WARNINGS: Slight self harm.
A thank you to Moonfreckle for her wonderful story 'The secrets in the blood'. In honor of it I chose to have Vandal address Liz as 'princess'.
Anyone who hasn't read it, I can only recommend it!
Liz was up before Nick this time. She let him sleep and went to get some earphones to plug into her phone so she could listen to music. Absent minded she lay down on the sofa.
The voices kept their mouths shut for now.
The music had barely started when Liz noticed a change. There was colors coming with it now. She saw them behind her closed eyes. It was beautiful. They swirled and danced to the drum beats and changed color with different notes.
She opened her eyes to check if they were only in her head. They weren't. The colors were all around her. They got brighter the more she concentrated on the music. Liz didn't think she had ever experienced something this wonderful before. "It's so pretty," she whispered.
She kept listening until Nick stirred and finally rose from his sleep and got dressed.
"Good evening," she greeted him.
"Good evening." Nick stretched and checked the time. "Wonderful, the sun has just gone down. That means whenever we're ready to go, we can."
"Do we have anything planned tonight?"
Nick nodded, "There's one more ghoul in the area we need to meet. His name is-"
"Mercurio," Liz finished for him.
"Yes. He's LaCroix's ghoul."
Liz nodded, she remembered the name from Nick's lesson yesterday. "The prince, yes."
"He lives near the hospital. He was running errands, that's why we didn't go."
"All right, then. Let's hop to it!"
'The windows, Liz! We told you we'd remind you.'
She stopped in her tracks.
Nick gave her a questioning look.
"They reminded me to crack the windows," she spoke, baffled. "Wow, just... I-" she was at a loss for words for the moment.
She hurried to crack the necessary ones and then, with Nick commenting, "I am speechless," they left.
The walk down the street didn't take them long. They were at his place within a few minutes.
"Damn it looks fancy," Liz noted and looked at the marble floors and expensive vases in the halls.
Nick knocked on Mercurio's door. "It's Nick."
The door opened immediately and Mercurio let them in. His clothes were as expensive as the rest of his apartment.
Liz's eyes went wide at the sight of all the wealth. "Damn, it's a pretty place."
"Mercurio, as you already know, that's Liz," Nick introduced her. "Liz, this is Mercurio. He was the one who helped arranging everything regarding my permission to sire you."
Liz actually bowed to him and spoke, sincerely, "Thank you so much for that! I am in your debt! Yours and Prince LaCroix's."
Mercurio stood in stunned silence. Had she truly just 'bowed' to him? Vampires were supposed to feel superior to them and they took every chance to let everyone below them know how much more perfect they were than them. And this one... had bowed.
He regained his composure and answered, "You're most welcome. I will make sure to give your thanks to Prince LaCroix as well."
"Thank you again."
Mercurio shook his head and this time, smiled at her. "I can't believe you're Malkavian," he said. "Both of you! You're almost normal. The last ones I met were barely able to form coherent sentences."
"Now where have I heard that before?" Nick chuckled. "We get that a lot lately."
"We welcome the compliment," Liz added.
"Do you or the prince need anything?" Nick inquired.
"No, not at the moment. We have everything we need." Mercurio hesitated for a moment. "If you ever need anything you're not supposed to have, come to me. I can get practically anything you could dream of."
"We will remember that. Thank you."
And with that, their visit at Mercurio's was over.
"Well. So much for that. That was the fastest visit at Mercurio's I've ever had," Nick said. "We're free the rest of the evening if nothing else comes up."
"Good. I, for one, could use a drink."
"Then a drink you shall have! Lead the way, oh ponytailed beauty!"
Liz laughed. "Are you poking fun at my ponytail?"
To her surprise, Nick shook his head. "I am not. I really like it. But I was thinking a red hair tie would add a bit of contrast. The black one your using practically disappears in your hair."
"A man who pays attention to detail," Liz chuckled. "Well then, I shall tie my hair with a band as red as blood next time."
Their visit to the Asylum lasted only a quarter as long as the one the night before. They were basically in and out of there within 15 minutes. They had both drunk their fill and Liz kept and ear out for her voices, who were suspiciously quiet at the moment. It was almost like the calm before the storm and she really didn't like that. She felt like she was waiting for a major catastrophe to happen inside her head.
