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fembuckTitle: Welcome to the Fold
Author: Janine
Fandom: Blade the Series
Pairing: Krista/Chase
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don’t own them.
Summary: Continuation of “A Brave New World” … Krista arrives at Chase’s new operation.
Prequel - A Brave New World
Part 1
Later that night …
Krista opened her eyes as the door to the dorm room she had been assigned opened up revealing a sliver of light from the hallway and a shadowed figure hovering in the doorway before they moved all the way into the room the darkness inside enveloping them before the door closed behind them.
Chase was running her current operation out of a building that had been used by the University of Toronto years before as a dormitory but had been abandoned in favor of a newer building closer to the St. George campus. It wasn’t as flashy as Marcus’ operation had been but it was an extremely efficient way to deal with housing concerns for the scattered members of Chthon Chase had managed to gather together, while also ensuring that she had space to store goods, run training sessions and whatever else it was that she needed.
Krista was actually quite impressed, from a technical stand-point, with what Chase had managed to accomplish in a relatively short amount of time, though she had no plans to compliment the blonde out loud.
“How are you settling in?” Chase asked crossing over the desk at the other end of Krista’s room and taking a seat. She had been drawn away immediately upon her return to the coven, forced to deal with a problem she had abandoned earlier when news had reached her from her butcher friend that a woman meeting Krista’s description had just left his shop.
After her little fall that man and his store had gotten her on her feet again. Following the scent of blood to his door step had been a saving grace; he was a big man and had been able to feed her well. Luckily for him, and her, it turned out that she was still too weak to bleed him dry. As she had prepared to snap his neck he had pleaded with her, told her that he could be useful, that others like her had come to his store before looking for blood and he could send them to her or whatever else she wanted. She had been enraged and in a generally foul mood that night, but she wasn’t so far gone that she didn’t recognize an opportunity to network when it was presented to her. Keeping him alive turned out to be a good decision, his business proved to be a big draw for House-less accidental turns who had no idea that animal blood would do them no good in the long run, and she had recruited quite a few foot soldiers through his calls. Not to mention finally finding Krista.
“Okay,” Krista responded not surprised in the least to see Chase. She almost didn’t know how she had survived six months without the blonde barging in on her whenever she felt like it. “I managed to unpack,” Krista continued smirking a little in the dark knowing that Chase could see it.
“I hope you didn’t exhaust yourself,” Chase replied playing along with Krista’s little joke. The brunette didn’t have much with her when she had found her earlier that evening, which meant after the five seconds it took her to unpack she must have been brooding in the darkness. It was such wonderfully Krista like behavior that Chase almost smiled.
“I think I’ve got my second wind,” Krista replied shifting on the bed, pushing herself up until she was sitting with her back against the wall gazing at Chase. For some reason the idea of lounging in bed while Chase was in her small room made her uncomfortable.
“I know the accommodations aren’t quite what you’re used to, but …” Chase began.
“They’re fine. A lot better than most of the places I’ve been sleeping lately,” Krista interrupted looking away from Chase momentarily. “I actually kind of like it,” Krista continued drawing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them as she spoke. “It reminds me of school.”
“Where did you go to school?” Chase asked crossing her legs and settling back in the chair making herself more comfortable. Krista was in a far more sociable mood than she had seen the brunette, ever, and she would take advantage of the situation. As much as she enjoyed fighting with the ex-soldier, too much of any one thing became tedious and there was nothing she hated more than tediousness.
“University of South Carolina,” Krista replied brushing some hair back off of her face trying not think about how strange it was to be discussing something as mundane as her schooling with Chase. She almost felt like exclaiming ‘bomb’, ‘gun’, ‘aurora’ or ‘decapitation’ to return some normalcy to their interaction.
“Bit far away from home,” Chase commented though it did explain the accent she often caught peeking through the brunette’s speech.
“Yeah,” Krista nodded the southern drawl Chase had noticed showing itself in that word. “We used to live there. It’s where Zack and I were born,” she continued hesitating for a moment at the mention of her brother, her eyes holding on Chase for a moment as she thought about the blonde’s role in her brother death.
She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. Chase had been there when her brother died, was probably the one who had investigated him and reported his betrayal to Marcus. Chase had once been number two on her ‘to kill’ list, and now … now Chase was the closest thing she had to a … an acquaintance.
“We moved when we were four,” Krista continued a long moment later sighing. “I always kind of wanted to go back and see where I was born, you know,” she went on shrugging and averting her gaze.
“How did you end up in the army?” Chase asked relaxing slightly. She had seen the look Krista gave her at the mention of her brother and had tensed preparing to exchange words if not more with brunette, but mercifully Krista had recovered and moved on.
