[For Danica]

[asher_talos]

Asher's patience was thinning. He stood on the dock, facing the boat and waiting for Onyx to jump down out of it. Going from steady ground to the boat was never any trouble for the dog, but disembark from it was always a completely different story. It was embarrassing, Onyx whimpering and whining, preparing to make a leap for it only to have the

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[vvdanicavv]

Once Danica had started running it was hard to stop, not before she'd reached somewhere, anywhere, that wasn't in the fucking forest. When she finally broke free from the trees and the bushes, it was onto an unfamiliar strip of sand, nothing to hear but the sound of the sea and her own laboured breaths. She made a decision between left and right and stuck to it, following the coast around knowing that at some point she'd end up where she'd started from that evening.

The grip on her arm was so tight that when she went to remove her hand, skin stuck to wound, a stomach-churning squelching noise as she peeled her palm away. Both arms were streaked with red, fresh drops of blood slowly rolling down wrists and knuckles to fingers, onto already drying patches on gun and camcorder. The pain from the gouges was constant but it kept her mind focussed. She wiped at her eyes with the back of a hand and pushed her hair off her forehead, gritting her teeth against her anger. Her dress across the front was torn. Fucking ruined. And she'd been forced to leave her shoes somewhere along the beach, the heels sticking in the sand, having made running impossible. Nobody did this to her, to Danica fucking Talos, and got away with it. Vengeance spurred her on, until the boat came into view some distance away. She hated the idea of anyone seeing her looking like this, but one person out here in the darkness was better than a hundred in the light of the Compound.

She coughed, squinted at the far-away figure by the boat and ran a little faster. "Lew!"

[asher_talos]

Onyx sprinted ahead excitedly, well before hearing the voice belonging to the figure and slowing slightly upon the approach.

Asher couldn't see too far ahead, but with that voice and that fucking name, he didn't need to see to know who it was. Between searching the guy out at parties and now being mistaken for him, Lew Ashby wasn't gaining any popularity points with Asher, even if his sister felt differently. "Not Lew."

[vvdanicavv]

As soon as she spotted Onyx, Danica knew her mistake and she couldn't have been more fucking thrilled to have been wrong about something if she tried.

Her skin was bone white and she shook all over, stumbling a little over the uneven, sandy ground. Onyx started making a racket around her feet, barking up at her, and though she was weakened through shock or bloodloss, or a combination of both, she struggled to compose herself before calling out her brother's name. The undeniable hint of rage simmered beneath the surface of her strained voice.

[asher_talos]

His stride switched to a jog when it became apparent that Danica's slight unsteadiness on her feet wasn't due to his sister's usual stubbornness and refusal to wear anything but heels despite all the sand around. When he was close enough to see the damage, he nearly stopped in his tracks, knowing it would only look worse the closer he got.

He was afraid to touch her, possibly hurting any further, but wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her balanced while trying to avoid her arm where most of the damage seemed to be. "Jesus fucking Christ! What the fuck happened to you?!" She looked as though she'd taken a few trips through a paper shredder of all fucking things.

[vvdanicavv]

Reluctant to accept Asher's help with walking, Danica tried her best not to lean her weight on him out of pure stubbornness. Only he could probably tell how successful she was being.

She was far too occupied with being pissed the hell off; it helped block out the pain too. While she intended to thrust the still-cocked gun at her brother, her arm only got half way up and she ended up pressing it against him weakly. Her teeth clenched against the words she only wanted to have to say once. "Take him. The fuck. Out." She didn't care what Asher had to say about it. The fucker had ambushed the wrong person and Danica wanted to make sure he knew it. "NOW!"

[asher_talos]

Asher took the gun, cursed silently and slipped it down the back of his pants. He wasn't sure who (or what) the hell he was supposed to be taking out or where Danica had even gotten another gun from, but right now, he was just worried about getting her to the clinic.

"No, not now. What the fuck's the matter with you? Come on." There was only so far anyone could get on the island. Once she was taken care of, he had all the facts and it turned out someone did have something coming to them, then Asher would happily deliver it, but that was just going to have to wait. "Watch your arms."

If trying to hold her up didn't sit well with her, Asher was pretty sure she was going to hate him once he swept her up off her feet and started walking.

