Dead Until Dark {Seph}

[Silas Rosier]

  The change of tactic worked about as well as could be expected. At the sight of the crucifix Dacian shrank back into the dark corner, eyes wide as saucers. Silas only had a moment to fully realise he had never seen the vampire look this utterly terrified before the answers he had been after spilled from Dacian’s mouth as though any delay would cost him fingers.

  Unfortunately, none of it was particularly reassuring.

  Vampire coven? What the flipping fuck.

  Vampire coven.

  Yeah, he knew covens existed, he knew there was a major ones scattered throughout all of Europe, and he knew the Ministry liked to keep an eye on them, but somehow he’d never stopped to think that much about the one squatting right over London. Probably because he didn’t actually want to think about it. A huge whole fucking society of the bastard’s right under his nose? Please. It was far nicer to assume the bulk of them had settled waaaay over the North Sea.

  And now they were interfering all of a sudden.

  Fan-fucking-tastic.

  “Figures,” Silas grumbled, nose wrinkling either like a dog snarling or like he had just smelt something rather foul. “They’ve been mostly ignoring you for the last few centuries, so why the friendly chat all of a sudden?” he asked roughly, primarily to keep his own thoughts in order. He was trying to recall anything he could about the research he’d done on Dacian’s long and ridiculously meandering life story. Hell, he was suddenly feeling far less antagonistic towards Connery for making him waste all that time with it. He’d need to send the man a good tequila – Or, wait, no. Connery looked like a total light-weight. Fruit-juice it was, then.

  In any case, somehow he doubted the coven was that altruistic as to randomly come lend a hand. The only reason Silas would have for helping a non-entity was—

  “... What do they want from you in exchange?”

[Dacian]

[atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/daci.png][bg=000000][atrb=style,background-position: top; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 220px 65px 65px 65px;]As far as Dacian assumed, a delay would cost him fingers. If he wanted answers, he’d be threatening the same. The overwhelming sense of vertigo from the rush of fear threatened to move the walls and topple Dacian forward, but he managed to brace his legs and stay upright. His crucifix-affected body decided it was feeling the cold, and his muscles began to shiver violently. The vampire swore under his breath, trying not to let his quivering jaw slice up his lips on aching fangs. The fact that Silas knew about the covens shouldn’t have surprised him. Nor should his apparent in-depth knowledge about his relations with them. What didn’t Silas know about him? He tried to be angry at his lack of privacy, but the cold sweat of fear tickled the nape of his neck. He really needed to appreciate Silas more. He was conniving, malicious with a ruthless streak a mile wide. He’d make a good vampire, and Dacian hoped to the heavens that Silas never became one. He gasped a breath to answer, but Silas was already there. Favours. The coven wanted favours. If they couldn’t use them now, they would use them later. They could be minor, or they could potentially be dangerous. He was at the coven’s whim. As much as he disliked that, being at Silas’s whim was a much more frightening and in-the-now concept. He could be so easily killed if he provoked the wizard holding the wand, and that was not on Dacian’s planned agenda. Unfortunately, he didn’t have an answer that he thought would satisfy the man. “I don’t know.” He blurted, heaving shaking breaths. Oh God, his head was going to implode. He just had to get away from this. “I don’t know yet. Something. They want something.” Everybody wanted something. He was getting quite tired of it. He longed for the days when he only had to satisfy himself. Vivian, Cassie, the coven, Silas. Who didn’t want something from him? Hell, even Edward wanted him to go away.

[Silas Rosier]

  ‘Something’? Well that was helpful. Silas looked irritable. What the hell kind of an answer was ‘something’? Even when they were finally getting somewhere Dacian was still having trouble with anything that wasn’t monosyllabic.

  The vampire sounded frightened, a new development as far as he went, but that didn’t mean Silas was going to trust anything that came out of his mouth. Dacian wasn’t telling him something – he’d put money on that. It wasn’t like the vampire had ever given him a reason to be trusted and Silas wasn’t going to assume ignorance when malicious intent would do just fine. Especially when he still didn’t know just who had bitten Jac that night at Scores. He’d been trying to get Dacian to slip something since he’d arrived but the vampire was being annoyingly scant on his replies.

  “What else?” he growled, trying to ignore the heaviness growing in his arm from keeping his wand aimed so long. If possible he wanted to wrap this up quickly. He was coming up with a case of cold feet – literally. The ground was freezing. Silas flexed his toes.