She voiced her thoughts to Nick.
"I don't know, Liz. Maybe they just ran out of news for the moment. It happens."
Frustrated she grumbled, "I don't know what's worse. This deafening silence or the over abundant chatter. I don't even know why the silence unsettles me so much."
Nick offered her his hand to hold as they walked and she gratefully took it.
Together, they walked for a while aimlessly, no destination in mind when Liz stopped abruptly.
"What is it?" Nick almost sounded worried.
Liz shushed him. "Do you hear that?" she asked.
He shook his head. Whatever Liz was hearing, he couldn't.
She listened intently. Her head shifted from side to side as she followed the sound. It was a humming of some sort, not unlike electricity but somehow different. The sound was moving away from her and back again as if it wanted her to follow.
She informed Nick of the phenomenon she was experiencing.
He had no answers for her. "Tell me what you want to do."
There was no doubt in her voice when she told him, "We are going to follow it. If we are headed somewhere that you deem unsafe, let me know and we'll abandon this at once."
The sound was leading them back into Santa Monica. Liz stopped once more to listen to the direction it was moving and then continued on with Nick right behind her.
The further they went the louder the sound became and soon the all too familiar whispers inside Liz's head started up again.
"Well my friends are back," she groaned. "And they are sputtering numbers all over the place." She made a face. "Why did it have to be numbers. I despise maths of any kind. I am no friend of numbers."
They turned a corner and Nick faced her. "It's leading us back to the bloodbank..." he sighed. "I'm not even gonna ask why. I stopped wondering and asking questions a long time ago."
Liz gave a shrug and they headed downstairs. She stopped out of earshot of Vandal's window. "It is leading us inside. It isn't stopping at the window. I'm now officially fucking suspicious where this is going. I wish the voices would spout anything else apart from the stupid numbers right now. This is not helpful."
Nick for some reason seemed excited. "Maybe yours aren't spouting anything else right now. But mine are extremely useful at the moment," he said. "Apparently there is a passcode for something in the freezers."
"And you think I am getting the code?" she asked skeptically.
"I am almost certain."
"Should I beg Vandal for that tour he offered then?" she tried to sound calm, but she wasn't. Even the thought of that guy freaked her out.
The voices had no answers for her on that part.
Nick took the decision from her. He walked up to Vandal's window and Liz followed him, only to see that there was no one sitting behind it.
"What now? Do we wait?"
"Give me your phone Nick," Liz urged him.
"What?"
"Please, your phone!" she sounded desperate. "I left mine at home! Please, I have more numbers here than a stupid 4 digit code! I need to write this down!" She knew it was important somehow.
Nick quickly handed her his phone and watched as Liz frantically typed the numbers into a note.
When she was done with that she started dialing and pressed the call button. It was connecting.
Inside the bloodbank they heard a ringing. Liz was shaking her head without realizing it.
The person on the other end picked up.
"Who is this?"
Liz nearly dropped the phone. She recognized his cold voice immediately. She hung up. "Fuck, Nick. We are getting the hell out of here!" But she didn't move.
The swearing from the back of the bloodbank was followed by footsteps and Vandal stepped around the corner. There was blood on his clothes. His eyes fell on the phone in Liz's hand.
"How the hell did you get this number?" he was speaking quietly, but his tone had changed to something menacing.
The voices in her head were screaming and laughing at the same time.
She turned her head to look at Nick for help.
He wasn't there! He was gone! How could that be possible? He had been standing right next to her, just a second ago!
"I asked you a question." Vandal was slowly stepping towards her now. She was still frozen in shock.
Somewhere in the back of her head she registered, that she was no longer holding Nick's phone. She definitely hadn't dropped it.
"The voices. They led me here. They gave me the numbers. I followed the sound here," her voice was barely more than an out-breath.
Vandal was reaching behind his back and held his hand there. She was sure it was wrapped around the hilt of a knife. "And you came here alone?" he laughed. "You 'seriously' came here alone? That was a stupid idea."
She knew, for a fact, that Vandal was out for blood now. Whatever they had interrupted back there, he was so not happy with it.