[vvdanicavv]

She did; for a split second as her feet left the ground all the hatred transferred straight to Asher. He was bruising her fucking pride a lot more than any of the wounds were hurting her.

"Put me the fuck down!" Her stature was hardly an advantage when she started kicking but futility and fatigue meant it didn't last long. Threats were all she had left. "I swear to God, if you don't kill him I'll do it myself," she glared, very real fury in her eyes, "and then I'll come back and shoot you." It didn't matter that they both knew the second part wasn't true; it felt good to say.

The red light was still on the camcorder when she deposited it between them. She dropped her head into a hand, only then noticing how big the tear was in her dress, and the scratches and shallow grazes along her stomach. She touched one, brought back blood and grit on her finger, and held her head again, feeling for perhaps the first time in her life genuine shame and embarrassment in public. It made her sick.

[asher_talos]

"No. And I've got your gun. Again." He couldn't believe her; there she was, practically bleeding to fucking death all over them both and she still had it in her to argue with him. If nothing else, he was just glad the yapping meant she was conscious. He was keeping calm now, but he'd probably lose it if she stopped talking. "Why the fuck do you have a gun? Again."

And why did she keep saying he and not it when it looked like a fucking animal had attacked her?

[vvdanicavv]

Danica didn't answer right away; the moving motion was making her nauseous and with nothing to focus on like walking her head was stuffing up, getting dizzy.

She cradled her worst arm into her, held it by the wrist to stop it drooping down lifeless. Just what she needed to stop herself looking retarded... "Because you took my fucking one away from me." She had to get another one from somewhere; she just hadn't known this particular somewhere was going to come back and bite her in the ass.

[asher_talos]

"I know what I did, Dani!" And maybe he regretted it a little now. If he hadn't taken it away from her, though, someone would have turned up dead months ago, he knew it, and she would have been rotting behind bars for God only knew how long. "That doesn't fucking help me here, okay?" His steps were surer once they were off the uneven sand, and he was able to pick up his pace slightly when he was on a trail. "Where's it from? Who the fuck is he?"

Sure, he could go around shooting males at random, but he only had so many rounds of ammo to get though in his small arsenal, which was now up to three. Besides, if Asher was going to do something, he preferred to get things done right the first time around.

[vvdanicavv]

While Danica had thoroughly planned on pretending to pass out just to give her brother a heart attack and thus seek revenge for not putting her back on the fucking floor, she hadn't intended for it to happen so literally. It was like falling asleep, nodding off, her head suddenly dropped back, her arm fell down and Asher slipped away, into the darkness.

She regained consciousness within a few long moments though, pulled herself back out, eyes opening slowly. It was harder to fight it, to concentrate. "He wants it back." It was ironic how, after centuries of being a vampire, the sight and loss of her own blood could affect her so strongly. With her head now propped against Asher's shoulder, she felt her eyes slip shut again but this time there was the image of the masked man behind the lids and the rage she felt kept her just the right side of conscious. "Video." If he heard it, that one tiny, little word would tell him all he needed to know. Fuck the details.

[asher_talos]

Asher could hear his own heart thundering in his ears even over all of his swearing and shouting her name when Danica had gone limp. Relief didn't even begin to explain what he felt when she finally snapped back. "Fuck. Don't do that again, Dan. Do not. We're almost there. Just stay awake."

The video, what this guy wanted back, he'd worry about deciphering what all of that meant once she was taken care of.

Though it seemed like forever to him, it wasn't too long before he reached the clinic, the doctor on duty whipping into action relatively quickly despite undoubtedly being caught off guard. It probably wasn't the sort of case that cropped up on the everyday on the island, but instincts like that probably never really went away. Ordinarily, Asher's head would have been on straight around that much blood, too, but not when it belonged to his sister.

[vvdanicavv]

Danica was dismayed to discover Asher wasn't putting her on her feet like she'd demanded. Instead, she lay on her back, disoriented and in pain, and yet the only thing she could think about was how hilariously ironic it would be if Asher killed the man with his own gun. Her laugh was short and low, forced out of its own accord between shaky breaths. As quick as it had come it was gone, leaving behind only an achy chest from the effort. He wouldn't have a clue what was coming him... Danica felt a twinge of delight. "It's my fucking gun now," she insisted tiredly, in between futile attempts to pull away from the doctor, because in her head, it was her she could see lifting, aiming and firing and she had never missed twice.