Now that I'm Here... (attn Carol)

Carol crossed her legs as she watched the female coming in through the sewer entrance. She won't be happy, Carol thought with a loud snort.

Today Carol had picked a red slip dress that, oddly enough, was not see thru. It was silk with spaghetti straps and draped just at her calves. A little demure for Carol, but the revealing slit up the sides made up for it. She crossed her legs again causing a slight grunt from her seat. She looked back.

'Did you want me to stop doing that?'

Simon looked at her with hooded eyes.

'Is that your NO grumpy face or your YES grumpy face?'

Her computer signaled the arrival of the woman, cutting her conversation off with her clan leader. She swatted the hands that were elbow deep up into her dress and slid off. He grabbed her hips, stopping her.

'You know who that is out side, right? Marthinus sent her.'

Simon reluctantly released said hips.

Carol smoothed her dress out and put her hand on the door. 'You coming?'

Simon shrugged, moving from behind her desk to the couch and made himself comfortable.

'You talk entirely too much, has anyone ever told you that?'

Simon winked at her.

Carol bit her lip and entered the lobby. Her heels clickety clacked across the stone floor, signaling her arrival. She held her hand out to the female as she approached her with a brilliant smile.

'Miss Yolgrave, welcome to the Domicile. I'm your cruise director, Carol.'

Dayle's attention was stolen from deep space by the clackety clicks of sharp heels crossing the floor nearby. Refocusing on the there-and-then she saw a rather strikingly attractive woman crossing the floor to her, then extending her hand.

The smile was pleasant, and Dayle stood, straightening herself with a gentle wiggle. Smiling, she clasped Carol's hand firmly, and replied, "Hello, Carol, pleased to meet you. And please, call me Dayle." She shook Carol's hand one-and-a-half times, firmly, and let go. "I imagine my arrival has come as a bit of a surprise." Her pleasant, honest "pleased to meet you" style smile twisted wryly, more for her own benefit than Carol's. "I know the request, timing, and the route were... unorthodox. But honestly, that's not a bad thing. It's good to learn new things faster."

Dayle hoped her accent wasn't too strong. When she rambled, she rambled. "The description I was given, that the complex was underground, doesn't do it justice. Even from just the Lobby, I'd have to guess the rest of the place is as magnificent." She clamped down hard on her "avoid questions for the moment" rambling. "Well, Miss Carol, please, I'm yours to direct. Though," she swallowed her fear, "please tell me there's not really any water on this cruise."

'Not be likin' the liquidy stuff, eh?' Carol said with her best pirate accent which really...wasn't that good. With a wink, Carol turned on a delicate sandaled foot and walked back to her door. She hooked a finger and leaned up against the computer panel.

'Marthinus briefed us on your history, but we still need you registered within the database. Incidently,' she activated the panel and it lit up, the hand molded tray slid out slowly from beneath the pretty lights. 'Gathering the fold, so to speak, has been a huge part of my job up until....the recent events that have changed our leadership structure a bit.'

Carol steepled her fingers and gave Dayle a sheepish look. 'Basically my hands are full and I need help. You game?' She laughed and it sounded like twinkling tiny bells. Carol hoped Dayle was up for the challenge. Her being new in town and having her twin be in Anantya would help the clan considerably.

And right now they needed all the help they could get.

Dayle shook her head as she followed Carol. "Not so much. I was drowned to cement and disguise my turning. It wasn't fun."

She watched as the panel lit up, then peered curiously at the tray that slid out. "I'm 'game' to help in any way that I can, since I guess that's why I'm here." She wasn't quite sure, but Carol seemed... actually she wasn't sure how Carol seemed. Usually she could read people... "Maybe it's because she's American?" she thought to herself, then shook off the thought imperceptibly.

She placed her hand on the panel. "What's this supposed to do? Some sort of finger print -" Her question got cut off by a quick set of pricks on her fingers. She blinked, but didn't flinch. "And blood test and cataloguing, I'm guessing."

Carol smiled. Good, she wasn't flincher. Non flinchers were the best. Pushing off the wall, she waited for Dayle's registration to finish. She tapped a foot as the computer blinked and then cross reference the information Carol entered earlier with the blood sample given.

'Kk, well...other than showing you your apartment here, let's step into my office for a minute?' Carol opened the door and stepped inside, holding the door open for Dayle. Simon was still sitting on her couch, one arm draped on the back and his legs crossed with his ankle resting on his opposite knee.

[Stop sitting all sexy, we have company.]

"I get an apartment?" Dayle didn't remember that part of the conversation. "Two flats in one city. Someone'll think I'm either a mistress or insane." Snorting to herself, she followed Carol into the office, nodding her thanks. She glanced around quickly, then saw the rather attractive man sitting, arm draped, leg crossed, on the couch.

"'ello," she said, suddenly frustrated with herself for forgetting to pronounce her h. She paused just a moment - he looked so comfortable and so... cute - before raising her hand to him.

"I'm Dayle Yolgrave," she claimed with a smile.

Simon stood as Carol and the new member entered the room. Doing the one button of his jacket, he straightened and gave new female a deep bow.

'Miss Yolgrave,' he reached out and took her hand, grazing her knuckles gently with his lips. 'It is a pleasure and a honor.' His manner was polite but per the norm, there was no smile. Those he reserved for Carol.

'Marthinus prepared us for your arrival. Your sense of duty and loyalty to the family is very much appreciated.' A double entendre he hoped she would understand. 'I hope your trip was uneventful for you...and your sister, correct? An anantya?'

Simon was curious about Dayle being a twin of not just another vampire but an Anantya. Would there be conflicts of interest? It will, to say the least, be interesting to find out.

Dayle felt herself honestly blushing as his lips grazed her knuckles. "The feeling's mutual." "If a bit muddled by confusion," she thought.

He continued speaking; "sense of duty and loyalty to the family is very much appreciated" gave her pause to wonder whom she might be speaking with. "It was the least anyone would do, sir."

The question about her sister didn't catch her off guard so much as the reference to her being Anantya. "Aye sir, my twin sister, Ysabel." Briefly wondering whether she should get into the rather unique relationship she shared with her twin, she realized she still didn't know who this gentleman was. "It was comfortable, if unpleasant, thank you. Though, through no fault of my contact's, really, or the airline. Just through my own betwisted mind and fear of oceans. Thankfully, Heathrow isn't quite so picky about what travellers use to ease themselves onto a plane. If I'd taken a ship, instead, they'd have had to put me to sleep somehow for the duration." She shuddered imperceptibly.

Carol smiled as she leaned against her desk.

'Dayle...this is Simon Huntington. Tacharan's new leader and Marthinus' grandfather times 7...or 8...I've lost count.'

[Help if we told her who you were, right?] She gave Simon a wink.

Simon raised his eyebrows.

'Right, forgive me. Carol not only runs the Domicile for us, but minds my manners as well.'

Simon offered a seat on the couch to Dayle, but waited for her to sit before he did. 'So, if you don't mind me asking, could you tell me about the situation you were in? What happened, exactly?'

To his knowledge, Dayle was the only vampire that didn't follow Ellis' orders to kill his family. Her side of the story would be interesting to hear.

Suddenly all the puzzle pieces clicked into place. The man standing before her was Simon Huntington, the patriarch, the leader, the father. It was his family she'd protected for the last four hundred fifty years...

His comment about manners nearly slipped by her. "Oh, I don't know," she commented bemusedly, "I think you did well enough with the bow and kiss." She sent a secret wink to Carol. "You've got a right wonderful one here, dearie. Keep him close," she wished she could say aloud. She made a mental note.

She was about to decline the seat, then realized she didn't want to stand, because she'd start pacing or something equally self-annoying. She sat to one side of the sofa, at an angle to the corner, facing Carol and Simon. "I could tell you, certainly, but it depends on how much detail you want me to go into."

Crossing her legs at the ankle, she smoothed her skirt absently. "Sometime in fifteen-fifty I was trailing a couple on their way home from twilight Mass in a little town called Cirencester. I detected someone following me... so I left them alone. I met someone later that night in my tavern room, who made a deal with me... Watch over that couple, and anyone in their immediate family." She glanced from Simon to Carol and back. "Not typically the material sort, I asked why, and was given a rather messy demonstration involving a pair of swords and another vampire. Unsubtle hints were made regarding the wellbeing of some of my own family members. I agreed."

She smiled wryly, snickering to herself, and stared at her hands for a moment before continuing. Gazing at Simon's handsome face, she arched an eyebrow. "You could say that by protecting your family, I was protecting my own." She licked her lips minutely, then continued. "So I did. My sister and I moved closer to Cirencester for some parts of the year; other times, I was alone."

Brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, she completed her tale. "In December, a couple weeks after what would be American Thanksgiving, a vampire approached me shortly before sunset in the streets of Cirencester. I'd dined recently, and was a bit tired... He told me that the message had come through for all of us 'Watchers' to slay our charges. I was completely taken aback, and told him no. He then informed me he would do it, then come back for me... So I took him down. Out. I stopped him. I heard later that some of the family was hurt or killed... some I was able to help."

Dayle still felt bad that she'd not been able to fulfill her duty of protecting them. It was just so... weird... "I feel bad I wasn't able to do more. I'd never trained for battle, you know." She glanced to Carol. "Well, you're more likely to know, Carol, than Mr. Huntington." She turned her blue-gray eyes back to Simon. "But I did the best I could. That poor vampire, the one who contacted me," she feigned a sob, wiped an imaginary tear from her eye, "poor bloke was killed by The Drink."

From her perch on her desk, Carol smiled as Dayle told her eventful story. She couldn't imagine what it must've been like. To obviously be lied to, asked to protect a lineage and then ordered to kill the people you dedicated yourself to keeping safe.

[I like her, she seems cool, besides...Marthinus trusts her. What do you think?]

Simon cast a look in Carol's direction and shrugged slightly.

[I doubt she'll replace you, but I trust Marthinus so she'll do.]

Looking back at Dayle, Simon gave her the smallest of smiles. 'You've led an interesting life thus far, Dayle. You'll find Tacharan is just full of more surprises, but our path is clear now. We're killers. We've always been killers and we always will be killers. It's our business as contract killers in the city and we do a little outside of it, but mostly Nachton. We will see to your combat training immediately. Nachton is not the safest of places right now for Tacharans...if you can't watch your back, we will.'

'What we require of you is assistance to run the Domicile, catalog any new familiars and keep track of our members. Our human front is Duibne Industries, the former CEO you've spoken to was Marthinus, currently it will be run by the board set in place by myself.' Simon paused and draped an arm over the back of the couch.

'The recent events that have changed Tacharan to the core was the death of Ellis, the previous leader and my companion from my beginning. You may not have known her like we did here in Nachton, but it would be stupid of me not to ask...can I trust your loyalties to be for the clan, essentially for me and my family...or will this conversation take a rather disastrous turn?'

Simon waited patiently for Dayle's reply, giving her all the time she needed to form her answer...he just hoped it was the right one. Tacharans are killers and a good portion of the members are his children. The clan would continue their business in Nachton...it was simply what he did best.

Dayle couldn't quite fathom the look Simon seemed to share with Carol, and decided it wasn't worth trying. Then he smiled at her. He actually, honestly, truly smiled at her. It was a teensy one, but it was a smile. It did make Dayle feel a bit better, but then her heart sank at his next words. "We're killers," he was saying. "Always been and always will be." She was silent for a moment or three as he continued the rest of what they wanted from her.

Her assistance to run The Domicile? Catalog familiars? Track members?

"Wait a bloody minute, did he say 'combat training?'" Dayle's train of thought was derailed further as Simon stated bluntly that Ellis had died. Who was Ell... "Oh."

And then the "you've done your job well and we want you to keep doing it" bomb was dropped.

Dayle was silent for a moment, digesting Simon's words as she hadn't digested much of anything in a very long time.

"Well, Mr. Huntington, I'll be honest with you. I'm not a killer. Never have been, likely never will be. I did what I did because I had to, because it felt like the right thing to do, because those people - your family - were - are - under my protection. I was doing no more than a mummy bear does for its cubs, or a bitch does for her pups. Protecting the -" somehow saying "weak" didn't seem like the right term, so she switched mid-thought "- innocent, the almost-helpless, from doom or some other bad ending, as I'd been asked to do, even threatened to do! hundreds of years ago. My loyalty to your family will not change, Mr. Huntington, and if by defining Tacharan as your family you somehow expect more out of me, well then I'll just have to make a mental adjustment over how big your family actually is now, won't I."

She paused a moment to glance at Carol, a silent bastion of grounding, before looking back at Simon. "The threat wasn't even really a catalyst in my saying yes, though, back then, and while I don't appreciate your unsubtle hinting around the quail that happens to turn the same words... I understand your position. But I hope you understand my own. My loyalty to my own family is just as strong as yours is to your own; that will never change. Will I do the job you set me upon? Sure." Dayle resisted the urge to shift herself on the couch, to stretch, and settled for blinking a few times. "Will I come to accept what it is your 'family' does? Eventually. Will I like it? Probably not. Will I go on assignments you give me? I doubt I'll have a choice. Will I enjoy killing, if that's part of the assignment? No. Will I expect special treatment simply because that's not how my brain works, and it's not what I want? No. Will I get to know those folks in the Clan and treat them as I've treated other Huntingtons over the years? Probably. Golden rule and all that. Besides," she mused, "It's no fun working somewhere that people dislike or distrust you. Come to think of it, I don't think I'd last very long here if I was untrusted."

She continued spouting some of her questions. "Would the Clan, the 'family' as it were, watching my back, happen to extend to my sister, who as you know is my 'family'? I wasn't alone all those years, I was never really alone. Does it matter that she's Anantya? I don't know what the Clan status is like here in the States. I probably would have been Anantya, if I hadn't been so closely aligned with Tacharan for so long, but then those Clanly lines are strange sometimes, aren't they."

