De Amor y Sangre (Of Love and Blood)
Posted: 03 Aug 2015, 21:41
--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--
~The following role play is backdated to 07.20.15~
Jose: Jose had been born in the barrio, raised in the barrio and moved to Harper Rock when his gang’s boss decided to expand into Canada. He hated it here but there were some opportunities he wasn’t going to miss. Like running his own set. He has a chance to rise in the ranks faster since the place was new. Since rising in MS-13 meant a willingness to live the crazy life, that was what Jose has been doing. Already he had shed blood, knifing several of the local gangsters and even getting into it with one of the other gang’s enforcers. He’d lost the fight, but earned the respect of the other vatos for being fearless. Jose was a rising star.
His drug trade had picked up too, cooking and moving meth and doling out trees to the local gringo kids for a quick buck had provided him with a decent apartment, a car and he was living large. Until he met the hombre calling himself Tizoc. That had changed everything in Jose’s life. The older man had whispered things into Jose’s mind. Promises of power, women, money, Jose had succumbed in no time and suddenly found himself an errand boy to something not even human. Something that drank blood and only came out at night. Something out of a horror movie. El vampiro. During the day he was free to do his thing. He hung out with the other bangers, he lived the crazy life. When the sun set though jose was out of there cause you didn’t keep el hefe waiting. That was a good way to end up dead or worse. He’d seen it. He’d seen him cut out a woman’s heart and make her live again pouring his blood into the gaping sucking would in her chest. He’d seen that loco **** more than once. Nah Jose wasn’t trying to piss off el hefe.
He made his way through the slums. It was already dark, he was heading back to the factory only a few quick blocks away. His vibrant blue sneakers thudded rhythmically off the blacktop as he walked, hands in his pockets, head down and eyes on the road ahead of him. Jose wasn’t much of a grand thinker but he was thinking now… how long did he had til it was his heart being grasped by that hand, ripped from his chest and those fangs buried into it while it pumped out the rest of it’s contents in bloody splatters on the floor?
The crazy life… he thought. **** my life…
<Adelita>A petite, dark haired woman curses lightly in Spanish as she fiddles with the lock on a door in the slums in the city. She’s not wearing the typical, inconspicuous clothing a would be burglar should wear. No, instead, the brown eyed woman looks as if she should be anywhere but knelt at a warehouse door, trying to pry it open with a personalized lock pick set. Tiny fingers move to the purse that’s on her left shoulder, as the woman sets off the building's alarm system, pulling out a gadget she found online to stop the security system from informing the policia in the city. Once that’s taken care of, Lita stands, drops the lock pick set in the very same purse with a frustrated sigh and then brushes off an expensive looking grey colored pencil skirt before snapping the thing closed. Tonight was mildly disappointing. She turned away from the building, (while certain of her capabilities with the false alarm-she didn’t want to risk it) not wanting to stay too close to the thing-just in case. It wasn’t as if the woman was overly lucky lately, or ever since she became a vampire.
At first, the male in blue didn’t register as anyone special when Adelita saw him from the corner of her eyes, the woman’s fingers rubbing at the emerald colored, silk blouse she wore as she surveyed the other buildings with potential. He was coming her way, she was going his and when the two were maybe ten feet apart, Adelita knew exactly who the male in blue was. Others, not from the background might not know, and might even go so far to write him off as another ‘gang-banger wanna-be,’ but Adelita knew better than that. Whispers on the streets, in clubs, bars and various other public locations told various tales of the male. Most, if not all of them were ‘bad,’ but just the type of man Adelita didn’t mind getting to know. The type of male she wanted to get close to.
No, she wasn’t the type to get hot and heavy over bad boys, but the right bad boy with the right finances and the right contacts would and could change her life from what it was now, to what it had been before Remington and Godric unintentionally screwed things up for the young woman. She had been warned of the plan she devised and how it could backfire, but Lita had been confident that things would work in her favor then.
When Jose would move past her, Lita would keep her distance and follow him. It was the same routine she did prior to getting close to any potential. Know where he spends his time, who his friends are and what he likes to do in his free time and then she would tailor her life to his until they ‘accidentally’ met some night in the imminent future.
Jose: Jose noticed the hot lil mamacita, her clothing didn’t fit in in these parts. If he wasn’t alone and late for his appointment with el hefe he might have tried to get some play off the chica. As it was he was already dangling from a hella thin thread. His feet started to hit the sidewalk faster as he hurried along, sparing only a second to glance back to check out the woman’s ***… and there she was walking his way.
Jose turned back around, eyes forward again and kept walking, hurrying along to avoid his master’s ire while wondering why the chick was following him. Feeling torn between getting back to Ambrose or Tizoc of whatever the boss’s name really was and finding out why the woman was maybe following him, Jose cut caddy corner across the street, heading to the alley between Genesis Labs and the factory beside it.. As soon as he was out of sight he broke into a run and ducked behind the dumpster midway down the alleyway. If she was following him she’d have to come this way and if not, then no reason why she would come that way right?
Yeah, he was already in ****. He knew it, he’d be in even more **** if he brought this chicana to the factory without el hefe even knowi… The woman following you. Bring her to me. I thirst. Well that solved that. Out of la vida loca and back into la vida muerte….
Jose stands from his hiding spot and heads back toward the mouth of the alley, if the woman is following him he should bump into her and if not…
...she couldn't have gone far right?
Ambrose Acheron: Within the depths of the factory, past decimated walls and dilapidated machinery, down rusted and unsafe metal steps and beyond the cracked cement floor of the disused basement, once a haven for storage, lay what once might have been an aquifer. No water fills the vast chamber these nights, these nights only darkness resides within, filling the area with a shadow that has less to do with the absence of light than with a palpable aura of evil. The vampire Tizoc, now known as Ambrose, stirs in that darkness, his consciousness withdrawing from his servant’s thoughts. The taste of fresh blood rushing over his tongue almost tangible. He rises and makes his way toward the fade portal nearby.
He steps through the portal, his garb simple, a button up shirt unbuttoned to reveal a white t-shirt under it with blue jeans and a pair of sneakers procured by his thrall. Ambrose knows he is dressed in the style known as “gangsta” but the styles of the modern age hold little interest to him. What matters is the crimson liquid in the veins of the approaching woman and the failure of his thrall to arrive on time this evening. Ambrose briefly ponders if Jose has perhaps outlived his usefulness already as he appears around the corner of Newborough Station and begins to head north toward the alleyway Jose was just in.
