"Can… I have a minute to hide?" Katherine asks as they park. "Oh wait, I'm covered in blood. Won't be hiding much." Nervous words spill from her as she slowly gets out of the car, wondering how easy it would be to activate the prey instinct at this point. If she'd even survive it.
"Don't run, I'll catch you rough." Estelle warns, at a razor's edge of hungry desire. Stalking out of the car.
Very slow, and calm steps, nervous as she reaches the door, turning the handle hoping it was locked so that there'd be a few more seconds, but sadly, it was not. It pulls open with a torturously slow creak, then the wooden door. She looked behind at the two ravenous women. Her mind doing mental math while the lustful parts of her shut down major cognitive processes. Katherine darts inside trying to get to the bathroom to close the door and lock it.
Katherine can hear the stomping vampire behind her, snapping whatever limits she had with the moving prey. She's so close her breath hits the mortal woman's neck before the bathroom door slams shut, an impact shaking it in its frame as a growl sounds out through the door.
"Why are you so slow Estelle? Aren't vampires supposed to be supernaturally athletic?" The teasing never stops, Katherine not entirely sure why other than sheer delight. A native urge to push people see where the limits lie. She was now terrified of what would happen next, knowing she might have gone too far, but can't stop with the safety of the door between them. "Nya nya." She says finally, like a
bully.
"I'm gonna ki–" Estelle stops suddenly as the humming finally gets close, "Katerina. My love. Won't you let us in?" Eleanora's voice is honey, sweet and enticing, calming anxieties by mere presence.
The giggling doesn't stop, in fact, the giggling is all that she really has left. "The way I see it." She starts as she hears a bump against the door, "I can only dig down at this point. I want to see what bedrock looks like."
"I can make sure you live, my love." She croons, nails scratching gently at the door. "What pleasure's we'll show you. Please." Eleanora's voice is a flickering phantom, backed by the animalistic growls of Estelle, the door's hinges only one or two more impacts away from shattering.
"Oh, I'm actually in danger." Katherine says suddenly with glee, "That really should be scary, ok step back I'm opening the door." She stayed seated where she was. Then remembering their super natural hearing stands up and walks towards the door, but staying out of what she assumes is arm's reach as she reaches for the handle. They have short arms right? They're both tiny.
The door opens, and Eleanora has a hand on Estelle, her eyes black, a smile on her face.
"Oh shit." Katherine says quietly with a giggle.
"Come to bed, mon amour." Eleanora extends a hand out, waiting for Katherine to accept it, to give into her even as she is.
Her heart leaps into her throat as Katherine takes Eleanora's hand, looking at Estelle for a moment. "We should go running together." Why can't she stop taunting.
Eleanora pulls Katherine over, Estelle controlled by her gentle hand, kept at that bare level of utter fury and need intermixing. The bedroom feels as if it's miles away. Yet it still arrives much too quickly, the velvet red and black of the room terrifying in a way, the utter dark of it making Katherine feel lost, moved by unseen forces.
"You're mine." Estelle growls as Katherine falls onto the bed, glowing eyes shining through the dark. Eleanora looms behind, smiling beautific, like a lady in her private quarters.
"I'm not sorry. It was worth every minute." Katherine says as she undresses, kicking her clothes off excitedly as she scoots further back on the bed. "It's not my fault you're both slow."
Estelle pounces, kissing Katherine roughly, bruising her with her touch and growling all throughout, a wild animal of need, doing anything to hold themselves back, to not give in just yet. Eleanora sits at the side of the bed, starting to slip her dress off slowly whilst Katherine's breath is stolen for minutes, until the corners of her vision begin to blacken and a panic builds fully.
Estelle tears herself away with a growled groan, barely able to do it, shaking with the exertion while Eleanora finally gets her dress fully off, sliding into bed and brushing a cold hand on Katherine's arm, "Mon amour, have you drunk water today?" She asks, curious.
"Actually, yes. I knew today was going to be…" She looks at Estelle's ravenous fury. "Extensive. I am topped off on water, meds, and food." Now looking at Eleanora, the look on her face causing a moment of alarm. Foreboding mixing with ecstasy, "Am I allowed to bite back?"
