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Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2018 16:09:10 GMT
1 Nov 2018
Nova and Melissa
CHAPTER 1
The darkness below had been such completeness that not even a rat decided to poke its nose through this one part of the vast forgotten place. The old forgotten warren has slipped beneath the earth and slowly out of mind. Cataclysm and wet was what turned the earth into the mouth that brought it under, but the city above only occasionally met it’s forefather and usually only when it inconvenienced the modern monster enough that its slaves must fix what was broke.
Even outside places were swallowed and forgotten. Built over and left where it lay. Such was the case of the old four story that lay in the center of forty odd acres of land. An anomaly considering not a single soul had lived in the house for untold years. The locals said it was incredibly haunted. The old man that had cared for it had fallen and broke his fool neck, leaving the whole thing to whatever might inherit it.
Back when Illinois was first populated, it was said this site had been closed off and made into some type of holding facility. Some said it was for witches, some said for criminals, no one really knew. Eventually like so much else the land swallowed all the secrets and eventually people simply lived upon it. Houses had come and gone, changing with the times or due to fire. What it was now was still old, but it had solid bones. Within however, was a mess.
Piles upon piles of all manner of things filled the space. Books, newspapers, old items that looked more at home in a museum than strewn about the house. Old weapons leaned against folded piles of clothes. Skulls of animals sat next to pottery. The basement was the real mess, one wall had collapsed showing the partial maw of a hole, but boxes and things had tumbled within it and the only way to see the extent of the damage was to clear it away.
Down below, a small shaft of light filtered through a crack. The layer of soil above the only barrier to the room below, the boxes and junk hid the instability. New air had slowly come in and though the basement was dark, it was lighter than what was below. The unwary would be met with quite a surprise if the ground was met with something heavier than the boxes on top of it.
Annabelle looked up at the crumbling manse and sighed. Ivy covered more than half of the dilapidated four story mansion. Windows here and there were either boarded over or broken. The place had been derelict for over twenty five years. At least, that's what the lawyers at Brimstone and Fyre had told her when they handed her the tattered Will giving her full ownership of the large estate and all the acreage that went with it.
The winding driveway had been disabled by giant trees dripping with enough Spanish Moss to make them almost appear as ghostly willows. The gravel had been overrun with grass and Ann was glad she owned a truck and not some fancy tiny car her friends in the city seemed to prefer. Of course, every year when it snowed her truck became the most popular vehicle in the bunch.
Heading up the long stairs, she paused on the porch. It wrapped around the house, disappearing around the corner on either side. Turning right, she made her way around. The double front doors, padlocked closed with a small chain, were set in the center of a pair of large windows. Around the corner, a large lawn stretched across to a tree line she was sure wasn't even halfway across the property.
Pulling hazel gaze back to the house, she passed two more windows, a pair of French doors, boarded over, and two more windows before another turn brought her to the back veranda. The large slate stone platform had hip high walls that kept one from accidentally tipping off the edge into the small pond on either side of another sweeping staircase that ended ten steps down in another expanse of lawn. There were small gardens scattered around and a gazebo that had seen better days. The ponds were nothing more than slime filled pits where an occasional frog 'hirupped' in contentment.
The two pairs of large double doors here were also boarded up. Continuing to the fourth side of the house she eventually made her way back to the front door. "Here goes nothing," she murmured and slid the key into the lock that held shut her Pandora's Box of treasures. Apparently, some great great uncle on her father's side, reclusive to a fault, had last owned the place. There were specifics about which child in what bloodline every generation would be granted ownership.
Her father's blood ran deep enough in her that she ended up being born in just the right spot in the pricing order of cousins this generation to have drawn the lucky number. While it had been vacant for over two decades, only caretakers had actually walked the halls for the last 50 years. Ann shrugged at the chains fell away. "Well I'm going to live here. Not ignore it like everyone else." Her words were pointed by the heavy thud as she dropped the chain and lock unceremoniously onto the porch to take on her way out.
Pushing both doors open at once, with the intention of flooding it with light, the unexpected happened. The house exhaled like it had been holding its breath the next occupant. The wind escaping the entryway made her auburn hair whip around her face and her matching brown eyes to squint as leaves and debris danced around her feet, caught in the backlash.
Anna coughed and waved her hand in front of her face to fend off the cloud of dust that had been kicked up. The place was as dark as it was abandoned. The power would be turned back on, but not till tomorrow. Apparently it took a week for the power company to come flip a switch. She was glad it would only be one night in the dingy place. She would have stayed in a hotel in town, but now that she had unlocked the door, she was loathe to lock it again.
A few moments later, flashlight in hand from her vehicle, she stepped into the foyer. Letting her eyes adjust, she shook her head in dismay. She knew there would be cleaning, but something told her she would need a crew, a couple weeks and several dumpsters. She stared at an endless sea of piles of papers, books and debris. Mice had made their homes in more than one place, the shredding and droppings being a dead giveaway.
Making her way from room to room, the first floor sported a kitchen and a large sitting room that opened onto the back patio as the only places ‘kept up’ in any fashion. While the signs of recent usage were more prominent here, it was still obvious that they were occupied the most recent in time. Moving to the second floor, she found a library with several old tomes in it. There were four or fives glass topped pedestals with ancient books in them, preserved from the nibbling of critters and the ravages of time and sunlight. She moved from pillar to pillar, her hand brushing away dust and ceiling chips that had dropped over time. Each time she peered into another glass case, she saw names. Some she recognized from her own past, some she didn’t, though they seemed to tie together to other names in other books.
The last book was the most intriguing. It was black, where the others had been shades of tawny and brown. And the list in this book didn’t include cousins, uncles, grandparents or anything else a lineage book would hold, with the exception of ‘parent’ and ‘child’. One thought was that it was a single bloodline the book was trying to single out. Each entry was a single parent and only one to two children at at list on any page. And most of those single parents were the father, with no listing of the mother. There were a few cases where only a female was listed, but not many.
She wondered if perhaps this book had been forgotten or abandoned at some point because someone seemed to have stopped keeping it up. The dates were old enough to have possibly been the founders and first builders of the estate, yet one still showed unmarked as ‘dead’, despite every other name having a single line drawn through it. “Guess he croaked before crossing out his own name,” she mused with a short laugh before moving on.
She finished inspecting the rooms on the others floors and found more of the same. There was one bedroom on the second floor that had been used at some point in the last couple decades, but no other signs of life. Merely more debris, rat homes and tons of material, paper and general detris that needed to be vacated from the premises.
Moving back to the ground floor, she went to a door beneath the stairs and opened it. Flashlight perched to give her the best view of the steps, she descended down into the basement. The same was true here as above, tons of garbage and trash, more boxes to go thru, and plenty of items she knew would find themselves a new home in the landfill. As she moved towards the back, something caught the beam of the flashlight and glinted. Curious what in a stone and dirt packed basement would shine, she started to move boxes.
There didn’t seem to be any reason for the glint she thought she saw, but with the boxes out of the way, a crack, perhaps 6 feet high, was in the wall as if the foundation had shifted and left a crack about 2 feet wide. She reached a hand in and there was nothing but air. “Careful Ann… you will end up trapped in there, dead on the floor and the rats will eat your eyes.” She laughed but it was nervous.
The flashlight barely lighting a few yards into the gloom, she tried to discern what was beyond the crack.. Without thinking, she moved into the void and her mind started mumbling an old saying about the Abyss looking back if you looked at it long enough. She laughed nervously once more and bit her lip. “Great… now I’m scaring myself. It’s just a house, Ann… nothing more, nothing less. And we will make sure it’s ‘much’ more, very soon.”
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Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2018 16:09:45 GMT
Without warning, she was falling. One moment, the sides of the dirt walls were pressed to her front and back, the next, the floor cracked and gave out and she fell through space. She didn’t have time to think how far it was before her feet slammed into loose soil. The shock of the fall and her imbalance left her pitching forward. The flashlight fell from her hand as it slammed into the ground, her head smacking hard on a stone from the debris she had brought down with her, or perhaps had always been there. As her vision swam in the flickering of the flashlight as it spun free of her, she thought she saw another person. “You’re imagining things, Ann…. there’s…. Nothing… here….” and darkness claimed her.
Laying there in black jeans with black hiking boots, the woman’s body had a stillness to it that only the dead would have. But the difference was, her body was still alive, chest rising and falling with slow breaths. Her hands were criss crossed with small scrapes and cuts from her pouring over her items in the house and the fall. And on her left temple was a gash, perhaps an inch long, that slowly dripped blood till the dirt and dust settled and sealed it.
Something painful hit his face. The form leaning against the wall shifted, trying to move away from the painful light from the flashlight that had fallen. Chains tinkled dully, the scent of blood slowly perfuming the air. The only sound was his shifting and a much stronger heartbeat. Blood.
The mouth of the figure opened dryly, his tongue licking long dry lips. Pale white teeth and delicate fangs briefly kissed by that awful damned light. Years spent in one place made his body sluggish and stiff. The moisture that had seeped in over the years had slowly created corrosion on the silver that held him prisoner. His feeble strength once wasn’t enough to break his bindings, but his shifting pulled them from the crumbling wall though they were still clasped around his wrists to drag on the floor.
Blood. Something living lay mere feet from him and it was the source of such awful brightness. He managed to crawl to that still form, past the light. With effort he brought one small wrist to his mouth and bit hard, his fangs breaking the warm skin with ease. Life and strength flowed into him, but as his mind cleared of haze he knew that this wasn’t enough. Long practice saw him only ‘sipping’ taking enough to give him a measure of his strength, but not enough to harm the fragile human life. His green eyes glinted like a cat’s, flashing silvery green as he moved to pick up the strange object illuminating the small space. He gingerly kept the beam pointed away from his eyes and, he found by accident the switch to seal it away.
He picked up the woman and gazed up at where she must have come from. It took effort to leave, but he managed to get them both through without too much difficulty after that first jump. What he saw made his lip curl with disgust. It stank of stale air and all the random things around bothered him and spoke of ‘mess’ even if what he saw didn’t make sense. It took him a moment to realize they were still underground, though he scented fresher air. Stairs, those he understood, it was to them that he walked carrying the stranger.
As he passed into more of the dwelling, he saw more things that unsettled him. He decided that going out might make things easier. He managed to get outside and the smell of the green was welcome. Untamed forest made far more sense to him than the monstrosity that was the dwelling he had been imprisoned beneath. Still, he looked down at the woman and back at the building and took her back in. After wandering he found a bed and put her upon it before deciding to look around. It was the library he found himself in not long later, the books of names being far more important. It wasn’t until he heard noises outside that he realized the sun had risen.
Curious, he looked out a window to see yet more strange humans standing and talking by some strange contraption. The longer he watched, the more incomprehensible things they did till they climbed inside the strange contraption and it moved away. That was when the house seemed to make some sort of rumbling noise and started, of all things, to breathe. Lights flickered on, a hum permeated everything and Sormr made his way back to the room with the woman to see if she still lived.
He was loathe to touch her again, mostly because he didn’t trust he wouldn’t take yet more blood from her if she did. The covenant was broken, but duty was something he had grown so accustomed to. He left the dwelling, carefully and quickly, looking for more abundant food. Coming face to face with a world he was wholly unprepared for. Row upon row of houses, neatly lined up and filled to the brim with people shocked him still. He remembered the one he served spell-binding him and locking him in a casket and then enduring isolation till hunger took root and then dormancy. He recalled vaguely feeling he was out of the earth and on water, before being put into the stone room and chained. He had been too weak to do much and then fell dormant again.
Still, it wasn’t hard to find a few humans to take what he needed, though sipping from them was wholly unsatisfying. He combed through their minds as he fed, taking the things that he needed to understand the forces at work in this new world. This America. He slipped back into the house and found a place in the attic to rest, hopefully the woman below wouldn’t try to kill him after he found her again.
The day waxed and waned before Anna stirred again. A soft groan fell from her lips as her hand, feeling rather heavy, rose to the tender spot on her brow. It was then she realized she was on a bed, covered, and that air conditioning was humming softly from the vents above the bed. Her eyes fluttered open slowly and she was laying on the bed in the most recently used room. She was on top of the covers, and the dust was still thick on everything and she had to turn her head to sneeze as she inhaled and started to sit up.
Glancing around the room she saw the light on in the hall, the door wide open. Slowly she swung her legs over the side of the bed and glanced around. That’s when she saw them… footprints. She looked down at her own feet. She had on her boots still, but the prints were those of bare feet. And sizably larger than her own. Wincing slightly at the headache, her hand rose once more to press the wound and the clump of hair and blood she felt there. Moving down the hall to the bathroom, she flicked on the light, blinked in the glare and checked out her wound.
A few moments later, an old rag finally rinsed out enough to use, Anna noticed something else. On her wrist was a wound, two in fact, that appeared like small holes. While she knew there had been nothing there previously, the wounds seemed a couple days old. Reaching into her back pocket, she cursed realizing her cell phone was missing. “Musta dropped out during the fall.” She didn’t like the idea, but she’d probably have to go find it. Though she decided she’d wait for the cleaning crew. She had no idea how she got out of the hole, but had no desire to to try and do it again.
Face and arms clean, for the most part, she moved about the house and started opening curtains. In the kitchen she found paper and pencil in a drawer and began going room to room making a list of things that needed tossing, keeping, sorting and donated. The smallest list was ‘donation’. Most of the stuff wasn’t good enough to pass on to others. The longest list was the ‘toss’ list. While she imagined anything antique or worth passing on to someone else may get kept, most of it wasn’t worth salvaging.
She spent the day moving room to room, floor to floor. The lists poured onto multiple pages and the small cooler of drinks and snacks in her car dwindled. She drove into the city to get a bit of food to put in the now cleaned out fridge, and some boxed snacks to tide her over while she waited for the cleaning crew to show tomorrow. Once she got her phone, she’d call for yard guys, and the heavier cleaning crew.