At least slaking his thirst on the woman Jose was leading this way would free up his night by getting the hunt for sustenance out of the way.
He had rituals needing done and sacrifices needing found. The gods waited for no man, mortal or otherwise.
<Adelita> Lita wasn’t trying to give herself away, so as she walked, the woman would pause and look at buildings, though she suspected that wasn’t all too discreet because most places in the slums seemed to close early. She wasn’t surprised, robbery and theft usually ran high in parts like these all across the world, so it seemed like a smart move for all business owners. So, as she walked, Lita pulled out her cell phone and pretended to look at things online. Her walk turned into a slow, leisurely stroll, with what seemed like no real purpose or destination until she looked up at the sound of fast steps and found her potential target...gone?
“Meirda!” Lita spat out as she looked left and right for Jose and couldn’t find where he went off to. She weighed her options. Logically, he couldn’t have backtrack past her, so that was off the table. He could have kept going straight, which would take her to the woods eventually, but Adelita hardly suspected that he would head that way. So, left or right? Lita slipped the phone back in her purse and decided to go right. Train station wasn’t too far off. If he wasn’t there, as disappointing as it was, she could call it a night and try again tomorrow now that she knew he could be found here.
Jose: Running back through the alleyway Jose reached the end and came to a skidding halt. Nobody wanted a tattooed gang member running up to them out of the blue, especially not a woman and especially not a woman that had been following the cholo a minute before. Where the **** was she though? Jose glanced up and down the street before movement across the way caught his attention. Yeah, that’s her. No one else wearing that type of clothing in these parts. She’s lucky she’s not getting robbed.
He decides on the casual approach, leaning back against the wall off Genesis Labs and hollering across the street to her. “Hey mamacita! I think I got what you looking for over here!” He sticks his hands in his pockets and waits, watching her from across the street. At least he’d know if she was following him. Cause if she hadn’t been, he’s ready to rush up on her and take her down. The gun in the waistband of his pants is comforting but he figures a knife would do to threaten this one if need be. El hefe won’t have no reason to cash Jose out tonight.
Damn, she fine as hell too. Maybe el hefe will let him have at her once he’s done doing his whole blood drinking thing. Jose eyes the woman from where he is, not moving and waits to see what she does.
<Adelita>Someone was shouting in her direction and that someone was a male and he was speaking some spanish. It had to have been Jose, so without missing a beat, Adelita turned around, tucked her hair behind her ears and let a coy, smooth smile fall on her red painted lips. She moved forward, in his direction, her stride both determined, but playful as her feet criss crossed over the other. “¿Qué crees que necesito?” Lita responded in kind, her eyes darting down to his blue sneakers, and moving back up the length of his body until they found their way on his face. She doubted he knew what it was she actually needed, but then again, he didn’t need to know--did he? They never did. They only cared about one thing and one thing only and she could give it to them any way they liked. As long as everyone was happy believing what they wanted to believe, that was all that mattered in the end.
Jose: Jose let his own eyes wander over the approaching Adelita. He loved it when a woman walked like that, feminine, like she was stalking him. It always got his blood boiling. “I got whatever you think you can handle chica. Let’s walk and talk, yo.” With that he turned and started back toward the alley only to run into the stocky frame of el hefe. He was just standing there staring at the woman, seemingly oblivious of Jose smacking into him. “Hey boss, I was just bringing this chicana to you like…”
Ambrose Acheron: He had headed up the alley after his thrall, determined to feed as soon as possible to get an early start on his night. His footsteps quiet and even paced upon the damp floor of the sun deprived alley floor. As he reached the mouth of the alley two things happened. He saw the woman with Jose and he heard something that he could only describe as haunting and melodic. That’s when everything went to hell in a handbasket.
Ambrose had seen his share of women throughout the centuries, he had been around a long time. The moment he lay eyes on this one though everything changed. His mind stopped, his heart would have if it was still beating. Everything seemed to focus into a pinpoint with her in the center of his world and then, shattered, expanding and leaving her at the center of it. He was speechless, lost, she was larger than life and his need and desire for her washed away his intentions of feeding. He knew as soon as he saw her she was a vampire, but more…
… he had to have her. There was a ringing sound in his mind and something deep, buried behind this new layer of adoration and ardeur he felt was screaming at him that something was wrong. He couldn’t focus on it. Absent-mindedly his hand moved out, grasping Jose firmly by the shoulder and sweeping him to the side away from her. Without a thought he offered his hand and his true identity, kept secret since 1788, “Tizoc Yayauhqui”. His eyes are locked on hers, she somehow reaches him through the darkness even as his immaterial shadow, reaches up and tries to throttle her ineffectively. “Jose… go get a different vessel,” he says without tearing his eyes from the vision before him.
<Adelita> An amused smile fell on her lips when he claimed something Lita had heard all too many times. Still, it didn’t make the woman want to abandon the possibility of what Jose might have to offer in the long run, so the woman followed him. As they walked, an old 1990’s something that could be considered a ‘rust bucket,’ drove past them, music blaring unfamiliar music Adelita hadn’t heard before. Not that she wasn’t used to that, the music she listened to had heavy Mexican influences and sometimes Spanish as well. This music was soft, melodic and peculiar. Nothing she had heard before, but she didn’t pay it any real attention (or so the woman believed).
Jose mentioned a boss and soon there he was. Lita looked up at him for a second to see just who this ‘boss,’ was of Jose’s and suddenly, Jose took a back seat to the male. She knew nothing about him, other than the offered name he gave her, but Adelita was captivated by the male. Maybe it was the power he exuded when the other male moved Jose aside like he was nothing but a pawn of his, or maybe it was the way he was staring at her. Confidence, power and desire were all traits that could be labeled as attractive to Adelita and she certainly felt desirable to the male in front of her, this Tizoc Yayauhqui.
She took a breath in and extended her left hand to the older male. Delicate fingers yearned to reach out and touch him, to make contact with the guy that cast Jose to the side. “Adelita Delgado. Most people call me Lita.” She confessed openly, but wouldn’t mind him calling her whatever he wanted, truthfully. “It is a pleasure to meet you.” And Adelita meant it too, for the first time ever, Lita didn’t want the male for what he might have in terms of materialistic values, but just wanted him.
Jose: Jose wanted to know what the hell just happened but it seemed like he just got a free pass on being late. This chicana, she might just have saved his ***. He wasn’t gonna ***** about the timing, he backed away looking at the two as though they had lost their minds before turning and stalking off down the alleyway toward the station. Off to go find another chick for el hefe… maybe he should bring an hombre? Boss seemed suddenly wrapped up in that woman. If he brought another woman back he might get mad?
