[tCotR] Domenic Thorburn

[Madison]

Watching Domenic's reactions to the words she was saying, Madison was becoming quite aware and somewhat appalled that he hadn't even known what he was. Given the revelation, she thought he was taking it surprisingly well. She shook her head when he ripped the rag in half and said, "It's just a piece of cloth."

When he stopped pacing and questioned her about if she had indeed said vampires and if she was serious, the blonde nodded affirmatively but said nothing else as she could tell he was still trying to process the information she had shared with him. Her pale blue eyes widened a bit when the man mentioned that weird things had been going on for two years. Madison couldn't imagine living life for two years as a vampire and not knowing that was what he was. He must have definitely thought himself insane and given that he had no idea, it made sense that his feedings were sloppy and that he had found himself upon the bounty list. But who could have turned this man and just left him? She knew from experience with Blake and Wolffyn that one could sire someone without realizing what they had done but at least Wolffyn had managed to figure things out somehow. It was just as possible that the sire was completely unaware of the fact that they had turned Domenic.

Domenic sat down again, his arms crossed over his chest but he seemed to be believing what Madison had told him. It could have been a lot worse. He could have flipped out on her, called her crazy and taken off. It would have left Madison with no choice but to hunt him down and take him out. While she wasn't a fan of the bounty system and could be considered anti-masquerade by some (though she considered herself neutral on that mark) she wouldn't have been able to let him go if he hadn't believed her. A vampire who didn't believe they were a vampire could cause more problems than she could even wrap her mind around. Luckily for Domenic, Madison was extremely empathetic towards his predicament.

"I find it amazing you haven't found yourself in more trouble before this point," she told him softly. "I can't imagine what kind of hell you've been living for the last two years not knowing what you are."

"But yes," she continued, "Your sire would be the one who made you a vampire. Who turned you. Accidental turnings aren't very common, but it has been known to happen occasionally. For someone to turn someone knowingly and just leave the person to fend for themselves without explaining is deplorable in my opinion and that's being nice. I would like to think it's possible the person who turned you is just as unaware of your existance as you were theirs. I know it was a long time ago but do you remember anything about that night two years ago?"

[Mircea]

Madison. Mircea pondered the man’s choice of saviour as they hurried along the streets towards the trailer park, following after Maxwell and listening as he happily relayed all that he had seen about which trailer in particular they needed to head towards and the state that each had been in when last he had seen them. She could be, he thought, a little brash in how she tackled quarrels, but that was little different to how either he or Habren had been at the same age (or how they could be even as old and ‘wise’ as they were) and her heart was certainly in the right place. It was a relief, too, to know that she wouldn’t lure him somewhere quiet and secluded only to finish the job the previous hunter had tried to begin.

His nose wrinkled slightly as they moved between trailers, trying desperately to ignore the various levels of stench coming from the majority until they found the one Max indicated as belonging to Madison. With a moment’s consideration, he summoned Emilian back to them, ignoring the reluctance and grumbling of the ******** thing. ”Stay here, keep watch. Warn us if anybody is coming,” he said, binding the wraith to his will and forcing it into obedience whether it wanted to or not and ensuring that he would actually out a true effort into the task. With that done and a final squeeze of Habren’s fingers, he stepped up to the door and rapped loudly one, twice, thrice before stepping back to wait for an answer.

[Habren Ashe]

Domenic

Dom shoved his hair back again before he scrubbed his hands over his face as he listened quietly for a moment, his mind racing.

"I've gotten real good at hiding, and I try to cover things up once I come to again," he said, staring straight ahead at the floor for long beat before he met her gaze again. "It... hasn't been that great," he added with a sheepish half-smile, not wanting to go into great detail over the long periods of starvation and hiding away. "I thought I lost my mind, turned into some kinda serial killer. Which... if what you're sayin is so, it isn't too far off the mark, I guess."

He leaned forward with a sigh, his hands folded loosely between his knees as he thought back to that night, and the following morning. He studied the floor again as he tried to remember any detail, anything at all, past the wall of panic and pain and blinding hunger of the aftermath, one that soon pushed everything else out of his head. It could be consuming and that first night was perhaps more intense than any other time. But had it been so bad that it had sent some crucial details to the very back of his memory? He shook his head slowly.

