty that had happened in a long time. She ignored it purposefully but the rhythem being tapped out purposefully, and forcefully, did not cease.

“Go-way.” She grumbled at the door, and the noise ceased.

“Chicha.” Stuart summoned. Gwen burried her head in below her blankets and curled her body into a smaller ball. The world was conspirering to take away her sleep, one second at a time and they were starting to pile up.

“Are you dead?” She demanded through a crack in her blankets.

“Chicha, there’s someone here.”

Which made no sense, unless Adam had come over again, wanting a report. But it wasn’t likely because Adam only ever came when he knew no-one else was there. If the guardians caught him talking to her behind their backs he’d loose the position he had been working for for so long. “Who?” She grumbled, because she wasn’t expecting anyone and didn’t know that many people anyway.

She considered ignoring the information in favour of falling back asleep, and even tried. But her mind was awake and curious and-maybe Stu had gotten her dinner and was trying to entice her out. She got up and stomped out into the loungeroom in her pajamas.

What she wasn’t expecting was a group of people. Matt was on the lounge looking grumpy, two of Matts friends where on the lounge next to him with beers in their hands, Stuart was dressed for a date and standing by the stairs, and Daniel was leaning against the wall to her room as if he’d been there for some time. She did a mental check for weapons and remembered that she did not wear weapons to bed, and that she was in her sleep shirt and shorts. Instead of panicing she looked past Daniel.

“What’s he doing here?” She grit out. She probably wasn’t intimidating, but she was furious.

Matt made a noise and motioned about the room like some sort of royalty. “He’s your boyfriend-“

“He is bloody not.” Her hands tensed as she glared over into the green eyes she had hoped never to see again. Apparently he knew where she lived.

Stuart lost his cheer, “You want him gone?”

Gwen wanted to take him up on the offer, but Stuart had as much chance of getting rid of Daniel as… well he didn’t have one if Daniel wanted to be there. Stuart did, however, look ready to try. Gwen didn’t think Stuart would survive the encounter, and she didn’t know Daniel well enough to decide if he’d let her friend survive, with that in mind she forced the tension out of her body and voice. There was no need to cause a scene right here.

“It’s fine.” She managed in a semblence of calm, and although Stuart looked durious she motioned for him to relax and he did.

“Gwen.” Daniel wasn’t smiling today, but he still watched her with intese focus.

“I didn’t realise it was that late.” She told him, because really, if the sun had set she’d actually slept more than she though.

“You forgot our date, didn’t you?” He moved towards her, and although she tensed he did not flinch. The hand on her shoulder unnerved her. She should not have to see this man, she’d sectioned him off into a corner of her brain for things that would never ever be near her again.

She ground her teeth on a smile. “I just slept too long. I’ll change,” she glanced at the rooms occupants, “then we can go.” She went to draw out from under his hand when she noticed the suspicon in Stuarts eyes and knew she couldn’t risk it. “You can wait in my room.” She motioned to the door, the only room that opened onto the lounge room and he went ahead of her, apparently fine with showing her his back. She wanted to stab him just for being so doubtful of her abilities, she could kill him, escpaially if he made it so easy for her.

His first observation was only one of the reasons for her desired privacy; “You’ve messy.”

“You shouldn’t be here.” She snapped, pushing past him to her draws, she had to get him out of the house before something happened. She had to get him out and keep him out.

She found a skirt and shirt that were mostly clean, ignoring that there was someone watching her every move, ignoring that she was the focus of his intense scrutiny. Despite everything she was terrified of changing in front ofhim, but she did it anyway, then she strapped every weapon she carried with her on hunts into their place. He already knew where they went anyway, unless his memory was extremely short.

She didn’t hear Daniel move, but she prepared herself incase he did and when she turned she found him leaning back against her door with hooded eyes. She grabbed her bag only realising that he was between her and the exit when she made to move.

“Move.” She ordered with a frown. She was not dealing with this, she shouldn’t have to deal with this.

“I notice,” he began, head tilted just a little to inspect her. She felt for the first time in a long time nervous in her casual clothes. She wore them so she wouldn’t feel self concious, but he was inspecting her far to critically to prevent the sickening feeling that came from social anxiety. “I’m not dead.”

“Pretty sure you are.” Annoyed she tried to manhandle him out of the way, and instead of moving he caught her up in his hold and pushed her into the wall, her back to his chest. She felt the thurmp of angry energy before he even spoke.

“We are not dead.” His growled, low and fierce. “They teach you nothing, do they?”

“Killer.” She hissed back, got her hands in position pushed back and kicked off the wall. They collided with the oposit wall in the little alcove to her door but his grip didn’t loosen. She used the freedom to grapple, loosened his hold and managed to turn, but not escape. “You know I’m Kindred then? I was starting to wonder.”

“I knew what you where when Robert got in your car, I knew he was dead.”

Sneering she replied, “And you just let him? What a good friend you are.”

“Some thing are worth more than a friend.”

“Oh me?” She sneered. “Should I be flattered?” Because what other explenation was there? “I hear there are Kindred everywhere, you could have found one of them to fuck any day of the week.” She thought of the missing recruits, and wondered again where they had gone, the guardians hadn’t mentioned them at all.

“They didn’t come to my club. They knew better, which makes me wonder why you where there.” His hold kept her in place when she tried to move, and his voice hissed directly into her ear. It was unnerving, so she elbowed back into his kidney. He released her and she moved, turning to meet him glare for glare.

“We only just learnt-“ She spat.

“I killed three of them five years ago for coming into my club. Some places the Kindred don’t tread.”

“Well I’m more daring then they are, apparently.”

He smiled, all teeth and amusement and she saw the little nicks of his incissors. Nothing special or big, but enough to break flesh with little effort. Most people wouldn’t even notice, most people didn’t.

“Yes you are. Because I don’t see them spreading their legs for-“

She punched him square in the jaw. Furious and embarrased and disgusted with the man ebfore her as much as herself. “You know.” She warned, white with fury. Inexplicably the anger in his expression melted away to something less identifiable that did nothing to quell the anger that set her hands shaking with restrained violence.

“I do.” He admited, he went to touch. She blocked.

“We leave, right now, and you never come back.”

He considered her and her words before making his decission; “We can leave any time you want.” Later she’d realise he had only agreed to half of her demands.



[WC 12,549]

1/4 through

Edit: added the last line
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Re: the Luminary

Post by Kimra »

He took her to a house she recognised, situated in a street full of other houses, with nothing remarkable about it and no signs that a vampire lived there. She followed him inside.

He took her passed the room they’d fallen into during that first meeting, the only room in the house she’d seen, and took her down the narrow hall past another room and into the end of back of the house. Inside had darker colours, rich and vibrant despite their tone. The furnature was old and well kept, and the air felt cool. She appreciated the reprieve from the outside humidity, but did not relax.

He led her down into a basement, and she was struck with the oddity of it, because she ahd not seen a basement in any other house she’d ever been to. Basements just didn’t seem to happen in the area, she wasn’t even sure why.

“This is my room.” He made a grand motion to encompass the dark green painted walls, the shelf of books and the large bed. There were other things, a large tv and sundry, a couple bottles of alcohol and an open door that lead to a bathroom. The room had a large lounge along one wall, near the bookshelves but was otherwise open. “It’s not to my tastes, but money is tight right now.”

“Your fathers dead is he?” She stood awkwardly by the stairs, the door behind her still open and also the only escape. He shruged absently. “Did I kill him?” She hoped she had because this was all too strange. Hadn’t she killed his friend the other day?

“No. He died before you were born.”

“Pity.”

Something about her tone, her desire to be the one who had killed his father made him laugh. Just a short laugh, the kind of laugh one made when they had a secret that they weren’t sharing. She felt another layer of guard build between them. She didn’t like private jokes.

