I'm the kind to sit up in his room. Heart sick and eyes filled up with gloom.

Current Mood: pissed
Current Location: Thomas and Alice's room

Entry tags:

I'm the kind to sit up in his room. Heart sick and eyes filled up with gloom.

When Thomas woke up, the sun was streaming in through the window, and he could see brilliant blue sky through a space in the thin curtains. His mouth felt bone dry, but his head didn't throb, a pleasant surprise. Some part of him had expected the vampire safe tequila to have given him every effect of real alcohol. As it was, Thomas couldn't remember coming back to the house and falling asleep; the last thing he remembered was getting back on Lestat's plane and deciding he was going to take a nap.

Maybe someone had dragged him back to the house and tossed him on his bed.

With the shambling, bleary gait of a sobering college student, Thomas shuffled into the bathroom and set himself to the not-inconsiderable task of sluicing off the remnants of debauchery and alcohol.

*****

Half an hour and a thoroughly steamed up bathroom later, he stood in the middle of the bedroom he shared with Alice, a towel around his hips, as he checked his voicemail. The blearily blank expression on his face faded into worry and perplexity as he listened, and, by the time Thomas clicked 'save', a deep frown was growing. He sank into a seat on his bed, staring at the phone in his hand, while the other ran absentmindedly through damp dark hair.

((Tag Alice!))

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

There hadn't been a whole lot to do on the plane back except hide in the bathroom so that's at Alice did, and no one bugged her 'cause bathrooms weren't places vamps needed so much as other people she figured. She figured a lot of things on the way back, and none of them were really good, but it was easy to forget them 'cause if she didn't her head was going to explode.

She had to stop thinking that too though, 'cause the one time she'd thought it really, really hard, the bottle of water some flight attendant had slipped her on her way in burst into a million little plastic fragments and that was enough to keep her meditating most of the way home.

Jasper was going to call and he was going to be pissed and let him, she thought, this wasn't normal and it wasn't like she needed topping up daily. Not usually. This was unpredictable and there were more important things than whether or not she wished she could pop a Tylenol. Like who the hell Nathan Raith was when he was at home, and where his home was, and god, Thomas was probably a mess. She sure was.

He definitely didn't look too happy when she walked in. Doing her super strong best to seem casual and probably failing miserably, especially when she saw all her stuff and remembered she still hadn't decided where she was going to live, never mind everything else. At least Thomas was in one piece and yeah, she was pretty relieved.

"You look all chipper and ready to take on the world, yeah? No sleeping today? They say ten hours Thomas, and that's just for humans, you might need more." She didn't say sweet fuck all about pretty lights and bleeding doorways and the other things that popped up when she tried to form sentences. Because she was fine.

There was really something to be said for autopilot. His mind was flying through possibilities, trying to figure out why Lara had sent Lord Raith to the house, trying to process how she managed it without Justine even getting a hint of what had been going on, and (more importantly) trying to figure out what he was going to do about it now.

So when Alice came in, Thomas rose without thinking, crossing the room and sliding an arm around her waist. The Hunger was already reaching for her when he kissed Alice's forehead. The sheer magnitude of emotion, of that pent up pressure, surprised Thomas out of his thoughts and he blinked rapidly, staring down at Alice as if seeing her for the first time (which, to be fair, was true).

"I slept already," he answered, his mouth still working on autopilot as he reached up to brush Alice's cheeks with power at his fingertips. Still there, that torrent of emotion, barely held in check by sheer willpower. The next words that came out of his mouth were obvious.

"Alice? You're not okay."

"Everyone says that the first few times they see me off the rails but you don't know, I mean I don't even know, and hey parading not ok for starters let's go with last night 'cause I don't remember Vegas sucking that hard, I texted you and hey, you're the one who should be getting the third degree about not ok, plenty of time for cracks in the wall." Alice leaned into his touch automatically, sighing against his fingers. She wanted out of that dress and into a dark room, but this was fine. She'd be fine.

"You worry too much Thomas Raith, that's always gonna be your problem."

With physical contact, it was much easier to get a clear picture of just what Alice wanted subconsciously, and Thomas figured she was too out of it to complain, not when everything seemed to be directed at keeping her from falling to pieces. "If worrying too much is my only problem, I'll take it," he answered lightly, his hand slipping into Alice's, fingers twining with hers.

