Abandoned (Open!)

[Jeff Hudson]

((first thread, lemme know if I messed up :x ))

She ached all over, but her head felt the worst. Her master had probably bashed it into the wall almost a dozen times before he got bored. In fact, she wasn't sure how she was still alive. Drake, her now apparently ex-master, beat her to the last strand of consciousness and then threw her to the wolves. Quite literally. He had a collection of wolf shifters, who were all mistreated and fought for entertainment. Instead of killing Jack off himself, Drake had decided to let his slaves have their way with her first.

Jack stumbled, limping slightly. She knew why she limped, but blocked it from her thoughts for the time being. The shifters had been merciless on her tiny frame. They'd all left her out in the woods for dead, probably thinking she'd give up and let the wounds consume her. But she was alive, and intended to stay that way. Intended, but wasn't so sure. Not only did she most likely have a concussion, but Jack felt like she might have a fever also. A fever could mean an infection, or maybe she got rabies from those brutes.

(Not rabies, but something...)

Now if only she could make it far enough that someone might find her. Jack needed help, and needed it soon. The city lights were distant, but there was a road not too far -- she could hear the traffic and saw flickering headlights through the foliage. Staggering out into the open, her chances were at least a little better now, right? No, she still needed to make it to the road. Jack pushed on, her stomach doing somersaults. She stopped and dipped forward, dry gagging, but there was nothing to come up. She moaned miserably, and once she'd finally gotten control of her body again, Jack dragged herself to the side of the road and tried not to fall asleep.

[Farrah LeCroix]

Acacia's golden eyes were cast down at her magazine as Daniel drove in silence. She let out a small, irritated sigh, flipping a page of the Cosmopolitan more loudly than it needed to be. "Oh, look, Fifty Sex Secrets to Make Your Man Melt," she purred wickedly, trying to make the situation worse. There weren't often tense silences between the two, and this was why.

Daniel had been doing his best to ignore his angry wolf companion for the time being. They'd had the conversation before, and he was tired of having it brought back up. When she spoke, though, he swerved - he wasn't used to her even saying things like that, and he looked at her, horrified. "Really? Really, Acacia? Is this totally necessary?"

She grinned at him through bared teeth, and looked out the window, tossing a mass of brown curls away from her face. "I thought it was appropriate, given the circumstances." And with that, she hit the window button and rolled the window down, tipping her head to the right and letting the breeze wash over her. All at once, there was a flash - a flicker of blonde hair, of movement, a sound heard over the engine of the 5 Series BMW.

"Stop the car," she said, voice edging with panic. She could smell it, she could smell blood, dried and new, ice and ebony and leather and... Midnight.

"What? I'm not letting you out here, you know where we a--"

"STOP THE FUCKING CAR!" she screamed, her voice high-pitched, shrill. "Someone's out there!"

The brakelights came on, lighting up the blue road as the sun set, dusk creeping in and permeating everything it touched. The car slid roughly forty feet, but it was a distance Acacia easily covered. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, thankful that she hadn't been wearing heels today. She knew that smell, she knew that smell, she knew that smell...

Daniel, still in shock, suddenly caught wind of it, too. "ACACIA, NO!" he screamed - but it was too late. She was running, running..

[Jeff Hudson]

The cars flew past her in blurs. Jack was in a heap in the grass just beside the road's gravel shoulder. She tried to keep moving, at first to try and get someone's attention, but then just to keep from going unconscious. Jack was scared. Her imagination ran in unpleasant directions. What if a car didn't see her and hit her? What if she fell asleep and never woke up? What if vampires found her and she ended up with a master like Drake again..?

She moaned quietly, and she fought back tears. Why fight? She was too proud to cry even when no one was around to see.

The sound of brakes caught her ears, sent a fresh burst of pain between her temples, and then she let out a drawn out sigh that was nearly a whimper. Soon enough she'd find out. Just stay awake.