"Only thing I can remember from that night is a few women at a bar that doesn't usually have many there... a lot of pain... and the smell of wildflowers... but I only remembered that part tonight. I, uh... I used to have some trouble with booze." He trailed off, glancing at Madison. "Is it always like this? Blackout hungry until you don't know what you're doin anymore?"

He waited a beat for her answer, wondering what she'd think of all of that, when a hard rap at the door sounded suddenly. He looked at her, worried, wondering who it could be when no one had followed them. No one he'd seen, anyway.

[Madison]

Madison listened as Domenic talked about what he could remember from the night of his turning. There really wasn't much to go on though. When he spoke about his problems with the bottle, she could empathize with that. She too had her own addiction problems in the past, addictions that were no longer a problem for either one of them now that they were what they are. But while they could no longer be affected by drugs or alcohol, the disease of addiction doesn't just disappear, it simply finds something else to be addicted to.

"It's not always like that, only when you...." Madison started to answer his question about the black-out hunger but was interrupted by the knock on her door. Her eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed. Motioning for Domenic to stay where he was, the telepath pulled out her Glock from its holster on her leg and clicked off the safety. Since all the windows had been covered, she couldn't check to see who was on the other side. Logic told her though that more than likely, it wasn't a hunter. The hunters would send someone who could get into her trailer without being invited or being seen and could teleport Domenic away from her before she knew someone was even there.

Pausing for a second in front of the door, Madison steadied herself. Mentally and physically preparing for possible violent confrontation. Her free hand reached out hesitantly and unlocked the dead bolt before moving downward to grasp the door handle. As she opened the inside door, she aimed her weapon at whoever was standing on the other side.

"Who the hell are you?" she questioned the man standing on her stoop, not immediately recognizing Mircea as the head of her line. Her gun hand never wavered as her pale blue eyes flit to the other person standing with him. A look of recognition passed over her strong features and her eyes went back to Mircea and then again to Habren as she lowered her weapon.

"Habren?"

[Habren Ashe]

An arm automatically shot out, holding Mircea back from any knee-jerk reactions to the harsh welcome from Madison, not to mention the gun she had pointed at them. Mircea was not a fan of threats to either of them, and less than patient where firearms were concerned. She trusted him with every and anything, but so too did she know him well enough to anticipate the flash of rage and the need to latch on to whatever tether to reality and neutrality she could provide.

"Good evening, Madison," she began, glancing almost nervously between the blonde and her husband. She cleared her throat slightly, giving a pointed look at the gun. "This is Mircea. Mircea, our Madison. We, ah... we understand there is a young man with you. The one from the Crownet?" She raised the question with hope lacing her voice, but before Madison could get the wrong idea, she hastily followed up. "I still do not know how, but I believe he... might be our own... and possibly... my own..."

The last words were spoken almost whisper-quiet; if it were true, Habren was well and truly ashamed by now. Her very breath, unneeded or no, had caught in her throat when Mircea had wasted no time in rapping hard upon the little trailer's door, the sound ricocheting around the small park in such a way that set her teeth on edge. But here they were now; if this boy were her's, she needed to do right by him, though that keenly-felt need in no way managed to blight out the distress that she might have left him to fend for himself. It didn't matter to her that she hadn't had any idea. In Habren's mind, she should have known, no matter what. She peered around the woman in the vain hopes she might catch better sight of this erstwhile childe, perhaps to learn something about him while he sat, quietly and with no real idea of who stood just outside the door.

"In any case... we wish to help."

[Mircea]

There was a moment, brief though it turned out to be, when the rage flared and Mircea stood poised on the precipice of great violence. He hated guns with a passion and to have one pointed at him when he had offered no threat of violence to warrant such a thing was… Infuriating. Somewhere he knew that it was a precaution, but that knowledge was drowned out by the sight of the gun, the woman holding it, the sword at his side and the way his fingers spread open in readiness to reach for it. He could see it all in that moment: his left hand would come up and sweep the gun to one side, away from himself and Habren, smashing the wrist of its over into the metal edge of the trailer’s door frame and at the same time, his right hand would reach for…. No, not Ileana, for she was too long to draw quickly enough, but the knife that nestled in against her. That would be withdrawn and brought to bear. It would probably slice upwards through the girl’s gut and spill her insides over the steps for her arm would get in the way of taking her throat. It would only take a second, perhaps two, or maybe even less than that, depending on how smoothly his body reacted to his mind’s commands. The imagining of it all took far less than that, even and it was only Habren’s hand finding him that stopped him seeing just how long it would take to complete the act.

