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Post by Silas Rosier on Sept 3, 2009 9:58:35 GMT 1
There had to be a way to make travelling by Floo Powder more comfortable. Really, it was an awful means of transport. Then again, Silas had brought it upon himself by making his house Apparation-proof. Once the sound of rushing flame and the oppressive heat had subsided, Silas managed to take his first easy breath that didn’t result in a lungful of soot as he stepped quickly out of the fireplace. By the looks of it Jac had managed to let herself out of the locked grate okay and she was now standing around trying to quickly take in the appearance of the room.
They were standing in a medium sized, relatively modern study. A series of enchanted lights had sprung up once Jac had stepped outside fire and begun floating idly in a loose swarm near the ceiling, illuminating the place in a way that could have been mistaken for daylight had the curtains on the opposite side of the room not been drawn tightly shut. A desk and ornate rug were located in the centre, flanked by two large bookshelves that took up the entirety of the walls on the left and right of them. In front of the fire were two comfortable-looking chairs, and on the opposite wall sat a matching sofa in front of the large window. Most of the wood in the room was made out of the same macassar ebony as the furniture in Silas’s office, save for the dark floorboards. A few other items, including a couple of potted indoor trees were placed around the place to give it a bit more life.
Littered on the hefty desk in the middle of the room were a few books that Silas had been too lazy to put back earlier. The closest one was a thick, old looking hardback emblazoned with the words ‘Secrets of the Darkest Art’ in a cursive gold font. ... Crap. She didn’t need to see that one. Silas flicked his wand in the direction of the pile and all the books scattered, flapping around like birds until they found their spots on the shelves and eased themselves into their respective gaps. One copy of ‘Vampire: The Complete Guide’ seemed to get a little lost and had to be beaten away from nestling in the wrong spot by a small, particularly aggressive paperback titled ‘Advanced Defensive Spellwork’ which tried to rip some of the other books pages out as it chased it away.
Out of the two fireplaces in his house, the one in this room was generally not used for Floo transport, but Silas had picked it deliberately as otherwise they’d need to wander through the rest of the house to get here. Silas may have been the one to invite Jac over, but that didn’t mean she was allowed to go snooping. Who knew what she might do, or more importantly, find. Until he found a buyer for his numerous illegal items, he was going to store all his crap somewhere safe. It might be a little hard to explain why human bones were sitting in his stack of potions ingredients. (Hey, a bit of money on the side never hurt, and thankfully he could just dump it right into the Scores dance profits. Drink sales could be traced, dances couldn’t.)
“You can stay in here for a bit,” Silas said, poking his sleeve with his wand which caused any ash that had gotten onto his clothing to blow back into the fireplace. “Or at least until you feel the need to go home. I can stay for a bit and fortify the room for you, but I’ll need to go in a moment to relay instructions to the security supervisor,” he explained, eyeing one of the books on the top shelves for a moment. Was that the one that scorched your eyes out if you tried to read it or was that the other one? Never mind, the odds she’d grab it were low. “I’m hope you understand, but I can’t leave everyone with no idea what’s happening,” he added, looking at Jac again apologetically. Except that he wasn’t going to talk to the bouncers: the second he was out that metaphorical door he was going to be chasing down the only two leads he had on the vampire. “You alright? How’s the nausea?” he asked, seeing as from his experience even feigned interest in another person’s health tended to wash over well.
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Post by Jacaranda Mulciber on Sept 14, 2009 20:16:33 GMT 1
 [atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_bg.jpg,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_foot.jpg][atrb=style,background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 2px 30px 88px 150px; text-align: justify;]The house was cool and quiet. She had a few moments to look around the book-lined room before Silas stepped out of the fireplace. She’d glanced at the books as they flew past to tidy themselves, but the titles sped by too fast to read. She looked to Silas, biting her lip. She felt much safer here, but in an unfamiliar place, she was a little hesitant to make herself at home.
The news that Silas planned to leave again caused a jolt in her already tumultuous insides and she scurried over to him. “Wait, you’re leaving? Can’t you just... send an owl or something?” The tone was almost pleading, and she hated it. “Please, Silas, I was expecting to spend a little time with you.” Her smile was nervous, and her attempt to appeal to him fell flat.
