Night's Omen

Skye had been driving for miles. It was pretty apparent that she was lost, but she was unwilling to stop for directions since she still had a full tank of gas. Upstate New York wasn't like the rest of the city, not at all. Lots of beautiful old mansions set back in the woods, just waiting to be bought and fixed up. She finally thought she'd found her way back to the interstate, and took a right turn down an older county road in need of repairs. About halfway down, the car began to buck, and Skye made angry noises as the headlights dimmed and then went out. She managed to coast into the parking lot of a small closed gas station, and got out, walking around to pop her hood.

As she did so, she fished her cell phone out of her pocket, trying to dial out. She looked at the screen after it didn't start ringing right away, and let out a frustrated cry. "No signal? Stupid piece of shit!" she hissed into the cold winter air. She slammed her hood down, unable to find anything physically wrong with the car, and dove back into the inside, trying to sit in the warmth of the heat before it ran out. After about five minutes, her eyes adjusted to the blackness, and she picked out dim lights up ahead. Had to be one of those massive houses she'd seen during the day. She locked her car up tight and decided to walk it out, hugging her long coat tightly to her body and braving the cold as she hurried down the road, trusty Maglight in hand.

When she got closer to the house, she heard noises from the woods - rustling. She turned, nervous, and began walking faster, but when she got to the front gate, she found it was locked. She struggled to find a call button, meanwhile the sounds behind her came louder, and more pronounced. When she heard a growl from behind her, she was met with several mangy looking dogs that very well could have been wolves - it was hard to tell in the dim light. She began tugging on the gate, calling up to the house -

"HELLO, IS ANYONE IN THERE? PLEASE, I NEED HELP!"

She looked back at the dogs, and they had begun to circle her. Skye lost her nerve, jumped up, and began to climb the gate, though it wasn't in the plans of the hungry animals that had waited for her. They began jumping and snapping at her, and one of them successfully got ahold of her jacket, yanking her off the apex of the gate before she could swing a leg over. She hit the stone drive with a thud, and saw stars. The flashlight rolled uselessly away from her fingers, and the last thing she saw was the half-starved dogs closing in on her.

That particular house could have been in better shape, and better lit, but it wasn't a residence that was used to guests.  There was, of course, a reason for that as well, but nobody in the area bothered with the place any longer.  There were rumors and plenty of ghost stories, but so long as none of them went looking for answers, everything went smoothly.  There was even a quiet, wide-eyed young kid that went into town for supplies often enough, and the rumor mill was almost always alive with news of a new visit from him, but all anyone in the little upstate New York town knew about him was his name: Jason.

Fortunately for Skye, it actually wasn't Jason that heard her yell.  Most people who showed up at the large, old house were better off for running into the college-aged guy, but he'd have been useless against wolves, or crazy wolf dogs.  No, it was the master of the house that heard her and arrived first, though Jason was probably on his way.  Nicholas LeCroix was already outside, prowling through the cold night, and he was no friend of those dogs.

The animals were hungry, probably because they were sharing their hunting grounds with Nick and foolishly remained in the area, but he wasn't about to let a human fall prey to them.  If anything, he would eat the human, but he most likely wouldn't.  Besides, how likely was she to hang around once she saw him?  Only one way to find out.  Just as one of the dogs leapt for her, he appeared out of the trees, smacking the animal right out of the air.  A roar that shook the metal gate warned the others of his presence, and though they had numbers on their side, he knew that was only about half of their 'pack'.  They ran rather than try to take him on without the others, and he took a few snaps at their swiftly retreating forms before regarding the woman who'd almost been dog food with his sharp golden eyes, flicking his tail around.

What to do with her?  Perhaps he'd see how she reacted, then make his decision.

