Timing is Everything [Lancaster]

[Shadis (DELETED 7818)]

Shadis wasn’t sure what exactly had gone wrong or when it had gone wrong, but all she knew was that the demi-fae had broken through the protective circle and she felt it claws slash through and gouge her stomach. Pain bloomed through her and she doubled over, a cry upon her lips. Her hands fell from the table in front of her and went to the wound. Red bloomed through her simple white shirt and began to spread fast. The woman turned around to grab her trench coat from a chair that had been situated nearby to staunch the bleeding, but she could sense that something wasn’t right. Slowly, she pulled the jacket away from her wound and still it flowed far too freely and her fear leaked into the equation. The vampire qualities of healing were not kicking in, was she going to die? Her hands palmed thorough her coat pockets and fished out her phone. Blood smeared across the screen as she typed in Elliot’s number and sent a simple message.

[T]”Elliot! Something is wrong! I’m at the Den by the ritual table. I need your help ASAP.”

She hit send and she moved to sit herself down upon the floor. The woman pressed her back to the alter, a sigh upon her lips. First she had found out that she had a sleeping problem, of which Trahir had said that she should sleep in a more traditional locale for their kind. Then she had a bleeding problem. What next? She would go permanently blind? Shadis gritted her teeth and she looked down to her ruined black and white jacket. The only thing that went through her mind at that point was, damn I loved this jacket too. Other than the fact that she seemed to be bleeding, her clothes were being ruined and she hated ruined clothes. Especially considering that she had only just bought these clothes. Indeed, she cared about how she appeared to people and she hated the fact that she had even sent Elliot a message.

Why would she care about how she appeared? Because she wanted to be able to stand on her own two feet without having to turn to Elliot. Eliot who seemed to be having problems dealing with his own things. A wince crossed her features as she pulled the jacket away from her wound once again and her brown hues watched the wound bleed profusely. Never had she bled like this and never had it not clotted up relatively quickly. When she had been struck by the boorish man that Elliot seemed to have known, she hadn’t bled for as long as this. Was there something wrong with her? Was she some weird vampire that was constantly having a problem; even if the one before it was fixed? If that was the case, then even if Elliot could fix this new one, then would she develop another problem?

A frustrated sigh passed her lips then and she leaned it back to press against the alter, her eyes slid closed as she bit her bottom lip. Was it because she had tried to commit suicide? Had there been some complication that her own immortality couldn’t cover? Or, was it possible that the demi-fae had some side effect or poison in their claws that she didn’t even know about? What the hell was she missing? With a groan, she moved to stand regardless if she wasn’t healing or not. The woman had hoped that if Elliot had gotten her message, then perhaps he might be on his way. So, she poured over the items upon the table. She had the right items, obviously, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to summon a demi-fae in the first place. Was it the wording maybe?

[Wearing]

[Lancaster]

It had only been a couple of weeks, but Lancaster felt as if things were semi going back to normal. The musician was learning to live without Pi. It struck him, one night, that he hadn’t ever been away from her for this long. Even before they were a couple he saw her every couple of nights, and talked to her more often than not. She had been the source of all his knowledge, and the one he had gone to for all his advice. Over time, she had not molded him to become a mirror image of herself; he had questions her morals and had questioned her advice, and had come into his own. He stood his ground on plenty of things that Pi didn’t agree with, and vice versa – but in many ways, it was why they were so good for each other. They balanced each other out, and helped each other see the world from a different perspective.

In realising all this, Lancaster also realised that his own progeny were bound to disagree with him every now and again, it that was okay. It was more than okay. They would come into their own and they would be stronger for it.

But it was different, for him. It was hard to live without Pi, and there were so many nights that he ended up in the Den by habit, heading toward the space that they shared. But she was no longer there. Most of his belongings were still there, however; all his spare clothes and his record collection. Every now and again he’d come back to get something he needed, but mostly left everything where he was. He would not move on, but he could at least stop drinking himself into a stupor.

Lancaster had just finished speaking with the police; a fuel bomb had been put through the front window the week before. The mess had been cleaned up. One of the waitresses had suffered a few minor burns trying to put the fire out. It could have been worse, and Lancaster knew he should have been there. Except he hadn’t. He’d been off somewhere else, drinking. It was irresponsible of him. He’d done all he could to help the authorities find who had done it, but they had no solid leads to go on. He doubted he’d hear from them again. He just had to hope that it wouldn’t happen again – and if it did, he would be the one to deal with the fallout.

The text message came afterwards; Lancaster actually had his phone on him for once, plucking the device from his back pocket as soon as he felt it vibrate. He stopped only to inform the current bartender that he had to leave – family emergency – before he disappeared into the office to use the tome.

