Patric Keddison (raftergirl) (2/2/2006 11:03:45 PM) Fingers steepled, as I studied the fire. Grey eyes watched as the flames danced and spun, pirouetted and crackled. My legs were elegantly crossed at the ankles, stretched before me. I have no fear of fire. Not like the younger ones do. It is a part of life and it gives warmth. It possesses its own beauty and the words that ring out across the ring carry dissonance. They do not belong to this room, as I sit in the overstuffed chair.

�There are many things I have done, Amado.� Softly, musically in its quiet way. Or so it sounded to my ears. �You will need to be more specific.�

Detail the time, the day, the deed.

Be specific.

My gaze doesn�t stray from that fireplace, with its entertainment that seems so raucous in the beautiful room, with its vase of fresh cut flowers, the side tables and the sofa that lines one wall, curved about invitingly with cushions.

Where he is rage, I am calm.

Such opposites, he and I.

Amado Taurin (Nicole) (2/2/2006 11:18:10 PM) Amado's frustration grows, instantly. He has no doubt Patric knows what he speaks of. Why Amado is angry. But, Patric's stringing him along, as he sometimes does.

The growl is low, but audible as the young vampire comes further into the room. Next to Patric's favorite chair, the one he soft often sits in to watch the fire. This is as close as Amado will get to the stuff. Smaller flames, such as those from candles, are fine. The massive, roaring flame shakes something deep within, though. He won't step in front of Patric, even to make a point.

"You killed her, Patric! I know it was you. Now answer me, why!"

Patric Keddison (raftergirl) (2/2/2006 11:28:57 PM) It is clear in his mind; I hadn�t been tugging him along. I had needed specifics, since I have done many things, both recently and not. But in his mind, I can see the girl he means, the sight of her mourning family at the house where he would go to visit her. The long blonde hair, the dazzling green eyes.

As he speaks so, to me, he is overcome with heat. I know from whence it emanates: from me. It is a warning. As I had done to Helena, so would I do to him if he didn�t learn to mind his manners. He is angry; it�s evident in his footsteps, in the way he demands of me the answers he seeks. His fear, however, keeps him from standing before me and I use that fear, to make think that flame is devouring him, so real, when truly, it is only in his mind and used only to force him back a step.

To remind him of his place.

�You speak of Lydia, then.� Quietly, still. My voice will not be raised nor should his be although he is still young and allows youthful passions to rule him still. He still needs to feed, every night; that is what reminds me of his youth. The young need such sustenance, each night, until they shall reach a time when they no longer need to drink so regularly.

But it is this that reminds me he is still so young.

His passions and manners seem those of a child.

Amado Taurin (Nicole) (2/2/2006 11:41:40 PM) The heat forces him back a step. Several, in fact, his eyes on the fire. Very wary of it. At this point, the fire and what it can to do him is his deepest fear. More than that of being hurt. More than that of loss. More than that of being alone.

Only because he has yet to truly be alone.

Now several steps back from the chair (and the threatening fire), his anger and ego have taken a hit. Patric's reminder has him calmer, but he still speaks with a child's demanding.

"Yes, Lydia. She's dead, and you are the one responsible. Why, Patric? Why did you take her from me?" The edge of anger is not completely gone. It's now joined by sadness, pain. Possession. Lydia was his! Why would he do this?

Patric Keddison (raftergirl) (2/2/2006 11:46:29 PM) I recline, still, in this favourite chair of mine. Blonde hair slightly ruffled when I�d combed my fingers through it and I regard the flames still, his demands falling on seemingly deaf ears.

Why?

�Did you know she�d followed you one night? Watched as you killed?� Calm, calm words. �After your last visit. She was jealous, thought you to be courting someone else.�

This doesn�t explain anything, but, it is a beginning.

�She thought you horrible.�

He had been careless. He had stalked the prey; she followed him only because she�d glimpsed him when riding past in a carriage. Followed him to the edge of the alley; with so many people around, the scent of her blood, her lovely perfume had been lost amongst the many.

Let us see, first, how these words are received. Not well, I think.

Amado Taurin (Nicole) (2/2/2006 11:57:17 PM) "She what?" No, not well at all.

"I would have known if she had followed me. There was no one there! And..she certainly wouldn't think me horrible." The growl in his voice increases. There is still much self-control he needs to learn.

It's not spoken, but it is implied. Amado thinks Patric is lying to him.

"Lydia adored me. She would never say such terrible things about me."

