When Summer knocked at her father’s old bedroom door to wake Eliot, she looked up at him with equal parts happiness and worry. Eliot groggily exited the room that he had been staying in while working out a way to solve the current problem keeping him from properly reuniting with Claire after all these years.

“You’re dressed already?” he asked Summer as he pushed sleep tangled locks from his face as the just now rising sun outside shone brightly through the windows.

“I actually just, well,” Summer took a breath, trying to swallow her smile, “I just got back,” she admitted sheepishly.

“Back? At dawn?” he gave her a puzzled look, then added, “Back from where?”

“The mansion,” she smiled again.

Eliot continued to look down at the tiny, overly joyous girl before him, “From what I’ve seen, there are several mansions in this city now. Care to elaborate?”

“Please, there’s only one that anyone refers to as the mansion,” she teased as she moved to begin preparing some sort of breakfast for them as he shuffled out of the room, watching her as he did.

“You were at Claire’s place?” Eliot replied warily, not sure what to think of that fact.

“Well, technically isn’t it Sean’s... and Claire’s?” she made herself add as she moved about the small kitchen.

Eliot took a breath as he moved to take a seat at the table as she began preparing their meal. “I know you wanted to help them with wards, but I’ve helped with the wards around this place myself, and that didn’t take an entire night.”

“I guess I got distracted,” she stated with a tiny chuckle.

“You’re acting rather peculiar, Summer,” he stated quietly as he continued to watch her.

She shook her head back at him with the grin still in place, “I figured you of all people would understand this particular type of peculiar,” she giggled again before turning back to her task.

“I’m not awake enough yet to decipher vague comments in a language other than my native one. So, please, explain further,” he returned suspiciously.

She began to speak, only to have the tiniest trace of worry seep in then, causing her to backtrack over her original response to his request, “You said that they did have an open marriage, right?”

“They as in Sean and Claire? Well only for the last three centuries or so, unless a lot has changed since I’ve been away. But considering I know that they still had one in the future too...” his voice then trailed off. “And why exactly are you asking about their marriage?”

Summer bit her lip again, “Just, Claire seemed a little jumpy when I was talking to Sean, is all.”

Eliot raised a brow, “Of course she’s suspicious of anyone new. She has had that terrible prophecy hanging over her for longer than you and I have even been alive,” he defended. He then had to ask for further details, “And you talking to Sean somehow led to you being there all night and now inquiring about the openness of their marriage?”

“Well,” she looked down to hide another smile, “talking is all I had planned to do, anyway.”

“You...? What?” Eliot had to ask, not quite ready to let himself jump to that conclusion just yet, it being such an unexpected one, on many levels.

“Oh come on, El! You’ve seen the man! Just looking at him makes you want to...” she then blushed and turned away to return to preparing the meal once again.

Eliot shook his head as he tried to fully process her confession, “As true as that is...” he caught his breath, “Just how?”

“How?” she couldn’t help another giggle escaping her lips at that particular word.

“How did just putting up wards somehow lead to...” he shook his head again.

“How did abducting some random woman lead to pretending she was your wife, in every way, even though you were only interested in men?” she called him on the question, the answer obvious when referring to the amount of desire both members of that couple inspired in any mere mortal, or mage, it seemed. “I think you know exactly how,” she allowed another small chuckle.

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“I can’t help it, Summer. This is just... unexpected,” he settled on.

“Not the most fitting word I’d use to describe it,” she grinned again, “but it’ll do.”

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Summer’s new infatuation did do well to inspire more than just shock in Eliot over the next week. Seeing how easily enamored she had become with another beautiful immortal creature, such as the one he himself had fallen for decades ago, did do well to motivate him even more so to find a way to be able to be in Claire’s life once again.

After much experimentation, Eliot had hoped that he had finally found that way to protect himself, as well as others, from all that knowledge he had discovered of Claire’s future. What he had hoped he had managed to do was lock those memories of the future deep inside his head, with an enchantment that would not dissipate until that moment in the future when he would need that information. However, that lock also had to be able to not crumble in the face of the psychic abilities of a Kindred as strong as Sean indeed was.

