A/N: Here's chapter fifty-two! [double update?] Does Phaedra grow her backbone? Let's find out! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bloodlines, but I do own my OCs. Also, there is yet another lemony scene, if you're not a fan, feel free to skim over it.


"So…" Anastasia crossed her arms behind her back on their stroll leaving the Last Round, "How have you been feeling?"

"How have I been feeling?" Skelter asked slowly, "You're the one who I had to carry home and prop up like a mannequin last time I saw you, I should be asking you."

"I don't know…I just…was wondering if you were as mad as Nines about this whole thing…"

"Yeah, I'm pissed about it. I had him in my hands, but too many of 'em were after Nines. I figured Nines's life was more important than killing the Primogen."

"I wish we killed him…" She sighed.

"I do too. Now he knows we're after him. And we got a spy problem."

She nodded, then her face lit up as she looked ahead, "Rainy!" She started running, hugging the girl Skelter recognized as the one who healed them all from the Tzimisce attack.

"Hello." Rainy said, trying to match the enthusiasm of Anastasia's hug, "I see you returned to your friends." She smiled.

"Uh-huh, with your help." She ruffled her hair.

"I don't…I don't think I ever caught your name…"

"Anastasia."

She squeezed her, "I should be going. But…remember…if you or any of the Anarchs gets attacked by that Tzimisce again, you can call me. I'll give you my number."

"Sweet." She said, getting her phone out, "Have a good night!" She waved once Rainy ran off.

"She looks familiar." Skelter said, "You must have run into her before, huh?"

She nodded, "We kinda look like sisters." She said, "Except we dress a lot differently…and I think my chest is in better shape…" She squeezed her breasts.

He raised a brow and averted his gaze, "You figure out what clan she is yet?"

"I bet my ass in better shape too." She bashed her hips into Skelter's, "What do you think? Whose is bigger?"

He nearly stumbled over in the street, "I don't know, it wasn't like I was checking her out. I don't remember."

"Whatever you say, James."

He crossed his arms like a frustrated child, "Let's just get to the truck."

"Yes, James."

He glared at her before they turned down an alleyway and went into the parking lot behind the Last Round. They got into Skelter's truck, and he almost seemed to freeze as he sat there. He just stared off into nothing, not moving an inch. He was really thinking about something. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"Get in my seat."

"…beg your pardon?" She lightened her voice with a smile.

"I think you heard me." He looked over at her, "Get in my seat."

She snickered, getting out of her seat and getting into his lap, bending slightly so he had an excellent view of her cleavage. He helped situate her, then he peeked in his mirrors to make sure no one else was around. Only then did he reach back and unzip her dress.

She smiled and kissed her lips, fumbling with her feet to get her moccasins off. As her dress fell around her hips, he gently held her breasts, "I think you're right."

"Oh yeah? Right about what?"

"Your…you know." He moved his hands down to her rear and squeezed there too, "Goods."

She laughed and laughed, "Oh, why thank you James." She kissed him, "I love you."

He smiled and rubbed her back, "I love you too." He held her tight, "I'm sorry if I piss you off sometimes."

"It's okay." She squeezed him back, giving an impatient groan, "I need you…"

"Oh yeah?" He asked with a smile, unbuttoning his pants and sliding them down with his underwear just enough. He let blood buff run through his system, "I wanna see how bad."

She unhooked her bra and took it off, crawling down a bit rub her boobs against his length, sandwiching it in between her breasts. He looked like he wanted to stop her, but at the same time, he never wanted it to end. He grabbed the seat to hold himself as still as possible and try to retain some sort of grip on himself.

After a brief while of that, she went a bit lower and started licking his shaft, slowly putting it in her mouth. He grunted out her name and grabbed the back of her head with one of his hands, holding her in place. "Goddammit, 'Stasia…" He spat out through clenched teeth, "You're gonna be the death 'a me…"

"Oh yeah?" She asked, moving herself away. She went back up on his lap and got level with him, "I wanna see how bad."

He rubbed his hands along her hips, "I dunno if I'm in the position to get you back in this damn car-seat…"

"That's alright." She slipped her panties off, reaching her hands down to grab his length. She leaned in and kissed him meanwhile.

"You better be ready down there…"

"I've been ready ever since we left the Last Round…"

He snickered and gently moved her hands out of the way before he rocked into her. "Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I didn't give into you so easy." He squeezed her hips tighter and kept a slower rhythm. She let a shaky moan pass through her lips as she felt herself get penetrated.