It was just after sunset when she arrived back home. “Home again, home again…” she hummed as she finished making something to eat and moving to the back patio to enjoy the last crimson of sunset disappearing into darkness. Her back to the door, thinking herself alone, she leaned back and kicked up her feet on the short wall, soda in hand, and started humming absently to the last tune she had heard on the radio.
It was the sound of a door closing below that brought Sormr back to full alertness. He sat up and pushed some of his hair from his face, the chains dragging along the floor. He eyed this with incredible annoyance and worked his hand free of the now useless hunk of corroded silver. It hadn’t been the metal itself that had been a problem, but the spell upon it. Silver really had no effect on his kind, though the metal was fantastic at holding magic. He stood up and looked himself over, he suspected he looked a horror, but after looking around he managed to find some old clothing. Trial and error saw him fitting into some old faded loose pants and a red and green tunic of some kind printed with deer and trees.
The pants felt like cotton of some kind and had the tracks of some small pawed creature upon it, though they were a bit snug. His hair had grown out, quite a lot in fact over the centuries and he was in a bad need of a shave as well, but procuring a blade would have to wait. He slipped out of where he had been resting and went to look for the woman finding her at ease outside. He debated waiting or just getting it over with. The way language had changed was appalling, these ‘Americans’ had bastardized what the Romans had created and it just felt dirty on his tongue. Rather ironic since back in the day he had despised the Roman tongue, but he’d found something worse.
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Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2018 16:11:28 GMT
“I don’t mean to scare you woman, but I have need of a few words with you and you are far more preferable than finding some poor fool out in the ah...city…” He made a face, rather disgusted with how he’d phrased that. “This tongue is awful, forgive me if it isn’t settling in well.”
At six foot three Sormr was quite tall for a man of his time, but a bit over average for men of this new age. His deep red hair dragged a bit on the ground, a mess of wavy curls and his beard following suit. The sweater was a bit small on him and garishly christmas themed and the pajama pants were a soft blue with cat paw prints all over. It was a warring sight and really funny, no one could look at him and think ‘scary’. In the light of the house however, his eyes gleamed in the dark and his tone was an awkward one, requesting, but curt and rough, as if he hadn’t spoken in a while.
Ann startled at the voice. She dropped her drink and was on her feet, backed against the short wall in half a heartbeat. “Who are you?” She demanded just a tad harder than she had intended. Her boot knife was on the kitchen counter and she never had liked carrying a gun. In a place like this, she had never considered being alone out here would warrant it.
It was then that she noticed his look, and his clothes. Her eyebrow rose in curiosity. “Listen, Mister. If you’ve been squatting here, you can’t anymore. I live here, now. And if you are looking for a handout, I don’t have anything to give you.” She kept her distance as she tried to size him up. The clothes looked years old, half moth eaten, and fit him horribly. Her hair was clean now, up in a ponytail, and her head gash had a small bandage on it. She was still in her jeans though had added a grey hoodie with a dragon on the front of it.
Her reaction wasn’t anything like he expected, which was better than what he had envisioned. Easier to deal with intimidation or simple wariness than hostility. “I...do not ‘squat’ and I am Sormr Anteris, I am glad you did not die.”
Which considering such wounds would have possibly been a death sentence given what he was used to, well, it spoke of strength to him. He was no healer and while he had plenty of regrets given the circumstances, he had had no choice except leaving her. “My question is rather simple, do you wish to reforge the covenant or are you fine with your ancestor breeching it?”
He wasn’t sure what he would do if he found himself free. He had entered into the covenant expecting service until death, but the passage of time and the new modern age meant that he was a relic of the past. He was used to fighting, this new time seemed awfully peaceful. Was there even anything to fight now? Samial’s betrayal cut deep, he had basically raised that boy, did he really want to bind himself again? Service was all he knew, what other choice did he have in this new era?
She listened to him, and her face contorted slightly in confusion. “I’m glad I didn’t die, too. Thanks… I think.” She wasn’t quite sure what she was thanking him for, then it came to her. She had been about to ask when he mentioned a Covenant. “Covenant renewal. I’m sure I have no idea what you mean. What is the Covenant and what are my choices?” She crossed her arms as she tried to figure him out. “You were the one who put me to bed, weren’t you? Thank you… and,” she started to have sympathy at the thought of the man being tossed out on his backside just as night crept in. He hadn’t harmed her yet, though he certainly had the opportunity. “And if you want, you can stay the night. I can, umm… help you find better clothes and maybe clean up that hair and beard if you want.” She was still being cautious, but the idea of this man with the striking eyes walking away looking as he did, didn’t sit well with her as a person.
Sormr looked down at himself and then shrugged. “I suppose better clothing would be ideal and all this...hair offends me.”
The topic of the covenant made him frown. “You were not told?” He looked at the house and then sighed. “No, I suppose he would not have kept with tradition…” He fell silent a moment gathering his thoughts. “I am...your bloodline’s servant and protector. In ages past when dark things roamed the night, those that wanted to fight them needed information. Libraries were bulky, easier to have it contained within a person. I, like others through your family history, were charged with keeping you alive from the things that would see you dead. The covenant made sure that all your needs were satisfied, that you could not be lost and above all that I was not free to abuse my abilities upon the mortals around me. If you choose not to take my service upon you, then I have either the choice of adapting to this new era or ending my life.”
Problem was, he had always liked living over anything else, regardless of what he had had to endure. He didn’t think he would become a despot, he did not crave power nor authority, but who was to say what he might become if left to his own devices. The thought wasn’t comforting at all.
“See to my every need, eh?" She laughed and shook her head. "Sorry, but that seems like an impossible task to set upon anyone. To help me, now that's something I could use and live with." She thought about how long it had been since any man had ever 'voluntarily' offered to help with her happiness. It came to her mind that the answer was "never".
He snorted softly. “You’d be surprised at how easy that is, though it can be...tedious.”
After a moment's thought to what he said, she shook her head. "I don't know what the Covenant called for, but if it keeps you from unleashing something horrible upon humans, then yes, I renew it. But beyond that, I'm not sure it's fair to hold you to my 'every need'."
Fairness seemed to be one of those things that every person had a different opinion on. Samial had been a pain in the arse, quite selfish and indolent, while others had hardly requested or really wanted anything much at all. “Fair hardly has any place in the world, usually only those with power get to make that decision. When you have what basically amounts to a monster tied to you on a leash, you decide that, not the monster.”
Relaxing a little, but still with arms folded, she cocked her head slightly as if still trying to decide how much of a thread he could be. "Tell ya what, though. Tonight I'll feed you, help cut some of that hair if you wish, and you can sleep in any room but mine tonight. Tomorrow we'll see what attachment we can come to. It'll take a lot to get this house back in shape. And I won't lie that having you around to help won't be prudent. I can't pay you a lot, but I can offer food 'n shelter. How's that for you?"
Her friends back home would probably kill her for letting some strange guy move in, but she didn't care. She's promised herself a new life. Now she had it. And if that new life came with, relatively, free labor, who was she to snub her nose at it?
Dark humor made him laugh. “You’ve already fed me lass, among others. I am far simpler to keep fed than yourself. No need to pay me, I’ve no real need of coin either. I assume you need help getting your house in order? I can separate the gems from the chaff easily enough, though I’ll admit most of the bits and bobs are out of my ken, but there is more within the rubble I do understand than what I don’t. Want me to burn the rubbish? Burning takes less time than digging holes for it.”
He wouldn’t need sleep or food for a while and even then what he’d have as ‘rest’ would be a short nap compared to what a human spent sleeping. He only took longer if he was in dire need, such as being in a hole for several hundred years without feeding and then basically gorging on food and stealing information. “Lets shear me and then I will get to work.”
She brushed off his comment of her feeding him already. She just assumed he meant he had helped himself to the fridge at some point while she was passed out. She listened to the rhythm of his tone and it seemed to please her, despite the fact he seemed slightly out of time with his vernacular. “I will pay you. It won’t be much, but I don’t desire a slave.” She took several steps towards him, her eyes moving up and down his body in the hideous outfit. She couldn’t help herself and had to stifle a laugh. “But we can argue payroll and ‘chaff’ separating after we find you some better clothing. And help with that mane of yours.” She absently touched his arm as she smiled and walked past him. “Come on, I’m sure there is something that isn’t completely moth eaten in this huge mansion.”
She let her arm drop and moved into the house. Her freshly showered scent of lavender and jasmine wafted past him as she went by. The hum once more falling absently from her lips as she moved back into the manor and towards the stairs.
Her touch was a buzz against his skin, making his skin tingle and he absently rubbed the place as he followed her soundlessly. He wasn’t used to physical contact, even before he was betrayed it was uncommon for someone to show much physical touch to their guardian. He didn’t mind it however, though it was strange. He’d given up much in his time in service, but he counted it worth it considering all he had seen. It beat being a Roman slave and dying in some arena fight. Which had been an option at the time. “Want me to just stand to the side? The space under the roof didn’t hold much, save for these, the rest was too small.”
In the lights of the house his green eyes were the color of new grass and his hair, albeit in tangles and untended, was a deep dark coppery red. His beard was darker. “Could just find a knife and I can take care of this, you don’t strike me as one who’d be comfortable hacking away at someone with a blade.”
She laughed as she reached the base of the stairs. “Come on up. We can go thru the closet in my room. It’s the most recently occupied. I’m sure there are clothes in there that will suffice till we can get to town and get you something more appropriate. As to hacking with a blade,” she shook her head as she glanced back over her shoulder and winked, “I am perfectly comfortable whacking many things.” She wriggled her eyebrows, obviously teasing him.
He threw his head back and laughed shaking his head. “Never thought I’d wake up to something like that… Well, at least from the looks of it I won’t be bored. Hack away at me all you like lass, I’m big enough to take it.”
Once in her room, she went to the closet and opened it up. Whoever the last occupants had been, they had been frugal and realistic in their attire choices. She was glad it wasn’t full of three piece suits and bustle dresses. “Try this…” she turned to hand him a cluster of garments that included two or three pairs of jeans, a couple button up shirts, and a couple sweaters. “Bathroom is over there.” She pointed to a closed door on the other side of the bed from where they stood. “I’ll see if I can find you a pair of shoes while you try those on.”
“I’m not sure a er...bathroom will have enough room. Never heard of anyone using them to dress in, usually the smell alone makes people get their business done as fast as possible.” He eyed the room she mentioned more than a little wary. A house this run down likely needed servicing in that regard and a confined space with a reek would be incredibly unpleasant to his nose. “Could just dress here lass, I might be an antiquated relic, but there ain’t nothing too strange about me.”
“Not enough room? There is enough room in there for two people to change.” She laughed wondering what kind of decadence he came from that the master bath with full tub and shower and dressing table wasn’t ‘big enough to change in’. And his description of the smell and such, she figured he was worried that the derelict house was a plumber’s nightmare. But instead of arguing, she merely shrugged. “If you wanna dress in here, that’s fine.” She rummaged in the closet once more and came out a second later with a pair of black work style boots. “And… as if on cue, voila! shoes.”
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Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2018 16:12:04 GMT
“I’d rather stay put, not sure I am ready to face whatever makes you think spending any length of time in what amounts to a fancy garter robe is the correct place to change your attire in. I’ve already had enough of a shock so far, more would just make my head spin worse.” He shook his head and sighed. “This will all be a tough knot to swallow.”
She stood up and brushed off her knees and set the boots on the floor by the foot of the bed. “There ya go. I’m gonna head downstairs and see if the scissors I found are sharp enough to hack at that mane of yours.” She winked and turned to go. Something told her she could stay and he wouldn’t object. The trouble was, she probably wouldn’t object either. It had been a long time… too long in her opinion. As she reached the door, she smiled, peered over her shoulder at him and made a big show of looking him completely up and down. “And I don’t think you look antiquated.” She turned back and headed downstairs.
He set to pulling off the shirt, cursing as some of the snug places scraped. He wasn’t immune to pain, but tight clothing was damned inconvenient. He peered over his shoulder at her and snorted. “Oh aye, you say that to fluff a man’s ego and then you go and leave? Why do I have a feeling you are quite a cruel lass? Get, else I might have to seek revenge.”
Her laughter would echo down the hall as she disappeared. He eventually appeared within sight, the boots in hand. “Lass, these won’t do, can’t get the strings to do anything that makes sense. Don’t suppose you can help? Going without won’t kill me, it’s just not comfortable.”
He didn’t make any noise at all when he moved around. There was a prowling grace to him that was very unusual compared to how most people walked, he didn’t even bob a bit. The motion was fluid and forward, as if he had training of some kind to make his movements so. “You find the sheers? I’m ready to get this itchy mass taken care of, then I think I need to steal into a bath house.”
She had been in the kitchen, back to the door, trying to put a bit of an edge on a pair of scissors when he had arrived and startled her. Turning back to him, the double blades up in a defensive position, she quickly lowered them and smiled. “We’ll go to town tomorrow if you can just make them work this evening.”
Motioning to the other room, she smiled. “Let’s go outside. It will make clean up easier.” She led the way and grabbed a straight back chair from a writing table in the salon as she moved out onto the patio where he had come to her just a bit ago to announce his presence. Setting the chair off to the side, she motioned for him to have a seat. “I’ll cut most of it off as short as you want. You can trim it up from there and if we need to, the barber in town can make it as perfect as you want. As to the ‘bathhouse’, you can use the master bath off my room for that. No need to steal into it in the middle of the night. And after all the scrubbing I had to do this afternoon, I can’t even imagine what shape the other baths are in.” She sighed as if in resignation. “Just another reality check to how much cleaning this place will need.”
Shaking herself, she smiled once more. “Come on, Rip van Winkle, let’s get you trimmed up.” She snapped the scissors open and shut a couple times in reference to her words.
One red eyebrow rose at the menacing snippers and he smirked. “Is this where I should say, ‘my life is in your hands’ lass? I find myself a bit worried about losing more than a bit of hair.”
Once outside he sat down in the chair she had brought. “The fur on my face needs to go completely. Got in the habit of it and I prefer it so, the rest just get a couple inches short, I’m not picky.”
