Night's Omen

A funny thing happened on the way to the car.  He'd parked a few blocks down because one of the local idiots was having a party right down the street from the police station, but that didn't really bother him.  He was a vampire, and it was dark, near the station.  Who was going to mess with him?

HAH!  That's the spirit!

Too bad it was stupid.  Really, he must have been getting slow in his old age.  That, and underestimating human stupidity and desperation. 

He'd no sooner passed an alley, actually arriving at his car and smiling just at all of the sounds coming from the nearby party while he pulled out his keys, when he heard movement IN the alley.  He'd barely turned his head to glance that way when his throat just EXPLODED (that's how it felt, anyway), and he smacked into the side of his car before dropping to the ground.  Even a vampire is going to choke on its own blood in such a situation, and he was bleeding everywhere as the shooter jumped forward to pilfer his pockets and swipe his keys.  If he hadn't dropped the keys to clutch at his throat, he might have snapped and leapt at the guy, but he was a little preoccupied trying not to lose ALL of his blood before it could heal up.  He rolled over, shifting his hands to only use one for pressure on the wound while the other pressed itself against the ground to push him to his knees (leaving a delightful bloody handprint), and managed to watch the asshole speed off with his car as he listened to his own blood splattering onto the ground. 

It took way longer than he'd have liked for that wound to pull itself together.

By the time it did, there was little in the way of relief, since he was suddenly RAVENOUS.  Losing that amount of blood, and being forced to put out so much energy to heal, had a way of doing that.  There was a party nearby that he could have easily infiltrated, but he looked pretty messed up with the blood all over him.  He hated to continue the cycle, but the next person to be stupid enough to repeat his mistake was going to get chomped.  He was on the prowl, closing up his dark coat in an attempt to cover things up some (even though blood showed up painfully well on his fair skin), and the sidewalk wouldn't be safe for anyone fool enough to be walking somewhere right then.

There was bound to be someone, and sure enough, there was.  It was getting the guy close enough, especially with how he could SEE the shadows he could normally influence swirling around and trying to pull in on him.  He couldn't expend the energy to hold them back, and so it certainly wouldn't inspire his new 'friend' to approach him.  He'd have to be tricky about it.

Watching the young man get closer, he stumbled a bit, making it an obvious movement, before dropping to his knees, one hand flying out to keep him from hitting the ground on his face.  He had to play up the injury that already had him covered in blood, and hopefully the kid had a Good Samaritan streak in him.

Fairfax was of the opinion that one of the absolutely WORST pieces of music to get stuck in one's head (if you happened to be a pianist, that is) was Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini"...

...and wouldn't you know it, tonight it was veritably trapped in his head. Damned repetitive theme. He couldn't for the life of him fathom WHY it was dancing around in his skull so relentlessly, or what had made him think of it to begin with (as a matter of fact, he'd just passed a Panera Bread café, and "Panera", for whatever odd reason, had subconsciously triggered the memory of the "Paganini" concerto), but there it was.

So, shifting his grocery bag from one hand to the other as he strolled along back towards his apartment, he hummed rather vexedly to himself, trying to drive the cyclical piece out of his mind and paying very little attention to his surroundings. Music, even annoying music that wouldn't leave him be, had greater precedence in his life than his new feline half and the unsettling, supernatural incidents that came with it, and he might not have even detected the blood in the air had not a man in a dark coat stumbled to the sidewalk right in front of him. Once THAT got his attention, there was no ignoring the scent of blood.

Fairfax inhaled sharply, shocked and horrified-- the blood was coming from this man! Without a second thought (had there even been much of a first thought?), he dropped his bag to the ground and hurried to the kneeling man's side, fortunately able to overcome his own predatory interest in the blood that bespattered the general vicinity and the man in question. "Good GOD, are you all right?!"

The poor fool fell for it, though it would have been rather strange if he hadn't, to be honest.  Anyone covered in blood and stumbling along would be pretty attention-grabbing, and then falling?  No contest.  Of course, it wasn't all that great for Fairfax that he reacted like that.

Gabe smelled cat.