Jose cursed to himself. Why can’t life be easy?
Ambrose Acheron: Ambrose steps forward, closing the distance between himself and Lita to inches, taking her left hand in both of his and bringing it to his lips, pressing her hand against them gently as he lightly inhales her scent. He’s never met anyone like her. His head is awash with visions of skin sliding over skin, lips caressing and tongues dancing. His mind filled with a thousand torrid images flashing through it.
“I have lived two hundred years on this earth and two hundred more in the fade… never have I seen anything so dark and beautiful as you Adelita Delgado… You are a vision, divine. Were you sent by Xochiquetzal or are you her made flesh?”
His dark eyes seem to penetrate her as he steps back, still holding her hand in both of his and allows his gaze to roam over her from head to toe and back up to meet her eyes, to sear into her soul burning away the fleshy barrier of her body to gaze upon her stripped bare essence. For once he doesn’t even think to read thoughts and memories. He can’t concentrate on anything but the angel before him. He wants her… he can feel himself inside her, he can feel her unbeating heart in his hand, taste her on his lips.
<Adelita> When their hands connected, Adelita stepped forward. Her body yearned to be near his, so much it actually ached and the woman even stumbled a little when she took that step. Thankfully, the hold on her hand didn’t send the woman stumbling forward and into Tizoc and he didn’t notice either.
When he spoke, Adelita gave him her full attention. Usually, when she was with a man, she was either thinking of another, or she was thinking about anything but what he was saying or doing. As he complimented her, Adelita felt like butter, warm butter, and she was about to melt right there in his hands. She didn’t know who he was talking about, but the compliment did not go amiss as her red painted lips turned upwards into a wide smile, her brown eyes brightening up.
That was until her stomach started to turn and all her thoughts about Tizoc were interrupted by the creature that was in her stomach. Elighan. For a brief moment her eyes narrowed as she remembered that she was supposed to be making his life a living hell for a few nights before Micah wanted to know what her choice was going to be with the fadebeast that stupid human put inside of her. Adelita took a step back from Tizoc, but when she did this, she felt as if a piece of her had been left with him as her feet find spacing from him. It was a feeling she wasn’t used to experiencing and left her shaken to her very core. So Adelita once again steps closer to Tizoc as her stomach settles and she asks the most obvious question given his earlier words, “Usted es un vampiro?”
Ambrose Acheron: Tizoc nods at the question to answer it. “Let me show you…” He wants her to know every part of him, his life, his pain, his triumph, he wants to share it with her. He moves his right hand up, tracing her jawline with a single finger before sliding it back up her cheek and placing his palm there. He doesn’t close his eyes. He doesn’t blink, not wanting they gaze to break. Into her head he lets his memories flow using memory telepathy, he shows her his mortal life, a thrall to a bloody line of Aztec vampires in the early 1600’s, his embrace, a ritualistic sacrifice and revival. He shows her his sire, the dedication needed to survive and thrive in such a hardline religious environment.
Blood hunts, his sire, Eztli, a necuratist being hunted down, finally falling along with the rest of his bloodline except for Tizoc. His escape and time with the voodoo practicing Haitian immigrants in New Orleans. He shows her his first love, his childe, the Choctaw sorceress Coahoma and his friend, Ambrose Acheron. Their deaths in the Great Fire of 1788. Hunters closing in.
He shows her his flight to New York and his life there, eking out a bare existence, feeding from gangsters at the waterfront, leaving bodies in the harbor before his escape from hunters once again in 1811, fleeing north trying to reach the small group of vampires led by a woman named Isabella Drake.
His death is seen through his eyes, blurring as they open to find the hunters surrounding him, blood and smoke and fire and battle and then… the shadow realm. Languishing for two hundred years praying to a deity unheeding to his pleas for release. She can feel his unshakable faith and unyielding conviction. And recently… his release from the fade. The immediate desire to make childer, to secure his line. Vega, Kika and Machk falling under his knife, hearts removed while vampire blood quickened their cooling corpses… his new name spreading under the name of his old friend, Acheron.
Slowly he let’s his hand trail back down her face and cups it on the side of her neck, still looking into her eyes. “I have met no one like you.”
<Adelita> When he stared at her, right into her eyes, Adelita felt oddly vulnerable. Like he could see right into her soul, if vampires had such a thing. A tiny bit of her tongue darts out and wets her lips as her face finds comfort in the hand that’s pressed against it.
Glimpses of his life are pressed into her mind, an experience Adelita has never been privileged to, or knew existed. With each piece he shares with her, Adelita yearns to reciprocate her life with him, only she doesn’t possess such an ability, and her life would pale in comparison to his. Still, the inclination doesn’t go away, which disturbs Adelita. She isn’t a person that shares any aspect of her life with anyone, let alone a stranger, but he wasn’t actually a stranger anymore, was he?
When his death is displayed for her, Adelita’s other hand covers the hand that is on his and she feels for him. Sorrow, angst and even discomfort on the experience he had to endure, even if he didn’t feel those things. The thought of him dying was almost too much for her to bear as she took a deep breath in and held it there. Tizoc speaks again, and those negative thoughts and feelings vanish in an instant as his hand finds her chin area, and hers, his elbow. Keeping him close to her, or her close to him. Though she has heard something similar before at least a handful of times by other men, Adelita believes him wholeheartedly. To say the same would mean nothing, she believes, even if it is the truth. Never before has she met someone like him and it drives her absolutely wild. She wants to know everything about him. Absolutely everything; from his life to the contours of his body.
“Te quiero.” She admits with an exhale before she laughs, her lips pressing into his palm as she looks away. That wasn’t entirely what she wanted to say, even if it was the truth. Adelita did want him, but not in just the basic, carnal sense of things. “Lo siento,” She says as her eyes return to his, entranced in them for what seemed like an eternity before a new desire took her. The desire to eat. She was always hungry since Elighan cursed her with whatever the thing was that was growing inside of her-fade something or another. Micah had told her, but Lita had half lost her mind when he told her what would happen if she didn’t make the choice sooner than later. “Do you eat? I’m starving.” Not the most eloquent way to put things, but straight to the point, which was another rare phenomenon for Adelita.
