When Claire returned to the club again that night, Lucian immediately rose from his table near the stage. He moved to meet her as quickly as he could, short of allowing himself to make use of that supernatural speed of theirs in a club full of mortals.
“Do you have any idea how worried I was? One moment, I was asking you to talk to Kirielle, the next, one of your ser---bartenders,” he corrected, “was telling me you’d gone home?”
Claire looked up at where he now stood right next to her, grasping her arm slightly. “My conversation with her wasn’t very long at all, so I went to try and find out more information from Lissa, and Sean,” she added. “I assumed you’d want to know as much as we could, as quickly as we could.”
Lucian looked down again, regretting his scolding tone earlier, “Lissa and Sean?” He then warily asked, “And what did you find out then?”
“We should probably discuss it upstairs,” Claire told him with a pointed look at the crowd of mortals around them.
Lucian looked worriedly back at the stage, where the performers, including Kirielle, were well into their current act. “Your tone is not filling me with calm at the idea of letting her out of my sight.”
Claire gave his arm what she hoped was a comforting touch, “She’ll be onstage for most of the night. I honestly doubt even her mother would be bold enough to approach her mid-show. Considering all the spotlights, the twenty or so other performers, and the hundreds of audience members.” She then offered a slight squeeze to his arm. Lucian looked back toward the stage once more before hesitantly nodding and moving to follow her toward the stairs.
“So, we know it definitely was her mother then?” he was already asking as they entered Claire’s office a few moments later. Inside, he didn’t even move to take a seat. Instead he stationed himself at the huge window on the wall of her office which looked out at the club floor, and the stage, from the floor above.
“That’s what Penelope claimed to be, at any rate,” Claire assured softly, also choosing to forego her own seat after closing the door behind him. Instead she moved to stand next to him at the observation window.
“So Kirielle actually told you the woman’s name, and confirmed who she was, to her?”
“Not... exactly,” Claire sighed with a guilty look down.
That caught Lucian as he finally moved his dark eyes from the stage below and looked back at Claire with even more wariness then. “You do it too now?”
“It?” Claire replied, the word seeming to pain her as she refused to meet his eyes.
“What Sean does,” he clarified, his tone obviously guarded.
Claire let out a deep, regretful sigh, “Not to the extent he does. And I try to only use it when I have to. When I’m worried there may be some danger if I don’t,” she attempted to excuse, not letting herself dwell on that time she had given into the urge to use it on Summer, back when she was with Sean, rather than Lucian.
“How interesting,” he replied shakily, an almost tangible tension taking him over.
Claire attempted a slight chuckle to put him at ease, knowing all too well how much she had always recoiled at the thought of Sean having that skill as well. “No need to turn even paler, somehow,” she managed a smile, “You know very well that you and I are the same generation. I can barely make out your feelings most of the time, let alone, anything... deeper,” her voice trailed off, looking down again. “And Kirielle is only a mortal now, so it’s easier with them. And at least we know the information I saw there was more accurate than anything she’d probably have told me on her own anyway.”
Lucian swallowed again, “Now?” He seemed to fixate on that word. “So how worried should I actually be about her then?”
Claire let out another sad sigh, “Yes, Penelope, her mother, did voice a desire to embrace her. And of course the allure of eternal beauty and power is something all mortals, especially ones as young as Kirielle, would be drawn to. After all, they don’t really comprehend the true cost,” Claire’s voice shook as she finished, allowing another tiny insight into her feelings about her own existence.
Lucian took a long moment before just then recalling what she had said downstairs, “And why didn’t you just come and tell me this as soon as you... spoke... with Kirielle? Why did you need to go to Lissa... and Sean first?
Another sigh from Claire, “I was hoping to find out Penelope’s clan, just in case.”
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“In case?” Lucian repeated worriedly. Though seeing Claire’s expression, and considering their previous conversation, it wasn’t hard to finish that sentence in his own head. “And did you find out?”
Moving her sad eyes down to the girl onstage just then, Claire made herself answer, “Turns out, Penelope actually told Kirielle her clan, in a way. I just didn’t recognize the name when I saw it, in her thoughts,” she added with that continued trace of guilt over using that ability at all.
Lucian narrowed his eyes down at Claire, “How could you not recognize any clan name? You’re over three hundred years old!” he asked in disbelief.
Claire just shook her head at his response before moving on, “That’s the thing. Their entire clan has been around less than a century, and even that much is up for debate. And yes, I was just as shocked by that information as I’m sure you now are, when Sean told me about them tonight.”
