Danielle decided she liked this place. The owner was an interesting fellow, the entertainment was good, and most of all, she could come in here and get lost in the crowd without recognizing absolutely anyone here yet. The club attracted a different breed of magic and creatures, she found, and she enjoyed her anonymnyty this far.
She sat at a table in the back of the lounge, staring fixatedly on the small red lamp that housed a candle, bathing her table in red light. She idly ran her finger on the edge of her wine glass, lost in her thoughts.
C?leste was proving herself to be a very interesting woman, indeed. She had all but replaced Aurashka in Danielle's mind as a sort of mother figure. She praised Danielle, challenged her mind, encouraged her talents.
She was also convinced that C?leste knew of Marcus' wherabouts. Danielle had somehow come to the conclusion that he was not dead, just vanished. She was currently trying to figure out what she would have to do to find him, or who she would have to kill. Whatever it took, really. She loved her brother more than life itself, more than... more than Ash, even.
Ash. She hadn't seen him since the whole.. incident. She wondered how HE would react to her newfound friendship with the white vampire.
Why he was here, he didn't know, but maybe it was to get away from his own place. Everyone knew him there, everyone knew something was different, and he was tired of fielding questions. He was having enough trouble as it was without dealing with everyone trying to find out what had happened and why he seemed a little...off. So, he went somewhere else for a little while. Makes perfect sense, right?
Absolutely, except he ended up finding someone who knew him anyway. This particular person was welcome, though. Was he welcome around her, though?
He tested his luck despite his doubts, and slid into a seat at her table as smoothly as ever, his every movement screaming 'feline', but he couldn't help it. He was aware of it, though. Would she freak out? "Dani? I haven't seen you in awhile, are you alright?"
Danielle barely glanced up for a moment, still fixated on her horrible obsession with finding Marcus. Someone's voice broke into her thoughts though, and grey eyes flicked upward to that face she'd always found so perfect.
"Ash. Have a... seat," she said comically, as he had already sat down across from her. She rested her arms on the table, leaning forward slightly to hear him better in the crowded, dark lounge.
"I'm perfectly wonderful, thank you for asking," she practically purred. Ah, Danielle was never this content. She smiled, however, and looked at him with those hematite-hued eyes, the adoration she had held for him fleeting, replaced by something else.. it was hard to tell what, though.
"I see you've finally taken off that.. thing. I heard you'd returned to the Hollow but I have been busy and hadn't had a chance to stop by. I killed my final fish and decided to get a small rock garden, and that has been working well for me."
She sipped her wine, loving her some Zinfandel. She couldn't find how exactly she wanted to reguard Ash at the moment. C?leste had proved that Danielle shouldn't have to fall all over someone, to beg for their affections like a silly schoolgirl, and so she wasn't. She was playing it cool, and calm, wondering if he would start adoring her now or if she would have to slip something into his damned drink.
Alright, something was wrong. He was instantly on guard, knowing that there was never a point in time where Danielle was this pleased. He was also a bit...disappointed that she hadn't felt the need to make time to at least see how he was once she heard that he was back at the Hollow. "Well, I'm glad you've finally found the perfect pet," he told her, smiling a little. She needed rocks. They didn't die if they weren't fed.
"And, ah, yes, it's gone. That happened well before I returned to the Hollow, though. Couldn't go walking around the bar like that, could I?" he asked, attempting to keep his tone light, but the mere memory of the incident was humiliating, and a bit depressing. That a vampire had managed to damage him like that was positively atrocious.
"You said you'd been busy. Work?" he asked, interested in what she'd been up to lately. Without him.
She reached across the extremely small table to lightly touch his chin. "I'm glad it's gone. I'm glad you could make it go away," she said, meaning of course that she was glad he'd worked at putting all of that stuff past him.
She withdrew her hand and picked up her wine glass again, taking another swig. She loved the sweetness of the drink, though the alcohol had no effect on her whatsoever. Witch blood, gotta love it.
"Work? Well, some. I made a new friend and we've been spending some time together. It's really a... a welcome change from all the chaos in my life." Ah, a friend. But who could this be? Danielle of course spoke of C?leste, but from the way she said it... had Danielle met a.. a boy?