[Farrah LeCroix]

Acacia could smell her, smell the other wolves on her, and the scents mixed with her nose, unpleasant and familiar - her mind ripped backwards in time, to a period in her life where she could easily have been looking down at herself. Nobody just escaped from Midnight. Acacia had been lucky enough to have had Daniel, but if she hadn't? She could have ended up like Ebere, or like this girl before her. She skittered to a stop in the gravel, rocks flying as she almost lost her balance. Her mouth fell open as she took in the full view - even in dim light, her golden eyes could still see clearly, see the product that the forest had wrought.

"Damnit, Acacia, I told you not to go! I don't care about your status, there are some vampires here that don't care about that, and you really need... to... listen..." he trailed off slowly as he stopped at her side, a hand reaching to firmly take her arm. "Oh, shit," he whispered. "Looks like she made it out."

"Is she alive?" Acacia shrieked, breaking free of Daniel to drop to her knees next to Jack. Please, please, please let her be alive...

"Acacia, get back. She's alive, yes, barely, but she needs medical attention." His voice fell off after that, and he earned a hard stare from Acacia. Daniel couldn't interfere. If she was an escaped slave... He didn't haunt Midnight so frequently as he used to, but he couldn't risk aiding a fled slave, not without risking his own neck. So many vampires already wanted to challenge him on behalf of Acacia and Ebere, but he was able to hold his ground - openly aiding the escape of someone would destroy his credibility.

"...ing to help her?" Acacia was demanding. "Don't just stand there, help me lift her into the car!" Acacia screamed from the girl's side. Acacia could have lifted her on her own, but still, she wouldn't risk damaging any broken bones or other potential injuries by being flighty and careless with her run to the car, body in tow.

"I can't," he said softly. Just about that time, approaching headlights made his now-black eyes narrow, and he stepped off to the side of the road, behind Jack and beside Acacia.

[Thane O'Riley]

Driving through this area still made Thane nervous and irritable, just because of how close it was.  It hadn't been nearly long enough for that to wear off, and he'd been reminded multiple times (most of them before making the drive) that he was considered an escaped slave himself.  That meant that a Midnight vamp could still mess him up pretty royally if they got the chance.

He wasn't interested in giving anyone such a chance, and that was actually why he almost drove right past the scene on the side of the road there.  He slowed just because there were people and a car there, and getting those scents through the window had him torn.  He smelled wolves, blood, fear and other nasty things, as well as Midnight itself, and the last thing he really wanted to do was get involved.  Just leaving someone hurt there wasn't exactly an option, either.  He didn't know the situation as he stopped his car, but a number of potential scenarios ran through his head in the moment it took him to hop out.  That other car could have been holding the people on the side of the road, and they could have been attacked, or it could be people sent to retrieve an escaped slave, or good samaritans, or anything.  He was an idiot to stop.

That didn't mean as much as it should have, so he approached the two upright individuals cautiously, watching his own movements to keep them from giving away what he was, just in case.  "What happened to her?"

[Jeff Hudson]

Someone came running toward her, she heard their footsteps skidding over the gravel. Suddenly Jack started panicking. They were going to take her back to Midnight. She started breathing heavily, dragging air in through an arid pipe. It's like there was no oxygen around her. Whoever had come toward her was talking to someone else now, and their voices were rising. Were they calling more people? How many did it take to drag her in a car and take her to a hospital? She didn't want a scene, more people meant more possibilities that someone she couldn't trust would get a hold of her. Not that she could trust anyone anyways.

Jack's mind flew at a million miles an hour, and her breathing became so rapid that she was bordering an anxiety attack. She tried to calm herself, to turn her head and look at the people who'd stopped for her. Sure enough, if she saw them, she'd recognize friend or foe. Jack rolled onto her side and turned her head up. Oh God, there were three now. Two men and a woman, and one of the men was huge.

No. No. It wasn't right.

She picked herself up on shaky limbs and turned to start walking back toward the forest. She didn't know why. Did she really think they wouldn't notice if she just got up and left? Nevermind guys, turns out I'm fine. Don't worry about all the gore, it always looks like that?