"Tu me traites si bien, mon soleil." You treat me so well, my sun. Eleanora chuckles warmly, nodding at the request, "Act out any way you can, mon amour, I wish to see your limits." A dark sort of joy enters her voice as she leans in, hand snaking to Katherine's thigh and then between her legs whilst her mouth suckles and teases a bite on her neck.
Something about the statement made Katherine want to get creative. So she reaches out and pinches Eleanora on the nipple. Wanting to see the extremely controlled woman break just a little. Fully aware of the danger, but also so unbelievably trusting of the people she was with. She had only known them a week, but she knew that these two would die for her, the same as she would for them. So she added a slight twist.
Eleanora's fangs dip in just a half inch, sending a rattling wave of pleasure into Katherine before they pull out again, a gasp having come to the vampire at the sudden touch.
"You said." Katherine giggled nervously.
Estelle dives back down, shirt torn off her with a growl and ripping fabric noises, thrown aside as she presses in, leeching more of Katherine's feverish heat out, trailing a line of near-bites all along her neck, collarbone and breast, going lower and lower.
"I'm actually scared that neither of you are biting." Katherine said suddenly, her nerves now fully taking over as Estelle gets close to something she hadn't experienced. In all those hundred and some years trying to learn Eleanora, never considering once what it would like to be learned.
"You trust us, my love?" Eleanora comforts as Estelle finally reaches her target, tongue moving roughly, fast.
"To the edges of the~" She gasps not expecting… Just not expecting. She hadn't really known what to expect.
Eleanora kisses Katherine whilst the iron grip of Estelle bruises her legs, a deep, slow exchange which has the smaller woman lean in more and more, until she separates, slipping downwards and resting her lips against Katherine's neck in an oh-so-familiar position.
"Are you ready?" She asks, slow and sensual in all things, voice like silk, breath like a summer breeze.
Her voice is coming out in rapid gasps as Eleanora asks her… Something. Something probably important, but she's too busy gripping Estelle's hair to consider what it might be one hand on her own body as she's pinned. Still so very loud her eyes closed as she feels herself be treated like a priestess, a goddess, a shrine to be worshipped at. All the attention and love she had always wanted in her life. Pained yeses spill out of her in wild yelps as she tries to push Estelle into herself.
Eleanora reaches down, grabbing Estelle's head and twisting it to face Katherine's thigh, forcing it into it as she bites. Followed a breath of a moment later by Estelle's fangs. Peaks of impossible pleasure mix into the droning cacophony of sudden waves of agony, both shaking her beyond any sort of mortal limit. The room falls away, nothing but the feeling left in her world, that draining ecstasy, that overwhelming pained excess.
It's terrifying, it's overwhelming, it's more than anything she could ever stand. Eleanora separates, the pleasure stops, and a second later, the pain stops as Estelle tears free with another growl.
Almost immediately, Katherine is begging, "No no, come back. Come back!" The noise is weak and pitiful as she realizes she's soaked in blood, that every part of her was dripping sweat, saliva, and sanguinous fluid. "Come back." She says again, reaching out towards both of them.
"I'm here." Estelle moves up, holding Katherine while Eleanora silently nestles back into her neck, tongue teasing. "You've got limits, Katherine. You'll die." She hisses.
"Oh…" She said quietly, gasping, "Right, I forgot. That's bad." She tries to breathe again, "Ok. That makes sense. Please don't kill me." It's not nearly as earnest as it should sound, but it's there and it's true.
Estelle breathes out at the request, shaking with control.
"In." She gasped again quietly, "In my defense, I forgot." Trying to not to scream in enjoyment, and fear, and ecstasy. "I think, I think next time I tease you too, I go maybe, slightly less far."
"You are a smart girl, ma Katerina." Eleanora whispers through bloody lips, purple lipstick barely visible under the curtain of vitae.
She continues to gasp loudly, trying to catch herself trying to figure out… Something. "How… Bad am I on the uh… Fuel tank?"
"You'll need three bags." Eleanora answers, "And four weeks."
