Wow. This update was faster than death. I love myself right now.
Muchisimas gracias to reviewers…
neona-deniker: Hallo! I'm utterly sorry for taking such a long time…do not fear, though. I will continue to vomit up more story—at varying rates—for quite a while. Mara's not in this chapter, but she'll come up in the next one…As to what's going to happen with her, that remains to be seen. He he. Thanks a ton for reviewing and read on…!
galaktis: Hullo! I missed my reviewer-chums too. : ( I'll try to be more timely from now on…Yeah, these characters are freaks…it's kinda like I'm on a sustained trip when I write about them. But I love 'em…thanks for sharing the love…and thanks for reviewing…Read on…!
Sweetie Pie: ::is in the process of completely wigging out:: Ack. You scared me there for a sec with your big bad book o' spells. Yeah, Mara's a creep. So's everyone else… : ) Thanks so so so much for reviewing…Read on…!
Lady Blackfire: Yeah, Ruan's me man, too. He puts the "cute" in "cute bunny" (don't ask). Thanks super-a-ton for reviewing and please do read on…!
Tamashii: Hello…! Don't worry; your shrine is ridiculously shiny….Oh, and don't worry about the whole Red thing either—they're different Reds with the same uber-cool name! A gajillion thanks…Read on…!
Chapter 7: The Marquéd
Winn stepped quietly, cat-soft, and warily out of the icy rain and into the club, shivering from the cold drops of rainwater dripping down her spine. Immediately, Winn was immersed in dark punctuated by glittering staccato lights, surrounded by deep, pulsing music, and human—as well as vampire—bodies moving fluidly, rhythmically; she stared, transfixed, at the scene—like a beating heart, it throbbed darkly. Oddly enough, though Winn was unwaveringly sure that there certainly were vampirae amongst the humans, she could not detect them with eyesight alone. It was more a simple knowing, with the mind and instinct. Based on what she had observed at the meeting of the Marquéd, those whom she identified were not what she would call typical vampirae; their faces, for the most part, were ordinary, not ravishing, and sometimes even homely. To her sustained surprise, Winn noted a general sort of pleasantness in many of those faces. Already Winn felt herself relax; the muscles in her neck and back loosened, her face lost some of its tightness. She prepared to enter the bedlam.
"Excuse me." Winn felt a light tap on her shoulder at the same moment, and jumped a little. She spun around, frowning slightly at the now-chuckling person before her. He was, she saw clearly, even through the darkness and flashing lights, quite tall, lean, his face beautifully molded; his eyes flashed a bright, playful azure, his face narrow, and his chin tapered to an almost elfin point. The hair that curled softly around his jaw was a rich, velvet brown. Her skin prickled. Yes, he was beautiful.
"Sorry," he chuckled, narrow lips turned up in a friendly smile, "but you looked lonely. Sorry I frightened you."
Vampire. Obviously. "I wasn't frightened," she returned automatically, defensively.
"Ah. But you were lonely." He smiled broadly, his teeth a perfect, naked white; they gleamed in the flash of strobe lights. He continued, "I'm Jasper." He held his long, finely-fingered hand out.
Winn noted a gentle accent to his words—Irish? She examined Jasper's hand, as though to make sure it was safe to handle, and tentatively shook it with her own. "Winn." She released the hand.
"You're new here, aren't you? Of course, we already *know*. You know. About you and that other one, Ruan. Red told us."
Winn stared at his shoulder. "Yes…I suppose I am. New." Ruan had apparently neglected to mention the status of their membership in the rebel camp—though, recalling their most recent conversation, she could hardly be surprised.
Nodding slightly, Jasper twisted his long, lean body halfway around and gestured for Winn to follow him. "Come on…Winn. Come meet the rest of us." He began walking towards a smallish group—more vampires—forming a rough circle in a dark, though strobe-light enveloped, niche walled off by several sofas and chairs. Watching his narrow form advance on the group, Winn admitted to herself that this Jasper person was alluring. And if not quite as beautiful as Ruan, he was more—accessible.
Sighing softly, she decided she probably should get to know these—her new *comrades*—people. Taking a shallow breath and holding it, she followed Jasper.
* * *
Wiping drops of something thick and wine-dark from his mouth, Ruan walked swiftly toward the club, feeling the ground vibrate beneath his feet. Scanning the dark, wet, empty street in front of the building, he ducked through the shabby door, out of the dripping night and into a world of thrashing, vibrating motion.