It wasn't until Dayle heard herself shut up that she realized she'd done a lot of rambling, a lot of questioning, and wondered if she ever really did answer Simon's question...

[Oh, good job explaining, dear.]

Carol pushed herself off the desk and walked towards Dayle, her red dress swishing at her calves. She bent at the knee in front of Dayle and and smiled.

'Dayle we're not expecting you to kill anyone. I don't kill anyone, not that I couldn't, it's just...' Carol laughed, 'well it's never come up.' She gently put her hand on Dayle's knee and continued.

'You'll want to learn how to fight Dayle. We roll pretty hard here in Nachton and it would be for your protection. If killing isn't in you, that's fine. Simon here was just being honest, weren't you baby?'

Simon reached out and touched a lock of Carol's golden hair.

Carol leaned over and draped herself onto Simon's thigh, giving him an adoring look. 'The Huntington family is bigger than you could possibly imagine. Not just his mortal ties, but the clan itself. Ellis had one child and you're looking at him. Tacharan's father is the same man. The clan has always been Simon's, but a vampire born of love...questionable love, was still a man born of honor.'

She shrugged, hoping she was clear. 'If anything, we can hang out here, braid each other's hair and work on our tactical responses!' Carol clapped and smiled prettily.

[I don't do coddling well, sweetheart.]

As Carol explained what Simon apparently meant, he ran his fingers through her soft hair, fingers occasionally touching her neck and shoulder. With his cold, hazel brown eyes, he watched for Dayle's expression. He hadn't meant to upset her, but he hadn't planned on lying to her either.

Dayle wondered if the expression keeping her mouth slightly parted - and she could tell it was, too, because her tongue was starting to dry out - was as filled with awe as she felt in her heart. Simon, the father of all the Huntingtons and quite likely a lot of Tacharan?

Wow.

She was about to respond when Carol mentioned braiding hair and such. Smirking wryly, she swallowed a laugh before she allowed honestly, "Well that certainly is an impressive pedigree your family has, Mr. Huntington. That still doesn't change the fact that I didn't fully answer your question, I don't think. I can't even think of any of my own at the moment - which is uncharacteristically backwards for me, I'll admit freely - mostly because I can't think of anything else I need to know or whatelse you might want to tell me, before I come to a decision."

Simon nodded, returning his attention to Dayle and away from Carol's blonde hair.

'To finish answering your questions...you walk Nachton with my promise that Tacharan will protect you and if need be, your sister. It would be safe to assume that Anantya will be looking out for her as well. You both would tread free from any harm from any clan, including Evenhet. Honestly...they don't have it in them.'

Simon chuckled, thinking of Alfarinn and the Evenhet's laid back ways. Although Alfarinn was not a vampire he could go up against and win, he knew that for damn sure.

'You are free to walk the Domicile and inspect your new quarters if you like. The elevator is voice activated, just tell it where you want to go. We have all the comforts of the outside world here, even a movie theatre. Decorating your quarters is left up to you, so you'll find it barren but functional. Just let Carol know what you'd like.'

Simon paused and looked back at Carol who was giving him a rather impish look. 'Also, if it wasn't already obvious...Carol is my companion, but not my familiar. She is very capable of taking care of us should something happen and would be an unlimited resource of answers to any questions you might have. I do not know what I would do without her.'

Gently he pinched Carol's chin. [See, I'm so sweet.]

Nodding her appreciation for Simon's comments, she continued to listen. "See? Listening's good," she told herself.

As he described the Domicile, Dayle was definately surprised at the extent of the amenities to be found in the Tacharan household. "Sounds like you have a pretty well built city down here."

Simon's description of his relationship with Carol wasn't really a surprise, but the fact that he believed that she could fill in for him completely was. "I don't know what I would do without her," Simon was saying. "Well," Dayle shot an appraising look at Carol - she was an amazingly attractive woman - then commented off-handedly and somewhat quietly, "I imagine you'd be spending a lot more time with Rosie."

She barely let that one flow from her lips before continuing on. "I'll definately take a look around, but would you mind if I slept on my answer for a day or so? I really do appreciate both of your giving me complete honesty, and I'm planning on returning the favor."

Carol let out a rather unladylike snort and then covered her mouth, giggling behind it.

'Well, he's a cutie, he'd do alright without me, I think.' Getting to her feet, she took Simon's hand and pulled him off the couch. 'Have a look see and we'll catch you later?'

Simon again nodded towards Dayle and Carol kissed her index finger and waved it goodbye to Dayle as they entered her private quarters via her office door connection.

((Simon and Carol out))