Under a blood red sky

Rhubarb. Where the fuck was he supposed to find fresh rhubarb and ginger at this time of year? Granted he had his suspicions as to why Justine was sending him on the wild goose chase of the year on this particular day but he didn't really have anything else to do. That meant getting in his glorious gas hog of a vehicle (and hoping today didn't actually involve running things over with it) and heading for larger stores to get what Justine wanted.

It took him until about five at night and several texts about was she SURE that was what she needed to get home.

It wasn't like Justine cooked after all so this had to be a diversionary tactic.

Even before someone had decided to interfere in the dreams his dream had been more of a familiar nightmare.

Which meant when he was thrown out of the dream he was leaping out of bed and away from the dreams like they were real. Somehow he didn't step on anything or crash into to the open closet door but he did end up with his back against a wall ready to take on whatever was coming.

Saerian sat in Jack's apartment, eyes shut, hands moving as though he were directing an orchestra. He was dressed in a nice three-piece suit, once Jack's favorite. His shoes were immaculately shined, his eyes shone in the dark.

A cigarette dangled between his lips, and while he paced, Saerian used his mind to find the people of York that were sleeping. At this hour, it was really most of them. It was shortly before dawn, a time when vampires were settling down to sleep and humans would still be asleep at least another hour.

He could do a lot of damage in that hour. And he intended to.

The holiday season was tough on Molly. She at least remembers more of it than she had last year, but she wishes she didn't. Her head hurt and she was hungry. She was getting more of herself back which meant she couldn't ignore these things anymore. She wasn't ready to go back to the apartment yet, and she had cash (which she dearly hoped she hadn't stolen while wandering around) so she decided to head towards the diner that had the gravy fries she liked so much.

She still wasn't aware enough to be concerned with her appearance. Her clothes needed washed as badly or worse than she did, and her hair was beginning to matte in strands again. Her paranoia was lowered however, but she still picked up on a certain specific presence when she came into the diner.

Her head snapped up and her eyes widened as they locked directly onto Thomas. Her heart beat quickened and she felt something she hadn't in a very long time. "...oh shit!" She swallowed against a throat gone dry frozen in place.

While she and Thomas were scheming Christmas presents for Harry, Justine hadn't forgotten about Anita and the potential that was there. She reminded Thomas that she was going to invite Anita to come visit them and he wouldn't be able to go grave robbing tonight. Covered in corpse dirt was such a turn off.

The house was tastefully decorated for the holiday with the obligatory amount of mistletoe artfully spread throughout the house. Justine arranged for a spread of nibbles, candies and cookies of all kinds, and h'orderves to be delivered from one caterer. The festive beverages came from yet another. All of it was delivered and set out at Justine's direction. The next hour or more was spent on preparing her appearance and timed to finish perfectly.

She came down the grand staircase in the curve hugging deep burgandy velvet gown with the slit up the side that ended somewhere near her waist. Her heels, lipstick and nails matched the dress while her stark white hair was pinned up with strands falling over one shoulder. She wanted this to be perfect for her and Thomas which translated to looking her best and most appealing.

One hand on the banister she smiled for Thomas as her heels clicked on the marble floor of the foyer. "Everything is ready."

Thomas had come home the filthiest Justine had ever seen him, and smelling slightly unpleasant at that! As if that were surprising enough, he had brought home a "treat", pushed the dazed woman towards her with the instructions to have fun then give her cab fare after. Justine had gaped slightly before shrugging to herself then took the girl by the hand to one of the many rooms in the house. She could tell she wouldn't get anything out of Thomas until she did what he told her to, but he was obviously very smug about something.

Some time later the woman had been put into a taxi, the driver paid then Justine went in search of Thomas. When she found him she stepped up behind him and brushed the backs of her bare fingers across his cheek before pressing a kiss there. Such moments where she could touch him without fear of hurting him were to be treasured. She made the best of them every chance she got.

Against her better judgment, Murphy was waiting in the graveyard after dark with a shovel. She had her badge ready, in case anyone happened by and questioned what they were doing. Of course, that would only buy them some time since she didn't have permission to be out here. And when it was all over with, she would have the badge taken away and most likely be facing jail time.

But hey, it wouldn't be the first time she'd ignored the rules in the interests of solving a case and keeping more people from getting hurt.

Didn't mean that she ever got used to it, or that the part of her that was pure second generation cop ever stopped cringing at the blatant disregard for the laws that she'd sworn to preserve.

All the same, people were dying and she couldn't let that continue.

