As fetid ocean waters rise under the Santa Monica pier, the sound of joy and laughter echoes out from the distant festivities. There's a blocked off part of the street, an animal attack tarped over and covered by uniformed officers idly mumbling conversations in flickering lamplight.
Watching from afar, someone with broad shoulders and a large coat pretends not to watch. She has a cigarette between her lips, her eyes are empty and sallow. Large dark circles making them puffy and the red cracks betray months without rest. Her hair is thrown into a tight auburn bun, and the smell of tobacco permeates every part of her being. She ashes it with mis-matched fingernails, covered in chipped emerald nail polish. Her trench coat has stains of something dark, and the very edges are frayed from years of use. Her phone is out, with a professional lens attached to slyly take photos.
The corpse is barely visible under the cover, looking like an industrial accident. It's just one of a dozen distractions that keep everyone's attention tightly wound to the life around them rather than anything more worrying. A diner calls to travelers in the night, Surfside, a place that looks like it should have closed down decades ago, but somehow clings to life.
Click, the near-silent photograph as the officers don't even bother to care to notice is saved, blood spattered pier recorded on the device. A buzz pulses in the background of the sight, like a speaker set to infrasound. Finally, an ambulance arrives, more clicks, more photographs. The body is moved, slipping out from under the tarp to show the vomit-inducing horror of ruined flesh, shattered bone and deep organ-spilling furrows that happened across its frame.
"Motherfucker." Katherine screams angrily, "Cette ordure! Cet enfoiré! Cet enfoiré en costume noir." That fucking scumbag! Black suit wearing fuck! "I can't fucking believe I blew my own face off with a FUCKING CLAYMORE." Two police officers turn to stare at the screaming detective, and the EMTs are now staring. She gives them the finger, "Just eat them already, Eleanora. Son of a fucking bitch."
Its a hair raising moment as, suddenly, something changes. With the delay, Eleanora rises and pounces on the officers first, draining one in seconds as the other pulls her gun, only to be shot from behind by Katherine. The bullet ripping through her leg, causing her to drop the weapon and then Eleanora drains her as well. The EMTs now panicked receiving gun shot wounds as well. Eleanora devours them. Angrily, Katherine sticks her gun back in her ankle holster bristling with fury.
"I can't believe I died in three weeks. God fucking damnit." Katherine bemoaned to herself looking at Eleanora dripping in blood, "You want a ride home?" She asks, knowing she already fucked this up.
Eleanora stares, covered in blood. "J'ai l'impression de vous connaître." I feel as if I know you. A tilt to her head, predatory in nature. Black eyes drilling into Katherine with hunger.
"Je t'aime depuis des centaines d'années, mais à chaque fois, tu dois réapprendre qui je suis. C'est une malédiction pour moi, et un cadeau pour toi." I have loved you for hundreds of years, but each time you must learn who I am again. It's a curse for me, and a gift to you. She responds in perfect french, but also very sad, "I am normally far less angry when we meet. I caught a claymore with my face."
"Ah, I see." Eleanora nods, listening to distant sirens, "I barely believe you, but I do. Show me to your car, mon futur amour." She stands, offering a bemused hand.`
Her face falls as she says that, knowing that Eleanora will have to fall in love with her again. "I'm sorry, I do this a lot better normally." She takes it with tears in her eyes, Yep, definitely a manic episode, she realizes as her brain chemistry snaps into its new position. She talks to Eleanora as they walk, "You take care of me, normally. You find out that I'm very sick in the head but for some reason it makes you care for me more. I teach you how to use your phone, and text, and I hide in your house… Normally, for a while. Then my apartment blows up and you call Estelle and…" She opens the car door, letting Eleanora in, "And the three of us make each other very happy. I didn't think this would be so hard for me."
Eleanora slowly drifts into Katherine's words, imagining it with a smile as they both enter her ancient junker of a car. "You make it sound so beautiful." A breathy tone to her, as if there, in that dreamworld, now.