Ambrose Acheron: Ambrose leans in and presses his lips to hers in a soft, sweet kiss before drawing back, eyes finding hers once more. His expression says the words for his. He is smitten, his gaze yearning. Had he a heartbeat it would be for her. He gives pause hearing her request. Elation builds within at being able to do something to please her. He wants to please her, to claim her, to make her his, to possess every facet of her, mind, body, soul. He wants to devour her.
Food, he thinks. Jose would have food at his apartment… West Tower. He thinks back quickly, remembering how to get there before speaking. “My underling, he has a place in West Tower. There is a refrigerator there. He has food in it.” So many new words for Ambrose in this new age. He is still lost in these modern nights and finds himself drawing on the knowledge of his childer and thrall more often than not to supplement his own shortcomings.
“The station nearby has a subway train that can take us to a nearby station. Would you like to go there?” Ambrose still has trouble with modern canter and slang, but he thinks he has said the right thing. “Unless you mean you need a vessel… Jose will be back soon with one. He is searching now.”
His mind is still overwhelmed with the sudden desire, lust, need… he can’t seem to focus fully and misses the sign of a fadebeast harboured within the womb of this woman he has fallen for entirely. His emotions are running high and his thoughts clouded.
<Adelita> Adelita is torn between two desires; the need to feed and sharing another kiss with Tizoc. She doesn’t move, the dark haired woman just listens to what he has to say. He could have suggested any place and she would have went with him as long as it had food and him. Why could she not have both? Food and then him, or him and then food? “Yes. I want to go there with you. Now.” She says between heavy breaths, keeping close to him, so close that Adelita didn’t leave much room to the imagination on what she was or wasn’t endowed with. She wanted to be with him, near him and to not be those things caused her duress.
Vessel. Adelita had to think about what he meant and replayed the sentence in her mind. Jose was getting something, or someone. A human. “No, I already fed tonight.” She shakes her head, fingers grabbing on to the fabric of his clothing. “Please. Can we go?” She whispers against the underside of his jaw before she nips at it. “I want to be there with you.” A delicate tongue dances across his jaw, tasting him, which only intensifies the desire to be with him. To have him.
Ambrose Acheron: Ambrose being an allurist sometimes has made use of the ability to eat mortal food. It helps in hiding what he is sometimes. Still, he has never been actually hungry for anything but blood. The woman is as mysterious as she is perfect and Ambrose wants to know more. With Adelita’s hand in his and the two of them heading toward the station Ambrose finally manages to begin his usual approach to meeting new vampires. He scans her memories first, wanting to know everything about her. He appraises her next and what he sees makes him nearly miss a step. A fadebeast. There is a fadebeast inside her… Ambrose has seen one of these before. A vampire in New York had birthed one and it had immediately turned on her. It had taken three vampires to hunt the creature down and destroy it.
He gives her hand a squeeze, letting her know he is fine if he made any outward showing of his surprise and his thoughts turn to getting rid of the thing within her. The thought of her being harmed brings a combination of anger and fear welling up inside him. He doesn’t know any non-invasive or non-harmful ways to get the thing out. Birthing it was not an option to Ambrose. No, not an option at all. There was only one thing to do and he liked the idea of doing it not one bit.
As they reach the station he looks at the map to determine which line they need to take and then settles in with Adelita to wait for the right train to come, losing himself once more in her eyes. The fadebeast concerns him but he will let her bring it up. He almost feels guilty for invading her thoughts unbidden.
<Adelita> While they walk, her thoughts are conflicted. As she tasted Tizoc, Adelita grew hungrier. If not for food, then for him. A fleeting thought of devouring him, literally had entered her mind. His flesh was what the Mexican woman wanted in more than one way. There was a moment of alarm on her face at the realization, because she knew that wasn’t a normal desire. To devour the flesh of anyone, let alone this man at her side. There is a squeeze to her hand and the woman looks down at their hands and the look of alarm vanishes. With that singular action, it seems to her that everything will be fine. . It is an odd sensation, holding another person’s hand-she has never done it before. Her fingers wiggle in his hand a little, the woman trying to get familiar with holding his hand as they walk to the station. He is quiet, but nothing alerts her to anything being wrong. If there had been a look on his face, she had missed it while her gaze was on their entwined fingers.
As they are paused, the free arm of Adelita wraps around Tizoc. He is a little taller than her, but still, her nose finds its way in the crook of his neck so she can take in his scent. It is all like a dream to her-finding this man, and is less than an hour wanting to know everything about him, be with him and adore him on the level she does. With one more inhale inwards, Adelita pulls away slightly so that she can stroke the side of his cheek and make eye contact with Tizoc-a man she dare claim to….love? Was that even possible for her? “Where you ever scared? In that place of darkness?” She asked him quietly, her dark hues focused on him and him alone. Anyone near them wasn’t even thought of or heard-she was completely smitten and lost in Tizoc and his life.
Ambrose Acheron As the train pulls in Ambrose waits for the herd to disembark, watching for any other vampires closely coming in to the area he thinks of as his. He has claimed the factory underground as his own, not wanting to draw attention to it though he has left the upper levels open. As such he is cautious, making careful note of the faces that come and go from the surrounding areas.
He gives Adelita’s hand another squeeze as he leads them onto the subway train. He has not yet become accustomed to these modern marvels, going underground has always been equated with visiting the fade for Ambrose and it’s never been a concept he has enjoyed, especially not so soon after being freed from it. Still, Lita is hungry and Ambrose is determined to provide for her. Once they board he finds them a seat and pulls her gently down next to him, placing an arm around her shoulder and pulling her near him so he can breathe in her scent.
He is puzzled about how quickly these feelings have washed over him, concerned about the thing growing within her and even more than those feelings, he is completely enamoured by her. The train starts moving and picks up speed, Ambrose keeps his eyes locked on hers to escape the wave of vertigo he fears with overwhelm him if he looks out the window. Soon they will approach West Tower over by Honeymead Station. Soon they will arrive at the apartment. He hopes for Jose’s sake it is presentable.
A question breaks through the vampire’s thoughts. Interrupting a thousand visceral tortures to come for Jose the interrogative slips into his mind. Scared? “No. I was never scared. The god of smoke and mirrors, Tezcatlipoca held me in his embrace until I was ready to be unleashed on this realm once more. Perhaps this is the right time. Perhaps it’s because of you.” Ambrose has never questioned his faith, he figured that being engulfed in the bleakness of the fade was part of his god’s plan. Fear, no. He had suffered anger and impatience but even those feelings had make him feel as though he was being an ingrate. “We are all part of a great wheel of time and play our part as best we can. I was upset that I wasn’t to be included in that for a time, but I am happy to be included once more.”
