The first image is one that is obviously a club, a shy smiling Zane walking towards the back door of it, and exiting without incident. The scene is then completely shaded with the blackness of night, and nothing can be seen. All that can be heard are two sets of footsteps. Zane's figure doesn't pick up on the second set until it's too late, and a second shadowed figure drapes itself across his back.
Zane seems to try in vain to free himself from the attacker's grasp, before the added weight throws him to his knees. The unrelenting attacker manages to turn Zane over, and straddle his prone body. A trenchcoast billows on the attacker's frame, and Zane's eyes turn blank as he obviously recognises the figure, although he has no time to react to the recognition as talons rush across his face in flurries.
A haunting voice is heard as the talons stop assailing Zane's face, and approaching fangs replace them, their points reaching for Zane's throat. 'Are you afraid of death, Zane? Afraid to die here and now? Are you going to cry out? I love it when they cry out......' the voice almost growls, and then the fangs hit, puncturing his throat deeply, sending forth the gush of blood.
Realisation sets in on Zane's face, the knowledge that he will die here and now, alone.....Diablerized.
Nicoleta watched within her mind...horrified. As the image concluded she pulled away and gasped. She threw her arms around him and cradled him to her body muttering something softly in Italian. If he could understand Italian it would translate to something like, 'no more pain little one...only joy I promise it...'
She held him to her, his face resting against her shoulder buried in the hollow between her neck and throat. She tenderly pressed his face into her neck, baring it like he had moments before. She wanted him to know something that would hopefully uplift him.
Zane sat, shaking involuntarily in Nicoleta's arms, shudders wracking at his body as he relived the all too painful, and very much too fresh memories once again. His breathing came in shatters, almost dry sobs, though simply being in her arms seemed to calm him. His ears picked up the sounds coming from her mouth, and he couldn't understand what was said, though he was soothed by the calming tones in her voice nonetheless.
Carefully, Zane looked up from his head's position in the hollow of her neck, and watched as Nicoleta bared her throat to him. Nodding, his fangs carefully extended again, gently piercing into her vein, and he then covered the wound with his lips, suckling at the liquid he had brought forth, waiting as the now familiar haze took him over once again.
A little nervous Nicoleta began to consentrate on something that only happened moments before.
As the image clears...Zane sees himself with her. He watches as the last hour or so plays forth...from her dream and the way he held her to their joining for the first time. The thing felt with the strongest clarity is her emotions...pure happiness tainted with love.
Zane watched, almost surprised at what he was seeing. Or more specifically the emotions that he felt come from Nicoleta, and the fact that they were true. He....he made her happy. And she loved him? He sighed, happy and curious all at once. Slowly, he drew himself away from her neck, licking the wound to seal it, and put his arms around her once more, a tight embrace, although also soft and loving. His body was no longer wracked with pain, he simply wanted to return her emotion, let her know he felt it too, although words could never describe it. So he hugged her, tightly, never wanting the moment to end.
Nicoleta was so nervous at what she had shown him they when he pulled back she shut her eyes and began to mutter an italian prayer, hoping that he wasn't about to get up and leave. When she felt him embrace her tenderly she sighed and returned his affections. In such a short span of time he had captivated her so completely...it was strange but for some reason almost logical...she was immortal; five seconds and five years held no difference to her anymore. She called together her courage and spoke, her voice full of trepidation, "you didn't leave..."
Zane's eyebrows raised curiously at her comment, caressing her tighter to try and erase the apprehension in her voice. "Why would I leave? Why?......" he asked, trailing off as he ran his hands through her hair. "I just didn't expect....that you could feel the same way about me......" he whispered in a barely audible voice, intent on never moving from where he was at the moment.
She smiled and relief flooded her voice, "I thought you would think me a fool and want to go..." Then it dawned on her, he loved her back. She suddenly had this urge to jump like a child with glee but decided she'd rather just stay where she was, content to know that her heart, if it could beat would do the jumping for her.
Zane smiled, and kissed her lips softly. "If you're a fool, then so am I....and I don't mind being foolish." he kissed her again. "At all. Especially if it means being here with you." he kissed her once more, his tongue running the length of her lower lip, examining the spot which had only a while ago been an open wound, and smiled.
She giggled and rubbed the tip of her nose against his, "Then we shall be a pair of fools..."
