Mercy of the Fallen [Lars]

[Ellie]

"Why would I want to take you back to London?" he puzzled with surprised confusion, did she WANT to be taken back with him? There'd be no real difference, only a small house rather than an exquisite mansion. He was aloud to feel perfectly vain for his own self and stay here, in the case since she already said she didn't want him to leave. Plus his ghosts knew that place head to toe, especially considering the house was previously owned by one.

"The only thing there is my little house with one measly bedroom, I don't feel like sleeping on the couch..." he said getting some sort of excuse out. He really didn't mind the couch, but still, he liked the bed so much better, as any normal person would. "It wouldn't make any difference her or there..." he said shrugging, letting it go, but wondering why she would even bring it up.

"Why do you ask that anyways?"

[Giselle Audley]

Giselle's head snapped up and she stared blankly at Lars. This was the last response she was expecting. "I... I just thought you would be more comfortable at home. But of course you can stay here. You can have any room you want," she invited. Well hell, where would he go? And it wasn't like she didn't have the room for him.

He had a lot to explore in this vampiric mansion. It was older than herself, she didn't know how far it dated back to. So far she found three hidden hallways, the old staircase leading down into a cold basement thingy behind a bookshelf, and a couple of hidey holes. It was creepy, but she wasn't scared of her own house. She fit perfectly in it, a monster in a mansion full of secrets.

She hoped he would take up her offer. She didn't want him far in case she needed him. She also assumed that he would want to keep a watchful eye on her. She also needed him to take care of her. She lowered her head again and watching him, cat-like eyes attached to his face. It would be strange to have another person living here that wasn't a bloodless corpse. "Outside I have tennis courts, horse stables, a pool, patio, garden, all that jazz you would expect in a place like this," she informed him. If he was going to stay, then he might as well know the grounds as well.

[Ellie]

More comfortable at home? London? London wasn't home. Home was where the heart is, and coincidentally his heart had been ripped in three.. or four, but two of the halves followed him around wherever, so generally, he was comfortable anywhere. But he did miss his home city, New York. He hadn't been there in quite some time, but decided he wouldn't miss it that much, since he was becoming so used to the European life now.

He absentmindedly listen to her ramble off about the gardens and whatnot, it sure did sound five star. He still admitted he liked it, he wouldn't deny, maybe he just didn't want to go home... with a free room in this place. Well, free? No, he had to practically babysit a recovering blood thirsty vampire. But as far as real expenses, free.

"It's just you here all by yourself then? No help, staff, I should worry running into in the mid day?" he asked semi interested, he could very well figure out what this place had in store instead of her ramblings about it, but what could they really talk about? After the hotel incident, it was hard to start up a conversation from small talk now it seemed.

[Giselle Audley]

Giselle knew that tone. He was bored and this was pretty awkward. She shrugged it away. She had enough excitement for the night. Her voice was very drawl as she answered his question."Well now that you mention it, there's Brett and... ARRRRRRGH!" her scream broke off her sentence and her hands flew to her stomach which was flopping around violently on her.

Her eye's flashed to Lars, worry and fear seizing the misty colored irises. Blood... blood... I need blood NOW she panicked whipping her head around in every direction for blood that would magically appear on her. There was no blood here. None at all. She wouldn't let animal blood over the threshold. Her stomach was eating itself, having a revolution against her body because she failed to feed it. This was definitely an unexpected first.

She never starved herself, drank some blood (not even an entire girl, mind you), and then just stop without getting her fill. This is the consequence? she whined as she doubled over in immense pain, sliding from the couch and onto the floor.

Things couldn't get any worse. She was very wrong. The front doors swung open and slapped the walls with a bang. "Miss Audley, I have to call a vet! Ghost is lying on his side in the stables and he won't move!" came the tentative voice of her stable caretaker. How ironic that Lars had mentioned her staff. Ironic indeed. Oooh, he's not the ONLY one! Damn horse! she shrieked to herself.

