|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 3:45 am
Orpheus hustled Kaoru out of the party on legs like wind, distancing himself as well he could with a teenage girl on his shoulders. His stamina might be good, but anyone who wished to give chase could have caught up with him surely, especially if they were of the deadly looking variety like the woman from that dark night that felt so long ago. The memories made his skin crawl even now though he'd done his best to keep his cool at the time. If anyone had told him he'd be hauling Kaoru around, terrified of some gold-eyed woman, he'd have given them his opinion by means of laughter. Here he was now though, eyes wide and breath coming quickly, not entirely because of the work out. Once in the clearing of the park he put the teen down upon one of the benches as best he could without further injuring her pride or causing him more delay.
The crunch of leaves, a broken twig. Orpheus abandoned Kaoru in mid-rearrangement and she most unfortunately would fall with a bit of a bump the rest of the way, which thankfully wasn't all that much further to go. Soon as his fingers had left the girl he was twirling quick as lightning, crouched over with his back to her and nails digging into the ground as if they would give him some leverage. A slow, feral hiss escaped from his bared fangs and anyone could imagine his hackles raised if he had any. Ears were cocked as he listened to the direction the...thing out in the woods would take, eyes narrowing as he decided his own course of action. Hopefully it had come alone and he wouldn't be simply abandoning Kaoru. "If you hear anything, run," he managed over his shoulder, his voice strangled for the control over his humanity he was less than gracefully losing.
With that the vampire was off, a blur into the woods without a sound, the only trace the dirt dug up at her feet from his launch position.
Minutes dragged by but there wasn't any movement amongst the trees. At length Orpheus made it back into the clearing. Those usually dark eyes with dried blood pooled at the bottom had taken on new features, for the blood now looked fresh and the red seemed to be taking over the abyss. The boy rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth, a streak of rouge blossoming across those pale lips and partial cheek. "It's safe."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 4:11 pm
Anger swelled and ebbed in her like a lunar tide, helpless in the clutches of the seemingly mad Scent and his equally insane jaunt from the party. It'd been so long since she'd seen any of her friends; only Ment had seen her as a teenager outside of Orpheus, and she'd been grown for quite some time now. Taking care of her mother had been her focus, and tonight was supposed to be a night out to enjoy herself. Instead, she found herself rather abruptly deposited on a park bench, a brief sting of indignant pain in her tail bone to mark her less that graceful positioning.
Kaoru was quite ready to give the Lily-teen an earful and perhaps a kick to his backside as he crouched with his back to her, but something made her rather aware that he was off. Maybe it was because his proverbial hackles were raised - Orpheus never acted so wary or standoffish to this degree! - but she had little time to reflect on it before he bounded off and away from her like some night-swathed feline. Crimson eyes stared after the point he'd disappeared into, and after several heartbeats, she sighed and pushed herself to stand.
Now what?
The Scent exhaled slowly again, carefully disentangling the stem of the rose in her wind-blown curls, fluffing the petals with delicate fingers before replacing the velvet bloom over her ear. She looked around the clearing, then tilted her head back to gaze up at the dark sky and the stars, wondering just where that boy had gone that she'd adored so much. Orpheus had grown just as she had, but his growth was different and she wasn't entirely certain he was the same snooty boy of old. Was Qadir the same, too? Was Crystal enjoying her time with her night-shackled love?
His voice found her ears and drew her out of her thoughts, turning her eyes towards him and silently observing the teen and the swath of red on his face. Kaoru remained without words as she crossed the clearing to him, the embroidered hem of her dress drawing up loose grass and leaves, the minimal light from the sky painting her gown every bit as bloody as the mark on his face. Her hands lifted towards his face, drawing the sleeve of her dress over the red stain on his light face; it easily hid in the dark crushed color of the gown. Once removed, her hands lit on his cheeks, her vibrant garnet eyes gazing quietly into his blood-letting reds.
