Night's Omen

Consider it done...

Papa Aristide's words kept ringing through his head the entire ride to Dani's apartment, keeping his mind occupied until the very moment he arrived at her door and knocked.  He'd done the man a favor, weaving some firestone into a tool of his, and in return, he'd been told in a rather cryptic manner that he could have his chance.  That was all he'd been told.  That, and 'Consider it done' after the man blew some weird-smelling dust in his face, causing him to sneeze, which was weird enough in itself.  What had been done, though?  He didn't have the slightest idea what was going on.  What was 'his chance'?  What was that man talking about, and why did it always have to sound like a riddle?

He sighed, knocking at the door and knowing she was home.  He could feel her moving inside the room, not to mention hear it.  "Dani, it's me."  

Danielle heard a knock at the door, and walked down the hall, silk robe on. She'd decided to take a shower and try to relax after all of the stuff going on, and had just finished blow-drying her hair when she heard someone calling her name. She set her towel on the top of the couch, glancing at her fish tank. Satan IV swam happily around, followed up by Satan V. She'd gotten two of them, hopefully one might survive.

She made a face, not recognizing the voice over the sounds of her music, and went to the door, leaning against it. "Who's there?" she called again. The music was pretty loud, so someone standing outside might buy in that she couldn't hear well. It always unnerved her when people knocked on her door, but she knew it could easily be a neighbor asking her to turn her volume down, so she'd try not to be too gruff with them this time.

He smiled somewhat, aware that her music could have potentially kept her from hearing him, but that wasn't quite it.  Dani was paranoid, with fairly good reason, so she wasn't going to just open her door.  Still, she should have known it was him, if only from the feel of his aura on the other side of the door, and the fact that he'd called her 'Dani.'  Perhaps she had, and was just playing with him.  Either way, he'd bite.

"Who else calls you 'Dani'?" he called through the door, letting his own magic slip through to mingle with hers.  If that wasn't enough to get her to let him in, he'd be horribly disappointed.

She frowned and opened the door, wondering if she was still too tired to think straight. Usually she could feel Ash coming into the doors of her large apartment building, let alone have him standing outside the door. She was pretty exhausted, though, despite taking a few days to herself.

"Oh, sorry," she said, opening the door with a smile. And, yeah, in her white silk robe. She leaned against the side of it as she held it open. "Did you take care of whatever it was you were doing? I decided to get cleaned up since you said you'd be late. Which movie you want to watch? Lady and the Tramp or Peter Pan?"

Ah, yes. Disneyfest. Danielle loved Disney cartoons. She couldn't deny their cuteness.  

Ah, Disney cartoons.  They were certainly not Ash's favorite, but he didn't much mind them.  With everything he'd seen in his incredibly long life, it was nice to sit down and watch something other than violent, gruesome movies.  Not that he really had much of a habit of sitting down and watching movies, though.  This was absolutely a way of spending time with Dani that didn't include fighting and vampires.  Just them, the couch, and a Disney flick.

"We can watch whichever one you'd prefer," he told her, not really minding either way.  He liked Captain Hook as a character, though.  "Peter Pan sounds alright."

With that little bit of his thought on the subject, he shrugged.  "I took care of it, but that man is extremely unusual.  He blew some sand in my face when it was all done."  Sigh, weird man.

"How odd," she said. "Was Paris there? I saw her a few nights ago and she asked if we were going to kill eachother," she said with a laugh as she headed for the kitchen. She rubbed her eyes. She didn't -feel- tired. She got a glass out of the cabinets and poured herself some water.

"I just need to get changed first. I know how much you like seeing me in my robe but I'm afraid I have to cut the show short in case I get any calls." She was joking, of course, and turned back around as she spoke, taking a sip of water.

"Oh, really?  And what did you tell her?" he asked, actually interested in that little exchange.  Paris had been there, and if she'd talked to Dani at some point, that would explain why she kept giving him funny looks.  Ah, but that robe!  He actually wished she wouldn't go change out of it, since he was still a man, even if he was old and not quite the sex fiend that most modern men acted like.  He may not have been the most sexual creature around, but he still enjoyed the view.

