Chapter 53: I Like the Way it Hurts
Love the Way You Lie (Pt. II); Rihanna, Eminem
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It was late, and he should probably just find somewhere else to go and spend his time, but he wasn’t done with this song. Caleb wanted to get it done, but then, it was for Morgyn. Given he and Morgyn weren’t talking anymore, he supposed it didn’t fucking matter when, or even if, he got it done. His feelings for the blond hadn’t changed much. If anything, they’d gotten stronger in the time they’d been apart, and Caleb likely should’ve seen that one coming. Of course he still loved Morgyn. Of course his feelings for Morgyn hadn’t gone away. They’d only stood for over a hundred years by now. Truth be told, he’d have to be rather an idiot to seriously think he could run from it.
It wasn’t like he was trying to. He didn’t know what was going through his mind anymore. Like it wasn’t his own, now, and that probably wasn’t far from the truth. Then, Miss Hell had showed up out of nowhere (why did they always show up at the worst times anyway?) and it felt like his mind was even less his own. She was always messing with his perception of reality. And the sick thing was, he found it fascinating. Fascinating enough not to fight her as hard as he probably should.
But even as she’d hurt him, she’d never really turned away from him, either. When he needed someone, he could always at least count on her being there.
His finger tapped one of the piano keys lightly. At this point, he wasn’t even playing anything anymore, just pressing the keys and listening to the piano sing. Music had always made him feel better. It was his way of getting his feelings out, when he had nothing else to turn to, or things were so complicated even in his own head that he had no other choice but to try expressing it in a way that didn’t involve words. Caleb and words, they never did get along very well.
He was good at them, mind. At least, until it mattered. And then he had so much trouble saying what he meant and explaining how he felt, because words never felt entirely right to him.
As he sat there plunking on the keys, a blur of colour appeared in his periphery. Caleb looked up, finding Liberty standing there. Immediately, he stopped pressing the keys. She looked a little disappointed, but she didn’t argue with him.
“The door was open,” she said, “and I thought I recognised your backpack outside it.”
“So you wandered in?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Liberty said. “I can go, if you’d rather be alone-“
“No,” Caleb interrupted. “Please, stay.”
Liberty smiled, and then settled down in a chair nearby. “Been thinking a lot?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Caleb said. “Something like that. My ex is in town, too.”
Liberty’s nose wrinkled, and he snorted slightly. It was cute.
“You probably shouldn’t talk to your ex,” Liberty said. “Not that I think you are, but you know, if you were thinking about it. It’s a bad idea. Exes are exes for a reason.”
Yeah, he knew that. There was a reason he and Miss Hell hadn’t lasted long (mostly because Lilith had threatened to shove a wine glass through her throat, and to be honest, in hindsight, Caleb was disappointed it didn’t happen, that’d have been a sight).
“It’s complicated,” he said. No matter how much he wanted to walk away from her, she was still his sire, and that kind of complicated things. Or maybe it didn’t complicate things and Miss Hell had lied about that, too. She lied about everything, why not that? Lilith didn’t seem to have this issue with Vladislaus. That guy was evil too, but he was a different sort of evil. Less interest in causing terrible things directly, he seemed to have, and more in simply letting terrible things cause themselves and watching the chaos.
Lilith had gotten the good sire of the two. Lilith got the good one of almost everything, so that wasn’t surprising either. (He wasn’t jealous of Lilith.) (He was a little jealous of Lilith. Everything seemed easier for her.)
“Well, I won’t judge you,” Liberty said. “You can explain it, if you want to. I don’t have anything else to do today. Except go shopping with my mother, and listen to me, there’s nothing I’d rather be doing less than shopping with my mother. Why she even insists on taking me shopping with her anyway, I’m twenty-two and I don’t live with her anymore, that I don’t know. Maybe because I speak Simlish better than she does, but Charity doesn’t even speak Mandarin at all.”
Caleb smiled slightly. “It seems annoying to you now,” he said, “but when she’s gone, you’ll be glad she did.”
Liberty smiled notably brighter than he was. “I know,” she said. “Complaining about it is also in the rulebook somewhere.”
“You got a rulebook?” Caleb asked.