  There was a clatter from far off and Silas glanced up. It was only then it dawned on him that the middle of an alleyway wasn’t a fantastic place to launch an interrogation. “Keep an ear out would you?” he asked pleasantly to Sephora, inclining his head slightly in her direction instead of saying her name. If Dacian hadn’t learnt it already he wasn’t going to find out on account of him accidentally slipping it. Dacian wasn’t allowed to know her name.

  “Fine, Love, we’ll play it your way,” Silas grumbled, seemingly becoming aware of the whisky in his hand again and lifting it to take a quick mouthful. “You got until I count down to zero to give me something else useful or I’m crushing your fingers to powder. Ready?

  “Five.”

  Silas moved his wand to aim square at Dacian.

  “Four.”

  The grin on his face was anything but reassuring.

  “Three.”

[Dacian]

What else? What sort of what else? Did he want a full account of the evening? He’d been there for most of it. The only bit he apparently missed was the coven taking his body from the scene. Dacian needed more direct questions in his present state of mind to fathom what ‘useful’ information was and what wasn’t.

The nonchalance of his captor spurred his anxiety, prompted another violent shiver. A brave enemy was a confident one. Confidence meant either successful, or stupid. Dacian knew which one Silas was, and his IQ was definitely not below average.

His thought processes were short and jumpy, he couldn’t seem to hold onto one thread for long. Not until Silas sharpened his mind with another threat, and panic flooded him once again. “N-no!” He protested though chattering teeth. “P-p-please!” He looked about franticly, desperate for an escape. He had nothing to tell him!

Five. Mentioning the coven had piqued his interest. Four. He wanted to know about the coven. Three. What did Dacian know about the coven? Two. A lot. That was relevant right now? One. “They’re here!” Wide, showing-too-much-white eyes were on Silas, the vampire panting like he’d ran a marathon. When his fingers didn’t combust or otherwise, he scrambled for more. “They don’t trust me. They’re watching me. S-so I won’t run.”

Oh God, please let that be enough. He grasped at a floating coherent thought, and used it to hope that the mention of the coven in the area would spur Silas into wrapping up this miniature torture session and leaving him alone. Alive. Well, in one piece.

[Sephora Forrest]

Seph watches Si threatening Daci, thanking her lucky stars its not her, and thinks 'Boy does Daci look like he's about to shit his pants.'

[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;]   Begging. That was a new one. To Silas’s ears Dacian’s desperate “P-p-please!” sounded a little over-dramatised. There were numerous things Silas had come to expect from Dacian, but this – begging – wasn’t one of them. What the hell was he playing at? Whatever it was, it wasn’t funny.   “Two.”   Still no answer. Not looking good for the vampire.   “One.”   And that was it. Stubborn little bastard. Fine, finger-crushing it was then. Dacian couldn’t say he hadn’t had due warning. The words to nullify the shield-charm were already being furiously mumbled under his breath just as Dacian cut him off.   “They’re here!”   Fuck. Again. Helpful.   “Who?”   “They don’t trust me. They’re watching me. S-so I won’t run.”   Silas’s wand lowered a fraction. Not much, but enough to be taken as reassuring that no one was going to explode just yet. His brows faintly knotted together as the information processed. The coven had spies in Hogsmeade? Well, shit. He shouldn’t even need to list the reasons why that was bad news.   “Who is it?” he barked, giving a sideward glance up at one of the roofs as though half expecting a vampire to be perched there like some kind of sinister gargoyle. The wand went up again, and Silas returned to watching Dacian intently through the lens of his glasses. “No skipping any details.   “And stop blubbering,” he added for good measure. “That never helped anybody.” Somehow, it had completely gone over Silas’s head that Dacian might actually just be genuinely frightened. Dacian didn’t get frightened: he got angry, just like him. So what the hell was the vampire playing at? Was it a plea for sympathy? An attempt to be endearing? Cause that definitely wasn’t going to work. Silas didn’t have any heartstrings to tug at.	[atrb=valign,top]
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[Dacian]

[atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/daci.png][bg=000000][atrb=style,background-position: top; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 220px 65px 65px 65px;]The vampire let out a whoosh of breath when he wasn’t instantly fried. Quite a heady rush, really. His heart gave a sympathetic throb, and Dacian heaved a few deep breaths to sooth the burning in his lungs, and expelled one in a ludicrous half-laugh. “Hah! Y-y-you think n-names would mean anyth-thing t’ you?” Well, he supposed Silas did have a knack for research, His penchant for calling him by his mortal surname proved that. Fine, he had nothing to lose by telling him. “Sssamuel Jac-c-cobs.” Oh for fuck sake, this shivering was getting ridiculous. How did mortals cope? He shot Silas a more in-character glare. “Oh ffff-f-fuck off. I’m c-cold.” Silas had a big enough ego to assume he was scared enough to simper? … Okay, so maybe he had been, but death-threats tended to have an adverse effect on his confidence when there was absolutely no escape and he was already suffering from yet another fresh crucifix burn. Which made every involuntary shake of his jaw agonisingly painful, by the way. Taking a cue from the multitude of homeless people he’d seen an eaten over the centuries, he tried rubbing his upper arms with his hands. The friction made a little heat, but hardly anything significant. He gave up, hugging his arms instead in an attempt to keep the shivering to a minimum. Silas wanted more details? Fine, he could have them. “He’s old. Older than m-me. Coven official. Goody t-two ssshoes.” Short words helped the shivering, and lessened the burning in his jaw, but he doubted Silas would be satisfied with a few meagre hints. “T-talks to the ministry-y. N-not hard to ffffind.” He thought about leaving it at that. It would do Silas good if he decided to hunt Samuel down. He’d be in for a shock. Self-preservation betrayed him, though, and he forced another titbit between chattering teeth. “Y’you’d never best him. T-too powerful.” There, duty done, he’d warned Rosier. Now it was his vault if he got himself too deep. Samuel might be a soft touch, but the vampires close to him were not. Samuel was a small fish compared to the sharks he worked for. His glare had not abated since he’d regained it, and he tilted his head stiffly in a silent question. Anything else?

[Silas Rosier]

  “Y-y-you think n-names would mean anyth-thing t’ you?” Dacian challenged, and Silas smirked in a way that spoke for itself. Hell, he’d managed to trace Dacian’s life story all the way down to day one with only a first-name to go from. Apparently Dacian quickly remembered this, because he coughed up something useful without further complaint: Samuel Jacobs. A much more common name than ‘Dacian’, but his connection with the coven gave Silas a starting point.

  The nice train of conversation was momentarily derailed with Dacian’s annoyed, “Oh ffff-f-fuck off. I’m c-cold.”

  “Really?” Silas asked pleasantly. “I didn’t know whining ‘N-n-no, p-p-please’ to the cold makes it go away. Remind me next time I forget a jacket.” Like now actually, but far be it from him to confess to the vampire he was getting dangerously close to not being able to feel the bottom of his feet. Any weakness – no matter how slight – was one you kept to yourself.

  “Come on. I don’t have all night.”

  Dacian continued, but the only words that managed to stick in Silas’s head were “T-talks to the ministry-y.”

  Ministry Liason? Fuck. That complicated it. Now they were potentially going from ‘kill pest vampire’ to ‘assassination’. It always got trickier when public and/or political figures became involved, but it was by no means impossible.

  First: Find out who the man was. Second, have strategies based on what he could find.

  Great, more delays in the horcrux project. Just what he needed.

  “Y’you’d never best him. T-too powerful,” Dacian emphasised, and Silas made a derisive noise.

  “We’ll see about that,” he answered, clearly unconvinced by Dacian’s warning. “Lumos Solem’ll cook both of you to the right temperature, no matter who he is. I’m sure you can vouch for that one.” And right on cue, the incantation caused a glow to shine confusedly from the end of the wand before fading away.

  Hell, if he could best Dacian in a fair fight, Samuel couldn’t be that much harder; especially since no one was obligating Silas to fight fair. Even a quick Lumos Solem Extasis on the vampires jacket would do the trick: the spell would activate the second the vampire put the stupid thing on and he’d be fried to a crisp without it even coming down to a fight. It was magic for fucks sake. Vampires were fucking deluded if they thought they could stay one step ahead of it forever. Even voodoo had its uses against targets without getting near them.

  “Can’t stop a threat you don’t see coming,” he smiled cryptically. “You know, you really gotta start giving me a little credit, Love.”

  After a pause, Dacian gave him an expectant look. Was that all he knew then? Granted, the vampire had given him plenty to work off so far, but that still didn’t stop him from asking “Are you sure that’s everything?”

  Dacian mumbled something vaguely affirmative.

“Good, now was it really that hard? It wouldn’t kill you to just co-operate once in a while.”

  The wand dropped to Silas’s side. “Now listen closely: Kill anyone you like – I don’t give a shit. However, touch one of my people again; I’m coming after you myself. Also, if you don’t want to see me again anytime soon, this conversation never happened.” The wand went back up to aim at Dacian’s forehead. “Are we understood?”

[Sephora Forrest]

Sephora watched the exchange with wary eyes, her mind on high alert for information that may prove useful to her in the future. The more she could find out about vampires, the better prepared she would be for dealing with them.

