The Ravinhill City files: book one

[Britt Nightshade]

"That was for scaring the living daylights out of me, I seriously thought you were going to do something stupid yet then again it looks like that had already happened to you already. Since it looked like you were too blind to see even your own hand in your face."

Frank laughed at the remark rubbing his shoulder before flopping himself onto the couch, Claire just watched him as he relaxed almost every inch of his body like it was the best thing around. He looked up with one eye and showed a slight grin, this made her change tone fast as she felt something crawl up her ankle. She cringed a little as he was snickering under his breath.

"Why don't you join me already?.....you said you wanted to know the details of this new features didn't you?"

Before Claire could say anything she let out a slight yelp as his tail hugged her around the hips, yanking her right next to Frank as it kept her in place. She looked at him like she was going to smack him, but stopped as he flinched ready for impact.

"I guess that little kiss of mine has got you more in a mischievous mood. Little scary and sudden but just like something you would do you sneak."

They both sat there for a moment, taking away the tension more than what it was from the encounter in the hallway. That was when she took his hand for a second look in better lighting. Tracing the patterns that were the already showing scales to the ones trying to come out, Claire was looking with a lot of wonder in her face as Frank just smiled letting her.

"They were a real pain in the beginning, scratching like crazy when they were trying to get made me almost go mad trying not to scratch off my own skin. At least they calmed down a little bit, but the peeling will be something I'll have to learn to deal with. Jeremy has been a big help with some of the minor things like the skin, as for my tail and sight that's still in the works since I'm not used to changing from normal to thermal just yet."

Frank looks over to Claire's direction, seeing that she was exchanging the same glance as he was giving a warm sense they were used to looking to each other. Even though his eyes had changed from the simple blue, the dimming glow of gold really brought them out...at least in her opinion that was. Their conversation went for a little bit further details from his scales, to the flicking he does from time to time which just made her laugh more as he pulled on his mouth to show her his fang like teeth mouth. Sure Frank was letting the goofy side of him out, but that was fine since it was just the thing he needed to diffuse from earlier now that he can actually see in normal mode again.  

[Britt Nightshade]

"You definitely meant it when you had much more of a pattern." she had to chime in from looking at each direction the scaled parts were showing. They were showing the most accurate look of the diamond back, from color all the way down to the position of the color changes. Claire took her hand to the scales on his shoulders, he shuddered slightly but only for a moment since it was not that often his shoulders were touched bare that way. On the other hand, he was glad that she was warming up to the fact he had transformed yet still the same. That was something that jumped in his mind once in awhile, even after she already thought it was cool to be as different as he was tail and all.

Claire continue to examine what she could see from the peeking bit of morning light to show the scales, taking important mental notes from where scale met skin and how they seem to blend together at the borders. Frank flicked his tongue as he patiently let her observe, even though he was still a little sheepish for even having his shirt off when he prefer having many layers possible. But if it was making his girl feel closer and accepting to him, then this wasn't too back that was till he felt her fingernail crawl up from his back to the base of his neck. He arched a little in surprised, as where she pressed was more sensitive now where the skin met scale.  

[Britt Nightshade]

He looked at in in a moment of shock, that turned quickly into embarrassment as he dug his face into his chest as he felt the burn of his cheeks flaring up. Claire was doing the same thing, knowing it probably would make him think she was out of her mind. There was nothing against the sudden compliment, then again even though he had a girl of his own itt was still hard to be around them. He always had an issue in talking to someone of the opposite sex, which is why he was more than comfortable in being reclusive. However with face red in flushing, Frank was smiling through his fangs, sweet thing to say from Claire even though his self esteem was not the best.

"I didn't mean for that to slip out of my mouth, guess my brain decided to just blurt it out instead of keeping it in mind, but it is true it's like looking at those cute pet snake videos."

Frank looked over to he with the smile still on his face, yet his head was down having her think he was up to something and kinda cringed a little.

"Oh I'm cute am I?......you mean like this?" he looked over in her direction with the saddest excuse for a puppy dog cutie look on his face.

