Dr. Helen Magnus was never one for dramatics. But this, this demanded something other than steely determination in the face of an unknown enemy. John Druitt was far from unknown and the fact that he was inside of her house, her sanctuary, was causing panic to tear through her; threatening to overcome her.
She raced to her rooms, Ashley right behind her firing questions as though she were firing one of her guns. She ignored her until they had entered her study and only then did she speak.
"Mom why are you freaking out?"
"Grab what weapons you can. We'll need them." She was not prepared to answer any of Ashley's questions; the swirling mass of thoughts running through her mind was almost overwhelming.
"No, not until you tell me why this ghoul is such a problem."
Helen looked at her daughter, at a loss for words to explain why John was such a 'problem'. The only thing she could say was the one thing she was sure of.
"Because he'll kill us both." She admitted and Ashley's look of surprise and dismay caused her heart to clench painfully. "He allowed himself to be captured by you, I'm certain of it. We may only have moments before he…"
She was cut off by a flash of blue-green light. Both she and Ashley whirled to face it and there stood the man that had haunted her for more than one hundred years. Automatically she aimed her gun at him. She was sharply reminded of the last time she had seen him and try as she might to stop them, the memories crashed into her mind barely letting her keep a sense of the here and now.
"Hello Helen." John said simply. He stood there with his arms at his sides, seemingly innocent. He stared at Helen, drinking in the sight of her. She hadn't changed much, a new hair color and even with that it was a gorgeous color on her. He watched as her eyes clouded over for the slightest moment, no doubt remembering their last encounter. Her chest was heaving and he could tell that she was breathing heavily. After all these years he still got a thrill from her fear.
"John." She breathed, barely able to say his name.
"It's wonderful to see you again." John stated in a deep gravelly voice that almost had Helen's hand shaking. She could feel Ashley's questioning glare but ignored it. She had to focus entirely on John. He could move too quickly for her to risk one precious second on her daughter. It was Ashley that she was scared for; John was unpredictable and the chances of him hurting Helen was less than him hurting Ashley.
"You know this ghoul?" Ashley asked and Helen had no time to answer before John did for her.
"Oh," he dragged the word out. "You're mother and I go way back."
Helen knew that he was enjoying this; her discomfort. The gun she had aimed at him offered little comfort in the face of his amazing powers. But she didn't lower it and neither did she grace him with a reply.
John was getting irritated by her silence and so proceeded to speed up his plan. He teleported to Ashley, grabbing her from behind and placing the young blonde between himself and Helen. She followed his movements as someone only with experience could and she trained her gun at him once again yelling his name in warning, or was it a plea?
"Don't, this is about you and me, not her." Her voice came out strong but she felt that the fear gripping her would cause her to fall to the ground in agony.
John looked at her with shrewd eyes, calculating just how much their daughter meant to the good doctor.
"For the moment." His voice suddenly became pained and he couldn't help himself as the next words poured from his mouth. As always, Helen had a way of driving him to do things that he would normally never do.
"You have no idea what it's been like." He accused. "Alone, wandering this God forsaken world."
Helen was having more and more difficulty keeping her gun level as the myriad of emotions ran through her. She could tell that John was in pain, physical and emotional, but she couldn't let that distract her from the safety of her daughter. No matter how irrational her empathy toward him might be.
"Wanting only peace." He began again. "A fragment of what we had."
Helen winced inwardly at the knowing grin he sent her, along with the disbelieving look on Ashley's face. But then his face grew almost savage.
"Of what I lost."
"You have nothing to gain by harming her. Or me." She added as she saw a flicker of agony cross his face.
"Mom shoot him." Ashley exclaimed sternly but it was evident that she was scared.
"Drop the pretense. You know exactly why I've come and what I want. It's all within reach, everything I've ever wanted. And you're going to give it to me or she will die."
"Mom." Ashley pleaded but the words echoed as John disappeared, taking her with him.
Helen wasted no time and she turned to her computer and frantically started searching the mansion for signs of them. John would not go very far, he would need to come back for whatever it was he needed. She had a fair idea of what that was, but then she remembered the look he had given her just before he teleported away.
He wanted more than her blood.