No matter how powerful a vampire was, the one thing they all could not fight was the very sun itself. Some had a few strange skills that would let them avoid its damage, at least temporarily. Though, most were deathly afraid of it, being one of the startlingly few things that could actually end their immortal existences.
As illogical a sight as it was, seeing the sun beginning to peer over the horizon did well to immediately make Baron and his companions forget all about their prey. In a blur of speed, Awsha rushed inside the mausoleum door that Baron and the mystery woman had exited earlier. The other two rushed to follow her before the sun rose high enough to shut down their bodies completely. After all, if that were to happen whilst they were outside, then there would be nothing left of them but a pile of ash.
As the sun completed it’s ascent, Claire, as well as Kirielle lost consciousness, as they did at each sunrise. Thankfully the thick, dark, smoke filling the dome did manage to protect them each from its rays. Using as much strength and concentration as still remained to him, Eliot closed his eyes tightly, in the same moment as closing his fist just as tightly, causing the entire dome, and those inside it, to vanish from the cemetery the sun now rose above.
A moment later, the dome and its contents appeared in a cellar of some sort, the dome immediately dissipating around them. Breathing heavily as sweat poured off of him, his eyes watering and eyesight blurring, his head aching, Eliot leaned back against the nearest wall, trying to blink away the pounding in his head.
Still crying as she held Claire’s now unconscious body against herself Lyka startled as their location changed and the dome fell away. With wide blue eyes as confused as they were terrified, she looked back at where Eliot also appeared to be very nearly on death’s door.
“Is she... Are you...?” Lyka breathed heavily, barely able to finish voicing any of her thousands of questions and fears right then. Looking down at Claire again, then back at Eliot, she forced her words out, “Is she dead?” her voice broke as she asked the question she was terrified of hearing the answer to.
“Not yet,” Eliot breathed, his voice splintering in pain. “But she will be, if she doesn’t get enough blood to keep healing,” he managed, every word a struggle as the backlash of his powers continued warring against his very soul.
As he was taught long ago, everything did indeed have a price. That was what Douglas had always referred to as ‘Paradox.’ The bigger, more vulgar the magic, the more opposed it was to anything that could actually happen in nature, the bigger the price would be. And fast forwarding the entire world seven hours into the future was way, way too big. And Eliot was now paying that price, with interest.
“B-Blood?” Lyka stammered.
“If I tried to give her mine right now, it would probably kill me. Everything else is already trying to,” he whispered painfully. “And I need to still wake...” he didn’t bother finishing the sentence though as pulled himself across the floor toward where Kirielle had also collapsed as the sunrise arrived seven hours early that day.
With what little strength and magic he could still muster through the blistering pain of that backlash hitting him, he whispered the incantation he had used to wake Claire in the past.
Kirielle’s eyes sprung open as she sat up with a start. She looked around the cellar with even more of the confusion that everything else that night had caused.
Without allowing Kirielle the chance to ask any more questions, as he wasn’t sure how long he could hold onto consciousness then either, Eliot spoke to her, “Claire needs blood, more than any of us can provide, she has to keep healing... ’til I’m strong enough to cast again,” he breathed the words.
Without waiting for further warnings, Lyka moved her wrist to Claire’s mouth, using Claire’s own fangs to tear her skin open. Lyka continued breathing shakily as she let her blood drip into Claire’s mouth. The deep love that the bond made her feel toward Claire was never more obvious than in that moment.
“Blood?” Kirielle asked, forcing her worried eyes away from where Lyka continued to try to provide Claire with that very thing as best she could. “Lucian kept a bunch of it at his office. He knows how to do transfusions, I could summon him.”
“Lucian?” Eliot nearly growled the name, despite how pained his voice still was as the backlash continued. “It’s daylight... and he’s the one who led her...” but he could say no more as he was quickly losing his war with the very forces of the universe as more unbearable pain overtook him.
Kirielle tried to process his words and push past her own feelings over what she had just been told about the man who had not only been a lover to Claire, but a father to Kirielle all of her life as well. Looking back at where Lyka continued feeding Claire, growing paler by the second, and where Eliot looked ready to lose whatever battle was apparently raging inside him at that moment, she had to think quickly.
She closed her eyes and directed her thoughts to the man who not only was now bound to her, but who had the medical knowledge they needed, as well as the knowledge of the blood stores Lucian had kept on hand.
Stolen story; please report.
She urgently sent her thoughts to him, along with rather frantic instructions, summoning him to find them as quickly as he possibly could. She was just about to ask Eliot if there was anything else she needed to tell him, when Eliot lost that war with the forces that were still assaulting him, and now had caused him to crumple to the floor unconscious. And a moment later, the enchantment now gone, Kirielle did the same.
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When Sean and Claire had first traveled to California to join Haven, they had to travel over land from the eastern coast of Mexico. The main thing that kept them safe during that perilous journey was Lissa, and her clan’s uncanny ability to stay awake during the day.
