Relics and Treasure [damon & pip]

by Epiphany Wed Jun 09, 2010 11:05 am

To get the item was the first trial. To find means for him to transport it without injury or ill effect had been another trial entirely. It took time. While time was something he had an infinite amount of, he was afraid that the gift itself would not be so timely. Or rather, it was a hope of his - the state he saw Epiphany in when he saw her last was not one he felt was good for lingering. Still. What he had under arm was hers and he certainly did not wish to and could not keep it any longer. As he strode into the inn and up the stairs to the floor where her insufferable door resided, the sun was setting. It had not set entirely, and Damon had no need for it to set completely before moving out an about. To face sunlight was an irritation that went against his very nature, but not a mortal foe. He was dressed entirely in black as always, in the style that was traditional for him - the only absent item was his Victorian jacket. While the heat of Summer didn't bother him just as much as the cold of winter went unnoticed by him, he did try to dress the season for blending purposes. On her door, he did not knock. He only spoke to it. "Epiphany has a caller." Hand slipping into the back pocket of his pants, he pulled out a calling card like one would see in the drawing rooms of the days of yore. It had his name on it, and his title, printed on good thick paper and with old-world, scrolling script. It was held forth between his index and middle finger at the small hole in the door.

He should have knocked, the Door liked it when people choose to knock but it could be forgiven because the man at the Door was offering up his name. That was the kicker and the sealer of any deal and quips that may have been made. Some of them at least. There was the normal scurrying sound that marked the creature moving and then that small slit of a door opened, silver bead eyes peeking out and looking down only at the card. "The card. The card is it mine to have? Say that I can have the card." Came the request of the small high-pitched voice that owned the beady eyes. Eyes that were frantically moving all over the card.

Unlike some of his kind, living centuries had not deteriorated his memory. While Damon did not remember every single occurrence in his life, he was rather apt and remembering the important ones. Such as his only other encounter with this door, where it had been hell bent to get him to sign his name. This is why Damon came prepared today. With a card that had his name printed in an ink that he himself had not put to paper, in a form and shape that was not his own penmanship. Precautions within compromise. With any luck both he and this creature would come away with this meeting with what they wanted. Damon's lips curled, pleased with the creatures inquiry. "Why course you can have the card, as it's my calling card given to you to announce my presence here. How else are you to announce me when you let me inside? Ah." Damon tipped the card backwards toward his palm, an action he estimated would put the card out of the small creature's reach, for now. "I do believe I just hit on the manner of the exchange. This card is yours to have, but only if it attains me immediate entrance."

The creatures beady eyes took on a twinkling light and would have seemed to dance around in the darkness of that small door once Damon said that it could have the card. "The card will give you entrance." Did that mean it had to put him where Epiphany was? Technically yes, and the Door knew this even though it wasn't going to say anything of the sort. "Come on, come on, slip it up into the hole." Truth was that the creature could have reached out to take it but it learned it's lesson from another who tried to pull it form the Door before. Sneaky creatures, this one wasn't going to get him out of the door. Of course, the Door has no way of knowing that the card wasn't written by Damon's own hand. "Marvelous." With a flick of fingers, the card was offered forth. Half of it extended over the ledge of the small door into the hole as the creature asked. At least in this instance, the door had nothing to fear. The few encounters that Damon had with small otherworldly creatures more often than not squelched his urge to pull them out of their chosen hiding places. As with most people, he chose to deal with them swiftly and move on with his business. Part one of his business - what was inside the box he carried - he was quite eager to finish with. "Now. Epiphany, please."

As soon as Damon started pushing the card through the Door it was pulled through rather quickly and the eyes vanished behind the close of that small door. But that didn't stop the ditty that came! "A name! A name! I got a new name, a name, a name! And it's mine!" the last word being very off key and shrilly, good thing there was no glass to break. After that there was a click and the Door swung inward by a half an inch, the space between black but there was a distinct sound of rushing water and damp rocks just beyond that darkness. no outdoor smells aside from that.

Damon was a man who expected his plans to go smoothly, and go well. That didn't mean that when things did go just that way that he wasn't relieved, or thankful. These were two things that he was right now as he pushed the doorway open wider to pass through to where Epiphany chose to be at this point in time. "Epiphany?" He spoke her name clearly as his eyes adjusted immediately to the amount of light afforded at the location - or the lack thereof. "I've brought something with me, Angel, for you. Something I thought of for you." The two sentences were very similar, but Damon felt the clarification was necessary. He wanted her to know why it was that he would through the trouble of acquiring the item despite the great risk - because he was thinking of her. Concerned would have been the even more precise word, but he chose not to use it. He'd learned over centuries that telling a person you were concerned for their welfare could quite easily backfire and make the situation worse.

Where Damon was he might recognize from years before, since he did have a good memory. When he came through the light didn't change too much, it went from completely dark to dim, a light source being not far off and bouncing it's rays off the damp rock walls of the cave. The water noise was still there and if he was moving forward to find her then her scent would be towards that direction. It was part of Epiphany's hidden underground, only not where the pirate treasure lay but the underground waterfall and river. "I hear you, Damon." That to came as an echo from one of the walls but it came from round the corner to his right. The ground was not entirely smooth and where there were pockets some had collections of water. Not deep, only shallow puddles. "I'll be a moment!" came the call again from her location. These caverns were high enough that a person wouldn't have to bend down unless they were over ten feet in height. If he followed where her voice carried from he would eventually see her sitting and facing one of the cavern walls with a charcoal pencil in hand and a pad, drawing the structure of the cave. Not far from her was the underground waterfall that fell more than a few feet and spilled out into a river that vanished into the cave wall. She was trying to finish a thought before she got distracted. Her hair was wet, as was the blue tube top and cut off jeans she was wearing. Possibly because she had to get in the water to get in the cave in the first place.