'Move back!' one of the voices hissed at her. 'Move back! He's gonna stake you!' When she didn't move, a second voice kicked in, this time a male one and its tone was worse than Vandal. 'Get back!' it commanded. It was so loud that she winced and involuntarily took a step away from him.
Vandal came closer and with every step he looked more ready to strike at her. "I wonder how long it'll take to drain one of you..." he mused. "But first, I'll make you wish you had stayed dead. I don't care if the queen bitch is gonna punish me for this. It's worth it."
'He wants you to fight back. It's more fun for him when they fight him at first...'
"Please, don't," Liz breathed. He had almost reached her now. Somehow he had managed to run her into the wall next to the window and she was unable to retreat. He placed a hand beside her head.
"Why'd you have to come?" he hissed. "Now I have to make you disappear..."
'Start begging!'
"What?!" Liz's voice caught in her throat.
Vandal laughed, he sounded as mad as the voices in her head. "You're so finally dead, bitch!"
The other voices had subsided, only the commanding one had remained. 'I told you, BEG!'
If Liz could have still cried, she was sure that tears would be sliding down her face right now. She howled and sobbed.
'I am NOT telling you again! DO IT!' A piercing pain shot through her head and she nearly fell forward into Vandal.
"Please, don't do this, I'm begging you!" her voice was broken up by sharp intakes of breath.
'LOOK! AT! HIM!'
Her eyes snapped open just to find Vandal way too close to her. He was only a few inches away, he was leaning in, one of his hands still behind his back. His eyes were slightly dilated. He looked fucking insane. There was a disturbing want to hurt burning within them.
'Why am I not running?' Liz thought. Her own voice wasn't loud enough, it was overwhelmed by the one that now seemed to command her.
'You're not running from this!' it growled dangerously.
Vandal's voice slashed through the air like a knife, "Beg some more and I just 'might' let you get out of here with your 'life,'" he spat the last word with disgust. His hot breath hit her face and it was all she could feel.
'DO AS HE SAYS!'
More words left her lips without her own control.
Vandal's hand moved without warning, but not as she had expected, to ram a stake inside her heart. It was the hand beside her head that moved. He placed a finger against her lips to silence her.
"Shh," he purred.
Liz stopped breathing, not that she needed the air anyway. A whimper escaped her.
The smile that slowly spread across Vandal's face was filled with, what Liz could only describe as perverse pleasure. His finger traced down to her chin and to the side of her jaw. She tried to draw back, get out of his reach. His hand closed around it and turned her head back to him. "I'll take my time with you. No one will hear your scream where I'm taking you," he whispered.
Liz couldn't stand to look at him any longer, she needed to close her eyes.
Vandal however, tightened his grip on her jaw, "No. You're gonna keep looking. I want the last thing you see to be how happy this makes me." The hand behind his back shot forward, so much faster than a normal human's, but for her it moved weirdly slow.
The knife never even got close to reaching her. Vandal's hand froze mid air, as if blocked by an invisible force.
"Unhand her, at once, or I will break both your hands," Nick hissed.
Liz had never heard anyone this angry before.
"Thank you!" she sobbed.
Nick appeared before them, his hand wrapped around Vandal's wrist.
Vandal's head snapped to him and his hand on Liz's jaw opened. She didn't have the nerves to move away, instead, she slipped down the wall to sit.
"Well, you took quite a while to intervene," Vandal mocked.
Liz heard the underlying tension in his voice. She didn't understand why he wasn't 'terrified' right now.
"I don't care what you do to me, bloodsucker!" He tried to get his hand with the knife free.
Nick held tight, he didn't have a chance.
"Let go of the knife!" When Vandal didn't, Nick tightened his grip even further and with a sharp breath, Vandal's hand snapped open.
The sound of metal hitting the floor was followed by that of Vandal slamming into the wall, where Nick held him by the shoulders.
Liz stood in an instant, Nick looked ready to punch him.
"Nick, don't," her voice was steady when she spoke.
"Excuse me?" Nick glanced over at her in disbelieve.
Vandal looked at her past Nick, he sneered, "Oh, do you want to hurt me yourself? Ha! You would never do it!"