[Farrah LeCroix]

"Wait!" Acacia called. She rounded her up, standing in front of her with her arms out. "Wait, please, let us help you. You need to get to the hospital, now," she urged. She looked up at the new arrival, and then back at Jack, and lowered her voice a little. She could sense he was a wolf as well, like she was, but she didn't know his affiliation - Acacia also didn't particularly like to broadcast she'd been a product of the black fortress.

"Did you get out?" she asked softly, her voice almost a whisper. "I tried, I tried so many times, but I could never get passed the fencing. My old Master sent wild dogs after me, and then - " she stopped, blinking back tears. She held her hand out to Jack, praying that she would take it.

"I'm Acacia. I'm freeblood, now. They can't touch me - not without breaking the rules. Will you please, please trust me? I know it's hard, but I'm not lying. You need to see a doctor, now," she said again.

Daniel, in the meantime, folded his arms, though he was tense. The girl - escaped, deranged, whatever she was - was too close to his Acacia for comfort. Acacia wasn't a fighter, and he didn't know anything about the girl who'd escaped. He wanted to keep his hands off the entire situation. A glance over at Thane, though, and he realized he was more in it than he'd wanted.

"Oh, shit," he said again. He'd recognized him. Two escaped slaves? AT the same TIME? It was beginning to get very hard to establish a definite right and wrong way of going about things, but Daniel couldn't risk the punishment he'd receive over this, could he? Or would they find out? Rumours had been spread of Jeshickah ordering the burning of a small district in the city - Greenwich Village. The fire'd taken out a Smoke Witch as a result, and because of it, war was bubbling up in the underbelly of the city's Nyeusi dwellers. Could Daniel really afford this?

"Acacia's right," he said finally. "We need to get you to a hospital. Don't worry - whoever it is, he's not coming after you. I swear it." Daniel had chosen.

[Thane O'Riley]

Well, if he hadn't been planning on being involved at all, his mind changed itself when he saw how much trouble that girl had getting up off the ground.  He couldn't just leave her like that, even if these two didn't seem to be intending her harm.  The uninjured girl smelled of wolf, and not the ones that had done this.  He could smell worse things on the breeze from them, which meant that they weren't present, but not that they wouldn't be back.  Those girls needed to get out of there.

This Acacia, she'd said she was freeblood, quietly, but she'd said it.  If she'd been a slave or a pet who then became freeblood, that meant someone had chosen to give her that change in status.  As far as he knew, that didn't happen all that often, which would have gotten Thane's attention even if the man, the vampire hadn't reacted to him.

Even as Daniel was deciding whether or not he could be involved in this situation, Thane was staring him down, well aware of the fact that his voice, scent and mere presence seemed familiar, but why?  It wasn't like he spent much time around vampires, which left precious few options, including Midnight.  If the vampire was from Midnight himself, it would make sense how Acacia had become freeblood, but Thane didn't have any horrible memories of him, it seemed.  If he did, he'd have assumed that even not being able to access everything in detail from that period would have made him hate the guy. 

"It doesn't matter where she goes, as long as it's away from here right now," he asserted, scanning his eyes over the trees around them, then settling them on Daniel.  He had to ask.  "Where do I know you from?"

[Farrah LeCroix]

"Midnight," Daniel answered simply. "But it won't do any good to talk about it now. You're out, she's out, and this one," he said, gesturing to Jack, "is out for now. What I can tell you is that I can't be involved in this, for my own safety and for Acacia's. I have to leave. Now." He didn't, though, not just yet, lingering near Acacia.

"Do you think you can get her to the hospital?" he asked, looking back at Thane.

"What?" Acacia sputtered. "Daniel, why can't you come?" Of course she didn't understand. She'd blocked so much of Midnight out, so much of him out, and there was so much about Daniel he hadn't told her, like his very deep sense of self preservation, not to mention that he was still active there, just so long as she was kept far away.

"I can't explain it to you right now, Acacia, and please, please don't fight me on this. Just trust that it will go from bad to worse if I linger here any longer," he said firmly.

Acacia turned her attention back to Jack. "Can you get to the car? We're going to help you, we're getting you as far away from this place as possible. Do you understand?"