This particular part of her underground, how could he forget. Bottomless black eyes wandered slowly over the area as the unmistakable scent of this place settled in his nostrils. He found the location fitting, considering what he was bringing her today. Where better to store it than a location that no one else would know the first thing about finding? "Will you? That sounds like someone is taking advantage of the infinite time afforded to me to keep me waiting." His question was spoken as loudly as her name had been. The rest of it, he used well-applied power to carry it forward to her ear, where the words would be heard as if he stood right behind her shoulder. They came with a sanguine smirk that she didn't see, and Damon did make his way around the corner. His steps carried no urgency. If she wasn't going to be hurried to have them face to face, nor would he. Not out of spite, but because he was under the assumption that there was a reason. Fluid steps avoided the puddles when possible, which he found true for the majority of them. It wasn't that he had an aversion to water, but why get even the bottoms of one's shoes when one didn't have to? Once she was in sight, he moved no closer. Watching her from this distance at her task. "I'm glad to see you here." Underground, in the dark.

Really she was glad to see him, have him here as it were because it had been a while. Though still, when he spoke to her the second time and she heard his words so clearly her fingers tightened around the charcoal. "If I knew you were coming I would have been better prepared." How? Well she didn't rightly know expect maybe she would have been dry instead of in wet clothing. Not that she thought he really cared about her state of dress. She let out a slow breath and put the pencil down begin now done with the line she was working on. "Do you remember? My cave?" Ask as she stood up and left her other things on the ground. Turning to face him Epiphany smiled and started forward. "I thought it would help me to find inspiration for an upcoming project. I'll be working underground again." Watching him made her feel better about him and settling the conflicting feelings that rose inside of her now when it came to Vampires and other dark creatures. This was Damon. How could she ever fully shy away from him? "Come here dress as you are…I could get your clothes wet." and she would if she went to hug him, as was her plan.

"Next time I'll send word, so you can have the ticker-tape parade prepared. Though in my defense, I did provide the creature in your door with a calling card." If the door didn't announce his presence to Epiphany, what could be done on his end to rectify it? Nothing, so said his old-world manners. She started forward and he would meet her halfway. Besides himself he carried only the box, which was about ten inches in length, six wide, and three tall. The box was made of unvarnished wood, and it was sealed. In his pocket he carried what would break the seal. "I do remember. Underground hideaways all have their unique blend of odors, and this blend served my memory well. What work do you have underground, Angel?" She was within his reach, though he did not move to embrace her. Instead fingers stroked down her cheek and slipped underneath to cup her chin. He leaned in as if he intended to place a kiss, but stopped short of that to speak instead. "What you should do is trumped by what I must do. Which is give you this box, so you can take it and place it somewhere out of my immediate presence."

Epiphany stood still, though he'd feel the slight shiver of her skin with his initial touch, it was almost like a sigh. Her head drifted to the side where his fingers were on her skin and her hand raised up to touch his. The words 'I missed you' were more of a thought and not vocally stated. She would have told him about the project to answer his question if her curiosity was not stolen by catching a glance at the box he held and the words that he said. Her eyes widened a tad and she looked at the box and focused on it trying to see if there was anything about it that she would immediately pick up. If it was something he must get rid of immediately, then why was he giving it to her? More importantly, why did he have it? "What is it?" Picking her head up and wiping a trail of water from her forehead.

by Epiphany Wed Jun 09, 2010 11:08 am

It was possible, that she might 'feel' something coming off the box. What was within was pure, illuminant, in short - holy. Far more sacrosanct than a simple church, where Damon had found and purchased the item it really didn't belong and it was probably a deed greater than he'd like to think about that he'd liberated it from said place and was delivering it into the hands of an angel. The box and the manner in which it was sealed, however, muted the potency of the item within its confines and Damon could weather being near it - it just made him uncomfortable to be within its proximity. Unnatural. "It's a relic, Epiphany. The location of which I happened to overhear when I was on other business months ago." That was far simplifying the chain of events, but there was no need to go into incredible detail. "When I saw you last...your mood and your..." There was a gesture of his fingers as he left his cheek, but the movement didn't help him find what word he was looking for. "I thought you could use something to cheer you up. That will also have practical use. And will also happen to seriously maim me if it and I come in contact." Damon did not give anyone anything that could be used against him. Ever. Until now. If that did not express love, nothing did. "Here." The box was offered forward with one hand. He could hold it with one, it was heavy enough that she might need two.

Epiphany looked at the box and her look turned into a bot of a frown when he said that it could hurt him. He was offering it out to her and she was hesitating. If it could cause him harm should she really touch it? Now? With how she was? Her eyes focused on the box and there was a hint of something and it made her hands itch to want to take it. "Why are you giving this to me Damon? I don't want to hurt you I.. I just pushed things down so I could..." She didn't finish what she said, instead she pulled in her bottom lip to bite it as she slowly shook her head. It wasn't a refusal to him but more to herself. He shouldn't hold on to it, she told herself. He can't hold on to it. Take it. And she did, with both hand she quickly took it from his and just as quickly moved away. Turning her back and hastily walking away from him and back to where she had left her paper and pencil. Her head was lowered as she looked down at the box.

