Not Until We Are Lost

The island ended for Piotr with a shock. One that he woke up from in a cold sweat. The feeling of being not in control of himself was almost physically painful. He found himself checking his various parts to make sure that they were still there. It took Piotr a moment to get his bearings, to realize that he wasn't in an island setting at all anymore. There were things around him that were his. The bed wasn't, the dresser wasn't, but his guns were on top of that dresser, his shoes were laying by a chair.

As calmly as he could, he got out of the bed and had a look around. There was something like relief when he found his suitcases in a closet, and nothing else was missing.

He had a shower and dressed in one of his suits. It felt very good to be wearing his own clothes. The finely tailored items he'd picked out himself, paid for himself, and fit him better in both style and comfort than the jeans and shirt of the island had. Though, those clothes were there too, somehow. Piotr distinctly remembered not wearing them.

The hallway outside of his room was circular, and there were doors along the wall all the way around. He saw one that did not fit with the others. Approaching it, it opened, and he discovered an elevator. There were only two buttons, and Piotr poked them both. The top one did not light, which meant that was the floor he was on. The doors closed and took him to his new destination.

It was like a common room, Malden had had one. He saw several different areas, but the one that really caught his eye had food. There was a window, and an alien standing on the other side of it. Piotr couldn't even bring himself to care about that alien, or any of the others that were milling about. All he wanted was food. Real food. Not foraged food, not the pitiful bread, cheese, and soup he'd been barely able to afford. He wanted something that used to moo, and he wanted it almost still mooing. He wanted a giant chocolate shake, and fries. Greasy, delicious fried potato fries.

The alien was more than happy to get these things for him, asking Piotr if he'd prefer steak or a hamburger. Piotr said yes, and when his plate came, he had both. He also ordered a large Coke to go with all of it, and took his tray to one of the tables to sit at. When he was done eating, then he'd consider the alien he'd spoken to, and the fact that he wasn't seeing any of the other people from the group, just a lot of aliens.

When he was finished.

Jobs weren't exactly abundant in this time for women. Jack had found something that she seemed to enjoy. Kai didn't really get the appeal, but there were stories that Jack laughed at, and though Kai was a little suspicious, she trusted Jack. She trusted her friend and mentor to not do something that she didn't want to be doing, and to be honest about what was going on.

Kai had found a job teaching little girls ballet. It was something she could do, and a thing that she loved. She felt really lucky. It also gave her access to a dance studio. She was able to fill empty time with the empty space and the freedom to just dance, to move to the music in her head.

There was a lot of empty space.

Since being here on this world, Kai had encountered nothing that triggered the voice in her head telling her to kill. To throw herself in the path of danger to save the innocent. Nothing out in the general public, anyway. There were those with the group that she felt the need to end, but she was conflicted about that. They were monsters, that much she knew. But did monsters who were with them, who could be on their side, warrant death? All Kai knew was that there weren't nightly hunts. There wasn't a compass to guide her to move at all times. There was no confusion in her head. No being at odds with herself and the new purpose she'd found herself filled with.

It was like her life was hers again. As if she'd been granted a wish that she'd never voiced. She knew, intellectually, that it couldn't be seen as all bad. She'd met Jack, after all. And Eleni, and Max. Nothing there was bad at all.

But the freedom.

The YWCA wasn't a bad place to stay, either. She hadn't really known what to think of it when it had been found, she hadn't known, for one, that there was a women's version, she'd thought it was all one place. And she'd thought that place was really a refuge for the poor and homeless. But here, in this time, it was different. It was cozy-ish and clean. That was important. And safe. That was also important.

Riding high off of a night filled with teaching and an evening alone in the studio moving to sounds that wouldn't be invented for another fifty years at least, Kai left the building and started toward the place she'd come to think of as home. She wanted to get back to Jack, tell her about the day she'd had. Discuss what they might have for dinner - late dinner - ask about how the job was going. Maybe curl up and listen to the radio putting out tunes of this era. This was what she was looking forward to.

She was stopped, however. Not by anything she could see, but by the voice. The urging of it. It struck her so hard and so suddenly, a fullness where there had been only silence for so long, that she gasped and dropped her dance bag onto the sidewalk, clutching her stomach in shock, eyes moving through the shadows around her, looking, seeking. What was it? What was it? Where was it?

The last memory Rayne of Kenyon possessed was talking softly with the strange and canny human called Eva. Now, as if waking from a long sleep, the chatelaine found herself seated on a one-piece bench with a table before her, hands neatly folded in her lap, ankles crossed. Her clothing was quite strange -- a knee-length black dress that followed the lines of her form, a belt that seemed more decorative than functional, and stone jewelry that carried the sense of blood. None of what she wore was hers.

Alarm, it would seem, was destined to be her closest companion.

The strangest part of this place was the monochromatic scheme of -- everything, of everyone. It was beautiful, but dim -- like too little starlight on a very deep night. Even the jewelry on her wrist and hand, that she would have imagined as garnet or ruby, instead carried a rich shade of gray. Rayne lifted one long-fingered hand, extended her fingers -- and a passing human woman slapped a bit of lacquered, folded paper into her curved palm. Instinctively, Rayne caught it and gave the young woman an inquisitive glance. In response, the woman only said, "The waffles are good."

Waffles. "Indeed," Rayne responded, looking at the writing on the folded paper. What were waffles? And what was this sheet? It seemed to be some sort of menu, crudely produced -- and stained. Rayne delicately set it on the polished wooden table.