He thought about telling her to go lie down and yell at him from there for a second, but empty night there was so much. Thomas wasn't sure how she was still standing. "Come on," he said. "Walk and yell." The Hunger slid from his fingers and up, reaching for Alice, sinking deep beneath her skin as Thomas walked her with him to the windows and drew the blinds tightly.

When the room was in shadow, he led her back to her bed. "Don't you give me that I'm fine crap. Sit down," he continued, loosening his grip on Alice's hand to reach behind her and undo her dress, letting his fingers linger against smooth skin. By now, simple touch was enough, though through touch alone the demon could only feed in a slow steady trickle, not that glorious flood of light. But it seemed best for now, when Alice looked like anything more was going to break her into pieces.

Slow lingering touches, every one of them siphoning off a little more emotion, easing the pressure. "I left my phone under the bed," he said, following Alice's train of thought as he eased the dress off, fingers kneading steadily at her shoulders. "Sorry. Go ahead, keep yelling."

A part of Alice had been etching into her brain in tiny little letters that the walls working the way they did, which was god knew how but seemed to change all the time, and now it hurt so much it almost wasn't pain anymore- well a tiny part of her had been sure they'd block Thomas to drive her truly mental. Feeling him slide under her skin the way he always did, cool and emptying and perfect, it was such a relief she almost cried right there, knowing he still could. And the blinds, that was kindness more than anything. Thomas was still Thomas and she wouldn't tell a soul.

"I wasn't yelling, you'd know if I was yelling mister, they'd know it all the way back to Vegas, I was worried about you, and oh god Thomas, I think they did something to my head." State the obvious much, Alice. "I mean nothing different- there was just so much happening and seeing Vlad made it hurt more than it ever has before, I don't know why, I tried to make it stop but it only got better awhile, I can't help wanting to know where he is, why aren't you telling me if you're ok or not? Didn't I ask that yet?" She wasn't seeing, there was just too much in her head to get it out in the right order.

But it was getting better. Thomas' touch was smooth and careful, more like he was performing surgery than feeding. It was nice, though, being taken care of. Just for a little while. Alice gave a little gasp when the pain began to ebb, and god, she was so grateful. "Tell me if you're ok."

Not that she was going to change right off.

It took most of Thomas' attention to keep what he was doing at that level, to feed slowly and methodically without letting the Hunger reach for desire, reach for all those things it truly wanted. It was like back at the salon, really, intimacy without sex. Except it was easier to dial it back with hair washing. With Alice half undressed and himself in a towel, keeping everything slow and calm was a harder chore. And he had to sift through Alice's rapid-fire babble on top of that.

There was a headache coming on. He just knew it.

"I'm fine," he answered automatically, then paused. His hands kept moving, running slowly down Alice's back. "Okay, no that was a lie, sorry. I'm better than you are, at least."

Thomas bent down to trail soft, chaste kisses down Alice's spine, drinking in just a little more as his mind worked to translate from Alice to English. When it did, he froze, hands stilling at Alice's shoulders, his lips against her back. His tone was disbelieving and questioning, inviting her to tell him he'd mistranslated.

"You saw Vlad. In Vegas."

"At least you're not sticking to the lie yeah, I mean that's where you get into trouble, not like me, no, I always admit it right up front, especially when my sire's in town, not that he's alive but you know, potayto potahto. I only lied a little. I only lied a little bit just to let him know what these hands can do." And speaking of hands, and lips and skin and everything else, Alice was arching just a little against his touch, everything packed into her mind funneling blissfully out wherever she felt Thomas, inside and out. Until he stopped.

"You can't tell you can't tell Lacci or they'll hurt him Thomas, they didn't say so but they will. You're the only one I can tell, as if Edward could keep it a secret, as if anyone would listen anyway. They let us have him, just for an hour. Just to see he's ok. And he isn't, I mean he pretends worse than you, but he's alive, and he isn't hurt for now, and it hurt so much. But it'll be better the next time, 'cause I won't be so scrambly, my brain won't try to follow him down the slide in the spacetime continuum, you know? It won't be as bad." Alice turned over, taking his face in her hands.

"It was fine, I mean I'm all right now, Pandora always was, except I think maybe I can do stuff with my head now but whatever, the important thing is he's ok."