"Because it's beautiful, in a sense that goes beyond the shape it, the texture or the hue. Because you are beautiful, in the same way." It was the simplest explanation he could possibly give to her. What was inside the box was not a weapon. It wasn't meant to do harm to anyone. It would do harm to him only because he was as he was, a thing incompatible to that world she belonged to which she had to suppress. "I've realized that my ability to give this to you makes me lucky, in a way. I can admire and acknowledge the full of what you are without being twisted with conflict in my body or mind. Not that it was easy for me to purchase this, or to find a way that I could carry it to you in my own arms, but...." Damon gave a languid shrug of his shoulders as he studied her with his raven black eyes. Where she walked, where she put the item, he took it all in. "You seemed deeply troubled when we spoke last. To the point where it seemed you were having difficulty being in my presence because of the nature of my blood. I wanted to acknowledge that, in some way." This gift wasn't Damon trying to make up for what he was, but he was having trouble putting the meaning of it to perfect words. "Perhaps it's a gesture of faith. In you." He'd make a point to specify. Damon himself lacked religion, and while it was quite rare for an Italian of his time that fact was the case since his birth, because his Father scorned religion for secular living for a number of reasons.

"I was . . .am. . . are? All of the above. Troubled that is." Speaking as she brushed her eyes across the box and bent to place it on the cold ground. "Because I can't help thinking about what's happening in the world up there. Out there. And how little I can actually do alone to help it. It's back to realizing that I can't save the world from itself. That's not my job." At least she had come to that point. Last time she was still thinking that she could and that there had to be a way to save everyone. "Thank you. Can I open it?" Turning to him again even as she was on the ground. She didn't want to open it in his presence and something dreadful happen. "Wait." Leaving the box there she pushed up from the ground. He was going to kiss her before - wasn't he? - but he had wanted to give her the box. Well she had the box now and her own way of helping herself to be around him and ease down the thoughts of her other half was to be near him. Physical contact. This is why she rushed over to him now and threw her arms around his neck - he could always keep her at bay - and pulled herself in for a heavy kiss in which she didn't easily release him from. It would make her feel better and, not only that, it was a better way to welcome him.

"There is no value to the world being a perfect place, Epiphany. I know this from personal experience, but history tells the same tale. The societies that considered themselves perfect had slaves, threw non-citizens into any number of gauntlets to entertain and feed the populace's boredom and thirst for blood. Tragedy is a necessary to mortal life as joy is as air is. It's needed to teach. To transform." Not that he expected her to be able to simply tell her angelic side that so all parts of her could understand why creatures like him were necessary in the world order. Luckily for the both, perhaps, Damon was given no more time with which to pontificate, thanks to the contact she initiated and the kiss. The box taken off of his hands, both were free and he circled both arms around her. One hand stroking down her hair. The other smoothing around her back. The cool touches of an immortal. His lips were the same. He knew better than to feed before coming to her today, when she had been so conflicted last time he was here. His arms pulled her in close to him, pressed their bodies together. He paused the kiss long enough to reply, "You can open it when we part ways. I have the means to do so in my pocket and I'll give it to you before I go." That business out of the way, he initiated the kiss once more. Not feeling Damon's thrall was impossible, as it exuded from him like a soft pulse even when he wasn't putting it to greater concentrated use. The thrall wouldn't be felt anymore strongly than that soft pulse, however.

Before he went. That was fair. She didn't want to open the box while he was here and have it do something like vaporize him, he already did enough to bring it to her, no need for him to suffer. Epiphany kept her arms where they were around his neck and held him to her during their kiss. There was a hint of resistance in her but as she continued it started to ebb away, perhaps it was due to his thrall. Before she got to answering his first questions about what she was doing she wanted to have this moment with him because it meant a lot to her. To be able to still kiss and hold him despite what she was suppose to do let her know that she still had free will in that regard. One hand pulled away to brush back through his hair as she started to withdraw her mouth from his. "I'm building an underground clinic." Were her whispered words to his cool lips. Then, instead of replacing them, she graced her lips to just under his jaw where jaw line met neck and made a small bite. "Many, many feet underground."

It wouldn't vaporize him but he would certainly suffer. He was not a weak-willed man, but like any intelligent creature he would rather not face physical suffering if absolutely necessary. When Epiphany provided him the answer to his earlier asked question, he rose his brow and looked down on her with great curiosity, and perhaps a touch of beastly amusement. "Really? Are you expecting an apocalypse?" The slight smirk on his wolfish mouth bloomed into a full grin. One that put his two sleek fangs in plain sight. It was well within his power to retract them whenever he had the desire to, but he rarely did so here in Rhy'din. He bent his head, and would return the favor of her bite with one of his own. A knick of his teeth, just under her earlobe. It produced a scratch, nothing more. The hand which traveled down her hair slid underneath it, stroking across the soft flesh of the back of her neck, continuing to sink downward to trace down the top of her spine.

