A Most Intriguing Man...
(Backdated from November 3rd, 2009)
I still look like a rabid bear attacked my throat for shits and giggles. It finally started hurting about two days ago. I suppose that’s a good thing. It means the nerves aren’t completely gone. Maybe it can be fixed. Probably, with enough money and time. I don’t really care about that. Things are better. I got through the gathering in Atlanta, which now seems to be a god damned miracle. That was insane. Completely insane. A thousand kindred in the same room. No wonder one of the oldest and the strongest died. They killed Sennex. Killed him like he was an errant brood or seven. I guess we all got lucky he was the only one that died.
I never found out who Adrienne von Hadlee was. Probably for the best. I don’t work for the fucking Strix, why should I be their little messenger girl? Let them go find this von Hadlee if they want to give her a message. Maybe they’re scared. I know I saw the amount of power in that room and I’M scared. The amount of power the kindred of this nation...this world... can gather - it’s unfathomable. I couldn’t have gotten through the weekend without Audra. She was this pool of cool, calm, collectivity and professionalism like nothing I’ve ever seen. Truly in her element, juggling conversation after conversation. Entertaining, laughing, remembering, flirting when she needed to and the perfect, quiet soldier when those moments came. The woman is a social chameleon like nothing I’ve ever seen. My awe of her only deepens with every passing week.
But there was someone else. Someone I met the second night of the gathering. Someone who made me feel like a respected professional and peer, not just cattle. And trust me, to every other fucking vampire in that place that’s all I was. Smelling like blood, daring to still draw breath and walk among them. I sometimes wonder if I’m more of a liability to Audra than an asset. But time will tell. And, for the time being, this man is like no one else. No, I know who he’s like. He’s like Peter, before Peter changed.
Fuck me, that’s what it is. He reminds me of Peter. Alive Peter. Of the man my husband used to be. He’s a consumate professional, ever on duty even in the middle of the largest party on the planet. He’s a vassal to Audra, her head body guard, from what I can tell, and damned good at his job. He’s smart, scoping out a room like a trained cop in no time flat. Where others might care to talk about politics, flirtations and threats, he’s all business. And yet, there is something beneath it all. Something warm and alive. Like he wants to be a part of that dance but is too much of a professional to indulge. He makes me want to tempt him out of that long coat and see what he’s really like beneath the surface.
God, he’s just like Peter. Like the man I fell in love with. We even fell into stride naturally together, taking position in a room and keeping all corners covered while working the area in tandeum. No training. No words. Just natural partnership. Like the old days. Only his name isn’t Peter. His name is Evan. And he’s a most... intriguing man.