[Jeff Hudson]

Jack balked as Acacia came round to stop her. The reflexive jerk back knocked her off balance and she stumbled, putting out her hands and grabbing onto the girls' outstretched arms to steady herself. Jack looked up, trying to focus on her. One of Jack's eyes were nearly swelled shut, in fact that entire side of her face was bruised and puffy. It made things a little blurry, not to mention her head was spinning. It took her a moment to even realize Acacia had spoken to her, and then another moment to translate the sounds into words. Hospital stood out to her, maybe these people really did want to help her. Jack nodded slowly, her eyes starting to slide shut.

She jerked awake. Had she just fallen asleep? Jack looked up at Acacia with bewildered eyes. It must have only been for a brief second, because Acacia's expression hadn't changed. She still was looking at Jack like a person would a wounded dog, there was pity and concern (or maybe she was imagining the pity). Looking past the small girl -- Acacia couldn't have been much bigger than Jack -- she saw the two men talking, then Daniel turned toward the woman he'd arrived with. Acacia is her name, and Daniel is his. Who's the other? But she couldn't concentrate that long, and already their names were starting to blur.

In fact, her vision was blurring as well. Jack dropped her hands away from Acacia and dug her fingers into the damp soil. Wait, when had she fallen to the ground? She vaguely noticed that the knees of her jeans were soaking up water from the mud. The coolness against her fevered skin felt wonderful as Jack slowly laid down on her side.

[Thane O'Riley]

Midnight.

The last thing he'd been expecting out of the vampire was an honest, straight answer like that, which was what prompted the pole-axed sort of shock that registered on his face.  He just stared for a moment, remembering only small bits, but it was enough.  He didn't think Daniel was lying, and the guy was right.  Now wasn't the time.

He nodded, shaking his head as though that would shake the crazy out of this situation, and approached the two women with another quick glance around.  If whoever had owned her came looking, it could be bad.  "Let's get her to my car so your friend can get out of here.  I'm Thane O'Riley," he told Acacia, figuring that they should know who he was, since he knew their names, other than the girl they'd found.  She needed a hospital before they could try to talk to her.

She wasn't staying on her feet too well, which wasn't surprising, so as she sank to the ground, he followed her as far as his knees so that he could scoop her up.  "I'll put her in the backseat.  We need to get moving fast, in case someone comes looking for her."

[Farrah LeCroix]

"Acacia," she answered softly, still reeling from Daniel telling her that he couldn't go with them. Why not? She wanted to argue about it, but the tension he left hanging in the air with his last demand of her to let it go was enough to make her swallow her words. She looked back at him, golden-brown eyes on the brink of tears.

"Go with him, Acacia. I'll be home when you get there. Just trust me, okay?" he said softly. Please. He didn't mentally plead with her often, but now would be one of those times. To Thane, he lofted a brow, and simply said, "Do not let anything happen to her." And with that, he didn't wait for an answer, but was back in his car just as quickly as he'd come out, driving away.

Acacia was a little dumbfounded. She stared at Thane, forcing herself to keep her calm. It wouldn't do any good for this girl if she lost her shit over the situation at hand, so she tried to help Thane as best she could. "I thought about running out this way so many times, but I saw... I saw what they did to people who tried to jump the fence."

Yes, she'd seen. Christian had made sure she'd seen, she and Ebere both, what would happen if they'd ever tried to run. When Vincent got ahold of her, she was beyond running. She was so far gone that she would rather have sat very still and done nothing at all, because that seemed to be the most effective way to go about Midnight; in the end, it hadn't proved well for her.

"They're going to smell us," she said softly. "If they come looking, they'll know which way we went." She got into the car and looked at Thane, her youthful face more serious than it should have been. She stopped short when she saw his eyes - they were almost like hers. Not quite completely golden, but softly so, just enough that she could see, and recognize.

"But you already know that, don't you?" she said, more or less to herself. She looked ahead, waiting for the car to move.