The scent of Shadis’s blood hit him first, his blue eyes sweeping the space until he found her hunkered over the rituals table. The vibrant red of her blood stood stark against the white of her blouse; a concerned rumble vibrated in Lancaster’s throat before he strode forward, long legs closing the distance within seconds.

”What happened?” he asked. She looked paler than usual. Was that sweat he could see on her brow? She looked like a regular human who’d been gouged by something inhuman. He put a hand on a shoulder, wanting to reach for her blouse to lift it, to see what damage had been done beneath. But not while she was standing.

”Maybe you should lay down…” he said, ready and willing to help her over to one of the numerous couches. At least, this time, he didn’t stink of alcohol – no more than a man who worked in a pub, anyway.

[Wearing]

[Shadis (DELETED 7818)]

Shadis really hadn’t heard Elliot’s words, well, she had, but to her they sounded a little distant at that point. She felt weak, weaker than she had felt in the past and a wave of dizziness overcame her as she felt his hand upon her shoulder. A bloodied hand had been resting upon the alter as she had finally deduced that she had screwed up the wording. It had to be. Finally, she nodded her head and accepted Elliot’s offer to help her over to the couch. The worried look upon his face made her worry. Was it as bad as it seemed? It was also then that she noticed that he didn’t smell like a brewery. Was this the same Elliot that she was talking to? Was he sick as well? Well, she wasn’t sick, just injured, but she might as well be sick with some unknown illness, especially when she wasn’t healing.

”Something in the spell went wrong, I’m not exactly sure just as to how it went wrong, but I’ll figure it out. A demi-fae got out and gouged me.” She wasn’t exactly going to admit that she screwed up the wording in the spell itself though. A wince crossed her features as she drew in a breath of pain. The woman slowly lowered her form down upon the couch and laid back, her head rested upon an arm rest. Her free hand moved to wipe at her forehead, while the hand that held her bloodied jacket to her wound moved a little so she could peek at it. It still wasn’t healing and alarm bells were sent off inside her mind. Was she going to die? ”Elliot, it’s not healing. What’s wrong with me?” She pressed the jacket to her wound once more and closed her eyes. What was wrong with her? Had something gone wrong with her turning?

The hand at her head, rubbed her temples as she felt another wave of dizziness wash over her. Was it a symptom of blood loss? How much blood had she lost exactly? The fledgling wasn’t sure and a strained laugh parted her lips. ”I die because my vampire qualities hate me so much that they deprive me of normal sleep and now the vampiric healing abilities refuse to heal me.” Her right hand moved from her head to grasp the jacket and hold it to her wound, while her left hand lifted to gently pat Elliot upon the shoulder. ”You’re not drunk, colour me surprised. Did Pi finally contact you?” Her brown gaze shifted slightly so then she could view the male beside her. What had changed that he no longer felt the need to drink? A frown descended down upon her brow then as she caught the faint scent of smoke. How did she not pick this up before hand? Was she losing her sharp senses?

”I didn’t notice this before but do you smoke Elliot? Or is this a new?” She chuckled softly before a hiss of pain parted her lips. ”I’m surprised that I didn’t notice the smell of smoke earlier, I generally don’t like the smell.” A groan rose from her as another dizzy spell washed over her and she closed her eyes. ”Elliot, please tell me that this is normal, because I don’t know what I’m going to do other than die at this point. I feel so light headed, it’s not funny.” No, none of this was funny, yet in her mind it was hilarious and a chuckle rose to her lips. ”A vampire dying because of a simple flesh wound. What a joke.” What a joke, she continued inside her own mind and she shook her head which only triggered another dizzy spell. How was she supposed to make any kind of progress in this kind of condition?

[Lancaster]

Lancaster wanted to laugh, except he was infected by the panic that seemed to be surging through Shadis’s psyche. She talked in a rush, explaining what had happened; Lancaster glanced over his shoulder to at the rituals table. Truth was, he didn’t know anything about the rituals and the spells. He didn’t know anything about the fae or what they could or could not do. What could they achieve? Could they keep a vampire from healing? The wound was deep, the blood bubbling from the gouged gashes obscuring it so Lancaster couldn’t see how bad it was. Was it worse than it looked, or did it look worse than it really was? He ushered the ruined jacket back to the wound, applying pressure as he assessed the Den. There’d be first-aid supplies here, somewhere…

While Shadis worried about her wound and what it might mean, Lancaster did his usual picking – he had to separate his own feelings from those of the other person in the room. It was harder when they were feeling so much. Sometimes it infected him to a point that he thought he was the one panicking. But in the few seconds’ silence, he knew that he was calm. He knew that she would be okay, and he knew that his job was try to reassure her. Although he didn’t have the answers immediately, he knew that they would figure it out. He was a calm blue ocean.