His eyes returned to hers, looking much more like himself than he had the last time she'd seen him, when she touched his chin and spoke to him so softly. He wanted to hear her speak to him like that, and he wanted her touch. He'd never been a touchy person, but Morfeus had changed that, using touch as a reward. He couldn't help or shake it.
Just like he couldn't help wondering who this friend of hers was. They must have been spending a lot of time together, especially if this person was calming the chaos in Dani's life. Doing what Ash himself used to do, and wanted to continue doing.
Had he been replaced?
"Oh? That's good to hear. Where'd you meet this new friend?" he asked, trying to show interest. Positive interest.
She smiled again, a languid sort of grin, and whoever she was thinking about must really make her happy for that sort of facial expression. "Oh, oddly enough, on the street. It really is amazing who you can run into.."
Even if Danielle had mentioned the gender, at this point, Ash might still be worried about her behaviour. She had never.. ever showed interest in anyone before. Well, except him.
She reached out again, touching the tip of his nose with her fingertip and smiled again - ah, and her attention was suddenly on him once again. She lit a cigarette and glanced around the room before decidedly focusing back on Ash.
"Have you been getting into anything at all? I spoke to Aurashka while you were recovering, but I haven't seen her since." There was a... dry tone in her voice that was hard to place. She still respected the woman, but she had been replaced.
Oh yes, he was worried. He didn't know what to do about it, though. He did know that it was like a kick to the head, seeing her like that over someone that she'd met out on the street. Someone who'd distracted her from coming to see him when he needed her, after she'd promised him.
"Ah, no, actually. I've just been getting back into the hang of things at the Hollow, trying to assure Dave that everything is alright," Ash answered simply, shrugging some as though it were no big deal. Dave had been seriously worried, especially when Ash first arrived back at the Hollow with Ian. That hadn't been fun.
She sipped her wine again as he spoke, thinking about the last time she actually saw Dave. It had been a while. She remembered Leander, but Dave was a blur right now. Maybe it was the stress.
"Well, I'm sure the Hollow is glad you're back as well. I bet he and that other frail-looking tender had their hands full without you. How can it be a neutral ground if there is no Hellcat to see that it stays that way?" she asked, her words almost cruel in their reality. She didn't mean them that way, though.
"I'm surprised to see you here, honestly. I'm glad, but surprised. It's an interesting place. Full of people who are after magic, or already have it, but... relatively calm. Like you could get lost in here."
"Leander? Yes, he did show up just in time. Dave needed the help," he responded, nodding. Her comment about the 'Hellcat' struck a chord, though. It probably would for awhile, since he didn't like being the Hellcat for real. It was a nickname, one that had actually been amusing up until recently. Not anymore. "Indeed. I just hope I'm up for the job, still."
Somehow, he had room to doubt himself, and that was probably because of Morfeus. He didn't want to tell Dani that the vampire had shown up at the Hollow, at the one place that was supposed to be Ash's safe haven, and probably because she'd try to blow something up. Or maybe she wouldn't? If she really didn't care that much, then maybe she wouldn't. He didn't think he wanted to know if she wouldn't be upset.
"I don't generally like this place, but it seemed like a decent enough distraction. I may not approve of Aristide's ways of accumulating power, but he and I get along well enough," Ash said simply, looking around. This place, like Aristide's magic, seemed so much more alive than Ash's. The triste's magic was smooth and cool, not vibrant and living like the Hoodoo priest's.
Danielle chuckled, openly. She had since dropped the last of her morals surrounding who she judged for how they acquired the things they had. Let he who was without sin cast the first stone, and surely Danielle wasn't even CLOSE to being able to throw one of those babies.
"I'm glad you're back at work. I might come visit you sometime," she said with a smile. "Maybe I'll bring my friend. She might want to meet you." Ah, the truth finally comes out. Though in this day and age, Ash would have to flat out ask if he wanted some sort of "are you together" information, because Danielle should have bought stock in ambiguous sayings.
Ash felt a little better upon hearing that the friend was a woman, though it did strike him that such a fact didn't necessarily mean anything. Could Dani be in love with a woman? Who knew? Danielle was unpredictable sometimes.