As soon as the kid was kneeling beside him, sooooo close, the vampire could tell he was a shapeshifter.  A cat of some kind.  Good, that meant he'd recover from what was about to happen much easier than a human would, and his blood would give Gabe more sustenance.  Maybe he wouldn't have to go maul someone ELSE after this.  That would be nice.

"I'm sorry," he rasped, his voice still screwy from the injury as he grabbed for the kid much like a drowning man would, like he needed help staying upright, and that was when the shadows already threatening to completely envelope him took their chance.  He made eye contact with Fairfax for a mere instant, then used his grip on the young man to swoop in for the throat.  Bathed in shadow as they were, his eyes would probably be the only thing Fax could SEE right before he bit him, and nobody else in the area would even know they were there.  They were hidden, and Fax was his.  Not that Fairfax would be minding for awhile.

Actually, Gabe was going to do what he could to make sure Fax didn't mind later on, either.

Initially, the wave of pleasure was probably a shock to Fax's system, considering those first few mouthfuls of blood were like absolute heaven to Gabe, and he ensured that he translated all of the relief and enjoyment HE was getting out of the shifter's blood to Fairfax's mind, in the form of pleasurable sensations.  He didn't personally think sex on purpose, though there was certainly the fact that he usually couldn't help himself and preyed on females for that very reason, but that was likely what it translated to.  Out of mere habit, Fairfax was getting the most mind-blowing experience Gabe knew how to give, and that was his thanks for being there when he needed it.

He thought it was a pretty fair trade. 

Over the course of his feeding, he went from a death-grip on the young man to something more akin to an embrace, aware that Fairfax would eventually succumb and be likely to lose his ability to hold himself upright, and Gabe wasn't going to drop him.  Not only was that bad manners, but he truly WAS grateful.  How could he be so careless with someone who was giving him so much?  It didn't matter that he hadn't asked, or that Fax hadn't offered.  It was still the fact of the matter.  He was sure to draw the location of Fairfax's apartment from the boy's mind while he was at it.

Useful information, that.  Why?  Because as soon as he'd taken enough to keep him safe to be around (plus a little more, since this WAS a shifter, and his blood had some extra OOMPH), he was going to take the boy home.  It was before Fax was in any real danger from blood loss that he withdrew and licked at the young man's throat to clean up while the wound healed, deliberately working off of the pleasure he'd induced already by adding a new sensation to ensure that the shifter didn't panic and stayed in a pleasant haze, and he zapped them to the location he'd pulled from the cougar's mind.

"Thank you," he offered smoothly, his voice back to normal and much more pleasant after the meal, and he was gentle about setting the boy up in his bed.  Even better, he fully intended to be around when Fax woke up.  For once, he wasn't going to eat and run.

Sorry? What an odd thing to say--

Fairfax's puzzled thoughts halted the instant Gabriel made eye contact. He didn't even have time to entertain new thoughts about what the significance of such a thing could be; the shadows rushed in and cognizance rushed out, only to be replaced by something far more basal: sensation.

Now, Fax had had a grand total of one girlfriend since the time he and his peers were old enough to consider such things. He was sort of the token shy, sweet musician in secondary school, which appealed to the romantic sensitivities of a few girls, but in general he was just too introverted to attract all that much attention. His sole girlfriend had been a bit of a fluke, an equally quiet, artistic sort who faded into the woodwork once Fax set his heart on his ambitious plans for making it in America. Common interests, common personalities. Almost too common. I'm sure everyone's witnessed a couple like that. They were "mostly friends", for all intents and purposes, except for the fact that in private they gave snogging a go a few times. Terribly awkward, they were. Fax had felt more at ease listening to good music than sitting in a dark room with old whatshername, trying to figure out what to do with their tongues.

THIS ...Well, it was like snogging good music. Or something. Fax wasn't exactly actively trying to liken the sensation to anything he had ever experienced before, not only because lucid thoughts had been blown away before a few seconds had passed, but due to the fact he really HADN'T experienced anything quite like this.

......but it felt MARVELLOUS.

Handel's Messiah might as well have been resonating in that little patch of shadows.