She was learning, Chase could see, she was beginning to realize that her focus needed to be on the life she was living presently and not on how things had been as a human.
“Joined up to pay off my school loans,” Krista replied smiling a little. “My mom was … she was not pleased. She didn’t want me to go away in the first place, and then to join up to pay it off … lectured, I was lectured until she lost her voice,” Krista continued her tone nostalgic and pained. She would have done anything to see her mother again, even if it was just to argue with her about something.
“I loved the service though,” Krista continued a moment later. “I was only home on temporary medical leave. I never thought it’d end up being my last tour,” she finished her eyes drifting up to the ceiling as the room descended into silence. She still had trouble reconciling the fact that she had survived in Iraq only to be murdered by a real estate developer 20 minutes away from her mother’s house.
“I never went to school,” Chase said a few moments later into the silence blanketing the room her eyes tracking around the room as she tried to imagine what it would have been like to live there, music blasting down the hallway, a book bag flung by the door, worrying about getting reports done on time. She could picture the scene, but she couldn’t imagine herself in it. It was too far removed from anything she had known as human and far too conventional for her life as a vampire.
“Post-secondary or at all?” Krista asked focusing on Chase, wondering just how old the blonde was. She didn’t really know much about Chase beyond the fact that she had once been married and was Australian, which was kind of surprising considering the amount of time they had spent together in the past. Then again, she hadn’t been very responsive to Chase’s attempts at starting conversation back then, she hadn’t cared; she hadn’t wanted to know. She had planned on getting away from Chase, and Marcus, and Chthon and Blade as soon as possible back then and never looking back.
As it turned out things hadn’t quite been that simple.
“Post-secondary,” Chase replied smirking as she looked over at Krista. “I’m not that old.”
“How old are you?” Krista asked straightening up a little, crossing her legs so that she was sitting Indian style before resting her elbows on her thighs and placing her head in her hands looking very much like an attention grade one student.
“I was born in 1881,” Chase replied her eyes drifting away from Krista’s as she spoke, “on a farm in small back-water town called Griffith on the Murrumbidgee River,” she continued a slight edge to her voice as her mind wandered back in time.
“One-hundred and twenty six years old,” Krista breathed out slightly awed, still unable to properly appreciate the longevity of the hominus nocturna.
“Most of the human ones aren’t worth mentioning,” Chase murmured darkly her eyes narrowing. “I ran away too, as far as could get as soon as I could,” she went on her eyes returning to Krista’s for a moment. “I didn’t have a meal card or a cartoonishly small room at a fine establishment like this to run to though,” she went on standing up before Krista could ask anymore questions about her past. “There’s a meeting in the lounge on the first floor at 6 p.m.,” Chase continued moving towards the door. “Will you need a wake-up call?” It was almost dawn.
“No, I’ll be fine,” Krista replied shifting to lean against the wall once more as Chase reached the door of her room. Surprisingly she found that she would have liked to talk to Chase for longer. It wasn’t until she was faced with the prospect of being alone again that she realized how long it had been since she had had a real conversation with someone, and lately since she had been around anyone for more than a couple of minutes. It was nice to talk, even if it was to Chase, but she could see the blonde begin to shut down as she talked about her past and knew that it was best to just let it drop for the moment.
“I’ll see you then,” Chase said watching Krista for a second longer and then she was out the door and Krista lay back on her bed, thinking that she might actually be able to get some sleep.
---
Part 2
First Floor Lounge
Krista watched as the figures assembled around the room began to file out, her eyes drifting from their disappearing backs over to Chase who was standing in front of a large desk with her hands braced on it behind her leisurely watching them leave.
“I know you have something better to do,” Chase said turning her gaze to Krista as the last of the assembled vampires exited the room. “I just gave the assignment to you.”
“Why?” Krista asked not moving from where she was seated.
“Because that’s why I brought you here. To work,” Chase replied knowing that she hadn’t answered Krista’s real question, but wanting to annoy the brunette a little bit. She had greatly missed annoying Krista over the past six months. She hadn’t realized what a great source of entertainment interacting with Krista had been until the brunette had thrown her down fifteen flights of stairs and run away.
“I meant why are you targeting this gang?” Krista asked scowling a little but otherwise not raising to the bait. “I know it’s not because you feel you have a civic responsibility to keep the streets drug free.”
Chase hopped on to the desk while considering Krista’s words. This was another reason she was glad to have the brunette around. Krista questioned things, she was inquisitive, she used the brain encased in that beautiful head of hers, and while it could sometimes be irritating she was sure that Krista’s inquisitiveness could be useful to her as well. Infantry was all well and good, but she needed generals too.
