Mayfair Manor

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"Is that so?" Antha sighed very softly, hinting at a faint weariness. "Well, my wishes are simple, Vikteren. If there comes a time that you want to leave me, my wish is that you do. Because I can destroy people that way, make them lose their entire grip on sanity. I'd rather you be gone than affected." She didn't bother to remind him that she was a Mayfair witch, already insane to the marrow of her bones from her experiences in mortal life. Vampires weren't likely to deal with much more than the Mayfair witches. If anything, escaping the family would help stabilize her mentality. "And if that day comes, don't worry about it. Khayman will protect me, whether I become a monster or a broken doll of a being." She remembered then---too late---that it wasn't about her. It was about repaying his debt to her, about what he needed to do rather than what she needed, wanted. And maybe that upset her...just a touch.

 

[.David Talbot.]

The middle of the night called for sleep. Sitting at the table, that's what he did. Slept. It wasn't long until he fell into dreams either. He dreamt of the airship creaking under the weight of the sky and Antha sitting quietly in her chair in the courtroom as Princess of the Red Rose. She never dressed up for the court but he dreamed of her all done up in a lacy crimson dress and white stockings with roses in her curls and tied to her wrists and ankles with white ribbons fluttering aorund her hands and bare feet.
He dreamed of Savannah stuffed under a bed with a body so bent no one could mistake her for alive. Rubbery gray skin and bloody clothes.
Antha held her hand out to him, smiling, giggling, and the mind wasn't Antha. Every gesture was characteristic of her, but the intentions were Nicolae. The mind was Nicolae.
From the attic window he saw Dorian in the garden and heard him sing a lullaby to Jeanette. Jeanette had dark, bloody sockets instead of eyes.
When he went to run outside to find her eyes for her, Cortland came up the stairs and knocked him out with a wooden beam.
It woke him enough to stand up and trudge up the stairs to the library. To lay on the loveseat and fall into a new dreamless sleep. He never noticed Antha and Vikteren locked together int he kitchen.

 

[Vikteren]

+Rotting Lunacy+

"Is that so?" Antha sighed very softly, hinting at a faint weariness. "Well, my wishes are simple, Vikteren. If there comes a time that you want to leave me, my wish is that you do. Because I can destroy people that way, make them lose their entire grip on sanity. I'd rather you be gone than affected." She didn't bother to remind him that she was a Mayfair witch, already insane to the marrow of her bones from her experiences in mortal life. Vampires weren't likely to deal with much more than the Mayfair witches. If anything, escaping the family would help stabilize her mentality. "And if that day comes, don't worry about it. Khayman will protect me, whether I become a monster or a broken doll of a being." She remembered then---too late---that it wasn't about her. It was about repaying his debt to her, about what he needed to do rather than what she needed, wanted. And maybe that upset her...just a touch.

"If one day my presence becomes so--distasteful--that I become harmful to you--" he answered quietly, releasing her and backing away, giving her back her space--it was improper to be so close, wasn't it, to an unmarried girl of her age, when they had known each other for so little time--it felt like more--
"Then...perhaps. But I would not like to leave you in such a state, no matter if you would rather Khayman protect you or--or if you would never set eyes upon me again." He let his hands fall to his side, unaware that he had been holding his hands, as if twisting a ring about his finger that he no longer wore.
"I do not think you are a monster, Antha. I think you have a capability--for both great good, and great horrors. And perhaps your choices have not always been sound, but few of us go throughout our existences without doing the same. And I would not have you become a broken puppet of anyone--your family, another of my kind, a lover--if it was within my power."  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

She turned around quietly, staring at him for a very long moment, before a smile crept to her lips. It was a very sweet smile, honest, which was usually quite unfamiliar to her. "My offer stands," she told him simply, a faint bit of relief seeping into her voice. Too late, she realized that she had feared his response. "If the time comes that I tire of you, which I don't believe will come any time soon, then you'll know. But again, you're of no use to me if you don't want my company."
His sudden withdrawal made her feel mildly strange...cold. Worse yet, he said said something that rang strangely in her mind. It was the mention of a lover, something which Antha took too often to keep track. She felt even stranger thinking of having one around while Vikteren was still with her. After all, he wasn't as used to that side of her as the others were and she had a habit of imagining he was judging her every move. It turned her stomach. But this she shook off to the best of her ability and glanced up the stairs, listening to the intrusive thoughts of her cousins. She was glad there was no reason to go up to them just yet, to deal with all their worries and convictions that did no one any good. It was more peace to be right where she was. "I wonder what this day will bring..." she mused suddenly, casting her glance thoughtfully out of the glass doors to the dense garden beyond, "All the things I've done these past few days...all of them haven't reached Mayfair ears yet, but still it's enough to cause an uproar. Aunts and uncles screaming about the preservation of my particular bloodline, cousins grave at the thought of what Sleet might know, and even David, being so unfortunately tied to us, is going to be reeling from all he's seen and learned." The thought made her grin.

