Mayfair Manor

[Goblin In A Suit]

Kain watched for a moment then walked to the window and set his suitcase down. He kelt and opened it up revileing lots of strange little viles and a few needles. He took one needle out and filled it up then injected it to his arm replaceing everything. He felt the meds run through his veins quickly as they sped up his heart. He looked at Felix as he shut the suitcase with a quick touch at his gasmask hidden inside. "If you are wondering this thing is my lifeline." he said softly. "I'm only telling you because I trust you." he added with a stern look. "I don't think you will have reason to attack me or anything." he said with a small smile showing at his cheek. "Need the damn stuff to live." he said then looked at Antha. "Felling any better Antha?" he asked her. He still couldn't help it. If it wasn't for his meds his heart may would have stopped as he looked at her. She just cast a spell on him. He smiled a little at the thought knowing how true that could be.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

From the moment Jacob returned, there was no thought to Antha's actions. She lifted her head as if it was heavy, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand and reaching blindly for the milk. She didn't even bother waiting for Jack to set the glass down, but rather snatched it from him. "Merci, Jacob," she said with a quick glance to the boy when she had stopped to catch her breath.
In all, she downed three glasses before pushing it away and letting her head fall back to the counter, her eyes glazing over as if she were tired all over again. "Meilleur," she murmured softly, sighing and closing her eyes. It was Kain who brought her back from the brink of sleep, though all she heard from him was her name. It made her turn to look at him, her cheek still pressed to the counter and eyes still glazed, while she searched his mind for what he had said to her. "Not particularly," she replied, rising with a faint stretch of her back and glancing at him over her shoulder, "And if I wanted to bewitch you, Kain, you would never for a moment suspect it." She flashed him that wicked, suggestive smile that she was so fond of, her tired eyes going dark for that brief moment, before she turned back to look at Jack and Cyrus, leaning into the back of the chair as if holding herself up was a touch too much trouble. "Vikteren," she called to the vampire, twisting in her seat and holding her hand out to him.

 

[Vikteren]

+Rotting Lunacy+

From the moment Jacob returned, there was no thought to Antha's actions. She lifted her head as if it was heavy, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand and reaching blindly for the milk. She didn't even bother waiting for Jack to set the glass down, but rather snatched it from him. "Merci, Jacob," she said with a quick glance to the boy when she had stopped to catch her breath.
In all, she downed three glasses before pushing it away and letting her head fall back to the counter, her eyes glazing over as if she were tired all over again. "Meilleur," she murmured softly, sighing and closing her eyes. It was Kain who brought her back from the brink of sleep, though all she heard from him was her name. It made her turn to look at him, her cheek still pressed to the counter and eyes still glazed, while she searched his mind for what he had said to her. "Not particularly," she replied, rising with a faint stretch of her back and glancing at him over her shoulder, "And if I wanted to bewitch you, Kain, you would never for a moment suspect it." She flashed him that wicked, suggestive smile that she was so fond of, her tired eyes going dark for that brief moment, before she turned back to look at Jack and Cyrus, leaning into the back of the chair as if holding herself up was a touch too much trouble. "Vikteren," she called to the vampire, twisting in her seat and holding her hand out to him.

From the stairwell, Vikteren watched her, his countenance distant although his gaze was intense as ever.
He went to her, and put his hand into her cool, pale palm as he drew closer, although he did not allow himself to linger there. The vampire went behind her, and dropped his arms loosely around her shoulders.
"What is it?"

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Antha leaned her head back, letting her eyes blink up at him. There was a look in them that was part surprise and part suspicion, as if she had expected nothing more than his attention. "You are being impolite," she scolded him softly, reaching up to touch his cheek, "Lurking off to the side like a shadow." A small sigh escaped her lips as her hand dropped back to her side and her eyes slid closed. "Besides, it makes me nervous." She bothered to open her eyes again for a moment as she spoke, a faint smile to her lips as she added in a tone that ensured no one but Vikteren could hear her, "Not having you close, I mean."
With that she laughed, straightening herself up again to stare at her cousins. "Mon dieu. I don't know what to do about Julien. If he doesn't stop bothering me soon, I fear he's going to end up strung from the roof with the rope around his neck." Her eyes flashed with something in the moment it took to utter that last sentence. It wasn't a clear emotion, but she knew Jack and Cyrus would understand it. She knew they wouldn't question why she had to look away, shaking her head as if to clear her mind.