She listened as Abigail crossed the room to the phone. She didn't even look at the hunched vampire, too concerned for her horse. She heard the shuffling pages of the phone book and then an intake of breath. "Damn. Paper cut," the stable girl cursed. One sniff of blood and that did it. With strength and agility Giselle didn't even know she had in her, she leaped to her feet from her curled up position and used her vampire speed to curl her hands around Gail's neck and shoving her up against the wall.

Giselle's pupils dilated as her body took control of her mind. Fuck that crap about not being able to sink her fangs into human flesh. She was a bloody vampire! Giselle was hungry and her stomach craved the blood right now. It didn't care that its master was a wuss.

Giselle's strangling hands knocked out the stable girl. She shoved her neck to the side and burrowed her fangs in the vein and drank deeply. She completely forgot about Lars. All she cared about was putting her stomach to rest.

[Ellie]

Lars watched wide eyes as she leaned forward in pain, not exactly sure what he could do about it. If he could do ANYTHING, which he was guessing was a not. He finally stood when the doors slammed open and she went running for her own staff, but stopped in mid step to go pull her away and just stared at the already ongoing scene.

Maybe it was just what currently needed to be done so get her settled and unstarved, she'd stop being so weak like, and she could get her attention off of that for once. He regretted letting the poor staff girl go, and he was slightly disappointed in Giselle, but what else was he to do about it? He wasn't hurting anyone.. what did he have to-

"Lars..."

Shit. he thought turning paler and possibly colder than he always was. The chilling whisper wasn't unaccounted for and strange, he knew it too well. They'd found him here in the luscious mansion witnessing this deed, and they knew he wasn't going to take action.

'...why don't you-"

He ran. Almost as fast as Giselle had run to her current meal he ran for the stairs. They'd found him here and obviously wanted him to do something about that, but he had no other choice but to leave matters be! Couldn't they see that!? He ran past the intricate borders and lining with patterns in the dark halls. It carried so much of a cleaned up haunted house feel,especially since the living dead were roaming around with ghosts on their back, how ironic. It was haunted.

"You can't just leave her there..."

"I can, Quincey, now shut the fuck up... there's no other way for it to happen, I'll fix her later..." he said in an exasperated whisper as he reached the top floor and searched around for an interesting looking room.

"but Lars..." Haemish whispered this time, sending the hairs on his neck on end as he shook his head lightly trying to get the feeling gone, tossing his dark brown locks in his face, but he kept walking, not caring for his hair at the moment.

"Not NOW, Haemish!" he said louder, as he banged open the nearest door to him, "She's probably done by now anyways..." he said softer to the chill he could feel on his neck, sorry for talking to him like that.

He slammed the door shut and immediately the chill was gone and the library he found himself in was quiet, he would have investigated the room more if it weren't for the very previous circumstances. Sighing heavily and closing his eyes Lars slumped down in the nearest desk and propped his elbows on it while resting his head in his hands. Everything is just fucking perfect.

[Giselle Audley]

Confusion briefly invaded Giselle's mind before it returned back to her hunger. Lars wasn't shoving her away? Yelling for her to stop? Her body shrugged all on it's own Oh well but it was NOT just oh well. She could hear his voice clearly, talking to people she didn't know. She heard the door for the library slam as she finished off the human. She ripped her fangs out and dropped the bloodless corpse. Damn, she was my best stable girl, she cussed. Now this was more like the old Giselle. Caring but also not caring. Only caring for herself was more like it.

But she didn't want to be the old Giselle anymore. She wanted to feel something other than this blood lust. Lars was quitting on her? More like quitting on himself. Giselle raced to her kitchen on her new strong legs and tore open a package of paper towels in one swift movement. Luckily, her clothing wasn't stained. She wiped her mouth clean, licking the blood from her teeth. That's better she thought contentedly. Now to face her next challenge.

