I should move ’cause New York is gettin’ muddy out. There’s L.A. but it’s always kinda sunny out. And I don’t wanna hurt no more So I set my bar real low

Rook was a spot of black in the otherwise current snowy white landscape of New York’s city streets. Certainly the only spot of color in the tree outside a very specific apartment within the Ansonia. He had shaken snow off of his beautiful black feather several times now as it fell down upon him but still he sat. It was hard to read a bird who sat as unmoving as he did but if one could they could tell he was very much lost.

The Gangrel didn’t know what to do. Being the only Gangrel in a city was nothing new to him and he couldn’t say that the other leaving was much of a surprise but it still bothered Rook as he had been opening up and becoming willing to trust another of his clan after all this time. It seemed Gangrels would be Gangrels no matter how much they claimed not to.

That’s not what had him at such a loss though. It was all the rest. A hundred years of companionship and Mab had just left him. He knew she hadn’t been wanting to stay in the city after what happened to James. Then when she had thought her sire dead it had gotten worse. Funny how her sire being alive and her getting pissed off because he hadn’t told her before everyone else was what had done it. And with her had gone James.

Normally it wouldn’t have been a second thought to go with them but Rook had been torn for months now between what the raven saw as his flock and what he had saw as his mate.

A mate who had so easily left him when he left New York after the violent way that the one remaining Pimogen and the Sheriff had taken over the tower—taken over the city—had left a bad taste in his mouth. Rook had always said he’d follow after Ash if he just left on a whim, but he hadn’t expected it to happen like this and certainly not after Ash had dragged him into all of this so they could stay in the city.

The raven let out a mournful croak as he stared once more at the window he had come and gone from so often. Now the lights were dark. The window unwelcoming.

He didn’t know where to go. Not back to the empty apartment that had once been his nest but was now empty of any roost mates. Not back to the shop which was haunted by memories of all that had left him. Certainly not to Elysium that he had only ever gone to because of Ash.

Ash who Mab had warned him again and again was as Toreador as any of the rest of the clan but Rook had insisted he wasn’t. The Toreador that the raven thought needed him and was what he had been needing in a mate and companion that he started feeling a need for after all this time.

But then she had left him too so it seemed pointless to dwell on any warnings she had given him.

If Rook understood the whole leaking thing that Ash used to do so much and was capable of it as a bird he probably would have. Instead, all he had was the mournful croaks and clicks that he managed now and then before lapsing into silence once more.

He had lived like this before. Alone. As the raven. He’d do it again. Though he had never done so in a city before.

“New York in the dead of winter is no place for anyone. Even us. Even you.” The voice was coming from below and the fact that it was echoing Rook’s thoughts caused him to look down to see who it was. He tilted his head to the side as he saw the Ventrue Primogen’s—no, it was the Prince now wasn’t—Malkavian staring up at him. “You think too loud even for a bird.”

Even if Rook was in the mood for conversation, he wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He knew his mind thought differently than most Kindred given the number of years he had spent as a beast but he had never stopped to think about how others perceived his thoughts. Not when he had never really been around a Malkavian before. Not until he had started going to Elysium and had seen this particular Malk in action.

The only acknowledgment that Rook gave was to keep staring at Julian.

“Amadeus is looking for you.” An answer to an unspoken question. “I think the two of you might have a lot in common right now.”

Rook tilted his head a bit more than looked back at the dark window before him. Funny that he and the Sheriff should have something in common now but then many in the city seemed to. So many had died or fled leaving those who stayed alone and abandoned. Maybe one day when everything was over and there was a city to return to they would. But by then it would be too late wouldn’t it? Kindred had too long of memories to so easily let go of such things.

He turned to look down at Julian once more. Then after another moment of deciding, he flew down to land on the Malkavian’s shoulder. When Julian opened his coat just enough so that the raven should wiggle his way in and snuggle up against the younger Kindred he didn’t hesitate.

If nothing else maybe he could get one of them to just let him linger around as the raven—being a kept raven was better than being a lost one.

“I guess it’s not a royal tower without at least one raven to occupy it.” Then a pause and a curling of the Malk’s lips. “Say Nevermore.”

“Fuck you,” came the muffled reply from inside the coat and only served to cause the other Kindred to chuckle.