She smiled and grabbed the comb from her back pocket she had grabbed from her dresser before leaving and began hacking of the hair in great clumps. “You have no need to worry about losing more than hair. You haven’t annoyed me near enough to earn that punishment, yet.” She laughed and cut another clump. “So I have to ask, for someone who so abhors such messy hair, how in all the worlds did you let it get this way? It’s not like it happened over night.”
She let another long lock of hair fall to the ground, her foot edging it into a pile she had at her feet, trying to keep the occasional breeze from carrying it off into the knee high grass that constituted a lawn.
He chuckled softly. “Aye, I am rather fastidious about staying clean… The how is very simple, I neither had the strength nor freedom of movement to take care of myself. I was imprisoned in a very confining small space and chained to near immobility. Later I was put in a square cell, but wasn’t strong enough to move. Eventually I simply slept and then your fall into the space I was confined allowed me freedom. The rest you have been witness to. Now, I’ve a question, what year is it?”
She paused in her snipping, frowning though he wouldn’t be able to see. “It’s two thousand and eighteen. April 14th to be exact.” She wasn’t sure why he would be asking for the year. Perhaps he wasn’t as stable at she had first thought. Then there was his diatribe of incarceration he spoke of. Imprisoned and unable to care for himself for long enough to let his hair get to this… it made no sense. He would have had to have been chained over 30 years for it to get this long. And even then, he didn’t look much into his forties. So something wasn’t adding up.
The few minds he had siphoned information from he’d only been able to catch snippets of things. He had found his temporary prey too squishy of mind to probe and he hadn’t wanted to cause lasting harm. He hadn’t got an exact date, but he did understand he was far far in the future compared to his last memories. At the very least he suspected a good several centuries had past.
After a moment, she finished cutting his hair as close to his head as she could and still have it look semi decent. She then moved to stand in front of him. “Ummm… It’s ok if you don’t want to tell me. I shouldn’t have asked.” She glanced at the scissors. “Do you want to take care of your beard yourself? I mean, I can get it close, but you should probably use a razor yourself. Not sure I wouldn’t slice and dice you.” She laughed softly. “I have a couple spare in the bathroom upstairs you can use if you want.”
He looked over at her. “If I didn’t want to tell you, I would state that, lying serves no purpose. You are only probing lightly anyways and I am loathe to cause you more unrest, or give to you information that would make you think I am touched in the head. Soon enough you’ll get keen to the strangeness and the questions will come.”
He took the scissors and meticulously cut close, but if she looked to the pile of hair, she would find nothing where it had been. Her remark however confused him. “Why would a woman need a razor, let alone several?”
She glanced down, thinking to brush the hair into the pile she already had, only to find it gone. Assuming the wind had absconded with it, she shook it off. “Well, I am sure more questions will be forthcoming.” As he asked about the razors, Ann laughed. “Well they dull quickly. And I admit that while I have no man currently in my life, it doesn’t mean I allow myself to ‘go’.” She shook her head. “Some women shave their legs despite lacking a date that night. If you prefer, we can get you an electric one. Just make a list of things you want, we’ll get it. I’ve got plenty now,” she sighed realizing that her worries for money, something she constantly had to be aware of, weren’t an issue any longer.
Taking a step back as he finished cutting, she actually took a sharp breath in. He was stunning. A blush rose on her cheeks, unbidden. “Much better,” she managed to stammer. If he listened, her heart was racing. Something inside her had hoped that under the hair he would be as blase looking as with the ragged dreds. But instead, like a diamond in the rough, she was catching a glimpse of what he would look like once he was all polished up. “I like the new look. How do you feel?” She bit her lip suddenly wishing she had something to do to keep her from standing there, appearing to gawk, at the stranger before her.
With all the fur mostly gone, she would see more of his expression as he smiled broadly. Her pounding heart, her dilated eyes, even the subtle rise of temperature and scent of arousal gave him plenty enough information. “I suspect I look good enough to eat, but I still feel vile. I don’t smell myself which is a good indication I do not reek, but I feel unclean. Take me to the ‘bathroom’ and explain things to me, I am likely not going to know what I am dealing with. I am quite out of touch with things.”
Aye, by virtue of being born in an age before such things were commonplace for even the low class. Hell, I know not if there even is a class within this modern society. He thought to himself. What he was used to ceased to exist and until he could find a library he wouldn’t be able to catch up as best he could.
At his comment of how he must look, the crimson grew darker on her cheeks. “Come on, I’ll show you the bathroom. It’s pretty old plumbing, but at least the hot water is working.” She turned to the house and headed upstairs, assuming he would follow.
In the bedroom, she turned right and moved to the small door she had indicated before. Opening it, she stepped in and to the side to give him room to move in and see it for himself. The room was perhaps eight by ten. The luxurious room held a double sink, a full mirror above them stretching the length of the fairly modern counter. The huge tub was big enough for two, with a large shower stall beside it. Despite the age of the house, the kitchen and bathrooms had been updated in the last few decades to accommodate multiple people as well as the new plumbing. The toilet was off to one side and the whole room, while being grungy with time and neglect, was in shades of black and teal in a tasteful pallet of precisely placed tiles and wall trim.
“Hot and cold running water, and the shower works great.” She looked at him to see his reaction. “Do you prefer a shower or bath?” It was a sincere question and one she saw no problem in asking.
The room indeed was big enough and far different than his previous experiences. “Show me how it all works lass. It feels necessary, so I need to know it.”
His emerald green gaze took everything in with a detached expression. As if he was studying it all and trying to figure out what made it all work, which wasn’t far from the truth. “The grandeur of all this… Makes my head spin at the cost of it all. Does everyone live thusly?”
She shrugged and laughed. “Well, not everyone. This is an old, grand house. I am sure it was updated with the inherited money each time someone else moved in. My old apartment had a shower half that size, no tub and only one sink. You could probably fit four of my baths in this one.” She moved to the sink. “All the set ups are the same H is for hot, C is for cold.” She turned one of the knobs. “Turn the handle, water comes out. Depending how much you turn each one, you mix the hot and cold till it’s where you want it.” She moved to the tub, then the shower turning each knob to show him. “I set those towels there,” she pointed to a small pile containing three each of large bath towels, hand towels and face clothes. There was a large towel already draped over the shower door, a hand towel on the small bar by the sink and a face cloth draped on the side of the tub as well.
He closed his eyes. “Lass, the simple fact you have water that arrives hot, without servants, without any work on your part, is an untold luxury. The fact you lived in a place, that had smaller facilities, but one that had something like this, is grander than anything I have experienced.” He looked over at her. “You know not just what you have and that, speaks volumes to me.”
It was taken for granted. How many lives had lived to reach this point? How much blood, sweat and tears had been spilt for such creations to be so common? It was mind boggling.
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Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2018 16:12:42 GMT
Going back to the sink, she opened a cupboard door beneath it and pulled out a small package. Ripping it open, she set the razor on the sink and set two more unopened packages of the disposables on the counter as well. “These are the razors. As I said, not the best, but hopefully you won’t mind it for now. There is soap there,” she pointed to a bar on the side of the the tub in the small holder, “and those bottles contain shampoo and conditioner. Hopefully you don’t mind smelling like lavender for the night.” She laughed as she tried to imagine what scent he would smell like once he chose his own toiletries.
“Ummm….” she looked around and shrugged. “What else do you need to see?” She glanced around trying to figure out what she missed.
Sormr shook his head. “That is plenty, for now. I’d best set to and scour my skin till I am satisfied.” He smirked at her with mischief gleaming in his eyes. “You will have to explain in detail how ‘let going’ and shaving are important to a woman. Let alone why it would effect a man so that it is compulsory to keeping said man. Then find me that man so I might rearrange his priorities in his head, because the last thing any lass needs worry about is a trifling bit of hair in places most men never see unless offered a peek.”
His chivalrous attitude at coming to her rescue over some imaginary slight from another man was touching. Probably the most touching thing anyone had ever offered. “The ‘letting go’ is more about pride in appearance.” She looked at him, her head cocked to the side once more, the curious bird look on her face again. “Even if a woman could not see beneath your jacket, would you not wear the best shirt you had? The nicest pants? Or even have your hair in perfect alignment beneath your hat? Would it not pleasure you to touch a woman and feel silky smooth skin and know that despite no one seeing it, she cared enough about herself to make sure she was a pleasure to you, even when you were not around?” The look on her face was smoldering with the idea that she was doing more than asking a rhetorical question.
He didn’t know how to answer that. Not in any way that wouldn’t seem strange. He had never had a wife, though he’d had a few lovers, and as a slave he hadn’t had the freedom. After the change and his binding he hadn’t had the freedom either, not that anyone would have offered. Such a thing as he had become was something alien and unfathomable. Certainly nothing that would have saw any smart woman thinking to allow such in her bed let alone marry, even if he could have. More, all the things that had seen him as such a prize, likely wouldn’t win him such favors now. Add to it that he needed to drink a person’s life’s blood just to keep sane likely would see him burned. It nearly did in an age now dead.
“I may have no man to please, but that does not mean I let my legs get fuzzy, or my underarms start to resemble your beard.” She laughed softly. Turning to go, she nodded to the bedroom, “I’ll leave the bedroom door closed and set a few more clothes on the bed. It’s still relatively early. So if you want, I’ll be happy to have your help sorting some things in the main parlor off the back patio when you are ready. Seems cleaning up the least messy room is a better place to start. Will also give us a nice place to relax as we work through other rooms in the coming weeks.” She paused at the door. “Anything else before I let you clean up?”
He started to undress, his back to her. “No. You’ve given me plenty food for thought and much else, besides. I’ll come find you again and start earning my keep, I’ll work past the time you sleep as I tend to rest lightly.” That was a bit of a lie, but not completely. “Thank you, I am grateful for this. I cannot express just how much so, if you need aught else, simply speak and I will happily serve.”
She smiled and nodded. “Careful, you will spoil me. Then I may never let you go.” She shook her head and moved into the bedroom. Several minutes later, after hearing the water start, she set two more pairs of slacks, another sweater, and two more shirts. She even managed to find a pair of loafers in the back of the closet. They were brown and cracked with dust and age. But they would work, provided they fit her new housemate.
Moving downstairs, she headed for the kitchen and cleaned up her dinner dishes, adding ‘dishwasher’ to the list of things she wanted upgraded in the house. A new fridge was already on the list. The tiny almond colored one was in horrible shape. She had had to add some packing tape in a couple places where the cushioned seal was cracked to the point that it wasn’t sealed right. Her list for tomorrow’s shopping trip was growing. Every time she looked at it, her heart gripped in tightness as she wondered how she would pay for it. Then she would recall that money was no longer a problem. But it was that moment of panic she still had that showed she wasn’t one to merely slip into a decadent lifestyle like her friends had sworn they could easily slip into without a second thought.
When he came down, Sormr would find her in the parlor, the door to the outside closed against the chill night. Central heat wasn’t on because she feared a fire in the night. She was curled up in the corner of one of the couches, an old embroidered blanket pulled over her legs. Her shoes were on the floor by the couch. A cup of tea was on the small table beside her, under a cut glass Tiffany lamp that illuminated the book she was reading because the overhead light wasn’t quite strong enough with the cut bowl over it full of dust and yellowed with age.
She wasn’t paying attention to anything around her, engrossed in the book as she was. Her eyes occasionally drooped now and then as if she was fighting to stay awake.
Sormr looked at himself in the mirror after the shower and took off the rest of the offensive fur. The lines of his face clear and free, he hardly recognized himself before, but now saw the man he was used to seeing. It amazed him that the glass was so clear, he could see himself far better than he had. Once he was dry enough he put on the new clothing, but the shoes he did not trust. Walking around the domicile barefoot wouldn’t cause any problems, though he would have to step carefully. He padded down the stairs and to where he knew he would find her and stopped to watch her for a few breaths. She was near asleep. He coughed softly, just so she wouldn’t get startled. His shorn hair had curled a bit and gleamed with that freshly showered look.
She startled at his cough and her book, barely held between her fingers, fell to the floor. Reaching down to pick it up, she murmured an apology. “Sorry, guess it’s been a long day.” She looked up then and her breath caught in her throat. The man who had assaulted her on the patio was nowhere to be found. Before her was a man straight from the cheap novellas her and her friends read on friday nights over pizza and wine. Even barefoot, with his hair wavy from the shower, he certainly lived up to his ‘good enough to eat’ comment from earlier that evening.
He would need better fitting clothes for he was a bit too broad shouldered and though not overly muscled, the shirt was a little snug. “I realized something as I showered. Making a written list will be an impossibility as I cannot write in a tongue you’d likely be able to read. However, getting to a tailor I doubt will be hard and I’d like to find a decent weaponsmith. Proper boots would be helpful, but I can make due with sandals. I don’t think I’ll have need for anything else. You need to go to sleep, I’ll set to work while you do so and put aside anything I think is valuable. I’ll likely just sort things into three piles, junk, things I am not sure of and then lastly what should be saved. Agreed?”
“Can’t write, eh?” She found that hard to believe. But lots about him was hard to understand. “Well then I guess we’ll work that as well.” She smiled as if he was teasing her. “I’ll make the lists. As to a tailor, this is one I know of in the city that can fit you in the latest style, while still keeping you uniquely… mmmm… you.” She looked him up and down as she rose up, the blanket caught in her hand to be absently tossed onto the back of the couch.
Sor snorted softly. “No lass, you misunderstand. I can read and write, I just cannot in the tongue you are born to. I speak several languages, write in those same languages, but not in American. The English I do know, isn’t your mother tongue now. I would have to learn it, but that won’t take too long. I learned French in a handful of moons, I’ve a grounding base already, it’ll just be reforming and modernizing. I just need to find a library to borrow the proper references and dictionary.”