~The following role play is backdated to 07.20.15~
Jose: Jose had been born in the barrio, raised in the barrio and moved to Harper Rock when his gang’s boss decided to expand into Canada. He hated it here but there were some opportunities he wasn’t going to miss. Like running his own set. He has a chance to rise in the ranks faster since the place was new. Since rising in MS-13 meant a willingness to live the crazy life, that was what Jose has been doing. Already he had shed blood, knifing several of the local gangsters and even getting into it with one of the other gang’s enforcers. He’d lost the fight, but earned the respect of the other vatos for being fearless. Jose was a rising star.
His drug trade had picked up too, cooking and moving meth and doling out trees to the local gringo kids for a quick buck had provided him with a decent apartment, a car and he was living large. Until he met the hombre calling himself Tizoc. That had changed everything in Jose’s life. The older man had whispered things into Jose’s mind. Promises of power, women, money, Jose had succumbed in no time and suddenly found himself an errand boy to something not even human. Something that drank blood and only came out at night. Something out of a horror movie. El vampiro. During the day he was free to do his thing. He hung out with the other bangers, he lived the crazy life. When the sun set though jose was out of there cause you didn’t keep el hefe waiting. That was a good way to end up dead or worse. He’d seen it. He’d seen him cut out a woman’s heart and make her live again pouring his blood into the gaping sucking would in her chest. He’d seen that loco **** more than once. Nah Jose wasn’t trying to piss off el hefe.
He made his way through the slums. It was already dark, he was heading back to the factory only a few quick blocks away. His vibrant blue sneakers thudded rhythmically off the blacktop as he walked, hands in his pockets, head down and eyes on the road ahead of him. Jose wasn’t much of a grand thinker but he was thinking now… how long did he had til it was his heart being grasped by that hand, ripped from his chest and those fangs buried into it while it pumped out the rest of it’s contents in bloody splatters on the floor?
The crazy life… he thought. **** my life…
<Adelita>A petite, dark haired woman curses lightly in Spanish as she fiddles with the lock on a door in the slums in the city. She’s not wearing the typical, inconspicuous clothing a would be burglar should wear. No, instead, the brown eyed woman looks as if she should be anywhere but knelt at a warehouse door, trying to pry it open with a personalized lock pick set. Tiny fingers move to the purse that’s on her left shoulder, as the woman sets off the building's alarm system, pulling out a gadget she found online to stop the security system from informing the policia in the city. Once that’s taken care of, Lita stands, drops the lock pick set in the very same purse with a frustrated sigh and then brushes off an expensive looking grey colored pencil skirt before snapping the thing closed. Tonight was mildly disappointing. She turned away from the building, (while certain of her capabilities with the false alarm-she didn’t want to risk it) not wanting to stay too close to the thing-just in case. It wasn’t as if the woman was overly lucky lately, or ever since she became a vampire.
At first, the male in blue didn’t register as anyone special when Adelita saw him from the corner of her eyes, the woman’s fingers rubbing at the emerald colored, silk blouse she wore as she surveyed the other buildings with potential. He was coming her way, she was going his and when the two were maybe ten feet apart, Adelita knew exactly who the male in blue was. Others, not from the background might not know, and might even go so far to write him off as another ‘gang-banger wanna-be,’ but Adelita knew better than that. Whispers on the streets, in clubs, bars and various other public locations told various tales of the male. Most, if not all of them were ‘bad,’ but just the type of man Adelita didn’t mind getting to know. The type of male she wanted to get close to.
No, she wasn’t the type to get hot and heavy over bad boys, but the right bad boy with the right finances and the right contacts would and could change her life from what it was now, to what it had been before Remington and Godric unintentionally screwed things up for the young woman. She had been warned of the plan she devised and how it could backfire, but Lita had been confident that things would work in her favor then.
When Jose would move past her, Lita would keep her distance and follow him. It was the same routine she did prior to getting close to any potential. Know where he spends his time, who his friends are and what he likes to do in his free time and then she would tailor her life to his until they ‘accidentally’ met some night in the imminent future.
Jose: Jose noticed the hot lil mamacita, her clothing didn’t fit in in these parts. If he wasn’t alone and late for his appointment with el hefe he might have tried to get some play off the chica. As it was he was already dangling from a hella thin thread. His feet started to hit the sidewalk faster as he hurried along, sparing only a second to glance back to check out the woman’s ***… and there she was walking his way.
Jose turned back around, eyes forward again and kept walking, hurrying along to avoid his master’s ire while wondering why the chick was following him. Feeling torn between getting back to Ambrose or Tizoc of whatever the boss’s name really was and finding out why the woman was maybe following him, Jose cut caddy corner across the street, heading to the alley between Genesis Labs and the factory beside it.. As soon as he was out of sight he broke into a run and ducked behind the dumpster midway down the alleyway. If she was following him she’d have to come this way and if not, then no reason why she would come that way right?
Yeah, he was already in ****. He knew it, he’d be in even more **** if he brought this chicana to the factory without el hefe even knowi… The woman following you. Bring her to me. I thirst. Well that solved that. Out of la vida loca and back into la vida muerte….
Jose stands from his hiding spot and heads back toward the mouth of the alley, if the woman is following him he should bump into her and if not…
...she couldn't have gone far right?
Ambrose Acheron: Within the depths of the factory, past decimated walls and dilapidated machinery, down rusted and unsafe metal steps and beyond the cracked cement floor of the disused basement, once a haven for storage, lay what once might have been an aquifer. No water fills the vast chamber these nights, these nights only darkness resides within, filling the area with a shadow that has less to do with the absence of light than with a palpable aura of evil. The vampire Tizoc, now known as Ambrose, stirs in that darkness, his consciousness withdrawing from his servant’s thoughts. The taste of fresh blood rushing over his tongue almost tangible. He rises and makes his way toward the fade portal nearby.
He steps through the portal, his garb simple, a button up shirt unbuttoned to reveal a white t-shirt under it with blue jeans and a pair of sneakers procured by his thrall. Ambrose knows he is dressed in the style known as “gangsta” but the styles of the modern age hold little interest to him. What matters is the crimson liquid in the veins of the approaching woman and the failure of his thrall to arrive on time this evening. Ambrose briefly ponders if Jose has perhaps outlived his usefulness already as he appears around the corner of Newborough Station and begins to head north toward the alleyway Jose was just in.
At least slaking his thirst on the woman Jose was leading this way would free up his night by getting the hunt for sustenance out of the way.