It was my suggestion it be underground." Not saying that it came to mind because it was a Vampire who had commissioned the work. She couldn't remember if he and Arcadia knew each other, though she thought that the answer was yes. Epiphany let her eyes drift closed a moment and she responded to his scratch with another bite of her teeth, only this time lower on his neck. She could only be teasing him, which was something she liked to do. "the idea of resting the sick underground as if they were dead only to treat them for health so that they may rise out of the earth interest me." She placed both of her hands against the side of his chest to feel his shirt that had a bit of a damp quality due to her own wet state. "Slightly morbid yet inspirational." as she held the skin of his neck between her teeth. Then she let it go.-

If Epiphany mentioned her by name, Damon would know Arcadia. Beyond rudimentary conversation they kept a respectable distance from one another during their shared time at the Alliance, as Damon was wont to do with the majority of his kind. With the majority of people in general, point of fact. Her teasing would get her in trouble, if she wasn't careful. Or get the pair of them in trouble, but trouble of this nature Damon was more than willing to entertain. The bites to his flesh made his teeth ache in tandem with thoughts of a more intimate nature. "Such was the traditional ritual of rebirth for my kind, in the days of yore. Fledglings were given only enough blood to keep the body from absolute death, so that the fledging in question was incredibly weak and barely able to move, much less defend oneself. Buried in the earth before dawn, they spent the day there while the vampire blood worked the change through them slowly until the hunger began to burn. If they were unable to claw their way out of the earth come sunset and sate their blood thirst so that they had the strength for the change to finish, they were left for dead and deemed to weak to life the immortal life." What conversation to have when he was receiving bites to his own neck. Stirring old desires he had for her, to take her light and make it dark. Eyes moved upwards, to stair at the ceiling of the cave. "Wonderful location for a clinic, I think." He concluded.

He didn't say no so she was encouraged, even if her actions were starting to press on her. Half no and half yes, there was always some form or another. It was something she told him before - about the consequences - and she had a feeling that may be a reason why he didn't bite her as... quickly? as he had before? Maybe the correct phrase was that he was more conscious. Either way she curled her hands into his shirt as she kissed the center of his neck and bit there. It was his own fault for letting her have the opportunity. "Do you not think it just a bit odd that I may subconsciously be putting vampire habits into my work? The whole.. burry the body so it can be reborn deal?" she was still speaking softly. "Could make a person wonder things..."

by Epiphany Sun Jun 13, 2010 3:10 pm

The consequences she told him up had set a number of things in motion when it came to Damon's actions or lack thereof. He himself had a half no and half yes debate of his own - about whether or not he was willing to be responsible for being the one to strip her of her holy status. His opinion on the matter wavered more than he would like. It was wavering now, in fact, as she paid such close and generous attention to his neck with her teeth. Was this his own fault? Did he mind? Unfortunately Damon's conscience was never a truly formidable opponent. It's why his hand pressed hard against her back. Pressing her to him, so that he could feel the full of her warmth against his body and her heart beat pulsing against this chest as the sound of it beat in his ears. "I don't find it at all odd, Epiphany. On the contrary, why do you think I put so much time between visits, especially those visits where you have a taste of my blood? Such things take time to pass through the system, and my presence near to you would delay that passage, to say the least." To say the most if he were near to her as she was wrapped in the lure of his blood she would be finding herself putting a lot more vampire habits to work than only once and a while. "I thought you realized. Did you think we only see each other on occasion because I'm a heartless bastard?" He couldn't help grinning as he stroked his fingertips smoothly down her hair, bending his head downward to touch against hers so he could inhale she scent of her.

He could bet that if she had fangs that Epiphany would have pressed them into his skin by now, especially with him urging the closeness of their bodies as he was doing now. Ever since that first time, the first time with fangs to be precise, it was something she thought about. "I know that's not the reason." she said softly as she brought her lips down to kiss at his collarbone. "It's because I would ravish you and keep you from your nightly habits." There was a laugh in her voice as she was making light of what she said. As if she could ever truly keep him from things if he wanted otherwise. Epiphany did laugh then before biting down on his neck; she didn't bite hard enough to break the skin because it would only be messy. "Damon..." Lifting her chin up so her head was up and eyes looking at him. She licked her lips with the tip of her tongue and her mood dropped a tad. "Are you never going to bite me again?"

"And in doing so you would keep yourself from your daily habits," returned smoothly in silken tones. If he were around frequently, he believed the daylight would slowly slip away from her, in her desire to spend the hours with him. "My nightly habits are a means to an end. Which you are not." She meant far more than that to him, otherwise he wouldn't practice any caution at all with her. The forcefulness of her bite drew a groan from him. What had been simple stirrings were rising to a more palpable hunger. It could be heard in the sound he made - the tail end of it rumbled with a growl. When she lifted her head he adjusted his own positioning, bottomless black eyes staring into hers. His shock was honest. "What gave you that idea? That's the farthest thing from my intention."

Hearing the growl from him made her feel a lot better. She liked the fact that she could pull something like that from him even without teeth. She enjoyed knowing that she could make his teeth ache. That didn't make her a bad person, only a person that liked to know that she could be pleasing in ways. Epiphany lifted her hand from him and trailed her fingertips over her neck in a deliberate display, pushing back whatever water and stray hair that may have been left. "Because you haven't." Plainly said. It was true. He hadn't.. yet and he didn't before "and a girl like me could start to worry and wonder if it had come to an end." She smiled, but it was more like a smirk. "I will deal with my own consequences." She was with him and that had its own bearings on her. "I miss the feeling that makes me closer to you."

She also made him laugh. "Start to worry, is that right? Nevermind that your penchant for underground projects could make one start to worry, no it's how I use my teeth that we're currently discussing." His smirk had the devil's air about it, as he was certain to hold her eyes despite what toying she was doing with her hair and neck. "Before I do anything that involves your neck and the consequences that will flow forth with your blood, you will tell me when you plan to start this underground project of yours. I have mind to make a habit of my presence there. Even beasts like myself have to concern themselves with the occasional community service, and I'd prefer time spent with you underground to time spent with you in the company of those infernal nuns." Yes, those nuns. What a marvelous relationship he had with them. "Otherwise," he murmured that in a private tone, with a easy application of his thrall decorating his voice as the tips of his fingers stroked at the area of her neck that she made bare, "You have nothing to worry and wonder about. Besides finding us a place down here to spend our time that's a little more...comfortable for our means." A crook of his wolfish mouth into a fresh, beastly smile.

