The Sleeping and the Dead [Open]

[Kaj Gyllenstierna (DELETED 6519)]

The scene before Kaj was a strange one, but he tried not to reflect too strongly on the oddities and instead focused on what was happening, piece by piece and player by player. The officers had managed to subdue one of the young men, albeit not very easily, and in their haste to control one, they had lost track of the other. Pale blue eyes watched the handcuffed teen disappear down an alleyway that was only a few feet in front of him. Kaj had made a neat circle of the immediate area, looking quite inconspicuous as he did so; just another strange person on the street at this late hour. As all eyes were on the police officers and their unruly suspect, Kaj didn’t think anything of silently following after the young teen who’d made a break for it. So little had he thought about it in fact that he never stopped to question his motives or what he would do if he found the teen. Kaj wasn’t good with people, and even worse with children and teenagers, so following this one made no sense whatsoever! Still, he’d felt that urge pulling him into the darkness and he blindly and unquestionably followed his instincts.

The buildings stood so tall and closely together that the alleyway was almost pitch-dark and to reach your hands out, you would touch both walls easily. Kaj felt a little claustrophobic, his hands disappearing into his sleeves once again, and he tried to keep his footsteps light. Thinking about it now, he realised that he was putting himself in a very vulnerable position. He didn’t know the back streets and alleyways at all and since it was the dead of night, there wouldn’t be anyone around to help should something happen. He had not been in Harper Rock for very long, but he had already heard the rumours. The hospital itself was like a hub for gossip and nurses did like to talk, after all. He would often hear them discussing strange events, strange-looking people, and there was even talk of Vampires, of all things. Kaj never took their gossip to mean much, but he couldn’t deny the evidence on which all these assumptions must have stood. The newspapers and television programmes were flooded with missing person reports, of grisly murders, of theft, vandalism and burglary.

The likelihood of any of those things happening to him was suddenly preying on his mind. Kaj thought to turn back, but he’d wandered deeply into the twists and turns of this alleyway and suspected that he was probably better off moving forward rather than turning back. In fact, Kaj suddenly didn’t like the idea of turning around either. Perhaps he was being silly and paranoid because of the dark, the quiet and because of the stories he’d heard, but Kaj didn’t feel particularly safe. A chill air pressed against his back, as solid as a wall. Kaj quickened his pace to be rid of it, but the sensation pursued him. He couldn’t explain it with logic and science and rationality, because whatever was following him and pushing him forward was something that felt beyond him. It was an external presence, as physical and real and frightening as being chased by a bear. Kaj didn’t turn around and kept moving, his pace quickening from a light walk, to a stumbling gait and now into a jog. He turned a sharp corner and tumbled over something that was waist height and veiled in shadow.

Stars shone right in front of his eyes as his forward momentum gave way to gravity and had thrown him into an opposite wall. Kaj put his hands out to break his fall, but he’d come in so quickly that it took more than some outstretched palms to suffer that potential energy. Kaj finally came to stop, forearms scraping against the wall and forehead buffing lightly. He’d been lucky not to head-butt it any harder than he’d done, but he was dizzy from all that whirling around. He had to turn though, facing back the way he’d come at last. He had to know, what had tripped him in the dark?

[Enver Marshall II]

The second Crash could get away, he was long gone. Though, the asylum wasn't where he was heading. While he was thankful for his new found freedom, Crash was all too familiar with that tone women had. And this hadn't been his idea. He was cool with being the wing man for Enver, but listening to Keara lecture Enver and himself? Not going to happen.

So, he ran, and he ran to the seedy parts of town. His homeland. Where Crash was comfortable. Where Crash knew people. And had places to hide. From the cops and from Enver's wife. Enver's told him all about the 'Carrie ****' she does and Crash never, ever wanted to see that. Ever.

Meanwhile, Enver's pounding pavement down the alleyway. His wife is nearby, he can tell. Not just by the mind mail she sends his way, but he can feel it. He's always able to feel when she's near. Maybe it's an Allurist trait, or the fact that he knows deep down that she is his balance. That without her, he would be nothing. With her, he is everything. He is a completed man. He is a whole man because she fills him in every aspect that is possible. And so, he knows, he senses, and he feels her presence when she is near him.

Explaining. Well, what was there to explain really? She had to have seen it for herself what he and Crash had been up to. He should probably start with how it all began. If he was the owner of this place, all of his staff would have been canned. Someone, had to step up and let them know that their place of business sucked.

