This Chapter was inspired by the song 'The River' by Good Charlotte.
And a special thanks to Maraluch whose eloquent writing inspired me to continue with this story and keep going with it.
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The Last Round
Downtown LA
As the sun had gone down Nines watched in silence as Shayne slipped out the door and disappeared down the street, a part of him wanted to follow her but another part knew that it was better to leave her alone. Catching Damsel, his hand pressing into the center of her chest Nines shook his head before he sighed softly. This was the hardest lesson that they faced, not combat, or the lies, the wars, but the causalities of war. That even while they might have had a shot at immortality in an instant those closest to them could be gone in flash, and all that you would have left would be the memories that you carried deep within your soul.
"Let her go Damsel," he said it but it was hard, since her embrace he had periodically been picking Shayne's ass up out of the fire, teaching her what he could here and there but this time no amount of mentoring or speeches could ease what she was going through. "She'll come back when she's ready too." Damsel looked up before she shook her head and almost laughed, but she held it in. Situations like this weren't her strong point and she had never claimed them to be, but even she didn't think Nines believed what he was saying. Instead she walked away from the door and went to the window looking out at the lights and pondering her own existence.
Somewhere in Hollywood
She walked until she couldn't walk anymore and then finally dropped down onto the ground lying back so that she could stare up at the sky. In her hand Shayne was clutching the necklace that Jeanette had worn, the red satin ribbon with the Malkavian clan symbol on the pendant. Tightening her fingers around the material until she could feel the symbol imprinting on her hand she gave mournful sigh of her own, but that was when her mind wondered to something else. It had been hanging around her own neck for so long that she had forgotten about it, as it was almost like a second skin. Reaching up with her free hand she tugged the chain pulling the necklace up and into the light, a gold guitar pick with a rose etched on it. At the time she had thought nothing at all about that rose or its meaning but now she understood it, the symbol for the Toreador clan.
When she had gone looking for answers into his death Shayne had found it in a shoe box in a moldy storage area, and ever since she hadn't taken the necklace off since in a way it had made her feel as if her brother was still with her. His death however was now something in which Shayne wondered if it had been the suicide that they said or had he broken some Kindred law and faced his Final Death. Honestly she didn't know but in that instance for a brief fleeting moment Shayne almost wanted her old life back, not the one in Hollywood, but the one before that when she had been living in San Francisco. There she had felt safe like nothing could touch her and she didn't know if that was the atmosphere or if it had been because of the company that she kept.
In life much like in death however she had left a trail of dead behind her, with what happened to Jeanette though Shayne felt the weight of guilt resting on her shoulders. Making her wonder if she could have done something more to save Jeanette or if it was all like the fortune teller on the beach had said. Did Jeanette see her fate play out before her eyes each day as she slept, until she dreamed no more? Was she like Heather whose life had been forfeit the moment she had started to keep company with Shayne, and for that matter was the curse that had plagued her as a child and a young adult still following her.
"You're lucky that I have no desire or orders to kill you, if I had wanted to than it would have been most easy to do with you laying there."
"How do you know I'm not armed," Shayne asked lifting an eyebrow though she didn't bother to open her eyes at the voice. "Jeanette's dead."
He sat down taking care to position his over coat so that he wasn't sitting directly on the ground. "I know that and for that my friend I am truly sorry for your loss, but her death wasn't in vain. With Strauss gone it would appear that the Camarilla have scattered, the elders of this city aren't willing to face the same fate as him."
"Well happy fucking day for that," Shayne snapped as she rolled her eyes. "Why are you following me better yet why have you been following me?"
"Your Sire is a friend of mine, and his Sire is well rather frightening in their own right."
"My Sire is dead; he was beheaded by LaCroix for embracing me." Shayne countered as she pushed herself up to her knees and then turned to look over, he had a startling appearance. Long blonde hair hanging in nearly black eyes, and a face that looked as weathered as her own. "I don't need another bed time story I want the truth or else I might just splatter your brains all over that tree and make myself feel better."
"Temper, temper, temper. If you want the truth than you should know I am not the one you need to be asking about this, but what I can tell you is that until I am told otherwise by your Sire or his Mistress. You and I shall be seeing a lot of each other, let's just hope I don't have to send you another email as I would hate for the last one to be a check-mate." Honestly they didn't pay enough to baby-sit her, but he owed a debt and it was either pay it this way or it was pay with his life.
"Yeah well if were stuck together, do you at least have a name, a phone number, an email address."
She was sarcastic, rude, and yet he could see it in her eyes. It was a front to hide the pain she was going through, pain that he had interrupted her way to cope with and for that he was of course sorry to a point. "Josiah and no I don't, if you truly need me I will be there have no fear of that." He gave her a wiry grin as he started to walk away. "Think of this though Childe, the best trick of the devil was to convince mankind that he didn't exist."
