He was running like a fool. London's back streets weren't safe at any time, let alone now, now he would be hunted. Why had she asked him to do it, why had he agreed? But he could still see her eyes, looking through him as if he wasn't there and her fingers wrapped around his soul.
Trying to out run the wind, trying to out run his demons that fled after him like storm winds. Impossible to beat them as they hunkered down in his mind and shrieked in savage glee, but he could try, he could run all night if he had too because only in exhaustion would he be able to sleep without dreams. The nightmares would come, and she would be there with burning eyes and icy hands but the dreams, the dreams that haunted him with worse things, worse truths than even his darkest nightmare, exhaustion kept them away.
Whatever happened he had to keep running, because the moment he stopped everything would shatter, mind ,body and spirit.
In the darkness he ran on.
***
The boys had brought her home, to her surprise Lucifer was still with her she had almost decided to put him up for the night, it wouldn't do any harm, he was family. Of course that wouldn't keep her safe from treachery that bond of blood, it hadn't saved her brother…..
She shook the melancholy thoughts away and unlocked the door of the private elevator, a lazy gesture of her hand motioned Lucifer inside and she followed. Every wall was mirrored, every mirror a sensor or a camera. Here she guarded her privacy fiercely, this was her home and had been for well over a century now, rigorously updated, but home none the less.
The lift stopped and she inserted a pass card which allowed her access to her own corridor, she'd caught an assassin that way once, he'd picked the lock on the elevator but hadn't been able to get out, after she'd killed him the carpets had had to be replaced. Too much time with shifters had made her slightly messy when angry.
She stepped out into a neutral hallway, the mental institution green that she'd painted it tended to make her enemies nervous and the few friends she'd invited up calm, the carpet was a deep oatmeal colour, it looked as if should have been cheap but it wasn't, ever inch of it was coated with pressure sensors, if someone came to get her then she intended to know about it.
Her door was a work of art, spiralling patterns of leaves drew the eyes, it looked delicate and ethereal, and was made of lignum vitae, the hardest wood in the world, it wasn't going to be broken by much less than a full body rush and any vampire assassin that tried it, well, the ending would be painful.
Lucifer's whistle of appreciation was noted in the back of her mind as she slipped her key into the slot. It was nice that he hadn't lost his sense of taste being brought up in America, she'd often looked at their ideas of art and cringed. She looked at the sitting room that lay just beyond the door and felt a smile creep onto her face, it was perfect.
The walls were a light yellow pattered in an even lighter shade, the furniture was a deep cream leather and the polished hardwood floor had two beautiful hand-woven white rugs on it. The painting over the fire drew the eye, as it was meant too. It showed four people in period costume, mid Tudor. The two men couldn't have been more different, One was dark haired, mink brown, with frowning blue eyes in a pointed face, the other was hunter, looking about nineteen hair a deep blood red over laughing golden eyes. The two women were also different, her mother, deep black merciless eyes lightened by the artist so that they only looked hawkish, hair so blonde that it looked white against the darkness of her fathers doublet. And right at the front, smiling with an almost childlike air….
"That's you!" She turned to look at Lucifer's stunned face the corner of her mouth tipping up. "Your powers of observation astound me" She watched as he continued to study the painting, his eyes resting for the longest time on Hunters face "We do look alike" Her head inclined "There is a more than passing resemblance, but the differences are there, for those that look" She knew that look, the wounded curiosity and she sighed "Ask" He didn't try to pretend he didn't know, he just asked "Where's the difference?"
Where to begin, to her there was an endless list, but he wouldn't want a full rundown on his character. "Your face is better defined, its your Harman genes, and you don't have the same spirit" For a moment it looked as if he was going to remain silent and the he spoke "I'm glad, I wouldn't want to be remembered as a heartless butcher"
She slapped him then, it sent him careening across the room and into the fireplace, when he looked up something in his eyes was stunned, as if he'd forgotten that she was centuries old and had only seen the tiny body. "You talk like a Daybreaker" It wasn't the violent hiss she'd expected her voice was flatly calm as she advanced on this boy who looked so like her lost brother. "People put their lives at risk to save you" Darkness bloomed in the gold and his thoughts almost shouted at her, this time her answer was a hiss.