Everything was a blur around Skye. She had never hit her head so hard she actually saw stars before, but this was one of those times. There was noise that came out like colour, and sound waves brushed against her like ice. She sat up, disoriented, and reached back, wrapping a hand firmly around the cold iron bars of the gate to pull herself up. Once she'd gotten into a standing position, she shrugged her shoulders a little and tried to assess her situation. She didn't realize it, but she'd bashed her head fairly hard, and there was blood on the pavement where she'd been.

There was definitely a large... very large lion... where the dogs had been. Was she in Narnia? She suddenly felt lightheaded, and her grip on the gate faltered as she slid down to her knees. She was exhausted from the drive, the commotion. Maybe a nap in the snow would cheer her up. Of course, when you had a concussion, that was the last thing you needed. Skye fainted, both from shock and blunt force to the head.

Great.  His newly rescued human lady was now sleeping in the snow with blood seeping out of her head.  That was ALWAYS a good thing.  He growled, obviously annoyed, and nudged her a few times with his nose before he was confident that she wasn't waking up in the next few minutes.  That was when he shifted to his demi form, as close to human as he could get these days, and scooped her up.  He disappeared back into the trees with her, headed for a different part of the fence, which was where he went in and out.  No sense in leaving large feline tracks laying around on his front steps for just ANYONE to find.

Jason had better be awake by this point, or he'd be getting a rude awakening.  Nick was usually kind of rude to him, though.  Mean was a good word, too.

He got her back to the house with very little incident, and set her down on the old couch in the living room, pushing it a little closer to the fire before he stopped to see if she looked like she might be okay for a few minutes while he got Jason.  She seemed to be, and he actually found the kid on his way down, so Jason saved himself a rough wake-up call.  He had to be present in case she woke up, though.

"The hell did she come from?" Jason demanded, looking at her incredulously as Nick held some pressure and a damp cloth to the cut on her head.  He was still sleepy and obviously not in his usual state of graceful acceptance.  Nick gave him a dark look.

"Those wild dogs tried to kill her just outside the main gate.  I stopped them, but she must have hit her head.  Is she anyone you've seen in town?" the lion man asked, his voice a little more gravelly than it should have been.  Not that it really mattered anymore, since what SHOULD have been had been disregarded a long time ago.

"No, I've never seen her before.  She didn't have a car or anything to hide in?"

"She seemed to have walked in."

"Wow.  Brave lady," Jason murmured, not at all a fan of those woods at night himself, and he usually had Nick somewhere within screaming distance.  Of course, Jason could scream LOUD when he wanted to.  He wasn't ashamed.  "Shit, she's waking up!"

Nick didn't need to be told twice, and he was out of her immediate view in seconds, out the door in less than a moment.  He was going to listen, though.

Skye slowly came back around. She felt warmth that she hadn't previously recalled, and for a moment, thought she was at home in bed. She rolled over on the couch, reaching for blankets that weren't there. With a confused facial expression, she opened her eyes, blinked, and then slowly sat up, rubbing at her face, trying to put together what was going on.

"What the f... where am I?" she asked herself softly. She felt a sharp pain, and reached up, lightly touching the nice bash mark she'd gotten before. She let her eyes adjust as she looked around, though when she finally realized that Jason was in the room with her, she screamed.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed. "I didn't even see you there! I'm so out of it, I'm sorry..." she trailed off. "Did... you rush those dogs off? This is the house, right? My car broke down, and I walked up here to try and use a ground line since my cell had no reception..." she babbled. Something felt strange about this place.

Jason, just for the record, had no idea what to do.  This was a beautiful woman, laying on the couch in front of him and essentially offering him the glory of having saved her.  The worst part of it was that Nick would probably eat him if he said he HAD saved her.  So sad, since he'd have LOVED to be her 'hero'.  She'd have probably preferred it to the furrball, but he wasn't going to say anything about THAT.