"I'm glad to be back at work, especially considering the alternative," he said lightly, ignoring his own insecurities regarding Dani's affections. "I would like it if you stopped by, though."
Maybe she'd have a little more faith in him if she saw him at work. He had to rely on instinct at work, so he didn't have time to overthink things, he just did his job. He was more normal, usually. Not always, but usually.
She grinned. "Sure. I'll try to make some time. I almost stopped in tonight, but I saw this place and decided I needed to quiet my head for a while." She wondered if Papa Aristide knew some of the people in the community came here to calm themselves rather than rile themselves up.
She stood up, empty glass in hand. "I'm going to go get a refill. Want anything?" As she walked by him, she placed her hand on the back of his neck, giving him a light scratch. This movement was purely experimental, however gentle the gesture seemed.
Danielle had noticed Ash responding to touch in a way he had not before. In fact, she could remember a time where even a light jab in the ribs earned her nothing more than a confused blink. Interesting, she thought. Very... interesting.
He nodded his understanding at her reasoning for stopping in the Mojo Lounge instead of the Hollow, though he saw the irony in that fact just as she did. He didn't blame her, though. He'd come here for the same basic reason, since the Hollow held so many memories and reminders that he'd nearly been broken.
At her question, he glanced down at the drink he'd barely touched and shook his head, offering a small, polite smile. One that vanished rather quickly as her hand scratched at the back of his neck. "Tha--"
Before, that wouldn't have done anything except get a tolerant smile from him, since he'd never really reacted all that strongly to being touched. He'd never been a touchy person, and he'd grown up in an age that wasn't really conducive to casual touch. Since Morfeus though, things had changed.
He couldn't help it, after having endured what he had, so he leaned back into her touch, eyes fluttering shut as a soft cross between a purr and a growl issued from his throat.
Danille had perhaps not been quite as prepared for that as she thought previously, and though it did not show in her actions, she held back a bit of nausea. What had they done to her Ash? They had been so alike at one point, and now they were entirely different.
The Witch, however, was very good at hiding this, and so masked it with feelings of neutrality, as she had before when she had things to hide from the Triste, and with a smile, withdrew her hand and went to the bar. Luckily the magical energy in the lounge was so strong that she didn't have to hide herself too hard - the lounge seemed to cloak her FOR her.
As she waited on her drink refill, she stood, pensive. She would have to tell C?leste about all that she had found thus far - maybe the vampire had some insight she had not considered yet. After all, C?leste was very intelligent, and she had been around for quite some time.
Ash didn't need to feel the nausea rise up in her, since he suffered the same once she released him from her touch and went to the bar. More than anything, he felt humiliated. This was Dani, his Dani, and he knew what she thought of this. That was the reason he wouldn't even consider telling her that he still slept in his tiger form. She'd feel sick just thinking about it. No need to let her know the extent of the damage if he could help it.
He straightened in his seat while Dani was gone, actually considering getting up and leaving, but he'd never been one to run away. That's what it would be if he left now, and he wouldn't run away from Dani. One of them had to stand strong, and since he certainly hadn't done that with Morfeus, he could at least do it with Dani. Stand strong, deal with her disgust, work to prove to her that he wasn't some vampire's pathetic little pet. After all, if he couldn't do that, then what was the point in having even left Morfeus? He would overcome this.
Danielle reapproached the table and sat back down, her demeanor somewhat more placid than before. She was working on attaining a level of icy calm at all times. She had set a goal for herself, too. In one month you wouldn't be able to read her from a hole in the wall. She was giddy to see how it went.
"So what else have I missed?" she asked, her tone slightly... bored. Whether she realized it or not, she was playing some sort of mind game with Ash.
At her change in demeanor, he lost some of that hard-won self-confidence. Stand strong? Why? Look at the way she'd turned cold on him. Look at the way he made her feel, that she could just shut it all down like that. He bored her, disappointed her. If he didn't, she wouldn't act this way.
But how could he snap her out of it? If he acted like he used to, it would just be two cold fronts swirling around each other and doing no good. Meeting her ice with heat was an option, but it wasn't the sort of option that was all that 'proper', and it was therefore a more unusual action on his part. That may or may not upset her more. How was he to know?