"You judge your cousin by your morals, how dare you" she wanted to pick him up and shake him "She risked her life to get you to me, because you were family, perhaps I should have let her drop you on Descoudre's doorstep, you would make a good Daybreaker" She turned away and looked back up at the portrait tracing the aged cracks in Holbeins work, she felt Lucifer pick himself off of the floor and watch her. "He was a murderer" She didn't turn "He was family, blood is thicker than water"
The silence stretched "Anywhere else justice is more important than family" it wasn't said like an accusation, merely as if he was trying to puzzle something out "This is the Night World, things don't happen that way here" Another silence and then a sigh "Daybreak manage though" She laughed and it was mirthless "They're trying to escape" for a second he was moving a rapid back and forth pacing before he spoke "They seem to be succeeding" his accent was disappearing, a good thing, eventually he wouldn't want to be traced by it. "You can't escape the Night World" she turned back to him eyes flickering from colour to colour "Its in the blood, so to speak"
He looked to be readying an argument but she pinned him with eyes that were a sudden burning silver. "Don't name names, I can rip all your arguments to shreds" he still looked defiant and she slumped onto the sofa in a parody of her normal grace "Give me a name then, I see you want to" A sudden flash of malice deep in his eyes brought a suppressed smile to the front of her mind, he was learning fast, even if it didn't register "Delos Redfern" Every muscle in her body flinched, that had been calculated cruelty that she had thought was still beyond him but she met his eyes, her own a deep gold misted with grey.
"Very, very, good Lucifer, you've learnt to hate already, I would have thought it to take longer" His entire body flinched and she felt the vindication of revenge. "Delos killed to save his soulmate, like an animal caught in a trap, he killed to get his own way, his grandfather and over one hundred others. It is the Night World way, but it is normally family against outsiders, only the soulmate connection, the Redfern curse negates it. Even Lynx would kill to protect family for all her assassins morals"
Lucifer was still, a battle waging in his eyes, she saw to the very moment when the part of him that knew the Night World worked won over the part that wanted in on the Daybreak heroic of his cousins. He looked like Hunter but he wasn't, he was too easily won over, too interested in the feelings of others, too human. But it was changing and changing fast, the Night World bread monsters, and so when they grew they became monsters to survive. Any softness had to be coated in a thousand tonnes of steel so that it was never noticed, ever kind word surrounded by venom until you were unassailable.
Some said that the way of the Night World was killing them, destroying hearts and minds, but it didn't, because of the soulmate connection, because of the hope they held, that once they were free of hunters, of people who killed for the joy of it, that they could be what they had once been. She couldn't believe it, but she would respect the right of the others, like Lucifer to try, but she wanted them to protect themselves, not leave it all open to assassination like Daybreak.
He was watching her and she let her eyes slip into the deep morning glory blue that reflected her own brand of content. "To bed now Lucifer, dream of peace and perhaps we'll attain it" The change of subject caught him for a moment and then he smiled at the fragile olive branch "I'll try Amaris, but I'm more likely to dream of blood" She nodded, understanding mirrored in her eyes and a twinkle of mischief "Try not to mess the bed up this time" he flushed and walked away towards the guest room she occasionally leant him.
She wouldn't sleep tonight, turning she looked into the flames in the fireplace, dreams of blood were bad enough, tonight she feared to dream of betrayal.
Trying to out run the wind, trying to out run his demons that fled after him like storm winds. Impossible to beat them as they hunkered down in his mind and shrieked in savage glee, but he could try, he could run all night if he had too because only in exhaustion would he be able to sleep without dreams. The nightmares would come, and she would be there with burning eyes and icy hands but the dreams, the dreams that haunted him with worse things, worse truths than even his darkest nightmare, exhaustion kept them away.
Whatever happened he had to keep running, because the moment he stopped everything would shatter, mind ,body and spirit.
In the darkness he ran on.
***
The boys had brought her home, to her surprise Lucifer was still with her she had almost decided to put him up for the night, it wouldn't do any harm, he was family. Of course that wouldn't keep her safe from treachery that bond of blood, it hadn't saved her brother…..
She shook the melancholy thoughts away and unlocked the door of the private elevator, a lazy gesture of her hand motioned Lucifer inside and she followed. Every wall was mirrored, every mirror a sensor or a camera. Here she guarded her privacy fiercely, this was her home and had been for well over a century now, rigorously updated, but home none the less.
The lift stopped and she inserted a pass card which allowed her access to her own corridor, she'd caught an assassin that way once, he'd picked the lock on the elevator but hadn't been able to get out, after she'd killed him the carpets had had to be replaced. Too much time with shifters had made her slightly messy when angry.
She stepped out into a neutral hallway, the mental institution green that she'd painted it tended to make her enemies nervous and the few friends she'd invited up calm, the carpet was a deep oatmeal colour, it looked as if should have been cheap but it wasn't, ever inch of it was coated with pressure sensors, if someone came to get her then she intended to know about it.
Her door was a work of art, spiralling patterns of leaves drew the eyes, it looked delicate and ethereal, and was made of lignum vitae, the hardest wood in the world, it wasn't going to be broken by much less than a full body rush and any vampire assassin that tried it, well, the ending would be painful.
Lucifer's whistle of appreciation was noted in the back of her mind as she slipped her key into the slot. It was nice that he hadn't lost his sense of taste being brought up in America, she'd often looked at their ideas of art and cringed. She looked at the sitting room that lay just beyond the door and felt a smile creep onto her face, it was perfect.
