-This is an RPG-related work of fiction based on Vampire: The Masquerade, a d10 system created by White Wolf. It is drama/angst with a hint of lemon. Rated T for violence and innuendo. In the context of this story, the words Prince, Childe, Sire, Progeny, Kindred, Embrace, Golconda, and Kine are © White Wolf, and are used without permission. David is the property of J E Seaton, and is used with permission. This work is written purely for entertainment value. Please don't sue me.-
Upheaval
by Elisabeth Henry
1.
The letter had been slipped under his door.
Dear David:
Where to begin? How to begin? The best place would be with my thoughts.
My thoughts of you.
I have been thinking about you for the past few days. I was concerned about
your health and the wounds that the Prince gave you. When I saw you fall
that first night, I wanted to go to you, to hold you and heal you.
But I waited - and it seemed like an eternity until I heard from you. When
I got your message last night, I was so relieved. I had no way of contacting
you, no way of knowing if my gentle Sire was alive or dead. It was so good
to speak to you again, but I have one unanswered question.
What did you want for us? Were we to be a model Sire-Progeny team, the
Childe doing what her father commands? Or did you plan on something
more - something closer to friendship?
When I asked you your age, you told me I was getting personal. I didn't
say this then, but I will now: I'm sorry if I offended you. But what I said
was true - I do want to get to know you better.
There is no one I would rather have by my side than you, David. I admit
that I have been caustic and spiteful, but behind that façade, my cold,
hard feelings are returning to life. When I think back to the Embrace, I
realize that you could have taken me in a far more cruel manner than
you did. You were gentle, as gentle as you could be, and for that, I owe
you something, if only my gratitude.
As long as I have lived, I have said this thing to no other person: I care
deeply for you, and I care about what happens to you.
I have been told that the Kindred are unable to feel some of the more
pleasant sensations and emotions that mortals do. But I've also heard
that there is one experience, for the Kindred, that is as close to making
love as we will ever get, and perhaps closer to making love than mortals
will ever come.
Drink from me, David, and let me take your blood, to make the joining
complete. Ever since my Embrace I have wanted you so desperately
that I can think of nothing else but your mouth on my neck and mine at
yours; nothing but how sweet your blood will taste as it glides over my
lips and down my throat; nothing but your arms around me and your
tongue gently lapping up the blood that I would spill for you.
I know that by writing this letter, I run a terrible risk - the risk that you
will laugh at me, scorn me, tell me you would sooner attain Golconda
than be my lover. But I would risk everything to have you by my side,
your blood in my mouth and mine in yours. I have dreamed of it, in the
awake times, while I stare into the distance. And when they ask me
why, what shall I say? I can never tell them that I am sick with passion.
And so the mystery remains.
I can never bind you to me, and I would not, even if it were possible.
But I would go down on my knees before you if you would only answer
me, tell me that you care, that the reasons for your gentleness in the
Embrace were more than just pragmatic.
Please answer me, David. I need to know if my desire, my need, will
ever be fulfilled, or if my time with you is just so many wasted moments.
So answer me - write to me - tell me what I want to hear. You told
me your true age once - perhaps I can help you forget the memories
of those years. Perhaps we can be as free as the Kindred can be...
together.
It was signed 'Jeanette', in flowing script. There was a strange light in his eyes. He knew what to do.
2.
I was standing outside the club that night when he arrived. My heart leapt into my throat.
David stepped out of his car. It took a moment for him to notice me, and I took the opportunity to study him.
He held himself well, with the air of confidence I had come to associate with the Kindred. He tossed his head, and his long black hair moved with him. How I had longed to run my fingers through those silky ebony tresses. He squared his shoulders and started for the club, then caught sight of me.
Even at this distance I could see the message in his movements. There was recognition there, and something else.
He approached me with that graceful walk that I adored. When he stood before me, I reached up and removed his sunglasses. His gentle brown eyes held my gaze. There was no greeting.
"I got your letter," he said, pulling it out of an inside pocket of his leather jacket.
I nodded in reply.
As he glanced through it, he spoke to me.
"Tell me... what answer are you expecting?"
I was so nervous I was shaking, but my voice betrayed nothing.
"Honestly?" I asked. "I'm expecting a 'no'." I laughed harshly, but there was no humour in it. "More to the point, I'm expecting a 'no; you must be mad'." I fiddled with his sunglasses, my head bowed.
I did not see him put the letter away, but he must have, for he laid both his cold hands over mine.
"Look at me," he murmured.
I raised my head and read the look on his face.