His hand remained on Shadis’s shoulder, a weight of reassurance. He went through the list of his own abilities – did he have anything up his sleeve that might help her to calm down? He could inspire her – it usually helped to boost their confidence. Or he could heal her, and help restore the blood that she had lost.

Except, when he tried both things, they failed. He couldn’t feel that surge of magical energy; when he searched for it within himself, he couldn’t find it. It wasn’t something he used all too often, and hadn’t yet that night. When the full moons and the new moons came around, they came and went without any kind of glitch. For a man who tried his hardest to be as human as possible, the loss of vampiric power was not a big deal. But it as something that he had learned; it was something that he had, over the years, come to realise. The phases of the moon had an effect on him and a few others that it failed to have on other vampires.

”There was a fire at the pub, that’s all. It’s fine. It’s fixed. I don’t smoke,” he said, mumbling the answer to the question she had asked – it wasn’t important. What was important was Shadis’s fear of death, which was reasonable. But unfounded.

”That’s not important. What’s important is that you’re not going to die. Maybe it’s something you got from me, somehow – through my blood. See, I could usually help to heal you, or calm you down, but I can’t. It…” he dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone, pulling up the app that he’d installed for this purpose. He nodded, knowingly, then turned the app around so Shadis could see.

”It’s a full moon. I’m as weak as a human on a full moon. And on a new moon. I always thought it was because I want so much to be human – so it sort of… reversed itself as much as it could,” he said. ”If the fae got me, I wouldn’t be able to heal either. But you will tomorrow night. It’s going to be okay. Just…keep pressure on the wound, there, and I’ll be back. We’ll clean it up and… stop the bleeding,” he said. They could, in the very least, make her feel a little more comfortable.

[Shadis (DELETED 7818)]

Shadis sighed as Elliot began to speak and she simply relaxed into the couch then. The woman silently listened to the man and noted the phone app as he mentioned that he tended to grow weak when the full moon rose within the sky. Did she have the same thing? Did the woman inherit the same weakness from her sire? A sigh caressed her lips then as she applied pressure to the wound, wincing at the pain that it caused to do so. Her free hand lifted and she placed her forearm over her eyes as she closed them. Was she failing at this vampirism thing already? ”Elliot, I have to tell you something. I have had another problem, one that I thought shouldn’t be mentioned, but ever since being turned I’ve felt hopelessly weak and it’s frustrating me beyond belief.”

Suddenly, the couch that she laid upon, felt like a couch for a therapy counsellor. However, the counsellor happened to be her sire and she was literally bleeding all over the couch. It took a lot to simply swallow her pride and tell him about what had been happening. Besides, Elliot didn’t smell like he had been drinking, well, she couldn’t really tell. ”I don’t know if you remember or if the staff told you, because I asked him to keep quiet. However, a broken glass and an almost brawl happened one night. Some man by the name of Trahir had stopped me from turning it into a brawl but…” She drew a breath and sighed. Her words were a little jumbled and she hoped against hope that he understood. ”I felt angry because most nights I woke up feeling weak and it was just this one night that I woke up frustrated about feeling weak. Trahir suggested that I sleep in a more traditional locale for our kind…”

Should she mention that perhaps she had even flirted with him a little? Perhaps not. The woman had yet to work out just as to what caught her interest about the man. One day, she may figure it out, but for now, she was content on not indulging upon that little secret. Another sigh came to her lips then as she bit down upon her bottom lip. Should she admit to Elliot that she didn’t really feel a part of the family that she was sired into? As it was, she constantly felt as if Charlie was constantly pushing her out of the picture, especially when she hugged Elliot. Shadis never understood if that was what she should have done. She never had a father around when growing up and now she had a sire who had people surrounding him, what was she to do? Where did she fit in?

”Needless to say, he also hinted at a coffin.” The hand that pressed the ruined jacket to her stomach clenched at the material and she winced at the pain. She was going to have to endure this until tomorrow night when she could heal properly. Great, she thought to herself. Why? Because she couldn’t get back to the rituals table and continue while the full moon was high within the sky. ”This human thing is going to be some-what of a hindrance really, I’m hoping to become some-what useful to the family and at the moment, I’m finding that I’m weak as a kitten.” A frustrated sigh parted her lips then and she wondered just as to what use she could be to Elliot if she was constantly finding out every weakness that she had as a vampire. In fact, what kind of a vampire was she if all she had going for her were weaknesses?

