Th witching hour (Axel Rosen)

[Ursula Wolfe]

When he motioned for her to sit she smirked a little, at least he was willing to spill the beans, so to speak. However, instead of sitting across from him like most people would do, she chose to sit beside him instead. Ursula would have called it smart, keeping him from making a fast getaway if she pushed him too far. Others, she was sure, would call it stupid and insane. Then again, she wasn't exactly known for having all her marbles, at least not back in school. It was a dangerous spot to be in, but she wasn't some delicate flower, shying away from something or someone that was dangerous. Yes, she was a bit nuts. She liked it that way. She noticed the way he looked at his shadow, it's not like he was being smooth about it, it drew her eyes to the things.

Then he spoke and again her ******** alarm went off, it wasn't his tone, it was the way he worded it. It was the way all people worded things whenever they were willing to use that as the excuse because there really was more to the story. That above all else is what really sent off her alarms, telling her that there was a lot more than what she first thought. It also told her that she was wrong about it being a poltergeist, it was something else and he knew about it. She leaned against the table, her head cocked, resting on her hand as she looked him over, studying him, studying the way he spoke. He wasn't lying about the timing though, that much she could tell, she nodded slowly, clearly not convinced as she glanced at the shadow once more.

"The Truth" she stated flatly, there was no room to think that she wasn't serious. "This is something more..." she said, motioning to his shadow, "I know this now..." she was cut off by the sound of her ringtone, Halestorm's 'I Get Off' sounding in her purse. She pulled her phone out and answered "Boss man! Yeah. Yeah, it seems this place really has some things... I need to study what I have picked up so far but... Yeah, I think the guys in Rhode Island might be interested as well. Let me finish this interview and I'll get back to you. Of course I'll be safe Bossman, tah!" She hung up the phone and arched her brow as she slipped it back into her purse on top of the 3"x4" glossy photos she had in there.

She smirked, almost challenging him, "Sorry, the boss man wants what the boss man wants. And he wants what I want." she said, she was going to hound until she got her answers.

[Axel Rosen]

She sits next to him and he wants to ready himself to attack her but he doesn't, instead he just sort of sits there with her and keeps his eyes on her. She is a paranormal hunter and he wonders if the woman hunts vampires and if she does, does she kill them? These are questions he doesn't want to ask her yet. The only reason is because he doesn't want her to know that he is a vampire of any kind. His hands move to the dagger at the boot which is up on the knee of his leg. He looks to her and presses the knife against her thigh. The blade there is designed to not only let her know that she is entirely too close to him but also that he doesn't take to well to someone being so pushy about the things that he knows. In away it is also to let her know that if he were to tell her he would have to kill her.

She says that she wants the truth and her tone changes and he glares at her. He's not sure if she's more annoying when she's being inquisitive or if she's being straight with him and asking him person to person. The matter that she thinks she can get a tone with him and him not get irritated with her is almost funny. There is indeed something more she says as she almost points to his shadow. The male looks to the shadow himself that is now sitting a few feet away from him or rather moving that way. The phone rings again and then she picks it up. If it were not for the fact that the two of them are at a table in a bar full of human he would have crushed the bones in her hand. Speaking to her boss she says something about her being safe and then she hangs up. She shakes his head a little bit.

She goes on about something the boss wants and what the boss wants she wants. Some sort of ******** that she thinks is going to get his attention. Well she has it. She has his attention and he can almost promise that it's not something that she should have tried so hard to get. It's the matter that she's still in town and hasn't left yet. Not to mention the fact that she is still questioning him when all he wants is for her to leave and not die. It's not that he thinks she has potential. If she had potential in something other then being undead, she'd be dead and burned. Drumming the fingers of his hand there he takes a breath into his lungs again trying to keep up appearances and the masquerade. So he turns to her with the blade still at her thigh. He doesn't press it so that it cuts into her, no just has it held there. He attempts to get her eyes' attention.

Finally he makes eye contact with her as she sits and he takes a breath for the rest of the room. Expending a bit of his energy, not sure how to describe it himself. His eyes in contact he looks at her. “Pull out your phone, call your 'boss man' tell him you dug deeper. There is nothing to find. You were wrong.” His eyes leer into hers as he tells her this. He's sure that the power will take affect so he leans back waiting for her to get done. Then he looks to her again. “You want the truth? Because knowledge comes at a price.”

