inkandtime (inkandtime) wrote in solsticerp, @ 2010-06-07 17:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | june 21 2009, lux, sibyl |
The Smell Of Smoke
Who: Sibyl and Lux
When: Around 7pm
Where: The edge of chaos
Sibyl was not herself tonight. She had changed before, and so she was well aware of what it was like to have a part of you taken away. Even such a vital part as one's heartbeat. Now, the next most important part of her was gone. She didn't wake every evening and immediately begin working elemental magic, but today she noticed its absence right away. When her elegant freezer door opened and she sat up from the silky cushions that Kaz had fitted it with, everything was still.
Shadows were never still, darkness and lightness were always moving. Ordinarily the air carried whispers that she couldn't interpret, she left that to Kaz. Tonight, however, the house was silent. Not a breath. That, and it was early. Beyond the windows the sky was gunmetal grey and her vampiric senses told her that the sun was still up there, hidden behind the storm. She knew it was the Solstice, of course, but those observances had never meant much to her.
Sliding barefoot to the floor, she took a silk robe off of the hanger on the wall and tucked it around her slim, nude body. Just as panic was beginning to tinge her vision with red, she heart the familiar sound upstairs that would always serve to soothe her. Kaz's heart beat in steady thumps in his large bed. What a darling man, he really was sleeping the days away for her.
A little rumble of hunger went though her but it was more like the sensation one got when they knew their favourite food was in the house. She wasn't really hunger, but she wouldn't mind a taste. For the time being, she avoided going upstairs. She would have to tell him soon that her elemental gifts were gone, but not yet. She slipped out the kitchen door and into her embryonic night garden, instead.
John Lucas Hedgepeth, more commonly known as Lux, was nestled at the edge of the wooded area that was just up the hill from the merrily burning Baptist church. The town of Darkwater was rife with chaos right now, and he'd caused it, and now he wanted to savor it. The blond vampire was dirty, as he usually was, his tattooed bare arms smudged with grime and the occasional streak of blood, his clothing filthy and torn. He noticed his state of uncleanliness about as much as he ever noticed such things, which was to say not at all.
It had taken him two nights to get his incendiary devices set up the way he wanted them in the church and the school and to plan out how he wanted to light up the mayor's home and, hopefully, his family as well. He could not be positive, but he thought they'd been home when he'd set the fire, and that warmed his little black heart to its core. Maximum destruction was what he was after, and he felt as if he'd achieved his goal.
As Sibyl traveled through the woods, down the side of the mountain, the smell of smoke only grew thicker. She knew it was still daylight above the clouds but mercifully, the ferocity of the storm had given away to a thick surliness. There was no edge to the thick grey brushed cotton sky. Beneath the thick boughs of the trees, it was even darker. Despite the fact that her silk robe billowed indecently, she couldn't worry about who might see her. Appearances meant nothing to the man she was hunting. Her presence just might mean something to him, though.
Nearing town, she stopped frequently. There was more than one fire, she could tell now. She thought that the high school was burning, but there was also another building, a little further down the treeline. She cut that way and approached the church a little bit slower. She was a black and white blur against the foliage, and hardly a leaf stirred under foot.
At last, she saw him. He was watching his lover, the child of his heart, the only damn thing he cared about. The church burned several hundred meters away and still, Sibyl thought for a moment that her feet had grown roots. No, no, she told herself. This fire isn't for me. Somehow she found the courage that she always found. She slipped that terror of fire behind her smooth, cool porcelain mask and approached her older brother.
Lux feared nothing, not even fire, which could consume and end him. He had been that way gged by the flames as they burst through the roof of the church and curled around the spire like a burning python. She jerked her eyes back to the other vampire. What should she ask him? If he was planning to burn more this evening? If he was just passing through?
Instead, she picked her way carefully, almost like a dancer, across the leaf and twig strewn forest floor. In the end, she chose a simple, bland question. She knew the answer, but it was easy enough to fake politeness. "Have you just arrived?"
In some ways it was as if they'd only spoken the day before. Lux actually turned his gaze away from the riveting, enthralling sight of the flames to look at her, his light eyes fixed to her darker ones. "Been here a couple nights," he said. Really, just long enough to find a place to hide away from the daylight and get his devices made and all his supplies organized. He was very much fly by the seat of his pants when it came to destruction, but if this was any indication, he planned well on the fly. "You?" That was Lux, never one to waste words.
"A little while," she said, moving closer to him. He looked like he was bedding down in a mud bog. It didn't surprise her. He was never particular about things like that. "You've been busy tonight," she commented, turning her eyes slowly back toward the burning church. "This will keep the town reeling for a while." She didn't actually know the half of what he had done, but she knew him. If he was here on a spree, then the damage was worse than what appeared on the surface and if he'd just arrived, well then he was just warming up.