Of course it was an ability that only few learned. And it was usually only used when necessity required. The sun was still deadly to them, after all, limiting what they actually could do during those daylight hours. But as she and Sean looked up from their discussion in the main hall that night to see the hands on the large antique clock spinning forward at a deadly pace, she assumed she may need to use it again, after all.
This was made clear to her once the sun rose outside within seconds, and Sean collapsed to the floor, now forced into his usual daytime slumber. Forcing her eyes to stay open, Lissa looked around worriedly. The eyes of the few servants in the hall that night were just as confused as hers.
“Take him to his bed. I need to see how many others didn’t get to shelter in time,” she told them worriedly. “And hopefully figure out what the hell is even going on,” she added, more to herself.
Lissa’s position as Sean’s enforcer, and essentially the head of his security did give her vast knowledge of all the ways in and out of the estate. These ways of course included the multitude of tunnels that Dahlia’s clan were forced to use to travel around the city. After all, any mortal even seeing their horrific visages would automatically be a breach of the masquerade.
Lissa took another worried look around and headed for the cellar, and the entrance to the tunnels that only she, the Nosferatu clan members, and Sean were even aware of. As she hurried into those tunnels, she tried to stave off fears about exactly how many Kindred and Cainites alike may have met their fate that night when it suddenly became morning, hours before they ever would have even thought to get themselves to shelter.
She couldn’t help her mind wandering to thoughts of what would have happened if Sean had not been inside that night. Would Claire be Prince then? And then another thought occurred to her. What if Claire had not been inside that night either? Swallowing a lump in her throat, she moved more quickly, knowing exactly what her Prince would wish her first course of action to be during this strange night, or rather, morning.
The first place she checked was the club. Due to the money woes plaguing the country, there were only a few dozen patrons that night, who were looking out the windows with understandable confusion at the sunny L.A. Morning that had somehow interrupted their night out. Though the blood bound staff looked even more confused, and not just by Lissa appearing in the doorway that led to the cellar store rooms.
To avoid any sun coming in from the outer windows of the club, Lissa stopped just inside the the doorway of the stairs leading to those store rooms as the bartender on duty turned back to her with the same questioning look everyone else was wearing.
“Is Claire here?” Lissa asked urgently.
Stammering a bit, the bartender offered an answer, “She left with Lucian an hour or so ago.” Lissa simply nodded and began heading back down the stairway, only to be interrupted by the bartender adding, “Kirielle and Lyka disappeared from the dressing rooms a little while ago too.”
“What?” Lissa asked as she shook her head with the worry on her face only deepening. Though she didn’t wait for any further explanation, as she knew Sean would want her to find Claire as soon as possible, if possible at all that was.
Moving as fast as she possibly could, without the benefit of the Toreadors’ supernatural speed, Lissa eventually found her way through the tunnels to get as close as she possibly could to Lucian’s home and medical practice. His house was still nearly twenty feet off from the nearest tunnel exit she could find and she braced herself, knowing that this was not going to be a pleasant twenty feet. After a few seconds Lissa was able to literally transform her entire body into a cloud of mist, just as Haven had told Sean their clan was capable of doing all those years ago when they first started their snake hunt.
Ignoring the searing pain of the sun as best she could, Lissa’s mist form raced from the tunnel to the door of Lucian’s home, sliding under it as quickly as possible. She moved to a spot that no sunlight from any window could reach her, turning herself back into her natural form with a wince at the remaining pain from her momentary brush with sunlight.
Her animalistic senses quickly picked up sound coming from the adjacent medical office. She then skirted her way toward the door that joined the living room and the office, being sure to avoid any errant rays of sun from outside once more.
Upon entering the office she followed the sound to the back rooms, where she found a beautiful blue eyed, auburn haired young man quickly packing jars upon jars of blood into a large suitcase as quickly and safely as he could.
“What are you doing?” Lissa asked with confusion.
Her voice startled him as he turned to face her, “Someone needs this, quickly,” was his only explanation, startled though he was by her sudden appearance, not to mention the strangeness of Kirielle’s message to him, as well as the whole of the strange night-turned-morning itself.
Lissa took a moment, sniffing the air, much the way an animal would, then her eyes moved back to him, “You’re Kirielle’s, aren’t you? You smell like her,” she added more quietly.
“Sme---what?” he asked with further confusion.
“You’ve got her blood in you,” Lissa stated plainly.
Taking another moment to try and process her words, he came to the only conclusion he could, “You’re one of them too?” he asked, with a perplexed look toward the windows.
“Long story, but yes, I am: Sean’s enforcer,” she added as though that should be the only answer needed. “Is Kirielle OK? I was told she disappeared."
“Sean’s...” he swallowed hard as he looked her up and down, “Kirielle summoned me. Told me I needed to bring all this blood to... to save Claire?” he restated the message, which he wasn’t even sure of all the reasons behind just yet.
“Claire?” Lissa exclaimed. “Then I’m coming with you... somehow.”