"God it is, mon amour, it is." She replies, tears in her eyes as she drives, trying not to make eye contact, "It's hard, it's in my future, but I've also lost it. It won't be the same, because it's never the same, no-one can do everything the same exactly. Perfectly. I'll be a little less shy, a little less inexperienced, you'll be a little more wary and confused. It's all different now and my heart breaks for what's already in front of me." She looks at Eleanora, "And I realized that like… None of the affection started immediately, it took a while, and that… I'll have to wait, because of course you don't know me yet. I'm just… Yes I know," She says getting on the I-10, "Hollywood off of Beverly and Highland."
"Oui." Eleanora's eyes are still closed, "Estelle as well? I thought she…hated? Yes, hated me."
"No? I never saw anything of the sort, you called her to help, she showed up and we talked. She was a little rough at first, but we got to know each other." She couldn't stop herself from crying now, "You guys seemed friendly, you'd call us mes amours, together. We went to a theater and it was… An experience. I was covered in bites before I looped. I'm a bit of a brat normally."
"Perhaps I am conflating her memory with anothers." Eleanora places a hand on Katherine's leg, the bloody chill drawing out some tension. "Would you like me to hold you, Katerina?"
"Yes please." She cries, her eyes pouring tears now as she pulls into the driveway, the hyper active parts of her brain tearing itself apart in a panic mournful fervor. Almost desperately grasping at a semi-balance of normalcy that was ripped from her. "Goddamnit."
The car pulls to a stop, Eleanora reaches over and holds Katherine for a second, saying, "Lets go to my bedroom, oui?" She asks calmly, smiling at the other woman, trying to be comforting.
"Oui." She responds dismayed, her heart bleeding from a million tears and cuts. "I just saw you yesterday, and it was beautiful, and now it's today and you don't know me." The house was… reset, the small additions Katherine had made to make herself feel comfortable were all gone. None of the weapons hidden or on display were there. There was an emptiness in it, a chill from not having been filled with love yet. An empty receptacle, and a blank canvas. She's unthinking as she walks up towards the bedroom, before remembering this isn't your house yet. It may never be.
Eleanora walks to her bedroom, something like need in her, a need to feel what's being offered, a desire to know what Katherine is describing. "Can I call you ma Katerina?" She whispers, sitting on the edge of the bed.
It makes her burst out into a little gasping sob, "Yes ple-ple-please." She says through shuddering breaths. Shattering as she crawls into familiarly scented sheets. "Can you hold me? Your touch is soothing, like a breeze. I'm sorry I'll be more romantic next time I promise."
"This is more romantic than I could have dreamed, mon amour." She whispers, holding Katherine tightly, "A love I did not expect coming into my unlife, knowing me." Eleanora's voice is bright, exuberant. "Une historie d'amour que je ne connais pas." A history of a love I do not know.
"A hundred and seventy years, mon amour." She says quietly as Eleanora holds her, "And I fuck it up by staring into a claymore I was told would go off. Well, no, the last loop was a month-ish."
Eleanora shifts, smiling as her lips near Katherine's. "Can you teach me something, again?" She whispers.
She kisses Eleanora deeply, for a few seconds, relishing in the contact, "I will teach you things forever, mon amour." Another deep breath, "I am really happy that being like this didn't ruin everything." Shuddering breaths again as she latches on to Eleanora in a deep hug.
"I like your joy, mon amour. Vous êtes comme un soleil. Mon soleil." You are like a sun. My sun. Eleanora compliments, breathing a steady rhythm as she leeches more heat from Katherine. "You will stay, oui?" She looks to the other woman curiously, hopeful.
"Et tu es comme la brise, la brise qui rend une journée de printemps parfaite." You are like the breeze that makes a spring day perfect. She responds clunkily, "Oui, it would be hard to keep me away, mon amour."
"Mon amour." She repeats back, smiling with fangs, "Would you like to rest tonight?" Her eyes have faded from black, returning to a pretty and bright blue.
