When Lucian awoke at sunset, his dark eyes soon met Summer’s, which were nearly as dark. She was sitting near the bed expectantly, as if she had just been there for some unknown amount of time, waiting for him to rise.

Before his questioning look could be formed into an actual question regarding her presence there, she spoke, “I think we need to warn Claire,” she greeted him with desperation.

“Claire?” Lucian repeated, buying time to even process her statement, let alone react to it.

“She’s the one Awsha has always been after, right? I mean, you told me the story of how you were turned, how you ended up in America,” she took a wary breath. “We should probably have someone warn Sean too. And I suppose, try to explain... whatever... happened with Eliot today,” she added more quietly.

Lucian’s look of concern and confusion deepened, “Eliot?” he then shook his head as he moved to swing his long legs down from the bed. “How could I have possibly missed this much in only one day?”

“Sorry, the stuff with Eliot is hard to explain, really, but you must admit, Sean and Claire should probably be told that she showed her face in their city again, shouldn’t they?”

Lucian paused in thought a moment before responding, “I can go and tell them, but what’s this about Eliot?”

“I was talking to him today, I wanted him to warn Claire, since I wasn’t sure she’d even want to speak to me, and I’d... rather not wait til nightfall to go find out if she would,” she admitted quietly before continuing, “and while I was talking to him, he got some strange sort of headache or something and just... disappeared? It was very strange, and a bit scary. And this, coming from a fellow mage,” she added, eyes cast down.

“Disappeared?” Lucian repeated with raised brow.

“Vanished. Which is something we can do easily enough I suppose. But the fact that it happened after he suffered some strange pain of some kind? That’s more than a bit worrying,” Summer added with further concern.

Lucian took an even longer pause before responding then, “Yes, that does sound like something Claire would want to be informed of. I can go and tell her, and I’m sure she’ll let Sean know. You and Kirielle stay here, behind the wards,” he added as he moved give her a soft kiss before leaving the room.

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It was already three a.m. when Claire checked the time once again while standing outside the tiny film studio where she, Daeran and Rion were now working on their next film. She sighed in frustration as she tucked the pendant watch back into the long, flowing jacket she wore that night.

That was when another acquaintance of hers happened by. “Making another wildly successful film for the masses, are we?” Lucian greeted her with that charming smile as he stepped into sight.

“Lucian?” she greeted him, turning at the sound of his deep British accent, whilst trying to hide her disappointment that it wasn’t actually the person she had been waiting on for quite some time already that night.

“Claire,” he returned, stepping toward her to take her hand and give it a gentle kiss, that charm of his never far from the surface when in her presence.

“Have a patient here in Hollywood, or have you decided to get into the film business as well?” she managed a smile, after taking another look around to see if her other companion approached yet.

“I have patients everywhere in this city. Which I suppose is a good problem to have, at any rate,” he smiled again as his eyes followed hers as she cast another glance up and down the street. “So, what are you doing standing out here in the street, anyway? I dare say you appear to be waiting for someone, or something.”

“Observant,” she allowed with a wrinkle of her nose. “Though it’s not someone you’ve ever been particularly fond of, so I doubt you’d have the desire to wait here with me for too long,” she chided.

“Ah, your pet mage then?” Lucian smirked.

Claire just shook her head up at him, “And where’s your pet mage tonight, number twelve?” she had to get that dig in.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Touché,” he smirked back, then added, “and seriously, what is the story with that ‘number twelve’ stuff?” he had to ask.

Claire couldn’t help chuckling to herself at his question, “Nothing you need to worry about.”

“Right...” Lucian returned with obvious doubt, “And exactly how long has the magic man kept you waiting out here?”

Claire sighed slightly, “He’s usually not ever late. I mean, the man can literally blink himself across oceans and continents in seconds. Not like he normally gets sidetracked. So, it’s a bit worrying,” she confessed as she looked up and down the street once again.