Vandal knew he was right. He wasn't afraid of either of them and Liz knew, she knew that Vandal had guessed that she would not let Nick hurt him either.
Liz sighed, her head clearing finally. "He's not worth it. He doesn't care."
"Liz, do you know what I found back there? He just drained someone dry in a back room! The guy was already dead when I got in!"
"And who do you think 'ordered' me to do this job?!" Vandal cut in. "I'm a slave!"
"I don't CARE!" Nick was almost shouting at him. He pressed him harder into the wall. "You enjoy it!"
Vandal cried out, "Well, you SHOULD CARE! I hate the bitch with every fiber of my being! You think I WANTED to be a slave to some bloodsucker?!" There was pain mixed into his voice.
"Nick, let him go, please!" Liz screamed. "You're gonna crush his shoulders!"
Nick's hands snapped back and he moved so that he was blocking Vandal from escaping.
Vandal's breaths came heavy and he bent over slightly, his hands checking his own shoulders for injuries, before straightening again.
Liz had stopped him before he had done any real damage.
Nick took a deep breath. "All right. Tell me what you want to do. After all, your voices started it."
Vandal grimaced at the mention of the voices.
Liz glanced at Nick, but when she spoke again, her attention was on Vandal. "We're going to-"
'Help him.'
"Help Vandal..." Nick continued her sentence. She knew he heard the same voice as her right now.
'You MUST help him.' it pressed.
Vandal stared at them.
"Be free of Therese," Liz went on.
"For good," Nick finished.
"You're both nuts!" Vandal groaned.
"Speak for yourself," Liz snapped, partly at him and partly irritated at the increasing amount of voices building in her head again.
"Lead the way, 'princess,'" Vandal jeered.
She picked up the knife from the floor and the three of them went into the back of the bloodbank. Nick all the while, kept an eye on Vandal.
He punched in the code to the hidden room in the freezer once more, let Vandal and her in and closed the door behind them.
Liz stopped in her tracks. The room looked exactly like she had seen it in her visions. There were a variety of scalpels, knives and even a cleaver on the counters, as well as syringes, tubes, bags and needles, all of them sterilized.
The worst sight was the dead guy hanging limp in the chair. The tubes were still connected to his arms. His chest was laid bare and displayed a grotesquely beautiful pattern of cuts.
"Are you admiring my handiwork?" Vandal asked her, a strange undertone present in his voice. "I'm sure your voices have a lot to tell you about it." His voice that time, had almost been soft and it made him sound even creepier. It was the first time he had actively mentioned the voices.
Vandal was right, Liz thought, listening. They did have a lot to say. But these voices were different. They seemed to come from far away, the images that came with them were so faded that she could hardly make anything out. This felt like the dead reaching for her, one last time, to let her know what had happened. To let her know they were gone.
She slowly pried her eyes away from the corpse. She stared into space for a moment. Her head felt foggy.
Liz spoke to Vandal before she even knew why, "I want to know..." the words didn't quite reach her own ears, "what you feel... when you kill them."
"Uhm, Liz, are you okay?" Nick was clearly worried.
She nodded.
'Don't worry. She is fine. You need to trust us.' Nick heard the whispers in the back of his head. 'It will be fine.'
Vandal stepped towards Liz.
'Do not interfere.' Nick stopped in the middle of his motion to catch him. His hand fell to his side again.
She looked into Vandal's eyes. They were still cold, but now there was something else in them. Fascination.
He rolled up one sleeve of his shirt until his arm was exposed up to his elbow, he reached out and took the hand that Liz was still holding the knife with. He guided her to place the tip of it on his exposed wrist.
Liz tried to pull back so that the steel was no longer on his skin. Vandal tightened his grip, he wouldn't let her remove it.
He spoke very quietly, "It feels ecstatic. It's better than a drug. The feeling when they realize what's about to happen, the raw terror in their eyes, them knowing that you control them, that you own them in that moment, and that there is nothing they can do as their life flees them, leaves them in the void. That you're the last thing they will ever see, that you 'are' their last moments, and that you are taking them for yourself." He pressed the tip of the knife down harder until it almost broke his skin. "You've never taken a life before," he stated. He knew she hadn't. "There's nothing like watching the light leave someone's eyes." He pressed down even harder and guided the knife up his arm. "Nothing like feeling someone's life slip away under your hands." The wound immediately closed up behind where he was cutting. "Nothing like having the power to decide if someone deserves to live or not." He was dragging the knife in a zig-zag motion now. "Look at me."
