Ash watched Mary-Lynette for the rest of the day. He watched her snap at her Dad as he and Claudine rushed inside the house demanding to know why there were several smashed windows. He watched her storm upstairs and slam her bedroom door. He watched her cross the room to her window and lean on the sill with silent tears running down her face. He watched her cry the night away and then modestly averted his eyes as she changed clothes and crawled into bed. It broke his dead heart to see her in so much pain and not be able to offer comfort. It hurt even more to know that he was the cause of her pain. There was more to the memory than she had seen… much more. If he could only get her to listen to him so that he could explain then everything would be alright. He knew better than to force his presence upon her though; he would have to wait until she'd cooled off; until she was ready to listen to him.
Ash stationed himself for the night between two branches in a tree outside Mary-Lynette's window, making sure he couldn't be seen. Here his mind replayed the day's events, lingering upon the moment when she chased that memory. He sank deep into his own thoughts, accessing the memory himself. There he was, a leggy blonde vampire practically sitting in his lap and his own tongue exploring her fangs. There was a whimpering in the background. The girl, meant for dinner earlier on, clutched a broken arm and cried quietly as she tried to crawl further away from the two monsters. Ash pulled away from the vampire, ending the kiss and then said coolly; "Stay right there beautiful, I'll be right back. It's cruel to leave an animal in misery; I'm just going to finish it off." He grasped the back of her head and deeply inhaled the scent of her perfume, scratching his fangs up her neck as he did. He then strode across the room toward the girl and lifted her by the back of the neck. She cried out even louder in fear and pain and began to scream and beg, kicking her legs in the air. He laughed evilly and then strode from the VIP area of the club, through the raving Night People and out of a fire door; leaving the club entirely. Once outside he lowered the girl to her feet and held her upright as her legs wobbled dangerously.
"You kicked me." She sobbed, "You broke my arm." She took several shuddering breaths and then looked at him; at his silver grey eyes and his elongated fangs. "You're a monster." She whispered.
"Yes I am." He whispered back, he gave a growl and then let her go, leaving her to support herself. "And this monster made a choice: a broken arm or a drained and lifeless body. You should thank me."
"Indeed you should," came a voice from the nearby shadows.
The girl gave scream, moving closer to Ash.
"What are you doing here?" Ash growled to Theirry Descoudres, leader of newly reformed Circle Daybreak.
"This is a very important mission that I entrusted to you Ash. And you're risking it on the life of one human who may now be too emotionally scarred to even consider the possibility of Night People and humans living together as one."
Ash looked at the girl standing beside him. She was holding herself up, nursing her broken arm but she was looking levelly at the vampire leader. Any human girl with half a brain would be four blocks away by now. He turned back to Thierry and shrugged, "She looks like her."
Thierry glanced at the girl and exhaled heavily, "Fine. Just get back in there. I'll look after the girl, you concentrate on what's important." Thierry held out a hand to the girl, she looked at Ash for instruction. He gave a short nod. She took Thierry's hand and they both began to walk out of the alley.
"Thierry." Ash called after him. Thierry stopped and turned, listening. "I'm not doing this again." And with that, Ash wrenched the fire door open and strode back into the club.
He pushed past the werewolf guarding the VIP area and made his way back toward the poufee occupied by the blonde.
She pulled him down next to her, "What took you so long?" She asked, running her black fingernails through his hair whilst her other hand slid up his t-shirt to scratch his chest.
Ash snarled at the scratches and then gave her a deep look of longing, "I didn't want to ruin the fun of a kill. I played with her a bit first."
She laughed, "Now is it my turn?"
He grasped her wrists and twisted her arms behind her back then ran his tongue up her neck. "Lets play a game," he said, "Tell me something, anything at all. If I don't like it then I'll do bad things to you. If I do like it, then I'll do really bad things to you."
She gave an appreciative groan. "Ok, you're on."
"Well?" He pressed.
"Hmm," she thought, "I'm more important than you think." She smiled.
He kissed her neck.
"Not good enough? Ok, I'm very important to the richest lamia vampire family there is."
He nibbled her neck.
She giggled with delight, "Hunter Redfern needs information that I have."
He lifted her from her seated position and pushed her up against a wall.
"Is that it bad boy, is this all you're going to do to me?" She pouted.
"Keep going." He snarled.
"Hunter Redfern is looking for Wild Powers: I know where one is. Is that good enough for you bad boy?" She smirked, looking proud of herself.
Ash smiled, "Thank-you. If I'd had to touch you again I would have thrown up."
She froze and began to squirm, "What? Who are you anyway?"
"Where is the Wild Power?"
"Let go of me."
"Where is the Wild Power?" He held her arms in place with one hand and reached into the small of his back for a wooden stake. He held it levelly over her chest.
"Get out of my club." She hissed.
"Where is the wild power?" He drove the stake partly into her chest.
"Erlib!!" She shrieked.
A werewolf came thundering into the VIP area. Ash cursed. He thrust the stake through to her back, finishing the vampire off and then leapt for a window. He didn't have any silver stakes on him and he really didn't feel like getting into a fight with a werewolf without one. He crashed through the glass and landed on the pavement outside. Listening for the scrabbling of claws on brick that told him the werewolf was following. He raced up a ladder leading to the roof of a building and leapt from roof to roof, putting as much distance between himself and the 'wolf as possible. But then he was falling. Falling toward the road.
Slamming into the ground was what woke Ash. He had fallen asleep in his tree. And it was daytime. Daytime. He scrambled back up to his feet and climbed to his post again to find out where Mary-Lynette was. Her room was empty. And her car was gone. Some protector he was. He cursed and then sprinted to his car, hidden in the nearby woods out of Mary-Lynette's sight. He doubted that Nightworld People would attack during the day in plain sight of everyone but then it was best not to assume. He drove past the house, past a man fitting new panes of glass into the living room window and into town, searching for her car.