With Knowledge Comes Fear - [Ash Shevon/Vi]

[Vi]

For being a telepath who could hack technology, she had far more trouble with electronics than she reasonably should have.

Stupid phone.

Once she managed to make her cell phone work despite the bizarre service and it's lack of cooperation, she punched in the numbers she was afraid she had forgotten, but muscle memory proved her wrong. She dialed it, pressed the phone to her ear to drown out the very loud rush of voices in her mind, whispering at her, demanding her attention.

Kill. Feed. Tear. Enemies near. E n e m i e s n e a r . K i l l . T e a r .

She focused on tapping her phone, on humming under her breath, on finding a wall that was abandoned and far from prying human and nonhuman eyes to hide away near so that she could focus and hopefully get a handle on the lack of silence in her brain.

He didn't pick up and she swore, dialing it again but waiting to call until she could walk a bit further and then press the dial button.

She heard the click of the phone call connecting and stopped in her tracks, hearing the ragged breath Ash took in on the other side and almost crying in relief.

"Hey."

[Ash Shevon]

His footsteps pounded, they shouldn't have, they should have been composed, quiet. The night was wrapped around everything like some sort of fake fog, the light from the city reaching up to smear the starlight out. Even so near the wilderness the light seemed to follow him everywhere. Every single person he'd approached, they'd eyed him distrustfully. Even those he'd gotten the drop on, they'd fought free of his hold, turned and defended themselves.

Hunting had been so much easier before, effortless, now it was dangerous. He was losing blood, the trail he left behind him as he staggered away from his last attacker something that sapped his strength and energy out. He'd felt the phone ring in his pocket, it had sabotaged his last attempt to sneak up on a lone human. Now he'd given up, he would buy blood packs, this was too much.

He hit the side of the wall hard, sliding down it, leaving dark red streaks. Magic thrummed through his body but it was weak, all he had strength for was that tenuous connection he had to Shailu, the wraith opening his eyes at the sudden connection between them as he searched for help.

"Master."

"Come here."

"Yes, Master."

What the wraith would do he didn't know, but he needed him there. Needed a second pair of eyes, the comfort of another being knowing where he was that he could use to reach out to those he loved. His phone rang again and he fumbled it out, eying the caller ID for only half a moment before answering it quickly.

"Hey."

[Vi]

Vi was sure that her surroundings were nice. The city was relatively clean, and despite the humans know being fully aware of vampires, it wasn't quite up to the level of fearing for her life that she was expecting. But she had been camped out in her and Ash's apartment for the last while, barely aware and coherent, so she couldn't speak to how dangerous it truly was.

But she was so stuck in her own thoughts, or focused on the phone call, she wasn't aware of anything really in front of her. So when the call went to voicemail, she waited, relieved that it had at least rang a few times before fading out.

Then it was connecting and she sighed when she heard his voice.

"I have no idea where I am."

She sucked in a breath, not sure if that was the best greeting for someone she hadn't technically greeted in potentially months. She wasn't sure how long it had been. She remembered vaguely, his presence near her, and maybe his fingers brushing across her cheek, and his fingers in her hair as she faded in and out, but all of that could have been dreaming or illusions.

"I woke up and you weren't there. I'm sorry I didn't stay awake."

Tear. Tear. Kill. Rip. Blood. Not here. Not here. Not there. N o w h e r e . Quiet. Q u i e t .

[Ash Shevon]

"That makes two of us."

He couldn't disguise the amusement in his tone of voice. As far as the relief he felt at hearing her voice, he just closed his eyes and absorbed it. Her apology for not being conscious for so long, for going into hibernation had him shaking his head.

"It became impossible for me to provide for you...I can't even..."

Now his tone of voice was self depreciating, he hit his head against the wall behind him, purple eyes flashing with some untold power even as he bared fangs. Even the arrival of the Wraith didn't pull him out of the frustration he felt. Although he did admit seeing that perfect wavery form kneel down so subserviently did help on some level.

"Master?"

"It is fine Shailu, I'm fine. I can't even hunt Vi. All this power...and its useless if I can't even maintain it. I need blood to gain power and I need power nowadays to gain blood safely. About the only thing I'm doing right is the businesses I started."