She glanced around the room and sighed. “I would say you are welcome to do as you wish, but to be honest, I wouldn’t expect it of you tonight. We can start work tomorrow. There isn’t any reason to rush. Tomorrow I will contact the company in the city to bring a couple dumpsters to help with the cleanup. I will also get some men to come help once we start figuring out the ‘piles’ of things in each room we need tossed. And I’ll have the Vet’s Hall come pick up anything we decide to donate. The rest, we will inventory for insurance and figure things out from there. But tonight just rest.” She smiled and moved towards him, the book forgotten on the floor.
She smiled and stood a couple arm lengths from him, merely to keep from reaching out to touch him. “Be easy on yourself. I know you will be here a while. There is no need to prove yourself to me in the first twenty four hours.” She watched him as he stood there. Even the stillness he exuded was something that drew her to him. Yet, for the life of her, she couldn’t imagine why.
He shrugged. “I will work, gives me something to pass the time. Don’t waste money on seeking outside assistance for cleaning. I wasn’t a house slave, but I spent a lot of time under my mother’s gaze scouring the floor as punishment. I doubt cleaning has changed since then, though the tools might have some. It wouldn’t be wise to less someone unwary come in and stumble upon something that is dangerous. From the haphazard way everything was hoarded, the collective gods of the world only know what is strewn about. Better I find it and risk waking it than someone unprepared, at least I’ll know how to set it to sleeping again.”
“Well I know one thing, you will be most interesting for conversation. All right then, I’ll save the help till we are sure exactly what piles are trash. Then we can get someone to come help move those piles alone. And we can let the beasts lie as they are left.” She touched his arm lightly as she moved past him. “Try and sleep Sormr. I am sure there is more than enough to keep us both busy for plenty of weeks to come. We’ll go to town tomorrow. Feel free to make a list in any language you desire.” She smiled and released her touch once more. “As long as you can read me the words I can’t, we'll be good.”
She headed for the hall and called over her shoulder. “G’night, Sormr.” She headed up to her room to get ready for bed with the scent of him, and the sight of him, in her mind.
During the night he set to work. It was easy enough to fashion a charm that would block out the noise from outside her room. He spent the next hours setting the true junk outside, setting the valuables in the largest room and smaller piles all over for the things he wasn’t positive on. He started in the basement, ignoring the hole for now. He needed no food, no drink and no rest either and with that time he got quite a bit done.
The sun would come up and he was just starting on the second level when he casually snuck into Anna’s room to remove the charm and set it where he had stored all the other abnormal things. He surveyed his work with pleasure, it felt good to have a task to focus on and so far he felt pretty confident he did well. True scrubbing and cleaning would come later, but at least there was space now aside from the assorted piles.
Ann slept well enough, to begin with. As the night waned, though, images that set her teeth on edge began to fill her mind. As Sormr removed the charm, he would hear her whimper. The nightmare had played itself over and over again. She was being chased, eyes of amber burning in the shadow’s skull despite her ability to place a form to the shadow. It probably wouldn’t have caught her guest’s attention, except at some point, it was her name that fell from her whimpering sighs.
Something about the house was starting to seep into her as it did for every descendant that laid their head on these beds. If he looks in on her, the covers are half kicked off, her tshirt bunched around her torso, one leg bared and exposed from the restlessness. Her face was contorted in confusion and fear and her heart raced with a beat that outran even her racing timber at seeing him for the last time before going to sleep.
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Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2018 16:13:26 GMT
He stepped over to her and gently ran a hand over her hair. He’d never liked seeing people in pain and he knew not what caused hers now, but he vowed to find out and make it cease. “Whatever demons stalk you lass, they won’t for long.”
Funny how, even after being sealed away and forgotten, he still clung to the ghost of what had chained him. He’d grown attached. He had stewed in rage, vowed to get free, but now? She’d become his lifeline, his only means to adapt. He didn’t know how he felt about all of that.
Her body jerked as if stung when he touched her, a small cry like a wounded animal squealing with her breath. But then she settled, her face relaxed and the sigh of peace slipped between her lip. She inhaled deeply as if cleansing herself purely from his touch. In her sleep, the beast slipped away into the shadows and the fiery eyes were replaced with ‘his’ eyes. And the predator faded into the background as his body replaced it. How a stranger had become her hero was something her mind was ready to accept, at least, on a subconscious level.
His lips were moving, trying to say something. But she couldn’t make it out. Slowly she broke the hold that sleep had on her. Her change of breathing rhythm would tip him off that she was waking up. She could swear she smelled him nearby. Her eyes remaining shut as if trying to cling to a dream, unaware he was standing over her, her hand resting lightly on her hair.
She would be just coming to when he knocked softly on the door. “I’d bring you breakfast in bed lass, but I am too worried I would light this heap on fire. Just came to tell you I cleared the cellar below and all manner of pests have scattered to the four winds. We shall not be dealing with all that skitters from this point onwards within the domicile. Don’t worry about helping me till you wish, I’d rather you rest and not move around much, you did suffer a blow to the head I am amazed that after that tumble you were even active at all. Do not fret about my rest either, I had plenty.”
He had dust smeared across his nose and on one cheek, a trail that must have come from his hand even though his hands were clean. There were a few cobwebs in his hair and dust spattered on his clothing, but considering what he’d looked like when they met, he was still a far better sight. More than that he seemed in better spirits than before, his green eyes flashing. He felt far more of use now than he had before with a task to throw himself into.
Anna smiled as the man poked his head in the door. He certainly looked like he had been busy. "It's all right. I don't need breakfast. We can get something in town. When you're ready, we can go. I just need to get dressed." She sat up and he would see the tshirt she slept in, the front a picture of a woman standing beside a dragon, both done in silver and black. "Hope you have that list ready," she smiled at him and nodded. "I'll be out shortly."
If he stayed in the doorway, she would simply shrug, get up and start getting dressed. Black jeans tucked into calf high black boots and a sapphire silken top with hardly any short sleeve on them. Her hair, she pulled back into a ponytail and she was done.
Coming out into the hallway, she glanced over the balcony railing. The front foyer was straightened up with piles of trash next to a few boxes that looked like they had been gone thru and neatly stacked. "Guess he 'has' been busy," she mused slightly as she made her way down to the kitchen to get a glass of juice.
Sor took that moment to clean up and came out dressed in a pair of faded jeans, the old work boots, a white under shirt and a beaten up leather jacket. “I hope this is okay… I saw a thin paper book that had pictures with a few men dressed thusly and tried to emulate it. I found other clothing while I cleaned as well, this didn’t smell like it had been nested in nor did it have chew marks.”
No dirt was smeared across his face and his hair looked like he had used some water to get the mess out of it. A few locks fell in his face, which he absently swiped back with a hand. She might then guess he was anxious. “No I do not have a written list, I could find nothing to use, but I know what I need. I am just not certain we will find some of it…”
The fact that in all the stuff here he had been through, he couldn't find a pen and paper, troubled her just a bit. But she let it go. “Well if you know what you want, I'm sure we'll find it. And as for your attire,” she glanced up and down with a smile and nodded, “You did great. Looks good on you.”
Grabbing her wallet and keys from the stand by the door, which she noticed now that boxes weren't crowding it, she slowly her phone in her back pocket and opened the front door. “Let's go shopping, shall we?” She waved her arm to coax him out the door.
“We'll get you clothes first, then probably lunch and groceries before coming home. Shouldn't take all day.” She laughed as the small silent wish fell from her lips.
He followed her out thinking back to the sweeping markets he was familiar with and wondered idly at how much different this foray would be. “Worry about my few needs last, I would rather see you attend yourself as you need more care than I.”
He slipped past her to open the door and eyed outside with a small frown. He really wasn’t looking forward to this in the least. “Did you rest well?”
She listened to him and smiled. “If you care for me too much more Sormr, people will think you're the best boyfriend ever.” It dawned on Ann that even her past boyfriends hadn't been this concerned about her welfare. “I did sleep well. As for my needs, they are few. Need to place orders for some things, but mostly just need some groceries and cleaning supplies. So it'll be your needs we definitely need to tend to.”
He didn’t know what to say to that, for him it was just a habit. “I don’t think any needs a woman has, are ever simple. The only simple creatures on this planet are men and beasts.” He teased.
She smiled and murmured a thank you as he opened the door for her. She headed straight for her Montero without looking back. Unlocking the doors she got in and started it, expecting him to follow and get in the passenger side.
He stopped near the metal beast and stared at it, when it came to life he stepped away a little. Yet there she sat and with the expectation that he was supposed to just climb inside the confined space. Reluctantly he emulated her and closed the door. He watched her latch herself in and did the same, but his stomach was in knots.
She glanced over at him thru narrowed lids but remained silent as she pulled away from the house. Perhaps he was claustrophobic. As they entered the long driveway to the main street, she tried to distract him. “So tell me the things you need. Or even just want,” she laughed softly. “It will help to know where we're going so we don't have to keep double backing.”
A deep shade encompassed the truck as they entered the long time of canopy of tree limbs. The Spanish Moss dropping from them in long wisps.
As the machine, for he realized this was what it was and no living creature, careened down the road he swallowed and closed his eyes. “Please, just keep this...thing...going where it needs to go. I feel like I left my innards back on the ground…”
He hadn’t felt this unsettled since he first killed someone, which was just as unsavory a memory. He was in yet another confined space, but this time trapped by necessity and by his own will. It wasn’t comforting in the least and as they joined more similar things in the same direction he wondered if he shouldn’t have stayed behind.
As he closed his eyes, her hand reached over and laid gently on one of his fists. Her voice got gentle and soft. “Keep your eyes closed, Sormr. Tell me about something you need in town.” She bit her lip.
He couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes. “I can’t.”
Sor was quiet the rest of the ride. Once they came to a full stop he quickly managed to get out and walked a few steps. He took a deep breath of the air, just trying to fight the sensation off of being in that small space.
Ann came around to his side after locking up and put a hand on his shoulder. “You going to be alright? I’ll put down the windows and open the sunroof on the way home. Will feel more like riding in a convertible. Less constrictive.” He had been so worried about her, and this time she worried for him.
“Once you have your breath, we can decide what we do next. All right?” She absently rubbed his back like you would a child… or a lover.
He flinched slightly when she touched him, more from surprise than anything else. He wasn’t used to physical contact, but he didn’t move away. He looked down at her and sighed, briefly closing his eyes before he straightened up and nodded. “Thanks. Now, first we take care of you while my wits catch up to us.”
It would also give him the chance to look around and get the lay of the land as best as possible. Looking around however he wasn’t quite sure about all that, but it would give him time to settle down.
Shaking her head as she let go of him, she sighed. “As you wish…” She moved on towards the main street from the side parking lot she was in. Once on the sidewalk she glanced left them right. “Ok, so fridge, and washer, dryer are there… clothes there… groceries there… Ok…” She glanced at him and smiled. “We’re going to go make the large orders for the house first. They will need to schedule times for deliveries and installations, so it’s good time to get your stomach settled before we head for clothes.”
As they moved down the street he would see all manner of shops. From coffee shops with small tables outside, to clothing shops of all manner. Some seemed to have vintage clothes and some had more modern takes. There were hardware stores, a couple small convenience stores and even a drug store. There were also shops that sold trinkets. From postcards and keychains to furniture and accessories for all manner of house styles.
He kept close to her and looked around, nothing at all was familiar and he was starting to think he would never find what he was looking for. He didn’t know half of what she had listed and resolved that just by following he would find out soon.
Soon she stepped out of the slightly overcast dappled sunlight and into the cool interior of the hardware store. Finding a man behind the counter, she smiled. “Hi, I’m here to see if you guys can deliver a washer/dryer set and a new fridge to the manor up on Cresthound?” The man assured her they could and for the next several minutes were engrossed in a conversation about installation and deliver times and needs. She also got referrals from him for someone to clean out the myriad of chimneys and fireplaces in the house as well as an electrician to be sure the place was up to code for the new appliances and anything else she wanted it used for in the future.
There were many tools and other odds and ends within the place. He wandered away some, but let the conversation fill his ears.
After several minutes, things were decided and she turned to go. Stepping up to Sor, she smiled. “Ready?” Heading back outside, they started down the street back towards the way they had come. “So tell me, what kinds of things are you looking for? I mean, do you prefer dress slacks, khakis, jeans?” She looked him up and down thinking just because he looked good in what he was wearing, didn’t mean he wanted to wear it all the time.
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Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2018 16:14:05 GMT
“I really don’t care how I dress, as long as what I wear doesn’t cause you issues because I am wearing it.” Which was true. “These don’t quite fit, I have broader shoulders and the pants are snug where I’d prefer otherwise. The boots need replacing, someone wore these well and they fit oddly. I think clothing would be best for now, I would rather focus on getting the house in order.”
Besides he had a feeling he would find the rest of what he would have looked for among all the odds and ends stashed in the house.
“Then clothes it is.” She headed down the street another block and a half then turned into a store with casual attire similar to what he had on. A man came up to them and smiled. “Hi, I'm Ann and this is Sormr. We need to get him some clothes. His luggage was lost by the airline.” She winked at the man. “So we'll need this stuff for taking home. Nothing that needs much tailoring.”
The man smiled and nodded. “Well I'm Andrew. I'll be happy to help. Are these your topical style, Sir. Is this what you'd prefer?” He nodded to Sormr's attire.
Sormr looked around and shrugged. “I tend to do a lot of dirty work and when not favor loose comfortable things. I don’t have a particular set ‘style’. As long as it is easy to clean and a color to hide whatever I might get on it.”
Andrew took him around and showed him things, having him try them on. When he had settled on things, mostly because Ann approved them, he was satisfied. They walked out with a lot of greys, browns and blacks. He had avoided anything colorful, though if Ann wanted him to wear it he didn’t fight her desires.
Ann smiled as they left the building. She had one bag in get hand with the old clothes and goes he had been wearing. He was wearing much better fitting attire now, and the rest would be delivered with linens she ordered for the house.
Heading towards the truck across the street, she smiled at him and nudged him with her shoulder. Her five foot seven frame was smaller than his, yet the action seemed natural. “Told you you’d survive. Now we'll put this in the car and go grocery shopping then head home. Do you want something to eat? It's coming on lunch time.” She unlocked the back of the truck and tossed the bag in before locking it and turning towards him to await his answer.