[Ursula Wolfe]

She felt the knife at her thigh, one wrong move and she would bleed out in minutes. Ursula took a deep, steadying breath, she could feel her heart slowing to a normal pace, she whispered out a soft spell as she looked at him, showing she did not fear him. Yes, he held a blade at her thigh, with a simple flick her life ended. She lifted her chin as she continued to watch him. The press of the metal into her thigh was hard to ignore but she did, she was raised to know what to do with knives and swords and anything basically sharp and pointy.

She watched him for a moment longer before she met his eyes. So it was a staring contest, but then she felt — odd, as if the world was falling away from her, like she couldn't keep her hold on reality. It was him, only him, his will, what he wanted she wanted. She tried to shake him off but it was too strong. Too strong. Ursula slid her hand back into her purse to pull out the phone that she had. Pressing the speed dial for her boss she waited for him to answer. It didn't take long.

"Ursula? What's up you never call back this soon, or this late." Was it late? She didn't know, she had no will to look at the time, she only wanted to do what the guy at her side asked. So that's what she did.

"Hey Boss!" It sounded like her but not, she sounded distant, even to herself. "I did more digging, it seems that I was wrong. The people I have been talking to are hoaxers. I'm sorry I woke you to tell you this. I'm fine... I'll talk to you later." She hung up the phone just as it sounded like he was going to argue. Setting the phone on the table she felt more like herself again. She shook the cobwebs from her mind and then began to glare at him.

"What the ****, man!" Ursa asked as she looked at him but didn't move because she still felt the dagger. "And knowledge always comes with a price. Everything has a price. It's the balance of nature." She hissed as she looked at him wondering what in the hell she was going to do now. She didn't know what he just did to her, what he made her do, but she wanted to know. That is when her phone rang again, the phone shuddering along the table with the vibrate that joined the song.

[Axel Rosen]

His eyes move over to her as she makes the call and then he nods his head up and down, surprisingly the command to her had set in and he's a little pleased with this. This is the one power that vampires in lore have had that he has. For instance the power in movies that vampires have used to memorize their victims and often other humans. Each word she speaks makes him grin until she turns back to him. The knife at her thigh hasn't been sharpened and he's sure that it couldn't kill her at first, just eventually if infection or tetanus sets in. She speaks to him with some curses leaving her lips. He doesn't know what to say to her just that he thinks he should kill her anyway. Although, as annoying as her persistence is, it's rather impressive. Lost in this thought he almost doesn't hear her speaking to him about knowledge always having a price. The phone rings again, and Axel looks down at it. It buzzes and crawls along the table. Finally he snatches it off and grips it so that the screen cracks. The power of his fist breaks the plastic, surely damaging it's functionality.

Again he waits for her to have eye contact with her again, being sure to get it this time. Once the gaze is met he gives an order, his voice is slow and low enough to only she can hear him. “You will follow me, keep quiet, and don't speak until I turn to face you completely.” He hopes that his command is simple enough so that she could follow. Standing from the table he moves to go around it and looks back to her, not turning completely, as he doesn't want her to do anything but follow. He looks to her from the peripherals. She is following him so he nods his head and starts to move toward the place where zombies run free. Opening the manhole he moves down, looking up to make sure she is following after him. Once down the tunnel he makes his way there and then back up to the surface once in the quarantine zone. As soon as he sees a zombie in the distance he turns to face her.

“Now that we are here in this place, you can ask any question you want, but know now you will not be returning. This will be your grave, and I will be your executioner.” The bug infested hands move to his pockets and he waits. The blades on his body lay ready to take her, and if she thinks about getting smart and running off she will find that he is much faster and stronger than she is. Axel at this point stops breathing he stops all things that would make him look otherwise human. He looks as if he is a flesh and hair statue much like those that are made of wax in museums of that sort. He's getting ready for any question she may have, and the eventual kill.