It wasn't just typical Alice ramble. Well, some of it was, like the part about sires, but that Thomas shoved away for later. The parts that were focused held his attention. Alice sounded clear, focused, almost desperate as she took his face in her hands, stared at him and talked a mile a minute. Despite the demon's insistence that he keep feeding, that it wanted more and more, Thomas stilled every part of himself, including that whispering hunger, and listened, his mind racing through Alice's tripping words, distilling them to their essence, to truth.

They. Wolfram & Hart. It had to be. No one else would have taken Vlad. Just for an hour, to make sure he was alright. And the worst part, the ominous 'but it'll be better next time.' Next time. Because there would be a next time.

Empty night. No wait, that wasn't enough. What was it Harry said once? Hell's holy stars and freaking stones shit bells.

"You saw Vlad," he repeated. His voice was dangerously cold, and someone not used to Thoma would have called it dead, especially since he still sat utterly still. "You're going to see him again. You made a deal with Them, didn't you?"

"It wasn't a deal, I read it eight times before I signed it, every last bit, I mean Pandora made a deal, the only thing I had to promise was that Lacci wouldn't find out." Alice's tone changed abruptly from pleading to firm. "And she won't. This is the only way to keep an eye on him, make sure they aren't hurting him or keeping him gone for good, you can understand that, can't you? It wasn't a deal, I didn't give them anything and anyway if I had it'd be my choice, I know what I'm here to do Thomas, that was never a secret, just now it might involve more people than one, ok?" If she was totally honest it always had. Lacci at least, but Dru too, anyone those fuckers ended up screwing with, and there were foots that went in doors and he had to grasp that much.

"What was I gonna do, say no? They didn't ask me for anything and I got Vlad safe and sound, so don't you dare give me that tone Thomas, don't you dare." She really was going to cry now, she thought, fighting it hard. Yell at her, fine, but her headache wasn't even close to gone, just manageable. Why did he sound so mad?

The problem with having a presence in one's head that gloried in games, in manipulation and toying with those around, was that said presence was extremely good at spinning out possibilities, at tracing back ideas, how they could have been planted, how manipulation had been done. And that part of him was spinning out a tapestry that was far far more complex than Thomas expected.

"You signed something." Thomas took a deep breath, shook off the supernatural stillness, and looked at Alice, studied her even as he took her hands again. They'd done something to her head, something else besides the blocks. The Hunger sank in through the touch of her skin, slid through the little cracks, drank in the flow in small steady sips. Because they were both going to get a headache at this point. "You signed something but they didn't ask for anything this time."

Thomas closed his eyes and sighed, some little part of him frantic, adjusting the pattern now that the board had been upended on him. He hadn't realized how much he'd been counting on Alice as an ally untouched by the law firm (aside from the psychic blocks) until that was gone. He still trusted her, but it was another variable, another hook Wolfram & Hart had on his friends that he would have to dance around. "I could have gotten him without you signing anything," he confessed. "If you'd just asked, if you'd just waited. They owe me a favour. I could have used it for this."

But wasn't that the way? They show up, dangle the bait, and force a deal immediately. Thomas wouldn't be surprised if whatever thing they'd done to Alice's head had been to facilitate it, to make her more likely to sign, more likely to disregard the danger of giving a law firm a signed contract.

Edited 2009-12-12 07:17 (UTC)

There were two seriously disparate things going on and that was just the surface, Alice suspected way more underneath that. One part of her curled against Thomas' chest and clung to him, feeling the pressure slowly ease. Another was irritated, angry even, 'cause who the hell was he to get more tangled and not her?

"You think you can call in some favor they say they owe you and you were never gonna get called on terms? I know what I signed, I know what it said. I'm not gonna hand over my life, Thomas. If they ask for something else next time I'll look, I mean I'll see, ok? I can take care of myself." Except for now when she really, really needed him, would probably go totally bugfuck if he wasn't there siphoning off all the pain.

"You think I'd've let you take a favor from them no matter what they say? Same difference pal, except you don't like that there're consequences when you act too. I know what I'm doing, I know they're scary bad, can't be helped. They're the piper and they don't corner the market on cunning, yeah? Give me some credit." She didn't want to defend herself. She wanted to cry and be a wreck for awhile but that wasn't happening again, not with Thomas. There just hadn't been any other choice, and if he couldn't see that he could stay pissed.

