A Friend in Need [[Dhara]]

[Aliyah]

There had always been this sense of wonder to Aliyah as she questioned the sleeping patterns of vampires. Ever since she had come to Harper Rock and her life had changed, she had yet to experience a dream. There were small periods of what she had deemed 'lucid' dreams, when she was sure the sounds she was hearing came from the world outside of her bedroom seeping into her subconscious. But, there had never been a clear image or scene playing out in her mind in those deep slumber hours. She found she missed them.

She had gone to bed fairly early by her own standards. Lately, Dhara had been spending more and more nights with Calen, leaving Ali home alone to do what she wanted. And in those nights, she was content to curl up in bed long before the sun rose and sleep away the rest of the day. It was a sudden agonizing pain that had placed her in this state of being half-asleep. The deep male voices that seemed to speak over her kept her in semi-awareness, but her struggle to fully awaken was proving rather useless. And with those voices came an overwhelming fear, her unbeating heart constricting in her chest.

And still, the rounds of pain kept coming. The worst came from her chest. It felt like hours, but it was likely only a few minutes before she could finally drag herself out of the torpor. Her blue eyes snapped open, the faces of the hunters appearing before her. She bolted upright in her bed, but her movements were too slow to provide any leverage. With the numbing pain, no words formed when she attempted to speak, causing a small laugh among her attackers. The hunters scattered, dashing from the room and slamming out of the apartment, leaving her there in a mess of blood and weapons.

With a soft whimper, Aliyah looked down at her chest. A rather large blade stuck out of it, barely a few inches from her heart. Various other cuts and slashes covered areas of her arms and upper body, but they paled in comparison. She raised her hand to the hilt of the blade, grasping it tightly. With a deep and unsteady breath, she yanked it free. A scream passed her lips, but the force behind it allowed for only a mere squeak.

She had never been attacked so viciously before, let alone in her sleep. The blood loss left her light-headed, forcing her to lay back down. The healing would be slow and painful unless she got blood in her system to aid in the speed of the process. But every movement felt like torture, leveling her motivation to the ground.

"Dhara..." she whispered, knowing that the woman was not around to hear the call. Still, she was the only hope the blonde had to get any blood in her system, since she could easily bring the blood packets from the fridge. But, that wasn't likely to happen. Not when the woman was so obviously gone.

Once more, Aliyah sat up, closing her eyes against the throbbing pain in her chest. In a minute, she would move. In a minute, she would get to the kitchen. Just...in a minute.

[Dhara]

All day she had felt like something was wrong. A sixth sense she'd always had, but one that had never been trustworthy. But the nagging feeling of wrongness had plagued her all day. It had woken her from a nap, harassed her through her work day and in to the night as she moved on to her second job. Lingered and distracted her from her duties. She blew a lock of hair from her face with a soft huff and closed the books she was trying to balance. There was no way she was going to get any thing done tonight. She had to find the source of the wrongness and fix it. She knew it wasn't Calen. They had exchanged a few texts through out the day and the evening as they went through their own separate jobs. He'd have told her if something was wrong.

Picking up her phone again, she scowled at the small device, scrolling through her messages. That was when it hit her like a ton of bricks. Ali. Something was wrong with Ali. She was utterly certain of it and the clue lay in her text messages, or lack there of. Even though she'd been spending so much time at Calen's place, her and Ali always kept a fairly steady stream of text chatter. From the moment the sun went down, to the moment Ali texted good night, they were in almost constant contact. Even if there were several hours between messages, the women never ever spent a night not talking in some fashion. But there had been nothing. Not even the expected good night message. And maybe Ali had simply forgotten, but until she knew for certain, Dhara wouldn't be able to get any thing else done. She sent a quick message to Calen to let him know she wouldn't be home tonight, then she left the office, heading straight for the apartment she shared with Ali.

It felt like it took hours for her to traverse the route to the QZ. Her steps through the sewers were hurried, her long skirt clutched in her hands as she practically ran. She was furious with herself that she hadn't texted Ali earlier in the evening. The woman was practically her sister and the fact that Dhara hadn't texted weighed her down with guilt. Finally making it to the QZ, she bolted inside the building, dodging the zombies and rabid vampires that roamed around. She pressed the button for the elevator a half dozen times in rapid succession and when it didn't come fast enough for her liking, she headed for the stairs.