Kind of doing the whole fleeing thing, gorgeous. You know, trying to not break the masquerade for you. Enver finally replied back as he turned a corner and went down another alley to wait. And to return to his normal appearance, which he did in the matter of seconds. Life seemed easier when Enver didn't give a ****.

"Keara?" He asked as he heard a noise, even though, he didn't believe it was Keara. He didn't feel her. Smell her, even. "Crash?" He called out as Enver appeared from the alley he just went down to see a male he didn't know. "Oh, hey. Sorry, mate. Thought you were someone else." Enver apologized to the dark haired man, as he pulled out a cigar, cut it and then light it. "You okay?" Enver asked as he smelled...was that blood? "You lost?" It seemed weird that someone else was down here with him. Had he seen Enver's face? The before and after, face? If he did, Enver was in bigger **** than he realized with his wife.

[Keara Aithne]

Keara moved into the mouth of the alleyway and was a little annoyed not to find her husband waiting for her there. Since she had little patience for what she was doing, as soon as the coast was clear, she pulled the officer quickly into her arms and sank her fangs into his neck. One hand grabbed at his wrist, the other covered his mouth and tilted his head to expose the flesh. Blood from the vein was intoxicating and more of a rarity than Keara would have liked. She could lure people to her and even feed off of her thrall if she so chose but Enver believed it was better to drink from blood packs and so most nights she tried to sate her cravings with the less than desirable option. She had to admit that some nights it was slightly less effort and probably safer than luring people to her, especially since she tended to open shadow gates for her and her family on a nightly basis and needed to feed all the more because of it. So on the nights when she did find the opportunity to feed from the source, she almost always took it. Releasing the male when she was done, she licked the wound to clean away the evidence of what she'd done and let confusion overwhelm his mind before pushing him in the direction of the street. The fact that people ended up disorientated and confused after being fed on definitely made feeding easier, and in this situation it had brought her and her husband enough time to flee the scene without being caught.

"Enver?" she called out, walking further into the darkness.

The shadow was able to move stealthy through the alleyway without making a sound and she moved with an odd sort of grace that came naturally to her from years of training, not only in various fighting techniques but in dance as well. As she rounded the corner and saw Enver with an unknown male, she was not surprised to note that he was not wearing handcuffs. It wasn't that she thought him incapable of being caught, but rather that she was confident enough in his skills to know that he would be able to free himself if the occasion arose.

"Made a friend I see you have."

Her eyes briefly roamed over the young male before her attention turned back to the man that owned her heart. Her eyes were full of questions but her lips were still as she knew that what she wished to ask was best saved until they were alone. Of course she'd seen the mess that the cafe front was in but her mind had yet to connect that event to her husband's need for assistance, as she would have liked to believe that that kind of behaviour was beneath him. Enver was a smart man and did not need to stoop to childish pranks and yet in her heart of hearts she knew he was the culprit as Enver could be quite silly when the mood to be so struck him.

[Kaj Gyllenstierna (DELETED 6519)]

Eyes like slithers of moonlight looked into the darkness for clues of what had made him trip and fall so dramatically. He’d been so confused and startled by the sudden fall that he hadn’t heard it when the trash can had flipped over and slammed against the floor. It was weird that he didn’t remember it, but then again, he had greater things to worry about. Something had fallen out of that trash can now that it was horizontal with the floor. Kaj might not have been at all concerned ordinarily as trash cans did tend to house trash, but the one black bag that had fallen with a slump looked mightily suspicious to the Human. Kaj might have moved to investigate further, but he was quickly distracted by the appearance of another. The man almost looked as lost as Kaj was, but was far better at handling the situation. As soon as he laid his eyes on Kaj he relaxed quite effortlessly, asked a few questions and lit up a cigar. Kaj might have responded in words, but the most he managed was a nod to both questions before another person arrived.

The woman had an unusual appearance; dark hair formed a cowl around her pale face in clean, neat dreadlocks. Her sudden arrival and her extraordinary looks made Kaj’s mind stagger. When she spoke, this melodious and curious thing that pulled out of her heart rather than her lungs, Kaj looked across to the male and then back to her. Obviously they knew one another and while the Human wasn’t entirely certain of their relationship status, he assumed that it was something intimate. He felt a little awkward with that realisation, his back pressing closer to the cold wall behind him so that he might have looked a frightened deer. That foreboding feeling hadn’t left him either and he felt even more alarmed when his eyes returned to that black bag which had collapsed out of the trash can.

