Nightmares... (lockable)

Jeeves had gotten the best images of the two from the tapes, deciding that it was not the time to let politeness ruin practicallity. They were good, with a bit of digital enhancing they were actually very good. Aron send them around to his contacts. He didn't even have names yet. No obvious criminal records. He sighed. He would probably have to ask someone a favor. He hated that, it was like overdrafting your bank account. Usually favors were something he pulled in. Well, it hardly mattered now.

He opened the door to the dinning and noticed she was watching the video. He had only seen the images Jeeves had taken from it, not the whole film. Silently he stood behind her and watched the things going on on the screen. He wondered how it was affecting Meegan. He hoped the emotional scars weren't too deep. That they could be cured with time. He hoped it with all his heart.

She had felt him enter the room. It was reassuring to know she could feel his presences, like a warm breeze on her skin. She did not understand the ruthlessness of The Woman. It took her no longer than ninety seconds to bite and kill both guards. It frightened her to her very core. The security system was set up at night to follow movement, so when they entered the building the camera changed. She fastforwarded to the point where Panos stood outside the surplus room waiting for her. He had looked up into the camera and the possession burning in his eyes made her throat go dry and her stomach to clench in a tiny ball. That man wanted her, wanted to own her. She had decided in these last hours that this man would not let this go lightly and she would or already had become his obession.


Sighing softly she turned off the television. She gathered the paper and pens she had used to make her list of clothing, and set them on the table behind her. Slowly she stood and faced Aron.


"Do you think Jeeves is back with my clothes?" She would not sit closed up in locked rooms, frightened of the world. She was angry and she knew of only one way to keep her reflexes sharp and work off her anger. She wondered if Aron was skilled in the martial arts.

As he studied the tapes, a thought popped into his head. They had walked into a building with security cameras. Big mistake. There was a reason why his clan always worked with subtlety, now was a good time to use that.

As she turned around and faced him, he wondered when he would stop being surprised by how beautiful she was. Hopefully never.

"Yes, he's back....but..Meegan...did you show this to the police?"

"Good, I want to change." She was taken back by his question. Did he really think she was that dense? She took a moment to calm herself before she spoke.

"I'm fairly certain I don't want the Nachton Police Department, such as it is, to know that a vampire is stalking me. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." 'Nice, Meegan. Settle down.' She took a deep calming breath before she spoke again. "I had Rachyl give the police faked tapes, these are the oringials and won't be seen by anyone but us."

She started from the room, the need to find balance through form was making her walk bounce on the balls of her feet. She felt like a tightly sprung cat, as she made her way...no prowled her way back to Aron's bedroom. She assumed her things were there.

"Jeeves!"

"Yes?"

"Could you show the nachton police department the proper parts of the movie? Perhaps let the Nachton times get a peak as well?"

"Ofcourse, but are you sure Lady Meegan will approve?"

"No...but I will step over that bridge when I get to it"

"Very good sir"

Aron followed Meegan to his room, where Jeeves had indeed placed her clothes.

"You need to calm down Meegan...focus. Perhaps train with me...or shoot if you prefer"

Why did the need to fight with him curl up her belly ans stick in her throat? She pushed it aside and began opening the drawers of a temporary dresser Jeeves had put in the room. She found a pair of wide-legged hakama pants, a sports bra and a black tank top.

"Focus on what Aron? I know what's going on, I'm aware that a very dangerous, probablly very crazy rogue vampire is obsessed with me and will do his damnedest to find me. I know that I have you as my protection, and I know that right now if you and I spar I could seriously injure you. Oh, and I don't shoot guns, they are barbaric and have no place in my hands."

She tossed the clothes on the bed, and stripped as she spoke. She pulled her clothes on then stood for a moment staring at Aron, her chest heaving. Turning, she plucked up the long practice staff that had been propped against her new dresser and stalked from the room. 'Damn. I'm really screwing things up.'

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Aron. I'm not angry with you, and I shouldn't take it out on you. Would you like to join me? We can go through forms together, but sparring wouldn't be a good idea. That and I have no idea where your exercise room is." Her face broke into a grin and she had a hard time controlling the giggles that threatened.

"You could seriously injure me? Without using a gun? Or a weapon of any kind? Well, I'm glad to see your self confidence has not suffered."

He grinned. She was deffinetly a better martial artist tham himself it they didn't use weapons. But he was also stronger and more experienced.

"I would love to go through forms with you though...I usually train outside, but I think the former owner had an exercise room somewhere. Let's go find out, shall we?"

"I prefer outside, but only if you think it's safe. Otherwise just a big empty room will be fine. Do you have any big empty rooms?"

She followed after him, her walk still bouncing on her toes. The tension was starting to get to her, and if she didn't let it out soon, nasty things would start comming out of her mouth soon. She padded barefoot after Aron and wondered how he was going to do anything in those slacks. 'Maybe they're stretchy.

He lead her out in the garden, grabbing his walking stick on the way out. The sky was clear, and the moon was almost full. The grass was slightly wet, and Aron took off his shoes and socks. He enjoyed the touch of grass on his feet.

"It's safe enough allright..."

Meegan kissed Aron lightly. "Thank you, this is perfect." She dropped to her knees laying the staff before her. She took time to say a brief prayer, then began the systematic relaxing of her muscles. When she reached her toes, she began to stretch. Her movements fluid and easy. She stood and finished her stretches. She placed herself into the first posture of the Bassai Dai, using her staff as the reference point of her foe. Her body moved smoothly through each block, punch and kick.

