Escape {Silas}

[Sephora Forrest]

Sephora burst into the grate of the fireplace coughing up ash and looking panicked with her eyes wild - darting suspiciously to every corner of the room. She had run all the way back to the Three Broomsticks, thoroughly out of breath, but found she could not even trust her own room. Every shadow seemed to loom out at her with enormous fangs and a malicious intent. So she had come running to the one place she knew was safe - Scores.

She wasn’t supposed to be here - tonight was her night off, so she received a few odd looks from the other staff members as she passed. Even though she knew that Scores had charms to ward off vampires, Sephora remained unconvinced after her close call with Dom earlier that evening. Her head was reeling at just how close she may have come to being killed; and she wanted her safety blanket effectively. Silas Rosier - someone she knew from personal experience as one who knew how to deal with the unwanted creatures of the night.

She stopped one of the other waitresses in the hall to ask where her boss was, only to receive a very dirty look and a sigh. However, the slightest hint of concern entered the older woman’s eyes when she assessed Sephora’s bedraggled appearance. She did not even want to think of how disarrayed she must look.

“Do you know where I could find Silas... Mr. Rosier?” she asked; her usually cool, calm and superior demeanour non-existent; replaced instead with something resembling a frightened little girl.

“I think I saw him at the bar,” she replied, pointing down the hall before moving on and throwing a curios glance over her shoulder. Not bothering to thank her, Sephora rushed off again - only remembering that she had been running around at superhuman speeds in full view of everyone once she reached the more crowded main area of the club.

The noise was making her ears ring once more - her whole system pumped with adrenaline. A man who looked alarmingly like Dom suddenly appeared in her pereferal vision, and she flinched to the side. Quickly, she darted forward through the crowd, ducking her head so that her already short frame would be hidden from view.

Pausing to anxiously survey the bar, she finally spotted Silas and made a bee-line for him. She needed to escape from the feeling of walls closing in on her, and get away from all the dark shadows that were following her. For some reason, she felt herself tearing up - and for the life of her could not understand why she was being so emotional. She rationalised that it must have been the first bear death experience in years that had done it. Going into shock after nearly being killed was perfectly normal right?

“Silas,” she said, speaking almost directly into his ear, her voice sounding only like a whisper over the other conversation and noise. It felt as if everyone who passed had their eyes boring into her. She realised what sort of scene she must have been making, and especially turning up dressed as she was. But this was of little concern right now - she just wanted to feel safe and secure again.

[Silas Rosier]

  Fuck to the yes. After putting his in-tray off for something close to indefinitely, Silas had finally managed to chew and claw his way out through never-ending piles of parchment. Now, for the first time in God knew how long, he was actually on top of his paperwork. Granted, Jac had needed to yell at him to even get him to pick up a quill, but hey, hell yes, it was done.

  And what was the best way to celebrate anything? A good fuck and a bottle of something that would cost normal people a week’s wage, that was how. But then, one bottle never really did the trick anymore, so after Jac had gone home Silas had chosen to retire to the bar for a follow-up. A few shots of some La Coquette ought to be nice if he still had that bottle hidden behind the bar somewhere. Silas didn’t approve of the practice of keeping something good locked away for special occasions – stopped you from enjoying it in the now.

  By the time Sephora crashed out of the fireplace to terrorize the receptionists, Silas was in the closest to a good mood he was ever going to get thanks to the healthy amounts of dopamine floating through his neurological pathways. Good thing for her too, otherwise he mightn’t have taken so kindly to a wide-eyed girl darting like a mad-woman through his club.

  His spatial awareness wasn’t completely shot just yet, so Silas noted dully that someone was coming sharply in his direction long enough to grumble something under his breath about people coming to ruin his fun before looking around to find himself eye to eye with none other than a very harried and traumatised looking Sephora Forrest.

  “Shit, Seph!” he managed to exclaim with some amount of surprise. What the fuck was she doing here and why? He turned around on the stool to get a better look at her, but he didn’t exactly need long to gather that something had just happened. That didn’t explain why the hell she was here and what the bloody hell he had to do with it though. Couldn’t she see he was busy? This was a bit much for his brain right now. “You alright? What’s happened?” he managed to ask in the best approximation of concern he could muster at the current point, raising his hand as though about to rest it on her arm before thinking better of it. Not that a bar was really the best place to discuss it, but it'd let her get anything major out of the way before he decided what to do next.

