Title: Darkness of Companions
Based on: Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde
Summary: A sequel to Companions of the Night. Kerry's life is threatened by an unidentifiable source Ethan/Michel seems to understand. He becomes her champion as she recedes farther into the darkness.
Rated: PG13
Author's Note: I do not own any characters. If you don't understand something in this chapter, feel free to ask in a review or email me. I love feedback, so tell me if you like it, hate it, want to make it into a 3 part mini-series. let me know. ~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
The piano orchestrated an unidentifiable tune as Michel's long fingers bounced along the keys violently. He crashed to a halt as she entered the room.
"What are you doing?"
"Venting." He moved away from the piano, grabbed a book from the shelf, and opened it to an indefinite page. He continued reading as she made her way to the baby grand piano and executed a perfect Greensleeves. She beamed in pride and ran her hand across the keys, looking to him for approval. "Your beat is slightly off."
"So did you ever go to Japan?" His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. Probably wondering why she was still talking to him after he insulted her.
"No."
"Why not?"
He remained silent until she figured he wasn't going to answer and she turned back to the piano. His vampiric silent agility caused her not to hear him come up behind her. She jumped as his cool hand touched her briefly on the shoulder. "Something more important came up."
*Silence*
"Can vampires fly?"
"You've been watching too much Queen of the Damned, Lestat would be amused."
*Silence again*
"Will you teach me?"
"What. to fly? Even if I could, I doubt a mortal."
"No you fool! How to perform Greensleeves correctly."
He sat down almost relieved on the bench beside her and started to run his fingers over the keys in the familiar melody. Her eyes became heavy and she drooped fast asleep onto his steady shoulder. He skimmed his mouth over her knuckles and murmured that she played it fine the first time before scooping her up and carrying her to bed.
Kerry awoke as the last fingers of Michel's caressing sleep faded. The most relaxed and comfortable sleeps she ever had were Michel induced. The dreams were good too- vivid, realistic, and. ok erotic. but only sometimes.
She sat up with a start as it all started to pull together. My God! He was stalking her. During those two years he must have been around. How could she have thought he was never there? Reason overcame her panicked conclusion, but it only let her see the facts more clearly.
He knew her favourite movie was Queen of the Damned. It could have been a coincidence, but why would he pick that movie when there were so many shoddier vampire movies out there. He knew her house, and especially her room like the back of his hand. He had gone directly there from the stairs when he had 4 other closed doors to choose from, and he took her suitcase from under the bed. Ok she was rambling. It only would have taken him a day or two to find out all this information.
But it was so much nicer to think he had been there. She was going to have to be pleasant to him now- well only if he was pleasant to her.
She rubbed her hands over her eyes and swung her feet out of bed. The cold floor almost made her wet herself as she realized her bladder wasn't used to waking up mid-afternoon. She rushed to the bathroom and relieved herself then took a shower. Sitting on the side of her bed towel-drying her hair she noticed a note beside the alarm clock.
Kerry
Don't leave the house. Feel free to explore it; my room is all the way down this hall on the left. don't open it. You're a smart girl, I'm sure you can figure out why- eventually. Don't phone out. Don't sign into any of your accounts if you go online. Remember, vampires have minions who can be around during the day. Don't open the door. Don't open any blinds, it might attract unwanted attention plus be dangerous in a vampire house. Don't make any noise. I don't have a reason why. just don't.
Jesus!!! She wondered if breathing would offend him. She tried to reason with herself that the note just meant he cared, but she would rather just take a swing at him. Figure it out eventually. asshole. She found herself wandering into his kitchen. A quick inspection of the room revealed that he had no edible food. She did find a molding mass in the fridge, which she didn't want to closely inspect for fear it might reach out and grab her nose. She opted for a cup of coffee and the pleasure of nagging him later.
She figured taking him up on that offer to explore would be the most productive thing to do with the time. Besides, she had always wondered what was in every room in this grand old house. When she was a little girl she would always tell her mom she would own this house when she grew up. Her mom never laughed at her fantasy, but she had once caught her mom looking at the house frightened. After that she tried not to mention it.