She actually hadn’t considered that there might be huge vampire organisations out there. She was a social outsider - or had been until recently - and the two other vampires she had come across so far didn’t appear to have many friends either. She’d sort of come to the conclusion vampires were pretty solitary creatures, and probably wouldn’t work together all that well. At least that’s what she’d hoped. The idea of organised networks of vampires was unsettling at the best of times.

She was beginning to wonder at the wisdom of threatening Dacian if he indeed was backed by the giant vampire convention that could be hanging somewhere near by. Still, she’d much rather have Si and his wand around since she’d already burnt Jesus into Dacian’s cheek. The older vampire was looking in seriously bad shape, and she didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to stay upright. His heart rate was erratic to say the least, and he looked like death warmed up, for want of a better description. No, scratch that, death stuck in a freezer - he was shivering like you wouldn’t believe.

At Silas’s request she too became more alert - she had kind of gotten caught up in the tension of the situation, forgetting that the backdrop was the perfect one if you wanted to be discovered at just the wrong moment. From what she could tell, the clatter that had bothered Si was probably a cat knocking over a dustbin, Her attentiveness was short lived when the threatening and promise of violence resumed, and perhaps she was a little too eagre to see the vampire who had just tried to eat her writing in agony. But surely that wasn’t over exaggerating? Surely? Oh well, who cared anyway.

Damn. Dacian had blurted out some rubbish that made only half a grain of sense, but it seemed to be enough to halt Silas in his tracks. Sephora couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. As to who were the vampire representatives in Hogsmeade, Sephora would have put money on it just being Samuel. Actually she would have paid someone for it just to be Samuel. From what she could remember he was a fairly nice bloke.

Bingo. She was right on the money - not that she was going to tell Silas that. She doubted that he would appreciate her having third encounters of the vampire kind that involved members of the coven. Not that it was anything - she couldn’t remember most of it.

Sephora flinched slightly at the flare at the end of Silas’s wand. She remembered all too well the discomfort it had brought, and in the darkness that light alone was enough to make her shade her eyes from the glare. Still, at least it wouldn’t kill her. Which was a plus.

Things looked like they were wrapping up now, and she perked up a little more, standing up straighter from her more relaxed posture. Absently she wondered how long Dacian had been bothering Silas to get that kind of reaction out of him. And she could guess that she wasn’t the first person in the employ of Silas to get harassed either. Still, nice to know that if she became vampire chow that someone might avenge her death. Maybe.

[Dacian]

[atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/daci.png][bg=000000][atrb=style,background-position: top; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 220px 65px 65px 65px;]Yeah, whatever. Silas had an ego of frightening proportions. Best Samuel? Dacian had made enough mistakes underestimating Silas and given the man an inflated sense of worth. A vampire with more sense and power could break Silas’s neck before he could finish the incantation. Dacian’s conceited sneer faded at the glow from the wand, and he cringed back with a fang-baring hiss. Even just that little glow was enough to remind Dacian that yes, he knew all too well what Silas could do with a well-thrown spell. He crossed his arms and hunched into the corner, scowling through slit lids in case the wand should flare again. Fine, Silas had a reason to be confident, but Dacian knew painfully how underestimation could backfire. It was only a matter of time before Silas met his match. Sooner rather than later if he took on the coven. The vampire had given Silas all the details he was willing to give, and he waited expectantly for Silas to press for more. Dacian had more, but Silas was getting nothing about Vivian. Especially with that look on his face, as if he knew something the vampire didn’t. On cue, Silas asked once more, and Dacian nodded jerkily and grumbled under his breath. “Yes, I’m sure.” Though through a shaking jaw with barely any volume, it was unintelligible. He gave a huff of breath, and dropped his gaze away from the wizard. Knowing Silas, it probably would kill him to cooperate just as easily if he didn’t. The cornered immortal flicked his dark gaze up at the movement of the wand, and he tested the barrier with his shoulder. Still solid. Hurumf. He felt ire rise at Silas’s final warning, and he bit it back with difficulty. Keep away from his people?! Silas should keep his people away from him. He had been avoiding Silas, he only reason he had come across him was because the man had been flaunting attractive property in his territory. His eyes tightened with the contained anger, but he nodded curtly, wincing at the tug of tendon on his jaw. “Fine.” He spat, eyeing the point of the wand now pointed at his face. It wasn’t as if he had any other choice but to agree, and it was hardly likely he’d be spilling the beans on his second defeat in as many months by a mortal.