Zane looked deep into her eyes, and smiled. "Fools it is....I can live with that." he smiled again, and kissed her cheek, before moving down her jawline, slowly getting back to her lips.
She smiled and kissed him back as she felt his lips brush hers. She then thought a moment and pulled away, "I have a question...I saw things before...why?"
Zane blinked, cocking his head to one side, and eyeing her curiously. He gently stroked her cheek as he spoke. "What do you mean? Which things?"
She swallowed nervously and then spoke, "I saw you...as a little boy..." Her eyes flashed an angry gold, "remind me that I can never ever ever run into your parents I'll kill them..." She then blushed and smiled sheepishly, "...I also saw you like you are now...you can sing..."
Zane blinked several times, thinking. So that had been the image he had sent her, in response to the memories of her youth. "They live in Vermont now...." Zane muttered quietly, obviously speaking of his parents, and then shrugged, not wanting to dwell on their memory if he could avoid it.
Zane smiled softly, and looked down at the bed. "I try to sing, yes...." he nodded. "Did you like it?" he asked, blue eyes staring up at her questioningly.
She grinned, "I love it...absolutely amazing...you don't cease to interest and astound me."
Zane smiled softly, and kissed her lips tenderly. "I'm so glad....." he shifted his body, rotating around the bed, until he had Nicoleta in front of him, leaning into his lap. "So glad....." he repeated, as he nuzzled her neck, kissing her pulsepoint gently, before curiousity reminded him of something.
"Before....you were whispering to me in Italian...do you remember?" he asked. "What were you saying?"
She blushed furiously at his reminder to her earlier action, "I suppose honesty is the best policy right...well ummmm...." Her voice became tiny and almost unheard, "I suppose translated literally would sound funny but its meaning was roughly, 'no more pain little one...only joy I promise it...'" She sighed and snuggled against him, loving the feel of him.
Zane smiled, leaning his head against her shoulder. "Oh.....I see...." he whispered quietly. "Even when I didn't know what they meant, your words sounded soothing, Nicoleta.....and being with you, that brings me joy...." he admitted, his arms wrapping around her tighter.
She blushed and smiled, "I'm glad...that was the effect I meant for them to have...my mother used to whisper that to me after I had a nightmare..."
Zane smiled. "Your mother....was she the one I saw? When you were little? Giggling, chasing you outside?"
She blanched and blinked slightly before twisting herself a little in his embrace so she could turn her head and look at him. "I didn't know you saw that...not that I mind at all..." She smiled dreamily for a moment as if she were lost somewhere sweet, "yes that was my mother...that was my birthday we were making a cake..." She smiled softly, "did you see anything else?"
Zane blinked his eyes closed a long moment, remembering other things he had seen. "You, with your sire. He bought you a beautiful pendant....and you were in his arms, so safe in his arms....." Zane shook his head as he thought of the other thing he had seen.
"Your father." he whispered quietly, rage trespassing through his eyes, as he said it, and his arms tightening around her.
She shuddered at the mention of her father and welcomed the tightness of Zane's embrace, "I hated that man...he wanted a boy and only tolerated me while my mother lived..." She then gave a smile wickedly malicious smile, "he met his untimely demise years later from some disease...I remember it clearly because I danced on his grave..." She then thought about the other memory Zane mentioned, "my pendant, you saw when he bought me my pendant..." She smiled contentedly, "I always did feel safe with him...safe, the way I feel right now...with you..." She had been avoiding it greatly but decided now was as good a time as any...'Zane...who was the man who tried to hurt you...you knew him...who was he?"
An involuntary shudder again wracked Zane's body, and he bit down on his lower lip, trying to stop his jaw from trembling with the memory. After several deep breaths, he seemed calmer, and made the effort to open his mouth and speak. "My sire...." he whispered, in a tone so soft, even another Kindred would have had trouble making it out.
Nicoleta barely heard him it was so faint but she had been concentrating for it and picked out the word Sire. She gave forth a little gasp and turned slightly in his embrace. She snuggled her head beneath his chin and wrapped her arms about his waist. "How awful...I'm sorry my love...so sorry...how could anyone want to harm you..."