He'd jumped about six inches into the air when she screamed, but he smiled and tried not to look like he'd been surprised by her reaction when she started talking.  "Uh, it's okay, don't worry about it.  I scare easily," he told her, actually not too ashamed of it.  He knew his strengths weren't with fighting off wolves or anything of the sort.  "But, uh, yeah.  The master of the house ran the dogs off, but he's gone for now.  He asked me to take care of you until he got back.  I hate to say that I can't help much with that phone, though.  This place doesn't even have electricity, but it's got running water and gaslines, at least.  That's good, right?"

He was TRYING to see the good in it for her, but he didn't know if she would.  He was hesitant to tell her about Nick's guess earlier in the day about a storm rolling in.  If her car broke down, he wasn't so sure she was getting out of there anytime soon.

Nick was practically smacking his head off the wall as he listened to Jason's lack of tact, and finally couldn't handle just listening any longer.  He certainly wasn't going to display his demi form to her, considering how anyone else had ever reacted upon seeing it, Jason included.  He could saunter in with his lion form, though.  So, he did, but he walked around the couch on Jason's side, just in case she freaked out anyway.

"Oh, okay," she said, accepting his answer. "No phone, huh?" she said slowly. She pulled her cell phone out of her coat pocket, and opened it. "No reception here, either. I guess when you want to get away..." she trailed off, standing. "I appreciate all the help, really, but I'm supposed to be somewhere by morning. Do you know if the town has a local garage that can take a look at my car, or a motel, or anything? I got sort of turned around and..."

Then a large feline walked out of the other room and Skye just stopped talking. She had thought she was dreaming before, but no, no, there was a real lion standing there. She wanted to faint again, but pride wouldn't allow it. "That's quite ah, a large cat you have..." she said hesitantly.

"I should be going."

Jason wasn't at all surprised that she couldn't get reception out there, since he personally thought that was part of the curse Pandora had dumped on Nick's bitter ass, but he couldn't be sure.  She hadn't SAID that they wouldn't be able to use cell phones there, to his knowledge.  Just bad luck, maybe.

Speaking of badness, there was Nick, and Jason just about smacked himself in the forehead when he saw the huge cat saunter in and the woman's reaction.  Great.  Nick was a social rocket scientist.

Jason jumped up and smacked the big cat on the nose, something he'd never DREAM of doing in any other situation, and grinned broadly at the woman.  "Don't worry, he's a nice cat!  See?  Mr. LeCroix is just a little eccentric, so he lets the lion wander around.  He isn't usually so friendly, though.  Maybe he likes you," he told her, winking some and stepping between her and the large feline.

"Listen, the cat sleeps in its own room, on the top floor.  I can put you up in a room on a different floor if you prefer to be away from him, and we'll get you into town as soon as we can, okay?  It really isn't safe for you to leave tonight, not with a snowstorm blowing in and a pack of wild dogs hanging around looking for you."  Jason really was the easy one to get along with.  Nick probably would have told her she was NOT leaving, and that was the end of the story.  It was best that Jason had to do the talking right then, especially since Nick was giving the kid a death glare for that smack on the nose.  Nice cat, indeed.  He made it a point to lay down and try to look friendly, though. 

Skye stared at Jason as he tried to reason with her, stepping back as he stepped between she and the cat. There was a storm coming in, that was true. She sighed a little, wondering how safe she was here. The place was lit up with candles, but had no electricity. She didn't even want to know why they bothered with running water. This house was utterly archaic, well, what she could see of it. She looked to the large doors that she assumed to be the front, and then back to Jason.

"Just for the night," she said finally. She hugged herself tightly. "I don't suppose I could trouble you for some extra blankets, though? Or does every room in this place have it's own fireplace?" she asked jokingly, although houses like this were pretty much designed to make every room be a room you never wanted to leave.

She followed him reluctantly, giving a last glance to the living room as she did.

He brightened visibly when she agreed to stay, even if it was just for the night, since they could work out details in the morning.  Talk of fireplaces in bedrooms was something he could help with, too, which was another good thing.  "Actually, I can do both.  I'll make sure you have extra blankets, and put you in a room with a fireplace.  It'll take a few minutes for the fire to warm up, but the blankets will help in the meantime," he explained as he led her in the direction of the room, using a candle to guide the way.  Really, he hated how archaic the place was, but he hadn't been able to rig any lights in, so he couldn't complain too badly. 