"I already signed something all by myself with no help from grownups, remember? The contract that got me on the show in the first place, and lemme tell you, that was a hell of a lot more legalese and demon-y fresh than this thing, I did what I had to do. Just- if you're gonna be pissed at me get it over with so I can be your friend again 'cause I think we're both in need, yeah?" Arms around him tightening, Alice kissed his chest, shutting her eyes against the warmth of his skin.

Jasper was about to be alone in a room, eyes closed, thinking about her. She could always see his trains of thought easier than anyone else's; sometimes it was only actions, and it was all hard to predict. Jasper was special, though. She was just going to focus on that for now, and maybe it'd keep her calm, make things easier for Thomas no matter what he ended up doing.

As Alice's words washed over him, tripping over each another and the bubbling irritation and anger and pressure, Thomas let out a long heavy sigh. He couldn't deny the truth in what she was saying. As Alice so liked to point out, she was three times his age, more worldly than Edward, could parse legal demonese etc etc etc. She could take care of herself, and he had to trust that. Didn't mean he had to like it. Didn't mean he would admit she was right out loud either.

"I'm not going to be pissed," he said, one arm tightening around Alice while his free hand slid through her hair and began rubbing slow circles against her scalp. "I'm just--" What could he say here, knowing the room was certainly bugged, knowing that anything he said to Alice could end up being demanded as trade goods for Wolfram & Hart? He knew it was unlikely, but still, he and paranoia were good friends. He was just trying to rearrange an entire game of manipulation and subtle deceits on the fly.

He kissed the top of her head, another little sip in the affectionate gesture. "Maybe I'm as bad off as you are. Just a little better at hiding it."

Alice still hadn't made up her mind about where she was going to stash her stuff. Lacci's offer made sense, and it had the bonus of making her super happy and way optimistic about Edward coming around. But moments like these when she was just wrapped up in Thomas, even the parts where they were both being weighed on heavy, she kind of wanted to be able to slip into this room whenever she liked for that. Being emptied and, when he got around to like, begrudgingly remembering she wasn't a moron, being commiserated with.

"You're only better at hiding it when I'm not doing my best Sybil. I'm sorry I sprung it on you like that just, time gets mixed up in my head sometimes. I mean with the blocks it's worse, but it happens anyway except usually it's just funny and not you know, scary and painful, so lucky you." She smiled against his chest. "I wanted you there, I texted you, I did, I wasn't trying to keep you out of the loop, but I guess you were occupied and stuff. I mean-" She stopped, taking a hopefully fortifying breath.

"Your dad. He came back with us, didn't he."

For a long moment, Thomas did nothing except continue running his fingers through Alice's hair, keeping her tucked up against him. "I appreciate you thinking of me when you were being faced with Vlad," he said with a faint trace of teasing in his voice. "I told you. I left my phone here on accident. Worst time for it, I guess."

The way Alice asked about Lord Raith wasn't a question, more like just seeking confirmation, and Thomas resisted the urge to heave a sigh. He simply nodded, expecting Alice to be able to feel the motion from where she was tucked against his chest. "Unless I drunkenly threw him out of the plane on the way back," he said. "Please tell me I drunkenly threw him out of the plane on the way back."

"I kinda hope so, I mean I haven't heard anything but I was stuck in the bathroom the whole time so I wouldn't know, right? He'd probably just ooze back into the earth, god Thomas, I'm sorry, I mean I tried really hard to be friendly, way friendly actually, I guess I overestimated my appeal as a layered sundae of crazy, 'cause he wasn't biting." She shuddered. There was still a lot of showering to get done.

"I think he thought I was funny. Hell I don't know, maybe I was, but- he's a sack of slime, Thomas, I knew it 'cause I've seen him more than once like, just in passing or whatever but I didn't expect that. What's he doing here?"

Alice's description of Lord Raith made Thomas smile, gallows humour or something. "You're a delectable sundae of crazy, don't worry. My father just ca--" A familiar brush against his conscious mind made Thomas pause. A single word. Opportunity. "My father's got different tastes," he said instead, in a tone that would have been as fitting for talking about the hygiene of sewer rats.