Epiphany tipped her head to the side slowly, her eyes growing slightly wide in a bit of wonderment. It was what he said, that he would spend time with her underground that caused this reaction, the funny business about his teeth and what she was about to say on them dropping off to the side. Only for a moment. With it, and in feeling his thrall, she took a backwards step with her other hand still on his shirt as she moved. Of course it was her pulling him alone. Or wanting to move him alone. "I have a better place.. you know it. Leave the box?" That was said and her eyes did glance over to it. She wouldn't leave it there for sure, he should know that. Even with her words she gave another tug to his shirt. "You would really spend time with me? On a project? I have my metal I only must gather my men..."

"Yes. Leave the box." In his opinion was in no danger of getting stolen down here, and now was no time to open it. Perhaps it was a short coming of his old age that he didn't realize that it was a lot to ask of something to receive a closed box, be told such enigmatic things about it, and then be expected not to open it or concern themselves with it until a later time. She had mind to pull him and he had no reason to resist. He would allow himself to be lead, at her pace. Arms would release her, for now, until they arrived at this more promising location. "Why not? You've accompanied me on various projects, Epiphany." To Italy most recently, to visit his gypsy allies, but she had accompanied him on other outings besides that. "This one in the underground seems a suitable opportunity to extend the favor. And provide a proper level of distraction to you." His hand reached outward them. Stroking under her chin and down her neck to her chest, where he would fall just short of placing it somewhere that would be a distraction to her right now.

Damon would now be treated to hearing her heart beat quicken as her mind started to think on various things that they could do while underground. "I've never known you for manual labor?" She could hardly picture it still. Damon, wielding a pick-axe or shovel and digging at the earth. "And it would be dirty." He was underground with her now but this was different, it was finished and it was crafted. Epiphany was walking cautiously. Having walked the paths from the caves to the main room many times before she could do it blindfolded. But she was walking backwards and she was leading someone and even still she was feeling a slight bit of the thrall. Perhaps that is why she was so willing to leave the box behind? "You say this when you just said that you shouldn't come around often. I wont' complain." she bent down as she started to walk. the ceiling was getting lower.

"Ah, but I said nothing about doing manual labor." His grin was wide as he watched her. She was certainly right, with his level of breeding, upbringing and habits Damon was not at all one for manual labor. I said I had mind to make a habit of my presence. That doesn't mean, of course, that I wouldn't offer my particular skills should a situation arise where they were needed." He wouldn't go into detail what those skills were, not now. She'd experienced many of them over the years, and there were still others he had which only had mention on those rare occasions when he put them to use. Though her point made him frown slightly. They were obviously going to share an intimate time together, quite possibly with an exchange, and then he would make his presence a regularity on a project that was underground, of all places? It was less than wise. For now, he'd simply repeat what she had insisted, "Well, Angel...you did say to let you deal with the consequences." Whether she knew it or not, Damon was keeping his eyes opened at what was just behind her, just in case. To take unnecessary precautions just to take them was a very old habit of his. Watching as he was he didn't even need her ducking to tell him he must do the same, bending his frame forward so that his head didn't kiss the rocks.

Exactly.. The pair of them underground, together. She wouldn't do much in ways of management on the project unless she found a way to not distract herself from him. She would have to be really, really busy for that or put the tool in his hand so he could be distracted. Count backwards as she stepped with the bent back. Two. Three. Four. Five . When she got all the way to ten she stopped and turned around. She kept from saying anything to him because if she did she knew it wouldn't be words but she would simply attack. Her mind was thinking on the fact that he could possibly be very forward with her in a public setting. He had always been more.reserved. Or doing things out of site even when they were in the presence of others. She dropped all the way to her knees and pushed her hand against the wall and it moved in, shifting just a bit to reveal that the room beyond it was brighter than the one they were currently in. She cast a glance back to him before pushing more on the wall and a gush of air moved past them as well as warmth. Damon would have to crawl to get in. Though this was a room that he would remember as well, even if it had changed a bit in the layout. The middle of the room was still rather empty with it's Persian and oriental carpets laid across it and pillows making a sort of circle. The outside of it lined with it's crates of things: cups, jewel's trinkets of various natures. Statues, pictures and all that made up a right old pirates hide-a-way. It was her place and the air down here was perfectly breathable. And there wasn't an exit to be seen aside from the one Epiphany was currently crawling through. This didn't mean there wasn't one. The ceiling was tall, at least 15 to 20 feet. and it needed to be as some of the things were stacked pretty high.

As Damon thought about it, he mind was made. To be near to her so soon after what they would share tonight, in a location that traditionally suited his kind more than her own, he saw it as a fitting, practical and necessary test. Epiphany said to let her handle the consequences, and if she was able to do so in this instance he would amend his current behaviors, and not be cautious to such an extreme by making his visits so far between. Well, there was not only that. As much as he tried to care for her through his caution, he was who and what he was. To see her struggle with his influence...he couldn't help being...at any rate, time would tell. As Epiphany bent to crawl into this space, Damon didn't follow after her immediately. Rather he paused, and enjoyed the view, and then bent his own frame and followed after. "This is as good a place as any to keep the box..." He broke the silence with those words only, only a brief glance given to the walls of trinkets before his gaze returned to study her. Once he was able to stand straight again, he did so, and was thankful that the room had a ceiling much higher than its entrance. It made crossing to her an easy thing, and the emptiness of the room only made it easier to do so with notable speed. He would be there, behind her if she hadn't yet turned herself around, the wrap of his arms having a different intention this time. What thrall he'd slipped before was nothing when compared to the pulse of it now, coming from the full of his body.

