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She rolled her eyes at the image on her laptop and ran the dryer sheet over her hair again. No matter what the Allurist did, her hair wanted to stick straight up with static cling. The blonde sucked in a breath of air and sighed. She firmly believed that vampires should be except from things like static cling.

Alexandrea put a dab of leave in conditioner in her long blonde locks and brushed it through. The woman pouted when the image reflected back to her upon her screen still didn't cooperate, and gave up her attempts at being beautiful with a grimace. She had plans for the evening but they were superficial ones so if couldn't look the part, the Allurist had no issues with skipping the event.

The woman got up and paced back and forth a few times, feeling the need of a comrade. Someone close to her that she knew she could trust, and who might understand. Elizabeth came to mind and the blonde took out her tome to take herself home to the beautiful rooftop garden of the Ivory Tower with the in tension of seeking out her adoptive Sire.

Arriving at the garden, Alex looked around for Elizabeth. She had been sure the woman would be here. But there was no sign of the lovely Telepath. Alexandrea had just used her newest power to see where her mentor was, and had seen the rooftop garden. Confused, the blonde stepped into the lovely yard and gently called out to her friend.

"Elizabeth? Are you here?"


After a few minutes, with no reply, Alexandrea used her mind to speak to her adoptive Sire; *Liz? Are you alright? I was trying to find you. I'm at the Rooftop Garden. Where are you?"*

Lisa twirled along with the music, jumping at the high points, spinning with the sound of the wind instruments. As the music died down she slowly moved from her last pioret and walked to the music player. Hitting the stop button. Stretching her muscles before she danced to the next song on the play list. The building was quiet today, one of the few days she had no one scheduled to look at one of the deluxe condos. She had only managed to sell one so far. She hated the idea of lowering the price. It wasn’t so much because she wanted the money, it was the fact that her father had this building built from the ground up. And from the apartment she had brought herself a couple years ago, this place was prime real estate. She loved how out of the way it was. surrounded by trees. Not even cops came out this way.


Shaking her head to clear it, she hit the start button. The sounds of drums taking the place of silence. Grabbing her staff, she began to swing with it. All the rest of the world falling away as her feet started to move with the beat. A mix of modern dance and some of martial arts. Her hands twisting the end of the staff, revealing the sword that was hidden away. She used both sword and staff, making them both a part of the dance. The staff swinging low to the ground as the sword made a graceful arch above her head.

This dance she had done so often it was something she could of done in her sleep. So it had done nothing but confused her when she had stumbled. It was if the world had stopped moving while she continued on. She shook her head and moved to the center of the floor. As she picked up where she had left off her body rocked and she tripped over her staff. Unable to catch herself she landed in a less than graceful heap. The darkness she was so used went white, slowly clearing. She found herself standing in a garden, her vision clearing then even when she was a child and could see. She had no time to wonder why, she found herself staring into a lovely eye. Only the eye was not as lovely as it could be, seeing it was by itself surrounded by a blue flowers.

‘chicories’

She didn’t need to know the voice. The whispered words alone let her know who was talking. Though she had no clue how she was seeing anything let alone what was in front of her eyes. The vision lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough for her to know something was off. If Liz found a way to mess with her, she was going to lose it. Liz knew how much that telepathic **** fucked with her head. Maybe it caused everyone to have a slight case of vertigo or maybe it was just her. This time however went way beyond vertigo.

She slowly pulled herself up off the floor. Using one of her newest powers to transport right to the roof of the Compound. If she gets there and Liz is dismantling some unknown person she might have to finally call the men in white. Theres only so much crazy she could deal with. As soon as she could smell the plants in the garden she called out. “Liz… What the Hell was that about?!”

