(nancytribe)
Note to self: Ieuan is perfectly miserable to be around when he has a hangover. Worse, the bond between us gave me more than a little bit of a headache, which did seem to subside with the application of a few pain killers and some distance from the flat, thankfully. Bloody stupid thing to be doing so close to a major ritual, and I told him so (all right, so perhaps I was that stupid -- or more so -- a few times, but that was years ago). It isn't just himself he's putting at risk, after all, and I told him I didn't appreciate it in the slightest. I'm unsure whether I ought to take his getting up to be sick at that point as a sign of contrition, or not.
I wasn't inclined to wait for a definitive answer, so I left a note on the bedside table and set out on foot from the flat. A little shopping was good for the soul, and I wanted something to get my mind off my irritation with Ieuan. After walking a few blocks, buying a paper, and getting a coffee, I decided to call a cab so I could go to Liberty's to look at fabric to be used for curtains at Ariel, Oz, and Jeremy's new flat (something they neglected to think on during their previous expedition).
A few hours later, armed with a veritable cornucopia of swatches (and a bag of things I didn't think I could possibly live without) I took another cab over to Ariel's. When I knocked, the door opened of its own accord -- it hadn't been properly latched. 'Ariel?' I called from the entrance. 'Jeremy? Daniel?'
No answer. I walked in, quietly, to find the place in a state of some disarray, and Ariel lying unconscious on the floor. There was a stake on the floor near her hand, a pile of dust on top of her. the sequence of events was fairly obvious from the evidence. Apparently Daniel wasn't quite as stable as any of us thought. Pity. Seemed like a nice enough fellow. Ariel stirred a bit, but didn't wake up. I could see the ragged bite marks in her throat when her head lolled to one side.
Ariel's other hand was curled around something... Hello, what's this? I asked myself, lifting her fingers off it. The Ring of Amara... of course... How else was a vampire going to go out in the middle of the day with no ill effects? I remembered Ieuan mentioning something about it to me, but it hadn't really made much of an impression. Supposedly mythical, it rendered its wearer more or less invulnerable to anything from sunlight to staking.
Naturally, I pocketed it... for safekeeping.
Having grown more familiar with Kangir demons, I realised Ariel wasn't about to die from the blood loss, no matter how pale and wan she happened to appear at the moment. On the other hand, she wasn't really in any sort of condition to resist any of the few methods that were available to someone who did want to kill one.
Once the ritual was over, Ariel would be the only thing still tying Ieuan to the Council's apron strings, and their had been, after all, several Kangir killings recently. Granted, Ieuan was responsible for those, and they deserved it, but in the demon community at large it would just be one more Kangir going west -- and a relation of one of the ones who had been killed, earlier, to boot. The connexion might be speculated on, but, who was really going to care about one more Kangir from out of town?
And, with Melantha on the loose, one Slayer dead, and another still missing, the blame would probably devolve to her or one of her minions. After the ritual, case closed, closure, and...
What was I thinking? Ieuan would be devastated, and Ariel wasn't really a bad sort... for a Slayer.
With a sigh, I took out my cellular telephone, dialled home from the memory, and waited for Ieuan to answer. When the machine picked up, I called again, and he finally answered. 'Ieuan, don't talk, just listen. Get dressed, get into one of the cars, and get over to Ariel's. There's been a bit of a problem... Ieuan bach, please... she's here, she's more or less all right, but she's been almost drained by that boyfriend of hers, and she had to dust him. We can't take Ariel to Casualty for obvious reasons, so we need to take her back to the flat. You can probably care for her better than anyone around here, right now, anyway... Drive carefully, bach. If you prang the car on the way over here, it will only delay things... I love you, too, Ieuan. See you in a little while.'
I sat down on the sofa to wait for Ieuan, feeling more than a little drained. In spite of everything, I had done the right thing... hadn't I? I asked myself, looking down at Ariel's still form.
I wasn't inclined to wait for a definitive answer, so I left a note on the bedside table and set out on foot from the flat. A little shopping was good for the soul, and I wanted something to get my mind off my irritation with Ieuan. After walking a few blocks, buying a paper, and getting a coffee, I decided to call a cab so I could go to Liberty's to look at fabric to be used for curtains at Ariel, Oz, and Jeremy's new flat (something they neglected to think on during their previous expedition).
A few hours later, armed with a veritable cornucopia of swatches (and a bag of things I didn't think I could possibly live without) I took another cab over to Ariel's. When I knocked, the door opened of its own accord -- it hadn't been properly latched. 'Ariel?' I called from the entrance. 'Jeremy? Daniel?'
No answer. I walked in, quietly, to find the place in a state of some disarray, and Ariel lying unconscious on the floor. There was a stake on the floor near her hand, a pile of dust on top of her. the sequence of events was fairly obvious from the evidence. Apparently Daniel wasn't quite as stable as any of us thought. Pity. Seemed like a nice enough fellow. Ariel stirred a bit, but didn't wake up. I could see the ragged bite marks in her throat when her head lolled to one side.
Ariel's other hand was curled around something... Hello, what's this? I asked myself, lifting her fingers off it. The Ring of Amara... of course... How else was a vampire going to go out in the middle of the day with no ill effects? I remembered Ieuan mentioning something about it to me, but it hadn't really made much of an impression. Supposedly mythical, it rendered its wearer more or less invulnerable to anything from sunlight to staking.
Naturally, I pocketed it... for safekeeping.
Having grown more familiar with Kangir demons, I realised Ariel wasn't about to die from the blood loss, no matter how pale and wan she happened to appear at the moment. On the other hand, she wasn't really in any sort of condition to resist any of the few methods that were available to someone who did want to kill one.
Once the ritual was over, Ariel would be the only thing still tying Ieuan to the Council's apron strings, and their had been, after all, several Kangir killings recently. Granted, Ieuan was responsible for those, and they deserved it, but in the demon community at large it would just be one more Kangir going west -- and a relation of one of the ones who had been killed, earlier, to boot. The connexion might be speculated on, but, who was really going to care about one more Kangir from out of town?
And, with Melantha on the loose, one Slayer dead, and another still missing, the blame would probably devolve to her or one of her minions. After the ritual, case closed, closure, and...
What was I thinking? Ieuan would be devastated, and Ariel wasn't really a bad sort... for a Slayer.
With a sigh, I took out my cellular telephone, dialled home from the memory, and waited for Ieuan to answer. When the machine picked up, I called again, and he finally answered. 'Ieuan, don't talk, just listen. Get dressed, get into one of the cars, and get over to Ariel's. There's been a bit of a problem... Ieuan bach, please... she's here, she's more or less all right, but she's been almost drained by that boyfriend of hers, and she had to dust him. We can't take Ariel to Casualty for obvious reasons, so we need to take her back to the flat. You can probably care for her better than anyone around here, right now, anyway... Drive carefully, bach. If you prang the car on the way over here, it will only delay things... I love you, too, Ieuan. See you in a little while.'
I sat down on the sofa to wait for Ieuan, feeling more than a little drained. In spite of everything, I had done the right thing... hadn't I? I asked myself, looking down at Ariel's still form.