Being as familiar as he was with the Human form, Kaj’s mind turned instantly to dreaded thoughts concerning the contents of that bag. It wasn’t big enough to be a full-sized man or woman, which meant that if it had been a person at all then it was likely a young teenager or child. There was a scent of death in the alleyway itself, but it was subtle to a man who spent his nights surrounded by the dead. Given that they were stood in a dank, disgusting alleyway, there was every chance that Kaj’s imagination was getting the better of him and in place of a child stuffed into that black plastic, there might have been an abundance of food waste. Kaj was so focused on it, however, that he neglected the other people standing there with him and even neglected his own health. A welt was forming on his forehead, the skin there was grazed and bleeding and he felt a little worse for wear. It might not have been a serious injury, but Kaj had no way of knowing that he was potentially swimming amongst sharks…

[Enver Marshall II]

Before his wife spoke, Enver was putting away his lock pick set that he always kept in a pocket. Thankfully, due to Crash's rowdiness, the cops half-assed their jobs. "Over here." Enver said with an arm raised. At the next statement his wife vocalized, Enver looked around at the male he hadn't quite spotted or made out yet. That wasn't surprising, his wife was more intuitive with the things going on around them.

"Oh. Yeah. We go way back." Enver said as his eyes focused on the other guy, trying to figure out what the hell the guy was doing down here. "Sorry, mate. Your name escapes me every time we meet." Enver looked at the guy as he tossed the handcuffs in the trash bin behind some other restaurant Enver didn't know about.

When that was taken care of, Enver found his way over to his wife, putting an arm around her waist as he looked at the guy. It was natural, but Enver also did this because he couldn't help but claim what was his; Keara. And he wanted to let the guy know that too. Subtly. If someone could show possessiveness in a subtle way. "I'm Enver." Enver volunteered his name to the guy to get the ball rolling. He didn't go so far to say who Keara was or her relation to him, because she was capable of giving any or all of that information to the guy, but if the other guy wasn't going to offer anything up, Enver was happy taking leave and seeing what Crash was up to and more than likely explaining what went down to his wife.

[Keara Aithne]

The human didn't speak and could almost have been completely dismissed if it wasn't for the scent of his fear, and blood. The mix of the two was quite something. His unease was pleasing to Keara on a level she was sure her husband would never understand. Her inner hunter adored it. Thankfully for them all, Keara was more than able to control her instincts. The scent of blood seemingly filled the dark alley in which they all stood and yet temptation was all too easy to ignore. Not only had the elder just fed, but she was in control; control being the more important of the two as even hungry Keara would have been able to maintain a cool demeanour. She looked between the two men as Enver spoke. His words suggested they had a connection but something in his tone or mannerisms seemed to suggest otherwise. There was perhaps a hint of sarcasm. It wasn't important what it was that tipped Keara off to her husband's lie, it only mattered that she knew it as such. Enver introduced himself to the male and so Keara followed suit.

"My name Keara is."

She looked to the unnamed male and settled in against her husband's side. She cast her eyes up at him, the look she gave him unmistakably one of love and affection. The dark haired woman had one hand around her husband's waist, mirroring the hold he had on her, but her other hand came up to rest upon his chest. This added gesture could be seen to be equally as possessive perhaps as having their arms around one another, but even if it wasn't seen as such, it definitely hinted at the intimate relationship the pair shared.

"The boy bleeding is My Love."

Had there been any doubt as to the nature of their relationship, Keara's words had likely dispelled them. The female was wondering if the injury the young man had sustained was her husband's doing or not, but she wasn't about to voice that question. She suspected he was innocent, all things considered, as he wasn't one for violence (normally) and he seemed entirely too relaxed to have been the perpetrator. Enver might be an actor but Keara never seemed to have any trouble reading him, in fact she was convinced that she was better able to hide her true emotions than he was. Though to be fair to the male, they both seemed to have trouble hiding certain emotions when they were together; their attachment to one another being one of them.

"Have you need of our assistance?"