Liberty laughed her beautiful laugh, and some of the tension in him started to unwind.
“Did Morgyn happen to tell you…” he started, and then trailed off, not sure how to word it. If she didn’t know Morgyn was a spellcaster, then Caleb didn’t want to incidentally tell her.
Liberty squinted. “The transgender thing or the makes fire from nothing thing?” she asked.
Caleb blinked. “The makes fire from nothing thing,” he said. “Though it’s not really from nothing, it’s more like-“
“It burns off the wick of the caster’s inherent magical energy kind of like metaphysical propane,” Liberty said.
“You’ve had that conversation I see,” Caleb said.
“Apparently,” Liberty said, “I also can make fire from nothing.”
Ah. So he was right, and it was magic he was sensing from her before. It was good that Morgyn had found her without Caleb’s help then, given he hadn’t ended up a lot of help in that regard at all.
“Do you?” Liberty asked.
“No,” Caleb said, shaking his head. “Well, my sister and I have magical blood somewhere in our ancestry, but it’s blooded out enough we’re not magical by default. Lilith and I, we’re vampires instead.”
Liberty looked surprised, and then her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“I’m immune to sunlight,” Caleb said. “You can get used to it and stop burning up in it eventually. The first of us, he’s the only one I’ve ever seen use light magic before.” But Kassander could indeed use light magic, and it was as fascinating as it was terrifying.
Liberty nodded. “I see,” she said. “Wow, my life is getting really interesting suddenly. Morgyn didn’t even tell me vampires exist. But I’m not surprised. Werewolves and stuff exist too then?”
Caleb snorted. “I’ve heard of them,” he said. “Never met one myself, but they exist somewhere. In some places you can sense fairies, too, and genies also exist. Never met a genie either, but they don’t sound terribly pleasant.”
“I’ve heard some stories,” Liberty said. “Have to agree with them not sounding terribly pleasant.”
“It’s a bit much, isn’t it?” Caleb asked. “Suddenly being something else one day.”
“Yeah,” Liberty said, nodding. “But nothing really changed all the same. It’s not like I suddenly became someone else. Magic was always in me, if Morgyn’s right and I was born this way like Morgyn was. It’s just that now my perception of self has changed a little. That can be hard to deal with too, but it’s somehow a little comforting to think that nothing really changed at all. I guess it’d be different for a vampire. You’re not born that way I assume.”
“Vampires can be born,” Caleb said. “Lilith and I just weren’t. She chose it. I made the wrong friends. She chose it because I made the wrong friends.”
“I see,” Liberty said. “And you’ve never forgiven yourself for that, have you?”
Caleb looked over at her. And then down at the piano keys.
“She made that choice, Caleb,” Liberty said. “Because she loves you, I assume. You don’t seem like the type we leave alone to me, either. And it doesn’t make it your fault. She still had a choice. And something tells me if your roles were reversed, you’d have done the exact same thing she did.”
Caleb released a sigh, closing his eyes for a moment, and then looked back up at her. “How did you know?” he asked.
Liberty shrugged. “I’ve always been good at reading people,” she said. “I think it’s part of my scientific mind. I think critically and I like to understand, not just experience.”
Caleb snorted. “You know,” he said, “understanding things instead of experiencing them sounds like a nice thing.”
Liberty smiled, and then stood up. “I should go,” she said. “If you ever need someone to talk to, you’re welcome to call me.”
Caleb looked down at the piano keys. “Thanks,” he said.
“I mean it,” Liberty said, shuffling over to bump her hip against his side. She smelled like rice and something floral, and weirdly like electricity. “Even if it’s at three in the morning, okay?”
“That seems really rude,” Caleb said.
“Your true friends will be absolutely willing to tell you you’re an idiot at three in the morning,” Liberty said. “I’d do it. Maybe nicer though.”
Caleb snorted.
“I’ll tell you this before I go,” she said. “Pain is inevitable. A lot of things in life are going to hurt. But no one can make you suffer from it except you.” She bumped into his side again, and then turned and headed out the door. And Caleb wondered.
She sure was some kind of a wonder. She was also right.
