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Leon Vincent (voodoowho) wrote in st_margarets,
@ 2016-02-03 19:07:00

Entry tags:

character: leon vincent, character: victoria vazquez, location: the woods

Thread: Under Cover of Night
WHO: Victoria & Leon
WHEN: Feb. 3, after midnight
WHERE: The woods

When Victoria had asked him to go with her to hunt, Leon hadn't complained at all. He'd been craving a good hunt for several days now, ever since trying to convince Andrei to take him again to hunt humans. It was like pulling teeth, talking to his sire, and Leon had eventually dropped it and instead put his energy into his evening with Dana. The hunger was still there, though, barely veiled behind the tasteless bags of animal blood that the school supplied. Now that he'd had a taste of human blood straight from the vein, nothing else even came close to satisfying the hunger.

The excitement of hunting could be sated, however. Victoria and Leon had been hunting together for about a year now, with small breaks when they had a falling out over something trivial. Whatever it was, they always seemed to work it out and go back to normal. Leon could appreciate that kind of friendship. Most people would just give up and move on, but Victoria was doggedly determined to patch things up. Leon could learn a few things from Victoria's example.

He met her out in the woods by their tree, the usual meeting spot. Leon's worn henley was not covered by a jacket on that chilly snowy night. He even had the sleeves pushed back, revealing forearms covered with tattoos of previously sacred Voodoo veves. As always, the cold didn't impede his movements and neither did the packed snow under his boots. Leon was silent in his approach. Hunter. Predator. Survival.

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demisangre
2016-02-05 08:13 pm UTC (link)

Victoria arrived wearing her usual hunting garb of jogging shorts and a tank top. The chief difference this time, however, was the length of her hair. It was stupid, but somehow getting a haircut made a difference on a psychological level. She was the same person still, but with a new haircut, she felt like she was a new person. As said before, it was stupid, but it still made Victoria feel a little better. Despite the shorter hair, she looked like she was going to go for a jog, not run around in the forest to catch animals and drink their blood. But there were a lot of things about Victoria that people often assumed wrong. But then there were a lot they were right about.

The break up with James had taken a toll on her mind. She went from feeling used and angry to feeling terrible that he had to hide everything. She put on a good face though and nobody suspected anything. The only one who knew about the breakup, to her knowledge, was James himself. It was over, she kept telling herself, and she would survive this. It wasn't the first time she had her heart broken and it certainly wouldn't be the last. But she could, at the very least, not let this affect her so profoundly. She wasn't going to obsess about the rejection. The feelings for James would fade with time. She had a rather lengthy lifespan before her. She had all the the time in the world. For now a haircut would do.

She waited by the tree, her back pressed against the cool bark. Her mind pondered over the conversation she had with James. His desire to break free of his father's expectations and yet he was, apparently, still biding his time till his inheritance went through. Her expression was pensive until she smelled Leon. It pulled her mind from the thoughts of James and her now very single status. Before her birthday and Valentine's Day. Just her luck. Thankfully she had friends. Friends and things to do. The polar bear dive was distracting enough and thankfully Bayani was helping her. And hunts with Leon were always welcome.

She smiled upon seeing him though when he did arrive. "Com'te va?" she asked in greeting and gave him the customary kiss on the cheek, "Are you ready?" She knew he would notice the change in her appearance, and she hoped he wouldn't see past it. Or maybe she did. She really needed someone to talk to, though she had told James she wouldn't divulge everything. She wasn't going to be that bitter ex-girlfriend.

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voodoowho
2016-02-05 08:16 pm UTC (link)

Leon smiled back, his white teeth visible in the dark as he chuckled. "Damn. I thought I was coming in from down wind. I was sure I could get the jump on you this time."

That was one of the more challenging things, succeeding in sneaking up on another vampire. He had yet to pull it off with Andrei, but several of the others on campus had no idea when he crept past them or observed while they did a sloppy job of trying to catch animals in the dark. It was in Leon's nature to judge others, even if he did have the advantage of having someone like Andrei teaching him how to do these things properly. The other vampires, with only a couple exceptions, were idiots.

"I'm ready," he nodded, returning her kiss on the one cheek. "You alright?" In addition to being naturally inclined to judge others, Leon also was very perceptive and deciphering when it came to the people he was close to. Victoria wasn't one hundred percent there just then, but it could easily be explained and brushed off as stress from school or James losing the elections. Thank the Loa for that. "You cut your hair."

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demisangre
2016-02-05 08:27 pm UTC (link)

Victoria laughed at Leon's comment, "Perhaps you need to work a little more on your hunting. Or have a less distinct smell." She thought he wasn't going to say anything at all and she felt that conflict of relief and disappointment but only for a fleeting moment. He asked if she was alright and then he noted that she cut her hair. The obvious perhaps giving away the more subtle.