He knew even as he stood as still as he could, for any move he made would be the beginning of violence, that all thoughts of such acts washed through his expression, flooded his eyes. Habren kept him at bay, seeming to know what his thoughts would be even before they came and how best to prevent him turning thought to motion until he could reign that rage in, his nostrils flaring as he took a sharp breath in. ”Good evening, Madison. It is a pleasure to meet you too,” he said wryly, arching a brow and tracking the movement of the gun downwards and out of the range of being quite such an immediate threat.

”We will not harm him or let another do so. We have dealt with the hunter that found him, but there is work to be done still,” he added once Habren had explained how they thought the boy had come to exist and have such trouble as he now faced. Like Habren, he too tried to look past Madison to catch a glimpse of the boy, the anger washing away into the tide of worry that accompanied the sight of any of their blood upon the killing list.

”Please, Madison. We want to help him…”

[Madison]

She saw the flash of anger cross over Mircea's features and though her gun was lowered, her hand tightened on the hold it had upon the weapon. Thoughts raced quickly, her body tensing for a moment to prepare for a possible attack. But Habren had reached out to her partner, an effort to calm him or hold him back, it didn't matter which but it seemed it had the desired effect. Madison looked to Habren as she spoke and introduced Mircea. Her pale blue eyes flit back to Mircea, a short expression that read 'oh ****' upon her face when she realized she had just pointed a gun at the head of her main bloodline. As Habren explained why they were there, Madison holstered her gun to show that she no longer implied a threat to them.

It made her uneasy though. Habren and Mircea had tracked them to the trailer. How easy would it be for the hunters to do the same if there were going to be anymore of them to follow. She looked past the people on her doorstep, eyes scanning the surrounding trailer park that she could see, searching for anything out of place. Seeing none, her attention returned to her elders and she nodded her understanding of what they were saying. She caught them trying to look past her into the trailer but all they would see would be the hydroponics equipment set up, filled with flowers and plants used for rituals.

"Yes, he is here. But please, come inside."

Madison moved out of the way so that the pair could enter her small trailer. It would be a cramped fit with all four of them inside but it was better than standing in the doorway. She was sure Domenic could hear the entire conversation and she worried about what his reaction would be if what Habren had said was true. The telepath had figured out that he was indeed one of their own but hadn't the slightest to whom he belonged until now. She hoped that Domenic was open to the fact he was about to meet the person who turned him, who had put him through such hell for the last two years by not being there to guide him.

Once the elders were inside, it was a bit of a shuffle of bodies for Madison to close the door behind them. She locked the deadbolt even knowing it wouldn't stop a determined vampire with the abilities to get inside. Turning to face everyone, she searched the faces of everyone there in attempts to get a feel for how this introduction would go. Her eyes landed on Domenic last, knowing that the appearance of two more would probably make him uneasy. She wished that she could be near him instead of separated by the two vampires that were new to him. Even though they didn't know each other well, Domenic knew that Madison posed him no threat. She hoped that he trusted her enough to know that she wouldn't willingly let others in who would cause him harm.

"Domenic....this is Mircea and Habren," Madison motioned with her hand to each of them as she said their name and paused before continuing, "Mircea is the original vampire of our line... and Habren... well she might be the one who turned you..."

[Habren Ashe]

Habren and Mircea may have thought the loner male wasn't paying much attention to the goings-on just outside the door, but they would have been quite mistaken. In fact, just one look at Domenic's face, had they been able to see him, would have revealed myriad emotions flickering by as he listened in to every word. Worry giving way to fear; fear giving way to incredulity, incredulity to flat-out amazement that rapidly dissolved into anger. He stood slowly, his hands balled into fists, despite what Madison had said to him. There was something to be said for vampiric hearing; his had been almost painfully attuned since that night so long ago.

He watched her holster her pistol again, still forgetting he even had one of his own tucked in an inside pocket as she invited the pair of dark-haired people into the trailer. He was instantly on his guard, the only clue or consolation that he was under no threat being the blonde's relaxed pose from behind the pair. His eyes raked over the both of them, his brow furrowed as he tried desperately to remember. He took a step closer, then another, sizing the male up as his gaze flickered between the unearthly attractive pair, but came up short and stopped dead in his tracks as the scent of wildflowers suddenly washed over him. The look on his face could only be described as shock as it all became clear, not to mention all too real. Madison's words were almost unheard as the sensation of all the air being sucked out of the room at once nearly had his knees buckling. Somehow, he stayed upright, even as he was being pulled in too many directions at once, all instigated by finally coming face to face with the very reason his life had been a shambles for over two years.