 

[Vikteren]

+Rotting Lunacy+

She turned around quietly, staring at him for a very long moment, before a smile crept to her lips. It was a very sweet smile, honest, which was usually quite unfamiliar to her. "My offer stands," she told him simply, a faint bit of relief seeping into her voice. Too late, she realized that she had feared his response. "If the time comes that I tire of you, which I don't believe will come any time soon, then you'll know. But again, you're of no use to me if you don't want my company."
His sudden withdrawal made her feel mildly strange...cold. Worse yet, he said said something that rang strangely in her mind. It was the mention of a lover, something which Antha took too often to keep track. She felt even stranger thinking of having one around while Vikteren was still with her. After all, he wasn't as used to that side of her as the others were and she had a habit of imagining he was judging her every move. It turned her stomach. But this she shook off to the best of her ability and glanced up the stairs, listening to the intrusive thoughts of her cousins. She was glad there was no reason to go up to them just yet, to deal with all their worries and convictions that did no one any good. It was more peace to be right where she was. "I wonder what this day will bring..." she mused suddenly, casting her glance thoughtfully out of the glass doors to the dense garden beyond, "All the things I've done these past few days...all of them haven't reached Mayfair ears yet, but still it's enough to cause an uproar. Aunts and uncles screaming about the preservation of my particular bloodline, cousins grave at the thought of what Sleet might know, and even David, being so unfortunately tied to us, is going to be reeling from all he's seen and learned." The thought made her grin.

The vampire turned his gaze from the stairs to her, taking in the mischevious smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "You say this as though shaving decades off the life expectancy of Mr. Talbot is a profitable endeavor," he commented, with a wry smile. "But you are correct. It has been...a very long day. Much activity chooses to find its way to you." The theft of her family histories, for example--their foray into the catacombs of Sleet's territory--the Calais boy's demand for the settling of his sister's madness (there was a story there that Vikteren was not entire certain he wished to learn) and the gather of the maverick Mayfair children, the Red Crayon Aristocrats.
He looked up suddenly, as if a thought had struck him without warning.
"Antha," he said, crossing to the window. "How much time is there before sunrise?"  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"David's pure stubborn quest to know everything will keep him alive much longer than most," she commented simply, her eyes burning in a way that almost always suggested that she knew a secret, "Mortal or otherwise."
His next words turned her eyes judgmentally to the door, looking through the trees and vines and over the fence at the horizon. Still pitch black, but for how long? "Perhaps an hour until dawn," was her final verdict, glancing over her shoulder to see his reaction, "Not that the sun will touch ground if I need it dark. It all depends on where we spend the daylight hours---here or Satis House." It didn't matter much to her; she had often slept in Malakai's room when she didn't feel like going home, or more recently in the room that Volusia had vacated which had shutters made to block out the sun. But she couldn't imagine Vikteren being comfortable in a house overflowing with Mayfairs, and they really were around every single corner.

 

[Vikteren]

+Rotting Lunacy+

"David's pure stubborn quest to know everything will keep him alive much longer than most," she commented simply, her eyes burning in a way that almost always suggested that she knew a secret, "Mortal or otherwise."
His next words turned her eyes judgmentally to the door, looking through the trees and vines and over the fence at the horizon. Still pitch black, but for how long? "Perhaps an hour until dawn," was her final verdict, glancing over her shoulder to see his reaction, "Not that the sun will touch ground if I need it dark. It all depends on where we spend the daylight hours---here or Satis House." It didn't matter much to her; she had often slept in Malakai's room when she didn't feel like going home, or more recently in the room that Volusia had vacated which had shutters made to block out the sun. But she couldn't imagine Vikteren being comfortable in a house overflowing with Mayfairs, and they really were around every single corner.