She did and Vandal's eyes seemed to pierce her soul. "You understand," he breathed the words. "You don't agree, but you 'understand.' I can see it." His grip on her hand loosened. "I can 'hear' it." He let go and immediately felt the cold steel leave his arm. It was the first moment Liz saw something akin to amusement flicker in his eyes. "I 'know' you understand."
And he was right, Liz thought. She did understand and the fact that she did made her doubt herself for just a second. She felt strange.
He stepped back and turned to Nick, who had been watching silently the whole time, like a ghost. "Let's get him to the morgue."
Nick cocked his head to the side.
"You told me you wanted to help me, you might as well help with his," Vandal said.
"That's not what Nick was actually questioning," Liz answered for Nick. "Won't they ask what happened to him? I would be highly suspicious if a body came to my morgue in this state."
"They never ask questions. It was arranged that way. After all, the queen bitch runs this place," he snarled.
"Fine, whatever. Where do you keep the body bags?" she asked.
"In the box outside the freezer."
"Nick, can you keep an eye on him until I'm back?" she smiled at him.
"Of course."
Vandal only rolled his eyes.
A minute later, Liz returned and they cleared out the room, filled body bag in tow.
"Hey, princess."
Liz winced even though she had not wanted to and turned to him as they made their way to the morgue. It would take her a while to get used to Vandal's tone of voice.
"What, Vandal? Don't you think you're a bit too busy to be talking right now?" Liz retorted.
They had made him carry the body bag.
"Aw, princess, you sobered up real quick. Where did all that lovely fear go?"
She answered him with another question, "Shouldn't you know that best?"
His usual grin appeared on his face again, "Oh I know where it went, princess. I know where it's 'hiding,' too. Want me to 'find' it for you?"
'He could... He can...' a voice in the back of her head warned. 'But he won't. Not right now.'
"Thanks, but no thanks." She sighed, and the sound was almost frustrated. "Why don't you talk to Nick, instead?"
Vandal gave a short laugh. "Princess, you're much more fun to talk to than him."
"Excuse me?"
"Hey, it's not my fault! You said, to my FACE that you don't care I'm a slave to that bitch," Vandal hissed, his voice filled with venom.
"I'm helping you now, am I not?"
"Doesn't change the fact you said that. Doesn't change the fact you're making me carry this," his eyes flicked to the body bag.
Nick rolled his eyes. "Give it here, then. And I'm sorry about what I said."
The grin on Vandal's face widened. He gave the body bag to Nick. "Thank you," it didn't sound sincere, even though Nick's apology had been.
The hallway was wide enough for the three of them to walk side by side. Nick on the left, Vandal in the middle and Liz to his right.
Vandal could feel her tense up again, now that he had his hands free. She had taken half a step to the side.
"I'm watching you," Nick warned. "And you're not touching her."
"There's no need for me to touch her," Vandal smirked. "She's already on edge again." His eyes flicked to her. "Isn't that right, princess?"
Liz crossed her arms and averted her gaze, focusing only on Vandal's voice.
"I like you better like this, princess," he hummed.
Different shades of blue waved in front of her vision, almost close enough to touch. It made her smile.
"Your voice has the same color as your eyes," she told Vandal. "Or at least it does when you speak like you just did."
"That makes me want to know what color screams are," he had lowered his voice deliberately, just to get a reaction out of her. "So tell me."
"I don't know," she answered.
"Don't piss off the help, Vandal," Nick said.
"Thanks, Nick." Liz offered to carry the body bag for a while.
"Nah, I'm good, I'm not gonna let you carry 'that.'"
She shrugged. "Ok."
"We're almost there," Vandal informed them.
Nick placed the body in the cold chamber Vandal had told him to and they went back to the donation window.
"What do you usually have to do here, when you're not selling?" Nick asked him. He was not faking his interest.
