Deep Kiss of Winter.

[Hikari_Mamo]

Conrad nodded and wiped the benches spotless for her. "That's okay. I'll teach you how to use a weapon. A better safe than sorry measure that's all." He added so she didn't feel like he was expecting her to become a warrior.  

[chibi_blue_mouse]

Alyson made a face. "That's not really necesary." she said, not really wanting to know how to use a weapon. Besides . . . she was fine with her phantom powers . . . wasn't she?  

[Hikari_Mamo]

"Well you know where I am in case you change your mind." He said smiling, now putting the dishes away. "If you're happy, though I'm sure Alice can teach you how to use your ballet to go on the defensive if needed. You'll be fast enough to dodge most attacks. If it ever happened. I like to be prepared you know?"  

[chibi_blue_mouse]

Alyson scoffed. "Well of course I know where to find you, we live in the same house!" she teased. She then frowned a bit at the thought of using ballet as a defensive technique. She sighed. "I don't want to learn how to fight or defend or anything. I just want to dance. For the sake of dancing. Not because it's useful when dodging attacks, or anything, but . . . just to dance, you know?" she said, before pushing away from the table. "I . . . I'm not hungry anymore." she muttered, heading back upstairs, wanting to lock herself away in her room. Maybe things would be easier if she was still a ghost. She sighed again. There was no returning to that state. She didn't really want to, even if things WOULD be easier that way.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Conrad sighed a tiny bit but he didn't press. she'd learn if she wanted to learn and not before. And he was willing to wait as long as she needed to get used to the idea of her new life and eventually when he told her, his place in her future. But again, he'd wait for her to be ready to hear it. He wasn't going to push her.  

[chibi_blue_mouse]

Alyson did not come down for dinner. In fact, she had used her powers to go to her secret library and read up on phantoms, trying to figure out exactly what she was. Eventually she did go to bed. When she woke the next day, she came down for breakfast, but she was much more subdued than she had been the day before. Clearly, she was still having problems coming to terms with what she was, but she was dealing with it in her own way. She got the paper and started the sudoku puzzle instantly that morning, instead of waiting a bit to read the daily funnies. She sighed as she worked on putting the numbers in the right place. Skipping dinner last night had made her hungry, but at the same time, she wasn't really feeling up to making breakfst . . .  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Conrad already had breakfast ready for her but he wasn't there in the kitchen. He left a note telling her that he was out doing something and would be back when he finished and wasn't sure when he would be finished.

In truth, he had to get away. Seeing his fated woman in pain like that and having her block his attempts to help was hurting his newly beating heart. He had to stop letting her coldness get to him. So he took it out on his enemies. He took them out one by one then returned home when it was night in New Orleans tracking blood into the nearest bathroom and stood in the shower but didn't turn it on.  

[chibi_blue_mouse]

Soon enough though, Alyson did smell the breakfast that Conrad had cooked and she ate it and read the note, frowning a bit. She tried to continue with life as normal, but she found that having Conrad around had gotten to be more of her routine than she had realized. Having him gone just made the house . . . lonely, and though she did practice her dancing, she mostly just wondered when Conrad would come back. By nightfall, she'd grown very upset with Conrad. "He could have at least told me what he was going to be doing, or told me it would have taken all freaking day . . ." she grumbled, doing her best to cook dinner, but . . . being upset, she wasn't focusing very well and the food was suffering for it, which only served to amplify her foul mood.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Conrad finally decided to shower and then once dressed in clean clothes cleaned the blood off the floor. His heart pounding in his ears. He couldn't think about it. About the pain that she wasn't letting him help her. He smelt the bad food and went to the kitchen to fix it unable to tell had had left over blood on his ears.  

[chibi_blue_mouse]

Alyson was doing her best to fix her bad food, when Conrad came in. She turned, completely ignoring the food on the burner. "You!" she said, pointing the spatula at him. "This is all your fault!" she snapped angrily. The next words were born out of irrational anger and loneliness. Because as much as Alyson wouldn't admit it, after years of being a ghost, she really didn't want to be alone anymore . . .

"I should have never let you stay here! I should have just let you burn in the sun!" she shouted angrily. "This was my house! Mine! And then you and your stupid brothers had to go and ruin everything!" she screeched. "And even when I get back to normal, I'm not actually normal! And you didn't tell me! You keep me in the dark about everything!" she screamed. "When it concerns me the most, you decide I don't need to know, well, yes I bloody well do!" she shouted. "Get out of my house! I don't need a friend like you! Get out!" she shouted, too irrational to think straight.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Conrad turned off the burner and listened to her scream at him. At first his expression was hurt. Then his eyes turned black. He grumbled something in his native tongue that sounded like "Fine." And he traced again without another word.

Not fifteen minutes afterward the house flooded with tear gas and hands grabbed her. Those same hands then shoved her on something tying her to it. They spoke at her in some strange language and Conrad's name was dropped in there before someone said. "Conrad's woman will make excellent bait." In a thick Russian accent. "He'll come begging for her return." He smiled and strengthened her bonds. "All we have to do is set out the bait."  

[chibi_blue_mouse]

Only once Conrad had left did Alyson realize just what an effect her words had. "Conrad?" she murmured, on the verge of tears. She spent the next fifteen minutes cleaning up her mess before, she was choking on tear gas. "Conrad!" she screamed, terrified as she was grabbed by hand. She struggled against them, but couldn't keep from being tied to . . . something. She was having a massive coughing fit, her eyes watering in pain from the gas. It was almost laughable. They thought Conrad would come for her? After what she said? She tried to focus and just pass through her bonds, but apparently, they were made to contain ghosts or phantoms. She was scared . . . very, very scared.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Conrad returned three hours later with roses. "Alyson?" He called out, when he got no answer he called her name again with earnest, tracing into every room to look for her. Panic threatened to overwhelming. His heart pounding in his ears he tried to think. No she wouldn't leave the house. he barely managed to call Alice.

"Hey Conrad?" Alice said frowning. "What's-"

"Is My woman with you?!" He snapped trying to breathe.

"No why what's wrong?" Alice asked but Conrad hung up on her and started ringing every friend he had then moved on to thinking about which of his enemies were alive then started tracing to every one of them slaughtering them following leads until he found the Wraiths. Heard her heart beating. Her panicked breaths. He didn't know the den so he had to fight his way in.

He looked crazed when he broke through to her. He trembled and stared at her. His eyes took in her physical appearance. "She is unharmed. . ." He said to the men. "Your deaths will be quick."  

[chibi_blue_mouse]

Alyson had been able to recover a bit from the tear gas, but being able to open her eyes a bit, hadn't helped her fear. She tried a couple times more to struggle out of her bonds, with no luck, before she just closed her eyes and waited . . . agonizing minutes ticked by as she waited for her captors to realize that Conrad didn't actually care about her anymore, and wanted nothing more to do with her . . . what would they do when they learned that information? But then she heard his voice, and she looked over at him, her eyes a bit wide before she started struggling again. "No! It's a trap! They want you here!" she called out to him, not wanting him hurt, still very, very surprised that he had shown up in the first place. Why . . . why come after her when she said such terrible and hurtful things?  

[Hikari_Mamo]

The Wraiths surrounded him. Conrad's eyes closed and he smirked. "You think I'd come alone?" He asked the room. The Wraiths faltered and he smirked. "Koeri, close your eyes love, I'll me but a moment. I do not wish your delicate eyes to witness such violence." He said then begun his dance of blood.