Thomas wondered briefly if Alice read his mind. Her question had been the exact same one he'd been turning over, consciously and unconsciously, ever since he saw his father. "Spying on me. Trying to kill me again, maybe. I doubt he's here on vacation." He paused, brain catching up to his mouth. Or something. "Wait, you talked to him?"

"Trying to kill you again?" Ok, so she had a headache and yeah she'd been borderline nuts for the past however many hours, but she was pretty sure she hadn't seen that page of Thomas' baby book. Her eyes narrowed. She'd already wanted to wrench this douche in the jibblies, now she was giving serious thought to tearing out his eyes. "When did he try to kill you before?"

She didn't even bother asking why she hadn't been dispatched as an unstoppable whirlwind of underestimated pixie fury, which she was seriously itching to do. It was always going to be the same answer. Justine.

"And yeah I talked to him, I met him at that club you wouldn't go to last time with all the cages, Isaac took me. He called me 'girl' and sniffed around like a smug Fortune 500 type, all cigars and brandy and whatever, he was drunk and gross and I wouldn't have touched him with any kind of pole, plus speaking of poles he wasn't short on the innuendo or the interest in how a person can feed from a vamp. Guess he hasn't been watching which, I gotta say, pleased as punch, me." She pulled away just a little, way less wobbly and her head feeling less like it was going to break her neck.

"He was super interested in Tepes, though. Isaac's Drac. And probably I should tell you I told him I killed my sire a couple of months ago, which, not totally untrue." She grinned. "Just wanted to establish healthy boundaries and everything."

Now that she actually wanted to kill him, she almost wished he didn't know she could vamp's head from his body. Element of surprise and that.

"There was the time he sent me to a party as his proxy knowing an idiot wizard was going to blow the place up," Thomas answered in the same casual tone of voice as if Alice had asked him about his favourite pizza places in Chicago. "Do we count the time he tried to use me as a blood sacrifice to a demon of the outer realms as separate from the time he broke my neck? Because those happened on the same night. There are a few more, but I can't remember them off the top of my head."

There were two people in the world who, if they were watching, knew the most important thing Thomas was omitting. That what had happened to Justine had been a direct result of Lord Raith's manipulation. One was Justine. The other was Harry. But neither of them knew that somewhere deep down, past the satisfaction of seeing his father effectively leashed and muzzled by his sister, still lurked the desire for vengeance, the wish to take Lord Raith apart with nothing more than a rusty knife, to watch his father scream in agony as he died.

But it wasn't how their kind operated. To kill him directly would go against every instinct they had, and the idea was as distasteful as it was appealing. But if Alice offered...

"Sounds about right," he continued, as if he hadn't just been documenting the ways he'd dodged certain death. The mention of Tepes made Thomas frown; crew gossip had it that Tepes was powerful, White Council material easily, and if dear old Dad was starting to get curious... He was going to need to call Lara. And talk to Isaac.

Thomas ducked his head and kissed Alice properly, warm and appreciative. If there was a little hint of commiseration for generally lousy nights in there, well, who could blame him? And he fed a little more, deepened the kiss and tasted more Alice on his tongue, emotions tripping like champagne. He hadn't forgotten about what Alice had said about Vlad. But he could wait until she seemed less likely to burst at the seams to ask.

There were a few things Thomas didn't take well to - boy was that an understatement - and one of them was sympathy, she'd seen that enough times not to even bother trying, but how could she not be totally appalled by what he was saying? And the casual way he said it, the same way he related anything really fucked up about his life, it wasn't the first time she'd heard that tone of voice. Not even the first person. Jasper had stories.

Alice liked to think she kept anger, real anger that was going to last beyond her next shopping trip or great conversation, in a special quiet place. Somewhere deep beneath all the noise and threads of the future and lately pain, somewhere it would keep to itself until it was needed. That's where she put the look in Thomas' eyes when he listed all the ways his father had earned a long, painful death. That's where she put the silent but very, very serious desire to kill the man for him. For the world, really, 'cause what kind of loss would that be? But that was for later, after she'd had time to figure out what kind of deal was really going down. He'd never let her do anything to help if it was going to risk Justine. And his family, his Court was all so frigging complicated. She didn't have the head for it right then, still pounding with everything she was blocked from seeing and everything she was keeping inside.