"I don't know what I want anymore," She whispers, "I want things to be like they were. You were always allowed to bite me, but you had a strict four week rule." Nodding matter of factly. "I want to sleep and wake up knowing you'll be here still, and you'll still love me, and that we'll still be fated to be together forever."
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"I swear to love you, mon amour." Eleanora whispers, "I could never deny your love."
The weeping is harder, joyful now, but still overwhelming emotion as she grips the tiny woman.
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An apartment explosion is on the news as Eleanora awakens, stretching the last bits of last night out. She stares over Katherine's shoulder. Blue eyes reflecting the phone's glare.
"Yeah, it's mine LAPD human trafficking ring was using domination magic to fuck with my head. Gave me schizo-affective disorder, or worsened it. They're blowing it to try and cover loose ends, a thin blood is behind it named Jared Ox." Katherine says as she updates her notes with everything that happened so far, updating her files from memory, checking her phone. "This time I ordered everything under a fake name, and hid the car in the garage so it wasn't waiting out all night on the street. Also when you concrete your kindred just know I fully support you."
She's not looking at Eleanora as she scribbles into her notebook frustrated, "Fucking… Do you know what this means 'Rule of Law is to be Human, something… Immortal is bad." She couldn't remember and it drove her nuts. It was only a week ago.
"It sounds like something a Hunter of Kindred would say, mon amour." Eleanora is in a bathroom, door open as she runs the shower, waiting for it to heat. "Or someone who believes mankind can lead itself." Slipping into the shower, she starts to get the blood off her.
"Yeah, it's who got me blown the fuck up." She says outloud, "Came by the house when we started murdering LAPD to give us documents and then threatened us. So I tried to claymore him, but it didn't go off until a few seconds later after he walked out. I was staring into it to figure out what had happened." Her jaw sets angrily, as she writes, "Some fucking… ARGH. His name was Agent Belltower, does that mean anything to you, love?"
Eleanora pauses, before saying, "I've heard that last name before, twice in five centuries. The bearer of it is always dangerous. I believe it's a title."
"Fuck. He's a time person like me, but he said his loops were smaller, I don't know if that's true." She started to peel at a number two pencil with a KA-BAR until she had an extremely long exposed piece of lead, and then started to sketch out her best attempt at a picture. Scrawling the face out in shadow, teasing it from the paper into being. "Next time I'll just shoot him in the fucking head."
Eleanora laughs warmly, "Perhaps you should contact him instead?" She suggests, "Take…how do you say? L'initiative?"
"I think I know how," She takes out her phone and sends a text to the Maine Coon breeder, "Agent Bell Tower, Katherine Dukas." Following it up with, "Oops wrong number." Then types the same thing into a google search for good measure.
A buzzing ring immediately arrives from a Canadian number.
She answers it and says, "First of all, fuck you." Her throat catching with venom.
An office, quiet but still with some amount of life in it is heard, familiar to a police officer's ears. And a tired voice answers, still dead. "Good morning, can I call you in three hours?"
She groans, "Yes, but I'm going to be pissy the entire time." Katherine admits angrily. "You blew me up."
"I told-nevermind. Alright, I'll be on the phone in three, just need a nap." He seems to try hanging up, obviously stretched thin before saying, "I can't see very well, help me on your end?" Eleanora raises an eyebrow as she comes out of the shower with a towel around her.
"Have you been watching us fuck you creep?" Katherine says, her mind going in entirely the wrong direction, before getting up and checking that the blackout curtains are properly hung.
"I can't see the damned phone well enough in the dark." He growls, annoyed at himself.
She is very confused, and turns a light on at that "I turned a light on, and put you on speaker, does… That help?"
A noise of a phone being thrown is on the other end, cutting off as it slams into a wall, ending the call. Eleanora is very confused as well, "I…hmm." She whispers, looking at the disconnected line. "Maybe he had one of those…button telephones? Without light?"
"He blew me up, so if he's pissy that's fine." Katherine said angrily, looking at her phone, but still with a tinge of concern.