"Nothing, Danielle. You haven't missed anything," he finally just told her, sounding more weary than anything. Everyone had their game, and he was tired of playing them.
"Mmm? Nothing at all?" she sounded surprised. She downed the second glass rather quickly, though she didn't even know why she tried because Witches couldn't get drunk. They couldn't anything. In fact, by her bloodlines particular mythos, some of them didn't even feel anymore. She felt sort of robbed. She couldn't drink her problems away. She'd just... have to kill them.
She smiled at him, a lazy, catlike, sort of sleepy smile. A smile that meant nothing and something all at once. Danielle had always been hard to read, but in recent times she had become downright cryptic. She made no sense. She perhaps mirrored vampires more than a Witch these days, in fact.
Now there was a thought.
"Was there something in particular you were getting at, or are you genuinely curious?" he asked, though he wasn't betting on curiosity, not with the way she was acting. She seemed downright bored, or something. He couldn't quite place it, and her aura was flitting around in a rather odd manner, though he attributed some of that to the general atmosphere of this place. Her body language and words hardly matched it, that was for sure. How was he supposed to deal with her if she wouldn't allow him to?
"Dani, is everything alright with you?" he finally asked, looking worried. "I may have been out of sorts for a time, but you're not acting like yourself, either."
She shrugged. Fickle thing. "No, I was just surprised. Usually you're quite busy, but I guess the Hollow is a busying sort of place on its own, is it not?" She stared at him across the table, not liking where his tone was heading with her.
Am I okay? Am I ever okay? Come off it, why would you even ask something like that to me?
"I'm fine. Why, does something look wrong?" Asking if Danielle was okay, to her, basically had implications that she had a problem - she didn't. Danielle didn't have problems. She had loaded guns and lots of thoughts, but openly, no problems - none she cared to discuss with anyone, least of all the man who she'd made herself hate because it was plain out just easier than love at the moment.
When she responded in that manner, his face closed up completely. It was like a face carved out of marble, pale and perfect and oh like his old self. Nobody had a poker face like Ash Leone. Then, one slight change to show just a touch of unimpressed emotion, and it was absolutely like normal. He raised an eyebrow to show his disbelief, Dani being the reckless young witch again and he the 'wise mentor'. Or at least, he wished. Things had gotten so horribly complicated.
"I didn't ask if you were okay, Dani. That would be rather foolish of me, since we both know that you're never really 'okay'. I asked if everything else was alright, and what looks wrong is everything about you. You're not acting like yourself. Will you talk to me about it, ma petite?" he asked, his tone remaining as smooth as silk, like it used to be. Some of it was an act, while the rest was sheer attitude. For Dani, he could be nobody else, it seemed. She didn't react to anything else, so this was all he had, wasn't it? If he could shove his newer insecurities and issues aside, he still was the same person. Just a little frayed around the edges.
The reaction was so utterly reflexive that it was one of the times Danielle could pinpoint actually losing control in an environment she was somewhat comfortable in. She stood and swung in one graceful sweeping motion, one that was so beautifully inhuman, displaying that above all else she was still a Vida, and slapped Ash across the face so hard that it hurt her hand.
"DON'T" she said, though not quite a yell but sound caught in her throat so loudly that it effectively called attention to them, and though Danielle had every ability to make a scene when she wanted, this was not one of those times. For her to have even risen a hand against Ash - not her friend, but Ash the Triste - no matter what the occasion, meant that she was really too overcome by her emotions to control anything else at the moment.
"You haven't been around me enough to know what I act like or who I am, and I am NOT your petite. You think a handful of years spent with me as a child means a damn thing now?"
There was an eerie silence falling around the entire Lounge, and despite the fact that she felt the power of others present creeping up around her, Danielle's own aura glowed with a white-hot rage that would not be tempered by a mere gesture of release.
"You were a poor substitute for Marcus then, and now I see that it was a mistake to ever fall in lo-"
Her grey eyes were electric as she spoke, and she literally stopped in mid-word, something Danielle rarely did. Perhaps she had overdone it this time, said too much. The anger, sheer rage, really, was rolling off of her in waves - it was awfully stifling, and she took a sharp breath, finding it.. hard to breathe. Or was that the room?