“Well, if it’s just an escort home you’re looking for, I happen to be free at the moment,” he offered with another charming smile.

But before she could take him up on his offer, Daeran and Rion exited the studio doors behind her. Both of the attractive young men were all smiles, as usual, especially since the previous night’s premiere had went so very well.

“Claire, love, what on earth are you still doing out here?” Rion greeted her, his own British roots apparent in his greeting to her.

“Yes, we thought you’d have been long gone by now,” Daeran agreed with his partner as they reached her side.

Another small sigh from Claire before answering, “Seems something’s held Eliot up tonight. It’s concerning, to say the least.”

“Well, since we were just leaving, share a car with us. He can come looking for you at our place if he ever gets himself together. Sound good?” Daeran stated, the director in him immediately moving him to solve whatever problem he encountered.

“I suppose I have been waiting a while already,” she conceded sadly as she stepped toward them, both men moving to protectively encircle her with an arm. “Goodnight, Lucian,” she called back over her shoulder as her rather flamboyant business partners led her off toward their waiting streetcar.

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~1915~

Claire was nothing short of beside herself for the remainder of that first week after Eliot’s most recent disappearance. She was beyond stressed and overwhelmingly scared that he had once again fallen into yet another of those magical comas, trapping him outside of his own life once more. Only, this time, Claire had no earthly idea where his physical self even was, which meant she would have no way of getting him back again, this time.

However, after nearly a week of that unbearable panic, she finally received a strange letter from him. Though, that letter only gave her the vaguest of explanations. In it he spoke of the knowledge of the future which he had magically locked away inside his own mind. He explained that it had somehow come back to him with no warning.

He went on to tell her that this caused him to immediately have to spirit himself away, quite literally, to find a means to repair whatever had caused that mystical wall inside his head to crumble. He added that, until he did find that solution, if it existed at all, they all would be safer if he were nowhere near anyone who could see inside his head. And that now applied to Claire, as well as Sean. Yet another reason for Claire to regret ever allowing herself to learn how to use that ability after all.

And, of course, he ended the letter with his assurance of his love for her, and his repeated vow to still return to save her when she needed him to.

Claire then tried to give herself the time to get over the pain and upset caused by his words. Despite the way he had tried to offer comfort at the end of the message, Claire had to once again find some way to move on, without him. As it seemed she had no choice, once again.

Having lived over three hundred years already, she tried to force down her emotions enough to make a healthy, even productive choice in how to deal with this latest pain in her long life. She decided she would throw herself headlong into one of the only things that had given her joy in recent years, which was her new identity as the consultant and producer of the films borne of Daeran’s and Rion’s creative visions.

And over the next five years, that seemed to dull her pain, to an extent. And several of their films were successful during that time as well. All seemed to be going well, at least on a surface level. But, as with all forms of self medication, even that became less effective to completely blot out all of Claire’s deep, deep pain, in time, and she needed to find another placebo.

As per usual, Sean tried his best to distract her any time both their schedules allowed. But those times were rare, to say the least.

But the rare times Claire found herself not distracted by work, or her occasional evening with Sean, there was still that ache in her soul. That looming dread that she might never see Eliot again. That fear that he might not actually be able to save her after all. That horrible voice in her head telling her it might all be for nothing, in the end.

Working as closely with her as they had for years now, Daeran and Rion easily noted those moments when Claire had trouble hiding her discontent with the state of her life. They said nothing the first few times they had found her staring out into the night, of hiding the traces of tears on her cheeks.

Eventually though, they gave in to their already pre-existing admiration for her, and their desire to see her happy again. After finding her trying to hide signs of tears once again following the wrap of their latest film, the two took it upon themselves to invite her into their off-set lives that night. And due to her current disillusionment with everything else that she had tried to use to block out the pain, she decided cultivating a deeper friendship with the two talented, and quite beautiful young Kindred, would be the next salve she would try applying to her distraught soul.