"Four weeks!?" She gasps morosely, "Why can't we just use more bags?!"
"My love, you are getting addicted." Eleanora says with a frown.
"Oh maybe six weeks then," Katherine agrees, finally calming down, "I thought I could only be addicted from drinking from you. I didn't realize… That makes sense. I also forgot we don't have to bite to have sex, and like… I really don't want that to stop, especially after thirty years of…" She blushes quietly, not sure if she had quite mentioned that part to Estelle.
"Don't tell me that shower sex was your virginity." Estelle bemoans, suddenly very worried.
"Like… Third time? Tenth if you count the loop. I didn't… It was… a bit too scary and I wanted to use the time to learn skills."
"Okay," She breathes out, "That's…good, that's…If it was I was gonna be working forever to make it up to you."
"Is it too late to change my answer?" Katherine says with a grin.
"Shut up before I drink you." Estelle threatens, moving back into Katherine's neck, nestling in to stay there, at the pulse of her vein. Eleanora leaves an empty spot as she stands up and finds her blood bags, beginning to run an IV into her, pouring blood that restores sanity, life and breath to her, lowering her heart-rate.
Finally regaining her senses, she says, "Ok, I think no more biting if it's addictive, at least for a little bit." Trying to be firm, "I thought the four weeks was for health reasons, but I'd rather not turn into whatever the vampire version of a tweaker is."
"It's not addictive addictive." Estelle says, with a roll to her eyes, "It's…there's nothing better than this addictive. I'm not gonna let Eleanora's bad wording stop me."
She looks at Estelle confused, "Cuddling is at least on par." The earnesty in her voice is concerning.
"My love, you were ready to die for more. We can wait awhile." Eleanora is concerned as the third bag is poured into her.
She looks to Eleanora, "I'm not asking for more biting truly. I like to learn things. I also really think cuddling and just being together and reading is on par. Do you two not?" She looks at both of them a little concerned at this point.
"I do, but our tastes are rarefied and old at this point, mon amour." Eleanora smiles warmly, speaking from experience.
"I like cuddling, don't get me wrong, but it's like, only in my top five?" Estelle thinks for a split second.
A very almost sad nod at Estelle is given from Katherine, "I think… I've been alone so long that all contact is kind of… on the same page right now. It might change?"
"Fucking hell, you just tore my heart out." Estelle says, leaning up and then tightly hugging Katherine. "You are way too cute." She whispers through the hug.
Katherine realized that she had isolated herself from Eleanora in her free nights, that the loop had been somewhat out of time completely. A place where she just… Learned and isolated and spent time with a five hour snippet of an idea rather than a person. The Eleanora from the loop wasn't the Eleanora she loves now. When she tried to put things in a chronological order from then, none of it felt… Real, like a dream with muscle memories, some skills and memorized zingers, but not… Anything that felt real anymore. Spending time in the timeline properly had connected her to her own experiences much quicker than she realized. What she said was very true. She had no romantic partners from seventeen onward, and her friends had mostly drifted apart after college.
Eleanora can sense it, without words, she gently pulls a needle out, bandaging it quickly before returning to a hug, now warm with the constant exposure to the mortal woman.
"I really like having friends now." Katherine says happily as the blood returns some sense to her. "How much of the interest in me is due to being a little naive and clueless? I won't be like that forever, and if one of us dies and I re-loop, I want to know how to get to this state again."
"Huh? No I just liked you on first sight. You could grate meat on that." Estelle points at the rippling abs on Katherine with a wild grin. "Everything else was just cherries."
"The sugar on the cream," She responds with a wink, though still a little concerned as she cuddles both Estelle and Eleanora, "Did you change much in personality Eleanora? Over the years I mean."
"Of course, time marches on. Experiences shift you. The woman I was a century ago is not the woman I am now. The girl I was five centuries ago is not who I am now." She explains with a calm and understanding tone.
"So… Because I looped for a century and a half, am I not the woman you fell in love with?" She's even more scared now, her fears confirmed.
"Why not?" Eleanora tilts her head, "I still love you, as much as I did when I could not finish my Kiss." Her voice is the slightest bit emotional.