She tried to hold her mouth in her hand, but a small burst of laughter spilled out of her mouth watching him try to be all cute like with very failing results with the flicking tongue adding icing to the cake. Frank kept posing a different look of adorable, that only had Claire losing it till it hurt to breath as he crouch down holding her mouth to muffle the noise. He was enjoying every bit of this, as he was seeing her incapacitated in laughs took the advantage of bear hugging her in his grasp as she squealed.

"Looks like you got the last laugh. but I got the upper hand."  

[Britt Nightshade]

"I thought you would never ask, about time I get a glance at what you call your place of hiding." she said catching her poseur back from watching his tail so much." Frank was very secretive about where he would be most of the time, not much in not wanting to say anything but for the sake of keeping quiet to most he would talk to on the outside. This was something that everyone of the clan were sworn into once finally in, it was a precaution so not to have not so friendly eyes find their way to the hidden manor. Frank wasn't too worry about that, however he was warned several times to be careful when it came to hacking into cameras or other systems in the city. Yet he was pretty sharp at not leaving a trail if getting into things from the database.

He took her hand and helped her off the couch, guiding the way to the door of the basement.

"I could show the rest of the house, but at this moment most of the group is still asleep especially Tobias and Sam. It was him we heard not too long ago probably trying to get comfortable but bumped into something. The real good things to know are down here anyways that make me who I am as the techie of the place."

Turning on the lights, the humming and buzz of monitors warming up were heard as the darkness lit up with screens from every other direction. Claire look around almost in disbelief, thinking more of probably more than one computer to his possession. Instead she was looking at something found in most sci-fi and superhero fandoms, which was pretty impression on her end that he would even have such access. He smirk at her reactions as he was typing in his codes of access to the main screen, as it greeted him with a welcome going to the home screen.

"Yeah at first i thought it was too good to be true, but Sam had old me as long as nothing gets destroyed too much it was all fair use to help with whatever needs to be done. Most of the basement is mine to play in, but the section on the other side of this door is where Jeremy likes to hide and perform medical tasks. Part surveillance and lab, part medical down here s it's the right amount of balance down here."

He sat her down in his chair on the main screen, showing everything he does on a normal day that just had her in all at such tech in his hands. This made him smile, knowing they had something in common when it comes to tech. Both of them were pretty good on a computer, so this little interest connection made it feel like their bond attached more with every explanation of app to encoding bank.

"And to think I thought it was just you and just the newest model, this is way better than just that. Such a smart and tech savvy funny guy." she said pinching his cheek  

[Britt Nightshade]

The sound of the crashing scared Claire as well, while she tried to cover her mouth not to make a noise. However it was already obvious she was found out, since it was only the two of them down there. She heard some shuffling from the other room, thinking it was him trying to cover up what was going on but she already knew. It wasn't fear she was feeling, but more of a disbelief that the changes on her boyfriend were more deeper than just a tail and scales. Not just the fact of a mouse being eaten, it was the idea that Claire was trying to piece together of how Frank could even muster the nerve to be eating something still crawling that was the ticker.

Frank eventually came out from the room with his head down, not able to face looking at her knowing it was a face of fear he would be meeting with. Yet he did knew that there were things that still had to be said and explained eventually, this was something he really didn't want to talk about with it still fresh in his own mind that it was now a norm. Heaving a stuttered sigh Frank looked to her, "I didn't want you to have to watch me take a life with a deadly bite, even I'm adjusting to this thing but it's a means to keep energy now when just food isn't enough anymore. I hope you didn't see everything, last thing I want to do is frighten you back to phase one of what I turned into."

Claire was silent for a moment, something he was afraid she would do in reaction to being terrified of whatever she may had seen to the point his cheeks were burning again. It wasn't of shyness, but more of tears of shame and fear of what she would say next. Instead he was startled in a gripping embrace of Claire, no tears or sniffes just a slight sigh.

"I told you in the beginning of this....no hiding things, I have to know more about you to feel a balance out with this change Frank. Sure it was a bit of a shock to see dripping fangs and a limp mouse, but hey we see weird things some of the time right? If it's something you have to do with being a snake hybrid then I'm not going to stop you because it's freaky you do you."