Fairfax clung to Gabriel like there was no tomorrow before he became too limp to remain sitting upright; this was the happiest he'd felt in far, far too long, and even as he began to slip into unconsciousness he couldn't be bothered with regret: it was probably the most pleasant unconsciousness that had ever claimed him, after all.

But regaining consciousness was less pleasant, although just as leisurely. There was less bliss, more fog. Thoughts crawled at an unhurried pace back into his brain, one word and concept at a time, bumping haphazardly into each other for several very long moments before they could stick together and form anything coherent or cohesive. Bed. Blood. Where. Warm. How did. Who. Where am. Bed. I'm in bed. How did I...

Sitting up happened in slow motion, dream-like. Fairfax wasn't entirely certain this WASN'T a dream. He felt so strange, and there was an inexplicably familiar man sitting in a chair at the end of his bed, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island open in his lap. His voice also sounded odd to his weary brain, and what he said was about as nonsensical as anything spoken in a dream: "That's a...you. There's my book?"

Fax had slept for quite some time, but Gabe waited around.  Normally, he'd have left a nice note, maybe some flowers or something pleasant, and disappeared from the victim's life without another word, but Fax wasn't a pretty young girl who would look back on the situation fondly or wonder where he'd gone.  Fax had stopped to help a man covered in blood, and he'd been attacked.  Gabe wasn't about to let stories of THAT get around, especially since the kid was a shifter, and would probably understand what had happened well enough when he was functioning again to tell someone.  Gabe was NOT having a bunch of hunters on his ass over an emergency.

Besides, he owed Fax a better apology than a harsh 'sorry' before chomping down on him.  Or maybe, given the way Fax had reacted the night before and was still thinking, he owed him a 'you're welcome'?  That almost sounded more appropriate.

Either way, the cougar's slow, very slow return to functioning consciousness was amusing.  Gabe was still hungrier than he'd have liked, especially after having to teleport, but he wasn't physically weak or weak-willed.  He would wait and grab a snack later.  In the meantime, Fairfax would be fairly interesting, he was sure.  "Threw you for a bit of a loop there, didn't I?" he asked, the laughter evident in the smile he offered up as well as his voice.  Most vampires could school their emotions in any direction they pleased, and Gabe was just as good at it, but he preferred honest reactions most of the time.

"I was going to apologize, and thank you, again, but I'm starting to think that saying 'You're Welcome' would be more appropriate to the situation.  So, I'm sorry that you happened to be in the wrong place at the right time, thank you for your concern, and you're quite welcome," he told the kid, and yes, he was a little smug about it.  He'd obviously made a bit of an impression, and that was just funny.  "Yes, I also took the luxury of scanning your bookshelves, since you slept for a long time.  I don't think I'd read Treasure Island since it came out, to be honest."

He would have asked how Fax felt, but he really didn't need to.  He already knew.  The kid would be fine.

While the affable man in the chair spoke, Fairfax was endeavoring to pull himself together and focus, a task that was proving to be more of an ordeal than he'd anticipated. In spite of his being a shifter, Fax was decidedly not a hearty fellow, and an encounter with a ravenous vampire had indeed "thrown him for a loop". Still, the longer he remained sitting up the more quickly the haze began to dissapate, and it was gradually replaced with the recollection of what had happened earlier that evening. His memories, coupled with what the man was saying, were enough to confirm JUST what had happened.

Fax was too befuddled to determine whether the colour was rushing to or draining from his face as he stared at Gabriel. He was a bit too preoccupied by his thoughts, which had just raced about, crashed and jumbled together in a fashion akin to a devastating trainwreck. Deuced distracting, that. It didn't help that a few of said thoughts were completely opposing in nature: the fear of vampires that he'd managed to convince himself he ought to harbor...versus the idyllic, nay, euphoric experience that he was recalling more and more of.

You're welcome? he echoed mentally, having heard it enough times for it to stick better than anything else that Gabe was saying. The vampire was telling him "you're welcome". This vampire, sitting in his apartment, still covered in blood, having...having sucked his blood. You're welcome?