He nodded and reluctantly got back into the thing they arrived in. He could eat food, it was just that it did nothing for him, but he hadn’t in quite a long time. He knew telling her he wasn’t hungry wouldn’t fly for long, soon enough he wouldn’t have to pretend. “Thank you for this... “
She watched him get in the truck and brace himself. Moving around to his side from where she's been standing in back, she tapped on the window. Smiling, Ann opened his door. “We're not heading back yet, hun.” The term of endearment absently falling from her lips. “I figured lunch at one of the restaurants here. Then we can grab groceries from across the street, there,” she pointed a block down to the small shopping center. “Then we'll head back.”
He couldn’t help a soft sigh of relief, even with her saying she would let air in, he hadn’t wanted to deal with another ride.
Raising her eyebrows to tease him, she smiled. “Unless you want to be in the truck. I could bring you your lunch here.” She stepped out of the way in anticipation of his quick exit from her moving ‘box of death’
He slipped out and stood up with a shake of his head. “No, I’d rather stay with you.”
Ann laughed, “I figured as much. So what would you like to eat?” She waited till he relaxed after getting out of the monstrosity, then headed towards the street and the shops and food choices. “Are the rare steak and all the trimmings guy? Or are you the salad and yogurt type? Or there's a burger joint, a sandwich shop and,” she paused looking around, “looks like a nice small Italian joint. My treat, so your choice. I like them all.” She paused and turned to him with a huge grin on her face. “So don't pull the ‘whatever you want’ cop out. This time you are deciding.”
She paused and crossed her arms with a look of stubbornness on her face. If he looked closely, there was a gleam in her eyes to give away that she was teasing.
He smirked at her. “I wouldn’t mind eating you instead, you’d be more satisfying than grilled meat.” Which was entirely true. “What will you do to me if I do indeed find myself happier following your lead?”
He was used to doing as he was told with autonomy within boundaries on his own. The only real reason for the obedience imperative was to pull him back from the brink, but that had translated to most things in the end. He saw a lot of the restrictions as understandable, though at times he had chafed at them.
Ann actually blushed and slugged his arm. “You are incorrigible!” She laughed and shook her head. “Fine… Burgers it is.” She laughed again to cover her embarrassment and headed for the nearest shop. She ordered a burger with fries and a sweet tea. “What do you want?” She turned to ask him, quickly adding, “From here, I mean!” Trying to stave off another embarrassing comment.
He grinned widely. “You are ‘from here’ so it is still possible. As for this place? I suppose the same for myself.”
He was oblivious to the looks that he was getting. Oh, he knew people were looking, they always did, but these other people might have well been shapeless shadows for all he paid mind to them. All his attention was on Ann, though if anyone stood out as a ‘threat’ he would have shifted his focus. A lot of his environment and the people in it were sorted and monitored without conscious will. None of the other people even warranted a glance, at least so far.
When she had concluded whatever else was necessary he slipped to a place where he could watch the whole room. “What would you do if I was only ever to eat you as my meal hmm? What if you were the only one who could keep me alive?”
There was a tease in his tone, but his gaze was intense.
She had figured him the protective and alert type. Normally she hated her back to the room, bad marriage and horrible exes had left her wanting to see everyone all the time. But it wasn't too bad as she watched him glance over the room and relax that she realized she had given him the view spot. His question sidetracked her, though and she forgot she was allowing herself to be in someone else's care.
She shook her head and split up the food so the could eat. “Man cannot live on sex alone,” she laughed and quoted. “But I'll admit it has its good points” When she looked him in the eyes, she stopped laughing. Her smile remained and she quickly looked back at her food. “Seriously though… I'll be honest. The idea of me being someone's everything, I just can't imagine. I've heard it a million times.” The pain and weariness in her voice want even masked this time.
He sat back and made himself comfortable as he made a tentative bite. He chewed methodically as he thought about how he had lived. “When everything you do is largely centered around another's needs and wishes it becomes easy enough.”
She took a bite her burger and glanced at him. She smiled again but the shine in her eyes was gone. “I'm flattered Sormr. Honest. But please don't make promises you can't keep.” She looked away out the window then took another bite of her sandwich. “Shopping shouldn't take long,” she tried changing the subject. “Don't need much, I guess.”
He set the food down and frowned. “It isn’t a promise when it is a certainty. I am not going to leave your side, you will not ever be alone again.”
He finished the rest of his food quickly. It hadn’t tasted bad, though a bit over cooked and seasoned. After he was done he went back to surveying the room while also watching her.
She watched him eat. Her appetite suddenly gone. She wanted to believe him, desperately. But a million guys had said the same thing. The best ones had merely left. The worst ones had hurt her in ways she never wanted to again… Then left. But not one had kept their promise. Even the marriage hadn't last more than a handful of years.
Shaking herself mentally, she stood up rather suddenly. “I'll get a bag and take this home. I'm not hungry.” She turned before he could react and murmured under her breath as she walked away, having no idea he'd hear, “You have no idea how much I wish it were true.”
Her comment to herself as she left brought many questions to his mind. However the only way to show her was to prove it, which would come in time.
She came back a minute later, put the burger and fries in the bag, then noticed he'd eaten all his while she'd been caught in the past. “Come on… let's get this over with and get back to the house. Lots to do.” She was smiling again but something about her had changed.
He stood up and put a hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to pretend nor lie to me, it won’t change anything and I prefer honesty.”
She but her lip and fought the urge to tell him everything. Instead she just nodded and pulled away. Safer that way. “Ok,” was all she said.
When the shopping was concluded and they returned home, Sor threw himself back into work. In the process of cleaning he found a chest, within it he found a set of old artifacts in a box that he set on a table. “Ann, I can’t touch what is in here, but there is something laying on top that you must affix around my neck. It must be you who does it.”
Ann looked up from the box of things in the main foyer she had been going thru. The inventory she was dictating into her phone, then spring them into ‘store’ and ‘appraise’ labeled boxes. She looked up as Sormr came in. Standing up and brushing her hands on her pants she shook her head. “Whoa, wait… Catch your breath. What do you mean you can't touch it? I gave you permission to go through all the boxes.”
His words began to set in as she followed him into the room next door to the room she'd been sleeping in. It was apparently the master suite. The bath was twice as large, as were the closets, and the room itself. Big enough to actually hold a small seating area in front of the fireplace.
Within the box wrapped in soft cloth was something that looked like an old twisted silver and gold necklace. It was curved in the shape of a crescent with the ends ending in a moon and the other an orb of onyx. All along it were carved symbols and when she touched it, it tingled in her hands.
“After you put that on, be careful how you tell me to do something. If you tell me not to talk, I cannot communicate, not even written. If you are ever in danger, this...is the only way to keep me from going too far and to pull me back if I get near to doing so.” He had told her he could become a monster without a leash and he had found that leash.
Most of what lay within the large chest were books and what looked like old floppies and such. Someone had been going through and putting the information into the tomes into a digital format, but then stopped. There were a set of twelve gleaming knives and other unusual supplies, including small vials of herbs and powders.
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Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2018 16:14:46 GMT
Ann frowned as the necklace reacted to her. She wrapped it back in the cloth and looked thru the rest of the box. After a minute, she stood up holding the cloth covered neck torc. “Wait, you're telling me if I put this on you, you literally have to do whatever I say?” she was frowning and her hand was gripping the necklace harder as she shook her head. “No. I won't do it.”
She quickly turned on her heels and went to her own room. If he followed, he would watch her put the cloth wrapped item in her top dresser drawer. She then quickly headed back downstairs muttering, “I don't want a pet...I wanted a man.” Tears stung the back of her eyes. She went back to her knees before the box she had been going thru and took a deep breath. She had spun on him and retreated so fast he hadn't had a chance to get a word in edgewise.
He watched her go and closed his eyes with a sigh. When she returned he spoke. “It is far more complicated than that. Yes, I would have to do as you say when it doesn’t violate the protection imperative. I would be bound, to you, no one else. I held off on this for as long as I could, but I cannot keep the covenant hidden…” He leaned against a wall and ran a hand through his hair. “It is not good that you were not educated on this… I can have autonomy, if you command it and simply make requests and not commands. What the collar originally was, was a pact of union, a partnership. The power however...was eventually misused and became what it ending being.”
She sighed and sagged, her hands holding her up on the box as he leaned on the wall beside her explaining things to her. Finally she shook her head murmuring, “I don't understand… so very much of this.” She took a deep breath, stood up and glanced at him.
“Apparently there is more to this…” she waved her hand between them to indicate the relationship, “whatever this is. Perhaps you need to explain it. Meet me on the back porch. I'll be there in a minute.”
She made a beeline for the kitchen and one of the cupboards they had cleaned out to use. She pulled a bottle of whiskey out, then grabbed a couple glasses from the dish drainer by the sink. “I hope one bottle is enough.” She murmured and headed for the back patio.
Seeing him already out there, she set herself on the short wall, put the glasses down then filled them each hallway. Holding one out to him, she nodded. “Ok… so apparently I'm missing something. Why don't you start at the beginning. And please, lemme know if I'm gonna need a second bottle before I'm unable to walk to the kitchen to get one.” She held his glass out in one hand and downed half the other in a single draw. The warmth took a moment, but she'd relax in a few minutes when it kicked in completely in a couple more glasses.
He stayed standing, but leaned against one of the columns after taking the cup. “Back quite a long ways, your bloodline were lore keepers who earned the respect of a great spirit. With the aid of that spirit, a nest of monsters was destroyed and your family over time started to mix with hunters and aid them with what they knew. However, the spirit was slowly dying and chose a mortal to merge it’s energies with and change them. That guardian was tasked with keeping that bloodline protected and was given a means to be...controlled, should that mortal draw too close to becoming a violent creature themselves.”
He sighed and closed his eyes. “The gifts are given now, through blood, but those who served eventually became more slave than partner. Usually someone was chosen who was the same gender so that there were no ah...distractions, though if someone preferred their own gender then they were likewise paired accordingly. We fight violent spirits and other dark things when they make the choice to attack and prey on humans. Obviously things have since changed, but I need to be bound lass, if something happens and I go out of control… You would not be able to stop me, not without the torc. The magic that makes me what I am, the magic in your blood, connects us. So long as you and your bloodline thrives...so do I. Were you to die, right now, I would not live long after.”
She finished her drink in a single gulp and poured another as she watched and listened.
He looked at her and walked over to her, leaning down to brace his hands on the stones to either side of her so their faces were close. “I told you, I am yours and I also told you… Without a leash I become a monster. Bind me, I don’t have to be your slave.”
His nearness made her set the glass down or risk spilling it. Her eyes riveted to his chest, poised just at eye level as he tried to drive home the importance of her words.
There was so much more that he could tell her, but right now she wasn’t able to take it, she was in too much pain. “I have not lied to you nor did I say anything I did not mean… What lays between us, I...know not where it will lead, but I will not leave your side. I will have to if you do not do this, I refuse to turn into that which I have slain.”
Without thinking, Ann raised a hand to press it on his chest as if that simple touch, alone, would keep him at her side. “Don’t go…” she managed to choke out as she realized the truth of his words. She had been told stories as a child. Of relatives, distant cousins, long forgotten Uncles… but she never believed they were real. Now, here he was… standing before her… telling her it was ‘her’ that was the bloodline she had fallen asleep dreaming of. “Please…”
She still hadn’t looked up to his eyes. Something told her once she did, she couldn’t look away. “I don’t want you to go. But I don’t want a slave.” She was at a loss to how to make it work. She looked up slowly, her eyes eventually looking at his. The windows to her soul were cracked, flawed, fearful… and yet yearning. “Tell me what to do... “ It wasn’t so much a resignation as a plea for help.
His jewel bright eyes gleamed in the light of the house. “Take the torc, put it around my neck and prick your finger on the moon and put the drop of blood on the onyx. That is all you need to do.”
It was so simple, but it meant a lifetime of service as well, were she to accept that. He knew that if she didn’t do this, he would have to take his own life else too many lives would be lost. All to protect her. Looking into his eyes she would see something lurking behind them, something that shifted in his pupils that was different than the man inches from her. Her touch made his skin tingle, his heartbeat picked up and he drew in a deep breath before reluctantly pulling away. Hunger licked in his eyes, but he knew to control himself.
Nodding numbly, Ann tipped up the bottle as soon as he stepped back. She downed a good portion of it before she was forced to come up for air. She coughed at the burn in her throat and set the bottle down, carefully to keep it from shattering on the stone ledge. “All right…” She stood up, took a moment to right herself and moved slowly towards the house. Something was happening. Something she didn’t understand but seemed to do with almost a dreamlike trance.
Inside the house, she occasionally reached out to grab the back of the couch, the arm of a chair, even a door frame now and then as she felt the amber alcohol work its way to her head. She managed to make it to her room without falling but paused as she leaned heavily on the chest of drawers that held the torc she had set there earlier. She glanced towards the bedroom door wondering if he had followed.
He had, if only because she hadn’t been steady and he had been concerned that she would fall. He stepped into the room and simply sat on the bed, choosing to not kneel as he would have done in the past. He watched her steadily and kept quiet, letting her do as she wished the way she wished it.
She opened the drawer and pulled out the worn, yellowed cloth the torc was wrapped in. Ann meticulously set it down on the top of the dresser, unwrapped with all the care of unwrapping a delicate crystal figurine. She stared at it for what seemed like eternity, though was probably less than a minute. Her finger caressed it slightly and she hissed as the electric shock went up her arm. She gripped it in one hand and the initial sting subsided. Like shocking oneself on a doorknob each time, but gripping it was grounding enough to make it stop.
She moved with unsteady gait to Sormr and stopped close enough that their knees almost brushed. “I don’t want a slave, Sor…” she half whispered in defeat. She couldn’t bring herself to put it on his neck. She didn’t want a puppy, a slave, a broken man she had to give every order to. But she didn’t want him to leave, either.