Zane shook his head slightly, as his unneeded breaths came in gasps, close to sobs. "He's nuts....he's nuts...." he repeated, obviously referring to his sire. "After he changed me, all I remember is his maniacal laughter....that's all, before he left me alone." Zane shook his head. "The rumour has been that a Gangrel has been killing his own...tonight, rumour became truth....and we found out that Gangrel...is my sire."
She shook her head in disgust, "That's horrid." She noticed his shaking and the rough gasps he was taking despite his lack of a need for air. Her maternal instinct kicked in again full force and she pulled him tighter against her and began to softly coo to him in Italian again. Her hands found their way to his hair and his back.
As she spoke softly to him in a language he couldn't understand she began to rock slightly the way she had rocked herself so long ago in the room and in that corner.
Reverting back to english she kissed his cheek and whispered, "if that sick bastard comes anywhere near you he's mine...I swear it...I love you little one...no pain...no pain..."
Zane nodded his head ever so slightly, an action he kept repeating. "Will you? Can you....stay with me?" he asked, feeling quite vulnerable. "I'm supposed to stay here....at the compound....until they find him, until he's dead. I don't want to be alone...." he whispered, clinging to Nicoleta.
She smiled and hugged him closer, "Shhh...of course I'll stay...I'll never leave until you ask me to. You're never alone now little one never alone..." She began to think to herself of anything that might help him calm down, her mind tripping over something her mother used to do. She then tilted his chin up and kissed his closed eyes. After each kiss she whispered an italian word and then its english counterpart...'peace'...'serenity' she then kissed his lips...'love' She then reached down and clasped one of his hands, "I'm with you always...no more fear..."
Zane closed his eyes again, this time allowing a smile, full of relief, to begin to leak onto his face. "No more fear..." he repeated, agreeing with her, opening his eyes, to seek out her lips and kiss them again softly. He breathed out again, and his free hand sought out hers. "So glad to have found you...." he whispered, exhaling gently again.
She smiled and blushed a delightful shade of rose, "you make me feel so strange...giddy yet almost to the point of nervousness...like a constant adrenaline rush..." she smiled softly, "I think I really rather like the feeling though...its better than a drug..." She kissed him gently and then pulled away, "We've moped in here now for way to long in my opinion...let's play a game or something..."
Nicoleta the rose from the bed and headed over to a door that looked as though it would open into something like a hall closet, her assumption was correct. For a few moments she rooted arouund within the closet before crying out, "Ah ha! Found the perfect thing..." She then grabbed a large rectangular box and walked back to the bed. As she threw it down Zane could see the title on the box, 'LIFE.' She grinned mischieveously, "Silliest game alive if you ask me and the perfect thing to keep us from dwelling on all the shit of our past..."
Zane grinned a little, sitting cross-legged on the bed. "Choose a car, choose a job, choose to have kids, get rich, go bankrupt, win the lottery.....you just can't go wrong with the game of life!" he smiled again. "Ooooh, I'm so going to win!" he thought for a moment. "'Cuz you just gotta love a game when all the kids you have are worth money."
Nicoleta giggled, "It also helps that little blue and pink pegs can't yell 'are we there yet' while they ride in your plastic car." She grinned wickedly and lifted the lid off the box, in her brain she could almost hear the chorus of singing voices letting loose an angelic 'ah' that accompanied the imagined ray of light that fell upon the box. She giggled at her silly thought and took out the board and began to set it up, "I call the blue car..."
Zane winked, and then grinned. "The pegs can't yell, but I could do it for them...." he smiled, and then put on a perfect whine.
"Niiiiiccccooooolletttttaaa!! Aren't we there yet? I have to goooooooo......" he grinned wildly, and picked out the white car. "Alright then, I'm the purty white car." he got out the spinner, flicking it. "Highest number gets to go first!"
She stuck out her tongue and
rolled her eyes at his mocking whine.
She giggled as he continued to act the giddy child. "Fine highest spin
goes first...."
Zane grinned, and flicked at the little wheel, before it landed on the number one. "Oh.....yeah, I'm sooo going first...."
She grinned and giggled a little. She then flicked the spinner and it landed on six, "Ha I go first..." She smiled and shrugged, "okay so that announcement was anti-climactic..." She smiled and spun again and hit a four. "I'm going to be a delinquent and not go to school." She smiled and moved her little car four spaces in the opposite direction of going to college. "Alright job card me..."