[Sephora Forrest]

She jumped slightly as Silas spun around at her sudden appearance - startled by the sudden movement. She nit her bottom lip as the evening’s events flashed through her mind again, and the rising tide of emotions was starting to make her eyes sting. This always seemed to be happening lately - as soon as she plucked up the courage to convince herself the world wasn’t out to get her, something like this happened. It was if living in Hogsmeade was a danger to her health.

“This vampire… Dom, he just…” she managed, still desperately fighting back tears that threatened to break free. She didn’t like crying - it was a weakness that she hated with a vengeance, and until now she had done an extraordinary job of avoiding them. Of course, until now her own existence on the planet hadn’t been threatened either.

It was then she realised that she was so scared about what might happen to her if she left the safety of the casino that she was shaking quite noticeably. She wasn’t running anymore, and the self preservation instinct was making her increasingly anxious about what would happen next. Surely she was imagining the feeling that she was being followed.

“I know you warned me about those full ones coming after me, but I never came this close to one before,” she stammered, keeping her voice low to avoid others eaves dropping. Somehow she doubted that announcing the apparently large vampire population in the town wouldn’t be her wisest move at this stage.

“God… I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t gotten away. I’m… scared,” she admitted, and hating herself for every moment of it. But since Silas was the only person she really knew, and knew that he had experience with vampires, she decided that it was necessary. What Sephora really needed was someone to calm her down and reassure her that no vampire was likely to harm her any time soon unless she provoked them. However it was unlikely that Silas would be the one to do this.

[Silas Rosier]

  Vampire? Okay shit, now he was listening. The look of concern from before became a genuine one and Silas lifted his hand again to the side of her elbow as though to steady her. “What?” he replied, frowning and half hoping this was a sick joke. Vampires? What the fuck were more of them doing around here again? The name ‘Dom’ struck a dull chord of recognition somewhere although he was unable to process it just yet.

  “I know you warned me about those full ones coming after me, but I never came this close to one before,” she stammered pitiably.

  Coming after– ... Well shit. That didn’t sound good. For a moment he was actually worried that Sephora was going to burst out into full blown tears. As if this needed to get any more embarrassing for either of them. And what did ‘coming after’ mean? Shit if she’d just gone and lead a bunch of them here he was going to sacrifice her himself.

  “I’m… scared.”

  Seph needed to be moved out of here and quickly, preferably before more people started staring. A bar was hardly the place for this kind of conversation and he needed to know what had happened to work out how much trouble was headed around the corner.

  “Come on, lets’ get you somewhere safe,” he insisted.

  A sense of déjà-vu was tickling at the back of his mind as he stood up to try and steer Sephora around in the direction of the staff section with a hand on her back. This was the second time he’d been confronted with a hysterical woman post-vampire-attack and it was beyond him to explain why they seemed to think he was the best one to go to to have their emotional needs attended to.

  On a side note, he was rather satisfied to see that he was still capable of walking in a straight(ish?) line. Impressive, considering how many shots he’d already worked through. ... Motherfucker. Speaking of shots. Before they got too far Silas was able to discreetly summon his tumbler from the bar and set it to float behind them. He was still going to need that.

  “We’ll go to my office and set some charms up. In the mean time, can you tell me what happened?” he pressed, walking quickly and hoping to get the information out as soon as possible.

[Sephora Forrest]

Wide eyed and scared, Sephora was likely to go anywhere Silas wanted to lead her at this stage, and nodded eagerly at the though of getting away from the hopefully imagined looming shadows. Acting if she was slightly drunk, she steered her way between the club’s patrons in the direction of Silas’s office. Was it just her or - and already she was beginning to clam down considerably. Silas would know what to do… And his office was likely to be the safest place in the entire building.

Glancing over her shoulder to make sure she was out of earshot (and not being followed) Seph finally burst into a rather hysterical recount of her evening.

“Well, I was in the Hogs Head looking for something to eat, and he just walked over. He must have known what I was - I didn’t at first since I couldn’t remember what a vampire smelt like. He chatted me up, and at first I thought he was just some silly human school boy who I could use to fill my stomach. Then things got complicated, and before I knew it we were at his house and he was about to sink his fangs into me. Luckily I was able to fight my way out. I think I broke his foot.”

So she’d smudged the details slightly, but the point of the story remained the same. She was just almost killed by a vampire.

She was still going when they entered Silas’s office. She only nodded briefly in thanks for the seat offered before continuing, her thoughts in a more sensible position to deconstruct small details now that she was feeling more confident she wasn’t about to be attacked.

“I hope he’s not following me - I think I accidentally let slip that I work here when I still thought he was a boy - he wouldn’t have remembered if I’d had the chance to feed off him. He said that he knew you… do you think we’re all in danger? I hate feeling so defenceless!” Sephora balled her hands up into tight fists, her mood changing suddenly from terror to anger.