Fax's stomach did a little flip as he remembered...how close...how nice...

"That's what--" he started to blurt, and this time he did flush (he would never lose enough blood to incapacitate his flushing abilities; flushing was a habit for Fairfax). Talk about bloody awkward. Fax was admittedly fascinated by the wonderful feelings and sensations that the vampire had inspired...and simultaneously mortified out of his mind that this man across from him had produced such feelings by feeding on his blood. But...it HAD felt so pleasant (an understatement). Mr. Leone had mentioned how dangerous vampires could be...was this all he meant? That they were dangerous just because of the whole "blood loss" business? Because really-- Fairfax couldn't fathom what could be remotely dangerous about...how THAT had felt earlier.

And he already was feeling much better. Not a bad deal at all.

He tried to relax and repeat his question. "That...is that what it's really like?" he managed to get out timidly, before abruptly feeling quite self-conscious about where his interest clearly lay. It was rather difficult not to dwell on the memory...so gratifying... He flinched and hurried on. "Y-you're all right? Blood..." He gestured at the vampire's coat, and Treasure Island caught his eye again. Somewhat inanely, he uttered, "Good book, isn't it? Same here. I mean! Haven't read it for a while. Not as long as...that is...you know. You. What's your name?"

Great. He probably sounded delirious.

Oh, yeah, this was HILARIOUS.  The kid was practically tripping over himself mentally, though Gabe could suddenly see why.  Mention of 'Leone' wasn't exactly something ANY vampire ignored, and to hear that the kid was friendly with the triste, and that the triste had warned him about vampires, was a good explanation for why Fax was so confused. 

"That's what it CAN feel like.  For as good as that felt, it could feel equally horrible, depending on the vampire and their intentions.  I didn't want to hurt you.  You did me a very big favor," Gabriel pointed out, his amusement fading some with seriousness.  "Your witch friend is entirely correct.  Some vampires are extremely dangerous, and play with humans or shifters like they're just animals.  It's also very easy to just take too much blood while feeding, and some don't care.  Not all of us are so bad, though."

Really, he didn't want to mess up the kid's cautiousness regarding vampires, because a LOT of them were bad news.  He didn't want Fax going to Leone and tattling either, though.  It was a fine line to walk. 

He smiled again at the cougar's concern for him, finding it rather...endearing.  "I'm fine, thank you.  I owe you an explanation, since I didn't have time for one before I grabbed you.  Really, that's not usually the way I work, but it was something of an emergency," he started, actually looking apologetic as he set the book down.  Fax's mention of it had actually brought his attention back to it, and he decided to start there.

"My name is Gabriel Sullivan, and that's actually me finally reverting back to my real name.  As a human, I sailed the Caribbean to make my living, and that's where I ran into the vampire who changed things up on me.  Now, I work forensics with the police, and I try to have a less...violent lifestyle, but I guess I'm getting a little lazy anymore.  I was mugged right before I ran into you, shot in the throat before I even saw the man, and the blood loss was enough that waiting probably would have caused me to become desperate enough to kill someone," he explained, and he leaned forward some to pull his collar away from his throat and let Fax see that the wound was gone.  "I would have liked to be a little less abrupt in feeding from you, but it wasn't really possible, so I hope I didn't scare you too badly.

"And you?  Fairfax Whitley, correct?  A musician from the other side of the pond, working at the Hellcat's Hollow?  Or did I confuse something?"

He'd caught a good bit of Fax's history just from that feeding, obviously. 

Fairfax leaned forward and listened intently to Gabriel's explanation, hanging onto every word, not wanting a bit of it to slip by, especially considering his still somewhat-groggy state. His pulse went a little wonky when Gabe mentioned vampires playing with humans and shifters and the like, but he nodded vigorously and silently at the assurance that they weren't all bad. He trusted this vampire implicitly-- a combination of his own naiveté and inclination to take things for granted, and of Gabriel's subtle ability to inspire favour and trust in those around him. THIS was one of those nice vampires, no doubt about it. So was Elke. Couldn't be too hard to find others, right? The dangerous ones must be rare, if two-for-two he'd encountered thus far were a couple of the nice ones.

