Nightmares?

[Elyse]

Elyse nodded at his advice. She shouldn't wait for too long before drawing. And he was right about her parents wondering why she was there. Her parents as of now had no idea of her whereabouts short of somewhere in Moscow.

"I understand. If I called them, I'd tell them what I am though,"
she knew that with certainty. "And I wouldn't put it past some Atharim to try to use them to get to me. I almost want to talk to them just because of that."


Elyse gave him a quick kiss and grabbed a pencil and some paper. Heading back to the bed, she started with the torn serpent and the hooded face, speaking as she drew. "Do you think your hacker friend could get an untraceable call set up. In case things go bad."


Nox laughed. "I'm sure he could. He'll be here in a few days."


Elyse gave him a nod and smiled. Her first drawing was complete. It wasn't terrible, but it wouldn't be making it's way to any art galleries. She started on the second one. The shrouded man in the black cloak with two serpents twining around him.

"Well I spent my free time reading 'The Hobbit.' I've never read it before, but it's very enjoyable. How was your night with your friend? Did you have a good time?"
She looked up at him to listen to his response.


Edited by Elyse, Dec 1 2016, 12:34 PM.

[Nox]

Her lips were soft against his and Nox smiled when she left. He watched through the dim light of the orb still floating above them. She sat back down and Nox watched until she was settled and had started on her drawings. He sat up and curled around her pulling her close to him. Touch always helped him stay tuned into his own reality. He'd missed Aurora's touch, Aria calmed him too, but that was different - that was her ability.

Nox watched the pencil move across the paper and draw - far better than his hand could do. At least at first, Aurora was more practiced than he was. Drawing monsters was something their father had made them do. Digital film captured them, but it didn't let you commit their form to memory the same. He still sucked at drawing despite his practice.

Elyse made a comment about the hobbit - he'd not read the book either, but his father had made him watch every movie ever even remotely connected to the Lord of the Rings - and many other fantasy oriented fiction books made movie - the farther from reality the better.

"How was your night with your friend? Did you have a good time?"
I spike of fear rose in Nox and he smoothed out his body from the minute tension he knew he'd done. He hadn't done anything wrong...He had wanted to, but he hadn't.

Nox smiled against her neck. "It was good to see him again. It wasn't the same without Bas. We did meet a few of Bas' thug friends though. I got called a faggot in russian - that was new."
Nox laughed quietly. "Though I might have seen a dranaika, but turns out was just a really dangerous looking girl. No attacks - so she still lives."
It wasn't a lie - just an omission of details.

Nox took the first drawing she had done and pretended to study it. He smiled at the line work. There was always something elegant in drawings. "Not bad."

[Elyse]

Elyse continued drawing, but there was a slight hesitation as Nox heard her question. His scent had changed, and she thought she felt a slight bit of tension as she asked. The tension disappeared quickly, the scent took a little longer to change.

Elyse still listened to what he said though as he smiled against her. Elyse wasn't good at recognizing scent yet, so she wondered why his had changed. For a moment it had her worried that he had been hurt or something, but there was a myriad of things that could have caused anxiety. Admittedly, some were better than others.

She smiled at him. "Well I'm glad you had a good time,"
she said, but the back of her mind was nagging at her about something. Something felt off and she wondered if Nox was hiding something from her.

Nox looked at her first drawing, and she finished the second one. "I'm not sure if this is the same guy,"
She said gesturing from the cloaked figure to the face that had appeared in the sky. "In both cases I couldn't see his face. But this one,"
she pointed at the face, "Had bright blue eyes."

[Nox]

Nox took a deep breath of Elyse's skin to preempt the sigh of relief at the change of topic. Why was he feeling guilty for it? He knew it was a fuck up once he'd seen her in his bed, but still he didn't do anything. He did far more dangerous things with Aria. But there was something about Kali that drew him away. He couldn't quite put his finger on it.

But Elyse's revelation about the color of the eyes pulled him back to the moment and to removing himself for the potential pitfalls of his love life - he had a fucking love life. That was a major change. Fuck - too much change! It was starting to overwhelm him in more ways than one.

Nox took the second one and knew that the sketches probably didn't look exact, and hoods and shadows would distort images. But the color that was likely important. "The color is likely important."
Nox pulled away and smiled at Elyse. "I'll be right back."