She could lie. Tell him she was fine and that everything was alright. She could tell the truth and expose her problems while betray that trust that James put in her. Or she could ride the fine line that she wasn't sure where it began or ended.

"I'll live," she said and nodded, absently reaching up to touch the hair that no longer draped over her shoulders like a velvet curtain. In fact, it didn't touch her shoulders at all. Victoria nodded, "I did. I thought I could use some change. Especially since I know it'll grow back. How terrible would it be to get a terrible haircut and end up with it for eternity, si?" She chuckled. It had some mirth but was mostly hollow.

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voodoowho
2016-02-06 07:45 pm UTC (link)

"Next time, we'll see who gets the jump on who." Leon smirked. He was too prideful to let it rest there, of course. Not when Victoria put into question his skill at hunting. Next time he would approach as mist.

"You'll live?" Leon's eyebrows rose a fraction. It was a vague answer for Victoria, who was not prone to vagueness and in fact pressed him for more details constantly. He knew she had been sad to see her sister go, but that was weeks ago. With Barclay coming back, Leon admitted he had been a bit more distracted than usual, but it was strange for Victoria to hide something. He'd remember that in the future, when she tried to push him for more information when something bothered him.

"Right, right." Leon said absently, not so much amused by her hair comment. He watched her more closely, seeking any more subtle signs in how she held herself, her eyes and if they met his, or in how nervous her chuckle was to gauge how much she was actually hiding from him. Finally, he released her from his gaze and gave his own version of an empty chuckle. "If that were the case, it's amazing that the majority of vampires aren't bald. Let's go."

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demisangre
2016-02-07 02:18 am UTC (link)

Everything is fine. Everything is perfectly fine. That's what she should have said. Leon's eyes now watched her and she hated it when he did that. His body reading. She was aware of everything she did. Was she twitching a finger? Clenching a jaw? What was he picking up? But he chuckled with the same hollowness. Delayed a few seconds, as was his response. Just long enough to put Victoria on edge.

"Maybe they are and they just wear very convincing wigs," Victoria tried to joke again but started moving. They were going hunting, after all, but often times those hunting excursions into the woods involved talking to. Talking in a place that wasn't a lunchroom cafeteria where all of their fellow classmates could overhear if they wanted to.

She ran her fingers through her hair, getting used to the new length and asked, "How is Barclay? There's a rumor going around he's not going to take the shop back. Is everything okay?"

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voodoowho
2016-02-07 07:21 pm UTC (link)

Leon had to turn some of his focus away from Victoria and put it into their surroundings. There was food out there, enough for young vampires and weres alike to catch, but the hunters had to be cunning. The animals in these woods didn't just jump out of hiding and lay down to get eaten. Leon walked along, not disturbing the foliage and stepping lightly. He'd been a tracker before being turned, a gatherer for spell supplies or spiritual ritual prep, and he knew his way in a forest. Back then, Leon had been able to pull energy and power from the life force of nature. It was life, a sacred balance, and as a priest he could borrow that energy and distribute it into his magic. Sometimes Leon still imagined he felt the tingling on his skin from the darkened tattoos.

But now the woods were opened to him in a whole new way. Leon could see to the very detailed veins in a leaf at the top of a tree. He could smell the hot breath of a living creature up wind. Barclay, the vampire thought with a saddened heart, had lost one sight without gaining the other.

Glancing at Victoria, Leon shook his head. "He'll take it back when he's ready. Barclay is still recovering. What he did during the attack was huge and it's not something he can just bounce back from." Subconsciously defending Barclay, who was like his brother, came naturally. "But he'll be alright." Leon ducked under a low branch, moving with easy grace like a stalking cat, carefully placing his feet down on the soil.

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demisangre
2016-02-07 09:25 pm UTC (link)

Hunting with Leon after hunting with Bay came with a noticeable difference. There was the young fangling unfamiliar with hunting and then the not-as-young fangling who knew his way around the block. She could hear so much of what was going on in the woods. The owls that waited for the unsuspecting mice to emerge. The nervous scamper of smaller animals aware that something, or someone, was out there and on the prowl. To normal humans, the forest may sound eerily still, but to vampires? Vampires tapped into a frequency that told them how unquiet the forest really was.

Victoria witnessed the event. The trees rising up to move as if they were people. Roots long buried in earth used like feet to march against the intruders. "I'm sure he will be," she said, confident in Leon's assessment. She did not know Leon when he was a witch. She saw him with his dreadlocks but not too long after her arrival had he become a vampire. She heard he was once a rather impressive witch.