“I need to know everything about the vampires in the area - I can’t go on like this. Another attack from a vampire like that might be the end of me - I need to know who and what to look out for.”

[Silas Rosier]

  Once they got close enough to the staff hallway Sephora’s story came spilling out. It was hardly a detailed version of events but at least the major points were being gotten out of the way quickly. If he felt there was anything important he could always quiz her about that later.

  On the plus side it sounded like ‘coming after’ didn’t mean ‘following you right to Scores’ as he had first interpreted it. If not Sephora would have had a bigger problem than hungry vampires to deal with. Forget staking, he’d have had her drawn and quartered.

  At the last line of her story though, he couldn’t help it and let out a short laugh. Just the way she’d phrased it, and, hah! As if breaking a vampires foot was ever not funny.

  “Sorry,” he apologised quickly, unable to fully shake off the grin. “But you broke his foot?” He shook his head a bit incredulously, still looking entertained. “Very well done. Think about it: that means you attacked, beat up and escaped from a full vampire – twice your strength, twice your speed – without even getting a scratch. I’m impressed,” he congratulated.

  She got lucky. She had to have just gotten lucky. As if a full vampire would ordinarily be that blatantly incompetent.

  When they reached the office door Silas poked it with his wand and let it swing open. After directing Seph to the seat in front of his desk – trying not to think too hard about what he and Jac had just been doing on it earlier – he entertained himself with walking around the room and making a few complicated looking wand movements while Seph kept talking. He was repeating the patterns for a number of defensive spells, just not bothering to give the incantation. It was ultimately pointless – especially seeing as the spells were already in place – but he figured Seph might be reassured if she thought she’d seen him fortify the room.

  As Silas kept track of what she was saying he found himself liking it less and less. One vampire coming to Scores was a hell of a lot better three or four, but still. The vampire knew where she worked and if there was one thing he was certain about vampires it was that they were vengeful fuckers. Another one of the reasons he’d wiped Seph’s memory after the torture incident last time.

  “He said that he knew you...”

  Wait, what?

  “Do you think we’re all in danger?”

  “Not in here after the spells I just cast,” Silas replied in a tone of intentional calm. Sounding flustered yourself when people were freaked tended to exacerbate things, and he’d found that out a long time ago the hard way.

  He walked over to rest against the edge of his desk, arms folded. So she wanted to know about vampires huh? That was going to have to wait. “I’ll run you through some defences against vampires in a minute, okay? But first – this might be important – what was this guy’s name and what did he look like?”

  All the better to kill the guy with, if such a response was fitting. Aggressive vampires were a pain in the arse.

[Sephora Forrest]

Silas’s laugh at her tale immediately brought a dark expression to Sephora’s face - this was so not funny. She quickly shook off the mood however when it was apparent he wasn’t laughing at her. In fact, it kind of gave her a boost of self confidence when he put it that way. She had escaped a full vampire all by herself. No help involved - no magic, no spells. Well, she couldn’t help but feel a little badass now.

Her eyes followed Silas as he waved his twig wand around. Good - he was making the place safe, although she did wonder why he didn’t have anti-vampire spells on his office before they entered. It seemed like a pretty big oversight for someone who would likely be seen as a threat to any vampire around, but she shrugged it off - he was supposed to be the one who knew what he was doing.

Right now, especially after Silas’s praise, Sephora was actually feeling pretty safe. The two of them could easily take down any vampire threat surely. Besides, if her own tale served to be correct, it was unlikely that Dom would be walking anywhere anytime soon.

“Um, well he said his name was Dominic Spencer, or Dom for short. He looked about my age - had longish blond hair, your height, or maybe a little shorter and he was wearing very flashy kind of ‘pretty boy’ clothing,” she replied, mentally listing the tings she remembered noticing about him. “He was cocky too, but I think that’s it for how I remember him. What I want to know is how I can stop it from happening again.”

OOC: Sorry for it being so incredibly short, but I am sick which is stealing my muse.

[Silas Rosier]

  Dominic Spencer? The name didn’t ring a bell, but the physical description sure did. The kid had shown up at Scores about a week earlier, and Silas hadn’t trusted him at first but he’d eventually decided to give the boy a shot. Big mistake, apparently. He hated being wrong about people. If Silas wanted to pretend to be oblivious it was a bit late now, because his face definitely got a grim look of recognition as Sephora continued.