She might if he kept kissing her like that, though. Alice splayed a hand over the muscles where his shoulders met, the slow warmth under her fingers filling her head and letting it melt. It was kind of nice, this slow pull of Alice into Thomas when far too much Alice existed, a different kind of nice from when they just tore into each other and he drained her all at once. Like being sculpted. Jasper used to call it that, though it wasn't the same thing, and anyway Alice made herself.

She didn't necessarily mean for things to change when she pulled him to lie down with her, everything stayed slow and easy. She just wanted to close her eyes and feel the pain drift away, and so in its place was Thomas' hands and lips, yeah, that was a pretty excellent trade.

"I tried to text you all night," she said quietly, pulling away a few inches and stroking his hair, "'cause I wanted you to know I'm on your team, and you're on mine. 'Cause I didn't want to keep you out of any of it or make you think I was gonna go do something stupid." And 'cause Nathan had been the skeeziest surprise ever, but the rest of it was true too. If Alice was going to get taken care of whether she liked it or not, then Thomas could deal with being trusted. She figured that was a pretty excellent trade, too.

[[morning after desquish (http://godofcologne.livejournal.com/21226.html?thread=184298#t184298)]]

Feeling Alice slowly relax as tension leeched out of her, Thomas concentrated on slow touches and the steady flow of emotions sinking into him. It helped keep his mind from acknowledging how bad of a state she'd been in coming in, from thinking about the sympathy and anger that slid over her skin. He let Alice draw him down with her and watched her with serious grey eyes, listening to her words.

His hands never stopped moving against Alice's back; there was no way he could knead enough at the muscles he felt beneath her skin to do any good, but Thomas kept up the motions anyway. It was the thought that count, or something. Much like how he really didn't need Alice to be stroking his hair, but it was appreciated. "You are doing something stupid, Alice," he couldn't help pointing out, but there was no heat in his voice. No anger. Just resignation. "But then so I am so maybe we're even on that one."

The rest of her words had warmed him far more than Thomas was comfortable with, and instead of addressing them he did what he always did. Thomas pulled Alice back against him and kissed her, slow and steady, with nothing more than the simple pleasure of kissing Alice. "Thanks."

Keeping a rein on the Hunger, forcing it to sip continuously, Thomas asked calmly, "So tell me about what happened with Vlad. I promise I will not tell Lacci or Edward about his visit." It didn't need to be said that he was, in fact, thinking of all the ways his precisely worded promise could (and would) be circumvented.

Even sounded about right. Every one of them was being pretty stupid when you came right down to it, but if you lived in fear of that you ended up keeping totally still all the time which, not so great. Or you turned into Edward. Either way it definitely wasn't Alice's MO.

There were still risks you could be super careful about, though. "You can't just not tell her, she can't find out, like, at all, the language was pretty specific and there was a reason, you know?" Alice kept her eyes closed while she spoke, partly out of wanting to feel herself floating in a quieter head and partly 'cause she didn't really want to see his reaction to any of it.

"He couldn't say a whole lot, like something was stopping him, but I think they keep him knocked out most of the time. He said they only keep him awake when they need him to think." That part was the freakiest and the one her brain had been trying to focus on the most since the night before, except she hadn't been able to, not until now. "I don't know what they need him to think for, but it wasn't a high priority, you know? Just making sure it was him, getting him fed- I mean I might have blanked out some stuff, it got pretty crowded up here and that's when the trouble started, yeah?"

It was worth it. It was totally worth it, except if she was wrong and it wasn't any better the next time they got him she didn't know how she was going to cope. And she definitely didn't know how Thomas was going to react to that, or to all the rest of it.

"Ask me whatever you like and I'll tell you what I remember but if there're like, pink elephants in the story, doubt my veracity, yeah? I'm basically still coated in the thickest layer of sleeze, 'cause never mind your father, Vincent made me wanna hurl and I actually can't." His eyes kept popping up in Alice's head, and she wondered if that's what'd done it, or if she was really just that crazy lucky. "You met him before. Did he- like was there any kind of hoodoo he worked? Does he always wear that shiny suit? But Vlad's ok, at least, he's not any deader than when he left, and we got letters. Maybe Lacci'll get one too."