As she raced up the nine flights, she kept reassuring herself that Ali was fine. All this worry was for nothing. She'd burst in to the apartment, scare the daylights out of her flat mate and then they would laugh about Dhara's needless worry. Slamming through the door, it banged against the wall and made her wince, but she didn't stop. Her steps were dull thuds across the carpet and she came to a halt before her apartment door. Small hands shook as she slid her key in the lock and managed to get the door open. She slipped in side to silence and the scent of blood. Both of those things were unnatural. Ali never brought dinner home. She either fed while she was out, or had one of the packets that Dhara usually kept in the fridge for her. She set her bag down beside the door and crept in quietly, heading straight for Ali's room.

The door was open slightly and Dhara peeked in, just barely seeing the woman's blonde head. She was asleep. And yet she couldn't make herself believe that. Pushing the door open, a small, choked sound came from half parted lips. Ali was covered in blood, her eyes were closed and she was sitting up, though slumped in on herself. Swallowing hard, she darted across the room and sat carefully on the bed. "Ali..." She whispered her name, stroking her blonde locks back with shaking hands. "Ali... Ali I'm here... tell me what to do! Tell me how to help you!" Her whispers were growing frantic, panicked at seeing her best friend bleeding from a gaping wound in her chest.

[Aliyah]

'In a minute' was turning into two, and then ten, and Aliyah was no closer to moving herself from the bed than she had before the moment before. Pain radiated all over her body from its central point in her chest, but the cuts along her extremities were more of a dull throbbing. The blood loss was slow, but steady and managed to stain nearly every fabric in her bedroom. Through of fogginess in her mind, she realized she would need to buy all new bedding, and possibly a new mattress. Of all the things that could have been considered, that was possibly the last thing of importance. She never had handled crisis very well, and it only proved how useless she truly was. It was no wonder that Pi and Elliot always had to clean up her messes.

She was just about to lay back down when she heard a woman's voice, though it echoed in her ears as if at a distance. When it finally registered, the blonde turned her head to look over at Dhara, her blue eyes widening. If she were anything like her parents, she might have thanked God for sending her flatmate home tonight. A part of her wanted to, but she knew what would come from such a prayer. All it would include would be more pain, and a suffocating feeling in her throat. She had Skylar to thank for her realization that all things holy and religious were as aversive to her as they appeared to vampires in the movie. Which was total ****, but go figure, that was her life.

Dhara's begging made her heart constrict in her chest, and she placed a shaky and bloody palm to the woman's cheek. "It's okay...I'll be okay..." she forced out in a rather breathy voice. Despite her lack of breathing, she still managed to sound out of breath when it pain. "I need blood, Dhara. It will help me heal." Her hand slipped from the small woman's cheek and she nodded, telling her that she could freely go and check out the fridge for any blood packets. Ali hadn't checked it in a few days, as she fed regularly when she was out. Only someone cursed with 7 years of bad luck would have no blood in a situation like this, right?

"I...need to lay down," she whispered, slowly lowering herself back to the bed. She turned her head in each direction and lifted her arms up from the bed, inspecting the cuts and gashes that decorated her arms like tacky tattoos. Some of them ran deeper, while others were nothing more than light scratches, healing faster than the rest of her body due to their lack of urgency. She groaned, dropping them both to the bed with a thud, no longer having the strength to hold them up.

It was going to be a long night.

[Dhara]

"No Ali. You can't lay down." Her voice shook, but she was still firm. She ran from the room, coming back with a stack of pillows and a first aid kit. She wasn't sure what good a band aid would do for a vampires wounds, but she had to help. After all what good was giving her more blood going to do if she was still bleeding. She wrapped an arm around the slender woman and lifted her up, stuffing pillows behind her to sit her up a little. Her hands moved to the woman's shirt and she worked her fingers in the hole, widening it with a soft tearing that sounded as loud as thunder. She stopped suddenly and stared at the wound. Her friends blood... it wasn't really blood. Was it? Was this black substance that whisped in to the air what kept her friend 'alive'? It looked like she was oozing shadow and darkness. As if the pitch black night was escaping from the woman's body and vanishing in to the light of the room."Sorry about your shirt. I'll get you a new one." She muttered.