"'Safe' is a relative term," she finally broke the silence, letting him interpret it as he pleased. Quite frankly, she was certain her friend was the most dangerous thing in town. "Now speak to me, Orpheus. Come clean. I've suffered many indignities this eve and I'll not be forgiving if I'm made to wait further." One hand lifted, fingers brushing through his bi-colored bangs to better see his vitae-infused eyes before settling upon his cheek again. She'd not take any more delay, and this was as kind and patient as she could manage.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 5:25 pm
Sulky and cold, Orpheus waited with a sort of irritable patience as the teen wiped the blood from his face, those temporarily warmed eyes creasing at the corners with an agitated squint. Every rustle of the wind and every shifting of leaves upon each other caused the young vampire to tense with bared fangs and a low rumbled growl of warning to anything that might be edging around their special clearing. The meticulous press of his clothes had be come wrinkled and slightly torn in his dash through the maze of trees. In addition, whatever he'd attacked had left a long graze upon his forearm but it was as shallow and harmless as a kitten's claw and it was sure to begin healing in mere minutes.
As her fingers danced into his hair it seemed to break the feral sort of spell he'd been under, almost melting as he let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. For the slightest of moments Orpheus sagged, his eyes closed and his hands reaching for Kaoru's waist as if it would steady him from whatever had hold on him. The moment was fleeting though, as another breeze picked up a tangle of leaves and the boy imagined more enemies skulking in the shadows. Energy hummed through him and she could feel every tense muscle as it shifted and coiled ready to take the offensive if the situation called for it.
"A woman came, the other night," he started, the usual petulant and spoiled voice of an aristocrat rolling from his tongue in harsher tones, "She was death." Orpheus dropped his words to a whisper as if the wind would take anything louder and deliver it right to her dark doorstep. With a breath he pushed on, trying his best to give Kaoru the details she would require to forgive him, but as usual being unwilling to be a Chatty Cathy. "There were questions. She wanted to know about Olivia, about the scent children. Her mouth promised safety but everything else about her promised death. Olivia is into something, and that means Ment's in it too."
Orpheus took a pause, evening his breath while his fear made his body quiver under her hands. His eyes darted from side to side as he talked and his chest rose and fell as he spoke with a sort of urgency, fighting with himself over keeping Kaoru safe with ignorance she wouldn't accept. "She showed me a picture of this strange looking girl. I'd never seen her, but she was the center of the hunt." The teen clearly believed that despite what the woman had said, pain would be stalking Olivia and all connected with her. And the small child he'd seen Kaoru but inches from? Pain would probably be a preferable preference.
"I gave them Vanyel," he said in a strangled whimper of confession, looking as if he would sag again. He'd had to give them something, but he could have never given up the teen before him and her sickly mother. Orpehus had been so worried Vanyel might have come to the party, but now he was afraid why she hadn't. If anything happened, to any of them, it would be all his fault...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2010 5:03 am
Yet still, she watched. The way he moved, the tick of his eyes and the twitch of his pale fingers - all of it was a loud and clear indicator of the tension that sang as loudly through him as the blood in his veins. When his body sagged, she almost moved to 'catch' him, but better judgment kept her from moving too fast around the jumpy vampire. When Orpheus began to speak, her hands slid down his pale face and over his torn garments, her cool hands slipping into his colder ones and holding firm. It wasn't to keep him from running, but to give her some sense of comfort; out in the middle of potential danger with a spooked Orpheus was no place to be.
"Ment--?" Kaoru's exclamation was in surprise, and immediately on the heels of that, worry. If anything, it was even more reason to have been with her friend just then! Of course, there was concern for Olivia, but she believed the woman could take care of herself in her own bumbling way. The rest of the male's words felt jumbled and nonsensical to her, but the image of the hungry and frightened child beneath the table flit behind her eyes. What was going on?
Her thumbs drew over the back of his hands, her chin held up in elegant poise, her expression and posture unfettered in the pale moonlight; despite the upset she felt and the energy crawling up and down the dark Lily's form, she would not be shaken. "Vanyel is stronger than she appears," Kaoru said quietly, remembering the lovely citrus girl and her unique orange companions. "I don't really understand the rest, Orpheus, but why don't we go somewhere else?" The Scent's suggestion was delicate and without the animosity from earlier. "I would see you at ease again. It hurts my heart to see you distraught."
That was the simple truth of it. She would not be wholly at ease and accepting of that which was being said until she could see Orpheus with a calm, clear head. It was so unlike him to be as he was now, and she could not for the life of her figure out why. Certainly not on her behalf! Kaoru finally turned her vibrant crimson eyes from his, looking around the darkened trees that encircled their small patch of light. What was once a comforting sanctuary to her now made her feel chilled beneath her warm gown. The sooner her dark counterpart got a grip on what ailed him, the sooner she could heed the warning he was desperately trying to impart.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