When she was seven her parents got into their first huge fight and Kerry had snuck out of the house as they were yelling at each other across the room. Currently Kerry stopped walking through the hall as the memories assailed her. Her mother had told her father that she had to leave- he knew the time would come. Her father had yelled some nasty things at her mom and she had picked up a vase ready to throw it at his head.
Kerry had been terrified. She didn't know what to do. She had run out of their old house and ran until she was lost. Didn't her parents love her anymore? Her mommy must not, she wanted to leave and hurt daddy with a vase. And her daddy was just as bad, calling her mommy names. Kerry sat down on a curb and cried. When she finally was able to open her eyes through her tears she noticed she was only a block away from her dream house. It was the only place she ever felt welcome in- like it was calling to her.
She ran across the street and almost got hit by a car. The driver honked and yelled at her through the car door. She began to cry again; not realizing the driver was probably just as scared as her. She crawled under the fence to the back yard trying to get away from the scary and offensive world. There was a tire swing hanging from a tree, and empty pool that desperately needed to be swept out, and an old tennis court with shrubs growing through cracks in the old cement. To Kerry it was heaven.
She scrambled into the tire swing and rocked back and forth as she let out all her miseries. The sun started to set and still she swung, making plans to live in her castle forever. The darkness started to scare her and she thought she could hear noises of something moving.
Then he came. The prince of the castle. He looked just like a fairy tale. Tall, dark, handsome and kind. She loved him immediately.
"Hi there." He sat down on a picnic bench in front of the swing. She looked at him and grinned for the first time in hours.
"Hi." Her voice cracked as she wiped tears off her face and sniffed hard. He laughed and pulled out an old fashioned handkerchief and gave it to her. She grinned tearfully and blew her nose and tried to give him back the cloth. He objected and he helped her off the swing. She stumbled a few feet and tripped over a tree root. The knight scooped her up and carried her towards the house. Something in Kerry's young mind protested as she sensed he wasn't really rescuing her at all. Suddenly her mom was there and she looked even more terrified as she grabbed her away from the man.
The man and her mommy said a few things that Kerry didn't understand. Then her mom had brought her home, crying along with her the whole way. She had promised her mom never to go back to the house.
Presently Kerry found herself staring apprehensively out the back window into the neat back yard. She sat down where she was standing and tried to focus on breathing. Oh God- was that real?
What the hell was going on?
Her afternoon was filled with wonderment at both the contents of his house and her memories. She found a library filled with antique books. In a glass case was an original Shakespeare manuscript. She was awed. An original Agitha Christie mystery was jammed between two bird-watching books. The glossy cover of a new book drew her towards a shelf. She had to grin at Michel's eccentricities as she found a whole shelf dedicated towards paperback bestsellers.
She found a steamy romance and hooted with laughter as she snuggled into the couch and started to read. This is how Michel found her hours later.
"Have you eaten?"
She jumped up from the book she was engrossed in and glowered at him. "I'm not very picky with my food, but I don't eat mold and I don't eat rats. Those seem to be the only thing plentiful around here."
"Well excuse me Miss Omnivore. If I had food it would just mean humans have been around here lately, and that should worry you a lot more than moldy zucchini."
"Is that what it was? I couldn't tell with the tentacles swarming out of it. Any second it might spawn tiny zucchini mutants and take over your fridge."
"Haha. I'm going out to find food. I'll bring you back something. Any requests?"
"Preferably nothing that ever had blood."
He stood up abruptly. "Someone's in a snarly mood. I'll just leave you here with your panties in a twist."
"Wait. Have you ever lured any other children into your back yard?"
"What?" He looked at her closely. "I don't know what you're talking about." He turned and walked out of the room calling his monotonous warning about what she couldn't do. She blocked him out and went back to reading her book.
It didn't take long before she heard him reenter. The door slammed closed and she could hear him move towards the kitchen. She got up and started to walk towards him, about to call out a scathing remark she had been thinking of since he left. She stopped dead. Something was wrong.