He gave a dramatic sigh, shaking his head, though the small smile on his face served to tell her he was just teasing.  "Then I suppose I--"  Whatever he'd been about to say, it was suddenly forgotten as he gasped and grabbed for the counter, a dizzy spell completely taking him off his feet.  As he dropped, he still tried to hold his own weight, which was a mistake that only resulted in him smacking his head off the edge of the counter before hitting the hard linoleum anyway.

"Ash!" she screamed, dropping her glass. It fell to the floor with a spattering sound behind her, and bare feet pressed against glass as she moved quickly to him, dropping to her knees. She could see no wounds or bruising, nothing that would suggest something had happened... but what if Papa Aristide had something to do with this? Paris said he was "a might powerful". But to a triste?

"Ash..?" she said, trying to rouse him from his silent state. She held his face in her hands, sitting nearly atop him now, her own expression quite panicked. Something was wrong. She was trying to sense him, sense what was causing this... she couldn't.

He felt like...

Like a human.

Her heart stopped for a second, and she really flew into a frenzy, shaking so badly that her efforts suddenly became useless and she had to back off for a moment to collect herself.

That wasn't possible.

Not until she saw the blood on the floor from where he'd hit his head.

"Oh Jesus," she whispered to herself, unable to move. She sat, paralyzed, feeling suddenly like she was about to go into shock.

Ash had never been much of a pushover, but he certainly wasn't used to this.  He groaned as he came to, trying to push himself at least to his knees.  His head was one great big pile of hurt, and he didn't understand why.  Putting his fingers to the bloodied cut on his forehead didn't even help, since he should have healed instantly as a shifter.  Should have.  Or his own magic as a triste should have allowed him to heal himself, but it was entirely...silent.  He couldn't feel Dani, couldn't sense anything.  It was like suddenly being deaf to the world, and he didn't have the slightest idea what the hell was going on.

Had Aristide done this?  How could he have, and what did he do?  It hadn't even occurred to him immediately that he might be...human.  He hadn't been human in centuries, so he didn't remember how insensitive to everything they were.

"Dani?"

Danielle jumped slightly as he spoke to her, lost in the madness of her own thoughts. She reached over, running her fingers along the cut and the thin line of blood that had not yet begun to dry on his forehead. She looked at her hand, and then at him, and turned so that she was fully facing him again, sitting on her knees with her hands on the ground in front of her, leaning carefully to examine him.

She did something really bad then - she reached out and smacked him in the face. If he was still... him... he'd have been able to block it, or at least wouldn't feel it like a human would. As a Vida, Danielle had a certain level of strength that was unmatched by normal humans.

It hardly occurred to him that she might strike him right then, and he didn't even have a chance to block or avoid it.  The speed that came with being both a triste and a shifter was gone from him, and she caught him directly across the face.  He cursed in French as the pain exploded in his jaw, the blow snapping his head the the side like it would any normal human.  When he looked back at her, his lip was bleeding as well.

"Would you please not do that again?" he asked, trying for his usual calm, and succeeding for the most part.  This had him almost...scared, though.  

"...." she let out a choked gasp, clapping her hand over her mouth as she stifled a small scream, swallowing it back down. She skittered away from him, pressing hands into the broken glass as she moved across the kitchen to bang her spine into the island not far off from where he'd fallen. She bounced against the wood, and put her hands to her face in the classic 'Danielle' pose, one which she often found herself in.

Ash. Human. Ash was human. Not a triste. Not immortal. Not.. like her.. but like her, still. No tiger. No.. shapeshifting bullshit, no magic. Just... human.

She pressed her bloody hands to her face a moment longer, and finally reacted, by flinging herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and letting out a loud.... sob. Not just a small cry - she had the full waterworks going, 20something years of repressed..whatever the hell that was. Danielle hadn't actually cried for any certain amount of time since Marcus' death. This was a big sort of thing.

The bigger thing was that Ash was human. Human.

"Dani!  Your hands!" he cried, watching her slide through the glass, then bring her own bloodied hands to her face while she had her little freak-out session.  Leave it to Dani not to even take notice of the fact that she'd just pressed her hands into a load of glass.