[Ursula Wolfe]

Ursula was just about to pick up her phone to answer it when the guy beat her too it, picking it up and crushing it in his grip. Her jaw dropped, her eyes narrowed, and her gasp came out in a sharp, high-pitched gasp that made her sound almost like a small dog barking. The anger flared to life in her glacier gaze as she continued to stare in shock and anger at her crushed phone. The dagger was forgotten, the fact that he had just crushed her $400 phone had her anger thrumming through her, her heart raced as she lifted her hand to smack him. Then she stupidly looked into his eyes again and her hand dropped to her side.

It was like she was in a waking dream, she felt as if she could control it. It felt like real life. Ursula had no idea that she was, for the most part, sleeping. Subconsciously, on some level she had a feeling of what was going on, but her heart no longer raced, she had no will to fight or flight. She could feel herself obeying but she couldn't fight it. It was like walking through a dark room, stumbling here and there on her high heels. Her body obeyed, it followed, through the street and under it through the sewers. She climbed back out of the sewers just as blindly while trying to get a handle on what was going on. Then he turned to her.

The world came back into sharp reality, as if she had been sleepwalking only to be smacked hard in the face. She took a breath, nearly missing what he had said. Instinctively she took a step back but then forced herself to stop as she lifted her chin. He stood there, looking very much like something she had been on the fence about till now. Vampire. She kept her eyes on him as she finally found her voice, it came out in her normal musical flow. "While you may end up being my executioner, I am almost certain you want something of me first or I would have been killed last night when we first met. So tell me... What the hell is that?!" She asked as she noticed the zombie. Then she shook her head and looked at him, "what else is real, creature of the night? Tell me what in the hell is going on here?" She said as she leveled her icy blue gaze on his. "And please don't insult my intelligence by lying to me." It was clear that she was tired of the lies, she could almost see when someone lied to her but usually passed it off as nothing more than 'woman's intuition' as her mother called it. Her eyes glanced around the area for a spilt second before they locked back on the man that made her come to this awful place that literally smelled like death.

[Axel Rosen]

When his eyes meet hers he can see that her face displays the look of the returning of consciousness and being able to think for herself. Maybe she'll be smart and keep her eyes away from his this time. Maybe twice will be enough for her to have learned her lesson. She breathes and he waits for her to speak as it is not his show at the moment. His show is what comes after she gets the information that she wants. She says something about him not killing her last night and that is because he gave her a chance to leave before **** hit the fan. She, however, didn't like that and had to stay and try to bring her friends. It's not that he wants something from her, and he shakes his head a little bit. He doesn't speak though, just looks her over. She creams and then asks about the zombie. His hand raises to speak, but he lowers it back down because she goes to speak again.

Her eyes meet with his again and he shakes his head, thinking that she apparently hasn't learned at all. This is fine he won't bother using the power again, as he has her where he wants her. It's not like she can get away now. His eyes look to her because she has addressed him as 'creature of the night', and it almost makes him chuckle at her, but he stifles it. He doesn't have to lie to her any longer because, again, he has her where he wants her and she won't live to tell anyone about it, not anyone that isn't already a spirit in the realm, if there are any of them left that aren't being feasted upon by dead vampires. He taps his foot then starts to pace quietly trying to think of where to start to explain exactly what is going on in the city. “Alright”, his voice isn't reluctant anymore, it's more one of joy and happiness that he will soon end another human life. It's like he's an addict.

Now that she is done asking questions he turns to the thing behind him and then back to her. “That is a zombie, yes they exist.” His statement is cold and rather matter-of-fact. He looks at the woman and then readies himself to continue the statements that he has to give her in order to give her the information that she wants. “Being that you called me a creature of the night”, he pauses and locks gaze with her again, “by the way, don't call me that. Makes me feel like a hooker. I'm far from. My victims don't die slowly of some STD, no I make sure they die swiftly after I feed.” He nods his head in her direction and then shakes it back and forth. “Being that you called me that, I assume that you understand what I am.” This assumption is safe as far as he is concerned. “There are also: super human vampire hunters, thieves of the blood of vampires, monstrous aberrations of skin and mouths and eyes, ancient skeletons, and wraiths....” He takes a second, “Wraiths are ghosts of vampires, and spirits.”