A strange voice echoed through the still house. "Well he might not be here to welcome us, but he left us a snack." She knew they sure as hell weren't talking about the zucchini. She turned around and fled towards the back of the house. She slammed into the basement and locked the door firmly behind her. As soon as she found herself in the dark room she knew it was a stupid mistake. She turned on the light and spotted a cellar door on the other side of expansive basement. She hurried over and found it surprisingly unlocked.
Not pausing to wonder if this was some sort of trap she hoisted herself out and began to run across the yard. A cold hand clamped around her arm. She tried to kick him in the shins, but that hadn't worked with Michel either.
"Well well, what have we here? A little trespasser."
"Let go of me you megalomaniacal vampire!" He frowned and her foot connected with shins. She continued to run wondering which had shocked him more- the word megalomaniac or vampire. Unluckily she ran right into the swing. She really should have remembered it was there. It slowed her down as she pushed it out of the way. Even vampire sensory couldn't stop a wild swing from crashing into this unknown predator's face. She reached the gate on the back fence and it swung open before she reached it. Considering this lucky, she dove through it and hopefully into safety.
This was not the case. She was tackled to the ground a second before the back gate. The man put a hand against her throat and growled for her to be a good little girl. She knew it would be no use to fight but she gathered her energy for one last valiant struggle. He sensed this and held tighter as he lowered his mouth to her throat.
Instead of fighting she surprised him by calling out Michel's name as loud as she could and yet it didn't come out much more than a croak. He paused and looked at her through the dark. "You know Michel?"
"Get the hell off her Lestat." Snarled a cold familiar voice to her right. If voices could kill. oh well he was probably dead anyways. The man pulled away and Michel stooped over and helped her to her feet frowning at bloodstains on her top. He roughly pulled away the curtain of her hair looking for the telltale signs of the incisors. He pulled her shivering body closer to him and turned around to face the other vampire ferociously. He ended up almost grinning at him.
"How the hell did she break your nose?"
Before their eyes his nose healed and the blood disappeared. "Swing." He muttered sullenly. Michel squeezed her arm gently and started to walk towards the house.
"Kerry, I'd like you to meet Lestat. Lestat, your latest prey here is the girl I told you about." He felt Kerry shudder in his arms and his attention was drawn to her lack of dress. "This is becoming a habit for you to leave the house without footwear or a jacket." He sighed and pulled off his leather jacket, which he had surely stolen from her room and gave it to her. Then swooped her up and easily carried her around the house and through the front door.
An auburn haired woman looked over as they entered the house. She hovered around Michel and Kerry, wringing her hands nervously. "Oh Michel, when I figured out Lestat had went after that girl you asked us to help you save I didn't know what to do. It was obviously too late." She broke off surprised when Kerry looked at her wide-eyed. The small lady relaxed. "So he didn't drink that much from her. Is she alright?"
Michel burst out laughing. "I think you should be asking your husband that question." They all looked at the roguishly grinning vampire as he rubbed his nose ruefully.
"She broke my nose." The red head burst out laughing merrily and grabbed Kerry's freezing hand with her own.
"I'm Jesse. I can't tell you how amusing it is to see the debonair larger- than-life Lestat bested by a mortal girl."
"I'm Kerry. I'd say it was a pleasure but I'm still shaking." Michel carried her into the kitchen and she didn't protest, she didn't have the energy to do so. Just the pleasure of being in his arms.
He dropped her rather abruptly into a chair and she snarled. The table was quite burdened with food he had just bought and she grabbed a bag of Chinese takeout and dug into the rice. It was the first thing she had eaten since lunch the day before, and although she had gone longer without food the weight in her stomach was a delight. The two newcomers (it seemed strange to call them that for they must be centuries older than she) looked at her in repulsion as she devoured the food as if she had taken up cannibalism.
"Uh, sorry. I could go eat somewhere else."
Lestat seemed to still be harbouring homicidal tendencies towards her, but Jesse was friendly as usual. "That's fine. I'm sure our eating habits are just as gross to you." She jarred Michel with her elbow. "She seems to really enjoy eating rice."
Lestat stopped looking as if he was plotting ways for her to die and started chortling as Michel started to run his fingers through his hair as he only does when he's uneasy. Kerry could not see anything funny or the least bit dirty in that line. Michel changed the subject with surprising speed.