"Now that he's awake, it's a step forward," she said. The urgency to tell Leon about James caused her hand reached out, taking a light hold on the sleeve of Leon's shirt, "I need—" she was cut off by the sound of a branch snapping. Victoria's head immediately turned in the direction it came from and breathed in. It wasn't a deer. Nor was it feline. Canine. Fox?

The sclera of her eyes darkened to black and the blue a shade slightly darker. She felt her fangs push against the inside of her bottom lip. Victoria let go for Leon's sleeve and with nostrils flaring, smirked at him before motioning for them to go.

She would tell him after.

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voodoowho
2016-02-09 05:55 am UTC (link)

Leon heard it too, and whatever Victoria was about to tell him she needed would have to wait. Their prey was close, and it was going to be quick. Leon smiled at the prospect of a good chase, his fangs showing in the expression before he followed after Victoria.

After you shared a hunt with someone, there was a kind of comraderie with them all the following times the two went out together. It was like soldiers on a battlefield, learning and testing one another, learning to trust in them like they learned to trust in you. With his senses giving him all kinds of signals filtering in like white noise of the forest around them, Leon trusted Victoria to zero in on the prey she had heard.

Moving with speed and stealth, the two hunters went through the trees - Victoria literally phasing through them while Leon stepped lightly and silently in her wake. As they got closer, his body and even his clothes seemed to disappate into a mist that blanketed the forest floor, spreading out and traveling along to come within sight of their target. Leon knew his part in this and waited for Victoria to strike first.

The fox made a good effort, almost quick enough to dodge her, but then it took to the mist for shelter and that mist closed in around it.

Moments later, still not making a sound, the hunt was over and the vampires drank fresh warm blood.

Leon laid on his back on the snow, looking up into the dark sky through the empty branches. This wasn't the kind of contentment he might have gotten had their meal been bigger, but it was still a pleasant sensation to have warm blood in his belly. Leon tried not to think of how it would've been better with human blood, because that avenue of thought would only lead to feelings of frustration towards his sire. No need to spoil the moment.

He had his head pillowed by his arms and glanced over at Victoria with a small smile. "Why don't we do this more often?" He chuckled and sat up, raking back dark hair from his eyes as he folded his legs. Leon remembered something and looked at Victoria again. "Hey, what were you going to say earlier, by the way?"

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demisangre
2016-02-10 05:58 am UTC (link)

Next to Leon, Victoria sat and then slowly eased herself back into the snow next to him. After a feeding, everything felt fresher and more alive. She could see more stars in the canopy of darkness above them and with the snow it almost felt like it wasn't late into the night. She missed nights like these. When she went hunting in the city, the light pollution there made a view like this next to impossible. She was lucky if she could point out Orion, but then again, when she and James would go into the city, they weren't looking up at the sky much.

Her heart sank at the thought of James and she felt that tug between two emotions return. Victoria knew she would move on from him eventually, but for now the wounds still felt fresh. Leon's question was enough of a distraction though and she laughed, "Probably because I've been busy." But now? Now she had a lot more free time. Enough free time to fill in with time with a good friend she knew would be leaving in a few months. She matched the smile he gave her and watched as he sat up. It would be sad not to have him around much and she felt like with all those stupid arguments they had, she lost time with a good friend.

But then he asked about what Victoria was going to talk about earlier and she knew exactly what she was going to tell him earlier. Her eyes turned back to the sky again. She could make something up but hadn't she just been thinking about how she missed spending time with him? Victoria closed her eyes and kept them closed.

"James and I broke up."

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voodoowho
2016-02-13 04:54 pm UTC (link)

"What?" The word tumbled out of Leon's mouth automatically. A hundred thoughts ran through Leon's head, scenarios, how it might have gone down. Where is James now? He blinked at Victoria, reminding himself to be delicate. She had genuine feelings for James, the last time they spoke.

In a somewhat uncharacteristic move for him, at least as far as his relationship with Victoria, Leon reached out to gently take her hand. His eyes were earnest with concern, not victory - though that would come later. He had to know what James did to her, how angry he should be at the disgustingly wealthy Weatherby. "What happened? Are you alright?"

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demisangre
2016-02-13 08:26 pm UTC (link)

Victoria felt Leon's fingers against her palm as he lifted it upward. Leon wasn't really one to initiate touch all that often and it took Victoria a little by surprise. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at Leon from where she lay in the snow and then let out a small laugh, "He wants to be friends." Sort of? Yes, he wanted to be friends. If he wanted to be something other than friends, everything would have gone much differently. He would've made a fool out of her in front of everyone at the school.