“Why am I here?” She demanded, arms crossing over her chest. She was not going to subject herself to this man any longer than she had to.

“You came.”

“To get you out of my home.” She growled.

He shrugged and moved across the room to a bar fridge. She watched as he opened it and saw a selection of food inside. She wasn’t sure why he bothered, did they even eat? “I was thinking a date, but then you did your strip tease-“

“What?” She couldn’t fathom the idea of a date, the mere posibility of it. “Who are you kidding?” She demanded, taking steps forward, but he’s back was to her and he was pouring out some water. Her hand shook and she reached for the dagger she kept on her thigh.

He did glance then, under his arm at her hand and she noticed there was tension in his shoulders. He wasn’t sure how she was going to respond.

“You’d prefer a date then?” He asked, turning and holding the second glass out of her. She didn’t bother to take it, just stood feet apart ready to defend or attack depending on what was about to happen.

“How dare you come to my house.”

“Well you were unlikely to come back to mine-“

“For a reason!” She shouted without meaning too, but there was no need to care. If the guardians knew where she was she was as good as dead anyway.

“If you’re worried about your guardians.”

“I’ve got bigger things to worry about!” She snapped. His answering grin was predatory and the glee in his eyes was unmistakeable.

“Good.” He lent in and she realised she’d gotten close. She refused to step back and show he was having an affect. “Because the guardians? They are nothing.”

“They kill your kind.”

“They can’t even kill a coven when they find it. Their Kindred – you- are weak and unprepared to handle what really lurks in the shadows.”

Gwen moved in defense, not of the guardians, but of Adam. He had taken her under his wing when she arrived, he had shown her what the Kindred could really do. The Guardians hoarded their knowledge, but Adam held nothing back. She’d sworn to help him the day he’d arrived at her doorstep, weary and desperate. She would never turn her back on her friends.

Her first attack was blocked, her second and third as wel. The fifth attack landed a sharp jab to his neck that had him backing up momentarily. Then he attacked back.

Fighting Daniel was unlike fighting any other vampire she had ever met. Maybe it was because they had already had time to assess each other, or maybe he was stronger, or better prepared than the others. She wasn’t sure what the reason was, but for each attack she made he defended until she realised she was being backed up step by step. She made a desperate move for one of her weapons, he caught her hand twisted and pulled her back into his body.

“I do like foreplay.”

“Go fuck yourself.” She growled and he bit her. His teeth nicking the skin of her neck and driving in. She couldn’t control her limbs, falling back against his body and forgetting why she was there.

He pulled back, and she didn’t think, just turned and caught him, pulling him back towards her, and instead of directing him to her neck he found her mouth and whatever she had been thinking before got lost in a haze of hormones and the feeling of being wanted that overwhelmed even her good sense.



Gwen fixated on her paper as she scratched the outline of an eye into the paper. She had left school hoping to be done with lectures about anything, she had skipped univerity for the same reason. And now the Guardians had roped her into surrendering her weekends to learning about things even they didn’t think were all that important. Kill vampires, that’s what they were being trained for, not to kill these other things. Apparently though they believed a rudimentry knowledge was nessisary.

Her mind wandered as the Guardian, a tall skinny gentlemen with no name to match to his features, told them about the different spirits that shifted into inanimate objects and how they could be spoken to if one ever encountered one. Since they had been told not to enter any spirit places, and most of them were so scared stiff from their first introduction to a vampire, it was unlikely any of them would ever need the knowledge.

“Miss Gwen.” She glacned up fro her doodling to find the glare of a Guardian on her. The two in the wings hadn’t moved, but she had the teachers full attention, and with it the classes.

“Sir?” She hadn’t been obviously absent in her attention, but it was clear she’d been caught.

“What, if not my words, are you focused on?”

That was an interesting question. Usually they weren’t so open ended and she wanted to know, she needed to know if he was lying to her or not. Just one lie and she knew she could do what she had to.

“Are they dead?” She forced out before her courage could run away. The other recruits looked at her before turning their heads to the front, apparently they weren’t sure either.

“I’m sorry? We are talking about alux, and they are not.”

“Vampires, are they dead?” She saw his irritation and knew she was doing just what Adam had told her no to do, drawing attention to herself, but knowing was more important now, knowing was the only thing that would get her out of this mess.

“They are born dead.” He walked to her desk, ready to stamp down any doubts she had. “They are unnatural predators who feed off the life of those around them. They are as dead as your ancestors, rotting in the ground.” He glared until she looked down, then waited longer until he was sure she would ask no questions. But she wouldn’t, there were limits to her courage. He returned to the front of the room, and as he continued to lecture them about how to identify a alux from other hidden spirits and how dangerous each was.



“They’re alive.” Adam was on the psych couch today, and Gwen had taken a seat on his desk, enjoying the freedom of being able to. Her brain was mush from classes and she honestly wasn’t sure if she could tell the difference between a type p and type h spirit any better than she could yesterday when she hadn’t known they existed.

“Alive?”

“Well, they’re born, they age, they die.” He shrugged casually. “Alive as you or I.”

“Why didn’t the Guardian say that?”

“Because they don’t want you to know anything. They think if you know they’re alive you’ll hesitate to kill them. But they are monsters Gwen, make no mistake, they will kill you if you hesitate.”

She thought about Daniel, about the chances he’d had to kill her and how he hadn’t taken any of them, he hadn’t even seemed to consider it. She flushed with the memory of what they had done last night. Flushed with the realisation that it hadn’t been any kind of pursuasion, it had been her alone that had been weak and begging and had sprawled out on his bed like a sacrifical virgin. She sneered at that thought, no, not a virgin anymore, he’d sorted that out the first night.

“You seem distracted.” Adam had his feet on the floor, watching her quizically.

“That club-“

“You handled it, didn’t you?’

“Of course.” Her tension gave away something, but Adam didn’t comment and instead he rose and walked back to his chair. She shifted around on the desk to face him when he sat.

“The club?” He checked.

“How long have you known about it?”

“Me or the guardians?”

“You are a guardian.” She reminded, because even though he wore the robes and had the books he tried very hard not to be what the guardians had become.

“Gwen-“

“I know.” She interupted, because she did know, he had explained it plain enough before now. “You don’t agree with them.” Which was putting it mildly.

Adam lent back in his chair, swinging it from side to side in a small rocking motion. Gwen watched the chair move thoughtlessly.

The silence had lingered for some time, not uncomfortable nor weighted, just the sort of comfrotable silence they sometimes fell into.

“I have a job-“ He began, reaching to a stack of papers to Gwens right. He pulled off the top folder, and flicked it open. Gwen looked at the face in the top right corner of the page, it was unfamiliar and unpleasent. “It needs to be done tonight.”

Gwen nodded as he pulled the top page out of the folder and handed it over to her. It had the home address, which was unusual, and nothing else.

“This is important, Gwen.”

She nodded, trying to memorise the gaunt features staring back at her. She’d keep the page, sneak it into her bags and get out of the guardians manor as soon as she could. The door guards never bothered the Kindred except when they were new. Gwen had been terrified the first time she’d walked passed the guards, but they barely blinked in her direction anymore. It wasn’t the first time Adam had given her the details to take home.

“Tonight?” She checked, because it was already late and she had work in the morning. Being kindred may have been some sort of higher calling, but it didn’t buy food, and it didn’t pay the bills.

Adam caught her hand and pulled it over, his lips landing on one nuckle in a move that froze her solid and then sent her body in a thurm of shocked uncertainty. He smiled for her, and she nodded. She would do it tonight. She would leave the grounds and make her way there. Google maps were certainly something that came in handy when hunting was involved.

“Tonight.” She agreed, and his pleased expression made her feel proud and excited because he so rarely looked pleased with the weight of the guardians pressing down on him from all sides. “Tonight.” She repeated, tempted to reach out and touch him, but too afraid of what would happen. Instead she folded the paper and tucked it into her shirt. It would have to do for now.