* * *
How did she always know what to say to make him feel a little better? She was almost as much the sun as Morgyn was, somehow in a slightly different way. She wasn’t as loud about it as Morgyn was, and also was. It was such a strange thing, Caleb had to wonder what the fuck was going through his head exactly. Who the hell knew anymore? Certainly Caleb had no bleeding idea what he was thinking. There was just something about Liberty. She was awfully magnetic somehow, and thinking about it, he wondered if Liberty and Morgyn would work together better. She was more Morgyn’s speed, no matter what she said about them.
Unconsciously, Caleb moved the swing he was sitting on back and forth. It didn’t really matter if he was moving or not, he just needed the time to think. Caleb was doing a lot of that thinking thing nowadays. It wasn’t like he didn’t have a lot to think about anyway. For all that he was thinking a lot, though, he didn’t have a whole lot of answers. Wasn’t that what thinking was for? Coming up with answers? If he wasn’t going to get answers for the thinking he was doing, then what was the point in wasting all the time thinking about whatever it was? Eh. Maybe it didn’t matter.
Not far away, there was a group of kids playing pirates. There were times when he wondered what it was like to be a kid. Caleb didn’t really remember his childhood, and never mind it was probably not much like a childhood would be now, given the time period. He did remember Lilith had a habit of climbing trees, in dresses, and pissing off their parents. As a kid, Caleb found it hilarious. It was still kind of amusing now that he was older, but he had a different view of it. Their parents were awfully strict with her, and Caleb wondered why that was. Just because she was a girl? They always said things about how Lilith was a girl, and she had to grow up into a graceful and composed young woman, and not embarrass their family by being wild and uncontrolled.
Caleb didn’t get it. Maybe he never would.
He turned his head, watching the pigeons not far away, picking through the sand to find seeds and such. Or maybe they were looking for rocks. Birds didn’t have the means of grinding up their food and used rocks, if he remembered right. He didn’t remembered where he’d learnt that, but he thought maybe it was from Morgyn or Ezio. They both had heads full of random trivia that was as weird as it was fascinating. Caleb’s head was full of weird information about foods and sometimes about certain plants. He also knew a good deal about nutrition and the kinds of things a human body needed to function properly, and weirdly, he’d retained a lot of information about the different vitamins and minerals, and what they did in a human.
It wasn’t like it came in handy for anything. Barring, maybe, making sure that Ezio ate right, and Morgyn too. Morgyn didn’t have any real dietary restrictions, but after Ezio had developed his heart condition and started seeing a doctor about it, it was up to Caleb and Drake to make sure he ate right, things that weren’t going to aggravate his condition. He’d made it this long, though. Caleb kind of considered it something of a win. He was still alive.
And it was a good thing that he was. Because without Ezio in it, the world would be a little darker of a place. He didn’t realise this, of course. He had no idea what kind of a light he was to so many people, but Caleb couldn’t say anything. He had no idea what he meant to other people, either. Most of the time, it felt like he was just in everyone’s way. They all had things they wanted to do, dreams they were chasing and futures they were building. Caleb was just taking it one day at a time, because he couldn’t think too far ahead without getting suddenly overwhelmed. It was all too much for him. He had ideas of what he might want, but maybe some part of him was, and always would be, afraid of reaching for it.
His vision started to blur, and Caleb looked down at the dirt under the swingset. He wondered what Morgyn was up to. If the blond was talking to Liberty about books and nerding out over comics. Every day without Morgyn made the pain a little stronger, the loneliness a little more consuming. It was hard to think and feel anything around it, and the drugs weren’t helping as much as they used to.
Most likely, he should feed at some point. Caleb didn’t remember the last time he had, but he didn’t remember a lot of anything right now. When had he and Morgyn broken up, anyway? He didn’t know the answer to that either. Maybe a week or two ago by now, he didn’t know. He shook his head, reaching up and brushing his tears away. Now that he was thinking about it, he kind of regretted not staying where he was in Ezio’s arms a little longer. He didn’t hurt, not like Miss Hell did. Lying on him and listening to his delicate little heart thunder in his chest, somehow it made him feel a little better. Caleb didn’t want to think about it, the time when Ezio was gone in the future, but Caleb was going to really miss him.