“How...?” Lucian asked with confusion.
“Exactly what I asked,” Claire sighed.
Lucian tried to force himself onward through the conversation, “So what else did he tell you about this apparently new clan?”
Claire tried to find any way to comfort him then, “It won’t even matter, really, if we can convince her that becoming like us is not something she actually wants, Lucian.”
“What did he tell you about them?” he repeated, his voice dropping as he did.
That was when Claire closed her eyes sadly, knowing that he would likely even be less happy with that answer than she had been when she had heard it herself.
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Later that night, the performers were rushing around backstage, making any hair, makeup, or wardrobe changes they needed to before the show’s finale. Kirielle was at her dressing table, about to re-apply her makeup when she suddenly stopped and looked around questioningly.
At the table next to her was an equally beautiful young songstress and dancer, Jasmine. She happened to be just a few years older than Kirielle, and the next best performer employed there, making her the obvious choice for Kirielle’s understudy.
Jasmine glanced over at Kirielle briefly, as she was putting the finishing touches on her own makeup, “You better hurry. Unless you were planning letting me have my big break tonight instead,” she told her, trying to sound more playful than hopeful as she spoke.
“Did you hear that?” Kirielle asked, still looking around distractedly.
“The sound of twenty other people getting ready more quickly than you seem to be? Yes, I did. What is going on with you girl?” Jasmine asked, continuing to apply her own makeup as she spoke.
“I...” Kirielle looked around again, her distraction continuing, “I just think I’m going to go get some air,” and with that, she shakily stood as she began moving toward the backstage exit that existed for safety reasons alone.
“Air?” Jasmine nearly yelped as she turned to watch Kirielle moving toward the exit. “We have less than fifteen minutes!” Jasmine huffed with a combination of annoyance, worry, and nervousness as Kirielle stepped out of the club.
Ten minutes later, the lead choreographer in Claire’s employ, moved over to where Jasmine stood gnawing at a nail, and waiting for the cue for them all to take their places on the stage.
“Please tell me you have some idea where our show’s star is?” he asked Jasmine through clenched teeth.
Jasmine looked back at him nervously, “She said something about getting air. But that was ten minutes ago,” she admitted, more than a bit of worry in her voice.
“Air?” his tone nearly matched Jasmine’s yelp when she had said the same thing earlier, only he seemed even more annoyed then.
“You want me to go check outside?” she asked in a small voice.
“No for god’s sake!” he replied bitingly as he snapped his fingers at one of the assistants who were there to help any of the performers get ready between acts. “You,” he barked at the assistant, “go outside and see if you can find out where on Earth Kirielle is!” Then he turned back to Jasmine, “And you, go get into your copy of her outfit, quickly!”
“M—My copy?” Jasmine stuttered.
“You are the understudy after all. And did you hear the ‘quickly’ part?” he bit out at her, his nerves beyond frayed by the whole of the situation.
Minutes later, the curtains did rise, and Claire and Lucian had since made their way back down to a table near the stage. Though, Lucian looked even more worried than he had earlier in the night, after having been told all Claire had learned about Penelope’s clan.
As the curtain came up, both Claire and Lucian had even more fear pass over their faces then, as it was Jasmine who stepped into the spotlight and began belting out that first number.
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Claire, Lucian, and some other Kindred she had called in to help, had searched for Kirielle since the time of her disappearance, slightly past two A.M. until well after four. But, as sunrise was going to be upon them soon, they had to eventually leave the search in the hands of their servants instead, much to the dismay of both Claire and Lucian.
The other Kindred began heading back to their havens, as Lucian leaned back against the outer wall of Raven’s Loft, looking more than a bit terrified, and trying to hold himself together as best he could.
Claire swallowed hard as she looked back at him from her spot near where Lissa was instructing a group of servants about continuing the search throughout the day.
Claire sighed, trying to hold back her own upset as best she could as well. She gently touched Lissa’s arm and spoke softly to her once the servants moved off to fulfill their day’s task. “Can you tell Sean I’m probably going to stay with Lucian tonight? I’m not sure he should be alone.” She then looked back at him sadly. “He’s already lost one daughter,” she added, nearly to herself, before moving to his side and offering him a gentle hug, despite her doubts that anything would truly be able to comfort him if they did not find Kirielle safe, and hopefully, still mortal.