She turned on one foot, intending to make a wicked break for the door. The witch was on the literal edge of destruction. She was going to maim anything in her path that she could get her hands on, and she very well wanted to at the moment.
He saw her movements and between his own triste speed and the added 'enhancements' that came with being a shifter, he could have avoided it. Why didn't he? Honestly, he was at a loss as to WHY she would attempt to strike him, and he didn't fear the blow. It was nothing in comparison to the mental agony Morfeus put him through, and though she busted his lip wide open and even jerked his head to the side with the blow, he wiped the blood away and the cut healed itself up.
He would meet Dani's fire with his own ice, as always.
Her aura was indeed white hot as she raged at him and then made an attempt to bolt, but she seemed to have forgotten who, and most importantly what he was. He leapt to his own feet to grab her arm in an iron grip, refusing to let her run as his own power washed over her in an icy wave to combat the searing flames of her own anger. He HAD to keep the ice up, or he might actually crumble somewhere at the things she said. A poor substitute for Marcus? Surely that wasn't all that he'd been? And she'd fallen in lo--? Love? With him? Hardly. How could he believe that she'd actually cared as much for him as he had for her? Could she have? Could she have loved him?
If she had, surely she didn't any longer. That didn't mean he didn't, though.
"Don't," he repeated quietly, using her own manner against her, only frozen solid instead of burning. "Ever allow yourself to entirely forget that I am NOT one of your relatives, nor am I some piece of vampire scum that you look down upon. I am your friend and I would give everything I have to keep you safe, but I am also a triste, Danielle Vida. You would do well to watch whose blood you spill."
And that right there was the reason that Papa Aristide merely watched from his table in the corner. There was no mistaking the pulse of power coming from that direction, but he hadn't moved yet. This was a triste who had been struck without provocation, and he wasn't jumping into the middle of it just yet.
"I also know more about you than anyone you've ever been in contact with, whether you know it or not. I watched you become the woman you are today, for better or worse." Just how much Ash DID know was up for debate, especially considering his vast resources. Had he known what she was up to before he was taken into Midnight? Had he merely pretended not to, or had he really been in the dark? Either way, he'd accepted her for who she was and loved her in spite of everything. This hurt more than he'd let on.
For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction... sort of. Whatever Danielle had just done or said was nothing compared to the shock she got when her entire body was snapped back like a beautifully excecuted throw of the yo-yo, and she spun around to stand mere inches from Ash as he bled anger back at her.
She gasped so much so she'd almost choked, actually, and for a moment was again rendered absolutely speechless as Ash ripped back into her twice as hard as she'd done to him. His words were so entirely maddening, she felt as though she might collapse under the weight of her own blind rage, folding in upon herself like a neutron star.
She could only respond with a very feral and clearly primal growl as he established himself as stronger, and she was met with the stifling sensation of cold as she struggled to fight him off of her, away from her, out of her mind (figuratively).
It became increasingly harder, and the Vida training began to slip from beneath her, the slightest sensation of accelerated heart rate the first sign that Danielle was actually beginning to fear - something she hadn't felt in a long, long time. There was this amazing pressure on her, covering her skin, stealing all of the heat from her until she felt a small bead of sweat roll down the side of her face.
If she tried to fight him any longer, she was going to lose. But how far was Danielle going to be able to go before he literally put her on the floor? Even now she could feel her body losing, the electrical, burning of her own energy waning.
Pity though, that Danielle had already proven you'd have to break her legs if you wanted her to stay down. Danielle took a secong swing, using whatever source of energy she'd had tapped from GODDESS only knows where. She aimed to hit him in the face again, something frenzied in her eyes the more he affirmed himself as dominant.
That was fine. She'd get one good hit in before all Hell broke loose.
Now, he had a choice. He could dodge her swing, which was entirely possible, or he could take it. If he took it, he also had a decision on his hands. He could let her get her hit in like he had before, or he could freeze up and cause her to hurt her own hand with the blow. Normally, he wouldn't have done the latter, but he was pissed off just as much as she was. Let her hurt her hand, and see if she tried that one again on him.
