Mayfair Manor

[ninja of Persia]

Sabata silently noted the arrival of another, but his mind was focused on something else: Kaze. "I see... very well." You wouldn't happen to where I can find HIM would you? He gazed at Antha for a moment before speaking up. "A question for me you said? What is it?" He spoke in a light tone of voice, as if he hadn't just heard about Ren's death. He'd disliked Ren, but he wasn't sure if he deserved to die. What am I saying... of course he did!! He gave himself a mental slap on both cheeks before turning his attention to Antha's question.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

A sly smile came to her lips. Not at all. He left my house as rudely as he came. "Would you happen to know what it is Ren and Kaze are after? I must imagine you have some idea by now, no matter how vague, and I need something to at least point me in the correct direction." She regarded Lawrence silently, her eyes flashing to him for several moments to let him know she was acknowledging him. He's not dead yet, though he will be shortly. But what makes him so worthy of death? Help me here, Sabata. I know nothing of him.

 

[ninja of Persia]

A few minutes passed before Sabata finally spoke, his words carefully chosen. "I have no idea what it is they are after, from what I've seen it is nothing more than a feud between the two of them." He paused for a moment before continuing, "the only goal either has expressed is the destruction of Osiris City. I do not know how, or when, but they intend to eliminate the city, that is all I know." He replied to Antha's mental inquiries in kind, Why are you keeping him alive? What purpose is there in that? He has attacked both me and my friends Sophie and Skyla, he tried to keep his thoughts ordered, but he felt his mind linger on thoughts of Skyla before moving on, I know little of him myself, there have been stories of a merciless vampire who has been traveling the world for a while now. I'm certain it's him. Beyond that, my knowledge is lacking.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"Hmm..." Antha was quiet, her eyes sliding out of focus as she pressed her fingers together in a steeple below her chin. It sounds as if they both have it out for the city. Without a word she rose and went to the stairs, pushing Lawrence politely out of her way, and went up to the attic. It was a clutter of boxes and trunks and books, but Antha knew the mess well and it took her no time at all to take from it a small music box with the name 'Mayfair' carved into the lid. From this she drew out one of several small, withered little dolls made from some frightening substance that would be hard to identify if one did not know the demented nature of the family. On her way back down, she pulled a little black ribbon from her own mass of curls and tied it around the neck of the doll. "Do me a favor," she said softly to Sabata when she came to his side, dangling the doll before him, "Take this. If you happen to see either Kaze or Ren again, touch a bit of blood to the doll. Understand?"

 

[ninja of Persia]

Sabata stared st the doll. His enhanced vision told him this wasn't made of anything normal. He decided to continue that train of thought, knowing the Mayfair family it was probably better not to know. He slowly reached out and grasped the doll. He briefly wondered if the doll had other powers besides calling Antha... perhaps it would allow her to spy on him... But why would she want to do that, I'm overreacting again... He looked up at Antha. "I understand." He rose, then looked at Antha again. "Is there anything else Miss Mayfair?"  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"Nothing at all," she replied, her voice colored by an unusual airiness. Smiling faintly, she stepped closer and kissed his cheek as was custom with Mayfairs, they being a French bred family. But she lingered there, beginning a whisper so low only his ears could pick it up. "If I honestly wanted to spy on you, I would. Your mind couldn't keep me out if your life depended on it, mon cher." That said, she stepped back again, the smile on her face made wicked and her eyes glittering with a vivid insanity. "Jusqu'à ce que nous réunissions encore. Au revoir!" If nothing, she assumed he would understand the last two words.

 

[ninja of Persia]

Sabata smiled. Antha's comments about his mind immedietly replaced with a playfulness he hadn't felt in over a century. He smiled at Antha as he pocketed the doll. "I look forward to it Antha." Nodding to the others he left the mansion. Outside his body dissolved into mist and vanished into the night.  

[.David Talbot.]

"Après, Antha," Julien corrected her, "Après." It worried Julien that she had gone to the attic and he had a sinking suspicion of what the doll was but he didn't say a word. Instead he fixed his eyes steadily on Vikteren and simply watched him. Someone might get the idea that Julien was either analyzing him or was so angered by him that he refused to quit watching him. By default he hated Antha's companions. This one he liked less and less by his continued silence and his cold manner.
"Oncle Julien!" Malakai muttered finally to draw his attention, giving him a warning glare before he looked back to the floor. He himself wouldn't look at Vikteren. It wasn't that he was afraid, even if it might appear so the way he fidgeted, but that he was worried for his little sister. Antha was the most precious thing int he whole world to Malakai and every time she either threw away or scared off one of her companions she lost a little more sanity. That was why he distanced himself from them all.

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Antha merely returned to her seat, quiet as she reached out to tangle her fingers in Malakai's hair. "It was fine, Oncle Julien," she stated sourly, sighing with frustration. "But whatever, get on with it. What kind of trouble do you believe I'm in? What punishment will you try to enforce, hmm?" She kept her attention off of Vikteren, thereby keeping Julien's attention off of him as well. It was in everyone's best interest to get this out of the way first.

 

[.David Talbot.]

Malakai cringed when the subject came up. He tried to rest his back against the arm of her chair and just focus on her scent and the feel of her long fingers in his hair and just tune the fight out.
Julien watched her, trying not to get angry. "Antha Evelyn Mayfair, you have no sense of self preservation do you? And no consideration for the people who care about you. Think about me and Michael and Stefan! Think about Lawrence and Pierce and Dolly Jean and Thorne and Vittorio and Cyrus adn Dorian and all of your other cousins who think the heavens revolve around you! And what of your brothers? Think of Malakai and Nicolae, God rest his soul! And do you know how high the suicide rate among the young men in this city would go if you died? And just think of the family! Without a Designee to the Legacy we would face ruin! Are you so eager to watch everything and everyone fall apart?"

