A Quiet Night In

[Quinn Durant]

Quinn had given Connor the current code to unlock her front door. The Shadow sat in her living room, and once again her gaze went around her. Everything was in its place. She turned off the main lights, and yet her porch light blazed proudly against the darkness. The night air was slightly cooler tonight. The waning crescent moon was in the sky. A bare sliver in the sky as if Luna herself was spying her last, before the dark moon when her face turns away.

Quinn's feet were bare, her feet just as small as the rest of her. Her dress was a flowing and casual piece that was white with silver bands through it. A statement necklace held her dress on her, with a v-neck in front and back. Just a sliver of her flesh showed. Her arms bare, but the dress was not form fitting. Hiding her body from close scrutiny. Quinn was trying to order the thoughts in her head, and continually fell off her train of thought. Quinn, true to form, had been burying herself in her work, but a small break from her in depth study, was certainly a welcome.

Quinn put some soft music on in the background. Something modern, pop with a little Spanish flair.

[Connor OBrien]

Arriving at the house, the haunt stops on the porch to take a deep, faux breath. It had been some time since he and Quinn had spent time alone and he couldn't quite process his thoughts. People talked about having their ducks in a row, but currently he had no ducks, and what he did have was more of a scatter plot.

Tonight he has dressed down slightly, going for a more dress casual appearance. He wears black slacks with a black blazer, under which is a dark button up with the first few buttons undone. He wasn't the Invictus version of himself tonight, he was just himself.

He input the code into the lock for the door, and give a small knock as he opens it. The sight that greets him stops him in his tracks. A vision of beauty, cast in pale moonlight, like a statue carved by Michelangelo himself. And she was waiting on him. Gently he closes the door behind himself, engaging the lock once again.

"Priscus Durant, it's been some time." The haunt says quietly, almost as if speaking above a whisper would break the image before him. ​"How have you been?"

[Quinn Durant]

Quinn slowly stood at the knock on her front door, and if she had a heart beat it would be pounding by now. Quinn swallowed past the sudden anxiety his beast gave her. She swallowed past her beasts reaction. So many conflicting emotions it was overwhelming. So she did what she normally did with haunts, and focused on one thing. He was handsome. She usually didn't lead off with noticing it, but tonight she let it wash through her like a tide. That pleasant sensation of letting his attractive features arrest her full attention felt good. Almost to good. She stared for a moment, and wondered idly if this was what Connor felt when he looked at her too.

"Please come join me, on the couch, make yourself comfortable. I've been burying myself in the arcane to block it all from my mind. Timing couldn't be better for it. It's better than letting all of this, overtake my headspace. I'm chasing a rare piece of knowledge. The going is hard though. I've been at it tirelessly every spare second I get, which now that I have chosen my way as unaligned, I have all the time in the world!" She said with a sarcastic bite to the last bit.

She kept trying to shove it all down, and yet even as she sat there, looking into his emerald green eyes the pressure of it all had her ready to burst. Even getting fucking drunk with J.C hadn't really been enough to process everything. She could feel the despair just waiting in the wings to be felt. To be accepted and then squeezed out like a full dish towel. It took her back to where it had all began.

[Connor OBrien]

The Haunt nods, not fully processing everything she said instantly. He's halfway to the couch before the other shoe drops. "You left the Dragons?" He involuntarily cocks his head to the side as he asks, doubling his speed to sit with her on the couch. "Why? What happened?" He asks, real worry entering his voice. He'd have never thought she would leave the Dragons, not without a major reason. He knew how he felt, or at least how the human part of himself felt, about Quinn... and he knew that if anyone hurt her, it would be the last thing they do in this Domain.

[Quinn Durant]

Quinn nodded slowly, and swallowed past the lump in her throat. "I've been planning it ever since what happened in the Barrens with Dirt Nap and J.C." Her voice was softer than her usual melodic timbre. "I just couldn't say anything until it all played out, even when I took the full mantle of leadership for the Sacramento Chapter." She watched his expression. Quinn remembered what pain felt like. Despair. If she couldn't let this happen. Let herself feel it, she would play it all out in incredibly unhealthy ways.

"Dirt Nap found out some details about what happened with my first Mentor in the Order, Rodger Wakefield. It...changed his opinion of me, it made him feel predatory towards me. I had agreed to take over the leadership when he let the other shoe drop that.." her words failed for a moment before she forced it out of her, "He laid it out that he fantasized about hunting me and killing me. I am not the only witness to these facts. J.C tracked us from the Chapter House all the way to the Barrens because Dirt Nap had confided in him about his fantasies and since he lived with Dirt Nap and I in the Chapter House, Dirt Nap wanted him to be a buffer to never allow us alone together. J.C not being a Dragon, it made that impossible. Not that J.C knew that, really. I read Dirt Nap's aura, and he was/is obsessed with the thoughts. J.C was furious that Dirt Nap deliberately took me out to the middle of nowhere. He thought he was going to kill me, and jury still out on those thoughts. I think if I would have told him to fuck off he would have tried his luck on ending us both. So I kept my mouth shut. I held a tiny bit of hope that this could all be resolved, but he would not admit to any wrong doing to either myself or to J.C. So I chose that moment, again, with a witness in J.C and ensuring J.C would find another covenant because the only reason he entertained joining the Ordo Dracul was because of me. I admit, it was slightly petty of me, but fucking sue me I think I had every right to be pissed."

She paused and drew in an unneeded breath to sigh heavily. "I love the Ordo Dracul. I do, but I love Sacramento's Domain more. I couldn't have both because you have to have trust between a mentor and a mentee. If you don't have that even, you cannot trust them not to harm you when you are completely vulnerable during a change. I did everything he ever asked me to do, and all I got in return was betrayal."