 

[.David Talbot.]

The boys looked at Antha then each other then the floor. "So you gonna do it?" Jack whispered.
Cyrus lifted his eyes for a moment. "It's not like there aren't enough men willing to marry you and it'd make Julien shut up."
Courtland chose that moment to drag himself down the stairs and into the kitchen. He only caught part of what Cyrus said but he understood. It made him look at Antha and his sleepy eyes were very serious. "I've made the offer before Evie and I still mean it. Nobody would make a better husband for you than me. You know that."
Jack and Cyrus exchanged another look. "He is right Antha," Cyrus said carefully. If she was going to lose it again and refuse to do what the family wanted then he wanted to be careful around her. "You're both children of Julien so the match is good. And he's one of the aristocrats so there wouldn't be all the secrecy."
"And Courtland never gets jealous over you," Jack added. "Besides you guys are always together anyway. And who else is a possibility?" He started counting off on his fingers as he named her choices. "Vittorio, Dorian, Lawrence, me, Cyrus, Pierce, Armand, Claire Leonelli, and Felix."
Cyrus sighed. "It's true. No one of lesser blood or standing would be acceptable." He gave her a long look before he spoke. "Antha you have to get married or produce an heir. As Designee of the Legacy you don't have a choice." He backed away quickly in case she decided to lash out. Not that distance would protect him from her.
Courtland moved up to put a hand on her shoulder. "Evie we hate it for you. You know we do. But it's part of your curse. Our curse. We have to carry on the blood. If the prophecy changes at all then it's going to become a real issue and things will get even worse."

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Several long moments passed that Antha sat still and silent, staring at the counter before her as if it had done her some great injustice. She had tried for years to avoid being forced into marriage, and she had sworn to herself very long ago that she would never produce another Mayfair to suffer within the family. She had hoped she could put it off until her twentieth birthday came to pass, because one way or another it would no longer be an issue then. But it was beginning to seem that it wasn't possible. "Damn it," she murmured, those two words full of too much anger, too much loathing, "Maledictions, vous avez raison."
A long, frustrated sigh escaped her lips as she laid her head again on the counter, twining her fingers in her hair as if it took all of her self-control not to rip it out. "God, I hate him," she seethed, "Is there no end to the torment he wishes to bring upon me? I should have dragged him off to the courts when I had the chance. It would have been so easy to string him from the rafters and bury him in the garden with the rest."
There was a momentary pause, a few seconds in which she was far too still, before she lifted her head, her hands still loosely in her hair, and looked up at Jack and Cyrus. There was a glimmer in her eyes then that was not natural but was old and familiar and as much a part of her as a parasite that would eat her from the inside out.

 

[.David Talbot.]

Cyrus let out a little choking sound when he saw the look in her eyes and grabbed the counter for support. Jack's eyes went wide and he stumbled back into the cabinets. "Antha. No. Please." His voice was high andpanicked. "Get rid of it Antha. Or block it. Just don't let it into my head. Please don't let it get into my head!"
Courtland stared at them in confusion for a second. A split second later he sprang forward and grabbed Antha by her arms. He pulled her up to his level not paying attention to the falling chair and shook her for a few seconds. "Antha listen to me!" He looked her in the eyes and there was panic and a serious desperation in his expression. "Get rid of them. Now. Make them go away before it spreads to all of us and we do something very bad. Make. It. Stop."

 

[Vikteren]

.David Talbot.

Cyrus let out a little choking sound when he saw the look in her eyes and grabbed the counter for support. Jack's eyes went wide and he stumbled back into the cabinets. "Antha. No. Please." His voice was high andpanicked. "Get rid of it Antha. Or block it. Just don't let it into my head. Please don't let it get into my head!"
Courtland stared at them in confusion for a second. A split second later he sprang forward and grabbed Antha by her arms. He pulled her up to his level not paying attention to the falling chair and shook her for a few seconds. "Antha listen to me!" He looked her in the eyes and there was panic and a serious desperation in his expression. "Get rid of them. Now. Make them go away before it spreads to all of us and we do something very bad. Make. It. Stop."