Oh and by the way I can maybe make things explode by looking at them which might be from the insanely old vampire I fed off of or it might be an evil demon lawyer's bug in my brain. Right. You worked up to stuff like that.

"But I'm ok Thomas, really I am you can tell, can't you? It's better, I mean it feels like I'm talking in the right order now anyway." Needing this was just a huge pain in the ass. Wanting it was pretty nice, though. "For real, ask whatever. What were you doing last night? Did your dad- I mean you saw him, yeah?"

It was probably a good thing Alice kept her eyes closed, because with every word about Vlad, Thomas' expression grew blanker, as some things agreed with his suspicions and others teased out other bits of information, as pawns began rearranging themselves on the board. He sidestepped most of her questions, concentrating instead on feeding, on coaxing the Hunger deeper, drawing out all the tripping, racing emotions out of Alice.

"Vincent's a slimy wannabe Armani knockoff model," Thomas said instead, forcing his voice to be light. "But whatever he does, he's warded. I can't read a thing off him, and neither can Edward." The idea that Wolfram & Hart would let Lacci get a letter from her brother when they were doing their damnest to keep everything about him from her seemed unlikely at best, but Thomas didn't say anything. No need to start that argument again.

The beginnings of an idea ran through his mind. The girl enjoys reaching into your mind, speaking to us. Who is to say I cannot whisper back? For the moment, Thomas pushed it away, lest he begin to make plans and give the game away to Alice. "I'll ask later," he said. "Let me think about what I want to know." He smiled and kissed Alice's forehead again.

Mention of his father made a shadow fall over Thomas' face, a mixture of anger and worry, but it passed as quickly as it had come, leaving behind little more than a faint tension around his eyes. "Yeah, you're fine if you're grilling me about that again. I did see dear old Dad. Lacci was having a bad time with all the lights in Vegas, so we went and found a room with Edw--" Thomas stopped his immediate train of thought, switched gears. "Something happened with your brother last night."

There was something seriously relaxing about getting fed off of like this. Probably harder for Thomas and definitely not her everyday preference but every time Alice thought that was it, she wasn't going to get any clearer, the pressure eased some more and she did. Well it wasn't completely news to her that savoring was a good thing, but savoring relief, that was mostly new. At least to this degree it was.

The warding she figured, otherwise Edward would've said something before she'd gotten blacklisted, it was what Vincent did she was interested in, but he would've said by now. She was just going to have to wait, talk to Pandora, try not to get too... explodey, she guessed, and she'd figure it out. She always did. "I never saw him. I mean he's been here a bunch of times and they were blocking before I knew, but I never once saw him, I'm not even totally sure if he falls on my radar, Alucard never did. Wards on them and wards on my head are different, yeah?" Dru had always been a problem too, but that was definitely not for dwelling on.

"I don't think asking you a question I already know the answer to fully qualifies as grilling, but take your shots where you can, yeah?" Alice smiled and listened to the post-mortem with some amount of content until his voice changed, and then she was torn between sighing wearily and shaking the story out of him. Her eyes flew open instead, an inquisitive and tell me right fucking now look in her eye that she liked to think was unique to her serving as a replacement for both.

"What happened with my brother last night? Where is he? What'd he do?" She didn't sound so much worried as she did like she was going to track him down and smack him. Which, distinct possibility.

He'd expected Alice's questions but hearing them was different from knowing they were going to be asked, and Thomas frowned a little as he tried to put the story together in a way that Alice would understand, that wasn't all vague feelings and conjecture. "Edward and Dru took on Vegas last night, from what I heard. Feeding, I mean," he said carefully. "And by that I mean a lot of blood. A lot of fear. Enough fear that it sank into their victims' blood, enough that I could feel it from them having drunk it."

He was veering, dancing around the actual happenings with an explanation of how it had happened. "It wasn't needing to feed, I don't think. I think Edward's developing a taste for fear, and he doesn't seem to understand why he can't just go around terrorizing the city." Thomas paused, frowning. It was hard to boil it down to words, when so much of it had been emotion and expression and all the things that got lost in translation. "It's almost like he doesn't know how to deal with humans being something other than prey."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 4

I'm the kind to sit up in his room. Heart sick and eyes filled up with gloom.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject