In between the tracks.

He saw her standing out in plain sight when he came up out of the man hole. Simon was pleased she'd figured to make her way over to the deserted side of the train yards. He began to walk towards her when suddenly she stopped moving. 'Oh no.' He saw her take a deep breath and start to yell his name.

He moved as quickly as he could towards her and then away from the main building. He did not want them seen together by anyone. So he decided to move her futher into the center of the tracks, in between the cars, but he didn't have the chance to tell her. He imagined her stomach was not agreeing with her now.

'God I think I'm going to puke.'

He chuckled and put his hand on her back, rubbing it softly. 'I'm sorry, I didn't want you to bring any attention to yourself.'

Carol nodded her head from her bent over position.

Simon looked up into the sky and saw the dawn coming. 'Carol', he started in a hushed voice, 'we appear to have a problem.' There was the rattle of an incoming line of trains coming by, forcing him to talk louder. 'Carol, I could hear you.'

Carol straightened and looked at Simon. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? Oh god, it would make sense. He couldn't have found her otherwise.

Simon replied, 'I know.'

She looked at him. 'I didn't say anything.'

He titled his head and gave her a sad smile.

'Oh...crap.' She sighed and crossed her arms. 'Well,' her flickered again to the horizon, cutting it close. 'Well how did this happen? When did this happen?'

Simon took a bit of her hair and pushed it back behind her ear. Carol looked down and nodded. 'Yes, the garden.' He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her close. 'I didn't know I could bond. I haven't been too aware of any of my abilities. I just thought I really didn't have anything specific.' He shrugged. 'I assumed when I got older, they would develop but I suppose they've been dormant all this time.'

He lifted her chin and he looked into her eyes. 'Honestly Carol, I didn't mean to.'

When he grew older. He was 1400 years old, he was hiding them apparently. Or was never given a reason to want to bond with anyone, especially Ellis. Maybe he knew she wouldn't want the bond and that's why he never tried. Simon thought to himself, Evenhet's have empathy, he would have to talk to Alfarinn about it. To undo it, maybe? Till then, he'd have to keep Ellis away from Carol. At least, to feed. He would have to keep Addison in Ellis' thoughts, hopefully get her to get to know her new familiar and forget about Carol for a little while. Long enough to...well, long enough to not have to worry about Ellis anymore. But till then...

'We're in serious danger now, love.'

Serious danger was putting it lightly. Any bond she had with Ellis as her familiar was now completely gone. She was now bonded to another vampire and that vampire happened to be her mistress' lover.

Her face wrinkled up at the thought and shut her eyes to keep from crying again. 'Simon I don't know why I feel this way. I have honestly never given you a second thought. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.' Simon's chest moved as he laughed softly.

Another set of train cars came rumbling through. She raised her voice so he could hear her. 'You've decided something and it changed you. I don't know if you've always been on the edge of my thoughts but that night, with Addison, you had this...thing, this aura and the way you looked at me. It was like a light coming on. I was flirting with you. Well, more than I normally do with everyone. All of the sudden I felt very naked and..well yeah I practically was, but that's not the point.' His chest moved again and she looked back up into his smiling face.

'There. That's what's changed. I've never seen you really smile before. You lurked everywhere you went. You were Ellis' straight man. Her enforcer. You walked behind her but now you...' she shook her head and realized it. 'You're walking your own path now. You're going to take over Tacharan.' It wasn't a question. 'You're going to kill her, aren't you?'

Simon shook his head. 'She chose that path, Carol. The other clans know. They know about The Beast and they know what she's up to. Megan, Evenhet's Elder, she was in on it but Alfarinn doesn't know.' He reached into her hair with his left hand and let the blonde strands interwine with his fingers. He realized that he always wondered if it felt the way he imagined. It was like silken strands of spun gold.

He looked back into her clear blue eyes. 'She plans on taking the Beast back. She'll go alone and she'll tell us to wait for her signal only...we won't be there when she calls, Carol.' He nodded slowly to her, hoping she understood. 'Hillman will have her and god willing, he'll kill her before I have to. But for some reason she lives, by some unnatural stroke of ugly luck she makes it out and with the beast, the Council will call her forth. For one, raiding a human compound. Who knows how many she'll kill. Two for involving her clan and forcing us to kill more humans. Three, for what she plans on doing with the beast Carol. You know she plans on killing clanned vampires.'

Carol nodded sadly.

'It's one thing to kill humans but it's another to kill your own kind and to profit from it.' Simon shook his head, 'No, this was her path. She chose it, all by herself. I can't let her do this to the clan. This is my clan, Carol. When Ellis took over she made me turn the humans to fill our ranks. These are my children, Carol. Not her's. She has no vested interest other than having more cannon fodder. Duibne is my company. My family has ran it, not her's. Marthinus is from my blood and she wanted to let him die. She was ready to replace him with Jacob, my latest child.'

His face filled with pain. He was telling her most everything, he might as well tell her the worst of it. 'She has vampires who tail my family. She uses them to keep me from threatening her, but I never would have. I loved her, with all my heart. I can recall the first time I felt that love for her and also the last time. But even with my love and loyalty, she held it over me. My family were her stock of familiars. They belonged to her, she said.' He clenched his jaw and took a deep breath.

'She never loved me. She'd do away with me the first chance she got and I think she see's that chance in Sorin. So I contracted Mathias, our new clan member, to kill the tail on Marthinus.'

Carol covered her mouth.

'She doesn't know it yet, but Nova, Jan and Marthinus has put the word out to save the family. They're being moved, quietly, to a secret location that Jan is setting up.' Simon touched her face and she leaned into it. On both sides of them, train cars were lining up, rattling and shaking the ground underneath them.

He yelled, 'I didn't have a choice, Carol. I'm doing this for the clan. For my family.' He stroked his thumb across her cheek. The last of the cars trailed by and revealed the rising sun. The pain was immediate on his face but he did not move.

He felt his body begin to sweat and his face blister like a severe sun burn. 'I'm doing this for you.'

She watched his face turn pale and his body began to tremble. She could feel his skin rippling with the fire that he must've felt under his skin. The blood was reacting with the sun rays, boiling him alive.

'Go Simon.'

But he stood there, holding her tight.

'Simon please, go.'

She realized what he was waiting for. Carol looked up at the sun seemingly rising faster than normal and then back at Simon. His face was beginning to crack.

She yelled, as loud as she could. 'I love you. God damnit I love you. I'm with you, whatever you decide and I'd follow you to hell if you asked!'

Carol reached up and pulled his lips down to hers and she kissed him. He smelled of sulfur and ash but dear god she loved this man. She kissed him as hard as she could.

The pain was nothing he had ever felt before. He could literally feel his blood boiling. The skin on his face cracked and despite this Carol kissed him. His lips must've literally felt like fire but damned the sun, he would have this moment with her.

Their lips parted but they stayed close. 'I will always protect you.' He pulled back and before he turned, he looked at her, as beautiful as ever, crying again as she watched him suffer. With the clatter of the trains passing, the whistles from the engines and the full morning sun beating down on him, he yelled, 'I love you. I think I always have and I always will!'

With that he ran, as fast as he could. The smoke rising from his skin, he faltered as he made it past the halfway point to the man hole entrance he came out of. He felt his body shutting down and his knee buckled as he approached the opening. He grabbed the man hole cover and for the first time in a long time, he felt the full weight of the object. He was dying.

Simon gritted his teeth and pulled on the cover and ended up whipping it to the side about 50 yards and escaped into the sewers.

Carol ran. As fast as she could, she ran to the man hole he disappeared down into. Jesus it must've been a good half mile but she saw him make it but she wanted to be sure. She made it to the man hole and yelled down it.

'Simon!'

She waited and then suddenly something happened. Carol heard him say, 'I'm alright' but not through the echos of the sewer.

She heard it in her head.

She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

[I can hear you.]

Simon was slumped against the sewer wall, his skin still smoking from the sun. He'd need to feed and it would have to be quite a bit but he could feel himself slowly healing. He couldn't return to the Domicile like this.

[Carol, I need to feed, but I'm alright.] He gasped for air and laughed. If it wasn't bad already, it was pretty fucking bad now. He had bonded with her fully now and they could hear each other's projected thoughts. It was fortunate since this would be the only way they could talk in the Domicile, he just wondered how far apart they could be.

[Good, I'm glad. Now what the fuck were you thinking???]

((welcome to bonded love, both out))