He watched as the wraith shivered, the young form wavering indecisively, concern in its eyes even if he'd enslaved it. "Go find Vi."

"As you will Master."

[Vi]

"Can you tell me what your surroundings look like? Maybe I can figure out where you are from there?"

L o s t . Broken. Your f a u l t .

Shut up.

"It's not your fault. I just...I think I gave up. I can't even remember what happened leading up to that. I just...I'm sorry. I'm sorry I faded...I shouldn't have given up so easily..."

W e a k.

She blinked, narrowed her eyes at the intruding thought, mulling what he said over, then let out a breath.

"What about blood bags? I just...Jazir contacted me. He told me they have vampire blood bags available now for sale in shops. I can use those now when you can't provide...it won't be a strain on you. But regular blood bags could work for you, right? I could pay for them for you? Ash it's not your fault. Things have...really gotten bad. I haven't been able to do anything at all either without getting caught..."

Her breath escaped her in a rush.

"You do so many things, right, Ash..."

More than you do.

[Ash Shevon]

Honestly, he couldn't even really believe he was hearing her voice. It made every ache, every bullet that had been shot into him and lodged deep into his chest and thigh and side and arm worth it. He didn't think she knew that, but he would tell her, when he wasn't so overwhelmed. Her question had him peering towards the rush of water and the whispering rocking of the end of the pier.

"A dock of some sort. It's empty here, quiet. It was the first place I ran to that didn't have someone else nearby. I would try to bring you here but..."

He did not have the strength, he'd used up all his power like some bumbling sorcerer fumbling all the ingredients for a ritual and shouting out words in the fae language with no idea what they were. He licked at his dry lips, grateful at least the bleeding had stopped.

"It is fine, you did what you could and you needed to rest. You didn't give up, you're back. Blood bags would work, I'm going to try using them from now on. Yes they have, I'm sending Shailu to you...he can guide you here. Or back to the apartment. It's not safe out here Vi."

He couldn't help the way her reassurance settled him. It got a sigh out of him. "Thank you...so do you. it is so good to hear your voice again."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A hazy form coalesced in front of her, the shape of him indistinct to her eyes. She did not see the haunted gaze of the young boy, the shaded lack of color of his hair. His last remembered outfit. All she saw was the thread of pale blue in the air beside her. But she did hear the words he spoke.

"My master has sent me to guide you."

[Vi]

She was relieved that he had even picked up the phone. Waking up in the empty apartment and not knowing where to even start looking for him, she had wondered if he had just left, vanished, and she would never see him again. But to hear his voice, it was a relief, and to feel like perhaps, he didn't want to lose contact with her again, that was even better.

"No it's okay, you rest. Rest until you're alright. I'll...walk around. I'll see if I can pick up your scent and find you."

But then he offered to send his wraith to her, and she paused, too weak and scattered and lost in her own mind to argue.

"I'll give you plenty of money. It'll help. It'll help a lot. I'll transfer it over as soon as you get home and you're safe."

When he told her he was sending a wraith to her to guide her to him, she relaxed further, glad that he wasn't keeping her away, that he wasn't demanding distance from her after the agony she put him through with her self-imposed hibernation, her lack of self-care.

"Okay...I'll wait for him to find me...it's so good to hear your voice again. I thought..."

He could figure what she thought, he was no stranger to her over-possessiveness, her neediness, her absolute destructive nature when it came to being jealous to the point of uncontrollable rage. Even if it all had been pointed internally, she had been one misstep from getting noticed by the wrong people and getting herself a one way ticket to the Fade to avoid thinking about how alone she was. Except Jazir had found her, had reconnected.

And now Ash...

He won't stay for l o n g .

She looked up when she saw the wraith, nodded when its wavery form looked to her and spoke, the voice meshing with the voices in her head and making her let out a breath, focusing more than she needed to in order to focus on the wraith in front of her and the voices that she insisted weren't real.

"Take me to him. Please."

She focused on Ash again, clinging to it, one of her only secure anchors to this hellish world.

"I'm staying on the phone with you, Ash."