Eyes gleaming, Ruan stood perfectly still for a moment, watching the writhing, flashing, human movement—bare arms, legs jerked with near violence to the dense beat; everyone's hair—long, matted, short, sharp, waxed, greased, sleek, nonexistent—merged, massed together at once. He took a thin breath and turned away. He liked the…mess…of it all; it was—chaos.
Skimming the throngs edging the sea of dancers, Ruan caught a glimpse of a white, delicate line of jaw and throat—Lips turned up slightly, he glided forward. He dipped—silverfish-like—into the surface of her mind and saw—felt—the nervous, glaring red, bleak, depressing grey, and luminescent violet that edged her thoughts, stain-like.
Eyes bright, he smiled a sharp smile; Winn was back.
* * *
As Winn and Jasper stopped at the tiny entrance to the circle, about eight faces turned towards them and smiled. She knew they saw her as sharply and easily as she saw them, even through the dizzying lights and dark. In response to their level stares, her shoulders hunched slightly, and she gazed at them from under her lashes.
Jasper grinned at them and with a flourish declared, "This, my dear friends, is Winn—" he glanced at her questioningly—
"Fallou," she interjected quickly.
"—Fallou, our lovely new comrade." Straightening, Jasper gestured towards a young woman on Winn's left, her face soft, moon-round and kindly-looking, and continued, "This, Winn, is Fiona." Fiona smiled gently and nodded. Jasper pointed at the white-haired young woman on Fiona's left, and went on, "This is Sri. That guy," he pointed at the almost yellow-eyed young man who wore a rakishly tilted top hat and sat next to Sri, "is Jon." Jon smirked roguishly, sharp white teeth showing. Next was a woman who looked to be in her thirties or so, her brown hair wild and her eyes gentle, "This is Nona," Jasper told her, his eyes losing their lively sparkle for a moment as he gestured at the gentle-seeming woman. Next a slight, very young, black-haired boy—Edmund. There the slender, deaf young woman—Dianne. The smallish, creamy-dark, wiry young man—Solo. And Asher, a very tall, very pale, very bony young man. When Winn met his eyes, he seemed almost to blush. His smile was sweet.
Winn smiled softly and looked around at the group. "Nice to meet you," she murmured.
Sri grinned and ushered her over while the others dissolved into spirited conversation. Winn sat hesitantly beside Sri on the pleasantly worn, plum-colored sofa, and took a second glance at the others. She felt almost comfortable. They seemed nicer, to be sure, than the Marquéd. *No,* she corrected herself with an immediate fierceness. ~~The Marquéd are good and worthy...*Lif* is worthy…~~
"You're staring again, " Jasper laughed as he settled between Winn and Sri on the plummy sofa, "and at nothing in particular." Winn's eyes snapped back to Sri and Jasper, and felt, to her mortification, her cheeks flush hotly.
Smiling apologetically, Sri dug her sharp, crimson-tipped nails into Jasper's arm, turned back to Winn, and said, "He's not too bright. I apologize most heartily for him."
With a sudden movement, Jasper snaked forward towards Sri and snapped at her neck. Sri hissed softly, and smacked his cheeks energetically. Jasper squeaked and jerked away, leaning towards Winn. Turning back to Winn, Sri went on, with a vivid, red-lipped smile, "Do tell us why you're here, Winn. I would be most delighted."
Winn smiled tentatively in return. She thought quickly—what to say? Should she mention the Marquéd? What...—
~~Tell them we were formerly of the Marquéd, partridge-little. And that we needed a change. Simply that, and try not to embellish it.~~
With a shock, Winn realized it was *his* voice in her head. Hurriedly pushing away her repugnance and distress, Winn answered almost smoothly, "Ruan—and I needed a change. We were…part of the Marquéd—"
Jasper's twinkling, turquoise eyes and Sri's up-tilted black ones narrowed slightly. "Were you?" Jasper murmured softly.
Winn's eyes widened fractionally, and she continued hastily, "Yes—but—like I said, we—Ruan and I—needed a change." Surprising herself, she spat, under her breath, "We were sick of that great-large morass of conceit."
Nodding seriously, though with her eyes still vaguely narrowed, Sri said in a low voice, "Aren't we all?" Jasper nodded lazily. "Anyway, Winn, what *are* your powers? I hear that Ruan—oh, I saw him at the bar—is quite powerful—and old. I could sense it from across the room…I wonder that he hasn't become the leader of anything yet. But what are your powers?" Winn was surprised at the young woman's earnestness—her cheeks were flushed with excitement, her black eyes glittered.