He should go home. There wasn’t anything out here for him anyway, everything and everyone he’d ever cared about was in Spire Apartments now, up there in Uptown, above San Myshuno, higher up than Caleb felt like he belonged. But if he didn’t belong with them, then where else did he belong? Maybe nowhere. He was still afraid of going back. Lilith had send him bunches of texts and called several times, because he hadn’t been home in a long time, but still, something in his head told him they would be angry with him. Because he just was who he was and who Caleb was turned out not to be a great person.
Instead, Caleb stood up, the swing shaking slightly, and headed for the bar. He needed to be higher than this.
* * *
“Hey, give me that,” one of the others said, reaching for the joint that was being passed around.
Caleb sat off to one side, mostly watching the others. He had his own joint thank you, and he didn’t need their help. He didn’t want their help getting high, either. Most of them, he’d seen them around before, but he didn’t really remember anyone’s name. Their names didn’t matter when you were flipping between taking drags off a joint of synthetics and drinking a glass of vodka or whatever the fuck it was (as if anyone paid any real attention), and making out with whats-her-name.
“I didn’t skip you,” someone else said.
“You tried!”
Caleb snorted under his breath. And then he wondered, in the back of his head, if this was what he wanted the rest of his life to be like. He used to have other ideas. Opening a restaurant of his own someday. Writing music for big-name productions and performing in concert halls. Morgyn Vatore might’ve been somewhere on the list. Or Caleb Ember, if that was what Morgyn wanted.
He sighed, pulling his legs up onto the chair he was sitting in, resting his shins against the armrest.
“Ey man,” one of the others said, shuffling over to his chair and kneeling down. “You seem kind of depressed anymore.”
Caleb glanced over at him, and shrugged. “Bad breakup,” he said.
“You sure about that?” the other answered, raising an eyebrow.
Caleb sighed. “Yeah, I’m sure,” he said.
“Cause it seems like that dark and dangerous lady of yours is making you somebody you’re not, that’s all,” the other said.
Caleb glanced down at him. “And what’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.
“Exactly what I said,” he answered. “You know, there’s kind of a taboo around it, nobody talks about it anymore, but if she’s abusing you, man, we can-“
“She’s not,” Caleb said. Except, she was, and he knew that. He’d known that for a long time.
“That was too quick man,” the man answered. “Look, I know we all just kind of get high and ruin our own lives around here, but man, this is all we got sometimes. I know we ain’t really friends, but if you need anything, just ask.”
Yeah, they weren’t really friends. They all got fucked up together and forgot the bad things that existed in the world, and maybe they didn’t know each other’s names or where they were all from, but there were times when that didn’t seem to make any difference. Thinking about it, he realised he’d seen them taking care of each other from time to time. Moving the one that passed out on the bar somewhere less exposed. Pairing the girls off with one or two guys just to make them look like they were spoken for and keep predators off them. Accompanying each other to the bathroom because everyone needed someone to hold their hair.
Maybe they weren’t friends. But maybe they were just slightly to the left of being friends.
Caleb didn’t say anything. Eventually, the guy gave him a strained smile, and then went back over to where he’d been before. But Caleb was already thinking. He didn’t belong here, no matter how much they liked to try and help him belong. He had friends already. He had somewhere he was meant to be already. It wasn’t here. For all that here wasn’t that bad of a place to be, he should’ve never come here in the first place.
He should just go home, and never come back here again.
But even if Morgyn would forgive him, he didn’t know if he could forgive himself. No one could make you suffer but yourself, huh? That was what Liberty had said. She was right. He knew she was. He wondered if it was possible to kind of like suffering. They had a word for that… Caleb didn’t think he was one of those. He didn’t like it. So what was he still doing here?
Fuck, he wasn’t high enough for this shit. Caleb snorted, more to himself, taking a drag off his joint again. Or he would’ve, if it was still lit.
Caleb lowered his hand, staring at it. He could quit this. He could stop, and Ezio was right and he should. It wasn’t even doing anything for him anymore, he had to smoke more and more of it to get the relaxation effect he was after. It was like burning money. Almost fucking literally. Ezio could probably help him stop, if he asked.