[WC 14,635]

I had to drink alcohol to get words on page. Apparently posting here has made me more of a prude. Sex has been completely omitted from the story except the 'oh that happened'. Man that's heaps of words I could have added, even without going into proper smut.

Whatever, more words abound. I'm not going to sleep until I've hit 16,670 though! Must get ahead.
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Re: the Luminary

Post by Kimra »

“There’s something else.” Adam interjected when she went to leave. She turned back to him and relatched the door. He wasn’t looking at her, instead at the file he had opened back up. “It’s unusual, but should be a problem.” She didn’t reply, just waited for the instructions. Sometimes he told her important things about the location she was going. Once the information had saved her life. “Leave the body where it falls.”

“What?” That went against all his rules.

“This time only. It’s important. Just walk away when your finished.”

“You want me to kill him there?” It went against the grain. It would draw attention, it would draw a great big target where they didn’t want a traget to be drawn. It would leave proof. But when Adam caught her eye there was no hesitation or doubt and she surrendered her argument, because he would not tell her to do it unless it had to be done.



Gwen parked around the corner from the old house and sat in the car with the lights off. The neighbourhood was old, money and prestige. This is what a vampires house was supposed to look like, not the almost normal home that Daniel had shown her through. She wondered if he lived around here somewhere, where land was worth more than most lives, and lives where as easily sold as gold.

She didn’t need anything but her weapons, and they were tucked in out of sight. The blade on her thigh was the most encouraging of those weapons. Sometimes she didn’t even have a chance to pull one out before the whole thing was done, but she still had to keep them hidden.

Gwen climbed the fence around the house because she front gate was security locked, and when nothing jumped out of her once she was on the grounds she was pleased. No guard dogs came barking and no lights went flashing so she moved on.

The house itself was no better guarded than any other. She tried the downstairs first, seeking out the path to the lower levels but when she got there only found wine and a small cache of money. She took the money and tucked it into her bra. She wasn’t going to sneer at money and he wouldn’t need it when she was finished. Having searched the bottom level she moved up. It was almost dawn so she expected the vampire to be asleep or tucking down for the night – honeslty she’d never gone to a house to catch her prey before, she wasn’t sure what to expect.

It was on the third floor that she detected movement. She stilled and listened but it was light movement and when she opened the door to the room it had come from a small dog was sitting on the other side looking up at her expectently.

She was tempted to verbally tease it on its guard dog duties, but it trotted past her and down the closest flight of stairs before the temptation ot make noise manifested into anything dangerous. She walked into the room to check it and found a form wraped in the blankets on the bed. The rooms shutters were latched tightly and the complete darkness of the room made it hard to see clearly.

She approached as silently as she could, gripping her largest blade in preperation. It wasn’t a big blade, less than the length of her hand, but it was sharp and it would bite and had bitten before. She kept it sharp, and had never been quite so proud of any of her belongings. She judged the figure in the bed and used her spare hand to pull the blanket off it as lightly as she could. The blade flicking to his neck as she squinted in the pitch black at his face. His features came into focus, and she knew she had her target.

She stared at the figure lying there, and knew with a sick feeling in the pit of her chest, that she did not want to do this. But it was too late to escape and she was too close to turn back. This man really did seem to human, lying there as if he would wake with his alarm in the morning and do what anyone else did in their fay. But she knew better, and Adam knew better. Resolved she did what had to be done.

His eyes opened when she dragged the blade across his neck, cutting from one artery to the other in a careful ark. His hands jumped up to try and stop her, but the damage was done. Wide open eyes, brown and murky with age stared at her in shock. He tried to gargle words at her, but they came out lost and bubbly. Gwen waited until he stopped moving, until his chest sunk a little and his eyes ghosted over in that blank look that had become all too familiar to her.

She pulled the blanket back completely and spying blue silk pajamas, and located his still heart. She lined the blade carefully and drove it in through the gap in his ribs, careful to slice through the organ as Adam had taught her to do. She pulled the blade out and watched the dying fluid glug out slowly, staining the sheets before the flow began to slow. She did the next cut cleanly, rituralisticly, and followed through the process in the same manner she was always required to. Then against her better judgement she stepped back from the body with its nicks and cuts and left it to its fate.



Stuart woke her up, even though he’d sworn when he moved in he never would. Apparently her alarm clock had been blaring for over three hours and his sanity was pushed to the limit. He was pounding on her locked door, pleading with her to turn the thing off at an hour that he would normally sleep quite happily through.

She flicked the alarm off and snuggled back under her blankets for all of five seconds before reality cracked through her beautiful sleep bubble. Adrenline peaked and she was up and out of bed glaring at the clock as she pulled out her work clothes from the dirty laundry, because she had not done the washing on the weekend. She dressed, and smothered herself in deodorant, and Stuart was mumbling his way back upstairs to his room when she ran through the loungeroom and out to her car. She hadn’t even bothered to park in the gararge today which made it all much easier to deal wth for now.

She jumped in the car, still buttoning up her shirt and started it. Her head kept jumping to the numbers, trying to rearange them in a way that didn’t make her two hours late for work, but they were being uncooperative and she knew it was 1pm even as she shifted the cars gears and revved it out into traffic.

[WC 15,805]

I missed a bit in the last scene, so it became it's own mini scene at the beginning of this bit. Poor Gwen I am completely neglecting to get to the story, and I'm just messing with her life right now. That's just mean and boring.
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Re: the Luminary

Post by Kimra »

“Great.” It wasn’t like she’d wanted the job, except for the money part of it anyway. Nobody wanted to spend their lives standing at a counter being paid abysmal amounts of money to hear people complain about the most mundane things. But it had paid the rent, she wasn’t sure if she could afford next months rent and checking her bank account was going to be to traumatising to consider. She was not up for that kind of reality just yet.

They’d even had the gall to wait until her shift had ended! She should have known it was coming though, because the boss hadn’t said anything when she arrived, and she’d been allowed to get straight ot work.

She thumbed the two dollar coin in her pocket wondering what she could buy for dinner. Her store discount had already been revoked, but she didn’t think she could stand walking into that place again anyway. Not today, that was for sure. Two dollars didn’t make a meal, didn’t even make the beginings of one. She considered buying something bad for her, most of those things cost more than two dollars as well.

In the corner store there was an abundence of things she could almost afford but what caught her eye amongst the overstocked shelves was unrelated to food. Todays newspaper sat innocently on a crate by the counter and she bought it on impulse.

Outside the shop she flicked through the articles quickly, seeking that one all important story. A dead man desecrated in his bed was sure to show up, but as she neared the sports section it became clearer and clearer that it hadn’t made it to the paper yet. It was possible, she supposed that the vampires had cleaned up after her, or that the body hadn’t been discovered yet. She folded the paper in half and took it home with her.



Something was going on, Gwen could see it when she walked into classes. The man at the front of the room was old, older than any of their instructors thus far and his robes were black not red. He stood perfectly still before the recruits leaning forward onto his cane. He was old and brittle but poised like a snake an no recruit made a noise as they took their seats.

“I am no stranger to your faces,” he began, clear eyes piercing them where they sat, “but you do not know mine.”

Gwen glanced at Shane, by her side, but he was fixated on their speaker.

“You have been recruited by we, the Guardians, for one purpose-“ he speared her with his eyes, “what is that purpose girl?”

“To kill vampires.” She responded automaticaly, glad that no hesitation had shown on her part.

“What else?”

She was unnerved by his forcus on her with a room full of other people to look at, but her answer was only slightly shaky. “Nothing else. There is no other purpose.” Unless they counted protecting others, but even she could remember the speeches given the first day.

