Mayfair Manor

[XCandy and LunacyX]

It had been a very long time since Julien had angered Antha quite this much. It had been years, as a matter of fact, since she had been so angry that the chairs, the tables, the books, the panes of glass in the windows of the library and even the hallway trembled and shook with the fine rage that ran through her, spreading to the umbra around her. Even the umbra who gave their loyalty to her cousins first and foremost flocked to her, connecting to her, making a shell around her and lashing out with that rage to make the very boards of the house groan under the pressure.
Finally, after it had built inside her mind, Antha screamed with that rage, lashing out at the bookshelves so that the hundreds and hundreds of books lining the walls were flung down to the floors in a nearly deafening wave that masked the screams the girl gave as she slid to the floor, thrashing around and striking everything she could get her hands on. There was a small part of her---only a wisp in the back of her mind---that remembered who she was and what she was capable of. That small piece of sanity controlled what she did, curving the books and shattering light fixtures around her cousins and Kain, protecting them from herself, and containing the damage in the single room. She even thought to put some of the pressure against the door, keeping anyone else she might harm outside.
It was herself she didn't protect, that she let the glass cut and scrape until fine little lines of trembling blood painted her skin when the room went still and quiet, the door creaking open to let the draft running through the house inside as if it would calm her when she finally sat still, still shaking with the pent up rage that she hadn't been able to contain.
And she knew, in those moments of calm after the storm, where it had all come from. It was because no matter how much she tried to convince herself or anyone else around her that it wasn't true, Julien had power over her. The family as a whole had power over her. It was because Sleet had power over her, and no matter how the depth of her hatred for him grew, she could never kill him, never truly hurt him. It was because those near her were always at risk, whether it be from Sleet's attacks or the rage that consumed her. It was even because she had known her fate since she had been but a small child, and now that the day was almost upon her, she wanted nothing more than to change it but didn't have the power to. That fate would consume her and every Mayfair that still breathed and she couldn't stand it.
Her eyes turned slowly, letting her gaze fall upon Vittorio, who was braced between the bookshelves not a foot from her, and her eyes were wide, blank, as if she were in shock, still trying to figure out what had just taken place. That gaze met his own and he knew in that split second that it was safe again. It sent him to her, scooping her delicately up in his arms and letting her rest against his chest like a child that had thoroughly exhausted herself and couldn't find the strength to move.
Eleanor had curled up in her chair, her arms over her head, but now she dared to peak out from the curtain of her hair and watch Antha with a strange relief. Dolly Jean had darted under a table nearby, holding tightly to it so that it wouldn't fall over and leave her unprotected, but she eased out again now, looking at the library door cautiously. When she was certain it was over, she merely sighed, leaning against the wall, and closed her eyes. "I've been dreading this for months," she said softly, "It was not as bad as I expected."

 

[Azure Halfbreed]

Felix looked around at everything that happened around him. The complete chaos that was happening in this library. He looked around a tthe cousin that were hiding. Felix knew it was Antha's rage that was causing this. He found it surprising that she had this much power to dispense.

His gaze was wandering around the room the whole time as he calmly stood where he was. Everybody that he noticed seem scared besides Antha and him. He couldn't help but wonder why. Finally once all the chaos slowed and ceased, he looked around at the mess she created. He really didn't know how powerful Antha could be. He could feel she was strong, but that demonstration was more than he thought.

Bending over Felix picked up a few books and walked over to an empty book shelf. He had the four books stacked in one arm as he started to give a few pages of the top book a glance, trying to see if there was anything that would catch his eye. And once he was done with that he placed it upon the book shelf and went to the next.  

[.David Talbot.]

Before the worst of it had even started Cyrus and Armand had run to the desk and taken cover.
Jack took a pillow from the back of the couch and held it over his balled up form.
Courtland stayed still in his chair. Only his hands gripping the armrests showed how frightened he was.
They all emerged slowly after they were sure it was over. Armand and Cyrus peered over the desk at her. Jack clutched the pillow to his chest and stared at nothing. Courtland went to stand beside her.
"She could have killed us," Cyrus said to Felix. "We're scared because this is nothing. She could have brought the whole house down around us."
"She had to control herself a lot to keep us safe," Jack chipped in.
"Or even just to not destroy the house," Cyrus continued.
Courtland looked at them over his shoulder. The look told them to shut up. "When too much rage builds inside Antha then bad things happen. We expected the worst after all that's happened recently. This......this is nothing." He looked at Vittorio. "Carry her to Malakai's room. She needs to rest now." He started to walk out the door but stopped and looked at Felix. "Leave the books alone. It's a nice gesture but Antha will want to organize them herself." He left then and went to turn down the sheets on Malakai's bed.