He made his excuses and left through the same fireplace. Left alone to her own devices, Jac skimmed the shelves – non-too-surprised at the collection of darker titles – and picked up a slim volume to take to a high-backed armchair to read.
It wasn’t more than half a chapter of ‘Bartlebey’s Morning-After Concoctions’ that she was fidgeting about the room again. She sat at the large desk and tried to work, but her mind was too scattered. She picked up book after book, skimming pages and lingering on the occasional passage. Silas had quite a library, though nothing as satisfying as her own. The books were ragged and torn as if every one of them had been gnawed on by that feisty ‘Advanced Defensive Spellwork’ that had tried to take her arm off earlier and had to be wrestled back onto the shelf.
An hour or two had passed by the grand clock ticking over the fireplace, and Jac’s bladder was beginning to voice its complaints. Grudgingly she left the comfortable study and found herself in a well-decorated lounge. Crossing over a beautiful (and probably expensive) rug, she exited through double oak doors into what must have been the entrance hall. The front door was big enough for a half-giant to walk though, and opposite it was a winding staircase made of floating granite slabs that led to the upper levels.
Finding no sign of the bathroom downstairs, she took the stairs to the first floor. The first door opened into the most luscious bedroom she had ever seen, and the awe at how much money the furniture added up to distracted her from her anxiety. The next door down she discovered to be the bathroom and after reliving herself, she decided to take a better look around his bedroom.
She was just rifling through his wardrobe of highly fashionable and expensive clothes with utter glee when she heard the gush of someone arriving in the fireplace downstairs. Closing the doors behind her, she started down the staircase. “Silas?” She called, hand hovering over her wand handle in the unlikely case it was somebody other than her employer. “Silas is that you?”
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Post by Silas Rosier on Sept 15, 2009 17:44:45 GMT 1
So, here he was again, back to square one. Goddamnit. Trust his luck that the only two vampires most likely to have been the ones to bite Jac were also the single most innocent. After torturing interviewing the two of them separately, Silas had been left with no choice but to return home, and by the time he stepped back out of the fireplace again, his mood was somehow even worse than before he’d departed. Whoever was responsible was now a bigger mystery than fucking Jimmy Hoffa*, and their motives just as unknown. Juuust fucking brilliant.
Oh hey. Even better. Jac was somehow gone from where he’d left her despite the fact he’d given her strict instruction to stay put before he left. He scowled at the sight of the empty room, the misplaced books and Jac’s folder sitting conspicuously in the middle of the desk not escaping his attention. Fuck. That’s what he got for being in such a hurry and forgetting to lock her in. If she’d gone and accidentally set off an anti-theft device somewhere he could say with absolute certainty that she had it coming. Hopefully the bloodstain wouldn’t be too large, that was just a hassle to clean.
Before he could set out to search for her, Jac’s voice came from somewhere around the vicinity of the Living room. “Silas?” Oh good, she hadn’t strayed too far... hopefully.
“I’m here,” he called back and made his way to the door, wand still in hand as a safety precaution. Hey, you couldn’t just jump to the conclusion that Jac was alone in there. Silas hadn’t avoided both incarceration and death his whole life by throwing caution to the wind at every opportunity (his notorious fits of recklessness notwithstanding). The handleless door swung open silently with just a push, and Jac was visible halfway down the staircase, conveniently without a leering vampire holding a knife at her throat.
Fuck it, he was casting Hominum Revealio on the room anyway. It was only when he was certain that there was no one lurking in the shadows that Silas put the wand back in his pocket and stepped inside.
“Sorry about that,” he grumbled, still trying to make it sound even halfway apologetic even though he wasn’t particularly in the mood for faking his emotions as per usual. “Took a little longer than I expected, but don’t worry, it should be safe now. We’ll find the one who did it, Jac, I promise.” Seph had given him an idea at any rate. Even just pretending to want to protect Jac might give him an excuse.
He briefly wondered if it was beyond even the ability of magically bred post owls to locate someone if the only information they were given was ‘find that asshole human mosquito hunting in Scores on 06/01/25’. Worth a shot, at least. This was going to require planning.