She was pulled from his arms, and Vikteren released her. He could not see the look in her eyes; only the fear in her family's, and the unmistakable panic in their voices. He knew how very little he had been shown of Antha's true power; but he had been made aware, through rumor and insinuation, what the Designee of the Legacy was capable of. The burdens that she carried, which no one else could.
And he felt the air shift around her, twist, and grow malignant.
He spoke to Cyrus, for Courtland was otherwise engaged and Jack seemed on the verge of mute, gibbering terror--not an unexpected reaction for any human.
What is within her?

 

[Azure Halfbreed]

Through the whole conversation his cousins were having, Felix continued to look out the window. None of it seemed any interest, but none the less he paid attention. He could gather up what happens in this family. From what Felix understands, Antha needs to get married and/or produce and heir, or something about the curse will happen. Felix wasn't that aware yet.

But it was the sudden panic that filled the room that drew Felix's attention away from the window back to his family. They were begging Antha to resist or block something. And while Felix didn't know what it was, Courtlands statement of "and we all do something bad" did catch his interest. Antha was stronger than Felix by far, in the magic at least. And if she was to get ahold of his mind, there probably was no point in resisting. So Felix didn't bother.  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Even when Antha could look into her cousin's eyes and hear the panic in his voice, her anger was hard to let go of. Antha herself, though prone to her fits of rage, had more trouble holding onto it than letting it go. It was the umbra that lurked in the locked room in the attic who could not let go, and that she could not get rid of. They were the ones who had fashioned the Red Crayon Aristocrats from the Mayfair children, and they didn't want to give that up.
It took a few minutes to find some control over herself, but when she did, Antha put every barrier she could between herself and the cousins who were connected to her. Through the chains of blood that bound them, the umbra had no trouble finding their way from Antha to all of the others. It was why Nicolae had done so much to make her join him when he had first been possessed, and why it had been so easy to draw all the others in with them. But before these mental walls all went up, she opened the link that had begun to form between herself and Felix. It was weak and new but she was careful about the way the umbra seeped through it, never quite letting them get to him because once he was infected, she could not help. She only let him see glimpses of what it was---power, more than Antha had on her own, and malice so pure that it had no cause and no specific target and it consumed everything. And then she drew back, putting every wall she could between Felix and herself, and focused everything into forcing them out of her head.
It left her dizzy, clutching at the counter to keep from falling. "Je suis si desole," she murmured to her cousins when her breath returned to her, "I am so sorry. I didn't know they were near until after the anger had begun to build up in my mind." She turned to Courtland then, and every apology she knew of was not enough, but they were still all there in her eyes as she reached out tentatively for his hand. "I didn't mean to, Courtland. You know I would never intentionally bring it upon us again."

 

[.David Talbot.]

Courtland let her go carefully. The umbra possessing her were clever and he wouldn't be surprised if it was a trick. But he felt them draining away from her and let out a long sigh. "I know." He went to put his arms around her and lay a little kiss on her shoulder. "I know you would never let them infect us if you could help it. We all know."
Jack and Cyrus both nodded. "Parasitic bastards," Jack cursed. He had composed himself again and was going through the fridge another time. Cyrus was still a little shaky.
In the small silence that followed a new voice came. It was only for Antha so it was shielded but it was strong.
It came from Atticus who was sitting on his bed in the Talamasca motherhouse across the city. The ritual had put a little piece of the ghost that used to be Rynn's sister in his mind and he couldn't see her but he could feel her. He felt her rise out of the mass of energy that spirits came from and he felt ehr go to Rynn. While it wasn't too interesting to him he thought Antha might want to know.
The message he sent when he reached out to her was simple. Rynn is still haunted. His mental voice was puzzled. His sister escaped our trap.