Even better though, was when she launched herself back at him, crying and clinging to him.  He just plain didn't get it.  She had a habit of completely confusing him when it came to her reactions.  First, she'd struck him and now she was sobbing and clinging to him.  He held her, a bit surprised at the sudden contact, but really didn't know what to do otherwise.  He still felt like his head was in a bubble, and that wasn't something that seemed like it was going to fade.

Was he really...human?  Could he be?  How was that possible?

She couldn't even speak, couldn't even respond, she was so wrapped up in her own head, and at all of the possibilities that once had seemed so impossible suddenly at her front door. She just clung tighter to him, clawing at his shirt with her fingers - the Vida Witch might have actually hurt him with her grip, but refused to let go, for fear he might just... change back.

He had to grit his teeth to swallow any sound that may have fought its way from his throat at the way she was digging into his back and shoulders with that deathgrip of hers.  It was a bit startling to see the difference, considering that strength of hers had been very little in comparison to his.  Any pain that he may have felt at this same treatment before would have healed so quickly that he'd have hardly felt it.  It was as though everything about him was weaker, and he couldn't really say he liked it.  Nor did he like the soreness in his head and lip from the blows he'd taken.

He hadn't quite gotten to the part where he'd be able to make a life with her as a human, considering that he was having a little bit of trouble swallowing the idea that he was indeed just a human now.  After spending a few centuries as an immortal, powerful witch, it wasn't an easy thing to believe.  

She was starting to actually hurt him with her squeezing, though.  She had a death-grip on him, and his body was starting to really complain.  "Dani...Dani, I'm sorry, but you're crushing me..." Damn, that was hard to admit.

She let go suddenly and sat back, laughing through her tears. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just so.... " she didn't know. What was the word for this feeling that was sweeping her? Happy? Could that be it? She wiped at her tears, effectively smearing blood on her face - her hands had stopped bleeding, but wet tears and dry blood makes for wet bloody messes.

She stood up carefully, and held her hand out to him to pull him up. Imagine that - Danielle helping ASH up. It didn't strike her as anything at the moment, she was walking on clouds and broken glass. Once she had him up, she found that she had no more real words to say, opting instead for a kiss - one that was slightly more fierce than the previous few.

He accepted her hand up, still feeling entirely out of place where he was.  This was just too weird, and was made more so by the fact that Dani had just rubbed blood all over her face.  Why couldn't things go smoothly for a change?  "Dani, I--"

And there he went, getting interrupted again.  Although, this time he wasn't complaining.  She took his lips with a ferocity he hadn't experienced in a kiss from her up until now, and there was nothing he could possibly do other than simply falling into it and kissing back.  This wasn't exactly a kind way of treating his busted lip, but that only seemed to make it all feel that much more...alive.  He hadn't experienced this since he was human, and the increased beating of his heart just added to it.  Hah, his heartrate had gone up, and he could do nothing about it.  

Danielle felt his heart accelerate its beating and it made hers speed up, too. It was amazing - she'd never felt that before. It was like a dream, like.. She began walking, pushing him towards the couch, still keeping him captured with kisses.

She couldn't even explain herself at the moment, and prayed he wouldn't ask her to - she had no idea how, or why this was happening, but she wasn't going to NOT take advantage of it. Finally, Ash was... on her level.

Ash wasn't even on her level, but well below it.  A human could never really be on the same level as a Vida witch, though some of the human hunters could achieve a level of skill comparable.  It still wasn't the same.  Ash, for all of his skill, was still only human right then, and at a disadvantage.  And she seemed to be pressing that advantage of hers, kissing him like she was trying to drink in everything about him. He didn't even think to fight her progress towards the couch, despite the fact that she was pushing him backwards.  He couldn't see where he was going, but just had to trust her.

He wasn't used to not knowing those things, but he did trust Dani not to hurt him.  Unless she was punching or smacking him, at least.  She was usually pretty straightforward about those things.

Danielle stopped as she felt him hit the arm of the couch, and pressed forward, causing them both to fall on top of it. She suddenly seemed to come to her senses as she sat on top of him in a sort of 'sort of fallen, sort of pinned' way. She sat up, then lept up, and put her hands on her face again.