"It could get lost in here." But not by her. Once she opened it and it was what he said it was, she would be able to find it with focus. There were surely other holy items in the collection of things in the room though none of them as potent as what he gave her in the box. They were things from various churches and other religious artifacts, many not having any more power than the person wielding it gave. that's how a lot of things worked wasn't it? An item was just a item if the person had no belief in it. When Epiphany felt his arms move around her - rather quickly too as she was just starting to get to her full height - she stood straighter and pulled in a deep breath and her hands went up to reach at his sides and push away against his shirt. She liked this place. Aside from the graveyard it was one of the few places she liked to meet him, even if she never told him and hardly ever brought him here. It was a special place to her. But there wasn't much time for thought as she felt them drifting away and they began to turn towards him, her heart beating in anticipation of what she knew was coming. Surely if he were to deny her now it would go poorly. "I don't care right now for the consequences." stating that out loud more for her sake then her own. Loving a person made them do crazy things.

by Epiphany Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:25 pm

"So could you." Get lost. He didn't add 'in here' because his comment had more layers than that. She could get lost in general, and in fact she was about to get lost in him, or with him, depending on which turn of phrase best described the event to come. A languid smile of confidence and hunger pulled open his lips then, and his bottomless black eyes seemed to wink within their depths though he himself did not wink at all. "If you don't care for the consequences...." There were his thoughts again, or more appropriately his desires and instincts. For vampires, to have such a relationship as he did with Epiphany there was an element of ownership, especially when she'd has as much blood of his as she did over the years, and he of hers. By now their bond was surely strong enough that should another vampire catch interest in her, that vampire would be able to tell that she was marked - not a physical mark, more a metaphysical one which made itself evident most concretely in her scent. So if she didn't care for the consequences, the most primal part of Damon voice itself now - then she should give herself to him, his world, completely. That reasoning asserted itself more than he'd ever let Epiphany know. This is why he didn't speak it aloud, and instead busied himself in basking in the sight and scent of her soft neck. Eyes watching his nails grace over the flesh, delighting in the small red scratches left behind. Arm tightening around her, he pulled her upwards into him, off of her feet, and with preternatural quick dropped her with him so that they both lay on the ground, she underneath him, his cool lips making their way over the hollow of her throat.

She gave a quick start, not one of fear but of a sudden delight. Her skin shivered and her hands went up to hold around him. When her back was laid against the ground she tipped her head back and moved her fingers about his shoulders. Sighing softly she made a small shake of her head. "If I don't care for the consequences....." Repeating what he said and what she had told him earlier. She swallowed and her heart was steadily evening out as she calmed. "Then you should do it. For i will do the same in kind." Oh she would.. she would because it's what she wanted to do. Denying anything else that was in her mind to do if Epiphany had the option to bite him properly when she could, she surely would. The rug wasn't hard for her, she was use to sleeping on it for she often did when she was here.

"It's dangerous to confess that to me, Angel." Honesty that he didn't have to voice, but he did. It would likely be the last time he would be the voice of caution, or reason, or any other such role that he was normally loathe to be. The only reason he cares for the consequences was because he cared for her well-being. So if she didn't care...how would that change his own attitude? Humanity was something Damon was entirely apathetic towards - too often he watched the reality of a short lifespan push people to be slaves to their overblown emotions, making them act like no more than fools. He'd watched her struggle with her own humanity - hadn't he seen that struggle with his own eyes last time they were in each other's arms, after she was fresh returned from facing death? Why would he let her suffer like that, if she didn't have to? What she said to him now was music. The pressure of his lips on her throat increased. Now that she was on the ground underneath him, he pulled his hands free. One of them stroked down her hair, her cheek, the opposite side of her neck. His touch came with its usual sweet price - the pulse of his thrall beat in his fingertips as sure as the heartbeat in her own chest. It matched the beat of her heart, surrounding her, enveloping her, as he drew his lips back and pushed the sharp of his teeth clean into her throat.

Epiphany still had a time accepting the many things that had happened those months ago. She understood it, the reasons, and what the nuns at the church had called the 'reality' of it all, but that didn't mean that she had to accept it as the right thing to have happened. So she didn't. Not entirely. It put more to force in her of why can't she do what she wanted to do and still retain what was hers. Besides, its not as though she was killing people, she only wanted to share experiences with the man she loved. Somewhere in there her fingers found their way to his neck and when he bite down her fingers tightened. It was the familiar feeling. The tightening in her stomach, that quick prick of pain, and then a soothing feeling. that caused her to sigh. Pip PIp pulled her eyes open only to have them be a big fogged. "thank you." said softly to him as she wrapped herself around him.