Zane grinned as he nodded, and went to the little pile of cards, pulling one from the middle. "Congratulations....you are officially an artist...." he smiled. "Which works....you paint a good picture." he blushed a little, surprised that he would so blantantly flirt. "Okay....and your salary would be...." he pulled out another card. "Well, apparently you're a starving artist...." he grinned as he said it, and flipped the card over, so she could see the $20,000 card.
She blushed at his compliment and then frowned at her salery. She stuck out her tongue at him, "Ha ha...you are the regular comedian aren't you....roll..." She pouted slightly and took her cards from his hands.
Zane shrugged a little, and then span the spinner. "College....been there, done that. Pretty damn overrated. And expensive. Cheap route for me!" he grinned. "Besides, you've already guaranteed I won't be making $20,000." he smiled again, and looked up.
"So, lets get Zane a job..."
"Why can't you be a beggar....I think they should have a new occupation in your honor...a homeless person....that way you can't make more money than me!" She continued to pout like a two year old before drawing each card and speaking, her voice blase and tinted only slightly with jealousy, "Great you're an athlete....and you're making 70 thou to boot..." The end of her sentence was spoken in a slight whine.
Zane grinned, and leaned over to give Nicoleta a quick peck on the cheek. "It's okay.....I'll probably end up getting divorced, and having to give up like 80% of it in child support...." he smiled again as he sat back again and looked at the board. "Your turn!"
With a pout Nicoleta spun and got a five. She moved five spaces and squealed in glee, "Ha won marathon 10,000 dollars....whoohoo! This is getting better now..." She collected her ten thousand bill from the bank and grinned at Zane, "Your turn."
"Alrighty.....lets see what I can do...." he spun, moving ahead six spaces. "Life tile, whoohoo!!" he grinned, looking at the square. "Adopt a pet eh? I dunno, I already have something to cuddle with...." he shrugged a little. "But I guess I've got enough love to go around..." he smiled again as he picked up the little tile, setting it down beside him.
"if you keep up that talk the game might end up on the floor..." She grinned and spun, "Oh look I'm getting married...yeah like that will ever happen, not possible anymore...kinda leaves with the heart beat and the breathing." Her voice was a little bitter but not too much. She picked a little blue peg to put beside her pink one and then spun agani,"Alright it looks like I'm.....going two spaces and getting a life tile...hmmm Happy Aniversay yeah okay....oh and give me my twenty thou please...see payday was passed." She smiled and plucked a tile from the stash and placed it beside her.
Zane nodded, and found himself getting married, putting the little pink peg into the car next to him, and then spun himself a three. "Buy furniture?! And 10 grand?! What the hell did I buy?! All you need is a bed an a chair, this is absurd...." he rolled his eyes as he threw the money back in the bank, shaking his head at Nicoleta.
It was then that Nicoleta heard a strange noise coming from out in the hall. She put her fingers to his lips to shush him and leaned toward the sound, "lets go exploring I hear something..."
Zane shrugged, and flopped off the bed, landing next to the pile of clothes on the floor. "Okay....guess you were afraid I'd beat you at Life eh?" he smiled, and rustled through the pile, tossing her clothes to the bed lightly, before he piled his on the chair.
"Sadly, I think exploring calls for being....a little more presentable..." he sighed, as he padded over to Nicoleta, gently pulling her close to him, a lot of his anxiety from before having flowed out of him, being replaced by trust for the woman in front of him.
She giggled and was about to kiss him but then the noise grew a little louder and she pulled away to get dressed, "Its gotten louder I wonder what it is...." She drew one her shorts and buttoned and zippered them up....she then grabbed her tee and yanked it on over her head and pulled her hair out of the back of it. She walked over and kissed him now and smiled, "You still need to get dressed mister."
Zane sighed a little, and then nodded, reaching for his happy face boxers, and putting them on, letting the waistband lie just below his belly button, before he reached for his jeans, pulling them up, and belting them just below his boxers' waistband. Lastly, he reached for his shirt, and began to pull it over his head.
Nicoleta smiled softly and reached out to him grabbing the shirt before he put it on, "You don't need that...I much prefer the view without it." She took the shirt from him and threw it in the corner before grabbing his hand, "come on..." she led them out in the hall where she dropped his hand and walked off down the corridor and into a room she thought she heard the noise in.
***