He had rituals needing done and sacrifices needing found. The gods waited for no man, mortal or otherwise.
<Adelita> Lita wasn’t trying to give herself away, so as she walked, the woman would pause and look at buildings, though she suspected that wasn’t all too discreet because most places in the slums seemed to close early. She wasn’t surprised, robbery and theft usually ran high in parts like these all across the world, so it seemed like a smart move for all business owners. So, as she walked, Lita pulled out her cell phone and pretended to look at things online. Her walk turned into a slow, leisurely stroll, with what seemed like no real purpose or destination until she looked up at the sound of fast steps and found her potential target...gone?
“Meirda!” Lita spat out as she looked left and right for Jose and couldn’t find where he went off to. She weighed her options. Logically, he couldn’t have backtrack past her, so that was off the table. He could have kept going straight, which would take her to the woods eventually, but Adelita hardly suspected that he would head that way. So, left or right? Lita slipped the phone back in her purse and decided to go right. Train station wasn’t too far off. If he wasn’t there, as disappointing as it was, she could call it a night and try again tomorrow now that she knew he could be found here.
Jose: Running back through the alleyway Jose reached the end and came to a skidding halt. Nobody wanted a tattooed gang member running up to them out of the blue, especially not a woman and especially not a woman that had been following the cholo a minute before. Where the **** was she though? Jose glanced up and down the street before movement across the way caught his attention. Yeah, that’s her. No one else wearing that type of clothing in these parts. She’s lucky she’s not getting robbed.
He decides on the casual approach, leaning back against the wall off Genesis Labs and hollering across the street to her. “Hey mamacita! I think I got what you looking for over here!” He sticks his hands in his pockets and waits, watching her from across the street. At least he’d know if she was following him. Cause if she hadn’t been, he’s ready to rush up on her and take her down. The gun in the waistband of his pants is comforting but he figures a knife would do to threaten this one if need be. El hefe won’t have no reason to cash Jose out tonight.
Damn, she fine as hell too. Maybe el hefe will let him have at her once he’s done doing his whole blood drinking thing. Jose eyes the woman from where he is, not moving and waits to see what she does.
<Adelita>Someone was shouting in her direction and that someone was a male and he was speaking some spanish. It had to have been Jose, so without missing a beat, Adelita turned around, tucked her hair behind her ears and let a coy, smooth smile fall on her red painted lips. She moved forward, in his direction, her stride both determined, but playful as her feet criss crossed over the other. “¿Qué crees que necesito?” Lita responded in kind, her eyes darting down to his blue sneakers, and moving back up the length of his body until they found their way on his face. She doubted he knew what it was she actually needed, but then again, he didn’t need to know--did he? They never did. They only cared about one thing and one thing only and she could give it to them any way they liked. As long as everyone was happy believing what they wanted to believe, that was all that mattered in the end.
Jose: Jose let his own eyes wander over the approaching Adelita. He loved it when a woman walked like that, feminine, like she was stalking him. It always got his blood boiling. “I got whatever you think you can handle chica. Let’s walk and talk, yo.” With that he turned and started back toward the alley only to run into the stocky frame of el hefe. He was just standing there staring at the woman, seemingly oblivious of Jose smacking into him. “Hey boss, I was just bringing this chicana to you like…”
Ambrose Acheron: He had headed up the alley after his thrall, determined to feed as soon as possible to get an early start on his night. His footsteps quiet and even paced upon the damp floor of the sun deprived alley floor. As he reached the mouth of the alley two things happened. He saw the woman with Jose and he heard something that he could only describe as haunting and melodic. That’s when everything went to hell in a handbasket.
Ambrose had seen his share of women throughout the centuries, he had been around a long time. The moment he lay eyes on this one though everything changed. His mind stopped, his heart would have if it was still beating. Everything seemed to focus into a pinpoint with her in the center of his world and then, shattered, expanding and leaving her at the center of it. He was speechless, lost, she was larger than life and his need and desire for her washed away his intentions of feeding. He knew as soon as he saw her she was a vampire, but more…
… he had to have her. There was a ringing sound in his mind and something deep, buried behind this new layer of adoration and ardeur he felt was screaming at him that something was wrong. He couldn’t focus on it. Absent-mindedly his hand moved out, grasping Jose firmly by the shoulder and sweeping him to the side away from her. Without a thought he offered his hand and his true identity, kept secret since 1788, “Tizoc Yayauhqui”. His eyes are locked on hers, she somehow reaches him through the darkness even as his immaterial shadow, reaches up and tries to throttle her ineffectively. “Jose… go get a different vessel,” he says without tearing his eyes from the vision before him.
<Adelita> An amused smile fell on her lips when he claimed something Lita had heard all too many times. Still, it didn’t make the woman want to abandon the possibility of what Jose might have to offer in the long run, so the woman followed him. As they walked, an old 1990’s something that could be considered a ‘rust bucket,’ drove past them, music blaring unfamiliar music Adelita hadn’t heard before. Not that she wasn’t used to that, the music she listened to had heavy Mexican influences and sometimes Spanish as well. This music was soft, melodic and peculiar. Nothing she had heard before, but she didn’t pay it any real attention (or so the woman believed).
Jose mentioned a boss and soon there he was. Lita looked up at him for a second to see just who this ‘boss,’ was of Jose’s and suddenly, Jose took a back seat to the male. She knew nothing about him, other than the offered name he gave her, but Adelita was captivated by the male. Maybe it was the power he exuded when the other male moved Jose aside like he was nothing but a pawn of his, or maybe it was the way he was staring at her. Confidence, power and desire were all traits that could be labeled as attractive to Adelita and she certainly felt desirable to the male in front of her, this Tizoc Yayauhqui.
She took a breath in and extended her left hand to the older male. Delicate fingers yearned to reach out and touch him, to make contact with the guy that cast Jose to the side. “Adelita Delgado. Most people call me Lita.” She confessed openly, but wouldn’t mind him calling her whatever he wanted, truthfully. “It is a pleasure to meet you.” And Adelita meant it too, for the first time ever, Lita didn’t want the male for what he might have in terms of materialistic values, but just wanted him.
Jose: Jose wanted to know what the hell just happened but it seemed like he just got a free pass on being late. This chicana, she might just have saved his ***. He wasn’t gonna ***** about the timing, he backed away looking at the two as though they had lost their minds before turning and stalking off down the alleyway toward the station. Off to go find another chick for el hefe… maybe he should bring an hombre? Boss seemed suddenly wrapped up in that woman. If he brought another woman back he might get mad?