[Jeff Hudson]

She'd fallen asleep again, briefly, like before, and jerked awake when she felt herself being lifted. It made her queasy, like in an elevator that moved too quick and before you were ready. And since her stomach was already on the fritz, Jack felt her abdominal muscles cramp and seize. The girl tossed herself sideways in Thane's arms, not that she had anything to vomit up. A groan escaped between gags, until she could finally relax herself enough to stop the onslaught of dry heaves. Once it was done, she felt herself roll back into the comfortable bends of Thane's elbows, her eyes shut tightly.

Jack finally lost consciousness as they were putting her in the car, but as she did so her thoughts turned into disturbingly vivid dreams. She'd always heard that if you fell asleep with a concussion, the odds of going into a coma and never waking up were high. Her imagination drew up movie reels of her in the hospital, lying paralyzed but entirely awake, wolf shifters taking turns on top of her while Drake laughed in the background. Her mother was outside screaming her name, but Jack couldn't answer. It looped over and over in her fevered state, her body aching and bruised.

[Thane O'Riley]

When Jack first started tossing around in his arms, he thought she was trying to get away, which prompted him to hold her just a little more tightly.  He knew she was afraid, but she wasn't going to do herself any good running off into the woods.  Fortunately, she only needed to gag and heave, which he appreciated her trying to keep away from him if she actually DID puke, but he was glad he'd tightened his grip on her.  It meant she didn't land on her face with the way she was leaning.  Then, just as quickly, she calmed down and just settled into his arms.

He was as gentle as he could be getting her in the car, and he would have done everything in his power to keep her awake if he'd really thought it mattered.  From the way she was hurt, the amount of blood and the smells coming off of her, not to mention the growing fever, he knew what was going on.  She'd been infected.  She could sleep, because her body would heal around her over the next few days and she would wake up.  She may not want to, but she would.

He slid into the driver's seat with a scowl as Acacia brought up what happened to the people who tried to jump the fence, because he'd also seen on one of the few times that Amaya thought taking him out amongst others might cow him.  Personally, he thought she had to be pretty bad at the training business, all things considered.  He wasn't so egotistical as to think that he couldn't have been broken into a pet or slave if the vampire knew what they were doing.  Amaya, with her failures, had almost driven him irreversibly feral.  Thinking about Midnight just...wasn't good.

"Yes, I know it," he told her, not about to deny it or pretend he didn't know what she was talking about.  She'd made eye contact, and he'd seen her golden eyes.  His had changed as well, though not nearly as much as hers.  She'd been in there longer, but he'd been there long enough for her to understand what she saw.  "They may follow, but they won't find you."

He meant it.  He wasn't taking her near anything else of his, and he'd go through his car with something strong enough to erase her scent, if he had to.  Yes, they'd smell her at the site, but he'd make sure they lost her from there, and not because of Daniel's order to not let anything happen to her.  She was a wolf, a young female, and he wasn't going to allow her to be taken.  They'd already lost one girl, and they wouldn't lose another, whether she was pack or not.

The same went for the girl in his backseat.  He would call Diarmid from the hospital about her, and they'd take care of her.  She wasn't going to be alone for this.

[Jeff Hudson]

((ok, I'm gunna keep this going.))


Jack tossed in the backseat of Thane's car the duration of the ride to the hospital, but never was she fully conscious. Her wounds didn't seem to be so fatal, but her fever was getting worse. The bruise on her head looked horrible, and bruises littered her arms, torso and legs. Only a little blood was dried in her hair. The most pain was the side of her head and between her legs, but everything would heal in time.

She woke up on a hospital bed, in her own room. The lights were out and the curtains drawn, but Jack could see sunlight peeking out from behind. A nurse was just leaving after jotting down the girl's vitals on a clipboard. Jack sat up, but immediately regretted it. A rush of nausea overwhelmed her and she fell back into her pillows, swallowing rapidly to combat the urge to vomit. The chills and sweating had eased up, so she could safely assume they'd given her something to lower the fever.

The hospital was comfortable for what it was, she couldn't complain. But she hated hospitals, and the smell of sterility always gave her a headache. It seemed so much worse now, Jack could swear she smelled blood, piss, vomit, and even sweat. She figured it was the fever and nausea getting to her, making her senses hypersensitive.