Giselle took the service elevator, she whipped out her cell phone and called the vet on her way up. That was her favorite horse. There was a ding, and the doors whooshed open. She hastily look lengthy steps to the library door. There was silence from inside. She shoved it open with one hand, and entered. Lars was sitting at the desk, head in hands. She cocked her head and gave him a quizzical look. "Of all the places in my house, why the library?" she began carefully. "I really am sorry about that," she said glumly. She didn't know what was going on up in his head.

[Ellie]

"The library is a good place to just slip away..." he said monotone, not feeling up to exposing his feelings at the moment, since he honestly didn't have them sorted out in his mind. Relief was flooding through with the thought that she wouldn't be blood hungry as much, guilt for leaving the scene, anger toward it all, disappointment in her, sadness at his ghosts coming and leaving and just total confusion on his own self.

"And it had a door that I decided to choose when I thought it was time to get out of the hall, just a simple impulse," he muttered off raising his head from his hands and crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back on the chair and put his feet up on the desk in front of him.

"Yeah..." he said in more of a whisper, "I bet you are sorry... Exactly why you did it right? To be sorry..." he spoke normally, sure that all the emotions he was feeling radiated from it somehow in a wave of vocal vibrations, "I don't need your apologies... they're nice, but what do they mean when I can expect you to go do it again, like everything ELSE?" he spoke kicking his feet off and getting up to where the shelves were, absentmindedly scanning through books.

"You're just a broken record of actions Giselle...and it's not even how many times you do it.. or the fact you DO do it, it's just how..." he said sighing as he ran his hands through his hair again, mentally telling himself to stop doing that before it was a habit, after finally just returning to the seat he previously occupied. What he just said.. might have been a little deep, but it made perfect sense in his slightly, well, more than slightly warped mind. From how he was raised to how he had been treated, to what he had been through, compared to what he believed, he didn't see how anyone understood him on a daily basis anyway.

[Giselle Audley]

Giselle flinched at his words, like he'd struck her. He was angry, disappointed, and many other things. He seemed relieved about something, though. Giselle was a bad, bad girl. She was like a child. She didn't want to take no for an answer and she would throw tantrums until she eventually got what she wanted. How... heartless? The word rolled off her tongue smoothly in her head.

Why didn't Lars just see that already? He had to feel impatient with her by now. She wanted him to waste his time fixing her, but she didn't get why Lars was actually doing it. She noted his feet on the table Gotta get someone to Windex that she stored the mental thought away for later. Giselle looked down at her Chanel heels while he berated her like a dad, reprimanding his daughter for eating a cookie before dinner.

She waited until he was finished, his words struck a flat chord down her spine and she didn't really know what to say. "You're right. I do tend to repeat my actions in a variety of ways. Oh, Lars, if you even knew half the stuff that I used to do... still do... still have hidden in here. I could get a phone call right now about a reminder for the delivery of freshly squeezed human blood. You could... wander somewhere and then look behind a door and you'll find something gruesome. I am so used to living like this... a monster right out of a horror film. You have to overlook all of it. It's going to be very difficult. I'm a good student, I learn fast!"

[Ellie]

"OHHH... Giselle," he said in a dramatic manner rolling his eyes visibly while rocking out of the chair once again, "You SERIOUSLY think I have always been so innocent my ENTIRE existence?" he asked sarcastically with one brow raised. What did she expect him to react to her actions? Did she expect him to be horrified and scream about it? Well if that's what she was expecting she was wrong. He could stomach a lot of horrible things, he'd done it enough times, even with himself.

He puzzled over her words a moment, so what? This wasn't new information, this was all old. He was tired about hearing how monstrous she was... the more she spoke it to herself the more she'd not want to change. Which made things difficult because that made him not want to stay. She really needed to get her priorities straightened out.

Besides, what gallant horrible thing had she really done? Killed a village full of people? Sure, that maybe numerous and vast in numbers. She might have killed her fair share of people for no reason... but did she really know anyone she killed. Not just know the stable girl she cleaned dry, but did she ever kill someone she loved?