Patric Keddison (raftergirl) (2/3/2006 12:04:58 AM) �Would you have known?� It slices, that question, as though it were a sword. �With so many people surrounding? The whores who plied their wares? The carriage drivers? The filth upon whom you feasted? Discreet departures from a house of ill repute?� Each word is a slashing motion; were I holding a sabre, there would be nicks and fine slices across his beautiful skin.

Still, I do not rise.

The chair is comfortable, the fire warm.

�Your senses aren�t that attuned, when you are lost to your kill, as you feed like a starving dog.�

An adequate description, entirely based from the images that had come to her mind as she�d remembered. It�s what gives me away; it�s what tells him that I know, that I spoke to her.

�She was terrified, of you.�

I don�t lie.

�And she wanted to kill you, Amado.� My voice softens; it does so rarely. �She wanted to see if you could bleed, as your victim had. She thought herself to be next, to your hunger.�

Pausing. Considering.

�Did you love her, Amado?� Or was she simply another in a long line of mortals whose only purpose was to cater to your desires?

Amado Taurin (Nicole) (2/3/2006 2:31:48 AM) This news hits Amado hard. Patric's words are harsh. They cut deep. He's so deeply shaken by this news, he misses the most obvious thing. Patric killed her to save his life.

Instead, all he hears are those critical questions. All he feels is the anger, the loss. The realization that something he cared about is gone forever, never to be found again.

And like most children, Amado has no paitience for being treated like a child. His reaction, finally, is every bit as childish.

He eyes Patric for a moment longer, vision turning a diluted red with bloodstained tears before he spins around to leave the room in a hurry.

Patric Keddison (raftergirl) (2/3/2006 2:46:49 AM) �Answer the question.�

A low command that cuts the still air as he spins about.

�Did you love her?� If there were some emotion for her from him, something finer then I might, possibly, regret the life I took.

Would I feel such regret?

I had read her mind, seen the shallowness of her thoughts. How they pertained to having such a naughty secret as Amado, the man to whom she was contracted to marry, the giggles she would share with her friends when she next spoke of Amado.

The horror as she read her death in my eyes, saw it reflected as though she looked in a mirror. The terror that I might do to her what Amado had done to that man in the alley. The hate she had felt for him, as he had devoured and taken that life in the alley like a ravening dog. How she had wanted to hurt him. Kill him.

All of this: the shallow thoughts and the ugliness of her soul had been reflected and I had no remorse in killing her.

She hadn�t loved Amado.

And I suspect, he hadn�t loved her. Not that finer emotion that can cause a grief so desperate and deep and black it can take several lifetimes to overcome and mortals do not have that long. Had Lydia only been a toy?

Amado Taurin (Nicole) (2/3/2006 3:25:39 AM) The old vampire is truly insufferable at times. Would it be so difficult for him to simply say what he means? To be direct, for once? Amado stops in the hallway, held fast by by Patric's words. Did he love her?

"No! Alright? No, I didn't love her." His back remains to Patric, as though expressing his disgust wit his elder. With the entire situation. Why did he have to kill her? Lydia honestly..how did she..

"...would she have done it? Would she have tried to kill me?" Tried. He's immortal, after all How much harm could she have done, that girl? Unless, of course, she were aided by fire.

Patric Keddison (raftergirl) (2/3/2006 3:34:49 AM) I had been direct, in asking the question I had: did he love her? And now, I have my answer. If he had truly loved her, I might�ve felt that �

Or, quite probably, not.

�Yes.�

It was the only reason as to why I had killed her; I had caught her stray thoughts, when I had been passing by an salon and Amado had been disturbingly familiar in her mind.

�If she hadn�t at first succeeded, Amado, she would�ve continued trying until she had found a way.� Fatigue enters my voice, for I weary of having to continually fight him, to teach a young one who assumes they know it all. Helena hadn�t taught him anything at all.

That had all been left to my less than capable hands.

The past decade should account for itself: not once had I killed any of his mortal toys.

Until now, when he was threatened and the threat had been determined as genuine. If she had been unsuccessful, she would�ve told others, persuade them to aid her in killing him and that, for his faults, he didn�t deserve.

Amado Taurin (Nicole) (2/3/2006 3:47:50 AM) He stands in that hallway for several more minutes, in silence. No sound but the crackling of the damned fire Patric loved so much. Why did he sit there, night after night, knowing Amado hated to be close to it?

There's the unmistakable sound of a snigle sniff as Amado rubs away the few tears he'll shed over the situation. He's still young, emotive, quite impulsive. Patric can only hope he'll get better with age.