“Drug-free, no,” Chase said slowly, speaking very deliberately. “Ash-free, yes,” she continued stroking her bottom lip with her thumb, the motion thoughtful and sensuous at the same time. “Like most Ash operations this one is being run by meat,” she went on her lips forming a thin line. “They’re hiring rogue vampires to do their dirty work, and these clan-less thugs are targeting Chthon because we lack the infrastructure to hunt them down and make them burn,” she related crossing her legs, exposing an tantalizing expanse of pale, smooth thigh to Krista’s eyes. “Remnants of Marcus’ coven and others from the States are arriving here and they’re easy targets alone. Sabine was almost picked off last night.”
“Sabine’s here?” Krista asked remembering Marcus’ attractive Arab secretary. She had liked Sabine as much as she had liked anybody in Marcus’ coven.
“Not yet, she should arrive sometime tonight. After escaping she had to lay low during the daylight,” Chase replied watching Krista closely.
“So you’re just protecting your new operation with this,” Krista asked sensing, or perhaps just expecting, that Chase was holding something back though what she had said so far was reasonable.
Chase nodded. She of course wasn’t just protecting her people, although that was certainly an element of what she was up to. But, she would not tell Krista the rest yet, though she suspected the brunette would find out eventually. She needed to make Krista comfortable, to give her time to realize that she was better off with Chthon than alone. Telling Krista that she was removing the Ashers not just because they were a threat, but because they were taking business away from the conventional drug-trade operation she was running on the side that provided badly needed revenue and a loyal network of familiars, was not something that would make the brunette comfortable.
“I won’t kill them and I won’t let my team,” Krista stated firmly when Chase did nothing more than nod in response to her previous statement.
“Like I said, no one is asking you to kill your precious widdle humans,” Chase responded rolling her eyes before slipping off of the desk and moving towards Krista. “Ash the vampires, leave the humans alive is you must, but leave them living in terror. Burn the warehouse, raze it to the ground, break bones and make sure you get their entire network of lap-vampires,” Chase said drawing running a finger down Krista’s cheek, her blunted nail scrapping against the brunette’s flesh deliciously.
Krista submitted to the touch, fighting and only partially succeeding at stopping herself from leaning into the blonde’s touch.
When Chase pulled her finger back, Krista stood up and placed some space between them.
She couldn’t think clearly with Chase that close to her.
The Ashers were a menace to the humans they sold the ash to. They destroyed lives. She would be doing the community a service by getting rid of them, even if that wasn’t Chase’s motive.
Krista began to head to the door.
“Oh, and Krista,” Chase called as the brunette made her way towards the door. “Take pictures. I want to make some greeting cards for the other Houses.”
Krista nodded and exited the room.
She wasn’t going to take any fucking pictures.
---
Part 3
Two Days Later
Krista entered the kitchen of the cafeteria following the sounds of banging pots and bubbling liquid. Sabine had found her a few minutes earlier and informed her that Chase wanted to see her. Krista rolled her eyes at being summoned but hadn’t really been doing anything and figured that she might as well go to see the blonde … slowly.
The kitchen of the former dorm was half out of operation. Even though vampires could consume human food most of them chose to simply dine on blood and if they had a hankering for something solid would just go out. There were a few however who still appreciated a home-cooked meal but they were able to more than make do with what remained operative of the kitchen. Where no expensive had been spared was in the large walk in refrigerator units that contained the coven supply of blood.
“Are you cooking?” Krista asked surprised, and slightly disturbed, to see Chase standing in front of one of the oven in an apron. She thought that Chase was just down there getting a midnight snack, not baking one up.
“I had to do something since I won’t be making any greeting cards,” Chase responded without turning around to face the brunette, her tone somewhat irritated.
Krista smirked. It seemed Chase was still a little bitter that she didn’t take those pictures.
“I didn’t know you cooked,” Krista commented changing the subject. She was beginning to learn that changing the subject was a very effective way to converse with Chase. If either of them said something that pissed the other off – which was usually the case – changing the subject (or in Chase’s case, flirting with the subject) usually worked wonders.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” Chase replied turning to look over her shoulder at Krista this time, holding her gaze for a moment before she turned back to the stove. “This is one of the things women were taught to do one-hundred and twenty-six years ago,” she continued bending down to open the oven door, placing the tray she had been working on when Krista arrived inside.
“What are you making?” Krista asked the tantalizing smells wafting towards her from where Chase was standing getting the best of her. A couple of months ago the smell of food made her nauseous since she was still relying on the serum, but she was down to her last few doses and had chosen not to use them since arriving at Chase’s coven, wanting to preserve them in case of a future emergency. She had been on her own for two days and was now apparently no longer nauseated by solids because of it. She choose not to think too much about what other tastes of hers might be changing as well.