He didn’t know if he could ask. Ezio did too much for everybody as it was. Maybe he was on his own with this one. Caleb didn’t know if Morgyn would help. If Morgyn knew the truth, would the blond hate him? Then again, Ezio was on a thousand different things. Maybe Morgyn would understand.
Maybe that was all Caleb wanted, someone to understand.
He wasn’t thinking right. Caleb stood up, putting the rest of his joint in a pocket, and shuffling off through the crowd. Waking up against Ezio still occasionally flickered through his mind, the feel of his skin against Caleb’s like a haunting memory he couldn’t get out of his system. It only made him want Ezio, but he knew that was a pipe dream, too. Ezio wasn’t going to want him so long as Morgyn was still in love with him.
Miss Hell would just have to suffice. She was here somewhere, he just had to find her. And finding her usually wasn’t too difficult of an endeavour when he bothered to try. Fuck, sometimes, when he didn’t bother to try, sometimes she came to him. There was a reason for that, he was sure. He decided not to think about it.
* * *
It didn’t take long for her to find him. Caleb didn’t think it would. She shuffled over to him, crossing her arms over her chest in such a way as to accentuate her assets, popping one hip out further than should be comfortable. She didn’t say anything right away, just smiled at him coyly.
Caleb snorted. “What?” he asked. Just because he’d half gone looking for her didn’t mean he was going to make it easy.
“You know what,” she answered, smirking. “You sure come here a lot. You even have a place to live right now?”
“I do,” Caleb said. “I just don’t want to go home.”
“Lilith’s awfully insufferable, huh?” she asked.
Caleb shrugged. A stab of annoyance shot through him, but he didn’t say anything about that. It wasn’t important right now.
She reached over and ran a hand up his arm, over his shoulder. He almost moved his arm and shoved her into the wall, but he thought, for once, maybe if he behaved, it wouldn’t hurt as much as it usually did. “You’re not as closed off as normal,” she said. “Did something change?”
Caleb shook his head. “Nope,” he said. “Still fucking hate you. That didn’t change.”
“Hate is still some kind of an emotion, Caleb,” Miss Hell said, smirking, trailing her fingers up his neck. “You still thinking about getting that spellcaster of yours back?”
Caleb shrugged.
“Aww, come on, of course you are,” she said. “But you know, there’s a dark side in you too.” Surprisingly gently, she tapped his nose. “I wonder what your spellcaster would think of it? Would Morgyn still love you so much, if he knew you were out here getting high and fucking random people?”
“I haven’t slept with anyone,” Caleb said.
“That’s not what I heard,” she said. “And maybe in that situation the point isn’t whether it happened or not. It’s whether whoever hears about it believes it happened. Let me think, isn’t Morgyn a whore?”
“Shut up,” Caleb said softly.
“I thought so,” Miss Hell answered. “And you didn’t like that, right? Isn’t that what you said? How scandelous, holding that against Morgyn and then fucking around in a bar.”
“I didn’t-“
“Ah ah,” she said, reaching up and tapping his nose again. “Remember what I said. It doesn’t matter if it happened or not, only what the one that hears it believes. I should think your spellcaster would be very hurt to hear about that… oh dear, what ever will we do about that?”
“Don’t you fucking dare tell Morgyn anything,” Caleb said, shoving her into the wall with a slight snarl before he could think about it.
“Ohh, is that a sore spot?” she asked, sounding positively delighted.
“Just stop it,” Caleb said. “Are you doing anything later?”
“Nope,” she said, smiling. “I’m yours all night, at least until I lose track of you. Why?”
Caleb shrugged, shook his head, and looked away.
“I see,” she said. “You’re lonely, aren’t you?” One hand reached over, turning his head back towards her, and her lips met his. In hindsight, he had no idea how, but somehow, it went from her against the wall to him against the wall. Her body was right up against his, grinding slightly, her tongue diving into his mouth, and somehow it didn’t chase it away. A slight jolt told him that it was making it worse. Of course it was.
She wasn’t Morgyn, and she would never be Morgyn.
Still, he reached down, his hands sliding down her thighs. A shift, and her legs wrapped around his waist, him holding her up against him. She separated from him, and he followed her for a moment.
“Don’t move,” she said. The notable sensation of mist porting answered his unspoken question, and he was leaning against a different wall.