Finally, Amado turns again and comes back into the room. He'll find a seat close to Patric. As close as possible without being any nearer the fire. He just looks..grumpy, now. Disgruntled. Sitting with his arms folded, head tipped down, eyes on the flames.

This wasn't fair.

Patric Keddison (raftergirl) (2/3/2006 3:56:04 AM) �Life is never fair, alive or dead.�

His whole posture denotes what it is he thinks. His expression. Many times, in my own youth, I had worn such an expression, sat just as he does. I was a man when I was sired and not a child, a boy like Amado is. Helena was always impulsive, selfish in her own desires and I think, perhaps, Amado won�t follow in her footsteps.

It would be a shame to have saved him to have to kill him.

And it is now I move, to crouch before him, one knee lightly resting on the edge of the rug that is half beside, half before the chair in which I sit, watching the flames as I reflect, study their dance. Fluid, swift movements that no mortal eye could, or would, ever catch.

Softly, now, a mere whisper on an non-existent wisp of wind. �I wouldn�t have wanted to see you, Amado, lost to her murderous thoughts and desires.� Grey eyes, clear and calm, seek to meet his gaze.

Amado Taurin (Nicole) (2/3/2006 4:04:48 AM) It takes another moment, only because Amado continues to insist on being angry with him, on sulking. But his softer, kinder words finally draw Amado's attention, make him turn his head to mee the grey eyes that he adores. Despite his routine defiance.

"I wouldn't have wanted to be lost." The young vampire gives a little sigh. In his heart, in his mind, he knew Patric had been right. It would take more time before he fully admitted it to himself, though. Even longer before he said as much to Patric.

Even if they both knew.

"Will you sit with me for a while?" It wasn't an uncommon request. Especially on a bad night, Amado enjoyed some sort of closeness, some sort of contact. He was still very mortal. He didn't know or care if older vampires did such things. His desires ruled him, after all.

Patric Keddison (raftergirl) (2/3/2006 4:15:45 AM) �Have you fed?� Amado is still young enough to have that need to drink regularly. Eventually, it wears away, a need that doesn�t require satiation each and every night.

Eventually. He isn�t at that point, as yet.

A question to respond to a question. But, necessary to know before I do sit with him, for a while. He still craves, still feels as a mortal does.

He is young, but he will survive longer than did Helena.

Amado Taurin (Nicole) (2/3/2006 4:24:04 AM) The chill of his skin, and possibly part of his attitude is evidence he hasn't yet fed tonight. The shake of his head confirms this. He had left the house to visit Lydia, intending to feed on the way. Plans changed.

"There's time, isn't there?" Something else he lacked, yet. A true feel for the passage of the night. He always managed to arrive inside safely before dawn, but there had been a few close calls. As it is, indoors, he couldn't guess how many hours of darkness they had without finding a clock.

The thought of feeding, the reminder, sends the familiar ache through him. Had Patric not reminded him, he might have been content to sit on the couch all night. Tomorrow, he would have paid in weakness.

Patric Keddison (raftergirl) (2/3/2006 4:29:42 AM) �Feed now, and you can then sit with me for the rest of the night,� quiet words, almost fatherly given. Almost. I�m aware I�m not his father nor would I seek to be. In such mortal terms?

I am his grandfather, at the least.

�� even away from the flames.� A slightly crooked smile, a hand on his shoulder. A concession he was given and he would well know it.

Amado Taurin (Nicole) (2/3/2006 4:41:38 AM) Patric's concession gets a smile from Amado, though a small one. How quickly the death of his mortal friend was forgotten. As many times as Amado tried to argue, ignore, irritate, and generally dislike Patric, the older vampire held some charm, something that bonded Amado to him. At some point, he'd be capable of admitting it was love.

There was a slight turn of his head, to press his cheek against the hand for a moment. An almost affectionate gesture before he moved from the couch and past his mentor. Heading out with that sort of youthful excitment that hadn't yet left him.

For Patric, it was possibly endearing and annoying, all at once.

Patric Keddison (raftergirl) (2/3/2006 4:46:16 AM) Rising, as he bounds past with that youthful enthusiasm for his evening repast and Lydia is forgotten. Just, I muse, as well. It is a hurt that his spirit has rebounded from, for he hadn�t felt so deeply for her.

As I sit in my chair, gaze fastened to the fire once again, there is a musing.

What will he do, if he does fall in love with a mortal one day?

It isn�t something, judging by his youthful behaviour, that will occur just yet.