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Antha let out a long breath, settling herself against Courtland, and for a moment that old thought came back to her, the idea that if she had to, she could be married to Courtland. But then she heard Atticus in her mind and all her attention was suddenly miles away, in the top of the tower that Atticus called his home. It made her eyes distant, blank, as she searched the witch-vampire's mind, trying to find exactly what he knew. When she found it, her mind went somewhere else entirely, to the boy she had known so briefly yet tried so hard to help.
Antha had failed, and that idea didn't sit well with her. The girl was only a ghost, and yet Antha had been unable to get rid of her. If Antha was not the most powerful, she had nothing. It was how she controlled the city, how she helped David and Khayman keep some minor peace, and she wasn't going to let a ghost make her question her standing.

 

[.David Talbot.]

Courtland felt her mind wandering and held her a little tighter to himself. He didn't know what she was doing but he thought she had had enough excitement for one day. He wanted to shield her from anything else that might upset her. He wanted to protect her. "Evie what's wrong?" he asked.
Meanwhile Cyrus had calmed down enough to make some sense out ofVikteren's voice in hsi mind and he answered. They are the spirits that made a home in the little room in the attic of this house. They are the spirits that first possessed Nicolae and then the rest of us tomake us into the Red Crayon Aristocrats. Anger and depression call them to us and when they possess us there's nothign but malice and anger and horrible things. They're like a dark and angry fog that take over your mind so that it's still you but you have no good feelings left. You just want to hurt and kill things. You want to torture things and feel the power it gives you over them.
He shivered and had to grip the counter again. They were still close enough that thinking about them brought them closer. But they couldn't possess Cyrus on his own anymore because his body wasn't strong enough to hold them. They had to go through Antha to get to him or any of the others and she was busy and they couldn't get to her so they had to go away for now.

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

It took a few silent, expressionless minutes, but Antha finally blinked her wide eyes up at Courtland, her face blank to make a porcelain doll envious. She stared at him in that manner for a few moments, her eyes the only things changing as the intensity of her thoughts became apparent in them, and then very suddenly she straightened herself up again, pulling loose of the circle of her cousin's arms, and smoothed down the skirt of her dress in the absent and yet borderline paranoid manner that often meant she was lost to her thoughts. "Courtland," she said finally, turning to him as her expression changed into something calm and serious all at once, with that deep concentration showing only in her eyes, "Go get your things. We have a ghost to rid the world of, and if we're not on the road in ten minutes, I promise I will throw a tantrum." She turned, giving that forceful gaze to Felix and making a vague gesture in his direction, "That goes for you, as well." She stopped then only to glance at Vikteren. "You may come along if you desire, but I will not ask it of you."
With those instructions given, she turned on her heel and began for the stairs. "Jack, Cyrus, Eleanor, entertain Kain while we're gone," she called over her shoulder before she dissappeared up to the second floor. It was to the library she went first, sifting through the piles of books on the floor until she found the two she had wanted. With that she turned and left again, off this time to the attic. It was here that she found an old black backpack that she had used when she was younger, and Nicolae before her. It was faded and worn but it held well enough that she slid the books inside and threw in the few other instruments she retrieved from the extensive, dusty clutter before she buckled it closed. The last thing she did was fetch one of the old dolls from the oak chest carved with the Mayfair name---the doll made of her great-grandmother's bones, to be exact---and conceal it carefully in one of the pockets of the bag before running back down the stairs.
All this time, she had been calling Atticus to her, summoning him to help yet again because she knew he wanted to, and now she reached out and tried to find him, to make sure he had not fallen into doubt and stayed locked within his chambers.

 

[Goblin In A Suit]

Kain made his mask tight. He was uneffected by all that had happend in the room. Once his mask was tight he checked his black gloves making sure they were good. "So what do we have to do around here that cqan keep a non witch busy until its time for him to crash?" he asked trying to sound polite even though it probley sounded rude. He looked at all the people in the room. It seemed that he was now able to keep all the others from making him feel like Antha did. He didn't know what her pull on him was if not magic but it seemed strong. Almost as if she was an old friend.
*What the hell is up with my head lately.* he thought to himself as another headache hit. It didn't look like it fased him but it hurt really bad.