Katherine can't let it go, "But what if I do this over and over, and I suddenly seem weird and creepy because I just… Know. I just Know you both of you in a way tha—"
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"Hey idiot." Estelle interrupts. "She likes you knowing things. Makes her feel young and inexperienced."
"I'm talking about you too though. I'm just scared, I want this for an eternity, and I'm worried that there will be a point where I stop being the right person because I kept changing, and I'll have to pretend to be something because I'd be scary and weird." Katherine admits, squeezing both with a tightness that a strong human can muster, but a human none-the-less.
"You wanna know my secret?" Estelle answers quietly. "How I keep it all together when it's.. Spiraling out of the handle?"
She's now lost in her thoughts, barely comprehending, "I just… I'm freaked out. What do I say when I call you for help next loop Estelle and I love you insanely deeply and then you walk in all punk rock and bad ass and don't know me at all? How do I learn hundreds of years of everything so I don't lose anything."
"I'm simple, to be honest." She keeps talking, "You just have to be a little scared, a little cute, and a lot brave." Estelle grins, "Then, I can use you as an anchor, okay?"
The breathing is getting more panicked somehow. She nods, before whispering, "Can I have my inhaler?"
Eleanora is handing it over almost before Katherine was done talking, worriedly looking at her sun with a frown.
She takes three of the nasal spray quickly, feeling her heart almost immediately calming down, "Sorry. Sorry. I can know everything, but I don't know yet what makes it happen, so I'm freaking out."
"My love. It is a difficult lesson for us immortals to learn. But we all do eventually. The world is not to be known completely. It is to be breathed and lived in." Eleanora gently comforts, rubbing an icy hand on Katherine's forehead.
Katherine nods happily, feeling comfort and resting gently on her pillow covered in blood, "You said that before and I had a line prepared, but I forgot it." She whispered.
Eleanora stays quiet, smiling at the reaction. She starts to soothe Katherine into rest while Estelle slowly stops vibrating with a hunger, turning back to just…Estelle, rubbing at Katherine with a fading, satisfied need.
"You're crazy, Kat." Estelle finally comments in a deeply amused tone of voice. "You just hung steak in front of two lions, and hoped they wouldn't eat it."
As Katherine slowly started to drift into that dreamy in between sleep and rest, she said, "It was you two. You'd never hurt me, well not in a way I didn't want I mean."
There's a smirk from Estelle at that, but no more words as the world slips into nothing but dreams.
----------------------------------------
A buzzing phone wakes Katherine up, sunlight barely visible through carefully set curtains, just enough to see that its daylight, not night. Its on Estelle's side of the bed, buzzing from the back of her jeans. Neither of the other two women notice it, in their torpid daysleep as they are. The noise draws her attention, as she slowly tries to crawl out of bed, walking towards her hanging trench coat and grabbing her own phone. Typing into a spreadsheet that she took her pills as she rummages through the pockets for the pills themselves. With a dry swallow she manages to get them all down quickly enough.
The phone is still buzzing, but that seems rude to just answer someone else's phone. She slips on clothes for the night and checks her own "4:56 PM Sunset in 62 minutes" A little off she thinks to herself, Closer to sixty-six. Creeping through the house on light steps she opens her new laptop, and quickly flits through the camera feeds, scrubbing through hours of footage, then check the exterior feed. As always she takes snapshots of every car on the block, puts them in a folder, and then notes them in a spreadsheet.
An exterior camera, in the now, shows a black-haired man in a dark suit leaning against the side of the house, smoking a cheap smoky cigarette. He's obviously waiting, turning his head to the camera just as Katherine can see him.
She looks at the man with a squint, somewhat… Wary. She types into her tagged photos "black hair," and watches as her folder list narrows down.
----------------------------------------
\Surveillance\People
\Surveillance\Vehicles
\Surveillance\Paranoia
\Surveillance\People\240403\black-hair-smoker.png
\Surveillance\People\240401\blonde-hair-smoker.png
\Surveillance\People\240328\dog-walker-smoker.png
\Surveillance\Paranoia\240401\black-hair-smoker.txt
\Surveillance\Vehicles\240330\white-van-smoker-related.png
----------------------------------------
She very quickly opens up the various images. Not the same guy, build's different, face shapes different. Also leaning not just passing by.