"Whoa," she breathed. Wow. She... yeah. This was way too much. She cleared the living room quickly and went back into her room, promptly dunking her head into her sink, effectively rinsing the blood off of her face and cooling the heat rising into her cheeks.

She pulled off her robe and threw on some quick cloth pajama pants and a tanktop, and came back down the hall, steps quiet but quite quick as she emerged from the darkness of the long pathway.

She paced around the couch, something Danielle tended to do, and then went for her cigarettes on the counter. "I need a minute," she said finally, trying to explain herself.

Whoa.

He ended up granting her a little yelp of surprise as he hit the arm of the couch and was pitched backwards with her on top of him.  His heartrate spiked at the unexpected movement, and then she was taking off just as suddenly.  He blinked at her as she left the room, not really sure how to take it all, but at least it gave him a chance to attempt calming himself properly.  It actually took an effort, which was less than pleasing.  With her off straightening herself though, it gave him time to have his own little freak-out session.

He sat up on the couch to hold his head in his hands, bumped the cut that was slowly starting to stop bleeding, and winced.  He'd forgotten how bad a head wound could be when one didn't heal immediately, and he grabbed a few tissues from the coffee table to press to the gash.  This was bad.  She thought she needed a minute?  How had this happened?  Now that she was no longer mauling his face, he could actually stop to think, and he wasn't so sure if this had enough potential to be good that it was worth it.  

He was powerless, and that was scary.

Danielle jittered around on the balconey for a few moments before flicking her cigarette into the window of a passing car (not on purpose, mind you, but Danielle.. does what she does). She opened the door and came back inside, and then warily walked around the couch once before sitting down on it. She brushed her blonde hair aside, and looked at Ash.

"Tell me, please, in detail, what exactly you were doing before you got to my apartment?"

She actually wondered if Pandora was dead, but shrugged off the thought almost instantly. It wasn't like old-school Dracula. The maker dies, the minions fall. That... wasn't how this sort of thing worked.

He looked up at her as she walked around the sofa, not even sure what he wanted to say to her.  He really just didn't even know what he was thinking, nevermind speaking right then.  his thoughts were too crazy to organize.  Ah, but a formal question he could handle.  

"I told you, I did some work for Aristide.  He needed some firestone woven, not terribly much, so I went to do that.  I came here right afterwards, and I was at the Hollow before."  It wasn't a terribly complicated thing.  He didn't know what the hell was going on, but the only explanation he had was Aristide.  He had to have done this, but how?

She seemed almost neurotic about her motions, abrupt and jerky. She shook her head more than she needed to, and shook a finger at nothing, before turning to him.

"NO, Ash, you're forgetting something. You have to be... forgetting something. Did you eat anything? Drink anything?" She was reaching, really reaching here. "Aristide is magic, potent. Did he touch you? Did Paris touch you?"

Paris was just as bad, if not slightly more obvious. The girl didn't have a bad bone in her body, though, so it didn't seem to be the choice Danielle would make.

Did she honestly think that his memory was that bad?  How could she?  "Danielle!" he shouted, calling her by her formal first name, something he did so rarely that it had to get her attention.  "I'm over 200 years old!  I have an excellent memory!  I'm not forgetting anything!  He didn't touch me, nor did Paris.  I didn't eat or drink anything.  I already told you what happened!"

This was incredibly frustrating.  He HAD told her everything that had happened.  He'd left the Hollow to go weave a bit of firestone for Aristide, nothing too draining, he'd gotten some odd comments from the man, and he'd blown that sand in his fa---oh, hell.  

"Merde!" he cursed suddenly, standing up and doing some pacing of his own.  For a man who was usually incredibly calm, this had him pretty flipped out.  "The sand!  He blew that sand in my face, that had to have been it!"

"Get your stuff. We're going back to the Lounge, pronto," she called over her shoulder as she went to her room to change again. This time it was into her black fitted pants, boots, and a dark grey v-neck sweater made of a soft t-shirt material. Her gold necklace with the small ring was looped 'round her neck, and she slid on her shoulder holster as she went for her jacket.