Such a familiar bond to be shared between them, but each time it was new. This is the well in which Damon is able to find a small appreciation for her humanity, in this moment where her blood was taken into him to sustain him. She was the same body, the same mind, and the same spirit at the core, but always because of the passage of time there were little differences. Her time spent with the dying and the death changed her flavor, her feel...perhaps even the nature of her thoughts that could be picked up by him in this most intimate of connections. Her heartbeat would begin to echo in his own body, carried by her blood into his veins. Warming him, for these precious moments where her life would ensure he was kept strong. The pull of his lips around the wound made by his teeth, and the pull of his thrall wrapping around her and keeping her light and fogged within his embrace would take her with him in this moment where anything could be shared by him, depending on his thoughts. Today she would see images of her on their first meeting, in the cemetery, where he thought of her and called her no more than a mouse. She would see her through his eyes and desires on that day, perhaps a vision very different than how she chose to see herself. Intriguing, curious, enticing, with a look and behavior that succeeded in catching the attention of a vampire who could not be bothered with more beyond using them for a meal. One arm propped up his body to not crush her underneath him, the other traced down the opposite side of her neck, down her chest, over one of her soft mounds, down her side, as he continued to drink.

If they had verbally been sharing that moment then she would have laughed. Any laughter now would be in the form of a delighted and rather content moan that passed through her lips. The images she saw made her think of a mouse on a platter, the strangeness of her mind. A large platter so the mouse could roll around. Fortunately for the both of them she wasn't as weak as the average human and therefore she had more endurance? As such she sought to lift up her own and find his ear to bite. The short nails on her fingers on the left hand began to press into his neck and move slowly downward. Her other hand was aiming to move under his shirt. One of the parts she loved about this was how his skin would change. Damon wouldn't be as cold and eventually - in her mind - he seemed more alive. And if he was alive..... He still wore too much clothing. To many layers for her fingers to work through.

Were she to laugh, he would have found nothing inappropriate about it. That was a large part of Damon's memory - the delight. It was with a similar delight he drank from her now. He pulled the blood from her deeply, but slowly. The slowness would ensure that this moment would last longer, as it would put her heart in a slow malaise rather than a quickly felt straight and struggle. Damon had been feeding for a long, long time but to do so with the care and caution he did now was preciously rare. His lips drew into a snarl once she bit his ear, small trickles of her blood moving down her neck. He would let that blood spill, for now. Body moved upward as her hands fiddled with his clothes. He was warm to the touch now - deceptively quick with her life inside of him - and she would feel that warmth as his hand pulled at her own shirt. He was not kind with it - if he had to rip it in order to remove it, so he would. There would be other shirts to adorn her body, and no need for this one to remain intact.

Helped the fact that Epiphany wasn't wearing much to begin with as she had taken a swim to get here. Pushed up, down torn, she did have other clothes here, somewhere, to use. If not there was always fabric and she was no stranger to the making of clothes. "Warmth..." very softly stated as she breathed in slowly. Oh she felt it as she was able to get her hands under his shirt just as she knew his skin wouldn't be as pale if she actually looked. He was stronger than she - especially at this moment - and she felt her head getting lighter. Her legs shifted and since he had moved up she was able to get a better hold of his shirt to begin pulling it off. Unlike him, she couldn't tear his clothes - maybe before the bite and loss of blood - but not now. So he'd feel her tugging as she licked her own lips. The thought going through to him of her being thirsty. Though it wasn't for water.

by Epiphany Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:27 pm

With what he drank from her, his hunger was well-sated. What blood he still took - with slower, more shallow pulls of his lips - was no longer about hunger. It was about slowing her heart, emptying her head of its various human weights and cares, and increasing that thirst he felt floating into his head. Was fun was there in giving her what she wanted, the taste of him and the subsequent consequences, if he didn't drink enough from her to make those consequences palpable and a force to be reckoned with. The few times he'd allowed himself to spend the full night with her after giving him his blood to any large degree, he cherished the morning after. Watching her struggle with the brightness of the day, the confusing muddle of human hunger and hunger for blood, these were his most precious recollections of their time together. If it made him a beast, so be it. He was a beast already. He pulled his mouth from the wounds he made, licking his lips clean before his picked his head up just enough to look down at her. His voice as smooth as his lazy smile. "Warmth, yes." From this position, he would help her in her task. Pulling his shirt the rest of the way off him and tossing it to the side. She could see the life in him plainly. The olive in his complexion from his days as a mortal in Italy a compliment to the heat of his body that would last only so long. With his nail, with her watching, he would slice open his own flesh. Not at the hollow of his throat, but lower just under his collar bone. The blood would flow freely from there, but not as steadily as it would from his neck.

What a perfect place they were in to not be bothered by another living soul (or dead really) and no chance for an accidental ray of ray to barge in. If it wasn't for the few lamps the burned around the cave they would be in total darkness. Complete and utter. When his teeth pulled out and his body lifted, hers naturally followed his with a bit of a grunt and she felt her head slightly spin as she propped and elbow back behind her, the other began running up his now bare chest. An idle thought of what she could with nails sharp enough to pierce the skin. Plenty. Plenty, though she couldn't pin point what those things were. At first she only sent out her tongue to lick at his blood and even that much ran through her like a small jolt. Then she got bolder and kissed it, pulling as she pulled her lips back, more of his blood into her mouth. Epiphany knew that she couldn't play with the cut forever because it would heal. She snuggled her head into his neck once, right above the cut, before she bit down at the tear, biting the flesh between her teeth to make more enter her awaiting mouth. Then she started drinking.