Damn riddles, damn people that disappeared before you finished talking, just damn everyone to hell. At that moment and time Shayne could have slaughtered the next person to cross her path and she wouldn't have thought a single thing about that in the least bit. Dropping back onto the dew wet grass and closing her eyes Shayne went back to her thoughts trying to ease her troubled mind and erase the things that were lingering there, the haunting images that played out behind her eyes. Blood splattered walls, the screaming, Blood Brothers, the images were moving so fast that the past and the present were beginning to mesh together. Growling from deep within her throat Shayne finally pushed herself up and looked around wondering how much time had passed, and ignoring the fact that in her haste she had managed to rip and tear some of the newer wounds that were still in the process of healing.
As she continued to walk her attention was drawn to the fact that someone was following her and it was obviously not someone that was use to doing so. As she neared Hollywood Shayne ducked back into an alley expecting them to either walk past her or to walk into her, not surprised when it was the latter of the two she merely folded her arms over her chest before she sighed. Had she not seen Ash that night in the court room she wouldn't have known that he was back, but as far as she was concerned on that night he could have stayed gone.
"You're bleeding."Such a romantic, were all actor's so smooth and sarcastic. "Do all Toreadors state the obvious or is this something new for you? Your point being Ash?" She asked before Shayne leaned back into the wall and let her head fall back against it.
"Why don't you come in the Asp Hole, I haven't gotten around to re-opening it just yet." He offered before he simply reached out and took her arm giving her little to no choice as to if she wanted to go with him or not. "Will get you cleaned up and you can tell me why you're wondering around on your own when you should be out celebrating."
"I don't feel like celebrating with everyone else, I just wanted to be left alone to mourn in private. Although between you and my 'friend' that apparently isn't going to happen tonight," Shayne said with a note of distain in her voice before she let herself be lead through the back door.
The Asp Hole
Hollywood,CA
The Asp Hole was dark, tarps covering the table to protect them from dust but it came alive in a scary sort of way when Ash switched on the lights. Looking around Shayne took in the stage, the bar, the familiar sight of the snake wallpaper. She had spent enough time there before she was embraced that she could tell where little imperfections in things were, the number of tiles in the ceiling, how many lights spun around the stage. The fact that the same song seemed to play over and over again, no matter how many times you asked for it to be changed, leaving you to wonder if that was the only CD the club had.
Setting down on one of the bar stools she looked around before lowering her head, the red streaks running down her cheeks. Sure she had cried before out of frustration and rage but for the first time since she was nineteen years old the tears flowed freely, for those that had died and for herself and the person that she had been at one time. And while the hand that was moving over her back was supposed to be moving in a comforting motion Shayne shrugged it off, trying to avoid any and all contact. She didn't want to be touched, she just wanted to let it out without seeing a sympathetic look and it was why she had wanted to be alone. Finding Ash to be relentless in his attempts Shayne finally gave up trying to stop him, instead she just sat motionless with her head buried in her hands.
"You know eventually the pain of loosing someone fades away but their memory lives on forever so long as you remember them,' Ash cooed before he looked down glancing toward the door before he laughed. "I won't tell you not to be sad and I won't even tell you to let go of it, but what I will tell you is that life is filled with ups and downs, even un-life."
"You think because you're an artist or because your Toreador you can sympathize with my plight, you don't know the half of it Ash and I doubt that you ever will. Yes Isaac embraced you without asking you first if it was what you wanted but at least you had the chance to know your Sire, you didn't get thrown under the bus and have an entire city waiting for you to fail miserably," Shayne could feel herself loosing touch with the fragile reality that she had been holding onto and anger taking over before she could stop it. "What do you think it's like for me, I've been Kindred for how long now and I still don't know half of what I am? I have this blood that courses through my veins and makes me wonder when I'm finally going to explode, I was angry before but now it's like it's the only emotion that I feel comfortable with." She reached for a glass and hurled it toward the wall closest to them and watched as it shattered. "That's how I feel, like I'm leading a damn double life."
He wasn't sure what to think about the outburst and in fact this hadn't been the outcome Ash had been planning for the evening, in fact he had been seeing it of more a romantic beginning. Yet it looked more like he were going to have his balls handed to him in a wine glass than anything else but he couldn't get past the statement she had made about living a double life. It made no sense to the Toreador actor and what made it worse was that he now had a pissed off Brujah roaming around his night club looking as if she might kill the first thing that crossed her path.
"If I don't understand than why don't you explain it too me,' Ash finally said before he shook his head, knowing the chances were that wouldn't be an option. "I want to understand you, but you make it hard because you put up this damn wall around yourself and I can't tell if your self centered enough that you think someone will eventually crash through it or you hope they'll go away." He glared at her as he watched her moving toward the door. "You're nothing more than a spoiled brat that got a lucky break when she got turned into a vampire, you think your something special but sooner or later you'll just burn up and fade away. Then you'll wish you had been more open to the people around you."