With a placid neutral look, Eleanora gently approaches Katherine, "Mon amour, what you described did not sound like his actions leading to your demise."
It wasn't… untrue but she didn't like hearing, so Katherine merely huffed in a response.
Her phone buzzed again three hours later, Katherine picked it up and again said, "First of all, Fuck you don't throw shit like a child."
Belltower sighs, "That was unprofessional, yes. It's a rough start for me." He admits, voice evening as he talks, a sip of something starting to rejuvenate him. "Did you have something you needed this early?"
"Are we fucking wizards or super-heroes or what the fuck is going on? You came to my house, scared the shit out of me, and then let me blow myself up with claymore." That felt slightly more accurate while still shifting the blame off herself. "I want some answers."
"Then you want a conversation in person." He finishes the drink in a gulp, coffee machine sounding out as it prepares another dose of caffeine.
She huffs again, "What loop with us is this for you, it's second for me."
"With you that's lasted past the six hour mark? Two, yeah." He's distant to the phone, but still audible, "I still don't know how I got caught in it. Rookie mistake." Belltower's aggravation and emotions show much more prominently when he's tired.
"Wait…" She said quietly, "Oh no… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."
"You didn't do anything, Miss Doukas. You Awakened." The agent offers some support, returning to nearby the phone.
Katherine bites her nail, taking deep breaths, "Yes, but I didn't know I'd be trapping someone in a six hour cycle with me when I was having my hundred years of… Career workshopping. No wonder you were so cagey alright, you know where to meet me. Just walk in."
"Flights in two hours, Ontario to LA isn't a short one." Belltower confirms to himself and Katherine. "Be seein' you." He hangs up.
Eleanora frowns again, "He is dangerous, I can taste it in the air. A viper in human skin."
"He won't do anything to me until he can figure out how to break the loop." She says, though she wasn't sure, "Unless he kidnaps me and keeps me permanently alive so the time stream doesn't break. I guess. Or something worse. I'll just shoot myself in the head and start over if things get squirrely."
"I dislike this plan." Eleanora admits, staring at Katherine with mild annoyance. "May I be there with you, mon amour, when you speak to him?"
"Absolutely, but he will almost assuredly be here at day time, he was desperate to leave before either of you woke up." Katherine responded quietly, "Can you come up with a reason for Estelle to come over?"
"I could say I received a vision that I will love her." Eleanora shrugs, pulling her phone out, "And I need her now. How is that?"
She looks at her thinking, then nods, adding, "And tell her there's a six foot tall woman who desperately wants to meet her. That might work."
The phone buzzes twice as Eleanora prepares her voice humming, and as it answers she says, "Estelle, I need you." Causing a choking gasp on the other end of the phone that needs a minute to calm down. As it does, "A six foot tall woman at my home needs you even more." Another rattling choke as Estelle tried to smoke again to calm. Eleanora is smiling broadly.
Katherine yells into the phone, "I'm very cute! And, I now know there's two Irelands!"
"What the fuck did I miss!?" Estelle shouts at her end of the phone, "Fuck, gimme thirty-christ."
"If you get here in twenty, I'll give you a reward!" Katherine giggles into the phone over Eleanora's shoulder, "I love bites that hurt."
A Firebird's engine roaring is clearly heard on the other end as Eleanora hangs up, holding back a laugh. "Ah, Estelle's such a direct woman. No useless complexities." She's delighted by that.
"I missed her as well, her apartment gets blown up by cops and she moves in. Though I guess it won't get blown up by cops now, unless I ask her to do the research that makes the cops show u—" She's suddenly very sad, "Oh no… She doesn't know about the sex we had after I pulled all the bullets out of her…"
Eleanora laughs, her mask of calm breaking fully. As she recovers, crystal voice tickling Katherine's ears, she says, "Mon amour, I can see why I fall for you every time."
"I am adorable," Katherine admits, as she finally finishes her sketches, notes, and orders.