She opened the plastic box and began pulling out the small packets of gauze. One after the other, she ripped open the small woven cotton squares, then stared almost helplessly. These were useless. But she stacked them up any ways and pressed them to the hole in her friends chest. "Come on now..." She said as she pushed down. Pressure stopped bleeding, right? Did it work the same for vampires? Never had she felt more useless and helpless than she did in this very moment. She took the other woman's slender hand and pressed it to the gauze. "Come on, Ali. Wake up. I need you to hold this for me okay?" She practically snapped the words at her best friend and was rewarded with a slow blink and the twitch of the hand she held against the gauze. Satisfied that she wouldn't let go, she offered a faint smile. "Good girl. Just hold that for me. I'm going to get some blood."

Her weight left the bed as she hurried from the room yet again. Sucking in air as if it were water, she ran through the small apartment and stopped in front of the fridge. There was blood in there. Wasn't there? When was the last time she'd brought blood to Ali? God she was a terrible best friend. The woman was like a sister to her and she'd become so caught up in her life, her human life, that she let the needs and care of her best friend slip. With a sinking feeling, she opened the fridge, her eyes moving directly to the place where blood was usually stacked in fat bags. The emptiness was like a gaping hole of condemnation. She had let Ali down. Blowing out a rattling breath, she ran a hand through her hair and went back to the room, perching on the bed.

"Ali... Ali, sweety, we don't have blood. It's to far to the store... give me an alternative. Give me some suggestions. Come on Ali. Wake up!" She snapped again, brushing blond locks back from a far to pale face. "Come on Ali, tell me what I can do to help."

[Aliyah]

As much as she wanted to comfort Dhara, Aliyah couldn't bring the right words to mind. Every so often, she would think of something to say to calm the other woman's nerves, but as soon as she went to open her mouth, they were forgotten. Her mind was like swiss cheese, with so many holes that she couldn't keep a single constant thought for more than a moment. All she knew was the pain in her chest, and the overbearing need to feed. The sooner she got fresh blood to replace what she had lost, the sooner her wounds her start to heal. Dhara didn't know that, though, and her fluttering hands that didn't seem to rest in any one place were becoming a distraction.

She just wanted to rest. The sun was still in the sky, thought it was sinking faster with the minutes that past. But, her torpor had been interrupted and her body demanded she sleep just a little while longer. And Dhara was having none of it. Every time her eyes closed, her friend was there, coaxing her away. At one point, even asking Ali to hold onto gauze covering the wound in her chest. The gauze would do no good, but Dhara was gone before she could say as much, and so she held it. Dhara had gone to get blood from the fridge, and then it would all be okay. She would start healing, and the woman wouldn't have worry.

Except the expression on the other woman's face when she returned was enough to tell the blonde that something was wrong. There was no blood in her hands, and she looked about ready to cry, both from worry and panic. When she told her the situation, Ali shook her head and struggled to sit up further. If she could get herself down to the river, she could walk across to the abandoned apartments and find some homeless man hidden within. "Help me get to the elevator?" she asked her friend softly, her eyes practically pleading. Her gum throbbed, and her beaten and bruised body was protesting every movement. Who knew vampires could be in so much pain?

Before the woman could even offer help, Ali groaned and laid back down against the pillows. "Or, not..." she muttered, her eyes closing in concentration. The store was too far, and she couldn't make it to the river in this state. She needed something else, anything else. If she sent Dhara out, she knew she would be okay until her friend returned, but it was clear that the woman was not going to move an inch from Ali's side. The blonde sighed, looking at her friend with a frown, "I need blood. It's the only way this will heal quickly enough..." She refused to point out to her friend that she was a human, and that she had the blood necessary. If there was one thing that she would not do, it would be feeding from her roommate. She had made that vow that night she moved in, and she would not be breaking it any time soon.