He turned back to the room and picked another recruit to fix his eyes on, keeping them in his sights. The boy was very young with large eyes, Gwen knew him by the name of Telly and he kept up with all the other recruits during training.

“And what are you?”

“The Kindred- I mean.” Telly fumbled his answer for a mement, stuttered a little and then tried again, clearer. “Recruits for the Kindred.”

“You are the Kindred.” This to the whole room. “You were born Kindred and it is your duty as Kindred to kill the vampires. You were born to this duty.”

A hand rose cautiously from the back of the room.

“No questions!” The man barked and the hand immediately withdrew to safety. His voice was harsh with anger and his eyes remaind fixed on Telly the glare unrelenting. The attention of the room was once more undivided. “Are you ready to face a vampire yet boy?”

“No sir.” Quick and simple, but the voice shook with stress.

“Why not?”

“Because it takes years of training sir. We need to train more.”

“Good.” His next victim was one of the elder men in the class, easily in his late twenties. “Do you remember your first lesson?”

“Yes.” His name was Max, he had a child when he was younger and his girlfriend was draining him dry for childsupport. Gwen had found him nice the few times they spoke. Now his guard was so high he sounded empty.

“What did you learn?”

“That they will kill, with out hesitation, they will rend us apart like we are nothing.”

“The same they do with all creatures.” Echoed the old man, a litterney he had memoriesed just as they had.

“Sir.” Max nodded agreement and the old man turned away from him.

“We face a dillemma children, for you are only children compared to the collective memory and knowledge of the guardians, one of you has erred.”

Gwen clenched her hand involuntarily. This is what she had been waiting for all week. This is what Adam must have known would happen. It was her duty to him not to give herself away.

“One of you has been over eager.” Eyes flicked around the room, and Gwen forced herself to so the same, checking others with the same suspicion and hoping her face gave nothing away.

“One of you has taken what you know from these halls and begun to practice.”

“One of us?” Fraya was right, it sounded crazy, especially when they could each barely hold their own in a light spar. They were not equipped to fight yet, not in the instructors eyes, and the instructors were guardians as well. This was just another level of control the Guardians maintained over the Kindred.

“The kindred are taught many things, you know how to navigate all the aspects of this world when you leave these chambers. You know how to recognisse a vampire from the way they move to the way they smell. You are sent to dispatch of them, as you find them.”

Smell? Gwen remember something about that, and thinking about Daniel she realized he did have a smell unique and old and somehow spicy. She hadn't thought about it before but they all seemed to have a smell, it lodged in the nose long after the kill was done, thick in their blood and tangy in its consistancy. It was a shame they hadn’t actually been taught any of this in their ‘classes’ it might have been useful.

“One of you has been too eager to show their training to the world.” He found another victim, staring hard and making them sweat. Gwen knew he had been judging her, testing her responses. She had no idea if she had won or not but his continued quest for a victim gave her hope. “One of you has broken into a vampires den and sliced them through with no supervision and no protection.” He looked now to the whole room, seeking out the guilty face he was here to uncover. “It was reckless and dangerous and whoever it was is lucky to be alive now.”

Gwen dismissed that, she had heard someone say a vampires den was guarded and protected but it had been pure easy to sneak into that home.

“They killed a vampire?” Telly asked excitedly.

“Yes.” Was the tight reply.

“This is bad?” Telly checked, sounded as young as he looked.

“Dangerous, reckless. At any time if they find out who you are...” that threat was left to hang over them all. Gwen would have even felt the ominous fear of that if not for Daniels one and only visit to her home. She hadn’t seen him since that encounter and was glad the marks her had left had finally settled down. She hadn’t trusted them to stay hidden when she’d covered them up. Fortunatly the only person likely to notice them had been avoiding her, but Adams absense had raised several other unanswerable questions.

“I don’t think it was one of us.” Shane interupted, looking piqued but otherwise only curious. “You haven’t even told us how to kill a vampire.” For effect he added; “Do we stab them through the heard with a wooden stake?”

The Guaridans at the front of the room flanking the old man passed glances amongst themselves and Gwen hoped Shane hadn’t just signeled himself out of he crowd. The old men motioned them into silence and looked out at the recruits again. “We are not angry with you. We know it is hard to be aware of the terrible things the monsters do and not be ready to fight them. But we must ask you to step forward. There will be no recriminations, only a reassessment of your abilities. Perhaps you are even ready to join the kindred already stalking the streets.” His smile was sincere, like he would welcome them with open arms, but behind him Gwen could see the looks of discontent in the ranks of guardians. There was something not been said, and she detested secrets.

When nobody stood or even flinched under the penetrating eyes of the man, his expression tightened.

“Know, children, that this daliance will not be tollerated a second time. If you do not step forward now you will be punished later. You have one hour.” But that seemed to be the end of it, because he looked around the room one last time and left with the other guardians, robes shifting around stiff legs and the doors closing behind them.

The second all the Guardians were gone the room broke into noise. Talking, chatting, trying to figure out who had done it, none of the recruits was willing to be quiet in the face of such big change in their routine, or such gossip.

Shane shifted closer to her on his seat. “They’re listening now aren’t they?”

“Probably.” She replied indifferently. Adam had told her everything they did was monitored. His fiddling made it possible for her to visit him without them knowing, but she wasn’t sure how that was done.

He wet his lips, “Do you think it was one of us?”

She made a point of looking over the other twenty-seven recruits and looked back at him. “Maybe?” He gave her an doubtful look.

“I think somethings gone wrong, and they’re hoping it’s us.”

The thought hadn’t crossed her mind. A dead vampire was a dead vampire, it hardly seemed like something they would investigate properly, unless the vampire wasn’t meant to be killed. She considered that option and had to throw it away, the Guardians accepted many of the stranger parts of the darker world they lived in, but letting vampires live when they could be killed went against all of their principals.

“Do you remember that vampire they had the first day?” Shane asked, looking cautiously around the room, as if expecting a Guardian to jump out of the dark and gag him. It wasn’t a taboo topic, but the whole room was on edge and with no teacher to concentrate their attentions their imaginations were winning.

“Yes.” She felt cold at the memory of it. They’d dragged it out before them on chains. It had been naked and dirty and beaten and it lunged at anyone who got to close. ‘This is what you’re fighting.’ They’d been told with calm determination. They’d fed it an animal, and it had destroyed the thing in seconds, panting and crazy. Half of them had been sick, Gwen hadn’t been one of them but only because she’d been too overwhelmed by the oddity of the whole situation, still trying to figure out if it was real, or if she would wake up and forget it all like all her dreams.

“Can you imagine any one of us going up against that?”

Gwen checked the room again, she knew all their names she hadn’t meant to but she knew more than that still and the thought of any one of them fighting a vampire terrified and sickened her. They couldn’t do it, not the way she had. If they died something would be missing from the world. She’d never cared about that regarding herself, maybe she never would.

“They’ll kill us all.” Was the wrong thing to say, but her voice was faster than her brain and the whispered fear was out there now for anyone to hear.

Shane laughed at her and nudged her shoulder like she was a little crazzy but also funny. “We’ll be capable by the time the trainings done.” He seemed so sure, and she wanted to believe him but it was terrifying to consider the reality now that it was in her head.

She sat back in silence, answering only when she was asked something, and unable to shake the fear that had crept into her for these strangers she had begun to invest in.


[WC 17,974]

I'm annoyed at this story on so many levels. It being boring being the main one. -____- But I shall push on and try and fix it later.
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Re: the Luminary

Post by carbonstealer »

I am enjoying this story muchly so far. It is more embarrassing writing the sexy times when you know someone else will read them. It just feels... awkward
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Re: the Luminary

Post by Kimra »

She was doing something frivilous, moving through the streets of the city with focused attention. She was moving away from the streets with the people, and when she stumbled into one she would leave it as fast as she could.