That decision being made, he didn't move as she swung at him, nor did he after she'd hit. She might as well have struck a block of marble for all of the reaction she got (and how solid her target was without the give), with the only difference being that he did indeed bleed. The damage healed up once more within a few moments, and he swallowed the blood, but it had still hurt. It had to have hurt her just as much though, if not more.
"I already tried telling you, so now I'll ask you as nicely as I can right now NOT to hit me again," he growled out, his voice still the same, but there was nothing human about the growl that accompanied it and continued on afterwards. His control was no longer as perfect as it had been, and that was his weakness, the feline. It had ruled him while he was with Morfeus, and now he had to in turn rule it.
The pain shot through her hand, and though it wasn't the worst thing she'd felt, it was pretty realistic to the moment, and caused her to lose hold of some of that finely guarded energy, an audible crackle heard in the air around her as she forced herself not to favour her hand.
It wasn't a matter of simply bruising her hand, she had actually split her knuckles and broken a finger on that hit, but right now she was so far left that even death looked right.
"Or what, Ash?" she asked, voice... somehow taking that bored tone it had from before. Oh, she knew how to do that, all right. There was - yes, a small laugh. She could practically feel ice crystals on her skin, his aura utterly overwhelming her, and she kept pushing him. Any and all who witnessed this would have deemed her insane or suicidal. What was one without the other, though?
Did she see his eyes close for just an instant as the scent of her blood reached his nostrils? Could she ever know the force of will it took to force that cat down and strike out as a man, as a witch? He had to strike, though. Walking away would be an open invitation for anyone in their audience to attack him the moment he left the Mojo Lounge, and she needed it. She needed anything that might snap her back into reality, because not everyone she treated in this manner would be a friend.
The growl grew more feral, but the blow he struck was entirely not physical. It was the mental equivalent of a sledgehammer to the face, and he fully intended to knock her sprawling with it. She wouldn't lose consciousness, he wouldn't allow it, but she needed the pain and the knowledge that she was outmatched. She needed to go back to being his Dani just as much as he needed to cling to the man she'd reminded him of with his anger.
She didn't even get to cry out that time - there was another, much smaller gasp, as blood began to make its way in a thin line from her nose. Her eyes went wide again, but this time it was something quite else that dwelled within them as she trailed along the levels of consciousness - he wasn't letting her fall out, wasn't letting the comfortable inky black hole to take over.
She released all of the power she'd been holding to shield herself with, and suddenly the pain became much more clear than it had before, though it was a silent sort of event, and that was when she began to slowly slide towards the ground.
Still in his grip or no, Danielle fell to her knees, defeated. If he didn't let go of her arm, judging from how he had it, it could easily be broken, or dislocated, simply from the sheer force of her body weight as she suddenly and quite definitely dropped like a ton of bricks.
He released her arm, well aware of the damage it would do to her physically if she simply fell with him holding her up in that manner. He wasn't going to keep her from falling, though. Let her hit the floor, let her know that she couldn't stop herself or pick herself up, and then he would help her. He'd always tried so hard to ensure that she didn't ever truly fall when he could prevent it, but had he really done any good with that? Would they still be here? Probably, in all honesty. He was worried that this encounter was a result of her reaction to his situation, or this new friend of hers. Either way, it needed to be stopped.
No, he refused to allow her to lose consciousness. He held onto her with the very same mental 'fist' that had struck her, his icy blue eyes watching her where she lay on the floor for a moment before he dropped gracefully to one knee, a napkin from the table in his hand. He wiped at her nose delicately, almost lovingly removing the blood there, and to look into his eyes right then would be to see that he hated what was happening. It was as though a portion of his fury had been overtaken by the fact that he did in fact love her, and he didn't want to hurt her, but only after he'd struck out at her finally. It was once she'd grown quiet and been beaten, after she was no longer challenging everything he was that he was allowed to calm himself again.
"Or that, Dani," he said softly, sighing.
Not allowing her to slip into unconsciousness was a cruel thing, because Danielle hadn't been exposed to a pain like that in quite a while. She generally kept her fights short and explosively violent - this had been somewhat drawn out, and with someone who was definitely besting her in the power department.