The world was no different as to what it normally was. With nights too dark, too cold, too empty and with days too lost. Moments of curiosity filtered between longer moments of stagnancy – or so it seemed to the white-haired man. He had met new people, which was always nice. He had finally contacted Mr Ripper’s girlfriend, Noelle, and was surprised to find that he actually enjoyed her company. She admitted that she was surprised to find him agreeable too and although nobody spoke of it, it was probably because there was an underlying tension between the pair. They both had one person in common, a person that they might have competed for, but Myk wasn’t competing for anything other than friendship. As attracted and probably obsessed as Myk was over Mr Ripper, he was never interested in anything but for someone to talk to, someone to learn from and for someone to grant him a purpose. Myk was worried that Noelle might treat him like some skank vying for her boyfriend’s affections, that she might hunt him down and kill him and subsequently ward him off her man, but Noelle had been nothing but nice. Myk and Noelle had talked about nothing at all really; just idle chit-chat as they tried to get to know each other. It was a pleasant surprise to get along so well with Noelle, but connections – like surprises – are often short. Since the Raid they had engaged in back in May sometime, Myk hadn’t heard from Noelle at all. Myk wasn’t the type to hound people, so, he let it go; stalking was always more effective from a distance, after all.

On the subject of short things though, there had been a small buzz in the Deux Corbeaux House with the arrival of a new person, a childe of the Lady’s. Myk had done what he could to let the new one feel welcomed – as he did with every new person that came in before they left or drifted into shadow. As it happened, however, Myk was – surprisingly – easy to ignore. If not for his stalking, nosy, curious manner, Myk could have quite easily have become a Shadow instead of a Telepath. He supposed it suited him quite nicely because of his ‘power’ of invisibility and if he was greedy, he might have broken into many banks by now. He could be bitter about it of course, but, most of the time Myk just shrugged it off. If he cried over each and every person who’d cast him aside, neglected him, ignored him, pretended as though he wasn’t there at all, why, he’d never stop crying. Myk also concluded that he wouldn’t be quite so easily ignored if he had different parts between his legs. Ironically, people mistook Myk for a female quite casually, so maybe he was wrong about that entirely. C'est la vie.

There was a reason for his sour mood, his more sullen thoughts, for his tendency to slip into depression and bitterness. Myk rubbed his stomach with one hand, then his throat – coddling phantom wounds while the other hand clung to his knees, keeping them nearly to his chin. He was sat on the curb outside the Gangland Slums, lamenting his movements recently. White hair pooled down his back, some breaking over his pale shoulders like a waterfall off sharp rocks, all those shades of white melting into each other. It hadn’t helped that he’d decided to try on a white top tonight and if not for his black skinny jeans and combat boots, he might have looked exactly like a ghost. Deep, black shadows surrounded his eyes – partly eye-liner, mascara and fluttery fake eyelashes and partly due to the recent loss of blood and the sharp pain he was still experiencing. Funnily enough, he didn’t need any face paint to whiten his skin, making the cherry-gloss of his lips shine all the more. Those police officers had been unkind to him again, shooting at him on sight because of his acts of vigilantism – ridding the streets of gangsters and scum. One officer had gotten lucky with their aim, catching him off guard; the bullet ripped through Myk’s stomach and tore out of him. It was a fatal assault; if Myk were Human, he’d be dead.

The Telepath had coughed up blood, clutched his stomach and yowled like a banshee before the world turned black, then red. In a blink he’d snapped the officer’s neck; almost snatched the human’s head clean off. Pain and surprise had fuelled a deep-seated rage and forced the Telepath to act without thought; all that emotion and all that pain had drowned out logic, reason and morality. Myk had run off quickly after that, letting the corpse drop to the floor – no mind about removing any evidence that might be traced back to him. He let himself forget about it, the wound healed quickly and the next day he was his same old self. Myk had rested in the sewers nearby the Slums during the next day, and as he slept, he was attacked again. A hunter of some kind had come over him during sleep, dragging a knife across his flesh and leaving a grievous wound – cutting his throat from ear to ear. Yet Myk had slept through it all, waking to more black and red – the smell of his own blood in such volume making him sick. The Telepath had healed, but, he hadn’t recovered. This night he sat outside the slums, ducking from spotlights and blue shirts – determined not to be caught off guard yet again and sulking about his failures. After a while, Myk decided that it was safer if he was off the streets. He took out his tome and in a flash, appeared in the rooftop gardens of the Ivory Tower.