He looked up at her with a smirk. “Then don’t command me after this once, just tell me ‘I give you your freedom’ and then just be careful. Do not give definite commands and phrase things more like requests.”
He was the only one calm about basically signing away his independence, but the cost was worth it. He watched her eyes remaining still, waiting for the shock of energy that would happen. His first time after his transformation had taken him by surprise, but this time he was prepared. “Annabelle, it will be okay, trust me.”
Biting her lip, Ann nodded and reached out to wrap the torc around his neck. There was a tingle, and the feeling like something so profound was about to happen the very universe itself was actually holding its breath. “Forgive me, Sor… For being selfish. I don’t want you to go. But I hope I do not turn you into a pet.” She set the necklace around him, then glanced at him. “Just have to bleed on the necklace, right?” The fear in her eyes was evident and the racing of her heart was loud enough to make her own ears ring.
He smiled reassuringly and nodded slightly. “The ends of the crescent moon are sharp enough to draw a drop of blood if you press hard enough. You break the skin, smear the blood and that is that for what you need to do.” He then gave her a devious grin. “I think eventually you’ll want me as a pet…”
Trying to goad her into relaxing and being less afraid. This thing they did, wasn’t the end of the world, but the fact she felt so strongly was endearing. She saw him as a man, not a possession or some kind of trained animal. He couldn’t remember the last time someone took his desires or person into account and didn’t wish to do something because of how it would affect him.
She nodded and reached out to touch the end of the crescent moon. She hissed slightly as the skin stretched and tore. A single drop of blood pearled on the edge of her finger. Looking at him, this time with sincerity, she softly whispered as her voice cracked, “Sormr, I give you your freedom,” she rubbed the necklace and couldn’t seem to look away. His eyes had a color to them she hadn’t truly noticed. After blooding the torc, her hand hovered on the necklace and slowly relaxed till it merely rested on his shoulder, her fingers brushing his neck. “Is that it? I…” She lost her voice once more. Something in her said she should stand up and walk away, but his eyes held her, though certainly not in an unpleasant way.
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Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2018 16:15:24 GMT
He didn’t give her a chance to speak, his lips closed upon hers and his tongue lapped into her mouth. She would taste something sweet, but bitter. She would feel a shudder run through his body as something sparked along between them, a bite of static licking against her hand that touched the necklace, but briefly. He didn’t pull away from the kiss, pulling her against him so that one of her knees rested on the edge of the bed between his legs so that she wouldn’t accidentally fall.
A soft moan filled his mouth, then a whimper as the spark leapt between them. The breath the universe held was released in a rush that seemed to coincide with his body and hers meeting as the kiss deepened. The taste of vitae on her tongue registered briefly, but was soon lost in the sweetness of the kiss. As her body shifted to rest closer to him, her other hand moving to rest on his chest, she broke the kiss long enough to murmur his name in a sort of plea. “Sor…” The hand with the small pinprick on it reached up to run the blood over his lips. “I….” she was going to ask him to stay, but feared how the bond, which she now felt almost like a physical tie between them, would react.
His tongue swiped along her finger and he took her hand in one of his and kissed her palm lightly. “I told you… I am not going anywhere, do not be so afraid.” He lifted his head and his gaze trapped her own. “Sometimes a command isn’t a command when the desires are the same… Tell me what you want. Tell me everything.”
She would see that nothing in his eyes had changed, she might command him, but she did not rule his mind nor heart. The binding was purely physical, something that commanded his flesh, but not every aspect of his being.
His words broke through the haze in her mind. Wanting him wasn’t forcing him to do anything he didn’t want to do. The kiss, unasked for, had certainly not been forced. And from his own touch, it certainly wasn’t despised. As he fell silent, she managed to nod and whisper, “I want to forget the world… even if just tonight. Help me forget.” Her heart raced and the scent of her desire filled the room. She pressed forward with her body which would press his intimate parts against her knee as it rested on the bed. She didn’t force him back, merely moved to close the small gap between them in a desire to be kissed once more.
He pulled her close so that she straddled one knee, a quick jerk that might surprise her merely from the brief touch of strength. Something in his gaze had changed, a focus coming to them that hadn’t been there before. Her want, her command, gave him everything he needed. He had been able to act on his own, but consent was still necessary. Acting on his own will, did not mean take what he wanted unless those desires were the same. His hands ran up her shirt as his mouth traveled down along her jaw and feathered along her neck.
Her gasp of surprise came out as a growl in his mouth. It was what she needed, her body broke free of its last inhibitions and the hand on his chest gripped his shirt as the one on his neck slid to encompass his shoulders to both brace her and embrace him. When his hands touched her flesh under the shirt, she broke the kiss to gasp. She tried to push away from him. She wanted the shirt gone, wanted to feel his hands on her flesh without the hindrance.
Yet he didn’t remove it, his hands played under it, enjoying seeing that flash of frustration in her eyes. He put his lips near her ear and nipped, not hard enough to break skin or really hurt, but hard enough to sting very briefly. His hands slid under her bra and cupped under, teasing as he listened to the sounds she made.
Her hands gripped his shoulders in frustration and to keep from collapsing as his hands found her tender breasts and her head rolled back in pleasure opening her to his nip. Her body melted against him, barely able, or wanting, to keep herself upright. “Sor… please…” She wasn’t sure what she was pleading for. But she knew she didn’t want him to stop. As she let his teeth and hands wander, her fingers dug into his shoulders in pleasure.
Her pleading brought a soft chuckle to whisper along her skin as his mouth teased along the edge of her shirt. Occasionally nipping or nibbling, his fingers teasing her nipples and twisting a little. He could hear her heartbeat and enjoyed that helpless tone. He shifted abruptly so that she lay on her back beneath him, his leg between hers. His green eyes were dark, as he looked down at her before he caught her mouth with his again.
She cried in laughter as she landed on the bed on her back. A hand reaching up to run her fingers through his hair and caress his cheek. “So amazing…” she murmured as one leg rose, her knee pressing to rub against his hip. Nothing more could be articulated as his kiss stole her breath once more.
One hand, remained on his shoulder after caressing him, tugged him wanting him closer. The other hand was sliding to his chest, trying to figure out the buttons on his shirt.
He pulled his shirt off with a soft growl, the buttons took too long and it was easier to simply take it off. Across his back was an intricate tattoo that were a pattern of circles and sigils. The ink was a stark inky black and, when touched, felt cooler than his own skin. She would see a few scars, several on his arms that looked like either claw or blade wounds, a neat imprint of teeth on his shoulder that actually ringed it, as if some beast took his shoulder into the whole of its mouth. Each one a story, each one reward for violence faced, but ultimately one he had triumphed over. He dragged her shirt upwards, but again he didn’t take it off. His teeth nibbled along her neck and then along her ribs. Tasting and exploring what was uncovered.
Her body responded as anyone thirsting for the touch, would. It arched to his touch, shuddered at his kiss, and she moaned as every moment drew her closer, though not close enough, to what her core ached for. When the shirt he wore was whisked over his head, she laughed. This time, the shine in her eyes matched her myrth. And it didn’t take an invitation for her to explore the exposed flesh hovering above her. Her hand touched every inch she could. She felt the difference of his skin and the ink as she rubbed his shoulder and one hand moved to his hip. But the sight of the bite drew a his from her. Pain filled her eyes, as her fingertips lightly ran over the edge of the wound as if she could heal them with merely a touch.
As his hands slid up her shirt, she thought it was coming off, and a small growl of anxiety filled her throat as she realized, once more, he was teasing her. And when his lips found her flesh once more, she cried out and arched up to him. Then she sat up just enough to press her mouth and lips over the bite on his shoulder as his own mouth moved down her ribs. As he neared the lower ribs she fell back on the bed and closed her eyes in ecstasy. “Sormr…” the word drawn out in a long whimpering gasp as her hands once more gripped his shoulders as they fought between wanting him lower, and wanting him to kiss her again… and more.
He ran his nails down her sides, not hard, as he fitted himself between her legs for a moment as he pulled her shirt off and kissed her. His hands shifted under her looking for anything to help him remove the rest, but once he did his mouth moved to her left breast as the right was palmed and teased with his hand as he braced to keep from putting too much of his weight on top of her.
With the shirt off, she reached to unhook the front of the bra and effectively remove it as well. Her own body had scars. But hers were on her hips. Claw like marks peaked out from above her pants waist and a large white scar screamed across her right forearm. Her own ink was subtle on her shoulders. A dragon on one side, a black panther on the other. They were small and tastefully done, hidden even under a short sleeved shirt. With her body released, she boldly sat up just enough to press her lips to his head as he kissed her breasts. “Yes….” she whimpered as her breath quickened.
She laid back and used her hands to draw him back up her body to her lips. Her whole being seemed to be on fire on the inside. Despite the fact they hadn’t actually done anything yet, she felt more wanted, more desire, more needed, in that moment than any other man had made her feel. That, in and of itself, drove her crazy with desire for more.
He switched sides before trailing his mouth downwards to nibble at the soft curve where her belly met her hip. One hand slid along her pants leg on the right as he ran a finger firmly along her most intimate of place. He had shifted backwards some so his chest and belly were between her legs as he kept teasing her.
Her hips rose to his touch as if he were coaxing her. Her ache made her reach for him. Her hands, now unable to reach him much, ran through his hair and caressed his shoulders as she whimpered. Finally one hand reached to try and unfasten her pants, but her hand shook so terribly it wasn’t going well and a growl of frustration filled the room that was slowly dimming in the setting of the sun outside.
“Tell me what you want.” He teased, nipping at her belly. He was enjoying taking his time, but he also craved that command. He wanted her frustrated and wanted to goad her into it, because it would suit his desires perfectly. It was also to show her that she could take control and it be something that was enjoyed, not simply because it had to be done.
His prompting made her whimper, “Sor… please…” she wanted him. She wanted him in every way that a woman wanted a man. Perhaps even more. It never crossed her mind she had barely known him a day It never crossed her mind that he was a stranger to her that claimed to be part of an ancient family pact. And it never crossed her mind to make him stop. She whimpered once more, her body shuddering beneath him. “Please….”
“Say it Anna…” His hands teased at the button, far steadier than her own, but then he was used to holding back just a little to maintain control.
She couldn’t take it anymore, her eyes opened and she looked down at him. The edges of her eyes became an almost shimmering silver. There was no light on in the room, it being lighter out when they began. But the hall light shone over his shoulder and made her orbs gleam with the natural hints of shimmering silver that lined the edges of her iris. “YOU! Please… Sor… I want you…” the admission released something new inside her. It seemed every step forward she took was like falling over a cliff. Yet she wasn’t afraid. She knew he would be there to catch her… always.
The pants and anything else came off after that and soon following his own. He slipped a couple fingers inside her and lapped at her clit, tasting and teasing some. He was enjoying just taking each step, pushing her just far enough and then giving her a taste of pleasure. It was a methodical game for him, he hadn’t been with anyone in some time and he wasn’t sure about how quickly or slowly things could go. A whisper of a silly fear that he might not be able to perform wormed, but he knew it was silly.
She was surprised by how quickly they went from half dressed to completely naked. Somehow, even the bra was now with the other clothes scattered on the floor around the bed. She was up further now, head resting on her pillows as his tongue and fingers brought her to the edge over and over. Her hands shook as she attempted to claw at him to draw him back up her body. “Sooorrrmmmrr….” he drew his name out of her lips like a prayer and a curse all rolled into one.
The scent of desire, a subtle aroma when they began, was thick enough from them both to drive them on like an aphrodisiac. “Please…. Baby… I need you…. I want you…” she was panting, caught between wanting to crest the edge, and wanting to wait to draw it out till his pleasure came first. She had the feeling it had been far longer for him than herself and she wanted to be sure he had as much, if not more, pleasure than herself.
He lifted his head and chuckled as he ran his thumbnail over her clit, enough to jolt along her body and illicit a reaction, as his fingers slid in and out. When she arched and bucked at little almost screaming, he flicked that little bud then, wanting her to scream his fingers being less gentle and a bit rougher at the same time.
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Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2018 16:16:08 GMT
“Please… uhhhhh…” She rose and fell at the dance of his fingers. Her body surrendering to him as she gave up trying to caress him and gripping the sheets in balled up fists as she fought the wave threatening to overthrow her mind and body.
He started using three fingers at that point, his thumb pressing and rubbing, when she’d buck, he’d flick or run his nail over. He wanted to hear her cry out and to demand he give her what they both wanted.
It wasn’t long before his intrusion and pressure left her at the point of no return. The shudder that racked her body, clutching his fingers deep inside her and raising her shoulders off the bed was one that would make her scream his name with pleasure and desire. “SORMR!!” She bucked and rocked as he continued. “Please… I want you in me… please… pleasee….” her head rocked back and forth as her body rose the pleasure wave and wanted him with her the next time.
He made a sound like a purr at her scream, feeling very satisfied with himself. Yet still, all he did was tease her, if she didn’t give him the command, he would keep doing what he was doing. He lapped at her again, waiting patiently and using his fingers to start driving her to that edge again. He was less gentle this time. “Say it lass, demand it, otherwise...I will keep doing this over… and over. I can keep going all night, just like this.”
She bucked against him, her hands tried to reach down. Her faltering made grabbing his wrists almost impossible. “Please… please…. Sor…” she gasped, gulped for air and finally screamed as another wave crashed over her and another climax ripped her sanity from her mind. “Fuck me… please… Sor… Fuck me now!” Her words were nearly incoherent. Over and over she begged, pleaded and bucked in desire and need.
He slipped between her legs and once he had her where he wanted, he slid into her in one rough thrust filling her and, for now, tying them together with flesh as well as through the bond. He waited a span of breaths, enjoying the feel and letting her body adjust. The closeness, the warmth, not just inside, but without. He rested his forehead on hers and simply breathed, savoring it before he gave into the command.