As Gabriel moved on to introduce himself, Fax listened with renewed fascination. Sailing the Caribbean! Forensics! Wicked. He sounded like someone who had just stepped from the pages of an adventure novel; no wonder he'd selected something like Treasure Island from the myriad choices on his shelf! The cougar felt a surge of sympathy when the vampire mentioned the mugging (he knew what that was like), and gasped appropriately upon hearing he'd been shot in the throat. He practically scrambled forward on the bed to inspect the neck that was displayed for him, fingers jumping to his glasses to adjust them as he blinked at the unmarred skin. Wow.

Upon hearing "so I hope I didn't scare you too badly", Fax rocked back quickly and flushed automatically, waving a hand and murmuring "it's fine, no worry", but broke off when Gabriel so casually churned out Fairfax's name, country of origin, and profession in a beat.

No matter how much he liked this fellow --or how much he was still mentally and furtively reveling in the memory of their earlier encounter-- there was something unquestionably unsettling about having had such information gleaned from him without his concession. He blinked again, apprehensive. "Er...yes, that's me," he confirmed guardedly, and then followed this up with a halfhearted smile. "Heh. No end to odd circumstances nowadays...now that I'm..." He trailed off rather helplessly, staring at Gabe for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. "I-I'm sorry, I can't be making much sense. Sorry. I'm still confused. Not scared in the slightest. You needn't apologize...about...any of this. I'm fine, just..." A yawn seized him suddenly, as yawns sometimes do. "...Tired, apparently."

He scooted away uncertainly, tilting his head (an unconsciously catlike movement). Thoughts were getting jumbled again. Can he read my mind? I should talk to Mr. Leone about this. Is this Gabriel guy really okay? I wonder what it would feel like if Elke bit me. Where are my groceries?

Well, the dangerous ones weren't really rare, but...Gabe didn't want to SCARE him.  He assumed that Fairfax was going to inevitably talk to Leone about everything again, so the witch could explain.  Gabe was more interested in keeping them on friendly grounds....and there it went.  Hmm.

"Oh!  Sorry, I didn't mean to make you nervous!" he offered up, letting go of his collar and putting a hand up almost like he was trying to make the gesture look harmless.  "It's habit, picking up information that way.  I work with the police, and it comes in handy there."

There was a lot more to it than that, like how open Fax's mind had been during the feeding, how open it STILL was, and the fact that Gabe had ALWAYS read as much from the minds of the people he was dealing with (for as long as he could, anyway).  He just hadn't ever trusted people much, having been one of the untrustworthy ones himself, so he used the advantages he had to figure out what to think of them.

Considering how it was making Fax nervous to know that he was reading his mind, Gabe didn't actually STOP, but he stopped mentioning anything he heard.  No, he wouldn't mention the groceries, though he hadn't actually been paying enough attention to them to realize what had happened to them.  He assumed they'd been left behind.

His bad.

"I'm not nervous," Fairfax lied, speaking hesitantly and gamely attempting to smile. He didn't want the vampire to feel the need to apologize; for God's sake, he'd been shot in the neck! He was entitled to whatever he damn well needed if his life (er, "unlife?") was on the line. On that note, it was true there was no visible wound any longer, but still...

"You're, er, certain you're all right, then?" he pressed, hoping his concern was not too obnoxious. And then he heard himself asking something that, had he thought about it more, should have sounded QUITE odd, and perhaps should not have been voiced, after all...but he wasn't thinking too hard about it, he wasn't completely aware of the unspoken insinuation in his words, and at the moment it seemed a perfectly reasonable question: "Do you need more blood?"

Yes, Fax was lying, but no, Gabe wasn't going to mention it.  He'd let him go if he didn't want to admit it, and just move on.  Moving on wasn't quite as easy as it sounded, though. 

Fax continued with his concern, even after seeing that the wound was completely gone, and Gabe smiled once more, finding it rather strange, but kind of the kid to worry.  A lot of people could have been horrible about what had happened, but Fax seemed like an alright guy.  "I'm fine now, no need to worry about it.  It's all closed up, and I'm much more capable of functioning."