"How could you not avoid a swing? They don't just pop out of no where."
Lestat put his hand on the fridge door. "I need something to drink." He opened the door and peered in at the zucchini. He picked it up and looked closely at it. Kerry pushed away her food in disgust. "I think there's a whole colony of aliens in here. Eugh. it licked me!" He tossed it against the wall where it splattered in a huge puke-green blob and the smell started to permeate.
Michel did not look amused.
"Would the two of you stop making fun of my colony. I mean zucchini. Seriously Lestat- how did you manage to get hit by a swing?"
He ran a hand through his dark blonde streaked hair and looked at them sullenly. "It came out of no where. It was just hanging there normally then it jerks up and hit me on the nose. It was unnatural I tell you." By that time they had moved into the living room where the air wasn't as bad.
"Is a Quhadilne helping her?"
Kerry jerked awake from her probably Michel provoked drowsy state and looked Jesse straight in the eye. "A what?" She found her head on Michel's lap and refused to blush. He looked at her in almost surprise.
"I thought you were asleep." He muttered with his hand paused within her hair.
"You should know." She never took her eyes from Jesse's until the woman explained what she was murmuring about.
"A Quhadilne is psychic, telekinetic, but much more. They can control the future, change the past, and rule the present. It may be hard for a mortal to understand their powers." Lestat shot her a look telling her to keep quiet, but she kept explaining to a wide-eyed Kerry. "There hasn't been the Quhadila for centuries. Oh dear, I've managed to confuse you. The Quhadila is the one with the ultimate power, Quahadilne are those with lesser power and never live beyond twenty-five. If a vampire drinks from the Quhadila and converts her, both of them will be able to live as mortals, yet stay immortal."
"So you think one of these lesser power enchiladas are helping me?" She poked Michel in the chest. "Would you stop it, I don't want to go to sleep." She murmured quietly. Michel continued to stroke her hair to placate her and comfort him for what he had to say next.
"That's why I called you two to help me. I don't think she is getting help from one, I think she is one."
~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@
Based on: Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde
Summary: A sequel to Companions of the Night. Kerry's life is threatened by an unidentifiable source Ethan/Michel seems to understand. He becomes her champion as she recedes farther into the darkness.
Rated: PG13
Author's Note: I do not own any characters. If you don't understand something in this chapter, feel free to ask in a review or email me. I love feedback, so tell me if you like it, hate it, want to make it into a 3 part mini-series. let me know. ~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
The piano orchestrated an unidentifiable tune as Michel's long fingers bounced along the keys violently. He crashed to a halt as she entered the room.
"What are you doing?"
"Venting." He moved away from the piano, grabbed a book from the shelf, and opened it to an indefinite page. He continued reading as she made her way to the baby grand piano and executed a perfect Greensleeves. She beamed in pride and ran her hand across the keys, looking to him for approval. "Your beat is slightly off."
"So did you ever go to Japan?" His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. Probably wondering why she was still talking to him after he insulted her.
"No."
"Why not?"
He remained silent until she figured he wasn't going to answer and she turned back to the piano. His vampiric silent agility caused her not to hear him come up behind her. She jumped as his cool hand touched her briefly on the shoulder. "Something more important came up."
*Silence*
"Can vampires fly?"
"You've been watching too much Queen of the Damned, Lestat would be amused."
*Silence again*
"Will you teach me?"
"What. to fly? Even if I could, I doubt a mortal."
"No you fool! How to perform Greensleeves correctly."
He sat down almost relieved on the bench beside her and started to run his fingers over the keys in the familiar melody. Her eyes became heavy and she drooped fast asleep onto his steady shoulder. He skimmed his mouth over her knuckles and murmured that she played it fine the first time before scooping her up and carrying her to bed.
Kerry awoke as the last fingers of Michel's caressing sleep faded. The most relaxed and comfortable sleeps she ever had were Michel induced. The dreams were good too- vivid, realistic, and. ok erotic. but only sometimes.