She slid out of his grasp, reaching down and slipping his shirt over his head. He trailed kisses down her neck, and worked her shirt off her shoulders. He recognised the sounds; she lived somewhere in San Myshuno, but he didn’t really care right now, too busy littering her floor with their clothes as they steadily backed their way to the bed.
They fell to the sheets. Her nails ran down his back, not hard enough to hurt him, not yet. A shiver ran down his spine, her hand slipped into his pants, and they almost started to become one at the lips. His hands ran down her side, over her thighs. She leaned into his touch, made him remember why hers was so addictive even as he knew it was a bad idea. No one ever did love him like she did. Some would consider that a good thing, but if it was either her or the crushing loneliness…
“Move,” she whispered. “I want you out of these.” Her hand tugged against his waistband.
Caleb breathed out heavily, and then started to shift around so that she could slip his pants off.
Caleb…
He startled, and pulled away from her, sitting on his knees. That wasn’t her, that was in his head.
“Caleb,” she said. “What happened?”
He was quiet, focusing on the whatever was in his head. It was just his name, but the voice, it sounded like Lilith. It was soft, and quiet, like she was barely there, somewhere amid falling asleep maybe. She didn’t sound panicked, or anything. But his nerves all alighted like something was wrong, and later, he’d wonder what made him think that. He didn’t have time to wonder right now.
“Lilith,” he said, still catching his breath. “She needs me.”
“Oh pfft,” Miss Hell said, waving her hand and sitting up to crawl over into his lap. “Ignore her. Lilith isn’t really important right now.”
He’d been avoiding her. He did remember Lilith was taking Forgotten Hollow back. Come to think of it, she was taking it back from Markus and Miss Hell. Was that why she was here in San My? Because Lilith had driven her out of Forgotten Hollow? But of course Lilith would’ve. Miss Hell wasn’t half of what Lilith was. If she needed him, then maybe all of this was a distraction. Sarnai was awake. Caleb didn’t think Miss Hell could possibly send a vampire of Sarnai’s calibre after Lilith, but she may know she was going to hit her. It didn’t even matter why Sarnai would want to. Maybe she wanted the Hollow next.
Anger flickered across his face. And immediately, he backed away from her, off the bed, and found his shirt on the floor.
“Caleb, come back here,” Miss Hell demanded.
“I’m not letting you take away the only thing I have left,” he said, and turned and went for the front door. And maybe he’d run all the way there.
* * *
It smelled like smoke, dust, and the remnants of a magic signature Caleb recognised as Drake’s. Caleb reached the edge of the Hollow, and at first glance, nothing seemed off or wrong. But Lilith had called him here for a reason, he knew it, and she was here somewhere. As he glanced around, he noticed the tower of Wolfsbane was missing from the skyline. As he tilted his head trying to figure out why that was, catch his breath from running so far, he heard a hissing sound at his feet. He looked down, finding a grey tabby at his feet.
“Hi there,” he said. “I can’t play right now, okay?” Not that he thought every cat really wanted to play, but it was a thought.
The cat somehow looked really annoyed, and bolted off into the Hollow. Then, it stopped, turned around and meowed at him impatiently. It wanted him to follow it.
Caleb took a breath in, and released it, and followed the tabby. It led down the road, and then over to where Wolfsbane Manor was, or, as he soon found out, where it used to be. The scent of blood wafted over to him, and Caleb shot over there. Their old house was in so many pieces it was hard to even recognise where everything used to be. He could see the streaks of red all over the place, and if he was scenting it right, he thought it was Lilith’s blood.
“Lilith?” he called. “Lilith!” This much damage might be enough to threaten her life if she didn’t get plasma and quickly. Shit, she could bite him if they didn’t have any other choice, it wouldn’t work nearly as well, just buy some time, but it was better than nothing.
Caleb sifted through the wreckage, eventually throwing a shard of wall to one side. He found her hand, poking out from between the pieces of wall and what he thought was a cabinet (was this the kitchen?). Somehow, her bracelet had stayed around her wrist despite whatever the fuck had happened here. Caleb shifted, shoving another piece of wall off of her, kicking a bit of splintered cabinet out of the way, and unburying her.