Frank didn't know what to say as the heat from his cheeks cooled down, out of just response to her held her in return. The tender moment went silent for another moment or two, before both of them jolted in fright holding each other closer with an echoing alarm of the perimeter sensor going off. This was strange since it was daylight, but to Frank it was more of an annoyance showing on his face.

"Way to kill the mood much, trying to have a tender moment and tech deceives me." he said under his hissing breath, and looked back to Claire.

"Looks like you get to see this stuff in action already, kinda exciting few hours for you."  

[Britt Nightshade]

He looked over his shoulder to see that Michael was holding what looked like more paperwork, something he knew too well that Toby wasn't wanting to be woken up to. Claire nodded and followed Frank up the stairs back to the main level, being careful heading up to the floors upstairs.

"One thing you'll learn fast is that Toby is someone that hates to be waken up from stupid things, he's going to be a real pain but this is work. Whatever you do don't scream if he'll seem menacing at first glance, he'll hate you for that one and his high end hearing being a slight curse."

She was a little confused, but then again was very curious now that she's learning more.

"I know you said he's like a bat....so does he-" Frank chirped in before she could finish.

"If you're talking about blood like a vampire yeah...well just a little bit. It's not like he has to have gallons of it a day, maybe once in a while every week or so. Don't worry anything like that, honestly his bark is worse than his bite, especially when someone is being stupid in the house."

Both walked quietly to the door of Toby's room, Frank motioned her to say quietly as he turned the handle to enter. The area was pitch black with heavy drapes looming the window, with only a faint outline to the daylight showing. Almost not wanting to bother him from all the rucuss earlier, he heaved to speak in hopes he was hearing and not in too much of a deep sleep.

"Kill me later, but your boss is at the door and it looks like more annoying news."

There wasn't much movement, but Frank paused in case he did had to try waking him again.  

[Britt Nightshade]

The best she could muster was a small smile, though still hiding behind in case what Frank said happened she would be a little safe. Frank looked over to see her timid expression, and pat her shoulder to ease her shaking.

"A little bit later I'll let you get a better look, but I think you have a more bigger issue to deal with downstairs......he has a large folder with him too."

With a annoyance groan he moved in a dragging pace, being careful not to cling onto anything to knock off his balance. It was the last thing he needed to be hanging by the railing the wrong way. Frank rolled his eyes and turned to Claire.

"Don't worry, he may be a bit on the intimidating side but he's just plain tired and out of it. With even the slightest sound it makes it a littler harder for him to gain much sleep. He most likely even heard up coming up the stairs before opening the door, that's how good his hearing is. I'm sure after letting everything settle with what's going on downstairs and be in a better mood later in the night, then I'll let you see him and everyone else. I would think that you would want to come here a little bit more often after this." he said with some gleam of happy.

She thought about the idea, this was still very fresh to process in her head from her boyfriend changing snake to just about everything she was seeing first hand. Though still frightening, her curiosity was still peaking. They headed back down to the basement to play around with the tech, while Toby was now opening the door letting the chief inside. His expression was tell tale that it was going to become a lecture, something Toby was in no form of mood to handle with the drain of sleep on his face.

"I must admit you really look like death, but of course you would after having a night like last night.....which I;m sure you know what one of these files are." Micheal pointed out to the very first think folder explaining the events that happened at the pier. Most of the reports was more of having to process the situation as well as the cause of disturbance. In other words a good explanation of the events of the night, however it was the chief's job to know what's going on especially in Toby's division.

"Believe me, you think I want to come my way only to lecture about things you already know? then again it just seems like it was a lot to happen for just one night. Not just this file of the commotion at the pier, there's one on the increase spotting of your little enemy and his crew, disturbance of the peace, not to mention another case of you against the Wittlash's. Now I understand that there is a lot with having to deal with the night shift, but to keep it under the rug is starting to become less of an option. If you're going to have new recruits joining in your defense, it's best to make sure control is kept before this becomes a media case." Micheal was stern, but knew that full out rage wouldn't help neither yet if this was to get to the media iit would cause more problems down the road.