[Dhara]

"Okay." She sighed out softly, "Okay. Blood. You need blood." She got up and paced around the room, feeling like every sound was amplified in her panic. The rustle of her skirt, the patter of her bare feet on the floor. Even the grinding of her teeth was easy to hear as she tried to think about how to help her friend.

She was not a buffet. She was not a midnight snack, and she and Ali had both agreed that there would be no feeding. But this wasn't the same, was it? This wasn't Ali needing a quick fix. This wasn't some sort of quick little drink leaving her senseless and wandering the city with no memory. This was... this was Ali. A woman she thought of as a sister. She blew out a slow breath and sat back down on the bed.

"Okay. Blood. I have blood. You need blood." Her hand shook when she reached in to the first aid kit and pulled out a small pair of scissors. They looked sharp enough. This would be useful. "I can do this. Yes. I can do this." Nothing like a little pep talk to encourage herself. She wasn't a super hero, she wasn't a savior. But here she was, and here she went. She opened the small scissors and used one of the sharp sides to make a cut in her wrist. Less than half an inch, but then again, it didn't take much.

Soon the salty-copper scent of blood filled the room. Or maybe it was just the immediate vicinity. She really couldn't be sure, because to her, it smelled like it was every where. She scooted even closer and gave Ali a tight smile, holding up her bleeding wrist. "Okay Ali-cat... okay." It seemed that was her brand new go to word. But it worked, right? Funny how the simplest of things became a mantra to help you get through a crises. Then again, this was a pretty unusual situation so it seemed rather fitting that such a small word would become like a prayer. "Here's blood. I don't... I don't know how this works..." She trailed off because Ali's eyes had drifted shut again. Frowning, she used a finger to slick through the blood on her wrist, then painted it across the woman's lips. She hoped that the feel and the smell would rouse her enough to drink, because Dhara had no earthly idea how to get blood in to an unconscious vampire.

"Come on, Ali-cat. I've got blood. We can do this. Just... um... go go gadget fangs... or what ever you do to make them come out, okay?"

[Aliyah]

Whilst Dhara had a mini meltdown, Aliyah leaned back against the bedposts, trying her best not to move a muscle. Thanks to vampiric stillness, it wasn't too hard to accomplish. The longer she stayed still, the less likely she was to aggravate her wounds and prolong the healing process. She found herself cursing the Path she had seemed to take upon entering vampire life, as she had come to learn that Shadows took longer to heal than most other vampires, the lucky bastards. And somehow, in that moment of relaxation, she had managed to block out her friend's mutterings and actions. It was a moment of silence and inattention.

The scent of blood immediately brought the world back in focus, her eyes snapping to the blood pooling on the woman's wrist. The scent filled her nose, a burning sensation beginning in her throat as her instincts demanded she act. Fighting against them, she looked at Dhara and shook her head, "I can't, Dhara...no..." she mumbled, voice hoarse. With a slow and weak movement, she pushed the woman's arm away, her eyes falling closed as she tried to keep the blood lust at bay. Her vow would not be broken.

Dhara apparently didn't take no for an answer, painting the blood across her lips. Involuntarily, her tongue shot out and licked at the stain. Her mind buzzed with the taste, and she slowly peered up at the woman, almost glaring. Her friend was making it extremely hard to avoid this situation. "Gadget fangs? Really?" she asked, trying to make a joke of the situation, while hoping that it would distract Dhara enough to pull her bloody wrist away. "My fangs are always out, love. You just don't notice..." And that was true. Unlike most other vampires, she had never been able to retract her fangs. They were forever present, and she had become a professional at keeping them hidden from view.

The longer the scent of her blood permeated the air, the harder it was getting to keep everything in check and in control. She was confident that she could keep herself from harming Dhara in any way, but that didn't mean the woman had to make it easy. There was no better test to her self-control. "Listen, I am not taking blood for you. I swore to you that I never would, and that is not changing. Wrap it up," she groaned, raising a blood covered hand to her mouth. It was her own blood, and that helped to stifle some of the scent that came with fresh human blood.

