The rumbling of that familiar engine has the feeding vampire's head lifting from the bared throat of her latest attempted 'distraction' from allowing herself to think too much about the hunter she'd lost. The hunter she craved to have back in her life in even the smallest of ways despite the fact that said hunter would be moving completely out of Savannah at some unknown point this very day.
"What's wrong?" the human who clearly wasn't the one Juliette wanted sharing her bed sulked at the blunt ending of the vampire's attention.
"Get dressed." The legacy instructs already pulling on her own clothes as she heads at a more vampiric speed to look out her bedroom window towards the main roadway.
She'd already told Ben she'd been ditching today, and he'd seemed to agree with her choices even if he had tried however briefly to get her to come say her goodbyes to Cal in person. So why would he be skipping too when Juliette knew her best friend had several grade 'making or breaking' tests waiting for him?
Then she feels the stabbing pull of Theo's pain tightening her chest and she physically staggers on her feet under its weight as her progeny draws closer momentarily driving out the dozens of questions the following sounds of Ben's jeep brings. Besides she had to have been wrong. Ben wouldn't be so careless as to drive directly into 'the danger den' as he'd so amusingly coined and risked any Guild members following him to 'reclaim their property' as Juliette so worryingly feared. Even going back to school had been a herculean task with her fears of falling back into Guild's hands. Only this time it would be Cal herself handling the weapons.
Another stab of shared pain drags her back into some semblance of grounded pain.
Merciful Lilith had Cal already left? Had Juliette squandered her last shard dream with her hunter with her own selfish upset over the not completely healed pains Cal's father has dealt her?
"But don't you want to…."
In truth, she'd already forgotten this new one's name only remembering enough about her to find her passable enough to call in the early morning hours to come over and help cool the raging fire left from the phantom feeling of her shared dream kiss with Calliope.
Obviously, she was delusional even within the relative haven of her own mind, but it had been enough to leave her physically hungry for the company of one she had no right to long for.
"Leave, Now." Juliette answers without turning from the window her voice dropping easily into the growled one she'd come to using when her 'lost puppies' as Oliver called them became too needy for her ever-changing moods.
The dark-haired human didn't need to be told twice as she hurriedly gathered her scattered clothes and just as quickly left the room Juliette's hands scratches absently at the newly covered scars disfiguring her stomach from the hunter's spear as her thoughts continued to spiral at the second-hand feeling of Theo's pain.
No. she can't have lost Cal just yet.
Not again.
Ben had said the Burns wouldn't be leaving till the afternoon and it was just barely what any rational person would consider morning.
Not for the first time had Juliette considered completely cutting herself off from the draining pull of her emotions instead of simply 'turning down the volume' as she'd decided to do to ease the ripping ache of Cal's rejection.
"Theo?" she asked not caring one bit about her half-dressed state with only a tee shirt and a tossed-on pair of fresh underwear to cover herself with as she sped down to meet him.
The taller boy gives a wounded sniff in answer. "C—Cal she…she said she'd talk to Mom." he manages his tears a watery red as she wraps his arms around his much taller frame as a mother would her child feeling tremendously better now, she could discern his pain was a happy one instead of the alternative.
She can smell the lingering traces of Cal clinging to him, her tears, the heat of her skin all of it tangible to her clearing mind as Juliette hugged him closer attempting to cling to the secondhand feeling of being back in her hunter's embrace.
"Where's Ollie?" Carmen huffed as she always did whenever she sensed Juliette's older brother wasn't close by. Ever since the 'screwdriver incident' the witch had become even more protective of him, not that Juliette minded after having her own much longer tastings of Guild 'hospitality'.
"Out." Juliette answers flatly in a perfect repeat of her brother's words when Juliette had questioned him about his sudden wanting to leave the heavily protected house. Her eyes scanning the available tree line when the tingling feeling of being watched grew inside her. She shakes it off remembering her bother saying he'd allow more than a few of their fellow 'night dwellers' free roam of the grounds during the day if they'd wished so long as they behaved.
"How long has he been 'out'?" Carmen probed
Juliette shrugged "he left before…" she trails off racking her brain for the name of her last 'Not Cal' companion.
"You're guest?" Theo offered with only the smallest hint of teasing in his voice at the sight of her struggling.
"Yeah. He left before she got here."
"I wish you'd keep a tighter grip on that teenaged libido of yours, baby fangs. You're worse than the 'pets' for the Guild finding this place before we're ready for them." Carmen snaps her phone already out presumably to send Oliver a series of messages on his safety or location.
Juliette rolls her eyes shifting her backpack into a more secure hold against her shoulder as she turned towards Theo. "Come get something to drink, I'm going to shower then would you mind helping me with my homework for a bit?"
A little more of the tension eased from his shoulders at the suggestion. "Sure."
She gives an attempted half smile at his brightened mood before disappearing back into the house and up towards what had been called her room.
Out of habit more than anything she makes a point of closing the door behind herself as she rubs a hand over her face under the fading depth of Theo's saddened relief at the possibility of seeing his family one more time before the move before the tired vampire falls backward into a more comfortable sprawl against the rumpled sheets her eyes staying closed as she turns her head into the soft breeze of the opened side window. Not that she remembered leaving the thing open, but she wasn't about to move to reclose it.
"I thought I told you to leave." The vampire says still not opening her eyes when the even beat of a pulse that wasn't her own rouses her to the presence of another in her more private space.
"You can't get rid of me that easy."
Juliette's eyes snap open at the reply her head whipping back around to stare in disbelief as the speaker stepped out of what little shadows remained in the brightening bedroom.
"Hi."
It takes several long seconds before the shocked vampire could remember her voice enough to give an echoed "Hi" in a nearly inaudible answer as a very solidly real Calliope Burns took a few more deliberate steps closer.