| Unity |
[20 Oct 2005|12:58am] |
The psychology of a vampire slayer was complicated. They were willful creatures from birth, gifted with and driven by an instinctual passion for what mattered to them in life, even before the demon was awakened. In successful cases, that impetuosity was applied to the fight against the forces of darkness.
A characteristic so ingrained in them could not be limited to just slaying. It was with that same ardor that they embraced all things peripheral to their more supernatural purpose; even the seemingly banal. When a Slayer wanted something, she ached for it mind, body and soul. When she hated something, she set about destroying it with unparalleled tenacity. And when she loved something, it had the power to transcend the evil she faced, and make her believe in a beautiful world.
Love had undoubtedly saved the lives of dozens of slayers. Taking it away, however, could be the equivalent of lifting the blinders off their eyes and revealing a world that was ugly. Cold, lonely, unworthy of saving, if she'd been begrudged that spark of light. A world worth screwing seven ways from Sunday, if it meant the return of her emotional lifeline.
In the case of Rhiannon Lee, it felt much larger than even that, because Joseph Tropiano was one of three individuals she had left to love. By the second week of a search that revealed nothing, all emotion had been drained, even the rage she'd run hot on for days. Now she was numb, a woman with hollow insides and a singular purpose intact. She was no longer on the hunt for scattered, incoherent clues in familiar territory. What Rhiannon looked for now was a doorway to more dangerous things, blackened things if it would yield results. Collateral damage wasn't her concern.
"And what if you can't...?"
It was one of several whispered phrases, spoken intimately to someone now at the end of their tether. Arms wrapped tightly around the knees brought up to chest level, as the young man fretted over the situation they had so recently been confronted with.
Elfleda rarely forced. She merely sought to influence. Time was usually all it would take and she had all there was in this world and many more. Her prey muttering to himself, as she continued to whisper, to seduce, to hint at dark methods and even darker repercussions yet to come, should they not be pursued.
Her absolute focus was upon him, just as that of her invisible entourage was, too. Every facet of her being was subtly, but surely, being directed at breaking down the mortal's will and molding him to far more preferable motivations. Emotions were precisely what she keyed on.
Which was perhaps why, being so very distracted, the utter lack of emotional self which now was the machine-like transformation of Slayer, went unnoticed...
If indeed the Corruptress' internal radar picked up on subtle shifts in affectivity, then the all but nonexistent reaction within approaching Slayer would've slipped by. Or at least gone undetected, until it was too late to stop Rhiannon's greeting. A knife, curved along its blade and sharpened with lethal efficiency, to where it would've eased into flesh like butter, was pulled from across the alleyway and thrown with startling accuracy.
Blade sliced through the air and wedged itself between Elfleda's shoulder blades, buried deep enough to secure exactly what the Slayer had intended: Not a kill, but the attention of the biggest bad she'd ever encountered.
Now brazenly closing the gap between herself and Elfleda, Rhiannon directed her word at the human, who sat cowering in shadows cast by both light and hellish entourage. "Leave."
( Empath )
( A Deal With a Devil )
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| Mirror Mirror on the Wall |
[20 Oct 2005|11:12pm] |
The mirror didn’t lie.
It had been two days since Jill’s run-in with Katherine in the parking garage. Two days since she’d been mere inches from death, the kind of death one didn’t rise from the next night. The bruises and scars that littered the attorney’s neck were more than just marks of red and collections of blood spilled from veins—they were reminders.
( Self-reflection )
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