((end of Chapter 1))
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Post by Admin on Dec 8, 2018 5:02:03 GMT
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Post by Admin on Dec 8, 2018 5:09:41 GMT
Morning would come, bringing light, Sor rested lightly with Ann in his arms, aware of his surroundings in a more meditative state than a sleep like what she had needed, especially after the eventful night.
The night had been beyond anything she had ever dreamed of. Beyond anything she had even known existed so she could dream of it. She had been unable to move and Sor had merely adjusted te sheets, covered her up and held her as she fell asleep into the most restful sleep she had had in a very long time.
Soon her consciousness became aware of her body. The first thing she was aware of was the weight of his arm over her body, holding her close. Not in a possessive way, but in a protective way. She wasn’t sure how to describe it, but the same position, with others, had made her want to roll away from them, not snuggle closer as she did now. A soft sigh of pleasure fell from her lips as she kept her eyes closed, not yet ready to face the day. “Sormr?” She wasn’t sure why she had to know it was him behind her. She hoped it was him. Even gave a small prayer to Whoever would listen that it was him. But a small part of her brain said it was a dream.
But then she moved. A smile lit her face as pain radiated from places all over her body. Her breasts ached from his attentions. Her hips felt the heat of his nails that had trailed and gripped her as his own passion had ridden them twice more at the end. But the two main places that ached, with a pain that she would welcome and cherish over and over, were between her legs, and just inside her right thigh.
She slowly moved her head, eyes opening to reveal a pair of eyes that shone with a warmth he had never seen in her before. Her defenses, bristled and constantly up since the moment he had seen her, were gone completely. This was her, the real her. And if he was any reader of people, he would realize that few, if any, had ever truly seen this part of her.
It was the murmur of her mind, the brush of emotions that fizzled up as she awoke that made his eyes open. Her soft query of his name only made him pull her closer as he went from aware to full alertness. She would feel the brush of his mind against hers, get a brush of the way he was aware of the things around him. Her scent and his in her hair and on her skin, the creaking of the house and the birds outside. The subtle smell of the shaft of sun having warmed the bed where it touched. The feel of her body as she shifted and lay in his arms.
What filled his mind weren’t distinct thoughts or feelings the way her mind had been filled, but it wouldn’t take much to fill his mind with those things. When she turned to face him and smiled he buried his face in the crook of her shoulder and a buzz of emotions feathered across his mind. Contentment, pride, but also satisfaction because she finally trusted him. Her own buzz of emotions had influenced his own as her happiness was important.
As she rolled in his arms, her mind registered emotions and feelings and senses that weren’t her own. She had never paid attention to the smell of her hair, or the heat of the sun on the bed beyond an early morning instinctual need to roll away from it. But his desire, longing and contentment filled her mind and made her smile. A hand reached up to rest on his chest as she nuzzled his head. “I thought I could feel your thoughts… mmmmm. It was nice...” Her voice was a half sleepy, dreamy style whisper. It was as if she were coming out of a dream and trying to hold tight to it.
As her hand touched his chest, the feelings intensified and she realized it was as if she knew he was thinking of how pleasant the touch actually was. “Wait…” she pulled back enough to try and look at him. “Can I really sense your thoughts? I don’t understand.” It wasn’t fear, this time. It was curiosity.
He chuckled and she would feel a sensation feather a cross her mind, like how it felt when he cupped her cheek. >There is so much more than that, but yes, you are experiencing what I do. Same for me you.<
His words drifted across her mind as his fingers brushed her hair. “It can be very useful, but also inconvenient too.”
Her whole body reacted. Eyes widened in surprise, then embarrassment. *Lords… I had no idea it could feel like that.* Her mind whispered back in surprise as she realized he had actually heard her. “I can imagine…” She smiled in contentment as she closed her eyes and pressed her cheek to his chest once more.
Confusion and desire warred in her mind as she absently rubbed his chest. After a moment of silence, she spoke aloud. “Sormr… you didn't mean just sex. I mean, in town yesterday. You said you wanted to live off of just me.” She kept her eyes closed and stiffened slightly. “Tell me… Please…” her mind filled with thoughts and images of bodies drained, or enthralled, turned to the very slave she didn't want him to become. *I don't want to be a slave,* her unconscious mind played as a surface thought tinged with fear.
He chuckled softly. “You won’t become a slave. Basically, taking your blood is simply a convenience, I can feed from others however because of the bond you will heal faster than you used to. I can take more from you than I could another and all you’d suffer was increased appetite and some fatigue.”
The images and sensations from last night flitted through his mind, the taste of her blood spiced with pleasure, the sounds she made when he had done so. Smugness on his part because she had enjoyed it and the strong desire for more. His thoughts then centered back on the moment instead of the night before before he seemed not to think or feel anything, like a blanket was pulled over it all. It was habit for him to do this, to focus his mind so that she isn’t constantly getting a constant buzz of what was going on in his head.
The idea of feeding from her scared her. She want able to shield as easily as him so the wave washed thru her to him. She propped herself up on her elbow and looked at him. “I want to try… I don't know why,” her laugh was high pitched and nervous. “It makes no sense, I know. I mean who really wants to be bitten by a vampire? I mean… That's what you are. Aren't you? A vampire?” The images of pain and gore flashed in her mind briefly before she managed to stop it.
He shook his head. “Vampires are different, still Other, but not what I am. There are all kinds of creatures who feed upon blood. I am human, until I draw upon the symbiotic spirit that is bound to me. The more I draw upon that Other, the more other I become. I have more in common with an elemental spirit than I do a vampire. There are layers to the world, like parchment stacked on top of each other. Most of what is different than humanity comes from the layer on top of the mortal layer. It is how everything not mortal becomes separated. Now, spirits are not souls, they are beings of nature that are born when nature clashes. Like, tornados or earthquakes, these can spawn a nature spirit.”
She would see in his mind imagery that painted a picture. “The spirit that started the covenant was a primal spirit, something that awoke when the world started. Primal spirits can tap the elements and change their forms at will, because they are beings born of great change. When they pass through the mortal plane, they must take energy from the life around them to sustain themselves. Usually they find a creature whose form is pleasing and take that shape, then if say they are a bear, they do what bears do, but with far more success because they can do things the bears cannot. Think of all the stories of animals that have done things that brought people to revere them, odds are those animals were greater spirits. In my case, I have become part of that spirit, I am the chosen form it became. I house the power of that spirit, just not it’s soul. The covenant was the gift of that power when the spirit passed on where all things eventually go. I still must take in energy the way that spirit did.”
He cupped her cheek. “Vampires are cursed. The first used to be mortal and was turned into something else and that curse can be passed to others. So, does that help explain and help settle your fears?”
She closed her eyes a moment, letting the images he shared roll around in her mind. She nuzzled his hand and nodded. “I think so.” Opening her eyes, Ann looked at him again. “So what is the Covenant? All I can gather is it's an agreement that I would feed you and you become a type of willing servant to see to my needs. But is that all? I mean, seems it would be far better for the Spirit in you to just make love to other humans, use their blood and be free to do as you please? Without being bound, I mean.” She was genuinely concerned with his happiness and well being. Something that came naturally to her, though maybe not her predecessors.
“The spirit is gone lass, all that remained was his power. Obviously I am not the one who was first. When the spirit died, the energies it commanded had to go somewhere. The energy was put into a mortal vessel and the first guardian had to well...take in the blood from the form that old spirit had chosen to change his flesh to contain those energies. Which is why I have not aged, it is why I heal so well and other gifts. The covenant was that the energy would be used for the betterment of those who were to be protected. In this it meant, to combat that which would prey upon man. As long as the powers were used to protect and not prey upon, those energies would not be released. Releasing those energies in say, the city, would level a good chunk of it, which is what happens when a spirit dies. Something inevitably gets broken. Naturally because man makes mistakes and of abuses things, the partnership changed, but that one thing did not.”
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Post by Admin on Dec 8, 2018 5:10:30 GMT
She was still a little confused, and not slightly befuddled. He was truly as old as he sported. But she also knew that wasn’t it at all. “So as long as you feed from me, I give freely, and you protect me, that destructive energy is kept at bay. Bottled up so to speak?”
He nodded. “Basically. Though the feeding part isn’t part of the pact, like I said it came from convenience. I won’t die of hunger, I will just become snappish and you’ll see a lot of me seeing anything living as food and just be driven mad by the hungry beast I’ll become focusing intently on just how hungry I am. I also grow weak and sluggish, it’s quite miserable actually.”
A slight smile touched the edge of her mouth as she lifted a finger to lightly brush it over his lips. “Then let’s see to it that it doesn’t happen.” She kissed him softly then whispered. “Tell me what to do. I want you to feed from me. I don’t think I am the sharing type.” She tried to smile but in truth, her mind swam with images of him in the throws of passion with another woman as he fed from her. It didn’t sit well with her in any way, shape or form.
He snorted and made a growl sound. “I’d probably kill other women with my passions Anna. Would rather lash you with them and make you scream. I don’t need to feed for a couple weeks, I used to only feed every moon or so.”
She’d know that was what he had been compelled to adhere to, but on his own two or three weeks was perfectly fine before he started wanting to gnaw on everything that moved.
She blushed remembering how he had made her scream. And more than once. He had shown her things she hadn’t known possible and brought her to heights she never imagined. Her embarrassment shut down the barrier to her mind like a natural shield. “Sorry…” She murmured and started to sit up. “Promise me, Sormr… you will ask before it gets to that point.” She had forgotten the bond between them and the sincerity in her voice was straight from her heart. She never wanted to see him suffer.
“I promise.”
“We should get up,” she laughed and moved to push the sheets back. Just then she saw the bite marks on her inner thigh. Glancing over her shoulder, she narrowed her eyes and grinned slightly. “You fed?” It wasn’t an accusation, but a query.
He couldn’t help laughing. “I told you you had already fed me! You just were ignorant of just what kind of meal I had had.” He then sobered as the image of her unconscious on the dirt bleeding flashed across his mind. “It wasn’t something I had control over. I hadn’t had nourishment in a very long time and you just landed almost in my lap. You weren’t the only one I took from that day either, although with them I had the energy to control myself.”
“The night I fell through the floor…” the pieces started adding up. She shook her head as she realized the things he had been saying to her had been his way of letting her into this new world without shocking her.
She stood up and moved towards the dresser. Glancing at him through the reflection. “Was that where you were sleeping because the house was vacant?” She had no idea of his past other than what he had told her. She couldn’t imagine why he wouldn’t have moved upstairs and lived comfortably.
He shook his head. “I was imprisoned down there, I was in a sleep akin to death. Only reason I persisted and did not die is because of the covenant. You. You being alive and others having lived was what tied me here. Otherwise...well, this place would be a hole. A very big one.”
He moved to the edge of the bed and pulled her back to him. He then pulled her close and dragged her back into the bed with a smirk. “Hm, I am thinking this would be the best place to be.”
A cry of laughter echoed as she was tugged back and landed on the mattress. “SOR!” She curled up into his arms and shook her head. “You are crazy, you know that?” His words of being imprisoned were momentarily forgotten. “We can’t stay in bed all day, Sor.” She kissed the tip of his nose. “I have to eat. And luscious and yummy as you are, I can’t live on you, alone. And then there is the box this came from. There were other pieces. What was it? Are they the family heirlooms and such? Or just junk jewelry that can go to thrift store?” She had vaguely remembered there being several pieces that had caught her eye as she had spirited the torc away to hide it. Though it ended up on his neck anyway.
He huffed. “We could at least try.” When she mentioned the box the images of the assorted items flitted in his mind, an inventory list. “Tools for protection mostly, but some creatures have to have a particular something to incapacitate to kill. The silver encased tome is...a bible I think. I believe that was obtained because we had had to hunt down a demon that was summoned. Nasty thing that, it is how I got the bite on my shoulder.”
Her hand absently rose to caress the mark she had laid her own lips and teeth over the night before. “Oh… Will you teach me about them? The other items I mean.” She looked at him again. “And teach me to protect myself? I mean, I know you will be here to see to my protection, but I need to know how to as well. Just in case, I mean.” She bit her lip realizing she was rambling.
He smiled and kissed her. “I was planning to. Getting this place in order, getting the protections up around the perimeter of the land, after that we can get you started on training. If something comes up where we have to take action, I will fight the threat while you stay here and advise me through the bond.”
He knew she wouldn’t like that, but that was the worst case he could think of.
She frowned slightly, but then the connection between them made her realize he was doing it because he wanted to protect her, not to coddle her. It was hard to be upset with someone when you understood their reasons. The bond was something she would learn to get used to, but till then, her own emotions swung precariously as she reacted, then realized her errors after reading him.
“All right… but I don’t want you holding back when teaching me. If you go down, I can’t be left unprotected. Agreed?” She kissed him before he could immediately respond. As she did, her lips still locked to his, she started to slide off the bed again. Breaking the kiss, she quickly danced out of his reach and moved across the room towards the shower. “I’m going to clean up and go eat while you get dressed. Then we’ll begin with the box and work out from there. How’s that?” She was at the dresser once more. This time she was pulling out clothes to wear for the day, black jeans, a blue tank top and a black lace bra with matching panties.
He slid out of the bed and dragged her against him once more with a purr. “A shower sounds good actually… I have no intentions of going easy on you, don’t worry.”
She nodded and smiled. “Good….”
However his thoughts were on the feel of her body, how he wanted to explore how her skin would taste soaked in water. A litany of images swam in his mind about what stealing into her shower might bring. “I feel my skin crawling already…”
“Yes…..” the word purred from her lips as she melted against him. She was once more lost in his own emotions and desires which fed her own. Soon the kiss she gave him turned into them in the shower together and move love making. The connection between them heightened her senses ten fold. And he had said they were still infant in their stages. She almost feared, yet looked forward to, what they would become.
It was over an hour later when they were finally dressed and heading into the hall. “You really do have to let me rest once in a while. You will wear me out till I need naps everyday. Then I can’t help with the house.” She slugged his arm playfully as she rounded into the kitchen to make herself something to eat.
