Inaspettato [Esmeralda Craft]

[Cosimo Alessi (DELETED 6612)]

Cosimo worried that he took too much from Elise, so when he arrived home and did not find the human girl anywhere amongst the flowers and foliage of the rooftop gardens--where he usually found her--he was secretly relieved. Having a constant donor was helpful, and made life easy for him. But he started to wonder whether it might actually be very bad for Elise's health.

Thus, Cosimo found himself out roaming the city streets. Back to his old tricks, before Elise became a habit. It was how he found himself out in the park across from Westwall station. He had to find someone who looked like they knew nothing about vampires. Someone completely naive. Someone who would not have had their blood poisoned on purpose.

That was when he spotted a woman walking... was that a cat?! Yes, one of those hairless cats, trotting along in front of her. She slowed and pulled out her phone, distracted by something on the screen. Wandered slowly away from the dim lamp that lit the path, further into the shadows. Cosimo tried to be swift, and clean. The cat hissed as he swooped in and lunged for the human's neck; he covered her mouth as he bit down, his free arm wrapping around behind her to keep her from struggling, or falling. He closed his eyes as he drank, focused on not killing the woman.

He did not want to kill her. He would take her to a park bench and leave her there after she passed out. She wouldn't remember a thing.

[Esmeralda Craft (DELETED 6851)]

Esmeralda wandered the streets alone. Her dark hair hung in ringlets, and her skin seemed even paler in the moons light. Her eyes were wide with curiosity as she searched for what she wanted. She scanned every alley way she past, every window she could see into. She hummed the tunes from nursery rhymes to herself.

All the while, she was not dressed discretely. She had bare feet on the cold concrete, but it didn't bother her. Each step was light and she often did full turns to look around her - as if she was dancing. She wore only a white dress, with a high neck and a Victorian feel to it. The skirt of the night dress reached just below her knees.

She saw the park from a distance, and thought perhaps she could sit on the swings and watch the city from one place, in case what she was searching for would just wonder by and otherwise be missed. She stepped on to the wet grass, and looked around. Her already large eyes widened as she saw exactly what she wanted - A dark shadow feasting on a woman's fair neck.

She was not scared. She felt relieved. What she saw in front of her was proof that what she thought existed, did. She smiled, showing off white teeth, and began her walk further into the park, towards the feeding stranger.

[Cosimo Alessi (DELETED 6612)]

The blood was hot in comparison to the frigid air. That was the thing about Canada. It didn’t seem to ever get really warm. Not like Italy did. The Summer in Italy was a glorious thing. Especially in Tuscany. Cosimo had not lived too far from Tuscany. He especially liked the way the sun seeped into the creamy red stone—just like the sun seemed to have seeped into the blood of his victim.

When the woman’s body went limp in his grasp, Cosimo stopped. His thirst was satisfied. His lips curled away from the salty skin of the woman’s neck, his tongue swiping over the twin wounds his teeth had made so that they would heal. The woman might wake with an ache in her neck but there would be no sign of a wound. She would just be confused, and a little tired. Maybe a headache.

Cosimo caught her limp body, preparing to drag it over to the nearby bench. The woman had let go of her cat’s lead, and the cat had scampered. Cosimo had quite liked the look of that cat. Maybe he would find it. Maybe he would keep it. Or maybe he would just adopt one, sometime. He turned to look over his shoulder, to judge the distance between himself and the bench seat, only to see the smiling woman, all in white like a spectre coming toward him.

”Cazzo!” he swore in his mother tongue, freezing in place with a heavy limp body in his grasp. He was stuck, frozen. He had been seen. This was why he needed Elise. Now what was he supposed to do?

[Esmeralda Craft (DELETED 6851)]

"Do you need a hand?" She spoke in a light voice, with a strong London accent. Her smile faded but she still seemed happy and wandered just a little closer. She looked at the limp body, and assumed the woman was dead. It did not bother Esmeralda. She then looked the man in front of her in the eye. She took in his surprise, but was not scared of what he could. She could tell that he was worried because he had been seen - but she was no danger to his secret.

Intrigued, she tilted her head. "What about the cat? Does it need to be caught..?" She looked off in the direction it had ran, and her hands gripped the material of her dress, swishing it back and forth around her. "You seem like the type of man who likes cats." She said very matter-of-factly. She was always forward. It suited her.

She maintained the ghost of a smile as she looked on the Vampire, and waited, unnerved, for him to speak.

[Cosimo Alessi (DELETED 6612)]

Cosimo glanced after the disappeared cat and shook his head. "Non," he said, almost confused. The cat could not talk. It would not scream for help. Someone might find it and feel sorry for it and take it home, a well-trained stray. Maybe it would be eaten by dogs. Which would be sad, of course, but at the moment Cosimo couldn't seem to care.

That was what this woman should be doing. She had just seen a man sucking blood from the neck of a woman who now appeared to be dead. She wasn't. Breath still slipped in and out of her lips, her chest rose and fell. Her eyelids fluttered but remained shut, eyes drifting back and forth beneath the lids. Cosimo slowly began to move, again, toward the bench. He shook his head again. No. No! Of course he didn't need help. Blood stained his lips and when he spoke, his sharpened canines glinted in the dim light. His teeth didn't go away, like those of other vampires.

This woman was not scared, though. Perhaps she had not seen, or did not understand. That made sense! And provided some relief.