"I noticed," the vampire said, in response. "He's not quite human, is he?"
"It is your decision where you spend your sunlit time," he said simply. "But I think you may be better off in this place. There is strength in numbers, and--you may have want of that, soon. You gather an unlikely luck to you as moths to a lantern, and your own power is more substantial than any single person I have knowledge of, but that does not justify throwing caution to the wind.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"It is true that he'd never dare set foot in Mayfair Manor as long as there are Mayfairs within. But it's almost as insane to think he'd come into Satis House. I have protections, you see, and he knows of them but he cannot prevent them and if he came within those walls, he'd end up like he was the last time I caught him. An experience he shudders to think of, I'm sure." She laughed her witch's laugh and, stopping to take Vikteren's hand, exited into the back garden.
She had taken a set of keys from the kitchen while she waited for her cousins, just three keys, a small remote control for a car, and a chain attached to a silver pentagram. When she entered the garage on the other side of the yard, it was to a sleek black car that she walked, running her hand along the hood as she passed. "The Gallardo Superleggera. Julien gave it to me for my 18th birthday." She had to grin running her fingers over the smooth, polished surface of the mechanical marvel, and the second she pulled the door open she felt the adrenaline rush. "You can go on your own if you want," she offered offhandedly, fastening her seatbelt and feeling along the thin steering wheel, "Unless you're brave enough to ride with me." Antha had to laugh; she knew when cops were around and who was doing what, so she could do any number of illegal things without hurting anyone or getting caught, a fact she took full advantage of. "So?" With a turn of the key the engine roared into life and Antha sat leaning over her steering wheel, staring out of the open passenger side window at him.

 

[Vikteren]

+Rotting Lunacy+

"It is true that he'd never dare set foot in Mayfair Manor as long as there are Mayfairs within. But it's almost as insane to think he'd come into Satis House. I have protections, you see, and he knows of them but he cannot prevent them and if he came within those walls, he'd end up like he was the last time I caught him. An experience he shudders to think of, I'm sure." She laughed her witch's laugh and, stopping to take Vikteren's hand, exited into the back garden.
She had taken a set of keys from the kitchen while she waited for her cousins, just three keys, a small remote control for a car, and a chain attached to a silver pentagram. When she entered the garage on the other side of the yard, it was to a sleek black car that she walked, running her hand along the hood as she passed. "The Gallardo Superleggera. Julien gave it to me for my 18th birthday." She had to grin running her fingers over the smooth, polished surface of the mechanical marvel, and the second she pulled the door open she felt the adrenaline rush. "You can go on your own if you want," she offered offhandedly, fastening her seatbelt and feeling along the thin steering wheel, "Unless you're brave enough to ride with me." Antha had to laugh; she knew when cops were around and who was doing what, so she could do any number of illegal things without hurting anyone or getting caught, a fact she took full advantage of. "So?" With a turn of the key the engine roared into life and Antha sat leaning over her steering wheel, staring out of the open passenger side window at him.

The vampire looked mistrustfully at the sleek black car, then at Antha. Much as he disliked riding in automobiles--there was some part of him, in the back of his head, that was still inclined to think of them as horseless carriages, and he'd not had good experience with them when they were first invented--he did not wish to be separated from her. He sighed, a human gesture from an inhuman creature.
"I will accompany you."
He crossed to the other side, opened the door and slid in gracefully. "I have a feeling that I am going to regret that decision," he murmured. He purposely did not look over at Antha. Seeing the fragile, doll-like witch behind the wheel of this cat-sleek technological masterpiece would do nothing to settle his frame of mind.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Antha did not laugh, but her eyes gave away her amusement. "Just buckle up and close your eyes," she suggested, her tone whimsical, as she shifted into reverse, the automatic garage door snaking up to the ceiling behind them.
Certainly it would not help Vikteren to know that the car went from 0 to 60 in 3.8 seconds, so she didn't tell him. Instead she merely backed out, threw it into drive, and before a passerby could even see who drove (though the tinted windows prevented that), they were halfway down the street. Antha sat back in her seat, arms entirely outstretched to reach the wheel, legs moving smoothly with every push of the gas pedal, and fingers drumming impatiently against the steering wheel. And meanwhile, Beethoven rose and fell in a rolling rhythm from all sides. Lawrence, gripping the sides of his seat in fear, had always called it ironic.
Perhaps five minutes later, they had crossed the city and she had slowed to a near crawl in an instant to pull onto the dirt road that led into the outskirts of the dark, murky swamp. Satis House lay around the final bend, which she passed in due time, careful not to stray off the path so that the muck on either side would not swallow the car whole. "Not so bad, right?" she asked with a grin when they were safely parked on the small slab of concrete behind Satis House, the car still running but Antha having left it alone in park. Even she knew the answer to her question, having counted the red lights she had nearly missed entirely and the cars she had cut in front of when they were too slow to turn and even the mingled frustrated and terrified thoughts as she had weaved through the mild traffic pushing a hundred miles an hour. "Of course, it's not like you had to ride with me. I imagined you would make your own way here and leave me to my ridiculous sport with innocent people in their slow little cars." She stopped there, arms folded carelessly over her chest as she settled into the back of the seat, watching him from the corners of her eyes.