"And I don't know," Victoria said and draped her other arm over her eyes. She wasn't crying, because she'd done a lot of that already, and she may not be done with it, but not right now. "Have you ever loved someone and you find out they don't love you back? They care about you but it's not the same. I don't know how to feel right now." She took her hand back from Leon and pressed the heels of both hands into her eyes.

"I don't know."

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voodoowho
2016-02-15 04:58 pm UTC (link)

"Friends." Leon repeated her again before shaking his head. He should really stop doing that. He easily had a burning ember of anger towards James, constantly kindled to a low heat every time he saw the Weatherby heir, but now it flamed brighter. James had called off things with Victoria, and for what? For that matter, why had he dropped out of the running for President? It made Leon jumpy, knowing James was not the kind of person to give up so easily or shift things around so much without having a plan of some kind. The suspicion and distrust was always there.

He quieted the inner questions that were circling around in his head and focused on Victoria. She had been hurt by this, regardless of James's real intent. A decent friend would offer support. "No, I can't say I've ever had that happen to me." Leon tried to empathize, but he'd only ever truly loved one person, and that had gone down quite different than Victoria's situation.

Frowning, Leon tried again. "Hey." he reached out and gently lifted her arm from her face, settling in the cold snow beside her. "It's amazing that you can feel this way--" about someone like James "--at all. You've always known exactly how you feel about people. Most teenagers would just spasm around with their emotions, but you've got things figured out. James... does not. He..." Leon swallowed, struggling. "He has good qualities, you learned a lot from each other, and now it's time to move on."

Shrugging, Leon laid back in the snow, their shoulders pressed together, his hand clasped with hers between them. "Or something like that."

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demisangre
2016-02-15 06:34 pm UTC (link)

Victoria was grateful that Leon was honest. Some people tried to lie or tried to take some situation that was very different and try to apply it and it was like trying to put two pieces from different puzzles together. It didn't work and somehow cheapened the gesture. It would be nice to have someone who experienced it but for what it was worth, having Leon there with her did help. She felt his fingers entwine with hers and he offered her a compliment. Victoria's eyes remained closed for a moment longer before she opened them.

"I know," Victoria said, "I know." And she knew that she had to move on. You couldn't really force someone to love you and it was wrong. Love was meant to be shared. And she wasn't what James wanted. Sometimes it was more than just that James was attracted to men. She replayed that conversation in her head over and over again. She was the gender his father wanted but had she been a boy, would there have been any genuine attraction still? He cared enough not to embarrass her but he'd led her on. He knew how she felt and didn't stop it when she told him. He just . . . let her feel.

Victoria blinked and tears blurred her vision. This wasn't the first time she had a boy break her heart but it never really got easier. "Lo siento," she whispered and wiped at her tears with one hand. She felt like an idiot. Some stupid little girl crying over a boy. She was stronger than that. She should move on, but the pain was still there. The rejection. The knowledge she would never be what James wanted.

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voodoowho
2016-02-16 01:09 am UTC (link)

Victoria wasn't really saying much anymore. Leon was not good at this. He wasn't a comforter or a caregiver. He was barely a passable friend. How Mickey had fallen in love with him was beyond most people's understanding. But Leon was other things. He was determined. He had an iron will. And Victoria had helped him when Mickey had broken up with him and he wasn't about to abandon her now.

So Leon just stayed there, laying quietly beside Victoria as her emotions moved over her. Sharing a meal with a vampire, blood from the same prey, it was a bonding thing and it had different effects on different vampires. In this case, it gave Leon the patience to wait for Victoria to get herself back together. The quiet of the snowy forest extended and his hand remained around hers.

Finally, he moved slowly, leaning over to place a gentle kiss on her cold cheek. "You've still got me, okay?" Leon said softly. "For what it's worth."

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demisangre
2016-02-17 01:44 am UTC (link)

The tears felt warm against her cheek. Not the same warmth of a sun she couldn't enjoy, but a reminder that even in death she lived. Even in death she loved. Even in death she felt the bitter sting of not being loved back. She often thought that without her soul she was just a thing mimicking what it felt like to be a person with emotions, but moments like this said maybe she didn't need a soul to feel.

The press of Leon's lips against her cheeks followed by his words had her turn her head to look at him. "It's enough," she said and turned into him completely. Her head buried into his shoulder and instead of crying she just laid there pressed lightly into him. Next to Romina, Leon had been the first friend she really made she felt meant every word he said. She'd have him for a few months more and then he'd graduate and leave. But she also knew that it wasn't going to be the end of their friendship.

"Thank you," she said after another long stretch of silence, "I don't think I could handle this on my own."

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