The most he'd heard was that she'd been walked out on by a lover, but nothing more. How pathetic, she didn't kill him first... Run after them. No. She just waited for them to return to her, but all the waiting had done was left her emptier than before. It was rather easy to figure out in his head... gears turning wildly as he studied her, his palms flat on the desk as he lent forward on it.

"Ever actually killed someone you cared for? Like, not just a bit, but a lot? Or seen one die, be it physically or spiritually? It's not so fun when you've practically done all of the above... So don't talk to me about monsters... My little pupil... because if you were a fast learner, you would have graduated already, sweetie."

[Giselle Audley]

Her eyes narrowed to slits and she put her hands on her hips in a most feminine matter. His sarcasm wasn't necessary, she knew how she sounded. She came closer to him and pointed to his foot rest -- her desk, and twitched a brow. She could no longer stand the abuse of the beautiful thing. He would torture her about it, probably. Now that he knew a pet peeve of hers, he would do it just to piss her off.

She backed up and opened her mouth to say something but then closed it. She could insult him in so many ways, she had an opening, but she figured he couldn't handle the mental abuse anymore. He would just get upset. She'd save her comments for later. "Well I'm not going to stand here and make excuses for myself. I do admit that what I did was wrong but I also don't care about just one human," her tone wasn't her usual high and Giselle-ish. It was low and dark.

His other statement was just plain mean. He touched a nerve and she had to draw in a breath to make her comment without screaming at him. "The only person I ever loved left me. You know that. It doesn't matter how different our experiences were, they both hurt in a variety of ways both of us will never know. I can't sympathize with you and you can't say the same for me," she said coldly. He knew what he was up against. She didn't have to keep reminding him. Doing so would just aggravate her new teacher. She didn't care what he had in mind for his lesson plans, she just knew she wouldn't like it. Her heart wouldn't be in any of it but it's what he wants.

[Ellie]

"Fine, FINE, fine," he said giving up on the conversation that would just turn sour, "Just, forget it okay? Like, this is getting us nowhere so, just forget it." Shaking his head lightly and sitting back down on the chair that matched the desk he let it rest for the sake of them both.

He needed words besides that though he knew, he couldn't just let it go and move through the game to her, like he'd lost a turn in the elaborate board they were playing on. In a whole he'd been drawn nice cards, but just, didn't know how to use them properly, and partly didn't understand what was in the pot for him, or the real rules to the game anyways. He was just letting his cards fly, hoping they landed somewhere decent.

But still, words, he needed them, like a poker face, they were vital. Did it really matter what they were? Or if they were relevant? He didn't really think so. So why not ask her a question she was sure to have an answer to?

"What do you want?" he ask lightly and relaxed, more like starting a normal conversation, "Just, in a whole, doesn't matter the subject matter or anything, can be more than one thing, just, what do you want?"

[Giselle Audley]

Giselle couldn't resist a snort at his ending the conversation. "We bicker like an old couple," she commented amused. He just wanted to start over. Well fine, she'd let him have his way. He asked her an innocent enough question. She wanted many things. Too many things for an average vampire.

But she decided on telling him what she wanted the most. She sighed and shook her head. He would really love this. "I want us to get along," she answered simply. She kept her eyes lowered. He would laugh at this and say, You're the one who has to put forth the effort. He wanted to know. So she told him.

Accidentally, Giselle placed the palm of her hand on top of a tiny statue of a man's upper body, and leaned her weight into it. The head twisted and behind her a wall of books on a shelf whooshed aside revealing a black hole in the wall, it seemed. If you weren't watching your step around there, you'd fall face first into one of the dungeons which was recently renovated to a stony and cold bedroom, ignoring the steps leading sharply down. Quite creepy.