"This is only a start," Lux said, his dreamy gaze turning back out to the enchanting roar of the fire climbing higher and higher. It was a sound that was capable of filling his entire world. He only wished he could get closer, to feel some of the heat of those flames. He probably should have been surprised that Sibyl had been able to find him here, but somehow he wasn't. She knew him better than anyone living... or, in their case, unliving, he supposed. Cool air and darkness seemed to radiate from her and, unbidden, he remembered being intimately close to her slim body and glacial skin. It seemed like yesterday, and it seemed like forever.
They were a dichotomy. It was one of the reasons why their maker never punished them for becoming closer to each other. Gorath had been amused by the meeting of wild flame and cool darkness. She canted her head slightly as she looked at him. He was as engrossed as ever with his own handiwork but she couldn't shrug off this nagging feeling. She reached out and touched his nearly-bearded chin so that he would look at her. There was no reason to think he'd have somehow gained the power to effect h0of his pants when it came to destruction, but if this was any indication, he planned well on the fly. "You?" That was Lux, never one to waste words.
"A little while," she said, moving closer to him. He looked like he was bedding down in a mud bog. It didn't surprise her. He was never particular about things like that. "You've been busy tonight," she commented, turning her eyes slowly back toward the burning church. "This will keep the town reeling for a while." She didn't actually know the half of what he had done, but she knew him. If he was here on a spree, then the damage was worse than what appeared on the surface and if he'd just arrived, well then he was just warming up.
"This is only a start," Lux said, his dreamy gaze turning back out to the enchanting roar of the fire climbing higher and higher. It was a sound that was capable of filling his entire world. He only wished he could get closer, to feel some of the heat of those flames. He probably should have been surprised that Sibyl had been able to find him here, but somehow he wasn't. She knew him better than anyone living... or, in their case, unliving, he supposed. Cool air and darkness seemed to radiate from her and, unbidden, he remembered being intimately close to her slim body and glacial skin. It seemed like yesterday, and it seemed like forever.
They were a dichotomy. It was one of the reasons why their maker never punished them for becoming closer to each other. Gorath had been amused by the meeting of wild flame and cool darkness. She canted her head slightly as she looked at him. He was as engrossed as ever with his own handiwork but she couldn't shrug off this nagging feeling. She reached out and touched his nearly-bearded chin so that he would look at her. There was no reason to think he'd have somehow gained the power to effect her abilities, but his arrival and the loss of her gifts was too much of a coincidence to ignore. "Lux, have you done something to me?"
Lux, of course, had no idea what Sibyl was on about. Very few people, vampire or not, could have gotten by with touching him the way she was, but his sister was exempt from the hair-trigger violence he could inflict on just about anyone else. "Like what?" he asked, watching her with suddenly suspicious blue eyes. What could she be thinking he'd done to her? He hadn't seen her in nearly two years.
Sibyl's expression smoothed out and she dropped her hand. All of Gorath's children, especially those who were over a hundred years old like Lux, were particularly powerful. They tended to sprout new heights of power as the decades ticked away. Gorath had possessed an amazing ability to cause pain but also to heal. He reveled in the kind of games that Sibyl had momentarily suspected Lux of playing.
The blonde firebug vampire couldn't have taken away her elemental gifts. That was impossible. Sibyl suddenly had the urge to run home and shake Kaz awake, demand why he had taken her shadows away from her.
Sibyl's pale hands clutched at the front of her silky bathrobe, pulling it tighter around her frame. Had she ever felt so naked? She couldn't recall a time. She had all but forgotten about Lux being there as she fretted about what she may have done to anger Kaz.
Sibyl was not always the easiest to comprehend, particularly for Lux, who tended to take the most straightforward and simplistic view of things. He shot her a skeptical look when she didn't answer his question, then stepped forward a couple of feet to watch as the firemen on the scene down below seemed to give up on extinguishing the burning church. The fire was too far gone for their efforts to yield much. Lux could have told them that much, had he been asked; he had an uncanny sense for the heat and depth of a fire after decades of premeditated arson.
With a shudder, Sibyl turned toward the fire as well, standing beside the man who was, for all intents and purposes, her brother. She instinctively stood close to him, as though he might protect her from the terrible fire. She wasn't entirely sure if that would be the case, but she could trick herself into thinking so, so that she could stand beside him and watch. Curiosity prickled up the back of her neck, an instinct for mayhem that had fallen asleep during this idyllic time with Kaz. "Was there anyone inside?"