So she started to dig while she waited on Thomas. Hey, she never had been the type to hang around and wait for the boys to do all the heavy lifting.

Harry still keyed his wards the same way he did in Chicago. That meant that the small charm he'd given Thomas to come and go would still work for him. Which was a good thing. Thomas had seen what happened to people that didn't have the charm and it wasn't a pretty sight. And unfortunately it wasn't like you could tell your wards to discourage every White Council vampire except one.

Even though Harry had said to come over and Thomas had told him they needed to talk about Murphy, Thomas still delayed a little while. It might look on the surface like a petty payback twitch for not being told Harry was alive for as long as he had but it wasn't. Thomas was overjoyed his brother was alive. But at the same time it was hard for him. It was hard to explain even to himself but there it was.

He did finally kiss Justine goodbye...her fingers through a glove since they hadn't found regular assistance for their needs...and climb in his Hummer to drive to Harry's. He left his white monstrosity parked nearby then used his charm to pass up the wards and knock on the door.( Read more... )

Murphy was working on a hell of a migraine. She had taken some excedrin, not that she thought that would help. Still, she took it out of habit.

She was late to meet Thomas. Thomas, who hadn't wanted to meet up before noon because anything else was too early.

She supposed a case was a good enough excuse for being late. But it was more than that. Another murder. This one a blatant murder. With a supernatural murderer playing around in her head. Wanting to be caught.

It wasn't the first time something had broken into her thoughts and played around. And it made her just as pissed off now as it had then.

Which was why she was wearing a scowl when she pulled up at the home of the last victim. He'd died in his living room and she already wasn't looking forward to having to face his widow and explain why she needed to take just one more look at the crime scene.

This was going to be a busy night.

She'd wrapped up the part that involved feeling feelings with Harry in his kitchen, then put more reasonable clothes on and started to track Lindsey. He shouldn't be too hard to find, and they needed to talk.

Outside the bar where she knew he was, there were people milling around the parking lot. There was talking, laughing, chatting... it was a decent sized crowd. It took Phaedra a minute to realize that the high school football game had just let out, and that was something most of the town went to. She didn't understand football, really. She overheard thoughts about how the bar t.v. would be playing the highlights, and did you SEE that touchdown?

She sighed, getting ready to go inside, when she realized that there was another vampire there. She stopped in her tracks and turned, looking more carefully through the thoughts she was overhearing. Two twentysomething girls pushed past her into the bar, and Phaedra stepped backward to avoid getting knocked into.

She really wasn't in the mood, but that was too bad. That was how this place worked. Okay, I give up. The thought was sent to the other vampire as her eyes kept looking. Come out, come out, wherever you are.

After he'd left Murphy at her own place Thomas had driven around a bit to get used to the town before heading home. It really was a small town. There were definitely going to be problems that came up from it being a small town. First of all it might be tricky to find third parties that could be trusted for Justine. Then it might be tricky to eat on a regular basis without addicting anyone or feeding too heavily too often from the same people.

Well that was shit to be figured out later. Right now Thomas just wanted to get home.

He parked his Hummer in the driveway of the house he and Justine were renting and took a minute to slip on his gloves and make sure as little bare skin as possible was showing. The house was furnished but Thomas ignored everything other than making sure it was secure as he made his way through it to the rooms he and Justine tended to settle in for comfort. Here there were signs of people finally instead of pristine rooms set up for show.

"Justine?"

The fair was over, thank God. Murphy was glad to be back to normal. Sure, there'd been a little thrill in taking Harry's powers for a test drive, but Harry'd had a lifetime to get used to them and figure out how to use them. Whereas she'd had a brief crash course from Molly and had barely been able to keep herself from shorting out every bit of electronics she passed. Not to mention that nobody had been at their best to help at a time when help had been sorely needed.

Since the fair, she'd sort of steered clear of Harry. The fact that he'd gone into the Tunnel of Love with his housemate was a bit of a sore spot and she was still working through her own feelings on that one. If she was being honest, she'd been working through a whole lot of emotions since Harry had appeared on her doorstep back in Chicago.

It was easier to just stay busy than think about that. Unfortunately, at the moment her leads had dried up and she didn't have anything to focus on. So drinking seemed to be the alternative to sitting at home and stewing over things.

Which was how Murphy came to be sitting on a bar stool on her own, draining her second gin and tonic. And not telling the bartender her life story. God, she hated when people did that. Just because a person went to a bar alone did not mean that they suddenly needed to turn the bartender or whoever was unlucky enough to sit on the barstool next to them into their own personal Dr. Phil.