[Ursula Wolfe]

Crystal blue eyes kept an eye on the thing before them. Not the 'man' speaking to her, but the thing that lumbered a bit like someone that had had ten too many. She was starting to think she had had one or two too many. At least it seemed not to notice them. Ursula zoned back in just as he started speaking again, she had given no thought to how easily he had answered her before but now as she paid attention to his words she couldn't help she smirk that came to her face when he stated that she had made him sound like a hooker. While he may not have been a hooker, he was, in fact, a creature of the night, unless he was one of those so called 'day walkers' that they mentioned in the Blade movies her brother loved to watch. She could just see how Eric would take to this guy and that idea made her blood run cold. Eric, her little brother, he would be way way too curious at this guy. She shook off thoughts of her family and narrowed her crystal eyes on the male.

Some of the things he brought up made her brows lift in that 'I don't believe you' way. Ursa could guess that there would be vampire hunters, after all nature needed a balance, those that lived in the day and those that lived in the night. But the other things he mentioned, vampires had ghosts?! What the ****?! she thought to herself before she gave him a slight nod and once again turned her eyes onto the zombie. They were real. A part of her, how ever small, was actually excited about that, it made her wonder what made them tick. Were they a virus gone wrong, a way of Mother Nature striking back at the human race that was slowly killing her, were they something else. She shook off all those questions, they really had no meaning currently because currently there was only one question, one answer that mattered.

"Are you going to kill me just as fast?" It wasn't resignation, nor was there any hint of fear, it was more just a curious need to know. It showed in her bright blue eyes as she switched her gaze from the zombie to him and back to the zombie before giving up on the questions that were running rabid through her mind.

[Axel Rosen]

The two blue eyes gaze over her and she is quiet for a very long time and it makes him wonder what exactly is going on in her head. There is something processing up there and at this point he wishes that he were like Felicity who has the powers of telepathy. That way he could do his best to follow the thoughts of the woman before him. Though he's sure that she is sort of accepting some sort of fate. This is new for him, as he wasn't given the chance to accept his fate before being turned, not that he's sure he wants to turn this mortal. It's just that before his death he wasn't given a chance to think about it. Neither are many of his victims. They all sort of die in a hurried rate due to tremendous amount of blood loss. The ones that he has tortured with his significant other, though while they die slowly, they are usually too afraid, he's sure to manage coherent thought. Those victims just sort of scream and cry out begging not to die. Though they are the most fun.

As the woman before him stands in an almost stunned silence for a few moment, just after his speaking he thinks about what would have gone through his head in his final moments. That is, were he to know that they it were going to be moments before his death. He thinks about the last moment, sitting in the chair and having the tattoo done. Those thoughts were pretty simple. The pain an almost numbing euphoria. After that, he knows, was the moment of the initial impact of fangs. His mind wanders what he would have said or thought if Jesse had given him some warning about his death. The thoughts probably would have been one of acceptance as a death at that time was the greatest moment in his life to go. The thing is that the male is on that cusp of fame where if he had died any later then his work would have suffered. Lately, he's seen there be publishing of his short stories in novel form all bunched up together. Like Vincent van Gogh or Kurt Cobain. Just like them, Axel's work's popularity rose after the point of death. This is a win win in his case, where he gets the powers of vampirsm and popularity of his work.

Her question brings a smile to his lips as he thinks about just how he is going to kill her. He has to think about it because he is yet unsure of the exact perimeters of her death. This isn't because he hasn't thought about the death of the woman. No, oh no, he has of course gone out of his way in the mental aspect to think about how he will kill her. When he had killed Renee he stabbed her in the heart. The human the night before this was was killed in a decapitation as it was the most fun for Axel. This woman though. Decapitation seems like it would be a bit more than what is necessary. The zombies would eat her body in no time and the waste of blood to the ferals is kind of rude. Her voice is urgent so he answers her with an action rather than words. A blade comes from his side and then moves into her gut. He does this so that she can continue to speak as she bleeds out. She may speak in gurgled means but he will not kill her quickly. She needs time to say whatever last prayers she needs to before she passes unto the next realm.

“And know this, it does not matter if you believe me on the actions. The only way you could learn more is to be like me”, here he is opening the door for her to be turned without him knowing. He takes kneels down next to her head and then opens his mouth again. The millipede there crawling up into his nose before he looks at her. “Through death is the only way to become more than human. He nods his head up and down before waiting for her to speak on her thoughts, say her dying request. Really it could be any number of things that she needs to do at this moment.

[Ursula Wolfe]

Ursula hadn't the opportunity to move before he was close enough to reach, her breath left her in a sudden rush and she instinctively reached out to him to catch herself. Then she felt the warmth and wetness sliding from her, crystalline eyes dropped to where the knife was impaled into her. "I guess... that... an-answers... that." Her voice was breathless, barely above a whisper. Her blood started the trickle from her lips, red lines slipping past her full ruby lips. She could feel her lungs filling with blood. Ursula finally lifted her eyes to his, uncaring of the grotesque bugs and the way he looked at her. "Vam-vampire... My... ***..." she whispered as she started to feel the lethargy of her blood pressure dropping like a stone.

Her eyes fluttered as she looked at him, fighting to stay awake, not to close her eyes. She gripped his shirt, with strength at first but as she started to lose more blood her grip got weaker. Her ability to stand faltered and try as she might she couldn't hold herself upright any longer. She started to fall, she could feel it as much as she could feel herself slowly drowning on her blood as it filled her lungs. Still she fought to keep her eyes open. She would be asleep in a few minutes, unconscious a minute after that, dead soon after.

Her life didn't flash before her eyes, only pictures of her family. Her and her brother having their picnics, her and her father training with swords, her mother and aunt, both of which taught her the gifts of magic and nature. Still she kept her eyes open. "Death... is ju-just... the be-be-beginning... show me..." she breathed out before her one and only mission became keeping her eyes open. She wanted to live, or at least hold some connection still to the living. If she died she was sure she would be one of the many spirits that were rumored to haunt this city. She'd heard the people speaking of ghosts. Now it seemed she would become one.

[Axel Rosen]

The woman before him reaches out to grab him in her attempt to stay standing during her death. He looks into her eyes, not sure if he should push her back or not. He wants to, he wants to push her away and watcher her fall to her back or stomach and bleed out. There is something in his mind or some sort of conscious that is preventing him from being his usual murderous self at this moment. So he lets her cling to him as she dies. She speaks and he barely hears her as he nods his head a little bit. It does indeed answer her question, with his knife in her gut. A bead of blood comes over her lip with her speech and he shrugs his head a little bit. She says something that makes him think that she is doubting what he is. Vampire her ***? He's not exactly sure what she means by that. Does she really doubt him. His brows arch up at her statement as he goes to open his mouth, “I can assure you that I am what I say I am.” He's not sure why she would even begin to doubt what he is after all she has seen.

Her little hands grip his shirt with all the strength she has to stay vertical as she starts to falter. Finally she started to fall and he let her down gently to the ground. She is dying and there is where the end of her life will be, or so Axel is thinking at the moment. He watches her last moments as if he were an angel of death. Just as she begins to fall he looks down into her eyes with an expectation of what will happen next. The male remembers his death rather completely. The pain of death is far more than he'd like to state. They way he was killed, fangs in his throat, ripping them out. The stop of the heart then, moments later the brain. However his death was jump started after bleeding out with a drop of his sire's blood. He remembers that there is no light or wasn't for him. It was just darkness, nothing there to welcome him to the other side, and now that he is a vampire he knows what that place is. It's the shadow realm. Having seen what he thinks is the outside of it once, he doesn't want to go back and visit as a vampire now.

Hr eyes are kept open and Axel is almost amazed at her strength and power over her body as she fights the urge to sleep due to blood loss. Then she speaks. She wants him to show her what else lies beyond death? There are a few things that happen after the body dies, especially for vampires. She wants to walk among the living as a vampire? She's pleading with him and he has to ask what she has done to him to really make his disregard her request. She already knows that she cannot openly invite humans to know about her, she understands this. Or she should do to how much crap he has given her for being a human that's sticking her nose in places. His head nods just once in agreement with her as he leans forward kneeling before her. His mouth bites into his wrist giving her a few drops of blood before forcing his wrist to her mouth. Now starts the real change, the death of a body before she becomes ghost made flesh.