"Don't think so," Lux replied, not taking his eyes from the brilliant, leaping flames. Not in the church, not in the school... although he had high hopes that he'd managed to incinerate the mayor and his entire family. He felt sure it would be all over the news. Television, newspapers, word of mouth. The entire town-- possibly the entire Oregon coastal region-- would be talking about what he'd done. Finally he turned his eyes to Sibyl again, seeming to notice what she was wearing for the first time. Grubby fingers reached for the sash of her robe, felt its silken smoothness. "It's been a long time," he said.
She didn't jerk away from him, as much as she may have wanted to. Instead, she gently pulled the slippery sash through his fingers. He left an ashy smear on the creamy material but that didn't worry her much. For all of the ways that she took pride in her appearance (though not tonight), she'd never minded his filthier way of keeping himself. They were monsters, after all. They all had their bag of tricks. Hers included polish and poise to lure her victims. His, well, it involved smoke and ash. They could only ever be what they were. "It has been." Two years was the longest she had been out of the company of her vampiric family since the night she was remade. She'd been lonely until Kaz reappeared. She wondered if Lux had been as well. "Did you miss me?"
Lux didn't acknowledge loneliness, or any similar emotion. He was, and he destroyed, and that was sufficient for him. He shrugged when she pulled her sash away from him and asked him if he'd missed her; that was as much as she was getting from him tonight. He wasn't in the mood for a warm and fuzzy reunion. He was in the mood to watch everything burn and wish secretly that he could burn with it and yet somehow remain intact. An impossible wish, but it had haunted his unlife ever since his creation.
There was no point. She wasn't on the same level as he was, just then. There was no blood lust, no urge to destroy. In fact, there was something nagging at the back of her mind, telling her to go home. Forget this. Let him burn his way on up or down the coast. And yet...
Her dark eyes narrowed on his face. He wasn't being very forthcoming with answers but she knew how he worked. He'd be more chatty when the wind carried away the cinders of his latest work. Still, she had to know. "Why are you here?"
Lux could have very well asked her why she was here, but he didn't. It didn't matter. Their paths intersected every so often, and it seemed right to him to see her now. He bypassed the questions most would have asked, such as where was she living, what were her plans for the town, because he quite simply didn't care. "I'm here to do what I just did, 'til I'm tired of it. Then I'll move on," he said. There was a hint of tension in his frame, a slight challenge in his eyes as he swiveled his head to pin her with his gaze again. He didn't like having his motives questioned when she should have already known. Had it been that long?
She could have challenged him. She'd arrived here first, after all. It wasn't unheard of for blood-drinkers to stake out a feeding territory and defend it. She also had a fleeting thought that she had gods on her side, as well. She put that aside. Sibyl knew she'd do whatever she could to keep Kaz and Lux apart. Her worlds were oil and water, as much as Kaz had seemed to accept her. "Don't burn the mountain." It was a simple request. She knew he had the knowledge to prevent a devastating forest fire if he wanted to. So she clarified. "I live there," she said. She didn't think he would try to burn her out. The town? Well, what did she care about that, really?
Lux was often aggressively territorial, even about places where he didn't plan to stay long. It seemed to be more the principle of it than anything else. Ordinarily he would not have cared for anyone's requests, but this was his sister, all that was left of the infernal family that had been formed so long ago. Well, except for his other, weaker sister, but in his opinion she'd never counted for anything. Since it was Sibyl, he gave her the barest nod. It would be a shame for her cool and mysterious beauty to be reduced to ash. "Not the mountain," he agreed.
"Thank you," Sibyl said with a tight smile. She could remember her manners, even with people who didn't care whether she'd thanked him or spat on him. It was all the same to Lux, especially when something was burning. "I'm sure I'll see you soon." It was pushing her luck, the longer she hovered in his orbit. On her best day, if she wanted to run from her older brother, she could. But she would have to keep running and put some fast-flowing rivers between them, if not an ocean. With her elemental gifts mysteriously absent and with Kaz settled in and playing house, making a dash for another continent was out of the question.
At first, the vampire didn't seem to hear her. He was already thinking of wandering over to the Mayor's house, where everyone would be in a most tempestuous uproar. To see the destruction, smell it, hear it. He forced himself to focus for a few more seconds. "You will," he agreed. How, when and why she'd see him, he left undefined. It could have been a threat, a promise, or possibly a little of both. A faint smile quirked his lips upward, and he added, "Take care, Sis."
Sibyl froze for a moment, before she continued to head into the trees. "You too, Lux." She didn't feel very settled. In fact, she felt as unsettled as she had felt before finding Kaz here. Unstable. She found that she didn't like the feeling as much as she might have cultivated in her younger years. She didn't waste any time, cutting a complicated trail back up the mountainside. It wouldn't prevent Lux from tracking her if he wished, but it might buy her some time. She might just smell him coming before it was too late, like a whiff of smoke on the wind.