The animosity was still there in her eyes, but it was a different type, no longer reserved for Ash, but rather, the fact that she was damn well immobilized at the moment. He should have known it was more than a small fear of hers. She watched him, unable to form words at the moment.
Her hand was useless now, but it would heal rapidly.. once she could get up and get herself back together. They had effectively cleared out the Lounge, though, which was something sort of comical - to her, anyways. Papa was all who remained, but Danielle was way, way too detatched to be able to pinpoint him at the moment.
Grey eyes fluttered for a moment and then focused on Ash. Why didn't he let go? Why was he doing this? It sort of struck her then that she had crossed a line she couldn't just uncross or say she was sorry for, and somewhere in the pit of her chest, there was a different sort of pain, that strange aching sensation people got when their heart broke - even if it was just a little.
If she would have said she was sorry, or even acted like she was sorry right then, she would have been surprised at how quickly he would have forgiven her for crossing that line of his. He could quite possibly forgive almost anything, if she was truly asking for forgiveness. Such was the level of patience he possessed, and how much he cared for her.
His power slowly creeped away from her, loosening its hold as he realized that she wasn't going to pass out, and the calm, sad expression on his face didn't change as he waited for her to get up and react. He wasn't expecting much grace from her, not like Felicity (who had looked enough like Dani to make his heart ache, much like Lark had as well, damn blondes) would have. Dani was far too modern for that, and the modern world was often a graceless thing.
Act like she was sorry? Danielle was a good liar when she wanted to be, but she couldn't feign emotion that ran so deep as to changing her entire essence. And she didn't feel sorry, not even just a little bit. She felt something quite else.
As the power ebbed off of her in a strange tidal sort of way, the icy sensation was almost instantly as fleeting, her own anger building back up again. It was horrifying if you thought about how much she actually had in there somewhere, and what she hadn't even begun to tap into yet.
She didn't dare move, not a muscle. Any move she made right now would be the wrong one at the moment, so she just stayed where she had fallen, fingers not even so much as a twitch as they rested on the floor of the lounge.
She stared back up at Ash, expressionless, as only she could do, a portrait of neutrality painted with the finest brush strokes possible. Grey eyes, however, sang a bit of a different tune. Within them, the iris was almost blacked out by her pupils, the colour now an eclipse of silvery-grey around the dialation.
Danielle was going to do something violent soon, very soon, just as soon as she could get her thoughts in order. She wanted to rip his eyes out for that little move he'd just pulled, such a precious thing he was. One could suppose that it would have been mutual had things gone the other way around - after all, Danielle was Vida, and violent, and viscious, and other bad things that started with V - and she was also a bad loser. Losing to a triste wasn't a big SHOCK or anything, but to her it wasn't that. It was so much more simple, because she didn't SEE Ash like others saw him.
Perhaps her perception of him had been poisoned by their relationship, but there was fuck all he could do to make her see him any other way at this point, no matter how many times he busted her up with his power.
He'd have to kill her before she'd ever admit, freely or forced, that he was simply too much for her to push limits on.
He sighed, looking down at her, and offered her his hand to help her up. He wasn't so sure that she'd take it, but he offered it, somewhat like offering a truce. He didn't know what the hell was going on with her, but he wanted to. He wanted to know what he'd done to provoke her so badly in the first place.
"Are you ready to talk now?" he asked, hoping that she was willing to stop punching and screaming for awhile. Given the way he could feel her power building up again, he was doubting it, but he could hope, couldn't he?
She answered only by lashing out at him again, this time not physically, but with strictly energy. It wasn't as tame as before, since now she wasn't using any real physical strength to sap at her concentration. No, now it was all just mental, and she could accomplish that easily enough from her serene little splotch on the floor.
It was heat, like a sudden flash fire, intense, dizzying with the saturation of heavy, angry energy. She seemed to draw in from around her, using herself as a sort of conduit to allow it to pass - her nose began to bleed again, and she didn't care. As long as the blood spilled wasn't his doing, she could live with it.