"I just sort the blood bags and make sure there's enough supplies here."
"There isn't enough donors these days to keep the hospital, and us supplied," Nick said drily. "I get it."
Vandal unlocked the door to his donation window. "Come in."
Liz and Nick stepped inside.
Boxes stacked as high as the ceiling greeted them.
"These won't even last a week," Vandal said, bitter.
"Fuck," Nick massaged his temples. "I really wouldn't want to be in your shoes. No wonder you hate the world so much."
Liz watched as Vandal sat down on the only chair in the room. He looked so tired of it all.
"We have some serious planning to do, Nick," she spoke. She was determined to find a way to make life better for Vandal.
"Don't I know it."
Vandal turned to his desk and checked the computer for emails.
Liz saw his hand ball into a fist as he was reading. He was digging his nails into his palm until she could smell his blood and eventually saw it trickling down his fingers.
"Vandal, you're bleeding," she called out softly.
He didn't seem to care that he was, he didn't even react, his eyes were fixed on the screen.
"A full box, make sure it's on time," he fumed. "Bitch."
When he turned to them again, Liz repeated, "Vandal you're bleeding." She pointed at his hand.
"We can deliver that, if you like," Nick offered.
Vandal looked like he was ready to explode. "She wants me to bring it to her office at the Asylum, tomorrow night. Personally." He finally opened his hands and the wounds healed.
'Go with him. Let her know. Let the bitch know you're coming! Go with him, Liz.'
Nick spoke before she did. "Will you be ok alone with him?"
"Yes, why? Are you leaving? Did something come up?"
"I meant tomorrow," Nick said. "Are you ok with going alone?"
'He knows. We told him what we told you.'
"Oh! Yes, I'll be fine."
He nodded. "Vandal, would you let Miss Voerman know that you'll be bringing the newcomer in town? She should be delighted to meet her."
"You want me to bring her to the bitch? Why?" Vandal was skeptical.
"I have a good feeling about it," Nick simply said. "Can you write her?"
Vandal begrudgingly replied to Therese's message and they had a reply within the next few minutes. "She said she will be delighted to meet you, princess."
Liz thought for a moment. "Hey Vandal?"
He just looked at her, grin plastered onto his face and waited.
"I'll be on my best behavior tomorrow," she smiled. "Oh, Miss Voerman will curse the day she hired me."
"Come to the Asylum at 1:15 AM," Vandal told Liz. "Do under no circumstances, be late. She hates that. I'll be waiting for you at the elevator to bring you up."
"All right."
They heard footsteps down the hall and Vandal turned to the donation window.
Nick and Liz couldn't make out who was on the other side.
"Need a fix?" he used the same cold voice as she had first heard yesterday.
"2 blood packs." The woman's voice was nobody she recognized. "I'm sorry, I'm new to this. How do I properly store these?"
"Just put them in the fridge and they'll be fine for 6 weeks," Vandal answered her. He sounded bored.
"Thank you. Have a good night."
"How long till you can go home," Nick wanted to know.
"An hour."
"Did you know who she was, Nick?" Liz asked.
He shook his head. Then casually added, "We'll stay till your shift ends, if that's ok with you?"
Vandal didn't care if they left or stayed as long as they didn't bother him.
They didn't talk for a while, each one of them lost in their own thoughts.
Liz, enjoyed the quiet. Her voices were just whispering in the back of her head. They weren't saying anything important, if they were, they would be screaming at her. Now they were just gentle background noise.
She watched as Vandal cataloged different types of blood and sorted them into different boxes. One of them, he set aside. Liz noticed it was a box holding only rare blood types.
Nick was fast asleep beside her, leaning on her shoulder. She gently rested her head against his, closing her eyes.
Vandal had just finished typing in the last box into the inventory on his computer when his gaze fell on Liz and Nick. He had never seen a vampire sleeping. He had always assumed they'd look dead, but strangely, they didn't. They really did look like they were just sleeping. Their chests were still rising and falling, drawing breath they didn't really need.
He shut down the computer and walked over to them, hunkering down uncomfortably close on purpose.
Liz felt a hand run over her head and lightly pull at her ponytail. She had fallen asleep, hadn't she? She groaned.