"Ash, if anyone finds out about this, you're in deep shit," she said, grabbing the keys to her car. "I'm going to go back there and make that bastard turn you back."

Sure, he was human, and that was crazy and all, but... he was no use to her dead.  

"Dani, wait!" he told her, not even making a move to head for the door.  Did he really want to go running around New York with a wound on his head?  If he ran into anyone he knew, they would know instantly that something was wrong simply because it hadn't healed.  That wasn't a conversation that he needed to have.

Could anyone undo triste magic?  Was it permanent?  How could Aristide possibly accomplish something like this?

Why?![/b]

"It can't be permanent.  There's no way a human sorcerer could reverse Pandora's magic.  Dani, my sire is one of the most powerful fledglings of Triste.  A human couldn't undo her magic," he told her.  Yes, it may have been arrogant and egotistical to refuse to believe that a human could do that sort of magic so easily, but it was true.  "The effects must wear off."

"Wait? What?" she shrieked, surprised. Danielle didn't even consider how hard she might be to deal with to a human, considering Ash had enough fun trying to calm her down as a triste, and a powerful one, at that. This was sure to be a rollercoaster of fun.

"Well, what do you want me to do? Stand around and sit on my ass while you may or may not be... human again?" she demanded, her voice turning into a shrill whisper, like human was a dirty word.

She threw her keys across the room, and they landed in the fishtank. "Fine! Fine. I'll just sit here." And she did. On the floor. Because Danielle was about to freak the fuck out. So the floor? Might actually have been the best place for her.

It was sad that even as the mortal, Ash was the one to remain calm.

Ash had, despite his current situation arguing its possibility, had many years of practice keeping himself calm in bad situations.  That didn't mean he wasn't wanting to have a panic attack, and he was, in his own way.  He actually paced for a moment, putting a hand to his head, remembering the cut there, and pulling it away.  It gave him an idea, though.

"I can't walk around with this cut on my head.  Anyone could see it and know something was wrong.  Do you have a hooded sweatshirt or a baseball cap?" he asked, knowing that one of those was the least he required to wander around.  He was still going to have to worry about someone noticing him, but he doubted a vampire or other powerful enemy would recognize his aura as it was.

His pacing had ended with him near the fishtank, and he looked rather sadly in at the angelfish inside.  He'd lost track of which Satan she was at, but he would be unable to help this one anytime soon.  He'd have to feed it himself later.  In the meantime, he fished the keys off of the bottom of the tank, letting them drip over the water for a moment to keep the water off of her carpet.  

Since she was so fond of sitting on it, he thought it best to help keep it clean.

"Ash," she said, giving him a crooked look. It was full of skepticism and humour. "Do you honestly think I have any hoodies that would fit you?" Danielle was tall, perhaps, but she was slender. She wore a medium or a small in anything shirt-related, because she preferred her clothing to be mostly fitted.

"Not only that, but it's the middle of summer. Do you really think people won't be suspicious anyways?" she asked, looking at him sideways. She rose again, and held her hand out for him to toss the keys back to her. "My bike helmet won't even fit you," she chuckled. "Your head is too big."

That seemed funny enough to keep her mood bright for the next few minutes, which was all anyone could really ever ask for with Danielle. "Why don't I just bring the car around and you can book it down the fire escape? I mean, shit, it isn't like anyone's going to be out there in the alley unless they're homeless, and trust me, the last thing a homeless person is going to be worried about is what's on your head."

...She had a point.

Nothing she owned would fit him, unless it was a baseball cap or something similar, and she probably didn't own any.  Hell, even the last one he'd owned had disappeared, though that was because he'd been wearing it when Morfeus sent Jeshickah to capture him.  He hadn't seen it again after that, and he really needed to get another.  It was a shame he'd lost that one, though.  He'd had it a VERY long time.

She was right about the rest of it as well, though.  Not many people would even notice what was on his head if he cleaned it and let his hair cover it up as well as it could.  It wouldn't be fool-proof, but it could work so long as there wasn't anyone specifically watching for something strange.  He hadn't seen any of the vampires he was most worried about recently, so could that continue?  He hoped.