"Okay,"
she kissed him and lingered for a moment.

Nox smiled against her lips. "I don't think I'll ever get used to this."


Nox pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts from his bag and padded across the hall silently. Cruz's door was unlocked, the sitting room, study - whataver you wanted to call it - would keep whatever noise Nox made to a minimum. He hoped he didn't wake the other man while he rummaged in his desk for a box of colored pencils. Nox formed another orb above the desk drawer and dropped it when he found what he was looking for.

Nox tossed the box of pencils on the bed near Elyse's feet and noticed a note sitting on the side of his bed. It was folded neatly. He wondered how long it had been sitting there. He opened it up to find a hand written note in Aria's hand. It was a simple message that said she was alright, and that the Regus had gotten away. They were clearly traitors. But the odd thing was, Nox was still getting alerts on his wallet the Atharim had issued him. They hadn't revoked his privileges yet. Maybe it was too early. Maybe they were stupid. Either way it didn't matter.

Nox returned to his previously clothed state removing the t-shirt and shorts to curl up in his boxers next to Elyse. "Use the pencils to make note of the color of the figures eyes. Color is important. Particularly if you remember it so vividly."
Again he was speaking from experience - his own dreams the red demon eyes of the hellhounds always lingered long after he'd woken up. Sometimes the color of the blood stayed with him too.

Nox curled back around Elyse. The desire to protect her just another thing that overwhelmed him if he thought too much about it. He'd replaced his dead sister with this wolf girl - it was a frightening thought.

[Elyse]

Nox got dressed and left for a moment, but his logic made sense. She remembered the glowing blue eyes very well. She would have to keep that in mind. She wrote the "blue eyes" on the paper to remember.

Nox wasn't gone long and he had brought with him colored pencils. She noticed Nox picked up a note. She hadn't noticed it before, so someone must have dropped it off when she was asleep. Likely it was Christian.

Elyse gave him a smile when he told her to color the eyes. She did so remarking "My mother would color mandalas to calm down, I would help pick the colors when I was a little girl when I had time between studies."


She placed that drawing aside and began to work on the final one. She drew the tunnel and the animals, several covered in snakes. She hesitated for a second as something pricked at the edge of her mind. Elyse looked up and to the east. She smiled when she realized what it was.

Moon Waker was checking in on her. Apparently the wolf hadn't been too fond of her abrupt departure. She sent back images that she was fine and continued with her drawing. She made sure to observe all the niceties. Wolves were a rather particular bunch.

Then more images flickered in her mind. She tried to decipher as she drew. Training - the wolf was offering training. Training so that the previous scenario didn't happen again. She would be able to leave the dream safely. Elyse liked that idea and agreed before Moon Waker gave her a time to meet. They bid each other farewell and Elyse finished the final sketch passing it to Nox.

"There! I'm no da Vinci, but it's not bad,"
she smiled and snuggled in closer. She yawned, but didn't want to close her eyes. She didn't want to see the images again.

[Nox]

Nox laid down with Elyse still in his arms. He knew sleeping after a nightmare was not an easy thing. He remembered the nightmares he'd had when he first started hunting. It was his brains way of processsing the bullshit in his life. It always had been. His mother used to hold him close and hum a little tune.

Nox didn't know the words, but he knew the tune. He'd hummed it to himself on many occassions while trying to calm down from his own nightmares. He started humming softly in her ear as he held her close. He'd had a busy night but he pulled Elyse closer and hummed the comforting song.

The notes faded off as he drifted off into his own hellish darkness...

[Elyse]

Nox held onto Elyse and hummed quietly in her ear. The music was comforting, but still she saw the face with the glowing blue eyes every time she shut her eyes.

Sleep didn't come despite her tiredness. Elyse found herself very restless. She pulled the blanket up close to her head and held it there. After a while, she turned on the light by the bed and started reading some more. No matter what, she couldn't fall asleep.

Nox awoke early as he always did, but he didn't get up and exercise as he usually did. He instead had held her until the sun had come up and then they had gone about their days. Elyse went downstairs to help Ana after having some coffee, but later on, Ana sent her upstairs to take a nap. Finally Elyse fell asleep.