“Whiskey bread and butter pudding,” Chase replied glancing at the bowl off to her side. “And, Jolly Jumbuck in a Tuckerbag,” she continued smiling as she turned around to face Krista.
Krista stared at her silently for a moment.
“You’re fucking with me,” the brunette said finally her eyes narrowing as she glared at the blonde.
“I’d certainly love to,” Chase responded smirking, her eyes raking over the brunette’s form appreciatively. “But I’m not. Australians are quirky like that,” she continued glancing at the timer on the stove. “The recipes have changed a little since my heyday, but the names remain equally ridiculous.”
Krista smiled. “Don’t you mean are ‘full of down-to-earth charm’?”
Chase rolled her eyes and emitted a very unlady-like snort.
“So we won’t be having wine from a box with didrido music to set the mood, then?” Krista asked feigning disappointment as Chase stuck up for her people’s culture.
“Who said you were staying for dinner?” Chase asked quirking an eyebrow at Krista.
Krista returned her gaze trying to keep the surprise she felt at the question off of her face. She had been told to meet Chase in the kitchen not that they would be dining together. She had just assumed, for some reason, that they would be dining together. She was actually looking forward to dining together. She’d spent most of the previous day on her own, Chase was really the only person that she knew in the coven, and she wasn’t comfortable with making friends with vampires, which meant that Chase was her only real source of companionship, not matter how pathetic that was.
She wanted to be staying for dinner.
“Am I not?” Krista asked finally keeping her voice level.
Chase was silent for a moment as she considered how to respond to Krista’s question. Her plan of course had been for Krista to join her for dinner; it’s why she had had Sabine send her down to the kitchen. The decision in front of her now was whether she was willing to punish herself by sending Krista away for the momentary satisfaction of bossing the other woman around, or whether she could just follow through with her original plan and perhaps have the opportunity to bother Krista for the next hour.
“Set the table,” Chase finally replied turning her back on Krista.
Krista smirked and then turned to the side to begin rifling though the cabinets.
---
Chase had been away from the coven on ‘business’ for the majority of the previous day, and much of their dinner conversation revolved around Krista’s report and Chase’s inquiries about the operation the brunette had been tasked with. It wasn’t exactly light dinner conversation, but considering the nature of their relationship at Marcus’ coven it was familiar territory for them, and thus relatively comfortable.
“How’s your leg?” Chase asked glancing over at Krista before concentrating on serving dessert. She knew that nowadays they usually served the dish with ice-cream, but ice cream had been a rare commodity when she was living in Australia and so she considered serving it with the pudding tacky and unnecessary.
“It’ll be fine,” Krista replied resisting the urge to touch the spot on her leg that had been pierced with shrapnel during the mission. She had tried not to favor it while walking around Chase not wanting the blonde to know that the wound wasn’t completely healed. She still remembered the lecture she had been given by Chase and Marcus last time she had been impaled and she didn’t need to hear it again.
“So stubborn,” Chase murmured looking over at Krista again, knowing that the wound was still there. She had noticed Krista favoring the leg even though the brunette had tried to mask it. “Now that you don’t have Blade’s poison anymore, you need to feed more than ever,” Chase continued a little irritably. “You can’t go on like you have been.”
“Can’t I?” Krista asked a little petulantly, putting down her spoon even though the pudding was quite good so that she could glare at Chase.
“No, you can’t,” Chase replied sneering slightly. “Be honest,” she continued a second later. “This is the first meal you’ve been able to keep down in days, isn’t it? That animal filth isn’t sitting so well with you anymore, is it?”
Krista growled softly her eyes burning into Chase’s.
“You can’t survive on that shit, Krista,” Chase said when Krista made no verbal reply to her. The brunette’s furious silence was response enough. “The serum was the only thing allowing you to keep that stuff down. Why do you think Blade needed it created for him in the first place? Vampires were not meant to subsist on vermin and swine,” Chase continued placing her elbows on the table and leaning forward as she spoke.
“I absolutely will not hunt,” Krista replied meeting Chase’s gaze. She didn’t care how uncomfortable it made her.
“Use the fridge,” Chase said gesturing angrily in the direction of the storage unit in question. “It comes from blood banks and volunteers. We don’t carry around bloody collection kits on hunts. That blood is clean.”
Krista was silent after Chase spoke, still uncomfortable with the idea of drinking human blood no matter how much Chase tried to convince her that no one had to die in order to feed her. “I’ll be fine,” Krista said softly a few moments later looking away from Chase.
“You’ll be fine,” Chase muttered mockingly in response shaking her head. “Stupid twat,” she continued glancing across the table at Krista. “Eat your pudding.”
Krista could learn her lesson the fucking hard way, then.
To be continued...
