Night's Omen

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."