----------------------------------------
Create → New File
\Surveillance\Paranoia\240408\man-leaning.txt
----------------------------------------
Noticed a man leaning on the house today. black hair dark suit. Suspicious, waiting for something, looked at a hidden camera. Reposition cameras again? Same time as phone was ringing, setting alarm to double check note in four hours after talking to Estelle and Eleanora.
Then opens her phone making sure the cloud note transferred to her phone, and sets a quick alarm. [Check Note Man Leaning] As the alarm title. A black and mild finds it's way to her mouth as she watches him. She doesn't like it, and reaches under her couch for the shotgun. Walking through a mental list of pros and cons of just killing him now in case he's a threat.
If a person goes missing in front of the house, that'll draw suspicion, plus Katherine keeps firing weapons from the house, which is likely not great. Not to mention her now semi-weekly shrieks are probably making neighbors nervous. If the man is allowed to stay, however, it will bother her. He could be a threat, if she threatens the man directly that would be bad as well confirming that they see him, and don't want him there.
Though it is Los Angeles…
A split decision as she grabs a poptart from the pantry, and a glass of orange juice from the fridge. Carrying both with her to the front door with the shotgun over her shoulder on a strap. She wouldn't threaten him, but she would make it clear he was seen. She stuck the black and mild in her mouth as she opened the door. Placing the orange juice on the glass coffee table outside with a thunk that reverberated then placed the shotgun across her lap as she sat down to enjoy her breakfast.
The man waits, smoking calmly, timing his cigarette with Katherine's breakfast, taking the last drag of it just as she finishes everything up and dropping it into a sewer grate, breathing out a wall of smoke. There's a notable scar on his neck, side to side, mostly covered by the black suits collar, looking like he had the entire thing torn open at some point. He's short, and a bit scrawny, couldn't be taller than five toen.
He looks at Katherine, mustering a very even, almost dead voice for her, unidentifiably American, as if originating from everywhere at once. "Miss Doukas, can I take fifty eight minutes of your time?" The time till sundown, near-exactly.
She raises an eyebrow at him behind her glasses, then in a bubbly sugary sweet voice says, "Sure, you can walk up to the porch and talk to me." After being given permission, he takes long strides up to the porch. Shorter than Katherine, he's maybe five-ten, a hundred and seventy pounds. Katherine studies him as he walks, looking for the "cop walk" the tell-tale slight forward lean that a cop develops from having to counter weight a utility belt for their entire working life. It's… off but definitely someone whose normally armored. That bugs her.
"Tell me, Miss Doukas, have you been having visions?" His voice is once again dead, like someone tried to make a person talk, and all they got was vibrations that sound right, but doesn't quite replicate humanity. "Night time I'd think. Sleep mostly, maybe waking when they're important."
He was now in Kabar range, she realized, but it could be messy on the front porch. "Most people introduce themselves before discussing things with them, officer."
"Agent." He corrects, though not mentioning of what branch of enforcement, "Belltower."
"Agent Belltower, having visions sounds a bit too mystical for my tastes. I'm not prone to flights of fancy." She says bubbly, but with trained ease. She wonders if even that is too much, but he's just kicking tires, and not asked anything that would seem aggressive enough to get rid of him. He knew about the visions, knew about the vampires. Possibly one of the vampire hunters.
Belltower nods, a practiced, rote gesture. "You can call them subconscious statistical analysis if you want. Whatever the case, I've got a lead for you." He extracts a manila folder, smelling just like the inside of a office still, air freshener wafting off it. He doesn't get closer than the porch, however, just holding it. "The situation with the LAPD isn't to the interest of my organization either." Something private?
"Is this a business call Mr. Belltower? I'm unfamiliar with you or your organization." Detective Doukas says, "Would you like to step inside for a more private conversation?" The hand is now on the shotgun.