[Dhara]

"There are?" She asked curiously, and a million other questions flooded through her mind. Why? Did it hurt? Did she think they would ever go away? And so many others. And yet she managed to squelch her curiosity and shook her head at Ali's denial and repeated vow. "I know you promised. And you're not breaking that promise. But this is kind of... emergency circumstances." She brushed the blonde locks aside and smiled at the woman.

"Now, since your fangs are always out, and I'm bleeding, rather conveniently, then there shouldn't be a problem." She had a feeling that this could turn in to a battle of wills. Who was more stubborn in this moment? Ali or Dhara? Though Dhara did have the advantage, she wasn't bleeding out like Ali was. Yes the cut was deep, yes it burned, but Dhara had known what she was doing when she did it and she wasn't at risk of suffering an arterial bleed. So, her coppery blood could slowly eek out, filling the air with the scent that Ali not only craved, but needed, and she would argue with the woman until she was blue in the face. And then she would keep arguing.

"I think we can both agree that you aren't breaking your promise in this case. I'm being rather demanding that you drink so you can heal yourself. Okay? Because you aren't allowed to be hurt, and you certainly aren't allowed to die." She was barely keeping her voice calm and sure, a slight warble could be heard when she said 'die' but she managed to cover it up. Instead, she simply leaned forward and pressed her bleeding wrist directly to Ali's parted lips. Lets see you resist this. She thought to herself, watching the woman intently.

"Please, Ali?" She whispered softly.

[Aliyah]

The incredulous look on Dhara's face would have usually been laughable, to the point that Ali would have to had walk away in order to spare the other woman's feelings. Then again. her darling friend rarely felt the sting of hurt feelings and vice versa. They knew the extent of their care for each other and it made things easy. Still, how the snowy haired woman had never noticed the elongated fangs was beyond Ali's realm of understanding. They were literally staring Dhara in the face every single day.

And just when the blonde thought she was in the clear of drinking her friend's blood, Dhara was off again. explaining the difference in circumstance, as if they weren't bloody obvious...literally. Her eyes narrowed on the woman in front of her, gears turning in her head in order to find an argument against it that D couldn't refute. Sometimes, it felt like the two of them were thrown together just to prove how utterly different they were. Vampire and human. Outspoken and soft. Volatile and patient. Their friendship was an anomaly.

As much as Ali didn't want to admit it, the smell of blood throughout the room was making her fangs throb in agony, begging her to take the only sustenance she needed in order to survive. Her body ached, the wound burned like hell...the weapon had probably been soaked in something sinister. If it happened to be Holy Water or something equally stupid, it was possibly she was one of the only vampires it would actually work on. The blood coating Dhara's wrist was tempting, too tempting. Not even holding her breath would keep the scent away.

Before Aliyah could protest that she wouldn't die as Dhara had claimed, the wrist was against her lips, the blood staining them a deep red. The smallest drip leaked into her mouth, and her taste buds exploded with desire for more. She whimpered as her friend's pleas, trying to turn her head away from the blood, anything to keep the blood lust at bay.

But, she will eventually quit. And she fed from the offered blood. And hated every second of it.

[Dhara]

"That's it..." She said softly, trusting her friend implicitly. She inched closer to the woman so she could stroke her hair. She didn't have to be a mind reader to know that Ali would feel guilty and probably try to make it up to her. None of that mattered to Dhara. All that mattered was that Ali was safe and healed. Even mostly healed would be alright with her.

As the woman fed, Dhara continued to stroke her hair, mind wandering to a more analytical track to keep her fear at bay. There was no slurping like she was a bowl of soup, not a single drop was wasted. Ali wasn't a messy feeder like they showed on T.V. or described in books. She was very neat, and precise and Dhara was surprised to find that it didn't really hurt. Aside from the initial push of fangs to get more blood. There would be no screaming or fighting. Just an acceleration of her heart rate thanks to the adrenaline flowing freely through her tiny frame. But she couldn't help that. Fear was a powerful thing, a thing Dhara pushed aside for Ali. "Better?" She asked after several minutes had passed. She didn't know how much blood Ali would need, but she would give her every thing she needed if that's what it took.