He probably could have warded off far more of that energy that he actually did, but he took most of the hit without trying to protect himself. Why? Two reasons, one of them being the hope that if she got a hit in, her hurt pride would sting a little less. The second was to appease his own guilt for having hurt her to begin with. He'd promised Dani once that he'd always protect her, though that had been so many years ago that she may not even remember it. Right after Marcus died, when she was so upset. How was hurting her supposed to protect her?
A sharp intake of breath indicated the initial blow being struck, that fiery energy whipping about him as though it would devour him. He stumbled backwards and caught himself with a hand on the table they'd been sitting at, just riding it all out. It hurt as only her anger could, but he took it without complaint, and finally turned his eyes to hers. "Now, we're even. Let's talk," he tried once more, his voice a little breathy.
Danielle pushed herself up off the floor, but something in her expression, which was entirely too dark for a Witch of light and justice... or whatever the hell her family claimed to be this time around. No, she wasn't done yet. This was plainly known as her power seemed to backdraft to her, and then flare out again, only this time, enough to break a few glasses that were caught in the wave as it lashed out towards the triste.
What was she ON? She seemed to be running purely on aggression, animal instinct, and emotions at the moment - Danielle had lost all rational thought for the time being. She wanted to hurt him. She wanted to.. something. For all of the grief he had caused her, not that he really knew that.
How do you explain that you love someone so much you hate them? Danielle had been misguided in the past, but now she was just flat out doing stupid shit to try and expell some of her anger. Picking a fight with a triste? That about ranks 10 on the stupid scale of 1/10.
Picking a fight with a triste was usually a 20 on the 1-10 scale, but this was Ash, and it was Dani picking the fight. If it had been anyone else, he probably would have ground them into dust already, but it was Dani, his Dani, and he wasn't going to hurt her at all badly.
That would explain why, other than using his own power to keep that wave of hers from continuing on the cause more damage to their surroundings and anyone who might be nearby, he again took the blast. The pain she caused showed on his face for a moment before he got a handle on it once more and it ebbed away, and he once again looked to her, as though asking if she'd gotten enough out of her system that she could function like a normal person again. He was nothing if not patient.
The calm that held around Ash was like some sort of visual venom for Danielle, and it only did the opposite of what Ash had in mind, spinning her further down the spiral into madness. I am running out of words for angry, rage, and insane.
She was infuriated at this point, so much so that her aura began to take in light, making her look like the black hole she was at the moment. She was feeling the weight of her own untrained power on top of her now, and it made a compressing sensation in her chest that almost took her breath away.
Not before she got in one last hit, anyways. Danielle was spreading herself too thin, using too much concentration on trying to attack Ash that she'd totally forgotten to guard herself from, well, herself. One last blast literally rocked the small room, sending a few more glasses to the trash-can grave. The air around her was nearly tangible it was so saturated, and Danielle finally caved under the pressure.
Her right knee hit the floor first, as her body fell this time of its own accord. She teetered there for a moment, and then fell forward, a deafening thud as the Witch finally succumbed to her own crippling energy. Not dead, no - drained. If Danielle got attacked now... well, there'd be one less Vida.
Ash's eyes widened just a bit when he realized exactly what she was going to do, and he decided right then and there that he wasn't taking this hit. He used his own magic to do his very best to contain the blast, though some of the glasses on the tables were lost anyway. And Dani, of course, positively dropped. She'd completely exhausted herself, which was about as foolish as she could have been. If he hadn't been there, who knew what would have happened to her?
He sighed, glancing back at Papa Aristide, who was still sitting as calmly as ever in his corner, watching. He didn't look particularly pleased, but intrigued. For whatever reason, he hadn't stopped them. Not Ash's concern right then.
He reached into his pocket and left a few bills on the table that added up to far more than their drinks, hopefully enough to cover the glasses she'd broken and anything else. Then, he scooped her still form up off the floor, headed for the Hollow and the room he had upstairs. She could rest and recuperate there, and hopefully they could actually talk, instead of her trying to beat on him for some unknown reason.
((Continued [a href=\'http://midnightmayhem.ourdarkarts.net/index.php?showtopic=621&st=0&#entry16536\' target=\'_top\']here[/a].))