Author: Janine
Fandom: Blade the Series
Pairing: Krista/Chase
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don’t own them.
Summary: Continuation of “A Brave New World” … Krista arrives at Chase’s new operation.
Prequel - A Brave New World
Part 1
Later that night …
Krista opened her eyes as the door to the dorm room she had been assigned opened up revealing a sliver of light from the hallway and a shadowed figure hovering in the doorway before they moved all the way into the room the darkness inside enveloping them before the door closed behind them.
Chase was running her current operation out of a building that had been used by the University of Toronto years before as a dormitory but had been abandoned in favor of a newer building closer to the St. George campus. It wasn’t as flashy as Marcus’ operation had been but it was an extremely efficient way to deal with housing concerns for the scattered members of Chthon Chase had managed to gather together, while also ensuring that she had space to store goods, run training sessions and whatever else it was that she needed.
Krista was actually quite impressed, from a technical stand-point, with what Chase had managed to accomplish in a relatively short amount of time, though she had no plans to compliment the blonde out loud.
“How are you settling in?” Chase asked crossing over the desk at the other end of Krista’s room and taking a seat. She had been drawn away immediately upon her return to the coven, forced to deal with a problem she had abandoned earlier when news had reached her from her butcher friend that a woman meeting Krista’s description had just left his shop.
After her little fall that man and his store had gotten her on her feet again. Following the scent of blood to his door step had been a saving grace; he was a big man and had been able to feed her well. Luckily for him, and her, it turned out that she was still too weak to bleed him dry. As she had prepared to snap his neck he had pleaded with her, told her that he could be useful, that others like her had come to his store before looking for blood and he could send them to her or whatever else she wanted. She had been enraged and in a generally foul mood that night, but she wasn’t so far gone that she didn’t recognize an opportunity to network when it was presented to her. Keeping him alive turned out to be a good decision, his business proved to be a big draw for House-less accidental turns who had no idea that animal blood would do them no good in the long run, and she had recruited quite a few foot soldiers through his calls. Not to mention finally finding Krista.
“Okay,” Krista responded not surprised in the least to see Chase. She almost didn’t know how she had survived six months without the blonde barging in on her whenever she felt like it. “I managed to unpack,” Krista continued smirking a little in the dark knowing that Chase could see it.
“I hope you didn’t exhaust yourself,” Chase replied playing along with Krista’s little joke. The brunette didn’t have much with her when she had found her earlier that evening, which meant after the five seconds it took her to unpack she must have been brooding in the darkness. It was such wonderfully Krista like behavior that Chase almost smiled.
“I think I’ve got my second wind,” Krista replied shifting on the bed, pushing herself up until she was sitting with her back against the wall gazing at Chase. For some reason the idea of lounging in bed while Chase was in her small room made her uncomfortable.
“I know the accommodations aren’t quite what you’re used to, but …” Chase began.
“They’re fine. A lot better than most of the places I’ve been sleeping lately,” Krista interrupted looking away from Chase momentarily. “I actually kind of like it,” Krista continued drawing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them as she spoke. “It reminds me of school.”
“Where did you go to school?” Chase asked crossing her legs and settling back in the chair making herself more comfortable. Krista was in a far more sociable mood than she had seen the brunette, ever, and she would take advantage of the situation. As much as she enjoyed fighting with the ex-soldier, too much of any one thing became tedious and there was nothing she hated more than tediousness.
“University of South Carolina,” Krista replied brushing some hair back off of her face trying not think about how strange it was to be discussing something as mundane as her schooling with Chase. She almost felt like exclaiming ‘bomb’, ‘gun’, ‘aurora’ or ‘decapitation’ to return some normalcy to their interaction.
“Bit far away from home,” Chase commented though it did explain the accent she often caught peeking through the brunette’s speech.
“Yeah,” Krista nodded the southern drawl Chase had noticed showing itself in that word. “We used to live there. It’s where Zack and I were born,” she continued hesitating for a moment at the mention of her brother, her eyes holding on Chase for a moment as she thought about the blonde’s role in her brother death.
She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. Chase had been there when her brother died, was probably the one who had investigated him and reported his betrayal to Marcus. Chase had once been number two on her ‘to kill’ list, and now … now Chase was the closest thing she had to a … an acquaintance.
“We moved when we were four,” Krista continued a long moment later sighing. “I always kind of wanted to go back and see where I was born, you know,” she went on shrugging and averting her gaze.
“How did you end up in the army?” Chase asked relaxing slightly. She had seen the look Krista gave her at the mention of her brother and had tensed preparing to exchange words if not more with brunette, but mercifully Krista had recovered and moved on.
She was learning, Chase could see, she was beginning to realize that her focus needed to be on the life she was living presently and not on how things had been as a human.