"Rise and shine," Vandal breathed right next to her ear.
Her eyes snapped open in utter shock.
"Princess!" He was still holding onto the end of her ponytail. The next words that left his mouth were not comforting, not coming from him. "Sleep well?"
He saw the realization flash in and out of her eyes, that he could have done anything he wanted, that he could have put a stake through both Nick's and her heart while they had been asleep only a few feet from him.
"Please, let go of my hair," she spoke quietly. She didn't want to wake Nick. "Please." She worried that Vandal would drag her up by it.
He tugged at it, not hard enough to hurt, but definitely enough so she would notice. "I usually don't give advice, but this time, I'll make an exception, so listen carefully," Vandal's voice lowered into a warning, "If the bitch as much as sniffs that you're trying to help me, instead of her, we will both be dead and then she'll come after your boyfriend here. Believe me. She will find out he was involved, and she will make sure we all end up dead, or worse."
She knew, that this time, Vandal wasn't trying to scare her to enjoy it.
"Do you understand, princess?" His voice was sharpened into an edge.
She was about to nod, and then thought better of it. "I understand. I appreciate the warning."
"Good." He didn't immediately let go of Liz's hair. He made sure to slowly run his fingers through it first, letting the ends slip through them.
Liz only relaxed again when Vandal had stepped away from her.
"Let's wake your boyfriend and let's get out of here," he said.
She gently shook his shoulder. "Nick, let's go home. Sun's up in a few hours."
He stirred and stretched, stood up and immediately pulled a face. "Ugh, I can smell it from here, damn."
Vandal glanced at him and then, to his surprise handed him 2 blood packs from one of the boxes. "You're welcome, now let's get out of here."
Nick, a bit perplexed, thanked him.
The three of them stepped outside the bloodbank. The air was cool and refreshing.
"Man," Liz took a deep breath. "Can't wait for tomorrow."
At that, Vandal turned to her one last time for the night, "Remember: Be on time and don't fuck this up!"
"She'll love me. Don't you worry."
He turned to Nick. "Make sure to put them in the fridge as soon as you're home."
He gave the two of them curt goodbye and turned on his heels, leaving for his apartment.
Nick and Liz left as well and talked on the way home.
He informed her that he would finish the rest of his work for Issac tomorrow, while she was out to see Therese. He would come to the club after the meeting had ended so they could go over everything.
"You know what I think, Liz?"
"No, what is that?"
"We make a pretty good team. Even our voices make a damn good team!" His eyebrows drew together as he thought for a moment. "You know, I stopped questioning them a long time ago... But sometimes, just sometimes, I wonder what exactly they really are and what their deal is. I mean, they're telling us to help, this guy. Why?"
"I don't know, Nick. But I feel like they're trying to help me help people. I always liked helping. No matter whom."
"Vandal said you understand him. He said you understood what he felt... Did you really?"
Liz nodded. She had, truly. "Yes. I understood him. It kind of scares me that I do, because... What the hell does that make me, if not some sort of psychopath myself?"
"Would you act on it? On the feelings he described?"
"No. Because I know, no matter how 'good' it feels. It's still wrong."
There was a pause before Nick spoke again, "For as long as I can remember the voices in my head have always given me advice and told me what I should do. If you don't heed them, for a while, they get louder. If you don't act on them when they're screaming, it hurts your head. I've only ever once experienced an instant where I completely lost control over my actions. They were shouting and all I could do was obey... I think if I hadn't I wouldn't be here..."
"Have you ever experienced different kindred's voices work together like that?"
He shook his head. "Our clan's members tend to avoid each other."
"Hm... What happened to us today, it's almost like the voices are talking to each other as well, only we can't hear when they do. We only hear them when they directly talk to us. Maybe this is how it's meant to be and no one has ever found out cause they all kept to themselves..."
"Maybe," Nick agreed. "But for now, let's get some well deserved rest."
Upon arriving at home, Nick put the blood packs into the fridge and Liz made sure all windows and shutters were closed.
She lay down beside him and immediately felt him shift and wrap his arms around her. Smiling, she fell asleep. The voices in her head, wishing her good night as well.