She hadn’t seen Adam in over two weeks now and she had only managed to walk past his closed office once without drawing attention. The guardians were on high alert and all their movements seemed to be under scrutiny. She felt stiffled and itchy with unused energy. Adam had sent her out on ‘missions’ at least twice a week every week since the day he arrived on her door step. She had never realised how much of her energy was spent on them. She’d moved past well rested to restless faster than she expected, and with no job to drag her along she was left staring at the roof all day.

So she was stalking, because she’d done it before and it was easy. Tracing the streets in search of something out of place. Something that she could do something about.

It was past midnight, and the moon was a slither of its usual self. The night air hot and damp pressing down from all sides and coating everything that moved in a sheen of sweat. Gwen ignored the feeling of sticking clothes and wet hair, focused on the task she had given herself. Adam had gotten her to stalk the streets when she’d first signed up with him. He had said it would put her to good use while he sorted out his end of it all, after that he’d found targets, single vampires that she could take out easily. She missed the stalking and was glad to be back to it, even if it was only one day.

It was around 4am, when even the busy streets were empty and she was pacing through streets with only the echo of her foot falls to keep her company when she found a target. A spike of adrenline shot through her, pleasant and soothing in it’s familiartiy. She slunk back from the vampire into her own patch of shadows and observed for a moment.

It was a male, shorter than her and slenderly built. He wasn’t very old, he showed no signs of age at all, but then again that told her nothing. He was dressed in the usual night life attire, jeans and a dress shirt in a light cotton. He’d fed recently too, she wasn’t even sure what gave that away, but possibly the pleased expression he had.

She waited in the shadows as he moved, stepping out onto the street from the alcove he had been in. He stopped a step into his movements, took a breath and spun on her. She tried to jump back, he caught her shoulder, nails digging in hard. She struck out at him and he blocked it, apparently more than apt at fighting. She tried a kick, but that just made her unstable, he used the oportunity to push her back into his alcove and out of sight from the street. It didn’t matter, there as no-one there to see anything anyway.

She struck his elbow joint with the side of her fist and his hold broke. It gave her enough chance to pull out the smaller blade hse kept at her wrist, barely an inch long and hidden in a bracelet, but sharper than her own hands. She made a stab at him and he avoided it, smooth movements and easy awareness.

Anger boiled in her, anger that he was too easily avoiding all her strikes and an anger that wasn’t so easily explained, but he would take the force off.

She tried again, aiming for his face, and he caught her wrist with long fingers. Her spare hand went to free the others but he caught that as well. Her back to the wall she used it to support her and pushed a kick into his stomach that set him back a pace of two, her wrists tugging with his movements and then she was free again.

He was surprised, she wished her larger blade wasn’t so hard to get to under her skirts. She couldn’t try for it with this little space and time on her side. She went for another weapon, she had a second at the other wrist but it was harder to unfasten because it was on her right wrist and she was right handed. She decided to leave it for now because the thing was attacking her again.

For all that he was small he seemed to use bulk better than her, throwing himself into her and her arms being pushed out of the way, the weapon flung out of harms way momentarily. She tried to kick again and he blocked that with his left arm. That left her right arm free. She struck him in the face hastily. Then when he didn’t throw another attack she struck him again, harder and with more precision. He was dazed, she took the opportunity and kneed him in the gut, pulling his body down onto the knee with both hands.

The blade was in her hand still, his body doubled so she jammed it in, digging it hard and fast into his artery and her the blood blossomed out across her hands. She was about to pull it out and ram it in again when he shifted, despite his winded daze and a weapon she hadn’t noticed flashed between them. She stumbled back from his slumped form and hit the wall, shock confusing her.

His hands craddled the weapon in his neck, half crazed eyes staring at her as she tried to tell herself to get off the wall and finish the job. Her body didn't react, refusing every comand she gave except for the hands that had clunched at her stomach and found the hilt of a blade protruding from it.

“Come on then.” She tried to glower, wet fingers clutching at his blade and pulling it out. Her stomach seemed to protest this, clentching and her right hand clutched it tighter to stem the flow of blood.

He was calming, becoming rational. She stumbled a step forward, the blade held tighting in her left hand poised between them, and pain shot through her. She grit her teeth and glared.

He ran. It took her a moment to realise he had done it before she tried to force herself after him. Half a block away she was walking, a slow tedious pace that would have frustrated her if she could think beyond the chant that echoed through her, reminding her that she had to catch the bastard. When she hit the wall blinking in confussion and wondering where it had come from she only had a moment to realise things were bad before she hit the ground.



Shock was a wonderful thing Gwen decided curled up on the sticky pleather of the cabs back seat. She was folded over her hands as they clutched at the wound trying not to show that anything was wrong because the cabbie kept looking back at her with suspicion.

“You be sick?” He snapped in a thick accent.

“No.” She grit out.

“You drink too much.” He decided. “You sick in taxi- fifty dollars.”

She wondered what he’d charge for the blood when he saw it. Fortunatly there were no lights on her, and the city street lamps had given way to suburban streets. The occasional flash of light did not illuminate her well enough for his eyes, and she was doing everything she could to curl herself in around the wound and out of his sight.

“You have money?”

“Just drive.” She grit out at him, angred by suspicious natures and people who couldn’t mind their own business. He didn’t seem overly pleased with her reply but turned his attention to the little gps machine and the road.

When he slowed at a corner she recognised the houses. “Turn left.” She insisted.

He went to keep driving, she slapped the seat fiercely. “Left. Turn left now.”

“This not park.”

“Just do it.” Of course she had to get the most obstanate cab driver ever, when any other of the cabbies she’d encountered in her life would have done just as she asked. He did turn left though, so she bit down the anger and pushed her socks a little harder into the wound. She’d had nothing else to use.

When he passed the house she called him to a stop, he drifted a little further down the road before coming to a stop. She checked the meter and handed the money she’d already pulled out at him. It was more than he deserved, but she couldn’t sit around waiting for change. He started to count out her change, and she got out and slammed the door, leaving a large red mark on the outside her probably wouldn’t see, but would keep the fares from calling him. That gave her little satisfaction, but it was still a pleasant revenge.

Having to move on her own was more difficult than she remembered, her stomach pulled with each step, and she didn’t seem to be able to stay stright, instead she took steps each way indisciminatly until she found the castiron fence and opened the gate. The stairs to the door were a little harder on her, but she clutched the banister resolutly and pulled herself up. If this didn’t work she didn’t know what would.

There was no time to steal herself against the task which made it much easier to slam her fist against the door and demand entry with three hard knocks. Her body sagged against the hard wood and stained glass door giving her the extra support she needed at this time.

She shouldn’t have been there, of all places to go. But Adam was the only other person who knew, and he was gone, missing for some reason and that left her with only the most desperate of options.

Daniel opened the door out from under her weight. She stumbled, caught herself on the edge of it and her blood smeared hand latched onto the doors edge near his eyes. He looked at it, then at her processing, then the door was open all the way and she was falling, except she didn’t fall because he was faster than her and he had caught her up before she’d moved an inch.

“Masa!” Daniels shouted the comand into the house, shifted his weight and picked her up. Her stomach pulled in an entierly new direction and she gaged against the feeling, clutching this time at Daniel, because there as nothing else there for her to grasp at. “Masa, now!” He got her onto the lounge and over his shoulder a little girl appeared, looking down at the situation surprised and confused. “Mas-“

“Here.” She interupted, touching his shoulder.

“Get the kit.” He insisted and the girl turned away. “The big one.” He amended prying Gwens fingers away from her stomach and discarding the drenched socks on the rug. She caught her breath while he moved her shirt and skirt out of the way, exposing the wound for inspection. With her breath the caught up on the situation.