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"You underestimate me!" she hissed suddenly, rising mechanically to her feet to glare down at him. "Just look at you," she sneered, stalking towards him, "Always high and mighty, Julien. La crème de la famille." Her hands fisted tightly down at her sides, her eyes flashing dangerously and the air moving subtly about her, rustling her hair and skirt. "I won't take this from you! Let uncle Stefan scold me, or saintly uncle Michael. But I will not take this from you, Julien! I will not stand for it! It was you, thoughtless man, who was so careless as to give me to my mother and it was you who gave me to this life but by God Julien, it is is my cross to bear and I will carry it as I see fit! I will hear no more lectures from you." It was often that they fought like this and often that Antha lost her temper and came near to losing all control. The latter was not true of this occasion---not exactly. After all, were Antha not able to express to Julien her contempt for him she felt she might be ripped to shreds by it.
Silently, letting her fingers go slack and her slight frame untense, Antha cast a look to Vikteren and Malakai in one sweeping glance, calming Malakai and beckoning desperately to Vikteren, and went again to the stairs and again up to the attic. The trunk she went before was the oldest by far, expressive of the French culture that had produced it, and when she dropped carelessly to her knees on the floor, her skirt a dark circle brushing the old wooden planks under her, and lifted the heavy lid, a faint shower of dust slid away. While she sat, staring listlessly into its depths and wondering if Vikteren would come yet again, she pulled out her cigarettes and wasted no time in lighting one.

 

[Vikteren]

+Rotting Lunacy+

"You underestimate me!" she hissed suddenly, rising mechanically to her feet to glare down at him. "Just look at you," she sneered, stalking towards him, "Always high and mighty, Julien. La crème de la famille." Her hands fisted tightly down at her sides, her eyes flashing dangerously and the air moving subtly about her, rustling her hair and skirt. "I won't take this from you! Let uncle Stefan scold me, or saintly uncle Michael. But I will not take this from you, Julien! I will not stand for it! It was you, thoughtless man, who was so careless as to give me to my mother and it was you who gave me to this life but by God Julien, it is is my cross to bear and I will carry it as I see fit! I will hear no more lectures from you." It was often that they fought like this and often that Antha lost her temper and came near to losing all control. The latter was not true of this occasion---not exactly. After all, were Antha not able to express to Julien her contempt for him she felt she might be ripped to shreds by it.
Silently, letting her fingers go slack and her slight frame untense, Antha cast a look to Vikteren and Malakai in one sweeping glance, calming Malakai and beckoning desperately to Vikteren, and went again to the stairs and again up to the attic. The trunk she went before was the oldest by far, expressive of the French culture that had produced it, and when she dropped carelessly to her knees on the floor, her skirt a dark circle brushing the old wooden planks under her, and lifted the heavy lid, a faint shower of dust slid away. While she sat, staring listlessly into its depths and wondering if Vikteren would come yet again, she pulled out her cigarettes and wasted no time in lighting one.

A slim white hand took the cigarette from her hand gently. He leaned over her, deliberately silent. This close to him, the scent of the blood in her veins was striking, her pulse like a drumbeat in his ears beneath the swell and ebb of power that sheltered her. "You're not immortal yet, Antha."  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Antha didn't even try to take it back from him. Rather, she replaced it with another. "Tell me, what good is my life if I can't do with it what I want?" She took a long drag, her eyes seeming hollow as she cast her steady gaze into the depths of the trunk. Quietly, her sight never flickering away, she reached up and took a very gentle hold on his wrist, tugging at his sleeve to will him down on the floor beside her. The spirits came forth to exact her wishes, but she kept them away. It was a divine sort of calm that came over Antha in moments like this, directly after the storm, when her thoughts were so hazy and frantic that she cast them away for the time being and her usual sense of insanity and wickedness was drawn into some dark place in the back of her mind.

 

[Vikteren]

+Rotting Lunacy+

Antha didn't even try to take it back from him. Rather, she replaced it with another. "Tell me, what good is my life if I can't do with it what I want?" She took a long drag, her eyes seeming hollow as she cast her steady gaze into the depths of the trunk. Quietly, her sight never flickering away, she reached up and took a very gentle hold on his wrist, tugging at his sleeve to will him down on the floor beside her. The spirits came forth to exact her wishes, but she kept them away. It was a divine sort of calm that came over Antha in moments like this, directly after the storm, when her thoughts were so hazy and frantic that she cast them away for the time being and her usual sense of insanity and wickedness was drawn into some dark place in the back of her mind.

Vikteren settled beside her without qualm. His fingers closed around the cigarette he had taken from her, smoke seeping through his fingers, and opened again to an empty palm. “I’m certain that it has some value, Antha. You won’t always be under your family’s jurisdiction, after all…” He frowned slightly as she lit another cigarette and put it to her lips. “But if it is so very wearisome to you, might I at least suggest alternative methods of killing yourself? I’ve heard that lung cancer is rather unpleasant.” As if to counteract the simmering thread of madness that ran through the passages of her mind, his voice had changed. It was almost possible to forget that it was a vampire--predator, parasite, threat--that spoke now.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

"Vikteren," she breathed softly, turning her eyes on him and smiling slightly, reassuringly, "Of all things, I won't let this kill me. Can't you trust that I know what I'm doing?" When she turned back to the trunk, her cigarette rested on a small glass dish nearby, already populated with a handful of ashes and other burned papery remains that might suggest Antha sat here often.
She pressed her hands into the dark depths as if she expected something to bite her yet didn't care. She didn't rush, she didn't feel around in the darkness, and she was always quite careful until a few moments later she drew out a doll, barely the size of her hand, made of something thin and hard, yellowed almost to brown, complete with a small mass of black hair attached to the very top.