 

[Azure Halfbreed]

"You all misunderstand me." Felix didn't know who he was talking to. Probably anyone who cared to listen. Felix put the last of the bood he held away and pick up a few more and started to go through them again. "I don't care how much power she has. She could have brought this place down around us. She could have opened a hole in the earth and sent us to a fiery death. What ever she choose to do or how to do it. matters not to me. I would have reacted the same as I did now."  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Antha bothered to turn her head and look at Courtland, and there was something in her eyes, her expression, that was not normal. However, it lasted only for a moment before she looked back to Vittorio and said, in the softest of voices, "Oui...sommeil. Je veux dormir." I want to sleep.
Vittorio nodded, just a faint tilt of his head, and gathered Antha a little more securely in his arms before he followed Courtland down to hall to Malakai's room. Dolly Jean pranced after him, watching Antha's face as she laid her head against Vittorio's shoulder as if settling in to sleep. Her eyes opened only once as they passed through the hallway and that was to glance dazedly at Vikteren and, even only semiconscious, that momentary glance said worlds of things that could not be put into words. Dolly Jean caught this, and so she stopped to make a gesture at Vikteren, asking him to follow them. "Antha will sleep easier if you're there," she said, her words so quiet that only the vampire himself could have heard her, before she dashed through the door after them.
There was a bay window behind the bed that stretched from ceiling to floor and it lit the room well enough with the soft glow of moonlight on snow that Vittorio didn't need to have a light turned on. He merely crossed the room and laid Antha oh-so-gently down in the middle of the bed and pulled the sheets up to her shoulders. Dolly Jean had a moment of concentrating, trying to direct her thoughts to Vikteren, before she was able to speak to him. We've always slept together, ever since we were little kids. It's comforting, like puppies piled up together. As if on cue, Vittorio stripped off his shoes and his jacket and crawled into the bed, laying down at her back. Her let one hand rest on her arm, that one comforting little touch that made all the difference, before the shock and fear began to die down, leaving him exhausted, and the umbra tied to him that had joined in Antha's rage took the last of his energy, leaving him asleep beside his cousin.
Dolly Jean, who had little reason to be tired, just curled up at the foot of the bed and rested her eyes, letting a small, contented sigh escape her lips.

 

[.David Talbot.]

Courtland stroked her hair and laid a little kiss on her cheek but he didn't join them. He stood and waited to see if Vikteren would join them. "I know it seems strange to outsiders but being close makes us calm. It might help Evie if you were there with her."
His voice didn't hint at any anger or jealousy because there was none. He wasn't like his cousin Nicolae. He didn't know if he truly loved Antha or not but he just plain wasn't the jealous type. She loved Vikteren and he was fine with that. She preffered the vampire over him and he didn't mind.
Armand appeared in the room while Courtland was talking. He stripped off his shirt before he laid down beside Dolly Jean and rested his head on Antha's legs and fell asleep.
Jack and Cyrus weren't as tired as hungry so they didn't follow. "Come on Felix," Cyrus sighed. He laid a careful hand on his cousin's shoulder and steered him into the hall. "It's snack time."
"Hell yeah," Jack agreed. He sped past them down the stairs and into the kitchen. When Cyrus came in he had already covered the counter in food. "How old is this pasta?" he asked holding up a clear container.
"You're the one who lives here. Take a guess." Jack shrugged his shoulders and put it with the rest of the food he planned on inhaling.

 

[Goblin In A Suit]

Kain was stunned by the power. His instints told him not to move or to help Antha just yet. Insted after she left the room he began picking up books just like Felix. "Don't worry Felix. I get whats up. Too much training. Starts to get to you." he said in a tone just as if he knew too much about it. "At lest you kind of belong here. Among Vampires and more of your kind. No offence of couse." he added quickly, he wasn't trying to be rude just couldn't think of a way to word it differently.  

[Azure Halfbreed]

Felix placed the remaining books in his arms on the shelf as Cyrus lead him out of the library. He had to stop for a moment and respond to Kain. With Kain there was no need to respond to him. Felix could have just ignored him. But then again, there was no reason to do that.

"You're wrong on that Kain. It's not training. It's teaching and a life style. It's how I was raised. I could explain, but there's no real point when probably any one here won't fully understand. You might as well come along with us. Courtland said Antha would want to personally do this."