"You're right, we should just be quick," he told her, tossing the keys to her and heading for the bathroom.  He had to clean it up some, and he tried to make sure it was about as covered up as it could be before they left.  

At least Dani had found it amusing.

"And by the way, I do not have a big head," he informed her when he returned to her a few moments later.

"Yes you do," she said, and nothing more as they clattered down the stairs. Danielle hated the elevator; she tried not to take it as much as possible. When they got to the car, she ducked in and headed for the Lounge.

"Why is it that this man is behind absolutely every malfunction lately?" she asked him, brows knitted in frustration. Danielle didn't like being on the powerful side of things. Ash had enemies; she had more. Not that she couldn't defend herself, but even she had to admit he'd been cleaning up her messes for a loooong time.

It seemed immature of him to continue 'arguing' with her over whether or not he had a big head, since he knew he didn't and that was all that mattered, but he was still tempted to.  That was one of the problems with the two of them, actually.  Usually they came off as cold, powerful and rather serious about their situations and surroundings, but they both had a habit of dissolving into fits of immaturity when the mood struck.  Fortunately, it was usually just the two of them involved, so there weren't many witnesses.

Like now, for example.

They had way too much going on right then to really worry about it, otherwise he might have returned fire just to amuse them both, but the situation was just a little more serious than that.  They could play it off as light-hearted as much as they wanted, but just under that surface, they were both dealing with various levels of 'freaking out'.  He was just quieter about it.  He was also as quiet and subtle as was possible about slipping out to the car, and he was actually thinking that they might manage this.  As long as he didn't run into anyone who recognized him, he should be fine.  In theory, anyway.

"That man isn't far away from most malfunctions.  I think it's a hobby of his," he remarked, surprisingly casually, and he actually meant it.  Aristide seemed to enjoy meddling, unlike some people who had a little power to them.  The only lives that Ash really bothered to meddle in were those of his employees and Dani, all of whom were more than willing to have the help. 

Wow, he hadn't thought of that until right then.  There was no way in hell he could deal with keeping the peace at the Hollow, or helping the people who depended on him, if he was mortal.  Not just mortal, either.  Human.  Powerless. 

Shit.

Danielle muttered something under her breath and started the car, whipping it into traffic at a high rate of speed. She didn't even dare steal a glance to see if Ash was bothered by her driving, because she would just gladly pretend that everything was normal. If she was spotted not driving crazy, then someone might suspect something was up.

"I swear, if I find a way, some day I'm going to turn his world upside down just so he can see how it feels," she snapped, standing on the brakes as the light she was approaching turned red. She looked over at Ash, an unusually calm expression on her face. "I thought you'd be less uptight as a human," she said. She studied him for a second, and then the smile broke out, proving that she wasn't entirely serious after all.

It was probably better that she didn't steal a glance to see how Ash was dealing with her driving, even though he was pulling off a very good blank and slightly irritated face.  He managed to refrain from clutching at any part of the car, well aware that being mortal meant that Dani had a hell of a chance of surviving a bad car wreck, and he didn't.  That would just be LAME, for someone like him to die in a car wreck.  Imagine that.

There was no way he wasn't going to react to the way she stopped at that light, even if he normally wouldn't have.  He could have taken the hit before, but he was all too aware of the fact that even a little smack on the head was painful and not going away, so something more dangerous would mess him up just as badly as any human.  It was ridiculous, but not untrue.  Fortunately, he merely grabbed the car door to help against the violent stop of the car, and shot her an unhappy look regarding her assessment of how 'uptight' he was.  "I don't see why being easier to kill would make me less uptight, Danielle, especially with your driving," he pointed out, though a smile peeked through just because she'd smiled at him.  Besides, she'd gotten her dig in about him being uptight (which he didn't think he was), and he'd gotten his by bitching about her driving.  Even.

"I wish you luck with turning Aristide's world upside down, because you'll need it.  That man isn't exactly paranoid, but most practitioners of that type take incredible precautions against attacks from others," he offered, returning to the topic he'd pushed aside when she stopped like that.  "I would think he has plenty of enemies trying to get back at him by now, and he's still there."

That alone emphasized the point.