If she killed him would they know it was her better yet why was it that he wanted to fight with her now, did he think it would solve anything. Letting her shoulder's slump Shayne threw up her hands before she started for the door, slamming it closed with enough force the exit sign clattered to the floor. She didn't need that, right then and there at that moment and time she didn't need that. What she needed she didn't know but she did know that she felt as if she were a ship drifting at sea with no anchor anymore. Outside she leaned back against the door before she shook her head that was why she wanted to be alone that night more than anything else; she needed to deal in her own way.
The Apartment of Shayne Emerson
Hollywood, CA
Maybe that way how she had ended up back at her apartment, slipping through the empty lobby in silence and making her way to the door. Closing it softly behind herself Shayne looked around realizing that someone had been in and cleaned, the destruction that had been present before was gone but all of her belongings had remained. It was perplexing but something that she would worry about at another time, since for all she knew her new 'friend' was a neat freak and was now anticipating the next move that she would make.
Ash was right in that she put a wall up around herself but he was wrong in thinking she wanted someone to break it down. She built that wall to protect them from her, groaning as she pulled her hair down from its holder Shayne started into the living room when she felt herself collide with a solid form. After a few seconds of being dazed she started to reach for her gun when she felt hands wrapping around her arms pulling her to her feet, and for an instant she wondered if this was how she was going to meet her Final Death. Killed because she was so lost in her own thoughts that she had forgotten and let her guard down, then it hit her a scent that she was use too and the reason why she hadn't noticed it before.
"I don't have to tell you that you look like shit, I think we've already established that,' Nines started before he shook his head, he had waited after Damsel had told him around the apartment he had known that was where she would come back too in the end. He hadn't expected it to be such a mess with no way to walk through the floors without stepping on something but that was another story. "Kid, if you were anyone else I would have put your ass out of it's misery a long time ago."
"Why haven't you, I've served my purpose right. LaCroix is gone the city belongs to the Anarchs, from what I've been taught that should mean I'm pretty well expendable." Shayne regretted saying it the moment that the words came from her lips but she couldn't take them back.
"Is that what you think, that I'm some Nancy pants Prince whose going to kill you because you're not useful to me," Nines asked pushing her back, though it wasn't as hard as he could have. "You know you have a real habit of burning your bridges and while some people might find that cute, it's not one of your more enduring qualities."
Shayne dropped her head down before she took in a deep breath. "I didn't mean that, I'm not mad at you I'm mad at me and to be honest with you I'm just... It's just, I'm pissed damn it." Shayne dropped down into the newly cleaned chair before she pulled her knees up to her chest and then looked up. "Burning bridges is what I do best, once or twice I've met people like you that just won't give up and walk away when I try to get them too."
He sat down on the coffee table, surprised that the flimsy wood could actually hold his weight before he spoke. For the first time stepping out of the role of a leader, a mentor, or a brotherly figure, in fact Nines thought it might have been the first time he was talking to her as himself. It was a different feeling and one that he hadn't faced since his own sire had died at the hands of a Prince, and then the former Anarch Leader had died in battle with the Kuei-Jin.
"Like Cash, he called while I was throwing out year old pizza boxes and trying to sort through the rubbish you had lying around. I answered the phone, because honestly I figured you would be smart enough to call and make sure no one was here first," Nines offered as he leaned forward putting his hands on her knees, looking up he waited to see the expression in her eyes change from one of recognition to one of anger. "He seemed pretty willing to talk, wanted to know if I was your boyfriend, what had happened to you, and got a little quiet when I told him I was Nines Rodriguez."
Shayne laughed letting herself relax a little at the thought of the look on Cash's face when Nines told him that much less the look on his face when a male answered the phone, and the fact there was probably someone getting hell for no reason at that moment. "Hmm I bet he was thrilled about that, I think he assumed that there is still something between us even though it's been over for a long time."
"So you had no idea that you were dating the Gangrel Primogen of San Francisco or that Julian Luna was the biggest asshole Ventrue Prince there is?" Nines asked. "He got chatty after I told him who I was, either he was trying to impress me or frighten me and let's face it Kid I don't scare that easily or you would have already scared the hell out of me."
"Well if I had known that then being turned wouldn't have been such a surprise to me now would it have, I mean I knew they were different but I just thought it was because Luna was a mobster and Cash was his bodyguard,' she snorted. "Guess when I called him Julian Luna's lap dog I wasn't far off huh," she mused before she shook her head slightly and then grinned before rising from the chair.
"What are you doing, I don't see you smile enough not to be suspicious."
Her next course of actions would either change everything between them or it would leave them at a bigger stand still than they were already at, but for that moment and time she wanted to let go and she wanted to let someone get close to her. Reaching down and grabbing his hand she smiled again before shrugging her shoulders.
"Why don't you start from the beginning and tell me about living there."
"Tomorrow, I promise tomorrow I will tell you everything you want to know." Shayne replied speaking in a softer voice than what she would have normally used. "For now though I want to show you something."