He followed her with a laugh, all he had put on were pants. “You don’t have to help if you don’t want to. You saw what I can get done in the night, the idea of you in bed is quite good, we should certainly see how motivating it is.”
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Post by Admin on Dec 8, 2018 5:12:17 GMT
While she moved around in the kitchen he leaned against a counter to watch. “This does remind me that I need your help with something. I need information about the new world around me. I can pull that information from you, but it requires a few tricks so that it is easier on me. I can do it with books and such, but that takes longer. You will be mentally fatigued after and probably have a mild headache.”
“Can I get my coffee first?” She laughed and finished the pot set up and turned it on. “So you can take the information from my mind? I'm not sure how much help I'll be. The TV guys will be here this afternoon along with the delivery of washer and new fridge. That would help a lot as well,” she glanced back at him, “the TV I mean. But if it helps, I'm willing to try.” She leaned on the counter and looked at him.
One red eyebrow raised. “I don’t know what a ‘television’ is along with most of what is in this kitchen.” The images of what he considered a kitchen filled his mind and she would see why he was so keen to learn. “It will be easier on us both.”
“Sor…. You mentioned warning the house or something like that. What did you mean? Sounds like a security system. I'm getting one installed next week. So you don't need to do it yourself.” Her mind hadn't comprehended how he meant to guard the property alone. “And there's no need to sell the jewelry to pay for it, either. A ridiculous sized inheritance came with the estate when I claimed it.” When he had mentioned using the heirlooms upstairs to protect the property, she thought he meant to sell them for a security system.
“Warding, not warning. I plan to ward the entire grounds of this place, not just the house. I already did something to chase of the critters, but there are far worse things that could try nosing about. I have a feeling there are already wards in place, but they probably need strengthening.”
“Oh,” she said, feeling embarrassed.
Something tugged at the back of his mind, little points that sparked and seemed to light up the perimeter of land around them. The house too had that faint glow and what he had in mind to do was strange. “I was going to check things tonight.”
She moved about the kitchen making herself toast with peanut butter and strawberry jelly on it. Making herself a cup of coffee when it was done, she took her plate and nodded towards the back porch. “You said nasty things could be nosing around? Like what? I mean, there are wolves in the woods I hear, and deer. But what else do we need to worry about?” Once more she settled on the wall, her back to the yard. She didn't want to think about what it would take to make grounds beautiful again. She's definitely need a crew to do that, she'd prefer Sor in the house with her. There were obviously things she needed to know that only he understood.
“There are too many to name.” But his mind was already at work. “Most things can’t get into the house without losing a chunk of their power by breaching the threshold uninvited. Vampires cannot get in without an invitation, but nothing stops them from setting the house on fire. There are dead things that can be created or just happen that are more like animals than anything else, though a lich is an example of one of the exceptions. Ghouls and walking corpses are really just fodder, usually commanded by necromancers or someone familiar with necromancy.”
He walked over to her and pulled her close with a soft sigh. “You won’t like this, but as things stand right now you would have to stay out of danger and let me fight. This place, is the safest place for you to be, were something that needed killing to come to our attention. I think I will have to go looking for a Hunter enclave to find equipment I need. I have no idea what powers are at work in this area and I do not want us to accidentally make an enemy by not knowing whose territory was whose.”
She gasped he pulled her up into his arms like she weighed nothing. Her hands went to his chest reflexively. Looking up at him, the height difference a comfort and not intimidating, she frowned slightly. “You want me to stay on the grounds till you discover where property lines are, you mean? I can tell you this is over a hundred acres within it property line. Most of it is now government protected forest. It belongs to us, well, to me cause I inherited it. But the government recognizes the deed is mine and will help me protect it.”
He shook his head. “No, I mean what supernatural powers are at play around us. Say a mage happens to be our closest neighbor or a vampire family runs this city. This land could be part of the territory of a pack of werewolves. These things were part of a lattice of interconnected things that I doubt in hundreds of years has changed.”
She caressed his cheek and the stubble there. “We forgot your razor…” her whisper was an apology. Looking up into his eyes she smiled. “Guess you're going to have to teach me to protect myself. Cause I know me. If you run off to attack something coming for us, I'm going to run after you. And that's if I haven't figured it out and been the first to take off at a run.” She was laughing as her hand reached up to play in his hair.
He rubbed his chin and felt the stubble and shrugged. “Razor can wait, will take a month or two to really irritate me. My father’s beard grew so fast that sometimes I fancied I could see it growing, but it took awhile for me, which used to irritate.” The idea of her running after him made his stomach tie in knots with anxiety. “Lass, I have always been my partner’s shield. Just because we went out into combat doesn’t mean they necessarily had to fight. They were support, we were part of a group with me and say, a knight, front and center, if a group was called for. Your family functioned as the… ah…” He struggled for a word. She would see in her mind someone who was standing back directing things and shouting out what whatever the creature’s weakness was and then killing it after it was weakened. “We were the teeth lass, you were that which directed those teeth.”
His anxiety rolled over her mind and made her shudder. “I'm sorry,” she half whispered as he continued. When he was done, she hadn't quite understood all the images but she got the point. “I know that's how things were a long time ago. But there's no knights anymore. And it's just us. No group to form or call. You can be my shield. You can protect my from whatever comes at us.” Ann smiled and pressed her hand flat to his chest, “But know, as you are the shield before me, I'm the shield behind you. I'll watch your back as well as you prefer my front. The best I can promise is to try not to run off ahead of you. Is that enough?”
Her mind flashed with images of her at his back with a gun while he worked a sword like it was born to his hand. He had mentioned knights so her mind hadn't pictured him with a gun. “What do I have to do for you to get that information you wanted? I don't want to be passed out when the delivery guys come in a few hours.”
She was changing the subject because she feared him putting her under house arrest and keeping her locked in if she didn't comply.
He scooped her up, lifting her off her feet to carry her like a bride to the bedroom and set her on the bed before sitting beside her. “You laying down will be for the best. It shouldn’t take long, though it’ll feel like it. First you need to focus on the image of a book. Imagine everything you ever learned from tutors, every lesson, as pages in that book. Block out emotions, block out every detail not part of having learned something. I won’t need to know you got scolded for chasing goats, but the lesson of learning to milk said goats, though that example might be strange… Build it up in your mind and just nothing else, I’ll do the rest.”
His hand took hers as he waited for her mind to shift to that task. When he sensed everything settle she would feel his presence in her mind. Like a feathering touch those pages turned, one by one and she would feel something slipping out. It wouldn’t be unpleasant, but it would feel strange. Eventually his enveloping presence slipped away and he rubbed his temple with a sigh. “I’ll need to rest, but I’ll only be an hour or so, I don’t usually ‘sleep’ in the usual sense, but this task means I will fall into a sleep. It is more a ah...healing sleep, if that makes sense. It’ll give my mind a chance to digest and put everything where it wants things to go.”
She had gasped and wrapped her arms around his neck when he swooped her up. “Sor!” She cried out in surprise.
When he set her on the bed and explained what she had to do, she frowned slightly. Starting recent and moving backwards had seemed right, but as he mentioned learning as a child, she went to the beginning instead.
Only about fifteen minutes had passed, but she would sense his mental fatigue.
Her own body felt in worse shape than his. She felt like she had come out of a long sleep, or needed one. Her body merely curled up against his as he fairly collapsed beside her.
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Post by Admin on Dec 8, 2018 5:12:56 GMT
Once he had gone still in a way that she found odd, she tried to feel his mind. It was there and when her inexperience nudged a bit too hard, she felt him stiffen with a mindful query if she needed help. She slowly pulled back with soothing thoughts and slid oiut to bed to go downstairs. Her legs were as shaky as they had been the night before when his loving had turned her to putty.
After getting a drink from the kitchen, she went to sit on a stool in the foyer and go through boxes. If she went to sleep, she feared she'd missed the deliveries set for that day.
He sensed her leave, her earlier nudge stirred a part of his mind to stay attuned to her. When she didn’t return he found he couldn’t rest. Her reason for staying awake pulling him back a bit from sleep. >Come back to bed, if anyone new arrives I promise you that I will wake up and wake you.<
She needed rest as much as he did and the feeling in his mind was that if she did not come, he wouldn’t rest the way he needed, not fully, now that he knew she was up and worrying. Her needs were clear, but she was denying them.
The feel of his mind in hers made her sigh. She felt his worry and his anxiety at her behavior. She didn’t understand, but she did know he wouldn’t sleep, or rest, or recover, if she failed to heed him. She sent him a gentle thought of being in his arms and rose up from her stool. Heading back upstairs, she drew the curtains shut to darken the room. The heavy velvet working better than any blackout curtain the local mall could provide. She slid up beside him, rested her head on the crook of his shoulder and put her arm over him, palm resting on his chest. She softly whispered back to his mind, *I am here… rest now…*
The moment she was comfortable, he fell asleep. The vague haze that was just that part of him she could feel was gone. Since the bond first appeared, her mind would essentially be empty of his presence. He hardly seemed to breathe.
His lack of movement it recognizable breathing started to worry Ann. But whether it was exhaustion or the Bond between them, she was quickly pulled into her own slumber before she could put thoughts to her feelings.
It would be some time later that he woke up, a noise that was abnormal reaching his ears. He gently woke Anna and slid from the bed to peer out the window. A large truck was coming up the drive. He assumed it was for the stuff she had ordered. The nuances that had been lost on him the first time filtered through his mind, the whys and whatfors. Truly he wasn’t all that impressed with what the future had become.
People lived longer, but for what purpose? And the American governmental structure? Gods, don’t get him started. It seemed like there was far more pointless stupidity than when he remembered, but it was still the same, but on a much bigger scale. That scale was the most improbable thing yet, there were billions of people in the world now. The number alone was staggering and it seemed to him that it was any wonder that the world hadn’t been devoured sooner.
He shook the thoughts off and moved to get the door.
She felt a mental push to wake, like being hauled to the surface after being underwater. She broke through and opened her eyes with her fatigue far enough behind that it almost startled her.
Hearing the truck's beeping as it circled then backed up to the house, she headed downstairs with her boots in hand. Pausing at the bottom of the steps to put them on and lace them up, she smiled to her lover, “It's the delivery of the new appliances. Is there a clear path to the basement and the old set there?” Her mind gave him shaky images of the old washer and dryer under the basement stairs. She wasn't used to the connection so images weren't clear and she ‘moved’ to it too swiftly to follow till the destination was reached.
The basement was the first place he had started clearing while she slept that night after he first came to her. She would see from him that he had casually covered the hole up with boxes so it looked normal enough, but otherwise empty.
She then opened the door with a pleasant smile on her face to greet the men.
One of the men walked over with a smile looking to Sor. “I have something for you sir, before we get to work.”
Green eyes narrowed and Sor instinctively braced for an attack that never came. Instead he was handed a rolled up scroll.
Sormr,
Pardon the small bit of theatrics, but I can’t manage to do anything without someone making things awkward. Come to Bellemont and Finch, the club called Swansong is right on the corner you cannot miss it. You and I have an old debt to settle… Let my employee know if you will, I’ll expect you tomorrow at whatever time is convenient, don’t worry about dressing up.
Geir
The word ‘employee’ made it clear the man wasn’t a thrall servant, not that Sor would have cared much. He knew well enough that Geir didn’t treat most humans like cattle, not unless they deserved it. He then relayed the letter to Anna, but she would also sense he was relaxed. “Tell him we’ll be there and also tell him that debt was settled ages ago and he is merely a sore loser.”
Anna was obviously confused and concerned over the letter. But because his own emotions weren’t spilling as anxiety, fear or anything else overly negative, she seemed content to follow suit.
The service guy grinned and the men got to work. Sor kept watch over them as they did so, less for security and more because of general interest. He had plenty of information now, but seeing the work take place was informative as well. Old relic he might be, but he had always had a hunger to learn and with information so readily available he itched to feed his mind.
Several hours later there was a new washer and dryer installed in the basement, a new dishwasher in the kitchen along with a new refrigerator, and the wiring guys had shown up and replaced the fuse box to handle the modern load on the ancient house.
As the trucks disappeared, the sun was starting to set. Ann moved up to Sor and frowned. “Who would send an invitation on a rolled parchment?” She hadn’t seen the parchment at first, but as it was on the hall table, she had eventually realized that’s how he had received the message.
“Geir is...an old comrade, apparently he survived.” He said with some amusement. “He must be one of the powers in the area, which is good for us.”
Memories of fights, memories of laughter, memories of being at each other’s throats and a host of other things paraded past his mind. Anna would also learn that Geir was a vampire, but one of the few that were fairly decent despite preying upon man, which given how he detested them spoke volumes.
Ann moved up to him and set her hand on his chest. It wasn’t something she had done with others, but with Sor, it had become a natural motion. It was a comfort now, to not so much hold him as merely be connected physically. “Sor… I will follow your lead. Do you honestly believe we are safe going there tonight?”
Sormr chuckled. “We are not going tonight, we will go tomorrow and I believe we we will be. He spoke of a particular debt… It was code, from what I gather from how he wrote things that the humans that arrived know nothing of the Other. If he had become like the rest, he wouldn’t have done that. There are...silly rituals and games that are part and parcel to dealing with most vampires and or their families as a whole. Geir has always been one to break all of that, when I knew him he was a renegade, apparently he has become established. Likely there is a story behind that that I very much wish to know.”
Ann sighed and nodded. “I trust you. But I’m coming along. I know the invite didn’t include me, but I’m not letting you go alone.” The firmness in her voice left no doubt she would go whether he wanted her to or not. “So maybe we need to start working on those wards or whatever. If things go south, you mentioned it may make this place a sanctuary we can run to if we have to.” She was firm in her resolve, but not strong enough to hide the anxiety in her mind from him.
“I wasn’t planning on leaving you behind.” For something like this which seemed more of a social call he was relatively sure they would be fine. “I need supplies for that lass, which means finding someone who knows where to look, which is neither of us. Right now, Geir is our first and best option. I do not relish stalking the city nor...this...internet thing, to find what we need.”
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