“Joined up to pay off my school loans,” Krista replied smiling a little. “My mom was … she was not pleased. She didn’t want me to go away in the first place, and then to join up to pay it off … lectured, I was lectured until she lost her voice,” Krista continued her tone nostalgic and pained. She would have done anything to see her mother again, even if it was just to argue with her about something.
“I loved the service though,” Krista continued a moment later. “I was only home on temporary medical leave. I never thought it’d end up being my last tour,” she finished her eyes drifting up to the ceiling as the room descended into silence. She still had trouble reconciling the fact that she had survived in Iraq only to be murdered by a real estate developer 20 minutes away from her mother’s house.
“I never went to school,” Chase said a few moments later into the silence blanketing the room her eyes tracking around the room as she tried to imagine what it would have been like to live there, music blasting down the hallway, a book bag flung by the door, worrying about getting reports done on time. She could picture the scene, but she couldn’t imagine herself in it. It was too far removed from anything she had known as human and far too conventional for her life as a vampire.
“Post-secondary or at all?” Krista asked focusing on Chase, wondering just how old the blonde was. She didn’t really know much about Chase beyond the fact that she had once been married and was Australian, which was kind of surprising considering the amount of time they had spent together in the past. Then again, she hadn’t been very responsive to Chase’s attempts at starting conversation back then, she hadn’t cared; she hadn’t wanted to know. She had planned on getting away from Chase, and Marcus, and Chthon and Blade as soon as possible back then and never looking back.
As it turned out things hadn’t quite been that simple.
“Post-secondary,” Chase replied smirking as she looked over at Krista. “I’m not that old.”
“How old are you?” Krista asked straightening up a little, crossing her legs so that she was sitting Indian style before resting her elbows on her thighs and placing her head in her hands looking very much like an attention grade one student.
“I was born in 1881,” Chase replied her eyes drifting away from Krista’s as she spoke, “on a farm in small back-water town called Griffith on the Murrumbidgee River,” she continued a slight edge to her voice as her mind wandered back in time.
“One-hundred and twenty six years old,” Krista breathed out slightly awed, still unable to properly appreciate the longevity of the hominus nocturna.
“Most of the human ones aren’t worth mentioning,” Chase murmured darkly her eyes narrowing. “I ran away too, as far as could get as soon as I could,” she went on her eyes returning to Krista’s for a moment. “I didn’t have a meal card or a cartoonishly small room at a fine establishment like this to run to though,” she went on standing up before Krista could ask anymore questions about her past. “There’s a meeting in the lounge on the first floor at 6 p.m.,” Chase continued moving towards the door. “Will you need a wake-up call?” It was almost dawn.
“No, I’ll be fine,” Krista replied shifting to lean against the wall once more as Chase reached the door of her room. Surprisingly she found that she would have liked to talk to Chase for longer. It wasn’t until she was faced with the prospect of being alone again that she realized how long it had been since she had had a real conversation with someone, and lately since she had been around anyone for more than a couple of minutes. It was nice to talk, even if it was to Chase, but she could see the blonde begin to shut down as she talked about her past and knew that it was best to just let it drop for the moment.
“I’ll see you then,” Chase said watching Krista for a second longer and then she was out the door and Krista lay back on her bed, thinking that she might actually be able to get some sleep.
Part 2
First Floor Lounge
Krista watched as the figures assembled around the room began to file out, her eyes drifting from their disappearing backs over to Chase who was standing in front of a large desk with her hands braced on it behind her leisurely watching them leave.
“I know you have something better to do,” Chase said turning her gaze to Krista as the last of the assembled vampires exited the room. “I just gave the assignment to you.”
“Why?” Krista asked not moving from where she was seated.
“Because that’s why I brought you here. To work,” Chase replied knowing that she hadn’t answered Krista’s real question, but wanting to annoy the brunette a little bit. She had greatly missed annoying Krista over the past six months. She hadn’t realized what a great source of entertainment interacting with Krista had been until the brunette had thrown her down fifteen flights of stairs and run away.
“I meant why are you targeting this gang?” Krista asked scowling a little but otherwise not raising to the bait. “I know it’s not because you feel you have a civic responsibility to keep the streets drug free.”
Chase hopped on to the desk while considering Krista’s words. This was another reason she was glad to have the brunette around. Krista questioned things, she was inquisitive, she used the brain encased in that beautiful head of hers, and while it could sometimes be irritating she was sure that Krista’s inquisitiveness could be useful to her as well. Infantry was all well and good, but she needed generals too.