For some reason, he felt inclined to really cherish her, to be gentler and less rampant. He pressed his lips to her collarbone and left a warm kiss there, smoothing his hands over her thighs. She seemed to react pleasantly to this, being the relaxed and laidback girl she was. Her hips could easily keep up with the basic rhythm he set, and she grabbed onto him for support, leaving an extra loud sigh when he kissed her collarbone.

He smoothed a hand over her belly and gently tugged her chin down to kiss her lips, "Is this the first time we've…you know, actually made love?"

"What do you mean?" She asked tiredly.

He slowly pulled out and hugged her close, "Any other night, I'd be fucking your brains out…tonight wasn't like that."

"It was nice…I liked it. But…I like any sort of flow…as long as it gets me to come…"

He smiled and pet her hair, "Wanna go back to your place?"

"Uh-huh…" She flopped back in her seat, slipping her bra and panties back on in a half-hearted attempt to look decent, "Sounds good…"


It wasn't a good hunting night for Phaedra. She didn't find a corpse unattended until she reached the shore. Most of it was soggy and littered with sand, but she didn't really have much of a choice, of course, the heavy sounding footsteps and the deep voice behind her soiled the rest of her evening. But at least she was able to finish her meal.

"I see you're tending to your clan weakness." Cedric's voice came, taking out his two scythes, "I suppose now would be an ideal time to continue what we started, since we were last time rudely interrupted by Polonius."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he returned." She mused, "He seems to have the nose of a bloodhound." She grasped for her axe.

"I heard you lost Santa Monica to him."

"Yes, my fault entirely."

"Certainly a glorious victory for the Sabbat." He said, "He is quite the capable warrior, making an extremely good name for himself for our cause." He put a scythe back, a purple mist of skulls came from his hand as he called upon Necromancy. Zombies rose from the ground, as well as quite a few specters, (which again, Phaedra swore specters and their respective shadowlands was a Necromancy path unique to the Nagaraja). It was disorienting having an attack Phaedra used so often to be used against her, as the seemingly invulnerable specters went in for the attack, along with the pack of zombies.

She bashed at them with her axe, but they were still able to make some deep wounds in her. She needed space to create her own army of the dead, but could hardly get any with the zombies behind her and the specter in front of her.

Cedric took a deep breath, the green glow of Fortitude pulsating from his body. The mere activation of Fortitude caused a huge gust of wind to blow, flaring his cape in the air, before he added himself to the chase with both his scythes out.

Phaedra grit her teeth and tried to combat them both before she pushed away from all of them. But she wasn't running. She looked as if she was retreating, but she was giving herself ground. The sand kicked up around her heels as she held her hands up and summoned some of her zombies, enough to distract Cedric's personal army.

Cedric paused, looking around at the zombie warfare, before he continued fighting Phaedra. At least it would be one on one again for a few minutes. She was thankful her clan allowed her to have a bit more muscle mass than clans such as Tremere, especially when Cedric was able to use both scythes at once. Her arms strained under the pressure, but she used her legs to push back against him and shift the direction of his scythes and hopefully deter him. "A shame…I should have fought you before you filled your stomach."

She chuckled, "Yes, you've allowed me to restore my energy."

"It changes nothing." He said as they kept parrying each other's blows, "As you've learned previously, striking me is impossible."

"Mmm, yes, I see that." She mused, jumping back out of the way to summon a specter.

The specter howled as it made its way to Cedric, but Cedric defended himself from its attacks, "I commend you for being able to fight off my two blades with your singular axe for as long as you did…"

"It isn't as if I've been practicing or anything." She stepped back for a moment, gauging his movements for the next attack.

"I'm surprised that you're the same woman who gave up Santa Monica…perhaps it was a closer fight than I heard…"

"Well, I had to protect an innocent."

"Yes…I heard we nearly had the Malkavian Primogen's head."

"Well, she's safe now. You're lucky we can't put you on a Blood Hunt for that."

"It would change nothing. The Camarilla wishes to kill all members of the Sword in the first place. Wouldn't it be a bit redundant?"

"It'd certainly shift our priorities." She said quietly, stepping forward to swing her axe down on his head.

The axe blade shattered against his head. "It's unfortunate that our little rendezvous must cease." He held both his hands out, giving a deep grunt as a purple glow of skulls came from both his hands as he roared. Zombies sprouted from the ground around both of them. It had to be hundreds of them, going beyond a mere 'new wave of zombies.' In addition to that, specters and wraiths that Phaedra was both familiar and unfamiliar with came from the shadowlands and from the underworld. In addition to that, skeletons rose from the ground, some of them utilizing Potence.