"And if I said 'yes'?" he asked
I could no longer stand the blazing light in his eyes, and I dropped my gaze.
"I would die a thousand times over to hear you say 'yes'," I replied. With those opening words, the dam broke, and my emotions burst forth. "I have dreamed of you and of our moments together since I met you in my mortal life. I wish to become human again only so I might feel my desires and emotions without the shadow of death to block them. I have desired you and worshipped you and needed you. I think, in my madness, I may have even loved you." I took a deep but unnecessary breath. "If we cannot make love, I will take the alternative, even if it causes me the most exquisite pain imaginable."
There was a long pause. I could feel David's eyes on me. Finally I gave him back his sunglasses and turned away; away from the club, away from David, away from my feelings and my words.
"I'm sorry," I managed, though my voice was threatening to break and I could feel a blood tear on my cheek. "I'm just a silly girl who doesn't know her feelings well enough to keep them in check. I didn't mean any of it. I'm not expecting anything from you, and I hardly think..."
My babbling was cut off by David's lips on mine. I lost myself in that kiss, and for a moment, I almost believed that I could be human again.
As he drew back, he plucked the tear off my face with a forefinger. He licked the blood and closed his eyes. A look that I cannot describe flitted across his face, and his eyes flew open.
He placed that finger underneath my chin and whispered his answer.
"I would be honoured to drink with you Jeanette." His arms went around my waist and I could feel him touch my neck teasingly with his tongue.
"Now," I murmured. I buried my face in his neck, smelled the unique fragrance of his hair and his blood. "Please." I tore myself away and leaned back in his arms.
David shook his head gently. He touched his finger to my lips. "Hush, my love." He spoke quietly, and I was reminded of the phrase 'the walls have ears'. "Soon," he whispered into my ear. "I'll come to you tonight, just before the sun rises." He pulled gently away, got back into his car and drove off into the night.
3.
Two glowing eyes watched the man leave the club; watched the woman enter it.
4.
He appeared in my suite as I was getting out of the shower. When I stepped into my bedroom, he was lying on the bed. In shock, I dropped the towel I had wrapped around myself. In a flash of movement, David was before me, the towel in his hand.
"I believe you dropped this?" he murmured.
As I took the towel from him, he ran his gaze over my body.
"For this moment, I, too, regret that I am not Kine," he said.
I did not have the ability to blush, but I felt as if I could.
"You flatter me," I answered. My voice would not rise above a whisper. "Allow me to dress..." David raised one eyebrow. "...and I will get you something to drink." I turned away from him and, feeling his eyes on me, I walked over to the open closet and reached for a silk wrap. Tying it loosely, I again faced him. It occurred to me that in spite of the fact that I had wanted this for so long, I was too nervous and shy to let it happen.
David approached me.
"I want nothing," he said, "except you." He undid the cord around my waist and slipped the robe off my shoulders. Gently, he kissed first my right shoulder, then my left.
Without warning, he bit violently into my neck, tearing the flesh from the bone. As I sank to the floor, I heard him laugh in that dry manner I would now always remember.
"You are a silly girl," he sneered. With super-human strength, he picked me up and flung me at the wall. I tried to scramble away, but I was hurting too much. I was losing too much blood.
"Foolish childe," he mocked. "Do you really think that one as old as I am needs anything that I don't already have?" That laugh again. "I don't need your love, or the 'freedom' that you offered me in that insipid letter of yours." Again he lifted me, and I saw the flash of red in his eyes. That red held me mesmerized as he bit again, tore again, until at last, mercifully, I blacked out.
5.
The door exploded.
The man with the glowing yellow eyes moved swiftly to the attacker, tore at him, drank him to dust. He picked up the woman and cradled her in his arms. He shook her awake enough to convince her to start healing herself, but she soon fell into unconsciousness again. She murmured something in her delirum. His name.
She had not forgotten him. And he would never leave her.
6.
I woke up several days later. I was alone in my room, completely healed. David was gone.
There was a letter on my bedside table, and I reached for it.
Chère Jeanette:
I have given you what no other possesses—you have my blood
and my life coursing through you. Your Sire is no more.
I will come to you again, soon, and we will talk and explore and
experience together. My eyes are always on you, and I will be
your champion whenever the need arises.
I closed my eyes and leaned back against the headboard. So it hadn't been a dream at all - someone had actually come to my aid. My eyes flew open and I searched for a signature.
There was none; but that was the way of the world, was it not? Those who help do not identify themselves. They live by those three cardinal rules: trust no one, learn from your mistakes...
And never, ever fall in love.