Yes, plenty. Possibilities were near endless with a body as resilient as Damon's, and a constitution that found even pain pleasurable to a formidable degree. There were many things they could do, were both their bodies and constitutions so matched, that were left explored paired as they were. Even so, her experience showed now - that she remembered to bite into the mark, keep it open and spilling fresh, if it were another time not so quiet with pleasurable depth he would have voiced how impressed he was. Chances were that with her blood filling him so completely, and his blood now spilling into her waiting mouth, that she felt that he was impressed, and pleased, and words weren't necessary at all. Today, most especially because of the conversation between them before they lay down together, Damon's thoughts were confessional. Wishes displayed through images and desires through feeling of what could be done, of what she could be, of what they could be together. A pet of his hand down her hair, a loving stroke, the quiet colored with a moan. To be fed from, it was a different level of pleasure entirely. It stirred the beast, the primal force was something she might be able to feel as she took his blood into her body - not quite heart beat, it was more a drum. An rhythm and calling meant to enrapture and awaken the most primal side of the drinker and encourage them. Hand pet through her hair, then moved to stroke down her body, to squeeze at what flesh was bare to him now that he'd removed her shirt. In comparison, because of all the blood she lost, she felt slightly less warm than normal. How ironic.

She remembered most of the lessons he had taught her during her small affair of when she actually was a vampire. There had been a lot to learn then for that 24 hour period. She was eager to learn and he was willing to teach. It worked. As she drank from him she also pushed against his chest, getting her legs around him and dwelling in his thoughts. What she could be with him was fantasy knocking on the door of a very real reality that also shunned her out of other things currently were. But those thoughts were not as strong as they were before they engaged for the more of his blood she took in the stronger she became. Cold. It wasn't the shivering cold, but his cold. And she started to pull more from him because she felt that he was happy in all of this. And his blood was like a very addicting drug. She couldn't easily stop.

His blood was a drug, there was no question of that. Not just to entice and enrapture those that a vampire chose to make their kindred, but also for those that a vampire chose to keep as their own, a mortal walking the line between light and dark that could be fed from and molded to the vampire's liking. There was only one other being in Damon's entire history who had as much blood on so many occasions as he'd shared with Epiphany, and that other being had been no longer of the living when they met. While that other being had nothing to lose getting drunk on Damon's blood, Epiphany had much - more than a normal human, one could argue. Even if Damon didn't growl, the low, pleased growl of a predator who was experiencing something to his liking and satisfaction, Epiphany would be able to feel that satisfaction running deep within him. Just as primal as the drum-beat thrall pulsing in the blood which tongue her tongue and was consumed into her body. She was growing cold, and he could feel it as he touched her, hand stroking her side, stomach and chest with open familiarity. To change a living body so was a high in itself - possession. That she enjoyed it, all the sweeter. Maybe it was the underground. Maybe it was their earlier conversation. Maybe it was the long passage of time between their visits. Regardless, Damon had opened his own flood gate. Dipping deeply into the euphoria of this moment, rather than staying on its surface to be the level-headed beast who urged her away. He would urge her away, yes. In a moment. Just a moment longer he wanted to seize this and enjoy it. She'd promised him she didn't care about and could deal with the consequences, and this extra time like this as his finger roamed her flesh was the resulting gift.

She was growing more aware of him as the time ticked by. No only of him, but of everything around her in general. the feel of the air, the ground underneath her; if her eyes were open she would even be able to see better. Now if only her teeth could grow. That thought resting right on the surface as her mundane teeth bit down again into that cut on his chest for she wanted to stay the flow for a little longer. Or was it because the blood made her want it? If she could she would lift her mouth from there and lodge her teeth in another part of his body. There was so much ground to cover an those precious spots that she could mark him on. Her hand ran through his hair and her other went the downward route to press her hand inside and below the waist of his pants from behind. There was no need for her to be shy about it and she wasn't. As she took a final hard bite as the cut she pulled deeply from it before lifting her head slightly and licking the wound and her mouth quickly. Still slightly stained she attacked him with her lips to his. It was nearly as hungry as her thirst for his blood was and it was passionate. Even possible that bits of blood from around the edges of her lips graced against his skin. With her newfound strength she wanted to be and stay close to him. She felt him everywhere in her, there wasn't too much closer they could be. He'd know that she would bite him again, for the want of it was still there.

Each time she bit her teeth down she'd feel the response in his body, and his desire pushing against her. Each bite came with pain - dulled teeth were ironically more painful than his own, but to him this pain was euphoria. Wanted and indulged. When her mouth left the cut, it did not take long for it to close. As long as it took her to push her lips to his, by then his flesh had sealed itself and was as perfect and unblemished as he was in his unnatural, immortal life. As his own lips moved surely against hers with met passion, as he reached his free hand down to yank at and do the business of removing what covered her lower half as aggressively as he needed to for the clothing to clear off her body, he could feel her want to bite again. He sucked her lips clean of what blood of his stained them, parting his own long enough to snag her lower lip with his fang and cut it open. He would take her blood again in this small way, the focus of his lips a forceful suckle as his hand moved over her now bare thigh. If she tried to bite him again, Damon would likely have the good sense to stop her. . .for now, at least. But that didn't mean this moment between them was played out. She was fueled by his blood, given a second wind, and he intended on fully tiring her out.

She wasn't tired in the least and could be as aggressively demanding as he. She only didn't have as much to take off. With his blood now she didn't have to worry about tiring so any blood that he took now wouldn't hurt her unless he was feeding. as she felt the new prick she did have the thought of if she got to taste him again. Fair. Right? He pulled down on her and her hand was already working to free him of any lasting restraints that he had while she touched her tongue to the top of his teeth. If they were not in her lips he can be assured that she would most defiantly be teasing them at the moment. And that was the thought she was pushing through. They would take advantage of each other.

(And the rest? Undisclosed to those who can’t see into the deep, deep underground)

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