"Forgive the woman, Winn, she's our resident—well, bitch. She's already caused countless deaths-by-asphyxiation with her questions…" Turning away from Winn, Jasper grinned indolently at the now-outraged Sri.
Winn's narrow shoulders shrugged in her overlarge, greeny-grey jacket and answered, "I'm…not quite sure." She paused and thought quickly— ~~The other day, though, what about then? When I fucking blinked out of the highway and ended up at my place? Power, was it? Should I tell—No. Not yet—not yet.~~ Snapping back to attention, Winn continued, "I have not discovered them yet, I suppose."
Sri lost the frown and answered, "Mmmm. I don't have that much power—I can receive—you know, understand—telepathy, but I can't send it. I guess that's why I'm into records of power—I don't have much of my own, but at least I've some understanding of it." Sri grinned ruefully. She leaned against Jasper digging her fingers into his hair until he winced. "Jasper, on the other hand, is overburdened with the stuff," Jasper lipped at her wrist, and she tugged at his hair. "He can—oh, let him tell you. He's dying to, anyway." She released his hair; Jasper hissed at her playfully and turned to Winn.
"Well, Winn, I don't like to brag—no, really, I can't stand it—but when attentions are forced on one so compliant as I, I simply cannot resist." Winn gazed evenly at him. "Yes, well. Firstly, I possess the power of telepathy. Secondly, I maintain the power of influence." At Winn's blank expression, he went on, "You know, I can make humans do—ah—things through mental influence. And thirdly, I'm telekinetic." Winn nodded, mildly dazed. Smiling benignly, Jasper prodded Sri with a bony elbow.
"Shitty pants!" she squeaked shrilly and sliced at his arm with her nails. Suddenly, she sat up, attempting to gather her shredded dignity; Jasper straightened up in a—characteristically—more leisurely fashion, gazing steadily ahead at something.
Belatedly, as she followed the direction of their glances, Winn felt a familiar wave of coldly profound power wash over her; the hairs on the back of her neck pricked up.
"Ruan."
"Partridge-little."
Jasper, looking from Winn to Ruan and back again, an odd look glimmering in his eyes, leaned back into the sofa. "Hello, Ruan. I'm Jasper."
Winn felt her cheeks flush again and held herself impeccably still, fingers clasped in her lap tightening to bloodless white.
Ruan nodded at Jasper and glanced at the white-haired girl next to him.
"And I am Sri. Nice to meet you, Ruan. We've heard much about you."
"So I hear," he returned laconically. He looked at Winn; she stared somewhere past his left cheek. Studying her, he noted the fevered glow burned into her cheek, the opaque stillness of her dark eyes. ~~I don't want you.~~ The acerbic thought came involuntarily; he saw, with mild interest, Winn automatically absorb the thought. Her sharply-boned face went white, the rosewater flush receding entirely from her lips and cheeks, though her eyes retained their dull, clouded calm.
~~Nor did I want you, Ruan.~~ Winn finally met his gaze. ~~But here we are.~~ A gentle tremor shook her. ~~And until we *finish* this job, we're mired.~~
~~Then let's get the job done quickly, shall we?~~ A bluish cold glinted in his eyes.
~~Let's.~~
Sri and Jasper exchanged quizzical glances. Something was quite obviously off with Winn and Ruan. The electric tension between them was…palpable. Sri felt vaguely disturbed by this Ruan and his cold eyes, frigid beauty; she wasn't the most apt at detecting aura from vampirae, but even she could feel his inherently serpentine, perhaps wicked, tangibly malevolent persona. She glanced at Winn and was troubled further by the colorlessness of her face, and especially by the pall that seemed to have fallen over her eyes. What was wrong here? Noting the intense tension in Winn's shoulders, Sri thought that she could conceivably snap the girl in two. ~~What was wrong here?~~
Ruan finally released Winn from his icy gaze. Fixing his gaze somewhere over her shoulder, he projected, ~~Tomorrow we begin.~~
Holding her hand out before her face, she scrutinized her slim, pale fingers. She recalled a phrase…~~pretty hands…pretty~~…
~~Yes,~~ she thought softly, as Ruan strode away, ~~tomorrow.~~
Comments are indeed welcomed….I'm shining up past reviewers' shrines, obelisks, memorials, and whatnot…*And* I'm in the process of distributing scary bunnies to them as well…So please do review and I'll give you a pot of apricot jelly! : )