And with that Felix followed his cousins down stairs to the kitchen. Felix really didn't know if he was hungry or not. And with that thought in mind he walked over to a window and peered outside. Looking at the winter's night.  

[Goblin In A Suit]

Kain placed another book on the shelf then grabed one that caught his intrest. It was a Romance novel placed in the future. He followed after Felix. "Well then I'm not too far off. What I can remember of the war was similar to that. A teaching isn't to much unlike training and a life style...well we were taught to kill and not worry about it." he said standing next to him. "Don't worry about it though. You'll figure it out. Thats the easy part for most. But you and I...were not like most are we Felix?"  

[Azure Halfbreed]

"Once again, you got me wrong. I'm not worried about anything. I usually never am. But training and teachings are completly different. With training, you're trying to strengthen something. But with a teaching, It's something that stays with you, even if you want to forget it."

Felix turned around and looked back at his cousins hovering around the food. "But no, we aren't like most. But then again, no two people are the same. Everyone excels in one way that another can not. You for instances, know how to handle a gun. That was something I can't do very well. But I excel in stealth and silent kills. But if you were comparing us you this family..." Felix said nodding to the two cousins in the kitchen. "We don't fit in."  

[Goblin In A Suit]

Kain nodded in thought. "You have a point there." he said consdering what he said. "Makes sence." He looked at him with a small joking look in his eyes. "But do you have to be so damn clever about every thing?" he said with a small laugh followed by a few coughs then he tighted his mask. "And I don't just mean the family. Hell your probley more used to this than I am. Always liked the vampires from books...never thought I'd meet one." He said almost in wonder. "If you'd like I could show you a thing or two on how to use a gun later." He then said patting the Desert Eagle on his hip. "Its not too hard you know."  

[Azure Halfbreed]

"I'm not anymore used to this than you are. I just don't let it be shown. Before I found Antha, Everyone I knew was just like me. Mostly silent, obident, and trained in their own aspect. This is the first time I'm actually in the presence of people such as this and not on a mission for an assassination."

Felix was reminded about the weapons he carries on him when Kain offered to teach him a few thing about a gun. Felix shook his head. "That's not nessicary. My hands know how to handle and use a blade. And they have yet to fail me. Thanks for the offer though."  

[Goblin In A Suit]

Kain nodded at the friendly decline. "Good to know that at least." He looked out the window to his car. "If we are going to be staying here for a while I guess I should get my stuff out of my car." he said almost to himself then coughed a little again. "Be back." he said then left the room and went outside to his car. He opened the trunk and pulled out his small suitcase. He started back into the house with it at his side.  

[Vikteren]

He stepped through the threshold, following Courtland's steps. But past that, he went immediately to Antha, disregarding courtesy and etiquette, every ingrained rule that he had been taught to respect while upon another clan's territory. Normally there were procedures to invoke, formal declarations and oaths of protection to be made before even a vampire with no declared loyalties could rest upon the land of another. And that is what he thought of the Mayfair family as-- a clan.
He did not lie fully upon the bed, but knelt beside it, leaning his head on one folded arm, and stretching the other out to Antha's sleeping form.

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

In the few moments of sleep she had, Antha got only chaotic, fragmented pieces of dreams. She knew some of them to be premonitions, but she couldn't have picked them from the dreams and memories in her head to save her life. But amid that complete disorder, something told her to wake up. She fought against it, trying to drown herself in sleep, but it persisted, promising without words that it would only be a moment, that it was important. That was how she opened her eyes to Vikteren, reaching thoughtlessly out to touch his hand as she fought against herself and Vittorio to move closer, if only by a few inches. As soon as she could feel his presence---his aura, as it was called---around her, her mind fell back into that deep sleep that only she herself could disturb. The dreams were quieter this time, slower, calmer. She knew what she saw, the memories and the things that were fashioned entirely from her own imagination. She could even clearly make out that same old prophecy, the same vampire without a face, her own death, and the name she couldn't attach to anything but that shadow.
Eleanor followed and bothered to watch them for a moment or two, her eyes on Vittorio as he followed Antha's warmth in his sleep, holding a little tighter to her to keep her from putting any more distance between them. She even considered joining them, but even asleep, Antha inspired in her that special brand of fear that promised pain and she went running down the stairs and into the kitchen to join her cousins and their guests.
As before, she found herself staring at Felix as if he were something terribly fascinating, her eyes wide and curious. "If you're part of the family," she asked in that cold, calculating voice, "Then why haven't you ever been with the family?"