Upon arrival, Myk noticed a gathering – well, it was more difficult to not notice them really. Alexandrea, Lisa and the new boy, Cosimo, were there, together yet decidedly lost. Myk couldn’t help but overhear their words either, their distress being more evident; emotions rose off them like solar flares and Myk flinched like each wave would burn him physically. A part of him wanted to disappear just as quickly as he’d arrived; all he had to do was enter the Fade Portal he was standing next to after all. Then again, they were all concerned with Elizabeth; one person that Myk considered himself to be in alliance with. It was true, they did not know each other, but her kindness had him obligated to return the favour and become of some kind of use. Pewter eyes glanced about the gardens, looking for any sign that the blonde lady was there amongst the flowers, ducked beneath the roses or shaded by the fox gloves. As a matter of fact, she was not there at all. A frown pulled together the man’s beautiful features and he looked to Alexandrea as though he expected her to be in charge of the situation in Elizabeth’s absence.

“What’s with the commotion?”

Strange times often had a way of becoming stranger, where even the answers you receive seldom made sense.

With the start of his new life he had loose ends that needed dealt with. School, for one thing, would find it odd that he no longer attended his graduate classes altogether..but with a few e-mails he managed to get himself on sabbatical, working nights.

He lied, of course. It was not his first in the last few weeks. Most certainly not the biggest. What else could he do? Yet he didn't really care. Instead he found himself looking in the mirror at his apartment...having decided to move out. His sire and family had havens...and instinct told him to run with the pack. It was safer that way. He could learn more about...about...

...the reflection in the mirror stared back and grinned slowly..but he wasn't grinning. It was that realization that the face he saw in the mirror wasn't his own. He struck out at it, smashing the mirror into a spiderweb with a punch, then sending pieces falling to the floor. From the mirror blood would trickle up and form a pool only to lash out at him, taking hold and pulling him down hard...down into the blood...to whatever was below the surface...

...only for him to snap back awake on the floor of the bathroom. The mirror was in pieces..but there was no blood. His head throbbed...and he was about to ignore it except...instinct.

He pulled out his cellphone and texted his Sire. He hated doing it...but he felt it was something more then just a dizzy spell. He would wait for a response..until then he would lay down where he was, comfortable.

"I think we'll start with the external pain stimulation." The lead scientist said as he looked up from his check list of criteria he was going to test to push the telepath to try and use her powers. "If things are either pleasing or very displeasing, we'll go with the recognition stimulation. That's when we will take her out of the deep sleep." "What makes the first factor pleasing?" His assistant piped up after he secured the last of the restraints across the blonde woman. "Success in any degree." The other male said before he scribbled on the checklist. "We can cross jabbing with a sharp object off the list." He said as he put the pencil he had stabbed Elizabeth with to the side on his work space.

He moved from his workspace to a three shelf, stainless steel medical cabinet on wheels. There, on each shelf had different instruments that he was going to use to try and get the woman to use her powers so they could research what makes the telepath vampire react. Anything from things you could find in an O.R. room, an external elector-therapy contraption, various kitchen utensils, and acids could be found on the shelves.

Meanwhile:

The woman bends down to rip some of the blue colored flower from the ground, but draws her hand back instantly, as if she had been pricked by something on the flower. It falls from her grasp as Elizabeth shakes her hand and sees on the palm of her hand a pool of blood forming. She shakes her head, grabs the flower and begins to talk sternly to the thing, as if it could understand her. And in her mind, it could. Time and time again, Elizabeth expressed the need to care for a plant like one would an animal or their childre. They need stimulation and communication to blossom into its full potential. Many don't agree with her, but Elizabeth believed she knew better. She even read articles on such things and it always seemed to be positive outcomes.

She frowns, then coaxes the flower, petting it as she moves away from the group of Chicorries, moving to sit in her pagoda. The flower is set next to her on the table as she pours herself a cup of tea. She doesn't drink the tea, she simply inhales the scent of it in her closed hands as she takes in the scenery around her. The cup drops unexpectedly, and smashes into a dozen or so pieces. Her left hand moves to her left outer thigh and is brought back to rest on the table. Fingers close over bright red blood as her eyes drop to the thigh she touched, noticing a large gash in her leg.