"She is sick, I think. She passed out and I caught her. It is better to put her on the bench, yes? Than on the cold ground," he said. Thinking on the fly.[/font]

[Esmeralda Craft (DELETED 6851)]

Esmeralda's eyes narrowed, but she still smiled playfully. When she moved closer, it was almost with a skip. She was gleefully happy. Everything she thought about this city was right. She knew there was something else, some other kind of creature around, and she loved it. No one believed her of course, the people she knew thought she was a little mad. But now she was proven right - not mad at all - and it filled her happiness. Now just to convince the man to allow her to slip into the dark fold with him.

She laughed, like bells. "Don't expect me to believe that. I saw what you did!" She put her ands behind her back, watching him as he moved the unconscious body. She wanted to learn from this man. She had the feeling that he would be willing to teach her. He seemed cheerful enough, behind the slight panic that adorned his features. She idly shifted her bare feet, not due to nervousness, but due to excitement.

I wonder if she's dreaming.. Mer thought. She did not like dreaming. It was deceptive, and she was always disappointed when she woke up to find nothing had really happened.
"You have not blessed this girl.. You only fed." That's what she called it. The change was a blessing to her. She was not aware of the dangers, but she knew what she wanted. And now she knew a way to get it. Her eyes danced between the girl and the Vampire.

I wonder if he always goes for pretty girls,, she joked to herself.

[Cosimo Alessi (DELETED 6612)]

Cosimo did laugh, then. It was the kind of laugh that indicated he did laugh a lot; a well-used laugh, worn in and all the better for it. His guard had dropped, as it seemed to do quite easily. He wondered whether Elizabeth would scold him if she found him in this situation, laughing instead of doing something about the fact that he had been seen.

Of course, he had no idea what the girl was talking about.

”Bless her? Non. I am not a religious man,” he said. It was something Cosimo’s mother had tried to instil in him, once upon a time. She had made him go to church and wear a cross around his neck. He had that cross somewhere, still. It reminded him of her. She wasn’t so bad, in end. Just a very sad woman. But religion had never sunk its claws into the Italian.

He lifted the woman’s passed out body onto the bench and laid it out comfortably. Only then did he back away. The vampire didn’t much like getting up close and personal with women. Not particularly. Not anymore. There was a deep shame that kept him from them. As well as the plain and simple fact that something was broken within him, and he was no longer attracted. Or so he thought.

”But you did not see anything. And if you tell people that you did, they will think you unhinged,” Cosimo said. Only now looking at the woman properly, right down to her bare feet… and he wondered whether she was not already a little unhinged.

[Esmeralda Craft (DELETED 6851)]

"Oh but I did see something. I saw something wonderful.." She noticed him stepping back, and did not step forward like she wanted to. "I knew you were real.." Her smile only grew with each word as she finally got to look the man straight on. She did wonder what he thought of her - whether he would simply feed on her to, deeming her uninteresting. That thought upset her, and her face changed for a moment, before she made the smile return.

"Do you not think its funny, that you do not abide by a religion? Your very being is directed from biblical imagery.." She paused, then nodded. "I think it's funny." She looked at the form that lay on the bench. The girl seemed fairly peaceful, but she put that down to her not moving very much.

She lifted one foot, skimming it over the wet grass a little before setting it back down. She wondered where this man would be going for the sun rise. She assumed the rays were dangerous, as it was in most stories she heard. So he must go somewhere. She planned to try to follow him if he refused her company. She did not think that she could be tempting a beast, because of just how bright he appeared.

[Cosimo Alessi (DELETED 6612)]

Cosimo did not think that he would be engaging in a philosophical conversation with this girl, but here he was with his brows furrowed and his head shaking in that near vehement rejection of her suggestion. "I do not agree. I do believe the vampire myth was born in Ancient Egypt," he retorted. But then, he knew no more than that; just a vague lesson in school that he had retained for some reason. He had no idea which class it was in or why they even bothered teaching children about mythology.

Cosimo cleared his throat and shoved his hands into his pockets. He fingered the small tome there. He could pull it out and enchant the words, and he would disappear. The park would disintegrate around him (or he would disintegrate from the park), and the rooftop gardens would appear. But he had a feeling that running away from this problem was not the way to fix it. Especially given as he had just mentioned the 'V' word, where this girl had not.

"So you think you saw a vampire feeding. What are you going to do about it?" he asked. "It will not be safe for you to tell anyone. You cannot tell anyone," he said. He did not mention, of course, that it would put him in danger, as well. Nor the fact that he really didn't want his sire to find out about this. Though he wasn't sure what she would do or even if she would be angry. He kind of didn't want to tempt fate.

[Esmeralda Craft (DELETED 6851)]

Again, her face dropped as a worse mood swept over for a moment. I do not think I saw that, I did see that... Remembering her company, she shook those thoughts from her mind, with a literal shake of her head. She had to think of a way to ask him.. She did not enjoy the word blackmail, although it seemed efficient enough. He had little choice, as she did not think him the type to kill her as the answer. And he had stayed, and not fled yet, so she had his intrigue. That spoke in her favour.

"An incentive may stop me from telling.." In reality, if she was denied this blessing, she wouldn't tell anyone. But holding this secret gave her an advantage, as she could drop it and watch it smash. "Something I want.."
She took a step forward, and pushed a curl of brown hair out of her face. Her greyish blue eyes looked deep into his, as she played with her hands behind her back and her dress gently swayed in the wind.

"What sort of thing could you offer?" She tried to get him to say it first. She liked his voice, it was comforting even when she didn't like the words he said, so prompting him to talk amused her. She often spoke too much - people called her skittish, because she switched from topic to topic with wide eyes and excitement. For the first time, she really wanted to listen instead.