She reached for him and manged to hit his ear instead of his shoulder. He went to ignore it until she croacked out her plea, “Help me.”

He had his hand over the wound, but she couldn’t see it and didn’t care. It was irrelivent. “I am helping you.”

Her eyes scrunched together in a wince, and her spare hand fumbled for her shoe. Apparently it was too far and without a need to she couldn’t find the strength to move.

“Please.” She begged, and the tears in her eyes made him pause.

He wet his lips. “What do you want?” Masa was returning, a large red first aid kit in her hands and she set it on the coffee table opening it up for use.

“He-“ Again she winced, wet her lips and pushed on. She’d never known talking used muscles in the stomach before. “He got away.” She gestured to her boot and Daniels eyes went down to see the silver handle that was pocking out of one. “They’ll kill me.” That was something the Guardians and Adam agreed on unanimously. If you were seen.

Daniel motioned with his head, “Get that.” He instructed and Gwen went to, but the girl, no older than eleven, did it for her. She held it out for inspection eyes fixed on Gwen and her injury. Daniel stared at the weapon thoughtfully, but when Gwen’s stomach twitched below his hand he changed focus. “Get me the disenfectant, the purified water, and some gauze, then get Sean on the phone. I’m gonna need him here.”

“Please.” Gwen begged, not even caring what it would cost her. She had no other options, this was all that was left to her.

“It’ll be fine.” Daniel insisted as Masa handed him the items and he washed away the wound in a practiced manner. “Masa’s going to look after you. I’m going to sort that out.” He motioned off side, but she understood and the tension that had built in her body subsided. She’d made the right choice, she didn’t know what he wanted, but he wanted her alive and if what she looked like got out then she’d be hunted just like any other hapless Kindred. Anoymnity was their strongest power.

She was trying to say thankyou, but he jabbed something into the side of her neck, and instead of forming words she found herself falling asleep.



Gwen did not want to wake up, her body was sunk down in the most comfortable bed she had ever encountered. She blanket over her was fluffy and scrumptious and the cool nip of the air around her made it perfect. She snuggled her face into the blanket with a hum of contentment and then remembered where she knew the bed from.

She tried to sit up, but the second she used them her stomach muscles protested and she reversed, laying flat on the bed with gasping breaths.

“Don’t do that again.” She ordered herself through breaths, because it had hurt, and hurt a lot. Lying in Daniels bed again but waiting for the pain to subside she had a good look around the room, or the parts she could see.

The thing that surprised her most about the room wasn’t anything perminante but Daniel, stretched out on a brown leather couch and sound asleep. If he was asleep that meant it was day time. She needed to get out of there, even if the very idea made her feel like a terrible person. She reminded herself they were all monsters but standing was not an option. She tried to roll slowly to the side, but every pull of her stomach hurt.

Needing to see the damage she threw the blanket to the side, her body exposed to the chill of the room immediately and the wound on her belly clear because she was very much naked. The impulse to cover up was squashed down determindly because she needed to see. Her stomach, from what she could see had a long gash across it, but it was stiched up neatly with a black thread. It looked very professional, and was apparently holding her together well enough. She lay back down against the pillows, pulling the blanket back over her, tired and worn despite only having woken a moment ago.

She wondered if Daniel had really sorted it out, tracked down the other vampire and… what? Killed him? What would one vampire do to another when they knew something they shouldn’t. Her training told her that they would rip each other appart just as easily as they did humans, but things were starting to blur when she tried to judge their actions. Daniel was starting to hinder her judgement of the vampires.

“You’re awake?” He asked from the lounge. She turned her head but he was watching the roof.

“Yeah.” She felt more tired knowing he was awake.

“We had police knocking on the door this morning.” He rubbed at his forhead absently, and she turned her eyes from him because it was straining her neck muscles in an effort not to move her stomach.

“Why?”

“Some taxi driver dropped off a girl on the street. Apparently she was bleeding severely.” He moved. “They were asking if anyone inside had seen anything, left their contact details and all.”

“I’m surprised he reported it.” She replied, maybe he had been trying to get her to pay to clean the seats.

“So were they, apparently.” He sounded like he was moving, and then the sound got closer, she turned her head to track him as he approached the bed. He sat on the edge of it, looking down into her face with a guarded expression. “You messed up last night.”

“Yeah.” She couldn’t even mock it with a smile she felt so bad about the mess up. She should have seen the weapon long before he reached for it. It just proved that up until now she’d had more luck than skill.

“I had to kill that boy.” There was digust in his voice, thick and clear and she felt a stab of guilt for having made it happen. If he’d come to her door she would have let him die. She knew it as sure as she knew her name. It would mean nothing to her, because his life was not as valuable as anyone elses. This knowledge kept her eyes from meeting his. “And Masa had to bleach half the street to get your blood off everything.” He caught her chin and twisted her head to face him, there was something intense in his eyes, a rolling anger that shuddered and churned. “You are lucky to be alive.”

She snatched her head back and glared at the roof. “I need a shower.” She told him.

“Masa will be back after school, she’ll help you then. Or I can.” He didn’t even flirt the words at her, just looked dispassionately forwards as if the idea held no appeal to him. And maybe it didn’t.

“I’ll wait.”

He hesitated on adding more, she watched his fist clentch on the bedding before he pushed up off the surface and left the room.

[WC 21,063]

More. That was a nice break, back to business I guess.
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carbonstealer
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Re: the Luminary

Post by carbonstealer »

INTRIGUING. This vampire fellow it seems is a victim to hormones. If you still have hormones if you're undead
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GUTCHUCKER
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Re: the Luminary

Post by GUTCHUCKER »

I'm not convinced that he's undead, being as he apparently feels and bleeds.
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carbonstealer
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Re: the Luminary

Post by carbonstealer »

Undead mean that he ain't dead. I ain't making assumptions about his state of life other than he is not dead
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Re: the Luminary

Post by Kimra »

Masa gave her all the pain pills she could swollow, and helped her into the shower after coverin the stitchs with a water proof patch. The girl was studiously trying to ignore her, but occassionally the bright eyes would latch onto a patch of Gwens skin and focus. It was an intense focus that unnerved Gwen, and each time Masa realised she had been caught she found something else to look at. A wall tile, perhaps.

“You live here?” Gwen asked, to break the awkward silence as Masa washed down her back. Gwen was sitting on a stool under the shower flow and felt particularily useless, but having tried to reach around had done little more than pull the stitches. Masa taken over the task without asking.

When she spoke Masa’s voice was surprisingly light and relaxed, and she sounded like the bubbly teenager she clearly was in normal circumstances. “Sure. Mum’s got work in India this year and thought I should spend some time in the company of our own. She doesn’t think it’s good to always be with just her.”

It took Gwen a moment to grasp that, “Wait.” She instructed with a frown. “You’re a vampire?” The mind boggled only slightly, but that was because she had never in her time seen a young vampire.

“Oh my god, do people really call us that?” Masa gave as much horror as she could to the question.

“Yes.” Gwen tried to look over her shoulder at the girl, but Masa had gotten over her shock and was handing the loofa back.

“All done here.” The girl declared and reached for the detached shower head to wash the soap off Gwens back. “I can’t believe-“ She sighed, “have you read-“ She groaned, “That is soo depressing.”

“You are a vampire aren't you?” Gwen snipped, a little insulted by the childish response.

“Well, I guess. But that’s like calling everything that drains a lifeforce a succubus. It’s not exactly accurate is it?”

“What are you called then?”

Gwen turned her head around to look at the girl as she set the shower head back in it’s place. She looked indignante but not agressively so. Gwen was glad about that, because she was not up to fighting anything or anyone, even an fourteen year old girl.

Masa mummbled something that sounded suspicously like ‘vampire’ and never offered any other suggestion. Her job done Masa retreated back out of Gwens immediate vacinity and settled against the sink, ready to assist if there was a need.