“Drug-free, no,” Chase said slowly, speaking very deliberately. “Ash-free, yes,” she continued stroking her bottom lip with her thumb, the motion thoughtful and sensuous at the same time. “Like most Ash operations this one is being run by meat,” she went on her lips forming a thin line. “They’re hiring rogue vampires to do their dirty work, and these clan-less thugs are targeting Chthon because we lack the infrastructure to hunt them down and make them burn,” she related crossing her legs, exposing an tantalizing expanse of pale, smooth thigh to Krista’s eyes. “Remnants of Marcus’ coven and others from the States are arriving here and they’re easy targets alone. Sabine was almost picked off last night.”
“Sabine’s here?” Krista asked remembering Marcus’ attractive Arab secretary. She had liked Sabine as much as she had liked anybody in Marcus’ coven.
“Not yet, she should arrive sometime tonight. After escaping she had to lay low during the daylight,” Chase replied watching Krista closely.
“So you’re just protecting your new operation with this,” Krista asked sensing, or perhaps just expecting, that Chase was holding something back though what she had said so far was reasonable.
Chase nodded. She of course wasn’t just protecting her people, although that was certainly an element of what she was up to. But, she would not tell Krista the rest yet, though she suspected the brunette would find out eventually. She needed to make Krista comfortable, to give her time to realize that she was better off with Chthon than alone. Telling Krista that she was removing the Ashers not just because they were a threat, but because they were taking business away from the conventional drug-trade operation she was running on the side that provided badly needed revenue and a loyal network of familiars, was not something that would make the brunette comfortable.
“I won’t kill them and I won’t let my team,” Krista stated firmly when Chase did nothing more than nod in response to her previous statement.
“Like I said, no one is asking you to kill your precious widdle humans,” Chase responded rolling her eyes before slipping off of the desk and moving towards Krista. “Ash the vampires, leave the humans alive is you must, but leave them living in terror. Burn the warehouse, raze it to the ground, break bones and make sure you get their entire network of lap-vampires,” Chase said drawing running a finger down Krista’s cheek, her blunted nail scrapping against the brunette’s flesh deliciously.
Krista submitted to the touch, fighting and only partially succeeding at stopping herself from leaning into the blonde’s touch.
When Chase pulled her finger back, Krista stood up and placed some space between them.
She couldn’t think clearly with Chase that close to her.
The Ashers were a menace to the humans they sold the ash to. They destroyed lives. She would be doing the community a service by getting rid of them, even if that wasn’t Chase’s motive.
Krista began to head to the door.
“Oh, and Krista,” Chase called as the brunette made her way towards the door. “Take pictures. I want to make some greeting cards for the other Houses.”
Krista nodded and exited the room.
She wasn’t going to take any fucking pictures.
Part 3
Two Days Later
Krista entered the kitchen of the cafeteria following the sounds of banging pots and bubbling liquid. Sabine had found her a few minutes earlier and informed her that Chase wanted to see her. Krista rolled her eyes at being summoned but hadn’t really been doing anything and figured that she might as well go to see the blonde … slowly.
The kitchen of the former dorm was half out of operation. Even though vampires could consume human food most of them chose to simply dine on blood and if they had a hankering for something solid would just go out. There were a few however who still appreciated a home-cooked meal but they were able to more than make do with what remained operative of the kitchen. Where no expensive had been spared was in the large walk in refrigerator units that contained the coven supply of blood.
“Are you cooking?” Krista asked surprised, and slightly disturbed, to see Chase standing in front of one of the oven in an apron. She thought that Chase was just down there getting a midnight snack, not baking one up.
“I had to do something since I won’t be making any greeting cards,” Chase responded without turning around to face the brunette, her tone somewhat irritated.
Krista smirked. It seemed Chase was still a little bitter that she didn’t take those pictures.
“I didn’t know you cooked,” Krista commented changing the subject. She was beginning to learn that changing the subject was a very effective way to converse with Chase. If either of them said something that pissed the other off – which was usually the case – changing the subject (or in Chase’s case, flirting with the subject) usually worked wonders.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” Chase replied turning to look over her shoulder at Krista this time, holding her gaze for a moment before she turned back to the stove. “This is one of the things women were taught to do one-hundred and twenty-six years ago,” she continued bending down to open the oven door, placing the tray she had been working on when Krista arrived inside.
“What are you making?” Krista asked the tantalizing smells wafting towards her from where Chase was standing getting the best of her. A couple of months ago the smell of food made her nauseous since she was still relying on the serum, but she was down to her last few doses and had chosen not to use them since arriving at Chase’s coven, wanting to preserve them in case of a future emergency. She had been on her own for two days and was now apparently no longer nauseated by solids because of it. She choose not to think too much about what other tastes of hers might be changing as well.
“Whiskey bread and butter pudding,” Chase replied glancing at the bowl off to her side. “And, Jolly Jumbuck in a Tuckerbag,” she continued smiling as she turned around to face Krista.