Jose cursed to himself. Why can’t life be easy?
Ambrose Acheron: Ambrose steps forward, closing the distance between himself and Lita to inches, taking her left hand in both of his and bringing it to his lips, pressing her hand against them gently as he lightly inhales her scent. He’s never met anyone like her. His head is awash with visions of skin sliding over skin, lips caressing and tongues dancing. His mind filled with a thousand torrid images flashing through it.
“I have lived two hundred years on this earth and two hundred more in the fade… never have I seen anything so dark and beautiful as you Adelita Delgado… You are a vision, divine. Were you sent by Xochiquetzal or are you her made flesh?”
His dark eyes seem to penetrate her as he steps back, still holding her hand in both of his and allows his gaze to roam over her from head to toe and back up to meet her eyes, to sear into her soul burning away the fleshy barrier of her body to gaze upon her stripped bare essence. For once he doesn’t even think to read thoughts and memories. He can’t concentrate on anything but the angel before him. He wants her… he can feel himself inside her, he can feel her unbeating heart in his hand, taste her on his lips.
<Adelita> When their hands connected, Adelita stepped forward. Her body yearned to be near his, so much it actually ached and the woman even stumbled a little when she took that step. Thankfully, the hold on her hand didn’t send the woman stumbling forward and into Tizoc and he didn’t notice either.
When he spoke, Adelita gave him her full attention. Usually, when she was with a man, she was either thinking of another, or she was thinking about anything but what he was saying or doing. As he complimented her, Adelita felt like butter, warm butter, and she was about to melt right there in his hands. She didn’t know who he was talking about, but the compliment did not go amiss as her red painted lips turned upwards into a wide smile, her brown eyes brightening up.
That was until her stomach started to turn and all her thoughts about Tizoc were interrupted by the creature that was in her stomach. Elighan. For a brief moment her eyes narrowed as she remembered that she was supposed to be making his life a living hell for a few nights before Micah wanted to know what her choice was going to be with the fadebeast that stupid human put inside of her. Adelita took a step back from Tizoc, but when she did this, she felt as if a piece of her had been left with him as her feet find spacing from him. It was a feeling she wasn’t used to experiencing and left her shaken to her very core. So Adelita once again steps closer to Tizoc as her stomach settles and she asks the most obvious question given his earlier words, “Usted es un vampiro?”
Ambrose Acheron: Tizoc nods at the question to answer it. “Let me show you…” He wants her to know every part of him, his life, his pain, his triumph, he wants to share it with her. He moves his right hand up, tracing her jawline with a single finger before sliding it back up her cheek and placing his palm there. He doesn’t close his eyes. He doesn’t blink, not wanting they gaze to break. Into her head he lets his memories flow using memory telepathy, he shows her his mortal life, a thrall to a bloody line of Aztec vampires in the early 1600’s, his embrace, a ritualistic sacrifice and revival. He shows her his sire, the dedication needed to survive and thrive in such a hardline religious environment.
Blood hunts, his sire, Eztli, a necuratist being hunted down, finally falling along with the rest of his bloodline except for Tizoc. His escape and time with the voodoo practicing Haitian immigrants in New Orleans. He shows her his first love, his childe, the Choctaw sorceress Coahoma and his friend, Ambrose Acheron. Their deaths in the Great Fire of 1788. Hunters closing in.
He shows her his flight to New York and his life there, eking out a bare existence, feeding from gangsters at the waterfront, leaving bodies in the harbor before his escape from hunters once again in 1811, fleeing north trying to reach the small group of vampires led by a woman named Isabella Drake.
His death is seen through his eyes, blurring as they open to find the hunters surrounding him, blood and smoke and fire and battle and then… the shadow realm. Languishing for two hundred years praying to a deity unheeding to his pleas for release. She can feel his unshakable faith and unyielding conviction. And recently… his release from the fade. The immediate desire to make childer, to secure his line. Vega, Kika and Machk falling under his knife, hearts removed while vampire blood quickened their cooling corpses… his new name spreading under the name of his old friend, Acheron.
Slowly he let’s his hand trail back down her face and cups it on the side of her neck, still looking into her eyes. “I have met no one like you.”
<Adelita> When he stared at her, right into her eyes, Adelita felt oddly vulnerable. Like he could see right into her soul, if vampires had such a thing. A tiny bit of her tongue darts out and wets her lips as her face finds comfort in the hand that’s pressed against it.
Glimpses of his life are pressed into her mind, an experience Adelita has never been privileged to, or knew existed. With each piece he shares with her, Adelita yearns to reciprocate her life with him, only she doesn’t possess such an ability, and her life would pale in comparison to his. Still, the inclination doesn’t go away, which disturbs Adelita. She isn’t a person that shares any aspect of her life with anyone, let alone a stranger, but he wasn’t actually a stranger anymore, was he?
When his death is displayed for her, Adelita’s other hand covers the hand that is on his and she feels for him. Sorrow, angst and even discomfort on the experience he had to endure, even if he didn’t feel those things. The thought of him dying was almost too much for her to bear as she took a deep breath in and held it there. Tizoc speaks again, and those negative thoughts and feelings vanish in an instant as his hand finds her chin area, and hers, his elbow. Keeping him close to her, or her close to him. Though she has heard something similar before at least a handful of times by other men, Adelita believes him wholeheartedly. To say the same would mean nothing, she believes, even if it is the truth. Never before has she met someone like him and it drives her absolutely wild. She wants to know everything about him. Absolutely everything; from his life to the contours of his body.
“Te quiero.” She admits with an exhale before she laughs, her lips pressing into his palm as she looks away. That wasn’t entirely what she wanted to say, even if it was the truth. Adelita did want him, but not in just the basic, carnal sense of things. “Lo siento,” She says as her eyes return to his, entranced in them for what seemed like an eternity before a new desire took her. The desire to eat. She was always hungry since Elighan cursed her with whatever the thing was that was growing inside of her-fade something or another. Micah had told her, but Lita had half lost her mind when he told her what would happen if she didn’t make the choice sooner than later. “Do you eat? I’m starving.” Not the most eloquent way to put things, but straight to the point, which was another rare phenomenon for Adelita.
Ambrose Acheron: Ambrose leans in and presses his lips to hers in a soft, sweet kiss before drawing back, eyes finding hers once more. His expression says the words for his. He is smitten, his gaze yearning. Had he a heartbeat it would be for her. He gives pause hearing her request. Elation builds within at being able to do something to please her. He wants to please her, to claim her, to make her his, to possess every facet of her, mind, body, soul. He wants to devour her.