The spirits, wraiths, skeletons, and zombies were all gathered around the area, like the rules of death were ceased with the motions of Cedric's hand, and he was using every dead body on the other side. Pisha didn't even know this many Necromantic paths, and she was nearly three centuries old. Cedric pointed at Phaedra, and every creature he had summoned gave a bloodthirsty cry as they rushed towards her.

She looked at her broken axe handle, then back up at the undead. Now was time to run. She booked it, running for the city, towards the streets, where she could get away.


"I wish I could eat…" Cissy was flopped out on the couch, just in her underwear. She claimed she didn't have the energy to get dressed when they woke up. "I'd so order Chinese. It just feels like that sort of day."

"Uh-huh…whatever you say…" Catalina muttered from the kitchen. She absolutely refused to go in the same room as Cissy until she was decent.

There was a pause, then Cissy asked, "So what did that Malkavian say exactly?"

"What…the Phantom's Mask…I don't know…whatever it is…it's coming up relatively soon, like in a week or two."

"No, like, why did he call you Guinevere?"

"I don't know. He was probably just having another crazy episode or something."

"You sure? I'm good for talking, Cat."

"What? You should know that not every Malkavian is right about everything every time. Most of them hear voices in their heads or have a disorder. It's common for them sputter out the first thing on their minds."

"Yeah, but…then he started talking about Lancelot and the sword…I dunno. I was confused."

Catalina closed her eyes, cleaning her weapons was proving to be impossible with Cissy going off about this and that in the other room, "Yeah, it sure was weird." She said, opening her eyes and getting back to work.

"I know you're lying."

"Why would I lie?"

"Because it's a sensitive topic."

She cleaned her sword a bit more furiously, "Whatever…it doesn't matter anyway…I'm not going to be here soon…"

"You're leaving me?" Cissy sat up.

"Akeem found his book."

"Oh…" Cissy looked down, "Yeah…I didn't know that's the only reason you're here…"

"I mean…he said for me to stay Independent, to stay away from other sects. He doesn't know I joined the Anarchs…"

"So you are leaving me."

"Stop saying it like that."

"But…you're my sire…er…like my sire…"

She dropped her sword, it made a loud clatter as it hit the table. She didn't count on Cissy to use any Kindred terminology correctly. It stung in her heart quite a bit. She gave a shaky sigh, "I don't know what to do…"

"…can I come with you?"

She thought about it, "The Anarchs are already going to lose one member…they shouldn't lose two…"

"I just want to be at your side. I can't be alone."

"The Anarchs are nice, don't you get along with them?"

"I do. But I feel like it wouldn't be the same without you."

She sighed, "Well, I can't stay. I can't tell Akeem I joined the Anarchs or he'd probably kill me. I need to leave with him. We're probably leaving in the next few days."

"Can I please come?"

"I think it'd be better if you stayed with the Anarchs. They need help." There was no response. "Cissy?" She asked, "Cissy!"

"What?" Her voice faltered.

She peeked into the room, "Oh…I thought you left…"

She just saw Cissy's face, dark tears stained down her cheeks. "Sorry…"

"…you're crying…?"

"I don't want you to leave…"

She sat on the couch, next to Cissy, yet, leaving a big space between them, "We…haven't known each other that long though…if you stay with the Anarchs, you'll be able to get to know them way better than you ever knew me."

"Cat…I get it. We don't know much about each other." She sniffed, "But I feel like I've known you all my life. I haven't been sober, or clean or not high since I was…sixteen." She shook her head, "That was after I ran away from my family." She sniffed again, "You were the first person who I can remember ever being nice to me and…taking care of me since then. And…I…I don't want to lose that."

"I…didn't know I meant that much to you."

"I'm sorry…" She muttered, "I guess I'm clingy."

"No, no, sometimes…I forget…how hard you've had it…maybe leaving the state is a little rash…"

"Cat…" She swiped some tears out of her eyes and shook her head, "I want you to go with Akeem. That's who you are, that's what you do, that's where you belong. I'll find my own place. I just…" She took a deep sigh, "Need to jump from the nest and try as hard as I fucking can to fly."

"I know I need to be with my clan…but the Anarchs need help. You need help." She said, "This is my fault. I just need to be brave enough to tell Akeem that I joined the Anarchs and that he's going to be leaving by himself."

"Give yourself some time to think about it, and be selfish. Do what you know you have to do."

"Right…" She faced ahead, "I'll think it over."

She stood up. "Well…I'm gonna go get dressed and…do my makeup…"


A/N: I wonder what will come out of Rainy and Anastasia's friendship…Thanks for reading, we hope you liked it! Feel free to leave a review of your thoughts!