He got her settled into her bedroom as quickly as he could, starting the fire up first and then going off to find her extra blankets, glad that Nick had been smart enough to stay behind when they left the living room.  She didn't need to feel like she was being stalked by a large predator all night.  The Master of the house met him on his way back up to her room, though.

"Here, give her this one.  It's warmer," the man informed the younger kid, and Jason looked at the large, soft quilt curiously, but merely nodded.  He hadn't seen it before, which made him think that it had come from Nick's room.  Nick's quarters, which took up almost a full wing of the house, were one area he wasn't allowed to touch.  He was fine with that.  "Go to bed when you're done, it's late."

"You got it," the boy agreed easily, and he returned to Skye happily enough with the heavy blanket.  "Here, warmest blanket in the house!  By the way, my name's Jason, what's yours?"

Skye nodded as Jason directed her to her room, and when he vanished to find more blankets, she studied it quickly, deciding that it would be okay for her to stay the night in. The door had a functioning lock, thank god, and there didn't seem to be anything in the closet or under the bed. It was a nice bed, too, if a bit large for her taste. The mattress was soft and fluffy - feather. You didn't see stuff like this anymore, not with all that space age mattress crap. The pillows were down and the blankets were, to her fingers, a high thread count at the very least, maybe even Egyptian cotton.

When Jason came back in with the thick, dark red blanket in his arms and handed it to her, she almost refused it, but it was incredibly soft and very warm. She couldn't wait to wrap it around her - one of those sort of fuzzy blankets people adore. It had a strange scent to it, although she didn't smell it when he was looking, and she couldn't place it. Like... cinnamon, and musk. It was odd, but comforting.

"Oh, Jason. My name is Skye. Skye Rousseau. What time should I expect you to wake me?" she asked, after he was satisfied that she was settled in and he'd checked her again for a concussion. She set the blanket down and pulled the hair tie from her long, brown hair, sliding it around her wrist and allowing the bun to cascade loose into a mess of artificial curls from being held up so long.

Jason had noticed the smell on the blanket, and actually thought she might have refused it when she noticed, since it smelled very much of Nick (which had confirmed his thoughts that it came from Nick's room), but she seemed to find it warm and cozy enough to deal with the smell of lion-man.  He didn't say anything, or let his smile falter on that one.  He might almost have enjoyed bringing it back to Nick to tell him that she said no to it, but he probably wouldn't have liked Nick's reaction much.  He wasn't terribly fond of the guy, mostly because he was easily intimidated and downright scared, but sometimes his boss was alright.  He usually couldn't complain TOO bad. 

"Nice to meet you, Skye.  Actually, I can wake you up whenever you like, since I'll be up relatively early.  You can feel free to sleep in, though.  It warms up a little in the afternoon, and I'll be sure to have breakfast ready for you," he explained, though he wasn't sure if she was going to want to walk back the next day.  If the storm was anything like the last one they'd had, she was going to be stuck. 

"Did you, uh, need anything else?" he asked once she took down her hair, only becoming more aware of the fact that she was VERY attractive.  Maybe that was why Nick had given up his blanket for her.  If that was the case, Jason was going to be extremely careful.  He could look, though.  He explained rather quickly where the bathroom and kitchen were, just in case she needed them, and was prepared to take off once she was comfortable.  Bed was sounding like a good idea, especially if it meant he could put the pretty new guest out of his mind for a little while.  He assumed Nick was already locked in his rooms.

Skye tried not to think things like being stranded, and shook her head lightly. "I'll just come down to the living room, then, when I wake up. I'm usually up early for work, so I should expect to be up around maybe nine if I sleep in." She smiled a little. "Thanks, I really appreciate it. Tell Mr. LeCroix, won't you?" she asked, and she was sincere. It was rare to find someone randomly who actually was a genuine person, but that was Skye.