“What does she do?” Because that was a strange notion in and of itself and Gwen didn’t like silence.

“Oh, she’s an IT specilist, she does night shifts and works on the mega servers located around the world. I think she’s installing a new system for a telecommunications company, but I’m not sure which one.”

“Why did she turn you so young?” The question was out before she’d even registered the desire to ask and she felt very rude suddenly because it was something the girl had no control over, just like height and looks it was clearly beyond her control. Surprisingly Masa broke into laugher. It was loud nad uninhibited and quite a nice sound if Gwen hadn’t felt like she was the butt of the joke.

A knock on the bathroom door broke the laugher inhalf.

“She’s fine.” Masa giggled a bit, and opened the door between the rooms. Gwen wanted to hide, but the angle kept her safe and she didn’t have the energy to do it anyway. Masa poked her head out of the cracked open door and in a stage whisper, or what she thought was a real whisper, confided in the person; “She asked me why I was turned so young.”

“You laughed at her?” He checked, and it was clearly Daniel, though Gwen had expected no-one else.

Masa backpeddled quickly. “Wha-no no! It was just cute. Daniel it was cute. I thought she’d know.”

Daniel pulled the door open completely and Gwen decided she was done, because she was not going to sit helpless on a stool and naked. She reached for the towel and it pulled all the wrong ways.

“Masa, a towel?” Gwen begged a little pitiously and Masa didn’t move for a moment, staring out at Daniel in a silent conversation of their own, but it was only a moment and then Masa bounced back into the room, grabbed the towel that had been laid aside for Gwen, reached in and turned the water off before wrapping the towel around Gwen.

“Sorry.” Masa smiled politely at her. “Let’s get you dried off and back onto Daniels bed.” Masa wiggled her eyebrows at that, and Gwen was ready to protest the destination, except she felt tired again and sleep sounded all to pleasant, sleep in a comfy bed could only be ten times better.

When Masa pulled out another towel and dried her feet of, like some sort of strange servent Gwen checked the door but Daniel was gone again.



Apparently now she was at his mercy Daniel was making a point of keeping her that way. The first sign was when she’d woken up on the second day to find a pile of her clothes on the bedside table. It meant someone had gone to her house but she didn’t have the time to worry about it. Hopefully Masa had gone through her clothes and not Daniel.

She managed to get a top on, but couldn’t wiggle enough to pull one of her skirts on, so she’d settled in wearing only a shirt, but feeling much less exposed. When she could finally pull her clothes on properly she decided she’d overstayed her welcome, even though Daniel and Masa had suggested no such thing.

Her attempt to leave, shuffling as she walked to try and not pull anything had been blocked by a glaring Daniel.

“No.” He was on the stairs, the only exit from his underground rooms.

“I need freash air.” She grit, “I’m going to go stir crazy.”

“I’ll take you out tonight.” He promised, still unmoving. Normally she could probably get past him, but the stairs themselves seemed daunghting to her right now and she knew she was in no fit state to fight. A little cheakily she wondered how much of a fight he’d put up if she tried to shoulder her way past. Clearly her death wasn’t paramount on his list of things to achieve.

“Where’s Masa?” Her shoulders slumped in surrender and he turned her around and pointed her towards the lounge. She didn’t argue just shuffled along, Daniel kept pace with her, hands in his jean pockets and focus fixed on their destination.

“School. Where else would a fourteen year old be?”

“How-?” She swiviled to look at him, although he wasn’t looking she knew his attention was focused in her direction.

“There are some secrets you don’t get to know.” He offered in a voice that had darker currents than he had shown her before. She wondered what else she didn’t know, what the guardians knew but wouldn’t tell them, or if the guardians even knew the answers. She hated secrets, but knew from the set of Daniels jaw that he would tell her nothing else on the topic, nor could she blame him, she wouldn’t tell someone who went out killing her kind secrets either.

She was struck again by how little sense it made, letting her live, it went against all preservation instincts that he must have. It was the most single mindedly self destructive action she had encountered in her life. She watched him sit on one of the lounges, not the large one where he normally slept and she understood the space was for her. She didn’t feel like sitting down though.

“Why?” She tested, feeling brave under all the caution and difference he was directing her way. He didn’t smile, he winced. “Why am I still alive?” She pushed, feeling like it needed to be understood. “You should have killed me the first night, the second, now. Why haven’t you?”

He met her eyes, and looked away, fingers picking at the arm of the lounge. “I find you intersting.”

“I am the single most boring person I have ever met.”

“Sure.” He rolled his eyes, and smiled a little.

“I kill your kind.” She pushed. “I killed your friend.”

His eyes glanced at the stairs cautiously then looked at her, his smile wasn’t there anymore. “Yeah, don’t tell anyone else that. It might not go over so well.”

At least that made her feel better, in a twisted way. It was good to know the rest of his kind was likely to rend her limb from limb for something that rightly deserved that response. Not that she thought they deserved any type of justice.

When she remained standing, arms crossed and glaring Daniel became defenseive, “Do you want me to kill you?”

She wondered if she should tell him that some days that seemed like an all to pleasing idea, but decided like everyone else he would not want to hear that. It galled her that there had been days when it seemed perfectly reasonable but the first time she got a wound that coul kill her she’d taken every risk available to her to save herself. Apparently self preservation was a powerful thing.

“What do you think?” She snapped back, and her eyes skipped over to the couch. Already her stomach was hurting and she wanted to sit down, but mostly she didn’t want to make eye contact just then.

“I think that you consider it an option.” He gave a huff. “It’s not, by the way.”

“Maybe I’ll just go find some other vampire who’ll fuck and kill me.”

She hadn’t really expected a response though she’d been hoping for one. So the glare he leveled at her sent a spike of unexpected pleasure through her system.

“That would be interesting to see.” His lips twisted into a vicious grin and Gwen considered again how utterly dangerous it was to let this creature so close to her. She’d never been in this type of situation before, not just with a vampire, but with anyone and she did not know what was happening or why. All she knew was it was against so many rules it made her feel sick inside.

Distraction was her main weapon, “They’ll look for me.” It came out as a warning but maybe she should have considered that before. “They’ll look for me.” She repeated and instead of feeling vindictive she felt a lacing of worry crawl through her. “I have to go.” She realised, and went to turn away.

He pulled her back before she could shuffle far, and when she went to protest he picked her up and dropped her on the lounge. She went to push past him, but he caught her shoulders and lent her back forcefully. She only struggled for a few seconds before she surrendered and met his eyes. “What?”

“You’re a fledgling Kindred. Your Guardians don’t even know you’re out killing. How are you going to explain a gash the side of your forearm to them?”

Any fight in her subsided, she slouched back and he let her go, taking the seat nearest her rather than far away.

“I’m still a recruit.” She admited softly, because maybe that needed to be said.

“Which is why you got a knife in the gut. Really, what were you thinking?” Annoyance gave way to besmusement and she knew he was right. Adam had assured her it would be fine, she would be fine, but he hadn’t been there to help her when she needed the help. And she had needed it.

Daniel reached around her shoulders and pulled her to lean against him. She lent into him, feeling fragile in the reality of what had happened. She could have died, she would have died, but these vampires had saved her life and gone out and risked themselves for her.

“Everything is upside down.” She whispered in a small voice. “I just do what he tells me to.” The fingers on her far shoulder squeezed, held, then released. With her head so close she could hear Daniels heart beat, quick and alert.

“Who?” He tested and she shook her head. That was one oath she would not take back, not today, and not ever.



Gwen had only known Masa for a few days now, but she wished the girl had come as well. Daniel had said something about Masa being too busy doing homework when Gwen had invited her, and instead of answering Masa had nodded and disapeared into her room. Apparently Daniel didn’t feel company was needed. Which left them alone.

