023: Everyone Learns Faster on Fire [Location: the Ninth Floor Kitchen]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

The city - so much smaller than it had been a few nights ago - was balanced on the edge of a knife. One mischievous breeze would be enough to push them off and send them tumbling into the fire. The humans were running in circles, unable to focus on what they really needed to be frightened of. The vampires were butting heads and burning bridges and losing themselves in the woods.

Drusilla could already feel the flames licking at the hem of her dress.

With her head in the storm clouds, she wound her way up to the kitchen on the ninth floor to find herself a mug of blood. It was a good job that the silly little man hadn't poured their supper away. The hamsters were wicked things, but at least they'd had the good sense to give the cats something else to eat when they locked them into the cage with the mice.

She climbed up on to the counter once her stomach was full and, when she tired of the heat that came from dangling over the edge and too close to the flames, stretched herself out like a cat in a patch of sunlight.

It had been so many years since she'd seen the sunlight.

The vampire gazed up at the ceiling, both seeing and unseeing. The stars were hidden from her here - there were too many barriers and bars between them - but she could still see things that other people missed. She could still see what mattered.

"We have all the pieces," she murmured, "But they're not ready to use them."

Comments

[deniedthesight.livejournal.com]

The way Drusilla's looking at her makes Angela a tad wary, but she hasn't made any move to attack her, and so she goes about making coffee. While she waits for it to finish, she begins looking for something quick to prepare to eat. Eggs, maybe. Or a sandwich.

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Drusilla watched her without blinking. It was difficult to tell if the woman was frightened or not, given that they were all on edge - on the edge of the brightest of knives - while they were trapped in here. She decided to push. To wobble her a little.

She didn't have her dolls, after all. She had to make her own fun.

"Aren't you going to offer me tea?"

[deniedthesight.livejournal.com]

Angela tenses a bit, turning to look at the woman. Her inner sense of danger, the one that always protected her from being hurt, always told her where the bad guys were, wasn't flaring up, so she wasn't worried about whether or not she was going to attack - not yet. But the way she moved and talked made her nervous, reminded her of the times she visited her sister in the mental wing of Ravenscar. She's not so quick to buy into the prejudice against vampires, but she's not terribly eager to trust them, either.

"Sure," she said with a nod after a few beats, and then went to the cupboard to search for tea and a pot. "How do you take yours?"

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

"Warm and red," she replied, stretching out on the counter like a cat reclining in a patch of sunlight. Her eyes were half closed, but she could still see the woman as clearly as she could see the stars that shined about them. "And fresh."