Wait.  Was Fax serious?  That the cougar hadn't seriously put thought into his last question had kept Gabe from really preparing for it, and he stared at the guy for a moment or so, wondering what exactly had prompted that.  Was it real concern, or a desire to feel the bite again?  Some people were extremely prone to becoming addicted, he knew that.  Was Fairfax that sort of a personality?  The kid didn't seem to know, and so Gabe didn't know, but he was a little concerned himself.

"Ah, no, I'll be alright for a little while.  I'll be feeding again after work, but I'll be fine in the meantime.  Thank you," he said, and he meant it.  It WAS a reasonable question, so Gabe didn't treat it differently than anything else Fax had said, but the concern was there in his mind.  He hoped he hadn't messed the guy up.

Fax had no inkling of what was going through Gabriel's mind, but he couldn't miss the moment when the vampire just stared at him with a fleeting, masked, mystified expression. He did wonder if it was because of what he'd said...but before he could take the time to reflect on the meaning of his own words, he was nodding and smiling diffidently at Gabe. "Right, I see. Good."

"Oh," he went on, brow creasing, "were you going to work? I mean, I know it's late, but I wouldn't know...er...forensics...hours. Am I keeping you here? You can leave if you want. God I need tea," he added as an afterthought, half to himself at that point. Which reminded him again of his groceries: not that they would be in his bedroom, but he still caught himself glancing around. He kept his mouth shut, though. Didn't need to bother Gabriel about that; if he needed to buy more groceries, he'd simply buy more groceries.

At least he was finally beginning to appear more at ease in general.

No vampire could truly live for an extended period of time without learning that mysteriously blank expression, and Gabe was no different, but he tried to avoid it.  Sure, it didn't give anything away, but better to put up a false expression than show a blank one.  People tended to wonder about a blank face, but sometimes he still slipped, especially since he was still pretty hungry.  He could wait, but he was.

"Oh, no, I was on my way home from work at the time, so I don't have to rush in," he returned, waving dismissively at the idea.  He had some time.  "Forensic hours tend to be typical workday hours, unless I work late."

The mention of tea, and the thought regarding his groceries once more, actually made Gabe feel a little bad, since he was the reason Fax's groceries were gone. "I can get you some tea, you know.  Unless you just want me to take off.  Either is fine with me.  I just didn't want to leave you with no idea what happened.  Do you have any tea in the house, or was that in your grocery bags?"

Fax was the sort of person who would opt to lie before allowing himself to inconvenience anyone. "I've got tea," he rejoined pseudo-cheerfully, making a mental note that he would need to head back out and hit the grocery store again before long. He figured --naively-- that if he didn't think in words, the vampire wouldn't necessarily be able to read his mind. He even decided to think blatantly to himself I have tea, just in case Gabriel was eavesdropping on his thoughts. "Thanks. It was kind of you to wait around. But I won't take anymore of your time."

As he said this, he finally climbed off the bed and to his feet. A bit woozy, but considerably better. Phew. He paused, light eyes flicking from Treasure island to the empty slot on his bookshelf. "You...er...you can borrow that if you want to finish. I don't need it anytime soon or anything."

An excuse to encounter this vampire again later? Fax wasn't certain. He pushed that thought away quickly.

Lies.

Fax was lying, that much was obvious despite his attempts at keeping Gabe from realizing, and the vampire gave a mental 'tsktsk' at that.  He'd take care of it, whether Fairfax wanted him to, or not.  Foolish mortal.  Gabe would take care of him for his help, this time.  Maybe even again later, since blood is definitely worth more than tea, but he wasn't going to make up his mind to stalk the kid, or anything.

He watched Fax's progress pretty carefully, noticing the 'woozy' feeling but not commenting while he watched the cougar recover and keep going.  Normally, he would have refused the book, considering he HAD read it before, but he caught the fact that Fax wanted to 'encounter' him again, so he simply smiled.

"Sure, that's really nice of you.  I'll get it back to you, I promise," he told him, picking the book up from where he'd set it down.