Eliot doubted that Sean would deliberately try to rip that knowledge from his head. But he also knew that if Claire were ever in danger any time before the looming prophecy came to pass, it would be nigh impossible for Sean to resist the need to go after that knowledge even if it wasn’t on a conscious level. After all, Eliot was all too aware of exactly how far Sean went the last time Claire was in mortal danger. His nearly fifteen years lost in Claire’s past as well as her future was more than enough proof of that.

So, he had to find some way to test the strength of the mental wall he had locked that knowledge behind. All he needed was another vampire who could also read minds, and who was as strong as Sean was, This vampire also had to be one whose own mind could not be read if Eliot’s wall failed, and they came to discover Claire’s future themselves. That seemed simple enough, right?

Eliot began searching his brain for a list of all the vampires he had interacted with at all before his time-walk, of sorts. There was of course Sean, Claire, and number twelve. He shook his head on that last one. Then he dug deeper, back to when he had first discovered that there even were vampires in the world at all. Back when he and Claire had not even yet been lovers; back before they had even returned to America at all...

The three he met on the night he was finally made aware of Claire’s true nature were the ones his mind obviously wandered to. Unfortunately he had only had significant interaction with one of those three. Though ‘significant’ was a bit of an understatement for the passionate night he had spent with Aidan and Claire back in London. And there was the fact that Aidan was not as strong as even Claire, and had already told Eliot that he was not a mind reader, like the others of his kind that had been present that night.

So that left the somewhat damaged Nicolas who was Eliot’s own countryman, and had actually been there moments before Eliot found a way to unlock that spark inside that led to his discovery of what he truly was, himself. He had at least had a conversation with Nicolas in his time there. That wasn’t even true of the lord of the castle, whose discontent with Eliot’s unbound status was the main impetus behind he and Claire’s return to America on that hellish journey across the sea that had nearly claimed Eliot’s very life.

So, it seemed Eliot’s options had been narrowed down to two. However, that was two more than he had thought he had. So, he had to explore those. He left a quick note for Summer, then with a deep breath he took a seat on his bed and concentrated hard. A moment later, he then vanished from the little home where he and Douglas had spent so much time, and where he had learned so very much.

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“Monsieur Bonaparte, you seem to age as well as we do,” was Hollister’s greeting in the velvet British accent as Eliot warily entered the main hall of his home.

Once he got past that overwhelming awe that was even greater than either Sean or Claire inspired, he spoke. “Lord Hollister,” Eliot returned the greeting with a bow of his head.

“So, I take it your still very youthful beauty means that Claire finally gave you her blood, like I had encouraged her to all those years ago?” Hollister continued as Eliot cautiously approached.

“Only after another Kindred gave me his blood without my knowledge. Claire wanted to save me from the withdrawal,” he further clarified, not then mentioning that it had indeed been decades since he had ingested any Kindred blood at all.

“Of course,” Hollister replied wryly before moving on. “So what could possibly have brought you to my humble abode tonight, alone?” he added as he glanced past Eliot, seeing more than most, as all of his kind often tended to.

Not wanting to prolong their conversation, Eliot responded, “I was wondering if Nicolas still resided here.”

“Nicolas?” Hollister raised a brow, “I hadn’t realized that you two had become so close during your ever so brief visit with me, all those years ago. Aidan, on the other hand...” Hollister added with a smirk, which easily caused Eliot to look down with a swallowed breath.

After another moment to compose himself, Eliot looked back up before continuing, “Nicolas and I did only have one full conversation, technically. But it was a very important one, and I have an honest need to see him again now.”

“Why?” Hollister asked bluntly.

Hollister was never one to waste too much time, especially with a mere ghoul who wasn’t even his own, and who was no longer even as prominent a figure in the mortal world as he was upon their last meeting. But his curiosity had already been piqued then, as he adjusted his vision once more to take a closer look at the young man before him.

“You’re not just any ghoul, after all,” he stated, his curiosity apparent as he shielded his eyes slightly. “You’re an honest to goodness mage, aren’t you?”

Eliot looked back up quickly, “You know of mages?”

“Oh dear Eliot, I am very old, and very impressed. You could be quite useful indeed.”