She addressed the unknown male again. Her voice betrayed no emotion but her question was sincere. The woman could be ruthless when the occasion required it but on the whole she respected the frail creatures from which she fed. Without them she would be unable to sustain her own life and being so much weaker than herself, she only ever attacked and killed them if there was no other choice. Just where the line was drawn for such a thing was subjective though, as Keara seemed to draw the line in a completely different place to Enver. Her husband clung to his humanity tighter than most, but this wasn't something Keara held against him or could even begin to fault him for, he was who he was and she adored him.

[Kaj Gyllenstierna (DELETED 6519)]

This entire scene was… odd. It was possible that Kaj had sustained a concussion in the fall, or merely that a cavity in his cultural understanding was to fault. Eyes like frosted crystal looked up from the garbage bag finally, to glance at the man who had introduced himself as Enver, and then to the woman who had introduced herself as Keara; though the woman’s introduction was a lot less easy to decipher. She had a peculiar way of speaking, one that Kaj found familiar and equally flabbergasting. He was curious whether English might have not been her native tongue – like him – though he could not place her accent. Her stylistic quirk had him frowning and tilting his head with his mouth somewhat agape. Regardless of his confusion and curiosity, it was rude not to introduce himself given the turn of events. As it happened, Kaj failed to make good on the opportunity. He mumbled, ready to speak, but was cut down by further strange comments from Keara. First came a mention of his injury, then she was asking if he had need of their assistance; Kaj looked between them – clueless.

“Um… No,” he managed this time, slowly growing confidence. “No. I am fine. I am… I think I should be on my way. Good night.”

With one last glance at the garbage bag, Kaj turned from the pair and began to walk away. It was already closing in on 5am, dawn would soon be approaching, and it seemed that now was the best time to be off the streets, to return to normality. When Kaj was heading home, this would normally be the time when people would be waking to start their day. There was a space for Kaj in this world, but it was not here and it was not now. Despite his curiosity, for these two strangers, for the contents of that garbage bag, Kaj had to retreat and call it a day. His place was not in the between star-struck lovers, and neither was it in digging inside a garbage bag in some secluded alleyway. Kaj’s place, if he had one, was between the sleeping and the dead. He would end his night here, make the end of day here, and return to start anew, start again; as always and as ever. Maybe for the next time he would be less careless.

[Keara Aithne]

Keara was a little torn between stopping the male and just letting him leave. She didn't like the fact that he had failed to give them his name but then she wasn't sure if perhaps his injury was the cause of his lack of manners. She hadn't thought he'd hurt himself too badly, and he seemed more than capable of walking away from them, so their assistance likely wasn't required. If it weren't so close to dawn, she might have considered stopping him and telling him how rude it was to walk away from someone without first giving your name but with Enver at her side, she didn't feel it necessary to chase after and berate the young man. Had he have caught and held her interest, she might have perhaps summoned Deanna to her and sent her sister after the young man. Having Deanna stalk potential childer for her freed her up for other things. Her sister was incredibly diligent in her job and knew what Keara looked for in those she turned. They had to offer something unique and while almost every person on the planet was unique in their own right, Keara was becoming a little fussier in her choices. When taking a childe, there were never any guarantees. She always hoped that they would assimilate into their new life and become a productive member of the family but too often that seemed not to be the case. With her love at her side, she needed no other to make her life complete and yet her search continued. The gift of blood was the most precious thing a vampire had to offer another and she could not deny those that were worthy. of course setting her sister on this male's path would have held one additional challenge, one she would not undertake for all the money in the world; setting Deanna after the young man to learn his name, profession, hobby's, etc. could upset her husband who would want to know why she found the young man intriguing, and she had no desire to argue with him at such a late hour. Going to bed angry was not something she relished doing; in fact, she avoided it whenever possible, as the few times their arguments had spanned days as opposed to hours, left her feeling truly wretched. No. She could not bring herself to do that to her husband. Besides, she still needed to learn the reason for his behaviour earlier that evening. The unknown male would have to be let go without further, besides she reasoned, if it was Nox's will for him to be known to her, then their paths would cross again. Once they were alone in the alleyway, Keara looked to her husband.

"Home we should go. Some explaining have to do you do before the dawn light me to darkness does pull."

As far as she was concerned, the events of the night could be relayed while she showered, they had no need to discuss such things in the ever lightening alley. With this decided and vocalised, Keara nodded to her husband, stepped away from his side and silently spoke the words that would take her home.