 

[Goblin In A Suit]

Kain pulled his car up behind the others as they stopped in front of the manor. He turned off his car and stepped out standing next to his car. He pulled his mask tight making sure he could still breath. "This looks like the place." he said to himself thinking of the picture that Antha had put in his head. He was very impressed by its build and the look of it. Very good structure.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Half a minute ticked away on the electronic clock in her dashboard while she sat parked in the driveway while Antha sat motionless, staring at it. She wanted to reach out and look for Vikteren, to assure herself that he was not harmed, but she forced herself merely to sit there, quietly, until she had the will to move, to turn the car off and throw open the door, stepping into the cold night air. "This, Felix, is Mayfair Manor," she told him softly, gazing up at the lavender structure as if she were studying it, "It has been in our family for eight out of our generations, passing from mother to daughter, one Designee of the Legacy to the next. By law, it is mine."
She closed the door with a faint slam as she turned and rounded the car, the click of her pencil heels against the cement a loud echo in the still night air. "I suggest you take close your eyes and take a deep breath. You have only perhaps another thirty seconds before it begins." The warning was because she felt them stirring within the house, glancing out the windows as if they didn't know who would be speeding along the quiet residential street and into their driveway, and because she didn't know who would come running through the lawn to them first. She had reached out to Malakai when they had drawn near to the house, hoping it would be him, but she knew it quite possible that he was still sitting in his room, trying to absorb the image of her night so far that she had given him. After all, between Felix's appearance and Sleet's intrusion, there was a lot for him to think over.

 

[.David Talbot.]

Malakai had been reading when he felt Antha in his mind. He was going to put the book down and close his eyes to listen but it came to him in too much of a rush and he dropped his book to the table by accident.
He had yet another brother and Sleet had tried to kidnap her again. There was some stranger in a mask tagging along and Vikteren was following them in the woods where Sleet was lurking. Nicolae had been with her for a while.
While he collected himself and returned his book to the shelf in the library Julien was watching his 'niece' through the living room window. He didn't know exactly what was going on but something felt very.....wrong.
As he was collecting himself and Malakai was trying to rush downstairs Stefan beat them both to the door. At 76 he was the head of the family and handled his age very well. "Evie my love. What brings you here sober?" He gave her a smile that was sweet and loving and promised that he loved her like his own daughter.
Malakai was the first to show up on the porch behind him. As Nicolae's twin every last feature of their bodies and faces were the same except for the coloring. Malakai's hair was black as black could be with eyes that were far more golden and skin naturally paler. "Good evening," he greeted everyone. The smile he gave them showed not even a slight resemblance to his brother except for his lips. They and they alone were a perfect match.

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Though there was a fleeting moment of disappointment at not first seeing Malakai in the open doorway, Antha's smile was almost instant. With a laugh on her breath, she ran to her uncle and gave him his brief curtsy and kiss on the cheek and then stepped back, her smile fading to a very carefully neutral expression, so that he could see the people behind her in the driveway. "Of all the members of this family, you cannot justly call me an alcoholic, uncle Stefan," she retorted, a trace of that laugh and a smile breaking through her careful face, "But that aside, you may very well ask oncle Julien and, perhaps more importantly, aunt Mary Jane why I am here, and with who."
Her eyes flickered, gazing over her shoulder, and for a brief moment there was a heavy weariness to her expression, as if she were only tired of the secrets and the surprises and the fact that she could not count her illegitimate half-brothers on both hands. But then Malakai showed up and suddenly everything else was very secondary. She was merely clinging to her brother's arm, gazing up with wide eyes that said worlds of things that she dared not say aloud to anyone else, particularly Stefan. Only Malakai---sweet, kind, gentle Malakai---could be trusted with all of her secrets. Only he would neither reveal them to any other soul or use them against her. Only he would never judge her. "Don't be rude, big brother," she scolded him, dragging him by the hand into the front yard, "Come greet Felix and Kain, or else I might be forced to compare your manners to Nicolae's."

 

[Vikteren]

What Antha was able to avoid with her psychic capabilities, the vampire merely coped with through reflexes that very few humans were able to conceive of without first witnessing.
He followed her through the streets after they left the woods, because he would not leave her even amongst the city's thronging crowds. The few who did see him...well, the police force would no doubt put it down to hallucinogenic drugs or inebriation.
A few moments after Antha, Vikteren arrived on the grounds of the Mayfair Manor.
He approached the collective gathering of the Mayfairs without haste; lingering a little at the edge of the yard, keeping space between them. They were kin, and centuries alone had given him a certain measure of respect for those bonds.
Even if Nicolae did not seem to realize this.