Sick like me +

[Rion]

Closed to Micah and Velveteen.

With a quiet sigh, she ran the back of her hand over her forehead to push back a stray curl. Her hand trembled from exhaustion and the room spun around her, but she remained – somehow – poised above the mutilated corpse in front of her. The girl couldn’t have been older than fifteen, her lifeless blue gaze focused on the bright ceiling light above her. Her face was left untouched, the youth of her features nearly cracking the strong walls around Rion’s heart. It was a devastating scene, one that would haunt her for weeks to come. This girl was just one of eight, each mutilated in the same way. As she bent over her once more, she heard Reese slam into one of the trays behind her. The intern had only been on the job a week, and yet she still couldn’t summon up the pity she needed to feel for him. He was too weak. “Will you be careful? If you mess anything up, we’ll be here even longer,” she snapped, the exhaustion clear in her voice. She could feel the beginning of her reality starting to shift, the edges of her vision dimming as she curled her fingers around the scalpel.

Giving a shake of her head, she listened to the familiar thump, thump of Reese’s heart as it sped up. “I’m sorry, Dr. Hale. I didn’t see it.” Of course he didn’t. He didn’t see anything until it was too late. It was because of him that they were still here. The second he had seen the scene, he had vomited over the girl’s abdomen, ruining any trace of easy DNA she might have obtained from the wounds. Instead of railing into him, she bit down on her tongue and turned her gaze back to the corpse. She could feel her calling to her, begging her to tell her story. What had happened out in that field? Why had eight beautiful, seemingly put together young girls been alone in a place so dark and twisted? Who had taken the life from their innocent eyes? The questions twisted around in her mind as she peeled off her gloves and tossed them into the trash at her side.

“Go ahead and start cleaning up. We’re not going to get any more out of her tonight.” She hated to walk away, but she knew where her biggest mistakes were made. She had seen cases go to complete **** because someone was too stupid to realize when they were tired. She wouldn’t take that risk with this case, not when so much was at stake. As Reese began to sterilize the equipment she zipped up the body bag and turned to pull her coat off. The material rustled louder than she anticipated, and for a moment she forgot that she was vampire. For a second in time, she believed that she was losing her mind with how very loud every noise was. When her gaze moved to her intern, however, she was reminded of the creature she was. It left a sour taste on her tongue, and her irritation dug its claws into her chest. How could her life have been spared by a monster, but these girls hadn’t had that chance? What made her special?

Nothing.

“Hurry up, Reese. I’ve got somewhere to be,” she snapped, her southern accent breaking through the silence and causing the man to jump. The knife fell from his hand and clattered into the sink, the clang creating a twitch beneath her eye. “And do it quietly. What are you trying to do? Wake the dead?” The dark humor was lost on the man as he stared at her, a blank look in his eyes. His fingers worked over the silver of the blade, carefully sanitizing it before setting it aside. “That’s the end of it, Dr. Hale. Is there anything else you’d like me to do before we close up?” So eager to please, that blank look fading to be replaced with a youthful innocence that was soon going to be crushed into a thousand pieces. The man was her age, and yet he had no idea what he was getting into. He had no idea what really lurked outside - or what was only a few feet from him now. “No, Reese. That’s it. Get your things and go.”

...before I rip you apart.

She quelched the thought the second it entered her mind, the unbidden hunger like flames as it clawed up her throat. As her head fell forward, her intern brushed past her, bag already in hand. As eager as he was to learn, he was even more eager to spend his night drunk with his friends. How wonderful for him, to have a life worth living. Swallowing the bitterness down, she watched his retreating back before finally summoning her magic. As the blood coursed through her veins, she rolled her neck and grabbed her phone and wallet a second before locking the office behind her.

She wasn’t looking forward to the meeting with her father. She hadn’t a clue why he was even in Harper Rock, but she had a sinking suspicion that it had something to do with her filing for divorce. He could never let her live the life she wanted to, always having to stand in her way, either to protect her - or to protect himself. It was never, now that she thought back on it, about her. It was always a way to make himself feel better, to feel beneficial and forgiven for his sins. Little did he know she’d never forget his morbid acts. She wasn’t God. She didn’t have to forgive him for a damned thing, but she did have to put up with him. At least for a little while longer, and then he’d be dead. Yet again, she would outlive a parent. “Lucky me,” she muttered, fingers twisting the notebook paper that held his address on it. He wasn’t too far from the office, the trip taking no more than ten minutes by foot - and it felt like a lifetime.

A lifetime of hell.

Before she had a chance to knock, the door swung open, and her father was staring at her. His face was shrunken, his eyes dull. “God, you look like ******* hell.” He growled, stepping back so she could make her way in. “Nice to see you, too, daddy. I’m really starting to enjoy your concern for my well being,” she retorted sarcastically, bag dropping to the floor and arms crossing over her chest as she stepped into the living room. “Watch your mouth, kid. I’ll ******* smack that sarcasm out of you.” The threat was familiar to her, and yet she still found her fingers digging into her bicep as her chest ached. She was pathetic, still looking for daddy’s love when daddy was a ******* drunk ********. Swallowing back the ‘I’d like to see you try’ comment, she turned to face him, brow raising.

“As much as I’m loving this family reunion moment, why don’t you tell me why you’re here so you can go back to your drinking and I can go back to my lovely fairytale of daddy’s a king and I’m a ******* millionaire?”

“I heard about your and Abraham. He’s distraught. Now, I don’t know why you can’t just---”

“I can’t just what? Sit back and play good little housewife while he mindfucks me? Gee, sorry dad. I guess I forgot the part where we’ve reverted back to women were just there to bear children.”

“I told you to shut the **** up with that sarcastic mouth!”

She saw the vein above his eye throb, his face turning a rather beautiful shade of red as he began to pace. “You listen here, you freak, I don’t know where I went wrong with you. I did everything I could for you when your mother died. You will not divorce Abraham, do you understand me?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He’d always been an asshole, but he’d never been so stressed. Crossing her arms over her chest even more, she braced herself as she watched him walk back and forth, back and forth. He was going to wear a hole in the floor, but she found herself not caring. Before she had a chance to speak, he turned on her, finger pointed towards her chest. “You’re going to do what I say, unless you want your secret to come out, vampire.”

In that second, her world dropped from under her.

Her hands started to shake, vision started to ebb. The darkness was going to swallow her whole. Oh, god.

“What the hell are you talking about?” The words were grit out through clenched teeth, her fingers digging deeper into her bicep.

“You’re not stupid, Rion Grace. I can give you that much. You’re not that smart, but you’re not stupid. Do you think I would have called you here if I didn’t have something on you? I was GLAD to be rid of you, then you had to go and file for divorce and **** up everything good in my life. Well, guess what? You can’t. I’ve followed you for days. I’ve seen you friends, I’ve seen your ‘family’ and I’ve seen you. You’re a ******* freak of nature, and if you don’t listen to me, then everyone will know it.” The smile he gave her was sickening. The man before her was no longer her father. He had morphed into some creature she didn’t recognize. Was it greed? Envy? She couldn’t decipher the emotions swirling in his eyes, but she knew she had to react. She had to stop him. With a quiet sound in her throat, she brushed her hands through her hair and gave him a twisted smile as the cobalt curls danced over her fingers. “You’ve lost it, old man. I didn’t think I was going to have to toss you in a old folks home so soon.” She had to play it, play on his insecurities. There was absolutely no way that he had information on her, on them. And yet, even as she said the words, she saw it in his eyes. He wasn’t insane. Letting her hands drop, she closed her eyes for a minute.

“Dad, you don’t know what you’re dealing with. You don’t want to do this. Give me what you have,” she whispered, her voice turning as cold as ice as her eyes opened. She saw him standing there, the man that used to be her father, and she saw the way his body shifted, concealing the laptop behind him. When he moved back, she stepped forward, hand outstretched to grab the cord. “I mean it, you’re going to get yourself killed.” When her fingers gripped the plug, his hand rushed out and took a fistful of her hair, pulling her back. “You will listen to me.” His voice was low, dripping with venom as he tried to put distance between her and the laptop. That when she she knew for certain.

Tossing her arm up, she only meant to push him away from her, but the panic to reach the evidence had pushed her senses too far. There was a brief moment of silence before the sickening crash filled the room. She watched in horror as her father’s head connected with the desk, the wood splintering and blood spraying through the air. She could only stand in stunned silence as his body slid to the floor, head falling to the side, the life fading from his eyes. It had only taken a second, a single moment in time for her life to be altered completely.

The windows in her mind shattered.

Oh god, what have I done?

Her vision darkened.

I'm a ******* monster.

Numbly, she grabbed her phone from her back pocket and dialed her sire's number, gaze never wavering from those familiar dead eyes. When she heard him pick up, she didn’t even wait for his hello.

“Micah. I need you now. Please.”

Ending the call, she let the phone fall to the floor and screamed.

[Micah]

The room was silent except for the sound of a pen scratching against a piece of paper. Micah was the only one there. His anniversary with his wife was coming up rather fast. Vel had asked him if they could renew their wedding vows and never able to deny that woman a thing he agreed. He should have gotten a bit of information before agreeing to such a thing because she wanted them to write their own vows. Not really a bad thing but anyone who knew Micah knew that he wasn’t good with feelings or emotions so this particular task was a struggle for him. The pile of wadded up paper at his feet was a testament to that.

When the phone rang he welcomed the distraction. Pulling the device towards him he slid his thumb across the screen and brought it to his ear without checking the display. He went to speak but he was cut off before he could utter a single word. He blinked, once, twice, then again before he realized that the line was already dead but he still called her name regardless. “Rion??” Of course there was no answer. “****.” He cursed and brought the phone around so he could see her name as he scrolled through the contacts listed. When her name was highlighted he hit call and again brought the phone up to his ear. It rang and rang before eventually going to voicemail.

Micah didn’t know what was wrong but Rion needed him. And for her to actually ask him for something told him that it was serious. That one was stubborn, so stubborn that she hated asking for help with anything. So, he wasn’t going to let her down. He didn’t have the same ability that Vel did to be able to see and sense where his childe was but he wasn’t without tricks of his own. Rising from his seat he headed for the altar. The items need for the Call To Blood Ritual were tossed into the circle and the demifae was summoned. He’d only ever used the ritual once before and that had been out of anger. This time it was necessary.

His face was a picture of concentration and within a few minutes he was rewarded with a location. Micah didn’t know why the **** she was there but he was going to find out. Normally a situation like this would have him raging but he couldn’t find it in him to be pissed off. The tone of Rion’s voice had him more worried than angry, and she was apparently unable to answer which was something she wouldn’t do. Not to him. They might have had a rocky start but there was a mutual grudging respect between them now. She wouldn’t ignore him. That much he was certain of.

The power of celerity had him standing in front of the apartment building in seconds and he didn’t hesitate to pull open the door and head inside. The apartment was easy to find but really he wouldn’t have needed the number. Micah could hear her screaming. It wasn’t very loud really - humans would probably assume that one of the neighbors had the television up too loud but he would know Rion’s voice anywhere screaming or not.

The doorknob turned under his hand and he slipped inside closing the door after him. Micah quickly took in the scene before crossing the room to kneel beside her. His hands curled over her shoulders and he gave her a brief shake to get her to snap out of it and look at him. “Rion, it’s me. What the **** is going on??”

[Rion]

What had she become?

What had she done?

She couldn’t tear her gaze from him. She had memorized how his body was positioned, the angle of his neck as his chin fell to his chest. She knew the exact shape of the wound on the back of his skull, the way it spider-webbed out. She even had the way the blood fell burnt into her memory. She had killed him. It had been so easy. A single push, and she had ended his life. How was that even possible? Logically, it would have taken more force than that to do the damage she had, but she was no longer living in a world where logic made sense. If she were, he’d still be alive. If she were, this never would have happened. She was trying to put pieces of the puzzle together that didn’t fit. Even as she screamed, her mind was pulling together every little detail, trying to convince herself that it wasn’t real. It was a figment of her imagination, her insanity finally getting the best of her. She was going to quit screaming. She was going to quit screaming, and it would all be alright.

Any second now.
… Any second …

She heard him from afar, his voice barely making its way passed her own self-loathing. Oh, god, what had she done? She’d killed him—No, she’d already went down that path. She had to break free, and so she latched onto the sound of her sire’s voice, used it as if it were her lifeline as he pulled her from the abyss she had found herself lost in. Slowly, she shook her head as she came to, throat raw from screaming. “I killed him, I thought that was obvious,” she heard herself say, though despite the sarcastic remark, her voice was void of all emotion. She wasn’t in the mood for games, but it was as if she couldn’t help herself. When times went to ****, she clung to the one thing that was true. Sarcasm. The weight of his hands on her shoulders gave her leverage, and slowly, she forced her eyes from the corpse to focus on his face. The only sign of shock was in her eyes, the pupils dilated and iris’s a darker shade of blue. She knew he’d want a reason, but she couldn’t remember it. Not at first. “He’s dead.”

Slowly, she lifted her hands, fingers bloody from tearing into her own skin, and curled them into his shirt. “He’s dead, he’s dead, my father’s dead,” she whispered, the words falling from her lips like a broken record as she bowed her head, shoulders trembling. She could feel the need to scream building up inside of her again, but she couldn’t release it. It was choking her, the tears burning at her eyes, wanting to fall, but they couldn’t. It was if she were trapped in her own hell with no outlet insight. Snap out of it, Rion, ****. The voice in her mind was her own, the one she knew well. She had killed him, but there had been a reason for it. A reason that her life was suddenly different. “Evidence,” she choked out, fingers loosening their hold on her sire.

“He has evidence. Of me, he followed me. He didn’t want me to divorce Abraham because we’d lose out on his fortune.” She knew she was talking in tongues to him. She had kept her human life a secret from him, from Osiris – from everyone. “I only wanted the ******* evidence, but he stood in my way. All I did was push him, but the next thing I know, his brains are splattered all over the desk.” Oh, god. She was going to be sick. Pushing her hands against his chest, she turned just a second before she began to dry heave, stomach muscles clenching from the violent force. When she managed to collect herself, she put her hands on the wall and lifted unsteadily to her feet. “The computer. All the information is in the computer. It also links to his safety deposit box at the bank.” She had no choice. She had no time. Wiping the back of her hand across her mouth, she turned to face her sire, expression blank. “What do I do?”

[Micah]

“Well I see you haven’t lost your sarcastic wit,” came the rather dry response from him. There were so many other things that he could say to her but he refrained from doing so. Given the current situation that she had found herself in her sarcasm was not only understandable but expected as well. It told him that even if Rion was in a state of shock she was still in there somewhere and because of that he allowed himself to relax a small bit. Micah glanced at the body propped up against the wall. Had it landed there or had she put it there herself? It wasn’t important really and now wasn’t the time to be asking such stupid questions. “Yes Rion. He’s dead.” Didn’t need to be a doctor or a genius to figure that out. The lack of heartbeat was telling and then there was the death stare. That look that appeared in the eyes when death took hold and sucked the life out of a person.

“Your father?” That was unexpected. Micah had thought that perhaps this was that asshole boss of hers that she continued to work for. If anyone deserved to die it was that one and die he would if he had anything to say about it. He let his hands fall from her shoulders. This situation was why he always insisted all ties to their human life be severed as soon as possible. Humans couldn’t find out about them and it was only a matter of time before one slipped up and revealed what they were. And apparently, that was what had happened here. Micah didn’t doubt that it was an accident but he was hard pressed to find any sort of sympathy for the dead man. Better him than Rion. Cold? Of course it was. Did he care? Not at all.

Evidence. The night just went from bad to worse with that single word. “Evidence…” He echoed her and stared at her blankly. The one word he always dreaded to hear. It meant that **** had just gotten real. He pulled away from her grasp and got to his feet, cursing loudly as he started pacing back and forth. This was bad. It was really, really bad and he didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know how to help her. She was still speaking and so he stopped with his pacing and waited for her to finish.

That she was married came as a surprise to him. Rion was rather tight lipped about her human life and Micah was not one to push. It wasn’t his business really and if she felt like sharing with him then she would. If not it was no skin off of his back. But this...this was important and she was going to have to fess up and come clean. If he had any hope of making this go away then Rion needed to tell him all of it. Just as he went to ask for the details she kept going, spilling everything that he needed to know. “First you need to calm down. The evidence is what we need to get rid of, or at least locate. Then we can worry about this.” He waved a hand at the dead body. “There’s only one person that I trust to find that **** on a computer and that’s my wife. If anyone can find it, she can.”

Pulling out his phone he sent his wife a vague text, giving nothing more than an address along with a message to come as soon as possible.

[Rion]

’We’ll deal with this.’
Like her father was garbage.
Like he was nothing.
****, he was nothing…

The way the man spoke so callously about her father made her skin crawl. It set her teeth on edge as the urge to lash out and slam her fist into his jaw burnt through her like a firestorm. It started in the pit of her stomach and twisted its way through her veins until her fingers began to shake with the powerful impulse, though loyalty to the ****** kept her in place. From the moment she had woken, she hadn’t been able to physically or emotionally attack him. It was if he had somehow become her everything overnight. She hated it. She hated him. ’You know that’s a lie,’ her subconscious spoke, and she swore she felt a smug grin form. Great, now even her inner demons were taking his side. Would she ever catch a break? ’No, you’re stuck with us, just as you’re stuck with him. He’s the only thing you have, Doctor Hale. Remember that.’

As her vision continued to ebb, she managed to stand on her own two feet, spine straight and eyes narrowed into a calculating gaze on the man who had stolen – and given – her life. He stood as still and sure as the day they had met, his eyes only leaving her features briefly to gaze at his phone. Even then, his movements were precise, as if he hadn’t a care in a world. Was this a joke to him? Was the fact that she had killed the only last living relative she had just another day in the Wonderful Life of Micah? Of course it was. What more did she expect from him? He hadn’t cared when he ripped into her like she was a piece of meat, he surely didn’t give a damn over a man that had risked his secrecy – or her. ’Finally, you get it. God, I thought for a moment you were about to lose all that intelligence. Then what would you be good for?’ Okay, seriously. This voice had to go. It was beginning to weigh on her more than her battle of emotions for the statue of a male before her. She knew it was right, though. As much as she hated to admit it, Micah wouldn’t have come running for just anyone. He took his lineage seriously – he took her seriously. That was what it boiled down to – his care for her. Even if neither would admit it, it was there in the actions, and it was that knowledge that managed to calm her to the point of clarity.

Her father was a risk.
No, had been. He had been a risk.

The urge to scream began to build back in her throat, the pressure almost too much to bear. She had to stop this inner battle and get the **** over it. Find the strongest bottle and shove it all inside until she could sort through it in private. There was work to be done, she had to dig herself out of the hole her father once again seemed to shove her into. He always managed to leave her without a rope, too, the loving **** that he was. “Fine,” she whispered, her voice hoarse and defeated as she finally tore her gaze from his. Swiftly, the Necromancer turned and stepped over her father to slide behind the desk, hoping her movements weren’t as dazed and disoriented as they felt.

“Your wife? She really needs to know about this?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, but she didn’t show a single sign of regret. Instead, she spun the laptop around and pulled open the lid, her fingers pressing to the keys as she began to type slowly. She wasn’t skilled with technology, but she had basic knowledge. However, it seemed her father had taken a course or two – though she had a sinking feeling it was more than that. The usual screen of a password was completely black, only a thin box in the middle signaling for a key to be entered. The second she typed in the password she had assumed it to be, the device made a loud sound that caused her to jump back, fingers curling as if it had burnt her. She watched in confusion as the entire computer shut down, before making a soft hum as it began to reboot. When the same screen came on as before, she closed her eyes as a sinking feeling began in the pit of her stomach. “Abraham,” she whispered, her exasperation clear. It seemed no matter how hard she tried to keep her past hidden, it found a way to bite her in the *** tenfold. Fine, they’d play it their way. “It’s not that I don’t trust her, I just don’t know her.” I don’t know you, either. Shaking the thought from her mind, she tried to look everywhere that her father wasn’t. The scent of his blood was seeping into her senses, her blue eyes almost wild as she curled her fingers into her biceps. “Do what you have to do. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

She was a monster.
She was a killer.
She was sick.

[Velveteen]

Time. It was relative. Measured in units that spanned into the future endlessly. It didn't matter how true that statement was. It was what they were faced with for time being. Time. It played such a significant factor in her life before Harper Rock. Everything fell into some sort of time constraint. You went to school for a certain amount of time. You worked for so long and retired at a certain time in your life. Marriage and babies before you were too old to do so, if that was what you chose. Time spent with family who wouldn't be around forever. Time. It stopped for nothing and no one and marched on, no matter what, minute after minute, day after day, year after year. But still...for every person, time would come to an end sooner or later for each of them. For now...it was no longer a constraint. No longer was she bound to the same agenda that she was when human. Time. How she loved to squander it.

The soft curve of her lips was a physical manifestation of her day dreaming. The soft squeak of her chair sounded rhythmically as she swung it side to side like a pendulum, counting down the seconds that she spent not doing anything that she should have been. A soft, hypnotic creak that came to an abrupt halt as the annoying vibration of her phone rattled against the wooden surface beneath it. A moment later the sounds of her own voice came from the tiny speaker and she smirked as her own version of that one scene from When Harry Met Sally filled the otherwise silent room. She had set it as a joke one night when messing around with her husband but she had kept it nonetheless. She never did get around to making him a matching one. She would do that. Later. While he was sleeping.

Her thumb slide across the screen to check the message, resisting the urge to look over her shoulder from some creepy teddy with a camera in its mouth. How did he know she was slacking off? Her brow furrowed as she read the message and while she was relieved it wasn't a message telling her to stop daydreaming, she was rather curious as to why he wanted her to go to this one address. Her floor, length coat was shrugged on and her pockets checked for the necessary items before she slipped out through a portal. It probably took about ten minutes all up for her to reach the building and as she stood out the front she rechecked the address to make sure she was in the right place. “Interesting.” She uttered quietly to herself before making her way inside and then up several flights of stairs.

She stood before the door and raised her hand to knock before stopping herself at the last second. Why hadn’t he just summoned her? Why was the text so vague? What was it a text? Velveteen stepped quickly to the side and pressed her back against the wall just in case there was some sort of fuckery afoot and just for her own peace of mind she reached out to impress her thoughts upon her husband’s mind. I’m here. Outside. What’s up? Are you okay?” She figured if the text was a hoax then he would have no idea what she was talking about at which point she would work out the next part of her plan.