She sat up with a start as it all started to pull together. My God! He was stalking her. During those two years he must have been around. How could she have thought he was never there? Reason overcame her panicked conclusion, but it only let her see the facts more clearly.
He knew her favourite movie was Queen of the Damned. It could have been a coincidence, but why would he pick that movie when there were so many shoddier vampire movies out there. He knew her house, and especially her room like the back of his hand. He had gone directly there from the stairs when he had 4 other closed doors to choose from, and he took her suitcase from under the bed. Ok she was rambling. It only would have taken him a day or two to find out all this information.
But it was so much nicer to think he had been there. She was going to have to be pleasant to him now- well only if he was pleasant to her.
She rubbed her hands over her eyes and swung her feet out of bed. The cold floor almost made her wet herself as she realized her bladder wasn't used to waking up mid-afternoon. She rushed to the bathroom and relieved herself then took a shower. Sitting on the side of her bed towel-drying her hair she noticed a note beside the alarm clock.
Kerry
Don't leave the house. Feel free to explore it; my room is all the way down this hall on the left. don't open it. You're a smart girl, I'm sure you can figure out why- eventually. Don't phone out. Don't sign into any of your accounts if you go online. Remember, vampires have minions who can be around during the day. Don't open the door. Don't open any blinds, it might attract unwanted attention plus be dangerous in a vampire house. Don't make any noise. I don't have a reason why. just don't.
Jesus!!! She wondered if breathing would offend him. She tried to reason with herself that the note just meant he cared, but she would rather just take a swing at him. Figure it out eventually. asshole. She found herself wandering into his kitchen. A quick inspection of the room revealed that he had no edible food. She did find a molding mass in the fridge, which she didn't want to closely inspect for fear it might reach out and grab her nose. She opted for a cup of coffee and the pleasure of nagging him later.
She figured taking him up on that offer to explore would be the most productive thing to do with the time. Besides, she had always wondered what was in every room in this grand old house. When she was a little girl she would always tell her mom she would own this house when she grew up. Her mom never laughed at her fantasy, but she had once caught her mom looking at the house frightened. After that she tried not to mention it.
When she was seven her parents got into their first huge fight and Kerry had snuck out of the house as they were yelling at each other across the room. Currently Kerry stopped walking through the hall as the memories assailed her. Her mother had told her father that she had to leave- he knew the time would come. Her father had yelled some nasty things at her mom and she had picked up a vase ready to throw it at his head.
Kerry had been terrified. She didn't know what to do. She had run out of their old house and ran until she was lost. Didn't her parents love her anymore? Her mommy must not, she wanted to leave and hurt daddy with a vase. And her daddy was just as bad, calling her mommy names. Kerry sat down on a curb and cried. When she finally was able to open her eyes through her tears she noticed she was only a block away from her dream house. It was the only place she ever felt welcome in- like it was calling to her.
She ran across the street and almost got hit by a car. The driver honked and yelled at her through the car door. She began to cry again; not realizing the driver was probably just as scared as her. She crawled under the fence to the back yard trying to get away from the scary and offensive world. There was a tire swing hanging from a tree, and empty pool that desperately needed to be swept out, and an old tennis court with shrubs growing through cracks in the old cement. To Kerry it was heaven.
She scrambled into the tire swing and rocked back and forth as she let out all her miseries. The sun started to set and still she swung, making plans to live in her castle forever. The darkness started to scare her and she thought she could hear noises of something moving.
Then he came. The prince of the castle. He looked just like a fairy tale. Tall, dark, handsome and kind. She loved him immediately.
"Hi there." He sat down on a picnic bench in front of the swing. She looked at him and grinned for the first time in hours.
"Hi." Her voice cracked as she wiped tears off her face and sniffed hard. He laughed and pulled out an old fashioned handkerchief and gave it to her. She grinned tearfully and blew her nose and tried to give him back the cloth. He objected and he helped her off the swing. She stumbled a few feet and tripped over a tree root. The knight scooped her up and carried her towards the house. Something in Kerry's young mind protested as she sensed he wasn't really rescuing her at all. Suddenly her mom was there and she looked even more terrified as she grabbed her away from the man.