Although Alexandrea frequently chatted on the family’s crownet with Lisa, she hadn’t had the good fortune to actually meet with her in person. So when Alex heard the other woman also call out to Elizabeth, the Allurist turned to see an unfamiliar face. Her gut suggested it might be Lisa but the blonde hated to presume anything, she had been brought up to be more cautious (and courteous) than that.

So Alexandrea walked across the grass towards the other Vampire, who seemed to be sightless, ready to cough politely as she approached before introducing herself so as to not alarm the blind woman. If she indeed was sightless as she appeared to be from the way her eyes looked. The master burglar walked with such silence, even the sighted were often startled when she came up to them if they weren’t watching from the right direction.

But Alex hadn’t taken more than a step towards Lisa when Cosimo had spoken his greeting.

“Buonasera” The blonde replied, her pronunciation perfect despite not knowing any Italian. Alexandrea spoke a few languages and had a good ear for them. “I’m Alexandrea.”

She continued towards Lisa as she spoke but didn’t bother to make any pretense of a cough, no longer needing to. “Would you be by chance, Lisa McNally?” Alex said softly once only a few feet separated the two women.

Cosimo had spoken after he had announced himself, expressing concern over Elizabeth’s absence, and Alex frowned. “It seems we are all looking for Liz… ?”

Something had to be up. For no sooner had Alexandrea asked the rhetorical question, and Myk had arrived. Myk, Alex knew already and she gave him a warm smile as he looked to her as he asked about what was going on.

“I’m as lost as you are, Myk. But it seems as though we all are here looking for Elizabeth. Have you heard from our beloved leader recently?”

Lisa could scent others but none of them were her sire. The first scent was floral maybe Lilacs. It wasn’t the chemical smell of perfume or the overpowering fresh scent of real flowers. This was the natural scent of whoever was moving quietly towards her. The soft sound of fabric moving screamed at her when others would’ve missed it. She turned her head toward the one approaching.

She didn’t get a chance to address who she figured was one of DC’s Allurists. A male voice from a little bit further away stopped her. Her nostrils flared taking in the his scent, under what was his own was Liz’s familiar scent. He was clearly Liz’s new childe. After a while Liz’s scent would all but leave. Her brow furrowed and she gave him a slight nod in response to his greeting. She turned back to the allurist once she spoke. Alex, she had talked a couple times on Cnet with her. Of course nothing major, the net just was not her favorite place.

“Would you be by chance, Lisa McNally?”

She smirked a little, “In the flesh." Lisa listen as they spoke a little more and then her smile grew as she noticed a familiar scent. Myk… she liked this man. Though they hadn’t spoken a lot, she just liked his attitude.

“Not sure….”

A series of soft beeps interrupted her. Pressing a button on her bluetooth she listened as the text from her childe began to play in her ear. Crap, she didn’t have time to run to him. She turned dark blue sunglasses to the rest of the room. “One sec guys, got a new childe that seems to have something up.”

Turning her back to the room she quickly hit the button to record her text. “Don’t freak out. Bringing you to me.” Hitting the button once more to send it, she waited only a moment before summoning her childe. Placing one hand on his chest once he stood in front of her and holding up a finger on her other hand. “Hold that thought.”

Turning back to join the conversation. “I thought Liz was once again ******* with me. Showing off a new po…..” Her head began to spin and she grabbed Moons shirt to keep herself upright. The voices, scents disappeared and she found herself in the same garden. This time she could see again. Sitting on a bench. Blinking a few times she took in the scene. Watching as a cup fell from her sires hands, a frown etching into her features as she watched Liz move her hand to her thigh only to come up with blood.

“What the **** Liz?!”

Before she could get a reply, she was pulled back into the here and now. Stumbling into Moon from the disorientation. “What the Hell is going on.” She began shaking her head as if to clear it of the experience. Her voice a hoarse whisper. “Liz is definitely using that ******* telepath **** on me. I just don’t what.”