She settled down on the bed, wrapped up in the red fuzzy blanket for no more than an hour, lightly dosing, before something - she wasn't sure what - had woken her up. She couldn't place whether she'd had a dream, or maybe a nightmare, but she was wide awake suddenly. She shuffled to the bathroom, filling one of the little cups provided by the sink and drinking a little water, before she headed back to her room. She paused, the lamp she was carrying illuminating just enough of the hallway for her to see a few more doors down the row. She looked around, and then stood very still, as though she were debating on what to do.

Finally, she gave in to her curiosity. One of the 'rooms' ended up being a stairwell, and she ascended quietly, forgetting all about the lion for the moment. She followed the path down to a random, dusty room, and pushed open the door very softly. She set the lamp down, peering around. She had to be in some sort of storage room, because there were sheets covering absolutely everything. She turned and gasped, bumping into something that turned out to be a piano given the noise it made. There was a massive painting of a rather handsome man above a considerably large fireplace. She muttered to herself, waiting with a held breath to see if she'd woken anyone up. Satisfied that she hadn't, she began moving again, this time onto a shelf that held tons of books.

She picked up the top one, and realized it was a photo album. As she opened it, a piece of paper fell out. She bent down to pick it up, and then held it up to the light to try and read it. Not paper, parchment. The handwriting was an old style, almost like calligraphy, but it was in a language she didn't understand. Maybe French? She frowned, and then froze again when she heard a creak of wooden floorboards.

Jason smiled at her and nodded at her instructions, easily able to be awake and done with breakfast by 9, and gave her a sort of cross between a salute and a wave before leaving the room.  He may have been the only one who went right to sleep once he got to his room, but he was a pretty laid-back guy when he wasn't acting like he was going to have a heart attack because he was scared.  Nick liked scaring him, but he sometimes had to be amazed with the kid's ability to not give himself an aneurysm.  Speaking of heart attacks and aneurysms, he nearly had one of the above when he suddenly heard someone outside the door, and he dropped the photo album he'd been looking at on top of a pile of books, blew out the candle he'd been using for light, and vanished into one of the dark corners of the room. 

She certainly wasn't one of the quietest people he'd ever seen, but she was certainly nosy.  He frowned as he watched her pick up the photo album, and he stepped up quietly behind her, though he winced at a creaking floorboard before he blew out the candles she'd been using for light.  He couldn't risk her seeing him and freaking out, especially after her less than favorable reaction to seeing a lion, even after it had saved her from the dogs.

"Good evening, miss.  Can I help you?  You seem lost," he told her quietly, having already backed up a few steps so as not to startle her QUITE as badly as he knew he was going to.  An unexpected voice in a suddenly dark room?  Yeah, she'd probably not be happy, but he couldn't leave the candles lit.  "I'm sorry, this room is really drafty sometimes, but I'm Nick LeCroix.  Did Jason get you settled comfortably in your room?"

As her lamp went out, she swore. "Stupid draft," she hissed. She set the lamp down where she remembered a table edge being, and was satisfied when she didn't hear a crash. What she did hear, however, scared the living daylights out of her, causing her to jump so hard that she dropped the album. She skittered back a few feet, hand to her heart, which was beating so hard she could hear it in her ears.

"Mr. LeCroix! I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone was still awake. I just got restless and started to explore and... I'm sorry," she exclaimed. Oh, she was red. She was scared still, trying to catch her breath more or less. That whack to her back on the shelf hadn't felt very nice either, but then again, it could have been worse.

Now was a bad time to be afraid of the dark, which, she kind of was. If not, she was sure this house would make it that way in due time. She hoped it was more well-lit in the daylight.

"I'm sorry, I'll just go back to my room now..." but she hesitated. She wanted to know who was in all the photos, but it would be rude. Right? Right. She felt around in the dark for the way to the door.