Giselle cussed. "Damn, I gotta get that sealed up eventually. Completely forgot," recently, a family of bats decided to go and make their home down there. She wanted the secret room sealed off.

[Ellie]

"Get along?" he asked raising both his eyebrows this time before she left the gaping hole in the shelf over there. His flawless brows would have gone up to that too, but they were already planted as far as he really felt comfortable.
Not all together sure on what to comment about that he redirected his gaze from the trap door back to her face, expressive face returning to a normal rest.

"I guess, I don't mind letting go of like, what happened before, but I wont forget it... just letting it go, for the indefinite moment..." he explained, "So maybe, before we go so far with things like changing each other or whatever, we should just get some common ground, eh?"

He thought his proposal to the situation was a good one. They had as long as they wanted to wait until the 'changes' or whatever they feared for. It wouldn't take a million years, but it wasn't going to happen over night either. And although they had some background with each other, they were merely strangers compared to the vast information they still needed to know. Lars wasn't even sure if they were acquaintances yet, but something past an acquaintance status needed to happen before they scoped out each other to maximum extents like they'd been trying to do, trying to force themselves to know someone when they really had no insight or impulse.

[Giselle Audley]

Giselle hissed when a bat fluttered past her face, grazing it's wings against her cheek, and perched at the top of a shelf. She glared at it and almost missed Lars' words. "Well, if you can forget," she air quoted "forget", "Then I guess I can, too. Shake on it?" she extended her hand.

Her attention was diverted back to the hole in the wall. She sniffed the air and grimaced. She waited for Lars' hand to touch her's before she went to investigate. She peered down and was disgusted to find a trail of mangled rats and mice, puncture wounds clearly pressed in multiple parts of their tiny bodies. There was a wheeze to her right and both her hands flew to the culprit, locking them around his neck.

Giselle yanked Duncan out from the darkness and into the library. The kid vampire was a mess. He looked a lot worse than Giselle when Lars first saw her today. His skin was sickly and clammy white, his tattered and abused clothing allowed his ribs to poke out from under them. His face was a massacre of deep gashes that hadn't yet healed. His back was no better. The expression on his face was a mixture of complete fear, surprise, and shock. Anyone could tell he was not happy to see his master.

Giselle shoved him against the wall, one hand on his neck holding him off the floor. Her voice came out as a screeching howl. "So THIS is your little hiding place, eh? Thought you could pull one over me, did you?" she threw him to the ground. He responded with a whimper.

Giselle placed a heel on his back, digging it in. "Lars, I'd like you to meet Duncan. I've been looking for him for weeks!" she never took her furious eyes off of the vampire. Giselle grabbed a sword off the wall and shoved it into his gut. The vampire howled with the sudden pain. "Don't you EVER pull that stunt again!" she shrieked. She took her heel off revealing a nice bloody hole between his shoulder blades. Giselle kicked him onto his side, hard. "Get out of here you useless lump! Find Eric or something," she commanded shrilly.

The vampire scrambled to his feet and ran from the room. Giselle huffed and collapsed into a chair. "Seriously, you'd think he'd learn by now!" she hissed.

[Ellie]

Lars gripped her elegant hand gently in a shake before letting go and watching with interest as she hissed at the small flying mammal and went to go investigate for herself. I looked over at the small flying creature perched upside down on the bookcase. Bats amused him, they could have possibly been his favorite animal, so long as the things stayed a clear distance away.

His inspection of the animal came to an end short with a ruckus coming out from Giselle's direction. A soon unhealthy young looking vampire came out along with her and apparently not in nice terms with each other. He sat back amused, for he had no idea of their history, and he was a vampire after all, she couldn't really do him horrid harm.

A amused half grin on his face to her while the other left the room, "What can you do? Kid's are kids, honey," he said in a fake manner, "you need a strong hand, or heel, with them after all..." he finished shaking his head returning his voice to normal, "If we sound like a bickering old couple we might as well pretend to be... for the kicks of course."