The man and her mommy said a few things that Kerry didn't understand. Then her mom had brought her home, crying along with her the whole way. She had promised her mom never to go back to the house.
Presently Kerry found herself staring apprehensively out the back window into the neat back yard. She sat down where she was standing and tried to focus on breathing. Oh God- was that real?
What the hell was going on?
Her afternoon was filled with wonderment at both the contents of his house and her memories. She found a library filled with antique books. In a glass case was an original Shakespeare manuscript. She was awed. An original Agitha Christie mystery was jammed between two bird-watching books. The glossy cover of a new book drew her towards a shelf. She had to grin at Michel's eccentricities as she found a whole shelf dedicated towards paperback bestsellers.
She found a steamy romance and hooted with laughter as she snuggled into the couch and started to read. This is how Michel found her hours later.
"Have you eaten?"
She jumped up from the book she was engrossed in and glowered at him. "I'm not very picky with my food, but I don't eat mold and I don't eat rats. Those seem to be the only thing plentiful around here."
"Well excuse me Miss Omnivore. If I had food it would just mean humans have been around here lately, and that should worry you a lot more than moldy zucchini."
"Is that what it was? I couldn't tell with the tentacles swarming out of it. Any second it might spawn tiny zucchini mutants and take over your fridge."
"Haha. I'm going out to find food. I'll bring you back something. Any requests?"
"Preferably nothing that ever had blood."
He stood up abruptly. "Someone's in a snarly mood. I'll just leave you here with your panties in a twist."
"Wait. Have you ever lured any other children into your back yard?"
"What?" He looked at her closely. "I don't know what you're talking about." He turned and walked out of the room calling his monotonous warning about what she couldn't do. She blocked him out and went back to reading her book.
It didn't take long before she heard him reenter. The door slammed closed and she could hear him move towards the kitchen. She got up and started to walk towards him, about to call out a scathing remark she had been thinking of since he left. She stopped dead. Something was wrong.
A strange voice echoed through the still house. "Well he might not be here to welcome us, but he left us a snack." She knew they sure as hell weren't talking about the zucchini. She turned around and fled towards the back of the house. She slammed into the basement and locked the door firmly behind her. As soon as she found herself in the dark room she knew it was a stupid mistake. She turned on the light and spotted a cellar door on the other side of expansive basement. She hurried over and found it surprisingly unlocked.
Not pausing to wonder if this was some sort of trap she hoisted herself out and began to run across the yard. A cold hand clamped around her arm. She tried to kick him in the shins, but that hadn't worked with Michel either.
"Well well, what have we here? A little trespasser."
"Let go of me you megalomaniacal vampire!" He frowned and her foot connected with shins. She continued to run wondering which had shocked him more- the word megalomaniac or vampire. Unluckily she ran right into the swing. She really should have remembered it was there. It slowed her down as she pushed it out of the way. Even vampire sensory couldn't stop a wild swing from crashing into this unknown predator's face. She reached the gate on the back fence and it swung open before she reached it. Considering this lucky, she dove through it and hopefully into safety.
This was not the case. She was tackled to the ground a second before the back gate. The man put a hand against her throat and growled for her to be a good little girl. She knew it would be no use to fight but she gathered her energy for one last valiant struggle. He sensed this and held tighter as he lowered his mouth to her throat.
Instead of fighting she surprised him by calling out Michel's name as loud as she could and yet it didn't come out much more than a croak. He paused and looked at her through the dark. "You know Michel?"
"Get the hell off her Lestat." Snarled a cold familiar voice to her right. If voices could kill. oh well he was probably dead anyways. The man pulled away and Michel stooped over and helped her to her feet frowning at bloodstains on her top. He roughly pulled away the curtain of her hair looking for the telltale signs of the incisors. He pulled her shivering body closer to him and turned around to face the other vampire ferociously. He ended up almost grinning at him.
"How the hell did she break your nose?"
Before their eyes his nose healed and the blood disappeared. "Swing." He muttered sullenly. Michel squeezed her arm gently and started to walk towards the house.