*Here, have a Doakes quote from S2 >_>;;
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Post by Jacaranda Mulciber on Sept 15, 2009 18:17:41 GMT 1
[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_bg.jpg,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_foot.jpg][atrb=style,background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 2px 30px 88px 150px; text-align: justify;]Jac sighed with relief at the sound of his voice, but paused on the stairs when she saw him linger at the hall’s doorway, wand drawn. She swallowed. Was there trouble? She felt a lurch of nausea return. He checked the room with Hominum Revealio – she should have thought to do that – but it seemed his paranoia was unjust. Letting out her breath shakily, she came stepping down the rest of the stairs, her heels clicking on the hard blocks.
At the bottom of the steps, she went to Silas and put her hand over his collar bone. “You mean you didn’t find who it was?” She realised she hadn’t even given a thought to what would have happened if he had. “I don’t feel safe,” she told him, “How can you be so calm?” He was calm, but the hint of frustration in his voice confused her. Did he want to find the vampire? Was he really so worried about her? So angry that she had been hurt? The sentiment was touching, and she leaned a little closer.
With one hand still resting on his shoulder, she absently stroked the fading bite marks with the other. She could have easily been killed if Silas hadn’t of interrupted. She had a lot to thank him for. “Silas? Would you let me stay the night? I don’t want to sleep alone – I don’t think I could.” The breathiness in her voice was a little exaggerated, but she would really rather be in this fortress of a house than alone at her own place.
She’d been avoiding Silas and his dominant behaviour for a while now, but she was glad of it tonight. His protective gestures appealed to a base need to be looked after by someone strong. It was a side of him that she had never seen, and she was compelled to see more of.
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Post by Silas Rosier on Sept 23, 2009 11:22:13 GMT 1
The corner of Silas’s lip twitched unpleasantly when Jac went and emphasised the fact that he hadn’t been able to find the culprit. Why no, he hadn’t found who was responsible. Thank you for the reminder that he had managed to fail tonight. No matter, this was a strictly temporary state of affairs and the vampire would end up a charred mound of flesh at his feet sooner or later. It wasn’t a matter of luck; it was a matter of time.
“How can you be so calm?” she asked, leaning a little closer. He hated those kinds of questions. All he could do was guess what response she was after. This was reassurance seeking behaviour wasn’t it? He lightly put his hand on her arm, looking down at her in a manner resembling concern.
“Because there’s nothing to fear,” he replied gently. Well, sort of. If your name happened to be Silas Rosier then the threat was minimal. However, if your name was Jacaranda Mulciber, then yes, there was a fucking lot to fear.
Had Silas of actually cared for her he might have advised her to set up every defensive measure on the planet, twice, and then some, on the chance the vampire might return to finish what they’d started. After all, you couldn’t rule out the fact the vampire was targeting her to get to him. If you wanted to draw someone out, then going after the people they were close to was always an effective method.
... But where was the benefit to him in telling Jac to lie low? Jacaranda might as well have a giant stamp reading ‘bait’ on her forehead right now. A few tracking charms on her and an alarm spell or two over her home would do the trick nicely. Granted, he didn’t know where she lived, but he could offer to escort her home then set some more spells up there. If a vampire went near her then he’d know about it.
If the vampire had no interest in her at all, then it was only a few minutes waste of his time. If he was right and the fact she had been attacked wasn’t an accident, all this could be solved before it even escalated to the status of ‘problem’. And hey, even if he was too slow to arrive there were always places to find new accountants.
“Silas? Would you let me stay the night? I don’t want to sleep alone – I don’t think I could,” Jac suddenly requested, and Silas was caught a bit off-guard. Err, okay, hadn’t been expecting that. Apparently being a big girl and sucking it up was out of the question.
... Fine, as long as she didn’t expect him to take the couch. “Of course you can,” be replied. The more favours she owed him the better, and hey, there was more than one way to make Jac staying overnight a positive.
Thankfully this also meant he would be able to get everything out of the way quicker. Well, assuming Jac was willing to be helpful with all of this. “Is there anything you needed to get from home? I could go with you just in case.”
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