Around her, the same sort of scene was playing out at other tables. From her vantage point, she recognized no one, but her observations - quick as they were - told her she was not quite as alone in this bizarre tableau as she felt.

The books Piotr gave her had helped. She'd read throughout the night, studiously. The more she learned, the more convinced she became that this world - this Earth - was nothing like her Caeleste. There was mention of other worlds far from Earth, but it seemed that little detail was available past that. No mention was made of different planes of existence, so Rayne kept that thought to herself. It was possible that these Earthlings didn't know about different planes of existence. It was possible, in fact, that Earth couldn't even access them.

There seemed to be very little magic involved in anything here. Instead, the people of Earth relied on science, the understanding of how the pieces of their their world worked. It was, perhaps, a little like alchemy. But their religions didn't have gods who were active, or gods that could be called on for magic. It was very strange.

Blood magic, she discovered, worked as well on Earth as it had in Caeleste. There was that.

After answering a good amount of questions from the warrior who'd brought her here, Rayne left the inn where Piotr had arranged their stay. It was night in Electric City, but the lights were bright. She stepped out onto the street, took her bearings, then began walking east. It was best, she thought, to get accustomed to the city that purportedly had the answers she was seeking.

The plane landed in Electric City a good deal earlier than it was supposed to.

Piotr had met Rayne again at the pub where they'd first encountered one another. He had spent the day teaching his classes and arranging for an immediate emergency leave of absence from the school. He had packed his things and locked his door. His new room in the faculty dorms was much like his old one. Very secure. Reinforced. Paranoid. He had not bothered to transfer the safety measures from one to the other, just outfitted the new one. Some kid was living in his old dorm room and had no idea the truths behind the walls, the strength of the door. It gave Piotr a bit of a kick to think about.

When Piotr had packed, he had put it all in two cases. A bigger one that would be checked, and a smaller one that would go with him. Both bags had weapons inside. The bag that he would carry on had a false bottom with safety measures which blocked the packed guns from xray. As far as the machines were concerned, all that was in there was a change of clothes, his toiletries, a few books, and a sketch pad. Inside of the secret compartment, Piotr had stored a pair of automatic pistols with extra clips and silencers, a trio of incendiary devices, and a couple of blades of varying sorts. All safely nestled in foam to keep them from moving around.

The bigger bag held more clothing, and more weapons. Again a secret compartment. Again with foam. But a much larger assortment.

The books had been for Rayne. Information about the world, the universe, America and one about Russia. He wanted her to know what she was getting into. The one about America talked about the culture there. The way that people were. He didn't want her to be surprised by the way that people would talk or the clothing that she would see. The cars, the lights, the grandiose amount of food that would come on places she ordered, even if she had no plans to eat anything.

Piotr had arranged for their seats to be at the very front of the nose in first class. Nobody in front of them could open a window and expose Rayne to the sun. He still didn't know if she couldn't deal with the sun at all, or if it just weakened her. But he wasn't going to risk anything. There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask her, really. He had decided to save them all until they were safely at their destination. Piotr got the feeling that Rayne didn't want to talk about what she was in any place where she might be overheard. He would respect that and keep all queries to himself until they were safely within the suite of rooms he had arranged to be waiting for them.

The plane had made too good of time, however, and they got to Electric City while the sun was still up. Piotr sheepishly explained to the flight attendant that his companion had taken sleeping medication because she was not a very good flyer. He was asked if he needed help, and he declined it. He said that he merely needed to wait until the other passengers were off the plane so that he wouldn't jostle her or accidentally run into anybody else. They happily allowed for this.

Piotr strode through the airport with Rayne bundled in his arms, pressed against his chest. They had given him a thin blanket to cover her with, so she would not be gawked at nor bothered by the light. He was glad of this, since he didn't know if the sun coming through the windows of the throughway would bother her. His carry-on was also easily carried. Adding anything more, however, would be a bit awkward. For this reason, Piotr hired the services of a Skycap, and instructed the man to retrieve the bigger bag and find a cab.

While standing in the shadows with Rayne, watching for his bag so he could point it out, Piotr retrieved one of the guns from the false bottom in his carry-on. He tucked it neatly at the small of his back. He did all of this without putting the vampire down. She was his charge. In need of his protection. He would not let her down.

Almost as soon as the luggage carousel began to function, the Skycap had his bag on the cart and they were out of the airport entirely. Piotr tipped the man a large amount, but not so big that he would be remembered for long.

They were in Electric City. Hopefully the answers would be found soon.

The vampire woke, not in her windowless bedchamber deep in the center of Castle Kenyon -- but in a field. The stars that she had known for centuries were gone; and that was the second thing she noticed. Rayne Kenyon was alone; and that was the third thing -- not a heartbeat for miles.

She stood from the ground. In the distance, she caught the faint lights of the city. And that was the fourth thing. It took very little time to arrive on the outskirts. But this was no city she'd ever seen before. What sort of wizardry was this?

It was a hard thing for her to blend in, wearing the clothing she did. Immediately, she saw the difference between what the citizens here wore and what her royal house was expected to wear. She kept her mother's emerald ring and the jewelry of state (which she concealed), but the rest was exchanged for a pilfered dress of soft cotton and some strange sandals. So garbed, she slipped into the street and walked, learning as she went.