She was alive, at least, but there was a shard of wood through her abdomen, a piece of the door frame she seemed to have crashed into, and blood everywhere. Caleb couldn’t help it. His vision blurred, and he loosed a whine, pulling her over into his arms. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “Lilith I’m sorry.”
He had to fix this. And maybe take apart whatever had done this to her in the first place. Then, if she couldn’t defeat whatever it was, Caleb would likely just be suiciding on it. He’d decide if he was suiciding on it when he figured out if Lilith was going to make it or not. Caleb couldn’t imagine losing her. She’d always been there for him, even when he wasn’t there for her. He had to fix this, somehow. Okay, the first thing to do would be finding her a source of plasma. Caleb rocked slightly in place, petting her short blonde hair, and then gently set her down and stood up.
As soon as he did, he sensed a burst of psychic energy. Instinctively, he instantly ducked back down. The blast hit the tree line behind their used-to-be-here house, and Caleb turned towards where it’d come from. Dark skin, black hair, violet eyes; his eyes widened, and he immediately zipped around behind her. She turned with him, firing off several blasts of psychic energy. Caleb dodged every dang one, at least as well as he could. One exploded too close to him and sent him flying backwards, but he eventually caught himself and flipped back around. He stood up, intending to take back off, but Sarnai threw a tendril of shadow at him, and threw him into a tree, pinning him against it by his neck.
Oh that actually really hurt, Caleb found. The shadow burnt into his skin somehow. He wriggled around, trying to pull the tendril off his neck but it was stronger than it looked like.
Sarnai looked positively amused. And then she didn’t look so amused, screeching slightly as a piece of wood slammed into her. The tendril released him, and he hit the grass, sitting up. The wood had blood on it… he looked over where Lilith was. She’d stood up, ripped the beam out of her and used it as a weapon. She didn’t look like herself, not entirely, her eyes blackened, her skin somewhat ashy toned.
“Lilith no!” Caleb squeaked, but it was too late. Lilith shot a burst of psychic energy, and another, and another… so many Caleb couldn’t keep track of how many were airborne at once. Sarnai snarled in annoyance, blocking them as rapidly as she could, but Lilith didn’t let up, unleashing still more of them. They weren’t very strong, but they would add up if Sarnai let herself get hit with them. Lilith opened her mouth and unleashed a screech-hiss the likes of which Caleb had never heard come out of her before.
“You stay away from him!” she spat somewhere in there, in rapid Spanish, so rapid Caleb almost didn’t catch it. Still she fired more bolts. Still Sarnai blocked them.
And then, she seemed to figure out that Lilith was going to kill her or die trying, and Sarnai turned and vanished in a burst of mist. The remaining handful of psychic bolts crashed into the tree line. Lilith wobbled, took a breath in, and fell. Instantly, Caleb shot up and bolted over, diving to catch her before she hit the concrete and damaged herself even more.
“Lilith,” he said, brushing her hair out of her face, “stay with me, okay, I’ve gotta get you plasma. Somehow. I have no idea how.”
Lilith smiled slightly, out of it as she was, and then her head fell back and her eyes closed.
“Lil no,” Caleb spluttered, his vision blurring all over again. No, no he didn’t have time for this, he had to fix this. He pulled her up off the concrete, into his arms, and he turned back around to set her somewhere more safe than the road, when he caught sight of the cat. It was running up towards Straud manor.
Right, Lilith had control of Straud manor now. If Caleb tried, he might be able to get the power nexus to make a barrier, at least something until Drake could come back and put his barrier back in place. Caleb breathed out, tried to swallow his tears, and ran up the hill, into Straud manor. Gently, Caleb got her settled down on one of the couches, and then looked around. The tabby came in, screeching the whole way, and turned towards something. Caleb tilted his head, following it. It was scratching at a painting on the wall. Caleb moved it, and found, of course, a safe behind it.
Vlad always was kind of predictable.
The cat turned the knob this way and that, popping it open. Caleb blinked. But inside were a humongous stash of plasma packs, medical grade, even.
“Kit,” he said, “I have no idea how you knew how to open that damned thing, but thank you.” Caleb reached in, pulling out a handful of packs, and then ran back to Lilith.
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