  “Yeah, I know him,” Silas admitted darkly, now scowling at the carpet. “Or met him at least, briefly. He called himself Thomas something. Might have been Harrow, I forget. So either he’s lying to one or both of us. I can tell you one thing for sure; you are so far out of his fucking league it’s not even funny. Fucking prick,” he griped, content really to just throw whatever insult he could at Tom at this point. Or Dom. Or maybe neither. People didn’t lie about their names unless they had something to hide. He knew he should have listened to his first impulse to set ‘Tom’ on fire.

  So how much of his crap about Dacian was also bullshit? The thought briefly crossed Silas’s mind that Tom/Dom and Sephora might be in cahoots and he gave the girl a sidewards glance. It wasn’t as if Sephora didn’t have plenty incentive to want him dead, especially after what he’d done to her last time they met.

 ... But that was impossible wasn’t it? She wasn’t supposed to know anything about that. He’d made a point to wipe her memory. If he knew one thing about his memory charms, it was that he was good at them; he’d needed to cast them a fair few times in the past to get himself out of a tight spot. There was no way he could have fucked that up.

  No, it was a lot easier to assume Seph had been genuinely taken in rather than humour the idea he’d made a mistake somewhere along the line. He didn’t fuck up. Dacian didn’t count either – Edward had interrupted a perfectly good process.

  Silas was saved from having to discuss it by Sephora immediately turning the topic back onto vampire defence again.

  “Seeing as you can’t use magic, when it comes to vampires this is about to become your best friend,” Silas replied, sticking his hand down the front of his suit shirt and pulling out the small metal crucifix he’d shown her the night they’d met. “The sight of one of these will have a full vampire pissing their pants, and even brushing it lightly will cause permanent scarring. It’s acidic to their skin and a lot of them can’t even look at a crucifix without pain. I’m going to get you one as soon as possible. Tonight, preferably, seeing as Scores’ll be closed for renovations starting tomorrow and you need to be prepared by then.” A simple gesture, but it’d help to get her onside.

  Silas paused for a second as though considering something, letting the crucifix hang around his neck for the time being. “There’s one other thing you might be able to use, although it’s a little bit out there. You haven’t heard of a taboo have you?” Of course she hadn’t. Until she’d met him she’d barely had even half a clue about magic. “It’s a jinx, and although normally used for tracking it might suit our purposes. The spell’s put on a word, and whenever that word’s said, it alerts the caster to the location of the speaker. Think of it as your own personal distress signal,” he clarified. “If you get in trouble, you just need to say it and I'll know where to find you. You need to think of something only you’d use though, or else it's pointless. What do you think?”

  Or well, those were the only details she needed to know anyway. The idea of having Seph as his own personal vampire alarm clearly had its perks. He’d need to propose all this to Jac later too, seeing as still didn’t trust that the incident with the vampire in the hallway wasn’t going to repeat itself.

[Sephora Forrest]

Aha. Silas’s expression spoke without words as recognition and something that didn’t look all that friendly crossed his face. She did wonder who he was lying to if two different names had been given out. She did suspect that the one she received was the correct one, but was now regretting giving out her name now. She probably would have been safer giving a false one. But she never usually had to give out fake names - most people who heard it didn’t remember it the next morning.

Inwardly, Sephora glowed at Silas’s comment. It was rather strange… still, she greatly appreciated his vote of confidence. She straightened up, listening more intently when he finally got on to the defensive tactics she could employ. Finally she was getting somewhere.

Her expression darkened slightly when Silas pulled out his cross. Last time she’d held that thing hadn’t been comfortable, to say the least. Nor was she looking for ward to having to carry one around with her. Still, it was something that full vampires probably wouldn’t expect a half vampire to be carrying around with them, so she was going to go along with it, if grudgingly.

She did appreciate Silas going out of his way to keep her protected too. Still, she was on his payroll, so maybe he had a responsibility or something. When the word ‘taboo’ was mentioned, she shook her head just in case Silas didn’t already know that her knowledge about magic was barely rudimentary. She understood the general concept of the word, but was unsure of how it actually tied into magic, or how it would keep her safe from vampires.

As Silas explained the process, she was intrigued to say the least. It would mean that she could have backup there in minutes if she got into a tight spot.

“I think it’s a really good idea…” she agreed. But what word could she possibly use that wasn’t said by anyone else? Considering the number of people in the word, nearly every combination she could come up with might be used in any one day. She ummed and ahhed, still trying to think of a word that no one else would use. Silas… Silas…. Vampires… Blood… Help… She remembered her evening, trying to think of something that was unique and still coming up blank. The main problem was that every word that existed would be used. So the simple solution that presented itself was: make something up.