Food, he thinks. Jose would have food at his apartment… West Tower. He thinks back quickly, remembering how to get there before speaking. “My underling, he has a place in West Tower. There is a refrigerator there. He has food in it.” So many new words for Ambrose in this new age. He is still lost in these modern nights and finds himself drawing on the knowledge of his childer and thrall more often than not to supplement his own shortcomings.
“The station nearby has a subway train that can take us to a nearby station. Would you like to go there?” Ambrose still has trouble with modern canter and slang, but he thinks he has said the right thing. “Unless you mean you need a vessel… Jose will be back soon with one. He is searching now.”
His mind is still overwhelmed with the sudden desire, lust, need… he can’t seem to focus fully and misses the sign of a fadebeast harboured within the womb of this woman he has fallen for entirely. His emotions are running high and his thoughts clouded.
<Adelita> Adelita is torn between two desires; the need to feed and sharing another kiss with Tizoc. She doesn’t move, the dark haired woman just listens to what he has to say. He could have suggested any place and she would have went with him as long as it had food and him. Why could she not have both? Food and then him, or him and then food? “Yes. I want to go there with you. Now.” She says between heavy breaths, keeping close to him, so close that Adelita didn’t leave much room to the imagination on what she was or wasn’t endowed with. She wanted to be with him, near him and to not be those things caused her duress.
Vessel. Adelita had to think about what he meant and replayed the sentence in her mind. Jose was getting something, or someone. A human. “No, I already fed tonight.” She shakes her head, fingers grabbing on to the fabric of his clothing. “Please. Can we go?” She whispers against the underside of his jaw before she nips at it. “I want to be there with you.” A delicate tongue dances across his jaw, tasting him, which only intensifies the desire to be with him. To have him.
Ambrose Acheron: Ambrose being an allurist sometimes has made use of the ability to eat mortal food. It helps in hiding what he is sometimes. Still, he has never been actually hungry for anything but blood. The woman is as mysterious as she is perfect and Ambrose wants to know more. With Adelita’s hand in his and the two of them heading toward the station Ambrose finally manages to begin his usual approach to meeting new vampires. He scans her memories first, wanting to know everything about her. He appraises her next and what he sees makes him nearly miss a step. A fadebeast. There is a fadebeast inside her… Ambrose has seen one of these before. A vampire in New York had birthed one and it had immediately turned on her. It had taken three vampires to hunt the creature down and destroy it.
He gives her hand a squeeze, letting her know he is fine if he made any outward showing of his surprise and his thoughts turn to getting rid of the thing within her. The thought of her being harmed brings a combination of anger and fear welling up inside him. He doesn’t know any non-invasive or non-harmful ways to get the thing out. Birthing it was not an option to Ambrose. No, not an option at all. There was only one thing to do and he liked the idea of doing it not one bit.
As they reach the station he looks at the map to determine which line they need to take and then settles in with Adelita to wait for the right train to come, losing himself once more in her eyes. The fadebeast concerns him but he will let her bring it up. He almost feels guilty for invading her thoughts unbidden.
<Adelita> While they walk, her thoughts are conflicted. As she tasted Tizoc, Adelita grew hungrier. If not for food, then for him. A fleeting thought of devouring him, literally had entered her mind. His flesh was what the Mexican woman wanted in more than one way. There was a moment of alarm on her face at the realization, because she knew that wasn’t a normal desire. To devour the flesh of anyone, let alone this man at her side. There is a squeeze to her hand and the woman looks down at their hands and the look of alarm vanishes. With that singular action, it seems to her that everything will be fine. . It is an odd sensation, holding another person’s hand-she has never done it before. Her fingers wiggle in his hand a little, the woman trying to get familiar with holding his hand as they walk to the station. He is quiet, but nothing alerts her to anything being wrong. If there had been a look on his face, she had missed it while her gaze was on their entwined fingers.
As they are paused, the free arm of Adelita wraps around Tizoc. He is a little taller than her, but still, her nose finds its way in the crook of his neck so she can take in his scent. It is all like a dream to her-finding this man, and is less than an hour wanting to know everything about him, be with him and adore him on the level she does. With one more inhale inwards, Adelita pulls away slightly so that she can stroke the side of his cheek and make eye contact with Tizoc-a man she dare claim to….love? Was that even possible for her? “Where you ever scared? In that place of darkness?” She asked him quietly, her dark hues focused on him and him alone. Anyone near them wasn’t even thought of or heard-she was completely smitten and lost in Tizoc and his life.
Ambrose Acheron As the train pulls in Ambrose waits for the herd to disembark, watching for any other vampires closely coming in to the area he thinks of as his. He has claimed the factory underground as his own, not wanting to draw attention to it though he has left the upper levels open. As such he is cautious, making careful note of the faces that come and go from the surrounding areas.
He gives Adelita’s hand another squeeze as he leads them onto the subway train. He has not yet become accustomed to these modern marvels, going underground has always been equated with visiting the fade for Ambrose and it’s never been a concept he has enjoyed, especially not so soon after being freed from it. Still, Lita is hungry and Ambrose is determined to provide for her. Once they board he finds them a seat and pulls her gently down next to him, placing an arm around her shoulder and pulling her near him so he can breathe in her scent.
He is puzzled about how quickly these feelings have washed over him, concerned about the thing growing within her and even more than those feelings, he is completely enamoured by her. The train starts moving and picks up speed, Ambrose keeps his eyes locked on hers to escape the wave of vertigo he fears with overwhelm him if he looks out the window. Soon they will approach West Tower over by Honeymead Station. Soon they will arrive at the apartment. He hopes for Jose’s sake it is presentable.
A question breaks through the vampire’s thoughts. Interrupting a thousand visceral tortures to come for Jose the interrogative slips into his mind. Scared? “No. I was never scared. The god of smoke and mirrors, Tezcatlipoca held me in his embrace until I was ready to be unleashed on this realm once more. Perhaps this is the right time. Perhaps it’s because of you.” Ambrose has never questioned his faith, he figured that being engulfed in the bleakness of the fade was part of his god’s plan. Fear, no. He had suffered anger and impatience but even those feelings had make him feel as though he was being an ingrate. “We are all part of a great wheel of time and play our part as best we can. I was upset that I wasn’t to be included in that for a time, but I am happy to be included once more.”