[Lancaster]

There was one question that Lancaster hadn’t answered; Shadis had asked whether Pi had contacted him. Yes, contact had been made. It hadn’t resolved anything. She was still away, and hadn’t given Lancaster much of a reason. He was still angry with her; she’d hung up before he could get any more information from her. But she was safe enough. She was conducting business that, for some reason or another, she didn’t think he could help with. Or deal with. That was his weakness, in the end. He abhorred violence, and though he was good at it, he always tried to go the long way around to resolve things. Rhetoric. He always relied on rhetoric. If people couldn’t talk out their problems, then they were reduced to children in a sandpit. Except this sandpit was full of deep holes and buried sharp objects, and petty arguments could turn into wars. Perhaps she would not say it, but he was too weak to help. She said it was for his safety – but he felt like he’d been relegated to the position of a child who could not take care of himself.

He refused to allow it to be true. He would not continue acting the way he was; he would and could prove to Pi that he could move on. He could live life without her. He did not need her, just as she did not need him. Shadis had problems and he needed to be there for her, as much as he could. These were answers he could find, and he did not once feel the need to find Pi and ask her. He was a leader in his own right.

”…traditional locale?” he asked, clearly confused. His thoughts reached, swam, stretched; traditional. If a newly turned vampire wanted to know ‘traditional’ things, they’d think Dracula, right? But then she helped him. She mentioned the word his thoughts had not yet reached. Coffin.

This was a set of problems that he had not dealt with. He frowned to himself as he found a bucket and filled it with hot water. He brought a towel and the first-aid kit to the couch, and pulled over a footstool to perch on while he helped. He’d suffered enough wounds in his unnatural lifetime to know how to stitch them up – and he’d helped Pi with hers on several occasions, too. This was at least something he could be confident in.

”I’m glad you didn’t start a brawl in the club, but I could hardly be angry. It’d make me a hypocrite. Maybe it’s a rite of passage,” he said with a smile, attempting to lighten the mood. Though, he hadn’t started a brawl. He’d caused a commotion before hauling someone outside to give them a beating away from prying eyes. And yet the wrong eyes had watched, anyway. It wasn’t a high point in his life. He tried to get Shadis to relax as he reached for the jacket, hoping the bleeding might have stopped enough for him to be able to clean and bind the wound.

”In the grand scheme of things, we’re not much of a family. We’re scattered. Pi and I tried to create something cohesive, but without a purpose, or without loyalty, there’s no reason for people to stay. I think I’m too much of a pacifist to really gain much respect. Vampires in the city seem to be fond of their violence, and if one doesn’t partake, then they’re ridiculed,” he said with a shrug. It didn’t bother him. He knew what he was capable of, and he’d made others well aware, too – he just kept his best cards hidden.

”The way I see it – you’ve already helped. You and Charlie have helped me to realise I need to stop being so ******* selfish,” he said with another teasing smile. ”And you haven’t been this for long. You’re not going to be as powerful as you want to be overnight. It takes time. We’ll figure out why you feel so weak. If you think you need somewhere more traditional, we’ll try it. I have an apartment in the catacombs. It’s comfortable. It’s underground. We can try and find you a coffin, if you think you need one. Honestly it’s not something I’ve encountered before – but I don’t know everything. We can figure it out together,” he said, his voice a low and calming rumble.

[Shadis (DELETED 7818)]

Shadis sighed as she listed to Elliot speak while she simply laid upon the couch, resting while her hand pressed the ruined jacket against her wound. Her brown hues shifted then to view her sire as he moved around the area to get a bucket of hot water, a towel and the first aid kit. Silently she watched him pull over a footstool as he began to talk and she softly smiled at his words. ”That is some odd rite of passage. Are vampires naturally violent?” As he reached for the jacket, she hesitated before her hand slipped away from the jacket to rest upon her chest. ”Damn,” She said softly as her brown hues focused upon the blood that was staining her torn white halter top. ”This top is now ruined,” Thankfully, her leggings were leather and the blood would simply run off of it once cleaned.

It was at that point when she began to tally up the amount of clothes that had been ruined since she had become a vampire. How many she had thrown out? How many more clothes would she have to buy? It seemed like the number would forever be constantly rising. Lucky she took pride in her appearance and actually enjoyed shopping for such things. ”Then perhaps the family should have a purpose.” She said as she shifted slightly, only to wince at the pull of her wound. ”I doubt every vampire partakes in violence and we, as Allurists are good at charming people. Perhaps, we could be something that do not fully orientate around violence. Be… Leaders of a new kind of vampires. Diplomats, if you will.” The woman shrugged her shoulders then and regretted it instantly, wincing at the pain and she rolled her gaze upwards to view the roof above their heads.