[Connor OBrien]

The haunt listens intently, every word she says sinking in as he pieces everything together in a way the he can understand it. Slowly and gently he reaches out to take Quinn's hand. "Thank you for sharing that with me, Priscus Durant. The effects of the betrayal are obvious even now. Have you alerted the Seneschal and Archon to what he told you? It could be taken as conspiracy to break the laws of the Domain. Beyond that, I will find myself with you whenever I can be. Should he decide to make good on his plans, I will willingly put my Requiem on the line to defend you." He looks away and sighs. "I care about you... Quinn." He says, cringing slightly as he drops all the teachings of his Invictus upbringing. "And your pain brings me pain. I told you I lost my wife before... I was stoned out of my mind when it happened... and I'm not going to sit back and allow it to happen to anyone else I care about, not when I can potentially prevent it."

[Quinn Durant]

Quinn watched his hand come closer to hers, and to her own surprise she didn't attempt to dodge it. She didn't fake like she didn't see it, and just shift, or adjust her dress, or whatever other bullshit subterfuge she normally used. Her fingers flexed to hold his own back.

"No I haven't. He's still useful to the domain. As long as that holds I am willing to put any personal grievance on a low simmer on my back burner. Of course, if ever I get the opportunity, perhaps I will strike. I haven't decided yet. Such things should only be decided when I am not emotional about it. Besides he has not harmed me, though it is alarming, I'm thinking his eye will move on with a little time and ample space. The fact that I exposed his forked tongue to Mr. Smith is really punishment enough."

Quinn smiled warmly and tipped her face to the side. "As much as our spending ample time together...excites me, I cannot ask you to do that. You have goals, and things that you want. Chase them all!" She said softly, but adamantly, coming a bit closer. This close she had to tilt her chin back a bit to meet his gaze.

"I had someone die for me once..Connor." She mirrored his intimate address. "As much as you effect me to say that, and more precious still, you mean it, I would never forgive myself if you were placed in such a position.

[Connor OBrien]

The Haunt stands, still holding the much smaller hand of the Kindred before him. "Members of the Cockscombe Society are fickle beasts, Quinn. Mercurial at best." His eyes lock onto hers. "There's one thing, one single thing, I haven't been able to get out of my mind since we first met. You. Just you. The single constant in the hurricane of my mind. I know I told you what I wanted in the beginning, but things change, even for Kindred."

He takes a step closer, closing the distance between them to mere centimeters, looking nearly straight down to meet her eyes. "You are in pain, and your pain brings me pain. Much like you told me in our first conversation, what I do with my Requiem is my concern alone. My choice right now is to see this pain away from you, by any means necessary. Give me this Quinn, let me take away your pain and make your eyes shine like I've seen them shine before."

The thoughts race inside his mind, the closeness of them clouding his thoughts further than the mercurial nature of his blood. Willingly, but not entirely so, his blood rushes to flush his pale skin, bringing warmth where there once was none; the brightness in his eyes growing, a shimmer of something no longer truly known to the Kindred behind them. With one step back, he bends down to let his lips brush hers, consequences be damned.

[Quinn Durant]

"Mercurial. Interesting word choice. That's the exact wording I used to describe Mr. Heinrich's emotional states. He takes offense incredibly quickly...." You are fucking rusty. You are going to compare him to another Kindred after he just said what he said? A male kindred at that. "I remind you of your wife, don't I? You remind me of Janos. Both are lost to us, just in different ways. Are we chasing ghosts? Or each other?" She raised an eyebrow then, watching closely.

The second part, well, he had balls. She'd give him that. She arched an eyebrow, slowly acclimating to his presence, closer and closer and closer until her back arched. She could see every facet of his eyes. The aristocratic cheekbones. It was impossible not to notice how handsome he is this close. She could smell his hair product faintly. "You got me there, Connor." She whispered softly. In reference that she couldn't stop him protecting her. It wasn't her call to make. She had tried the same tactic she used on Conner. Usually, she would think most would fall to that manipulation. Not Connor.

"Just one more betrayal in a long, long line of them. I am thankful it still hurts." She wondered how he attended to attempt this feat, but all came clear soon. He did it masterfully. Caught in his words, and his face, their already clasped hands, and yes, even the height difference physically causing her spine to yield, as he bent over her. Since the moment he arrived in Sacramento he pursued her, and as his lips met hers her skin flared to life. Which felt to Quinn as it always did, like her skin was starving and suddenly she was dunked into a vat of oil. She drew a ragged breath, as that first soft brush hit her. Her hands warm and alive in his, as her heart began to beat against his chest as she pressed against him. She returned the favor, kissing him back, and her hands shifted, like a key turning into a lock, until her fingers threaded through his own.

[Connor OBrien]

The haunt ignores her comparing him to Mr. Heinrich, a switch already flipped in his mind. Quinn would be able to almost feel his smirk as they kiss, his already occupied hand lancing their fingers with hers. His free hand finds her waist, then slowly slides up her side, all the while the presence of his beast dims. Slowly but surely, his fingers find their way to her neck, his thumb gliding gently along her carotid artery as his hand climbs, finally finding its place, with his thumb resting along the woman's jaw and his fingers lost in her hair. The bestial rage she felt from him was gone, leaving nothing more than the man holding her against himself.

"The only good part of any pain, is that it feels so much better once it's gone." The Haunt says when they finally pull away from each other, his signature sly smirk plastered on his face.