Krista stared at her silently for a moment.
“You’re fucking with me,” the brunette said finally her eyes narrowing as she glared at the blonde.
“I’d certainly love to,” Chase responded smirking, her eyes raking over the brunette’s form appreciatively. “But I’m not. Australians are quirky like that,” she continued glancing at the timer on the stove. “The recipes have changed a little since my heyday, but the names remain equally ridiculous.”
Krista smiled. “Don’t you mean are ‘full of down-to-earth charm’?”
Chase rolled her eyes and emitted a very unlady-like snort.
“So we won’t be having wine from a box with didrido music to set the mood, then?” Krista asked feigning disappointment as Chase stuck up for her people’s culture.
“Who said you were staying for dinner?” Chase asked quirking an eyebrow at Krista.
Krista returned her gaze trying to keep the surprise she felt at the question off of her face. She had been told to meet Chase in the kitchen not that they would be dining together. She had just assumed, for some reason, that they would be dining together. She was actually looking forward to dining together. She’d spent most of the previous day on her own, Chase was really the only person that she knew in the coven, and she wasn’t comfortable with making friends with vampires, which meant that Chase was her only real source of companionship, not matter how pathetic that was.
She wanted to be staying for dinner.
“Am I not?” Krista asked finally keeping her voice level.
Chase was silent for a moment as she considered how to respond to Krista’s question. Her plan of course had been for Krista to join her for dinner; it’s why she had had Sabine send her down to the kitchen. The decision in front of her now was whether she was willing to punish herself by sending Krista away for the momentary satisfaction of bossing the other woman around, or whether she could just follow through with her original plan and perhaps have the opportunity to bother Krista for the next hour.
“Set the table,” Chase finally replied turning her back on Krista.
Krista smirked and then turned to the side to begin rifling though the cabinets.
Chase had been away from the coven on ‘business’ for the majority of the previous day, and much of their dinner conversation revolved around Krista’s report and Chase’s inquiries about the operation the brunette had been tasked with. It wasn’t exactly light dinner conversation, but considering the nature of their relationship at Marcus’ coven it was familiar territory for them, and thus relatively comfortable.
“How’s your leg?” Chase asked glancing over at Krista before concentrating on serving dessert. She knew that nowadays they usually served the dish with ice-cream, but ice cream had been a rare commodity when she was living in Australia and so she considered serving it with the pudding tacky and unnecessary.
“It’ll be fine,” Krista replied resisting the urge to touch the spot on her leg that had been pierced with shrapnel during the mission. She had tried not to favor it while walking around Chase not wanting the blonde to know that the wound wasn’t completely healed. She still remembered the lecture she had been given by Chase and Marcus last time she had been impaled and she didn’t need to hear it again.
“So stubborn,” Chase murmured looking over at Krista again, knowing that the wound was still there. She had noticed Krista favoring the leg even though the brunette had tried to mask it. “Now that you don’t have Blade’s poison anymore, you need to feed more than ever,” Chase continued a little irritably. “You can’t go on like you have been.”
“Can’t I?” Krista asked a little petulantly, putting down her spoon even though the pudding was quite good so that she could glare at Chase.
“No, you can’t,” Chase replied sneering slightly. “Be honest,” she continued a second later. “This is the first meal you’ve been able to keep down in days, isn’t it? That animal filth isn’t sitting so well with you anymore, is it?”
Krista growled softly her eyes burning into Chase’s.
“You can’t survive on that shit, Krista,” Chase said when Krista made no verbal reply to her. The brunette’s furious silence was response enough. “The serum was the only thing allowing you to keep that stuff down. Why do you think Blade needed it created for him in the first place? Vampires were not meant to subsist on vermin and swine,” Chase continued placing her elbows on the table and leaning forward as she spoke.
“I absolutely will not hunt,” Krista replied meeting Chase’s gaze. She didn’t care how uncomfortable it made her.
“Use the fridge,” Chase said gesturing angrily in the direction of the storage unit in question. “It comes from blood banks and volunteers. We don’t carry around bloody collection kits on hunts. That blood is clean.”
Krista was silent after Chase spoke, still uncomfortable with the idea of drinking human blood no matter how much Chase tried to convince her that no one had to die in order to feed her. “I’ll be fine,” Krista said softly a few moments later looking away from Chase.
“You’ll be fine,” Chase muttered mockingly in response shaking her head. “Stupid twat,” she continued glancing across the table at Krista. “Eat your pudding.”
Krista could learn her lesson the fucking hard way, then.
To be continued...
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Date: 2007-03-17 08:44 pm (UTC)Stay tuned for the sex ...
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Date: 2007-03-17 11:35 pm (UTC)