It couldn’t be just anything, or something that someone else might say by accident. Something unusual, uncommon and possibly not even in English to lower the chances of it being used. Her mind immediately flew to the title of her favourite wine: Sangre Vino. That couldn’t be used since it was a type of wine, however if reversed, could be useful?

“How about Vinosangre?” she asked finally, hoping that she wouldn’t have to think of anything else, since it had taken her this long to come up with just that. That would mean her taboo word meant wineblood. She almost laughed - how very apt. She also made a mental note not to nickname Silas that in the future.

[Silas Rosier]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Silas/Scripts/sigpostscript_bg.png,true][atrb=valign,top]	[rs=2][bg=ffffff][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/1300666/Characters/Silas/Scripts/sigpostscript_mainbg.png][atrb=style,background-position:top;background-repeat:no-repeat;]   Sephora was quick to agree to the idea and she lapsed into silence, presumably thinking of a word. Suited him just fine really, the quiet gave Silas a moment to think and to grab the tumbler which had dutifully followed him into the office. It would be a crime to go anywhere without finishing off something that expensive. Now, to ponder about the problem that remained.   At this ungodly hour it was far too late to just walk into the Two-Sickle-Shop for some cheap jewellery. Besides, although a two-sickle plastic cross would do the trick it didn’t pack quite the same punch as the real deal.   There was really only one place you could go to find that: a church. The trouble was the clergy were not in the habit of giving out hundred-year-old holy artefacts for free. If that meant a little breaking and entering into a cathedral, who was going to give a shit? Somehow he doubted Seph was the type to get her knickers in a bunch over something so simple. Besides, it’d let him see first-hand how half-vampires fared on hallowed ground.   The Winchester Cathedral was out. If all went to plan then he was going to be needing that shortly, and the less people drawing a connection to him and that church the better. There was no use revisiting the one he had stolen his and Edward’s from either – hitting the same place twice was just moronic. That left one church that sprang to mind somewhere on the border of England and Scotland. He’d examined it before quickly in a book and it was one of those that had a small pseudo-museum underground below the nave and a crypt beneath that. Odds were they’d have at least one decent cross there which could be turned into a necklace of sorts. Size wouldn’t be a problem – Edward’s had originally been about the size of his forearm before the shrinking charm.   Okay, so breaking into a place with no idea of what you might find wasn’t the brightest plan in the world. He had no idea how to get downstairs or even what security there was likely to be or if the place was even empty. But on the other hand, who cared? That’s what improvisation was for and Silas had enough experience with circumventing electronic security under his belt from his time overseas. The technology kept improving but the same simple spells always did the job.   He’d just finished drinking the rest of the absinthe and making up his mind and when Sephora spoke up again.   Vinosangre? It took Silas all of half a second to deconstruct the words and flip them around. Sangre Vino. Interestingly, it wasn’t the fact that it was a wine that made him recognise it; it was the fact that Sephora had been drinking it the night they’d met. Ordinarily that wasn’t a detail he’d be fucked to remember, where it not for the fact he’d worked out the translation shortly afterwards and almost face-palmed. Blood wine. How perfect for a vampire, and a red flag that he should have seen coming a hundred miles away at the time.   “Nice choice,” he smirked, putting the empty glass down and getting up off the side of the desk. “It takes a while to set up so I’ll do that when you leave. Should be ready by tomorrow morning, so feel free to test it. Or when the sun comes up at least, it’s probably morning already.” Silas lifted his wrist and pulled the cuff back to check his watch. “Thought as much. If you want your crucifix tonight we’d better get moving,” he continued, trying to solidly get a mental image of a photo he remembered from the church while taking a step closer and offering his hand for Sephora to take.   The second she took his hand and stood up everything went black. The world was once again pressing hard on them from all directions; there was no air to scream with; no room to breathe; no light to see and all that existed was a force threatening to crush every bone in their body until... it just stopped.   They were no longer in Silas’s office but on a stretch of lawn in the middle of what looked like an old graveyard. The tombstones were so worn the names were illegible and some had started to crumble. Not that you’d be able to read them anyway, the place was so dark because the streetlights around them were blocked due to the thick trees around the perimeter. Attached to where they were standing loomed a massive stone building, blatantly Gothic Revival in architecture and it looked like they’d appeared somewhere near the south transept of a cathedral. The lights were off inside, and it was only the sound of a very distant car which gave any hint the area was still alive.   Jac would certainly disapprove, but oh well. What she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.	[atrb=valign,top]
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