The walls were a light yellow pattered in an even lighter shade, the furniture was a deep cream leather and the polished hardwood floor had two beautiful hand-woven white rugs on it. The painting over the fire drew the eye, as it was meant too. It showed four people in period costume, mid Tudor. The two men couldn't have been more different, One was dark haired, mink brown, with frowning blue eyes in a pointed face, the other was hunter, looking about nineteen hair a deep blood red over laughing golden eyes. The two women were also different, her mother, deep black merciless eyes lightened by the artist so that they only looked hawkish, hair so blonde that it looked white against the darkness of her fathers doublet. And right at the front, smiling with an almost childlike air….
"That's you!" She turned to look at Lucifer's stunned face the corner of her mouth tipping up. "Your powers of observation astound me" She watched as he continued to study the painting, his eyes resting for the longest time on Hunters face "We do look alike" Her head inclined "There is a more than passing resemblance, but the differences are there, for those that look" She knew that look, the wounded curiosity and she sighed "Ask" He didn't try to pretend he didn't know, he just asked "Where's the difference?"
Where to begin, to her there was an endless list, but he wouldn't want a full rundown on his character. "Your face is better defined, its your Harman genes, and you don't have the same spirit" For a moment it looked as if he was going to remain silent and the he spoke "I'm glad, I wouldn't want to be remembered as a heartless butcher"
She slapped him then, it sent him careening across the room and into the fireplace, when he looked up something in his eyes was stunned, as if he'd forgotten that she was centuries old and had only seen the tiny body. "You talk like a Daybreaker" It wasn't the violent hiss she'd expected her voice was flatly calm as she advanced on this boy who looked so like her lost brother. "People put their lives at risk to save you" Darkness bloomed in the gold and his thoughts almost shouted at her, this time her answer was a hiss.
"You judge your cousin by your morals, how dare you" she wanted to pick him up and shake him "She risked her life to get you to me, because you were family, perhaps I should have let her drop you on Descoudre's doorstep, you would make a good Daybreaker" She turned away and looked back up at the portrait tracing the aged cracks in Holbeins work, she felt Lucifer pick himself off of the floor and watch her. "He was a murderer" She didn't turn "He was family, blood is thicker than water"
The silence stretched "Anywhere else justice is more important than family" it wasn't said like an accusation, merely as if he was trying to puzzle something out "This is the Night World, things don't happen that way here" Another silence and then a sigh "Daybreak manage though" She laughed and it was mirthless "They're trying to escape" for a second he was moving a rapid back and forth pacing before he spoke "They seem to be succeeding" his accent was disappearing, a good thing, eventually he wouldn't want to be traced by it. "You can't escape the Night World" she turned back to him eyes flickering from colour to colour "Its in the blood, so to speak"
He looked to be readying an argument but she pinned him with eyes that were a sudden burning silver. "Don't name names, I can rip all your arguments to shreds" he still looked defiant and she slumped onto the sofa in a parody of her normal grace "Give me a name then, I see you want to" A sudden flash of malice deep in his eyes brought a suppressed smile to the front of her mind, he was learning fast, even if it didn't register "Delos Redfern" Every muscle in her body flinched, that had been calculated cruelty that she had thought was still beyond him but she met his eyes, her own a deep gold misted with grey.
"Very, very, good Lucifer, you've learnt to hate already, I would have thought it to take longer" His entire body flinched and she felt the vindication of revenge. "Delos killed to save his soulmate, like an animal caught in a trap, he killed to get his own way, his grandfather and over one hundred others. It is the Night World way, but it is normally family against outsiders, only the soulmate connection, the Redfern curse negates it. Even Lynx would kill to protect family for all her assassins morals"
Lucifer was still, a battle waging in his eyes, she saw to the very moment when the part of him that knew the Night World worked won over the part that wanted in on the Daybreak heroic of his cousins. He looked like Hunter but he wasn't, he was too easily won over, too interested in the feelings of others, too human. But it was changing and changing fast, the Night World bread monsters, and so when they grew they became monsters to survive. Any softness had to be coated in a thousand tonnes of steel so that it was never noticed, ever kind word surrounded by venom until you were unassailable.
Some said that the way of the Night World was killing them, destroying hearts and minds, but it didn't, because of the soulmate connection, because of the hope they held, that once they were free of hunters, of people who killed for the joy of it, that they could be what they had once been. She couldn't believe it, but she would respect the right of the others, like Lucifer to try, but she wanted them to protect themselves, not leave it all open to assassination like Daybreak.
He was watching her and she let her eyes slip into the deep morning glory blue that reflected her own brand of content. "To bed now Lucifer, dream of peace and perhaps we'll attain it" The change of subject caught him for a moment and then he smiled at the fragile olive branch "I'll try Amaris, but I'm more likely to dream of blood" She nodded, understanding mirrored in her eyes and a twinkle of mischief "Try not to mess the bed up this time" he flushed and walked away towards the guest room she occasionally leant him.
She wouldn't sleep tonight, turning she looked into the flames in the fireplace, dreams of blood were bad enough, tonight she feared to dream of betrayal.