”I mean, there is a reason why we are placed upon the paths that we are on, isn’t there? Perhaps a few diplomats in high positions, wouldn’t harm the vampiric society but help it. We had a conversation, the night after I had been turned, about how the humans were not ready to know about our existence. However, if we have vampires in high positions ruling this town, then perhaps, maybe, just maybe, the humans will see that if we truly meant them harm, then we could have done so after many years of such beings being in human power, but didn't?” Indeed, Shadis had been doing a lot of thinking since that one conversation, but she knew that it would be a long con. Simply because there were other vampires who thought that humans were nothing but food. Except, after her meeting with A.R.E.S, she realized that something had to be done about the military and what better way to do that than infiltrating the higher ups with a convincing vampire?

The problem with that plan, was having the vampire be convincing enough to pass as human. An Allurist could eat and drink in front of them, but the other problem was, how much did the military already know about vampires and their paths? Slowly, her gaze shifted to Elliot and she wondered if he truly could pass as a simple human. The man could get drunk, so that could be something? Silently, she filed away the A.R.E.S. problems, the woman had already voiced her opinion and that was enough for now. Her bloodied hand came up only so then her forearm could be laid over her eyes as they closed. Shadis didn’t care much for her appearance right then and there, because there was nothing she could do about it until her wound was stitched up. Once stitched, she would probably go for a shower and find clothes that weren’t bloodied or ripped.

Finally she returned her attention back to the conversation at hand, ”We all need to be selfish at some point, Elliot. You’re not an exception to that rule because you're missing Pi and that is understandable. I guess… It feels as if you have lost her and loss is a powerful feeling. I should know.” Her own loss drove her to kill herself, well, attempt to. If Elliot hadn’t been there, she truly would have died. However, she still felt sadness, it was a constant feeling of her own loss of an anchor that made her understand Elliot’s own pain. ”I just came along at a bad time for you and I keep wondering as to why you did turn me when you yourself was feeling a loss so deep it hurt. We all need time to grieve sometimes, even if it is delayed.” Shadis hadn’t addressed her own grief since that night she was turned, the woman hadn’t even been by to the grave, because she wasn’t ready to truly say goodbye.

[Lancaster]

Lancaster had never been one for politics; Shadis’s suggestions were admirable, but the musician had never seen himself in a position of power. He and Pi had tried with d’Artois. They’d tried to create and garner a faction of family members and outsiders that sought to teach fledglings, to take them under their wing when they had sires who either didn’t care or who weren’t around, for whatever reason. At least, that had been the point of Sanctuary. To an extent, it worked. There was a place for Fledglings to go, but the structure of it had failed.

Lancaster couldn’t really blame anything external. He wouldn’t blame anyone else for the lack of cohesiveness in these endeavours, or even in d’Artois itself. Sure, Pi disappearing didn’t help all that much, but in the end he knew that he himself was not leadership material. It wasn’t something that he wanted to do, and being forced into the role didn’t work much better. He couldn’t coordinate groups of people, though he still liked to take those in need of aid under his wing. That, in and of itself, was the answer to Shadis’s last question.

”I turned you because I can’t turn a blind eye. It was a risk – but I had just come back from death. I knew what death was like. I didn’t think anyone deserved it, nor did I think it’d be something you’d have wanted if you knew,” he said. Yes, she was a complete stranger at the time, mostly, aside from a short conversation at the bar. Subconsciously, he realised that the loss was something he sought to assuage with new company. But he doubted Shadis would want to hear that she was some kind of emotional bandaid, and Lancaster wasn’t certain of it himself. Even if Pi were still around, he still would have turned Shadis. So it wasn’t a reason.

”As for everything else – it came out recently that the mayor is probably being controlled by a vampire. Everything seems disorganised and chaotic but I think there’s more going on behind the scenes than meets the eye,” he said, and then laughed. He’d been such a mess the past few weeks, and he was prone to overreacting to things sometimes. His emotions often got the better of him, and he was not at all level-headed, as much as he tried to be. Lancaster’s philosophy circled around trying to do good. His focus was on helping others, on charity, on trying to be the best person he could be in order to offset the violent whims that he sometimes lost control of. Plenty had happened to him in the past for him to realise that people don’t respect the good and the charitable. They see goodness as a weakness.

”It’s an admirable position you have, and I would be proud if you decided to follow through. But me? I couldn’t be a leader. It’s not in my genes,” he said. As he spoke, he lifted the material of Shadis’s top and began to clean the wound; slow and steady, with a gentle touch. If the wound had started to scab over, the last thing he wanted to do was tug at it so that it started to bleed again.