Her training was so different from his own, but then again he had never really used any specific style. After all, it was hardly common to unite a rapier with martial arts. He unsheathed the blade, and began training. The pooint was not to forget that you had two hands, and that balance was everything. Focus too much on the blade and you forgot your feet, focus too much on the feet and you lost the blade. Slashes, stabs and thrusts, combined with low kicks and left hand punches. Moonrays relfected in cold steel.

She slid easily into Naihanchi Cho Dan, followed closely by Jin To. As she threw the final Front Kick/Horse Stance Punch, her yell reverberated through the garden. She striaghtened, bowed to the mat, such as it was and stepped away.

She turned bowed to the mat, then took a forward roll, comming up with her staff. For the next twenty minutes she went through the basic forms she had learned in a six moth session of Kung Fu. Kung Fu was not her favorite, but she liked the feel of the weapon in her hand.

When she was finished she bowed to her staff, to the mat and took several steps back from where she had been practicing. She lay the staff down and began to stretch out her body. When she was done she kneeled before the staff, resting her bottom on her ankles, and offered up a prayer of thanksgiving.

She looked up into the sky, taking the time to admire the moon. She had a feeling it would be a long time before she would see that moon from her own home.

He moved from the rapier, to the sheated stick. It wasn't as balanced as a normal staff, nor as long as proper battle staves. But then again he had the advantage of actually being able to bring his wherever he went. He knew the point of balance very well in this staff, even though it was hardly centered. The stick was constantly spinning, an illusional advantage that allowed him to thrust the wood at the weak spots of the human body. Stomach, throat, joints. Combined with the blunt trauma inflictable by long slashes, it was a formidable weapon. He admitted that a longer, more balanced staff was a far better weapon, but then again, the same could be said about a flamethrower.

He stopped and watched Meegan. She seemed to have gotten rid of some of her anger, to be more at peace. He walked over and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Feeling better now princess?"

She tilted her head back and looked up at him. She loved that he called her that. It made her feel special. She did not think she would ever not like hearing it. She placed a kiss on his hand, rocking back onto her feet, she stood. She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled at him.

"Much better, thank you."

She kissed him softly, savoring his flavor."What do you say to getting a bite to eat and working out a game plan?"

"I say it sounds like a good idea." She grinned at him, kissed him softly once more, then stepped away.

"Let's get changed and then we can raid the fridge." She picked up her staff and walked into the house. She set it against the door frame to the left and headed to Aron's room. She headed into the closet and made a noise of pleasure to find all of the things she'd asked for hung neatly, sharing the space with Aron's things. She selected a light green sundress and its matching cardigan. She layed them on the bed, stripped quickly and slipped the dress over her nude body. Still warm from her exercise, she tied the cardigan at her shoulders and turned to see if Aron was ready.

He rarely broke sweat anymore, and he hadn't done this time either. A new pair of socks and another pair of shoes was all he really needed. Seeing Meegan naked had a disturbing effect on his concentration, an effect he enjoyed quite a lot.

He gave her his arm, and they moved to one of the only rooms in the house, that wasn't Aron's domain: the kitchen. Fridge raiding was a rather new concept to him, and something told him it would not be a concept Jeeves would appreciate. Oh well, Jeeves would get his revenge. Probably by using actual martini in his next vodka martini.

Meegan pulled open the fridge doors and began to riffle through it's contents. She pulled out grapes, apples, several different kinds of cheese, and a bottle of white wine. She set her finds on the counter and began to rummage for a knife. "Jeeves is going to be pissed isn't he?"

She came out of her rummaging with a platter, a knife, a cutting board, an apple slicer and a corkscrew, Jeeves keeps a very tidy and organized kitchen. She gave the grapes to Aron to seperate into smaller bunches and went about slicing the apples with the round spoked gadget.

"Ohh yes...I will be eating things from the original english kitchen for months.....if he doesn't stake me first"

As he divided the grapes, memories of rather interresting ways of eating them. He decided to give it a rest. Besides he had no idea if they did in fact have any pudding. He took an appropriate bown and put the grapes in, then took the cheese and the grapes and walekd through the door to the dining room.
He fetched a couple of candles, put on the table and lit them, and then dimmed the artificial light, before returining to the kitchen.

"Anything else you'd like?"

"Glasses for the wine." She grinned at him as she walked with the plate of apples, corkscrew, and bottle of wine into the dining room. The setting was very romantic, and she was loathe to disturb it with talk of reality, but they didn't really have much choice. She set the things down and put the corkscrew to the wine bottle as Aron walked in with glasses.

He put the glasses on the table and waited for Meegan to get the cork of the bottle and sit down, before he followed her example.

He took a sip of the wine she poured into his glass. There was something deffinetly wrong about a woman pouring his wine, but the distance between gentleman and chauvinist had decreased greatly the last hundred years.

"So...got anything in mind, or do you want me to make suggesions?"

She sipped the wine, it was very very good. She noted the vinyard and year and made a mental sticky to buy some. She picked up a cube of cheese and nibbled lightly at it as she tought.

"I can't really find a place to start. I know what I need to do, concerning work, but I'm a little at a loss for protection while I'm there. Should I hire a second body guard to compliment Rachyl's or should I hire a team? Should I pretend nothing is up and keep a weapon close to hand? What do you think?"

She popped the cheese into her mouth and chose and apple slice.