She’d been nervous at first, especially when they’d gotten in a car but his attentive non-attention to her made things easier and she was able to relax. Even staying in the car when he pulled up and got them dinner. She was glad to be outside and in the fresh air. Well fresh air as far as a car was concerned.

Daniel returned to the car with a boxed pizza and a bottle, what looked to be, red wine. She gave him a look at that, but he was again focused on the road. For a moment she let it pass but the longer the drive took, the smell of pizza in the air and the silence thick Gwen began to feel annoyed. She copied him, looking straight ahead and grit her teeth.

“You don’t have to do that, you know.”

He shifted a gear and accellerated a bit, she felt him glance at her. “You want me to look at you?”

“That’s not what I said.” She mock grumbled.

“Sounded like it was.” He was teasing, she felt a grudging smile tick at the edges of her lips. It was nicer to have him acknowledging her.

“Where are we going?”

“I promised you fresh air.” As if that explained it, she didn’t feel like picking a fight though. Tucked into the comfortable seat with the window down and the air blowing across her face, easing only when he slowed for a corner or speedbumps, she was extreamly comfortable.

When they pulled up at the edge of a harbour park she’d been to a couple time before she wasn’t a bit uncertain. Parks in the dead of night set all her alarm bells ringing, not because she felt unsafe but because she had been programed by her family to think of them that way. Daniel clearly had no such problems, he reached into the backseat and got their dinner out then took it to the car bonnet and set it down.

She ate a whole piece before noticing that he was eating too. “You eat?” She was as incredulous as she sounded. He nearly choked on the food in his mouth, managed to swollow it and then laughed properly.

“The body needs food.” He motioned to his own body absently, but it seemed that although the quesiton was unexpected it wasn’t something he was going to mock.

“Then whats…” She looked away and shook her head. She’d clearly seen too many horror movies about vampires if he laughed at every question she had. He unscrewed the wine lid and offered it to her. She sniffed it cautiously but with nothing else to do, and a little bit thirsty she drank down a gulp.

“We drink blood to stay young.” He wasn’t looking at her again. “It’s not- not morally acceptable to you, maybe, but it’s just like any other creature trying to extend it’s life. It’s a trade off.”

“What’s it a trade off for?” She stared at the side of his head. “And look at me when you answer this one.” She ordered, because she was not being the thing that got ignored.

“Sorry.” His smile was a bit sheepish. “I’m trying not to freak you out.” He wet his lips and lent back against the car hood, ducking his shoulders in a lazy shrug. “Less fertility, more preditors, the usual sort of thing.”

“Wait- fertility?”

He didn’t look at her again, eyes jumping up to the stars.

“You can have… children?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Do the Guardians know?”

“They’ve been around long enough, they should have it in their records, but we like to assume they don’t.”

She thought for another few moments before something else occurred to her. “Are you telling me I could be pregnant?” With a groan he let his body fall back against the hood of the car.

“No.” He replied eventually. “You could not possibly, ever, be pregnant to me.”

“Just you, or any vampire?”

That got her a look and it was quite the angry glare too. “Lets not test it.”

She grinned in reply. “I’m not yours, you know.”

“I saved your life, I get dibs.”

She snorted in reply, “You’ve had me all week and done nothing about it. I doubt it’s all that much of a concern for you.”

The next moment she was pinned to the ground, half a foot away from the car, damp grass soaking in through her shirt. She stared up in surprise at the intense expression focused down on her.

“Get off me.” She warned. He pushed her shoulders down into the ground little harder, face closing in to her own.

“Just because I respect your distance when you’re too sick to defend youself doesn’t mean I want to.” His voice was low and more dangerous than it had been a moment before, but when he lent in she turned her head away from him. He laughed and placed a light kiss on her check before backing away.

Suddenly she felt tired all over again.



“Where have you been?” Adam was glaring at her from the doorstep, looking everybit as angry as he sounded. Gwen checked the street behind him on instinct. “I’m not being followed, now answer the question.”

“Come in?” She tested, unsure how to deal with his anger but knowing the doorstep was not safe, no matter what Adam assumed. She stepped out of the way for him and he pushed past making his way into the loungeroom. She latched the door behind him but didn’t see him in the loungeroom when she got there. Her bedroom door was open though, and she found him in there, poking at the trinkets on her beside table.

She took a seat on her bed. It was a week now since her inury, but she still knew to treat it carefully. Adam did not turn to face her until he had inspected most of the surfaces in her room. It was a small pokey room, so it didn’t take him long, but she was aware he was ignoring her on purpose. When he was looking at her, his arms folded and a stern expression in place she realised he had asked her a question.

“I was injured.” She confessed, a hand protectively setling on her stomach. He followed her hands movement, and frowned at it.

“Show me.” He knelt in front of her quickly, businesslike and waiting to appraise her injury himself. Obediently she rolled the shirt up her stomach to reveal the stitches and he inspected them, touching and proding at the building scar to test its tenderness.

“Who did this?” He motioned to the wound but she wasn’t sure which he wanted, the perpetrator of the injury or the person who mended it. She decided to tackle the harder answer first.

“I had to go to a hospital.”

He looked up quickly, “You gave them your name?”

“No. I told them it was Marry and got out of there as soon as I could.”

“No police report?” He tested, his fingers stroking over the stitching absently. She shook her head then waited for his reaction. It took him some time to decide on his response, then he smiled up at her, honest and pleasant. “Good girl.” He pecked her on the lips and turned his focus back to the wound which was just as well because she had frozen at the unexpected contact. “Do you have scissors? You’ll need these out.”

Gwen didn’t answer, but Adam stood up and searched through the small desks draw until he pulled out a pair.

“Tweezers?” He asked making eye contact. She jerked a no to him and he shrugged before returning back to the floor by her stomach and focusing on the wound again. With a methodical focus he cut the stitches and pulled each one out, they dragged a little but the sensation was not painful so she sat through it all, gripping the edge of the bed and catching her breath only occasionally.

It wasn’t until he was shaking the stitches off his hand and into her bin that she found the ability to talk again. “Where have you been?” She asked as she rolled her shirt back down over her exposed skin hastily.

He rolled his eyes. “The Guardians have been on edge these last two weeks. I haven’t been able to make any moves without scrutiny. Today is the first day I managed to get out of the new building.” He brushed his hands off as he took a seat on the bed beside her. “We've got them running blind though.” She detected the pleasure in his voice and she smiled a little for him, but only because I was expected, she didn’t personally understand the game he was playing she only trusted that he would play it right. “When will you be able to return to classes? They’ve noticed your absense and it’s only time before they show up on your doorstep.”

“I’ll be back tomorrow. But I’ll have to tell them I’m sick.”

“They wont care.” He reminded absently.

“I don’t think I can do the fighting classes without giving it away.”

“You’ll have to come up with a better excuse than being sick. Maybe you should tell them you were attacked.” He smirked. “They’d like that.”

“By a vampire?”

“Yeah, you were attacked out of nowhere, you tried to fight back and he cut you with a sword. Before he could finish you off… someone interupted.” He wasn’t certain about the story but he was committed to the idea of it. She agreed it would have to be something like that, maybe they wouldn’t find it to suspect and if she came out with it when she walked in instead of trying to hide it there was a chance that she wouldn’t look guilty of anything.

“Okay.” She nodded, getting the details down in her head. “But I’m not a good liar.”

He smiled slowly, close to her face and fiercely focused; “Sure you are.”


[WC 24,875]
Actually at 25,000 in the file, but that scene isn't complete so it will have to wait.

I did not mean to spend so much time around Daniel, stupid man always looking in another direction. But eh I guess that was all the chapter where you learn stuff about Vampires. Well done. I even managed to mock myself for using the term vampire. Oh god it's 4am, I'm going to sleep damn it all.
King Prawn

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