His eyes are hidden behind mirrorshades, casting the reflection of Katherine back at her. "For another thirty eight minutes, sure." Belltower almost seems to ignore the gun, not judging it a threat worth mentioning as it stands, stepping up the porch and through the front door.
Katherine locks the door behind them after they step inside. "Tell me who you are exactly or I'll have to move. This house will be ruined."
With grit in her voice, "Because someone was murdered in it."
"Strong recommendation, Miss Doukas." Agent Belltower says calmly, "Don't try it at this distance, it won't end well for you." He's very sure of that, moving to a seat across a coffee table to continue the chat with the taller woman.
A twitch at her lips as he sits down, a light -click- echoing through the room. "I wouldn't stand up Agent Belltower without my permission." She walks over and sits down lifting what looks like a large RC remote for a drone with various switches and toggles. "You're sitting on a claymore with silver ball bearings."
The first show of emotion, a small appreciative nod. "That'll do, silver's fungible. I am human." Belltower assures, keeping a steady rhythm of breath.
"Then you'll be waiting here for seventy minutes." She said calmly with a very sweet smile.
"You've got thirty-four, Miss Doukas." He answers, "I work for an organization you've never heard of. And for your own sake, and the sake of everyone you know, never will."
She simply stares, with a smile, though narrowing her eyes behind her glasses, fourty flat, seven days. "Congrats on the birthday last week Agent Belltower."
Nodding again, "Your's isn't soon, so I can't extend the same, Miss Doukas." He looks through the mirrorshades, the slim black plastic and glass hiding what little visible humanity there is. Belltower's not rattled, counter-intel training wholly evident.
"So what happens in thirty-two minutes exactly." The Detective says, her grit coming through now but still trying to be very sweet.
Belltower calmly answers in that even, slowly becoming annoying voice, "Your Claymore experiences a manufacturer's fault, it's a common one in the batch it's from, a disconnecting of the linkage that transmits to the fuse starter. It'll not function for a few seconds. I'll walk out." A surety to his words, this will come to pass.
"If this is that loop, yeah." She says fishing, looking at him closer. "Tell me what you want."
"To fix the problem, Miss Doukas. I don't mind you continuing your love story." He answers, "But rule of law is to be human, not immortal." The agent is firm on that last point, "So, we have to clean house and the cheapest, easiest way to do that, is you."
"Do you really want to get in an eternal struggle with a Time mage." She asks very pointedly and directly.
"Do you?" He returns the question, a second show of emotion in a small smirk.
She thought for a minute, then swore to herself, "I got deliveries here to my real name first night back, then I was on the news." Making a quick mental note to herself to fix that next loop. "Need to fix that next time."
"I'm not as gifted as you are, a loop that encompasses this much time? It's impressive." Belltower says, "But I'll remember, so let's keep being civil for now." It's a silken threat.
"Normally when agents start threatening people it's because they're rattled." She said, "So I clean house and you fuck off? That the deal more or less?"
"'Till next time." Belltower nods. "When we do this song and dance again, hopefully faster."
"Next time will you remember this time?" She asks now curious about him, the other time mage, like her.
"I remember six to seven hours of office work fairly perfectly at this point." The smirk stays as he stares at the woman across from him, "Hope your time was less inane."
"I just learned a lot of skills mostly." She admitted, before switching off the claymore with the RC remote. A second light -click- sounding. "Next time be half as cryptic."
Standing up, he shakes his head, "We all have our pleasures, Miss Doukas. I won't give up mine." Belltower starts walking to the door.
"How does this end then?" She finally asks, looking at his back.
"The loop? From what I can tell, when you get happy enough." That brings a chuckle, something dry and quiet, almost soft from him. "We might be seeing eachother awhile." The locked door unlocks for him, handle twisting and opening up to the outside.
"How the fuck did you unlock that? It locks on both sides. I had to make the handles that did that." She whispered, the first time truly rattled rubbing her chin, trying to figure out how you even… Beat that.
"I'll teach you next time." He slips around the corner, even his footsteps vanishing from all senses.
She swears to herself as she lifts the couch cushion, and checks the claymore, just as it goes off, a few seconds later as predicted.