"You," he hissed out on a choked breath, eyes wide with so much more than he could say. To her credit, the woman stepped closer, nearly commanding in her presence, despite her small stature. She didn't take those drowning blue eyes off of him; her gaze stayed glued to his own as she moved another tentative step forward. And another until she stood right before him, one slender hand smoothing over his cheek.

"I am so sorry this happened to you, my darling childe," she finally breathed out in a tone so hypnotic and musical he couldn't understand how he hadn't remembered her before. "I am so sorry I happened to you... it is unfair of me to ask you now... but some night, I hope you will allow me to explain... just what I think happened."

Domenic froze at the feel of her, at the curious, dizzying mix of anger, hatred and pure need to know her and bask in her presence swirling through him until, finally, he fell to his knees, one hand covering his eyes as he felt her arms slide around him. He hesitated a long moment just as a ragged half-sob rose in his throat, one he quickly tried to swallow back, before collapsing against the woman he somehow knew could bear his weight when he could not. Her fingers stroking his hair had him calming himself, grasping for some shred of composure, little by little, though it felt good, better than he would ever admit, to indulge in the barrage of raw emotion that had had no release whatsoever. Later, when he'd had time to think about it, he would realize that it had been just like any lost kid reuniting with his mother, that he had missed her in a way he hadn't been able to understand until he truly met her.

Relief flowed through him, as well as a heavy dose of gratitude, to Madison and the newly arrived pair, as well. Answers had finally come, and angry and wretched though he still might be, he'd finally been found.

[Mircea]

There was another of those moments when time froze for Mircea. It was naught but a reaction to the stress of the evening; of finding a lost childe of their line, of Habren’s guilt over the boy, of a bounty upon his head and hunters already on the trail. The stress and worry of it all lead to his instincts seeking a release for the pent up energy and saw excuses where he wouldn’t normally. It was Domenic who had instigated that second moment in time, with his hissed words and the wash of anger coming from him. The clench of his fists, the tight stance. It all suggested that things could go badly and, childe of theirs or not, Mircea wouldn’t see his Habren harmed, even by her own progeny, but the conscious, more rational part of his mind knew that he needed to remain quiet and still and let things play out as they would. There may be shouting or accusations or even tears, but he needed to let those things be or nothing could be found afterwards to improve the burgeoning relationship, whatever it would become given time.

When the decision seemed to be made by Domenic, however much say he truly had in it, against violence and towards comfort, Mircea turned towards Madison in the cramped space. ”I can render the entrances impassable for the night ahead if you wish. To give us… Ah, time. Time with him, time to ready to rid him of his bounty and teach him what he needs to know. It will mean none of us leaving once it is done, though, so we will understand if you wish us to find elsewhere for him…”

[Habren Ashe]

"Mayhaps..." Habren murmured quietly, pulling only slightly back from her newfound childe to look between Mircea and Madison both, "Mayhaps, my love, we should move to House Grigori for the time being. We can go some way toward concealing our presence there," she added before her attention moved back to the boy, to whom she gave an indulgent smile as both hands lightly framed his face. She had been certain, once face-to-face, that he was indeed her own, feeling the bond strengthen and tighten without any hesitation.

It had made it easier to dose him with a small amount of pacifying energy.

Domenic breathed out a slow sigh of relief as he slowly realized he wouldn't be hunted anymore, mixing with the knowledge, somehow entwined with his blood, that he was her own. It inspired a rush of curiosity, especially given the way both of them spoke - it wasn't the same as either him or Madison. The rage hadn't gone away - not even close - but somehow, he was able to find it in himself to listen to her, to want to hear her out. He gave a nod, finally getting back up to his feet and feeling better composed again, before he finally spoke.

"Thank you," he said quietly, before his gaze flickered to Madison. "I'm willin to go with you, but only if Madison comes, too. I owe her. I'm not leavin her to fend off crazy people with broadswords."

At this, Habren had to smile again. Crazy people... he would learn soon enough, she supposed.

"Of course - I would not wish it any other way. I hope you will join us, Madison?"

She looked at her husband, at the other woman and back to her childe with questions in her eyes. "We should probably leave sooner rather than later. .."