"Kerry, I'd like you to meet Lestat. Lestat, your latest prey here is the girl I told you about." He felt Kerry shudder in his arms and his attention was drawn to her lack of dress. "This is becoming a habit for you to leave the house without footwear or a jacket." He sighed and pulled off his leather jacket, which he had surely stolen from her room and gave it to her. Then swooped her up and easily carried her around the house and through the front door.
An auburn haired woman looked over as they entered the house. She hovered around Michel and Kerry, wringing her hands nervously. "Oh Michel, when I figured out Lestat had went after that girl you asked us to help you save I didn't know what to do. It was obviously too late." She broke off surprised when Kerry looked at her wide-eyed. The small lady relaxed. "So he didn't drink that much from her. Is she alright?"
Michel burst out laughing. "I think you should be asking your husband that question." They all looked at the roguishly grinning vampire as he rubbed his nose ruefully.
"She broke my nose." The red head burst out laughing merrily and grabbed Kerry's freezing hand with her own.
"I'm Jesse. I can't tell you how amusing it is to see the debonair larger- than-life Lestat bested by a mortal girl."
"I'm Kerry. I'd say it was a pleasure but I'm still shaking." Michel carried her into the kitchen and she didn't protest, she didn't have the energy to do so. Just the pleasure of being in his arms.
He dropped her rather abruptly into a chair and she snarled. The table was quite burdened with food he had just bought and she grabbed a bag of Chinese takeout and dug into the rice. It was the first thing she had eaten since lunch the day before, and although she had gone longer without food the weight in her stomach was a delight. The two newcomers (it seemed strange to call them that for they must be centuries older than she) looked at her in repulsion as she devoured the food as if she had taken up cannibalism.
"Uh, sorry. I could go eat somewhere else."
Lestat seemed to still be harbouring homicidal tendencies towards her, but Jesse was friendly as usual. "That's fine. I'm sure our eating habits are just as gross to you." She jarred Michel with her elbow. "She seems to really enjoy eating rice."
Lestat stopped looking as if he was plotting ways for her to die and started chortling as Michel started to run his fingers through his hair as he only does when he's uneasy. Kerry could not see anything funny or the least bit dirty in that line. Michel changed the subject with surprising speed.
"How could you not avoid a swing? They don't just pop out of no where."
Lestat put his hand on the fridge door. "I need something to drink." He opened the door and peered in at the zucchini. He picked it up and looked closely at it. Kerry pushed away her food in disgust. "I think there's a whole colony of aliens in here. Eugh. it licked me!" He tossed it against the wall where it splattered in a huge puke-green blob and the smell started to permeate.
Michel did not look amused.
"Would the two of you stop making fun of my colony. I mean zucchini. Seriously Lestat- how did you manage to get hit by a swing?"
He ran a hand through his dark blonde streaked hair and looked at them sullenly. "It came out of no where. It was just hanging there normally then it jerks up and hit me on the nose. It was unnatural I tell you." By that time they had moved into the living room where the air wasn't as bad.
"Is a Quhadilne helping her?"
Kerry jerked awake from her probably Michel provoked drowsy state and looked Jesse straight in the eye. "A what?" She found her head on Michel's lap and refused to blush. He looked at her in almost surprise.
"I thought you were asleep." He muttered with his hand paused within her hair.
"You should know." She never took her eyes from Jesse's until the woman explained what she was murmuring about.
"A Quhadilne is psychic, telekinetic, but much more. They can control the future, change the past, and rule the present. It may be hard for a mortal to understand their powers." Lestat shot her a look telling her to keep quiet, but she kept explaining to a wide-eyed Kerry. "There hasn't been the Quhadila for centuries. Oh dear, I've managed to confuse you. The Quhadila is the one with the ultimate power, Quahadilne are those with lesser power and never live beyond twenty-five. If a vampire drinks from the Quhadila and converts her, both of them will be able to live as mortals, yet stay immortal."
"So you think one of these lesser power enchiladas are helping me?" She poked Michel in the chest. "Would you stop it, I don't want to go to sleep." She murmured quietly. Michel continued to stroke her hair to placate her and comfort him for what he had to say next.
"That's why I called you two to help me. I don't think she is getting help from one, I think she is one."
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