Not Dead After All

[Ishani]

Ishani openes her eyes and looks around, afraid to move. She almost gives a sigh of relief as she realizes she is in her haven, the one she shares with Asa.

Asa! She sits up as a wave of panic and anger washes over her. Had he survived the attack?

She swings her leaden legs over the side of the bed and attmpts to stand. She does, but her legs feel like rubber. She slowly makes her way across the room, almost tripping over a livingroom chair by the bed, and opens the door.

"Asa!" She calls, in the hope that he is home and alive.

[Asa]

Asa had returned to the haven after the Invictus meeting, satisfied with how things had done. Placing his keys and wallet on the table, he studied the custom display cabinet: a recessed bookcase with skyblue glass backlit behind it, three silver jewelry cases, a white button, a flintlock revolver, and a concrete-encrusted piece of rebar.

He turned to look at the picture in the living room when he heard something. He pushed Blood into his body rushing through the living room, wondering if one of the workers had 'stayed late' to rob him.

Rounding the corner into the hall, he saw the figure framed in the open door.

"Ishani?" he croaked, eyes wide in shock.

[Ishani]

Ishani sags with relief in the doorway, her legs trying to give out on her. She nods mutely and pushes into the hall.

"What the hell happened? How long have I been out?"

She wobbles over to him and practicly throws her weight into him, hugging him fiercly.

"I am so glad you are alive." She whispers.

[Asa]

Asa catches her and hugs her fiecely for a few moments before speaking. "It's been weeks," he says softly, pressing his cheek into her dry, dull hair. "I thought... I thought it would be decades until you Rose," he added with a sigh. "I've missed you so much. So much."

He reached down and picked her up, carrying her to the kitchen. She was... so light. He was so relieved that his fears about her memories had been unfounded -- or that it hadn't been long enough.

"You have to Feed," he said, juggling her to open the refrigerator. "A lot. Our Blood crystallized," he explained softly as he pulled out bags for her. Dark, nearly black dead blood.

[Ishani]

She reaches eagerly for the bags and opens one. Bringing it to her lips, she almost gags as the smell of the dead blood hits her. She looks down at the bag in confusion, then looks at Asa.

"I can't drink this." She whispers, not really understanding what was happening. "I need living blood. Do we have any living blood?"

Her hunger begins to claw at her and with it comes the rags. She pushes against Asa's chest in a near panic.

"Put me down!" She hisses, wanting to get away from him before she hurts him.

[Asa]

Asa pushed Blood into his body to strengthen and toughen it, startled and confused. He put her down quickly, backing away.

A memory: Ishani, tearing the head off of a Nosferatu in the sewers with her bare hands.

"Second shelf!" he yelled, hoping she wasn't lost in the throes of Frenzy already.

What the fuck is going on?

[Ishani]

Ishani turns and grabs a bag off the second shelf of the fridge. She tears it open and consumes the entire contents of the bag. She sags in relief as she feels the blood begin to flow through her body. Pushing it into her muscles and tendons, she stands straighter and turns to face Asa.

The hunger begins to dissipate, but the rage still burns in her chest. Her eyes watch him as the fire burns brightly there.

"When I was lost in torpor something........happened to me. It changed me. It......" She pauses, groping for the words and a sudden emptiness makes itself known. She reaches for her connection to Yama and finds nothing but a vacant hole in it's place.

Lost, she leans against the counter and stares at her feet.

My God has forsaken me.

The thought sends a wave of depression through her and she looks up at Asa again, this time the sorrow showing clearly in her eyes.

"I.......I'm not what I once was. I'm not Yama's avatar anymore." She shakes her head sadly. "I don't know what I am now."

Red tears of blood begin to course down her face as the emptiness spreads through her soul.

[Asa]

Asa watched tensely as she consumed the blood. He had no idea what would happen if it didn't sate her predator... but it did. The swirl of reliefearloveconfusionsurprise clouded his thoughts, and he took a few moments to digest her words.

Changed?

Asa knew that her faith was a pillar of her existance, he had even heard words such as zealot and fanatic used to describe her. He also understood what it was to have such a pillar removed. Asa moved forward slowly, watching her, and gently took her in his arms.

"It's just Blood," he said, not knowing what to say. "It doesn't mean you're not loved," he continued softly, alluding to the conversation they had had when he Bonded Elle.

[Ishani]

Ishani shakes her head.

"No, you don't understand. It isn't just blood. The connection is gone. Yama always stays connected to his avatars. The feeling of his presence stays with us. It's like an invisable cord that links us to him. It's how we can tap into his power and use it. But now that connection is gone. It got.......burned away. I don't know how to explain it."

She draws back from him and tries to think and remember what she'd felt before she woke up.

"I realized I was dying and got very angrey. I have never felt such rage inside me." She lied, a flash of her parents death in her mind's eye reminding her of the one time she had felt such rage over take her. "I remembered that I became kindred for a reason and I had lost sight of that reason because of Yama and my faith. That made me even angrier. Then, it was like my blood began to boil in my veins and everything burned away. And then I woke up." She finished with a shrug, at a loss for an additional explanation.

[Asa]

Asa listened. He wanted to understand, and he wanted to help -- but he didn't understand, and couldn't help.

"Is it permanent?" he asked, handing her another bag, knowing the answer. Such a change in her physiology, signified by her change in appetites, wouldn't be something small. For himself, he was simply glad she had Risen, and was recovering.

First things first.